» 
 
 FLODDEN Firro 
 
 ALFRED AUSTIN 
 
 1
 
 ; ^^y^yy^^»* 
 
 Ex Libris 
 C. K. OGDEN 
 
 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 FLODDEN FIELD
 
 »-
 
 Jv-'CV- 
 
 FLODDEN FIELD 
 
 A TRAGEDY 
 
 BY 
 
 ALFRED AUSTIN 
 
 POET LAUREATE 
 
 3Lontj0n 
 
 MACMILLAN AND CO., Limited 
 
 1903 
 
 All rights reserved
 
 PRELUDE 
 
 [Midnight. A broad parapet, outside the Royal Palace of 
 Linlithgow, on to which James emerges, while Music 
 is being played, and the sound of gay laughter is heard, 
 within. At the open windows, the faces of Ladies at 
 the King's Court appear and disappear.] 
 
 JAMES 
 Good night, fair ladies all ! Truce to your charms ! 
 Warm dreams, sound sleep ! But, as you know, 
 
 in France 
 They say the silent recollected Night 
 Brings counsel sage, and I have need of it. 
 So let the music of your laughter and 
 Soft-shading eyelids see you to your beds. 
 
 B
 
 2 FLODDEN FIELD 
 
 But, as you go, be measured in your mirth ; 
 
 Wake not the Queen ! Good night ! Good night ! 
 
 Good night ! 
 
 {He walks slowly along the parapet. Shortly, as he 
 turns, he beholds a veiled Apparition.] 
 
 Who mayst thou be ? 
 
 APPARITION 
 
 The Wisdom of the Night, 
 Whom you invoked ! Go not to war with Eng- 
 land ! 
 Or if the hotness of your blood demand 
 That sanguinary ordeal, beware, 
 Beware of woman's glamour, woman's wiles ! 
 
 JAMES 
 
 Now I'll be sworn that this is merely one 
 Of England's crafty emissaries, or
 
 FLO D DEN FIELD 3 
 
 Some frolic beauty of my Court, dispatched 
 To play upon my fancy some fresh trick. 
 Well, if the first, my sword shall probe the riddle j 
 And, if the second, she the forfeit pay 
 
 Of such nocturnal visitants. 
 
 [He draws his sword, and prepares to thrust at the Appari- 
 tion. Il stalks slowly towards him, walks upon his 
 sword point, against him, through him, and vanishes.] 
 
 Gone ! 
 
 [He turns to see if il be behind, but there is no one, and the 
 last lights in the Castle are extinguished.] 
 
 Gone !
 
 ACT I 
 
 SCENE :— Gallery at Ford Castle 
 
 (Seneschal. Margery) 
 
 [Margery arranging fresh-plucked roses in the Gallery. 
 Seneschal gazing out of the window in the raised 
 embrasure. ] 
 
 MARGERY 
 
 Roses are in September yet more sweet 
 
 Than in the lavish loveliness of June, 
 
 And by us are more fondly cherished ; 
 
 Loved guests that are about to go away 
 
 When we would have them linger ; fading friends, 
 
 Our love for whom we do but half surmise 
 
 Until the grave imperiously claims 
 
 They be to it surrendered. My lady loves 
 
 5
 
 6 FLODDEN FIELD act 
 
 Autumnal flowers, albeit herself she be 
 Still in the heyday of her Summer beauty, 
 And these for her were gathered. There ! And 
 there ! 
 
 [Mounting the steps of the embrasure.] 
 Oh ! will the fight be fought as near as that ? 
 I see the armies plain, the camps astir ! 
 I almost hear their voices ! 
 
 SENESCHAL 
 
 Goodly sight, 
 Bravest of earthly shows ! It makes one fancy 
 Oneself a boy again, to look on it ; 
 Thaws the congealing blood, loosens stiff joints, 
 And feeds afresh the flickering flame of life. 
 When I was young, the sword was rarely sheathed, 
 The spears were never stacked ! War, always war. 
 Along the joyous Border !
 
 FLO D DEN FIELD 
 
 MARGERY 
 
 Death too, death, 
 
 Ever in ambush ! 
 
 SENESCHAL 
 
 Have we not all to die ? 
 I have known men who, lingering at fourscore, 
 Had never lived an hour, and youths that died 
 In the full summer sunshine of their days. 
 But they had flowered continuously through 
 The season of the hawthorn and the rose. 
 And Autumn never seared their manly beauty, 
 Nor Winter piled its snow upon their hearts. 
 They lived still fighting— fighting still they died. 
 There's nothing like it, though perchance you deem 
 That Love is sweeter.
 
 8 FLO D DEN FIELD act 
 
 MARGERY 
 
 So in truth I do, 
 Or, rather, think I should, did I but know it. 
 
 SENESCHAL 
 
 I warrant me you know it well, and now 
 Nature from you her secret not withholds, 
 Though 'tis more maidenly you should not own it. 
 Viewing me now, mere winter of a man, 
 You well may find it full as hard to think 
 I ever loved as that I ever fought. 
 Yet, Margery, on my soul, I have done both. 
 And War was sweeter even than was Love, 
 Though Love itself's a sort of warfare too. 
 Wherein the boldest wins. 
 
 MARGERY 
 
 Is that quite so?
 
 I FLO D DEN FIELD < 
 
 I have been told, in love the weakest wins, 
 The weakest, and the gentlest. 
 
 SENESCHAL 
 
 Think so, then. 
 But the sound sleep under the silent stars. 
 The clamour, the bright bustle of the dawn, 
 The doubt, the dangers, the delights of war — 
 Gone, all of them gone, for me at least, who now 
 Will never know them more ! Of recent years, 
 Our English Henry, Seventh of the name. 
 Though grandson of gay Hal of Agincourt, 
 Was all for peace with Scotland, and thereto 
 Married his daughter Margaret to King James. 
 But now that a young Harry, warm in blood. 
 And proud and mettlesome as James himself, 
 Who were to-day at Flodden but he is
 
 lO FLOOD EN FIELD act 
 
 Afoot for fame in battle-fields of France, 
 Sits on the English throne, these gamesome kings, 
 Like two-year cockerels with their steel spurs on, 
 Claw at each other. 
 
 MARGERY 
 
 But the pretext, what ? 
 There must be some pretence. 
 
 SENESCHAL 
 
 A woman, Margery, 
 As it has ever been since Troy Town fell. 
 Leastways, a woman's jewels, Margaret's, 
 Her brother will not yield until some wrong, 
 In which Sir William Heron was mixed up 
 And captive seized, be righted by King James. 
 
 MARGERY 
 
 When think you that the battle will be fought ?
 
 I FLODDEN FIELD u 
 
 SENESCHAL {after stiffly ascending and descending 
 the steps of the targe embrasure) 
 See ! here comes one more like to know than I. 
 
 MARGERY 
 
 Who may that be ? 
 
 SENESCHAL 
 
 One we all know right well, 
 The warmest yeoman on the lands of Ford, 
 Young Donald Grey, the Captain of the Troop, 
 And armed as though for martial purposes. 
 [Enter Donald] 
 
 DONALD 
 
 Homage to Mistress Margery, and to you, 
 All the respect youth pays to worth and age. 
 
 SENESCHAL 
 
 What tidings, Donald ?
 
 12 FLO D DEN FIELD act 
 
 DONALD 
 Right brave ones, sir. All those I notified, 
 Muster in force, in honest clansmen gear, 
 Accoutred in their best, a hundred strong. 
 Stripling and adult, very flower of Ford. 
 [Exit Seneschal.] 
 
 MARGERY 
 
 Shall I not tell my lady you are here ? 
 
 DONALD 
 
 I pray you, of your graciousness. Yet stay 
 One moment, if you will. There was a word, 
 A little word, I fain would say to you. 
 Forgive me if I seem to have forgotten it. 
 
 MARGERY 
 
 Then will I unto Lady Heron ; meanwhile 
 It may come back to you.
 
 I FLODDEN FIELD 13 
 
 DONALD 
 
 Nay, go not yet ! 
 Yes, this it was : a bold yet halting word, 
 The oldest, freshest, biggest in the world. 
 That chokes the broadest-chested man alive. 
 I love you, Margery ! Since that still night 
 When we 'chance met and wandered 'neath the stars, 
 That seemed to shine in Heaven but with your eyes. 
 And the husht woodlands listening to your voice, 
 I hear no other name, but only yours. 
 The very faintest breath that stirs the leaves 
 Still whispers " Margery ! Margery ! " Every stream 
 That sings its way adown to Till or Tweed 
 Trebles and carols " Margery ! " Can it be 
 That Nature thuswise would seduce my ears. 
 But to bewray my heart ? Tell me it doth not !
 
 14 FLODDEN FIELD act 
 
 MARGERY 
 
 How can I know? Yet, since that star-crowned night, 
 When your voice trembled, and my soul replied, 
 I long for something, something ! Is it you ? 
 
 DONALD 
 
 It is, or, if 'tis not, it needs must be. 
 Let us put it to the test, and you will learn. 
 [Embraces her.] 
 
 MARGERY 
 
 Oh, 'tis too sudden ! And the fight ! the fight ! — 
 May be you go to death, and then the life 
 Of her whom thus you have betrothed for yours, 
 Would have to wear unwedded widowhood. 
 
 DONALD 
 
 Your love will charm aside the threat of death. 
 And see me safely through the riskiest fray.
 
 I FLODDEN FIELD 15 
 
 Love makes a man, who is verily a man, 
 Active in peace and valorous in war, 
 Too confidently knit to fail or fall. 
 Make me yet stronger ! 
 
 MARGERY 
 
 But you must not fall, 
 Nor court exceeding danger overmuch. 
 
 DONALD 
 
 Yea, that I must, and shall. For Love deprives 
 Danger of danger, frightens fear away. 
 And I would win you, having helped to win 
 Victory for Surrey and the English Cause. 
 Tears ! Are these tears ? 
 
 MARGERY 
 
 'Tis but an April shower, 
 That brings the martlet to the cottage eave,
 
 i6 FLO D DEN FIELD act 
 
 Blade to the grass, and leaf unto the bough, 
 And wakens every note of pairing joy 
 In garth and brake. 
 
 DONALD 
 
 Be mine, then, like the sun. 
 To smile, and kiss the glittering drops away ! 
 See ! Harvest ripens in the Autumn fields. 
 In this still rounding world. But young Love is 
 A Springtime in itself, and in my heart 
 I feel its blossoms, O, too long kept back, 
 Unfolding fearlessly. 
 
 MARGERY 
 
 Yet let us, Donald, 
 Prolong their loitering, lest samesome Summer 
 Shorten Love's sweetest season !
 
 FLO D DEN FIELD \^ 
 
 DONALD 
 
 But remember 
 I have a nest all ready for you, dear, 
 Only awaiting to be warmed by you, 
 When I will tend on you, and hourly bring 
 All that Love needs for brooding happiness. 
 
 MARGERY 
 
 Forbear ! Forbear ! or tears will rain afresh ! 
 What do men say of Surrey ? 
 
 DONALD 
 
 That he needs 
 
 Like centuried oak, an amplitude of space 
 
 To manifest his greatness. That he hath 
 
 The stoutest heart and strongest will alive, 
 
 c
 
 1 8 FLODDEN FIELD ACT 
 
 And under him to serve the entrance is 
 To honour and distinction. 
 
 MARGERY 
 
 Yes ! and you 
 Are Head and Captain of the Troop of Ford. 
 
 DONALD 
 
 Yes, by their generous choice, so must I hence 
 
 Unwillingly, and but at Duty's call. 
 
