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The Scottish Chiefs

M >> Miss Jane Porter >> The Scottish Chiefs




Lady Wallace, overcome with gratitude at this generous speech of the
English officer, uttered some inarticulate words, expressive more in
sound than clearness, of her grateful feelings. Hambledon continued,
"I will use my influence with Heselrigge, to prevent the interior of
your house from being disturbed again; but it being in the course of
military operations, I cannot free you from the disagreeable ceremony
of a guard being placed to-morrow morning round the domains. This I
know will be done to intercept Sir William Wallace should he attempt to
return."

"Oh! That he were indeed far distant!" thought the anxious Marion.

The officer then added, "However, you shall be relieved of my
detachment directly." And as he spoke, he waved his sword to them who
had seized the harper. They advanced, still holding their prisoner.
He ordered them to commit the man to him, and to sound. The trumpeter
obeyed; and in a few seconds the whole detachment were assembled before
their commander.

"Soldiers!" cried he, "Sir William Wallace has escaped our hands.
Mount your horses, that we may return to Lanark, and search the other
side of the town. Lead forth, and I will follow."

The troops obeyed, and falling back through the open gates, left Sir
Gilbert Hambledon alone with Lady Wallace and the wondering Halbert.
The brave young man took the now no longer withdrawn hand of the
grateful Marion, who had stood trembling while so many of her husband's
mortal enemies were assembled under the place of his concealment.

"Noble Englishman," said she, as the last body of soldiers passed from
her sight, "I cannot enough thank you for this generous conduct; but
should you or yours be ever in the like extremity with my beloved
Wallace (and in these tyrannous times, what brave spirit can answer for
its continued safety?) may the ear which has heard you this night, at
that hour repay my gratitude!"

"Sweet lady," answered Hambledon, "I thank you for your prayer. God is
indeed the benefactor of a true soldier; and though I serve my king,
and obey my commanders, yet it is only to the Lord of battles that I
look for a sure reward. And whether he pay me here with victories and
honors, or take my soul through a rent in my breast, to receive my
laurel in paradise, it is all one to Gilbert Hambledon. But the night
is cold: I must see you safe within your own doors, and then, lady,
farewell!"

Lady Wallace yielded to the impulse of his hand, and with redoubled
haste, as she heard another rustling in the tree above her head.
Hambledon did not notice it; but desiring Halbert to follow, in a few
minutes disappeared with the agitated Marion into the house.

Wallace, whose spirit could ill brook the sight of his domains filled
with hostile troops, and the wife of his bosom brought a prisoner
before their commander, would instantly have braved all dangers, and
have leaped down amongst them; but at the instant he placed his foot on
a lower bough to make a spring, the courteous address of Hambledon to
his wife had made him hesitate. He listened to the replies of his
Marion with exultation; and when the Englishman ordered his men to
withdraw, and delivered himself so generously respecting the safety of
the man he came to seize, Wallace could hardly prevent a brave
confidence in such virtue from compelling him to come from his
concealment, and thank his noble enemy on the spot. But in
consideration that such disclosure would put the military duty and the
generous nature of the officer at variance, he desisted, with such an
agitation of spirits that the boughs had again shaken under him, and
reawakened the alarm of his trembling wife.

"Omnipotent virtue!" exclaimed Wallace to himself; "if it were possible
that thy generous spirit could animate the breast of an invading
conqueror, how soon would the vanquished cease to forget their former
freedom, and learn to love their vassalage! This man's nobleness, how
soon has it quenched the flame of vengeance with which, when I ascended
this tree, I prayed for the extirpation of every follower of Edward!"

"Sir William! my master!" cried a well-known voice, in a suppressed
tone, as if still fearful of being overheard. It was Halbert's.
"Speak, my dear lord; are you safe?"

"In heart and body!" returned Wallace, sliding from the tree, and
leaping on the ground. "One only of the arrows touched me; and that
merely striking my bugle, fell back amongst the leaves. I must now
hasten to the dearest, the noblest of women!"

Halbert begged him to stay till they should hear the retreat from the
English trumpets. "Till their troops are out of sight," added he, "I
cannot believe you safe."

