--- title: The Black Douglas. — Fifty Famous Stories Retold · full text with trees description: The Black Douglas., «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin: the whole chapter, every sentence with its dependency tree and pragmatics. It begins: In Scotland, in the time of King Robert Bruce, there lived a brave man whose name was Doug-las. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg18442/13/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Fifty Famous Stories Retold](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg18442/) / The Black Douglas. # The Black Douglas. The Black Douglas. of «Fifty Famous Stories Retold» by James Baldwin: the whole text, 36 sentences and 662 words. Every sentence has its own page with its syntax tree and pragmatics, parsed by Mova itself; 1 of them are in the tales treebank and were checked by a teacher model. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg18442/13/1/) — In Scotland, in the time of King Robert Bruce, there lived a brave man whose name was Doug-las. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg18442/13/2/) — His hair and beard were black and long, and his face was tanned and dark; and for this reason people nicknamed him the Black Douglas. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg18442/13/3/) — He was a good friend of the king, and one of his strongest helpers. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg18442/13/4/) — In the war with the English, who were trying to drive Bruce from Scotland, the Black Douglas did many brave deeds; and the English people became very much afraid of him. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg18442/13/5/) — By and by the fear of him spread all through the land. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg18442/13/6/) — Nothing could frighten an English lad more than to tell him that the Black Douglas was not far away. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg18442/13/7/) — Women would tell their chil-dren, when they were naughty, that the Black Douglas would get them; and this would make them very quiet and good. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg18442/13/8/) — There was a large cas-tle in Scotland which the English had taken early in the war. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg18442/13/9/) — The Scot-tish soldiers wanted very much to take it again, and the Black Douglas and his men went one day to see what they could do. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg18442/13/10/) — It happened to be a hol-i-day, and most of the English soldiers in the cas-tle were eating and drinking and having a merry time. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg18442/13/11/) — But they had left watch-men on the wall to see that the Scottish soldiers did not come upon them un-a-wares; and so they felt quite safe. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg18442/13/12/) — In the e-ven-ing, when it was growing dark, the wife of one of the soldiers went up on the wall with her child in her arms. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg18442/13/13/) — As she looked over into the fields below the castle, she saw some dark objects moving toward the foot of the wall. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg18442/13/14/) — In the dusk she could not make out what they were, and so she pointed them out to one of the watch-men. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg18442/13/15/) — "Pooh, pooh!" said the watchman. " - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg18442/13/16/) — Those are nothing to frighten us. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg18442/13/17/) — They are the farmer's cattle, trying to find their way home. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg18442/13/18/) — The farmer himself is en-joy-ing the hol-i-day, and he has forgotten to bring them in. - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg18442/13/19/) — If the Douglas should happen this way before morning, he will be sorry for his care-less-ness." - [20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg18442/13/20/) — But the dark objects were not cattle. - [21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg18442/13/21/) — They were the Black Douglas and his men, creeping on hands and feet toward the foot of the castle wall. - [22](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg18442/13/22/) — Some of them were dragging ladders behind them through the grass. - [23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg18442/13/23/) — They would soon be climbing to the top of the wall. - [24](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg18442/13/24/) — None of the English soldiers dreamed that they were within many miles of the place. - [25](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg18442/13/25/) — The woman watched them until the last one had passed around a corner out of sight. - [26](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg18442/13/26/) — She was not afraid, for in the dark-en-ing twi-light they looked indeed like cattle. - [27](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg18442/13/27/) — After a little while she began to sing to her child:-- - [28](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg18442/13/28/) — "Hush ye, hush ye, little pet ye, Hush ye, hush ye, do not fret ye, The Black Douglas shall not get ye." - [29](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg18442/13/29/) — All at once a gruff voice was heard behind her, saying, "Don't be so sure about that!" - [30](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg18442/13/30/) — She looked around, and there stood the Black Douglas himself. - [31](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg18442/13/31/) — At the same moment a Scottish soldier climbed off a ladder and leaped upon the wall; and then there came another and another and another, until the wall was covered with them. — checked by a teacher - [32](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg18442/13/32/) — Soon there was hot fighting in every part of the castle. - [33](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg18442/13/33/) — But the English were so taken by surprise that they could not do much. - [34](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg18442/13/34/) — Many of them were killed, and in a little while the Black Douglas and his men were the masters of the castle, which by right be-longed to them. - [35](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg18442/13/35/) — As for the woman and her child, the Black Douglas would not suffer any one to harm them. - [36](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg18442/13/36/) — After a while they went back to England; and whether the mother made up any more songs about the Black Douglas I cannot tell. - ← previous: [Bruce and the Spider.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg18442/12/) - next →: [Three Men of Gotham.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg18442/14/) - ↑ back to [Fifty Famous Stories Retold](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg18442/)