The Fair Maid of Perth; Or, St. Valentine's Day Read online

  CHAPTER IX.

  If I know how to manage these affairs, Thus thrust disorderly upon my hands, Never believe me--

  Richard II.

  It was early in the afternoon of St. Valentine's Day that the prior ofthe Dominicans was engaged in discharge of his duties as confessor toa penitent of no small importance. This was an elderly man, of a goodlypresence, a florid and healthful cheek, the under part of which wasshaded by a venerable white beard, which descended over his bosom. Thelarge and clear blue eyes, with the broad expanse of brow, expresseddignity; but it was of a character which seemed more accustomed toreceive honours voluntarily paid than to enforce them when they wererefused. The good nature of the expression was so great as to approachto defenceless simplicity or weakness of character, unfit, it mightbe inferred, to repel intrusion or subdue resistance. Amongst the greylocks of this personage was placed a small circlet or coronet of gold,upon a blue fillet. His beads, which were large and conspicuous, were ofnative gold, rudely enough wrought, but ornamented with Scottish pearlsof rare size and beauty. These were his only ornaments; and a longcrimson robe of silk, tied by a sash of the same colour, formed hisattire. His shrift being finished, he arose heavily from the embroideredcushion upon which he kneeled during his confession, and, by theassistance of a crutch headed staff of ebony, moved, lame andungracefully, and with apparent pain, to a chair of state, which,surmounted by a canopy, was placed for his accommodation by the chimneyof the lofty and large apartment.

  This was Robert, third of that name, and the second of the ill fatedfamily of Stuart who filled the throne of Scotland. He had many virtues,and was not without talent; but it was his great misfortune that, likeothers of his devoted line, his merits were not of a kind suited to thepart which he was called upon to perform in life. The king of so fiercea people as the Scots then were ought to have been warlike, prompt, andactive, liberal in rewarding services, strict in punishing crimes, onewhose conduct should make him feared as well as beloved. The qualitiesof Robert the Third were the reverse of all these. In youth he hadindeed seen battles; but, without incurring disgrace, he had nevermanifested the chivalrous love of war and peril, or the eager desire todistinguish himself by dangerous achievements, which that age expectedfrom all who were of noble birth and had claims to authority.

  Besides, his military career was very short. Amidst the tumult of atournament, the young Earl of Carrick, such was then his title, receiveda kick from the horse of Sir James Douglas of Dalkeith, in consequenceof which he was lame for the rest of his life, and absolutely disabledfrom taking share either in warfare or in the military sports andtournaments which were its image. As Robert had never testified muchpredilection for violent exertion, he did not probably much regretthe incapacities which exempted him from these active scenes. But hismisfortune, or rather its consequences, lowered him in the eyes ofa fierce nobility and warlike people. He was obliged to repose theprincipal charge of his affairs now in one member, now in another, ofhis family, sometimes with the actual rank, and always with the power,of lieutenant general of the kingdom. His paternal affection would haveinduced him to use the assistance of his eldest son, a young man ofspirit and talent, whom in fondness he had created Duke of Rothsay, inorder to give him the present possession of a dignity next to that ofthe throne. But the young prince's head was too giddy, and his handtoo feeble to wield with dignity the delegated sceptre. However fond ofpower, pleasure was the Prince's favourite pursuit; and the court wasdisturbed, and the country scandalised, by the number of fugitive amoursand extravagant revels practised by him who should have set an exampleof order and regularity to the youth of the kingdom.

  The license and impropriety of the Duke of Rothsay's conduct was themore reprehensible in the public view, that he was a married person;although some, over whom his youth, gaiety, grace, and good temper hadobtained influence, were of opinion that an excuse for his libertinismmight be found in the circumstances of the marriage itself. Theyreminded each other that his nuptials were entirely conducted by hisuncle, the Duke of Albany, by whose counsels the infirm and timid Kingwas much governed at the time, and who had the character of managing thetemper of his brother and sovereign, so as might be most injurious tothe interests and prospects of the young heir. By Albany's machinationsthe hand of the heir apparent was in a manner put up to sale, as it wasunderstood publicly that the nobleman in Scotland who should give thelargest dower to his daughter might aspire to raise her to the bed ofthe Duke of Rothsay.

  In the contest for preference which ensued, George Earl of Dunbar andMarch, who possessed, by himself or his vassals, a great part of theeastern frontier, was preferred to other competitors; and his daughterwas, with the mutual goodwill of the young couple, actually contractedto the Duke of Rothsay.

  But there remained a third party to be consulted, and that was no otherthan the tremendous Archibald Earl of Douglas, terrible alike from theextent of his lands, from the numerous offices and jurisdictions withwhich he was invested, and from his personal qualities of wisdom andvalour, mingled with indomitable pride, and more than the feudal loveof vengeance. The Earl was also nearly related to the throne, havingmarried the eldest daughter of the reigning monarch.