 To muster them within the Castle Court, 
 
 Where, ere they march, they trust that Lady Heron, 
 
 Her lord away, will speed them to the fight. 
 
 MARGERY 
 
 As SO she will, I doubt not. I, meanwhile, 
 Her grateful ward, will sue to her and beg 
 
 Her sanction to our-
 
 I FLO D DEN FIELD 19 
 
 DONALD 
 
 Love and ]\Iarriage-bond. 
 
 But, ere we part, troth we our love anew ! 
 
 [They embrace. Exit Donald, Margery accompanying 
 him to the door, and, as she closes it, and turns, 
 
 Enter Lady Heron.] 
 LADY HERON 
 
 Round but the hour, and then He will be here ! 
 
 MARGERY 
 
 He ? Who ? The King ? 
 
 lady heron 
 The King ! My more than King, 
 My towering Warrior, Hero, Conqueror, Man, 
 My birthright-sceptred Surrey ! He will come, 
 Afresh red-hot from battle to my arms,
 
 20 FLO D DEN FIELD ACT 
 
 Martial voluptuary, his victor blade 
 Crimsoned with routed blood up to the hilt, 
 His face ablaze with slaughter, and his breast, 
 Like hammer upon anvil, beat on mine 
 In Love's own furnace. 
 
 MARGERY 
 
 Oh, hush, hush ! 
 Or, though I love you gratefully, as should 
 The orphan you have mothered from her birth, 
 You can I serve no more, for those are words 
 Neither for you to utter, nor me to hear. 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 Then hide within a nunnery, though even there 
 I have heard the vestal flame will overburn. 
 Fluttered by Nature, the incendiary,
 
 I FLOOD EN FIELD 21 
 
 And underneath the wimple woman's heart 
 Betray its straight descent from Lucifer. 
 
 MARGERY 
 
 How wildly you do ravin among words, 
 Till I can scarcely follow or understand, 
 Save that I somehow feel that they are wicked, 
 And God will punish their fierce wantonness ! 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 Dear little maiden, how Spring-fresh you are, 
 When you unbosom what I would not have — 
 And yet perchance I would ! 
 
 MARGERY 
 
 I'll give you all, 
 The Httle that it is, that I do own, 
 So you do want it.
 
 22 
 
 FLODDEN FIELD ACT 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 Ah ! too late ! too late ! 
 When once the dew hath vanished from the grass, 
 Or the frail petals fallen from the flower, 
 Who can bring back the freshness of the dawn, 
 Or who refold the rose ? 
 
 MARGERY 
 
 I love you best 
 When you discourse like that. And, lady dear, 
 Be sure of this : through life's unsureness, He, 
 Who made us all in innocency, can 
 Remake us, if we would ! 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 Consoling faith ! 
 Could we but have it for the asking ! But— 
 What was I saying?
 
 I FLO D DEN FIELD 23 
 
 MARGERY 
 
 That Surrey will be here 
 Ere rounds the clock. Why then dispatch to James 
 A special, swift, and trusty messenger, 
 Bidding him also come ? Want you them both ? 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 Yes, I want both, because I want but one, 
 
 For James's presence 'chance may profit Surrey, 
 
 Haply, myself as well. 
 
 MARGERY 
 
 Deem you that fair ? 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 Have you ne'er heard that all is fair in war, 
 As 'tis in love, and I have both in hand. 
 Can I but keep James dallying from the field,
 
 24 ' FLODDEN FIELD act 
 
 Or fool him late for the fight, then Surrey's plans, 
 Then Surrey's sword, will be the better for 't. 
 And Surrey's love more closely drawn to me. 
 
 MARGERY 
 
 That is a snare that never could I set. 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 A snare ! The fatuous ensnare themselves. 
 And any other bait would serve as well 
 For such gross feeding. But, remember, child, 
 To lock your lips on that, which it was rash 
 To think aloud, and so forget it straight. 
 
 MARGERY 
 
 Nay, you may trust me when I most do blame. 
 And, if you are betrayed, it is yourself
 
 I FLODDEN FIELD 25 
 
 Will be the traitress to your treachery, 
 As so, dear lady, it doth seem to me. 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 Seems ! Seems ! What matters it, forsooth, what 
 
 seems? 
 In love one has to make what is not, seem, 
 And that which seems, a something different. 
 
 MARGERY 
 
 But if the King and Surrey haply meet 
 Here, and at such an hour? 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 Babe ! One can take 
 Precaution against such mischance ; and none, 
 Were he crowned King and Emperor of the globe, 
 Should on my presence break, or be announced.
 
 26 FLO D DEN FIELD ACT 
 
 Were I alone with Surrey. 
 
 [Looks at the clock.] 
 
 Oh, how slow ! 
 An hour is longer than I thought, its tick, 
 Like to a sickly and enfeebled pulse, 
 Losingly laggard ! Hie you, Margery, 
 Hie to the topmost spiral of the Tower, 
 The one that faces Flodden, and see ! see ! 
 If he be coming. 
 
 MARGERY 
 
 Straightway ! But I first 
 Would to you make a loving little prayer. 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 And that ? 
 
 MARGERY 
 
 It is to crave your tender leave
 
 I FLO D DEN FIELD 27 
 
 To keep a vow perhaps too rashly given 
 To one too worthy to refuse it him. 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 Who is it that you love? 
 
 MARGERY 
 
 Young Donald Grey 
 Tells me 'tis he, and I have trust in him, 
 
 « 
 
 And so believe him. 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 Thrice enviable maiden ! 
 Lost in the mystery of a virgin love, 
 Loving you know not what, you scarce know whom. 
 Save that it is not self nor worldliness. 
 Nor anything that's base and surfeiting.
 
 28 FLO D DEN FIELD act 
 
 MARGERY 
 
 And thus I still shall dwell upon your lands, 
 And so be near you always. Now I go, 
 To do your bidding. 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 Nay, but wait awhile ! 
 He never yet was here afront his time, 
 Nor ever in the rear of it overmuch. 
 And I still love to long for him a little ; 
 It sharpens meeting. Therefore, stay you here. 
 And sing to me some simple little song 
 To soften aspiration, till I float 
 On that delicious vacancy that rocks 
 'Twixt dreaming and awaking.
 
 I FLODDEN FIELD 29 
 
 MARGERY 
 
 What shall I sing ? 
 
 Say, shall it be the lovelorn melody 
 
 That pleased you yesterday, both air and words 
 
 Made by King James ? 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 By him — by any one — 
 What matters it by whom ? For, were they writ 
 By the seraphic choristers of Heaven, 
 1 still should think of Surrey. 
 
 MARGERY 
 
 Always Surrey ! 
 Doth James then please no more ? 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 He never pleased. 
 But homage pleases from all slaves alike, 
 Kings most of all ; and homage that is love
 
 30 FLO D DEN FIELD act 
 
 Claims some return from grateful loyalty. 
 
 But his ? He hath a score of roaming fancies, 
 
 And one of twenty would I never be. 
 
 Thus his feigned homage, wide distributed, 
 
 Both pleaseth and displeaseth. Oh, how base, 
 
 Fatuous, and false, women and men alike 
 
 In the disport and hot pursuit of love, 
 
 Thus wrongly christened ! He conceives to win, 
 
 While risking nothing. He shall sharply learn 
 
 I do not rise a loser from such game. 
 
 And, having won, will all my earnings hand 
 
 Unto straightforward Surrey. Tell me, Margery, 
 
 Am I still lovely ! 
 
 MARGERY 
 
 Ah ! too lovely, far. 
 I would not be as beautiful as you.
 
 I FLODDEN FIELD 31 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 And never be it ! Pray to be halt or blear, 
 Ill-favoured, hunch-backed, anything you will, 
 Save hazard sport for foraging desire. 
 But now the Song ! 
 
 MARGERY 
 
 Love is a dnatji 
 
 Fro?n ivhich we ajcaken, 
 When the day-breakers gleam, 
 
 And the tiight is forsaken, 
 And all that zve longed for 
 
 Is given and taken. 
 
 But tlie dream will return 
 A fid the darkness refold us, 
 
 And the vigil-light burn, 
 Yet be none to behold us.
 
 32 FLO D DEN FIELD act 
 
 Oh, come to me quickly, 
 
 And hush us and hold us ! 
 
 For life is so clear 
 
 And the daylight so glaring. 
 That we tremble and fear 
 
 Lest the heart be too daring. 
 Soft moonlight, lone starlight. 
 
 Are secret and sparing. 
 
 So love we and dream. 
 
 Till from love we awaken, 
 
 When the day-breakers gleam 
 And the night is forsaken, 
 
 And the rose that was rosebud 
 Unfolds and is shaken.
 
 I FLO D DEN FIELD 33 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 I like the singer better than the song. 
 You sang it deftly. 
 
 MARGERY 
 
 Yet the song is sweet. 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 Perchance too sweet, and pleaseth you because 
 Scarce understood. Things only half surmised 
 Are sweeter, Margery, than things wholly seen. 
 
 MARGERY 
 
 But is that not the very spell of song, 
 
 Of poetry, love, life, earth, heaven, everything ? 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 Yes, that is so. 
 
 D
 
 34 FLODDEN FIELD act 
 
 MARGERY 
 
 Wherefore then speak so plain 
 As — nay, forgive me — oftentimes you do ? 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 Because there is a yearning at my heart, 
 Or call it what you will, that will be out ! 
 
 MARGERY 
 
 Then slacken it with hyssop and with tears. 
 And so subdue it. 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 Easily said ! 
 
 MARGERY 
 
 And done. 
 My soul my sovereign is, whereto the flesh 
 Is a meek subject.
 
 I FLO D DEN FIELD 35 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 O, but I ! But I 
 Am all rebellion, with no central sway, 
 From forehead unto footstep. But why prate ? 
 Hie to the Tower, and from the battlements 
 Strain your young gaze, and see if he be coming, 
 And then, then hasten down, to give me time 
 To tolerate his coming. 
 
 MARGERY 
 
 But, lady dear. 
 How shall I know 'tis he, till he be nigh ? 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 Why, by the very air that will divide 
 To line his dignity. He walks the world 
 Like a stray god. If cometh he afoot, 
 Then know him by his strong disdainful stride ;
 
 36 FLODDEN FIELD act 
 
 If throned upon the saddle, then his steed 
 Will arch its neck and fling its mane abreeze, 
 And fan the dust as though its hoofs were wings 
 To waft him to love's haven. Now, go ! go ! 
 Nay, just a moment. Hand me the mirror, dear. 
 And — is there any ringlet out of place, 
 Or have I ruffled half my folds with gust 
 Of my own blowing ? What a whirl am I 
 Of storming and subsiding ! 
 
 [Taking the mirror.] 
 
 Let me see. 
 
 MARGERY 
 
 There's not a hair nor tippet crimp awry. 
 You seem a Queen caparisoned for Court, 
 Ready for all the chivalry of the South 
 To come and kiss the queenhood of your hand.
 
 I FLO D DEN FIELD 37 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 Then, to the Tower, and I will wait for him. 
 
 With my attendant train of longing thoughts. 
 [Exit Margery.] 
 
 [Enter Surrey. Lady Heron, who has gone a few paces 
 in the other direction to put down the mirror, turns, 
 and seeing him, rushes eagerly towards him.] 
 
 Surrey ! My Surrey ! 
 
 [He embraces her, then paces the room.] 
 
 Here, before the hour 
 Named in your message, never here too soon. 
 
 SURREY 
 
 Because the hour of battle is more near 
 Than hope foresaw. 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 How did you hither come ? 
 You surely did not risk your life, alone ?
 