"Hark!" cried Wallace, "the horses are now descending the craig. That
must satisfy you, honest Halbert." With these words he flew across the
grass, and entering the house, met the returning Marion, who had just
bade farewell to Hambledon. She rushed into his arms, and with the
excess of a disturbed and uncertain joy, fainted on his neck. Her
gentle spirit had been too powerfully excited by the preceding scenes.
Unaccustomed to tumult of any king, and nursed in the bosom of fondness
till now, no blast had blown on her tender form, no harshness had ever
ruffled the blissful serenity of her mind. What then was the shock of
this evening's violence! Her husband pursued as a murderer; herself
exposed to the midnight air, and dragged by the hands of merciless
soldiers to betray the man she loved! All these scenes were new to
her; and though a kind of preternatural strength had supported her
over, when she fell once more into her husband's extended arms, she
seemed there to have found again her shelter, and the pillow whereon
her harassed soul might repose.

"My life! My best treasure! Preserver of thy Wallace! Look on him!"
exclaimed he; "bless him with a smile from those dear eyes."

His voice, his caresses, soon restored her to sensibility and
recollection. She wept on his breast, and with love's own eloquence,
thanked Heaven that he had escaped the search and the arrows of his
enemies.

"But my dear lady," interrupted Halbert, "remember my master must not
stay here. You know the English commander said he must fly far away.
Nay, spies may even now be lurking to betray him."

"You are right," cried she. "My Wallace, you must depart. Should the
guard arrive soon, your flight may be prevented. You must go now-but,
oh! whither?"

"Not far distant, my love. In going from thee, I leave behind all that
makes my life precious to me; how then can I go far away? No! there
are recesses among the Cartlane Craigs, I discovered while hunting, and
which I believe have been visited by no mortal foot but my own. There
I will be, my Marion, before sunrise; and before it sets, thither you
must send Halbert, to tell me how you fare. Three notes from thine own
sweet strains of Thusa ha measg na reultan mor,** blown by his pipe,
shall be a sign to me that he is there; and I will come forth to hear
tidings of thee."

**Thusa ha measg na reultan mor, etc., are the beginning words of an
old Gaelic ditty, the English of which runs thus: "Thou who art amid
the stars, move to thy bed with music," etc.-(1809.)

"Ah, my Wallace, let me go with thee!"

"What, dearest!" returned he, "to live amidst rocks and streams! to
expose thy tender self, and thine unborn infant, to all the accidents
of such a lodging!"

"But are not you going to so rough, so dangerous a lodging?" asked she.
"O! would not rocks and streams be Heaven's paradise to me, when
blessed by the presence of my husband? Ah! let me go!"

"Impossible, my lady," cried Halbert, afraid that the melting heart of
his master would consent: you are here; and your flight would awaken
suspicion in the English, that he had not gone far. Your ease and
safety are dearer to him than his own life; and most likely by his care
to preserve them, he would be traced, and so fall a ready sacrifice to
the enemy."

"It is true, my Marion; I could not preserve you in the places to which
I go."

"But the hardships you will endure!" cried she; "to sleep on the cold
stones, with no covering but the sky, or the dripping vault of some
dreary cave! I have not courage to abandon you alone to such cruel
rigors."

"Cease, my beloved!" interrupted he, "cease these groundless alarms.
Neither rocks nor storms have any threats to me. It is only tender
woman's cares that make man's body delicate. Before I was thine, my
Marion, I have lain whole nights upon the mountain's brow, counting the
wintery stars, as I impatiently awaited the hunter's horn that was to
recall me to the chase in Glenfinlass. Alike to Wallace is the couch
of down or the bed of heather; so, best-beloved of my heart, grieve not
at hardships which were once my sport, and will now be my safety."

"Then farewell! May good angels guard thee!" Her voice failed; she
put his hand to her lips.

"Courage, my Marion," said he; "remember that Wallace lives but in
thee. Revive, be happy for my sake; and God, who putteth down the
oppressor, will restore me to thine arms." She spoke not, but rising
from his breast, clasped her hands together, and looked up with an
expression of fervent prayer; then smiling through a shower of tears,
she waved her hand to him to depart, and instantly disappeared into her
own chamber.

Wallace gazed at the closed door, with his soul in his eyes. To leave
his Marion thus, to quit her who was the best part of his being, who
seemed the very spring of the life now throbbing in his heart, was a
contention with his fond, fond love, almost too powerful for his
resolution. Here indeed his brave spirit gave way; and he would have
followed her, and perhaps have determined to await his face at her
side, had not Halbert, reading his mind in his countenance, taken him
by the arm, and drawn him toward the portal.

