She had no sooner returned
to the scene of festivity, than she repented having allowed what she
deemed an idle alarm of overstrained delicacy, to drive her from the lake.
-She would have hastened back, had not two or three aged female peasants
almost instantly engaged her, in spite of her struggles for extrication,
to listen to long stories respecting her lord’s youth. She remained thus
an unwilling auditor, and by the side of the dancers for nearly an hour,
before Wallace reappeared. But then she sprang towards him, as if a spell
were broken. "Where, truant, have you been?"
"In a beautiful
solitude," returned he, "amongst a luxuriant grove of
willows."
"Ay!" cried she,
"it is called Glenshealeach ; [Glenshealeach means valley of
willows] and a sad scene was acted there !—About ten years ago, a
lady of this island drowned herself in the lake they hang over, because
the man she loved—despised her."
"Unhappy woman!"
observed Wallace.
"Then you would have
pitied her?" rejoined Lady Mar.
"He cannot be a man,
that would not pity a woman, under such circumstances."
"Then you would
not have consigned her to such a fate?"
Wallace was startled by the
peculiar tone in which this simple question was asked. It recalled the
action in the citadel; and, unconsciously turning a penetrating look on
her, his eyes met hers. He need not have heard further, to have learnt
more. She hastily looked down, and coloured; and he, wishing to
misunderstand a language so disgraceful to herself, so dishonouring to her
husband, gave some trifling answer; then making a slight observation about
the Earl, he advanced to him. Lord Mar was become tired with so gala a
scene; and, taking the arm of Wallace, they returned together into the
house.
Edwin soon followed with
Murray; gladly arriving time enough, to see their little pinnace draw up
under the castle, and throw out her moorings. The Countess, too, descried
its streamers; and hastening into the room, where she knew the chiefs were
yet assembled, though the wearied Earl had retired to repose, inquired the
reason of that boat having drawn so near the castle.
"That it may take us
from it, fair aunt," replied Murray.
The Countess fixed her
eyes, with an unequivocal expression, upon Wallace. "My gratitude is
ever due to your kindness, noble lady:" said he, still wishing to be
blind, to what he could not but perceive; "and that we may ever
deserve it, we go to keep the enemy from your doors."
"Yes:" added
Murray, "and to keep a more insidious foe from our own! Edwin and I
feel it rather dangerous, to bask too long in these sunny bowers."
"But surely your chief
is not afraid !" said she, casting a soft glance at Wallace.—"Yet,
nevertheless, I must fly," returned he, bowing to her.
"That you positively
shall not," added she, with a fluttering joy at her heart; thinking
she was about to succeed :—"you stir not this night, else I shall
brand you all as a band of cowards."
"Call us by every name
in the poltroon’s calendar:" cried Murray, seeing by the
countenance of Wallace that his resolution was not to be moved; "yet
I must gallop off from your black-eyed Judith, as if chased by the ghost
of Holofernes himself."—" So, dear aunt:" rejoined Edwin,
smiling, "if you do not mean to play Circe, to our Ulysses, give us
leave to go !" Lady Mar started, confused, she knew not how, as he
innocently uttered these words. The animated boy snatched a kiss from her
hand, when he ceased speaking, and darted after Murray; who had
disappeared, to give some speeding directions respecting the boat.
Left thus alone with the
object of her every wish, in the moment when she thought she was going to
lose him perhaps for ever, she forgot all prudence, all reserve; and
laying her hand on his arm, as with a respectful bow he was also moving
away, she arrested his steps. She held him fast; but agitation
preventing her speaking, she trembled violently; and, weeping, dropped her
head upon his shoulder.—He was motionless.—Her tears redoubled. —He
felt the embarrassment of his situation; and at last extricating his
tongue, which surprise and shame for her had chained, in a gentle voice he
inquired the cause of her uneasiness. "If for the safeties of your
nephews—"
"No, no," cried
she, interrupting him; "read my fate, in that of the lady of
Glenshealeach!"
Again he was silent;
astonished, fearful of too promptly understanding so disgraceful a truth,
he found no words in which to answer her, and her emotions became so
uncontrolled, that he expected she would swoon in his arms.
"Cruel, cruel
Wallace!" at last cried she, clinging to him; for he had once or
twice attempted to disengage himself; and reseat her on the bench;
"your heart is steeled, or it would understand mine. It would at
least pity the wretchedness it has created. But I am despised, —and I
can yet find the watery grave, from which you rescued me."
To dissemble longer, would
have been folly. Wallace, now resolutely seating her, though with
gentleness, addressed her:—" Your husband, Lady Mar, is my friend:
had I even a heart to give to woman, not one sigh should arise in it, to
his dishonour. But I am lost! to all warmer affections, than that of.
friendship. I may regard man as my brother, woman as my sister; but never
more can I look on female form with love."
Lady Mar’s tears now
flowed in a more tempered current.
"But were it
otherwise," cried she, " only tell me, that had I not been bound
with chains, which my kinsmen forced upon me; had I not been made the
property of a man, who however estimable, was of too paternal years for me
to love; ah! tell me, if these tears should now flow in vain?"
