Waverley Novels — Volume 12

by Walter Scott

  CHAPTER THE THIRTY-FOURTH.

  It was not until after the conquest of Jerusalem that Count Robert ofParis returned to Constantinople, and with his wife, and suchproportion of his followers as the sword and pestilence had left afterthat bloody warfare, resumed his course to his native kingdom. Uponreaching Italy, the first care of the noble Count and Countess was tocelebrate in princely style the marriage of Hereward and his faithfulBertha, who had added to their other claims upon their master andmistress, those acquired by Hereward's faithful services in Palestine,and no less by Bertha's affectionate ministry to her lady inConstantinople.

  As to the fate of Alexius Comnenus, it may be read at large in thehistory of his daughter Anna, who has represented him as the hero ofmany a victory, achieved, says the purple-born, in the third chapterand fifteenth book of her history, sometimes by his arms and sometimesby his prudence.

  "His boldness alone has gained some battles, at other times his successhas been won by stratagem. He has erected the most illustrious of histrophies by confronting danger, by combating like a simple soldier, andthrowing himself bareheaded into the thickest of the foe. But there areothers," continues the accomplished lady, "which he gained anopportunity of erecting by assuming the appearance of terror, and evenof retreat. In a word, he knew alike how to triumph either in flight orin pursuit, and remained upright even before those enemies who appearedto have struck him down; resembling the military implement termed thecalthrop, which remains always upright in whatever direction it isthrown on the ground."

  It would be unjust to deprive the Princess of the defence she herselfmakes against the obvious charge of partiality.

  "I must still once more repel the reproach which some bring against me,as if my history was composed merely according to the dictates of thenatural love for parents which is engraved in the hearts of children.In truth, it is not the effect of that affection which I bear to mine,but it is the evidence of matter of fact, which obliges me to speak asI have done. Is it not possible that one can have at the same time anaffection for the memory of a father and for truth? For myself, I havenever directed my attempt to write history, otherwise than for theascertainment of the matter of fact. With this purpose, I have takenfor my subject the history of a worthy man. Is it just, that, by thesingle accident of his being the author of my birth, his quality of myfather ought to form a prejudice against me, which would ruin my creditwith my readers? I have given, upon other occasions, proofssufficiently strong of the ardour which I had for the defence of myfather's interests, which those that know me can never doubt but, onthe present, I have been limited by the inviolable fidelity with whichI respect the truth, which I should have felt conscience to haveveiled, under pretence of serving the renown of my father."--_Alexiad_,chap. iii. book xv.

  This much we have deemed it our duty to quote, in justice to the fairhistorian; we will extract also her description of the Emperor's death,and are not unwilling to allow, that the character assigned to thePrincess by our own Gibbon, has in it a great deal of fairness and oftruth.

  Notwithstanding her repeated protests of sacrificing rather to theexact and absolute truth than to the memory of her deceased parent,Gibbon remarks truly, that "instead of the simplicity of style andnarrative which wins a belief, an elaborate affectation of rhetoric andscience betrays in every page the vanity of a female author. Thegenuine character of Alexius is lost in a vague constellation ofvirtues; and the perpetual strain of panegyric and apology awakens ourjealousy to question the veracity of the historian, and the merit ofthe hero. We cannot, however, refuse her judicious and importantremark, that the disorders of the times were the misfortune and theglory of Alexius; and that every calamity which can afflict a decliningempire was accumulated on his reign by the justice of Heaven and thevices of his predecessors."--GIBBON'S _Roman Empire_, vol. ix. p. 83,foot-note.