Wallace soon recovered his better reason, and obeying the friendly
impulse of his servant, accompanied him through the garden, to the
quarter which pointed toward the heights that led to the remotest
recesses of the Clyde. In their way they approached the well where
Lord Mar lay. Finding that the earl had not been inquired for, Wallace
deemed his stay to be without peril; and intending to inform him of the
necessity which still impelled his own flight, he called to him, but no
voice answered. He looked down, and seeing him extended on the bottom
without motion, "I fear," said he, "the earl is dead. As soon as I am
gone, and you can collect the dispersed servants, send one into the
well to bring him forth; and if he be indeed no more, deposit his body
in my oratory, till you can receive his widow's commands respecting his
remains. The iron box now in the well is of inestimable value; take it
to Lady Wallace and tell her she must guard it, as she has done my
life; but not to look into it, at the peril of what is yet dearer to
her-my honor."

Halbert promised to adhere to his master's orders; and Wallace, girding
on his sword, and taking his hunting-spear (with which the care of his
venerable domestic had provided him), he pressed the faithful hand that
presented it, and again enjoining him to be watchful of the
tranquillity of his lady, and to send him tidings of her in the
evening, to the cave near the Corie Lynn, he climbed the wall, and was
out of sight in an instant.



Chapter III.

Ellerslie.



Halbert returned to the house; and entering the room softly, into which
Marion had withdrawn, beheld her on her knees before a crucifix; she
was praying for the safety of her husband.

"May he, O gracious Lord!" cried she, "soon return to his home. But if
I am to see him here no more, oh, may it please thee to grant me to
meet him within thy arms in heaven!"

"Hear her, blessed Son of Mary!" ejaculated the old man. She looked
round, and rising from her knees, demanded of him, in a kind but
anxious voice, whether he had left her lord in security.

"In the way to it, my lady!" answered Halbert. He repeated all that
Wallace had said at parting, and then tried to prevail on her to go to
rest. "Sleep cannot visit my eyes this night, my faithful creature,"
replied she; "my spirit will follow Wallace in his mountain flight. Go
you to your chamber. After you have had repose, that will be time
enough to revisit the remains of the poor earl, and to bring them with
the box to the house. I will take a religious charge of both, for the
sake of the dear intruster."

Halbert persuaded his aldy to lie down on the bed, that her limbs at
least might rest after the fatigue of so harassing a night; and she,
little suspecting that he meant to do otherwise than to sleep also,
kindly wished him repose and retired.

Her maids, during the late terror, had dispersed, and were nowhere to
be found; and the men, too, after their stout resistance at the gates,
had all disappeared; some fled others were sent away prisoners to
Lanark, while the good Hambledon was conversing with their lady.
Halbert, therefore, resigned himself to await with patience the rising
of the sun, when he hoped some of the scared domestics would return; if
not, he determined to go to the cotters who lived in the depths of the
glen, and bring some of them to supply the place of the fugitives; and
a few, with stouter hearts, to guard his lady.

Thus musing, he sat on a stone bench in the hall, watching anxiously
the appearance of that orb, whose setting beams he hoped would light
him back with tidings of William Wallace to comfort the lonely heart of
his Marion. All seemed at peace. Nothing was hear but the sighing of
the trees as they waved before the western window, which opened toward
the Lanark hills. The morning was yet gray, and the fresh air blowing
in rather chilly, Halbert rose to close the wooden shutter; at that
moment, his eyes were arrested by a party of armed men in quick march
down the opposite declivity. In a few minutes more their heavy steps
sounded in his ears, and he saw the platform before the house filled
with English. Alarmed at the sight, he was retreating across the
apartment, toward his lady's room, when the great hall door was burst
open by a band of soldiers, who rushed forward and seized him.

"Tell me, dotard!" cried their leader, a man of low stature, with gray
locks, but a fierce countenance, "where is the murderer? Where is Sir
William Wallace? Speak, or the torture shall force you."

Halbert shuddered, but it was for his defenseless lady, not for
himself. "My master," said he, "is far from this."

"Where?"

"I know not."

"Thou shalt be made to know, thou hoary-headed villian!" cried the same
violent interrogator. "Where is the assassin's wife? I will confront
ye. Seek her out."

At that word the soldiers parted right and left, and in a moment
afterward three of them appeared, with shouts, bringing in the
trembling Marion.

"Alas! my lady!" cried Halbert, struggling to approach her, as with
terrified apprehension she looked around her; but they held her fast,
and he saw her led up to the merciless wretch who had given the orders
to have her summoned.

