In Freedom's Cause : A Story of Wallace and Bruce

by G. A. Henty

  Chapter XVIII

  The Hound Restored

  On the third day after his arrival at the camp Archie receivedorders to prepare to start with the hound, with the earl and a largeparty of men-at-arms, in search of Bruce. A traitor had just comein and told them where Bruce had slept the night before. ReluctantlyArchie unfastened the chain from the pole, and holding the end inhis hand went round with Hector to the front of the pavilion. Hewas resolved that if under the dog's guidance the party came closeup with Bruce, he would kill the dog and then try to escape byfleetness of foot, though of this, as there were so many mountedmen in the party, he had but slight hope. Led by the peasant theyproceeded to the hut, which was five miles away in the hills. Onreaching it Hector at once became greatly excited. He sniffedhere and there, eagerly hunted up and down the cottage, then madea circuit round it, and at last, with a loud deep bay he startedoff with his nose to the ground, pulling so hard at the chain thatArchie had difficulty in keeping up with him. Pembroke and hisknights rode a little behind, followed by their men-at-arms.

  "I pray you, Sir Earl," Archie said, "keep not too close to mytraces, for the sound of the horse's hoofs and the jingling of theequipments make him all the more impatient to get forward, and evennow it taxes all my strength to hold him in."

  The earl reined back his horse and followed at a distance of somefifty yards. He had no suspicion whatever of any hidden designon Archie's part. The fact that the hound had recognized him hadappeared to him a sure proof of the truth of his tale, and Archiehad put on an air of such stupid simplicity that the earl deemedhim to have but imperfect possession of his wits. Moreover, in anycase he could overtake him in case he attempted flight.

  Archie proceeded at a trot behind the hound, who was withdifficulty restrained at that pace, straining eagerly on the chainand occasionally sending out his deep bay. Archie anxiously regardedthe country through which he was passing. He was waiting for anopportunity, and was determined, whenever they passed near a steephillside unscaleable by horsemen, he would stab Hector to the heartand take to flight. Presently he saw a man, whose attire showedhim to be a Highlander, approaching at a run; he passed close byArchie, and as he did so stopped suddenly, exclaiming, "ArchibaldForbes!" and drawing his broadsword sprang at him. Archie, who wasunarmed save by a long knife, leapt back. In the man he recognizedthe leader of the MacDougall's party, who had captured him nearDunstaffnage. The conflict would have terminated in an instant hadnot Hector intervened. Turning round with a deep growl the greathound sprang full at the throat of the Highlander as with upliftedsword he rushed at Archie. The impetus of the spring threw theMacDougall on his back, with the fangs of the hound fixed in histhroat. Archie's first impulse was to pull the dog off, the secondthought showed him that, were the man to survive he would at oncedenounce him. Accordingly, though he appeared to tug hard at Hector'schain, he in reality allowed him to have his way. Pembroke and hisknights instantly galloped up. As they arrived Hector loosed hishold, and with his hair bristly with rage prepared to attack thosewhom he regarded as fresh enemies.

  "Hold in that hound," Pembroke shouted, "or he will do more damage.What means all this?" For a minute Archie did not answer, beingengaged in pacifying Hector, who, on seeing that no harm wasintended, strove to return to his first foe.

  "It means," Archie said, when Hector was at last pacified, "thatthat Highlander came the other day to our cottage and wanted tocarry off a cow without making payment for it. I withstood him,he drew his sword, but as I had a stout cudgel in my hand I hit himon the wrist ere he could use it, and well nigh broke his arm. Sohe made off, cursing and swearing, and vowing that the next timehe met me he would have my life."

  "And that he would have done," Pembroke said, "had it not beenfor Bruce's dog, who has turned matters the other way. He is deadassuredly. It is John of Lorne's henchman, who was doubtless onhis way with a message from his lord to me. Could not the fool havepostponed his grudge till he had delivered it? I tell you, Scot,you had best keep out of the MacDougalls' way, for assuredly theywill revenge the death of their clansman upon you if they havethe chance, though I can testify that the affair was none of yourseeking. Now let us continue our way."

  "I doubt me, Sir Earl, whether our journey ends not here," Archiesaid, "seeing that these hounds, when they taste blood, seem fora time to lose their fineness of scent; but we shall see."