  The Princess accordingly feels the utmost assurance, that a number ofsigns which appeared in heaven and on earth, were interpreted by thesoothsayers of the day as foreboding the death of the Emperor. By thesemeans, Anna Comnena assigned to her father those indications ofconsequence, which ancient historians represent as necessaryintimations of the sympathy of nature, with the removal of greatcharacters from the world; but she fails not to inform the Christianreader that her father's belief attached to none of these prognostics,and that even on the following remarkable occasion he maintained hisincredulity:--A splendid statue, supposed generally to be a relic ofpaganism, holding in its hand a golden sceptre, and standing upon abase of porphyry, was overturned by a tempest, and was generallybelieved to be an intimation of the death of the Emperor. This,however, he generously repelled. Phidias, he said, and other greatsculptors of antiquity, had the talent of imitating the human framewith surprising accuracy; but to suppose that the power of foretellingfuture events was reposed in these master-pieces of art, would be toascribe to their makers the faculties reserved by the Deity forhimself, when he says, "It is I who kill and make alive." During hislatter days, the Emperor was greatly afflicted with the gout, thenature of which has exercised the wit of many persons of science aswell as of Anna Comnena. The poor patient was so much exhausted, thatwhen the Empress was talking of most eloquent persons who should assistin the composition of his history, he said, with a natural contempt ofsuch vanities, "The passages of my unhappy life call rather for tearsand lamentation than for the praises you speak of."

  A species of asthma having come to the assistance of the gout, theremedies of the physicians became as vain as the intercession of themonks and clergy, as well as the alms which were indiscriminatelylavished. Two or three deep successive swoons gave ominous warning ofthe approaching blow; and at length was terminated the reign and lifeof Alexius Comnenus, a prince who, with all the faults which may beimputed to him, still possesses a real right, from the purity of hisgeneral intentions, to be accounted one of the best sovereigns of theLower Empire.

  For some time, the historian forgot her pride of literary rank, and,like an ordinary person, burst into tears and shrieks, tore her hair,and defaced her countenance, while the Empress Irene cast from her herprincely habits, cut off her hair, changed her purple buskins for blackmourning shoes, and her daughter Mary, who had herself been a widow,took a black robe from one of her own wardrobes, and presented it toher mother. "Even in the moment when she put it on," says Anna Comnena,"the Emperor gave up the ghost, and in that moment the sun of my lifeset."

  We shall not pursue her lamentations farther. She upbraids herselfthat, after the death of her father, that light of the world, she hadalso survived Irene, the delight alike of the east and of the west, andsurvived her husband also. "I am indignant," she said, "that my soul,suffering under such torrents of misfortune, should still deign toanimate my body. Have I not," said she, "been more hard and unfeelingthan the rocks themselves; and is it not just that one, who couldsurvive such a father and mother, and such a husband, should besubjected to the influence of so much calamity? But let me finish thishistory, rather than any longer fatigue my readers with my unavailingand tragical lamentation."

  Having thus concluded her history, she adds the following two lines:--

  "The learned Comnena lays her pen aside, What time her subject and her father died." [Footnote: [Greek: Laexen hopou biotoio Alexios d Komnaenos Entha kalae thygataer laexen Alexiados.]]

  These quotations will probably give the readers as much as they wish toknow of the real character of this Imperial historian. Fewer words willsuffice to dispose of the other parties who have been selected from herpages, as persons in the foregoing drama.