 38 FLO D DEN FIELD act 
 
 SURREY 
 Life ? Risk ? Life is but one long risk, 
 With something of precaution in it too, 
 In men not daft with daring, or with love. 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 You never would be that. 
 
 SURREY 
 
 Forefend I should ! 
 Scouts have I out by every curve and ford 
 Of Tweed or Till, dingle, or dip, or wood. 
 Or treacherous dimple of this smiling Border ; 
 And if one carle or gallowglass should stir 
 The bracken where I had not bid him hide, 
 His life were worthless as a mountain hare's, 
 With sleuthhounds on its rear, and van, and flank 3 
 So came I unaccompanied.
 
 I FLODDEN FIELD 39 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 To pass 
 
 [She lays her hand on his shoulder.] 
 A peaceful hour with me ! 
 
 SURREY 
 
 Yes, and to scan 
 From Ford's commanding fourfold parapets 
 The land around with a yet wider gaze, 
 And keener scrutiny. Say, shall I find 
 Stair, door, and batdement-approaches free, 
 Or is there one to open ? 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 Free as is 
 The whole of the world .and womankind — to you ! 
 Shall you be long atop ?
 
 40 FLO D DEN FIELD act 
 
 SURREY 
 
 Not long, 'tis sure, 
 For I have ta'en close survey of the scene 
 Where I shall force the fight on, pushed James round 
 From ground of his own choosing, till he stands 
 With back to England, and to Scotland I. 
 At Twizell ford my fellows crossed the Till, 
 The stream breast high, and, had they but been 
 
 ta'en 
 In that short hour of hazard, as I saw 
 That they were safe against, the feat had been 
 Beyond their force. I cannot think but James 
 Lies not in camp, for I have oft been told 
 Expert he is in cunning purposes. 
 And something must have held him elsewhere, so 
 The deed swift followed on the thought, and now 
 I have him at the 'vantage.
 
 I   FLO D DEN FIELD 41 
 
 LADY HERON {aside) 
 Fortune thus 
 Fosters Love's strategy ! 
 
 SURREY 
 
 What said you, lady ? 
 Forgive me, somewhat absent. 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 That victory, then, 
 Is yours beforehand ? 
 
 SURREY 
 
 Victory rests with Heaven, 
 Though have I noted, in this wavering world, 
 God's wont gives victory to the wise and strong, 
 Being just in His arbitrament, and loth 
 To aid the dolt and laggard,
 
 42 FLODDEN FIELD act 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 Here, here is need 
 For no such forceful weapon. For awhile 
 Turn them to me, won long since, not to woo, 
 Yours, maybe not God's gift, but yours withal. 
 Will you go first, or last, unto the Tower ? 
 
 SURREY 
 
 Nay, as you will ; but better, hap, the last, 
 For should I, gazing, see some gap unstopped, 
 Some vantage knoll unheld, I straight should hence 
 To seize it fast, and could not then return. 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 Go last, then, but I pray you go not soon. 
 We have been severed, O, so long, so long !
 
 I FLODDEN FIELD 43 
 
 SURREY 
 I cannot bide me, anyway, for long ; 
 My thoughts arc other-where. 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 They ofttimes are. 
 I do suspect you deem all womankind 
 Mere margin of man's life, past which its text 
 Runs on continuously ! 
 
 SURREY 
 
 So they are. 
 And so they should be ! What, forsooth, is love, 
 Dainty, delicious pastime though it be, 
 When paragoned with statecraft or with war, 
 War above all ? Love seems, compared with these, 
 As sleeping unto waking, half-shut eyes
 
 44 FLODDEN FIELD act 
 
 To nerve and sinew, body, and brain, and spirit. 
 
 Astir, aflame, with splendid speculation, 
 
 Ambition, daring, danger, all that make 
 
 Existence godlike. Man by war creates 
 
 New worlds, and fashions them to meet his will, 
 
 Aye, after his own image, if he win. 
 
 Its counters are not lives alone, but kingdoms, 
 
 The future, and the fateful things to be. 
 
 Now, by God's Passion, on this very hour, 
 
 And on its undetermined issue, hangs 
 
 The future of two great opposing Realms, 
 
 Which never should be otherwise than one. 
 
 Let England win, and then the brawny race 
 
 Of stubborn Scotland, brawny, and brave, and stern. 
 
 Impetuous as its peat-embrowned burns. 
 
 Yet fixed of purpose as its deep-laid hills, 
 
 Shall mix with ours to enrich and strengthen it.
 
 I FLODDEN FIELD 45 
 
 Should Scotland win, — but Scotland must not win ; 
 Or, if it should, and you then love me still. 
 Command the faggots for my funeral pyre. 
 Discard your gauds, and loosen your long hair, 
 And wail upon my Hfeless body, for I 
 Should not survive that day of ignominy. 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 O, but the victory, certain, will be yours ! 
 Tell me it will, it will ! , 
 
 SURREY 
 
 God grant it may ! 
 Yet, even if it were not, for there is 
 No hazard in this world like that of war, 
 Not victor, yet not vanquished, one can fall 
 'Mid noble shouts of battle fray, and then.
 
 46 FLODDEN FIELD act 
 
 Soul, ransomed thus from flesh by death's rich 
 
 stroke, 
 May wing its way — who knows ? — to fairer realms, 
 In quest of spiritual battle-fields. 
 But like some guttering candle to go out, 
 With women whimpering round, and faltering 
 
 tongues 
 Of useless leeches, on a soft-stuffed bed, 
 That's not a death for soldiers, or for men ! 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 Where did you get this mastery over life, 
 Love, death, and all things ? 
 
 SURREY 
 
 From my sovran Lord, 
 Will, and its consort, Reason. These unthroned. 
 Life would to me be but disordered dream,
 
 I FLODDEN FIELD 47 
 
 A jumbled reminiscence of a past 
 
 Prior existence in an unshaped world, 
 
 Where God, and Law, and Discipline were not. 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 But, if men perish on the battle-field, 
 Asudden, and at once, have they then time 
 To make their peace with God ? 
 
 SURREY 
 
 Do your duty, 
 
 Be loyal to your country and your King, 
 
 Then will you always be at peace with God, 
 
 With self, and whatsoever else there be, 
 
 Here or elsewhere. 
 
 [Seating himself by her.] 
 
 Now let us talk awhile 
 
 Of gentler themes, and tell me how you pass 
 
 Your days and Autumn twilights.
 
 48 FLODDEN FIELD act 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 Drearily, 
 When Surrey is not nigh, and then I wait 
 Till he shall please to come, apart, alone, 
 Or with my little maid, and talk of him, 
 She curious, but not understanding half 
 Of what I say. And then I take my spindle, 
 Till it goes whirling like my thoughts, but twists 
 To better purpose. 
 
 SURREY 
 
 You are moulded fair. 
 Comely and winsome, shaped for happiness 
 'Mid the four walls of home ; for motherhood, 
 And honest household rule. Tell me why 
 There sounds an endless yearning in your voice. 
 Like to the wave that wandereth to and fro, 
 Wailing for something, nowhere to be found.
 
 I FLODDEN FIELD 49 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 Because I wail for yoit ! The Universe, 
 Without you, were not boundary enough 
 To fold my longings. 
 
 SURREY 
 
 Where is your rightful lord ? 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 At James's Court, prisoner or fugitive, 
 I know not which. 
 
 SURREY 
 
 Shall I try ransom him ? 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 He scarce is worth the ransoming. He is 
 One of those men, born insignificant, 
 
 E
 
 50 FLO D DEN FIELD act 
 
 Who make the little world in which they live 
 Nor larger, nor yet smaller, for being in it : 
 Smaller, if anything. Know you King James ? 
 
 SURREY 
 
 Not in the flesh ; only his efifigy. 
 In Scottish embassy to Harry's Court 
 At the betrothal of Queen Margaret, 
 He's a well-looking man. 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 And is he brave ? 
 
 SURREY 
 
 He is a King, and therefore is he brave, 
 
 He is a King, therefore magnanimous : 
 
 For there is something, somehow, in a Crown,
 
 I FLODDEN FIELD 51 
 
 That gives the wearer princely dignity, 
 
 Or why should common folk bow down to it ? 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 Stand you in awe of it ? 
 
 SURREY 
 
 Well, maybe not, 
 But I do honour and revere its wearer. 
 As doth become a leal and faithful subject ! 
 Though in my inmost thought I will confess 
 The noblest of all Sceptres is the Sword : 
 The Sword of Peace, if men will have it so. 
 If not, the Sword that strikes and is resolved, 
 Nor scabbarded till A^ictory tilts the scales ! 
 I have heard it said James is a poet, too. 
 Who moulds soft lays to lime frail women's hearts, 
 And make them stay their fluttering.
 
 52 FLO D DEN FIELD act 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 Didjw^ ever 
 Fashion a verse ? 
 
 SURREY 
 
 Once, but a battle-song, 
 Rough and ungainly, lacking quite in numbers. 
 For aught I know. In these luxurious days, 
 Men seem to have learnt soft verse from Italy. 
 But, as for mine, the soldiers in the camp 
 Will troll it round their watch-fires through the night. 
 Till they wax drowsy. Somehow thus it runs : — 
 
 SURREY'S BATTLE-SONG 
 
 I 
 Noiu Knight^ and now Yeoman, 
 No7v horseman, now bowman, 
 Up, up froi7i your slmnber, and sireaju to the fray !
 
 I FLODDEN FIELD 53 
 
 Strong archer^ stern pikejuen, 
 Fleet and sturdy alike, men, 
 Forth, forward, and strike, men, 
 Till the foe froin your faces are fleeing away ! 
 
 II 
 
 Leave matron and maiden. 
 
 Leave sleek tresses braiden, 
 Think only of fighting for country and King ; 
 
 Of the tussle before ye. 
 
 Of diity and glory, 
 
 Of names great in story. 
 That manhood exults in, and troubadours sing ! 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 It peals like sounded clarion, stirs the blood, 
 Is of your very self that felt and wrote it.
 
 54 FLO D DEN FIELD act 
 
 SURREY 
 
 Feel thoughtfully and fervidly enough, 
 
 Words sing themselves. 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 But sang you ne'er of love ? 
 
 SURREY 
 
 Not that I mind me. But I rarely dwell 
 
 On thoughts of love, save when I bide with j'<?«. 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 And then you give me only half your thought. 
 
 SURREY 
 
 What would you, lady ? More were treachery, 
 Desertion, cowardice, and loss of manhood. 
 We live in troublous and entangled times.
 
 I FLO D DEN FIELD 55 
 
 And 'tis my business to deal with them : 
 
 And if in snatched reposefulness I hear 
 
 Flourish of trumpet or distress of State, 
 
 To these I straightway hasten. Could you love, 
 
 Or yield to, any man that did not do so ? 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 Not wholly, solely. But methinks I could 
 Love to be loved by many a smaller man, 
 To prove my power, and test his feebleness. 
 For thuswise are we framed. 
 
 SURREY 
 
 Nay, nay, not all. 
 Methinks my mother was not like to that. 
 And I have whimsically deemed, though I 
 In such deep matters am but simpleton, 
 There are three sorts of women : they who move
 
 56 FLOOD EN FIELD act 
 
 Men to warm tenderness, not hot desire, 
 And these the best and noblest. Then there are 
 Those who o'er-brimmingly unsluice the blood. 
 And set it flowing and fuming in men's veins, 
 Then straightway tranquillise it in their own 
 More deep continuous current ; nor would I 
 Defame such natures, for in sooth they are 
 Honest, though ofttimes differently named, 
 But would reserve reproving and reproach 
 For those, the last and lowest sure of all. 
 Who kindle fires to see how these will burn, 
 And not for need or comfort. 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 You are not 
 The simpleton you deem you. Surrey ! Surrey ! 
 You know too much.
 
