Bruce was then ordered to be reconducted to the round-tower; and the rest of the lords withdrawing by command, the king was left with Gloucester, his daughter Jane, and the now reviving queen to make his peace with her, even on his knees.
Burce was more closely immured than ever. Not even his senachie was allowed to approach him; and double guards were kept constantly around his prison. On the fourth day of his seclusion an extra row of iron bars was put across his windows. He asked the captain of the party the reason for this new rivet on his captivity; but he received no answer. His own recollection, however, solved the doubt; for he could not but see that his own declaration respecting his friendship with Wallace had increased the alarm of Edward respecting their political views. One of the warders, on having the same inquiry put to him which Bruce had addressed to his superior, in a rough tone replied:
"He had best not ask questions, lest he should hear that his majesty had determined to keep him under Bishop Beck's padlock for life."
Bruce was not to be deprived of hope by a single evidence, and smiling, said:
"There are more ways of getting out of a tyrant's prison, than by the doors and windows!"
"Why, you would not eat through the walls?" cried the man.
"Certainly," replied Bruce, "if I have no other way, and through the guards too."
"We'll see to that," answered the man.
"And feel it too, my sturdy jailer," returned the prince; "so look to yourself."
Bruce threw himself recklessly into a chair as he spoke; while the man, eying him askance, and remembering how strangely the minstrel had disappeared, began to think that some people born in Scotland inherited from nature a necromantic power of executing whatever they determined.