  After the espousals of the Duke of Rothsay with the Earl of March'sdaughter, Douglas, as if he had postponed his share in the negotiationto show that it could not be concluded with any one but himself, enteredthe lists to break off the contract. He tendered a larger dower with hisdaughter Marjory than the Earl of March had proffered; and, secured byhis own cupidity and fear of the Douglas, Albany exerted his influencewith the timid monarch till he was prevailed upon to break the contractwith the Earl of March, and wed his son to Marjory Douglas, a woman whomRothsay could not love. No apology was offered to the Earl of March,excepting that the espousals betwixt the Prince and Elizabeth of Dunbarhad not been approved by the States of Parliament, and that till suchratification the contract was liable to be broken off. The Earl deeplyresented the wrong done to himself and his daughter, and was generallyunderstood to study revenge, which his great influence on the Englishfrontier was likely to place within his power.

  In the mean time, the Duke of Rothsay, incensed at the sacrifice of hishand and his inclinations to this state intrigue, took his own modeof venting his displeasure, by neglecting his wife, contemning hisformidable and dangerous father in law, and showing little respectto the authority of the King himself, and none whatever to theremonstrances of Albany, his uncle, whom he looked upon as his confirmedenemy.

  Amid these internal dissensions of his family, which extended themselvesthrough his councils and administration, introducing everywhere thebaneful effects of uncertainty and disunion, the feeble monarch hadfor some time been supported by the counsels of his queen, Annabella, adaughter of the noble house of Drummond, gifted with a depth of sagacityand firmness of mind which exercised some restraint over the levitiesof a son who respected her, and sustained on many occasions the waveringresolution of her royal husband. But after her death the imbecilesovereign resembled nothing so much as a vessel drifted from heranchors, and tossed about amidst contending currents. Abstractedlyconsidered, Robert might be said to doat upon his son, to entertainrespect and awe for the character of his brother Albany, so much moredecisive than his own, to fear the Douglas with a terror which wasalmost instinctive; and to suspect the constancy of the bold but fickleEarl of March. But his feelings towards these various characters wereso mixed and complicated, that from time to time they showed entirelydifferent from what they really were; and according to the interestwhich had been last exerted over his flexible mind, the King wouldchange from an indulgent to a strict and even cruel father, from aconfiding to a jealous brother, or from a benignant and bountiful to agrasping and encroaching sovereign. Like the chameleon, his feeble mindreflected the colour of that firmer character upon which at the time hereposed for counsel and assistance. And when he disused the adviceof one of his family, and employed the counsel of another, it was no
unwonted thing to see a total change of measures, equally disrespectableto the character of the King and dangerous to the safety of the state.

  It followed as a matter of course that the clergy of the Catholic Churchacquired influence over a man whose intentions were so excellent, butwhose resolutions were so infirm. Robert was haunted, not only with adue sense of the errors he had really committed, but with the tormentingapprehensions of those peccadilloes which beset a superstitiousand timid mind. It is scarce necessary, therefore, to add, that thechurchmen of various descriptions had no small influence over thiseasy tempered prince, though, indeed, theirs was, at that period, aninfluence from which few or none escaped, however resolute and firm ofpurpose in affairs of a temporal character. We now return from this longdigression, without which what we have to relate could not perhaps havebeen well understood.

  The King had moved with ungraceful difficulty to the cushioned chairwhich, under a state or canopy, stood prepared for his accommodation,and upon which he sank down with enjoyment, like an indolent man, whohad been for some time confined to a constrained position. When seated,the gentle and venerable looks of the good old man showed benevolence.The prior, who now remained standing opposite to the royal seat, withan air of deep deference which cloaked the natural haughtiness of hiscarriage, was a man betwixt forty and fifty years of age, but every oneof whose hairs still retained their natural dark colour. Acute featuresand a penetrating look attested the talents by which the venerablefather had acquired his high station in the community over which hepresided; and, we may add, in the councils of the kingdom, in whoseservice they were often exercised. The chief objects which his educationand habits taught him to keep in view were the extension of the dominionand the wealth of the church, and the suppression of heresy, both ofwhich he endeavoured to accomplish by all the means which his situationafforded him. But he honoured his religion by the sincerity of his ownbelief, and by the morality which guided his conduct in all ordinarysituations. The faults of the Prior Anselm, though they led him intogrievous error, and even cruelty, were perhaps rather those of his ageand profession; his virtues were his own.

  "These things done," said the King, "and the lands I have mentionedsecured by my gift to this monastery, you are of opinion, father, thatI stand as much in the good graces of our Holy Mother Church as to termmyself her dutiful son?"