 1 FLODDEN FIELD 57 
 
 SURREY 
 Who is it then that taught me ? 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 Perchance 'twas I. For verily I am 
 Compounded of all three. 
 
 SURREY 
 
 Smother the third ! 
 For women who are that, and that alone, 
 Should have a millstone round their neck, and find 
 An unbaptized coffin in the sea, 
 Or be exposed upon the mountain-side, 
 Ere they have grown to be it. 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 For you, for you, 
 I fain would be the first ! Withal, I am 
 The second, when you will it !
 
 $8 FLODDEN FIELD act 
 
 SURREY 
 
 Rashly said, 
 And no less generously ; and I should be 
 The most ungrateful of ungrateful men 
 Did I not own me that I still must live, 
 Your bankrupt debtor ! 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 Tell me that again ! 
 For when you pass from rough mood into smooth, 
 I feel as once I felt, homing from France, 
 When the tumultuous mountains of the sea 
 Subsided to a still blue land-locked lake. 
 And, husht, we glided into haven. 
 
 SURREY 
 
 Words 
 Still have you at your beck, all silky soft.
 
 I FLODDEN FIELD 59 
 
 That seem to come like petted doves to call, 
 And settle where you will, coo at your lips, 
 Sue you as though you were their very mate, 
 And they had come to make their nest with you. 
 Learned you the trick in France, where I am told 
 'Tis best acquired, and men too practise it ? 
 Time was, soft lays were left to Troubadours, 
 And steel had been ashamed to indite sleek rhymes. 
 But now some bravest warriors that I know 
 Fondle and finger a sonnet till they mould 
 Its roundness to their fancy. 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 Like to James ! 
 But, as for me, I have no trick acquired 
 From France or anywhere, unless it be 
 The trick of tricking out myself in this 
 Becoming flimsiness — if so it be —
 
 6o FLODDEN FIELD act 
 
 SURREY 
 
 Bewitching even as your very self, 
 
 Or with itj or without it ! But — I must go. 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 Nay, go not yet ! Stay just a little while. 
 
 SURREY 
 
 It is the hour ; nor tarried I so long, 
 But that, so far as human wit can work, 
 
 I have left nought to chance. So now, farewell ! 
 
 (A burst of battle Music is heard in the Court without.) 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 Hark ! What is that ? 
 
 SURREY 
 
 The rough-hewn battle-song 
 I told you of, my wilder fellows troll
 
 I FLODDEN FIELD 6i 
 
 Around their watch-fires ere they sleep o' nights. 
 Who may these singers be ? 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 The Troop of Ford, 
 Mustering to start for Flodden. Will you not 
 Speak some brave words to them before they go, 
 And make their hearts as valiant as yours ? 
 
 SURREY 
 
 If such should be their wish, and likewise yours. 
 [Enter the Troop led by Donald Grey.] 
 
 SURREY 
 Captain and Yeomen of the lands of Ford, 
 I came to see you martial-mustered here. 
 As so I now behold you, hill-men all, 
 And, like your hills, inured to winds and war,
 
 62 FLO D DEN FIELD act 
 
 I am a soldier, destitute of words, 
 
 And stammering in speech, the craft of peace. 
 
 But honour is the chiefest quest of man, 
 
 And, of all honours or in war or peace, 
 
 The greatest is, for Fatherland to die. 
 
 And, nearest that, to hazard life for it. 
 
 King Hal for England's honour rides through 
 
 France, 
 That hath against him enmity proclaimed, 
 And into unjust quarrel Scotland dragged. 
 With Scotland it were natural that we 
 All peacefully and neighbourly should live ; 
 But against England and her royal rights 
 Should the whole world unmannerly conspire, 
 Then, whilst our War-keels danced upon the wave, 
 Along our coasts the clarion would outshrill 
 The clanging trumpet, and your feathered shafts
 
 I FLO D DEN FIELD 63 
 
 Bristle along cliff, shingle, promontory, 
 
 And bid the ravenous universal hosts 
 
 Come, if they dare ! I am for Peace ; we all 
 
 Count peace the rightful heritage of man, 
 
 But peace with justice, liberty, and honour. 
 
 You, you brave Border striplings, mustered here, 
 
 To-day shall clustered stand behind my Knights, 
 
 And be a portion of my bodyguard ; 
 
 And never an inch go backward till you see 
 
 Surrey, a craven, flying from the foe. 
 
 Now, God protect you all ! 
 
 [Exeunt the Troop, headed by Donald, singing 
 Surrey's song.] 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 The battle done, 
 You hither will return ?
 
 64 FLO D DEN FIELD act 
 
 SURREY 
 
 That rests with Heaven, 
 Again I say, and issue of the struggle. 
 Should James be routed, and his flight cut off, 
 Haply I may. But who as yet can see 
 Which way a worsted rabble-rout will wind. 
 Whichever wins the day. So now, farewell. 
 But, ere I go, accept this little sprig 
 Of fresh white heather plucked on mountain-side. 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 O, welcome gift ! A pledge at least by me 
 Of endless love, and love's expectancy ! 
 One moment ! See, your sword-belt is awry ; 
 Let me adjust it. There ! One more farewell ! 
 Would that it never ended ! Victory light 
 And linger on your banner till its folds
 
 I FLODDEN FIELD 65 
 
 Unfurl to flash the splendour of your name 
 Around a dazzled world ! 
 
 [Exit Surrey. Lady Heron mounts the steps of the 
 embrasure, and watches him as he departs, the FoRD 
 Troop singhig his Battle-song.] 
 
 END OF ACT I
 
 ACT II 
 
 SCENE as in Act I 
 (Margery. Donald) 
 
 MARGERY 
 
 I would you were not going, yet I would 
 
 Not have you stay behind ! Full well I know 
 
 What is man's part in this resisting world : 
 
 To breast aside a sea of opposites, 
 
 Wave after wave, then, buoyed upon their crest, 
 
 Be borne to whatsoever end he will. 
 
 And yet, and yet, my dream of happiness — 
 
 But this is not the fitting hour for dreams, 
 
 And so I will be silent. 
 
 66
 
 ACT II FLODDEN FIELD 67 
 
 DONALD 
 
 Nay, but tell me. 
 No dream of yours will e'er untimely be 
 To my attentive ear. 
 
 MARGERY 
 
 It is that you 
 Should fare to none save happy, peaceful fields. 
 And I should go with you where'er you went : 
 To watch the seed-corn dropped into the drill, 
 Or leaning oat-stooks dotted o'er the stubble, 
 Like weathered tents, a bivouac of peace ; 
 Or, best of all, when comfortable Winter 
 Brings the long evenings and the blazing hearth, 
 To sit together by our own fireside.
 
 68 FLODDEN FIELD act 
 
 DONALD 
 
 All this shall be when transitory War 
 
 Hath, like the hurtling hurricane, spent its force, 
 
 Or rolled elsewhere. 
 
 MARGERY 
 
 Pray Heaven that it be soon ! 
 Ah me ! weak women have the harder part 
 In this unequal world : to wait in dread, 
 Having no power to shape or ward the issue, 
 On which depends their doom. 
 
 DONALD 
 
 Heaven's equity 
 Will otherwhere the balance readjust. 
 If nobleness the greatest greatness be,
 
 II FLO D DEN FIELD 69 
 
 As is my deepest Creed, then woman is 
 Greater, aye, even stronger, than is man. 
 So, of your goodness help me \Yith your prayers 
 Your hopeful trust ! 
 
 MARGERY 
 
 Take, then, this talisman, 
 
 Brought by Crusader from Jerusalem, 
 
 My Mother's gift ; then this one, last of all, 
 
 [Embraces him.] 
 To bring you home unscathed ! 
 
 [Exeunt.] 
 
 [Enter Lady Heron.] 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 Slave that I am ! 
 And doomed to slavery by Love's feebleness !
 
 70 FLODDEN FIELD act 
 
 Yet where's the woman would not rather be 
 Enslaved to such a lord, than ramble free 
 In quest of such another ! For it is 
 The yearning of us all to be enslaved ; 
 And O, how many in servitude there be, 
 Captive to conquerors weaker than themselves ! • 
 Chain like to that would I break, aye, and have 
 
 broken. 
 Fettered to fool or fondling ? Never, never ! 
 It is their business to subdue, and ours 
 To be right willing subjects. 
 If only James do come, and I can stay 
 His going till the battle hath begun, 
 There's not a wile in woman's armoury 
 I will not use to keep him ! 
 
 [Enter Margery.] 
 
 Did you see Surrey?
 
 II FLODDEN FIELD 71 
 
 MARGERY 
 
 He burst upon the Tower 
 While I was straining all my gaze to scan 
 If he were nigh. 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 And on me, unaware, 
 As I was waiting for your warning, broke, 
 And stayed with me awhile. But you — but you — 
 What did you when his apparition streamed, 
 Like to the Royal Standard in the wind, 
 From topmost turret ? 
 
 MARGERY 
 
 I stood mute for awe, 
 For dread, for — nay, in sooth I know not what. 
 And then craved leave to go. He bade me stay. 
 And serve him with my clear young eyes, he said,
 
 72 FLO D DEN FIELD act 
 
 For wider seeing. Then, with lordly thanks 
 And courtly majesty he sent me here. 
 I would not be an hour with him alone, 
 For all my vaunted moated maidenhood. 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 And never be it ! For he roams the earth 
 
 With tender strength, bewitching not bewitched, 
 
 And that's the King for women, Margery ! 
 
 Now you know more, indulge me in my sin. 
 
 As God, who made him what he is and us 
 
 Such as we are, sure will when comes the day 
 
 Of frailty's stern arraignment ; for we are 
 
 Finely poised vanes for men's imperious gusts 
 
 To veer at will. It oft is called caprice. 
 
 'Tis they who are capricious, and not we. 
 
 We — we — have too much Spring sap in our blood,
 
 II FLO D DEN FIELD 73 
 
 Too much of madcap April, which oft shows 
 E'en in our slow^-decaying autumn days, 
 That leave our vanished loveliness and lures 
 Winter's lone retrospect and barren tears. 
 
 MARGERY 
 
 Is it true King James has had as many loves 
 As rumour says ? 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 Likely enough, and more ; 
 And so the more to count and reckon with, 
 When his frail Kingship comes again one's way. 
 
 MARGERY 
 
 They say that paramours are the privilege 
 Of Princes and of Poets.
 
 74 FLODDEN FIELD act 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 A vulgar fancy I 
 They are not the privilege of any man, 
 But, from far-off dead patriarchal days, 
 Common to Kings, and poets, and common folk. 
 But, happier these perchance, obscurity, 
 None care to penetrate, leaves dark their weakness. 
 
 MARGERY 
 
 I do not understand these roaming loves, 
 But only one long love, one, one, one always, 
 Such as I give to Donald, and he to me. 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 Well, maybe, Margery, 'tis the only one ; 
 And that is why men never love at all, 
 And we by love are never satisfied,
 
 11 FLODDEN FIELD 75 
 
 Since it deserves, in them, another name. 
 But, as I heard a gallant once in France 
 Say, men are dispositioned so, they deem 
 Their first love is their last, their last their first. 
 [A sound of voices outside.] 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 What is that stir without ? Go, child, and learn ! 
 [Exit Margery, and forthwith returns.] 
 
