by Jane Porter
Chapter XLV.
Lochmaben Castle.
This being the seasons of harvest in the northern counties of England,Wallace carried his reapers, not to lay their sickle to the field, but,with their swords, to open themselves a way into the Southron granaries.
The careful victor, meanwhile, provided for the wants of his friends onthe other side of the Esk. The plunder of Percy's camp was dispatchedto them; which being abundant in all kinds of provisions, was more thansufficient to keep them in ample store till they could reach Stirling.From that point, the released chiefs had promised their regent theywould disperse to their separate estates, collect recruits, and reducethe distracted state of the country into some composed order. Wallacehad disclosed his wish, and mode of effecting this renovation of publichappiness, before he left Stirling. It contained a plan of militaryorganization, by which each youth, able to bear arms, should not onlybe instructed in the dexterous use of the weapons of war, but in theduties of subordination, and above all, have the nature of the rightsfor which he was to contend explained to him.
"They only require to be thoroughly known, to be regarded asinestimable," added he; "but while we raise around us the best bulwarkof any nation, a brave and well-disciplined people; while we teach themto defend their liberties, let us see that they deserve them. Let thembe men, contending for virtuous independence; not savages, fighting forlicentious unrestraint. We must have our youth of both sexes, in townsand villages, from the castle to the cot, taught the saving truths ofChristianity. From that root will branch all that is needful to makethem useful members of the state-virtuous and happy. And, while war isin our hands, let us in all things prepare for peace, that the swordmay gently bend into the sickle, the dirk to the pruning-hook."
There was an expansive providence in all this, a concentrating plan ofpublic weal, which few of the nobles had ever even glanced at, as adesign conceivable for Scotland. There were many of these warriorchiefs who could not even understand it.
"Ah! my lords," replied he to their warlike objections, "deceive notyourselves with the belief that by the mere force of arms, a nation canrender itself great and secure. Industry, temperance, and disciplineamongst the people; with moderation and justice in the higher orders,are the only aliments of independence. They bring you riches andpower, which make it the interest of those who might have been yourenemies to court your friendship."
The graver council at Stirling had received his plan with enthusiasm.And when, on the day of his parting with the released chiefs on thebanks of the Esk, with all the generous modesty of his nature, hesubmitted his design to them, rather to obtain their approbation asfriends, than to enforce it with the authority of a regent; when theysaw him, thus coming down from the dictatorship to which his unrivaledtalents had raised him, to equal himself still with them, all werestruck with admiration, and Lord Badenoch could not but mentallyexclaim, "The royal qualities of this man can well afford this expenseof humility. Bend as he will, he has only to speak, to show hissuperiority over all, and to be sovereign again."
There was a power in the unostentatious virtues of Wallace, which,declaring themselves rather in their effects than by display, subduedthe princely spirit of Badenoch; and, while the proud chief recollectedhow he had contemned the pretensions of Bruce, and could not brook theelevation of Baliol; how his soul was in arms when, after he had beenpersuaded to acknowledge the supremacy of Edward, the throne was givento one of his rivals; he wondered at himself to find that his veryheart bowed before the gentle and comprehensive wisdom of an untitledregent.
Athol alone, of the group, seemed insensible to the benefits hiscountry was deriving from its resistless protector; but he expressedhis dissent from the general sentiment with no more visible sign than acold silence.
When the messenger from Wallace arrived on the banks of the Esk with solarge a booty, and the news of his complete victory over the gallantPercy, the exultation of the Scottish nobles knew no bounds.
On Badenoch opening the regent's dispatches, he found they repeated hiswish for his brave coadjutors to proceed to the execution of the planthey had sanctioned with their approbation; they were to march directlyfor Stirling, and on their way dispense the superabundance of theplunder amongst the perishing inhabitants of the land. He theninformed the earl, that while the guard he had left him with wouldescort the liberated Scots beyond the Forth, the remainder of thetroops should be thus disposed: Lord Andrew Murray was to remain chiefin command in Clydesdale; Sir Eustace Maxwell, to give up the wardshipof Douglas to Sir John Monteith; and then advance into Annandale, toassist Sir Roger Kirkpatrick, who must now have begun the reduction ofthe castles in the west of that province. At the close of thisaccount, Wallace added, that himself, with his brave band, were goingto traverse the English counties to the Tees' mouth; and should Heavenbless his arms, he would send the produce round by the Berwick fleet,to replenish the exhausted stores of the Highlands. "Next year,"continued he, "I trust they will have ample harvests of their own."
And what Wallace said he hoped to do, he did.
The Southrons' country was panic-struck at the defeat of Percy, hisbeaten army, flying in all directions before the conquering legions,gave such dreadful and hyperbolical accounts of their might, and of thegiant prowess of their leader, that as soon as ever the Scottish spearswere seen rising the summit of any hill, or even gleaming along thehorizon, every village was deserted, every cot left without inhabitant;and corn, and cattle, and every kind of property fell into the hands ofthe Scots.
Lord Precy lay immovable with wounds in his castle at Alnwick;** andhis hopeless state, by intimidating his followers, contradicted theorders he gave, to face the marauding enemy. Several times theyattempted to obey, but as often showed their inability. They collectedunder arms; but the moment their foe appeared, they fled within thecastle walls, or buried themselves in deep obscurities amongst thesurrounding hills. Not a sheaf in the fields of Northumberland did theScots leave, to knead into bread for its earl; not a head of cattle tosmoke upon his board. The country was sacked from sea to sea. But fardifferent was its appearance from that of the trampled valleys ofScotland. There, fire had burned up the soil; the hand of violence hadleveled the husbandman's cottage; had buried his implements in theruins; had sacrificed himself on its smoking ashes! There, thefatherless babe wept its unavailing wants, and at its side sat thedistracted widow, wringing her hands in speechless misery; for therelay her murdered husband--here, her perishing child!