  There is very little doubt that the Count Robert of Paris, whoseaudacity in seating himself upon the throne of the Emperor gives apeculiar interest to his character, was in fact a person of the highestrank; being no other, as has been conjectured by the learned Du Cange,than an ancestor of the house of Bourbon, which has so long given Kingsto France. He was a successor, it has been conceived, of the Counts ofParis, by whom the city was
valiantly defended against the Normans, andan ancestor of Hugh Capet. There are several hypotheses upon thissubject, deriving the well-known Hugh Capet, first, from the family ofSaxony; secondly, from St. Arnoul, afterwards Bishop of Altex; third,from Nibilong; fourth, from the Duke of Bavaria; and fifth, from anatural son of the Emperor Charlemagne. Variously placed, but in eachof these contested pedigrees, appears this Robert surnamed the_Strong_, who was Count of that district, of which Paris was thecapital, most peculiarly styled the County, or Isle of France. AnnaComnena, who has recorded the bold usurpation of the Emperor's seat bythis haughty chieftain, has also acquainted us with his receiving asevere, if not a mortal wound, at the battle of Dorylseum, owing to hisneglecting the warlike instructions with which her father had favouredhim on the subject of the Turkish wars. The antiquary who is disposedto investigate this subject, may consult the late Lord Ashburnham'selaborate Genealogy of the Royal House of France; also a note of DuCange's on the Princess's history, p. 362, arguing for the identity ofher "Robert of Paris, a haughty barbarian," with the "Robert called theStrong," mentioned as an ancestor of Hugh Capet. Gibbon, vol. xi. p.52, may also be consulted. The French antiquary and the Englishhistorian seem alike disposed to find the church, called in the talethat of the Lady of the Broken Lances, in that dedicated to St. Drusas,or Drosin of Soissons, who was supposed to have peculiar influence onthe issue of combats, and to be in the habit of determining them infavour of such champions as spent the night preceding at his shrine.

  In consideration of the sex of one of the parties concerned, the authorhas selected our Lady of the Broken Lances as a more appropriatepatroness than St. Drusas himself, for the Amazons, who were notuncommon in that age. Gaita, for example, the wife of Robert Guiscard,a redoubted hero, and the parent of a most heroic race of sons, washerself an Amazon, fought in the foremost ranks of the Normans, and isrepeatedly commemorated by our Imperial historian, Anna Comnena.

  The reader can easily conceive to himself that Robert of Parisdistinguished himself among his brethren-at-arms and fellow-crusaders.His fame resounded from the walls of Antioch; but at the battle ofDorylaeum, he was so desperately wounded, as to be disabled from takinga part in the grandest scene of the expedition. His heroic Countess,however, enjoyed the great satisfaction of mounting the walls ofJerusalem, and in so far discharging her own vows and those of herhusband. This was the more fortunate, as the sentence of the physicianspronounced that the wounds of the Count had been inflicted by apoisoned weapon, and that complete recovery was only to be hoped for byhaving recourse to his native air. After some time spent in the vainhope of averting by patience this unpleasant alternative, Count Robertsubjected himself to necessity, or what was represented as such, and,with his wife and the faithful Hereward, and all others of hisfollowers who had been like himself disabled from combat, took the wayto Europe by sea.

  A light galley, procured at a high rate, conducted them safely toVenice, and from that then glorious city, the moderate portion of spoilwhich had fallen to the Count's share among the conquerors ofPalestine, served to convey them to his own dominions, which, morefortunate than those of most of his fellow-pilgrims, had been leftuninjured by their neighbours during the time of their proprietor'sabsence on the Crusade. The report that the Count had lost his health,and the power of continuing his homage to the Lady of the BrokenLances, brought upon him the hostilities of one or two ambitious orenvious neighbours, whose covetousness was, however, sufficientlyrepressed by the brave resistance of the Countess and the resoluteHereward. Less than a twelvemonth was required to restore the Count ofParis to his full health, and to render him, as formerly, the assuredprotector of his own vassals, and the subject in whom the possessors ofthe French throne reposed the utmost confidence. This latter capacityenabled Count Robert to discharge his debt towards Hereward in a manneras ample as he could have hoped or expected. Being now respected alikefor his wisdom and his sagacity, as much as he always was for hisintrepidity and his character as a successful crusader, he wasrepeatedly employed by the Court of France in settling the troublesomeand intricate affairs in which the Norman possessions of the Englishcrown involved the rival nations. William Rufus was not insensible tohis merit, nor blind to the importance of gaining his good will; andfinding out his anxiety that Hereward should be restored to the land ofhis fathers, he took, or made an opportunity, by the forfeiture of somerebellious noble, of conferring upon our Varangian a large districtadjacent to the New Forest, being part of the scenes which his fatherchiefly frequented, and where it is said the descendants of the valiantsquire and his Bertha have subsisted for many a long year, survivingturns of time and chance, which are in general fatal to the continuanceof more distinguished families.

