by G. A. Henty
Chapter XXII
A Prisoner
After some consultation between the leaders, it was agreed to makean attempt to capture the castle of Knockbawn. It was known topossess a garrison of some sixty men only, and although strong,Archie and Sir James believed that it could be captured by assault.It was arranged that Archie should ride to reconnoitre it, andtaking two mounted retainers he started, the force remaining in theforest some eight miles distant. The castle of Knockbawn stood ona rocky promontory, jutting a hundred and fifty yards into the sea.When he neared the neck of the point, which was but some twentyyards wide, Archie bade his followers fall back a short distance.
"I will ride," he said, "close up to the castle walls. My armouris good, and I care not for arrow or crossbow bolt. It were bestyou fell back a little, for they may have horses and may sally outin pursuit. I am well mounted and fear not being overtaken, but itwere best that you should have a good start."
Archie then rode forward toward the castle. Seeing a knightapproaching alone the garrison judged that he was friendly, and itwas not until it was seen that instead of approaching the drawbridgehe turned aside and rode to the edge of the fosse, that theysuspected that he was a foe. Running to the walls they opened firewith arrows upon him, but by this time Archie had seen all thathe required. Across the promontory ran a sort of fissure, some tenyards wide and as many deep. From the opposite edge of this thewall rose abruptly. Here assault would be difficult, and it wasupon the gateway that an attack must be made. Several arrows hadstruck his armour and glanced off, and Archie now turned and quietlyrode away, his horse being protected by mail like himself. Scarcehad he turned when he saw a sight which caused him for a momentto draw rein. Coming at full gallop toward the promontory was astrong body of English horse, flying the banner of Sir Ingram deUmfraville. They were already nearer to the end of the neck thanhe was. There was no mode of escape, and drawing his sword hegalloped at full speed to meet them. As he neared them Sir Ingramhimself, one of the doughtiest of Edward's knights, rode out withlevelled lance to meet him. At full gallop the knights chargedeach other. Sir Ingram's spear was pointed at the bars of Archie'shelmet, but as the horses met each other Archie with a blow of hissword cut off the head of the lance and dealt a tremendous backhandedblow upon Sir Ingram's helmet as the latter passed him, strikingthe knight forward on to his horse's neck; then without pausing amoment he dashed into the midst of the English ranks.
The horsemen closed around him, and although he cut down severalwith his sweeping blows he was unable to break his way through them.Such a conflict could not last long. Archie received a blow frombehind which struck him from his horse. Regaining his feet hecontinued the fight, but the blows rained thick upon him, and hewas soon struck senseless to the ground.
When he recovered he was in a room in the keep of the castle. Twoknights were sitting at a table near the couch on which he was lying."Ah!" exclaimed one, on seeing Archie open his eyes and move, "Iam glad to see your senses coming back to you, sir prisoner. Truly,sir, I regret that so brave a knight should have fallen into myhands, seeing that in this war we must needs send our prisonersto King Edward, whose treatment of them is not, I must e'en own,gentle; for indeed you fought like any paladin. I deemed not thatthere was a knight in Scotland, save the Bruce himself, who couldhave so borne himself; and never did I, Ingram de Umfraville, comenearer to losing my seat than I did from that backhanded blow youdealt me. My head rings with it still. My helmet will never befit to wear again, and as the leech said when plastering my head,'had not my skull been of the thickest, you had assuredly cutthrough it.' May I crave the name of so brave an antagonist?"
"I am Sir Archibald Forbes," Archie replied.
"By St. Jago!" the knight said, "but I am sorry for it, seeing that,save Bruce himself, there is none in the Scottish ranks againstwhom King Edward is so bitter. In the days of Wallace there was noone whose name was more often on our lips than that of Sir ArchibaldForbes, and now, under Bruce, it is ever coming to the front. I hadthought to have asked Edward as a boon that I should have kept youas my prisoner until exchanged for one on our side, but being SirArchibald Forbes I know that it were useless indeed; nevertheless,sir knight, I will send to King Edward, begging him to look mercifullyupon your case, seeing how bravely and honourably you have fought."
"Thanks for your good offices, Sir Ingram," Archie replied, "butI shall ask for no mercy for myself. I have never owed or paid himallegiance, but, as a true Scot, have fought for my country againsta foreign enemy."
"But King Edward does not hold himself to be a foreign enemy," theknight said, "seeing that Baliol, your king, with Comyn and allyour great nobles, did homage to him as Lord Paramount of Scotland."
