Jane Seton; or, The King's Advocate: A Scottish Historical Romance
Jane trembled, and her heart swelled as if it would have burst; for
she knew too bitterly the truth of all Sir Adam said, and she felt
that, hated and bloodstained, cool, calculating, and detestable, as
this man was, she could have sacrificed herself to his insane passion
to save her mother, her brother, her family and kinsmen--for kindred
blood was then a sacred tie in Scotland--but for Roland.
"Oh, Vipont! Vipont!" she sobbed, and buried her face in her hands;
"my heart is sorely tempted to abandon thee--but in vain!"
Then Redhall, lest he might say more to widen the gulf between them,
and with lover-like indecision repenting even what he had said,
retired abruptly, and left her bathed in tears, and with a bosom full
of the most clamorous anxiety and alarm, not for herself, but for her
mother and the earl. To know that the former was a captive in the
castle of the Inch, and that she, her only daughter, was not beside
her to soothe and console her grief and pride; that her brother, too,
was separated from her only by a stone wall; and that they were both
prisoners in the midst of a dense population--but a few feet from a
busy street, where so many strong hands and stout hearts might easily
be summoned to their rescue--prisoners in the hands of one so deep
and stern in purpose, so relentless in his vengeance, as
Redhall,--caused her the most complicated emotions of agony and dread.
For the thousandth time she examined the bolted door, the tapestried
walls, and the grated windows, for a means of escape, but found them
all as before; and then, after once more failing by the offer of all
her rings and brooches to overcome the inflexible integrity of Tib
Trotter, hopeless and despairing, she knelt down to pray and to weep.
"Come hither, Tib," said Redhall to this niece of his trusty
henchman, as he retired; "the young lady, my kinswoman, is I fear,
seriously indisposed; put this powder in her milk posset to-night;
but on peril of thy life neither allow her to see or know aught of
it."
With a low curtsey, and a downcast glance of the deepest respect, Tib
received the little packet, and Redhall hurried back to his writing
chamber and his portfolios.
CHAPTER XXIV.
THE KNIFE.
"Cunning is a crooked weapon; and nothing is more hurtful than when
cunning men pass for wise."--BACON.
The Earl of Ashkirk occupied an apartment immediately below that of
his sister; but one which was certainly of a very different aspect
and description.
After their capture, it was not until daylight broke that he
discovered he was only in the strong house of Redhall, scarcely a
hundred yards from his own gate, and not (as he had first supposed)
either in the towers of the castle or the Tolbooth of the city. In
the scuffle preceding his capture he had been so severely handled, as
to become insensible; thus, on sense returning, he found that, though
the infamous gag (the thought of which made his fierce blood boil
with wrath and shame) had been removed, as well as the cords which
had secured his hands, his mouth had been severely cut by the iron
tongue of the former, and his wrists wore swollen and livid by the
merciless application of the latter.
The capture of his sister by Redhall, and the certainty that she too
was confined in the same mansion among the trained minions and
obsequious vassals of this arch conspirator, sufficiently informed
him that his ancient enemy had some ulterior motive, which he could
not at that time fathom. Daring as he was, and courageous to a
fault, the first thoughts of the young earl were those of terror for
his sister, and some little concern for himself. He now saw and
regretted, unavailingly regretted, his rashness and folly, in
venturing within the walls of Edinburgh at such a time, when the
tidings of his recent raid on the borders were fresh in the minds of
the people; and still more did he deplore his second folly, in
continuing to abide there, as if in defiance of suspicion and of
fate: thus selfishly compromising the safety of his dearest friends
as well as his own.
"I must have been mad, and Vipont was worse than mad to permit me!
Let me sleep if I can," thought he, "fresh energies will come with
slumber; and I, who have escaped from English Norham, and from the
castle of Stirling, too, where once old Barncleugh had me fast in the
Douglas chamber, will surely find a passage from this house--or the
devil's in it!--and adieu my plans of vengeance for a time."
And thus, acting upon principle, the light-hearted young noble, whose
bold heart had never known either fear or despair, lay down on the
stone floor of his prison, closed his eyes, and courted sleep as if
nothing had happened; and sleep came; but his slumbers were a mere
nightmare, so full were they of hideous dreams, buffets, and combats;
and, more than once, he started with the certainty that he had heard
his sister's cry.
"Bah!" said he, "let me sleep. She is her mother's daughter, and
hath too much of Black Douglas and the devil in her, to endure insult
from such a poor hang-dog as Redhall! Besides, if he dared to----"
and he felt a gleam pass over his eyes in the dark, at the idea that
occurred to him.
At an early hour Lord Ashkirk awoke, and proceeded at once to the
examination of his prison. The walls and arched roof were of massive
and unplastered stone; the floor was paved; the window and the
chimney were grated; while the door, which he sounded with his hand,
seemed a mass as solid as could be formed of oak planks and iron
bolts.
"Ten devils!" thought he; "at Norham I had the tongue of a waist
buckle, and at Stirling a spur of steel; but here are neither buckle
nor spur, knife nor nail, to loosen a stone or saw a stanchel."
Between the trees he could see the rising sun gilding the top of
Arthur's Seat. The solitary window, which was little more than ten
inches square, was crossed by three bars built into the stone; he saw
with satisfaction that it was only about fifteen feet from the
ground, for his chamber was on the second vaulted story.