**This famous castle, of so many heroic generations, is still theprincely residence of the head of the house of Percy.
With such sights the heart of Wallace had been pierced, when he passedthrough the lowland counties of his country; nay, as he scoured thehighland districts of the Grampians, even there had he met the foot ofbarbarian man, and cruel desolation. For thus it was that the Southrongarrisons had provisional themselves; by robbing the poor of theirbread; and, when they resisted, firing their dwellings, and punishingthe refractory with death.
But not so the generous enmity of Sir William Wallace. His commissionwas, not to destroy, but to save; and though he carried his victoriousarmy to feed on the Southron plains, and sent the harvests of Englandto restore the wasted fields of Scotland, yet he did no more. No fireblasted his path; no innocent blood cried against him from the ground!When the impetuous zeal of his soldiers, flushed with victory, and inthe heat of vengeance, would have laid several hamlets in ashes, heseized the brand from the destroying party, and throwing it into anadjoining brook: "Show yourselves worthy the advantages you havegained," cried he, "by the moderation with which you use them.Consider yourselves as the soldiers of the all powerful God, who alonehas conducted you to victory; for, with a few, has he not enabled us tosubdue a host? Behave as becomes your high destiny; and debase notyourselves by imitating the hirelings of ambition, who receive, as thewages of their valor, the base privilege to ravage and to murder.
"I wish you to distinguish betw
een a spirit of reprisal, in what I do,and that of retaliation, which actuates your present violence. Whatour enemies had robbed us of, as far as they can restore, I take again.Their bread shall feed our famishing country; their wool clothe itsnakedness. But blood for blood, unless the murderer could be made tobleed, is a doctrine abhorrent to God and to humanity. What justice isthere in destroying the habitations and lives of a set of harmlesspeople, because the like cruelty has been committed by a lawless armyof their countrymen, upon our unoffending brethren? Your hearts maymake the answer. But if they are hardened against the pleadings ofhumanity, let prudence show your interest in leaving those men alive,and with their means unimpaired, who will produce other harvests, ifneed be, to fill our scantier granaries.
"Thus I reason with you, and I hope many are convinced; but they whoare insensible to argument must fear authority, and I declare thatevery man who inflicts injury on the houses, or on the persons of thequietest peasantry of this land, shall be punished as a traitor to thestate."
According to the different dispositions of men, this reasoningprevailed. And from the end of September (the time when Wallace firstentered Northumberland), to the month of November, when (having scouredthe counties of England, even to the gates of York) he returned toScotland, not an offense was committed which could occasion hismerciful spirit regret. It was on All Saints Day when he againapproached the Esk; and so great was his spoil that his return seemedmore like some vast caravan moving the merchandise of half the world,than the march of an army which had so lately passed that river, afamishing, though valourous host.
The outposts of Carlaveroch soon informed Maxwell the lord regent wasin sight. At the joyful intelligence a double smoke streamed fromevery watch-hill in Annandale; and Sir Eustace had hardly appeared onthe Solway bank, to meet his triumphant chief, when the eager speed ofthe rough knight of Torthorald brought him there also. Wallace, as hisproud charger plunged into the ford, and the heavy wagons groaned afterhim, was welcomed to the shore by the shouts, not only of the soldierswhich had followed Maxwell and Kirkpatrick, but by the people who camein crowds to hail their preserver. The squalid hue of famine had leftevery face, and each smiling countenance, beaming with health,security, and gratitude, told Wallace more emphatically than a thousandtongues, the wisdom of the means he had used to regenerate his country.
Maxwell had prepared the fortress of Lochmaben, once the residence ofBruce, for the reception of the regent. And thither Wallace wasconducted, in prouder triumph than ever followed the chariot-wheels ofCaesar. Blessings were the clarions that preceeded him; and hosts ofpeople, whom he had saved when ready to perish, were voluntary actorsin his pageant.
When he arrived in sight of the two capacious lochs, which spread likelucid wings on each side of the castle, he turned to Graham. "Whatpity," said he, "that the rightful owner of his truly regal dwellingdoes not act as becomes his blood! He might now be entering its gatesas king, and Scotland find rest under its lawful monarch."
"But he prefers being a parasite in the court of a tyrant," replied SirJohn; "and from such a school, Scotland would reject its king."
"But he has a son," replied Wallace; "a brave and generous son! I amtold by Lord Montgomery, who knew him in Guienne, that a nobler spiritdoes not exist. On his brows, my dear Graham, we must hope one day tosee the crown."
"Then only as your heir, my lord regent," interrupted Maxwell; "forwhile you live, I can answer for it that no Scot will acknowledge anyother ruler."
"I will first eat my own sword," cried Kirkpatrick.
At this moment the portcullis of the gate was raised, and Maxwellfalling back to make way for the regent, Wallace had not time to answera sentiment, now so familiar to him by hearing it from every gratefulheart, that he hardly remarked its tendency, a fact the more easily tobe believed, from the ambition of such reward never receivingacceptance in his well-principled mind.
Ever pressing toward establishing the happiness of his country, hehastened over the splendid repast that was prepared for him; anddispensing with the ceremonials with which the zeal of Maxwell soughtto display his respect for the virtues and station of his commander, heretired with Graham to write dispatches, and to apportion shares of thespoil to the necessities of the provinces. In these duties, hiswakeful eye was kept open the greatest part of the night. They forwhom he labored slept securely! That thought was rest to him. Butthey closed not their eyes without praying for the sweet repose oftheir benefactor. And he found it; not in sleep, but in that peace ofheart which the world cannot give.