The Scottish Chiefs

by Jane Porter

  Chapter XVII.

  The Hermit's Cell.

  "I know not," returned the hermit; "I never saw your gallant delivererbefore yesterday morning. Broken from my matins by a sudden noise, Ibeheld a deer rush down the precipice, and fall headlong. As he laystruggling amongst the stones at the entrance of my cave, I had justobserved an arrow in his side, when a shout issued from the rocksabove, and looking up, I beheld a young chieftain, with a bow in hishand, leaping from cliff to cliff, till springing from a highprojection on the right, he alighted at once at the head of the woundeddeer.

  "I emerged from the recess that concealed me, and addressed him withthe benediction of the morning. His plaided followers immediatelyappeared, and with a stroke of their ready weapons slew the animal.The chief left them to dress it for their own refreshment; and on myinvitation, entered the cell to share a hermit's fare.

  "I told him who I was, and what had driven me to this seclusion. Inreturn, he informed me of a design he had conceived, to stimulate thesurrounding chiefs to some exertions for their country; but as he nevermentioned his name, I concluded he wished it to remain unrevealed, andtherefore I forbore to inquire it. I imparted to him my doubts of thepossibility of any single individual being able to arouse theslumbering courage of thoughts. The arguments he means to use are fewand conclusive. They are these: The perfidy of King Edward, who,deemed a prince of high honor, had been chosen umpire in the cause ofBruce and Baliol. He accepted the task, in the character of a friendto Scotland; but no sooner was he advanced into the heart of ourkingdom, and at the head of the large army he had treacherouslyintroduced as a mere appendage of state, than he declared the act ofjudgement was his right as liege lord of the realm! This falsehood,which our records disproved at the outset, was not his only baseness;he bought the conscience of Baliol, and adjudged to him the throne.The recreant prince acknowledged him his master; and in that degradingceremony of homage, he was followed by almost all the lowland Scottishlords. But this vile yielding did not purchase them peace: Edwarddemanded oppressive services from the king, and the castles of thenobility to be resigned to English governors. These requisitions beingremonstrated against by a few of our boldest chiefs (amongst whom, yourillustrious father, gentle lady, stood the most conspicuous), thetyrant repeated them with additional demands, and prepared to resentthe appeal on the whole nation.

  "Three months have hardly elapsed since the fatal battle of Dunbar,where, indignant at the accumulated outrages committed on their passivemonarch, our irritated nobles at last rose, but too late, to asserttheir rights. Alas! one defeat drove them to despair. Baliol wastaken, and themselves obliged to again swear fealty to their enemy.Then came the seizure of the treasures of our monasteries, the burningof the national records, the sequestration of our property, thebanishment of our chiefs, the violation of our women, and the slaveryor murder of the poor people yoked to the land. 'The storm ofdesolation, thus raging over our country; how,' cried the young warriorto me, 'can any of her sons shrink from the glory of again attemptingher restoration?' He then informed me that Earl de Warenne (whomEdward had left lord warden of Scotland), was taken ill, and retired toLondon, leaving Aymer de Valence to be his deputy. To this new tyrant,De Warenne has lately sent a host of mercenaries, to hold the south ofScotland in subjection; and to reinforce Cressingham and Ormsby, twonoted plunderers, who command northward, from Stirling to the shores ofSutherland.

  "With these representations of the conduct of our oppressors, the braveknight demonstrated the facility with which invaders, drunk with power,and gorged with rapine, could be vanquished by a resolute and hardypeople. The absence of Edward, who is now abroad, increases theprobability of success. The knight's design is to infuse his ownspirit into the bosoms of the chiefs in this part of the kingdom. Bytheir assistance, to seize the fortresses in the Lowlands, and so forma chain of repulsion against the admission of fresh troops fromEngland. Then, while other chiefs (to whom he means to apply) rise inthe Highlands, the Southron garrisons there, being unsupported bysupplies, must become an easy prey, and would yield men of consequence,to be exchanged for our countrymen, now prisoners in England. For thepresent, he wishes to be furnished with troops merely enough to takesome castle, of power sufficient to give confidence to his friends. Onhis becoming master of such a place, it should be the signal for all todeclare themselves; and, rising at once, overwhelm Edward's garrisonsin every part of Scotland.

  "This is the knight's plan; and for your sake, as well as for thecause. I hope the first fortress he gains may be that of Dumbarton.It has been always considered the key of the country."