  Archie's opinion turned out correct. Do what they would they couldnot induce Hector again to take up his master's trail, the houndagain and again returning to the spot where the dead Highlanderstill lay. Pembroke had the body carried off but the hound tuggedat his chain in the direction in which it had gone, and seemed tohave lost all remembrance of the track upon which he was going.At last Pembroke was obliged to acknowledge that it was useless topursue longer, and, full of disappointment at their failure, theparty returned to camp, Pembroke saying: "Our chase is but postponed.We are sure to get tidings of Bruce's hiding place in a day or two,and next time we will have the hound muzzled, lest any hotheadedHighlander should again interfere to mar the sport."

  It was some days before further tidings were obtained of Bruce.Archie did not leave his tent during this time, giving as a reasonthat he was afraid if he went out he should meet some of Lorne'smen, who might take up the quarrel of the man who had been killed.At length, however, another traitor came in, and Pembroke and hisparty set out as before, Hector being this time muzzled by a strapround his jaw, which would not interfere with his scent, but wouldprevent him from widely opening his jaws.

  The scent of Bruce was again taken up at a lonely hut in the hills.The country was far more broken and rough than that through whichthey had followed Bruce's trail on the preceding occasion. AgainArchie determined, but most reluctantly, that he would slay thenoble dog; but he determined to postpone the deed to the latestmoment. Several places were passed where he might have succeededin effecting his escape after stabbing the hound, but each time hisdetermination failed him. It would have been of no use to releasethe dog and make himself up the hillside, for a blood hound's pacewhen on the track is not rapid, and the horsemen could have keptup with Hector, who would of course have continued his way uponthe trail of the king. Presently two men were seen in the distance;they had evidently been alarmed by the bay of the hound, and weregoing at full speed. A shout of triumph broke from the pursuers,and some of the more eager would have set spurs to their horsesand passed the hound.

  "Rein back, rein back," Pembroke said, "the country is wild andhilly here, and Bruce may hide himself long before you can overtakehim. Keep steadily in his track till he gains flatter country, wherewe can keep him in sight, then we shall have no more occasion forthe hound and can gallop on at full speed."

  Archie observed, with satisfaction, that Bruce was making up anextremely steep hillside, deeming probably that horsemen would beunable to follow him here, and that he would be able to distancepursuers on foot. Ten minutes later his pursuers had reached thefoot of the hill. Pembroke at once ordered four knights and tenmen-at-arms to dismount.

  "Do you," he said, "with the dog, follow hard upon the traces ofBruce. When you reach the top signal to us the direction in whichhe has gone. Follow ever on his track without stopping; he must atlast take to the low country again. Some of my men shall remainhere, others a mile further on, and so on round the whole foot ofthe hills. Do you, when you see that, thinking he has distancedyou, which he may well do being more lightly armed and flying forhis life, he makes for the low country again, send men in differentdirections to give me warning. The baying of the dog will act asa signal to us."

  While the men had been dismounting and Pembroke was giving hisorders Archie had proceeded up the hill with the hound. The pathwas exceedingly steep and difficult.

  "Do not hurry, sirrah," Pembroke called; "hold in your hound tillthe others join you." But Archie paid no attention to the shout,but kept up the steep path at the top of his speed. Shouts andthreats followed him, but he paused not till he reached
the topof the ascent; then he unfastened Hector's collar, and the dog,relieved from the chain which had so long restrained him, boundedaway with a deep bay in pursuit of his master, whose scent was nowstrong before him. As Archie looked back, the four knights andtheir followers, in single file, were, as yet, scarce halfway upthe ascent. Lying round were numbers of loose boulders, and Archieat once began to roll these down the hillside. They went but slowlyat first, but as they reached the steeper portion they gatheredspeed, and taking great bounds crashed down the hillside. As theseformidable missiles burst down from above the knights paused.

