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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/21834-8.txt b/21834-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1e0aeb0 --- /dev/null +++ b/21834-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5023 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Black Colonel, by James Milne + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Black Colonel + +Author: James Milne + +Release Date: June 14, 2007 [EBook #21834] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BLACK COLONEL *** + + + + +Produced by Al Haines + + + + + + + + + + +THE BLACK COLONEL + + +BY + +JAMES MILNE + + +BY THE SAME AUTHOR + + THE ROMANCE OF A PRO-CONSUL + THE EPISTLES OF ATKINS + JOHN JONATHAN AND COMPANY + NEWS FROM SOMEWHERE + MY SUMMER IN LONDON + THE GORDON HIGHLANDERS + + + + "A tale of the times + of old, of the deeds of + the days of other years." + _Ossian_. + + + +JOHN LANE THE BODLEY HEAD LIMITED + +LONDON + +MCMXXI. + + + + +TO J. T. M., WHO KNOWS THE + +STORY OF THE BLACK COLONEL + + + + +_Chapters and Contents_ + + + I. WE MEET IN THE PASS + II. TRAPPED BY THE RED-COATS + III. OVER THE HILLS OF HOME + IV. THE OPENING ROAD + V. A CAIRN OF REMEMBRANCE + VI. THE FINGER OF FATE + VII. A PARLEY AND A SURPRISE + VIII. THE CONQUERING HERO + IX. 'TWIXT NIGHT AND MORN + X. THE WAY OF A WOMAN + XI. THE CRACK OF THUNDER + XII. RAIDERS OF THE DARK + XIII. THE WOUND OF ABSENCE + XIV. THE CARDS OF LOVE + XV. NEWS FROM SOMEWHERE + XVI. THE WOOIN' O'T! + XVII. A SONG OF OTHER SHORES + XVIII. MY GARDEN OF CONTENT + + + + +_Personal and Particular_ + +The strangest thing about this tale is that it happened, though not, +may be, as I here relate it; which is merely to seek, in a humble +spirit, the great company of George Washington, who could not tell--a +story! + +That of the Black Colonel came to me in scraps of talk from my mother +when, as Byron grandly sang of himself, "I roved, a Young Highlander, +o'er Dark Lochnagar," a wild landscape beloved of Queen Victoria, at +Balmoral, for, you see, the eminences will come in. My mother had it +from her people, a Forbes family long planted in the brave uplands of +Deeside, and I was taken a generation nearer to it in the conversation +of my grandfather, whose folk were on the no less brave uplands of +Donside. Nay, he could remember, what my own father, born like him, +and myself, in the Forbes Country, first stirred me by saying, when the +Red Coats still garrisoned the Castle of Braemar and the Castle of +Corgarff, old Grampian strongholds where they had been installed to +overawe the Jacobites of the Aberdeenshire Highlands. + +The "Seventeen-Forty-Five," with the "Standard on the Braes o' +Mar . . . up and streamin' rarely" for Bonnie Prince Charlie, saw fiery +times in those remote parts, and knew times of dule afterwards, and the +difficulty about any authentic tale of events, is that, in its passage +down time, from mouth to mouth, it necessarily loses immediacy of +phrase, even of fable, and that rude frame of living and loving, +fighting and dying, in which it was originally set. But human nature +does not change, we only think it does in changed circumstances, and if +Jock Farquharson, of Inverey, could return from the Hills of Beyond and +read our chronicle of himself and others, why, he might recognize it, +which would mean, perhaps, that some of the romantic colour, the +dancing atmosphere, and the high spirit of adventure of those ancient +years, has been saved from them. It was little he did not know about +the gallantries and the intrigues of war-making and love-making, +holding them the natural occupations of a Highland gentleman, even when +he had become a "broken man" and an "outlaw"; as you may now, if you +please, go on to learn, with many other things of surprise, diversion +and quality. + +J. M. + +THE CALEDONIAN CLUB, + LONDON, + _Midsummer Day_, 1921. + + + + +THE BLACK COLONEL + + +_I--We Meet in the Pass_ + +We might have gone by each other in +the Pass, the Black Colonel and +I, if his horse had not kicked a +stone as we came together. It +struck my foot and then a rock, making a rattle +in the dark night. You know how noise gains +when you cannot see the cause of it, and all +your senses are in your ears. + +"Woa, Mack!" said the Black Colonel to +his beast; "can't you stand still with those +mettlesome legs of yours? You may," he went +on, more to himself than to the horse, "need +them to-night, for our friend, Captain Ian +Gordon of his Hanoverian Majesty's forces, is +late, and when a man is late it generally bodes +trouble; for a woman anyhow, I might confess +from my experience. It is less matter if a +woman be late, because it is a fashion with the +sweet sex that you should wait upon it, and +I am always willing to oblige out of my own +warmth in gallantry, or so folk say. Eh! +Mack? Kept you waiting at many a gate, +have I, forgetful that it was cold outside?" + +The Black Colonel and I had met before, +though slightly, distantly, and I knew his habit +of talking to his horse. Not an unnatural +thing, because Mack was an animal of fine +intelligence, coupled, it is true, with the +stallion's devil of a temper, and they had spent +much time alone together, which begets +understanding. Were they, indeed, not a romance +of the countryside, inseparable, with a +friendship only found between a lonely man and his +horse or his dog? They had been through a +whole chapter of adventures together, and were +willing to face more, or they would not have +been there in the Pass. + +When the stone hit my foot I stood still, +knowing it must be the Black Colonel, yet +wishful to be certain before I spoke. His +words to Mack revealed his presence, but left +me unsure whether he knew that I was within +a few yards of him. Of course the horse knew, +for animals of the higher order have an instinct +which is often more sure than reason in a man. +It is their reason, the shield of guidance which +Nature gives to all her creatures. + +Suddenly communication seemed to arise +between us, although no word of mutual +greeting had been spoken. You know how +those things come about! No, you don't, +nor do I, nor does anybody else, but they do +happen out of a world 'twixt earth and heaven. +They call them uncanny in our land, which +only means they are unknown, the mysteries +of them, but some day they will grow clear +and be no more black witchery, only golden light. + +"Walked all the way from Corgarff Castle?" +he abruptly asked, preparing the way, with the +usual nothings of conversation. It is oddly +difficult to get into natural talk in a dark, +dividing night, when eyes, faces, gestures, are +hidden, and I just answered, "Yes, walked +over the hills, as I've often done before, +knowing them well, without having the honour +of a safe conduct from you." + +"Some day," he snapped, "you'll be able +to bring your red-coats by the same paths, +knowing them, as you say, well, and capture +me for the Lowland money your Government +puts on my Highland head. Nobody is too +well off in our parts in these times. Captain +Gordon, not, it may be, even you, who was +born, I suppose, with an eye for prosperity." + +It was unfair of him to say that, and as he +climbed off Mack and threw the bridle loose +on the horse's neck he mumbled as much. + +"A touch of temper against your royal +employer, nothing worse; not bad temper, +merely temper, so pray excuse it. Mostly I +have, as you know, been accustomed to express +myself with the sword. . . ." + +"Except," I interrupted with some sharpness, +for I was still nettled, "when you have +confided your language to the dirk, or let it +speak in silence for itself." + +"Now we are even, Captain Gordon, for +that is not worthy of you, if, as I take it, you +suggest that, on occasion, I have struck foul. +No, sir, not that, never on my honour, as a +gentleman; outlawed, if you like, though that +troubles me little. But the fine ethics of the +broad-sword and the dirk are too nice for +discussion between a Gordon and a Farquharson; +met as we are with, I suspect, a Forbes to +attract and divide us. Besides, I spoke +clumsily, not meaning any personal insult, +since I want, sincerely want, to be friendly, if +that be possible. Anger is a poor hostess, +believe me, and I, who have been in its way, +should know better than you who are young, amiably young." + +Mine melted under his soft words, because +such, even when they are not deeply sincere, +may turn wrath aside like balm. Moreover, +he had a wild charm of manner which, if it +did not quite capture another man, as almost +surely it would have won a woman, yet had +its effect. Where exactly it lay I have never +been able to decide, but the melody of his +tongue had something to do with it, even when +he spoke in Sassenach English. We could +have talked in the Gaelic, I also having it +natively, but the Black Colonel would always +speak English if he met somebody to whom +he could show his command of the language. +It was one of his several accomplishments, +acquired by study and travel in England and +France, and he prided and guarded them all, +as a woman does her graces of the person. + +So we stood in the chasm of night and the +Pass, one waiting upon the other, because our +trouble, as in all affairs where two men and +a maid are concerned, was how to begin, +more particularly as we had no idea what +would be the end. The Black Colonel had +said as much when he spoke the name Forbes, +the third of our Aberdeenshire clans, though +it may not have all the lustre of the Gordons +or the Farquharsons. + +"Ehum," he murmured, dropping into a +Scots mannerism which made no more than +an overture to speech between us, and yet +signified something already said. + +"Your letter was urgent," I said. "It +might have been a summons to another +hoisting of the Stuart Standard on the Braes +of Mar." + +"And would you have come?" he inquired; +"would you have come?" + +"It is hard," I answered coldly, "to tell +what a man would or would not do if his +honour could always march with his inclination. +But no summons from you would bring +me to the colours, even of those who were our +rightful Scottish kings." + +"Still, you have come to-night." + +"True, but it must occur to you that it is +not of the first order of a gentleman to force +a meeting, by wrapping a threat in a woman's +Christian name, even when you send your +message by so secure a hand as that of your +ghillie, Red Murdo." + +He turned his head and, I felt, though I +could still only see vaguely, was looking straight +at me, as, certainly, I was looking at him. +While we looked and saw not, a quick, low +whistle came from the foot of the Pass and an +answering whistle, just as low, blew from the +top of it. + + + + +_II--Trapped by the Red-Coats_ + +Never, in all my experience of the hills, their fragrant peace and +their rude surprises, have I been so moved by an unexpected noise as I +was then, standing with the Black Colonel in the black Pass. Partly +this was because the surprise was complete, being unheralded by a +rustle or a movement, but, still more, because it was the magic hour at +which the womb of night moves to the birth of a new day. + +Mingle the void of heaven and earth, and the sense of unseen spaces; +the long, sleeping mountains, with the drowsy trees that guard the +foot-hills; the caressing sigh of the wind, and, maybe, the murmur of a +stream flowing to the sea, and out of all this catch a whistle and its +answer. They sounded strangely eerie as they died into the hills, +touching us like the still small voice of the Scriptures and, also, +like it, carrying a note of apprehension, even of awe. + +Under stress a mind moves instantly, and two thoughts leapt into mine, +that a trap had been set for the Black Colonel, and that he must +suspect me of it. To be sure I was, myself, within the wings of that +trap, but this perfect retort was like a gun in a bad position, it +could not be brought to bear. However, my own situation, peculiar as I +realized it to be, troubled me less, at the moment, than did the Black +Colonel's thoughts, as I conceived them, about my honour, and I do +suggest that it would have been the same with any other gentleman. + +Ugly thoughts have a trick of riding double, and I fancied I heard him +trying his stirrup leathers and bridle, to be satisfied they were in +order. Even I thought I saw his hand drop down to his right garter, +where a Highlander wears his skean-dhu, or short dirk, an ornament +mostly, with its Cairngoram stone in the handle, but likewise a solid +weapon in an emergency, like the present. + +There, probably, I did him an injustice or, if his hand did make the +furtive inquiry, I could think wrongly of the reason behind it. +Anyhow, he said never a word, hating to be openly suspicious, where, as +I could have sworn, on my conscience, there was no reason for +suspicion, whatever might have happened among others, apart from me and +my night's doings. + +Thus we held our places, two unarmed men, for the Black Colonel had +said in his letter that he would come weaponless, as he expected me to +come, and a hose-dirk did not count, being, as I have said, in the +first place, an ornament for a well-made leg, an Order of the Garter, +to borrow an ancient title. We had met in the habiliments and +disposition of peace, and if we were to close in strife it would not, I +reasoned and hoped, be at our direct wish or bidding. Would it? + +He must have been asking himself the same question, for he broke the +silence in a changed voice which seemed doubly changed, because he had +to keep it low, lest it should be overheard, and what he said was, "How +comes all this, sir?" + +"I don't know," I answered simply, naturally, truthfully, to his +charge, for it was a charge in words and in directness. + +"You don't," he went on, and I could not miss the tone which was like +the growl of a dog, an ill-natured dog; not like that of my own little +Scots terrier, Rob, whose bark is only meant to give himself confidence +and never had the snap of biting in it. + +"You don't!" repeated the Black Colonel. "I must believe you, though a +suspicious man might read the signs otherwise. Still, why should you +have kept the red-coats from their sleep this night and morn, in the +castles of Braemar and Corgarff? There is no reason, for a talk +between Highland gentlemen, if so we be, about a Highland lady, whose +ladyship is beyond doubt, needed no garrison as audience. No, no, if +the red-coats had been summoned to round-up some poor Jacobite devil, +say myself, Captain Ian Gordon would have been with his men, as a +soldier should, much as he might--and I put this to his credit--have +disliked the mission." + +It was idle for me to pretend any misunderstanding of the Black +Colonel's meaning. He was taunting me with suspicions which he would +not bring himself to believe, having a generous side to his nature, a +state of mind that has inflicted much suffering on the human race, ever +since the world began to go round. Mostly it occurs between men, for +women are more elemental, more red in beak and claw, even when the claw +is bejewelled, which indeed may give it another sharpness. + +Could I blame him? Not to his face, at all events, because that would +be to notice his challenge, to admit that it was not unnatural on his +part. Events must be my guarantee, and if there were to be no more, +well, let him say quickly why he had asked me very specially to meet +him on an urgent private affair. Yes, although it were to have a +casual ending, such as characterizes half the affairs of life. + +Aye! good thinking, my friends, but our relations were cast in a +sterner mould, and they were not to take the road of well-being. This +became manifest when the now growing dawn lightly touched the eastern +door of the Pass at its highest crag. The Black Colonel put his hand +to his eyes, using them as you would a spy-glass, made a hawk-like +sweep of the point I have indicated, and murmured harshly, "A red-coat, +ah!" + +Quickly he followed the wispy, growing light towards the western end of +the Pass, and after another moment of hawkish searching growled: "A +red-coat there also! It has been shrewdly arranged, this affair, +Captain Gordon. My congratulations, for you have earned them well, as +well, perhaps, as something else from me." + +I said nothing, and indeed I was too full of surprise to think, except +in a wondering fashion. It was only by an effort of attention that I +heard the Black Colonel's further words, cursed out in a wrath not bred +of any anxiety for himself, but, naturally enough, directed at me. + +"So the moving picture declares itself, my dear, thoughtful kinsman," +he hissed. "The red-coats from Braemar are at the western end of the +Pass, those from Corgarff are at the eastern end, and the Black Colonel +is within somewhere--isn't he?--keeping a private meeting with an +officer in his Georgian Majesty's uniform, an officer and a gentleman! +Shrewdly planned, as I say, shrewdly planned, and I suppose you want to +intrigue me here until I cannot get away any more. Would you think of +trying to hold me yourself, eh? It would be like your adventurous +spirit? No!" + +This was said with a rough sneer, and the Black Colonel made the sting +sharper by adding, "You'll be thinking it an assured capture, with the +ends of the Pass sealed by red-coats and its sides so steep that only +those tough sheep over there can climb them." + +"Truth," said I quickly, gaining my tongue, "will force you to eat +those words, for I knew nothing of all this. It will be a bitter meal +for you to digest, if I, by good chance, am there to assist you." + +"A Highland welcome will be yours," quoth he arrogantly; "a welcome as +warm as if I were to bring my riding whip round your shoulders now." + +His words, cracking as if they were a lash, stung me beyond endurance. +I made a step to strike him, and we might have been at it, like common +brawlers, only he saved us from that shame. He had been waiting with +his left foot in the stirrup. When I drove at him he swung on to the +back of Mack, who turned half round, as a spirited horse does in the +process of being mounted. This threw his big body between us, but the +Black Colonel leant down and said in my ear, "To our next meeting, my +kinsman! May it be soon!" + +Then he rode for an opening in the undergrowth which braided the lower +slopes of the precipitous Pass, and I was left alone, a man all +a-wonder, for events were growing beyond me, as they do when suddenly +we find our whole personal fortune, even our spiritual destiny, put to +the ordeal of the unexpected. + + + + +_III.--Over the Hills of Home_ + +How shall I tell, with proper restraint and yet efficiency, what +followed the going of the Black Colonel on his black horse? + +The Pass, wherein we had met so sharply, lies almost due east and due +west. You would have a good idea of its appearance, if you were to +suppose a hill twice as long from east to west as it is broad from +north to south. Then imagine its length sliced in two, and each half, +by force of dead weight, falling away from the other. Heather and +whins had seeded on the sliced faces, and after them the hardy silver +birch and the hardier green fir had sprung up. Nature makes coverings +for the sores suffered by Mother Earth, as a dog licks a bruise until +the hair grows again. + +The strong Highland winds and the heavy Highland rains and snows had +wrinkled the riven hill in a hundred ways. Its twin faces were warted +with rocks, from which most of the soil had been washed away, leaving +them as though suspended in mid-air. Waters, draining from the higher +hills, had run down those faces, making ribboned scores to the bottom. +There had been constant falls of earth from above, and here and there a +large tree had been thrown over the abyss, and, in that position, +holding on by its roots, had taken a new lease of life. + +Thanks then to Nature, working for long years, the twin, or rather the +divorced hill-cheeks which, at their separation, were raw earth, now +had a covering of undergrowth and overgrowth. It would be dead in the +winter when the sap is down, budding in the spring when the sap rises, +green in the summer when it has run into leafage, brown in the autumn +when the storage roots begin to call their own back again. + +A sort of rough road, worn by usage, as a short-cut for the folk of the +region, ran on the level between the halves of the Pass. Big rocks +fallen from above lay around, and I confusedly sat down beside one of +these. It broke the snellish wind which had begun to blow with the +first dawn, as it often does in those parts, a blast to the parting +night and the coming day. + +Presently a shot was fired from one end of the Pass and I could make no +mistake as to the weapon used. It was the military flintlock, a clumsy +gun, better suited to scare crows than shoot straight, but it was the +best we had. + +A warning, a signal for some purpose, I judged, because it was followed +by what I can only describe as a waiting silence. You had the echoes +of the shot scattering up the heights of the Pass, and then a tense +feeling in the atmosphere, as if a hundred men expected an answer. It +came, in another straggling shot, from the other end of the Pass. + +Next there was solid evidence that what I heard had been a pre-arranged +signal, to which a plan of campaign attached. At each end of the Pass +I saw the red-coats multiply until they formed faint bunches of colour. +Who, I wonder, first clothed the soldier man in scarlet, for an easier +target he could not offer, even to an ill-shooting flint-lock. Scarlet +and the pageantry of courts, scarlet and the capturing of women's +hearts, but for the soldier himself, when he gets down to his trade, it +is scarlet and death. + +As I waited intently and looked, I could almost count, up on the brows +of the Pass, how many red-coats the sentinels of our first alarm had +grown into. They made dots, moving against the skyline, and, as I next +made out, they were in concert with other knots of scarlet, active at +the end of the Pass below. I did not need to be a soldier of some +instinct, which I hope I always have been, to grasp the order and +purpose of those doings. + +Clearly the plan was to search the bottom of the Pass and its northern +top with men who would meet midway, two parties below, and two above. +The Black Colonel could not, therefore, get away by the western end, +which led to his habitual fastness up the valley of the Dee, for the +door of escape was sealed. No hope could lie south, or east, because +that would be to come out into open country where numbers would capture +any fugitive. There was nothing but the northern side, no possibility +of escape except up its stern face, and it was a forlorn possibility, +alike on account of the terrible climb and because the red-coats were +already there, shaping to cut off even an attempt in this direction. + +What would the Black Colonel do? What was he doing? I wondered, and +two thoughts came to me, one that as an animal pursued ever makes for +home, if only to reach it and die, so a hunted man will do likewise, +should there be the smallest prospect of success; the other that +possibly it is the sounder doctrine to face great perils in getting +clear, when you are sure of an open road and a place of refuge, rather +than seek deliverance by an easier door and then land in unknown +plights. + +True strategy in any tight place, military or civil, is based on a +knowledge of human nature, what the enemy will do. That entails the +gift of imagination, and there was a touch of it in the disposition +going on before my eyes. The knots of red on the bottom pathway drew +together, and the red strings on the northern height were also +approaching each other. They progressed warily, but I could see an +occasional gleam of bare bayonets against the skyline, silhouetted by +the trees. + +Presently a rumble of displaced stones reached my ear from the other +side of the Pass. My eye searched for the spot, halfway up, where the +trees grew sparser and the hard, sharp rocks gained the dominance. Out +from this streak of trees and rocks rode the Black Colonel on black +Mack, and I gasped at his dare-devilry. + +I understood instinctively that, by cautious pilotage, probably +dismounting and leading his horse at places, he had managed, +undiscovered, to get thus far up that northern cliff, for it was almost +sheer. But he must next make the upper, still steeper half, with +little shelter from the on-coming flint-locks, and the worst kind of +footing for Mack. Could any horse foaled of a mare climb that crag and +bear his rider to safety, for this was the double, doubtful issue? + +When, a moment later, the soldiers caught sight of the Black Colonel +they halted in mute surprise, then shouted, as a dog barks on sight of +a quarry, the killing instinct in man and beast finding tongue. It was +instantly a gamble of the pursued and the pursuers, to escape or to +capture, the keenest yet least noble game which can be played, that +with a human life for the prize. The Black Colonel, a man with a +bar-sinister, but a remarkable man, was the hunted, and two companies +of King George's soldiers, decent fellows enough each man of them, were +the hunters. The outcome depended chiefly on a horse, but such a +horse, Mack! + +The King's word had gone round the countryside that our rebel and +canteran was to be taken alive or dead. That is a mandate which loses +its dividing line when the guns begin to shoot. Therefore, while the +soldiers shouted, on getting sight of the Black Colonel, they also +began to fire wildly at him. The immediate range was too far for harm +to hit him, but it would shorten swiftly enough. Realizing this, he +stretched himself along his horse's neck, thus showing a smaller +target, and, as I felt sure, whispering words of encouragement into the +great creature's ear. + +The tradition is that the Black Colonel used his dirk for spur on that +ride, but I, who was a witness, know better. He did not need to use +it, and would not have done so in any event, loving Mack as he did. +His soft Gaelic whisper of bidding was his only spur, and up, up, +slowly, yet surely, went the gallant animal. Ah! you should have seen +it all. It was fine. + +Mack's shapely, muscular body was stretched like whip-cord against the +dull grey of the broken precipice. You could fancy you heard the very +cracking of his sinews as he rose foot by foot. The reins lay on his +neck, and I saw the Black Colonel slip oft the bridle, with its heavy +iron bit, to give him the uttermost chance. The rivulet of stones +which his hoofs had set going grew into a stream, telling me that, +while ever he lost a little on the treacherous ground, he more than +made it good with the next stride. + +The sight so moved me that I nearly shouted in admiration and quite +forgot the pursuers. The soldiers in the hollow of the Pass had met +and were loading and shooting with a certain discipline. The Black +Colonel's real danger, however, was not from this fusilade but from the +intercepting soldiers at the top of the Pass. Theirs had been a longer +and rougher way to travel; would they, by the time he reached the +summit, if reach it he did, be near enough to capture or shoot him? + +Up, up, still panted the noble Mack, almost exhausted, until, with a +final effort, he gained the last ridge and, oh, what a relief! His +flanks heaved, his beautiful head dropped to the heather, and I could +see that his forequarters had turned from black to a lather of white +foam, testimony to the great strain of the climb. The Black Colonel +sprang from the saddle, walked to the edge of the crag, took his dirk +from his garter and put it to his lips. He was vowing the oath of a +"broken" Highlander, to be revenged, or thanking Providence for his +escape, perhaps both. + +He did all this, as I could follow, in the grey morning light, coolly, +nay disdainfully, seeming to regard the bullets from the converging +sharp-shooters as just so many bees buzzing harmlessly about him. +Next, he tightened the girth, which Mack's panting had loosened, +bridled the horse again, vaulted lightly into the saddle, touched his +bonnet in mock salutation, and rode over the hills for home. + +There were those who saw a white horse go up the strath that morning +with, as they swore, the Black Colonel for rider, though all knew the +actual colour of Mack to be black. There were others who said it was +Death on his White Horse, and because a man died in the same small +hours those mongers of destiny were believed. + + + + +_IV--The Opening Road_ + +If this were a story invented, and not a tale of true happenings, there +would be an end when the Black Colonel rode triumphantly from the Pass. + +But, sitting alone and lonely a few days later in my room at Corgarff +Castle, and reflecting on the affair, I said to myself that it was only +the beginning. A drama of real life rarely closes with the hero in +heroics, the heroine a-swoon in her beauty, and the world a-clap with +admiration. + +No doubt the Black Colonel had got away very well, almost as if he had +leapt through a lighted window, with a resounding crash of broken +glass. Well, there would be the fragments to gather up, for the +fragments have always to be remembered, or they may cause harm. Here I +was a fragment, and I asked myself into what basket I was to be +gathered, because, you should know, the hills give those of us who +dwell among them a sense of fate--of the inevitable. + +I was awakened from these thoughts by the entrance of my lieutenant, +who said, "Still sighing that you were out of the chase after the Black +Colonel?" + +I answered vaguely, "A soldier who is a real soldier, which I may or +may not be, is always sorry to miss an enterprise, whether it be duty +or merely an adventure." + +"Well," he remarked, "you had not been long gone when word came from +Braemar Castle that the Black Colonel was to be in the Pass of Ballater +about midnight, meeting some unknown person, and asking us to help +capture him. We saw nothing of the other person, whether man or woman." + +He looked slyly at me, and I remembered having said to him that I had +had a tryst to keep among the hills. You must not, I think, mislead +people by telling what is untrue, but you need not tell everything if +it is going to make mischief. Mostly it is poor policy to try and ram +the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, down a man's +throat, because your version of it may not be his, and, anyhow, it +makes dry eating. + +My thoughts have a habit of wandering, of dreaming dreams, often when +they should be otherwise occupied, and isn't there a bunch of +manuscript verse somewhere in testimony of the same? Knowing this the +lieutenant lighted and smoked a pipe of American tobacco, then a +novelty and a luxury in the Scottish Highlands. With a wink of the eye +he asked, "Who was she, captain? Wench or maid?" And he pronounced +the words in different tones, as if I needed to be instructed about the +difference he implied by them. A man says nothing to an +arch-pleasantry like that, unless he be no man and only a babbler and +boaster of his conquests. Then he has had none, and is a liar. No +sort of fellow more fills men with contempt, and women, by their +woman's instinct, pass him by, for any confidence whatever, in word or +in deed. + +"Don't let it be one of the Black Colonel's flames," said the +lieutenant with a laugh, as he went out again, without the answer he +had not expected, being himself a gentleman. "It needs a long spoon to +sup with that dark devil at any time, but come between him and his +rustic gallantries and you'll need a longer spoon than Corgarff Castle +happens to possess." + +The Black Colonel and I, as you will have gathered, were on different +sides in politics, though we belonged to neighbouring clans which had +many associations; he a Farquharson, I a Gordon. He was Jock +Farquharson of Inverey, the last of his house, as I can say looking +back on him, and doomed, so a woman of second-sight had declared, when +he was born, to be the last; while I, Ian Gordon, was a cadet of the +Balmoral Gordons, captain in his Majesty's Highland Foot, with no more +to expect than what my commission brought me, and that was little +enough. + +He was a Jacobite, keeping that rebel flame alive in the Aberdeenshire +Highlands, when, on the heels of the "Forty-Five," a red and woeful +time, we were half-heartedly scotching it with garrisons in the Castles +of Braemar and Corgarff. Yes, I wore the scarlet tunic of King George, +thanks to family circumstances which had woven themselves before I was +born, but the tartan lay under it, next my heart. We were rivals in +war, thrown on different sides by the fates which gamble so strangely +with mere men. Was there to be a still more vital rivalry? As has +been hinted, I had more than rumours of the Black Colonel's strange +powers among women. What if he had Marget Forbes in his dark eye? + +Wherever the heart is concerned you have intuition, and that is why a +woman has more of such super-sense, or rather, I would say, of +wonderously delicate feeling, than a man. She needs it, being oftener +heart-strung, because the wells of her heart are more emotional. + +I suspected, from the first, why the Black Colonel wanted to meet me, +and for no other reason would I have consented to meet him. But our +meeting had been so brief, so disturbed, so futile as regards its +purpose, that I had got no light from him whatever. Still, ever since +then I had been seeing, in the mirror of life, the face of Marget +Forbes, a daughter of the clan whose name she bore, a handsome lass +with a long pedigree, heiress to the lands of Corgarff, now forfeit for +the Jacobite cause, when they should come back to her line, and +incidentally, but all importantly, a kinswoman both of Jock Farquharson +and myself. + +Memory is rarely honest with us, because it is imperfect, and +unconsciously we tell the best account of things, but I fancy I was +wondering on this text when there came at my door the sharp rap of +bony, hurried knuckles. "Enter!" I said, and in marched the corporal +of the guard. His hand went easily to the salute. He had a message in +his face. + +"What is it?" said I, for I expected nothing of moment, beyond a poor +devil of a Jacobite captured, or a "sma' still" raided and its rude +whisky drunk by the red-coat raiders until they were merrily "fou." + +"Sir," he answered in the parade voice which the regular soldier soon +acquires, this, softened by his nice Scots drawl, "Sir, there's a man +outside an' he says he's a letter for you and that he maun gie it to +yoursel'." + +"What's he like? Where does he come from? Is he friend or no friend?" + +"Canna' say, sir. I should think no friend. He's short and swack o' +body, red of hair and face, wears a kilt o' Farquharson tartan, and +winna' say where he comes frae. He has a letter for you, sir, and is +to deliver it himself, an' that's a' he'll tell." + +"Bring him in," I ordered, and in came, as, by now, I half expected, +Red Murdo, the Black Colonel's henchman. I had seen him before, and by +hearsay was more than familiar with his repute as an excellent servant +to his not so excellent master. + +"A letter," he whispered in his hoarse voice, as if he did not want the +corporal to hear. I took the letter, and before I could even break the +seal he was gone again, without motion of salute or further word, all +quite in the Black Colonel's manner of doing things. + +It was addressed "To Captain Ian Gordon," and when I opened the +envelope and unfolded the contents I found them to commence with these +same words and no other form of ceremony. I instantly knew the strong, +irregular, aggressive and yet persuasive handwriting to be that of the +Black Colonel, but unconsciously, as a girl tries at the end of a story +to find whether happiness be there, I turned to the signature--"your +kinsman, Jock Farquharson of Inverey." What went before, when I had +time to master it, was this: + +"These greetings, which I am inditing in the cold safety of the +Colonel's Bed, a fastness where no enemy has yet tracked me, though all +my true friends in the countryside know the secret roads to it, will be +delivered to you by my faithful Red Murdo, who deserves blessings, +whereas I sometimes give him curses; and their purpose is to tell you +explicitly why I asked you to meet me in the Pass the other evening, +since events, on which I here offer no comment, made it impossible for +us to have any plain, forthright talk. + +"I'll reveal the heart of my business by recalling that there is a long +association between our families, who have always been friends and +enemies, and that the Corgarff Forbeses also come into this +association, and continue it, in a fashion which takes me to our +personal quarrel of Stuart and Guelph, because, by the exercise of a +little ingenuity, such as is permissible, and a kinsmanship such as is +proper, there may emerge good seasoning for us all. + +"Pray remember that if the Corgarff Forbeses were to fail in issue, and +there is only one life between them and that failure, the life of a +young unmarried lady, I, by descent on the distaff side, which I need +not outline in particularity, would be heir to the estates; only as a +Jacobite outlawed, a broken man, I can inherit nothing, not even +possess, little as it is now, my own in peace. + +"But, if I am not ill-informed, and news travels among the hills as +swiftly as, we are told, it travels in the desert, King George's +advisers would gladly return the Corgarff estates to the Forbes family +if that family had a strong man at its head and so such an influence as +would keep the region, always a key to the Highlands, I will not +exactly say in order for the German king, because that would be a +tactless fashion of arranging, but wean it gradually from its sympathy +for Prince Charlie, and his house of misadventure and ill-luck. + +"Now, if you will be good enough to assume in me qualities for this +mission and the willingness to undertake it; if you will accept the +circumstance that it would merely be a case of a remote legal heir +coming into his own by a round-about way; and if you will set those +facts in what I consider the national importance of the matter and help +it forward in a form so delicate and chivalrous that I must not even +hint it, why, you will be rendering a potent service to the cause which +enlists you and which might, who knows, enlist me also!" + +That was the letter, considered in language, crafty in purpose, really, +an overture for the hand of Marget Forbes, and I sat far into the +night, while my peat fire died out in Corgarff Castle, wondering how I +was to answer it, and, even more, how I myself stood towards the acute +personal situation which it created. For I saw that the Black Colonel +meant to make love and do business at the same stroke, not for the +first time, perhaps, in his life of emprise; and certainly here was no +new thing in the world's queer story. + + + + +_V.--A Cairn of Remembrance_ + +It is a good way, when you are in doubt, to wait and let events shape a +decision, and this was how I came to regard the Black Colonel's letter. + +He had set me a pretty puzzle in his written words, because, contrasted +with the light touch-and-go of spoken words, these always seem to have +something fateful in them, as of a king's signature to a decree. +Moreover, I was vaguely conscious of being the guardian of a woman's +instinct for safety, an instinct which arrives with the cradle and only +goes with the grave, and that made me feel somewhat helpless; a man in +depths he cannot fathom, for such is the uncharted sea of womanhood. + +Marget Forbes and her mother lived in the Dower House, thrown to them, +as a piece of bread might be tossed from a rich man's table, when +Corgarff was declared forfeit and the castle occupied by soldiery. Her +men-folk had been out with Charlie and had not come back from Culloden, +as the Cairn of Remembrance on the hills might have told any seeker for +them. Each clansman, as he departed, had put a stone to it, and none +had returned to lift that stone again, so it became a tombstone. + +They were dead for ever to Corgarff and to the lands which had been the +property of their forbears, almost since time was in those +blood-heathered Highlands. Families rose and fell, for family reasons, +or as the clans to which they belonged prospered or had adversity. +Thus vital changes in a corner of the Scottish Highlands, like this of +ours, were more frequent than the historians, men apt to assess on +surface generalities and neglectful of the hidden human wells, usually +make out. + +But, as the changes took place within what I may call the ring-fence of +the clan system, they really only mattered to those who were directly +concerned. Corgarff Castle, however, had been held by the same Forbes +family in direct, unbroken line, partly because its successive chiefs +had strong right arms, partly because the domain had little to make +anybody else covetous. The Sabine women whom the old Romans took, +would have been the beautiful ones, and it is the same with the face of +Mother Earth. What appears best is taken first! + +There was no great personal bitterness in the Aberdeenshire Highlands +as between clans or families who were on different sides in the +"Forty-Five." The ambition, or the greed of chiefs, often determined +the sides, and a consciousness of that made lesser men tolerant with +each other. Thus, an acquaintanceship between Marget and her mother +and myself, although begun under a certain stress of circumstance, +passed naturally into friendship, and, on my part, into something +warmer. We were of the same Celtic strain, and, in the heart and mind +of upbringing, blood tells all the time. But I had not seen much of +them, and nothing at all since the tale of the Black Colonel's escape +in the Pass had set the countryside talking and, doubtless, secretly +rejoicing. + +It was a fine thing, a very fine thing, that he should have escaped +from the red-coats so perfectly, so dramatically. They were the living +tokens of a government which, on every ground of sentiment, was alien +to the Highland people, a government, moreover, that had been tactless +in its plans and its acts. The Black Colonel stood for a native royal +cause which had colour and flair, even if its genius for government had +been exhausted. + +We soldiers were only disliked for what we represented, for the dry +Hanoverian salt we ate, not for ourselves, because most of us were +Highland by bone and heart. The Black Colonel was liked for what he +represented, rather than for himself. He had, indeed, a way of +commandeering other men's goods, when he needed them, that was +inconvenient to those others. But there was a strong local pride in +his name and achievements, as the name and achievements of a first-rate +fighting man, whose sword-handle held in its silver-work the letter +"S," standing for Stuart, an allegiance and a challenge never hidden by +him. + +Naturally, like every other Forbes, Farquharson, or Gordon--I omit none +with those names--Marget would be quietly rejoicing over the Black +Colonel's success in out-manoeuvring us. I say "us," although I was +not in the pursuit, a fact, I reflected, which might relieve me a +little of Marget's scorn if she knew. Did she know? Had gossip +carried her that news also? It could not tell her that I was out of +the chase after the Black Colonel, because I was meeting him privately, +and that her affairs were the occasion of the meeting. + +Of the dangers wrapped in all this, I was to have an inkling when I did +meet Marget, and that came about as if it did not matter, as if nothing +matters! I had been up the Don valley with a patrol, was returning, +and scarce a mile from Corgarff Castle, when I saw a woman's figure +ahead, going my road, a very soft and gracious sight, believe me, +against the hill-side. Soon, thanks either to my eyes which could then +see far, or to a man's feeling of instinct for the presence of a woman +who interests him, I discovered that it was Marget Forbes. She turned +round, perhaps at the approaching sound of our steady tramp, or perhaps +moved by some unconscious woman's sense, and, as my men passed on and I +fell behind them, she said, "Ah, Captain Gordon, where have you been +these many days? Chasing the Black Colonel, eh?" + +It was said easily, with a half-smile, as if she were alluding to +something which had happened since we last met, as, indeed, it had. It +was good, however, that the light was failing, because I could feel my +face burn, not with shame, but with a confusion in which there was more +than the Black Colonel. + +"Oh no, Mistress Marget," I answered, "one cannot always be in the +company of the Black Colonel, however interesting some of us may find +him." This, observe, was intended as a delicate touch for her, but it +probably struck her as clumsy, so much finer is a woman's feeling than +a man's. + +"You found him interesting then," she merely replied. "I'm glad to +hear that, because, as a distant relative of ours, he is really one of +the men-folk of the family. Perhaps he has some of the nature which, +so they say, characterizes our women? His Forbes grandmother or +great-grandmother, whichever she was, would have passed it on to him." + +She stopped when she noticed the sweet conceit into which she had +fallen, for certainly what she had claimed in name of the Forbes women, +was richly present in herself. She had sparkle, bloom, charm, that +witching, elusive, mixed something in a woman which nobody can describe +but which every true man feels, and she looked it all in the gloamin' +of that perfect Highland evening. + +"My dear Mistress Forbes," I said more formally, "I could forgive the +Black Colonel much if I thought he had any of the qualities of your +Forbes women-folk. As it is, I envy him your championship," at which +she looked at me with considering eyes. + +"A woman naturally champions all her men," she said with a deft smile +for me, as being also a relation, "and it would be sad if she didn't; +but I have never yet seen the Black Colonel. He has not come our way, +although, no doubt, we should, for what has been, make him as welcome +as your men, quartered in our old castle, might permit." + +"Naturally! Why not?" I said, for I understand her feelings though, +somehow, the remark stung me a little. "Perhaps," I added, "you may +have your wish gratified and meet him one of these days." + +"Do you mean as a prisoner," she asked quickly. + +"No. I mean that when the Black Colonel wants to call on anybody, he +does not let danger or ceremony stand in his path. So far, I take it, +there has been no occasion for you to make his personal acquaintance, +and may that continue." + +"Why should you say that? Whether he be good or ill, he is a +picturesque figure, a stout fighter, a man who has stood up for his +faith through thick and thin, and, moreover, one of us. I have heard +the things that are said about him, things no woman cares to hear about +a man, but to hear is not to believe, is it? Only," and Marget laughed +quietly, "here am I defending a rank Jacobite to the Georgian commander +of Corgarff Castle, whose business it is to lay that rank Jacobite by +the heels--if he can!" + +"Oh, we'll catch him some day," I lightly, rather wryly, observed, "but +his luck does serve him well." + +"There's often a reason for luck," answered she; "more in it than just +luck. Now, if a company of soldiers went after a man of resource, like +the Black Colonel, would their chance of catching him not be less if +they had no captain leading them? A boyish lieutenant may have +energetic qualities, but they are hardly likely to be a match for those +of the Black Colonel." + +We were getting on to ground perilous for me, because Marget had +evidently heard something and was determined to test it at first hand. +Behind the curiosity there seemed, judging by her tone, to be a fight +going on between friendliness and pique. It is a dangerous mixture for +a man to have to counteract in a woman, because, responding to the +friendliness, he may make admissions which increase the pique. + +Therefore I sought to give our talk a turn by saying, "Everybody seems +to know everything there is to be known about the Black Colonel's +escape, so there's an end of it--until next time." + +"But, Captain Gordon, although one knows generally, one may still keep +wondering--may one not? A woman always wonders; it is one of her +privileges, and often wonder is kinder to her than certainty." + +"Wonder, dear lady, is a hard thing to gratify, being illimitable, +like . . . ! + +"Like the hills," she caught me up, "when one is alone among +them--alone, or going to meet somebody in the dark of the night, or the +dimness of early morning." + +"It would depend on the somebody," I said boldly, facing her boldness, +"and whether it was a man or a woman that was to be met." + +"But," she said quite softly, "it must be a man that any other man +would be meeting in these parts, because . . ." She stopped abruptly. + +"Because what? Tell me!" + +"Nothing; only that every man needs to be mothered by a woman, a charge +which any good woman, young or old, will instinctively assume, even if +she knows that it may be only a cross for her to bear." Her voice was +low, almost a whisper, may be a first whisper of the mother of men in +her, a revelation to all women, come it when it may; and that thought +kept me silent. + +We had, by this time, reached the Dower House, and she said +"Good-night," and I answered, as simply, "Good-night." + +What I really said to myself was, "Philandering, was I, instead of +soldering, on the night the Black Colonel was raided--that's the story +she's heard!" + +And I was concerned, strangely concerned--like Marget herself. + + + + +_VI--The Finger of Fate_ + +Here I was in a double tangle of private affairs, for I had the Black +Colonel's designs upon Marget Forbes to handle, and I had her mistaken +notion of my doings to disperse. It was a drumly outlook for one whose +chief equipment was honesty of purpose, with, I am afraid, little of +the arts of human diplomacy. + +Marget had all the woman's acute anxiety when a man's act seemed +hidden, or, at least, uncertain, even if he was no more to her than a +kinsman. It is from those delicate things that half our troubles +spring, because, as between man and woman, they cannot be explained in +words. They must be left to reveal themselves, and meanwhile they may +destroy sweet possibilities or gracious relationships. + +My difficulty with the Black Colonel was still more complicated, for it +was as if a hair-rope of many strands, such as the Highlanders made, +enwound us. We were public enemies, sworn to causes which could have +no dealings with each other. Yet we had met secretly; and though that +mattered little to him it might easily ruin me, or, at all events, my +military career. + +But, may be, I could remove that danger by a simple report to my +superiors saying what had happened. Could I? No; I could not, for a +woman's reputation was, all unknown to her, engaged in the affair, and +that takes us directly to Marget Forbes and the Black Colonel's designs +upon her name and estates. + +I knew he would not stop at the sending to me of his letter, and +getting no immediate answer, which was the course I had taken, if only +because his last throw with affairs was involved. Therefore I looked +for some further act, and, having regard to the difficulty of personal +meetings, and his amiable weakness for writing, as something in which +he excelled, I was not surprised when it came in the form of another +dispatch, also borne secretly by the vagrant Red Murdo. + +We actually had an old clanish knowledge of each other, this fellow and +I, because, although he was a Farquharson, the croft on which his +people dwelt was near the Gordon estate of Balmoral. We had played +with each other as boys, for the feudal system of the clans was +communal and democratic. It was, to take one illustration, customary +for the sons of chiefs to have foster-brothers adopted from the +commonalty, companions in peace time, comrades and defenders in war +time. + +When then, Red Murdo, who had been lurking in a peat-moss near Corgarff +Castle, surprised me, out-of-doors, one day, it was with the friendly +salutation, "Good-morning, Captain Ian." + +"Hullo," I said, "isn't it dangerous for you to be here again?" + +"Not when it's to see you, but I wis gettin' weary waitin' in this damp +hole, an' the Cornel, he'll be wonderin' why I'm no' back." + +"Well, my friend," said I coldly; "I won't keep you from him." + +"But, I've a word to say to ye for him, and something to gie ye. I'm +to say that he expects to hear from ye in satisfaction of his letter. +But if you need remindin', will ye study, as conveyin' his feelin's and +intents, a plain copy, made by him, which I've carried in my sporran, +of my Earl Mar's known epistle to the first Jock Forbes of Inverernan, +near by Corgarff." + +With this mysterious message haltingly said, as if the Black Colonel +had drilled it into his man, which was, no doubt, the truth. Red Murdo +held me out a crumpled sheet of paper. + +"Tak' it, sir," he added, "an', as advice from a humble man who wishes +ye no ill, obleege the Black Cornel if you can, or he'll be tryin' +other means. You an' I ken him, Captain, ken him weel, I'm thinkin', +an' it disna' dae to neglect him, as I've found mysel' at various +times." + +It was a famous and familiar document with which I had been served, or, +rather, with a fair copy of it, in the Black Colonel's best round-hand; +but its use by him to convey his sentiments and intentions to me was +quaintly original. Here was he, framing himself in the words of +urgency and high consequence, which the Earl of Mar, when that nobleman +was raising the "Standard on the Braes o' Mar," flung, like a fiery +cross, at Jock Forbes of Inverernan. You will perceive the lordly +egotism of the Black Colonel when I give you the missive, as I read it +myself, with its new, intimate and individual bearing, immediately Red +Murdo had disappeared. + +"Jock," it opened, "ye was right not to come with the hundred men ye +sent up tonight, when I expected four times that number. It is a +pretty thing, when all the Highlands of Scotland are now rising upon +the King and the country's account, as I have accounts from them since +they were with me, and the gentlemen of the neighbouring homelands +expecting us down to join them, that my men should only be refractory. + +"Is not this the thing we are about which they have been wishing these +twenty-six years? And now, when it is come, and the King and the +country's cause is at stake, will they for ever sit still and see all +perish? I have used gentle means too long and shall be forced to put +other means into execution. + +"I have sent you, enclosed, an order for the Lordship of Kildrummy, +which you are immediately to intimate to all my vassals; if they give +ready obedience it will make some amends, and, if not, you may tell +them from me that it will not be in my power to save them--were I +willing?