Jane Seton; or, The King's Advocate: A Scottish Historical Romance
the right side) a smart blue bonnet, with a white feather springing
from a diamond St. Andrew's cross.
"Mercy! _the king!_" said the earl, in the inmost recesses of his
heart, as he respectfully gave place at the fire to the gallant and
adventurous James V., who had not the most remote idea that he was
recognised by any one there, and passed for nothing more than a
private gentleman; the whole adventure being one of that romantic
kind in which he--our Scottish Haround Alraschid--delighted. Before
seating himself on the stone which was to be his chair, he signed the
cross upon his breast and said: "_Benedicite._"
A mess of rabbits and fowls stewed together in a kailpot, another of
broiled fish, with cheese and bannocks, which, like the small kegs of
ale and usquebaugh, had merely cost the trouble of carrying them off
(at a time when the burgh-merchants had no other police than their
own eyes and hands), were freely shared by the thieves with their
illustrious guests, one of whom they had foredoomed to death. The
other, they deemed already as one of themselves; for the earl, the
better to conceal his real character, assumed a strange dialect, and
talked, laughed, sung and swore, till he drew upon him the marked
attention of the king; but under that matted beard and tattered
attire, disfigured by many a gout of blood, the monarch failed to
recognise the outlawed noble.
With a hunting clasp-knife, one of those made and inscribed by
Jacques de Liege (whence comes our Scottish _Jockteleg_), the king
was carving for himself a chicken which he had laid on a broad
bannock, and was evidently enjoying the repast like a huntsman and
soldier, for he was both.
"By my faith! knave of the pot," said he to the robber who had
cooked, "thou hast done thy duty well."
"Ouaye; we fisher chields can turn our hands to anything."
"Then turn them to mending the fire; for dost thou not see 'tis all
gone to cinders?"
"As we shall when we gang to auld Clootie," replied the cook, whose
reply was greeted by a roar of laughter, the echoes of which seemed
to rumble away into the heart of the rocks.
"Friend Bloodybeard," said the king to the earl, "hand over that keg
of usquebaugh; wilt drink with me? thy health, friend Bloodybeard."
"Thine, my gentleman of the white feather."
"How gallantly thou drainest thy bicker!" said the king, on seeing
how the earl emptied his tass of raw spirits; "didst thou ever taste
pure water, fellow?"
"Once, when an infant; but, as it nearly choked me, I have never
tried it since. Tush! wine costs us no more than spring water. Like
James and his courtiers of Arran, we help ourselves to our
neighbours' goods and gear, whenever we lack."
The broad brow of the king knit, but he laughed, and said--
"Have the courtiers not wealth enough and to spare, sirrah?"
"Wealth--ah, that is the greatest and most respected quality in man."
"But beside wealth, hath not King James many virtues?"
"Tut! these are but a silly habit of differing from such merry men as
we; but I fear me we scare thee, my dainty gentleman, by the din we
are making."
"By my word, no; I should like to see the men who would scare me,"
replied the king, fishing another pullet out of the pot; "I am but
fulfilling the injunctions of the great Plato, who said, 'live with
thine inferiors as with unfortunate friends.' Ho! by St. Anne,
Bloodybeard, knock the bottoms out of these broiled eggs, or all the
Fife witches will be sailing over to Lothian in them; dost hear me?
quick, or I shall report thee to the cardinal and his grand
inquisitor."
"The inquisitor--faugh! he is but a Hamilton," said the earl, who
could not jest with the names of his enemies; "and as for the
cardinal, I say, bah! he is a mere cannonier in canonicals--a devil
in a broad red hat."
"Beware how ye get under its shadow, my fool-hardy knaves," said the
king, laughing. "Have you looked well to my horse?"
"Yea, sir, as a man looketh after his _own_," replied one fellow,
whose ears bore visible marks of the nails which so frequently had
fastened them to many a burgh cross; and at this significant reply
there was uttered another of those low, ferocious laughs, which soon
served to put the unwary monarch on his guard; for, like each of his
forefathers, James V. was brave as a lion.
"My gallant grey!" said he; "'tis a gift to me from the Laird of
Largo, who took him from the Lord Cassilis at Linlithgow Bridge, on
the day of that unhappy battle. I have ridden him forty miles
to-day,--not a rood less, I am sure."
"After such sore toil," said the earl; "his nostrils should be bathed
with vinegar, and his breast with warm wine."
"Oho! thou knowest something of stablecraft, my smuggler, it would
seem."
"Few in broad Scotland know better."
"And now I have supped right gloriously!" said the king, reclining
back against the great cyclopean wall of the weem. "Friend robber,
thy crail capons and stewed pullets have been done in such wise, that
even King James's cook might envy thy skill; and in England, I doubt
not, Henry the king would have made thee a belted earl; for he hath
just made a baron of his cook for the exquisite manner in which he
broiled a mackarel--at least so my friend the English ambassador said
to-day, as we rode together near the old castle of Balwearie. Hand
over that keg again, Bloodybeard," said the king, and, on receiving
it, he began to sing a popular ditty of the day:--
"King James rode round by the Mere-cleugh-heid,
Booted and spurred as we a' did see;
But he dined and supped at Mossfennan yett,
Wi' the bonny young Lass o' the Loganlee.
"Her hair was like the gowd sae braw,
Like a lammer bead her deep dark e'e,
Nor Falkland tower, nor Lithgow ha',
Had a dame like the Lass o' the Loganlee.