 MARGERY 
 
 A wandering minstrel in the court without 
 Claims audience, and will suffer no denial. 
 
 LADY HERON {to MARGERy) 
 
 'Tis the King ! 
 Be sure of that, obedient to my bidding.
 
 76 FLODDEN FIELD ACT 
 
 Conduct him hither, saying 'tis my will. 
 
 Then leave us, Margery. . . . O well-set snare ! 
 [Exit Margery.] 
 
 [Enter King James in the disguise of a minstrel, which 
 lie at once discards.] 
 
 [Lady Heron makes obeisance.] 
 KING 
 
 Rise ! I would rather welcomed be by you, 
 Than knelt to by all subjects in the world. 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 I feared that you were in the battle-field. 
 Protecting Scotland ! 
 
 KING 
 
 And so I am, or was, 
 And shortly shall be once again. But now,
 
 II FLODDEN FIELD 77 
 
 I come to win — nay, the word 'scaped me — woo, 
 A fairer and yet more protected Realm. 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 Do not a scattered band of scouts and spies 
 Watch all the ways ? 
 
 KING 
 
 Not the long wayless way 
 Whereby I came ; for Surrey holds the South, 
 My host the North, half-circle each ! Beside, 
 There is a rude but ready-witted man. 
 Threaded me here, who can play many parts, 
 Cutpurse or beggar, whining now for alms. 
 Now flinging them abroad ; and this disguise 
 Enforcing with his own. Fear not for me ! 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 But what of Surrey and his English host ?
 
 78 FLO D DEN FIELD act 
 
 KING 
 Nigh face to face with mine by Flodden Field, 
 Where I have all my dispositions made, 
 The Cheviots in my rear, the Till afront, 
 Huntley and Home commanding on the left, 
 Argyll and Lennox on the right, myself 
 Reserved to lead the centre. But enough, 
 Enough of war's rough issues. How is she, 
 The camp of my affections, utmost range 
 Of my heart's conflict ? 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 As you see ! 
 
 KING 
 
 How fair ! 
 Fairer no gift could make you. Yet I have 
 Brought jewels to this jewel, pearls to pearl
 
 n FLODDEN FIELD 79 
 
 Whiter than all the whiteness of the foam 
 
 The far-off seas have petrified to pearl 
 
 To round the throat and curl among the curls, 
 
 And meekly pray you wear these for the sake, 
 
 Not of their loveliness, but of your own. 
 
 Till men shall think them lovelier because 
 
 Of that from which they shine. 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 Nay, you misjudge. 
 'Tis not for gaze of men fair women wear 
 Necklace, tiara, clasp, and stomacher, 
 But to outshine, o'ershadow, other women. 
 
 KING 
 
 You need no jewels of the sea or mine. 
 Sapphire, or pearl, or diamond, to do that.
 
 So FLODDEN FIELD KQ.T 
 
 Bejewelled by your beauty, you outgleam 
 
 The beauties of all Courts in Christendom. 
 
 But, your devoted servitor, I have 
 
 Another and a far more precious gift 
 
 Provided for your pleasure, self forgot 
 
 And selfs less generous thoughts. 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 What may that be ? 
 
 Your husband. 
 
 KING 
 LADY HERON 
 
 He! 
 
 KING 
 
 A prisoner in my hands, 
 For — nay, what matters it for what, well known 
 To you no less than me and all the world, —
 
 II FLODDEN FIELD 8i 
 
 Withal your husband, I in vain besought 
 
 That you would visit at my Court, he bound, 
 
 On parole, as a formidable foe 
 
 Along this wavering Border, not to fly 
 
 And join my enemies, I have set free. 
 
 Without condition. 
 
 LADY HERON {unxiously) 
 
 When will he be here ? 
 
 KING 
 
 Not yet, not yet, save homeward track there be 
 Unknown to folk familiar less with hills. 
 Gorges, and torrents, of this much-scarred land. 
 Than native lords whose life hath dwelt within it. 
 Shall I recite the latest song I made, — 
 One makes so many, — on the endless theme 
 I see before me now?
 
 82 FLO D DEN FIELD act 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 I pray you, Sir 
 
 KING 
 
 Oh, fair are Scotland'' s birken woods, 
 
 And fair her hecks and burns, 
 When fnaiden buds fling back their hoods. 
 
 And pairing-time returns. 
 But fairer than her mavis groves 
 
 A?id sweeter than her streams, 
 When loving lad with lassie roves. 
 
 Is the Lady of my dreams. 
 
 II 
 
 Now were I lord of Stirling town. 
 Or Scotland's sceptred Chief
 
 II FLODDEN FIELD 83 
 
 / would fling down my robe mid croivn^ 
 
 To share her bliss mid grief ; 
 IVith her to moil in mountain field, 
 When oaten stooks are dried, 
 To be her shield thro' darkening weald, 
 Then slumber at her side. 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 Which of the ladies at King James's Court 
 Inspired that amorous hlting roundelay ? 
 
 KING 
 
 The one sole lady at the one sole Court 
 Whereat he pays his homage. 
 
 [Kisses her hand.] 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 Deftly answered, 
 Following so well on lay so dexterous.
 
 84 FLODDEN FIELD act 
 
 When Provence was the reahii of Chivalry, 
 You would have been the Prince of Troubadours. 
 'Tis said that Surrey never turns a stave. 
 
 KING 
 
 He is to-day then much behind the fashion. 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 He wakes to thought of war and statesmanship, 
 
 And sleeps to dream of statesmanship and war. 
 
 There is a towering terror in his gaze, 
 
 A menace in his very quietness. 
 
 Were I a man, his friend I fain would be, 
 
 Never his enemy. 
 
 KING 
 
 But, being a woman, how 
 Do such stern elements affect your heart ?
 
 II FLODDEN FIELD 85 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 My heart ? Good Sir, they leave it as it was, 
 
 In awe, the natural attitude of woman. 
 
 It is the mind he dominates, such mind 
 
 As the heart leaves scant room for in us women. 
 
 KING 
 
 But he ? Has he no room for love and joy, 
 Even in the throng of statesmanship and war ? 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 Surmising if I answer, I should say 
 
 Love is with him a flitting interlude, 
 
 A trivial, restful, and refreshing sport. 
 
 From weightier business. He is nought but Soldier, 
 
 No poet-lover.
 
 So FLOOD EN FIELD act 
 
 KING 
 May not a man be both ? 
 Kings, soldiers, poets, all are flesh and blood. 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 And all as changeable ! with flesh as quick 
 As the sere ling to any trivial flame, 
 And blood as quick to rise and fall as spate, 
 And slackening water, in our Border Tweed. 
 
 KING 
 
 They say that womenkind are like to that. 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 They say ! They say ! It is you poets say it, 
 Because that you have got the saying oft ; 
 The being of it sooth to both being common, 
 And, with your leave, to Kings. Were 't otherwise,
 
 II FLO D DEN FIELD 87 
 
 It were a dull and stationary world, 
 I would as lief be out of. At the best, 
 'Tis somewhat drear. 
 
 KING 
 
 Till love enliven it, 
 Then life becomes a cheerful road enough. 
 Save that the milestones pass too rapidly. 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 It may be so for Kings, but not for Queens. 
 I would not be King James's Queen for all 
 The titles and the robes in Christendom. 
 But, ever since men sate upon a throne. 
 Queens have too often but a sighing time. 
 
 KING 
 
 Unless they be fair queens by courtesy,
 
 88 FLODDEN FIELD act 
 
 Then are they more besought than any King, 
 Having yet more to give. 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 And when they give it, 
 Are straight dethroned. 
 
 KING 
 
 To sit on yet some other. 
 If that be so. But men there are, dear lady. 
 Who do not tire of such fair Queens as you. 
 And, by the Saints of Scotland, I am one. 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 What is this love we prate about so much, 
 Honouring the most inconstant thing on earth 
 With specious character of constancy, 
 And singing and re-singing of it as if
 
 II FLODDEN FIELD 89 
 
 It by us still abided, though it be 
 
 Itself as transitory as any song ? 
 
 A mother's or a foster-mother's love 
 
 For peevisli babe ; a sister's for a brother, 
 
 He all unworthy ; soldiers for some cause, 
 
 Or good or bad, or right or wrong, deemed good, 
 
 Imagined right, for thinking it will serve ; 
 
 Aye, even a ripened woman's for ripening man. 
 
 Who never ripens, — these, an you will, deserve 
 
 The title and the dignity of Love ; 
 
 But not the fawnings of ferocious men. 
 
 Quick promises, more quick forgetfulness. 
 
 One might as well deck with the name of love 
 
 Fierce forays on our Border for sleek kine, 
 
 Or poise of hovering hawk before it swoop 
 
 Down on fear-fascinated dove that should 
 
 Fly when it crouches, tears its entrails out,
 
 90 FLODDEN FIELD ACT 
 
 Casting its foolish feathers to the wind, 
 
 Then wings its satiated lust aloft 
 
 In quest of further victims ! But I rave, 
 
 And you smile mockingly. 
 
 KING 
 
 Nay, who can tell 
 The meaning of a smile ? There are so many ; 
 The smile of innocence, the smile of guilt ; 
 Of sympathy, disdain, I know not what, 
 The backward-pondering, forward-looking smile, 
 And what some call the philosophic smile, 
 And finally, wae's me I the smile of death. 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 Nay, that's the last and wisest smile of all.
 
 II FLO D DEN FIELD 91 
 
 KING 
 
 You are much too wise to-day. But, as for me, 
 I never have but one same smile for you. 
 The smile of love and longing. 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 You forget 
 There is the smile of cloistered holiness, 
 And chaste seclusion. I have a little maid. 
 And she hath that, and dearly do I love her, 
 Because I have it not. 
 
 KING 
 
 Well, in little maids. 
 But women who worship holiness disdain 
 The man that hath it.
 
 92 FLODDEN FIELD act 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 Since he thus disdains us. 
 In man we worship manhood, valour, strength, 
 Aye, waywardness, if it but honour us. 
 Is that not why ? 
 
 KING 
 
 You are askew to-day ; 
 I cannot set you straight. Now must I go. 
 And in the hurly-burly of the fight 
 With Surrey and his Southrons half forget 
 Fair Ford and fairer chatelaine. 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 Go not yet ! 
 You seem but just to have come. How you lack 
 
 patience 
 And fail to mark that what I feel to-day
 
 II FLODDEN FIELD 93 
 
 I may not feel to-morrow, what I felt 
 
 But yesterday, to-day I feel no more. 
 
 We are but dancing bubbles on the stream, 
 
 And man the forceful current. 
 
 KING 
 
 So you say, 
 But, when I am anear you, then meseems 
 You are the current, and the bubble I. 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 Recite to me once more ; for poesy is 
 The drug that brings the mind obUvion, 
 Wherein we drowse 'twixt two opposing worlds, 
 Sleeping and waking, heedless which is which. 
 If either, both, or neither, life or death. 
 And know not which were sweeter.
 
 94 
 
 FLODDEN FIELD act 
 
 KING 
 
 Love, they say, is charm and cheat, 
 April fa?zcy, simwier heat, 
 Leaving wintry cold and sleet ; 
 
 Wandering as the cuckoo's cry 
 IV/ien the Springtime days go by, 
 And we smile and know not why ; 
 
 False inform, and garb, and face, 
 Screen unto a deadly chase. 
 Woman'' s sorrow, man's disgrace. 
 