--from being treated as enemies by those who are ready soon to +join me; and they may depend on it that I will be the first to propose +and order their being so. + +"Particularly let my own tenants in Kildrummy know that if they come +not forth with their best arms, that I will send a party immediately to +burn what they shall miss taking from them. And they may believe this +only a threat, but by all that's sacred, I'll put it into execution, +that it may be an example to others. + +"You are to tell the gentlemen that I'll expect them in their best +accoutrements, on horseback, and no excuse to be accepted of. Go about +this with diligence, and come yourself and let me know your having done +so. All this is not only as ye will be answerable to me, but to your +King and country." + +Straight writing enough! And that was why the Black Colonel had sent +me the historic epistle, laughing in his sleeve, I had no doubt, at the +slim originality of his method. He was for gentle means, if he could +so win his ends and Marget, but if they answered not, then, like my +Lord Mar with Jock Forbes of Inverernan, he would be "forced to put +other means into execution." While I was the immediate target for his +threat, I quite saw that the Black Colonel was aiming at a larger prize +behind me. + +But what could he, a "broken man," a fugitive from justice, the justice +of the Hanoverian though it was, do to compel anybody to his schemes +and ambitions? That was to forget his place of notoriety, which gave +its own power, among the people of the Aberdeenshire Highlands. +Whenever, in going about the hills and the valleys, I met a simple man +of the soil he would touch his bonnet in salute to me, never to my +uniform, and, after a little, remark in his soft Gaelic, "So the Black +Colonel is still defying you all--a tremendous lad, isn't he?" This +would be said with a gleam in the eye, to give it delicacy, a bearing +of personal courtesy which I did not miss because I was liked for +myself, and we all like to be liked for ourselves. + +You will apprehend by now, perhaps, that I knew my Highland men, +whether I found them digging peats in the moss, or gathering in their +skimp harvest of unopened corn, so that it should escape the hungry +grouse and the coming winter. They were wholly kindly, as follows from +simple living, generous in their narrow outlook, and yet strongly +individual. They had, as a people, character, which is the noblest +gift of the gods, for everything else depends on it, and hardly +anything can be achieved without it. + +They took a pride in the Black Colonel, as one of themselves, and in +his deeds as a fighter who, on many occasions, had reversed the saying +about being willing to wound but afraid to strike. He had, they +admitted, wrong ways at times, and if these could not openly be +defended, still they were almost forgiven a man with his back to the +wall where a shot, or a stab, might find him any day or any night. + +Withal, too, he bore about him a touch of romance, a gallant +atmosphere, and your Highlander, loving to sit on a stile and look at +the sun, will pardon much for that. Thus there was a general sympathy +with the Black Colonel, which he could draw upon either as a veil to +conceal his doings, or for active help, and it was this knowledge which +caused me to be apprehensive. + +For, though thirty years had passed since his lordship of Mar +peremptorily wrote to the chief of Inverernan, our Highland life had +not changed vitally. The same rude passion ran through it, as like +mists hung over the Slock of Morvan and the gaping chasm in the side of +Lochnagar. Civilization remained primitive, love and hatred could run +high on the ebbing Jacobite tide, and the common round was still very +much what a strong hand could do and a weak one could not do. +Affections and hatreds bloom even more strongly in times of ordeal than +in times of tranquillity, perhaps because the moral reins governing +them have grown worn, and so become slacker. + +It should be said, however, of the Scottish Highlands, that the chiefs, +at least, those of the northern ridge of the Grampians, were humane in +their doings, even kindly, and certainly they were never fond of taking +a clansman's life on the gallows-tree. Their whole code was against +that ignoble death, unless when an enemy had played them unfair, or a +vassal had proved himself traitor, and then they swiftly slipped a life +to the other world, holding this world to have no use for it. + +Possibly, too, they found the sight of a corpse dangling from a tree +uncanny, a vision armed with threats which made them hold their +hangman's hand, for, while crafty enough, they were superstitious to a +degree. They let the gallows-tree stand grim and expectant on the +hill-side, a terror to foes and a clan discipline, and, when necessary, +found a way to their desires by the short dirk or the long sword. + +Moreover, at the time of my writing, we were between the immediate +butchery of Culloden, a red and rueful business, and the insecurity of +tenure in life and home, which was to follow. It was a rough marking +of time, when national elements were in the mill, as well as those +which go to the chronicle of the Black Colonel, Marget Forbes, and +myself. + +Here was I, on the edge of such happenings as assail one when he finds +subtle intrigue on the one side and innocent misunderstanding on the +other. It is always hard enough to manage such elements, but let them +get out of hand and a miracle is needed for salvation. Also you have +to find the miracle, and I composed myself to search for it in the +little things, the natural things of the situation. They have a knack +of conducting you to the heart of a problem, if you will only have +simple faith and follow them, and be not otherwise, which is +presumption. + +Faith and miracles go hand in hand, in story as in fact, and when one's +mind, working rapidly, if unconsciously, has got an issue down to a +point where it can be expressed in a word, a decision has been taken. +If it be a human decision, the hills, which grow strangely mothering +and kind to their people, seem to know it, for they talk to each other +of everything but their own secrets; and they knew that I had decided +upon my course of action. + + + + +_VII.--A Parley and a Surprise_ + +You must ride with fortune if you expect to win many of her favours. +Like a woman, she sighs to be courted, even if she fears to be +captured. She likes adventures for themselves, and may be good to you +if you give her some. But the man who lets her ride by alone, or with +somebody who has already bridled her, and then goes out in pursuit, has +a long chase before him. + +My affair with the Black Colonel was both private and public, and thus, +in a two-fold sense, the right policy was to take the offensive. Yes, +I would tell him bluntly that there could be nothing between us on the +matters he had raised, and that it was war to the dirk, with such an +eventual issue as God might will. + +This was my decision, and it seemed to me that, as an officer and a +gentleman, I must intimate it to him at first-hand by invading his +retreat, the Colonel's Bed, over there in Strathdee, near his Inverey. +Singly, and alone, I would seek the Black Colonel in his den, +honourably shake myself clear of his dark overtures, and tell him to +cease his designs. + +If I were to read this chronicle as remote from its occurrences as you +may do, I should, probably, toss my head and call that a quixotic +decision, but I have enough pride in being a Gordon, to wish that I may +stand fairly with the future, in small as in great matters. Therefore, +I beg you that you put yourself in my place, bearing in mind the +difficult conditions of the time in the Scottish Highlands. + +A man needs a stout heart, a clear head, and a sure hand, to hold his +own in a welter of interests and antagonisms such as beset me. The +eternal instinct in a full man is to get through, to achieve, to live, +aye, and to love, thus making life a great, clamorous thing not a mere +existence. So concluding, I took the first occasion by the hand, with +what personal risk there might be, and made across the rugged bridge of +mountain which both binds and divides the Don and the Dee, to interview +the Black Colonel. + +My mood was less heroic by the time I had done the miles of scarped +hill, clinging moor, and lifting wood, with bridle-paths for roads, +which took me to the locality of the Colonel's Bed. Where it was +exactly I did not know, but he had friends around who kept him +informed, and I counted on meeting one of them. Then I could send a +message to him, saying I desired to speak with him privately, and he +would guess the rest. + +Things fell out like that, and I was bidden to rest in a Highland +shieling, squat of form, thatched with rushes, floored with earth, and +eat a bannock and drink a bowl of goat's milk, while my message went +forward and an answer returned. Perhaps two hours passed, and I slept +a little, for I was tired, before that answer did arrive by the eternal +Red Murdo. + +To be sure, I would be made welcome by his master, but I must not feel +offended if I was blindfolded during the walk to the Colonel's Bed. +This request, courteously put by Red Murdo, showed me the situation I +had invited for myself, but, having gone so far, I was not to turn +back, and I said, "Very well." He tied a coarse tartan scarf of +home-spun wool, which he wore himself, tightly round my eyes, so +tightly that at first it hurt a little, and we started for our +destination. + +We had a rough, difficult track, all up and down again, to follow, as +my feet discovered, with no sight to guide them. But Red Murdo, a +study in loyalty to his chief and in consideration for me, supported me +sturdily, and I broke no shin on the many rocks strewing our road. + +I was wondering if we should ever arrive, when I heard the rush of a +stream almost beneath us. Instinctively I stopped, as one does when an +unseen danger is near, but Red Murdo said, "It's a' right; we're near +there." Next I felt as if I were walking in a cave, for there was a +peculiar hollow echo to our tread. Then the tartan scarf was removed +from my eyes, and, opening them, I saw the Black Colonel holding out +his hand. + +"Glad, Sir Visitor, to see you," he said, "and such hospitality as this +poor place can offer is yours." + +I took his hand, without holding it, bowed stiffly, and sat myself on a +chair made of birch branches, to which he pointed. It was, apart from +an equally rude litter-bed and a rough table, the only furniture in the +refuge. This I saw by the light of a fire of broken wood and peat +which burned slowly in a corner, where, apparently, the smoke found +some channel of escape, because it drifted slowly upward in spirals. + +My feeling had been right, for this was a cave, or, rather, a tunnel, +worn in the course of centuries by the stream which had now deserted +it, to flow lower down. Above us, as I judged, rose the side of a +small hill, and immediately without there would be a sheer drop to the +departed waters, whose noise soughed like a strong wind among pine +trees. + +It was a retreat made by Nature in her chance moods, and used by the +Black Colonel at that straitened time of his life. Probably only he, +Red Murdo, and a few others actually knew he was there, though he had +boasted that many did, and I should know no more than that I had been a +visitor to the Colonel's Bed. And yet I should probably know a good +deal more, for otherwise why was I there? + +Anyhow, after the previous hour or two of tensity, it was a relief to +be face to face with my man, I able to read his, if I could, he able to +read mine. It was only in the grey half-light of his hole in the +rocks, but, at least, we should look each other in the eyes, as men +wish to do when they are acting honestly towards each other, even if +later they must fight. + +You are quick, at a drawn moment, to seize the picture of a man, to +sound his being, and the Black Colonel, as he stood there courteously +attentive, intelligently alert, made a picture which vouchsafed a clear +personality. He would have been something ripely over thirty, but ten +years of adventure and philandering sat lightly on him, and he looked +even younger than he was. A dark man keeps the freshness of youth +well, until it begins to go in the greying of his hair, when it goes +quickly; while a fair man grows middle-aged soon, but fends off old age +well, or, at all events, the look of it. + +The Black Colonel was dark entirely; dark of skin, or rather olive, as +you find men and women among a Celtic people; dark of eye to the point +of a scowl, behind which, however, there was a well of mirth; dark of +hair and dark of beard. His hair he wore long, not being always within +reach of scissors, and his beard had that silky texture which comes of +never having known a razor. + +Once, as the story went, he asked Red Murdo, so-called for sundry +reasons besides his tousled red hair, to shave him with the sharp edge +of a dirk. The experiment began so ill that it never actually began at +all, and the Black Colonel had a virgin beard in which he took a due +conceit--why not? He thought it manly, where, perhaps he was right, +and he had learned in France that women thought it manly, so he was +doubly right. + +The Celts, wherever found, are not generally tall, and the Black +Colonel was a pure Celt in body as well as in nature. He was +upstanding, bore himself easily, was clean in line and tough of frame. +True, he was long of the leg, among a people who, having to climb and +descend hills constantly, are, in the providence of fitness, +short-legged, but he was all of a part. The kilt tests a man's figure, +bringing out any flaw in it, and the Black Colonel's stood the test +admirably. + +Moreover, he had that physical quality peculiar to the Celt which you +might call elasticity, for it is comparable to a mountain ash which +bends but does not break. There was, too, a fineness, a delicacy about +him, such as proclaims a race which has dreamt dreams and lived with +the wild glories of Nature. You cannot make common men of her +gentlemen, and her women are music to the French chanson, "It's love +that makes the world go round." + +None knew this better than the Black Colonel, a Highlander with that +venturing air which goes to a woman's heart, because she fondly wants a +man who will give her the gamble of danger, and yet be strong enough to +save her from herself? You might say that he was born for quest and +conquest, what with his suavity of tongue, his grace of manner, his +roguery of eye, and his fame as a great lover. + +But I was keeping him waiting and I had no desire to do that, so I +said, "You may suppose that I am not here very willingly, that it is +only duty which brings me." + +"Not official duty, I hope," he answered, with an acid emphasis on the +words. + +"No; I simply want, as between Highland gentlemen, to tell you two +things: first, that I return you, point blank, your overtures touching +our kinswoman, Marget Forbes, and her estate; and, second, this being +done, that I, as an officer of his Majesty's forces, will unrelentingly +discharge my commission, as best I can, next time we meet, be it soon +or not so soon." + +I fired out the words as if I had been loaded with them, which, truly, +was the case, but I felt, somehow, as if the shot had not gone home. +It had no outward effect on the Black Colonel, who turned the peat +ashes of the fire with his brogued foot, and looked at the little spits +of smoke and flame which flew up. Evidently he was not so unprepared +for my ultimatum as I had expected, but I had delivered it, and the +rest was for him. + +"Captain Gordon," he said, putting his hands behind his back and +looking hard at me, "I appreciate the sense of personal honour which +has brought you here. You felt you must clean the private slate +between us, before you were free to write what is to be on the public +slate. You wanted to give due declaration of war, and you have done it +at close quarters, which is the action of a Highland gentleman. But, +Captain Gordon, haven't you begun at the end of the story, instead of +at the beginning?" + +"I am only concerned with the end of the story, although I have +probably been foolish in thinking that I must myself bring you news of +it." + +"No honourable action is ever lost," he rejoined; "and, however events +go, I'll always put this to your credit in the account between us." + +"Thank you," said I, laconically, and he moved as if my tone had stung +him, which I did not intend, because even in a war parley one may be +correct--courteous. + +"What I wished to say," he went on, "is this: isn't there a way out of +our affairs which shall be creditable to you, nay, to us both, and, at +the same time, be in the public interest? Can't this private +relationship into which we have drifted, thanks to circumstances, be so +managed that it shall be fair to you as a soldier of King George, as +well as relieve me from my difficulties?" + +"Surely, Jock Farquharson," I protested with warmth, "you forget your +place when you, an outlaw by decree, the doer, by admission, of many +wrongs, presume to make terms with a King's officer, even in his +private capacity." + +"Strong words, my young friend," and he laughed in an airy tone that +stung me; "strong words don't belong to youth, but to the years when +the blood grows sour. You say outlaw! Why, yes and no; I am a loyal +subject of the King--the King over the water! You say I'm a cateran! +Well, I do no more than tax my enemies for what I need, and I need +little, holding as I do by the simple life, especially as no other is +open to me." + +"This," I said stiffly, "is neither the rendezvous nor the time for +high-flown sentiments, especially if they have no sincerity." + +"That," he added, "would be a windy business, and here the die is far +too serious to be played with, anyhow for me. Let us get down to the +humanities, which are the final element in solving a problem or leaving +it unsolved. There need be no personal bitterness between us; merely +we are in antagonism in politics and war, for the two count together +just now." + +"You are unusually modest to eliminate yourself like that," I cut in, +thinking of the Black Colonel's record, but only striking his Highland +pride. + +"If it so please me," he said almost angrily, "I can afford to be +modest, for I have done things. I come of good blood; I bear a name +which is old among the hills; I have carved my way to a colonelcy under +the Stuart flag, where promotion, like kissing, has often gone by +favour, yet sometimes by merit. The Prince himself, when he gave me my +rank, called me the Black Colonel in compliment to my beard, which +nobody has ever singed. The Black Colonel I remained when the Stuart +army melted in the bloody furrows of Culloden, and in truth I have, and +need not deny it, left my name in many quarters. I took it with me +when I sought the safe retreat of my own corner of the Highlands, among +friends, and I submit it with pride to you, Captain Ian Gordon." + +He was aflame between wrath and egotism, and I was afraid the contagion +might catch me, which was the least desirable thing, because there lies +the road to a losing cause. But, next moment, he laughed and said, +"No, no; temper beseems neither high nor low, being kitchen work. You +are sensible enough, Captain Gordon, to let a full man have his talk, +and I have not finished yet." He thought for a moment, as if he +expected me to say something, but I only got up from my somewhat hard +seat, as if preparing to go. + +"Not yet," he said; "stay a little, because, since you are here, it +would be a pity if anything remained unclear between us. I gather that +you see no course for it but open war, that you refuse the road of +solution which my proposal about the Forbes estate opens out. Might I +ask why you are so unsympathetic to that idea, which would serve every +interest?" + +"I am," I declared hotly, "neither a matchmaker, especially for +adventurers, nor a scheming politician, and on both grounds I decline +to have anything to do with you. Your insistence compels me to speak +with a plainness which I would rather have avoided, but you must blame +yourself. It's a far cry to Loch Awe, and a farther cry to the pardon +of the Black Colonel, but he thinks it might be contrived if he had +Marget Forbes and her property for a trump card. A pretty scheme, but +not one which my commission for King George instructs me to +countenance." + +Now I, in turn, had gone aflame, despite all my resolve to the +contrary, but if I had spoken the name of Marget Forbes it was, I tried +to reflect, as if it had no intimate meaning for me. That would have +been to blunder doubly, because it would show me personally, nay, +intimately, interested. + +The Black Colonel had been silent, and, when I ceased talking, I +noticed a strained, even a queer, look in his eye. Was he counting up +some element of the game which, thus far, was unknown to me? For when +the minds of men rub fiercely against each other, as ours had been +doing, they speak quicker than words. A kind of communication springs +up, vague of detail, but unfailing in its general import. + +I was not surprised, therefore, when the Black Colonel put his hand +within his coat and drew a paper from a pocket there. But I was +surprised when he said, "I have something here which I owe to the +favour of my friends in the south, and you will find that it bears upon +our conversation." He unfolded the paper slowly, I seeing, as he did +so, that it was an official paper, and then he handed it to me. + +It was not easy to read, in the dim light of the Colonel's Bed, thanks +to its crabbed orthography and its long formal phrasing, but gradually +I made out its wording to be this: + + +"Greetings: + +"Whereas, trusty and well-beloved councillors advise it in the interest +of our cause in the Scottish Highlands, that influential gentlemen who +have been Jacobite in sympathy, and even act, be won over to Our +Settled Sovereignship; + +"Therefore it is ordered that they shall, wherever possible, be +installed in the headship of houses and estates kindred to them, which +have been forfeit and estreated, all on strict condition of loyalty to +Ourselves and our Crown for ever; + +"And this wisely considered and, in our graciousness of heart, clement +policy, shall, we instruct, apply to John Farquharson of Inverery, +commonly called the Black Colonel, if, and when, he is able to +implement its essence in reference to the Forbes estate of Corgarff in +the far uplands of Aberdeenshire, where we wish to be loyally regarded +by our subjects. + +"In token of all which foregoing greetings and intimations on our part, +herewith witness our royal signature. + +"GEORGE REX." + + +"You understand?" said the Black Colonel, as I lifted my eyes from the +document and handed it back to him. + +I nodded, mechanically, for I was thinking--thinking chiefly of Marget +and myself. + + + + +_VIII.--The Conquering Hero_ + +It is unbelievable how the sweet face of a lass, or her soft figure, +with its air of passion song, will come between two men and make any +great affairs of state dividing them, seem as nothing by comparison. +The Black Colonel and I would hardly, as individuals, have quarrelled +about Stuart and Guelph, knowing well the value which Stuart and Guelph +would have put on us. But with Marget Forbes as prize it was another +affair altogether, for, in her, a whole bouquet of calling qualities +united. + +Her heart, so far, was all in the open joy of living, though in the +troublous times which surrounded her and her family, she found burden +enough of sorrow. She was a flower of the heather, opening late, like +it, but perhaps with the same red, rich bloom, for it was not hard to +divine that elements of high possibility were enclosed in her young +womanhood. It gave you, for all its simplicity, a sense of latent +treasure, when it should fully open, even, it might be of surprise to +herself. + +Seventeen! they say, when girlhood is trembling, quivering on the +portal of womanhood, a world of mysteries. But it is not half so +dramatic as twenty-five, when a woman, if she be rightly healthy in +mind and body, comes into woman's estate, feeling, desiring, some +earlier, some later, but roughly then. Peril is there, as well as +beauty, for then all the Margets in the wide world are pulling at the +silky bonds of sex, thinking these will stretch and stretch, only to +find, perhaps, that there is a strain at which they must break or +surrender. + +If the insurgency of newly-found womanhood can be fitly employed all is +well, but remember that most women are, in thought, rebels for romance. +Nature, too, runs fullest in the veins of those who live with her +naturally, aloof from the veneer of society. Nature is lusty in +Nature's lap, and she mothered our Corgarff without let or hindrance, +in sun and in snow, Marget Forbes included. + +You are to suppose a region far removed even from such a niggard +commerce of life as there was then in the Scottish Highlands. It is +sixty miles from the warming salt-wash of the sea, and has winds nearly +as cold as those that blow from the Arctic. This is because it stands +high, and is so bare of trees that they blow unbroken over its area. +They catch you with their ice tang in them, untouched by long, +sheltering woods, or soft, rolling dales, and they make your face +tingle into red and white, the blushes of Mother Nature. + +That is the winter, when the land is often covered with snow, and the +little burns of the hills are frozen into snake-like icicles. If the +picture is hard, it is nevertheless beautiful, looked out upon from the +comfort of good clothes and a full stomach. It invites you to explore +it, to follow that far track ending on the snow-line of Morven, or yon +other, which dips and is lost in the riven sides of Lochnagar. The air +sings through your lungs with the force of strong drink and makes you +hearty. You feel monarch of all you survey, even if it be not worth +having, which is the most stirring feeling a landscape can yield. + +Nor would there be much to divide your monarchy; only a chimney, +reeking blue into the grey sky, from a fire of peat, a few sheep, or +some hardly [Transcriber's note: hardy?] cattle turned out in the +height of the day to gather what scraps of food they might, a pair of +wandering red deer at the same hard game of finding a living, or a +hare, grown bluish-white for the winter-time, to resemble the friendly +snow, scampering off before the snap of your foot on the heather. When +the rigour of winter lies upon the land, men and women can do little +but keep their beasts alive, and themselves sit round the fire, passing +the slow time of day with what gossip may be made. + +We froze within the old walls of Corgarff Castle, for they were time +and weather worn. Gales had beaten them, snowstorms had driven at +them, and rains had lashed them, until they were corrugated with +furrows and hollows, like the face of an ancient man. It is curious +how age, whether in a face or in a building, takes on the same +milestones of hollow and hillock, to record the march of time and the +dents in a soul. + +But come the summer in Corgarff, and the far-flung ranges of hill lose +their white severity and assume the kindlier mantle of sprouting +heather and green grass; the ptarmigan flies back to its heights above +the snow-line, content with the thin picking and the splendid peace +which summer there provides; the red deer no more falls hungrily upon +the lower pastures, with the roaring fight gone out of the stags and +the hinds left bleating to their own company, like so many widowed +women of the wild. + +Instead, the thin sheep of the clansmen, each with its owner's brand to +identify it, wander forth to the common grazings, glad that the bloom +of living is on Nature again. That brings a panorama of scenery which +lights the eye and braces the heart and mind, hills which run into +mountains, mountains which run into the skies, all proclaiming the +splendour of God. + +Now, I have tried to tell you this, not very well, perhaps, because our +surroundings in life have much to do with our actions, and the two sets +of circumstance must be comprehended together, especially in a sparsely +peopled countryside. You unconsciously take your dispositions from the +atmosphere, and you cannot be certain always where you may either begin +or end. Thus a simple Highland ball which we soldiers organized at +Corgarff Castle, to while away a night, and be a token of friendliness +towards our neighbours, developed a deep import in my true story. + +It was natural for me to smooth and sweeten, as far as I could, the +relations between those in formal authority whom I represented, and the +local clan-folk. To that end I organized this dance in the ancient +Castle, and made it known that anybody and everybody would be welcome. +Any misgiving I had about the response, was balanced by my knowledge of +the Highland fondness for dancing. It has been in the Celtic blood +from the beginning of time; and gillie-callum, over the swords, the +throbbing, squeezing, square reel, the sultry Highland Schottische, and +the rest of the figures, will last until the last trump sounds the last +morning. + +You dance for the joy of life, if you are born in a land of the sun, +and in a land of cold you dance for the joy which springs from warmth. +It is a primal expression of feeling, and the Scottish Highlanders have +always had beautiful dances, and danced them well; dances with the +music of sex in them, though they might not admit it, or did not know +it. Religion and dancing have often been the only things in their +lives, apart from the common round of fighting and working, when they +cared for work. Thus, my ball, though it might be an affair of the +enemy, had a subtle call to the Highland blood, especially in the women. + +My first invitation was to Marget Forbes and her mother, because, if I +could only persuade them to be present everything would be well. Let +the ladies of the ancient great house come, and there was no reason why +the commonalty should stay away. The times had been sorrowful for +mother and daughter, as the black they wore betokened, but, I wrote +gently, "We must let the dead bury their dead, and try and build some +bridge on which the living may meet." + +So it was arranged that Marget, the young chieftainess of the Corgarff +Forbeses, with her mother, should open the ball. This news was out a +week before the event, and we soon learned that, as I had thought, we +should have a good muster of guests. I took my soldier men entirely +into my confidence, and they grew keen to make the dance a success, +being kindly fellows and open to softer adventures, as well as the +other kind. + +They were collectively to be hosts, and whoever crossed the doorstep on +the night was to be received without prejudice and with all honour. +Everybody should have what we could give to eat and drink, and when +they set home again it would be from a warm welcome and a sincere +good-bye. Ah! if I could only have foreseen one acceptance of that +general invitation to the countryside; but I didn't, and how could I? +Men are not gods in wisdom, and how dull life would be it they were; +how dull especially for their women-folk who, thanks be, are not always +angels, except of light, and even they know how to darken the radiance. + +The famous night came, and in good time came also Marget and her +mother, with their small group of servants from the Dower House. Our +largest room, where the dance was to be, a sort of hall of the Castle, +was filling with robust Highlanders in tartans, and with their +women-folk in their best gowns. Personally I felt easy and happy when +I shook Marget's hand, saying, "It is kind of you to help me, and +perhaps between us we are doing good." Then I conducted her and her +mother to seats on a low platform at the further end of the room and +quietly ordered the dance to begin. + +A brace of fiddlers, seated in a corner, were scraping their catgut +into tune for the music, while, outside, a piper was playing a Highland +gathering. The Scots bagpipes yield their real melody in the open air, +and only then, and to me, from a little distance, they sounded loud and +rarely that cold star-lit night. The piper's business was this +overture, and presently, when it was completed, he would march in, as +grand as you like, and pipe us the first reel, in which Marget, I had +fondly thought, was to be my partner. Oh, everything was very well +arranged, and nothing happened as had been arranged, which is, perhaps, +the peculiarity of life, when we reflect on it as a perpetual drama. + +Presently I heard a slight commotion, as if something had happened +unexpectedly, and then the hoof of a horse stamping the ground. The +sea of heads in the room, pulled by curiosity, bent towards the door, +and I realized that some surprise was approaching. + +At that moment the piper, a Forbes man, to whom the honour of playing +had been given, struck up his reel and strode in upon us. He was big, +broad, imposing, with his kilted figure, and he seemed to halt, in +order that we might admire him, for a good piper and a peacock are +vain; but this was merely my fancy. What I saw, immediately following +him, was no fancy but staggering truth; it was the Black Colonel! + +Yes, the Black Colonel in full Highland regalia, bowing and nodding to +the people about him, who courtesied back with an easy homage, for they +knew him instantly; the Black Colonel as large as life, eminently +pleased with himself, taking possession of the place and the occasion, +as if he were a conquering hero coming into his own; the Black Colonel, +Jock Farquharson of Inverey, a chief among the men of whom it has been +written that: + + "Brak loose and to the hills go they." + + +If I was stunned, the piper was not, for he walked up the room with a +deliberation which the quick step of his tune did not warrant. Behind +him paced the Black Colonel, and as he came nearer to myself and the +ladies, I saw them turn as if to ask me whether this was in the +programme. So far, the Black Colonel had not let his eyes catch ours. +He gave himself to the crowd, as a well-graced actor gives himself to +the house when it applauds him. He had the music on his side, too, +for, at the platform, the piper stepped aside into a corner, still +blowing hard, and this brought the Black Colonel full to the front, +immediately beside us. Thereupon he slowly bent in salutation to +Marget and her mother, while everybody watched and waited, wondering +what was to happen now. + +"Ladies," he said softly, but distinctly, "I hope that if to-night I +have come unbidden by our friend, Captain Gordon, I am not unwelcome to +you, aye, and even to him. We are all kins-folk, and I wished to +manifest a kindly feeling by joining in this meeting. I also desired +to make fuller acquaintance, than has hitherto been possible, with two +kins-women who have suffered hardly in times which, let us hope from +the promise of this gathering, are about to be forgotten. It would +show my boldness forgiven if I might open the ball with Mistress +Marget, for Captain Gordon, as host, will wish to conduct her mother." + +Again the Black Colonel bowed, as if he were master of the situation, +which, in fact, he fully appeared to be. Confident and gracious, he +offered Marget his arm, and she took it mechanically, such being the +force of suggestion, exercised by a strong man's mind, especially with +many eyes looking on. Mechanically, also, I held out my arm to +Marget's mother and, while our small world still wondered, I found +myself in a foursome reel with the Black Colonel. But he was Marget's +partner! + +He talked merrily to her when the drowning music would let him, even +though she scarcely replied, being still in the custody of his +surprise. He was out to please, and he undoubtedly was handsome, or, +at all events, striking in his tartans, and he danced perfectly. Why +deny it, even if it had not been patent to every onlooking, wondering +eye? He made a mightily fine picture, and he knew it, though he did +not spoil the picture by showing he knew it. + +Marget was in a simple black gown with a ruffle of white French lace at +her neck and a flush in her cheeks. Her black hair was twined +naturally about her head, which she carried high, so I told myself, as +if in defiance of the Black Colonel, while she had to be his partner +and prisoner. She glanced at me once or twice with an amused twinkle +in her eye, thinking, I suppose, of her bold capture from the host of +the evening, my unlucky self. Some women are a blessing, others keep +you guessing, somebody will say, and Marget, I judged, even in the +whirl of that reel, could be both, if she cared to try. + +Quicker time the music made it, many a foot keeping stroke, and quicker +time we had to make it. You know the romp of a Highland reel at the +double, how it causes the blood to sing in the veins and the feet to +jig. Marget's mother had been a fine dancer, but, as she whispered to +me, she was no longer young. Marget herself had inherited all her +mother's ease and grace of carriage, and she had her own spirit and go. +The music and the motion caught her into forgetfulness of everything +else, and she danced with a grace and a swing which were bewitching. + +She had, again I was bound to admit, a complete dancing partner in the +Black Colonel, a fellow of natural and acquired accomplishments. He +had his clean ankles and elegant uprightness from his Highland +forbears, and he had got his polish of deportment when he was among the +English Jacobites in France. The result was that he danced all of a +piece, with as near the poetry of movement as a man might attain, and +then there was the intimate, intriguing ripple of his tartans. + +Myself, I was quite a good dancer, but, if I may be my own apologist, +not so showy a dancer as the Black Colonel. While I could hold my own +with most men in the Highland dances, probably surpass many, I could +not fill a dancing floor as he did, with his natural air of drama. A +woman who herself dances well, sighs for a fit partner, but give her in +that partner a personality drawing a general homage to them both, and +she is twice blessed. After all, she is a woman, with the woman's +prayer for attention, for being, once in a way, the centre of a +picture, as she is on her wedding day, the Day of Promise, whatever +follows. + +An early episode in the life of the Black Colonel had associated him +with the rollicking "Reel O'Tulloch," a dance originated in Strathdee. +His people had gone to church, so went the tale, but, the weather being +wintry, no parson arrived. Seeking warmth, they began to blow on their +hands, then to shuffle with their feet on the floor, and presently, +when somebody fetched a fiddler, this broke into a reel. A bottle with +inspiration in it was brought from the change-house near by, and faster +went the music and faster grew the fun. + +When young Jock Farquharson, hearing of this, came on the scene, the +"Reel O'Tulloch" was being danced "ower the kirk and ower the kirk," +and voices cried: + + "John, come kiss me now, + John, come kiss me now, + John, come kiss me by and by + And mak' nae mair adow." + + +One of the guests at our later, different dance, in Corgarff Castle, +must have remembered this, for suddenly there was a sort of "soughing" +of the song, then a singing of it, and it was positively roared out by +the assembly when the music stopped and the dance ended. I understood +the application and the invitation which were intended, and I caught a +look in Marget's flushed face, as if she also understood. Her mother +glanced at the roystering singers, then at the Black Colonel and, with +an apology for leaving me, went and stood beside her daughter, the +mothering instinct of protection called into action. + +"Thank you, Mistress Marget," I heard Jock Farquharson say, in his most +melodious tone, "you have been kind to me, and I will hope to thank you +again. And thank you, Madame," he said, bowing low to her mother, "for +letting me lift my head to-night, as it has not been lifted for long. +I shall not forget to be grateful and, I hope, to deserve your +good-will." + +Then he made me, the official host, a last, low bow with a mockery, +subtle but noticeable, in it, walked down the room, saluting and being +saluted on every side, and was gone. Our friendly ball, from which I +had expected so much, died away to the clink of Mack's galloping hoofs, +an unsettling rhythm. + + + + +_IX.--'Twixt Night and Morn_ + +They declare that if you are drowning, or otherwise at the crack o' +doom, your whole life's record leaps through your mind in an instant. +It may be so, Providence giving a man, however his balance-sheet +stands, a last chance to square it fair and well. + +Everybody being gone home, and I being alone, after our dizzy ball, I +felt that I had to count up the position. It needed no effort to +understand that the Black Colonel's purpose in invading me had been to +meet Marget and her mother, to impress himself upon them, all in the +interest of his designs. He had relied for safety upon the temporary +state of neutrality which the ball carried with it, and he had come, he +had seen, he had--what? So far my thoughts convoyed me. But my little +room in the castle with its cell-like windows, its low ceiling, even, I +would add, its sense of plain refinement, worried me, and I went out +into the night and the spaciousness of earth and heaven. Oh, for +freedom to breathe and think, and oh for it at that witching time when +night and day hold their bridal of mating among the Highland hills. + +It was the hour, in our altitudes, at which night sleeps her heaviest, +as if to snatch the last wink from the breaking morn. Nature was +superbly at rest, sloughing the worn trappings of yesterday, preparing +the shining armour of the morrow. It was the hour of creation, the +wonder-coming of a child into the world, magnified beyond imagining, a +tender life, very, very beautiful. It cried to my soul, seeking the +humblest companionship for its own great soul, playing upon mine with a +touch of incomparable delicacy. + +And yet, yet, the chief feeling was almost that of a paganism, of an +earth-smell and an earth-worship, of a giant awakening from torpor, +ravenous with hunger. It was all the grand savagery, the terrible +strength of Mother Earth, the Great Protector, from whose loins I had +sprung, but who is unspeakably awesome until you see her face in the +rising sun. Then the nightmare of the darkness which empalls her with +a cold sense of death, turns into a radiance as of gold and kindness. + +Ah! it was worth while to be abroad among the heather and the fir-trees +at dawn, for the virgin world, the pagan, freed from cerements and +found in the twilight to be a god, was all my own, mine to enjoy. I +think I know why primitive man, when he lived in lands where Nature was +wild and the nights were long, was a resolute pagan. No light, no +warmth of its torch, had he to set the fire of reverence in him +burning, and reverence is the footstool of belief in God. I think I +also know why the other primitive man of the south, dwelling in a land +of the sun, would be a sun-worshipper: because it gave him reverence +and drew it from him. + +We fear endless things when it is dark, the stoutest-hearted of us, +but, in the geniality of a shining sun, we have courage. The picture, +in ancient Greek legend, of husband and wife, one of them about to die, +taking a long farewell as the dipping sun-rays gilt Olympus at its +highest peaks, has often seemed to me a fine linking of the night of +paganism and the morn of sunlit faith. + +Odd thoughts to run in a man's head as he walked the dew-damp heather, +careless which track he took, conscious only that he sought a new +morning. But you do think strange thoughts if you have in you any of +the dreamy Celt and have been born and nurtured in the cradle of the +hills. They infect you, I will not say with second sight, though there +have been proved instances, but with their own moods, like a +soft-falling foot, which, in our spiritual pilgrimage, is the Foot of +Fate. + +My step lightly touched the heather, but, even so, my way was marked by +a disturbance of the birds and animals of the wild. A grouse ran with +a flutter and took wing with a cry, half in protest at being wakened +from its sleep, half in alarm at my presence. A rabbit rushed from a +sheltering hole in such a hurry that, as I could tell by its clatter +among the bracken, it nearly fell over itself, as rabbits clumsily do, +making fluffy, woolly balls of themselves. + +When there is danger about, Nature gives all her children of the open a +chance to escape by instantly warning them, and, in this, alarming +their instinct. My particular rabbit had scarcely run out of hearing +when half a dozen others were scurrying hither and thither in the same +expectant confusion. Poor little things! What a fluster they made, +and their scare communicated itself to a crow in a solitary fir-tree, +against which I nearly collided. He croaked, flapped his wings and +sailed off heavily, blackly, also anxious for safety. + +Now, by the sheer exercise of walking, I had spent my restlessness, and +the hill air had driven the blood from my head. Moreover, I grew +tired, for the road tells when you have to pick your steps in the dark, +over rough ground. So, coming upon a fir-tree root, I made a seat of +it, and waited for night to fully turn into day, a transformation which +came swiftly. + +We have all seen the first flicker of a piece of tinder, fired by a +beaten flint. It is like something come, only to go again, but +presently it passes into a stronger flame, and then into light. This +is the awakening of a Highland day, when the conditions resemble those +of that morning. + +The heavy pall of clouds, lying low over the hills, seemed to take +motion, for trifling rents appeared in them. The rents grew bigger, +and then the stars, which had been shining all the time in the welkin +above, began to look through those peep-holes. It was the sun setting +to work upon the earth once more, our side of the globe returning to +his rays and warmth. + +Slowly I looked about me, like one roused from a half-dream, seeing the +near things first, and, as the dawn grew, ranging for the far things. +Beneath me lay a glen pavilioned in the splendour of the rising sun, +and gilded with the praise of the hills. Browns and reds and greens +swam before my eyes into a radiant landscape, along which flowed the +water of Don, a ribbon of silver, whose surface the fat trout would +presently be breaking. Beside it wandered the road, on which, +presently, to my astonishment, I made out two figures. Who could they +be, there, at that time? + +When I left Corgarff Castle I had, out of habit, slung my spyglass over +my shoulder, and I set it towards the men. One was in the tartan of my +own regiment, the other in a tartan of darkish green with a red stripe +in it, like the Farquharson tartan. I made out, by their actions, that +they were quarrelling, so I started for them, and who do you think I +found? My own sergeant and the Black Colonel's Red Murdo. + +"What are you men doing and how are you here?" I asked abruptly, for I +was breathless, as well as surprised and angry. + +The sergeant's answer was a salute, for he had not time to speak before +Red Murdo was launched on a torrent of indignant words. He had, he +said, come over to the ball in attendance on the Black Colonel, as I +might know. He intended to depart with him, but had taken more of my +hospitality--stout fellow!--than he could carry, which delayed his +departure. Some of my men had old scores against him, old crows to +pick with him, particularly this sergeant, who, therefore, had followed +him, determined to have the quarrel out: "While I," quoth Red Murdo, +"only want to go quietly home." + +"What's the quarrel?" I demanded of the sergeant. + +"Well," he replied quaintly, "it does na' matter what it is, tho' he +kens, as lang's we settle who's the better man. He's up to every +dodge, but there's no room for that wi' only the twa o's here." + +"And what were you doing when I arrived? What was about to happen?" I +asked. + +"We were jist arguin' which was the better man," declared the sergeant, +"and I was na' goin' to leave it at that. A deceesion for me; he +beggit to be let awa'!" + +"Beggit!" broke in Red Murdo; "beggit anything from you, my man! Na, +na; I was beggin' you to return to Corgarff Castle in case something +happen't to you. You wid'na', as I tell ye, be the first red-coat on +whose hide I had left a mark. But I was forbearin', because I did na' +want trouble to follow Captain Ian's kindness in askin' us to the ball +last evening." + +Red Murdo glanced at me, as if he expected me to side with him, but my +thoughts were not yet for words. You can best hold a judicial air when +you say little, give no reasons, and here I had to be judge and jury. +For the quarrel, if it was carried to a violent end, might have +unfortunate results on the general peace of the country. It would not +do to have my sergeant killing Red Murdo in single combat, or Red Murdo +killing my sergeant, certainly not with me looking on. + +If you happen to know some legal jingle of words you can almost +certainly pacify the raw man of strife, by gravely reciting it at him. +Sheriffs, procurators-fiscal, bailies and others accustomed to take +oaths, and sometimes to say them, will confirm this curious influence +of formality. Partly it impresses, and it will surely confuse, and +then the subject can be led to a better frame of mind. + +So I thought of the oath banning the Highland dress, which, in the +unwisdom of our over-lords, exercised by right of force, a Jacobite +rebel had to take, before he could get a pardon. It had an official +place among the papers of my office, and there I had let it rest, but I +loathed it so much that its language had bitten itself into my mind. + +How this foully conceived oath had fired the spirit of a people proud +to wear their tartans, because of the Highland sentiment which they +clothed! But to use it to compass a private quarrel, to twist its +possible tragedy into healing honour, that was appealing! My sergeant +I must support outwardly, and my stratagem would secure this, without +putting Red Murdo in peril. He, probably, had a secret inkling that I +was searching for a way out, because he kept looking, looking at me, +even while he talked and talked. + +"You know the law?" I slowly addressed him. + +"Only like my master," he said, "by breakin' it." + +"You know that any man who has been in rebellion against his Majesty +King George may be apprehended on sight, tried, punished and executed." + +"If you say that it'll be so, but it does na' interest me; I tak' my +orders frae the Chief of Inverey, nae frae King George or his officers, +least o' all a mere sergeant." + +"Still," I went on, "you will perceive that he was doing his duty, or +what he thinks his duty." Red Murdo's look suggested that he thought I +was rambling, but I went on sharply; "and in the exercise of his duty +he is entitled to all the support of his superior officer." + +The sergeant's face beamed with approval, as if he had been discovered +in an act of great public advantage and was to be rewarded +[Transcriber's note: a line appears to be missing from the book here.] +that of Red Murdo simply asked, "What are you driving at?" + +"Now," I said, lifting my right hand in the manner of judges, "I am +going to administer an oath to you, and when you have taken it all will +be well and you shall go your way." + +"What sort o' oath," he asked; "what has it to do wi' me, who's only +concern't wi' the Black Cornel's oaths? Tell it to me, first." + +"Very well, listen," and with as much solemnity as I could muster I +repeated the words of the oath: + +"I do swear, as I shall answer to God at the Great Day of Judgment, I +have not, nor shall have, in my possession, any gun, sword or arm +whatsoever, and never use tartan, plaid, or any part of the Highland +garb; and if I do so, may I be cursed in my undertakings, family and +property; may I never see my wife and children, father, mother or +relations; may I be killed in battle as a coward, and lie without +Christian burial, in a strange land, far from the graves of my +forefathers and kindred: may all this come across me if I break my +oath." + +Red Murdo kept looking at me, mute, perhaps impressed; anyhow, he +presently asked, "What if I refuse?" + +"The penalties laid down by law," I told him, still solemnly, "are six +months in prison for a first offence and transportation beyond the seas +for a second." + +"A device o' the devil and King George," grunted Red Murdo, and I +should have been glad to agree with him, only I had to play the game +out. + +"Will you take the legal oath?" + +"Never. It's what I suppose the sergeant was goin' to cram doon my +throat an' he could, the same infernal thing. Never, frae you, or him, +or the pair o' ye." + +This was a turn I had not expected, and I was wondering what to do next +when Red Murdo said, "I'll tell ye what I'll dae. I'll wrestle the +sergeant which o's will eat a copy of that ugly oath, and that'll also +satisfy him who's the better man." + +The sergeant did not show an instant keenness for this challenge, but +it got me round a corner, and must be accepted. I declared to that +effect, and desired both men to get ready, saying I would be umpire. I +added that there should be only one bout because, secretly, I had no +wish to see them hurt one another. + +Red Murdo and the sergeant put their plaids, their jackets, their +bonnets, their sporans, and their brogues, in little heaps, with each +man's weapons above each man's things. Neither spoke, for action, +which naturally has the effect of sealing the tongue, had now arrived, +and I chose a level piece of sward where they might fall with +comparative softness. + +When I saw how nearly they were matched in physique, the spirit of +primitive combat in me began to be interested, to calculate who would +win. True to the fighting tactics he knew Red Murdo rushed to grips, +but the sergeant drove him off, and they manoeuvred round each other +for the next effort. It was pretty to see them, that bright morning, +with the whole picturesque valley for arena and I for the only +spectator of their prowess. Moreover, they were warming to the fight, +which was one between the disciplined strength and skill of the soldier +and the wild agility of Red Murdo. + +Those different qualities met so evenly that feint, and catch and heave +as each combatant would, the other remained unthrown. Once Red Murdo +got his antagonist by the waist, lifted him clean off the ground and +whirled him round like a totum, only to have him alight on his feet. +Once, also, the sergeant, by a supple twist of arm and leg, working +together, got Red Murdo half down and no more. Really it was a toss-up +who should win, or whether there would be a winner at all. + +My only ground of interference would be foul play, and although they +went at each other almost savagely there was no absolute act of that +kind. But the strain was telling on both men, for they took no rest, +and hardly waited to get fresh breath. The sinews of their legs stood +out like whip-cord, their chest heaved like bellows in distress, their +necks were scarlet with the tumult of the blood there. Only the +unexpected would make a victor or a loser, and the unexpected did not +happen, as it does sometimes. + +Red Murdo tried a last torrential rush, but the sergeant withstood it, +and they merely locked themselves together. Nay, they were now so +exhausted that they could only hang on to each other for support, a +spectacle which brought me to their side. Their bulging eyes stared at +me with the pleading look which a horse has after being driven too far +and too fast. When I divided them by a touch of my hand they both fell +to the ground like logs and so lay. + +Honour was satisfied, the hated oath of the kilt had not to be eaten by +anybody, and I was glad. + + + + +_X.