Wallace seemed to hesitate
what to answer.
Wrought up to agony, she
threw herself on his breast, exclaiming, "Answer! but drive me not to
despair.—I never loved man before—and now to be scorned !—Oh, kill
me, too dear Wallace, but tell me not, that you never could have loved
me".
Wallace was alarmed at her
vehemence. "Lady Mar," returned he, "I am incapable of
saying anything to you, that is inimical to your duty to the best of men.
I will even forget this distressing conversation; and continue through
life to revere, equal with himself, the wife of my friend."
"And I am to be
stabbed with this?" replied she, in a voice of indignant anguish.
"You are to be healed
with it, Lady Mar:" returned he; "for it is not a man, like the
rest of his sex, that now addresses you, but a being whose heart is
petrified to marble. I could feel no throb of yours; I should be
insensible to all your charms, were I even vile enough to see no evil in
trampling upon your husband’s rights. Yes, were virtue lost to me, still
memory would speak; still would she urge, that the chaste, and last kiss,
imprinted by my wife on these lips, should live there, in unblemished
sanctity, till I again meet her angel embraces in the world to come!"
The Countess, awed by his
solemnity, but not put from her suit, exclaimed, "What she was, I
would be to thee —thy consoler, thine adorer. Time may set me free Oh!
till then, only give me leave to love thee, and I shall be happy!"
"You dishonour
yourself, lady," returned he, "by these petitions; and for what?
You plunge your soul in guilty wishes—you sacrifice your peace, and your
self-esteem, to a phantom; for, I repeat, I am dead to woman; and the
voice of love, sounds like the funeral knell of her who will never breathe
it to me again." He rose as he spoke; and the Countess, pierced to
the heart, and almost despairing of now retaining any part in his esteem,
was devising what next to say, when Murray came into the room.
Wallace instantly observed
that his countenance was troubled. "What has happened?" inquired
he.
"A messenger from the
main land, with bad news from Ayr."
"Of private, or public
import?" rejoined Wallace.
"Of both. There has
been a horrid massacre, in which the heads of many noble families have
fallen." As he spoke, the paleness of his countenance revealed to his
friend, that part of the information he had found himself unable to
communicate.
"I comprehend my
loss," cried Wallace: "Sir Ronald Crawford is sacrificed! Bring
the messenger in."
Murray withdrew; and
Wallace, seating himself, remained with a fixed and stern countenance,
gazing on the ground. Lady Mar durst not breathe, for fear of disturbing
the horrid stillness which seemed to lock up his grief and indignation.
Lord Andrew re-entered with
a stranger. Wallace rose to meet him; and seeing Lady Mar,
"Countess," said he, "these bloody recitals are not for
your ears;" and waving her to withdraw, she left the room.
"This gallant
stranger," said Murray, "is Sir John Graham. He has just left
that new theatre of Southron perfidy."
"I have hastened
hither," cried the knight, "to call your victorious arm, to take
a signal vengeance on the murder of your grandfather. He, and eighteen
other Scottish chiefs, have been treacherously put to death in the Barns
of Ayr." [The Barns of Ayr, were the
barracks (or palace) built in that town by King Edward, for the occasional
residence of his viceroy the Lord Warden.—(1809.)]
Graham then gave a brief
narration of the direful circumstance. He and his father, Lord Dundaff,
having crossed the south coast of Scotland in their way homeward, stopped
to rest at Ayr. They arrived there the very day that Lord Aymer de Valence
had entered it, a fugitive from Dumbarton castle. Much as that earl wished
to keep the success of Wallace a secret from the inhabitants of Ayr, he
found it impossible. Two or three fugitive soldiers whispered the hard
fighting they had endured; and in half an hour after the arrival of the
English earl, every soul knew that the recovery of Scotland was begun.
Elated with this intelligence, the Scots went, under night, from house to
house, congratulating each other on so miraculous an interference in their
favour; and many stole to Sir Ronald Crawford, to felicitate the venerable
knight on his glorious grandson. The good old man listened with meek joy
to their animated eulogiums on Wallace; and when Lord Dundaff, in offering
his congratulations with the rest, said, "But while all Scotland lay
in vassalage, where did he imbibe this spirit, to tread down
tyrants?" The venerable patriarch replied, "He was always a
noble boy. In infancy, he became the defender of every child he saw
oppressed by boys of greater power; he was even the champion of the brute
creation, and no poor animal was ever attempted to be tortured, near him.
The old looked on him for comfort, the young for protection. From infancy
to manhood, he has been a benefactor; and though the cruelty of our
enemies have widowed his youthful years—.-though he should go childless
to the grave, the brightness of his virtues will now spread more glories
round the name of Wallace, than a thousand posterities." Other ears
than those of Dundaff heard this honest exultation.
The next morning, this
venerable old man, and other chiefs of similar consequence, were summoned
by Sir Richard Arnulf, the governor, to his palace; there to deliver in a
schedule of their estates; "that quiet possession," the governor
said, "might be granted to them, under the great seal of Lord Aymer
de Valence, the deputy-warden of Scotland."
