Part 5 (1/2)
”Here is some one in extremity!” cried the soldier.
”Is it possible he lives!” exclaimed Halbert, bending down to the edge of the well with the same inquiry.
”Yes,” feebly answered the earl, ”I still exist, but am very faint. If all be safe above, I pray remove me into the upward air!” Halbert replied that it was indeed necessary he should ascend immediately; and lowering the rope, told him to tie the iron box to it and then himself.
This done, with some difficulty, and the a.s.sistance of the wondering soldier (who now expected to see the husband of the unfortunate Lady Wallace emerge to the knowledge of his loss), he at last effected the earl's release. For a few seconds the fainting n.o.bleman supported himself on his countryman's shoulder, while the fresh morning breeze gradually revived his exhausted frame. The soldier looked at his gray locks and furrowed brow, and marveled how such proofs of age could belong to the man whose resistless valor had discomfited the fierce determination of Arthus Heselrigge and his myrmidons. However, his doubts of the veteran before him being other than the brave Wallace, were soon satisfied by the earl himself, who asked for a draught of the water which trickled down the opposite hill; and while Halbert went to bring it, Lord Mar raised his eyes to inquire for Sir William and Lady Marion. He started when he saw English armor on the man he would have accosted, and rising suddenly from the stone on which he sat, demanded, in a stern voice, ”Who art thou?”
”An Englishman,” answered the soldier; ”one who does not, like the monster Heselrigge, disgrace the name. I would a.s.sist you, n.o.ble Wallace, to fly this spot. After that, I shall seek refuge abroad; and there, on the fields of Guienne, demonstrate my fidelity to my king.”
Mar looked at him steadily. ”You mistake; I am not Sir William Wallace.”
At that moment Halbert came up with the water. The earl drank it, though now, from the impulse surprise had given to his blood, he did not require its efficacy; and turning to the venerable bearer, he asked of him whether his master were safe.
”I trust he is,” replied the old man; ”but you, my lord, must hasten hence. A foul murder has been committed here, since you left it.”
”But where is Lady Wallace?” asked the earl; ”if there be such danger we must not leave her to meet it.”
”She will never meet danger more!” cried the old man, clasping his hand; ”she is in the bosom of the Virgin; and no second a.s.sa.s.sin's steel can reach her there.”
”What!” exclaimed the earl, hardly articulate with horror; ”is Lady Wallace murdered?” Halbert answered only by his tears.
”Yes,” said the soldier; ”and detestation of so unmanly an outrage provoked me to desert his standard. But no time must now be lost in unavailing lamentation. Heselrigge will return; and if we also would not be sacrificed to his rage, we must hence immediately.”
The earl, struck dumb at this recital, gave the soldier time to recount the particulars. When he had finished, Lord Mar saw the necessity for instant flight, and ordered horses to be brought from the stables.
Though he had fainted in the well, the present shock gave such tension to his nerves, that he found, in spite of his wound, he could now ride without difficulty.
Halbert went as commanded, and returned with two horses. Having amongst rocks and glens to go, he did not bring one for himself; and begging the good soldier might attend the earl to Bothwell, he added, ”He will guard you and this box, which Sir William Wallace holds as his life. What it contains I know not: and none, he says, may dare to search into. But you will take care of it for his sake, till more peaceful times allow him to reclaim his own!”
”Fatal box!” cried the soldier, regarding it with an abhorrent eye, ”that was the leading cause which brought Heselrigge to Ellerslie.”
”How?” inquired the earl. Grimsby then briefly related, that immediately after the return to Lanark of the detachment sent to Ellerslie, under the English garrison in Douglas, and told the governor that Sir William Wallace had that evening taken a quant.i.ty of treasure from the castle. His report was, that the English soldiers who stood near the Scottish knight when he mounted at the castle gate, saw a long iron coffer under his arm, but not suspecting its having belonged to Douglas, they thought not of it, till they overheard Sir John Monteith, as he pa.s.sed through one of the galleries, muttering something about gold and a box. To intercept the robber amongst his native glens, the soldiers deemed impracticable, and therefore their captain came immediately to lay the information before the Governor of Lanark. As the scabbard found in the affray with young Arthur had betrayed the victor to have been Sir William Wallace, this intimation of his having been also the instrument of wrestling from the grasp of Heselrigge perhaps the most valuable spoil in Douglas exasperated him to the most vindictive excess. Inflamed with the double furies of revenge and avarice, he ordered out a new troop, and placing himself at its head, took the way to Ellerslie. One of the servants, whom some of Hambledon's men had seized for the sake of information, on being threatened with the torture, confessed to Heselrigge, that not only Sir William Wallace was in the house when it was attacked, but that the person whom he had rescued in the streets of Lanark, and who proved to be a wealthy n.o.bleman, was there also. This whetted the eagerness of the governor to reach Ellerslie; and expecting to get a rich booty, without the most distant idea of the horrors he was going to perpetrate, a large detachment of men followed him.
”To extort money from you, my lord,” continued the soldier, ”and to obtain that fatal coffer, were his main objects; but disappointed in his darling pa.s.sion of avarice, he forgot he was a man, and the blood of innocence glutted his barbarous vengeance.”
”Hateful gold!” cried Lord Mar, spurning the box with his foot; ”it cannot be for itself the n.o.ble Wallace so greatly prizes it; it must be a trust.”
”I believe it is,” returned Halbert, ”for he enjoined my lady to preserve it for the sake of his honor. Take care of it, then, my lord, for the same sacred reason.”
The Englishman made no objection to accompany the earl; and by a suggestion of his own, Halbert brought him a Scottish bonnet and cloak from the house. While he put them on, the earl observed that the harper held a drawn and blood-stained sword in his hand, on which he steadfastly gazed. ”Whence came that forried weapon?” cried Lord Mar.
”It is my lady's blood,” replied Halbert, still looking on it. ”I found it where she lay, in the hall, and I will carry it to my master.
Was not every drop of her blood dear to him? and here are many.” As the old man spoke he bent his head on the sword, and groaned heavily.
”England shall hear more of this!” cried Mar, as he threw himself across the horse. ”Give me that fatal box; I will buckle it to my saddle-bow. Inadequate will be my utmost care of it, to repay the vast sorrow its preservation and mine have brought upon the head of my deliverer.”
The Englishman in silence mounted his horse, and Halbert opened a back-gate that led to the hills which lay between Ellerslie and Bothwell Castle. Lord Mar took a golden-trophied bugle from his breast: ”Give this to your master, and tell him that by whatever hands he sends it, the sight of it shall always command the services of Donald Mar. I go to Bothwell, in expectation that he will join me there. In making it his home he will render me happy, for my friends.h.i.+p is now bound to him by bonds which only death can sever.”
Halbert took the horn, and promising faithfully to repeat the earl's message, prayed G.o.d to bless him and the honest soldier. A rocky promontory soon excluded them from his sight, and in a few minutes more even the sound of their horses' hoofs was lost on the soft herbage of the winding dell.
”Now I am alone in this once happy spot. Not a voice, not a sound.