The Black Douglas

by James Baldwin

　　

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In Scotland, in the time of King Robert Bruce, there lived a brave manwhose name was Doug-las. His hair and beard were black and long, andhis face was tanned and dark; and for this reason people nicknamed himthe Black Douglas. He was a good friend of the king, and one of hisstrongest helpers.In the war with the English, who were trying to drive Bruce fromScotland, the Black Douglas did many brave deeds; and the Englishpeople became very much afraid of him. By and by the fear of himspread all through the land. Nothing could frighten an English ladmore than to tell him that the Black Douglas was not far away. Womenwould tell their chil-dren, when they were naughty, that the BlackDouglas would get them; and this would make them very quiet and good.There was a large cas-tle in Scotland which the English had takenearly in the war. The Scot-tish soldiers wanted very much to take itagain, and the Black Douglas and his men went one day to see what theycould do. It happened to be a hol-i-day, and most of the Englishsoldiers in the cas-tle were eating and drinking and having a merrytime. But they had left watch-men on the wall to see that the Scottishsoldiers did not come upon them un-a-wares; and so they felt quitesafe.In the e-ven-ing, when it was growing dark, the wife of one of thesoldiers went up on the wall with her child in her arms. As she lookedover into the fields below the castle, she saw some dark objectsmoving toward the foot of the wall. In the dusk she could not make outwhat they were, and so she pointed them out to one of the watch-men."Pooh, pooh!" said the watchman. "Those are nothing to frighten us.They are the farmer's cattle, trying to find their way home. Thefarmer himself is en-joy-ing the hol-i-day, and he has forgotten tobring them in. If the Douglas should happen this way before morning,he will be sorry for his care-less-ness."But the dark objects were not cattle. They were the Black Douglas andhis men, creeping on hands and feet toward the foot of the castlewall. Some of them were dragging ladders behind them through thegrass. They would soon be climbing to the top of the wall. None of theEnglish soldiers dreamed that they were within many miles of theplace.The woman watched them until the last one had passed around a cornerout of sight. She was not afraid, for in the dark-en-ing twi-lightthey looked indeed like cattle. After a little while she began to singto 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 sosure about that!"She looked around, and there stood the Black Douglas himself. At thesame moment a Scottish soldier climbed off a ladder and leaped uponthe wall; and then there came another and another and another, untilthe wall was covered with them. Soon there was hot fighting in everypart of the castle. But the English were so taken by surprise thatthey could not do much. Many of them were killed, and in a littlewhile the Black Douglas and his men were the masters of the castle,which by right be-longed to them.As for the woman and her child, the Black Douglas would not suffer anyone to harm them. After a while they went back to England; and whetherthe mother made up any more songs about the Black Douglas I cannottell.

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