"Woman!" cried he, "I am the Governor of Lanark. You now stand before
the representative of the great King Edward, and on your allegiance to
him, and on the peril of your life, I command you to answer me three
questions. Where is Sir William Wallace, the murderer of my nephew?
Who is that old Scot, for whom my nephew was slain? He and his whole
family shall meet my vengeance! And tell me where is that box of
treasure which your husband stole from Douglas Castle? Answer me these
questions on your life."

Lady Wallace remained silent.

"Speak, woman," demanded the governor. "If fear cannot move you, know
that I can reward as well as avenge. I will endow you richly, if you
declare the truth. If you persist to refuse, you die."

"Then I die," replied she, scarcely opening her half-closed eyes, as
she leaned, fainting and motionless, against the soldier who held her.

"What?" cried the governor, stifling his rage, in hopes to gain by
persuasion on a spirit he found threats could not intimidate; "can so
gentle a lady reject the favor of England, large grants in this
country, and perhaps a fine English knight for a husband, when you
might have all for the trifling service of giving up a traitor to his
liege lord, and confessing where his robberies lie concealed? Speak,
fair dame; give me this information, and the lands of the wounded
chieftain whom Wallace brought here, with the hand of the handsome Sir
Gilbert Hambledon, shall be your reward. Rich, and a beauty in
Edward's court! Lady, can you now refuse to purchase all, by declaring
the hiding place of the traitor Wallace?"

"It is easier to die!"

"Fool!" cried Heselrigge, driven from his assumed temper by her steady
denial. "What? is it easier for these dainty limbs to be hacked to
pieces by my soldiers' axes? Is it easier for that fair bosom to be
trodden underfoot by my horse's hoofs, and for that beauteous head of
thine to decorate my lance? Is all this easier than to tell me where
to find a murderer and his gold?"

Lady Wallace shuddered; she stretched her hands to heaven.

"Speak once for all!" cried the enraged governor, drawing his sword; "I
am no waxen-hearted Hambledon, to be cajoled by your beauty. Declare
where Wallace is concealed, or dread my vengeance."

The horrid steel gleamed across the eyes of the unhappy Marion; unable
to sustain herself, she sunk to the ground.

"Kneel not to me for mercy!" cried the fierce wretch; "I grant none,
unless you confess your husband's hiding-place."

A momentary strength darted from the heart of Lady Wallace to her
voice, "I kneel to Heaven alone, and may it ever preserve my Wallace
from the fangs of Edward and his tyrants!"

"Blasphemous wretch!" cried the infuriated Heselrigge; and in that
moment he plunged his sword into her defenseless breast. Halbert, who
had all this time been held back by the soldiers, could not believe
that the fierce governor would perpetrate the horrid deed he
threatened; but seeing it done, with a giant's strength and a terrible
cry he burst from the hands that held him, and had thrown himself on
the bleeding Marion, before her murderer could strike his second blow.
However, it fell, and pierced through the neck of the faithful servant
before it reached her heart. She opened her dying eyes, and seeing who
it was that would have shielded her life, just articulated, "Halbert!
my Wallace-to God-" and with that last unfinished sentence her pure
soul took its flight to regions of eternal piece.

The good old man's heart almost burst when he felt that before-heaving
bosom now motionless; and groaning with grief, and fainting with loss
of blood, he lay senseless on her body.

A terrible stillness was now in the hall. Not a man spoke; all stood
looking on each other, with a stern horror marking each pale
countenance. Heselrigge, dropping his blood-stained sword on the
ground, perceived by the behavior of his men that he had gone too far,
and fearful of arousing the indignation of awakened humanity, to some
act against himself, he addressed the soldiers in an unusual accent of
condescension: "My friends," said he, "we will now return to Lanark;
to-morrow you may come back, for I reward your services of this night
with the plunder of Ellerslie."

"May a curse light on him who carries a stick from its grounds!"
exclaimed a veteran, from the further end of the hall. "Amen!"
murmured all the soldiers, with one consent; and falling back, they
disappeared, one by one, out of the great door, leaving Heselrigge
alone with the soldier, who stood leaning on his sword, looking on the
murdered lady.

"Grimsby, why stand you there?" demanded Heselrigge: "follow me."

"Never," returned the soldier.

"What!" exclaimed the governor, momentarily forgetting his panic, "dare
you speak thus to your commander? March on before me this instant, or
expect to be treated as a rebel."

