‘Boy, I have no patience with you. Cease your prating, and inform me where my beloved mistress is, that I may instantly visit her.’
‘No; not for the Douglas’ estate, which is now in the fire, and may soon be brought to the anvil, will I inform you of that. But, my lor’, you know I must execute my commission. And I tell you again, unless you take this castle very soon, you will not only lose the favour of my mistress, but you will absolutely break her heart. Nothing less will satisfy her. I told her, there was a great moat, more than a hundred feet deep, and as many wide, that surrounded the castle, and flowed up to the base of its walls; that there was a large river on each side of it, and that they were both dammed and appeared like two standing seas – but all availed nought. ‘There is a moat,’ said I; ‘But let him go over that,’ said she; ‘let him swim it, or put a float on it. What is it to cross a pool a hundred feet wide? How did Lord Musgrave pass over it?’ ‘There are strong walls on the other side,’ said I: ‘But let him go over these,’ said she, ‘or break a hole through them and go in. Men built the walls, why may not men pull them down? How did Musgrave get over them?’ ‘There are armed men within,’ said I: ‘But they are only Englishmen,’ said she; ‘Let Douglas’ men put their swords into them, and make them stand back. How did Musgrave get in when it was defended by gallant Scots? Douglas is either no lover, or else no warrior,’ added she; ‘or perhaps he is neither the one nor the other.”’
‘Peace, sapling,’ said Douglas, frowning and stamping with his foot, ‘Peace, and leave the pavilion instantly.’ Colin went away visibly repressing a laugh, which irritated Douglas still the more; and as the urchin went, he muttered in a crying whine, ‘My mistress is very shabbily used! – very shabbily! To have promised herself to a knight if he will but take a castle for her, and to have fasted, and prayed, and vowed vows for him, and yet he dares not go in and take it. And I am shabbily used too; and that I’ll tell her! Turned out before I get half her message delivered! But I must inform you, my lor’, before I go, that since you are making no better use of the advantage given you, I demand the prisoners back that I lodged in your hand in my lady mistress’ name, and by her orders.’
‘I will do no such thing to the whim of a teasing impertinent stripling, without my lady princess’s hand and seal for it,’ said Douglas.
‘You shall not long want that,’ said Colin; and pulling a letter out from below his sash, he gave it to him. It was the princess’s hand and seal – it being an easy matter for Colin to get what letters he listed. Douglas opened it, and read as follows:
‘LORD DOUGLAS – In token of my best wishes for your success, I send you these, with greeting. I hope you will take immediate advantage of the high superiority afforded you in this contest, by putting some indelible mark, or public stain, on the lusty dame I put into your hands. If Musgrave be a knight of any gallantry he will never permit it, but yield. As I cannot attend personally, I request that the mode and degree of punishment you inflict may be left to my page Colin. That you have not been successful by such means already, hath much surprised
MARGARET.’
‘This is not a requisition to give you up the prisoners,’ said Douglas, ‘but merely a request that the punishment inflicted may be left to you, a request which must not be denied to the lady of my heart. Now, pray, Master Colin Roy MacAlpin, what punishment do you decree for the Lady Jane Howard? For my part, though I intended to threaten the most obnoxious treatment, to induce my opponent to yield, I could not for my dearest interests injure the person of that exquisite lady.’
‘You could not, in good troth? I suppose my mistress has good reason to be jealous of you two. But since the power is left with me I shall prevent that; I shall see her punished as she deserves: I’ll have no shameful exposures of a woman, even were she the meanest plebeian, but I’ll mar her beauty that she thinks so much of, and that you think so much of. I’ll have her nose cut off; and two of her fore teeth drawn; and her cheeks and brow scolloped. I’ll spoil the indecent brightness of her gloss! She shall not sparkle with such brilliance again, nor shall the men gloat, feasting their intolerable eyes on her, as they do at present.’
‘Saint Duthoc buckler me!’ exclaimed the Douglas – ‘what an unnatural tyger cat it is! I have heard that such feelings were sometimes entertained by one sovereign beauty toward another of the same sex; but that a sprightly youth, of an amorous complexion, with bright blushing features and carroty locks, should so depreciate female beauty, and thirst to deface it, surpasses any thing I have witnessed in the nature of man. Go to, you are a perverse boy, but shall be humoured as far as my honour and character as a captain and warrior will admit.’
Colin paced lightly away, making a slight and graceful courtesy to the Douglas as he glided out. ‘What an extraordinary, wayward, and accomplished youth that is!’ said the chief to himself: ‘Is it not strange that I should converse so long with a page, as if he were my equal? There is something in his manner and voice that overcomes me; and though he teazes me beyond endurance, there is a sort of enchantment about him, that I cannot give him the check. Ah me! all who submit themselves to women, to be swayed by them or their delegates, will find themselves crossed in every action of importance. I am resolved that no woman shall sway me. I can love, but have not learned to submit.’
Colin retired to his little apartment in the pavilion; it was close to the apartment that Douglas occupied while he remained there, and not much longer or broader than the beautiful and romantic inhabitant. Yet there he constantly abode when not employed about his lord, and never mixed or conversed with the other pages. Douglas retired down to the tower, or King’s House, as it was called (from king Edward having occupied it,) at even tide – but Colin Roy remained in his apartment at the pavilion. Alas! that Douglas did not know the value of the life he left exposed in such a place!
On the return of Musgrave into the castle, a council of all the gentlemen in the fortress was called, and with eager readiness they attended in the hall of the great western tower. The governor related to them the heart-rending intelligence of his mistress being in the hands of their enemies, and of the horried fate that awaited her, as well as his only brother, provided the garrison stood out. Every one present perceived that Musgrave inclined to capitulate; and, as they all admired him, they pitied his woeful plight. But no one ventured a remark. There they sat, a silent circle, in bitter and obstinate rumination. Their brows were plaited down, so as almost to cover their eyes; their under lips were bent upward, and every mouth shaped like a curve, and their arms were crossed on their breasts, while every man’s right hand instinctively rested on the hilt of his sword.
Musgrave had taken his measures, whichever way the tide should run. In consequence of this he appeared more calm and collected at this meeting than he had done for many a day. ‘I do not, my friends, and soldiers, propose any alternative,’ said he – ‘I merely state to you the circumstances in which we are placed; and according to your sentiments I mean to conduct myself.’
‘It is nobly said, brave captain,’ said Collingwood: ‘Our case is indeed a hard one, but not desperate. The Scots cannot take the castle from us, and shall any one life, or any fifty lives, induce us to yield them the triumph, and all our skill, our bravery, and our sufferings go for nought?’
‘We have nothing to eat,’ said Musgrave.
‘I’ll eat the one arm, and defend the draw-bridge with the other, before the Scots shall set a foot in the castle,’ said a young man, named Henry Clavering. ‘So will I,’ said another. ‘So will I; so will we all!’ echoed through the hall, while a wild gleam of ferocity fired every haggard countence. It was evident that the demon of animosity and revenge was now conjured up, which to lay was not in the power of man.
‘What then do you propose as our mode of action in this grievous dilemma?’ said Musgrave.
‘I, for my part, would propose decision and ample retaliation.’ said Clavering. ‘Do you not perceive that there has been a great storm in the uplands last night and this morning, and that the Tweed and Teviot are roaring like two whirlpools of the ocean, so that neither man nor beast can cross them? There is no