The grey-headed knight, not
being so active as his compeers of more juvenile years, happened to be the
last who went to this tiger’s den. Wrapped in his plaid, his silver hair
covered with a blue bonnet, and leaning on his staff, he was walking along
attended by two domestics, when Sir John Graham met him at the gate of the
palace. He smiled on him as he passed, and whispered—"It will not
be long before my Wallace makes even the forms of vassalage unnecessary;
and then these failing limbs may sit undisturbed at home, under the
fig-tree and vine of his planting!"
"God grant it !"
returned Graham; and he saw Sir Ronald admitted within the interior gate.
The servants were ordered to remain without. Sir John walked there some
time, expecting the reappearance of the: knight; whom he intended to
assist in leading home; but after an hour, finding no signs of regress
from the palace, and thinking his father might be wondering at his delay,
he turned his steps towards his own lodgings: While passing along, he met
several Southron detachments hurrying across the streets. In the midst of
some of these companies he saw one or two Scottish men of rank, strangers
to him, but who, by certain indications, seemed to be prisoners.— He did
not go far, before he met a chieftain in these painful circumstances, whom
he knew; but as he was hasstening towards him, the noble Scot raised his
manacled hand, and turned away his head. This was a warning to the young
knight; who darted into an obscure alley which led to the gardens of his
father’s lodgings; and was hurrying forward, when he met one of his own
servants running in quest of him.
Panting with haste, he
informed his master, that a party of armed men had come, under De Valence’s
warrant, to seize Lord Dundaff and bear him to prison; to lie there with
others, who were charged with having taken part in a conspiracy with the
grandfather of the insurgent Wallace.
The officer of the band who
took Lord Dundaff, told him in the most insulting language, that "Sir
Ronald his ringleader, with eighteen nobles his accomplices, had already
suffered the punishment of their crime; and were lying, headless trunks,
in the judgment-hall."
"Haste,
therefore;" repeated the man; "my lord bids you haste, to Sir
William Wallace; and require his hand, to avenge his kinsman’s blood;
and to free his countrymen from prison! These are your father’s
commands: he directed me to seek you, and give them to you."
Alarmed for the life of his
father, Graham hesitated how to act on the moment. To leave him, seemed to
abandon him to the death the others had received; and yet, only by obeying
him, could he have any hopes of averting his threatened fate. Once seeing
the path he ought to pursue, he struck immediately into it; and giving his
signet to the servant, to assure Lord Dundair of his obedience he mounted
a horse, which had been brought to the town end for that purpose, and
setting off full speed, allowed nothing to stay him, till he reached
Dumbarton castle. There, hearing that Wallace was gone to Bute, he threw
himself into a boat, and plying every oar, reached that island in a
shorter space of time than the voyage had ever before been completed.
Being now conducted into
the presence of the chief, he narrated his dismal tale with a simplicity
and pathos, which would have instantly drawn the retributive sword of
Wallace, had he had no kinsman to avenge, no friend to release from the
Southron dungeons. But as the case stood, his bleeding grandfather lay
before his eyes; and the axe hung over the heads of the most virtuous
nobles of his country.
He heard the chieftain to
an end, without speaking or altering the stern attention of his
countenance. But at the close, with an augmented suffusion of blood in his
face, and his brows denouncing some tremendous fate, he rose :—"Sir
John Graham," said he, "I attend you."
"Whither?"
demanded Murray.
"To Ayr,"
answered Wallace; "this moment I will set out for Dumbarton, to bring
away the sinews of my strength. God will be our speed! and then this arm
shall show how I loved that good old man."
"Your men,"
interrupted Graham, "are already awaiting you on the opposite shore.
I presumed to command for you. For on entering Dumbarton, and finding you
were absent; after having briefly recounted my errand. to Lord Lennox, I
dared to interpret your mind, and to order Sir Alexander Scrymgeour, and
Sir Roger Kirkpatrick, with all your own force, to follow me to the coast
of Renfrew."
"Thank you, my
friend!" cried Wallace, grasping his hand; "may I ever have such
interpreters!-I cannot stay to bid your uncle farewell," said he to
Lord Andrew: "remain, to tell him to bless me with his prayers; and
then, dear Murray, follow me to Ayr."
Ignorant of what the
stranger had imparted, at the sight of the chiefs approaching from the
castle gate, Edwin hastened with the news, that all was ready for
embarkation. He was hurrying out his information, when the altered
countenance of his general checked him. He looked at the stranger; his
features were agitated and severe. He turned towards his cousin; all there
was grave and distressed. Again he glanced at Wallace; no word was spoken,
but every look threatened; and Edwin saw him leap into the boat, followed
by the stranger. The astonished boy, though unnoticed, would not be left
behind, and stepping in also, sat down beside his chief.
"I shall follow you in
an hour," exclaimed Murray. The seamen pushed off; then giving loose
to their swelling sail; in less than ten minutes, the light vessel was
wafted out of the little harbour; and turning a point— those in the
castle, saw it no more.