  "May Heaven grant it, holy father," returned Helen, "and whoever thisknight may be, I pray the blessed St. Andrew to guide his arms!"

  "If I may venture to guess who he is," replied the hermit, "I would saythat noble brow was formed to some day wear a crown."

  "What!" cried Helen, starting, "you think this knight is the royalBruce?"

  "I am at a loss what to think," replied the hermit; "he has a mostprincely air; and there is such an overflowing of soul toward hiscountry, when he speaks of it, that--Such love can spring from no otherthan the royal heart, created to foster and to bless it."

  "But is he not too young?" inquired Helen. "I have heard my father saythat Bruce, Lord of Annandale, the opponent of Baliol for the crown,was much his senior; and that his son, the Earl of Carrick, must be nowfifty years of age. This knight, if I am any judge of looks, cannot betwenty-five."

  "True," answered the hermit; "and yet he may be a Bruce. For it isneither of the two you have mentioned that I mean; but the grandson ofthe one, and the son of the other. You may see by this silver beard,lady, that the winter of my life is far spent. The elder Bruce,Robert, Lord of Annandale, was my contemporary; we were boys together,and educated at the same college in Icolmkill. He was brave, andpassed his manhood in visiting different courts; at last, marrying alady of the princely house of Clare, he took her to France, andconfided his only son to be brought up under the renowned St. Louis.This young Robert took the cross while quite a youth; and carrying thebanner of the holy King of France to the plains of Palestine, coveredhimself with glory. In storming a Saracen fortress, he rescued theperson of Prince Edward of England. The horrible tyrant, who nowtramples on all laws, human and divine, was then in the bloom of youth,defending the cause of Christianity! Think on that, sweet lady, andmarvel at the changing power of ambition!

  "From that hour a strict friendship subsisted between the two youngcrusaders; and when Edward mounted the throne of England, it being thenthe ally of Scotland, the old Earl of Annandale, to please his braveson, took up his residence at the English court. When the male issueof our King David failed in the untimely death of Alexander III., thencame the contention between Bruce and Baliol for the vacant crown. Ourmost venerable chiefs, the guardians of our laws, and the witnesses ofthe parliamentary settlement made on the house of Bruce during thereign of the late king, all declared for Lord Annandale. He was notonly the male heir in propinquity of blood, but his experienced yearsand known virtues excited all true Scots to place him on the throne.

  "Meanwhile Edward, forgetting friendship to his friend, and fidelity toa faithful ally, was undermining the interest of Bruce, and the peaceof the kingdom. Inferior rivals to our favorite to our favorite princewere soon discountenanced; but by covert ways, with bribes andpromises, the King of England raised such a opposition on the side ofBaliol, as threatened a civil war. Secure in his right, and averse toplunging his country in blood, Bruce easily fell in with a proposalinsidiously hinted to him by one of Edward's creatures--'to require thatmonarch to be umpire between him and Baliol.' Then it was that Edward,after soliciting the requisition as an honor to be conferred on him,declared it was his right as supreme lord of Scotland. The Earl ofAnnandale refused to acknowledge this assumption. Baliol bowed to it;and for such obedience, the unrighteous judge gave him the crown.Bruce absolutely refused to acknowledge the justice of thi
s decision;and so to avoid the power of the king who had betrayed his rights, andthe jealousy of the other who had usurped them, he immediately left thescene of action, going over seas, to join his son, who had been cajoledaway to Paris. But, alas! he died on the road of a broken heart.

  "When his son Robert (who was Earl of Carrick in right of his wife)returned to Britain, he, like his father, disdained to acknowledgeBaliol as king. But being more incensed at his successful rival, thanat the treachery of his false friend Edward, he believed his glossingspeeches; and--by what infatuation I cannot tell--established hisresidence at the monarch's court. This forgetfulness of his royalblood, and of the independence of Scotland, has nearly obliterated himfrom every Scottish heart; for, when we look at Bruce the courtier, wecease to remember Bruce the descendant of St. David-Bruce the valiantknight of the Cross, who bled for true liberty before the walls ofJerusalem.

  "His eldest son may be now about the age of the young knight who hasjust left us; and when I look on his royal port, and listen to thepatriotic fervors of his royal soul, I cannot but think that the spiritof his noble grandsire has revived in his breast, and that, leaving hisindolent father to the vassal luxuries of Edward's palace, he is comehither in secret, to arouse Scotland, and to assert his claim."