"It were an easy way," Archie rejoined, "to gain a possession tonominate a puppet from among the nobles already your vassals, andthen to get him to do homage. No, sir knight, neither Comyn norBaliol, nor any other of the Anglo-Norman nobles who hold estatein Scotland, have a right to speak for her, or to barter away herfreedom. That is what Wallace and thousands of Scotchmen have foughtand died to protest against, and what Scotchmen will do until theircountry is free."
"It is not a question for me to argue upon," Sir Ingram saidsurlily. "King Edward bids me fight in Scotland, and as his knightand vassal I put on my harness without question. But I own toyou that seeing I have fought beside him in Gascony, when he, asa feudal vassal of the King of France, made war upon his lord, Icannot see that the offence is an unpardonable one when you Scotchmendo the same here. Concerning the lawfulness of his claim to beyour lord paramount, I own that I neither know nor care one jot.However, sir, I regret much that you have fallen into my hands,for to Carlisle, where the king has long been lying, as you havedoubtless heard, grievously ill, I must forthwith send you. I mustleave you here with the governor, for in half an hour I mount andride away with my troop. He will do his best to make your sojournhere easy until such time as I may have an opportunity of sendingyou by ship to Carlisle; and now farewell, sir," he said, givingArchie his hand, "I regret that an unkind chance has thrown sogallant a knight into my hands, and that my duty to the king forbidsme from letting you go free."
"Thanks, Sir Ingram," Archie replied. "I have ever heard of youas a brave knight, and if this misfortune must fall upon me, wouldsooner that I should have been captured by you than by one of lessfame and honour."
The governor now had a meal with some wine set before Archie, andthen left him alone.
"I am not at Carlisle yet," Archie said to himself. "UnlessI mistake, we shall have Sir James thundering at the gate beforemorning. Cluny will assuredly have ridden off at full speed to carrythe news when he saw that I was cut off, and e'en now he will bemarching towards the castle." As he expected, Archie was rousedbefore morning by a tremendous outburst of noise. Heavy blows weregiven, followed by a crash, which Archie judged to be the fall ofthe drawbridge across the fosse. He guessed that some of Douglas'smen had crept forward noiselessly, had descended the fosse, andmanaged to climb up to the gate, and had then suddenly attackedwith their axes the chains of the drawbridge.
A prodigious uproar raged in the castle. Orders were shouted, andthe garrison, aroused from their sleep, snatched up their armsand hastened to the walls. Outside rose the war cry, "A Douglas! ADouglas!" mingled with others of, "Glen Cairn to the rescue!" Fora few minutes all was confusion, then a light suddenly burst upand grew every instant more and more bright.
"Douglas has piled faggots against the gates," Archie said tohimself. "Another quarter of an hour and the castle will be his."
Three or four minutes later the governor with six soldiers, twoof whom bore torches, entered the room. "You must come along atonce, sir knight," the governor said. "The attack is of the fiercest,and I know not whether we shall make head against it, but at anyrate I must not risk your being recaptured, and must thereforeplace you in a boat and send you off without delay to the castleat Port Patrick."
It was in vain for Archie to think of resi
stance, he was unarmedand helpless. Two of the soldiers laid hands on him and hurriedhim along until they reached the lower chambers of the castle. Thegovernor unlocked a door, and with one of the torch bearers ledthe way down some narrow steps. These were some fifty in number,and then a level passage ran along for some distance. Another doorwas opened, and the fresh breeze blew upon them as they issuedforth. They stood on some rocks at the foot of the promontory onwhich the castle stood. A large boat lay close at hand, drawn tothe shore. Archie and the six soldiers entered her; four of thelatter took the oars, and the others seated themselves by theirprisoner, and then the boat rowed away, while the governor returnedto aid in the defence of the castle.
The boat was but a quarter of a mile away when on the night aircame the sound of a wild outburst of triumphant shouts which toldthat the Scots had won their way into the castle. With mutteredcurses the men bent to their oars and every minute took them furtheraway from Knockbawn.
Archie was bitterly disappointed. He had reckoned confidently onthe efforts of Douglas to deliver him, and the possibility of hisbeing sent off by sea had not entered his mind. It seemed to himnow that his fate was sealed. He had noticed on embarking thatthere were no other boats lying at the foot of the promontory, andpursuit would therefore be impossible.