"'Oh, where is the king?' quoth all the court,
From the great cardinal to the fool, M'Ilree;
But the devil a one knew where he was gone,
With the bonnie young Lass o' the Loganlee."
Here the merry king lay back and laughed excessively at this hunting
song, which had been composed on one of his own amorous adventures.
By this time the thieves had drunk deeply, but their hilarity began
to subside, and their ferocious glances warned their guest that
something unpleasant was about to terminate the noisy repast. Under
his mantle the king felt secretly for his sword, and grew pale as
death on discovering that, either by accident or design, when he was
asleep, the blade had been broken in the sheath--leaving him
defenceless, with seven armed outlaws, in a lonely cavern. He was in
the very act of looking hurriedly round for some other weapon to
snatch up in case of need, when lo! one of the ruffians held before
him a plate, whereon (according to an ancient and barbarous custom)
lay two naked poniards, as a signal that he was to be sacrificed, and
might choose with which blade he was to die.
Instead, as they expected, of being appalled, with the rapidity of
lightning the gallant king clutched one in each hand, and striking to
the right and to the left, buried both weapons in the breasts of the
ruffians next him.
"Dogs and villains!" he exclaimed, "slipper-helmetted dastards! come
on, if you dare!"
Armed with mauls and axes, the other four fell furiously upon him,
and he must inevitably have been slain had not the earl, with the
truncheon of his spear in one hand, and a burning brand in the other,
attacked them in the rear, and with such impetuosity that, by two
blows he broke the arm of one, the head of a second, and drove the
whole from the cavern. Thus, in less than one minute, the king and
he found themselves, with two dead bodies, the sole occupants of the
place.
"Well done, friend Bloodybeard!" exclaimed the breathless king; "by
my soul, I thought thee one of them; and well it is for me thou didst
strike in such good time. Complete me now thy service by cutting out
the tongues of these two carrion, that I may give them to my hounds,"
he added, kicking the dead bodies, and untying his purse from his
girdle. "I have here only twenty French crowns, but if thou wilt
come to Falkland to-morrow, and ask fer--for----"
"His majesty the king," replied the earl, whose eye moistened, and
whose heart swelled, as (instead of kneeling) he drew himself proudly
up to his full height; "replace your purse, James Stuart; surely
Archibald Earl of Ashkirk hath not sunk so far as to be paid thus for
fighting in the service of his king."
"Ashkirk!" said King James, less astonished that he was recognised
than at this rencontre and discovery. "Ashkirk, is it indeed thee,
thou traitor and son of a traitress?"
"I am no traitor, neither am I the son of a traitress; but an outlaw,
certainly; and why? Because I am the hereditary foeman of the house
of Hamilton. False king, thou wrongest me sorely by such epithets as
these."
"_Thou_, Ashkirk? it is impossible!" said James, filled with pity at
the deplorable aspect of his long-dreaded rebel.
"Look at me, king! My years are not yet thirty, and my brow is
wrinkled; for the hand of a tyrant, less than time, hath touched it."
"A tyrant?"
"Thou!"
"Darest thou say so to my teeth?"
"Ay, thou, James V.; for thou wagest the quarrels and the feuds of
the fathers upon their children. By war and death thou dost;
revengefully and remorselessly. Thou hast put a price upon my head,
and hunted me, even as a wild beast, from place to place. But think
not that I will ever sue for pardon; I will live as my fathers hath
lived, or die, sword in hand, as my fathers have died. Never shalt
thou see a Seton of Ashkirk among those fawning slaves of the house
of Arran, who, watching for every passing smile, crowd round thy
throne like sycophants--never! never!"
"This to me!" cried the king, snatching up a sword; "to me from thee,
thou parricide, who hast carried fire and sword into the heart of thy
fatherland! Must I tell thee, false earl, that, in addition to thy
rebellion, all assurance and friendship with Englishmen is _treason_;
that the residence of a Scot in England is treason; that buying from
or selling to Englishmen is _treason_; that all travelling or
trafficking with Englishmen, by word or writing, _is treason_;
incurring the penalties of proscription and death! Not content with
the committal of all these crimes, and with levying war against our
wardens with lances uplifted and banner displayed, I find thee the
boon-companion of thieves and outlaws, who live by slaughter and
robbery; by stealing pikes from ponds; by breaking dowcots and
orchards; by lifting sheep and slaying parked deer; all
contraventions of the laws passed by my father, James IV., for the
security of property; and involving the penalty of the scourge."
"The scourge!" reiterated the earl, with a bitter laugh; "I can
respect the name of James IV., for he was my father's friend, and
side by side they have often fought like two brave comrades; but
thou, his son, the ruthless oppressor of the bravest nobles Scotland
ever saw--who hast thrown the sceptre into the scales that justice
might be overborne, never! The scourge? I am indeed degraded, when
even a king dare mention it to me. Proud and ungrateful prince, hast
thou, indeed, forgotten all that thou and thy forefathers owe to the
houses of Seton and of Douglas?"
"I have not," said the king, standing on his guard; "it is, indeed, a
debt of vengeance, so take up a sword and come on. Here, man to man,
I defy thee, and repay it."
"Nay, nay; it shall never be said that the royal blood of Scotland
stained the hand of a Seton. Ten minutes ago I might have slain thee
in the _mêlée_, and there had ended thy Stuart line for ever."
"To place thy feudal foe of Arran on the throne--eh? That would not