Page:A biographical dictionary of eminent Scotsmen, vol 3.djvu/79

Rh an entrance, the conjecture of the knight proved well founded; for, after a brief but sharp contest with the inmates, he was fortunate enough to secure the persons of Alexander Stuart, Lord Bonkle, and Thomas Randolph, the king's nephew; who were, at that time, not only attached to the English interest, but engaged in raising forces to check the progress of Douglas in the south of Scotland. The important consequences of this action, by which Robert gained as wise and faithful a counsellor as he ever possessed, and Douglas a rival, though a generous one even in his own field of glory, deserves that it should be particularly noticed in this place. Immediately upon this adventure, Douglas, carrying along with him his two prisoners, rejoined the king's forces in the north; where, under his gallant sovereign, he assisted in the victory gained over the lord of Lorn, by which the Highlands were at length constrained to a submission to the royal authority.

Without following the current of those events, in which Douglas either participated, or bore a principal part, but which have more properly fallen to be described in another place, we come to the relation of one more exclusively belonging to the narration of this life. The castle of Roxburgh, a fortress of great importance on the borders of Scotland, had long been in the hands of the English king, by whom it was strongly garrisoned, and committed to the charge of Gillemin de Fiennes, a knight of Burgundy. Douglas, and his followers, to the number of about sixty men, then lurked in the adjoining forest of Jedburgh, where they did not remain long inactive, before the enterprising genius of their leader had suggested a plan for the surprisal of the fortress. A person of the name of Simon of Leadhouse was employed to construct rope-ladders for scaling the walls, and the night of Shrove-Tuesday, then near at hand, was fixed upon as the most proper for putting the project in execution; "for then," says Fordun, "all the men, from dread of the Lent season, which was to begin next day, indulged in wine and licentiousness." When the appointed night arrived, Douglas and his brave followers approached the castle, wearing black frocks or shirts, over their armour, that, in the darkness, they might be the more effectually concealed from the observation of the sentinels. On getting near to the castle walls, they crept softly onwards on their hands and knees; and, indeed, soon became aware of the necessity they were under of observing every precaution; for a sentinel on the walls having observed, notwithstanding the darkness, their indistinct crawling forms, which he took to be those of cattle, remarked to his companion, that farmer such a one (naming a husbandman who lived in the neighbourhood) surely made good cheer that night, seeing that he took so little care of his cattle. "He may make merry to-night, comrade," the other replied, "but, if the Black Douglas come at them, he will fare the worse another time;" and, so conversing, these two passed to another part of the wall. Sir James and his men had approached so close to the castle, as distinctly to overhear this discourse, and also to mark with certainty the departure of the men who uttered it. The wall was no sooner free of their presence, than Simon of the Leadhouse, fixing one of the ladders to its summit, was the first to mount. This bold adventure was perceived by one of the garrison so soon as he reached the top of the wall; but, giving the startled soldier no time to raise an alarm, Simon sprang suddenly upon him, and despatched him with his dagger. Before the others could come to his support, Simon had to sustain the attack of another antagonist, whom, also, he laid dead at his feet; and Sir James and his men, in a very brief space, having surmounted the wall, the loud shout of "a Douglas! a Douglas!" and the rush of the enemy into the hall, where the garrison yet maintained the revels of the evening, gave the first intimation to governor and men that the fortress had been assaulted and taken.