--The Way of a Woman_ + +Between you and me, I fancy that the average, natural woman likes to +think any man who is after her a bit of the devil. It makes her pulse +beat, if not her heart; it gives a fine spice to the pursuit, and she +is confident there will be no capture, unless she wills it. Anyhow, I +was not going to help the Black Colonel in his schemes by holding him +up as a hero of that order, and he would have made the comment that he +needed not the service from me. + +Marget Forbes and I had fallen into the pleasant custom of lending each +other such books as came the way of our remote land, and I called at +the Dower House to leave her one, a newly imprinted volume entitled +"Robinson Crusoe." I did not seem to wish to make meetings with her, +though I was glad of them, so I chose a time, the mid-afternoon, at +which she and her mother usually walked out. However, Marget was at +home, and she called to me from the parlour, would I not enter and rest +a minute? Necessarily I must step inside to say I would not wait, and +necessarily I found myself sitting down near her. + +"Mother," she said, "is on her weekly round among the sick and old, to +whom a kind word from her is like gold, of which we now have none to +give. Usually I go with her, but to-day she would have it that I +looked tired, and she bade me stay indoors and rest. I'm glad you +called and brought me a book, especially this wonderful 'Robinson +Crusoe,' of which I have heard vaguely, and which they say is founded +on the adventure of a Scotsman, Alexander Selkirk. You are always +thoughtful, or shall I say sometimes?" and Marget looked as if she +expected me to understand the qualification. + +Was it a reproach that I did not come into her company often enough; +was it a playful invitation to do so oftener; or was it the woman's +primal instinct, old as Eve in the Garden of Eden, just to tease the +man? I scarcely asked myself those questions. They ran through my +mind with the kind of physical impulse which you feel in the presence +of the possible woman. You are aware, then, of feelings and shadows of +feeling which cannot be expressed. There is something in you which +goes on speaking to the something in her, and you let it speak, glad, +wondering, expectant, never sure, never sorry. Odd, isn't it, this +language of sex which says most when it says nothing by speech, which +needs not speech, because it is spiritual, though springing, maybe, +from the call of the blood. + +Marget had been reading, and when she invited me in, and I went, she +put the open book face downward on a little table, beside a half-made +sampler. She saw my eye wandering to the volume, a mere mechanical +curiosity on my part, and she picked it up with a laugh, saying, "There +is no need to hide those pages, unless it be that they are dull." + +"What is the book all about?" I asked idly. + +"It is a French romance," she said, "in which a lovely heroine treads +her way through an endless maze of difficult paths and a brigade of +villains to what, I have no doubt, when I get there with her, if ever I +do, will be endless wedded bliss. It is an over-sentimental story, for +the French young girl, but, then, one must try to keep up what French +one has, because it is a delightful language." + +Marget had learned it as a girl in France, for she had lived there a +while, seen something of the Stuart Court over the water, of the Court +of King Louis also, and even heard the passing rustle of the skirts of +"the Pompadour" and Madame du Barry. Already the breath of a freer day +to come was blowing across that fair land, and her stay in it +definitely influenced Marget's character, ripened it quickly on broadly +beautiful lines, without hurting its pure scent of Scottish heather. + +Hospitality was a duty as well as a pleasure in every Highland home, +and, after our trifles of a few minutes, she rose and went to give some +order. When she returned she said she had a small treat in store for +me, and it came into the room almost with herself. What do you think +it was? Why, tea! + +It was a beverage then almost unknown in the Scottish Highlands, but +Marget's family, as she said, had at intervals received packets of it +from their friends in the south. Those gifts were hoarded as if they +contained treasure, and only dipped into for very special reasons. + +"It flatters me," I remarked airily, "to think I am a special reason, +because that must come near being a special friend." + +"Oh," quoth Marget, "but you are an official enemy, so how could you be +a special friend? And still such things are possible, you know, but I +shall not tell you how they are possible. You would not understand a +bit"; and, as she spoke, her eyes and hands were arranging the +tea-table. + +"I should, I assure you, try very hard," said I, "and it would be odd +if I did not succeed, with a dish of tea for stimulant. I don't +remember when I tasted tea last," I added laconically, as Marget poured +it out of a quaint old pot into dwarfy cups of French mould. Most of +the dainty things, the bric-à-brac of households in the Jacobite +Highlands were from France, just as we had come to say "ashets" and +"gigots" of mutton, and generally to graft French cookery into our +Scottish meals, for the "Auld Alliance" had various harvests. + +As we talked over the tea-cups, Marget and I, I thought how quickly in +that Nature's cradle of Corgarff she had ripened to woman's estate. +She had, at times, been in touch with the artificialities of social +life, but they had not dulled her free, strong character. She had +drawn her instincts, as she had drawn her blood, from the long hills, +and she had no self-consciousness to dim her lights. But when I rose +to leave she said merrily, "We have spoken much foolish nonsense, have +we not, Captain Gordon?" + +"Wise nonsense, Mistress Forbes," I answered. + +"Thank you, but wise nonsense is most becoming when it is expressed as +a parable." + +"Then let us have the parable." + +"Oh! parables are not in fashion with so many hard realities about, and +there should not be three people in one. Three's never company, they +say, good company, even in a parable." + +"Then, dear lady, why put in three?" + +"This parable, dear Captain, would need three; first, a high-minded +young man who wears arms and dreams dreams, who is beloved by everybody +for his good nature and qualities, who is on the other side of where he +would be most welcome, and who will probably never summon courage to +get there; secondly, an older man of more picturesque, more risky +qualities, an adventurer in love and war, never afraid to strike, even +if the stroke might wound, a personality able, on occasion, to +commandeer what could not be secured by affection, thanks to an +understanding of woman's nature and the imperfections of man's +government; and, thirdly, between those personal forces a woman who +might, to her undoing, be captured by the force of family and state +circumstances, instead of by the man of her tell-tale heart's desire." + +"A very subtle parable!" I remarked, for no reason whatever, but the +tone of it held more than this banality, although she showed no heed of +that, but remarked: + +"No; a very common parable; it's what every woman knows by instinct or +experience, if few would care to reveal it, even in a parable." + +We said good-bye without more ado, and I set off for the castle, +troubled for my unreadiness in woman nature, the most puzzling, +calling, captivating skein in all the universe, because it holds, +behind the silken veil of its treasure-house, the eternal mystery of +creation, that something divine which is nearest to God Himself. + +When in trouble, my trouble, anyhow, one sighs for a song, and my +heart-quaking carried me to a ballad, very familiar in our countryside, +which tells of an unbridled lover laying siege to a woman he covets. +Her men were absent, and she and her domestics were the only garrison +of the castle when he knocked roysterously at its gates: + + "The lady ran up to her towe-head, + As fast as she could drie, + To see if by her fair speeches + She could with him agree. + + "As soon he saw the lady fair, + And her yates all locked fast, + He fell into a rage of wrath, + And his heart was aghast. + + "Cum doon to me, ye lady fair; + Cum doon to me; let's see; + This nigh ye's ly by my ain side + The morn my bride sall be!" + + +It was pagan wooing, but it has often won the day, only why should I +let it disturb me, whose cause stood by itself? What I must realize +was that powers above me were at work, for "state reasons," on affairs +in which I was concerned, privately. I must try to meet this influence +without letting as much be known outwardly, because I was an officer +bound by my commission to serve his Majesty's desires and commands. + +Now I am no good schemer, and I merely drifted to those conclusions as +a swimmer goes with a tide in which he happens to find himself. He +feels that he is in its custody, but, on the instinct for life, he +makes a stroke now and then and their cumulative effect probably bears +him somewhere safe to land. Might it be so with me! + +Unfortunately I was a swimmer in the dark, for I did not know, however +I might guess, what Marget and her mother were thinking. Perhaps my +heart really assured my mind as to Marget, or so I was fain to +conclude. Her mother, however, might take a mother's view, the +far-carrying view which thinks of daughters settled in such a manner as +will continue the old line. + +Every man has, deep down in him, the desire to own a little bit of +land, even though most of us only get six feet for a grave. It is +man's form of ancestor-worship, and in woman it finds expression in the +home, and continuous olive branches to fill that home. The man likes +to have his foot securely on a rood of Mother Earth, a patch to call +his very own. The woman supplements that by peopling a house; and is +not this service of the maternal instinct the greater, the finer of the +two? + +One placed in circumstances which need strong action, should not think +too much, because by doing that he raises a wall of difficulties around +him. Mental ghosts are no use to anybody, although, to be sure, they +weren't unknown to me. So I welcomed a letter that reached me next +morning from Marget's mother, but I opened it with a dread. It +addressed me as "Dear Captain Gordon," and it read: + +"I am troubling you for advice, because there is nobody else whom I can +ask, and because the matter may interest you, both as a relative, far +removed I admit, and as a soldier of the reigning king. You will guess +what it is, and that makes it easier for me to explain. + +"It has been made known to us in a round-about, but authoritative way, +that it would give King George and his ministers satisfaction to see +our house and people established again, and that Jock Farquharson, the +laird of Inverey, would be confirmed in the chiefship, if as much were +agreeable to my daughter and myself. + +"They don't ask me will I give my daughter in ransom for the house and +possessions of our ancestors, but that is what is meant, and you can +judge how the idea has concerned me. You may also, however, concern +and interest a mother at the same time, and I have hesitated to return +a 'No,' especially as Marget said, about the letter, when I showed it +to her, 'Well, the sons of the house have sacrificed enough for it. It +may now be the turn of the daughter to sacrifice something . . .!" + +"That was dutifully said, but what she expects, I'm certain, is that I +shall say the 'No' of my own accord, and I want your advice as to the +manner in which it can best be done. I want it at once, because news +comes to me, through the early channel of our domestics, that the Black +Colonel means to ride over upon us one of these evenings, a friendly +call, I suppose. Marget does not know of this intention on his part, +and I am not going to tell her, for a mother's instinct naturally +wishes to shield a daughter from disturbance. + +"If you would advise me how to say 'No' without bringing further +displeasure from high places upon our ruined house, you would be doing +us a service. If, besides that, you were to find a means of keeping +the Black Colonel away, why, you would be doing a further service." + +As I read that last sentence an idea struck me, and I at once sent a +note to the dear lady, saying I would solve her difficulty. Then I +dispatched a pair of trusty scouts in quest of certain information I +needed, and in eight hours they were back with it. After that, I felt +more myself than I had done for some time, just because I was now +committed to definite, perhaps even dangerous, action. + + + + +_XI--The Crack of Thunder_ + +It is fine how the spur of danger, especially danger to somebody else, +dear if not near, helps a man's spirits upward. The blood flows more +quickly in him, his hand is surer, his brain works better. He feels +that the die has been cast, that nothing more matters, except the +reckoning, and, so feeling, he sheds all timorous self-consciousness +and is himself. + +That, at all events, was how I felt as I took the road southward, +across the hills towards Deeside, with a cracking wind to walk against. +I would intercept the Black Colonel's raid on Marget and her mother, +and break the whole scheme behind it--if I could! + +So we scheme, we glorious little fellows of this world, bent on love or +hatred, and the Great Beneficence smiles at us, at our cleverness, or +it may be the Great Furies, however you will have it. Anyway, Nature +has merely to move and our grandest plans may crinkle up like a feather +held to a "cruisie," the rude lamp, fed with dried splinters of +fir-wood, or mutton tallow and a wick, which our Highlanders used for +lighting. + +But that was not in my thoughts when I came to the top of the last hill +dividing our strath from the Black Colonel's. My estimate was that if +I got there by break of day and waited I should, being in a high eyrie +with a wide view, see him come from the opposite direction. My +information from my scouts was that he would travel alone, a fit thing, +having regard to his mission at the Dower House, Corgarff. + +Tired and hungry, I looked about for a rock which would shield me from +the wind, and got out my fodder. It consisted only of "whisky bukky," +oatmeal rolled with whisky, not delicate stuff to eat, but easily +carried and sustaining. Haggis is better food for the march, because +it is tastier and still harder to digest, so even more lasting, as the +Highlanders, for whose war sustenance it was, perhaps, invented, knew, +but on leaving Corgarff Castle I had just taken what I could lay my +hand upon. + +While I ate I half-marvelled at the splendour of the scene about me, +half-rehearsed my catechism with the Black Colonel, when he should +appear. I would put it to him as a gentleman that he must not intrude +upon the Forbes ladies, and, indeed, must frankly abandon his designs +there. If reason failed, then we might be driven to solve the knot by +a single combat, as the custom of the Highlands permitted, and, indeed, +sometimes ordered, very much like the duel in the land of France. Why +not such a combat, because the test was an honest if barbaric tribute +to plain manliness? Give me that rather than the snivel, the chicane, +the shake-you-by-the-hand and stab-you-in-the-gloaming, which passes by +the name of diplomacy, high diplomacy, I believe. + +The tradition of single combat went back into the very mists of time in +the Highlands; and merely the form varied. There was Cam-Ruadh, the +early red-haired man of tradition, who, fallen prisoner among a batch +of hostile "kern," or outlaws, was offered his liberty if he could make +so many good arrow-shots. He drew and drew, with much seeming +innocence, on the arrows of his captors, and wove a circle of stabs in +the ground about the target, but never did he hit it; oh, no! + +They jeered at him when he came to the last arrow possessed by the +company, saying he had better reserve it for himself and save them the +trouble of making an end to him. Instead, he sent it, as he could have +sent the others, straight into the middle of the target, and flew there +almost with it. Before the outlaws could realize the logic of events +he had gathered all the arrows under his arm, put one to the string of +the bow and cried, "I am Cam-Ruadh, who never misses, never before +until now, and you who are without arrows had better take leg-bail," +which they quickly did. + +Nearer in time was the duel of valiant Donald Oig with the chief of a +band of "broken men" who had a grudge against him. Donald was a famous +swordsman, and the chief had no active relish to try skill with him. +But, again, it was the custom of the country, and the invitation could +not be refused if the chiefship of the "broken men" was to be held, +because here was a test of both courage and honour. + +He was a slim fellow, however, this head raider, one with the false +doctrine, as ancient as human nature, that if you succeed it matters +little how. When, then, he and Donald Oig stood up to fight he +exclaimed, "Shake hands on it, first!" But he gripped the extended +right hand hard, intending, with it thus prisoned, to strike a foul +blow and close, in his own favour, a duel which had not begun. Swift +of instinct and eye, Donald saw this, caught out his dagger with his +left hand, and stabbed the foul fighter. The rest of the "broken men," +being witnesses of it all, had nothing to complain about, and Donald +went his way. + +While my thoughts wandered like that, and I ate and, from my pocket +flask, washed my dry eating down, the weather changed with a swiftness +familiar enough among the Scottish mountains. The heavens passed +behind a veil of drifting clouds, through which the sun flared in red, +angry bursts. The elements had declared hostilities, and when I looked +down into the valley, two thousand feet beneath me, I saw a great +thunderstorm on the march, the very panoply of havoc. + +It moved as if it were an army going to war, with scout-like horns +thrust out in front and on either side. These were constantly shot by +fangs from the mass of lightning in the clouds, themselves a hell of +angry colours, There was the inky black of the outer sheath, next a +seam of half-black, half-orange, then a depth of iridescence which +constantly changed its hues, and, finally, a molten pot boiling and +rolling in august wrath. + +Ah! it was a spectacle to watch, those thunder-clouds come through the +glack, or rift, dividing the falling hill on which I stood, from the +rising one beyond. Down in the valley ran a stream and a track used by +cattle-drovers, and, as my eye went there, I thought I saw a tall +figure. Certainly, for he looked up and, during a moment, we were both +silhouetted in the radiance of light which the thunder-clouds, now +massed into one huge bank, drove before it. If I saw that solitary +figure it was likely he would see me, as we were the only living things +in the landscape, and like turns to like, even making mutual +communication, although witchcraft was the word for that then, and the +mention of it dangerous. + +Presently the terrific cloud ate up the spot where I had seen the man, +for its base was in the valley and its top above my altitude. Never +had I beheld such a thunder-cloud, but it was awe, a worship of the +forces of Nature, which filled me, not fear. Why should I, a young, +healthy man, with good nerves, be afraid, since the excessive tumult +was below me, and I was a privileged spectator. Quickly, however, the +cloud must burst, and then the sluices of heaven would indeed be open. +How would it fare with myself and the figure lost in the valley? + +That thunderstorm and the consequent flood became events in our local +history, and to me a quick personal adventure. The rain came down, +first in a thick shower, then in torrents, finally in sheets. The fall +was so solid that it seemed to half-scotch the lightning and half-dull +the roar of the thunder. Actually, for I record truly, the drops leapt +up again in splashes as they struck the ground beside me, and in an +instant I was soaked, though that was no unusual experience in our +adventurous climate. + +The thunder-cloud had now taken command of the whole firmament, so +swiftly had its violence of contagion spread. Here, verily, was a +rainfall on a great scale, and as it settled to business a sort of +darkness spread over the land. I must seek shelter, and I would find +it on the levels rather than on the exposed heights. + +Therefore, I started for the valley, picking my way as best I could in +the black deluge. You will scarce believe me if I again tell you that +the rain-water ran down the hill-side with me, inches deep. It took +gravel and stones with it, and scoured away the bedding of large rocks +which, thus released, joined in the downward plunge. Some folk thought +it was the Flood of the Bible come again as prophesied, and, at all +events, the comparison gives a notion of it. The stream, which I had +seen an insignificant stripe below, met me, a roaring river. Its +waters had already overflowed the whole valley. Now you only saw the +tops of hillocks or trees, for all else was a gurgling waste of waters. + +Over those waters came a cry which caught me, even in my sorry plight, +because it was human. Wild birds, beaten to the ground by the storm +and then engulfed in the waters, were screeching as they drowned. +Hares and rabbits, and a fox, wherever he came from, all went past me +on a floating tree, and they were squealing for mercy, not from each +other, but from the elements. The other sound I had heard, however, +was quite different, and I listened for it again. + +Ah! there it was! And as I bent to the level of the flowing waters and +looked towards its source, I saw a man marooned on one of the hillocks +which the flood had left unsubmerged. Evidently he had seen me first, +for he was waving his hands and making signs with them. He was in keen +alarm about his predicament, but method governed his alarm, and it was +for me to discover it. + +Clearly he was a prisoner on the island, in so far that he could not +wade or swim through the roaring dam which divided us. Clearly, also, +the water was rising by miraculous draughts upon the rain, and soon his +refuge would be drowned, and he swept from it. What was to be done by +me to save him, for action must be rapid? + +He was beckoning up-stream with a meaning. Searching with my eye the +meeting-place of land and water, I saw what looked like a boat. Where +could it have come from? There had been an old broad-bottomed craft, +used for fording in spate times, on a pool a mile or so up the glen, +and the flood had brought it down and thrown it ashore. Could I get it +afloat, navigate it to the perishing man, and rescue him? + +No sooner said than done! Not at all; things don't happen so, at +least, when anything worth doing has to be done. It took me a toilsome +journey to the boat, and I found it half-full of flood-water. This I +emptied by hauling the boat, as the river rose, on to a shelving rock. +Then I waited for it to float free, having meanwhile got hold of a +long, fir sapling, which, pruned of its branches, I thought to use as a +guiding pole, helm or oar, as the rushing of many waters might demand. + +Thus equipped, out I sailed on that uncharted ocean with never a +thought in my head whether I should again see dry land or riot. The +darkness had deepened, but I could still distinguish the hillock and +the man thereon, now up to his waist in the waters, and for those +fading signs I steered. Quickly I was in the flood race, but I kept my +head, otherwise I should not have heard the voice come to me again in +what seemed to be the words, "Hurry! For God's sake, hurry!" + +Down-stream I rushed, here shoving from disaster against a tree trunk, +there avoiding a smash with something else. How it was all done I have +not the remotest notion--perhaps it was mere luck--but when I came +level with the hillock I was only three feet clear of it on the near +side. + +"Jump," I roared, and the man with outstretched arms jumped strongly, +and I felt a pull which almost upset me, for I had been standing in the +boat. Two hands had caught the gunwale, and the pull of dead weight +swung the heavy, clumsy craft round on a new course without, however, +upsetting it. This took us into shallower waters, and presently the +suction of the main surge got fainter and we were aground on the +moorland edge. + +I had not, in the dark, seen the face of my companion at all, and, +trailing beside the boat, he had no opportunity for making himself +known. I stepped out, knee-deep, to find him also a-foot, and seeking +the land. + +"Come on," I said, "whoever you may be." + +"Yes," he answered; "whoever you may be, you are a friend in need." + +I recognized his voice, and exclaimed, nay, shouted in my surprise, +"Jock Farquharson!" + +"Yes, Ian Gordon," he said in turn. "Would you rather not have saved +me?" + +"God's will be done," said I. + +"Amen!" said he. + +Dramas of life do end laconically, like that, as death often comes by +casual side-steps. + + + + +_XII--Raiders of the Dark_ + +A man does something in a natural way and it takes the world's ear and +is called heroism. Another man does a like thing, to all purpose, but +the world does not listen to it, or, anyhow, sings him no praises, all +of which we try to explain by saying "Luck." + +It is natural for a man to show courage in extremes, for a woman to be +loving, self-sacrificing. Every now and then the Great Bookkeeper +records an example for the common good; and the rest are a lost legion. +We do not know why, and if we did what good would it do us, though the +curiosity for knowledge is inbred, like inability, sometimes, to use it? + +News of my rescue of the Black Colonel from the flood got about, and I +was acclaimed as a hero of sorts. He, I fancy, for his own ends, +fathered a glowing account of what happened, and as it passed from +mouth to mouth it grew in glory. He meant to be grateful, and his +gratitude took that form. It was his airy way, for egotism, even when +it is not dislikeable, must ever carry its possessor into the picture. + +Perhaps he also thought to please me, and thus to win a point towards +his larger ends, for I knew they would, in no wise, be modified by what +had happened. By them, as he saw his case, he had to stand or fall, +and thus, in this reasoning, he had no choice at all. His bonds, in +that sense, were entwined with coming events, which do not necessarily +cast their shadows before, anyhow when they are events of the heart. + +Now, my secret hope for the Black Colonel, the inner prayer which I +hardly whispered to myself, was that he should escape his troubles as a +rebel, by going away to the foreign wars, and there make a new name. I +thought I might help him out of the country, even if it had to be at +the risk of my commission. He would be welcome wherever he found a +British camp across the sea, and no questions would be asked. Truly, +there would be need to ask none, because his repute as a fighting man +among the Jacobites had gone far and wide. By-and-by he could return, +when the feuds of Stuart and Guelph had died down to the dross they +were, though they had made a bloody toll, and sit in the home of his +fathers, not merely unmolested, but honoured by both sides. + +I am not going to pretend that my own inclinations were not behind this +plan, for they were. Why should I seek to hide them, even from the +Black Colonel himself; a hopeless thing to try, anyhow. He had one +scheme for getting back to the world, and it struck bitterly across my +path. I offered him another, which would attain his end, and if that +were so, why should he not take it and thank me? I was not +ill-disposed to him personally; certainly well enough disposed to help +him--to help me. When were we to make the reckoning? + +He was seeking to live up to his new pretensions as a head of a clan, +and he had to find the wherewithal on which to do it. The consequence +was that he used Red Murdo for taxing the country in the matter of his +necessaries. If somebody, early some morning while it was still dark, +awoke to ask the question: "Are you come to harry and spulzie my ha'?" +it would most likely be Red Murdo who gave an insolent answer. The +fellow, in fact, got swollen upon the little plunderings which his +master ordered, until he was hard to keep in hand. But this, again, +suited the Black Colonel, because, to push his claims, he found money +handy, there being always smaller fry of the other side of friendship, +who have hungry purses, or none at all. + +So Red Murdo, flown as he was with a lowly man's pride, which tends to +an unbalancing, must launch upon an expedition of no common sort. It +embellishes a ballad of which only two lines come to me as I write: + + "There's four-and-twenty milk-white nowt, twal o' them kye + In the woods of Glen-Tanner, it's there that they lie." + + +Beyond what the lines tell of a bold piece of rieving and spulzy by +Jock Farquharson's henchman, and done for him, I need not trouble to +instruct you, because the event only leads into our chronicle as by a +tributary wind. When there is a mystery, and you cannot fathom it by +direct evidence, you are driven back on motives. They are, in fact, +the nut and kernel of what lawyers call circumstantial evidence, a +fitting together of suspicions which have made the coffin of many an +honest Highland rebel. + +I sought to keep my soldiers as unseen as a not over-great distance +from Marget and her mother at the Dower House would permit. Naturally +the Hanoverian uniform was a sore sight for their eyes, and even a +personal grief, in that it recalled dear ones who had perished on the +losing side. My desire to spare them was known to my men, who, in the +same spirit, would often walk a mile round not to show themselves to +the desolated inmates of the Dower House. + +But it was essential, if anything unusual were to happen there, that we +should know, since it was part of our charge to protect Marget and her +mother from perils incidental to an unsettled country. Therefore, I +had a private understanding with an old retainer of the family that he +was to hasten to me, should protection at the Dower House ever be +necessary. + +This he was to do quietly, before giving any general alarm, as that +might not prove necessary, and also because I remembered an old +Highland wisdom, "Never cry fire, unless you want the heather to +catch." Its bearing, as you will grasp is on strifes and feuds set +alive, not on the actual burning of heather, which is done to let +grass, for the sheep beasts, grow without being choked. + +Well, on a night which I recall for its dense blackness, there came a +tap, tap, tap, three of them, slowly and distinctly, at the small +window of my room in the Castle. I knew by the method of the +disturbance that it was not an accident, but I was on my feet and +peering hard into the outer darkness before I realized that here was +the prearranged signal of danger at the Dower House. + +A hand moved close to the window, signalling me, and I motioned back, +though, on either side, all this was divined, as divination takes place +in the dark, rather than seen at all. I picked up my sword, which +always stood in a certain corner of my room, pulled the door gently +towards me and stepped softly out on to the grass, which grew close up +to the Castle walls. + +"Come ye, fast, Captain Gordon," quietly said a figure gliding beside +me, and without another word we made for the Dower House. When I felt +myself beyond ear-shot of the sentry, I asked: + +"What's happened--what's wrong?" + +"I'm no' exac'ly sure," was the old retainer's answer, "but men hae +been surroundin' the place, as if to attack it. They wakened me, bein' +a light sleeper, because they made sounds different fae' the ordinary. +It was like men crawlin' amon' the grass on a plan, and I slippit doon +for you." + +"What had we better do?" I asked formally, and not because I expected +any answer, for I had decided to get into the Dower House without +alarming anybody, if that could be done. + +We managed to open a window and step through it, but then the dogs +sleeping inside set up an alarm. This quickly awoke everybody, and the +confusion set affairs moving outside, where I heard a voice that seemed +familiarly like Red Murdo's cry hoarsely: + +"Lie close, lie close!" + +Presently Marget and her mother, who had both dressed hastily, came to +the stair-head, holding a glimmering light over the darkness beneath. +Behind them crowded their few scared domestics, and odd the whole scene +looked, although, indeed, between keeping off the barking dogs and +wondering what was to happen outside, I had no desire or time to study +it. + +"Who's there?" called Marget, in a not uncomposed but expectant voice, +and I answered, telling in a few words what I knew. Quick in thought +and action she thanked me for coming, and said she would just get her +cloak. She took her mother with her, but in a moment was back again +asking, "How can I be of service?" + +She carried a stout walking-stick, and I looked at it as she came down +the stairs to where I stood in the lobby, her mother following. "Yes," +she said, "my hand lighted on it somewhere, perhaps because it has been +through troubles and wars and is in the presence of more. Shall we say +that the fighting instinct, even in a stick, leaps to the call?" She +laughed quietly, but with a concerned note in the laugh, and I knew she +was thinking of her mother's safety and health, both threatened by this +strange incursion of ill-disposed men. + +Wishful as one would be at such a moment to magnify a trifle, in order, +if possible, to occupy an anxious woman's mind, I remarked, "Oh, a +stick can be a very sound weapon in a good hand." + +"It's about all that the orders of search and suppression have left us +Jacobites," remarked Marget; "openly confessed, anyhow, for I suppose +there may be a small, concealed arsenal or two, even among our Corgarff +hills." + +Nothing, apparently, had happened outside in those tense minutes, and +it was the strain of waiting which made us resolutely talk of +nothing--but a stick. There had been no further cry since the "Lie +close" already mentioned, and it, no doubt, had been a mischance on the +part of Red Murdo. All was silence and black without, and within all +quiet alarm, such as you get when a household suppresses itself in +obedience to some demand. + +It was an oppressive silence, this waiting, and I was glad to hear +Marget tap the floor with her sinewy hazel and say merrily, thinking to +lighten her mother's concern, "My grandfather insisted that a stick +with a nob was no stick for a Highland gentleman. It escaped, he would +say, when it was most needed, and that might, at times, leave the best +of Highland gentlemen by the wayside." Joking, under difficulties! + +She paused, for there arose a crack-cracking as of men coming closer +among the scrub of heather and fern which surrounded the Dower House, +only it was quite momentary. The stick which she had half-lifted, an +unconscious act of readiness for defence, tapped back on to the floor, +and my sword-point made a sharper rattle, though I was unaware that my +hand had even moved it. The tyranny of doing nothing began to be +intolerable and to insist on an issue, be it what it might. + +Think of the situation for me, and although I am, I hope, neither more +selfish nor more cowardly than other men, I could not help doing that. +Here was I, the chief and head of his Majesty's garrison at Corgarff +Castle, standing defence on the door-step of a Jacobite household. Why +was I there at all? What was I there to accomplish? How was I to do +this unknown something and return with composure to my quarters, secure +in my loyalty to King George and his ministers? + +Moreover, what had I come out for to see? A mere expedition of +burglary by a band of hungry caterans who took the chattels of friend +or foe indifferently? Possibly that was all. Then I could have +fetched half-a-dozen soldiers and apprehended those same footpads, or, +at all events, driven them to the hills again. But at the head of what +defensive force did I find myself? Why, a few domestics without +resource enough even to escape from the danger, a dear old lady who +anxiously wanted to mother the trouble about her, and a young woman of +nerve and resolve, my only stand-by. + +There, for it was a new discovery in our relationship, I realized that +to have Marget by me was a very welcome comradeship, and, somehow, so +natural, that it made the other things of no burden. I was curiously +happy, and could have left matters at that, but what to do, what to do? + +There must, in all of us, be an instinct for our keeping, when we are +in danger. Give it headway and you will probably win through, as a +thirsty horse knows how to reach a springwell among the hills. Argue +with it and it says, "Take your reasoned method, your road of the +better judgment, but don't blame me, your natural guardian, if you come +to harm." + +With this I got the strong intuition, possibly communicated to my mind +or heart by Marget's nearness, that here was no ordinary raid for +spoilage. Something else of a personal and intimate sort was behind, I +was sure of it, something to which acute danger attached for my dearest +wishes. + +When you are, in small authority, set over the people of a locality, +you are apt to develop a small official mind which obscures the power +of seeing, understanding, divining. Such an attitude, as I had +painfully seen in various parts of the Highlands, fretted the great +sore of defeat that lay upon the Jacobites, whereas the effort should +have been to heal it. My own mind I had tried to keep fresh and free +in all my relationships at Corgarff, impelled, may be, by a nature +which liked, possibly out of vanity, to give sympathy. From this and a +mute speaking with one near and dear, I now had my personal reward, for +I understood. Marget was the trophy sought in this dark raid, and she +was to be the Black Colonel's trophy. + +"Action, front!" I said to myself, in one of the drill-book commands. +Offence is always a soldier's best defence, although it is a sailor's +phrase, so I would go out and make a reconnaissance from the back of +the Dower House. This should cause the invaders to show themselves, +and might, if they thought the move stood for any force, even alarm +them into a quiet retreat, which, for several reasons, was what I most +desired. + +Quickly I told Marget of my intention, and the need for it, and asked +her to remain on guard where she was. She answered briskly, a woman +determined to be brave and not a burden, that nobody should enter the +place without feeling the weight of her grandfather's stick. She +added, and here came in the other woman, that I was not to be long +absent. This touched me sweetly, for it showed that Marget was +thinking less of her own safety, or, at the moment, even of her +mother's, than of mine in the night outside. Honestly, I went dancing +from her side with a wine of joy in me that I had never tasted, for she +had shown that I was something to her, perhaps more than something. I +might have been drunk, and if I had I could not have been more lost +than I was in the darkness behind the Dover House, because it instantly +swallowed me up. + +There is a darkness to which, after a little, the eye so accustoms +itself that it can see trees and rocks and even faces in contour. +There is another darkness which seals the eyes and numbs the mind and +even weights the feet as with lead. This was that night's darkness, so +pall-like that I was simply lost in it. + +Nevertheless, calling up all my sense of locality, and feeling the way +lightly with my bare, ready sword, I started to make a circle of the +Dower House. Ten, twenty, thirty, forty cautious steps, with my +sword-point probing the way, and it touched something soft and +yielding. That something a-sort of whimpered, as a dog caught poaching +would, or as a man might who felt a quick pain. A sword-prick stings, +and the something leapt erect and with a curse turned at me, when I +instinctively fell on guard. Another sword struck at mine, my blade +slid up this other, caught in the handle and wrenched it from the +unseen hand. The weapon fell among the bracken, but my man thought +more of getting away than of looking for it, so he doubled round a tree +and was gone. + +Evidently I had struck the investing circle, and I went on cautiously, +but never another figure did I perceive, though, before me, ran many +soft noises of as many retreats. Finally there was a suppressed rush +away, and with that I arrived at the front door of the Dower House to +hear a mother's cry of distress, "Marget, Marget! oh, Marget, Marget!" + +"Where is she?" said I anxiously. + +"She grew alarmed for you," answered her mother more anxiously, "and +went out, although I tried to keep her. Hardly had she gone when I +heard a smothered sob, and then there was a hustle of feet as if she +were being carried oft by force." + +There was a boding of ill in her cry, like a coronach, and the +domestics took it up in sympathy, as Highland women will. "Marget! +Marget! Mistress Marget!" rose the cry, and we became aware that all +the inmates of the castle were stirring to it. But never a response +came from Marget, never a token from the raiders, and it was forced on +me that she and they were both gone from us. + +We called on her, and searched for them until the dawn came, but only +found the sword which I had encountered, and I knew it as one the Black +Colonel had long worn, and then, when he himself got a better, that +with the "S" for "Stuart" on its handle, had given to Red Murdo. The +larger knowledge, brought by the dawn, was that the raiders had +vanished as secretly as they had come, and that they had, beyond doubt, +taken Marget with them. For though-- + + "We sought her baith by bower and ha', + The lady was not seen." + + + + +_XIII--The Wound of Absence_ + +You will probably know what it is to lose somebody who by physical +fragrance, the mystery of a common spirituality, or both, has become +essential to you. The wound is twice as bitter if, until the parting, +you were unaware how much that presence really meant. It is as if you +had come into a new world of your own and then found it vanish, before +you could take possession. + +I had no doubt, thanks to the hearing of his voice and the leaving +behind of his sword, that the raiders were headed by Red Murdo, the +Black Colonel's henchman. Actual light came during the morning, in the +form of a message by word of mouth: "I am a prisoner in the topmost +room of Lonach Tower, and Red Murdo and his men are camped below." + +When the Highland woman who brought it had said that, she melted away +again without taking bite or sup. She lived in the ruin of Lonach +Tower, and that was how Marget had been able to send her with the +message. She could not be too long absent, however, or she might be +missed by Red Murdo, whom, she said, she had left snoring out his lost +night's sleep. + +I found a Highlander who had engaged in relations with Red Murdo, +though their nature need not be mentioned, and who was anxious to score +them off for a settled life. Working on that, I told him to go to +Lonach Tower, where he would find Red Murdo, and say the Black Colonel +was waiting at a fold of the hills, which I named--waiting to hear how +the night's work had fared! That, as you will mark, was the nice +significance of the message, which I hoped would move Red Murdo and his +merry men--his master waited "to hear how the night's work had fared!" + +If the Black Colonel was behind the business it would seem a natural +message, nay, a command, and my messenger went off with it. When he +had gone, I picked out a dozen of our best soldiers, and, hinting the +mission, without explaining it, we followed at a distance. We halted +behind the last peak of the hill which looks down on Lonach Tower and +awaited events. + +We saw the receding Highland figure wend slowly towards the bare, lean +turret, and, when he reached it, my eyes lifted to its queer little +windows, seeking to look through them. They gave no sign of anybody +inside, and, indeed, the mullioning of time had so dimmed them that, +perhaps, the outside world could hardly be seen from within. + +My Highlander hammered at the one entrance door, and he had to hammer a +while before it opened to him. Then it only opened partly, as if the +guardian kept a shoulder to it, while he spoke the visitor. Next it +shut again, leaving my man outside, but evidently the colloquy had not +finished, for he waited. + +Ten minutes more and the door drew wide, as we could see, and Red Murdo +came out, his comrades with him, and there was more questioning of the +bringer of news. Evidently he played his part well, perhaps because, +knowing nothing of what lay behind, he simply stuck to the terms of his +delivery, for presently Red Murdo's party set off towards the +meeting-place I had named for them. + +Here was my time to act, and I only waited until the coast, or rather +the valley, was clear. When the tartans of Red Murdo's party had +fluttered out of sight, in obedience, as they fancied, to the commands +of their chief, I got my fellows quickly a-foot for Lonach Tower and +she who was a captive there. + +The heavy oaken, iron-clasped door had been locked by the departed +raiders, and no sign of any tenant within fluttered out to us. +Half-measures are no more useful in opening bolted doors, of which you +have not the key, than they are in accomplishing other difficult +things. So, finally, we put our collective weights against it, pushed +hard and steadily, and when the weather-worn bars and hinges gave way, +tumbled headlong into the old keep. + +Nobody was in the ground-room floor, nothing, except the untidiness +left by half-a-dozen rough men, and I mounted the narrow stair and +tried the room above. Again we had to use force, and when the door +flew inward I almost landed in the lap of Marget Forbes. There she +was, bound to a rough seat, in the middle of the room, with a cravat +tied round the lower part of her face, to keep her silent. Gently but +swiftly I undid the gag, and after that cut the rough tow which bound +her to the seat. Being thus freed, she told me, with an agitation +which I tried to still, what had happened just before we came and on +the previous night. + +Red Murdo, she said, when she could speak, had told her, with awkward +apologies, that he did not want to be unchivalrous but that he and his +men were called away for a little and that he must make siccar about +her custody, and no alarm giving, against his return. She had ceased +asking him why she had been forcibly abducted and what was intended for +her, because on that he would say nothing except, "You are quite safe, +my young lady, quite safe. We may be plain fellows, but we are +Highland men towards a woman, especially towards Mistress Marget Forbes +of Corgarff." "But how," I asked, for she had now somewhat recovered +her nerve and composure, and the agreeable surprise our arrival had +caused her, "how did you fall into their hands at the Dower House?" + +"Oh," said she, "that was simple. You went out to reconnoitre, and, +hearing in the stillness, words and a noise like a passage of swords, I +became anxious about you. Under this impulse I opened the front door +and stepped out a few yards when a Highland plaid fell round my head, +silencing me effectually before I could shout an alarm, and I was borne +swiftly away by two men. My astonishment was so great that I am not +sure if I attempted to resist until I was some distance from the Dower +House. Then two other men relieved my captors in carrying me, and by +stages, for I absolutely declined to walk a step, I was brought here +and placed in this room." + +"Where you have been unable to give any alarm?" + +"That you can see, and all I knew was that Red Murdo was the leader of +my captivity, because he grumbled about having been stabbed in the leg +and about losing his sword. 