  "Surely, my liege," said the prior; "would to God that all her childrenbrought to the efficacious sacrament of confession as deep a sense oftheir errors, and as much will to make amends for them. But I speakthese comforting words, my liege, not to Robert King of Scotland, butonly to my humble and devout penitent, Robert Stuart of Carrick."

  "You surprise me, father," answered the King: "I have little check on myconscience for aught that I have done in my kingly office, seeing thatI use therein less mine own opinion than the advice of the most wisecounsellors."

  "Even therein lieth the danger, my liege," replied the prior. "The HolyFather recognises in your Grace, in every thought, word, and action, anobedient vassal of the Holy Church. But there are perverse counsellors,who obey the instinct of their wicked hearts, while they abuse the goodnature and ductility of their monarch, and, under colour of serving histemporal interests, take steps which are prejudicial to those that lastto eternity."

  King Robert raised himself upright in his chair, and assumed an air ofauthority, which, though it well became him, he did not usually display.

  "Prior Anselm," he said, "if you have discovered anything in my conduct,whether as a king or a private individual, which may call down suchcensures as your words intimate, it is your duty to speak plainly, and Icommand you to do so."

  "My liege, you shall be obeyed," answered the prior, with an inclinationof the body. Then raising himself up, and assuming the dignity of hisrank in the church, he said, "Hear from me the words of our Holy Fatherthe Pope, the successor of St. Peter, to whom have descended the keys,both to bind and to unloose. 'Wherefore, O Robert of Scotland, hastthou not received into the see of St. Andrews Henry of Wardlaw, whom thePontiff hath recommended to fill that see? Why dost thou make professionwith thy lips of dutiful service to the Church, when thy actionsproclaim the depravity and disobedience of thy inward soul? Obedience isbetter than sacrifice."

  "Sir prior," said the monarch, bearing himself in a manner notunbecoming his lofty rank, "we may well dispense with answering you uponthis subject, being a matter which concerns us and the estates of ourkingdom, but does not affect our private conscience."

  "Alas," said the prior, "and whose conscience will it concern at thelast day? Which of your belted lords or wealthy burgesses will then stepbetween their king and the penalty which he has incurred by following oftheir secular policy in matters ecclesiastical? Know, mighty king, that,were all the chivalry of thy realm drawn up to shield thee from the redlevin bolt, they would be consumed like scorched parchment before theblaze of a furnace."

  "Good father prior," said the King, on whose timorous conscience thiskind of language seldom failed to make an impression, "you surely argueover rigidly in this matter. It was during my last indisposition, whilethe Earl of Douglas held, as lieutenant general, the regal authority inScotland, that the obstruction to the reception of the Primate unhappilyarose. Do not, therefore, tax me with what happened when I was unable toconduct the affairs of the kingdom, and compelled to delegate my powerto another."

  "To your subject, sire, you have said enough," replied the prior. "But,if the impediment arose during the lieutenancy of the Earl of Douglas,the legate of his Holiness will demand wherefore it has not beeninstantly removed, when the King resumed in his royal hands the reinsof authority? The Black Douglas can do much--more perhaps than a subjectshould have power to do in the kingdom of his sovereign; but he cannotstand betwixt your Grace and your own conscience, or release you fromthe duties to the Holy Church which your situation as a king imposesupon you."

  "Father," said Robert, somewhat impatiently, "you are over peremptoryin this matter, and ought at least to wait a reasonable season, untilwe have time to consider of some remedy. Such disputes have happenedrepeatedly in the reigns of our predecessors; and our royal and blessedancestor, St. David, did not resign his privileges as a monarchwithout making a stand in their defence, even though he was involved inarguments with the Holy Father himself."

  "And therein was that great and good king neither holy nor saintly,"said the prior "and therefore was he given to be a rout and a spoil tohis enemies, when he raised his sword against the banners of St. Peter,and St. Paul, and St. John of Beverley, in the war, as it is stillcalled, of the Standard. Well was it for him that, like his namesake,the son of Jesse, his sin was punished upon earth, and not enteredagainst him at the long and dire day of accounting."

  "Well, good prior--well--enough of this for the present. The Holy Seeshall, God willing, have no reason to complain of me. I take Our Ladyto witness, I would not for the crown I wear take the burden of wrongingour Mother Church. We have ever feared that the Earl of Douglas kept hiseyes too much fixed on the fame and the temporalities of this frail andpassing life to feel altogether as he ought the claims that refer to afuture world."