"Good!" said he; "this wall is not like the rock of Stirling; but
there I stole the cord of the flagstaff."
He heard all the bells of the city ringing for morning prayer: and
these sounds of life without made him feel, for the first time, some
anger and impatience at the vigorous restraint imposed upon him. An
hour after this, although he had not heard the approach of footsteps
(so thick and so closely-jointed were the walls that encompassed
him), the door of his vault was unlocked, and a sturdy fellow with a
Jethart axe, secured to his wrist by a thong, in case of accidents,
entered, bearing a pewter basin of water, a towel, &c., for the
performance of the morning ablutions. The moment he entered, a door
at the further end of the passage was closed and locked; thus
securing him, as well as the prisoner, of whose name and rank he
appeared ignorant; for with these the politic Redhall had acquainted
only his favourite, Birrel, and one or two more on whom he could
implicitly rely.
Prolonging his toilet to the utmost extent, the earl scrutinized the
visage of his attendant, who was a strongly-built fellow, about
five-and-twenty years of age, with a rough red beard, and whiskers
that grew up to his high cheek bones, on each of which a bright red
spot was visible. He wore his bonnet drawn over his shaggy brows,
and his eyes, though of a pale grey, betokened a native sharpness
over which the earl saw at once he would be able to achieve very
little.
"Well, fellow," said he, "art thou appointed to attend me?"
"Ay, sir."
"Then what is thy name, for I must know it?"
"What would ye be the better of knowing?" he asked, cautiously.
"Very much; as we may see each other often; but, doubtless, thou art
ashamed of it."
"Ashamed o' my name? Deil choke sic impudence. No, faith! It is as
gude as your ain, and better, maybe. My name is Tam Trotter, and I
am forester up bye at Kinleith, where my father (God rest him!) was
forester before me, though folk did ca' him uncanny."
"Well, friend Tam, couldst get me a razor, in addition to this
splendid toilet apparatus? I have a fancy for shaving off my beard
this morning."
"Aha!" laughed Tam, with a knowing Scots wink, as he seated himself
on the table, with his Jedwood axe under his arm; "I can see as far
into a millstone as you, my quick gentleman; so keep on your beard,
it will be a warm ruff for you in the winter nights."
"Winter nights! What the devil dost thou tell me? Thy master cannot
think of keeping me here till the winter nights come on."
"No here, maybe, but out at Redhall. This morning I rode in with ten
braw fellows, with axe and spear, to take ye out there to the auld
tower; but lo! his lordship, our master, came home not an hour syne,
wi' his doublet drookit in bluid, and his body run through by----"
"By whom?--by whom?" cried the earl.
"The master of the king's ordnance, who (everybody says) is a fast
friend of the Lord Ashkirk; but, God's death! if ever the one or the
other come under my hands--if I can just get one canny cloure at
them--neither will ever need another!" and, setting his teeth, the
fellow assumed an aspect of ferocity, and hewed a large piece off the
table with his sharp-bladed axe.
"Friend Tam, thou seemest very savage and blood-thirsty," said the
earl, in his bantering tone; "but I must request thee to restrain thy
troublesome vivacity, and not so damage my furniture, the stock of
which is somewhat limited. Ha! ha! and so Vipont hath pinked thy
master?--and where?"
"Here--just in the shoulder; but it seems braw news for you," replied
Trotter, sulkily.
"The thrust is not near the heart, I hope?" said the earl, almost
leaping with joy; "not near his amiable heart--oh, do not say so--I
shall quite expire if thou tellest me that!"
"Devil take me, if I ken what to make o' you," said Tam, with a face
half comical and half angry; "for, by my faith, you are a queer
chield!"
"And thou art a good-hearted fellow?"
"My mother aye says sae, though she bangs me wi' the beetle, for
being fonder o' porridge than plowing in the morning."
"So his mother beats him?" muttered the earl; "good!--the fellow is a
mere simpleton."
"Is he?" rejoined Trotter, closing one eye, with his tongue in his
cheek, and kicking his iron heels together; "try me, and you will see
if I am sic a simpleton?"
"Excuse me, friend Trotter; by simpleton, I merely mean one who is
neither subtle nor abstruse--nor steeped in guilt, like the rascal,
thy master."
"The rascal, my master, hath _you_ nicely under his thumb, however,"
grinned Trotter; "and a civil tongue, sir, would be baith advisable
and becoming--a' things considered."
"Well, let us not quarrel. Thou seest this ring--'tis worth three
hundred gold crowns of James III.; and it will be thine, if thou
tellest me all thou knowest about the lady who was brought here last
night."
"Weel--give me the ring, sir."
"'Tis a carbuncle, my friend, that once gleamed on the hand of a
gallant earl."
"And it is mine, for all I ken--eh?" said Thomas, contemplating the
jewel on the top of one of his great fingers with a leer of
satisfaction; "the carbumple wad be a bonny die for Else' Gair; and
'tis mine, for a' I ken?"
"Yes--yes."
"Then a' I ken just amounts to nothing," said Tam, with a laugh; "so
I might cheat you if I chose; but, though a puir chield (and a
simpleton too), I would despise mysel' if I took your ring--so tak'
it back, sir----"
"Nay, nay, fellow, I cannot accept it again."
"Weel, it may lie there on the table, for I winna touch it. Men
would say, if I took it, that I had betrayed my master."
"True," said the earl, as he replaced the jewel; "but I will be in