 Who is it that slanders so 
 Highest, holiest thi?ig below, 
 Upward-straining mortals know 1 
 
 Life's last loftiest peak and crest, 
 Worthiest longing, purest quest, 
 Heaveii's clear height made manifest j
 
 II FLODDEN FIELD 95 
 
 Whence we look adozvn and scan 
 All the ways and ivorks of man, 
 God's wide zvorld, and mighty plan. 
 
 Be His ivill by us obeyed. 
 Love 7ve all that He hath made. 
 In the sunshine, in the shade ; 
 
 Proud and lowly, great and small. 
 Hill, and lake, and waterfall, 
   Sweet, sad zuoman, most of all ! 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 That is a deeper and diviner strain, 
 And so too large to fit my littleness ; 
 Withal I do commend the mind that made it ; 
 Yet see how language' self becomes a cheat, 
 And very pandar, when employed by love.
 
 96 FLODDEN FIELD act 
 
 Love signifies a hundred different things, 
 And with its better meaning veils its worse. 
 That is the truth of it. 
 
 KING 
 
 Now, go I must. 
 Or shall be late. 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 More reason you should stay, 
 To prove you love me. 
 
 KING 
 
 Doth not my coming — Hark ! 
 Methought I heard a far-off clarion shrill. 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 We hear that which we listen for, and see 
 The thing expected, though are neither there.
 
 II FLO D DEN FIELD 97 
 
 Shall we ascend the Tower, and thence descry 
 What you would know ? 
 
 KING 
 
 'Tis better that I went. 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 What ! all this wooing, and not one embrace ! 
 
 [Tenders him her cheek, which he kisses, as she affects to 
 hold him. While she is doing so, door is thrown open, 
 and enter her husband. Seeing James and Lady 
 Heron's attitude, he halts, and looks from one to the 
 other.] 
 
 LADY HERON {wtth ierfcct composure) 
 His Majesty, King James ! 
 
 SIR WILLIAM 
 
 I did not think 
 So soon again to see the Scottish King. 
 Under my roof-tree, too, and patent 'tis 
 
 H
 
 98 FLODDEN FIELD act 
 
 No stranger there. In war no less than peace, 
 
 In camp as at his Court, so it would seem. 
 
 He needs must have his light-o'-loves to ease 
 
 The weight of Kingship and the load of State. 
 
 He had done better and more royally 
 
 To keep his prisoner than betray him thus, 
 
 Or be more timely in his treachery. 
 
 But, Madam, it is you, you first of all, 
 
 I ask to what, long absent from my home, 
 
 I this dishonourable honour owe 
 
 From the seductive semblance of a King, 
 
 Who on the eve of battle leisure finds 
 
 To play the royal cuckoo. Now, the truth ! 
 
 For I will suffer nothing but the truth. 
 
 Have I to pluck it forcibly from both.
 
 11 . FLODDEN FIELD 99 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 Then you shall hear the truth, and so shall he ! 
 He came to woo me, and he came in vain, 
 As, if he came a thousand times, he would. 
 Think you I know not of the loves at home, 
 The loves abroad, — the two are truly one, — 
 Of his most amorous Northern Majesty, 
 Or that I have not heard of Lady Scrope, 
 His latest leman ! I am merely one. 
 Or was to have been, could he have had his way, 
 Of the frail puppets of his gracious favour. 
 But you, my lord, perhaps will answer me, 
 If that your wife be fashioned like to that. 
 And if I bear a rival near my throne ? 
 
 KING 
 
 Great Heaven ! Who is it, then, that brought me 
 here ?
 
 lOo FLODDEN FIELD KQ^v 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 'Twas I ! 'Twas I, exultant to have done it. 
 Hie to that embrasure, and gaze beyond, 
 And see where now your army hes encamped, 
 With back to England, road to Scotland barred : 
 Your hosts disadvantageously swung round 
 By English skill ! You whining all the while 
 Here at my feet, and, like an honest man. 
 Whining, confess, in vain ! / lured you here. 
 For England's sake, for sake of English Throne, 
 Her King, Her Cause ! 
 
 SIR WILLIAM 
 
 Pray Heaven the tale be true. 
 I will return anon, when this strange guest
 
 n FLO D DEN FIELD lol 
 
 Hath ta'en his leave, whom here I leave to be 
 
 Dismissed or stayed by you, as seems you best. 
 [Exit Sir William.] 
 
 KING 
 
 Magnificently acted ! 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 Duped again ! 
 I heard the trumpets riding on the wind, 
 Here while you knelt and simpered of your love. 
 You will be late, and I it was who kept you ! 
 O, I am dead aweary of your sighs 
 And songful sueing. See you never, man. 
 The world's a woman, waiting to be subdued. 
 Not wooed, but won. Keep back your tenderness, 
 Until they have surrendered. Crush them ! Out- 
 rage them !
 
 102 FLODDEN FIELD Art- 
 
 And awe them into love's submissiveness ! 
 Then leave them to their languishing, and go, 
 Stronger for that imperative embrace, 
 And hew your way to whatso throne you will. 
 
 KING 
 
 Can it be true ? Tell me it is not true. 
 I cannot think so fair a thing as you 
 Can be so false. 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 Or man so fatuous. 
 Doubt it, believe it, doubt it then again, 
 Nor ever know if truth, or doubt, be true. 
 But 'twould mis-seem me to forget to thank 
 Your Majesty for liberating thus 
 My loving lord, so timely in return,
 
 II FLODDEN FIELD 103 
 
 So welcome here at any time. Now go ! 
 Or you will be too late for your defeat, 
 As now you are for victory ! 
 
 KING 
 
 Spake then 
 The Apparition at Linlithgow true, 
 And do these warnings from a bodyless world 
 Forbode our Fate ? " Go not to war 7vit/i Eng- 
 land ! 
 Or, if the hotness of your blood demand 
 That sanguinary ordeal, beware, 
 Beware of woman' s glamour, woman^s wiles. ^^ 
 Farewell ! with whom none ever can fare well, 
 As fair as Heaven, yet more false than Hell ! 
 
 [Exit.]
 
 I04 FLODDEN FIELD act ii 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 Farewell ! Not fair, though false. Come to me, 
 
 Surrey, 
 And I will yield you all I have to give, 
 My love, my lord, my conqueror, my King ! 
 My merciless Commander ! 
 
 END OF ACT II
 
 ACT III 
 
 SCENE : — The same as in Acts I and II 
 
 SIR WILLIAM {alone, pacing the gallery) 
 
 Is the tale true ? Or true in part, in part 
 False, as such tales in truth are apt to be ? 
 Do Kings sue ever in vain to women's ears ? 
 Not to their ears, if ofttimes to their hearts. 
 Nor often to — God ! how is one to know ? 
 A woman's fancy is more easily moved 
 Than is her blood. I never could move either, 
 Her proud cold ladyship's the least of all, 
 And by her very coldness have been made
 
 io6 FLODDEN FIELD act 
 
 More cold to others. But a King ! A King ! 
 
 With throne, and crown, and royal robes set off, 
 
 Homage of men, and love of other women. 
 
 Or felt or feigned, fond expectation strained 
 
 In the loose bosom of the fond and frail, 
 
 Till virtue, honour, vow, fidelity, 
 
 Into the circling pool of harlotry 
 
 Are whirled and whelmed ! O, if I but could know, 
 
 Could know, could learn ! 
 [Enter Margery— seeing Sir William, she hesitates.] 
 
 Nay, go not, Margery ! 
 [Aside.] 
 Here sure is one can tell, if any can. . . . 
 
 [To Margery, abruptly.] 
 Saw you King James, when he was here to-day ? 
 
 MARGERY 
 
 A moment, ere he went.
 
 Ill FLODDEN FIELD 107 
 
 SIR WILLIAM 
 
 How looked he then ? 
 
 MARGERY 
 
 Like to a man distraught. 
 
 SIR WILLIAM 
 
 Why, why distraught? 
 What cause had he ? 
 
 MARGERY 
 
 I pray you, do not ask. 
 
 SIR WILLIAM 
 
 But ask of you I must. Say truly, Margery, 
 Do you love Lady Heron ?
 
 io8 FLODDEN FIELD act 
 
 MARGERY 
 
 With all my being, 
 Heart, soul, mind, body, service, everything. 
 
 SIR WILLIAM 
 
 Then you would lie for her ? 
 
 MARGERY 
 
 I trust I should not. 
 Nay, more, I trust 1 never shall have need. 
 
 SIR WILLIAM 
 
 Not — not to save her honour } 
 
 MARGERY 
 
 Honour gone, 
 What then were left to save ?
 
 Ill FLODDEN FIELD 109 
 
 SIR WILLIAM {aside) 
 
 True. And still truer, 
 
 We only lie to cover other lies, 
 
 And wounded honour with dishonour veil, 
 
 To save it from persistent penalty. 
 
 [To Margery.] 
 King James for Lady Heron hath — a fancy ? 
 
 MARGERY 
 
 Belike he has. It is a way men have 
 With comely women, I have heard it said. 
 
 SIR WILLIAM 
 
 And Lady Heron a — fancy for King James ? 
 
 MARGERY 
 
 O no, my lord ! That were a different way, 
 A different, worse, and far more dangerous way.
 
 no FLO D DEN FIELD act 
 
 SIR WILLIAM 
 
 How know you that her thoughts not that way 
 wend ? 
 
 MARGERY 
 
 Because I saw him come, I saw him go, 
 Coldly received, disdainfully dismissed. 
 
 SIR WILLIAM 
 
 Then why was he received ? 
 
 MARGERY 
 
 You know Kings must be, 
 Must — must. But surely, sir, you understand ? 
 
 SIR WILLIAM 
 
 He hath a pleasing and a winning air.
 
 Ill FL ODD EN FT EL D in 
 
 MARGERY 
 
 Is not that kingly ? 
 
 SIR WILLIAM 
 
 Writes love-ditties, too- 
 
 MARGERY 
 
 Music, and verse, and both are sweet to ^yomen. 
 
 SIR WILLIAM 
 
 And flattery, Margery. 
 
 MARGERY 
 
 Haply, sir, and flattery. 
 Are men indifferent to it ? 
 
 SIR WILLIAM 
 
 Tell me, then ? 
 My lady hath a fancy for no man ?
 
 112 FLODDEN FIELD act 
 
 MARGERY 
 
 How can we mortals read each others' hearts ? 
 
 God only can do that. You ask too much. 
 
 I pray you let my answering sufifice 
 
 A question wiselier put by none of us 
 
 Anent another. 
 
 [Enter Seneschal. J 
 
 SENESCHAL (to SIR WILLIAm) 
 
 Go you not, good my lord, to Flodden Field, 
 Where gone have all your fighting men, save those 
 Who needs must stay behind to sentry Ford ? 
 
 SIR WILLIAM 
 
 And gone, I trust, to join the English camp. 
 
 SENESCHAL 
 
 So 'tis surmised, assumed. Withal, who knows ? 
 We Border folk are sparing of our speech,
 
 Ill FLODDEN FIELD 113 
 
 Covert in thought. It is the Border way, 
 And many a man is deemed of English pulse, 
 Whose heart beats secretly with Scottish hopes. 
 But, go you there, they there too will remain, 
 Faithful, leastways, to you, their rightful lord. 
 
 SIR WILLIAM 
 
 Give me my armour ; battle-axe and sword, 
 Borne by my ancestor at Bannockburn, 
 And trusty still. 
 
 SENESCHAL 
 
 They hang upon the wall. 
 
 [Sir William dons his armour, assisted by Seneschal and 
 Margery, and exit accompanied by both.] 
 
 [As the door closes, enter Lady Heron.] 
 lady heron 
 
 Gone ! All of them gone, unto the battle-field ! 
 