  Tales of my Landlord.

  CASTLE DANGEROUS

  As I stood by yon roofless tower, Where the wa'flower scents the dewy air, Where the howlet mourns in her ivy bower, And tells the midnight moon her care: The winds were laid, the air was still, The stars they shot along the sky; The Fox was howling on the hill, And the distant echoing glens reply. ROBERT BURNS.

  INTRODUCTION.--(1832.)

  [The following Introduction to "Castle Dangerous" was forwarded by SirWalter Scott from Naples in February 1832, together with somecorrections of the text, and notes on localities mentioned in the Novel.

  The materials for the Introduction must have been collected before heleft Scotland in September 1831; but in the hurry of preparing for hisvoyage, he had not been able to arrange them so as to accompany thefirst edition of this Romance. A few notes, supplied by the Editor, areplaced within brackets.]

  The incidents on which the ensuing Novel mainly turns, are derived fromthe ancient Metrical Chronicle of "The Brace," by Archdeacon Barbour,and from the "History of the Houses of Douglas and Angus," by DavidHume of Godscroft; and are sustained by the immemorial tradition of thewestern parts of Scotland. They are so much in consonance with thespirit and manners of the troubled age to which they are referred, thatI can see no reason for doubting their being founded in fact; thenames, indeed, of numberless localities in the vicinity of DouglasCastle, appear to attest, beyond suspicion, many even of the smallestcircumstances embraced in the story of Godscroft.

  Among all the associates of Robert the Brace, in his great enterpriseof rescuing Scotland from the power of Edward, the first place isuniversally conceded to James, the eighth Lord Douglas, to this dayvenerated by his countrymen as "the Good Sir James:"

  "The Gud Schyr James of Douglas, That in his time sa worthy was, That off his price and his bounte, In far landis renownyt was he." BARBOUR.

  "The Good Sir James, the dreadful blacke Douglas, That in his dayes so wise and worthie was, Wha here, and on the infidels of Spain, Such honour, praise, and triumphs did obtain." GORDON.

  From the time when the King of England refused to reinstate him, on hisreturn from France, where he had received the education of chivalry, inthe extensive possessions of his family,--which had been held forfeitedby the exertions of his father, William the Hardy--the young knight ofDouglas appears to have embraced the cause of Bruce with enthusiasticardour, and to have adhered to the fortunes of his sovereign withunwearied fidelity and devotion. "The Douglasse," says Hollinshed, "wasright joyfully received of King Robert, in whose service he faithfullycontinued, both in peace and war, to his life's end. Though the surnameand familie of the Douglasses was in some estimation of nobilitiebefore those daies, yet the rising thereof to honour chanced throughthis James Douglasse; for, by meanes of his advancement, others of thatlineage tooke occasion, by their singular manhood and noble prowess,shewed at sundrie times in defence of the realme, to grow to suchheight in authoritie and estimation, that their mightie puissance inmainrent, [Footnote: Vassalage.] lands, and great possessions, atlength was (through suspicion conceived by the kings that succeeded)the cause in part o
f their ruinous decay."