  "It is very likely," rejoined Helen, deeply sighing; "and may Heavenreward his virtue with the crown of his ancestors."

  "To that end," replied the Hermit, "shall my hands be lifted up inprayer day and night. May I, O gracious Power!" cried he, lookingupward, and pressing the cross to his breast, "live but to see thathero victorious, and Scotland free, and then 'let thy servant depart inpeace, since mine eyes will have seen her salvation!'"

  "Her salvation, father?" said Helen, timidly. "Is not that too sacreda word to apply to anything, however dear, that relates to earth?"

  She blushed as she spoke; and fearful of having too daringly objected,looked down as she awaited his answer. The hermit observed herattentively; and, with a benign smile, replied, "Earth and heaven arethe work of the Creator. He careth alike for angel and for man; andtherefore nothing that he has made is too mean to be the object of hissalvation. The word is comprehensive; in one sense it may signify ourredemption from sin and death by the coming of the Lord of Life intothis world; and in another, it intimates the different means b whichProvidence decrees the ultimate happiness of men. Happiness can onlybe found in virtue; virtue cannot exit without liberty; and the seat ofliberty is good laws! Hence when Scotland is again made free, thebonds of the tyrant who corrupts her principles with temptations, orcompels her to iniquity by threats, are broken. Again the honestpeasant may cultivate his lands in security, the liberal hand feed thehungry, and industry spread smiling plenty through all ranks; every manto whom his Maker hath given talents, let them be one or five, mayapply them to their use; and, by eating the bread of peaceful labor,rear families to virtuous action and the worship of God. The nobles,meanwhile, looking alone to the legislation of Heaven and to the lawsof Scotland, which alike demand justice and mercy from all, will livethe fathers of their country, teaching her brave sons that the onlyhomage which does not debase a man, is that which he pays to virtue andto God.

  "This it is to be free; this it is to be virtuous; this it is to behappy; this it is to live the life of righteousness, and to die in thehope of immortal glory. Say then, dear daughter, if, in praying forthe liberty of Scotland, I said too much in calling it her salvation?"

  "Forgive me, father," cried Helen, overcome with shame at havingquestioned him.

  "Forgive you what?" returned he. "I love the holy zeal which isjealous of allowing objects, dear even to your wishes, to encroach onthe sanctuary of heaven. Be ever thus, meek child of the church, andno human idol will be able to usurp that part of your virgin heartwhich belongs to God."

  Helen blushed.

  "My heart, reverend father," returned she, "has but one wish--theliberty of Scotland; and, with that, the safety of my father and hisbrave deliverers."

  "Sir William Wallace I never have seen," rejoined the hermit; "but,when he was quite a youth, I heard of his graceful victories in themimic war of the jousts at Berwick, when Edward first marched into thiscountry under the mask of friendship. From what you have said, I donot doubt his being a worthy supporter of Bruce. However, deardaughter, as it is only a suspicion of mine that this knight is thatyoung prince, for his safety, and for the sake of the cause, we mustnot let that name escape our lips; no, not even to your relations whenyou rejoin them, nor to the youth whom his humanity put under myprotection. Till he reveals his own secret, for us to divulge it wouldbe folly and dishonor."

  Helen bowed acquiescence; and the hermit proceeded to inform her whothe youth was whom the stranger had left to be her page.

  In addition to what the knight had himself told her of Walter Hay, theunfortunate shepherd boy of the ruined hut, her venerable host narratedthat the young warrior having quitted the holy cell after his firstappearance there, soon returned with the wounded youth, whom he hadfound. He committed him to the care of the hermit, promising torevisit him on his way from the south, and take the recovered Walterunder his own protection. "He then left us," continued the old man,"but soon reappeared with you; showing, in the strongest language, thathe who, in spite of every danger, succors the sons and daughters ofviolated Scotland, is proclaimed by the Spirit of Heaven to be herfuture deliverer and king."

  As he ended speaking, he rose; and taking Helen by the hand, led herinto an inner excavation of the rock, where a bed of dried leaves layon the ground. "Here, gentle lady," said he, "I leave you to repose.In the evening I expect a lay brother from St. Oran's Monastery, and hewill be your messenger to the friends you may wish to rejoin. Atpresent, may gentlest seraphs guard your slumbers!"

  Helen, fatigued in spirit and in body, thanked the good hermit for hiscare; and bowing to his blessing, he left her to repose.