  "On!" Pembroke shouted from below; "the Scot is a traitor, and heand the hound will escape if you seize him not." Again the partyhurried up the hill. Three of them were struck down by the rocks,and the speed of all was impeded by the pauses made to avoid thegreat boulders which bounded down toward them. When they werewithin a few yards of the top Archie turned and bounded off at fullspeed. He had no fear of being himself overtaken. Lightly clad andunarmed, the knights and men-at-arms, who were all in full armour,and who were already breathed with the exertions they had made,would have no chance of overtaking him; indeed he could safely havefled at once when he loosed Hector, but he had stopped to delay theascent of his pursuers solely to give the hound as long a startas possible. He himself could have kept up with the hound; themen-at-arms could assuredly not do so, but they might for a longtime keep him in sight, and his baying would afterwards indicatethe line the king was taking, and Bruce might yet be cut off bythe mounted men. The delay which his bombardment had caused hadgiven a long start to the hound, for it was more than five minutesfrom the time when it had been loosed before the pursuers gainedthe crest of the hill. Archie, in his flight, took a differentline to that which the dog had followed. Hector was already outof sight, and although his deep baying might for a time afford anindex to his direction this would soon cease to act as a guide, asthe animal would rapidly increase his distance from his pursuers,and would, when he had overtaken the king, cease to emit his warningnote. The pursuers, after a moment's pause for consultation on thecrest of the hill, followed the line taken by the hound.

  The men-at-arms paused to throw aside their defensive armour,breast, back, and leg pieces, and the knights relieved themselvesof some of their iron gear; but the delay, short as it was, causedby the unbuckling of straps and unlacing of helms, increased thedistance which already existed between them and the hound, whosedeep notes, occasionally raised, grew fainter and fainter. In afew minutes it ceased altogether, and Archie judged that the houndhad overtaken his master, who, on seeing the animal approachingalone, would naturally have checked his flight. Archie himselfwas now far away from the men-at-arms, and after proceeding untilbeyond all reach of pursuit, slackened his pace, and breaking intoa walk continued his course some miles across the hills until hereached a lonely cottage where he was kindly received, and remaineduntil next day.

  The following morning he set out and journeyed to the spot, where,on leaving his retainers more than a week before, he had orderedthem to await his coming. It was another week before he obtainedsuch news as enabled him again to join the king, who was staying ata woodcutter's hut in Selkirk Forest. Hector came out with a deepbark of welcome.

  "Well, Sir Archie," the king said, following his dog to the door,"and how has it fared with you since we last parted a fortnightsince? I have been hotly chased, and thought I should have beentaken; but, thanks to the carelessness of the fellow who led myhound, Hector somehow slipped his collar and joined me, and I wasable to shake off my pursuers, so that danger is over, and withoutsacrificing the life of my good dog."

  Archie smiled. "Perchance, sir, it was not from any clumsiness thatthe hound got free, but that he was loosed by some friendly hand."

  "It may be so," the king replied; "but they would scarcely haveintrusted him to a hand friendly to me. Nor would his leader, evenif so disposed, have ventured to slip the hound, seeing that thehorsemen must have been close by at the time, and that such a deedwould cost him his life. It was only because Hector got away, whenthe horsemen were unable to follow him, that he escaped, seeingthat, good dog as he is, speed is not his strong point, and thathorsemen could easily gallop alongside of him even were he free.What are you smiling at, Sir Archie? The hound and you seem onwondrous friendly terms;" for Hector was now standing up with hisgreat paws on Archie's shoulder.

  "So we should be, sire, seeing that for eight days we have sharedbed and board."

  "Ah! is it so?" Bruce exclaimed. "Was it you, then, that loosedthe hound?"

  "It was, sir," Archie replied; "and this is the history of it;and you will see that if I have done you and Hector a service inbringing you together again the hound has repaid it by saving mylife."

  Entering the hut, Archie sat down and related all that had happened,to the king.

  "You have done me great service, Sir Archie," Bruce said when heconcluded his tale, "for assuredly the hound would have wrought myruin had he remained in the hands of the English. This is anotherof the long list of services you have rendered me. Some day, whenI come to my own, you will find that I am not ungrateful."

  The feats which have been related of Bruce, and other personaladventures in which he distinguished himself, won the hearts ofgreat numbers of the Scotch people. They recognized now that theyhad in him a champion as doughty and as valiant as Wallace himself.The exploits of the king filled their imaginations, and the way inwhich he continued the struggle after the capture of the ladies ofhis family and the cruel execution of his brothers and so many ofhis adherents, convinced them that he would never desist until hewas dead or a conqueror. Once persuaded of this, larger numbersgathered round his banner, and his fortunes henceforth began steadilyto rise.