  In every narrative of the Scottish war of independence, a considerablespace is devoted to those years of perilous adventure and sufferingwhich were spent by the illustrious friend of Bruce, in harassing theEnglish detachments successively occupying his paternal territory, andin repeated and successful attempts to wrest the formidable fortress ofDouglas Castle itself from their possession. In the English, as well asScotch Chronicles, and in Rymer's Foedera, occur frequent notices ofthe different officers intrusted by Edward with the keeping of thisrenowned stronghold; especially Sir Robert de Clifford, ancestor of theheroic race of the Cliffords, Earls of Cumberland; his lieutenant, SirRichard de Thurlewalle, (written sometimes Thruswall,) of ThirwallCastle, on the Tippal, in Northumberland; and Sir John de Walton, theromantic story of whose love pledge, to hold the Castle of Douglas fora year and day, or surrender all hope of obtaining his mistress'sfavour, with the tragic consequences, softened in the Novel, is givenat length in Godscroft, and has often been pointed out as one of theaffecting passages in the chronicles of chivalry. [Footnote: [Thereader will find both this story, and that of Robert of Paris, in SirW. Scott's Essay on Chivalry, published in 1818, in the Supplement tothe Encyclopaedia Britannica.--_E_.]]

  The Author, before he had made much progress in this, probably the lastof his Novels, undertook a journey to Douglasdale, for the purpose ofexamining the remains of the famous Castle, the Kirk of St. Bride ofDouglas, the patron saint of that great family, and the variouslocalities alluded to by Godscroft, in his account of the earlyadventures of good Sir James; but though he was fortunate enough tofind a zealous and well-informed _cicerone_ in Mr. Thomas Haddow, andhad every assistance from the kindness of Mr. Alexander Finlay, theresident Chamberlain of his friend Lord Douglas, the state of hishealth at the time was so feeble, that he found himself incapable ofpursuing his researches, as in better days he would have delighted todo, and was obliged to be contented with such a cursory view of scenes,in themselves most interesting, as could be snatched in a singlemorning, when any bodily exertion was painful. Mr. Haddow was attentiveenough to forward subsequently some notes on the points which theAuthor had seemed desirous of investigating; but these did not reachhim until, being obliged to prepare matters for a foreign excursion inquest of health and strength, he had been compelled to bring his work,such as it is, to a conclusion.

  The remains of the old Castle of Douglas are inconsiderable. Theyconsist indeed of but one ruined tower, standing at a short distancefrom the modern mansion, which itself is only a fragment of the designon which the Duke of Douglas meant to reconstruct the edifice, afterits last accidental destruction by fire. [Footnote: [The followingnotice of Douglas Castle, &c., is from the Description of theSheriffdom of Lanark, by William Hamilton of Wishaw, written in thebeginning of the last century, and printed by the Maitland Club ofGlasgow in 1831:]--

  "Douglass parish, and baronie and lordship, heth very long appertainedto the family of Douglass, and continued with the Earles of Douglassuntill their fatall forfeiture, anno 1455; during which tyme there aremany noble and important actions recorded in histories performed bythem, by the lords and earls of that great family. It was thereaftergiven to Douglass, Earle of Anguse, and continued with them untillWilliam, Earle of Anguse, was created Marquess of Douglass, anno 1633;and is now the principal seat, of the Marquess of Douglass his family.It is a large baronie and parish, and ane laick patronage; and theMarquess is both titular and patron. He heth there, near to the church,a very considerable great house, called the Castle of Douglas; and nearthe church is a fyne village called the town of Douglass, long sinceerected in a burgh of baronie. It heth ane handsome church, with manyancient monuments and inscriptions on the old, interments of the Earlesof this place.

  "The water of Douglas runs quyte through the whole length of thisparish, and upon either side of the water it is called Douglasdale. Ittoucheth Clyde towards the north, and is bounded by Lesmahagow to thewest, Kyle to the southwest, Crawford John and Carmichaell to the southand southeast. It is a pleasant strath, plentifull in grass and corn,and coal; and the minister is well provided.

