Jane Seton; or, The King's Advocate: A Scottish Historical Romance
moment their wet leaves were swept past him on the whirling blast.
These were the _three trees of Dysart_. The earl remembered the
tradition concerning them, which, with the place, the time, and the
cry, caused a clamorous terror to rise suddenly in his breast; for he
was far from being free of the superstitions incident to the age and
country.
When all that district was covered by an old primeval forest, three
sons of Henry Lord Sinclair, who was baron of the Ravenscraig, and
justiciar of Kirkwall, were said to have met on that spot
unexpectedly, and at midnight. Being all in their armour, amid the
obscurity of the foliage, and under a moonless and starless sky, they
mistook each other for robbers, and a deadly combat ensued. Two were
slain on the instant, and the third fell mortally wounded, surviving
only till morning, when they were all buried at the foot of the trees
below which they were found. And tradition further states, that when
the forest was cleared away in course of time, these three oaks were
left as a memorial, to mark the former state of the ground, and the
place where the three brothers lay. Lord Sinclair fell at Flodden,
fighting against the enemies of his country; prior to which he had
granted many a Scottish merk to the monks of St. Denis, to say
prayers and masses for the souls of the three fratricides, his sons.
The story came back to the earl's mind with all the additional
impressions that the darkness of the night, the storm, and the time
could lend it; and though the unearthly cry made his pulses pause and
his ears tingle, he was too brave a man to shun any object of terror;
and drawing his bonnet well over his eyes, to prevent its being swept
away by the furious blast, he turned back, and resolutely advanced to
where the three tall oaks were tossing their solemn masses of foliage
against the louring sky.
A dead man lay below each, and the long rank grass which covered him
was whistling in the dreary wind.
"My God!--_the wolf!_" cried the earl, as a sudden gleam of lightning
revealed to him the monster which so long had been the terror of Fife
and Kinross. It was of gigantic size; but, appalled by the fury of
the elements, was cowering against the centre tree, gnashing its
fangs and darting fire from its eyes, with all the hair of its neck
and back erect like the quills of a porcupine.
Aware that unless he slew it with the first thrust of his spear all
in a moment would be over with him, the brave young noble charged his
weapon breast high, and rushed upon the wolf. With a ferocious howl
it sprang aside; the weapon struck the trunk of the tree, broke, and
the earl fell headlong among the wet grass of the grave below it.
Then, with the rapidity of light, the frightful animal was upon him.
There was a cloud of fire before his eyes, and a wild humming in his
ears; but neither the stunning fall, nor the terror of having such an
antagonist, appalled him so much as to deprive him of his usual
presence of mind, for at the very moment in which it sprang upon him,
and when he felt its sharp claws in his shoulders, and its hot fetid
breath in his face, he buried his dagger--that long dagger, so
recently wet with the blood of Redhall--in its body up to the very
hilt; and then its hotter blood came like a deluge over his hand and
arm.
A vital part had been struck, and the wolf rolled over, tearing the
grass with its teeth, and wallowing in its blood. Then, full of rage
for the temporary terror with which it had inspired him, the fierce
earl sprang upon it, and buried his sharp dagger again and again to
the cross-guard in its body, though he received more than one
terrible laceration from its claws, as the agonies of death
alternately convulsed and relaxed them. Clutching its lower jaws by
the shaggy fur, with three deep gushes he completely shred off its
head, and then reclined breathlessly against the tree.
"Well, and so I have conquered thee!" he exclaimed, triumphantly, as
he spurned the carcase with his foot. "Devilish monster, to me thy
head is worth a penny from every man in Dysart--a goodly sum for an
earl, forsooth! But as I lack these pennies sorely to pay my way to
England, to the Highlands, or elsewhere, I will even seek the prior
of St. Denis with my prize, midnight though it be."
Tying the four corners of his mantle together, he put the head into
it, and arming himself with a fragment of his spear, descended to the
gate of the Black Friary; but, as the wind still blew, the rain
lashed the stone walls and grated windows, while the sea boomed on
the rocks below, and the worthy master-porter slept like a dormouse,
the din made by the earl at the door was unheard.
"The great devil confound thee!" he muttered, turning away; "for I
must even go without my pence and my supper to boot."
Remembering his first project of the caverns, he scrambled along the
rocky and shingly beach for more than two miles, until a ray of
light, which streamed from a fissure in the bluffs, far across the
wet sands and tumbling billows, attracted his attention.
Turning to the left, he approached it--the fissure widened, and
entering boldly, he found himself in one of those long and deep
weems, or caverns, which are there so numerous; and immediately a
band of outlaws and smugglers surrounded him.
CHAPTER XXXIII.
THE WEEM.
"Blow ye horns,
And rouse each wilder passion of the soul,
To drown the voice of Nature! He must die!
He who puts forth his hand to seize a crown
Must stake his all upon the mighty game."
KÖRNER'S _Expiation_, a Drama.
"Oho! here cometh _another_ guest, whom the high wind bath blown us
this eerie night!" cried one of the occupants of the weem, as the
whole party arose and stood around the intruder.