  "It is but lately," said the prior, "that he hath taken up forciblequarters in the monastery of Aberbrothock, with his retinue of athousand followers; and the abbot is compelled to furnish him withall he needs for horse and man, which the Earl calls exercising thehospitality which he hath a right to expect from the foundation to whichhis ancestors were contributors. Certain, it were better to returnto the Douglas his lands than to submit to such exaction, which moreresembles the masterful license of Highland thiggers and sorners [sturdybeggars], than the demeanour of a Christian baron."

  "The Black Douglasses," said the King, with a sigh, "are a race whichwill not be said nay. But, father prior, I am myself, it may be, anintruder of this kind; for my sojourning hath been long among you, andmy retinue, though far fewer than the Douglas's, are nevertheless enoughto cumber you for their daily mainten
ance; and though our order is tosend out purveyors to lessen your charge as much as may be, yet if therebe inconvenience, it were fitting we should remove in time."

  "Now, Our Lady forbid!" said the prior, who, if desirous of power, hadnothing meanly covetous in his temper, but was even magnificent in hisgenerous kindness; "certainly the Dominican convent can afford to hersovereign the hospitality which the house offers to every wanderer ofwhatever condition who will receive it at the hands of the poor servantsof our patron. No, my royal liege; come with ten times your presenttrain, they shall neither want a grain of oats, a pile of straw, amorsel of bread, nor an ounce of food which our convent can supply them.It is one thing to employ the revenues of the church, which are so muchlarger than monks ought to need or wish for, in the suitable and dutifulreception of your royal Majesty, and another to have it wrenched fromus by the hands of rude and violent men, whose love of rapine is onlylimited by the extent of their power."

  "It is well, good prior," said the King; "and now to turn our thoughtsfor an instant from state affairs, can thy reverence inform us how thegood citizens of Perth have begun their Valentine's Day? Gallantly, andmerrily, and peacefully; I hope."

  "For gallantly, my liege, I know little of such qualities. Forpeacefully, there were three or four men, two cruelly wounded, came thismorning before daylight to ask the privilege of girth and sanctuary,pursued by a hue and cry of citizens in their shirts, with clubs, bills,Lochaber axes, and two handed swords, crying 'Kill and slay,' eachlouder than another. Nay, they were not satisfied when our porter andwatch told them that those they pursued had taken refuge in the galileeof the church, but continued for some minutes clamouring and strikingupon the postern door, demanding that the men who had offended shouldbe delivered up to them. I was afraid their rude noise might have brokenyour Majesty's rest, and raised some surprise."

  "My rest might have been broken," said the monarch; "but that sounds ofviolence should have occasioned surprise--Alas! reverend father, thereis in Scotland only one place where the shriek of the victim and threatsof the oppressor are not heard, and that, father, is--the grave."

  The prior stood in respectful silence, sympathising with the feelings ofa monarch whose tenderness of heart suited so ill with the condition andmanners of his people.

  "And what became of the fugitives?" asked Robert, after a minute'spause.

  "Surely, sire," said the prior, "they were dismissed, as they desiredto be, before daylight; and after we had sent out to be assured that noambush of their enemies watched them in the vicinity, they went theirway in peace."

  "You know nothing," inquired the King, "who the men were, or the causeof their taking refuge with you?"

  "The cause," said the prior, "was a riot with the townsmen; but howarising is not known to us. The custom of our house is to affordtwenty-four hours of uninterrupted refuge in the sanctuary of St.Dominic, without asking any question at the poor unfortunates who havesought relief there. If they desire to remain for a longer space, thecause of their resorting to sanctuary must be put upon the register ofthe convent; and, praised be our holy saint, many persons escape theweight of the law by this temporary protection, whom, did we know thecharacter of their crimes, we might have found ourselves obliged torender up to their pursuers and persecutors."

  As the prior spoke, a dim idea occurred to the monarch, that theprivilege of sanctuary thus peremptorily executed must prove a severeinterruption to the course of justice through his realm. But he repelledthe feeling, as if it had been a suggestion of Satan, and took care thatnot a single word should escape to betray to the churchman that such aprofane thought had ever occupied his bosom; on the contrary, he hastedto change the subject.

  "The sun," he said, "moves slowly on the index. After the painfulinformation you have given me, I expected the Lords of my Council erenow, to take order with the ravelled affairs of this unhappy riot. Evilwas the fortune which gave me rule over a people among whom it seemsto me I am in my own person the only man who desires rest andtranquillity!"

  "The church always desires peace and tranquillity," added the prior,not suffering even so general a proposition to escape the poor king'soppressed mind without insisting on a saving clause for the church'shonour.

  "We meant nothing else," said Robert. "But, father prior, you willallow that the church, in quelling strife, as is doubtless her purpose,resembles the busy housewife, who puts in motion the dust which shemeans to sweep away."

  To this remark the prior would have made some reply, but the door ofthe apartment was opened, and a gentleman usher announced the Duke ofAlbany.