'What,' I asked, 'could he and his master, +the Black Colonel, want by spiriting me away?' But Red Murdo wouldn't +answer the question, and I haven't been able to answer it myself. +Somehow I have felt that no personal harm was intended me because my +captors, if not exactly friends, were not strangers, but men in some +relationship to our own people. Mostly I have been anxious for the +anxiety of my mother," and her eyes looked concern at me. + +"Well," I said, "we shall relieve that anxiety very soon now; you have +probably had enough of Lonach Tower, which, I notice, is sadly in need +of the repairer. Let us go home!" + +I said that last word out of my heart, and I thought Marget answered +with a gleam which comes into a woman's eyes only when her heart is +somewhere behind it. We went down the slender, creaky stair, the +soldiers following, and came to the door, where, if you please, we ran +slap into the Black Colonel, Red Murdo, and the other caterans. In the +unexpected lies drama, and here, indeed, was a dramatic confronting. +We stared at each other for a moment as if asking who was to speak +first, and, like himself, the Black Colonel managed to do it. + +"I heard only an hour ago," he said, "of a lady in distress in this old +house. I have come, at my best speed, to help her, as who would not, +when that lady is Mistress Marget Forbes." + +"Would it not have been better," I cut in, "if you had heard of her +distress before and come earlier to remedy it?" + +"Possibly," he answered, "but if I had been earlier, Captain Gordon, I +might not have met you here. So you see," he added challengingly, +"there are compensations, although these are things, as far as my +experience goes, with which we could often dispense." + +"Well," said I, "I have been able to render first aid to Mistress +Forbes, but it would be a satisfaction if you could explain to us how +she came to need it." + +"Explain! How can I explain?" + +"You have cultivated a name for gallantry, Colonel"--he bowed--"and it +would be gallant to a lady if you would say why Red Murdo invaded the +Dower House last night and carried its young mistress away?" + +"Did he, the villain? He did not tell me of that, when I ran into him +and his following this morning. He said he came to where we met, in +response to an order from me. There was no such order, though it is +true that I was keeping an open eye for Red Murdo, a habit I have when +I know he is abroad, lest he might have anything for me." + +By this time it was clear that the Black Colonel had commissioned Red +Murdo to kidnap Marget in order that he might rescue her, and, by the +act of so doing, advocate his plans towards her. He was denying it now +that he found in Lonach Tower not Marget alone and a captive, but +Marget with a good, stout bodyguard to look after her. + +She had not spoken so far, partly because she had not been directly +addressed, partly because, as I could see, she was in a hot fury with +the Black Colonel. But the strange fascination of the man was working +on her, as I could also see, and, woman-like, speak she would or die. + +"If," she demanded of him quietly, slowly, for she had herself in hand, +"you had anything special, even private to say to me, why did you not +come to the Dower House instead of sending your handy men to scare us +all and run off with me? Whatever you hoped to gain, that, you must +know, was not the way to gain it." + +The Black Colonel looked at her composedly for a moment and said, +"Mistress Marget, I am the last person in the world to think that any +form of duress would influence your actions. On the other hand, since +the opportunity has come, I make bold, even in the presence of Captain +Gordon and our respective followers, to say a word in frankness, out of +regard for you and your house. There are events pending which might go +far to re-establish your family, and you should know about them, not +merely indirectly but directly from me, who am deeply concerned in the +business." + +Marget blushed and flushed and glanced at me, as if asking me to +protect her from what was very like a manifesto for public knowledge, +thrust upon her when she could not help it. Her unconscious appeal +warmed my heart like the sun, but I held back, preferring she should +give the word which would, once and for all, put the Black Colonel in +his place. + +"By what right," she said with dignity, "do you address your proposals +to me as you have done? You have schemed them in an underground way. +Must you commit the affront of offering them to me in public, after +using force to bring me here?" + +"I have told you," broke in the Black Colonel, "what I know of Red +Murdo and his doings on this morning, and if you do not believe me, +why, I cannot help it. It may be that I had a plan for meeting you +face to face, but no plan like what has now emerged." + +"No," said I, intervening, "your plan was to find Marget alone in this +eerie place, to work on her woman's feelings, her anxiety for her +mother, her regard for her house, all that you might commit her with +the Crown authorities as assenting to the secret negotiations which you +are ripening." + +"Doesn't that reflection come oddly from an officer of the Crown," he +retorted, "because I have not heard you have resigned your commission? +You should leave it to us who are not honoured with service under the +foreign king, to flout his Majesty." + +"There are moments, Jock Farquharson," I hotly replied, "when one's +first duty is to be a man, and this is such a moment. I tell you if +you do not drop your persecution of this lady you will have to count on +a forthright quarrel with me." + +"A pretty speech, my Captain Gordon," he said, adding: "Pretty speeches +have a habit of coming from those whose tongues are their boldest +weapons." + +"You credit me," I said warmly, "with an accomplishment which I may or +may not have; you assail me for want of a quality which I beg you to +permit me to prove here and now." + +There was no mistaking that, and he and his men looked their +understanding. My feelings were what you can imagine, but I spoke +deliberately. Perhaps I realized the need for quiet resolution rather +than temper, which is ever too brittle a weapon to work well. As I +understood, the Black Colonel, having failed to get Marget into his +hands, with the object of mentally coercing her, now wanted to break +me, if he could, in her presence. There was no end to the man's +resource when the bad side of his character got going, and no measure +at which he would stick. + +His insult to me had been spoken in a voice loud enough to be heard by +everybody. He so meant it to be heard, but my reply, an instant +acceptance of his challenge, surprised him for a moment. He looked at +me, hesitating what to say, and I looked at him with a perfectly clear +purpose in my face. We both looked at Marget, at his Highlanders and +at my men, knowing that with all these for witness of what had +happened, more must follow. + +Deep down in my heart I felt relief, because I was sure that some day +we must fight out the odds between us, and when you come to that pass +with any man, it is best it should be settled. They say that delay is +fatal in love and deadly in war, and with me the two risks combined, +for mine was both a question of love and a question of war. + +"Is it elegant," the Black Colonel said in a purring voice of which I +knew the worth, "that two men who are kinsmen in a degree, should +fight, in the presence of a young lady who is a kinswoman?" + +"You should have thought of that before," I quickly retorted. + +"I agree with Captain Cordon," said Marget, interrupting us, "for I +come of a people who have never been afraid to see trouble through, and +I beg of you, Colonel Jock Farquharson, not to let me stand in the way. +Nay, if you will accept me, I shall be referee!" + +I bent my head to thank her for this, and he bowed in the over-polite +fashion which he had learned among the French. By this time our +respective followers, now taking a fight for granted, had lined +themselves up to watch it, one set of men in one row, the other set in +another, with space between them. A spirit of the love of combat for +combat's sake, shone in their expectant eyes and echoed in their +suppressed, excited talk. + +There had once been a small garden attached to the Tower of Lonach, but +it had been so overgrown with grass, and the grass had been so +industriously eaten by sheep and deer, that now it was a rough, hard +green, an entirely good place for swordsmen. On it, as the sun began +to dip behind the hills, we took our stand, with my sergeant for second +to me, while Red Murdo filled the same office towards the Black Colonel. + +Things had happened so swiftly that I had scarcely time to think, and +perhaps that was well, for thought never nerves you in such business as +I had before me. There was I confronted with one of the best swordsmen +in the Highlands, while I was--well, passably good. He was bigger, +stronger, a more heroic, more impressive figure altogether than I was, +and these pictorial attitudes count by the impression they make. I had +to rely on a cool head, a nimble wrist, and I must in no wise depart +from the style of fighting by which alone, as I well knew, I could hope +to hold my own. + +The Black Colonel would be sure, following the untutored Highland +manner, and keeping his French training in reserve, to attack +furiously, hoping so to destroy me at the beginning. My plan, based +upon the barracks and camp training of a regular soldier, was to parry +with him, to hold him off, to wear him down, and then, if I had the +luck, which Heaven give me, get a blow home. + +Marget, for all her courage, had walked over to a far corner of the +green, where, however, she could still see us, because my soldiers and +the Black Colonel's men stood aside to let her do that. Their common +instinct for a fight flamed while they waited, but I knew that there +would be no interference from either party of retainers, however things +fell out, and so I had no anxiety as to the quarrel going beyond the +Black Colonel and myself. All men of Highland degree were brought up +to believe that honest disputes could be settled better by combat than +anyhow else, and, indeed, they almost have a traditional reverence for +the broad-sword of their country. + +Nobody called on us to begin, but when the Black Colonel and I, our few +preparations made, had looked at each other for a minute from the +measured distance which divided us, we both advanced. As I had +expected, he came with a rush, and if it had not been for my sound +training in defence he might have smitten me at once. As it was, by a +turn which seemed new to him, I caught his sword under the point and +lifted it lightly upward into the empty air. He almost flew past me +with the motion which he had gathered, and we both had to face squarely +round in order that we might continue. + +This time, apparently, he meant to be more deliberate, thinking, +perhaps, that if he missed me again with one of his wild lunges, he +might meet the sting of my thrust. He played with me, and I responded +to his caution, so far as he could be cautious, in the same spirit. +Our swords were of equal length and about the same weight, but he had a +longer arm than I, as well as a stronger one. Still, I made up for +this, as he began to realize, by quicker work in what might be called +the smaller craft of fighting. I could be here and there and somewhere +else with my sword, while he was making a parry or a lunge or a level +stroke, for he tried everything. + +Now his sword ran safely under my left arm where I guided it, and the +point of mine caught the breast-high edge of his kilt, where the cloth +is closely plaited and therefore very resisting. My blade bent so that +if it had been other than the finest steel it might have snapped. Then +the grip in the cloth broke, the sword was free again, and we were +without hurt, only the battle was growing warm. + +Its contagion had agitated the men looking on, to a point where, +forgetting themselves, they began to shout encouragement to us +severally, the Black Colonel's men to him, mine to me. Red Murdo was +urgently demonstrative, and my sergeant, as he afterwards told me, kept +an eye on him lest he should be tempted to intervene. In the distance +Marget, as I saw momentarily, stood still and quiet, but there was a +fixed anxiety in her face, and the woman's horror of two men seeking to +take each other's life on her account! + +Now came the third bout, and knowing the limits of my strength I +determined to make it the last, if I could. The Black Colonel, it +encouraged me to notice, had also grown a little tired. His rush and +dash were less strong when he came at me, and I thought I caught in his +eye a new doubtfulness of success. He was famed for the quickness with +which he could finish a duel, and probably he had also decided to +settle this one at the third time of asking. + +We parried and thrust, sword to sword, and I was driven to give way a +few paces by the Colonel's onslaught. This led him to take risks, as I +had hoped he might. Let him tire out his sword arm with heavy lunges +and elaborate recoveries, while I kept myself on guard, and then, +perhaps, my turn would come, for getting him. It did come, but it +came, as most things come, in an unexpected fashion. + +Sweating like a man in a fever, with his eyes wild and savage, the +Black Colonel at last fairly flung himself on me. My face was also +streaming with perspiration, but my head remained cool, perhaps because +I felt that Marget was looking on. A warm heart and a cool head should +neighbour an ordeal, and, in that assailing of me, my maintenance of +this combination was everything. + +As he leapt forward, purposing to overwhelm me, the Black Colonel's +foot appeared to catch an uprising tuft that had been left unnibbled by +the sheep, possibly on account of the coarse toughness of its grass. +He lost his balance and shot heavily at me, holding his sword straight +out, as if to drive it through me. Here was my chance, for he could +not, in this act of falling, change the position of his weapon. I did +that for him by a mere touch, and it ran by me, near, it is true, but +without hurting me. Mine, on the other hand, pierced the muscle of the +Black Colonel's right arm, and instantly his sword fell from his hand, +rattling close to my foot. The blood spurted from him to the cry of +the onlookers, "Ah, he's ill hit," for he looked it, lying there on the +ground with a long, red gash in his arm. + +"No," he said, slowly rising, "I am not ill hurt, but I am hurt in a +measure which will keep me from fighting any more this afternoon. Here +I am with a useless right hand, and I have never learned to use the +left, so we must stop." + +By this time Marget had come up, offering to bind the Black Colonel's +wounded arm, and staunch the bleeding, a task which Red Murdo had +already begun, only his hands were clumsy at it. Marget made him take +off the strip of tartan which he was twisting tightly round the forearm +and put her linen handkerchief nearest the wound. This tender and +thoughtful attention seemed to soften the field of battle, and +presently I found myself picking up the Colonel's sword and returning +it to him. + +"Thank you," he said; "I can only carry it in my belt at present, but I +would not like to lose it, for it has proved you a better swordsman +than I had expected." + +Handsomely said, was it not? But we are always inclined to think a +compliment to ourselves fitting, especially when it comes from an enemy +as formidable as Jock Farquharson was. + +"I hope, sir," I answered without undue gravity, "that I have earned +the compliment and I accept it, as I accepted your challenge, without +reserve. Now, I suppose, our meeting is finished, and so we may each +go our own way. Mistress Forbes, will you allow me to see you home?" +and I turned towards her. + +She took my arm and we walked quietly from Lonach Tower and quietly +across the hills to the Dower House, neither of us saying much on the +way, possibly because our thoughts were not for the six soldier men who +strode behind us. + + + + +_XIV--The Cards of Love_ + +A man who serves the cause of a good woman is serving well, her and +himself, even if he only waits in the garden of the emotions. He is +probably helping that woman in subtle, beautiful ways, to be herself, +to realize the full majesty of her womanhood, which otherwise she might +miss. I had the highest wish to help the interests of Marget, and if +my heart beat an accompaniment, that was only another test of my +sincerity. + +There, perhaps, I have written as if I had grown sure of Marget, which +I had no right to be, which no man can ever be of any Marget, else +romance would perish. Typical of other youth and maid stories was +ours, a story without a beginning, a middle, or an apparent ending; a +sort of skein of hope and unspoken understanding such as links two +people, until they come closer or drift apart, ships that pass in the +night that should be the morning. + +When did we begin to care for each other, if that state of regard as +between us was to be assumed, because people do ask themselves such +questions, and if they do, why not admit it? When does a flower begin +to bloom? Who can tell? You see it, one unheralded high-noon, as if +it were just ready to burst beautifully upon its world. So it is, +still much depends on how the world is going to treat it. The flower +blows, if sunshine greets and warms it. But let the sky be grey, +sombre, leaden, and that flower cometh not to its full kingdom--cometh +not, she said. + +We had not spoken, Marget and I, to each other of love; we had not +called it by a name to each other; we had only felt and dreamt it. +Possibly, that is the natural course of a simple, true love, for it is +undemonstrative. It likes the half-lights of the dusk, to live in the +shadow of its silvery clouds, and to arrive round corners, if only that +it may have a safe way of escape, should it be frightened. Ever it +likes running away, and, better still, it likes being pursued! + +All this goes with one dark little story of my love for Marget, and I +would only tell it under the compulsion of a full-breasted honesty, +because I judge it to be sacred to her as well as to me. It was when I +first felt as if something hitherto unknown to me had come into my life +at Corgarff. I had seen Marget once, with interest, because she was +good to look upon, the second time with pleasure, because she seemed to +see me, the third time with a sense of awkwardness, as if a mysterious +contact had arisen between us. + +Words will not take me nearer to the uncanny, covetous feeling than +that, for they are bald, empty contrivances invented of this world and +not, like love itself, the fruit of the spirit world. But perhaps you +will understand, certainly if you have experienced yourself, and, +understanding so much, you will be able to follow what came next. + +Marget had been going somewhere, taking a mere walk, perhaps, and I had +said, "May I not come," and she said, "No, there is really no need," +and I did not go. + +Unknowing youth! I saw my condemnation in her eye as she went her path +resolutely, turning neither to the right nor to the left, a maiden +determined to give me a lesson in this; that love, even when it is only +dawning, loves to be assailed. That was a chapter of the spiritual +story which lay within the outer story of our doings in Corgarff. You +may say that it was a trifle, a thing not worth recalling, and that +would be true for everybody except Marget and myself, who knew better +then and confessed it to each other afterwards, because it was a first +flicker of realization. + +And, indeed, behind my marchings and counter-marchings around the grim +old Castle of Corgarff there lay a mystery of feeling nearer to me than +any call of arms could be. It was always present, the most potent +influence that can exercise a man, born of one woman and in love with +another. No doubt Marget and I shirked any admission, but it was in +our bearing towards each other, that whisper of the heart's throne +which calls and is answered. + +This feeling was my settled comfort now that a cloud of events, as I +assessed them, was hurrying the Black Colonel into a new necessity +towards his personal aims and so towards Marget and myself. The +"rough, raging, roaring, roystering, robustious rascal" side of him, +and the description is not mine but taken from an extant document, had +long been filling up. Presently it would overflow in happenings urgent +enough to sweep our pilgrimage along like a high wind on the high hills +of Corgarff. + +They began with a fall out between the Black Colonel and his Red Murdo, +some little time after the duel at Lonach. To get his injured but +recovered sword-arm in trim again the Colonel had taken to practising +on his man, also a sufficient swordsman, though always liable to make a +foul stroke. This time he had to defend himself from a sudden, +half-angry, half-playful, wholly energetic assault on the part of his +master, and that without a sword in hand. + +What do you think he did, this Red Murdo, when the Colonel's provoking +blade had positively pinked him in the leg, above the garter and drawn +blood? He picked up Jock Farquharson's pet dog, a wise and lively +Scots terrier, and flung it, a protection against further pinking, on +the sword-point, with the remark, "A good soldier never lacks a weapon." + +The Black Colonel was fondly attached to his dog, and its death, for it +died from the wound, upset him into other troubles. It is often the +way, when one thing goes wrong that many things go wrong, time getting +out of joint generally. Naturally, too, if we remember that life is a +delicate machine which a small first unbalancing will throw into +disorder, as take the Black Colonel in witness. + +It became necessary for him to "raise the wind," as he spoke of the +process, and to that end he sent Red Murdo on a foraging expedition. +This worthy, wishful to do the business with as little trouble as +possible, went after the first batch of cattle he could find. He +planned to get them away in the dark of night, have them at a safe +distance by morning, and then, at his leisure, drive them to a southern +market and bring back to the Black Colonel what he got for them, less +his own expenditure on victuals and drink, and the due entertaining of +other gentlemen of the same kidney, met on the road, because its +comradeship had to be justly handselled. + +Now, shrewdly, as a matter of precaution against raiders high, or kern +lowly, the owner of the grazing kine had put a white beast among them. +Consequently when he was wakened by a loud lowing and came forth to +find the reason, he saw that his cattle were being stolen away, for +there walked the white one, a guiding star to his eye. He followed the +drove quietly at a distance, summoning friends as he passed their +several homes, and when he had gathered recruits enough, and while it +was still dark, he set upon Red Murdo and his thieves, gave them the +heartiest beating you could fancy, and re-captured the cattle. + +This attempt to steal the kine was laid at the door of the Black +Colonel, rightly so, and when he heard of it and its failure he swore +at Red Murdo, saying he had lost all a henchman and provider's +artistry. He was one of those men, very numerous in the world, who +could ill-support a failure made by himself, and could not bear it at +all when another failed who was acting for him. + +"Why," he rated Red Murdo, "you can neither steal nor lie, as a +Highland gentleman's ghillie should. You would have me do those petty +things myself, and they are not for me, although, mayhap, I'd be equal +enough to them." + +Red Murdo answered nothing to his enraged chief, but perhaps made up +for his silence by some hard thinking. When a rebuke is taken silently +the wrath behind it is apt, in average human nature, to simmer out, but +the Black Colonel's black fire burned on. + +"Why," he roared, "didn't you think of an expedient to keep those +cattle, the white one and all, for very probably it was a beast to +fetch a good price? Where were your wits? You recollect when, for an +act which has since been counted brave, I had to fly with half-a-dozen +men on my heels, and how, coming to a mill, and nobody being there, I +put on the miller's dusty suit. I was asked by my pursuers, sure that +they had seen the man they pursued disappear into the mill a few +minutes before, 'Did any one enter here?' 'Only the miller is here,' I +told them, and, as it seemed so, they went their way, and, after a +while, I went mine." + +"But," said Red Murdo, "they wid na' hae believed me if I had sworn a +score o' oaths that I was the miller. I'm nae sae good at swearin' +untrooths as some folk you ken!" + +"Possibly," quoth the Colonel loftily. "To be believed one must, after +all, look one's words and you might find it a difficulty. But still a +ghillie of better strategy would have kept those cattle and, what is +worse, my friend, saved the suspicion which has fallen upon me." + +"Nae for the first time," Red Murdo shot at the Black Colonel. + +"It's not first times that matter," he retorted more quietly, being +pleased, in a manner, with Red Murdo's spirit; "it's last times that +count, and the need is to take care of them." + +Possibly the Black Colonel might have met his material troubles for a +while longer without having to fly from them, because he was full of +stratagems. But on the sentimental side he fell into an affair of much +sadness for a comely lady who, at her mid-age, should have known +better, though, indeed, the forties have their storms, like the sea +latitudes sailors call the "roaring forties." Delectable as detail +might be, and desirable to illumine what all befell, I must, for I am +no scandal-monger, be content to give you the romance and the tragedy +in three snatches of verse begotten by the same. + +First, you must make what you like of-- + + "She kept him till mornin', then bade him begane, + And showed him the road that he might na be ta'en." + + +Next, you have the news let loose, for-- + + "Word went to the kitchen + An' word went to the ha'." + + +Finally, when my lord of the lady rides home from a far journey and +hears that news, and meets her, he goes red, wud mad and-- + + "O bonnie, bonnie was her mouth + And cherry were her cheeks; + And cleir, cleir was her yellow hair + Whereon the reid blude dreips." + + +There the Black Colonel had found a tangle which he could not cut +through, and he sought a side-way out. How he discovered it he was +good enough to inform me, though I had no claim to his confidence, in +an epistle drafted in his best style, which reached me at Corgarff, +hard on the tidings of what had made the necessity for it. + +"To Captain Ian Gordon, for his privy knowledge only," it opened, and +it continued, in his usual, even manner, for, mind you, he had the +trick of writing, as well as the odd weakness towards it already +remarked on, all of which appears in what follows, so: + +"It may oblige your calculations that I have a proposal through proper +channels to go on a special mission to New France, where a state of war +now exists between the British and the French. Ordinarily I should +have hesitated to take a step which would remove me, even for a time, +from my most particular affairs here, these being familiar to you. + +"The offer is put to me, however, as part of earlier overtures in those +same affairs, and that recommends it. Moreover, there are urgent +private reasons, not here to be gone into, but perhaps to be j'aloused +by you, which favour an early change of air and scenery for yours +dutifully. Accordingly I am departing for North America by the first +government ship on to which I can be smuggled, that, as I grimly note, +being the elegant word used in a dispatch of instruction to my hand. + +"You cannot fail to be curious as to the nature of my mission, and I +shall inform you thereon so far as its delicate nature permits. I am +offered by Government--your Government--a free pardon for the past and +a captain's commission in Fraser's Regiment of Highlanders, now in +Canada with General Wolfe, if I succeed in the undertaking which is +this . . . but its delicacy tries my power of pen. + +"Briefly I, a proscribed Jacobite, am to depart from Scotland, find my +way to Canada, and offer my sword and service to the Marquis Montcalm +commanding his French Christian Majesty's troops for the defence of +Quebec. There I am to keep an open eye, and a close tongue, for all +and every information of possible use to General Wolfe, and transmit +the same to him personally, by what safe channels I can devise. He is +to be informed of my mission, and he alone, and that's all, though it +may be enough for you to digest, as it has been, I beg you to believe, +for me. + +"Will you, I pray, make my humble excuses to Mistress Marget Forbes and +her mother, and accept them for yourself, and you may rely upon hearing +from me oversea, because I have no intention to relinquish a shred of +my attachment to my native Highlands and the well-being of the name I +bear; whereof it is the purpose of this epistle to inform you, as +between one man of honour and another." + +News indeed, intensely personal, therefore intensely interesting news, +and I let it be known without delay at the Dower House, taking care, in +delicacy, not to seem curious as to the impression it made there. +Somewhat later I had intelligence of the actual sailing of the Black +Colonel for New France, across the Atlantic, with his inseparable Red +Murdo, whom, I was sure, the adventure would suit grandly, though he +probably would not be told its secret meaning. + +Then came a long silence, and I began to wonder whether the Black +Colonel had not, somewhere and somehow, been caught in the last kink of +his pre-destined hair-rope. While I wondered, off and on, in this +sense, and our small world of Corgarff drifted uneventfully on, a +much-worn, salt-sprayed letter reached me, and I recognized in it the +Black Colonel's writing. + +What account had he to give of himself? + + + + +_XV.--News from Somewhere_ + +"Quebec," the Black Colonel had written above the first sheet of his +letter and he had forgotten to put any date, so I was left to guess how +long it had taken to reach me. Nor did it bear any form of address to +myself, but just began abruptly, "I do not suppose you will be +specially glad to hear of me in this land of New France. There was, +however, an understanding that I should write you, and I am doing it by +a sure and confidential messenger." Then it went on as follows, for I +transcribe it fully, as is needful for the conveyance of its atmosphere +and even a certain quality of elegance natural to the writer: + +"No man is happy who has had disappointments like me, but, at least, I +survive and am usefully occupied. If I may say it, my not +inconsiderable fame in our native Highlands had gone ahead of me to +this country. That made it easy to secure service in one of the French +corps in Quebec, for I speak the language, as you know, with no undue +stranger accent, and it always brings me gay memories of hours in Old +France. + +"The regimental wages are not great, and they are not paid with exact +punctuality, because there are too many empty hands waiting between his +French Christian Majesty's coffers and his soldiers in Canada. But +that, to a man like myself who wants little of the so-called comforts +of life, and has, moreover, other sources, is no great hardship, and +there are comfortings, sometimes, in unexpected quarters. + +"The French, who know the art of romance, and how to spin it to the +last drop without getting to the dregs, have already peopled this new +land of theirs with colour, but I doubt me if it will last, which is +their affair, not mine, or yours. King Louis himself is indulgent to +the human colouring of his dominion, in that he sends out shipments of +wives from the Old Country for the French settlers. + +"Therefore they are called 'King's girls,' and being flowers of a +kingdom which has bloomed rarely with women, they are in much demand. +It is a joke, when a ship-load arrives, that the plumpest are married +first, and this, I gather, for two reasons: Being less active, it is +thought they will more readily stay at home, as honest married women +should, and, being well covered--not fat, oh no! not that--that they +will the better resist the icy cold of New France in the winter. For +myself they do not interest me, not on account of the reason which +drove my late Count Frontenac here, he having in the Old Country a +shrewish wife whose temper he could not bear, but because I have found +attractions more to my taste, of which you shall know something. + +"I may admit, with some assurance, that my luck in the regard of the +sweet sex, holds amid the altered conditions in which I find myself. +Those French women have not the freshness, and I am certain not the +innocence--you will admit me a judge on both counts--of my own +country-women in the Scots Highlands. But they have a wondrous charm, +a quality of attractiveness which is as deadly to a Highlander as if a +dirk slit his heart. I speak, you may think, in poetry numbers, but +you must do that, if, speaking of women, you would do them justice, +and, incidentally, yourself. We have all sorts and most conditions of +women, and the trade in laces and ribbons and the gew-gaws with which +they adorn themselves, is wonderful for so small a place as Quebec. No +sooner does a consignment of finery come in than it is snapped up, and +the men, too, are admirable dandies, ruffling it, some of them, as if +Louis Quatorze himself were here with his Court. + +"Now, only last night I was at the party of the Intendant Bigot, and a +gay crowd we were until the small hours of the morning grew again. His +Excellency, the Marquis Montcalm, has the Frenchman's natural love for +pleasure, but he is a serious, honest man who resolutely puts his duty +before it. Monsieur Vaudreuil is more the gentleman of pleasure, a +governor with a large token of the gallant in him, but for chicane, +knavery and devilry commend me to this fellow the Intendant Bigot. +They say he grows richer every day by robbing his gracious master, the +King, first, and the King's subjects next. I cannot speak with +authority of that, and it matters not, but I can tell you of what goes +on at his chateau, the Chateau Bigot, because, as I write, I am +scarcely cool from its doings. + +"There was Bigot himself as master of the revels, a short, stout, +awkward man of more than middle-age, who did not well become the part. +He is, I must add, coarse for my taste, and by his appearance you might +judge him capable of any venture in the getting of money. He would say +in his cynical, loud way that the end justifies the means, and with him +the end is Angélique des Meloises. She is probably going to be the +Delilah of New France, the woman who is shearing it of its upholding +strength, but she is fine. + +"Ah, ha! the name of Angélique is fresh to you, has no meaning, and I +see you halting and asking me to tell you more of her. But here she is +a household word--or, should it be, by-word?--and I, a stranger, am +counted fortunate in having come close to the rustle of her skirt. +That skirt, you can believe me, is in many fabrics, and ever of the +best, and, though I cannot confirm it, the other women of Quebec say +that no parcel of lace, or silk, or satin, freshly sent by Old France +to New France, is free of being tampered with by Bigot in the +pleasuring of his mistress. Without that news in your ear, you would +not, my friend, comprehend the Chateau Bigot. + +"Angélique was not the first flame with whom the old sinner has lit his +fires in Canada, for there was Caroline, the Algonquin maid, not to +mention others. Bigot, the story goes, had been hunting and, be it +conceded, he is, for a Frenchman, a sound shot, and had lost himself in +the wilds. Presently, while he pondered on his course, there appeared +a fascinating Indian girl, and he made her guide him to his chateau and +there kept her. The woman pays in such affairs, be she white, brown, +or black, all the complexions I have seen, and that Indian lass came to +a sad end, being found stark one morning in bed, with a knife through +her lissom body. + +"But that was Bigot of the Garden of Eden, the primitive savage of +passion who would have his apple without having to eat the punishment, +so far, anyhow, though, I suppose, the devil, who has seven-league +boots when he likes, will overtake him. If he were to do it now he +would find him engrossed in the smiles and, maybe, the caresses of +Angélique. I have, myself, pretended to be some judge of woman-folk, +and Angélique pleases me in divers manners. That is an admission I +would not mind making to herself, though, to be sure, I have found it +the silent gallantry towards women which reaps most harvest. She is, +by marriage, Madame Pean, wife of a creature whom Bigot uses, and she +is a note of lovely abandon which a man with half my insurgency would +like to pluck an' he could. + +"We have been introduced, Madame Angélique and I, for here all goes by +the most correct form on the surface. We have even drunk from the same +cup of wine, because she preferred me hers yester-night, saying, 'To +our gallant recruit Monsieur Inverey, and to his gallant nation, les +Ecossais.' Ah, the laughing witch! You should have seen the languor +in her eyes, the blushing red of her lips, the delicate contour of her +arm, as she raised her glass to me and then bade me empty it. + +"'Ah,' said I, bowing and taking it from her hand, against whose baby +pinkness the champagne sparkled; 'ah, it is good to see, chère Madame, +that you know the ceremony of the Loving Cup, and how, elegantly, to +express it.' My phrase of the Loving Cup took her, I saw, it and my +significance in using it, and her dark eyes, her pouting lips, and the +turn of her lovely head, all had a new meaning as, saying, 'To our Lady +Venus, in New France,' I emptied the glass and set it on the table +beside her. + +"We fell a-talking, Madame Angélique and I, and she was good enough to +praise my French, and I said that, alas! it was not sufficient to do +justice to her charms. She flushed with pleasure, and said archly that +she wished her husband, Monsieur Pean, or even her very good friend the +Intendant, would pay her like compliments. 'But,' she added, 'you +Scotsmen are so gallant and so truthful,' and in her sweet French the +token rang true. With it she raised her eyebrows, expecting me to +confirm her raillery, which I did, for I said, 'Madame, truth is the +only gallantry that tells twice, and so I am content to employ it, for +I hope we are to be friends.' + +"It was a bold measure to take, but Madame Angélique, I judged, with +her on-coming air, was precisely the woman who would respond to bold +measures. She is none of your woo-me-slowly ladies, her bosom, as it +rose and fell in her French laces, being eloquent of that. She is a +singularly fine animal to whom Providence has, by an unusual +generosity, given a soul, though mostly, maybe, it hides in the silken +dalliance which is the note of Angélique. + +"You will perceive, my old friend and, I hope, old enemy, that I +present to you a whole bouquet of charms: beauty of form, the radiance +of a personality, and brains with an edge to flatter or flout. Very +rarely does Providence dower so many graces to one woman, but they are +all in Madame Angélique. Moreover, she has the subtlest of sex +strategy, for in greeting me she made a stumble with her lace petticoat +so that I might catch the daintiness of her foot and ankle. She also +has the swiftest, as well as the softest of glances, and I felt it +travel from my brogues to my head, approving the journey, I fancied. + +"I have been particular about Madame Angélique because she is a woman +in a thousand, this frail beauty of New France, its Madame de Pompadour +in brilliance, however the comparison may hold in virtue, and because, +if I prosper at all in the friendship, I hope to hear from her the +inner news of events here which, by its usefulness to General Wolfe, is +to lead me far in my home desires. When I left Scotland I had a sore +heart, for truly it fills that heart, but you will gather that I have +found a fresh land which also has its milk and honey. + +"How much of them shall I sip? That's the gamble, and time will tell, +but it is a great gamble in which I am enlisted, and, by my faith, I +like a gamble. It stirs the blood in me, makes it run as it ran when I +made love to my first sweetheart, and a strapping lass she was, though, +alas! I have almost forgotten her very existence. Poor Carrie! I +wonder, I wonder, but hi, ho! what use to ask of the flowers of +yesterday, where are they? + +"Only, my dear Captain Gordon, I wish I could have taken you with me +last evening to that romp at the Chateau Bigot. Yes, I remember, your +tastes are different from my own--less elastic, shall we say?--and you +might not have come. Well, set love and gambling and sport, all done +with abandon, in a choice, beflowered fold of this New France country +and you may realize what you have missed and I have seen. + +"Revelry! That is not the word for the night, and it took all the +seriousness in me to recall that I had other interests among the +revellers besides theirs. My elegance in our Highland dress, for to be +sure I wore it, cost me many a temptation, and if Madame Angélique, +late in the evening, had gone a minute longer with her whimsical +measurings of my leg where it garters, why, sir, I should have made a +fool of myself. But she merely said she wanted to test whether I was +not modelled to perfection for dancing the Highland dances, and +wouldn't I oblige her and the company? + +"Monsieur Bigot, lolling in a chair, beslippered, be-hosed in the +fatness of his limbs, be-waistcoated round his windy paunch, wearing +velvet knee-breeches and a plum-coloured coat, what should he do, for +his ears miss little, but catch this remark and, wishing, I suppose, to +keep me from any further impressing of Madame Angélique, he cried, +'Surely, surely, let us have a Scottish dance from our gallant friend, +Comte Farquharfils!' + +"He ennobled me in one breath, and in the next made French of the +ancient surname I bear, but that was of no consequence, and his cry was +taken up instantly by his guests: 'Beautiful ladies and gallant +gentlemen,' he went on, 'the Chevalier Ecossais--more ennobling of +me!--will entertain us with a dance of his native country!' + +"For a moment I was abashed with confusion, yes, sir, believe it or +not, because this was a thing which had not come into my plans. But I +have not lived for ten years by my wits and my sword without learning +to make rapid resolutions, and I decided to dance, not alone! The +gallants and the ladies had now formed a circle, and I said very +quietly, 'I am honoured, Monsieur L'Intendant, and your desire will be +to me a pleasure, if Madame will permit.' + +"A glance of curious inquiry went round the circle as I looked at +Madame Angélique, a radiant and bewitching picture, standing at the end +of the room, eager to see the Scottish dance for which she had made +measurements--yes, yes! Perhaps some of the company had penetrated the +real purpose of Monsieur Bigot's interference as being what I have +said, and in that case they saw a challenge in my acceptance of his +invitation. + +"But he was prompt to the occasion, for he said in his lordliest +fashion, 'Madame, I am sure, will be happy to permit,' and he bowed to +Angélique, who, in turn, bowed to me her gracious permission for a +dance Eccosais. Neither had counted on what was to happen, for I +quietly walked over to her, invited her to take my arm, and, while +every one wondered, led her into the middle of the room. I did this +amid a buzz of surprise, and I heard one gallant say, 'Parbleu, this +Scotsman asked the lady's patronage and takes herself.' Neatly put, I +thought, and the French mind is neat, as well as swift. + +"The music struck up as I passed my right hand about the responding +waist of Madame and lifted her elegance through a Highland round-dance. +There was no need to lift her through it a second time, because the god +of dancing was in that woman's feet, and between us we fairly wove +poetry on the polished floor. Never, after the first moment, was there +such a partner as Angélique; never, perhaps, if I may be allowed the +conceit, such a pair of partners, a picture, my friend, a picture! + +"As we warmed to the dance we lost all sense of an audience, and only +drank the intoxication of the music. At first there had been a cold +silence around us, but we infected it with our own sultry spirit and +melted it. 'Bravo!' shouted the Frenchmen, and 'Divine!' said the +ladies, and I took the praise of the women and Madame Angélique the +praise of the men, a fair division, pleasing to us both. + +"Monsieur Bigot alone remained aloof from praise, and as we turned once +very close to him--so close that he wilted in the hot draught made by +our wrapt figures--I saw a hard look come into his eyes and a hard +expression cross his coarse mouth. When we finished at last and I had +conducted Madame Angélique to a chair and thanked her, a huzza rang to +the roof, but the Intendant took no part in it. He did, however, +approach me with what others thought to be words of congratulation, +only you shall judge when I repeat them. + +"'You dance like the devil himself,' were his words, 'but you had +better not dance again with Madame Angélique or you may find yourself +in the devil's company. We have other uses in Quebec for you than +this, and your native Scottish wisdom will convince you of it without +more ado.' + +"Well, the thing was done, the harm or good of it, for one cannot +always act with deliberation, and never, I should say, when Madame +Angélique beckons, for she is a witch incarnate. Rarely is it any use +revising what has been done, and, frankly, I would not have missed that +dance even if it were to have cost me my head. At the moment I am not +sure whether or not it has cost me my heart; temporarily, shall I say, +keeping on the safe side of truth? + +"Anyhow, my dear Captain Ian Gordon, you will be made aware by these +greetings, should they reach you in the goodness of time, and the +friend who carries them, that I am having an experience which agrees +with me, and so I sign myself with the more heartiness, + +"Your very faithful + "JOCK FARQUHARSON OF INVEREY." + + + + +_XVI--The Wooin' O't!_ + +There are two kinds of people who make a difference in our lives when +they leave us: those we like and who like us, and those we do not like +and who dislike us, for that is one way in which the world wags. + +We feel, in the first case, a quick sadness, we dwell on happy +memories, now tinted to a soft melancholy, and we ask ourselves, "Have +we been all to them we could have been, and they the most to us?" + +Our feeling in the second case is one of relief, coupled with the +passing of an influence which, if not sympathetic, may yet have been a +stimulus to us. Something that has been roused in our nature, goes +back into its hidden place with the cause which unhappily called it +out, rivalry, perhaps. It is a whip that may carry you to the top of a +hill when otherwise, tempted by a warm sun and a soft wind, you might +recline on a half-way bank of heather. Ah! it is good to day-dream at +the sun, our Highland sun, which plays hide-and-seek with the sailing +clouds. + +But, may be, the incomplete parting is the best, that which has many +things unsaid, silences which are not silent; because it leaves room +for the imagination, lets us gild the picture in the roses of hope. + +The going of the Black Colonel had meant a difference for myself +certainly, and also, I could suppose, for Marget and her mother. But +it was a mixture of the two feelings which I have suggested, because, +in a fashion, I had a regard for the man, as well as something else, +and to the ladies of the Dower House he was both the kinsman and the +venturer who wanted to be more. I admired his manly qualities and was +willing to clothe the others in a veil, as long as he did not make that +impossible. They had the bond of family with him, a quiet pride in his +championage of the Stuart side, which had been theirs, and, well, they +wished no more of him. But what, perhaps, we mostly felt, Marget and +I, without daring for a moment to confess as much, was that some +element which kept us apart, and might, unhappily, even divide us, had +passed across the sea to the New World with the Black Colonel. + +We began unconsciously, and then, I suspect, noticeably, to grow +closer, to live the vital little things of life nearer to each other, +as it this were natural. That, perhaps, is the most critical period in +the mating of two young people, as you may learn from the delicate +nurturing of Mother Nature herself in the spring-time, when the earth +grows warm. They are so in the thrill of emotion, that they have no +thought for the building of the permanent house of the spirit in which +they are to dwell. But it goes forward about them and otherwise the +prospect would be bleak for them, sad for them, and sadness should not +come to lovers in the honeymoon of their hopes. + +"I suppose," Marget said to me one evening while we chatted in the +Dower House and her mother, tempted by the long summer light of the +north, read in the garden, "I suppose you really have nothing to do now +that the Black Colonel is gone, and his disturbance--for you--with him." + +"Oh," answered I, "there are still things to do, things, some of them, +which I don't like, as my military superiors down there in Aberdeen +town may be suspecting, for only last week, you know, they sent up a +troop of horse to make a special search of Corgarff for any hidden +Jacobite powder and shot. What happened you also know. Our friends of +your Stuart faith heard of this expedition long before it arrived, +filled their knapsacks with bannocks, and went to the hills. The +troopers came, found, by persistent search in deserted homes, a few +barrels of Spanish powder, some hundreds of bullets and a broken +cannon, and threw them all into the Water of Don. It was not very +exciting, especially to me, because it was a kind of censure; but +nothing worse happened than the breaking of a drunken trooper's neck, +by a fall from his horse. Here was one more way of death, not a pretty +way, for the man's commanding officer said jocosely, 'The idiot, he +must have come upon bad drink in his searches, and a bad woman is less +dangerous.'" + +"Your statement," said Marget, "is, I see, a confidential apology to me +for the ongoings of those set over us and you! I hope you don't spend +too many hours in reflections as unprofitable as the subject of these," +and she made, with this advice, to be a very serious young woman. + +"What," I asked, "would you have me do with my spare time?" + +"I'm afraid I don't know." + +"Well, if you don't, who does?" + +"I think I see a compliment in what you say, but I'm not quite sure." + +"It's against rules, isn't it, to repeat a compliment? It would be no +compliment then." + +"The more need to make it clear at first." + +"I thought I had." + +"Men think such a lot of things which are too unsubtle, too clumsy, for +a woman to comprehend. Yes, it is so." + +"Men--myself--the Black Colonel?" + +"He is far away; why bring him back?" + +"Only because it may concern you, and anything which concerns you . . . +is not to be spoken." + +"It is more interesting to speculate on what might have happened if he +had stayed, instead of running from his guns--no, I mean to his guns, +for he was no coward. Discount a good deal from him and he remains a +taking man. It flatters any woman to be coveted by a man of parts, +good or bad. She likes the homage thus implied, and if she did not she +would be no woman. She says to herself, 'What a pity that man should +be in love with me because I would not have him at all.' With her next +breath she says, 'A resolute lover, something like a lover, a great +lover.'" + +"The unconventional lover--and more," said I; "that's it, all down +time, the primitive trait of sex, he who can lift a woman out of her +groove into a surprise." + +"Well," said Marget, "the Black Colonel has the right blood for an +unconventional lover. You cannot make a Farquharson respectable by +force, and I'm not sure about the Gordons!" + +She looked at me with amusement in one eye and the rebel woman in the +other and I laughed, and that was all. No; not all. + +Such talks between Marget and myself may have seemed to lead nowhere, +but actually they did. The unspoken side of them was full of those +secrets which cannot be put into language, because they would perish in +the effort. What is spoken may be good, but what is unspoken in love +is still better. Behind the word, there hides the speech of the soul. +You say one thing, and with the eye mean another, or you say it in a +fashion only intelligible to a particular person. There is a +telegraphy of souls, as well as of hearts and minds, and the lesson is +never to believe your ears. + +Things came to be understood between myself and Marget, and the Black +Colonel had a part in this, far away as he had taken himself and his +troubles. He was not out of the picture, because he might return to +it, but we could paint him in or out as we liked, and that left us +canvas room. One day he was returning to set us all by the heels +again; another day he was gone, to return no more, leaving us to +fashion our own lives, as we were doing. + +"Marget," I asked, "suppose the Colonel comes back, is he to find us +just as he left us?" + +"Not very friendly--or more friendly?" she replied vaguely, teasingly. +And then a little anxiously, as I thought, "Did you and the Black +Colonel make any bargain about our old Forbes property which need ever +call him back?" + +"Dear me, no! But if it would give you pleasure to see him again soon, +why, let us pray for his coming." + +Marget was hurt at this, for she said, "I was only wondering whether +the Black Colonel will renew the quest here, if he does not reach his +ends through the New France venture." + +That question was to be answered by a last long epistle from him, which +came to me about this time, and which tells his further part in our +story, a wandering story, like Jock Farquharson. + + + + +_XVII---A Song of Other Shores_ + +"Quebec, North America. + +My Worthy Kinsman, + +"You have not written me in reply to a previous letter of mine, nor did +I expect you would, but I hope you have not lost all interest in my +fortunes, and I make sure that the great events which have happened +here, in New France, must interest you, when told with some +particularity by me. + +"You will be well aware, before this reaches you, that the +_fleur-de-lys_ of his Christian Majesty, King Louis, no longer flies +over the citadel of Quebec, and that in its place there blows the flag +of His Britannic Majesty--whom God bless, I suppose! But of how all +this happened you will only have general intelligence, and none about +my own fortunate part in it. + +"Well, it was not mere fortune, because I did exert myself strenuously +to discharge the mission confided to me, and General Wolfe said +privily, before he marched to a glorious victory and a glorious death, +that I had succeeded beyond his expectation. But I should tell you +that I had necessary audiences of him more than once, while I served +with the French in Quebec, and these we managed with perfect secrecy, +thanks to methods which I may not disclose, except that the high esteem +felt by the French for the Black Colonel, and their faith in his +honour, alone made them possible. + +"Saying so much of General Wolfe, I wish to set down my own monument to +his evident high parts as a soldier and a man. I found him modest in +demeanour, graceful of manner, reasonable in attitude, altogether a +gallant gentleman. He was simple and to the point, and when he had +finished with you he dispatched you courteously, pleased with him and +with yourself. + +"His excellency, the Marquis Montcalm, who also did me the honour of +various conversations, and who likewise fell gloriously, had qualities +not dissimilar. He was a French gentleman with the grand manner, +meaning he carried his air so quietly that you hardly knew its +presence, except by feeling it. I will further say, in token to his +attributes, that he was of a moral stature in whose presence I felt +ashamed of my secret trade, a trade which a man can only follow once in +a life time, and then because he must. + +"Perhaps you will scarce believe that several times my tongue was +bubbling to deliver all to his knowledge, and to throw myself on his +mercy. His very trustfulness made that impossible, because in each of +us there is a natural refusal to destroy confidence, wherever we find +it. That would be uprooting a plant which does not grow strongly +enough anywhere, and I, for one, love to cultivate it. 'So, so,' I +hear you say, my friend! + +"Certainly at times I wished that my Lord Montcalm would treat me with +less consideration and not ask me questions about the British invading +forces, because I gathered information from those questions, and, in +truth, here was the basis of much I imparted to General Wolfe. He +asked, did Monsieur Montcalm, in some detail, about the Highlanders of +Fraser's Regiment, and said that, far away as he had seen them from the +ramparts, they appeared so picturesque in their tartans as to be hardly +associable with the even, undeviating, outward English character. + +"I answered that there were greater similarities between the +Highlanders of Scotland and the French than between those same +Highlanders and the English, both having Celtic blood in them, and that +this resulted in a natural brotherhood which even the hazards of war +could not disturb, or only temporarily. Nay, I said once to his +excellency that we Jacobites still look more over the water to France +and to our Stuart King than we look, or ever may look, over the +Scottish border to England. + +"You will mark how I sprawl between my native land and this New France, +as it was termed until the other month. A man's heart can be in many +places, a woman's only in one, and my affections, I confess, have +mostly been a divided allegiance. They have gone out and come home +again, and now, thanks to my prosperity here, they have a tendency to +abide where my epistle finds me. For there is grateful comfort in +Quebec, and a freshness glad to experience, and the society remains +merry, though the _fleur-de-lys_ has perished for ever. All the French +women here in Quebec did not see, in its changed governors, a burial +for the living, and some of them said, 'It is destiny; let us make the +best of things.' + +"But I anticipate events, and that would be to miss their drama and my +own little share in them, a share with which, in the result, I am +satisfied, although I could sincerely have wished the ways and means to +be more aboveboard. However, you cannot remain the complete gentleman +and make history, and my justification lies in this signal fact: that I +inspired and counselled General Wolfe to his scaling of the cliffs at +the one place where that was possible, a matter on which I beg you will +see that right credit and justice be done towards Jock Farquharson of +Inverey, commonly called the Black Colonel. He and I alone knew +beforehand where exactly the escalade was to be, and it was a singular +joy to share a large, potential secret with another able to make it +good, as General Wolfe most handsomely did, though, once being shown +how, no great difficulty remained. + +"When, in the hurry of Quebec that fated morning, I heard Fraser's +Highlanders had climbed the cliffs, swinging from foothold to foothold +like the wild cats of their native mountains, I said to myself, 'This +is, indeed, my venture, and it is fitting my own people should carry it +out.' But how odd it is that two Highland threads should come together +in such a fashion, only we Celts have been destined to weave many of +the red warps of story. I had knowledge of the part my kinsmen were to +play in the bloody gamble between General Wolfe and the Marquis +Montcalm, and, without desiring to appear on the field of battle, which +was no part of my diplomacy and not hard, with my privileges from the +French, to avoid, I sought an elevation where I could behold the kilted +Frasers drawn up in battle array. + +"My certes, they made a brave picture, with the sun shining on the +colours of their kilts and the cool Canadian breeze waving them as in a +rhythm of martial motion. Ah! the heart aye warms to the tartan, and I +could have given my soul, if it be left me, which I must hope, to stand +in front of that red and green line, an officer of the Fraser's, as I +have now become, by virtue of the successful completion of my contract. +They awaited orders with impatience, for the headlong charge has ever +been the natural form of battle with Highlanders, only the appearance +of General Wolfe, fearlessly wearing a new, conspicuous uniform, and +the entire confidence of his step forward and backward while history +boiled in the pot, held them in like a rein. + +"It was the French who joined battle first, making some confusion among +themselves as they did so, because their several units fired +differently. This wasted and scattered their salvoes, but they +advanced gallantly to within forty yards of the British lines. Then +General Wolfe ordered 'Fire!' and before its solid stroke the French +reeled like trees stricken by lightning. Swiftly, then, the +Highlanders leapt forward with bayonets gleaming, and in what I say of +them--my own people--I say of the British army as a whole: it caught +the French before they could reform, and thus the issue was already +decided. + +"Now here was a change on the message, my Comte Frontenac, in earlier +years, returned to a British admiral who demanded his surrender. 'The +only answer,' he swore, 'I will give will be from the mouth of my +cannon and musketry, that he may learn that it is not in such a style +that a man of my rank may be summoned.' It was a change, too, from the +ill-success of General Wolfe's assault on Montmorency, over beside the +little river falling into the big one, where the very elements were +unfavourable. + +"Montcalm won then, very fairly won, for his fire upon the British was +of a nature which none could overcome. Monsieur Vaudreuil, the +Governor, who, like the Intendant Bigot, had an eternal desire to reap +where he had not sown, was so patronizing as to say after the +Montmorency fight, 'I have no more anxiety about Quebec. Monsieur +Wolfe, I am sure, will make no progress.' 