"I march at your command no more," replied the veteran, eying him
resolutely: "the moment you perpetrated this bloody deed, you became
unworthy the name of man; and I should disgrace my own manhood, were I
ever again to obey the word of such a monster!"

"Villian!" cried the enraged Heselrigge, "you shall die for this!"

"That may be," answered Grimsby, "by the hands of some tyrant like
yourself; but no brave man, not the royal Edward, would do otherwise
than acquit his soldier for refusing obedience to the murderer of an
innocent woman. It was not so he treated the wives and daughters of
the slaughtered Saracens when I followed his banners over the fields of
Palestine!"

"Thou canting miscreant!" cried Heselrigge, springing on him suddenly,
and aiming his dagger at his breast. But the soldier arrested the
weapon, and at the same instant closing upon the assassin, with a turn
of his foot threw him to the ground. Heselrigge, as he lay prostrate,
seeing his dagger in his adversary's hand, with the most dastardly
promises implored for life.

"Monster!" cried the soldier, "I wold not pollute my honest hands with
such unnatural blood. Neither, though thy hand has been lifted against
my life, would I willingly take thine. It is not rebellion against my
commander that actuates me, but hatred of the vilest of murderers. I
go far from you, or your power; but if you forswear your voluntary
oath, and attempt to seek me out for vengeance, remember it is a
soldier of the cross you pursue, and a dire retribution shall be
demanded by Heaven, at a moment you cannot avoid, and with a horror
commensurate with your crimes."

There was a solemnity and determination in the voice and manner of the
soldier that paralyzed the intimidated soul of the governor; he
trembled violently, and repeating the oath of leaving Grimsby
unmolested, at last obtained his permission to return to Lanark. The
men, in obedience to the conscience-stricken orders of their commander,
had mounted their horses and were now far out of sight. Heselrigge's
charger was still in the courtyard; he was hurrying toward it, but the
soldier, with a prudent suspicion, called out, "Stop, sir! you must
walk to Lanark. The cruel are generally false; I cannot trust your
word, should you have the power to break it. Leave this horse
here-to-morrow you may send for it, I shall then be far away."

Heselrigge saw that remonstrance would be unavailing; and shaking with
impotent rage, he turned into the path which, after five weary miles,
would lead him once more to his citadel.

For the moment the soldier's manly spirit had dared to deliver its
abhorrence of Lady Wallace's murder, he was aware that his life would
no longer be safe within reach of the machinations of Heselrigge; and
determined, alike by detestation of him and regard for his own
preservation, resolved to take shelter in the mountains, till he could
have an opportunity of going beyond sea to join his king's troops in
the Guienne wars.

Full of these thoughts he returned into the hall. As he approached the
bleeding form on the floor, he perceived it to move; hoping that
perhaps the unhappy lady might not be dead, he drew near; but, alas! as
he bent to examine, he touched her hand and found it quite cold. The
blood which had streamed from the now exhausted heart, lay congealed
upon her arms and bosom. Grimsby shuddered. Again he saw her move;
but it was not with her own life; the recovering senses of her faithful
servant, as his arms clung around the body, had disturbed the remains
of her who would wake no more.

On seeing that existence yet struggled in one of these blameless
victims, Grimsby did his utmost to revive the old man. He raised him
from the ground, and poured some strong liquor he had in a flask into a
mouth. Halbert breathed freer; and his kind surgeon, with the
venerable harper's own plaid, bound up the wound in his neck. Halbert
opened his eyes. When he fixed them on the rough features and English
helmet of the soldier, he closed them again with a deep groan.

"My honest Scot," said Grimsby, "trust in me. I am a man like
yourself; and though a Southron, am no enemy to age and helplessness."

The harper took courage at these words; he again looked at the soldier;
but suddenly recollecting what had passed, he turned his eyes toward
the body of his mistress, on which the beams of the now rising sun were
shining. He started up, and staggering toward her, would have fallen,
had not Grimsby supported him. "O what a sight is this!" cried he,
wringing his hands. "My lady! my lovely lady! see how low she lies who
was once the delight of all eyes, the comforter of all hearts." The
old man's sobs suffocated him. The veteran turned away his face, a
tear dropped upon his hand. "Accursed Heselrigge," ejaculated he, "thy
fate must come!"

"If there be a man's heart in all Scotland, it is not far distant!"
cried Halbert. "My master lives, and will avenge this murder. You
weep, soldier; and you will not betray what has now escaped me."

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