ENGLISH STORY (THE BLACK DOUGLAS)

THE BLACK DOUGLAS
IN Scotland, in the time of King Robert Bruce, there lived a brave man
whose name was Douglas. His hair and beard were black and long, and
his face was tanned and dark; and for this reason people nicknamed him
the Black Douglas. He was a good friend of the king, and one of his
strongest helpers.
In the war with the English, who were trying to drive Bruce from
Scotland, the Black Douglas did many brave deeds; and the English
people became very much afraid of him. By and by the fear of him spread
all through the land. Nothing could frighten an English lad more than to
tell him that the Black Douglas was not far away. Women would tell
their children, when they were naughty, that the Black Douglas would
get them; and this would make them very quiet and good.
There was a large castle in Scotland which the English had taken early
in the war. The Scottish soldiers wanted very much to take it again, and
the Black Douglas and his men went one day to see what they could do.
It happened to be a holiday, and most of the English soldiers in the castle
were eating and drinking and having a merry time. But they had left
watchmen on the wall to see that the Scottish soldiers did not come upon
them unawares; and so they felt quite safe.
In the evening, when it was growing dark, the wife of one of the soldiers
went up on the wall with her child in her arms. As she looked over into
the fields below the castle, she saw some dark objects moving toward the
foot of the wall. In the dusk, she could not make out what they were, and
so she pointed them out to one of the watchmen.
"Pooh, pooh!" said the watchman. "Those are nothing to frighten us. They
are the farmer's cattle, trying to find their way home. The farmer himself
is enjoying the holiday, and he has forgotten to bring them in. If the
Douglas should happen this way before morning, he will be sorry for his
carelessness."
But the dark objects were not cattle. They were the Black Douglas and
his men, creeping on hands and feet toward the foot of the castle wall.
Some of them were dragging ladders behind them through the grass.
They would soon be climbing to the top of the wall. None of the English
soldiers dreamed that they were within many miles of the place.
The woman watched them until the last one had passed around a corner
out of sight. She was not afraid, for in the darkening twilight they looked
indeed like cattle. After a little while she began to sing to her child:—
"Hush ye, hush ye, little pet ye,
Hush ye, hush ye, do not fret ye,
The Black Douglas shall not get ye."
All at once a gruff voice was heard behind her, saying, "Don't be so sure
about that!"
She looked around, and there stood the Black Douglas himself. At the
same moment a Scottish soldier climbed off a ladder and leaped upon the
wall; and then there came another and another and another, until the
wall was covered with them. Soon there was hot fighting in every part of
the castle. But the English were so taken by surprise that they could not
do much. Many of them were killed, and in a little while the Black
Douglas and his men were the masters of the castle, which by right
belonged to them.
As for the woman and her child, the Black Douglas would not suffer any
one to harm them. After a while they went back to England; and
whether the mother made up any more songs about the Black Douglas I
cannot tell.