Jane Seton; or, The King's Advocate: A Scottish Historical Romance
the earl, pointing to the castle of the Inch, from the whin-bushes
which screened the entrance to their hiding-place, and faced the
little valley overlooked by the island fortress, and the winding path
which ascended to it. "Not those chambers which overhang the ocean,
I hope?" he added, anxiously.
Sabrino nodded his head sorrowfully.
"Ah! twenty furies! dost thou say so? How shall I ever reach them,
unless I become a hoodie-crow or a Solan goose? Do they ever walk in
the valley?"
Sabrino nodded again.
"Close to these rocks--eh?"
Sabrino shook his woolly head.
"Are they guarded? The devil! thou noddest thy head again. Indeed,
this wary old trooper, Barncleugh, keeps a sure watch over them. By
Satan's horns! I may mar his wardship yet. Do he or they know that
thou art here?"
Another shake of the head replied in the negative.
"Sabrino, my dark-complexioned friend, listen and look; open thy huge
eyes, prick up thy capacious ears, and attend to me. To-night I will
scale that castle wall, and thou shalt assist me."
"Ees."
"I have observed that the windows on that side are not barred,
because they overlook the water. Thou wilt clamber, and not be
afraid?"
"Ees--ees," replied the negro, capering about.
"But we may be shot by the arquebuses of the watchmen."
"O--ah!" howled Sabrino, scratching his woolly head.
"But do not let that affright thee, my Ethiopian; for it hath been
the hap of better men before us. An unlucky cannon slew King James
II. at Roxburgh, at the very moment he was passing a jest with my
gallant grandsire. What matters it whether we are shot now, or die
quietly twenty years after this, for in the twenty-first year time
would be all the same with us, at least so far as I am concerned
personally; but I have it imperatively upon my mind to send certain
Hamiltons to the other world before me, ere I can give up the ghost
in peace."
The eyes of the negro gleamed, and he laid his hand on his dagger.
"How readily thou snuffest blood, my sable devil. I doubt not thou
gottest it with thy mother's milk; for, among the knights of
Torphichen, I have heard it said, that in the far-away land from
whence thou camest, a child receives its first food on a spear, even
as our fierce clansmen in the north give the young Celt his first
food on the point of his father's claymore. Well, then, listen.
Thou seest the wall of yonder barbican, all grey, weatherbeaten, and
tufted with grass; well, where that wall joins the tower, I will
ascend, and so reach the windows of their apartment. Thou starest.
Ah, my friend, thou knowest not my capabilities in the climbing way.
I have done as much before for the mere love of life, and shall I not
do thrice as much again for the love of Sybil Douglas, who is dearer
to me than a thousand lives?"
The negro clapped his hands, lolled out the fragment of his tongue,
and danced about to the jangle of his long earrings, which clanked on
his metallic collar.
Being naturally at all times of a sociable and convivial turn, the
young earl, to while away the time, talked constantly to the poor
mute, gravely and with drollery by turns, amusing himself with his
childish wonder and savage simplicity, for they served to pass the
otherwise dreary day; and gladly Ashkirk beheld the sun sink, and the
hour for more active employment draw near.
CHAPTER XXXIX.
THE EARL'S SUCCESS.
"You will quickly find
I'll reach its gates, although, volcano-like,
With thickest clouds it strikes the bright sun blind,
And lightnings flash, and bolts around me strike."
CALDERON.
During the whole of that day, from his secret hiding-place, the earl
watched the little green valley that lies in the bosom of the island,
and the narrow winding path that ascended from it to the round
gateway in the barbican wall of the tower. The latter was an exact
square of considerable height, surrounded at the summit by a heavy
battlement, having little tourelles at the angles, a row of those
brass cannon then known in Scotland as _chalmers_, and a staff, from
which was displayed the blue national standard, with the white cross
of St. Andrew. But the anxious earl watched fruitlessly; for on this
day, neither at the windows, on the ramparts, on the pathway, nor in
the valley, did the countess or Sybil appear.
About mid-day, Sir James Hamilton of Barncleugh, the governor of the
little stronghold, came forth, and at the gate sat down to his daily
employment of playing chess with his seneschal, and drinking
Rochelle, while a few of his soldiers solaced themselves by a game
with quoits in the valley below, where, as Sabrino endeavoured to
acquaint the earl, the same men had played at the same game, at the
same time, every day since he had been on the island; for so passed
the time in this little isolated and monotonous place; and nothing
ever disturbed the perfect equanimity of its governor (who was
content to vegetate like a fungus or a mussel on the rocks), save
when the Leith provision-boats brought some waggish rumour that his
lady, who was a dame of the tabourette at Holyrood, intended to join
him--the very idea of which made the bluff old knight tremble in his
wide trunk base.
So close were the quoit players to the place of the earl's
concealment, that more than once he shrunk back with alarm, expecting
instant discovery, when any of them overshot the mark, and hurled his
iron discus to the very verge of the dark whins which shrouded the
mouth of the cavern. This group of men continued to play with ardour
until sunset; for of this game (which was famous of old among the
ancients) the Scots in all ages, as in the present day, have been
passionately fond.
