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THE CLIFFORDS. 267
Thither Richard, it is said, came, gazed upon the face of his injured
sire for the last time, groaned in spirit, and prostrating himself on his
knees beside the corpse in
been so touchingly rendered by Mrs. Hemans :
unavailing penitence, uttered words which have
"Thy silver hairs I see,
So still, so sadly bright ;
And, father, father, but for me
I
They had not been so white !
bore thee down, high heart, at last,
No longer couldst thou strive :
Oh, for one moment of the past,
To kneel and say Forgive !"
Space fails me to dwell on all the distinguished members of this
illustrious house, for each generation seems to have provided its quota
to the valiant and patriotic men of England, ready to do and die for
what they felt best for their country.
Robert, the first Lord, son of Roger and Isabel de Vipont, co-heiress
of Roger de Vipont Lord of Westmoreland, was the comrade and friend
of Edward I. He was present with him at the siege of Caerlaverock. The
rhyming chronicler of that exploit, Walter of Exeter, describes him in
glowing terms, ending with the words: "If I were a damsel I would
" give
him my heart and person, so great is his reputation." He seems to have
and when it surrendered he was
taken a very active part in the siege,
appointed governor of the castle, and his banner placed on its battlements.
His seal appears amongst those of the barons attached to the letter to
Pope Boniface, 1301. In it he is described as "Castellanus de Appleby;
and in the thirty-fourth year of Edward I. he received, in recognition of
his services with Agmer de Valune against Robert Bruce, the grant of
the borough of Hartlepool and of all Bruce's lands. For him he held
the border fortress of Carlisle against the Scotch, and from him, on his
death-bed at Burgh-on-the-Sands, 1307, he received the solemn charge to
be loyal to his son, and preserve him from the evil influence of Piers
Gaveston.
He fulfilled the latter by joining Lancaster in putting the insane
favourite to death ; and the former by sacrificing his own life in the
disastrous battle of Bannockburn, June 24th, 1314, aged forty, when the
English were defeated and Edward II. escaped with difficulty to Berwick.
An old chronicler says of him that he "always soe kept the King's
" favour that he lost not the love of the nobility and kingdom." Loyalty
to his sovereign, and fidelity to his country, were his distinguishing
characteristics.
His son Roger followed, with indifferent success, in his father's
foot-
of his new
steps. Anxious to deliver the unhappy Edward from the power