After rowing eight hours the party reached Port Patrick, where Archiewas delivered by the soldiers to the governor with a message fromtheir commander saying that the prisoner, Sir Archibald Forbes,was a captive of great importance, and was, by the orders of SirIngram de Umfraville who had captured him, to be sent on to Carlisleto the king when a ship should be going thither. A fortnight passedbefore a vessel sailed. Archie was placed in irons and so securelyguarded in his dungeon that escape was altogether impossible. Soharsh was his confinement that he longed for the time when a vesselwould sail for Carlisle, even though he was sure that the same fatewhich had attended so many of Scotland's best and bravest knightsawaited him there.
The winds were contrary, and the vessel was ten days upon thevoyage. Upon reaching Carlisle Archie was handed to the governorof the castle, and the next morning was conducted to the presenceof the king himself. The aged monarch, in the last extremity ofsickness, lay upon a couch. Several of his nobles stood around him.
"So," he said as the prisoner was brought before him, "this isArchibald Forbes, the one companion of the traitor Wallace who hashitherto escaped my vengeance. So, young sir, you have venturedto brave my anger and to think yourself capable of coping with theLion of England."
"I have done my utmost, sir king," Archie said firmly, "such asit was, for the freedom of my country. No traitor am I, nor was myleader Wallace. Nor he, nor I, ever took vow of allegiance to you,maintaining ever that the kings of England had neither claim norright over Scotland. He has been murdered, foully and dishonourably,as you will doubtless murder me, and as you have killed many noblerknights and gentlemen; but others will take our places, and so thefight will go on until Scotland is free."
"Scotland will never be free," the king said with angry vehemence."Rather than that, she shall cease to exist, and I will slay tillthere is not one of Scottish blood, man, woman, or child, to bearthe name. Let him be taken to Berwick," he said; "there let him beexposed for a week in a cage outside the castle, that the peoplemay see what sort of a man this is who matches himself against themight of England. Then let him be hung, drawn, and quartered, hishead sent to London, and his limbs distributed between four Scotchcities."
"I go, sir king," Archie said, as the attendants advanced to seizehim, "and at the end of the week I will meet you before the throneof God, for you, methinks, will have gone thither before me, andthere will I tax you with all your crimes, with the slaughter oftens of thousands of Scottish men, women, and children, with citiesdestroyed and countries wasted, and with the murder in cold bloodof a score of noble knights whose sole offence was that they foughtfor their native country."
With these words Archie turned and walked proudly from the king'spresence. An involuntary murmur of admiration at his fearless bearingescaped from the knights and nobles assembled round the couch ofthe dying monarch.
When, two days later, Archie entered the gates of Berwick Castlethe bells of the city were tolling, for a horseman had just riddenin with the news that Edward had expired on the evening before,being the 6th day of July, 1307, just at the moment when he wason the point of starting with the great army he had assembled tocrush out the insurrection in Scotland.
So deep was his hate for the people who had dared to oppose his willthat when dying he called before him his eldest son, and in thepresence of his barons caused him to swear upon the saints that sosoon as he should be dead his body should be boiled in a cauldronuntil the flesh should be separated from the bones, after which theflesh should be committed to the earth, but the bones preserved,and that, as often as the people of Scotland rebelled, the militaryarray of the kingdom should be summoned and the bones carried atthe head of the army into Scotland. His heart he directed shouldbe conveyed to and deposited in the Holy Land.
So died Edward I, a champion of the Holy Sepulchre, King of England,Lord of Ireland, Duke of Aquitaine, conqueror of Wales, and wouldbe conqueror of Scotland. In many respects his reign was a greatand glorious one, for he was more than a great conqueror, he was,to England, a wise and noble king; and taken altogether he wasperhaps the greatest of the Plantagenets.
Historians have striven to excuse and palliate his conduct towardScotland. They have glossed over his crimes and tried to explainaway the records of his deeds of savage atrocity, and to show thathis claims to that kingdom, which had not a shadow of foundationsave from the submission of her Anglo-Norman nobles, almost all ofwhom were his own vassals and owned estates in England, were justand righteous. Such is not the true function of history. Edward'ssole claim to Scotland was that he was determined to unite under hisrule England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland, and he failed becausethe people of Scotland, deserted as they were by all their naturalleaders, preferred death to such a slavery as that under whichIreland and Wales helplessly groaned. His dying wishes were notobserved. His body was laid in rest in Westminster Abbey, and onthe tomb was inscribed, "Edward I the mallet of the Scots."