Somewhat similar to the indignities offered to Valerian was the treatment which the Sultan Bajazet is said to have experienced from Tamerlane after his defeat and capture. Closed in a cage, like some destructive beast, I’ll have thee borne about in public view; A great example of the righteous vengeance That waits on cruelty and pride like thine.[104] Voltaire and other modern writers have discredited this story, chiefly on the authority of D’Herbelot. It has been shown, however, by Sir W. Jones, that the premises of that distinguished orientalist are false, and his authority therefore falls to the ground. On the other hand, Leunclavius, in his History of the Turks, professes to have heard from an old man, who was in Bajazet’s service at the time of his defeat, “that an iron cage was made by Timour’s command, composed on every side of iron gratings, through which he could be seen in any direction. He travelled in this den slung between two horses. Whenever Timour and his retinue, on moving his camp, made ready for a journey, he was usually carried before; and after the march, when they dismounted, he was placed upon the ground in his cage, before Timour’s tent.” Poggio also, himself a contemporary, mentions this strange imprisonment as an undoubted fact.[105] The English reader will find some countenance for the story in Edward the First’s inhuman treatment of the Countess of Buchan. That lady having dared, it is said, in virtue of hereditary privileges, to place the crown of Scotland on the Bruce’s head, and afterwards falling into the English monarch’s hands, was confined in a cage built upon one of the towers of Berwick Castle, exposed, as it should seem, to the rigour of the elements and the gaze of passers by. One of Bruce’s sisters was similarly dealt with. So much for the devoted respect paid to women in the age of chivalry, and that by a prince who, when young, was inferior to none in knightly renown. But the demoralizing effects of absolute power found a fitting subject to work upon in Edward’s stern and unforgiving temper. The original order for the Countess’s confinement is to this effect:— “Ordered and commanded, by letters under the privy seal, to the Chamberlain of Scotland, or his deputy at Berwick–upon–Tweed, that in one of the turrets, upon the castle of that place, in such place as he shall chuse, and shall be most convenient, he do make a cage of strong lattice–work and bars, and well strengthened with iron–work, in the which he shall place the Countess of Buchan. “And that he shall so well and surely guard her in the same cage, that in no manner shall she pass out from it. “And that he do appoint one or two English women of the said town of Berwick who shall be in no wise suspected, who understand to serve the said Countess with meat and drink, and all things pertaining to her.