 I
 
 114 FLODDEN FIELD act 
 
 Surrey, to win, then hitherward return ; 
 
 James, to defeat and rout, unless Heaven should 
 
 Turn likelihood to baffled expectation. 
 
 As in this contrary surprising world 
 
 Will sometimes hap, — but not to-day, to-day. 
 
 In labour with two Kingdoms' fate, and mine ! 
 
 My own untimely-coming lord, too, gone, 
 
 To join the English camp, his faith assured. 
 
 As well in sooth it should be, of the truth 
 
 Of what I swore to him, on this, on this. 
 
 [Taking up a crucifix, then laying it down.] 
 What proves his bearing and his fate in fight — 
 Well, need is none, to ponder upon that 
 Till — Let me think ! In truth I cannot think, 
 But only feel ! 
 
 [Sees the pearls brought by James.] 
 The lust-bribe of a King !
 
 Ill 
 
 FL ODD EN FIELD 1 1   
 
 His precious pearls, and no more prized than he. 
 
 [Flings them on the table ; takes from her bosom, and kisses, 
 the sprig of white heather given her by Surrey.] 
 
 This is the gift I cherish, for it is 
 Love's white flower 'mong the crimson crop of 
 blood. 
 
 [Enter Seneschal, Margery, and Four^Men-at-Arms.] 
 SENESCHAL 
 
 Madam, the armies are in motion, and 
 The fight begun upon the nearward wing. 
 Shall I conduct you to the Tower ? 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 Unless 
 
 We here command the field. 
 
 [They mount the embrasure, whence Flodden Field is full 
 in their view, but not in that of the audience.]
 
 ir6 FLODDEN FIELD act 
 
 SENESCHAL 
 
 Yes, perfectly. 
 Here, Madam, with your leave. Hence you survey 
 More advantageously the field. 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 How plain 
 I can descry the Flodden slopes, and watch 
 The bowmen and the spearmen choose their ground, 
 Scatter or swarm, halt or advance, and — see ! 
 The English feathers flicker through the air. 
 
 MARGERY 
 
 Aye, but fall short. 
 
 SENESCHAL 
 
 They measure but the ground. 
 Now have they found it, and how fast and thick,
 
 Ill FLODDEN FIELD 117 
 
 Quicker than word to thought, they vault the space 
 Betwixt them and their aim. Do you see Surrey ? 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 Who doth not see the sun when it doth shine ? 
 Even at that distance he half dazzles one, 
 And frightens one to look ! He flasheth swift 
 Among the medley of the combatants, 
 Now here, now there, now everywhere at once. 
 According as one gazes. 
 
 MARGERY 
 
 But, look ! look ! 
 His fellows hovering eastward seem to waver 
 And breed disorder in the ranks behind. 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 'Tis but a feint to draw the enemy, 
 
 I'll pledge me. What say you, Sir Seneschal ?
 
 ii8 FLODDEN FIELD act 
 
 SENESCHAL 
 
 Who can be sure but he who holds command ? 
 Your younger eyes range more afield than mine, 
 And with a sharper vision. 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 Seems it still 
 As if they yielded ground ? Say, Margery ! 
 
 MARGERY 
 
 Nay, there is such confusion, north with south, 
 One blade with the other, battle-axe with pike, 
 'Tis hard to say, save that they shock and shout, 
 And all alike strike fiercely, manfully, 
 And many fall, nor rise from where they fall. 
 God shrive their sins !
 
 Ill 
 
 FL ODD EN FIELD 1 1 9 
 
 SENESCHAL 
 
 Death will do that for them. 
 Who die in battle for their mother-land 
 Are counted 'mong the martyrs. What fierce 
 shouting ! 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 Yes, and how plain one hears them ! To which side 
 Do your affections lean ? 
 
 SENESCHAL 
 
 Troth, noble lady, 
 The Border blood that flows within my veins, 
 Like Tweed itself, inclines now here, now there. 
 But ends by warming to the winning side. 
 As being the stouter.
 
 126 FLODDEN FIELD act 
 
 MARGERY 
 
 Mine the losing one. 
 I cannot help though I be chidden for it. 
 
 SENESCHAL 
 
 'Tis the more maidenly. 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 But Where's the King ? 
 Look where I will, I cannot see King James. 
 
 MARGERY 
 
 Look ! look ! He hastes all bonnetless and bare, 
 As though he cometh tardily. And see ! 
 They bring him helm, and sword, and battle-axe, 
 And with hot haste he pusheth to the front. 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 Then Surrey swift to meet him.
 
 in P'LODDEM FIELD 121 
 
 MARGERY 
 
 So he doth ; 
 And the two armies cluster them around, 
 As bees about their monarch. 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 See you more ? 
 
 MARGERY 
 
 No, only flashing blades and glittering spears. 
 Arms lifted, huge men stricken to the knee. 
 Rising afresh and dealing stroke for stroke. 
 And others staggering, falling, trampled on, 
 To rise no more. I cannot brook the sight 
 Of savage strokes. 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 But Surrey and the King ?
 
 122 FLODDEN FIELD act 
 
 SENESCHAL 
 
 It is no longer possible to say, 
 The melly grows so thick. But you descry, 
 There in the midway opening of the wood. 
 Nigh to the welling fountain that we know, 
 The rival Standards, and they must be there. 
 See ! Scotland's is pushed back. 
 
 MARGERY 
 
 And now it droops 
 And is or lowered or folded from the sight. 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 O, if I had but your young eyes ! Yes ! now, 
 Now — now — the Flag of England floats and flies 
 In triumph o'er the field. I see it plain.
 
 Ill FLO D DEN FIELD 123 
 
 SENESCHAL 
 
 It yet may be a feint ; for Scottish brains 
 Are canny as the Scottish blood is brave. 
 Yet seems it as though everywhere they feel 
 The weight of English numbers. 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 And the force 
 Of Surrey's skill. His breast is full as stout, 
 His mind more domineering, will Hke steel 
 That takes not nay ! 
 
 MARGERY {aside) 
 
 Be cautious, lady, lest 
 The carles surmise the secret of your heart. 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 Think you I reck of that ? Were I but there, 
 I would bid the trumpets shrill it o'er the field,
 
 124 FLODDEN FIELD act 
 
 Till Flodden rang with Surrey's name and mine, 
 Proud to be reckoned 'mong his followers. 
 
 MARGERY 
 
 Bide, bide, till that he comes with victor wounds 
 Gaping for woman's tenderness. 
 
 SENESCHAL 
 
 All is lost ! 
 Lost, lost, for Scotland is this brief affray. 
 See, everywhere they give, both flanks outflanked, 
 And forced back to the centre. None save fools 
 Now would abide for butchery, but find 
 Shelter from death, to face another fight. 
 Rout, panic, following fury, wend this way, 
 The worsted to bestride the Till before 
 Escape be barred, the victors to o'ertake
 
 Ill FLODDEN FIELD 125 
 
 .The scattered fugitives, and slay, slay, slay, 
 With blade and pike, and shouts of mastery. 
 
 MARGERY 
 
 O, I can look no more ! Donald is there ! 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 Now, glory be to Surrey ! 
 
 MARGERY 
 
 And to Heaven ! 
 
 You forget Heaven and God ! 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 Surrey is Heaven to me, 
 And God as well ! 
 
 MARGERY 
 
 He would be first to chide, 
 If he did hear you ! Shall we not descend,
 
 126 FLO D DEN FIELD act 
 
 And order bracken and heather to be spread 
 For comfort of the sore who claim from Ford 
 God's truce and woman's pity ? 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 Yes ! ajar 
 Roll Ford's main gate, that friend and foe alike, 
 Conquering and conquered, may such pallet find 
 As it can give them. [Aside] Sure, he too will come, 
 And let me loose his belt, and wipe his brow, 
 And tend upon his triumph. 
 
 SENESCHAL 
 
 I were shamed. 
 But for my stiffening limbs, to have been so nigh 
 A fight so stubborn, and not share in it. 
 But the years follow on the years, and we
 
 Ill FLO D DEN FIELD 127 
 
 Must travel with them till the end be reached, 
 When we shall neither fight nor fret us more. 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 'Tis better to think less upon the end, 
 More of the march. 
 
 SENESCHAL 
 
 But thought runs before 
 That end of all our ends, and wonders what 
 Will be our welcome there ! 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 Well, to descend. 
 
 [Exeunt Omnes, save Lady Heron. Margery swiftly 
 
 returns.] 
 
 MARGERY 
 
 Gramercy! How they come! The gate stands wide,
 
 128 FLOOD EN FIELD act 
 
 Portcullis lifted, with the drawbridge down, 
 And through they pour, a miserable crowd, 
 Some hale, but gasping, others limping sore, 
 Few with their weapons, in their armour none, 
 For cast away in flight. The Seneschal 
 And all your servitors attend on them. 
 And, night at hand, those born to be obeyed 
 Call off the human sleuthhounds of the chase 
 From following into Ford. 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 'Tis well. Go, see 
 The wounded lack for nothing Ford can give. 
 And bid the Chaplain wait upon the dying. 
 
 MARGERY 
 
 He is there, already. 
 
 [Enter DONALU.]
 
 Ill FLODDEN FIELD 129 
 
 DONALD 
 Madam, Surrey comes, 
 
 With triumph-red retainers at his heels, 
 
 [Enter Surrey, with armed attendants, to whom he 
 signifies they are to retire.] 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 Surrey ! Great Surrey ! 
 
 [Margery seeks to retire with Donald.] 
 
 SURREY 
 
 Go not, little maid ! 
 It freshens one to see so young a thing. 
 After the brawny fellows of the fight. 
 She is a running stream to thirsty lips, 
 Is she not. Lady ? 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 She indeed must be. 
 
 We elders are too stagnant. 
 
 K
 
 I30 
 
 FLODDEN FIELD act 
 
 SURREY 
 
 What a rout ! 
 
 [Lady Heron undoes his belt, and Margery takes 
 his casque.] 
 
 But oh ! how many upon either side, 
 
 Stalwart and sinewy, still in April trim 
 
 Alike for war or wooing, who had not 
 
 Yet done with life, but had to put it off 
 
 At bidding of Bellona, lie outstretched, 
 
 With mire-fouled love -locks and death -tethered 
 
 limbs. 
 Mute as the marble that should honour them. 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 Nay, tell me not of that ! I turn away 
 Even from the imagination of the sight.
 
 Ill FL ODDEN FIELD 1 3 1 
 
 SURREY 
 
 And yet — and yet ! Theirs was a glorious death, 
 Making them princely all, and their great souls 
 Have gone before the Judgment Throne of Heaven, 
 Absolved from life's offences by its close, 
 Henceforth to be — for so conceives my thought — 
 The chosen troop and bodyguard of God ! 
 The field once won, pursuit delights me not. 
 There always are enough for that. Withal 
 One must not baulk them of their quarry quite, 
 Or never would they take the scent again. 
 That leads to victory. Never have I faced 
 So stout, so brave, so masculine a foe. 
 Now, by my English sword, these Scottish hearts 
 Held on unvanquished when outvanquished quite 
 By strategy and numbers. Could we twain.
 
 132 FLODDEN FIELD act 
 
 Northward and southward of the Border, be 
 One kingdom and one people, I aver 
 In battle we could front an envious world, 
 And not be worsted. 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 Saw you my husband ? 
 
 SURREY 
 
 I ne'er have seen him, so I cannot say. 
 But I beheld an instant Ford's device 
 Among my wavering wing upon the right, 
 Wherein confusion reigned, and many seemed 
 Baffled and captured. 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 And the Scottish King ?
 