'La, la,' as Madame +Angélique would say when she teases me, what a poor prophet was his +excellency Vaudreuil, but, indeed, prophecy has a trick of falling into +incapable hands and I, being, I trust, capable, have rarely tried it. + +"You needed my broad account of events in Quebec to do me justice, and +that is why I have lingered over it. I have given you hints enough for +the proper fitting of me into those events, as when, most casually, I +hope, I mentioned my advising of General Wolfe precisely where to make +his ascent to the Plains of Abraham. However, there are small personal +items you cannot know, without they are told you, and very chiefly that +refers to the ingenuity with which, my mission, as compacted, being +done, I passed from the ranks of the vanquished French to those of the +conquering British, where I had been expected. + +"There was such confusion everywhere, such a tearing up of things, that +I could do what I wished, and have it go unchallenged. Moreover, there +was a want of bitterness between the contending parties, for one +reason, possibly, because the deaths of Wolfe and Montcalm had softened +enmity: and nobody has yet hurled the words 'traitor,' 'spy,' at me, +and I feel I am not truly open to them, my task having been that of an +intelligence officer on the highest scale. As much is recognized in +the affability which I have continued to find among the French since +the close of the siege, but they are by nature surprisingly agreeable, +as I would wish, with my heart to subscribe. + +"Why, man, and this will make you curious, if envy there be in you, +young French ladies take pains and pleasure to teach British officers +French, with what view I know not, if it be not to hear themselves +praised, flattered and courted, without loss of time. To praise comes +natural to me, to flatter is not amiss, and, as to courting, I judge +you have always appreciated that in me. You may have doubted me in +some respects; you had no doubts I fancy, in that particular. + +"This quality of mine--I claim it a quality--has made me take, with +growing kindness, to where I am, and the idea of coming home again, +when it arises in my mind, I rather put aside. My natural dream is +that I shall return, but mostly I am content to play with the fancy, to +catch it up, put it aside, and again catch it up, and once more let it +rest. + +"There I am backed by the circumstance that I have no tidings whatever +touching my plans, as declared to you, in regard to Corgarff, and I +suppose that your thankless rulers have forgotten me. They were +willing to use me as a pacifier, and when that did not promise an +immediate result they found me of use in the war of New France. This +service being completed, faithfully, honourably, I dare aver, and to +the very letter of the bargain, I am, I repeat, for much I repeat, +given my commission in Fraser's Highlanders. But, of a settlement in +the larger spirit which the inclusion of Corgarff would have implied, I +have no intelligence, and it is conceivable that I may get none. + +"Therefore I may remain at Quebec with the Fraser Highlanders so long +as they continue here, and, when they go hence, still remain as an +independent gentleman, provided I were, by happy chance, shall I say? +to find genial companionship. I am not old, not of the sort ever to +grow actually old, but the excursions of life have wearied me, and I +begin to sigh for a permanent holding ground, the anchorage of rest +which should come to us all. + +"That desire, if I may make you a great confidence, would satisfy +itself in a woman of the qualities of Mistress Marget Forbes. I do no +more than quote her because she is known to us both, and therefore she +makes clear the exact shade of my meaning. But I imply no freedom with +her name, except what the honouring of it carries, and if any man +implied anything more she would know how to answer him. She has, I +will say, the tang of the Forbes blood full in her, and I have always +thought it warmer in its flow of both love and pride than the Gordon +blood, although of that you should be a better judge than I am. + +"One needs a wife of parts if one is, as I hope, to found a new clan in +a new country, for, mind you, many of the Fraser Highlanders, when they +end their period of enrolment, will prefer to settle in this lush, +virgin country where the days go by like a dream. They will sit down +on the untilled lands, and out of them find a competence of food and +raiment, and they will marry French women who are buxom and healthy and +will be good wives and mothers. + +"Granted all this, and it follows that there will be materials for a +new house of Inverey in some valley by the River Saint Lawrence, where +the Red Man at present reigns in indolence. He who can sit on a knoll +for an hour and let old Mother Earth spin her tune to the fathering +sun, is ever a friend of mine. But the Red Man carries the pastime +beyond me, unless when he is on the warpath, and then he is a devil. +It would give me no compunction to reign with a hundred or more Fraser +Highlanders, in a strath from which the Red Man has to be persuaded +away, or driven by force. Perhaps I could even hold out a helping +invitation to smaller 'broken men' still in the Aberdeenshire Highlands +or elsewhere in dear Scotland, and that would please my self-importance. + +"I renounce nothing, give up no legitimate claim that I have put +forward for hand or land in our native country, but I see that I am +come to leaving them unclaimed. Madame Angélique, to whom, mayhap, I +have confided those consolations and aspirations, and who has a comely +sense as well as comely looks, says very properly that changed +circumstances carry other changes, and that even a Highland gentleman +may recognize as much without loss of self-respect. + +"Madame has, in the crash which sank Bigot's fortunes, come to plain +faring, but I have made no difference in my friendship to her, and she, +I feel, has increased hers towards me. She tells me she has no clamant +ties left in Old France, any more than in New France, where the lustre +of her powerful French friends has set, and my heart goes out to her in +sympathy, and, I know not what more, except that she is a very fine +woman and would adorn the home of. . . . Why give a name? + +"You must make what you can of this scattered epistle and read it into +my future because you may not hear from me again, or, if you do, only +briefly in unlikelihoods. I am no practised writer, though I might +have acquired the trade, and it is only out of a felt duty, combined +with a personal regard of some durability, that I have set down, for +you, those epistles of my doings far across the sea. Farewell, if it +be farewell, and to Mistress Marget Forbes the like salutation, if she +will accept it, as I am sure she will, when presented through you; and +similarly to Madame Forbes, her mother, my humble duty. + +"Always your well-wisher, + "JOCK FARQUHARSON, late of Inverey." + + + + +_XVIII--My Garden of Content_ + + "Said Edom o' Gordon to his men + We maun draw to a close." + + +That close, whether to a love story or a life, should come in the +quiet, natural way which Providence orders, unexpectedly almost, not in +tumult and trappings. + +I am of a family which has been accustomed to storm through the world, +sometimes with all the world could give, at other times with mighty +little. This element has got into our blood, become, you might say, a +habit, and often, myself, I have felt its prickings. After all, it +must be a finely insurgent thing to drive to the devil in a golden +carriage built for two, or more; and the Gordons have never been +accustomed to count their guests, so long as they made good company. + +Then I had grown up at a time in our Highlands when the kettle of +history was about to boil over, scalding a great many people in the +process. The fiery cross of war carried its message from one valley to +another and left its embers on new graves wherever it went. + +You are asking what this excursion in deep waters has to do with Marget +and myself and the Black Colonel, Jock Farquharson. It has everything +to do with us, because it is the lamp of the road along which we +journeyed. Anybody can count turnings in a path, but it is harder to +catch the other-world glow which sees us past them to our desired haven. + +We were in sight of it, and, although we said little, I knew that we +both rejoiced exceedingly over the news which the Black Colonel sent in +his last letter. When we met I looked at Marget as much as to ask, +"Shall I say it?" And she looked at me answering, "No, you need not, +because I understand." + +It is a curious state this which, at some time or other, exists between +two loving people cast for each other's welfaring. A delicate mystery +lies in it, and that is an essential strand in every true affection, +but it can readily be destroyed. Break it rudely, even shock it a +little, and a chasm may yawn where, before, there was a silken thread +of union, tender in its fibre, but beautifully elastic. + +You may exclaim, when you read these confidences and remember others to +which I have confessed, that I was not so awkward a lover as I +sometimes appeared to be. No, I was not awkward in thought, but I +could be, I know full well, very awkward in its expression as deeds. +Often I would go wrong in form, rarely in feeling, if you can assume a +man built on those colliding lines. + +Marget has told me, in raillery, that she was more than once tempted to +give me "a good shaking," as the woman's saying goes. It was not, +perhaps, that she expected to shake much out of me, or to shake me out +of myself, but that she would herself have been relieved by the +exercise, for women, you see, are like that. + +My reflection has to do with a day when we spoke of it as settled that +the Black Colonel would never come back, that the whole episode which +he represented was over, and that an open road, undisturbed surely by +any more surprises and alarms, lay before us. How could I forget the +scene, for it was to open out our true life, our deep, full love. + +She looked at me as much as to ask had I been planning a stratagem, I +the unsophisticated, which I had not. She looked again, and I saw she +knew, that at long length, we were face to face with the soft realities +which, hitherto, had remained dumb, or only whispered. I waited to +take her in my arms, and she told me later her instinct expected me to +do it, and I didn't. What poor fools men may be, to miss so much, and +to place a good woman in the position of having her consent rebuffed, +for that is to outrage her sex-respect. + +I seem to remember that Marget turned her head away in despair with me, +only she pretended to be watching the sun and the clouds as they dipped +the hills in light and shadow. This threw her face into profile, and I +thought I had never seen it quite so beautiful. There was an expectant +vibrancy in it, from the fair forehead to the dimpled chin, but its +flower of expression was in the flowing eye, the ripe mouth, and the +tremulous lips. + +"A wonderful scene," she said, her look lost in the river and the +hills; "a scene which makes one think in parables, as the old men of +Scriptures did." + +"Parables," I replied, remembering, as I saw she did, "are very +unuseful." + +"Why do you say that?" she asked gently, still looking at the dance of +sunlight and shadow upon the heather and the water. + +"Oh, because they are," I said absurdly enough. + +"That's a woman's reason," she observed, "and it should be left to a +woman. Have you nothing more original to say?" + +"Well, if I were to tell you a parable, a parable of my own, as you +once told me one of yours, what would happen?" + +"I'm sure I don't know," she laughed, "but why trouble about what may +happen? A little risk gives a spice to life, and, anyhow, it can +mostly be run away from at the last moment!" + +"Then," said I, fairly and warmly hit by that, "it is the parable of a +maid and a man, the old, old story, in a new setting. They met under +cross circumstances, when things around them were difficult and their +families took separate sides in politics and war. But if it had not +been those very troubles they might never have met, or, what is even +worse, have met too late, as maids and men often do. Perhaps trouble, +because it brought them together in sympathy, also began to bring them +together in heart, that being one road to affection. Love at first +sight? Yes, for a winning face, an elegant figure, a silvery voice, or +even a shapely foot. But that, surely, is the stuff of passion which +may bloom in the morning and fade at night, not love the enduring as, I +promise you, in my parable." + +Marget nodded her head, unconsciously, as if some far voice were +calling to her from the spreading country of red heath and green +fir-trees, of dancing sunshine and rippling stream, that lay beneath +us. She did not speak, and I went on: + +"You do not in parables say much of people, and never by name, but I +must tell you of my maid, the man, and of the other man who came +between them--nearly! She was all simple charm, yet also of pulsing +womanliness, the healthy product of a country life, a fair survival of +many ordeals. Deep in her nature was that intense power of feeling +which belongs to complete womanhood, as music belongs to an ancient +fiddle. There were strings so sweet and subtle, so strange and strong, +that she herself feared to play on them, and when the man appeared she +greeted him as a friend, nothing more." + +Marget waited as I paused, for when one's heart is in one's mouth words +are hard to find, and I am not much in command of them at any time. + +"The man," I resumed, "what shall I say of him, for he had no personal +history. He had an old name, however, which he hoped not to sully, and +he bent himself quietly to duty, as, crookedly and undesirably, it came +his way. He found no call to do great things of the world, but rather +to straighten out the small things of a wee corner of it, and there to +keep the peace. The maid just came into his life, and he, in his plain +way, thanked Providence and held his tongue, except when secrets would +half slip out and tell-tale acts come about." + +Marget made no sign as to whether or not she recognized the portrait, +and thus I was brought up abruptly against the other man of our parable. + +"He," I said, "had all the ruder qualities admired by women, those of +manliness, which good women may like, and the others which the other +women secretly like. It was not difficult to see him, both as a hero +and as a villain, and either way the pull of romance lay about him. He +had particular ambitions which brought him between the maid and the +first man, and there was, thanks to certain elements in human ties and +high affairs, a strong influence favourable to those ambitions. But, +as chance or Providence would have it, he was translated to another +land, and there he found such comfort and companionship that he decided +to stay. This left the maid and the man who feared too much, free to +be to each other what they desired; and there ends my parable." + +"But," asked Marget with unsteady words which betrayed her agitation, +"where is its moral? A parable must have a moral." + +"Has it none?" I boldly asked her, taking her hand in mine, before she +or I knew it, and kissing it and then her rosy, rebellious lips. + +By-and-by she looked at me through wet eye-lashes and asked, "Shall I +tell you a parable which had a moral, though maybe it has lost it," and +her tears laughed. + +"Do," I said; "I can stand the moral now, whatever it may be." + +"It should be a severe moral for you," she whispered, "because you have +been so foolish, so little understanding with me, yet I'll try and make +it light. It also concerns a maiden and two men, but she only cared +for one of the men, never at all for the other. Nor would all the +family interests in the world have made her marry the other. The real +man, well, he seemed not to know that there is a precipice of +influences, of circumstances, for every woman, over which she may be +let slip by his hesitation; and this without possibility of return, +for, even if she could return, her sex pride would not let her." + +"Ah," I whispered, "and the moral?" + +"That you deserved to lose me; and that it would have broken my heart +if you had." + +We sat very close, hand in hand, mind in mind, heart in heart, and +watched the sun go down behind the silent hills of our beloved +Corgarff, both of us silent, like them. + +Years have gone by since then, and they have proved to us how sure a +conduct is the heart alike to happiness, and, though it matters less, +to prosperity. March where the tune of its soft beating calls, and you +are blessed. Traffic with it, and you miss the real lift of life, that +which makes life good, whatever betides. + +Marget and I had learned this in the school of sweet-hearting, and now +we knew it in the joy of confiding words. Nothing else mattered, +because it mattered all, but when the inner world is well the outer +world responds to it in kind. The private happiness which we had won +made a larger good fortune for us without, or at all events, we saw the +morning radiance, not the morning mists. + +Our poor ruined Highlands still lay under their covering of sorrow, as +grass grows indifferently upon a grave. But they were mending, even +while they suffered, for they had spirit in them. Virile men and +womanly women do not cry all the time, but give thanks to God for his +mercies and go forward. + +It was my fortunate destiny to be helpful beyond myself at Corgarff, +and I will tell you how. When gossip of a purpose of marriage between +Ian Gordon and Marget Forbes reached high quarters, friends in the two +political camps got to work on our behalf. The outcome was that before +Marget Forbes became Marget Forbes, or Gordon, as the Scots legal form +has it, the lands which were her peoples had been returned to her, a +sort of wedding gift. + +Good and bad news like not to travel alone, and what must a kinsman of +my own, an aged bachelor Gordon, do, but say that instead of waiting +for his estate until he was dead, and his will read, I should come into +it and its perquisites at once, if only because there must be acre for +acre exchanged, as between a Gordon and a Forbes. Thus our heart's +house of joy was dowered with worldly goods, though I should, in +justice especially to Marget, add that we laid no stress on that, apart +from the usefulness towards others which it carried. + +At such usefulness, I can fairly say, we laboured whole-heartedly from +the hour when we took each other for better, and never a minute for +worse, in the Castle of Corgarff, with Marget's mother saying, +"Children, you have all my poor old heart, to keep the fire of your +young hearts warm." + +She was a gracious lady, and she dwelt with us until we bore her to the +little churchyard on the hill-side, where there is a clump of trees to +break the cold sough of the winds into a lullaby. By that time another +Marget, beautiful of face like the Forbeses, lithe of limb like the +Gordons--we never could agree whom she most resembled!--had been given +to us. She was our guerdon of the reverent gospel of home, which is +the high altar of this world, the source and sanctuary of our +well-being as men and women. + +We have tried to live up to that ideal, and none can do more, unless, +indeed, it be to seek the perfect heights of the Sermon on the Mount +itself. It is good to look upward there, even if one cannot hope to +reach the golden peaks of that world without an end--Amen! + + + + +THE END + + + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Black Colonel, by James Milne + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BLACK COLONEL *** + +***** This file should be named 21834-8.txt or 21834-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/1/8/3/21834/ + +Produced by Al Haines + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Black Colonel + +Author: James Milne + +Release Date: June 14, 2007 [EBook #21834] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BLACK COLONEL *** + + + + +Produced by Al Haines + + + + + + + + + + +THE BLACK COLONEL + + +BY + +JAMES MILNE + + +BY THE SAME AUTHOR + + THE ROMANCE OF A PRO-CONSUL + THE EPISTLES OF ATKINS + JOHN JONATHAN AND COMPANY + NEWS FROM SOMEWHERE + MY SUMMER IN LONDON + THE GORDON HIGHLANDERS + + + + "A tale of the times + of old, of the deeds of + the days of other years." + _Ossian_. + + + +JOHN LANE THE BODLEY HEAD LIMITED + +LONDON + +MCMXXI. + + + + +TO J. T. M., WHO KNOWS THE + +STORY OF THE BLACK COLONEL + + + + +_Chapters and Contents_ + + + I. WE MEET IN THE PASS + II. TRAPPED BY THE RED-COATS + III. OVER THE HILLS OF HOME + IV. THE OPENING ROAD + V. A CAIRN OF REMEMBRANCE + VI. THE FINGER OF FATE + VII. A PARLEY AND A SURPRISE + VIII. THE CONQUERING HERO + IX. 'TWIXT NIGHT AND MORN + X. THE WAY OF A WOMAN + XI. THE CRACK OF THUNDER + XII. RAIDERS OF THE DARK + XIII. THE WOUND OF ABSENCE + XIV. THE CARDS OF LOVE + XV. NEWS FROM SOMEWHERE + XVI. THE WOOIN' O'T! + XVII. A SONG OF OTHER SHORES + XVIII. MY GARDEN OF CONTENT + + + + +_Personal and Particular_ + +The strangest thing about this tale is that it happened, though not, +may be, as I here relate it; which is merely to seek, in a humble +spirit, the great company of George Washington, who could not tell--a +story! + +That of the Black Colonel came to me in scraps of talk from my mother +when, as Byron grandly sang of himself, "I roved, a Young Highlander, +o'er Dark Lochnagar," a wild landscape beloved of Queen Victoria, at +Balmoral, for, you see, the eminences will come in. My mother had it +from her people, a Forbes family long planted in the brave uplands of +Deeside, and I was taken a generation nearer to it in the conversation +of my grandfather, whose folk were on the no less brave uplands of +Donside. Nay, he could remember, what my own father, born like him, +and myself, in the Forbes Country, first stirred me by saying, when the +Red Coats still garrisoned the Castle of Braemar and the Castle of +Corgarff, old Grampian strongholds where they had been installed to +overawe the Jacobites of the Aberdeenshire Highlands. + +The "Seventeen-Forty-Five," with the "Standard on the Braes o' +Mar . . . up and streamin' rarely" for Bonnie Prince Charlie, saw fiery +times in those remote parts, and knew times of dule afterwards, and the +difficulty about any authentic tale of events, is that, in its passage +down time, from mouth to mouth, it necessarily loses immediacy of +phrase, even of fable, and that rude frame of living and loving, +fighting and dying, in which it was originally set. But human nature +does not change, we only think it does in changed circumstances, and if +Jock Farquharson, of Inverey, could return from the Hills of Beyond and +read our chronicle of himself and others, why, he might recognize it, +which would mean, perhaps, that some of the romantic colour, the +dancing atmosphere, and the high spirit of adventure of those ancient +years, has been saved from them. It was little he did not know about +the gallantries and the intrigues of war-making and love-making, +holding them the natural occupations of a Highland gentleman, even when +he had become a "broken man" and an "outlaw"; as you may now, if you +please, go on to learn, with many other things of surprise, diversion +and quality. + +J. M. + +THE CALEDONIAN CLUB, + LONDON, + _Midsummer Day_, 1921. + + + + +THE BLACK COLONEL + + +_I--We Meet in the Pass_ + +We might have gone by each other in +the Pass, the Black Colonel and +I, if his horse had not kicked a +stone as we came together. It +struck my foot and then a rock, making a rattle +in the dark night. You know how noise gains +when you cannot see the cause of it, and all +your senses are in your ears. + +"Woa, Mack!" said the Black Colonel to +his beast; "can't you stand still with those +mettlesome legs of yours? You may," he went +on, more to himself than to the horse, "need +them to-night, for our friend, Captain Ian +Gordon of his Hanoverian Majesty's forces, is +late, and when a man is late it generally bodes +trouble; for a woman anyhow, I might confess +from my experience. It is less matter if a +woman be late, because it is a fashion with the +sweet sex that you should wait upon it, and +I am always willing to oblige out of my own +warmth in gallantry, or so folk say. Eh! +Mack? Kept you waiting at many a gate, +have I, forgetful that it was cold outside?" + +The Black Colonel and I had met before, +though slightly, distantly, and I knew his habit +of talking to his horse. Not an unnatural +thing, because Mack was an animal of fine +intelligence, coupled, it is true, with the +stallion's devil of a temper, and they had spent +much time alone together, which begets +understanding. Were they, indeed, not a romance +of the countryside, inseparable, with a +friendship only found between a lonely man and his +horse or his dog? They had been through a +whole chapter of adventures together, and were +willing to face more, or they would not have +been there in the Pass. + +When the stone hit my foot I stood still, +knowing it must be the Black Colonel, yet +wishful to be certain before I spoke. His +words to Mack revealed his presence, but left +me unsure whether he knew that I was within +a few yards of him. Of course the horse knew, +for animals of the higher order have an instinct +which is often more sure than reason in a man. +It is their reason, the shield of guidance which +Nature gives to all her creatures. + +Suddenly communication seemed to arise +between us, although no word of mutual +greeting had been spoken. You know how +those things come about! No, you don't, +nor do I, nor does anybody else, but they do +happen out of a world 'twixt earth and heaven. +They call them uncanny in our land, which +only means they are unknown, the mysteries +of them, but some day they will grow clear +and be no more black witchery, only golden light. + +"Walked all the way from Corgarff Castle?" +he abruptly asked, preparing the way, with the +usual nothings of conversation. It is oddly +difficult to get into natural talk in a dark, +dividing night, when eyes, faces, gestures, are +hidden, and I just answered, "Yes, walked +over the hills, as I've often done before, +knowing them well, without having the honour +of a safe conduct from you." + +"Some day," he snapped, "you'll be able +to bring your red-coats by the same paths, +knowing them, as you say, well, and capture +me for the Lowland money your Government +puts on my Highland head. Nobody is too +well off in our parts in these times. Captain +Gordon, not, it may be, even you, who was +born, I suppose, with an eye for prosperity." + +It was unfair of him to say that, and as he +climbed off Mack and threw the bridle loose +on the horse's neck he mumbled as much. + +"A touch of temper against your royal +employer, nothing worse; not bad temper, +merely temper, so pray excuse it. Mostly I +have, as you know, been accustomed to express +myself with the sword. . . ." + +"Except," I interrupted with some sharpness, +for I was still nettled, "when you have +confided your language to the dirk, or let it +speak in silence for itself." + +"Now we are even, Captain Gordon, for +that is not worthy of you, if, as I take it, you +suggest that, on occasion, I have struck foul. +No, sir, not that, never on my honour, as a +gentleman; outlawed, if you like, though that +troubles me little. But the fine ethics of the +broad-sword and the dirk are too nice for +discussion between a Gordon and a Farquharson; +met as we are with, I suspect, a Forbes to +attract and divide us. Besides, I spoke +clumsily, not meaning any personal insult, +since I want, sincerely want, to be friendly, if +that be possible. Anger is a poor hostess, +believe me, and I, who have been in its way, +should know better than you who are young, amiably young." + +Mine melted under his soft words, because +such, even when they are not deeply sincere, +may turn wrath aside like balm. Moreover, +he had a wild charm of manner which, if it +did not quite capture another man, as almost +surely it would have won a woman, yet had +its effect. Where exactly it lay I have never +been able to decide, but the melody of his +tongue had something to do with it, even when +he spoke in Sassenach English. We could +have talked in the Gaelic, I also having it +natively, but the Black Colonel would always +speak English if he met somebody to whom +he could show his command of the language. +It was one of his several accomplishments, +acquired by study and travel in England and +France, and he prided and guarded them all, +as a woman does her graces of the person. + +So we stood in the chasm of night and the +Pass, one waiting upon the other, because our +trouble, as in all affairs where two men and +a maid are concerned, was how to begin, +more particularly as we had no idea what +would be the end. The Black Colonel had +said as much when he spoke the name Forbes, +the third of our Aberdeenshire clans, though +it may not have all the lustre of the Gordons +or the Farquharsons. + +"Ehum," he murmured, dropping into a +Scots mannerism which made no more than +an overture to speech between us, and yet +signified something already said. + +"Your letter was urgent," I said. "It +might have been a summons to another +hoisting of the Stuart Standard on the Braes +of Mar." + +"And would you have come?" he inquired; +"would you have come?" + +"It is hard," I answered coldly, "to tell +what a man would or would not do if his +honour could always march with his inclination. +But no summons from you would bring +me to the colours, even of those who were our +rightful Scottish kings." + +"Still, you have come to-night." + +"True, but it must occur to you that it is +not of the first order of a gentleman to force +a meeting, by wrapping a threat in a woman's +Christian name, even when you send your +message by so secure a hand as that of your +ghillie, Red Murdo." + +He turned his head and, I felt, though I +could still only see vaguely, was looking straight +at me, as, certainly, I was looking at him. +While we looked and saw not, a quick, low +whistle came from the foot of the Pass and an +answering whistle, just as low, blew from the +top of it. + + + + +_II--Trapped by the Red-Coats_ + +Never, in all my experience of the hills, their fragrant peace and +their rude surprises, have I been so moved by an unexpected noise as I +was then, standing with the Black Colonel in the black Pass. Partly +this was because the surprise was complete, being unheralded by a +rustle or a movement, but, still more, because it was the magic hour at +which the womb of night moves to the birth of a new day. + +Mingle the void of heaven and earth, and the sense of unseen spaces; +the long, sleeping mountains, with the drowsy trees that guard the +foot-hills; the caressing sigh of the wind, and, maybe, the murmur of a +stream flowing to the sea, and out of all this catch a whistle and its +answer. They sounded strangely eerie as they died into the hills, +touching us like the still small voice of the Scriptures and, also, +like it, carrying a note of apprehension, even of awe. + +Under stress a mind moves instantly, and two thoughts leapt into mine, +that a trap had been set for the Black Colonel, and that he must +suspect me of it. To be sure I was, myself, within the wings of that +trap, but this perfect retort was like a gun in a bad position, it +could not be brought to bear. However, my own situation, peculiar as I +realized it to be, troubled me less, at the moment, than did the Black +Colonel's thoughts, as I conceived them, about my honour, and I do +suggest that it would have been the same with any other gentleman. + +Ugly thoughts have a trick of riding double, and I fancied I heard him +trying his stirrup leathers and bridle, to be satisfied they were in +order. Even I thought I saw his hand drop down to his right garter, +where a Highlander wears his skean-dhu, or short dirk, an ornament +mostly, with its Cairngoram stone in the handle, but likewise a solid +weapon in an emergency, like the present. + +There, probably, I did him an injustice or, if his hand did make the +furtive inquiry, I could think wrongly of the reason behind it. +Anyhow, he said never a word, hating to be openly suspicious, where, as +I could have sworn, on my conscience, there was no reason for +suspicion, whatever might have happened among others, apart from me and +my night's doings. + +Thus we held our places, two unarmed men, for the Black Colonel had +said in his letter that he would come weaponless, as he expected me to +come, and a hose-dirk did not count, being, as I have said, in the +first place, an ornament for a well-made leg, an Order of the Garter, +to borrow an ancient title. We had met in the habiliments and +disposition of peace, and if we were to close in strife it would not, I +reasoned and hoped, be at our direct wish or bidding. Would it? + +He must have been asking himself the same question, for he broke the +silence in a changed voice which seemed doubly changed, because he had +to keep it low, lest it should be overheard, and what he said was, "How +comes all this, sir?" + +"I don't know," I answered simply, naturally, truthfully, to his +charge, for it was a charge in words and in directness. + +"You don't," he went on, and I could not miss the tone which was like +the growl of a dog, an ill-natured dog; not like that of my own little +Scots terrier, Rob, whose bark is only meant to give himself confidence +and never had the snap of biting in it. + +"You don't!" repeated the Black Colonel. "I must believe you, though a +suspicious man might read the signs otherwise. Still, why should you +have kept the red-coats from their sleep this night and morn, in the +castles of Braemar and Corgarff? There is no reason, for a talk +between Highland gentlemen, if so we be, about a Highland lady, whose +ladyship is beyond doubt, needed no garrison as audience. No, no, if +the red-coats had been summoned to round-up some poor Jacobite devil, +say myself, Captain Ian Gordon would have been with his men, as a +soldier should, much as he might--and I put this to his credit--have +disliked the mission." + +It was idle for me to pretend any misunderstanding of the Black +Colonel's meaning. He was taunting me with suspicions which he would +not bring himself to believe, having a generous side to his nature, a +state of mind that has inflicted much suffering on the human race, ever +since the world began to go round. Mostly it occurs between men, for +women are more elemental, more red in beak and claw, even when the claw +is bejewelled, which indeed may give it another sharpness. + +Could I blame him? Not to his face, at all events, because that would +be to notice his challenge, to admit that it was not unnatural on his +part. Events must be my guarantee, and if there were to be no more, +well, let him say quickly why he had asked me very specially to meet +him on an urgent private affair. Yes, although it were to have a +casual ending, such as characterizes half the affairs of life. + +Aye! good thinking, my friends, but our relations were cast in a +sterner mould, and they were not to take the road of well-being. This +became manifest when the now growing dawn lightly touched the eastern +door of the Pass at its highest crag. The Black Colonel put his hand +to his eyes, using them as you would a spy-glass, made a hawk-like +sweep of the point I have indicated, and murmured harshly, "A red-coat, +ah!" + +Quickly he followed the wispy, growing light towards the western end of +the Pass, and after another moment of hawkish searching growled: "A +red-coat there also! It has been shrewdly arranged, this affair, +Captain Gordon. My congratulations, for you have earned them well, as +well, perhaps, as something else from me." + +I said nothing, and indeed I was too full of surprise to think, except +in a wondering fashion. It was only by an effort of attention that I +heard the Black Colonel's further words, cursed out in a wrath not bred +of any anxiety for himself, but, naturally enough, directed at me. + +"So the moving picture declares itself, my dear, thoughtful kinsman," +he hissed. "The red-coats from Braemar are at the western end of the +Pass, those from Corgarff are at the eastern end, and the Black Colonel +is within somewhere--isn't he?--keeping a private meeting with an +officer in his Georgian Majesty's uniform, an officer and a gentleman! +Shrewdly planned, as I say, shrewdly planned, and I suppose you want to +intrigue me here until I cannot get away any more. Would you think of +trying to hold me yourself, eh? It would be like your adventurous +spirit? No!" + +This was said with a rough sneer, and the Black Colonel made the sting +sharper by adding, "You'll be thinking it an assured capture, with the +ends of the Pass sealed by red-coats and its sides so steep that only +those tough sheep over there can climb them." + +"Truth," said I quickly, gaining my tongue, "will force you to eat +those words, for I knew nothing of all this. It will be a bitter meal +for you to digest, if I, by good chance, am there to assist you." + +"A Highland welcome will be yours," quoth he arrogantly; "a welcome as +warm as if I were to bring my riding whip round your shoulders now." + +His words, cracking as if they were a lash, stung me beyond endurance. +I made a step to strike him, and we might have been at it, like common +brawlers, only he saved us from that shame. He had been waiting with +his left foot in the stirrup. When I drove at him he swung on to the +back of Mack, who turned half round, as a spirited horse does in the +process of being mounted. This threw his big body between us, but the +Black Colonel leant down and said in my ear, "To our next meeting, my +kinsman! May it be soon!" + +Then he rode for an opening in the undergrowth which braided the lower +slopes of the precipitous Pass, and I was left alone, a man all +a-wonder, for events were growing beyond me, as they do when suddenly +we find our whole personal fortune, even our spiritual destiny, put to +the ordeal of the unexpected. + + + + +_III.--Over the Hills of Home_ + +How shall I tell, with proper restraint and yet efficiency, what +followed the going of the Black Colonel on his black horse? + +The Pass, wherein we had met so sharply, lies almost due east and due +west. You would have a good idea of its appearance, if you were to +suppose a hill twice as long from east to west as it is broad from +north to south. Then imagine its length sliced in two, and each half, +by force of dead weight, falling away from the other. Heather and +whins had seeded on the sliced faces, and after them the hardy silver +birch and the hardier green fir had sprung up. Nature makes coverings +for the sores suffered by Mother Earth, as a dog licks a bruise until +the hair grows again. + +The strong Highland winds and the heavy Highland rains and snows had +wrinkled the riven hill in a hundred ways. Its twin faces were warted +with rocks, from which most of the soil had been washed away, leaving +them as though suspended in mid-air. Waters, draining from the higher +hills, had run down those faces, making ribboned scores to the bottom. +There had been constant falls of earth from above, and here and there a +large tree had been thrown over the abyss, and, in that position, +holding on by its roots, had taken a new lease of life. + +Thanks then to Nature, working for long years, the twin, or rather the +divorced hill-cheeks which, at their separation, were raw earth, now +had a covering of undergrowth and overgrowth. It would be dead in the +winter when the sap is down, budding in the spring when the sap rises, +green in the summer when it has run into leafage, brown in the autumn +when the storage roots begin to call their own back again. + +A sort of rough road, worn by usage, as a short-cut for the folk of the +region, ran on the level between the halves of the Pass. Big rocks +fallen from above lay around, and I confusedly sat down beside one of +these. It broke the snellish wind which had begun to blow with the +first dawn, as it often does in those parts, a blast to the parting +night and the coming day. + +Presently a shot was fired from one end of the Pass and I could make no +mistake as to the weapon used. It was the military flintlock, a clumsy +gun, better suited to scare crows than shoot straight, but it was the +best we had. + +A warning, a signal for some purpose, I judged, because it was followed +by what I can only describe as a waiting silence. You had the echoes +of the shot scattering up the heights of the Pass, and then a tense +feeling in the atmosphere, as if a hundred men expected an answer. It +came, in another straggling shot, from the other end of the Pass. + +Next there was solid evidence that what I heard had been a pre-arranged +signal, to which a plan of campaign attached. At each end of the Pass +I saw the red-coats multiply until they formed faint bunches of colour. +Who, I wonder, first clothed the soldier man in scarlet, for an easier +target he could not offer, even to an ill-shooting flint-lock. Scarlet +and the pageantry of courts, scarlet and the capturing of women's +hearts, but for the soldier himself, when he gets down to his trade, it +is scarlet and death. + +As I waited intently and looked, I could almost count, up on the brows +of the Pass, how many red-coats the sentinels of our first alarm had +grown into. They made dots, moving against the skyline, and, as I next +made out, they were in concert with other knots of scarlet, active at +the end of the Pass below. I did not need to be a soldier of some +instinct, which I hope I always have been, to grasp the order and +purpose of those doings. + +Clearly the plan was to search the bottom of the Pass and its northern +top with men who would meet midway, two parties below, and two above. +The Black Colonel could not, therefore, get away by the western end, +which led to his habitual fastness up the valley of the Dee, for the +door of escape was sealed. No hope could lie south, or east, because +that would be to come out into open country where numbers would capture +any fugitive. There was nothing but the northern side, no possibility +of escape except up its stern face, and it was a forlorn possibility, +alike on account of the terrible climb and because the red-coats were +already there, shaping to cut off even an attempt in this direction. + +What would the Black Colonel do? What was he doing? I wondered, and +two thoughts came to me, one that as an animal pursued ever makes for +home, if only to reach it and die, so a hunted man will do likewise, +should there be the smallest prospect of success; the other that +possibly it is the sounder doctrine to face great perils in getting +clear, when you are sure of an open road and a place of refuge, rather +than seek deliverance by an easier door and then land in unknown +plights. + +True strategy in any tight place, military or civil, is based on a +knowledge of human nature, what the enemy will do. That entails the +gift of imagination, and there was a touch of it in the disposition +going on before my eyes. The knots of red on the bottom pathway drew +together, and the red strings on the northern height were also +approaching each other. They progressed warily, but I could see an +occasional gleam of bare bayonets against the skyline, silhouetted by +the trees. + +Presently a rumble of displaced stones reached my ear from the other +side of the Pass. My eye searched for the spot, halfway up, where the +trees grew sparser and the hard, sharp rocks gained the dominance. Out +from this streak of trees and rocks rode the Black Colonel on black +Mack, and I gasped at his dare-devilry. + +I understood instinctively that, by cautious pilotage, probably +dismounting and leading his horse at places, he had managed, +undiscovered, to get thus far up that northern cliff, for it was almost +sheer. But he must next make the upper, still steeper half, with +little shelter from the on-coming flint-locks, and the worst kind of +footing for Mack. Could any horse foaled of a mare climb that crag and +bear his rider to safety, for this was the double, doubtful issue? + +When, a moment later, the soldiers caught sight of the Black Colonel +they halted in mute surprise, then shouted, as a dog barks on sight of +a quarry, the killing instinct in man and beast finding tongue. It was +instantly a gamble of the pursued and the pursuers, to escape or to +capture, the keenest yet least noble game which can be played, that +with a human life for the prize. The Black Colonel, a man with a +bar-sinister, but a remarkable man, was the hunted, and two companies +of King George's soldiers, decent fellows enough each man of them, were +the hunters. The outcome depended chiefly on a horse, but such a +horse, Mack! + +The King's word had gone round the countryside that our rebel and +canteran was to be taken alive or dead. That is a mandate which loses +its dividing line when the guns begin to shoot. Therefore, while the +soldiers shouted, on getting sight of the Black Colonel, they also +began to fire wildly at him. The immediate range was too far for harm +to hit him, but it would shorten swiftly enough. Realizing this, he +stretched himself along his horse's neck, thus showing a smaller +target, and, as I felt sure, whispering words of encouragement into the +great creature's ear. + +The tradition is that the Black Colonel used his dirk for spur on that +ride, but I, who was a witness, know better. He did not need to use +it, and would not have done so in any event, loving Mack as he did. +His soft Gaelic whisper of bidding was his only spur, and up, up, +slowly, yet surely, went the gallant animal. Ah! you should have seen +it all. It was fine. + +Mack's shapely, muscular body was stretched like whip-cord against the +dull grey of the broken precipice. You could fancy you heard the very +cracking of his sinews as he rose foot by foot. The reins lay on his +neck, and I saw the Black Colonel slip oft the bridle, with its heavy +iron bit, to give him the uttermost chance. The rivulet of stones +which his hoofs had set going grew into a stream, telling me that, +while ever he lost a little on the treacherous ground, he more than +made it good with the next stride. + +The sight so moved me that I nearly shouted in admiration and quite +forgot the pursuers. The soldiers in the hollow of the Pass had met +and were loading and shooting with a certain discipline. The Black +Colonel's real danger, however, was not from this fusilade but from the +intercepting soldiers at the top of the Pass. Theirs had been a longer +and rougher way to travel; would they, by the time he reached the +summit, if reach it he did, be near enough to capture or shoot him? + +Up, up, still panted the noble Mack, almost exhausted, until, with a +final effort, he gained the last ridge and, oh, what a relief! His +flanks heaved, his beautiful head dropped to the heather, and I could +see that his forequarters had turned from black to a lather of white +foam, testimony to the great strain of the climb. The Black Colonel +sprang from the saddle, walked to the edge of the crag, took his dirk +from his garter and put it to his lips. He was vowing the oath of a +"broken" Highlander, to be revenged, or thanking Providence for his +escape, perhaps both. + +He did all this, as I could follow, in the grey morning light, coolly, +nay disdainfully, seeming to regard the bullets from the converging +sharp-shooters as just so many bees buzzing harmlessly about him. +Next, he tightened the girth, which Mack's panting had loosened, +bridled the horse again, vaulted lightly into the saddle, touched his +bonnet in mock salutation, and rode over the hills for home. + +There were those who saw a white horse go up the strath that morning +with, as they swore, the Black Colonel for rider, though all knew the +actual colour of Mack to be black. There were others who said it was +Death on his White Horse, and because a man died in the same small +hours those mongers of destiny were believed. + + + + +_IV--The Opening Road_ + +If this were a story invented, and not a tale of true happenings, there +would be an end when the Black Colonel rode triumphantly from the Pass. + +But, sitting alone and lonely a few days later in my room at Corgarff +Castle, and reflecting on the affair, I said to myself that it was only +the beginning. A drama of real life rarely closes with the hero in +heroics, the heroine a-swoon in her beauty, and the world a-clap with +admiration. + +No doubt the Black Colonel had got away very well, almost as if he had +leapt through a lighted window, with a resounding crash of broken +glass. Well, there would be the fragments to gather up, for the +fragments have always to be remembered, or they may cause harm. Here I +was a fragment, and I asked myself into what basket I was to be +gathered, because, you should know, the hills give those of us who +dwell among them a sense of fate--of the inevitable. + +I was awakened from these thoughts by the entrance of my lieutenant, +who said, "Still sighing that you were out of the chase after the Black +Colonel?" + +I answered vaguely, "A soldier who is a real soldier, which I may or +may not be, is always sorry to miss an enterprise, whether it be duty +or merely an adventure." + +"Well," he remarked, "you had not been long gone when word came from +Braemar Castle that the Black Colonel was to be in the Pass of Ballater +about midnight, meeting some unknown person, and asking us to help +capture him. We saw nothing of the other person, whether man or woman." + +He looked slyly at me, and I remembered having said to him that I had +had a tryst to keep among the hills. You must not, I think, mislead +people by telling what is untrue, but you need not tell everything if +it is going to make mischief. Mostly it is poor policy to try and ram +the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, down a man's +throat, because your version of it may not be his, and, anyhow, it +makes dry eating. + +My thoughts have a habit of wandering, of dreaming dreams, often when +they should be otherwise occupied, and isn't there a bunch of +manuscript verse somewhere in testimony of the same? Knowing this the +lieutenant lighted and smoked a pipe of American tobacco, then a +novelty and a luxury in the Scottish Highlands. With a wink of the eye +he asked, "Who was she, captain? Wench or maid?" And he pronounced +the words in different tones, as if I needed to be instructed about the +difference he implied by them. A man says nothing to an +arch-pleasantry like that, unless he be no man and only a babbler and +boaster of his conquests. Then he has had none, and is a liar. No +sort of fellow more fills men with contempt, and women, by their +woman's instinct, pass him by, for any confidence whatever, in word or +in deed. + +"Don't let it be one of the Black Colonel's flames," said the +lieutenant with a laugh, as he went out again, without the answer he +had not expected, being himself a gentleman. "It needs a long spoon to +sup with that dark devil at any time, but come between him and his +rustic gallantries and you'll need a longer spoon than Corgarff Castle +happens to possess." + +The Black Colonel and I, as you will have gathered, were on different +sides in politics, though we belonged to neighbouring clans which had +many associations; he a Farquharson, I a Gordon. He was Jock +Farquharson of Inverey, the last of his house, as I can say looking +back on him, and doomed, so a woman of second-sight had declared, when +he was born, to be the last; while I, Ian Gordon, was a cadet of the +Balmoral Gordons, captain in his Majesty's Highland Foot, with no more +to expect than what my commission brought me, and that was little +enough. + +He was a Jacobite, keeping that rebel flame alive in the Aberdeenshire +Highlands, when, on the heels of the "Forty-Five," a red and woeful +time, we were half-heartedly scotching it with garrisons in the Castles +of Braemar and Corgarff. Yes, I wore the scarlet tunic of King George, +thanks to family circumstances which had woven themselves before I was +born, but the tartan lay under it, next my heart. We were rivals in +war, thrown on different sides by the fates which gamble so strangely +with mere men. Was there to be a still more vital rivalry? As has +been hinted, I had more than rumours of the Black Colonel's strange +powers among women. What if he had Marget Forbes in his dark eye? + +Wherever the heart is concerned you have intuition, and that is why a +woman has more of such super-sense, or rather, I would say, of +wonderously delicate feeling, than a man. She needs it, being oftener +heart-strung, because the wells of her heart are more emotional. + +I suspected, from the first, why the Black Colonel wanted to meet me, +and for no other reason would I have consented to meet him. But our +meeting had been so brief, so disturbed, so futile as regards its +purpose, that I had got no light from him whatever. Still, ever since +then I had been seeing, in the mirror of life, the face of Marget +Forbes, a daughter of the clan whose name she bore, a handsome lass +with a long pedigree, heiress to the lands of Corgarff, now forfeit for +the Jacobite cause, when they should come back to her line, and +incidentally, but all importantly, a kinswoman both of Jock Farquharson +and myself. + +Memory is rarely honest with us, because it is imperfect, and +unconsciously we tell the best account of things, but I fancy I was +wondering on this text when there came at my door the sharp rap of +bony, hurried knuckles. "Enter!" I said, and in marched the corporal +of the guard. His hand went easily to the salute. He had a message in +his face. + +"What is it?" said I, for I expected nothing of moment, beyond a poor +devil of a Jacobite captured, or a "sma' still" raided and its rude +whisky drunk by the red-coat raiders until they were merrily "fou." + +"Sir," he answered in the parade voice which the regular soldier soon +acquires, this, softened by his nice Scots drawl, "Sir, there's a man +outside an' he says he's a letter for you and that he maun gie it to +yoursel'." + +"What's he like? Where does he come from? Is he friend or no friend?" + +"Canna' say, sir. I should think no friend. He's short and swack o' +body, red of hair and face, wears a kilt o' Farquharson tartan, and +winna' say where he comes frae. He has a letter for you, sir, and is +to deliver it himself, an' that's a' he'll tell." + +"Bring him in," I ordered, and in came, as, by now, I half expected, +Red Murdo, the Black Colonel's henchman. I had seen him before, and by +hearsay was more than familiar with his repute as an excellent servant +to his not so excellent master. + +"A letter," he whispered in his hoarse voice, as if he did not want the +corporal to hear. I took the letter, and before I could even break the +seal he was gone again, without motion of salute or further word, all +quite in the Black Colonel's manner of doing things. + +It was addressed "To Captain Ian Gordon," and when I opened the +envelope and unfolded the contents I found them to commence with these +same words and no other form of ceremony. I instantly knew the strong, +irregular, aggressive and yet persuasive handwriting to be that of the +Black Colonel, but unconsciously, as a girl tries at the end of a story +to find whether happiness be there, I turned to the signature--"your +kinsman, Jock Farquharson of Inverey." What went before, when I had +time to master it, was this: + +"These greetings, which I am inditing in the cold safety of the +Colonel's Bed, a fastness where no enemy has yet tracked me, though all +my true friends in the countryside know the secret roads to it, will be +delivered to you by my faithful Red Murdo, who deserves blessings, +whereas I sometimes give him curses; and their purpose is to tell you +explicitly why I asked you to meet me in the Pass the other evening, +since events, on which I here offer no comment, made it impossible for +us to have any plain, forthright talk. + +"I'll reveal the heart of my business by recalling that there is a long +association between our families, who have always been friends and +enemies, and that the Corgarff Forbeses also come into this +association, and continue it, in a fashion which takes me to our +personal quarrel of Stuart and Guelph, because, by the exercise of a +little ingenuity, such as is permissible, and a kinsmanship such as is +proper, there may emerge good seasoning for us all. + +"Pray remember that if the Corgarff Forbeses were to fail in issue, and +there is only one life between them and that failure, the life of a +young unmarried lady, I, by descent on the distaff side, which I need +not outline in particularity, would be heir to the estates; only as a +Jacobite outlawed, a broken man, I can inherit nothing, not even +possess, little as it is now, my own in peace. + +"But, if I am not ill-informed, and news travels among the hills as +swiftly as, we are told, it travels in the desert, King George's +advisers would gladly return the Corgarff estates to the Forbes family +if that family had a strong man at its head and so such an influence as +would keep the region, always a key to the Highlands, I will not +exactly say in order for the German king, because that would be a +tactless fashion of arranging, but wean it gradually from its sympathy +for Prince Charlie, and his house of misadventure and ill-luck. + +"Now, if you will be good enough to assume in me qualities for this +mission and the willingness to undertake it; if you will accept the +circumstance that it would merely be a case of a remote legal heir +coming into his own by a round-about way; and if you will set those +facts in what I consider the national importance of the matter and help +it forward in a form so delicate and chivalrous that I must not even +hint it, why, you will be rendering a potent service to the cause which +enlists you and which might, who knows, enlist me also!" + +That was the letter, considered in language, crafty in purpose, really, +an overture for the hand of Marget Forbes, and I sat far into the +night, while my peat fire died out in Corgarff Castle, wondering how I +was to answer it, and, even more, how I myself stood towards the acute +personal situation which it created. For I saw that the Black Colonel +meant to make love and do business at the same stroke, not for the +first time, perhaps, in his life of emprise; and certainly here was no +new thing in the world's queer story. + + + + +_V.