While the earl, lover-like, was wasting his time in gazing at the
tower which contained Sybil, the black page sat near him,
cross-legged, engaged in knotting a ladder from a coil of rope he had
found in the boat, and formed it very ingeniously by loops
equidistant on each side of the shaft of a stout boat-hook, solacing
himself the while by a deep guttural croaking, which he meant for a
song, and grinning from ear to ear with delight as his work
progressed.
As the sun set behind the Ochills, a culverin was fired from the high
carved poop of the Admiral Sir Robert Barton's ship, and St. Andrew's
cross was hauled down from the bartizan; the governor and his little
garrison retired to supper, the gates of the tower were closed, and
then a perfect stillness reigned throughout the island, which
exhibited no sign of life, save when a seagull flew screaming round
the tower above, or a wild rabbit shot like an evil spirit across the
darkening valley below.
The night came on calm, still, and solemn, and the stars were
reflected on the broad blue bosom of the Forth. The moon seemed to
linger long behind the distant Lammermuirs; but the myriad of stars
that dotted the canopy above shed a clear white light on the
magnificent river, the bordering hills, and all its rocky isles.
Here and there a red spark, twinkling afar off, marked where a town
or hamlet lay, for thickly were they scattered along its fertile
shores.
The blue waves were rolling in silver light against the black rocks
and volcanic columns of the isle, as the earl guided his boat from
its place of concealment, and moored it by the beach; for on this
night he had resolved to attempt one of those rash and bold essays of
which his life was one continued and exciting succession. With
anxious and longing eyes he gazed at the square and lofty tower which
stood in dark outline between him and the west, where, above the
distant chain of the Ochill mountains, a red light lingered like the
last flame of a dying conflagration.
It marked where the sun had set.
"Now," said the earl, as he sprang ashore, "thank heaven, Sabrino, I
have bidden adieu to thy dark and dirty foxhole!"
Armed with his sword and poniard, and carrying with him a stout rope
and the boat-hook, which, like the boat itself (acting under the law
of necessity), he had appropriated to himself, the adventurous earl,
accompanied by his sable follower, stole up the dark valley, across
which fell the sombre shadow of the tower (for though rising, the
moon was not yet visible), and crept softly close to the rampart of
the barbican.
From thence they piloted their way along the base of the wall, until
they reached an angle that overhung the water, which, at the
frightful depth of a hundred and sixty feet below, was chafing in
foam against the foot of the cliffs, beetling on the very verge of
which the tower was founded. According to Sabrino, the windows of
the apartments occupied by Sybil Douglas and the countess overlooked
this comfortable abyss.
To pass the corner of the wall which overhung the precipice was the
most dangerous part of the adventure; and, observing that his leader
paused with perspiration on his brow and perplexity in his heart, the
negro pulled the skirt of his doublet, and made a motion indicative
of advancing himself.
"My trusty imp!" said the earl, "where a Seton lingers, it will never
do for thee to take the lead; and yet, without the wings of a crow or
the claws of a cat, I know not how the devil I shall pass this
hairbreadth precipice!"
While Ashkirk was speaking, Sabrino, who on many a night before this
had scrambled like a squirrel over every part of the island, shot
past, and, with his arms embracing the corner of the wall, achieved
the feat, and with a guttural laugh held out his hands to assist the
earl round.
"Thou art certainly a son of our old friend with the horns; but, by
my faith, fall or not, I follow thee!" and grasping the hand of the
agile African, with one stride the earl was beside him.
Then he found himself upon a shelf of rock scarcely eighteen inches
broad, with the waves of the Firth hissing in foam far down below--so
far, that their angry boom was but faintly heard, while the scared
seagulls and gigantic Solan geese, flapping their wings like thunder,
flew out of their eyries, plunging and screaming in the abyss beneath.
About three miles off, the lights of Leith were faintly glimmering
through that haze which often shrouds its shores.
Though eminent for courage in a gallant age, the earl felt his heart
grow sick for a moment at his perilous position. At his back was the
wall of the keep, some seventy feet in height; and twenty feet from
where he stood was a large window secured by two bars of iron in the
shape of a cross; and there Sabrino indicated, by a multitude of
signs, contortions, and guttural sounds, the countess resided.
"I have thrown a lance six ells long, at a smaller mark than that
window," said the earl; "and I must be blinder than a bat to miss it;
but as thou knowest, Sabrino, the business just now is not to hit the
window, but to click the boat-hook to the bars. Ah, plague! if we
should only break the glass, and the window be, after all, that of
Sir James Hamilton, or some of his fellows! my blood runs cold at the
thought; they could pop at us so leisurely with their hand-culverins;
and I assure thee, I have no wish to be shot like a poor pigeon here."
As the earl spoke, he secured one end of the rope to the ladder which
had been formed of loops on the shaft of the boat-hook, and tied the
other round his waist; he then, with all the force that his dangerous
footing permitted him to exert, shot up the hook towards the window;
but missing it, was nearly thrown over the cliff by the jerk of its
descent.
"Courage!" said he, grasping it again; "I am only twenty feet from
thee, my dear Sybil."
Again he threw, and with joy beheld the steel hook attach itself to