  Lord Clifford had rebuilt Douglas Castle, making it larger andmuch stronger than before, and had committed it to the charge ofCaptain Thirlwall, with a strong garrison. Douglas took a numberof his retainers, who had now joined him in the field, and someof these, dressing themselves as drovers and concealing theirarms, drove a herd of cattle within sight of the castle toward anambuscade in which Douglas and the others were laying in ambush.The garrison, seeing what they believed a valuable prize withintheir grasp, sallied out to seize the cattle. When they reached theambuscade the Scots sprang out upon them, and Thirlwall and thegreater portion of his men were slain. Douglas then took and destroyedthe castle and marched away. Clifford again rebuilt it more stronglythan before, and placed it in charge of Sir John Walton. It mighthave been thought that after the disasters which had befallenthe garrison they would not have suffered themselves to be againentrapped. Douglas, however, ordered a number of his men to ridepast within sight of the castle with sacks upon their horses,apparently filled with grain, but in reality with grass, as ifthey were countrymen on their way to the neighbouring market town,while once more he and his followers placed themselves in ambush.Headed by their captain, the garrison poured out from the castle,and followed the apparent countrymen until they had passed theambush where Douglas was lying. Then the drovers threw off theirdisguises and attacked them, while Douglas fell upon their rear,and Walton and his companions were all slain. The castle was thenattacked, and the remainder of the garrison being cowed by thefate which had befallen their leader and comrades, made but a poordefence. The castle was taken, and was again destroyed by itslord, the walls being, as far as possible, overthrown.

  Shortly after the daring adventures of Bruce had begun to rousethe spirit of the country Archie Forbes found himself at the headof a larger following than before. Foreseeing that the war must bea long one he had called upon his tenants and retainers to furnishhim only with a force one third of that of their total strength.Thus he was able to maintain sixty men always in the field--allthe older men on the estate being exempted from service unlesssummoned to defend the castle.

  One day when he was in the forest of Selkirk with the king a bodyof fifty men were seen approaching. Their leader inquired for SirArchibald Forbes, and p
resently approached him as he was talkingto the king.

  "Sir Archibald Forbes," he said, "I am bidden by my mistress, thelady Mary Kerr, to bring these, a portion of the retainers of herestates in Ayrshire, and to place them in your hands to lead andgovern."

  "In my hands!" Archie exclaimed in astonishment. "The Kerrs are allon the English side, and I am their greatest enemy. It were strange,indeed, were one of them to choose me to lead their retainers inthe cause of Scotland."

  "Our young lord Sir Allan was slain at Methven," the man said, "andthe lady Mary is now our lady and mistress. She sent to us monthsago to say that she willed not that any of her retainers should anylonger take part in the struggle, and all who were in the fieldwere summoned home. Then we heard that no hindrance would be offeredby her should any wish to join the Bruce; and now she has sent bya messenger a letter under her hand ordering that a troop of fiftymen shall be raised to join the king, and that it shall fight underthe leading and order of Sir Archibald Forbes."

  "I had not heard that Sir Allan had fallen," Archie said to theking as they walked apart from the place where the man was standing;"and in truth I had forgotten that he even had a sister. She musthave been a child when I was a boy at Glen Cairn, and could havebeen but seldom at the castle--which, indeed, was no fit abodefor so young a girl, seeing that Sir John's wife had died someyears before I left Glen Cairn. Perhaps she was with her mother'srelations. I have heard that Sir John Kerr married a relation ofthe Comyns of Badenoch. 'Tis strange if, being of such bad bloodon both sides, she should have grown up a true Scotchwoman--stillmore strange she should send her vassals to fight under the bannerof one whom she must regard as the unlawful holder of her father'slands of Aberfilly."

  "Think you, Sir Archie," the king said, "that this is a stratagem,and that these men have really come with a design to seize uponyou and slay you, or to turn traitors in the first battle?"

  Archie was silent. "Treachery has been so much at work," he saidafter a pause, "that it were rash to say that this may not be atraitorous device; but it were hard to think that a girl--evena Kerr--would lend herself to it."

  "There are bad women as well as bad men," the king said: "and ifa woman thinks she has grievances she will often stick at nothingto obtain revenge."

  "It is a well appointed troop," Archie said looking at the men,who were drawn up in order, "and not to be despised. Their leaderlooks an honest fellow; and if the lady means honestly it werechurlish indeed, to refuse her aid when she ventures to break withher family and to declare for Scotland. No; methinks that, withyour permission, I will run the risk, such as it may be, and willjoin this band with my own. I will keep a sharp watch over them atthe first fight, and will see that they are so placed that, shouldthey mean treachery, they shall have but small opportunity of doingharm."