--A Cairn of Remembrance_ + +It is a good way, when you are in doubt, to wait and let events shape a +decision, and this was how I came to regard the Black Colonel's letter. + +He had set me a pretty puzzle in his written words, because, contrasted +with the light touch-and-go of spoken words, these always seem to have +something fateful in them, as of a king's signature to a decree. +Moreover, I was vaguely conscious of being the guardian of a woman's +instinct for safety, an instinct which arrives with the cradle and only +goes with the grave, and that made me feel somewhat helpless; a man in +depths he cannot fathom, for such is the uncharted sea of womanhood. + +Marget Forbes and her mother lived in the Dower House, thrown to them, +as a piece of bread might be tossed from a rich man's table, when +Corgarff was declared forfeit and the castle occupied by soldiery. Her +men-folk had been out with Charlie and had not come back from Culloden, +as the Cairn of Remembrance on the hills might have told any seeker for +them. Each clansman, as he departed, had put a stone to it, and none +had returned to lift that stone again, so it became a tombstone. + +They were dead for ever to Corgarff and to the lands which had been the +property of their forbears, almost since time was in those +blood-heathered Highlands. Families rose and fell, for family reasons, +or as the clans to which they belonged prospered or had adversity. +Thus vital changes in a corner of the Scottish Highlands, like this of +ours, were more frequent than the historians, men apt to assess on +surface generalities and neglectful of the hidden human wells, usually +make out. + +But, as the changes took place within what I may call the ring-fence of +the clan system, they really only mattered to those who were directly +concerned. Corgarff Castle, however, had been held by the same Forbes +family in direct, unbroken line, partly because its successive chiefs +had strong right arms, partly because the domain had little to make +anybody else covetous. The Sabine women whom the old Romans took, +would have been the beautiful ones, and it is the same with the face of +Mother Earth. What appears best is taken first! + +There was no great personal bitterness in the Aberdeenshire Highlands +as between clans or families who were on different sides in the +"Forty-Five." The ambition, or the greed of chiefs, often determined +the sides, and a consciousness of that made lesser men tolerant with +each other. Thus, an acquaintanceship between Marget and her mother +and myself, although begun under a certain stress of circumstance, +passed naturally into friendship, and, on my part, into something +warmer. We were of the same Celtic strain, and, in the heart and mind +of upbringing, blood tells all the time. But I had not seen much of +them, and nothing at all since the tale of the Black Colonel's escape +in the Pass had set the countryside talking and, doubtless, secretly +rejoicing. + +It was a fine thing, a very fine thing, that he should have escaped +from the red-coats so perfectly, so dramatically. They were the living +tokens of a government which, on every ground of sentiment, was alien +to the Highland people, a government, moreover, that had been tactless +in its plans and its acts. The Black Colonel stood for a native royal +cause which had colour and flair, even if its genius for government had +been exhausted. + +We soldiers were only disliked for what we represented, for the dry +Hanoverian salt we ate, not for ourselves, because most of us were +Highland by bone and heart. The Black Colonel was liked for what he +represented, rather than for himself. He had, indeed, a way of +commandeering other men's goods, when he needed them, that was +inconvenient to those others. But there was a strong local pride in +his name and achievements, as the name and achievements of a first-rate +fighting man, whose sword-handle held in its silver-work the letter +"S," standing for Stuart, an allegiance and a challenge never hidden by +him. + +Naturally, like every other Forbes, Farquharson, or Gordon--I omit none +with those names--Marget would be quietly rejoicing over the Black +Colonel's success in out-manoeuvring us. I say "us," although I was +not in the pursuit, a fact, I reflected, which might relieve me a +little of Marget's scorn if she knew. Did she know? Had gossip +carried her that news also? It could not tell her that I was out of +the chase after the Black Colonel, because I was meeting him privately, +and that her affairs were the occasion of the meeting. + +Of the dangers wrapped in all this, I was to have an inkling when I did +meet Marget, and that came about as if it did not matter, as if nothing +matters! I had been up the Don valley with a patrol, was returning, +and scarce a mile from Corgarff Castle, when I saw a woman's figure +ahead, going my road, a very soft and gracious sight, believe me, +against the hill-side. Soon, thanks either to my eyes which could then +see far, or to a man's feeling of instinct for the presence of a woman +who interests him, I discovered that it was Marget Forbes. She turned +round, perhaps at the approaching sound of our steady tramp, or perhaps +moved by some unconscious woman's sense, and, as my men passed on and I +fell behind them, she said, "Ah, Captain Gordon, where have you been +these many days? Chasing the Black Colonel, eh?" + +It was said easily, with a half-smile, as if she were alluding to +something which had happened since we last met, as, indeed, it had. It +was good, however, that the light was failing, because I could feel my +face burn, not with shame, but with a confusion in which there was more +than the Black Colonel. + +"Oh no, Mistress Marget," I answered, "one cannot always be in the +company of the Black Colonel, however interesting some of us may find +him." This, observe, was intended as a delicate touch for her, but it +probably struck her as clumsy, so much finer is a woman's feeling than +a man's. + +"You found him interesting then," she merely replied. "I'm glad to +hear that, because, as a distant relative of ours, he is really one of +the men-folk of the family. Perhaps he has some of the nature which, +so they say, characterizes our women? His Forbes grandmother or +great-grandmother, whichever she was, would have passed it on to him." + +She stopped when she noticed the sweet conceit into which she had +fallen, for certainly what she had claimed in name of the Forbes women, +was richly present in herself. She had sparkle, bloom, charm, that +witching, elusive, mixed something in a woman which nobody can describe +but which every true man feels, and she looked it all in the gloamin' +of that perfect Highland evening. + +"My dear Mistress Forbes," I said more formally, "I could forgive the +Black Colonel much if I thought he had any of the qualities of your +Forbes women-folk. As it is, I envy him your championship," at which +she looked at me with considering eyes. + +"A woman naturally champions all her men," she said with a deft smile +for me, as being also a relation, "and it would be sad if she didn't; +but I have never yet seen the Black Colonel. He has not come our way, +although, no doubt, we should, for what has been, make him as welcome +as your men, quartered in our old castle, might permit." + +"Naturally! Why not?" I said, for I understand her feelings though, +somehow, the remark stung me a little. "Perhaps," I added, "you may +have your wish gratified and meet him one of these days." + +"Do you mean as a prisoner," she asked quickly. + +"No. I mean that when the Black Colonel wants to call on anybody, he +does not let danger or ceremony stand in his path. So far, I take it, +there has been no occasion for you to make his personal acquaintance, +and may that continue." + +"Why should you say that? Whether he be good or ill, he is a +picturesque figure, a stout fighter, a man who has stood up for his +faith through thick and thin, and, moreover, one of us. I have heard +the things that are said about him, things no woman cares to hear about +a man, but to hear is not to believe, is it? Only," and Marget laughed +quietly, "here am I defending a rank Jacobite to the Georgian commander +of Corgarff Castle, whose business it is to lay that rank Jacobite by +the heels--if he can!" + +"Oh, we'll catch him some day," I lightly, rather wryly, observed, "but +his luck does serve him well." + +"There's often a reason for luck," answered she; "more in it than just +luck. Now, if a company of soldiers went after a man of resource, like +the Black Colonel, would their chance of catching him not be less if +they had no captain leading them? A boyish lieutenant may have +energetic qualities, but they are hardly likely to be a match for those +of the Black Colonel." + +We were getting on to ground perilous for me, because Marget had +evidently heard something and was determined to test it at first hand. +Behind the curiosity there seemed, judging by her tone, to be a fight +going on between friendliness and pique. It is a dangerous mixture for +a man to have to counteract in a woman, because, responding to the +friendliness, he may make admissions which increase the pique. + +Therefore I sought to give our talk a turn by saying, "Everybody seems +to know everything there is to be known about the Black Colonel's +escape, so there's an end of it--until next time." + +"But, Captain Gordon, although one knows generally, one may still keep +wondering--may one not? A woman always wonders; it is one of her +privileges, and often wonder is kinder to her than certainty." + +"Wonder, dear lady, is a hard thing to gratify, being illimitable, +like . . . ! + +"Like the hills," she caught me up, "when one is alone among +them--alone, or going to meet somebody in the dark of the night, or the +dimness of early morning." + +"It would depend on the somebody," I said boldly, facing her boldness, +"and whether it was a man or a woman that was to be met." + +"But," she said quite softly, "it must be a man that any other man +would be meeting in these parts, because . . ." She stopped abruptly. + +"Because what? Tell me!" + +"Nothing; only that every man needs to be mothered by a woman, a charge +which any good woman, young or old, will instinctively assume, even if +she knows that it may be only a cross for her to bear." Her voice was +low, almost a whisper, may be a first whisper of the mother of men in +her, a revelation to all women, come it when it may; and that thought +kept me silent. + +We had, by this time, reached the Dower House, and she said +"Good-night," and I answered, as simply, "Good-night." + +What I really said to myself was, "Philandering, was I, instead of +soldering, on the night the Black Colonel was raided--that's the story +she's heard!" + +And I was concerned, strangely concerned--like Marget herself. + + + + +_VI--The Finger of Fate_ + +Here I was in a double tangle of private affairs, for I had the Black +Colonel's designs upon Marget Forbes to handle, and I had her mistaken +notion of my doings to disperse. It was a drumly outlook for one whose +chief equipment was honesty of purpose, with, I am afraid, little of +the arts of human diplomacy. + +Marget had all the woman's acute anxiety when a man's act seemed +hidden, or, at least, uncertain, even if he was no more to her than a +kinsman. It is from those delicate things that half our troubles +spring, because, as between man and woman, they cannot be explained in +words. They must be left to reveal themselves, and meanwhile they may +destroy sweet possibilities or gracious relationships. + +My difficulty with the Black Colonel was still more complicated, for it +was as if a hair-rope of many strands, such as the Highlanders made, +enwound us. We were public enemies, sworn to causes which could have +no dealings with each other. Yet we had met secretly; and though that +mattered little to him it might easily ruin me, or, at all events, my +military career. + +But, may be, I could remove that danger by a simple report to my +superiors saying what had happened. Could I? No; I could not, for a +woman's reputation was, all unknown to her, engaged in the affair, and +that takes us directly to Marget Forbes and the Black Colonel's designs +upon her name and estates. + +I knew he would not stop at the sending to me of his letter, and +getting no immediate answer, which was the course I had taken, if only +because his last throw with affairs was involved. Therefore I looked +for some further act, and, having regard to the difficulty of personal +meetings, and his amiable weakness for writing, as something in which +he excelled, I was not surprised when it came in the form of another +dispatch, also borne secretly by the vagrant Red Murdo. + +We actually had an old clanish knowledge of each other, this fellow and +I, because, although he was a Farquharson, the croft on which his +people dwelt was near the Gordon estate of Balmoral. We had played +with each other as boys, for the feudal system of the clans was +communal and democratic. It was, to take one illustration, customary +for the sons of chiefs to have foster-brothers adopted from the +commonalty, companions in peace time, comrades and defenders in war +time. + +When then, Red Murdo, who had been lurking in a peat-moss near Corgarff +Castle, surprised me, out-of-doors, one day, it was with the friendly +salutation, "Good-morning, Captain Ian." + +"Hullo," I said, "isn't it dangerous for you to be here again?" + +"Not when it's to see you, but I wis gettin' weary waitin' in this damp +hole, an' the Cornel, he'll be wonderin' why I'm no' back." + +"Well, my friend," said I coldly; "I won't keep you from him." + +"But, I've a word to say to ye for him, and something to gie ye. I'm +to say that he expects to hear from ye in satisfaction of his letter. +But if you need remindin', will ye study, as conveyin' his feelin's and +intents, a plain copy, made by him, which I've carried in my sporran, +of my Earl Mar's known epistle to the first Jock Forbes of Inverernan, +near by Corgarff." + +With this mysterious message haltingly said, as if the Black Colonel +had drilled it into his man, which was, no doubt, the truth. Red Murdo +held me out a crumpled sheet of paper. + +"Tak' it, sir," he added, "an', as advice from a humble man who wishes +ye no ill, obleege the Black Cornel if you can, or he'll be tryin' +other means. You an' I ken him, Captain, ken him weel, I'm thinkin', +an' it disna' dae to neglect him, as I've found mysel' at various +times." + +It was a famous and familiar document with which I had been served, or, +rather, with a fair copy of it, in the Black Colonel's best round-hand; +but its use by him to convey his sentiments and intentions to me was +quaintly original. Here was he, framing himself in the words of +urgency and high consequence, which the Earl of Mar, when that nobleman +was raising the "Standard on the Braes o' Mar," flung, like a fiery +cross, at Jock Forbes of Inverernan. You will perceive the lordly +egotism of the Black Colonel when I give you the missive, as I read it +myself, with its new, intimate and individual bearing, immediately Red +Murdo had disappeared. + +"Jock," it opened, "ye was right not to come with the hundred men ye +sent up tonight, when I expected four times that number. It is a +pretty thing, when all the Highlands of Scotland are now rising upon +the King and the country's account, as I have accounts from them since +they were with me, and the gentlemen of the neighbouring homelands +expecting us down to join them, that my men should only be refractory. + +"Is not this the thing we are about which they have been wishing these +twenty-six years? And now, when it is come, and the King and the +country's cause is at stake, will they for ever sit still and see all +perish? I have used gentle means too long and shall be forced to put +other means into execution. + +"I have sent you, enclosed, an order for the Lordship of Kildrummy, +which you are immediately to intimate to all my vassals; if they give +ready obedience it will make some amends, and, if not, you may tell +them from me that it will not be in my power to save them--were I +willing?--from being treated as enemies by those who are ready soon to +join me; and they may depend on it that I will be the first to propose +and order their being so. + +"Particularly let my own tenants in Kildrummy know that if they come +not forth with their best arms, that I will send a party immediately to +burn what they shall miss taking from them. And they may believe this +only a threat, but by all that's sacred, I'll put it into execution, +that it may be an example to others. + +"You are to tell the gentlemen that I'll expect them in their best +accoutrements, on horseback, and no excuse to be accepted of. Go about +this with diligence, and come yourself and let me know your having done +so. All this is not only as ye will be answerable to me, but to your +King and country." + +Straight writing enough! And that was why the Black Colonel had sent +me the historic epistle, laughing in his sleeve, I had no doubt, at the +slim originality of his method. He was for gentle means, if he could +so win his ends and Marget, but if they answered not, then, like my +Lord Mar with Jock Forbes of Inverernan, he would be "forced to put +other means into execution." While I was the immediate target for his +threat, I quite saw that the Black Colonel was aiming at a larger prize +behind me. + +But what could he, a "broken man," a fugitive from justice, the justice +of the Hanoverian though it was, do to compel anybody to his schemes +and ambitions? That was to forget his place of notoriety, which gave +its own power, among the people of the Aberdeenshire Highlands. +Whenever, in going about the hills and the valleys, I met a simple man +of the soil he would touch his bonnet in salute to me, never to my +uniform, and, after a little, remark in his soft Gaelic, "So the Black +Colonel is still defying you all--a tremendous lad, isn't he?" This +would be said with a gleam in the eye, to give it delicacy, a bearing +of personal courtesy which I did not miss because I was liked for +myself, and we all like to be liked for ourselves. + +You will apprehend by now, perhaps, that I knew my Highland men, +whether I found them digging peats in the moss, or gathering in their +skimp harvest of unopened corn, so that it should escape the hungry +grouse and the coming winter. They were wholly kindly, as follows from +simple living, generous in their narrow outlook, and yet strongly +individual. They had, as a people, character, which is the noblest +gift of the gods, for everything else depends on it, and hardly +anything can be achieved without it. + +They took a pride in the Black Colonel, as one of themselves, and in +his deeds as a fighter who, on many occasions, had reversed the saying +about being willing to wound but afraid to strike. He had, they +admitted, wrong ways at times, and if these could not openly be +defended, still they were almost forgiven a man with his back to the +wall where a shot, or a stab, might find him any day or any night. + +Withal, too, he bore about him a touch of romance, a gallant +atmosphere, and your Highlander, loving to sit on a stile and look at +the sun, will pardon much for that. Thus there was a general sympathy +with the Black Colonel, which he could draw upon either as a veil to +conceal his doings, or for active help, and it was this knowledge which +caused me to be apprehensive. + +For, though thirty years had passed since his lordship of Mar +peremptorily wrote to the chief of Inverernan, our Highland life had +not changed vitally. The same rude passion ran through it, as like +mists hung over the Slock of Morvan and the gaping chasm in the side of +Lochnagar. Civilization remained primitive, love and hatred could run +high on the ebbing Jacobite tide, and the common round was still very +much what a strong hand could do and a weak one could not do. +Affections and hatreds bloom even more strongly in times of ordeal than +in times of tranquillity, perhaps because the moral reins governing +them have grown worn, and so become slacker. + +It should be said, however, of the Scottish Highlands, that the chiefs, +at least, those of the northern ridge of the Grampians, were humane in +their doings, even kindly, and certainly they were never fond of taking +a clansman's life on the gallows-tree. Their whole code was against +that ignoble death, unless when an enemy had played them unfair, or a +vassal had proved himself traitor, and then they swiftly slipped a life +to the other world, holding this world to have no use for it. + +Possibly, too, they found the sight of a corpse dangling from a tree +uncanny, a vision armed with threats which made them hold their +hangman's hand, for, while crafty enough, they were superstitious to a +degree. They let the gallows-tree stand grim and expectant on the +hill-side, a terror to foes and a clan discipline, and, when necessary, +found a way to their desires by the short dirk or the long sword. + +Moreover, at the time of my writing, we were between the immediate +butchery of Culloden, a red and rueful business, and the insecurity of +tenure in life and home, which was to follow. It was a rough marking +of time, when national elements were in the mill, as well as those +which go to the chronicle of the Black Colonel, Marget Forbes, and +myself. + +Here was I, on the edge of such happenings as assail one when he finds +subtle intrigue on the one side and innocent misunderstanding on the +other. It is always hard enough to manage such elements, but let them +get out of hand and a miracle is needed for salvation. Also you have +to find the miracle, and I composed myself to search for it in the +little things, the natural things of the situation. They have a knack +of conducting you to the heart of a problem, if you will only have +simple faith and follow them, and be not otherwise, which is +presumption. + +Faith and miracles go hand in hand, in story as in fact, and when one's +mind, working rapidly, if unconsciously, has got an issue down to a +point where it can be expressed in a word, a decision has been taken. +If it be a human decision, the hills, which grow strangely mothering +and kind to their people, seem to know it, for they talk to each other +of everything but their own secrets; and they knew that I had decided +upon my course of action. + + + + +_VII.--A Parley and a Surprise_ + +You must ride with fortune if you expect to win many of her favours. +Like a woman, she sighs to be courted, even if she fears to be +captured. She likes adventures for themselves, and may be good to you +if you give her some. But the man who lets her ride by alone, or with +somebody who has already bridled her, and then goes out in pursuit, has +a long chase before him. + +My affair with the Black Colonel was both private and public, and thus, +in a two-fold sense, the right policy was to take the offensive. Yes, +I would tell him bluntly that there could be nothing between us on the +matters he had raised, and that it was war to the dirk, with such an +eventual issue as God might will. + +This was my decision, and it seemed to me that, as an officer and a +gentleman, I must intimate it to him at first-hand by invading his +retreat, the Colonel's Bed, over there in Strathdee, near his Inverey. +Singly, and alone, I would seek the Black Colonel in his den, +honourably shake myself clear of his dark overtures, and tell him to +cease his designs. + +If I were to read this chronicle as remote from its occurrences as you +may do, I should, probably, toss my head and call that a quixotic +decision, but I have enough pride in being a Gordon, to wish that I may +stand fairly with the future, in small as in great matters. Therefore, +I beg you that you put yourself in my place, bearing in mind the +difficult conditions of the time in the Scottish Highlands. + +A man needs a stout heart, a clear head, and a sure hand, to hold his +own in a welter of interests and antagonisms such as beset me. The +eternal instinct in a full man is to get through, to achieve, to live, +aye, and to love, thus making life a great, clamorous thing not a mere +existence. So concluding, I took the first occasion by the hand, with +what personal risk there might be, and made across the rugged bridge of +mountain which both binds and divides the Don and the Dee, to interview +the Black Colonel. + +My mood was less heroic by the time I had done the miles of scarped +hill, clinging moor, and lifting wood, with bridle-paths for roads, +which took me to the locality of the Colonel's Bed. Where it was +exactly I did not know, but he had friends around who kept him +informed, and I counted on meeting one of them. Then I could send a +message to him, saying I desired to speak with him privately, and he +would guess the rest. + +Things fell out like that, and I was bidden to rest in a Highland +shieling, squat of form, thatched with rushes, floored with earth, and +eat a bannock and drink a bowl of goat's milk, while my message went +forward and an answer returned. Perhaps two hours passed, and I slept +a little, for I was tired, before that answer did arrive by the eternal +Red Murdo. + +To be sure, I would be made welcome by his master, but I must not feel +offended if I was blindfolded during the walk to the Colonel's Bed. +This request, courteously put by Red Murdo, showed me the situation I +had invited for myself, but, having gone so far, I was not to turn +back, and I said, "Very well." He tied a coarse tartan scarf of +home-spun wool, which he wore himself, tightly round my eyes, so +tightly that at first it hurt a little, and we started for our +destination. + +We had a rough, difficult track, all up and down again, to follow, as +my feet discovered, with no sight to guide them. But Red Murdo, a +study in loyalty to his chief and in consideration for me, supported me +sturdily, and I broke no shin on the many rocks strewing our road. + +I was wondering if we should ever arrive, when I heard the rush of a +stream almost beneath us. Instinctively I stopped, as one does when an +unseen danger is near, but Red Murdo said, "It's a' right; we're near +there." Next I felt as if I were walking in a cave, for there was a +peculiar hollow echo to our tread. Then the tartan scarf was removed +from my eyes, and, opening them, I saw the Black Colonel holding out +his hand. + +"Glad, Sir Visitor, to see you," he said, "and such hospitality as this +poor place can offer is yours." + +I took his hand, without holding it, bowed stiffly, and sat myself on a +chair made of birch branches, to which he pointed. It was, apart from +an equally rude litter-bed and a rough table, the only furniture in the +refuge. This I saw by the light of a fire of broken wood and peat +which burned slowly in a corner, where, apparently, the smoke found +some channel of escape, because it drifted slowly upward in spirals. + +My feeling had been right, for this was a cave, or, rather, a tunnel, +worn in the course of centuries by the stream which had now deserted +it, to flow lower down. Above us, as I judged, rose the side of a +small hill, and immediately without there would be a sheer drop to the +departed waters, whose noise soughed like a strong wind among pine +trees. + +It was a retreat made by Nature in her chance moods, and used by the +Black Colonel at that straitened time of his life. Probably only he, +Red Murdo, and a few others actually knew he was there, though he had +boasted that many did, and I should know no more than that I had been a +visitor to the Colonel's Bed. And yet I should probably know a good +deal more, for otherwise why was I there? + +Anyhow, after the previous hour or two of tensity, it was a relief to +be face to face with my man, I able to read his, if I could, he able to +read mine. It was only in the grey half-light of his hole in the +rocks, but, at least, we should look each other in the eyes, as men +wish to do when they are acting honestly towards each other, even if +later they must fight. + +You are quick, at a drawn moment, to seize the picture of a man, to +sound his being, and the Black Colonel, as he stood there courteously +attentive, intelligently alert, made a picture which vouchsafed a clear +personality. He would have been something ripely over thirty, but ten +years of adventure and philandering sat lightly on him, and he looked +even younger than he was. A dark man keeps the freshness of youth +well, until it begins to go in the greying of his hair, when it goes +quickly; while a fair man grows middle-aged soon, but fends off old age +well, or, at all events, the look of it. + +The Black Colonel was dark entirely; dark of skin, or rather olive, as +you find men and women among a Celtic people; dark of eye to the point +of a scowl, behind which, however, there was a well of mirth; dark of +hair and dark of beard. His hair he wore long, not being always within +reach of scissors, and his beard had that silky texture which comes of +never having known a razor. + +Once, as the story went, he asked Red Murdo, so-called for sundry +reasons besides his tousled red hair, to shave him with the sharp edge +of a dirk. The experiment began so ill that it never actually began at +all, and the Black Colonel had a virgin beard in which he took a due +conceit--why not? He thought it manly, where, perhaps he was right, +and he had learned in France that women thought it manly, so he was +doubly right. + +The Celts, wherever found, are not generally tall, and the Black +Colonel was a pure Celt in body as well as in nature. He was +upstanding, bore himself easily, was clean in line and tough of frame. +True, he was long of the leg, among a people who, having to climb and +descend hills constantly, are, in the providence of fitness, +short-legged, but he was all of a part. The kilt tests a man's figure, +bringing out any flaw in it, and the Black Colonel's stood the test +admirably. + +Moreover, he had that physical quality peculiar to the Celt which you +might call elasticity, for it is comparable to a mountain ash which +bends but does not break. There was, too, a fineness, a delicacy about +him, such as proclaims a race which has dreamt dreams and lived with +the wild glories of Nature. You cannot make common men of her +gentlemen, and her women are music to the French chanson, "It's love +that makes the world go round." + +None knew this better than the Black Colonel, a Highlander with that +venturing air which goes to a woman's heart, because she fondly wants a +man who will give her the gamble of danger, and yet be strong enough to +save her from herself? You might say that he was born for quest and +conquest, what with his suavity of tongue, his grace of manner, his +roguery of eye, and his fame as a great lover. + +But I was keeping him waiting and I had no desire to do that, so I +said, "You may suppose that I am not here very willingly, that it is +only duty which brings me." + +"Not official duty, I hope," he answered, with an acid emphasis on the +words. + +"No; I simply want, as between Highland gentlemen, to tell you two +things: first, that I return you, point blank, your overtures touching +our kinswoman, Marget Forbes, and her estate; and, second, this being +done, that I, as an officer of his Majesty's forces, will unrelentingly +discharge my commission, as best I can, next time we meet, be it soon +or not so soon." + +I fired out the words as if I had been loaded with them, which, truly, +was the case, but I felt, somehow, as if the shot had not gone home. +It had no outward effect on the Black Colonel, who turned the peat +ashes of the fire with his brogued foot, and looked at the little spits +of smoke and flame which flew up. Evidently he was not so unprepared +for my ultimatum as I had expected, but I had delivered it, and the +rest was for him. + +"Captain Gordon," he said, putting his hands behind his back and +looking hard at me, "I appreciate the sense of personal honour which +has brought you here. You felt you must clean the private slate +between us, before you were free to write what is to be on the public +slate. You wanted to give due declaration of war, and you have done it +at close quarters, which is the action of a Highland gentleman. But, +Captain Gordon, haven't you begun at the end of the story, instead of +at the beginning?" + +"I am only concerned with the end of the story, although I have +probably been foolish in thinking that I must myself bring you news of +it." + +"No honourable action is ever lost," he rejoined; "and, however events +go, I'll always put this to your credit in the account between us." + +"Thank you," said I, laconically, and he moved as if my tone had stung +him, which I did not intend, because even in a war parley one may be +correct--courteous. + +"What I wished to say," he went on, "is this: isn't there a way out of +our affairs which shall be creditable to you, nay, to us both, and, at +the same time, be in the public interest? Can't this private +relationship into which we have drifted, thanks to circumstances, be so +managed that it shall be fair to you as a soldier of King George, as +well as relieve me from my difficulties?" + +"Surely, Jock Farquharson," I protested with warmth, "you forget your +place when you, an outlaw by decree, the doer, by admission, of many +wrongs, presume to make terms with a King's officer, even in his +private capacity." + +"Strong words, my young friend," and he laughed in an airy tone that +stung me; "strong words don't belong to youth, but to the years when +the blood grows sour. You say outlaw! Why, yes and no; I am a loyal +subject of the King--the King over the water! You say I'm a cateran! +Well, I do no more than tax my enemies for what I need, and I need +little, holding as I do by the simple life, especially as no other is +open to me." + +"This," I said stiffly, "is neither the rendezvous nor the time for +high-flown sentiments, especially if they have no sincerity." + +"That," he added, "would be a windy business, and here the die is far +too serious to be played with, anyhow for me. Let us get down to the +humanities, which are the final element in solving a problem or leaving +it unsolved. There need be no personal bitterness between us; merely +we are in antagonism in politics and war, for the two count together +just now." + +"You are unusually modest to eliminate yourself like that," I cut in, +thinking of the Black Colonel's record, but only striking his Highland +pride. + +"If it so please me," he said almost angrily, "I can afford to be +modest, for I have done things. I come of good blood; I bear a name +which is old among the hills; I have carved my way to a colonelcy under +the Stuart flag, where promotion, like kissing, has often gone by +favour, yet sometimes by merit. The Prince himself, when he gave me my +rank, called me the Black Colonel in compliment to my beard, which +nobody has ever singed. The Black Colonel I remained when the Stuart +army melted in the bloody furrows of Culloden, and in truth I have, and +need not deny it, left my name in many quarters. I took it with me +when I sought the safe retreat of my own corner of the Highlands, among +friends, and I submit it with pride to you, Captain Ian Gordon." + +He was aflame between wrath and egotism, and I was afraid the contagion +might catch me, which was the least desirable thing, because there lies +the road to a losing cause. But, next moment, he laughed and said, +"No, no; temper beseems neither high nor low, being kitchen work. You +are sensible enough, Captain Gordon, to let a full man have his talk, +and I have not finished yet." He thought for a moment, as if he +expected me to say something, but I only got up from my somewhat hard +seat, as if preparing to go. + +"Not yet," he said; "stay a little, because, since you are here, it +would be a pity if anything remained unclear between us. I gather that +you see no course for it but open war, that you refuse the road of +solution which my proposal about the Forbes estate opens out. Might I +ask why you are so unsympathetic to that idea, which would serve every +interest?" + +"I am," I declared hotly, "neither a matchmaker, especially for +adventurers, nor a scheming politician, and on both grounds I decline +to have anything to do with you. Your insistence compels me to speak +with a plainness which I would rather have avoided, but you must blame +yourself. It's a far cry to Loch Awe, and a farther cry to the pardon +of the Black Colonel, but he thinks it might be contrived if he had +Marget Forbes and her property for a trump card. A pretty scheme, but +not one which my commission for King George instructs me to +countenance." + +Now I, in turn, had gone aflame, despite all my resolve to the +contrary, but if I had spoken the name of Marget Forbes it was, I tried +to reflect, as if it had no intimate meaning for me. That would have +been to blunder doubly, because it would show me personally, nay, +intimately, interested. + +The Black Colonel had been silent, and, when I ceased talking, I +noticed a strained, even a queer, look in his eye. Was he counting up +some element of the game which, thus far, was unknown to me? For when +the minds of men rub fiercely against each other, as ours had been +doing, they speak quicker than words. A kind of communication springs +up, vague of detail, but unfailing in its general import. + +I was not surprised, therefore, when the Black Colonel put his hand +within his coat and drew a paper from a pocket there. But I was +surprised when he said, "I have something here which I owe to the +favour of my friends in the south, and you will find that it bears upon +our conversation." He unfolded the paper slowly, I seeing, as he did +so, that it was an official paper, and then he handed it to me. + +It was not easy to read, in the dim light of the Colonel's Bed, thanks +to its crabbed orthography and its long formal phrasing, but gradually +I made out its wording to be this: + + +"Greetings: + +"Whereas, trusty and well-beloved councillors advise it in the interest +of our cause in the Scottish Highlands, that influential gentlemen who +have been Jacobite in sympathy, and even act, be won over to Our +Settled Sovereignship; + +"Therefore it is ordered that they shall, wherever possible, be +installed in the headship of houses and estates kindred to them, which +have been forfeit and estreated, all on strict condition of loyalty to +Ourselves and our Crown for ever; + +"And this wisely considered and, in our graciousness of heart, clement +policy, shall, we instruct, apply to John Farquharson of Inverery, +commonly called the Black Colonel, if, and when, he is able to +implement its essence in reference to the Forbes estate of Corgarff in +the far uplands of Aberdeenshire, where we wish to be loyally regarded +by our subjects. + +"In token of all which foregoing greetings and intimations on our part, +herewith witness our royal signature. + +"GEORGE REX." + + +"You understand?" said the Black Colonel, as I lifted my eyes from the +document and handed it back to him. + +I nodded, mechanically, for I was thinking--thinking chiefly of Marget +and myself. + + + + +_VIII.--The Conquering Hero_ + +It is unbelievable how the sweet face of a lass, or her soft figure, +with its air of passion song, will come between two men and make any +great affairs of state dividing them, seem as nothing by comparison. +The Black Colonel and I would hardly, as individuals, have quarrelled +about Stuart and Guelph, knowing well the value which Stuart and Guelph +would have put on us. But with Marget Forbes as prize it was another +affair altogether, for, in her, a whole bouquet of calling qualities +united. + +Her heart, so far, was all in the open joy of living, though in the +troublous times which surrounded her and her family, she found burden +enough of sorrow. She was a flower of the heather, opening late, like +it, but perhaps with the same red, rich bloom, for it was not hard to +divine that elements of high possibility were enclosed in her young +womanhood. It gave you, for all its simplicity, a sense of latent +treasure, when it should fully open, even, it might be of surprise to +herself. + +Seventeen! they say, when girlhood is trembling, quivering on the +portal of womanhood, a world of mysteries. But it is not half so +dramatic as twenty-five, when a woman, if she be rightly healthy in +mind and body, comes into woman's estate, feeling, desiring, some +earlier, some later, but roughly then. Peril is there, as well as +beauty, for then all the Margets in the wide world are pulling at the +silky bonds of sex, thinking these will stretch and stretch, only to +find, perhaps, that there is a strain at which they must break or +surrender. + +If the insurgency of newly-found womanhood can be fitly employed all is +well, but remember that most women are, in thought, rebels for romance. +Nature, too, runs fullest in the veins of those who live with her +naturally, aloof from the veneer of society. Nature is lusty in +Nature's lap, and she mothered our Corgarff without let or hindrance, +in sun and in snow, Marget Forbes included. + +You are to suppose a region far removed even from such a niggard +commerce of life as there was then in the Scottish Highlands. It is +sixty miles from the warming salt-wash of the sea, and has winds nearly +as cold as those that blow from the Arctic. This is because it stands +high, and is so bare of trees that they blow unbroken over its area. +They catch you with their ice tang in them, untouched by long, +sheltering woods, or soft, rolling dales, and they make your face +tingle into red and white, the blushes of Mother Nature. + +That is the winter, when the land is often covered with snow, and the +little burns of the hills are frozen into snake-like icicles. If the +picture is hard, it is nevertheless beautiful, looked out upon from the +comfort of good clothes and a full stomach. It invites you to explore +it, to follow that far track ending on the snow-line of Morven, or yon +other, which dips and is lost in the riven sides of Lochnagar. The air +sings through your lungs with the force of strong drink and makes you +hearty. You feel monarch of all you survey, even if it be not worth +having, which is the most stirring feeling a landscape can yield. + +Nor would there be much to divide your monarchy; only a chimney, +reeking blue into the grey sky, from a fire of peat, a few sheep, or +some hardly [Transcriber's note: hardy?] cattle turned out in the +height of the day to gather what scraps of food they might, a pair of +wandering red deer at the same hard game of finding a living, or a +hare, grown bluish-white for the winter-time, to resemble the friendly +snow, scampering off before the snap of your foot on the heather. When +the rigour of winter lies upon the land, men and women can do little +but keep their beasts alive, and themselves sit round the fire, passing +the slow time of day with what gossip may be made. + +We froze within the old walls of Corgarff Castle, for they were time +and weather worn. Gales had beaten them, snowstorms had driven at +them, and rains had lashed them, until they were corrugated with +furrows and hollows, like the face of an ancient man. It is curious +how age, whether in a face or in a building, takes on the same +milestones of hollow and hillock, to record the march of time and the +dents in a soul. + +But come the summer in Corgarff, and the far-flung ranges of hill lose +their white severity and assume the kindlier mantle of sprouting +heather and green grass; the ptarmigan flies back to its heights above +the snow-line, content with the thin picking and the splendid peace +which summer there provides; the red deer no more falls hungrily upon +the lower pastures, with the roaring fight gone out of the stags and +the hinds left bleating to their own company, like so many widowed +women of the wild. + +Instead, the thin sheep of the clansmen, each with its owner's brand to +identify it, wander forth to the common grazings, glad that the bloom +of living is on Nature again. That brings a panorama of scenery which +lights the eye and braces the heart and mind, hills which run into +mountains, mountains which run into the skies, all proclaiming the +splendour of God. + +Now, I have tried to tell you this, not very well, perhaps, because our +surroundings in life have much to do with our actions, and the two sets +of circumstance must be comprehended together, especially in a sparsely +peopled countryside. You unconsciously take your dispositions from the +atmosphere, and you cannot be certain always where you may either begin +or end. Thus a simple Highland ball which we soldiers organized at +Corgarff Castle, to while away a night, and be a token of friendliness +towards our neighbours, developed a deep import in my true story. + +It was natural for me to smooth and sweeten, as far as I could, the +relations between those in formal authority whom I represented, and the +local clan-folk. To that end I organized this dance in the ancient +Castle, and made it known that anybody and everybody would be welcome. +Any misgiving I had about the response, was balanced by my knowledge of +the Highland fondness for dancing. It has been in the Celtic blood +from the beginning of time; and gillie-callum, over the swords, the +throbbing, squeezing, square reel, the sultry Highland Schottische, and +the rest of the figures, will last until the last trump sounds the last +morning. + +You dance for the joy of life, if you are born in a land of the sun, +and in a land of cold you dance for the joy which springs from warmth. +It is a primal expression of feeling, and the Scottish Highlanders have +always had beautiful dances, and danced them well; dances with the +music of sex in them, though they might not admit it, or did not know +it. Religion and dancing have often been the only things in their +lives, apart from the common round of fighting and working, when they +cared for work. Thus, my ball, though it might be an affair of the +enemy, had a subtle call to the Highland blood, especially in the women. + +My first invitation was to Marget Forbes and her mother, because, if I +could only persuade them to be present everything would be well. Let +the ladies of the ancient great house come, and there was no reason why +the commonalty should stay away. The times had been sorrowful for +mother and daughter, as the black they wore betokened, but, I wrote +gently, "We must let the dead bury their dead, and try and build some +bridge on which the living may meet." + +So it was arranged that Marget, the young chieftainess of the Corgarff +Forbeses, with her mother, should open the ball. This news was out a +week before the event, and we soon learned that, as I had thought, we +should have a good muster of guests. I took my soldier men entirely +into my confidence, and they grew keen to make the dance a success, +being kindly fellows and open to softer adventures, as well as the +other kind. + +They were collectively to be hosts, and whoever crossed the doorstep on +the night was to be received without prejudice and with all honour. +Everybody should have what we could give to eat and drink, and when +they set home again it would be from a warm welcome and a sincere +good-bye. Ah! if I could only have foreseen one acceptance of that +general invitation to the countryside; but I didn't, and how could I? +Men are not gods in wisdom, and how dull life would be it they were; +how dull especially for their women-folk who, thanks be, are not always +angels, except of light, and even they know how to darken the radiance. + +The famous night came, and in good time came also Marget and her +mother, with their small group of servants from the Dower House. Our +largest room, where the dance was to be, a sort of hall of the Castle, +was filling with robust Highlanders in tartans, and with their +women-folk in their best gowns. Personally I felt easy and happy when +I shook Marget's hand, saying, "It is kind of you to help me, and +perhaps between us we are doing good." Then I conducted her and her +mother to seats on a low platform at the further end of the room and +quietly ordered the dance to begin. + +A brace of fiddlers, seated in a corner, were scraping their catgut +into tune for the music, while, outside, a piper was playing a Highland +gathering. The Scots bagpipes yield their real melody in the open air, +and only then, and to me, from a little distance, they sounded loud and +rarely that cold star-lit night. The piper's business was this +overture, and presently, when it was completed, he would march in, as +grand as you like, and pipe us the first reel, in which Marget, I had +fondly thought, was to be my partner. Oh, everything was very well +arranged, and nothing happened as had been arranged, which is, perhaps, +the peculiarity of life, when we reflect on it as a perpetual drama. + +Presently I heard a slight commotion, as if something had happened +unexpectedly, and then the hoof of a horse stamping the ground. The +sea of heads in the room, pulled by curiosity, bent towards the door, +and I realized that some surprise was approaching. + +At that moment the piper, a Forbes man, to whom the honour of playing +had been given, struck up his reel and strode in upon us. He was big, +broad, imposing, with his kilted figure, and he seemed to halt, in +order that we might admire him, for a good piper and a peacock are +vain; but this was merely my fancy. What I saw, immediately following +him, was no fancy but staggering truth; it was the Black Colonel! + +Yes, the Black Colonel in full Highland regalia, bowing and nodding to +the people about him, who courtesied back with an easy homage, for they +knew him instantly; the Black Colonel as large as life, eminently +pleased with himself, taking possession of the place and the occasion, +as if he were a conquering hero coming into his own; the Black Colonel, +Jock Farquharson of Inverey, a chief among the men of whom it has been +written that: + + "Brak loose and to the hills go they." + + +If I was stunned, the piper was not, for he walked up the room with a +deliberation which the quick step of his tune did not warrant. Behind +him paced the Black Colonel, and as he came nearer to myself and the +ladies, I saw them turn as if to ask me whether this was in the +programme. So far, the Black Colonel had not let his eyes catch ours. +He gave himself to the crowd, as a well-graced actor gives himself to +the house when it applauds him. He had the music on his side, too, +for, at the platform, the piper stepped aside into a corner, still +blowing hard, and this brought the Black Colonel full to the front, +immediately beside us. Thereupon he slowly bent in salutation to +Marget and her mother, while everybody watched and waited, wondering +what was to happen now. + +"Ladies," he said softly, but distinctly, "I hope that if to-night I +have come unbidden by our friend, Captain Gordon, I am not unwelcome to +you, aye, and even to him. We are all kins-folk, and I wished to +manifest a kindly feeling by joining in this meeting. I also desired +to make fuller acquaintance, than has hitherto been possible, with two +kins-women who have suffered hardly in times which, let us hope from +the promise of this gathering, are about to be forgotten. It would +show my boldness forgiven if I might open the ball with Mistress +Marget, for Captain Gordon, as host, will wish to conduct her mother." + +Again the Black Colonel bowed, as if he were master of the situation, +which, in fact, he fully appeared to be. Confident and gracious, he +offered Marget his arm, and she took it mechanically, such being the +force of suggestion, exercised by a strong man's mind, especially with +many eyes looking on. Mechanically, also, I held out my arm to +Marget's mother and, while our small world still wondered, I found +myself in a foursome reel with the Black Colonel. But he was Marget's +partner! + +He talked merrily to her when the drowning music would let him, even +though she scarcely replied, being still in the custody of his +surprise. He was out to please, and he undoubtedly was handsome, or, +at all events, striking in his tartans, and he danced perfectly. Why +deny it, even if it had not been patent to every onlooking, wondering +eye? He made a mightily fine picture, and he knew it, though he did +not spoil the picture by showing he knew it. + +Marget was in a simple black gown with a ruffle of white French lace at +her neck and a flush in her cheeks. Her black hair was twined +naturally about her head, which she carried high, so I told myself, as +if in defiance of the Black Colonel, while she had to be his partner +and prisoner. She glanced at me once or twice with an amused twinkle +in her eye, thinking, I suppose, of her bold capture from the host of +the evening, my unlucky self. Some women are a blessing, others keep +you guessing, somebody will say, and Marget, I judged, even in the +whirl of that reel, could be both, if she cared to try. + +Quicker time the music made it, many a foot keeping stroke, and quicker +time we had to make it. You know the romp of a Highland reel at the +double, how it causes the blood to sing in the veins and the feet to +jig. Marget's mother had been a fine dancer, but, as she whispered to +me, she was no longer young. Marget herself had inherited all her +mother's ease and grace of carriage, and she had her own spirit and go. +The music and the motion caught her into forgetfulness of everything +else, and she danced with a grace and a swing which were bewitching. + +She had, again I was bound to admit, a complete dancing partner in the +Black Colonel, a fellow of natural and acquired accomplishments. He +had his clean ankles and elegant uprightness from his Highland +forbears, and he had got his polish of deportment when he was among the +English Jacobites in France. The result was that he danced all of a +piece, with as near the poetry of movement as a man might attain, and +then there was the intimate, intriguing ripple of his tartans. + +Myself, I was quite a good dancer, but, if I may be my own apologist, +not so showy a dancer as the Black Colonel. While I could hold my own +with most men in the Highland dances, probably surpass many, I could +not fill a dancing floor as he did, with his natural air of drama. A +woman who herself dances well, sighs for a fit partner, but give her in +that partner a personality drawing a general homage to them both, and +she is twice blessed. After all, she is a woman, with the woman's +prayer for attention, for being, once in a way, the centre of a +picture, as she is on her wedding day, the Day of Promise, whatever +follows. + +An early episode in the life of the Black Colonel had associated him +with the rollicking "Reel O'Tulloch," a dance originated in Strathdee. +His people had gone to church, so went the tale, but, the weather being +wintry, no parson arrived. Seeking warmth, they began to blow on their +hands, then to shuffle with their feet on the floor, and presently, +when somebody fetched a fiddler, this broke into a reel. A bottle with +inspiration in it was brought from the change-house near by, and faster +went the music and faster grew the fun. + +When young Jock Farquharson, hearing of this, came on the scene, the +"Reel O'Tulloch" was being danced "ower the kirk and ower the kirk," +and voices cried: + + "John, come kiss me now, + John, come kiss me now, + John, come kiss me by and by + And mak' nae mair adow." + + +One of the guests at our later, different dance, in Corgarff Castle, +must have remembered this, for suddenly there was a sort of "soughing" +of the song, then a singing of it, and it was positively roared out by +the assembly when the music stopped and the dance ended. I understood +the application and the invitation which were intended, and I caught a +look in Marget's flushed face, as if she also understood. Her mother +glanced at the roystering singers, then at the Black Colonel and, with +an apology for leaving me, went and stood beside her daughter, the +mothering instinct of protection called into action. + +"Thank you, Mistress Marget," I heard Jock Farquharson say, in his most +melodious tone, "you have been kind to me, and I will hope to thank you +again. And thank you, Madame," he said, bowing low to her mother, "for +letting me lift my head to-night, as it has not been lifted for long. +I shall not forget to be grateful and, I hope, to deserve your +good-will." + +Then he made me, the official host, a last, low bow with a mockery, +subtle but noticeable, in it, walked down the room, saluting and being +saluted on every side, and was gone. Our friendly ball, from which I +had expected so much, died away to the clink of Mack's galloping hoofs, +an unsettling rhythm. + + + + +_IX.