 Ill FLODDEN FIELD 133 
 
 SURREY 
 
 Alas ! Alas ! Death holds him prisoner ! 
 And all the wealth of all the world is not 
 Enough to rescue or to ransom him. 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 Dead ! And how died he ? 
 
 SURREY 
 
 As becomes a King ! 
 As I myself would die, did Heaven but leave 
 How to our choosing ! Late, but cramming close 
 The moments left him with heroic deeds ; 
 Here, there, restoring everywhere at once 
 The balance of the battle. Had he not been 
 Somehow belated, — why, I cannot say, — 
 And those first strokes that oft decide the last
 
 134 FLODDEN FIELD ACT 
 
 Ere these be struck, not been at my disposing, 
 My vantage had been smaller, victory less. 
 My death-roll larger, and the King himself 
 Still 'mong the living. 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 Tell me, to whose blade 
 Did the King fall ? 
 
 SURREY 
 
 To mine, or rather, his own. 
 When first I saw him plain, he seemed inflamed 
 By something, some one, hidden from surmise, 
 And, when first eye to eye with me in fight, 
 He towered to strike, then rushed upon my sword. 
 Ere I had time to swerve with it, and aim 
 Not in the very death's eye of life's target,
 
 Ill FLODDEN FIELD 135 
 
 But at some outer and less mortal mark, 
 That scores surrender. O, the pity of it ! 
 
 LADY HERON {to MARGERV) 
 
 Go, child, unto the gate, and bring back word, 
 If there be couch and food enough for all. 
 You will not grudge her for a few brief moments 
 For service so intent and womanly .'' 
 
 SURREY 
 
 Better employed than so she could not be. 
 
 Hence, tenderly, and see you how they fare. 
 
 For seeing you will make them fare the better ; 
 
 And bring back speedy word, for I myself 
 
 Would move among them, though less helpful, 
 
 i' faith. 
 
 Alike in speech and seeming. 
 
 [Exit Margery.]
 
 136 FLO D DEN FIELD act 
 
 Now, dear lady, 
 Who sent me to the shock with trustful words, 
 And make me welcome with such gracious ones, 
 Now that the deed is done, can Ford to-night 
 Concede to me its shelter ? 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 All Ford hath, 
 And all that is within it, save it be 
 That sock-lamb, Margery. 
 
 SURREY 
 
 Her tender years 
 And maidenhood ensure her sanctuary 
 From the most sacrilegious gaze alive. 
 Her whiteness shows against a sinful world, 
 Like wing-furled swan anchored on leaden mere.
 
 Ill FLODDEN FIELD 137 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 I spake in jest. But all the rest is yours, 
 As though you had, like Flodden, conquered it. 
 Your chamber hath been furnished hard by mine. 
 And by my hand sweetened with lavender, 
 Soft-carpeted from sound of voice or tread, 
 Pillow, and sheet, and quilt, and coverlet. 
 As for a kingly head ; drugs to deep slumber, 
 When further waking wearies you. Myself 
 Will linger on your wants, await your will, 
 And, if I only may your handmaid be, 
 I will be that, be more ! 
 
 SURREY 
 
 Such lavish thought 
 Makes you all that and more. And, ere nurse 
 night
 
 138 FLO D DEN FIELD act 
 
 Brings sleep into the battlefield and us, 
 Here we will sit and talk — 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 Yes ; talk alone — 
 
 SURREY 
 
 Of things that were, and things that are to be. 
 
 As far as man can see them. But before 
 
 Guerdon so welcome may befall me, I 
 
 Must write unto my Sovereign Lord, King Harry, 
 
 And tell him how his army fared to-day, 
 
 My preconceived moves and purposes, 
 
 And fortunate fulfilment. 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 Would you be 
 Here, or within your chamber, for that task ?
 
 Ill FLODDEN FIELD i39 
 
 SURREY 
 That duty, rather. Here, so it be your pleasure, 
 But now at once, wherever it may be. 
 For there are mounted messengers who wait 
 To speed them south, by rapid stage and change 
 Of stirrup and self-spurring steed. 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 Here then 
 Remain, and I unwillingly will go, 
 And leave you quiet to your victor scroll. 
 But ere I quit you, just one little word ! 
 King James, when you had left me, hither came. 
 And long while lingered. 
 
 SURREY 
 
 Here ? And wherefore here ? 
 Was it to make a survey of the field
 
 I40 FLODDEN FIELD act 
 
 From Ford's commanding towers ? And did you 
 
 let 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 No ! No ! How wrongfully you misconceive ! 
 Swift on your going hence he hither came, 
 In answer to my summons. Can you not 
 Surmise the wherefore ? 
 
 SURREY 
 
 Not unless it were 
 For further ordering of his battle-ranks, 
 And you were forced to tolerate his will. 
 I blame you not. 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 No, no, 'twas not for that. 
 He came — for me ! Came in soft amorous mood,
 
 Ill FLODDEN FIELD 141 
 
 A futile quest, as he hath come before. 
 
 I for your sake decoyed and kept him here. 
 
 SURREY 
 
 How ? For my sake ? Here, for my sake ? And 
 
 why? 
 In very sooth I understand you not. 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 How slow of wit men ofttimes are ! Why, sure, 
 That he might sue, and linger, and be late ! 
 
 SURREY 
 
 Late ! And for what ? You do not, cannot 
 mean 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 Late for the hurricane of battle, and so 
 
 Your victory more swift, and safe, and sure ! 
 [Re-enter Margery.]
 
 142 FLODDEN FIELD act 
 
 SURREY 
 
 How ! Can it be that I have heard aright ? 
 
 O, you abominable woman, you ! 
 
 In what fell, dark, and execrable night 
 
 Were you begotten, that should straight have been 
 
 Stuffed out of living sight, a monstrous birth, 
 
 And never thought of more ; a lure, a lie, 
 
 For honest men in their enfeebled hours. 
 
 You have robbed me of my victory, James of life, 
 
 And Scotland of her King ! 
 
 [She moves towards him, as though she would kneel and 
 cling to his sword.] 
 
 Touch not my sword ! 
 [Surrey shrinking from her.] 
 And desecrate what is anointed still 
 With sacred blood of trusting King betrayed. 
 Were you a man, I would slay you where you stand,
 
 Ill FLODDEN FIELD 143 
 
 And rid the earth of such deformity. 
 Away ! I care not where, so you away, 
 And cleanse the air by going. Nay, hide on 
 In your foul ambuscade, Hell's loathliest hags 
 Could not make fouler. By such fiends as you 
 Undoing comes to men, and death to kingdoms. 
 
 [Turns towards Margery.] 
 Poor little maiden ! so an you be wise, 
 You will let me find you safer company 
 And surer shelter. 
 
 MARGERY 
 
 I will stay with her. 
 And tend her with such comfort as I can, 
 Through woe, wrong, merciless or self-reproach. 
 Till she be comforted.
 
 144 FLODDEN FIELD act 
 
 SURREY 
 
 Office of charity 
 Meet for your sex and years. But have a care 
 You do not catch the leprosy from her, 
 Whom you would cure ! 
 
 [Exit.] 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 O, I have lost them both, 
 One dead, one more disdainful than is death, 
 More deaf, more deadly ! Was it Surrey went ? 
 Where hath he gone ? For thither would I go. 
 Were it to join the doomed ! Both lost ! Both 
 
 gone ! 
 While I am in this vast unfeeling world, 
 I, feeling all !
 
 Ill FLO D DEN FIELD 145 
 
 MARGERY 
 
 Then, Lady, let me send 
 For your liege husband, who will surely come. 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 No, not for him ! Then should I sin again, 
 
 If I have sinned already. Be that all 
 
 The bitter balm that you can offer me. 
 
 Prithee be silent ! If he came, my heart 
 
 As at Heaven's very Judgment-seat would cry, 
 
 " Where, where is Surrey ? " driving him afresh 
 
 Where he is better than with such as I. 
 
 O, 'tis a cruel and a captious world ! 
 
 Because I blazon forth what others hide, 
 
 I am condemned. Aye, Surrey's self condemns me. 
 
 For what ? For loving. What is it he loves ?
 
 146 FLO D DEN FIELD act 
 
 Himself, his sword, his victory, his King, 
 His cause, his country— all of it, his, his, his ! 
 And I— love him ! being thus the lesser thing, 
 The lesser and the viler ! Even now, 
 It scarcely seems so. 
 
 MARGERY 
 
 I am not your judge, 
 Neither is Surrey. If he be unjust 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 Man always is. He whirls away our will 
 
 With the convulsive currents of his own, 
 
 And then, disdaining us for lightsomeness, 
 
 Forthwith submerges. 
 
 [Enter an English Gentleman-at-Arms.]
 
 Ill FLODDEN FIELD 147 
 
 , GENTLEMAN-AT-ARMS 
 
 Lady, I am bid 
 By the Commander of the English Camp 
 To bring a gift for you to look upon. 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 Then, he relents ! I knew he would relent. 
 He could not be so hard to one so soft. 
 Or stab to death one who but lives for him. 
 
 [Re-enter Gentleman - at - Arms, followed by Four 
 Soldiers carrying on their shoulders a burden with a 
 military cloak cast over it, which they set down. 
 Gentleman-at-Arms takes off the cloak.] 
 
 GENTLEMAN-AT-ARMS 
 
 Behold the gift !
 
 148 FLODDEN FIELD act 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 The body of King James ! 
 Take it away. 'Tis good for nothing now. 
 It will nor kneel, nor fawn, nor sue, nor sing, 
 And irks in death more than it did in life. 
 
 GENTLEMAN-AT-ARMS (rc-covering the body) 
 
 Madam, I do as I was bid, and now 
 Must bear it to the Scottish Capital, 
 Where it awhile will lie in regal state, 
 Ere it be piously sepulchred to rest 
 With its long ancestry of Warrior Kings. 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 O— h! 
 
 [Covers her face with her hands and turns away. The 
 Soldiers withdraw, bearing away the body of James. 
 Margery approaches her.]
 
 Ill FLODDEN FIELD 149 
 
 MARGERY 
 
 Kneel with me, dear, and pray to One who will 
 Forgive us all, James, Surrey, you, and me — 
 The Almighty Pardoner. 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 Hence with such vain comfort ! 
 
 And I am in no mood to be forgiven ! 
 
 Where is his sword, that I may die on it ? 
 
 Gone with the wearer ! 
 
 He said that he would slay me ! So he shall ! 
 
 Take him my body ! Return gift for his ! 
 
 I still have this, given me that night, that night ! 
 
 [Seizes a dagger lying close at hand, and unsheathes it. 
 Margery rushes to the door, calling " Help ! Help ! " 
 Seneschal, Donald, and Servitors rush in.]
 
 I50 FLO D DEN FIELD act hi 
 
 LADY HERON 
 
 Help ! Help ! What use of help, when hope is 
 
 none? 
 
 Thus do I bafifle help, and bid farewell 
 
 To life, love, everything ! 
 
 [Stabs herself, and dies.] 
 
 THE END 
 
 Printed by R. & R. Clark, Limited, Edinburgh
 
 BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 
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 POETICAL WORKS 
 
 THE HUMAN TRAGEDY. 
 
 PRINCE LUCIFER. 
 
 FORTUNATUS THE PESSIMIST. 
 
 SAVONAROLA : A Tragedy. 
 
 THE TOWER OF BABEL. 
 
 THE CONVERSION OF WINCKELMANN. 
 
 A TALE OF TRUE LOVE. 
 
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 SHORTER NARRATIVE POEMS. 
 
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