  "The lands of Heysleside belonging to Samuel Douglass, has a good houseand pleasant seat, close by wood," &c.--P. 65.] His Grace had kept inview the ancient prophecy, that as often as Douglas Castle might bedestroyed, it should rise again in enlarged dimensions and improvedsplendour, and projected a pile of building, which, if it had beencompleted, would have much exceeded any nobleman's residence thenexisting in Scotland--as, indeed, what has been finished, amounting toabout one-eighth part of the plan, is sufficiently extensive for theaccommodation of a large establishment, and contains some apartmentsthe dimensions of which are magnificent. The situation is commanding;and though the Duke's successors have allowed the mansion to continueas he left it, great expense has been lavished on the environs, whichnow present a vast sweep of richly undulated woodland, stretching tothe borders of the Cairntable mountains, repeatedly mentioned as thefavourite retreat of the great ancestor of the family in the days ofhis hardship and persecution. There remains at the head of theadjoining _bourg_, the choir of the ancient church of St. Bride, havingbeneath it the vault which was used till lately as the burial-place ofthis princely race, and only abandoned when their stone and leadencoffins had accumulated, in the course of five or six hundred years, insuch a way that it could accommodate no more. Here a silver case,containing the dust of what was once the brave heart of Good Sir James,is still pointed out; and in the dilapidated choir above appears,though in a sorely ruinous state, the once magnificent tomb of thewarrior himself. After detailing the well-known circumstances of SirJames's death in Spain, 20th August, 1330, where he fell, assisting theKing of Arragon in an expedition against the Moors, when on his wayback to Scotland from Jerusalem, to which he had conveyed the heart ofBruce,--the old poet Barbour tells us that--

  "Quhen his men lang had mad murnyn, Thai debowalyt him, and syne Gert scher him swa, that mycht be tane The flesch all haly frae the bane. And the carioune thar in haly place Erdyt, with rycht gret worschip, was.

  "The banys haue thai with them tane; And syne ar to thair schippis gane; Syne towart Scotland held thair way, And thar ar cummyn in full gret hy. And the banys honbrabilly In till the Kyrk of Douglas war Erdyt, with dule and mekill car. Schyr Archebald his sone gert syn Off alabastre, bath fair and fyne, Ordane a tumbe sa richly As it behowyt to swa worthy."

  The monument is supposed to have been wantonly mutilated and defaced bya detachment of Cromwell's troops, who, as was their custom, convertedthe kirk of St. Bride of Douglas into a stable for their horses.Enough, however, remains to identify the resting-place of the great SirJames. The effigy, of dark stone, is crossed-legged, marking hischaracter as one who had died after performing the pilgrimage to theHoly Sepulchre, and in actual conflict with the infidels of Spain; andthe introduction of the HEART, adopted as an addition to the old armsof Douglas, in consequence of the knight's fulfilment of Bruce's dyinginjunction, appears, when taken in connexion with the posture of thefigure, to set the question at rest. The monument, in its originalstate, must have been not inferior in any respect to the best of thesame period in Westminster Abbey; and the curious reader is referredfor farther particulars of it to "The Sepulchral Antiquities of GreatBritain, by Edward Blore, F.S.A." London, 4to, 1826: where may also befound interesting details of some of the other tombs and effigies inthe cemetery of the first house of Douglas.

  As considerable liberties have been taken, with the historicalincidents on which this novel is founded, it is due to the reader toplace before him such extracts from Godscroft and Barbour as may enablehim to correct any mis-impression. The passages introduced in theAppendix, from the ancient poem of "The Bruce," will moreover gratifythose who have not in their possession a copy of the text of Barbour,as given in the valuable quarto edition of my learned friend Dr.Jamieson, as furnishing on the whole a favourable specimen of the styleand m
anner of a venerable classic, who wrote when Scotland was stillfull of the fame and glory of her liberators from the yoke ofPlantagenet, and especially of Sir James Douglas, "of whom," saysGodscroft, "we will not omit here, (to shut up all,) the judgment ofthose times concerning him, in a rude verse indeed, yet such as bearethwitness of his true magnanimity and invincible mind in either fortune:--

  "Good Sir James Douglas (who wise, and wight, and worthy was,) Was never over glad in no winning, nor yet oversad for no lineing; Good fortune and evil chance he weighed both in one balance." W. S.