--'Twixt Night and Morn_ + +They declare that if you are drowning, or otherwise at the crack o' +doom, your whole life's record leaps through your mind in an instant. +It may be so, Providence giving a man, however his balance-sheet +stands, a last chance to square it fair and well. + +Everybody being gone home, and I being alone, after our dizzy ball, I +felt that I had to count up the position. It needed no effort to +understand that the Black Colonel's purpose in invading me had been to +meet Marget and her mother, to impress himself upon them, all in the +interest of his designs. He had relied for safety upon the temporary +state of neutrality which the ball carried with it, and he had come, he +had seen, he had--what? So far my thoughts convoyed me. But my little +room in the castle with its cell-like windows, its low ceiling, even, I +would add, its sense of plain refinement, worried me, and I went out +into the night and the spaciousness of earth and heaven. Oh, for +freedom to breathe and think, and oh for it at that witching time when +night and day hold their bridal of mating among the Highland hills. + +It was the hour, in our altitudes, at which night sleeps her heaviest, +as if to snatch the last wink from the breaking morn. Nature was +superbly at rest, sloughing the worn trappings of yesterday, preparing +the shining armour of the morrow. It was the hour of creation, the +wonder-coming of a child into the world, magnified beyond imagining, a +tender life, very, very beautiful. It cried to my soul, seeking the +humblest companionship for its own great soul, playing upon mine with a +touch of incomparable delicacy. + +And yet, yet, the chief feeling was almost that of a paganism, of an +earth-smell and an earth-worship, of a giant awakening from torpor, +ravenous with hunger. It was all the grand savagery, the terrible +strength of Mother Earth, the Great Protector, from whose loins I had +sprung, but who is unspeakably awesome until you see her face in the +rising sun. Then the nightmare of the darkness which empalls her with +a cold sense of death, turns into a radiance as of gold and kindness. + +Ah! it was worth while to be abroad among the heather and the fir-trees +at dawn, for the virgin world, the pagan, freed from cerements and +found in the twilight to be a god, was all my own, mine to enjoy. I +think I know why primitive man, when he lived in lands where Nature was +wild and the nights were long, was a resolute pagan. No light, no +warmth of its torch, had he to set the fire of reverence in him +burning, and reverence is the footstool of belief in God. I think I +also know why the other primitive man of the south, dwelling in a land +of the sun, would be a sun-worshipper: because it gave him reverence +and drew it from him. + +We fear endless things when it is dark, the stoutest-hearted of us, +but, in the geniality of a shining sun, we have courage. The picture, +in ancient Greek legend, of husband and wife, one of them about to die, +taking a long farewell as the dipping sun-rays gilt Olympus at its +highest peaks, has often seemed to me a fine linking of the night of +paganism and the morn of sunlit faith. + +Odd thoughts to run in a man's head as he walked the dew-damp heather, +careless which track he took, conscious only that he sought a new +morning. But you do think strange thoughts if you have in you any of +the dreamy Celt and have been born and nurtured in the cradle of the +hills. They infect you, I will not say with second sight, though there +have been proved instances, but with their own moods, like a +soft-falling foot, which, in our spiritual pilgrimage, is the Foot of +Fate. + +My step lightly touched the heather, but, even so, my way was marked by +a disturbance of the birds and animals of the wild. A grouse ran with +a flutter and took wing with a cry, half in protest at being wakened +from its sleep, half in alarm at my presence. A rabbit rushed from a +sheltering hole in such a hurry that, as I could tell by its clatter +among the bracken, it nearly fell over itself, as rabbits clumsily do, +making fluffy, woolly balls of themselves. + +When there is danger about, Nature gives all her children of the open a +chance to escape by instantly warning them, and, in this, alarming +their instinct. My particular rabbit had scarcely run out of hearing +when half a dozen others were scurrying hither and thither in the same +expectant confusion. Poor little things! What a fluster they made, +and their scare communicated itself to a crow in a solitary fir-tree, +against which I nearly collided. He croaked, flapped his wings and +sailed off heavily, blackly, also anxious for safety. + +Now, by the sheer exercise of walking, I had spent my restlessness, and +the hill air had driven the blood from my head. Moreover, I grew +tired, for the road tells when you have to pick your steps in the dark, +over rough ground. So, coming upon a fir-tree root, I made a seat of +it, and waited for night to fully turn into day, a transformation which +came swiftly. + +We have all seen the first flicker of a piece of tinder, fired by a +beaten flint. It is like something come, only to go again, but +presently it passes into a stronger flame, and then into light. This +is the awakening of a Highland day, when the conditions resemble those +of that morning. + +The heavy pall of clouds, lying low over the hills, seemed to take +motion, for trifling rents appeared in them. The rents grew bigger, +and then the stars, which had been shining all the time in the welkin +above, began to look through those peep-holes. It was the sun setting +to work upon the earth once more, our side of the globe returning to +his rays and warmth. + +Slowly I looked about me, like one roused from a half-dream, seeing the +near things first, and, as the dawn grew, ranging for the far things. +Beneath me lay a glen pavilioned in the splendour of the rising sun, +and gilded with the praise of the hills. Browns and reds and greens +swam before my eyes into a radiant landscape, along which flowed the +water of Don, a ribbon of silver, whose surface the fat trout would +presently be breaking. Beside it wandered the road, on which, +presently, to my astonishment, I made out two figures. Who could they +be, there, at that time? + +When I left Corgarff Castle I had, out of habit, slung my spyglass over +my shoulder, and I set it towards the men. One was in the tartan of my +own regiment, the other in a tartan of darkish green with a red stripe +in it, like the Farquharson tartan. I made out, by their actions, that +they were quarrelling, so I started for them, and who do you think I +found? My own sergeant and the Black Colonel's Red Murdo. + +"What are you men doing and how are you here?" I asked abruptly, for I +was breathless, as well as surprised and angry. + +The sergeant's answer was a salute, for he had not time to speak before +Red Murdo was launched on a torrent of indignant words. He had, he +said, come over to the ball in attendance on the Black Colonel, as I +might know. He intended to depart with him, but had taken more of my +hospitality--stout fellow!--than he could carry, which delayed his +departure. Some of my men had old scores against him, old crows to +pick with him, particularly this sergeant, who, therefore, had followed +him, determined to have the quarrel out: "While I," quoth Red Murdo, +"only want to go quietly home." + +"What's the quarrel?" I demanded of the sergeant. + +"Well," he replied quaintly, "it does na' matter what it is, tho' he +kens, as lang's we settle who's the better man. He's up to every +dodge, but there's no room for that wi' only the twa o's here." + +"And what were you doing when I arrived? What was about to happen?" I +asked. + +"We were jist arguin' which was the better man," declared the sergeant, +"and I was na' goin' to leave it at that. A deceesion for me; he +beggit to be let awa'!" + +"Beggit!" broke in Red Murdo; "beggit anything from you, my man! Na, +na; I was beggin' you to return to Corgarff Castle in case something +happen't to you. You wid'na', as I tell ye, be the first red-coat on +whose hide I had left a mark. But I was forbearin', because I did na' +want trouble to follow Captain Ian's kindness in askin' us to the ball +last evening." + +Red Murdo glanced at me, as if he expected me to side with him, but my +thoughts were not yet for words. You can best hold a judicial air when +you say little, give no reasons, and here I had to be judge and jury. +For the quarrel, if it was carried to a violent end, might have +unfortunate results on the general peace of the country. It would not +do to have my sergeant killing Red Murdo in single combat, or Red Murdo +killing my sergeant, certainly not with me looking on. + +If you happen to know some legal jingle of words you can almost +certainly pacify the raw man of strife, by gravely reciting it at him. +Sheriffs, procurators-fiscal, bailies and others accustomed to take +oaths, and sometimes to say them, will confirm this curious influence +of formality. Partly it impresses, and it will surely confuse, and +then the subject can be led to a better frame of mind. + +So I thought of the oath banning the Highland dress, which, in the +unwisdom of our over-lords, exercised by right of force, a Jacobite +rebel had to take, before he could get a pardon. It had an official +place among the papers of my office, and there I had let it rest, but I +loathed it so much that its language had bitten itself into my mind. + +How this foully conceived oath had fired the spirit of a people proud +to wear their tartans, because of the Highland sentiment which they +clothed! But to use it to compass a private quarrel, to twist its +possible tragedy into healing honour, that was appealing! My sergeant +I must support outwardly, and my stratagem would secure this, without +putting Red Murdo in peril. He, probably, had a secret inkling that I +was searching for a way out, because he kept looking, looking at me, +even while he talked and talked. + +"You know the law?" I slowly addressed him. + +"Only like my master," he said, "by breakin' it." + +"You know that any man who has been in rebellion against his Majesty +King George may be apprehended on sight, tried, punished and executed." + +"If you say that it'll be so, but it does na' interest me; I tak' my +orders frae the Chief of Inverey, nae frae King George or his officers, +least o' all a mere sergeant." + +"Still," I went on, "you will perceive that he was doing his duty, or +what he thinks his duty." Red Murdo's look suggested that he thought I +was rambling, but I went on sharply; "and in the exercise of his duty +he is entitled to all the support of his superior officer." + +The sergeant's face beamed with approval, as if he had been discovered +in an act of great public advantage and was to be rewarded +[Transcriber's note: a line appears to be missing from the book here.] +that of Red Murdo simply asked, "What are you driving at?" + +"Now," I said, lifting my right hand in the manner of judges, "I am +going to administer an oath to you, and when you have taken it all will +be well and you shall go your way." + +"What sort o' oath," he asked; "what has it to do wi' me, who's only +concern't wi' the Black Cornel's oaths? Tell it to me, first." + +"Very well, listen," and with as much solemnity as I could muster I +repeated the words of the oath: + +"I do swear, as I shall answer to God at the Great Day of Judgment, I +have not, nor shall have, in my possession, any gun, sword or arm +whatsoever, and never use tartan, plaid, or any part of the Highland +garb; and if I do so, may I be cursed in my undertakings, family and +property; may I never see my wife and children, father, mother or +relations; may I be killed in battle as a coward, and lie without +Christian burial, in a strange land, far from the graves of my +forefathers and kindred: may all this come across me if I break my +oath." + +Red Murdo kept looking at me, mute, perhaps impressed; anyhow, he +presently asked, "What if I refuse?" + +"The penalties laid down by law," I told him, still solemnly, "are six +months in prison for a first offence and transportation beyond the seas +for a second." + +"A device o' the devil and King George," grunted Red Murdo, and I +should have been glad to agree with him, only I had to play the game +out. + +"Will you take the legal oath?" + +"Never. It's what I suppose the sergeant was goin' to cram doon my +throat an' he could, the same infernal thing. Never, frae you, or him, +or the pair o' ye." + +This was a turn I had not expected, and I was wondering what to do next +when Red Murdo said, "I'll tell ye what I'll dae. I'll wrestle the +sergeant which o's will eat a copy of that ugly oath, and that'll also +satisfy him who's the better man." + +The sergeant did not show an instant keenness for this challenge, but +it got me round a corner, and must be accepted. I declared to that +effect, and desired both men to get ready, saying I would be umpire. I +added that there should be only one bout because, secretly, I had no +wish to see them hurt one another. + +Red Murdo and the sergeant put their plaids, their jackets, their +bonnets, their sporans, and their brogues, in little heaps, with each +man's weapons above each man's things. Neither spoke, for action, +which naturally has the effect of sealing the tongue, had now arrived, +and I chose a level piece of sward where they might fall with +comparative softness. + +When I saw how nearly they were matched in physique, the spirit of +primitive combat in me began to be interested, to calculate who would +win. True to the fighting tactics he knew Red Murdo rushed to grips, +but the sergeant drove him off, and they manoeuvred round each other +for the next effort. It was pretty to see them, that bright morning, +with the whole picturesque valley for arena and I for the only +spectator of their prowess. Moreover, they were warming to the fight, +which was one between the disciplined strength and skill of the soldier +and the wild agility of Red Murdo. + +Those different qualities met so evenly that feint, and catch and heave +as each combatant would, the other remained unthrown. Once Red Murdo +got his antagonist by the waist, lifted him clean off the ground and +whirled him round like a totum, only to have him alight on his feet. +Once, also, the sergeant, by a supple twist of arm and leg, working +together, got Red Murdo half down and no more. Really it was a toss-up +who should win, or whether there would be a winner at all. + +My only ground of interference would be foul play, and although they +went at each other almost savagely there was no absolute act of that +kind. But the strain was telling on both men, for they took no rest, +and hardly waited to get fresh breath. The sinews of their legs stood +out like whip-cord, their chest heaved like bellows in distress, their +necks were scarlet with the tumult of the blood there. Only the +unexpected would make a victor or a loser, and the unexpected did not +happen, as it does sometimes. + +Red Murdo tried a last torrential rush, but the sergeant withstood it, +and they merely locked themselves together. Nay, they were now so +exhausted that they could only hang on to each other for support, a +spectacle which brought me to their side. Their bulging eyes stared at +me with the pleading look which a horse has after being driven too far +and too fast. When I divided them by a touch of my hand they both fell +to the ground like logs and so lay. + +Honour was satisfied, the hated oath of the kilt had not to be eaten by +anybody, and I was glad. + + + + +_X.--The Way of a Woman_ + +Between you and me, I fancy that the average, natural woman likes to +think any man who is after her a bit of the devil. It makes her pulse +beat, if not her heart; it gives a fine spice to the pursuit, and she +is confident there will be no capture, unless she wills it. Anyhow, I +was not going to help the Black Colonel in his schemes by holding him +up as a hero of that order, and he would have made the comment that he +needed not the service from me. + +Marget Forbes and I had fallen into the pleasant custom of lending each +other such books as came the way of our remote land, and I called at +the Dower House to leave her one, a newly imprinted volume entitled +"Robinson Crusoe." I did not seem to wish to make meetings with her, +though I was glad of them, so I chose a time, the mid-afternoon, at +which she and her mother usually walked out. However, Marget was at +home, and she called to me from the parlour, would I not enter and rest +a minute? Necessarily I must step inside to say I would not wait, and +necessarily I found myself sitting down near her. + +"Mother," she said, "is on her weekly round among the sick and old, to +whom a kind word from her is like gold, of which we now have none to +give. Usually I go with her, but to-day she would have it that I +looked tired, and she bade me stay indoors and rest. I'm glad you +called and brought me a book, especially this wonderful 'Robinson +Crusoe,' of which I have heard vaguely, and which they say is founded +on the adventure of a Scotsman, Alexander Selkirk. You are always +thoughtful, or shall I say sometimes?" and Marget looked as if she +expected me to understand the qualification. + +Was it a reproach that I did not come into her company often enough; +was it a playful invitation to do so oftener; or was it the woman's +primal instinct, old as Eve in the Garden of Eden, just to tease the +man? I scarcely asked myself those questions. They ran through my +mind with the kind of physical impulse which you feel in the presence +of the possible woman. You are aware, then, of feelings and shadows of +feeling which cannot be expressed. There is something in you which +goes on speaking to the something in her, and you let it speak, glad, +wondering, expectant, never sure, never sorry. Odd, isn't it, this +language of sex which says most when it says nothing by speech, which +needs not speech, because it is spiritual, though springing, maybe, +from the call of the blood. + +Marget had been reading, and when she invited me in, and I went, she +put the open book face downward on a little table, beside a half-made +sampler. She saw my eye wandering to the volume, a mere mechanical +curiosity on my part, and she picked it up with a laugh, saying, "There +is no need to hide those pages, unless it be that they are dull." + +"What is the book all about?" I asked idly. + +"It is a French romance," she said, "in which a lovely heroine treads +her way through an endless maze of difficult paths and a brigade of +villains to what, I have no doubt, when I get there with her, if ever I +do, will be endless wedded bliss. It is an over-sentimental story, for +the French young girl, but, then, one must try to keep up what French +one has, because it is a delightful language." + +Marget had learned it as a girl in France, for she had lived there a +while, seen something of the Stuart Court over the water, of the Court +of King Louis also, and even heard the passing rustle of the skirts of +"the Pompadour" and Madame du Barry. Already the breath of a freer day +to come was blowing across that fair land, and her stay in it +definitely influenced Marget's character, ripened it quickly on broadly +beautiful lines, without hurting its pure scent of Scottish heather. + +Hospitality was a duty as well as a pleasure in every Highland home, +and, after our trifles of a few minutes, she rose and went to give some +order. When she returned she said she had a small treat in store for +me, and it came into the room almost with herself. What do you think +it was? Why, tea! + +It was a beverage then almost unknown in the Scottish Highlands, but +Marget's family, as she said, had at intervals received packets of it +from their friends in the south. Those gifts were hoarded as if they +contained treasure, and only dipped into for very special reasons. + +"It flatters me," I remarked airily, "to think I am a special reason, +because that must come near being a special friend." + +"Oh," quoth Marget, "but you are an official enemy, so how could you be +a special friend? And still such things are possible, you know, but I +shall not tell you how they are possible. You would not understand a +bit"; and, as she spoke, her eyes and hands were arranging the +tea-table. + +"I should, I assure you, try very hard," said I, "and it would be odd +if I did not succeed, with a dish of tea for stimulant. I don't +remember when I tasted tea last," I added laconically, as Marget poured +it out of a quaint old pot into dwarfy cups of French mould. Most of +the dainty things, the bric-a-brac of households in the Jacobite +Highlands were from France, just as we had come to say "ashets" and +"gigots" of mutton, and generally to graft French cookery into our +Scottish meals, for the "Auld Alliance" had various harvests. + +As we talked over the tea-cups, Marget and I, I thought how quickly in +that Nature's cradle of Corgarff she had ripened to woman's estate. +She had, at times, been in touch with the artificialities of social +life, but they had not dulled her free, strong character. She had +drawn her instincts, as she had drawn her blood, from the long hills, +and she had no self-consciousness to dim her lights. But when I rose +to leave she said merrily, "We have spoken much foolish nonsense, have +we not, Captain Gordon?" + +"Wise nonsense, Mistress Forbes," I answered. + +"Thank you, but wise nonsense is most becoming when it is expressed as +a parable." + +"Then let us have the parable." + +"Oh! parables are not in fashion with so many hard realities about, and +there should not be three people in one. Three's never company, they +say, good company, even in a parable." + +"Then, dear lady, why put in three?" + +"This parable, dear Captain, would need three; first, a high-minded +young man who wears arms and dreams dreams, who is beloved by everybody +for his good nature and qualities, who is on the other side of where he +would be most welcome, and who will probably never summon courage to +get there; secondly, an older man of more picturesque, more risky +qualities, an adventurer in love and war, never afraid to strike, even +if the stroke might wound, a personality able, on occasion, to +commandeer what could not be secured by affection, thanks to an +understanding of woman's nature and the imperfections of man's +government; and, thirdly, between those personal forces a woman who +might, to her undoing, be captured by the force of family and state +circumstances, instead of by the man of her tell-tale heart's desire." + +"A very subtle parable!" I remarked, for no reason whatever, but the +tone of it held more than this banality, although she showed no heed of +that, but remarked: + +"No; a very common parable; it's what every woman knows by instinct or +experience, if few would care to reveal it, even in a parable." + +We said good-bye without more ado, and I set off for the castle, +troubled for my unreadiness in woman nature, the most puzzling, +calling, captivating skein in all the universe, because it holds, +behind the silken veil of its treasure-house, the eternal mystery of +creation, that something divine which is nearest to God Himself. + +When in trouble, my trouble, anyhow, one sighs for a song, and my +heart-quaking carried me to a ballad, very familiar in our countryside, +which tells of an unbridled lover laying siege to a woman he covets. +Her men were absent, and she and her domestics were the only garrison +of the castle when he knocked roysterously at its gates: + + "The lady ran up to her towe-head, + As fast as she could drie, + To see if by her fair speeches + She could with him agree. + + "As soon he saw the lady fair, + And her yates all locked fast, + He fell into a rage of wrath, + And his heart was aghast. + + "Cum doon to me, ye lady fair; + Cum doon to me; let's see; + This nigh ye's ly by my ain side + The morn my bride sall be!" + + +It was pagan wooing, but it has often won the day, only why should I +let it disturb me, whose cause stood by itself? What I must realize +was that powers above me were at work, for "state reasons," on affairs +in which I was concerned, privately. I must try to meet this influence +without letting as much be known outwardly, because I was an officer +bound by my commission to serve his Majesty's desires and commands. + +Now I am no good schemer, and I merely drifted to those conclusions as +a swimmer goes with a tide in which he happens to find himself. He +feels that he is in its custody, but, on the instinct for life, he +makes a stroke now and then and their cumulative effect probably bears +him somewhere safe to land. Might it be so with me! + +Unfortunately I was a swimmer in the dark, for I did not know, however +I might guess, what Marget and her mother were thinking. Perhaps my +heart really assured my mind as to Marget, or so I was fain to +conclude. Her mother, however, might take a mother's view, the +far-carrying view which thinks of daughters settled in such a manner as +will continue the old line. + +Every man has, deep down in him, the desire to own a little bit of +land, even though most of us only get six feet for a grave. It is +man's form of ancestor-worship, and in woman it finds expression in the +home, and continuous olive branches to fill that home. The man likes +to have his foot securely on a rood of Mother Earth, a patch to call +his very own. The woman supplements that by peopling a house; and is +not this service of the maternal instinct the greater, the finer of the +two? + +One placed in circumstances which need strong action, should not think +too much, because by doing that he raises a wall of difficulties around +him. Mental ghosts are no use to anybody, although, to be sure, they +weren't unknown to me. So I welcomed a letter that reached me next +morning from Marget's mother, but I opened it with a dread. It +addressed me as "Dear Captain Gordon," and it read: + +"I am troubling you for advice, because there is nobody else whom I can +ask, and because the matter may interest you, both as a relative, far +removed I admit, and as a soldier of the reigning king. You will guess +what it is, and that makes it easier for me to explain. + +"It has been made known to us in a round-about, but authoritative way, +that it would give King George and his ministers satisfaction to see +our house and people established again, and that Jock Farquharson, the +laird of Inverey, would be confirmed in the chiefship, if as much were +agreeable to my daughter and myself. + +"They don't ask me will I give my daughter in ransom for the house and +possessions of our ancestors, but that is what is meant, and you can +judge how the idea has concerned me. You may also, however, concern +and interest a mother at the same time, and I have hesitated to return +a 'No,' especially as Marget said, about the letter, when I showed it +to her, 'Well, the sons of the house have sacrificed enough for it. It +may now be the turn of the daughter to sacrifice something . . .!" + +"That was dutifully said, but what she expects, I'm certain, is that I +shall say the 'No' of my own accord, and I want your advice as to the +manner in which it can best be done. I want it at once, because news +comes to me, through the early channel of our domestics, that the Black +Colonel means to ride over upon us one of these evenings, a friendly +call, I suppose. Marget does not know of this intention on his part, +and I am not going to tell her, for a mother's instinct naturally +wishes to shield a daughter from disturbance. + +"If you would advise me how to say 'No' without bringing further +displeasure from high places upon our ruined house, you would be doing +us a service. If, besides that, you were to find a means of keeping +the Black Colonel away, why, you would be doing a further service." + +As I read that last sentence an idea struck me, and I at once sent a +note to the dear lady, saying I would solve her difficulty. Then I +dispatched a pair of trusty scouts in quest of certain information I +needed, and in eight hours they were back with it. After that, I felt +more myself than I had done for some time, just because I was now +committed to definite, perhaps even dangerous, action. + + + + +_XI--The Crack of Thunder_ + +It is fine how the spur of danger, especially danger to somebody else, +dear if not near, helps a man's spirits upward. The blood flows more +quickly in him, his hand is surer, his brain works better. He feels +that the die has been cast, that nothing more matters, except the +reckoning, and, so feeling, he sheds all timorous self-consciousness +and is himself. + +That, at all events, was how I felt as I took the road southward, +across the hills towards Deeside, with a cracking wind to walk against. +I would intercept the Black Colonel's raid on Marget and her mother, +and break the whole scheme behind it--if I could! + +So we scheme, we glorious little fellows of this world, bent on love or +hatred, and the Great Beneficence smiles at us, at our cleverness, or +it may be the Great Furies, however you will have it. Anyway, Nature +has merely to move and our grandest plans may crinkle up like a feather +held to a "cruisie," the rude lamp, fed with dried splinters of +fir-wood, or mutton tallow and a wick, which our Highlanders used for +lighting. + +But that was not in my thoughts when I came to the top of the last hill +dividing our strath from the Black Colonel's. My estimate was that if +I got there by break of day and waited I should, being in a high eyrie +with a wide view, see him come from the opposite direction. My +information from my scouts was that he would travel alone, a fit thing, +having regard to his mission at the Dower House, Corgarff. + +Tired and hungry, I looked about for a rock which would shield me from +the wind, and got out my fodder. It consisted only of "whisky bukky," +oatmeal rolled with whisky, not delicate stuff to eat, but easily +carried and sustaining. Haggis is better food for the march, because +it is tastier and still harder to digest, so even more lasting, as the +Highlanders, for whose war sustenance it was, perhaps, invented, knew, +but on leaving Corgarff Castle I had just taken what I could lay my +hand upon. + +While I ate I half-marvelled at the splendour of the scene about me, +half-rehearsed my catechism with the Black Colonel, when he should +appear. I would put it to him as a gentleman that he must not intrude +upon the Forbes ladies, and, indeed, must frankly abandon his designs +there. If reason failed, then we might be driven to solve the knot by +a single combat, as the custom of the Highlands permitted, and, indeed, +sometimes ordered, very much like the duel in the land of France. Why +not such a combat, because the test was an honest if barbaric tribute +to plain manliness? Give me that rather than the snivel, the chicane, +the shake-you-by-the-hand and stab-you-in-the-gloaming, which passes by +the name of diplomacy, high diplomacy, I believe. + +The tradition of single combat went back into the very mists of time in +the Highlands; and merely the form varied. There was Cam-Ruadh, the +early red-haired man of tradition, who, fallen prisoner among a batch +of hostile "kern," or outlaws, was offered his liberty if he could make +so many good arrow-shots. He drew and drew, with much seeming +innocence, on the arrows of his captors, and wove a circle of stabs in +the ground about the target, but never did he hit it; oh, no! + +They jeered at him when he came to the last arrow possessed by the +company, saying he had better reserve it for himself and save them the +trouble of making an end to him. Instead, he sent it, as he could have +sent the others, straight into the middle of the target, and flew there +almost with it. Before the outlaws could realize the logic of events +he had gathered all the arrows under his arm, put one to the string of +the bow and cried, "I am Cam-Ruadh, who never misses, never before +until now, and you who are without arrows had better take leg-bail," +which they quickly did. + +Nearer in time was the duel of valiant Donald Oig with the chief of a +band of "broken men" who had a grudge against him. Donald was a famous +swordsman, and the chief had no active relish to try skill with him. +But, again, it was the custom of the country, and the invitation could +not be refused if the chiefship of the "broken men" was to be held, +because here was a test of both courage and honour. + +He was a slim fellow, however, this head raider, one with the false +doctrine, as ancient as human nature, that if you succeed it matters +little how. When, then, he and Donald Oig stood up to fight he +exclaimed, "Shake hands on it, first!" But he gripped the extended +right hand hard, intending, with it thus prisoned, to strike a foul +blow and close, in his own favour, a duel which had not begun. Swift +of instinct and eye, Donald saw this, caught out his dagger with his +left hand, and stabbed the foul fighter. The rest of the "broken men," +being witnesses of it all, had nothing to complain about, and Donald +went his way. + +While my thoughts wandered like that, and I ate and, from my pocket +flask, washed my dry eating down, the weather changed with a swiftness +familiar enough among the Scottish mountains. The heavens passed +behind a veil of drifting clouds, through which the sun flared in red, +angry bursts. The elements had declared hostilities, and when I looked +down into the valley, two thousand feet beneath me, I saw a great +thunderstorm on the march, the very panoply of havoc. + +It moved as if it were an army going to war, with scout-like horns +thrust out in front and on either side. These were constantly shot by +fangs from the mass of lightning in the clouds, themselves a hell of +angry colours, There was the inky black of the outer sheath, next a +seam of half-black, half-orange, then a depth of iridescence which +constantly changed its hues, and, finally, a molten pot boiling and +rolling in august wrath. + +Ah! it was a spectacle to watch, those thunder-clouds come through the +glack, or rift, dividing the falling hill on which I stood, from the +rising one beyond. Down in the valley ran a stream and a track used by +cattle-drovers, and, as my eye went there, I thought I saw a tall +figure. Certainly, for he looked up and, during a moment, we were both +silhouetted in the radiance of light which the thunder-clouds, now +massed into one huge bank, drove before it. If I saw that solitary +figure it was likely he would see me, as we were the only living things +in the landscape, and like turns to like, even making mutual +communication, although witchcraft was the word for that then, and the +mention of it dangerous. + +Presently the terrific cloud ate up the spot where I had seen the man, +for its base was in the valley and its top above my altitude. Never +had I beheld such a thunder-cloud, but it was awe, a worship of the +forces of Nature, which filled me, not fear. Why should I, a young, +healthy man, with good nerves, be afraid, since the excessive tumult +was below me, and I was a privileged spectator. Quickly, however, the +cloud must burst, and then the sluices of heaven would indeed be open. +How would it fare with myself and the figure lost in the valley? + +That thunderstorm and the consequent flood became events in our local +history, and to me a quick personal adventure. The rain came down, +first in a thick shower, then in torrents, finally in sheets. The fall +was so solid that it seemed to half-scotch the lightning and half-dull +the roar of the thunder. Actually, for I record truly, the drops leapt +up again in splashes as they struck the ground beside me, and in an +instant I was soaked, though that was no unusual experience in our +adventurous climate. + +The thunder-cloud had now taken command of the whole firmament, so +swiftly had its violence of contagion spread. Here, verily, was a +rainfall on a great scale, and as it settled to business a sort of +darkness spread over the land. I must seek shelter, and I would find +it on the levels rather than on the exposed heights. + +Therefore, I started for the valley, picking my way as best I could in +the black deluge. You will scarce believe me if I again tell you that +the rain-water ran down the hill-side with me, inches deep. It took +gravel and stones with it, and scoured away the bedding of large rocks +which, thus released, joined in the downward plunge. Some folk thought +it was the Flood of the Bible come again as prophesied, and, at all +events, the comparison gives a notion of it. The stream, which I had +seen an insignificant stripe below, met me, a roaring river. Its +waters had already overflowed the whole valley. Now you only saw the +tops of hillocks or trees, for all else was a gurgling waste of waters. + +Over those waters came a cry which caught me, even in my sorry plight, +because it was human. Wild birds, beaten to the ground by the storm +and then engulfed in the waters, were screeching as they drowned. +Hares and rabbits, and a fox, wherever he came from, all went past me +on a floating tree, and they were squealing for mercy, not from each +other, but from the elements. The other sound I had heard, however, +was quite different, and I listened for it again. + +Ah! there it was! And as I bent to the level of the flowing waters and +looked towards its source, I saw a man marooned on one of the hillocks +which the flood had left unsubmerged. Evidently he had seen me first, +for he was waving his hands and making signs with them. He was in keen +alarm about his predicament, but method governed his alarm, and it was +for me to discover it. + +Clearly he was a prisoner on the island, in so far that he could not +wade or swim through the roaring dam which divided us. Clearly, also, +the water was rising by miraculous draughts upon the rain, and soon his +refuge would be drowned, and he swept from it. What was to be done by +me to save him, for action must be rapid? + +He was beckoning up-stream with a meaning. Searching with my eye the +meeting-place of land and water, I saw what looked like a boat. Where +could it have come from? There had been an old broad-bottomed craft, +used for fording in spate times, on a pool a mile or so up the glen, +and the flood had brought it down and thrown it ashore. Could I get it +afloat, navigate it to the perishing man, and rescue him? + +No sooner said than done! Not at all; things don't happen so, at +least, when anything worth doing has to be done. It took me a toilsome +journey to the boat, and I found it half-full of flood-water. This I +emptied by hauling the boat, as the river rose, on to a shelving rock. +Then I waited for it to float free, having meanwhile got hold of a +long, fir sapling, which, pruned of its branches, I thought to use as a +guiding pole, helm or oar, as the rushing of many waters might demand. + +Thus equipped, out I sailed on that uncharted ocean with never a +thought in my head whether I should again see dry land or riot. The +darkness had deepened, but I could still distinguish the hillock and +the man thereon, now up to his waist in the waters, and for those +fading signs I steered. Quickly I was in the flood race, but I kept my +head, otherwise I should not have heard the voice come to me again in +what seemed to be the words, "Hurry! For God's sake, hurry!" + +Down-stream I rushed, here shoving from disaster against a tree trunk, +there avoiding a smash with something else. How it was all done I have +not the remotest notion--perhaps it was mere luck--but when I came +level with the hillock I was only three feet clear of it on the near +side. + +"Jump," I roared, and the man with outstretched arms jumped strongly, +and I felt a pull which almost upset me, for I had been standing in the +boat. Two hands had caught the gunwale, and the pull of dead weight +swung the heavy, clumsy craft round on a new course without, however, +upsetting it. This took us into shallower waters, and presently the +suction of the main surge got fainter and we were aground on the +moorland edge. + +I had not, in the dark, seen the face of my companion at all, and, +trailing beside the boat, he had no opportunity for making himself +known. I stepped out, knee-deep, to find him also a-foot, and seeking +the land. + +"Come on," I said, "whoever you may be." + +"Yes," he answered; "whoever you may be, you are a friend in need." + +I recognized his voice, and exclaimed, nay, shouted in my surprise, +"Jock Farquharson!" + +"Yes, Ian Gordon," he said in turn. "Would you rather not have saved +me?" + +"God's will be done," said I. + +"Amen!" said he. + +Dramas of life do end laconically, like that, as death often comes by +casual side-steps. + + + + +_XII--Raiders of the Dark_ + +A man does something in a natural way and it takes the world's ear and +is called heroism. Another man does a like thing, to all purpose, but +the world does not listen to it, or, anyhow, sings him no praises, all +of which we try to explain by saying "Luck." + +It is natural for a man to show courage in extremes, for a woman to be +loving, self-sacrificing. Every now and then the Great Bookkeeper +records an example for the common good; and the rest are a lost legion. +We do not know why, and if we did what good would it do us, though the +curiosity for knowledge is inbred, like inability, sometimes, to use it? + +News of my rescue of the Black Colonel from the flood got about, and I +was acclaimed as a hero of sorts. He, I fancy, for his own ends, +fathered a glowing account of what happened, and as it passed from +mouth to mouth it grew in glory. He meant to be grateful, and his +gratitude took that form. It was his airy way, for egotism, even when +it is not dislikeable, must ever carry its possessor into the picture. + +Perhaps he also thought to please me, and thus to win a point towards +his larger ends, for I knew they would, in no wise, be modified by what +had happened. By them, as he saw his case, he had to stand or fall, +and thus, in this reasoning, he had no choice at all. His bonds, in +that sense, were entwined with coming events, which do not necessarily +cast their shadows before, anyhow when they are events of the heart. + +Now, my secret hope for the Black Colonel, the inner prayer which I +hardly whispered to myself, was that he should escape his troubles as a +rebel, by going away to the foreign wars, and there make a new name. I +thought I might help him out of the country, even if it had to be at +the risk of my commission. He would be welcome wherever he found a +British camp across the sea, and no questions would be asked. Truly, +there would be need to ask none, because his repute as a fighting man +among the Jacobites had gone far and wide. By-and-by he could return, +when the feuds of Stuart and Guelph had died down to the dross they +were, though they had made a bloody toll, and sit in the home of his +fathers, not merely unmolested, but honoured by both sides. + +I am not going to pretend that my own inclinations were not behind this +plan, for they were. Why should I seek to hide them, even from the +Black Colonel himself; a hopeless thing to try, anyhow. He had one +scheme for getting back to the world, and it struck bitterly across my +path. I offered him another, which would attain his end, and if that +were so, why should he not take it and thank me? I was not +ill-disposed to him personally; certainly well enough disposed to help +him--to help me. When were we to make the reckoning? + +He was seeking to live up to his new pretensions as a head of a clan, +and he had to find the wherewithal on which to do it. The consequence +was that he used Red Murdo for taxing the country in the matter of his +necessaries. If somebody, early some morning while it was still dark, +awoke to ask the question: "Are you come to harry and spulzie my ha'?" +it would most likely be Red Murdo who gave an insolent answer. The +fellow, in fact, got swollen upon the little plunderings which his +master ordered, until he was hard to keep in hand. But this, again, +suited the Black Colonel, because, to push his claims, he found money +handy, there being always smaller fry of the other side of friendship, +who have hungry purses, or none at all. + +So Red Murdo, flown as he was with a lowly man's pride, which tends to +an unbalancing, must launch upon an expedition of no common sort. It +embellishes a ballad of which only two lines come to me as I write: + + "There's four-and-twenty milk-white nowt, twal o' them kye + In the woods of Glen-Tanner, it's there that they lie." + + +Beyond what the lines tell of a bold piece of rieving and spulzy by +Jock Farquharson's henchman, and done for him, I need not trouble to +instruct you, because the event only leads into our chronicle as by a +tributary wind. When there is a mystery, and you cannot fathom it by +direct evidence, you are driven back on motives. They are, in fact, +the nut and kernel of what lawyers call circumstantial evidence, a +fitting together of suspicions which have made the coffin of many an +honest Highland rebel. + +I sought to keep my soldiers as unseen as a not over-great distance +from Marget and her mother at the Dower House would permit. Naturally +the Hanoverian uniform was a sore sight for their eyes, and even a +personal grief, in that it recalled dear ones who had perished on the +losing side. My desire to spare them was known to my men, who, in the +same spirit, would often walk a mile round not to show themselves to +the desolated inmates of the Dower House. + +But it was essential, if anything unusual were to happen there, that we +should know, since it was part of our charge to protect Marget and her +mother from perils incidental to an unsettled country. Therefore, I +had a private understanding with an old retainer of the family that he +was to hasten to me, should protection at the Dower House ever be +necessary. + +This he was to do quietly, before giving any general alarm, as that +might not prove necessary, and also because I remembered an old +Highland wisdom, "Never cry fire, unless you want the heather to +catch." Its bearing, as you will grasp is on strifes and feuds set +alive, not on the actual burning of heather, which is done to let +grass, for the sheep beasts, grow without being choked. + +Well, on a night which I recall for its dense blackness, there came a +tap, tap, tap, three of them, slowly and distinctly, at the small +window of my room in the Castle. I knew by the method of the +disturbance that it was not an accident, but I was on my feet and +peering hard into the outer darkness before I realized that here was +the prearranged signal of danger at the Dower House. + +A hand moved close to the window, signalling me, and I motioned back, +though, on either side, all this was divined, as divination takes place +in the dark, rather than seen at all. I picked up my sword, which +always stood in a certain corner of my room, pulled the door gently +towards me and stepped softly out on to the grass, which grew close up +to the Castle walls. + +"Come ye, fast, Captain Gordon," quietly said a figure gliding beside +me, and without another word we made for the Dower House. When I felt +myself beyond ear-shot of the sentry, I asked: + +"What's happened--what's wrong?" + +"I'm no' exac'ly sure," was the old retainer's answer, "but men hae +been surroundin' the place, as if to attack it. They wakened me, bein' +a light sleeper, because they made sounds different fae' the ordinary. +It was like men crawlin' amon' the grass on a plan, and I slippit doon +for you." + +"What had we better do?" I asked formally, and not because I expected +any answer, for I had decided to get into the Dower House without +alarming anybody, if that could be done. + +We managed to open a window and step through it, but then the dogs +sleeping inside set up an alarm. This quickly awoke everybody, and the +confusion set affairs moving outside, where I heard a voice that seemed +familiarly like Red Murdo's cry hoarsely: + +"Lie close, lie close!" + +Presently Marget and her mother, who had both dressed hastily, came to +the stair-head, holding a glimmering light over the darkness beneath. +Behind them crowded their few scared domestics, and odd the whole scene +looked, although, indeed, between keeping off the barking dogs and +wondering what was to happen outside, I had no desire or time to study +it. + +"Who's there?" called Marget, in a not uncomposed but expectant voice, +and I answered, telling in a few words what I knew. Quick in thought +and action she thanked me for coming, and said she would just get her +cloak. She took her mother with her, but in a moment was back again +asking, "How can I be of service?" + +She carried a stout walking-stick, and I looked at it as she came down +the stairs to where I stood in the lobby, her mother following. "Yes," +she said, "my hand lighted on it somewhere, perhaps because it has been +through troubles and wars and is in the presence of more. Shall we say +that the fighting instinct, even in a stick, leaps to the call?" She +laughed quietly, but with a concerned note in the laugh, and I knew she +was thinking of her mother's safety and health, both threatened by this +strange incursion of ill-disposed men. + +Wishful as one would be at such a moment to magnify a trifle, in order, +if possible, to occupy an anxious woman's mind, I remarked, "Oh, a +stick can be a very sound weapon in a good hand." + +"It's about all that the orders of search and suppression have left us +Jacobites," remarked Marget; "openly confessed, anyhow, for I suppose +there may be a small, concealed arsenal or two, even among our Corgarff +hills." + +Nothing, apparently, had happened outside in those tense minutes, and +it was the strain of waiting which made us resolutely talk of +nothing--but a stick. There had been no further cry since the "Lie +close" already mentioned, and it, no doubt, had been a mischance on the +part of Red Murdo. All was silence and black without, and within all +quiet alarm, such as you get when a household suppresses itself in +obedience to some demand. + +It was an oppressive silence, this waiting, and I was glad to hear +Marget tap the floor with her sinewy hazel and say merrily, thinking to +lighten her mother's concern, "My grandfather insisted that a stick +with a nob was no stick for a Highland gentleman. It escaped, he would +say, when it was most needed, and that might, at times, leave the best +of Highland gentlemen by the wayside." Joking, under difficulties! + +She paused, for there arose a crack-cracking as of men coming closer +among the scrub of heather and fern which surrounded the Dower House, +only it was quite momentary. The stick which she had half-lifted, an +unconscious act of readiness for defence, tapped back on to the floor, +and my sword-point made a sharper rattle, though I was unaware that my +hand had even moved it. The tyranny of doing nothing began to be +intolerable and to insist on an issue, be it what it might. + +Think of the situation for me, and although I am, I hope, neither more +selfish nor more cowardly than other men, I could not help doing that. +Here was I, the chief and head of his Majesty's garrison at Corgarff +Castle, standing defence on the door-step of a Jacobite household. Why +was I there at all? What was I there to accomplish? How was I to do +this unknown something and return with composure to my quarters, secure +in my loyalty to King George and his ministers? + +Moreover, what had I come out for to see? A mere expedition of +burglary by a band of hungry caterans who took the chattels of friend +or foe indifferently? Possibly that was all. Then I could have +fetched half-a-dozen soldiers and apprehended those same footpads, or, +at all events, driven them to the hills again. But at the head of what +defensive force did I find myself? Why, a few domestics without +resource enough even to escape from the danger, a dear old lady who +anxiously wanted