Tall, strong, armed with a broken spear, smeared with mud from the
paws of the wolf, and covered with gouts of its blood, which hung
upon his matted hair and bushy beard, the aspect of the earl was
sufficiently formidable to command the respect of the desperadoes
among whom he had intruded; and, at a wave of his right hand and
arm--the latter being drenched in blood to the elbow--they all shrunk
back instinctively and grasped their clubs and poniards.
The enormous weem he had entered was one of those caverns from which
a part of the coast obtains its name--Wemyss; and though the outer
part of it was brilliantly illuminated by a fire of drift wood and
pine-logs that blazed on the rocky floor, on progressing, the earl
was impressed with a feeling of awe by the uncertainty of the vast
profundity to which it penetrated; for the inner end of this
frightful chasm or fissure yawned away obscurely and horribly into
the bowels of the earth. It had, doubtless, been formed, like many
others along the rocky coast, by that wondrous upheaval of the
Scottish shores, which geologists suppose must have taken place some
two thousand years ago, or when, the sea receded thirty feet from its
ancient margin, which to this day is visible along the summits of all
the headlands in Fifeshire and Lothian.
Though several culinary utensils, Dutch kegs and tubs were placed in
little cupboard-like recesses, the cavern did not seem to have been
long occupied by its tenants, who were six in number, strong and
muscular men, whose long matted beards flowed nearly to their
girdles; and whose attire declared them to be partly beggars, partly
robbers, and wholly desperadoes. That they lived at enmity with
their fellow-subjects was apparent from the multiplicity and aspect
of the swords, poniards, and poleaxes with which they were armed.
The earl found, when too late, that he had made an unfortunate choice
of hosts, when such a price was on his head, but grasping his broken
spear with one hand, and his gory bundle by the other, he confronted
them resolutely.
"Now, who are you?" asked one who seemed to be the leader.
"It matters nothing to thee, thou dour carle, so lay down thy maul,
or beware!" replied the earl.
"Then, what are you?"
"A gaberlunzie--a beggar!" said Ashkirk, bitterly.
"Then, where is thy parish token?"
"I spoke but metaphorically, for I Lave not yet taken me unto _that_
trade; and when I do, I will see King James at Jericho, and his
parliament too, before I will sew a pewter badge on my doublet,
tattered though it be. I will not conform to this new law, believe
me, brother rogue. But I repeat, nevertheless, that I _am_ a beggar,
because I seek food without having the wherewithal to pay for it;
and, moreover, that I am, like thyself, an outlaw."
"Gude and better!" replied the other; "but there is blood on thy
sleeve; why man, thou art red handed!"
"Blood! true--I shed a little in my own defence, and what then? I
have committed no murder. Believe me, fellow, there is more blood on
thy soul than on my fingers. But, enough of this. I seek what every
man who hath them not hath a right to seek from those who hath--food,
fire, and shelter."
"What is this in your cloak?"
"Something that thou hast no concern with."
"We will soon see that," cried several, laying hands on their knives
and daggers.
"If thou darest!" replied the earl, raising his truncheon, and
confronting the strongest and the boldest.
"Byde and haud ye! Nay, nay," cried the others, laughing; "honour
among thieves. Hath he not said that, like oursels, he is an outlaw?
besides, ye will waken that chield in the corner."
"Sit down again, you quarrelsome loons," said the leader; "and seat
thyself, too, my bold gaberlunzie, with a welcome to bite and to
bicker."
As the earl seated himself, carefully placing his bundle behind him,
he now for the first time perceived a cavalier, in a rich velvet
mantle, lying asleep in a nook of the weem, which sheltered him both
from the night wind, that blew the smoke and brands of the fire into
the recesses of the rocks, and from the damp atmosphere of the sea,
which burst like thunder every moment on the adjacent beach. The
boots of the sleeper were of spotless white leather, adorned with
spurs of gold, polished and richly chased, with rowels of glittering
steel. Beside him lay his sword, which was sheathed in blue and
embroidered velvet.
"Who may this gay gallant be?" asked the earl, as he warmed his
hands, and, making himself quite at home, kicked up the brands to
make a blaze.
"One of our king's dainty courtiers," replied the principal ruffian;
a patch over whose left eye nearly concealed the little of his
frightful visage which was not overgrown with hair. "St. Mary! thou
mayest see he is Falkland bred, by those cork-heeled boots and gowden
spurs. There hath been a brave hunt after the wolf of Pittencrief,
and all the court and countryside have driven horse and hound nearly
to death, without getting even sight or scent of the monster; so
either the wind, the storm, or the darkness of the night, his evil
chance, or our good luck, hath brought this gay galliard hither for a
shelter and supper, which," he added, sinking his voice, "both his
cloak and purse----"
"Breeches and doublet," said another, in the same whispering tone.
"With his horse, which we have stabled in yonder hole----"
"Yea," chimed in the earl, "and those dainty boots and spurs, shall
pay for. Is it not so?"
"Right--we'll all have a share!" and here the six uttered a brutal
laugh, and all exchanged glances and winks expressive of fun and
ferocity.
"Meantime," said the leader, "waken up his worship, for supper is
ready."
Here one pulled the wearied cavalier by the cloak. He started up,
and revealed a handsome young face, aquiline features and dark hazel
eyes, close clipped beard and dark moustache. He wore (very much on