Chapter VI: Preface

The dramatic sketch of THE SIEGE OF BERWICK, is founded on a disputed passage of Scottish history, respecting the barbarous policy of Edward III. in putting a hostage to death. The silence of the English historians has been advanced as an argument against a deed, which was calculated to stain the chaplet of their favourite hero; a silence which must have arisen from obvious motives, and cannot be brought to bear against the testimony of Fordun and Winton, who lived at a period near enough to the time of action to have ascertained its truth.

Lord Hailes took considerable trouble to clear up the mystery that hung over this transaction; and the following extract, which he found in the _Scala Chronica_, besides bringing several curious circumstances to light, seems to establish the fact.

“The besieged entered into a treaty with the besiegers, and agreed to surrender the town, unless succoured before a certain day, and to that effect they gave hostages. Before the day thus limited, the whole power of Scotland, in astonishing numbers, crossed the river of Tweed one morning at day-break, at the Yareford, and shewed themselves before Berwick, on the south side of the river, towards England, in full view of the King and his army. They conveyed some men and provisions into the town, and remained on their ground all the day and the night following; and next day before noon, they removed into the territories of the King in Northumberland, burning and ravaging the country.

“The King’s counsellors required the town to be given up, as the term stipulated for their being succoured had elapsed. The besieged made answer, that they had received succours both of men and of provisions; and they shewed that there were new governors in the town, and also knights, who had been sent from their army. SIR WILLIAM KEITH was one, and there were others besides. It was the opinion of the English council that the Scots had forfeited their hostages, and therefore they caused the _son_ of SIR ALEXANDER SETON, governor of the town, to be hanged.”

“The narrative of _Scala Chronica_ (observes his Lordship) appears in general to be authentic. From it we discover the solution of that difficulty in the accounts given by the Scottish historians, which hitherto has been inexplicable; namely, how Sir Alexander Seton could have been governor of the town of Berwick in July 1333, while it appeared from record, that at that very time Sir William Keith was governor.

“That parties contracting may agree to give some of their own number as hostages, to be put to death if the treaty is violated on their part, appears to be a proposition of more difficulty than is generally apprehended; but, that they may agree to give their children as hostages under such condition, is repugnant to every notion of morality; and therefore I neither pretend to justify Sir Alexander Seton for exposing his child to death, nor Edward III. for killing him.”—LORD HAILES’ _Annals Scot._ vol. ii. p. 384. 8vo edit.

While this tragedy was enacting, Seton felt all the compunctions natural to a father placed in such a horrible situation, where his duty to himself and to his country were both at stake; and, but for the heroic speech and conduct of his wife, whom Bellenden calls “a wise woman, above the spirit of man!” he would have surrendered the place. This lady acted quite in the spirit of a Spartan mother; but indeed this was the age of heroic ladies. Besides Christian Bruce, the defender of Kildrummy, and Agnes Randolph, the protector of Dunbar; Philippa, Queen of England, the Countess of Salisbury, and the Countess of Montfort, were all distinguished by those warlike exertions, which, we opine, might have been happily transferred from themselves to the rougher sex.

The mistake into which some historians have fallen in sacrificing two of the sons of Sir Alexander Seton, may have arisen from the circumstance of one of them being killed in an attack on the English shipping:

Williame of Seytown fawcht sa fast
Amang the schyppys, qwhill at the last
Hys fadyre, than cheftane of the towne,
Into the sea there saw hym drown.
_Wyntown’s Cronykil_, book viii. chap, xxvii.

Tradition, which delights to magnify objects, points to “two human sculls in the poor-house of Tweedmouth, which the oldest inhabitants of the village affirm to have been handed down from generation to generation, as the sculls of Sir Alexander Seton’s sons.”—See _Fuller’s Hist. Berwick_, Edin. 1799.

The eminence, where the execution took place, is situated on the south side of the river, about a hundred yards distant from a fishing water, formerly called the Pool, but since that event termed _Hang-a-dyke Nook_.

THE

SIEGE OF BERWICK;

OR, THE

MURDERED HOSTAGE.

DRAMATIS PERSONÆ.

=Scottish.=

PATRICK DUNBAR, EARL OF MARCH, _Governor of Berwick Castle_. SIR WILLIAM KEITH, _Governor of the Town_. SIR ALEXANDER SETON, _Deputy-Governor_. MASTER THOMAS SETON, _one of the Hostages_. SIR ALEXANDER RAMSAY. WILLIAM DE PRENDERGEST. THE MAYOR OF BERWICK. FRIAR ADAM. TURNBULL, _a Champion_. GOLDING, } _Soldiers of the Garrison_. AUBERY, } ALAN, _and other Hostages_. AMBROSE CARMICHAEL, _Town Fiddler, &c. &c._ OFFICERS AND SERGEANTS-AT-MACE, FRIARS, FLEMINGS, OLD MAN, MESSENGERS, &c.

LADY CHRISTIAN SETON. ANNA, _her Maid_. THE GUDEWIFE OF AULD CAMBUS. MAGGY CARMICHAEL, _the Fiddler’s Wife_.

=English.=

EDWARD III., _King of England_. EDWARD BALIOL. THE ARCHBISHOP OF DURHAM. THE EARL OF ARUNDEL. LORD WILLIAM MONTAGUE. LORD HENRY PERCY. LORD D’ARCY. JOHN OF HAINAULT. SIR ROBERT BENHALE. THOMAS ROKESBY, _Esquire_. IRISH TROOPERS. HERALDS, OFFICERS, ARCHERS, EXECUTIONER, GUARDS, &c.

SCENE—_Berwick, the English Camp at Tweedmouth, and the Lands adjacent._

THE SIEGE OF BERWICK.