to mother the trouble about her, and a young woman of +nerve and resolve, my only stand-by. + +There, for it was a new discovery in our relationship, I realized that +to have Marget by me was a very welcome comradeship, and, somehow, so +natural, that it made the other things of no burden. I was curiously +happy, and could have left matters at that, but what to do, what to do? + +There must, in all of us, be an instinct for our keeping, when we are +in danger. Give it headway and you will probably win through, as a +thirsty horse knows how to reach a springwell among the hills. Argue +with it and it says, "Take your reasoned method, your road of the +better judgment, but don't blame me, your natural guardian, if you come +to harm." + +With this I got the strong intuition, possibly communicated to my mind +or heart by Marget's nearness, that here was no ordinary raid for +spoilage. Something else of a personal and intimate sort was behind, I +was sure of it, something to which acute danger attached for my dearest +wishes. + +When you are, in small authority, set over the people of a locality, +you are apt to develop a small official mind which obscures the power +of seeing, understanding, divining. Such an attitude, as I had +painfully seen in various parts of the Highlands, fretted the great +sore of defeat that lay upon the Jacobites, whereas the effort should +have been to heal it. My own mind I had tried to keep fresh and free +in all my relationships at Corgarff, impelled, may be, by a nature +which liked, possibly out of vanity, to give sympathy. From this and a +mute speaking with one near and dear, I now had my personal reward, for +I understood. Marget was the trophy sought in this dark raid, and she +was to be the Black Colonel's trophy. + +"Action, front!" I said to myself, in one of the drill-book commands. +Offence is always a soldier's best defence, although it is a sailor's +phrase, so I would go out and make a reconnaissance from the back of +the Dower House. This should cause the invaders to show themselves, +and might, if they thought the move stood for any force, even alarm +them into a quiet retreat, which, for several reasons, was what I most +desired. + +Quickly I told Marget of my intention, and the need for it, and asked +her to remain on guard where she was. She answered briskly, a woman +determined to be brave and not a burden, that nobody should enter the +place without feeling the weight of her grandfather's stick. She +added, and here came in the other woman, that I was not to be long +absent. This touched me sweetly, for it showed that Marget was +thinking less of her own safety, or, at the moment, even of her +mother's, than of mine in the night outside. Honestly, I went dancing +from her side with a wine of joy in me that I had never tasted, for she +had shown that I was something to her, perhaps more than something. I +might have been drunk, and if I had I could not have been more lost +than I was in the darkness behind the Dover House, because it instantly +swallowed me up. + +There is a darkness to which, after a little, the eye so accustoms +itself that it can see trees and rocks and even faces in contour. +There is another darkness which seals the eyes and numbs the mind and +even weights the feet as with lead. This was that night's darkness, so +pall-like that I was simply lost in it. + +Nevertheless, calling up all my sense of locality, and feeling the way +lightly with my bare, ready sword, I started to make a circle of the +Dower House. Ten, twenty, thirty, forty cautious steps, with my +sword-point probing the way, and it touched something soft and +yielding. That something a-sort of whimpered, as a dog caught poaching +would, or as a man might who felt a quick pain. A sword-prick stings, +and the something leapt erect and with a curse turned at me, when I +instinctively fell on guard. Another sword struck at mine, my blade +slid up this other, caught in the handle and wrenched it from the +unseen hand. The weapon fell among the bracken, but my man thought +more of getting away than of looking for it, so he doubled round a tree +and was gone. + +Evidently I had struck the investing circle, and I went on cautiously, +but never another figure did I perceive, though, before me, ran many +soft noises of as many retreats. Finally there was a suppressed rush +away, and with that I arrived at the front door of the Dower House to +hear a mother's cry of distress, "Marget, Marget! oh, Marget, Marget!" + +"Where is she?" said I anxiously. + +"She grew alarmed for you," answered her mother more anxiously, "and +went out, although I tried to keep her. Hardly had she gone when I +heard a smothered sob, and then there was a hustle of feet as if she +were being carried oft by force." + +There was a boding of ill in her cry, like a coronach, and the +domestics took it up in sympathy, as Highland women will. "Marget! +Marget! Mistress Marget!" rose the cry, and we became aware that all +the inmates of the castle were stirring to it. But never a response +came from Marget, never a token from the raiders, and it was forced on +me that she and they were both gone from us. + +We called on her, and searched for them until the dawn came, but only +found the sword which I had encountered, and I knew it as one the Black +Colonel had long worn, and then, when he himself got a better, that +with the "S" for "Stuart" on its handle, had given to Red Murdo. The +larger knowledge, brought by the dawn, was that the raiders had +vanished as secretly as they had come, and that they had, beyond doubt, +taken Marget with them. For though-- + + "We sought her baith by bower and ha', + The lady was not seen." + + + + +_XIII--The Wound of Absence_ + +You will probably know what it is to lose somebody who by physical +fragrance, the mystery of a common spirituality, or both, has become +essential to you. The wound is twice as bitter if, until the parting, +you were unaware how much that presence really meant. It is as if you +had come into a new world of your own and then found it vanish, before +you could take possession. + +I had no doubt, thanks to the hearing of his voice and the leaving +behind of his sword, that the raiders were headed by Red Murdo, the +Black Colonel's henchman. Actual light came during the morning, in the +form of a message by word of mouth: "I am a prisoner in the topmost +room of Lonach Tower, and Red Murdo and his men are camped below." + +When the Highland woman who brought it had said that, she melted away +again without taking bite or sup. She lived in the ruin of Lonach +Tower, and that was how Marget had been able to send her with the +message. She could not be too long absent, however, or she might be +missed by Red Murdo, whom, she said, she had left snoring out his lost +night's sleep. + +I found a Highlander who had engaged in relations with Red Murdo, +though their nature need not be mentioned, and who was anxious to score +them off for a settled life. Working on that, I told him to go to +Lonach Tower, where he would find Red Murdo, and say the Black Colonel +was waiting at a fold of the hills, which I named--waiting to hear how +the night's work had fared! That, as you will mark, was the nice +significance of the message, which I hoped would move Red Murdo and his +merry men--his master waited "to hear how the night's work had fared!" + +If the Black Colonel was behind the business it would seem a natural +message, nay, a command, and my messenger went off with it. When he +had gone, I picked out a dozen of our best soldiers, and, hinting the +mission, without explaining it, we followed at a distance. We halted +behind the last peak of the hill which looks down on Lonach Tower and +awaited events. + +We saw the receding Highland figure wend slowly towards the bare, lean +turret, and, when he reached it, my eyes lifted to its queer little +windows, seeking to look through them. They gave no sign of anybody +inside, and, indeed, the mullioning of time had so dimmed them that, +perhaps, the outside world could hardly be seen from within. + +My Highlander hammered at the one entrance door, and he had to hammer a +while before it opened to him. Then it only opened partly, as if the +guardian kept a shoulder to it, while he spoke the visitor. Next it +shut again, leaving my man outside, but evidently the colloquy had not +finished, for he waited. + +Ten minutes more and the door drew wide, as we could see, and Red Murdo +came out, his comrades with him, and there was more questioning of the +bringer of news. Evidently he played his part well, perhaps because, +knowing nothing of what lay behind, he simply stuck to the terms of his +delivery, for presently Red Murdo's party set off towards the +meeting-place I had named for them. + +Here was my time to act, and I only waited until the coast, or rather +the valley, was clear. When the tartans of Red Murdo's party had +fluttered out of sight, in obedience, as they fancied, to the commands +of their chief, I got my fellows quickly a-foot for Lonach Tower and +she who was a captive there. + +The heavy oaken, iron-clasped door had been locked by the departed +raiders, and no sign of any tenant within fluttered out to us. +Half-measures are no more useful in opening bolted doors, of which you +have not the key, than they are in accomplishing other difficult +things. So, finally, we put our collective weights against it, pushed +hard and steadily, and when the weather-worn bars and hinges gave way, +tumbled headlong into the old keep. + +Nobody was in the ground-room floor, nothing, except the untidiness +left by half-a-dozen rough men, and I mounted the narrow stair and +tried the room above. Again we had to use force, and when the door +flew inward I almost landed in the lap of Marget Forbes. There she +was, bound to a rough seat, in the middle of the room, with a cravat +tied round the lower part of her face, to keep her silent. Gently but +swiftly I undid the gag, and after that cut the rough tow which bound +her to the seat. Being thus freed, she told me, with an agitation +which I tried to still, what had happened just before we came and on +the previous night. + +Red Murdo, she said, when she could speak, had told her, with awkward +apologies, that he did not want to be unchivalrous but that he and his +men were called away for a little and that he must make siccar about +her custody, and no alarm giving, against his return. She had ceased +asking him why she had been forcibly abducted and what was intended for +her, because on that he would say nothing except, "You are quite safe, +my young lady, quite safe. We may be plain fellows, but we are +Highland men towards a woman, especially towards Mistress Marget Forbes +of Corgarff." "But how," I asked, for she had now somewhat recovered +her nerve and composure, and the agreeable surprise our arrival had +caused her, "how did you fall into their hands at the Dower House?" + +"Oh," said she, "that was simple. You went out to reconnoitre, and, +hearing in the stillness, words and a noise like a passage of swords, I +became anxious about you. Under this impulse I opened the front door +and stepped out a few yards when a Highland plaid fell round my head, +silencing me effectually before I could shout an alarm, and I was borne +swiftly away by two men. My astonishment was so great that I am not +sure if I attempted to resist until I was some distance from the Dower +House. Then two other men relieved my captors in carrying me, and by +stages, for I absolutely declined to walk a step, I was brought here +and placed in this room." + +"Where you have been unable to give any alarm?" + +"That you can see, and all I knew was that Red Murdo was the leader of +my captivity, because he grumbled about having been stabbed in the leg +and about losing his sword. 'What,' I asked, 'could he and his master, +the Black Colonel, want by spiriting me away?' But Red Murdo wouldn't +answer the question, and I haven't been able to answer it myself. +Somehow I have felt that no personal harm was intended me because my +captors, if not exactly friends, were not strangers, but men in some +relationship to our own people. Mostly I have been anxious for the +anxiety of my mother," and her eyes looked concern at me. + +"Well," I said, "we shall relieve that anxiety very soon now; you have +probably had enough of Lonach Tower, which, I notice, is sadly in need +of the repairer. Let us go home!" + +I said that last word out of my heart, and I thought Marget answered +with a gleam which comes into a woman's eyes only when her heart is +somewhere behind it. We went down the slender, creaky stair, the +soldiers following, and came to the door, where, if you please, we ran +slap into the Black Colonel, Red Murdo, and the other caterans. In the +unexpected lies drama, and here, indeed, was a dramatic confronting. +We stared at each other for a moment as if asking who was to speak +first, and, like himself, the Black Colonel managed to do it. + +"I heard only an hour ago," he said, "of a lady in distress in this old +house. I have come, at my best speed, to help her, as who would not, +when that lady is Mistress Marget Forbes." + +"Would it not have been better," I cut in, "if you had heard of her +distress before and come earlier to remedy it?" + +"Possibly," he answered, "but if I had been earlier, Captain Gordon, I +might not have met you here. So you see," he added challengingly, +"there are compensations, although these are things, as far as my +experience goes, with which we could often dispense." + +"Well," said I, "I have been able to render first aid to Mistress +Forbes, but it would be a satisfaction if you could explain to us how +she came to need it." + +"Explain! How can I explain?" + +"You have cultivated a name for gallantry, Colonel"--he bowed--"and it +would be gallant to a lady if you would say why Red Murdo invaded the +Dower House last night and carried its young mistress away?" + +"Did he, the villain? He did not tell me of that, when I ran into him +and his following this morning. He said he came to where we met, in +response to an order from me. There was no such order, though it is +true that I was keeping an open eye for Red Murdo, a habit I have when +I know he is abroad, lest he might have anything for me." + +By this time it was clear that the Black Colonel had commissioned Red +Murdo to kidnap Marget in order that he might rescue her, and, by the +act of so doing, advocate his plans towards her. He was denying it now +that he found in Lonach Tower not Marget alone and a captive, but +Marget with a good, stout bodyguard to look after her. + +She had not spoken so far, partly because she had not been directly +addressed, partly because, as I could see, she was in a hot fury with +the Black Colonel. But the strange fascination of the man was working +on her, as I could also see, and, woman-like, speak she would or die. + +"If," she demanded of him quietly, slowly, for she had herself in hand, +"you had anything special, even private to say to me, why did you not +come to the Dower House instead of sending your handy men to scare us +all and run off with me? Whatever you hoped to gain, that, you must +know, was not the way to gain it." + +The Black Colonel looked at her composedly for a moment and said, +"Mistress Marget, I am the last person in the world to think that any +form of duress would influence your actions. On the other hand, since +the opportunity has come, I make bold, even in the presence of Captain +Gordon and our respective followers, to say a word in frankness, out of +regard for you and your house. There are events pending which might go +far to re-establish your family, and you should know about them, not +merely indirectly but directly from me, who am deeply concerned in the +business." + +Marget blushed and flushed and glanced at me, as if asking me to +protect her from what was very like a manifesto for public knowledge, +thrust upon her when she could not help it. Her unconscious appeal +warmed my heart like the sun, but I held back, preferring she should +give the word which would, once and for all, put the Black Colonel in +his place. + +"By what right," she said with dignity, "do you address your proposals +to me as you have done? You have schemed them in an underground way. +Must you commit the affront of offering them to me in public, after +using force to bring me here?" + +"I have told you," broke in the Black Colonel, "what I know of Red +Murdo and his doings on this morning, and if you do not believe me, +why, I cannot help it. It may be that I had a plan for meeting you +face to face, but no plan like what has now emerged." + +"No," said I, intervening, "your plan was to find Marget alone in this +eerie place, to work on her woman's feelings, her anxiety for her +mother, her regard for her house, all that you might commit her with +the Crown authorities as assenting to the secret negotiations which you +are ripening." + +"Doesn't that reflection come oddly from an officer of the Crown," he +retorted, "because I have not heard you have resigned your commission? +You should leave it to us who are not honoured with service under the +foreign king, to flout his Majesty." + +"There are moments, Jock Farquharson," I hotly replied, "when one's +first duty is to be a man, and this is such a moment. I tell you if +you do not drop your persecution of this lady you will have to count on +a forthright quarrel with me." + +"A pretty speech, my Captain Gordon," he said, adding: "Pretty speeches +have a habit of coming from those whose tongues are their boldest +weapons." + +"You credit me," I said warmly, "with an accomplishment which I may or +may not have; you assail me for want of a quality which I beg you to +permit me to prove here and now." + +There was no mistaking that, and he and his men looked their +understanding. My feelings were what you can imagine, but I spoke +deliberately. Perhaps I realized the need for quiet resolution rather +than temper, which is ever too brittle a weapon to work well. As I +understood, the Black Colonel, having failed to get Marget into his +hands, with the object of mentally coercing her, now wanted to break +me, if he could, in her presence. There was no end to the man's +resource when the bad side of his character got going, and no measure +at which he would stick. + +His insult to me had been spoken in a voice loud enough to be heard by +everybody. He so meant it to be heard, but my reply, an instant +acceptance of his challenge, surprised him for a moment. He looked at +me, hesitating what to say, and I looked at him with a perfectly clear +purpose in my face. We both looked at Marget, at his Highlanders and +at my men, knowing that with all these for witness of what had +happened, more must follow. + +Deep down in my heart I felt relief, because I was sure that some day +we must fight out the odds between us, and when you come to that pass +with any man, it is best it should be settled. They say that delay is +fatal in love and deadly in war, and with me the two risks combined, +for mine was both a question of love and a question of war. + +"Is it elegant," the Black Colonel said in a purring voice of which I +knew the worth, "that two men who are kinsmen in a degree, should +fight, in the presence of a young lady who is a kinswoman?" + +"You should have thought of that before," I quickly retorted. + +"I agree with Captain Cordon," said Marget, interrupting us, "for I +come of a people who have never been afraid to see trouble through, and +I beg of you, Colonel Jock Farquharson, not to let me stand in the way. +Nay, if you will accept me, I shall be referee!" + +I bent my head to thank her for this, and he bowed in the over-polite +fashion which he had learned among the French. By this time our +respective followers, now taking a fight for granted, had lined +themselves up to watch it, one set of men in one row, the other set in +another, with space between them. A spirit of the love of combat for +combat's sake, shone in their expectant eyes and echoed in their +suppressed, excited talk. + +There had once been a small garden attached to the Tower of Lonach, but +it had been so overgrown with grass, and the grass had been so +industriously eaten by sheep and deer, that now it was a rough, hard +green, an entirely good place for swordsmen. On it, as the sun began +to dip behind the hills, we took our stand, with my sergeant for second +to me, while Red Murdo filled the same office towards the Black Colonel. + +Things had happened so swiftly that I had scarcely time to think, and +perhaps that was well, for thought never nerves you in such business as +I had before me. There was I confronted with one of the best swordsmen +in the Highlands, while I was--well, passably good. He was bigger, +stronger, a more heroic, more impressive figure altogether than I was, +and these pictorial attitudes count by the impression they make. I had +to rely on a cool head, a nimble wrist, and I must in no wise depart +from the style of fighting by which alone, as I well knew, I could hope +to hold my own. + +The Black Colonel would be sure, following the untutored Highland +manner, and keeping his French training in reserve, to attack +furiously, hoping so to destroy me at the beginning. My plan, based +upon the barracks and camp training of a regular soldier, was to parry +with him, to hold him off, to wear him down, and then, if I had the +luck, which Heaven give me, get a blow home. + +Marget, for all her courage, had walked over to a far corner of the +green, where, however, she could still see us, because my soldiers and +the Black Colonel's men stood aside to let her do that. Their common +instinct for a fight flamed while they waited, but I knew that there +would be no interference from either party of retainers, however things +fell out, and so I had no anxiety as to the quarrel going beyond the +Black Colonel and myself. All men of Highland degree were brought up +to believe that honest disputes could be settled better by combat than +anyhow else, and, indeed, they almost have a traditional reverence for +the broad-sword of their country. + +Nobody called on us to begin, but when the Black Colonel and I, our few +preparations made, had looked at each other for a minute from the +measured distance which divided us, we both advanced. As I had +expected, he came with a rush, and if it had not been for my sound +training in defence he might have smitten me at once. As it was, by a +turn which seemed new to him, I caught his sword under the point and +lifted it lightly upward into the empty air. He almost flew past me +with the motion which he had gathered, and we both had to face squarely +round in order that we might continue. + +This time, apparently, he meant to be more deliberate, thinking, +perhaps, that if he missed me again with one of his wild lunges, he +might meet the sting of my thrust. He played with me, and I responded +to his caution, so far as he could be cautious, in the same spirit. +Our swords were of equal length and about the same weight, but he had a +longer arm than I, as well as a stronger one. Still, I made up for +this, as he began to realize, by quicker work in what might be called +the smaller craft of fighting. I could be here and there and somewhere +else with my sword, while he was making a parry or a lunge or a level +stroke, for he tried everything. + +Now his sword ran safely under my left arm where I guided it, and the +point of mine caught the breast-high edge of his kilt, where the cloth +is closely plaited and therefore very resisting. My blade bent so that +if it had been other than the finest steel it might have snapped. Then +the grip in the cloth broke, the sword was free again, and we were +without hurt, only the battle was growing warm. + +Its contagion had agitated the men looking on, to a point where, +forgetting themselves, they began to shout encouragement to us +severally, the Black Colonel's men to him, mine to me. Red Murdo was +urgently demonstrative, and my sergeant, as he afterwards told me, kept +an eye on him lest he should be tempted to intervene. In the distance +Marget, as I saw momentarily, stood still and quiet, but there was a +fixed anxiety in her face, and the woman's horror of two men seeking to +take each other's life on her account! + +Now came the third bout, and knowing the limits of my strength I +determined to make it the last, if I could. The Black Colonel, it +encouraged me to notice, had also grown a little tired. His rush and +dash were less strong when he came at me, and I thought I caught in his +eye a new doubtfulness of success. He was famed for the quickness with +which he could finish a duel, and probably he had also decided to +settle this one at the third time of asking. + +We parried and thrust, sword to sword, and I was driven to give way a +few paces by the Colonel's onslaught. This led him to take risks, as I +had hoped he might. Let him tire out his sword arm with heavy lunges +and elaborate recoveries, while I kept myself on guard, and then, +perhaps, my turn would come, for getting him. It did come, but it +came, as most things come, in an unexpected fashion. + +Sweating like a man in a fever, with his eyes wild and savage, the +Black Colonel at last fairly flung himself on me. My face was also +streaming with perspiration, but my head remained cool, perhaps because +I felt that Marget was looking on. A warm heart and a cool head should +neighbour an ordeal, and, in that assailing of me, my maintenance of +this combination was everything. + +As he leapt forward, purposing to overwhelm me, the Black Colonel's +foot appeared to catch an uprising tuft that had been left unnibbled by +the sheep, possibly on account of the coarse toughness of its grass. +He lost his balance and shot heavily at me, holding his sword straight +out, as if to drive it through me. Here was my chance, for he could +not, in this act of falling, change the position of his weapon. I did +that for him by a mere touch, and it ran by me, near, it is true, but +without hurting me. Mine, on the other hand, pierced the muscle of the +Black Colonel's right arm, and instantly his sword fell from his hand, +rattling close to my foot. The blood spurted from him to the cry of +the onlookers, "Ah, he's ill hit," for he looked it, lying there on the +ground with a long, red gash in his arm. + +"No," he said, slowly rising, "I am not ill hurt, but I am hurt in a +measure which will keep me from fighting any more this afternoon. Here +I am with a useless right hand, and I have never learned to use the +left, so we must stop." + +By this time Marget had come up, offering to bind the Black Colonel's +wounded arm, and staunch the bleeding, a task which Red Murdo had +already begun, only his hands were clumsy at it. Marget made him take +off the strip of tartan which he was twisting tightly round the forearm +and put her linen handkerchief nearest the wound. This tender and +thoughtful attention seemed to soften the field of battle, and +presently I found myself picking up the Colonel's sword and returning +it to him. + +"Thank you," he said; "I can only carry it in my belt at present, but I +would not like to lose it, for it has proved you a better swordsman +than I had expected." + +Handsomely said, was it not? But we are always inclined to think a +compliment to ourselves fitting, especially when it comes from an enemy +as formidable as Jock Farquharson was. + +"I hope, sir," I answered without undue gravity, "that I have earned +the compliment and I accept it, as I accepted your challenge, without +reserve. Now, I suppose, our meeting is finished, and so we may each +go our own way. Mistress Forbes, will you allow me to see you home?" +and I turned towards her. + +She took my arm and we walked quietly from Lonach Tower and quietly +across the hills to the Dower House, neither of us saying much on the +way, possibly because our thoughts were not for the six soldier men who +strode behind us. + + + + +_XIV--The Cards of Love_ + +A man who serves the cause of a good woman is serving well, her and +himself, even if he only waits in the garden of the emotions. He is +probably helping that woman in subtle, beautiful ways, to be herself, +to realize the full majesty of her womanhood, which otherwise she might +miss. I had the highest wish to help the interests of Marget, and if +my heart beat an accompaniment, that was only another test of my +sincerity. + +There, perhaps, I have written as if I had grown sure of Marget, which +I had no right to be, which no man can ever be of any Marget, else +romance would perish. Typical of other youth and maid stories was +ours, a story without a beginning, a middle, or an apparent ending; a +sort of skein of hope and unspoken understanding such as links two +people, until they come closer or drift apart, ships that pass in the +night that should be the morning. + +When did we begin to care for each other, if that state of regard as +between us was to be assumed, because people do ask themselves such +questions, and if they do, why not admit it? When does a flower begin +to bloom? Who can tell? You see it, one unheralded high-noon, as if +it were just ready to burst beautifully upon its world. So it is, +still much depends on how the world is going to treat it. The flower +blows, if sunshine greets and warms it. But let the sky be grey, +sombre, leaden, and that flower cometh not to its full kingdom--cometh +not, she said. + +We had not spoken, Marget and I, to each other of love; we had not +called it by a name to each other; we had only felt and dreamt it. +Possibly, that is the natural course of a simple, true love, for it is +undemonstrative. It likes the half-lights of the dusk, to live in the +shadow of its silvery clouds, and to arrive round corners, if only that +it may have a safe way of escape, should it be frightened. Ever it +likes running away, and, better still, it likes being pursued! + +All this goes with one dark little story of my love for Marget, and I +would only tell it under the compulsion of a full-breasted honesty, +because I judge it to be sacred to her as well as to me. It was when I +first felt as if something hitherto unknown to me had come into my life +at Corgarff. I had seen Marget once, with interest, because she was +good to look upon, the second time with pleasure, because she seemed to +see me, the third time with a sense of awkwardness, as if a mysterious +contact had arisen between us. + +Words will not take me nearer to the uncanny, covetous feeling than +that, for they are bald, empty contrivances invented of this world and +not, like love itself, the fruit of the spirit world. But perhaps you +will understand, certainly if you have experienced yourself, and, +understanding so much, you will be able to follow what came next. + +Marget had been going somewhere, taking a mere walk, perhaps, and I had +said, "May I not come," and she said, "No, there is really no need," +and I did not go. + +Unknowing youth! I saw my condemnation in her eye as she went her path +resolutely, turning neither to the right nor to the left, a maiden +determined to give me a lesson in this; that love, even when it is only +dawning, loves to be assailed. That was a chapter of the spiritual +story which lay within the outer story of our doings in Corgarff. You +may say that it was a trifle, a thing not worth recalling, and that +would be true for everybody except Marget and myself, who knew better +then and confessed it to each other afterwards, because it was a first +flicker of realization. + +And, indeed, behind my marchings and counter-marchings around the grim +old Castle of Corgarff there lay a mystery of feeling nearer to me than +any call of arms could be. It was always present, the most potent +influence that can exercise a man, born of one woman and in love with +another. No doubt Marget and I shirked any admission, but it was in +our bearing towards each other, that whisper of the heart's throne +which calls and is answered. + +This feeling was my settled comfort now that a cloud of events, as I +assessed them, was hurrying the Black Colonel into a new necessity +towards his personal aims and so towards Marget and myself. The +"rough, raging, roaring, roystering, robustious rascal" side of him, +and the description is not mine but taken from an extant document, had +long been filling up. Presently it would overflow in happenings urgent +enough to sweep our pilgrimage along like a high wind on the high hills +of Corgarff. + +They began with a fall out between the Black Colonel and his Red Murdo, +some little time after the duel at Lonach. To get his injured but +recovered sword-arm in trim again the Colonel had taken to practising +on his man, also a sufficient swordsman, though always liable to make a +foul stroke. This time he had to defend himself from a sudden, +half-angry, half-playful, wholly energetic assault on the part of his +master, and that without a sword in hand. + +What do you think he did, this Red Murdo, when the Colonel's provoking +blade had positively pinked him in the leg, above the garter and drawn +blood? He picked up Jock Farquharson's pet dog, a wise and lively +Scots terrier, and flung it, a protection against further pinking, on +the sword-point, with the remark, "A good soldier never lacks a weapon." + +The Black Colonel was fondly attached to his dog, and its death, for it +died from the wound, upset him into other troubles. It is often the +way, when one thing goes wrong that many things go wrong, time getting +out of joint generally. Naturally, too, if we remember that life is a +delicate machine which a small first unbalancing will throw into +disorder, as take the Black Colonel in witness. + +It became necessary for him to "raise the wind," as he spoke of the +process, and to that end he sent Red Murdo on a foraging expedition. +This worthy, wishful to do the business with as little trouble as +possible, went after the first batch of cattle he could find. He +planned to get them away in the dark of night, have them at a safe +distance by morning, and then, at his leisure, drive them to a southern +market and bring back to the Black Colonel what he got for them, less +his own expenditure on victuals and drink, and the due entertaining of +other gentlemen of the same kidney, met on the road, because its +comradeship had to be justly handselled. + +Now, shrewdly, as a matter of precaution against raiders high, or kern +lowly, the owner of the grazing kine had put a white beast among them. +Consequently when he was wakened by a loud lowing and came forth to +find the reason, he saw that his cattle were being stolen away, for +there walked the white one, a guiding star to his eye. He followed the +drove quietly at a distance, summoning friends as he passed their +several homes, and when he had gathered recruits enough, and while it +was still dark, he set upon Red Murdo and his thieves, gave them the +heartiest beating you could fancy, and re-captured the cattle. + +This attempt to steal the kine was laid at the door of the Black +Colonel, rightly so, and when he heard of it and its failure he swore +at Red Murdo, saying he had lost all a henchman and provider's +artistry. He was one of those men, very numerous in the world, who +could ill-support a failure made by himself, and could not bear it at +all when another failed who was acting for him. + +"Why," he rated Red Murdo, "you can neither steal nor lie, as a +Highland gentleman's ghillie should. You would have me do those petty +things myself, and they are not for me, although, mayhap, I'd be equal +enough to them." + +Red Murdo answered nothing to his enraged chief, but perhaps made up +for his silence by some hard thinking. When a rebuke is taken silently +the wrath behind it is apt, in average human nature, to simmer out, but +the Black Colonel's black fire burned on. + +"Why," he roared, "didn't you think of an expedient to keep those +cattle, the white one and all, for very probably it was a beast to +fetch a good price? Where were your wits? You recollect when, for an +act which has since been counted brave, I had to fly with half-a-dozen +men on my heels, and how, coming to a mill, and nobody being there, I +put on the miller's dusty suit. I was asked by my pursuers, sure that +they had seen the man they pursued disappear into the mill a few +minutes before, 'Did any one enter here?' 'Only the miller is here,' I +told them, and, as it seemed so, they went their way, and, after a +while, I went mine." + +"But," said Red Murdo, "they wid na' hae believed me if I had sworn a +score o' oaths that I was the miller. I'm nae sae good at swearin' +untrooths as some folk you ken!" + +"Possibly," quoth the Colonel loftily. "To be believed one must, after +all, look one's words and you might find it a difficulty. But still a +ghillie of better strategy would have kept those cattle and, what is +worse, my friend, saved the suspicion which has fallen upon me." + +"Nae for the first time," Red Murdo shot at the Black Colonel. + +"It's not first times that matter," he retorted more quietly, being +pleased, in a manner, with Red Murdo's spirit; "it's last times that +count, and the need is to take care of them." + +Possibly the Black Colonel might have met his material troubles for a +while longer without having to fly from them, because he was full of +stratagems. But on the sentimental side he fell into an affair of much +sadness for a comely lady who, at her mid-age, should have known +better, though, indeed, the forties have their storms, like the sea +latitudes sailors call the "roaring forties." Delectable as detail +might be, and desirable to illumine what all befell, I must, for I am +no scandal-monger, be content to give you the romance and the tragedy +in three snatches of verse begotten by the same. + +First, you must make what you like of-- + + "She kept him till mornin', then bade him begane, + And showed him the road that he might na be ta'en." + + +Next, you have the news let loose, for-- + + "Word went to the kitchen + An' word went to the ha'." + + +Finally, when my lord of the lady rides home from a far journey and +hears that news, and meets her, he goes red, wud mad and-- + + "O bonnie, bonnie was her mouth + And cherry were her cheeks; + And cleir, cleir was her yellow hair + Whereon the reid blude dreips." + + +There the Black Colonel had found a tangle which he could not cut +through, and he sought a side-way out. How he discovered it he was +good enough to inform me, though I had no claim to his confidence, in +an epistle drafted in his best style, which reached me at Corgarff, +hard on the tidings of what had made the necessity for it. + +"To Captain Ian Gordon, for his privy knowledge only," it opened, and +it continued, in his usual, even manner, for, mind you, he had the +trick of writing, as well as the odd weakness towards it already +remarked on, all of which appears in what follows, so: + +"It may oblige your calculations that I have a proposal through proper +channels to go on a special mission to New France, where a state of war +now exists between the British and the French. Ordinarily I should +have hesitated to take a step which would remove me, even for a time, +from my most particular affairs here, these being familiar to you. + +"The offer is put to me, however, as part of earlier overtures in those +same affairs, and that recommends it. Moreover, there are urgent +private reasons, not here to be gone into, but perhaps to be j'aloused +by you, which favour an early change of air and scenery for yours +dutifully. Accordingly I am departing for North America by the first +government ship on to which I can be smuggled, that, as I grimly note, +being the elegant word used in a dispatch of instruction to my hand. + +"You cannot fail to be curious as to the nature of my mission, and I +shall inform you thereon so far as its delicate nature permits. I am +offered by Government--your Government--a free pardon for the past and +a captain's commission in Fraser's Regiment of Highlanders, now in +Canada with General Wolfe, if I succeed in the undertaking which is +this . . . but its delicacy tries my power of pen. + +"Briefly I, a proscribed Jacobite, am to depart from Scotland, find my +way to Canada, and offer my sword and service to the Marquis Montcalm +commanding his French Christian Majesty's troops for the defence of +Quebec. There I am to keep an open eye, and a close tongue, for all +and every information of possible use to General Wolfe, and transmit +the same to him personally, by what safe channels I can devise. He is +to be informed of my mission, and he alone, and that's all, though it +may be enough for you to digest, as it has been, I beg you to believe, +for me. + +"Will you, I pray, make my humble excuses to Mistress Marget Forbes and +her mother, and accept them for yourself, and you may rely upon hearing +from me oversea, because I have no intention to relinquish a shred of +my attachment to my native Highlands and the well-being of the name I +bear; whereof it is the purpose of this epistle to inform you, as +between one man of honour and another." + +News indeed, intensely personal, therefore intensely interesting news, +and I let it be known without delay at the Dower House, taking care, in +delicacy, not to seem curious as to the impression it made there. +Somewhat later I had intelligence of the actual sailing of the Black +Colonel for New France, across the Atlantic, with his inseparable Red +Murdo, whom, I was sure, the adventure would suit grandly, though he +probably would not be told its secret meaning. + +Then came a long silence, and I began to wonder whether the Black +Colonel had not, somewhere and somehow, been caught in the last kink of +his pre-destined hair-rope. While I wondered, off and on, in this +sense, and our small world of Corgarff drifted uneventfully on, a +much-worn, salt-sprayed letter reached me, and I recognized in it the +Black Colonel's writing. + +What account had he to give of himself? + + + + +_XV.--News from Somewhere_ + +"Quebec," the Black Colonel had written above the first sheet of his +letter and he had forgotten to put any date, so I was left to guess how +long it had taken to reach me. Nor did it bear any form of address to +myself, but just began abruptly, "I do not suppose you will be +specially glad to hear of me in this land of New France. There was, +however, an understanding that I should write you, and I am doing it by +a sure and confidential messenger." Then it went on as follows, for I +transcribe it fully, as is needful for the conveyance of its atmosphere +and even a certain quality of elegance natural to the writer: + +"No man is happy who has had disappointments like me, but, at least, I +survive and am usefully occupied. If I may say it, my not +inconsiderable fame in our native Highlands had gone ahead of me to +this country. That made it easy to secure service in one of the French +corps in Quebec, for I speak the language, as you know, with no undue +stranger accent, and it always brings me gay memories of hours in Old +France. + +"The regimental wages are not great, and they are not paid with exact +punctuality, because there are too many empty hands waiting between his +French Christian Majesty's coffers and his soldiers in Canada. But +that, to a man like myself who wants little of the so-called comforts +of life, and has, moreover, other sources, is no great hardship, and +there are comfortings, sometimes, in unexpected quarters. + +"The French, who know the art of romance, and how to spin it to the +last drop without getting to the dregs, have already peopled this new +land of theirs with colour, but I doubt me if it will last, which is +their affair, not mine, or yours. King Louis himself is indulgent to +the human colouring of his dominion, in that he sends out shipments of +wives from the Old Country for the French settlers. + +"Therefore they are called 'King's girls,' and being flowers of a +kingdom which has bloomed rarely with women, they are in much demand. +It is a joke, when a ship-load arrives, that the plumpest are married +first, and this, I gather, for two reasons: Being less active, it is +thought they will more readily stay at home, as honest married women +should, and, being well covered--not fat, oh no! not that--that they +will the better resist the icy cold of New France in the winter. For +myself they do not interest me, not on account of the reason which +drove my late Count Frontenac here, he having in the Old Country a +shrewish wife whose temper he could not bear, but because I have found +attractions more to my taste, of which you shall know something. + +"I may admit, with some assurance, that my luck in the regard of the +sweet sex, holds amid the altered conditions in which I find myself. +Those French women have not the freshness, and I am certain not the +innocence--you will admit me a judge on both counts--of my own +country-women in the Scots Highlands. But they have a wondrous charm, +a quality of attractiveness which is as deadly to a Highlander as if a +dirk slit his heart. I speak, you may think, in poetry numbers, but +you must do that, if, speaking of women, you would do them justice, +and, incidentally, yourself. We have all sorts and most conditions of +women, and the trade in laces and ribbons and the gew-gaws with which +they adorn themselves, is wonderful for so small a place as Quebec. No +sooner does a consignment of finery come in than it is snapped up, and +the men, too, are admirable dandies, ruffling it, some of them, as if +Louis Quatorze himself were here with his Court. + +"Now, only last night I was at the party of the Intendant Bigot, and a +gay crowd we were until the small hours of the morning grew again. His +Excellency, the Marquis Montcalm, has the Frenchman's natural love for +pleasure, but he is a serious, honest man who resolutely puts his duty +before it. Monsieur Vaudreuil is more the gentleman of pleasure, a +governor with a large token of the gallant in him, but for chicane, +knavery and devilry commend me to this fellow the Intendant Bigot. +They say he grows richer every day by robbing his gracious master, the +King, first, and the King's subjects next. I cannot speak with +authority of that, and it matters not, but I can tell you of what goes +on at his chateau, the Chateau Bigot, because, as I write, I am +scarcely cool from its doings. + +"There was Bigot himself as master of the revels, a short, stout, +awkward man of more than middle-age, who did not well become the part. +He is, I must add, coarse for my taste, and by his appearance you might +judge him capable of any venture in the getting of money. He would say +in his cynical, loud way that the end justifies the means, and with him +the end is Angelique des Meloises. She is probably going to be the +Delilah of New France, the woman who is shearing it of its upholding +strength, but she is fine. + +"Ah, ha! the name of Angelique is fresh to you, has no meaning, and I +see you halting and asking me to tell you more of her. But here she is +a household word--or, should it be, by-word?--and I, a stranger, am +counted fortunate in having come close to the rustle of her skirt. +That skirt, you can believe me, is in many fabrics, and ever of the +best, and, though I cannot confirm it, the other women of Quebec say +that no parcel of lace, or silk, or satin, freshly sent by Old France +to New France, is free of being tampered with by Bigot in the +pleasuring of his mistress. Without that news in your ear, you would +not, my friend, comprehend the Chateau Bigot. + +"Angelique was not the first flame with whom the old sinner has lit his +fires in Canada, for there was Caroline, the Algonquin maid, not to +mention others. Bigot, the story goes, had been hunting and, be it +conceded, he is, for a Frenchman, a sound shot, and had lost himself in +the wilds. Presently, while he pondered on his course, there appeared +a fascinating Indian girl, and he made her guide him to his chateau and +there kept her. The woman pays in such affairs, be she white, brown, +or black, all the complexions I have seen, and that Indian lass came to +a sad end, being found stark one morning in bed, with a knife through +her lissom body. + +"But that was Bigot of the Garden of Eden, the primitive savage of +passion who would have his apple without having to eat the punishment, +so far, anyhow, though, I suppose, the devil, who has seven-league +boots when he likes, will overtake him. If he were to do it now he +would find him engrossed in the smiles and, maybe, the caresses of +Angelique. I have, myself, pretended to be some judge of woman-folk, +and Angelique pleases me in divers manners. That is an admission I +would not mind making to herself, though, to be sure, I have found it +the silent gallantry towards women which reaps most harvest. She is, +by marriage, Madame Pean, wife of a creature whom Bigot uses, and she +is a note of lovely abandon which a man with half my insurgency would +like to pluck an' he could. + +"We have been introduced, Madame Angelique and I, for here all goes by +the most correct form on the surface. We have even drunk from the same +cup of wine, because she preferred me hers yester-night, saying, 'To +our gallant recruit Monsieur Inverey, and to his gallant nation, les +Ecossais.' Ah, the laughing witch! You should have seen the languor +in her eyes, the blushing red of her lips, the delicate contour of her +arm, as she raised her glass to me and then bade me empty it. + +"'Ah,' said I, bowing and taking it from her hand, against whose baby +pinkness the champagne sparkled; 'ah, it is good to see, chere Madame, +that you know the ceremony of the Loving Cup, and how, elegantly, to +express it.' My phrase of the Loving Cup took her, I saw, it and my +significance in using it, and her dark eyes, her pouting lips, and the +turn of her lovely head, all had a new meaning as, saying, 'To our Lady +Venus, in New France,' I emptied the glass and set it on the table +beside her. + +"We fell a-talking, Madame Angelique and I, and she was good enough to +praise my French, and I said that, alas! it was not sufficient to do +justice to her charms. She flushed with pleasure, and said archly that +she wished her husband, Monsieur Pean, or even her very good friend the +Intendant, would pay her like compliments. 'But,' she added, 'you +Scotsmen are so gallant and so truthful,' and in her sweet French the +token rang true. With it she raised her eyebrows, expecting me to +confirm her raillery, which I did, for I said, 'Madame, truth is the +only gallantry that tells twice, and so I am content to employ it, for +I hope we are to be friends.' + +"It was a bold measure to take, but Madame Angelique, I judged, with +her on-coming air, was precisely the woman who would respond to bold +measures. She is none of your woo-me-slowly ladies, her bosom, as it +rose and fell in her French laces, being eloquent of that. She is a +singularly fine animal to whom Providence has, by an unusual +generosity, given a soul, though mostly, maybe, it hides in the silken +dalliance which is the note of Angelique. + +"You will perceive, my old friend and, I hope, old enemy, that I +present to you a whole bouquet of charms: beauty of form, the radiance +of a personality, and brains with an edge to flatter or flout. Very +rarely does Providence dower so many graces to one woman, but they are +all in Madame Angelique. Moreover, she has the subtlest of sex +strategy, for in greeting me she made a stumble with her lace petticoat +so that I might catch the daintiness of her foot and ankle. She also +has the swiftest, as well as the softest of glances, and I felt it +travel from my brogues to my head, approving the journey, I fancied. + +"I have been particular about Madame Angelique because she is a woman +in a thousand, this frail beauty of New France, its Madame de Pompadour +in brilliance, however the comparison may hold in virtue, and because, +if I prosper at all in the friendship, I hope to hear from her the +inner news of events here which, by its usefulness to General Wolfe, is +to lead me far in my home desires. When I left Scotland I had a sore +heart, for truly it fills that heart, but you will gather that I have +found a fresh land which also has its milk and honey. + +"How much of them shall I sip? That's the gamble, and time will tell, +but it is a great gamble in which I am enlisted, and, by my faith, I +like a gamble. It stirs the blood in me, makes it run as it ran when I +made love to my first sweetheart, and a strapping lass she was, though, +alas! I have almost forgotten her very existence. Poor Carrie! I +wonder, I wonder, but hi, ho! what use to ask of the flowers of +yesterday, where are they? + +"Only, my dear Captain Gordon, I wish I could have taken you with me +last evening to that romp at the Chateau Bigot. Yes, I remember, your +tastes are different from my own--less elastic, shall we say?--and you +might not have come. Well, set love and gambling and sport, all done +with abandon, in a choice, beflowered fold of this New France country +and you may realize what you have missed and I have seen. + +"Revelry! That is not the word for the night, and it took all the +seriousness in me to recall that I had other interests among the +revellers besides theirs. My elegance in our Highland dress, for to be +sure I wore it, cost me many a temptation, and if Madame Angelique, +late in the evening, had gone a minute longer with her whimsical +measurings of my leg where it garters, why, sir, I should have made a +fool of myself. But she merely said she wanted to test whether I was +not modelled to perfection for dancing the Highland dances, and +wouldn't I oblige her and the company? + +"Monsieur Bigot, lolling in a chair, beslippered, be-hosed in the +fatness of his limbs, be-waistcoated round his windy paunch, wearing +velvet knee-breeches and a plum-coloured coat, what should he do, for +his ears miss little, but catch this remark and, wishing, I suppose, to +keep me from any further impressing of Madame Angelique, he cried, +'Surely, surely, let us have a Scottish dance from our gallant friend, +Comte Farquharfils!' + +"He ennobled me in one breath, and in the next made French of the +ancient surname I bear, but that was of no consequence, and his cry was +taken up instantly by his guests: 'Beautiful ladies and gallant +gentlemen,' he went on, 'the Chevalier Ecossais--more ennobling of +me!--will entertain us with a dance of his native country!' + +"For a moment I was abashed with confusion, yes, sir, believe it or +not, because this was a thing which had not come into my plans. But I +have not lived for ten years by my wits and my sword without learning +to make rapid resolutions, and I decided to dance, not alone! The +gallants and the ladies had now formed a circle, and I said very +quietly, 'I am honoured, Monsieur L'Intendant, and your desire will be +to me a pleasure, if Madame will permit.' + +"A glance of curious inquiry went round the circle as I looked at +Madame Angelique, a radiant and bewitching picture, standing at the end +of the room, eager to see the Scottish dance for which she had made +measurements--yes, yes! Perhaps some of the company had penetrated the +real purpose of Monsieur Bigot's interference as being what I have +said, and in that case they saw a challenge in my acceptance of his +invitation. + +"But he was prompt to the occasion, for he said in his lordliest +fashion, 'Madame, I am sure, will be happy to permit,' and he bowed to +Angelique, who, in turn, bowed to me her gracious permission for a +dance Eccosais. Neither had counted on what was to happen, for I +quietly walked over to her, invited her to take my arm, and, while +every one wondered, led her into the middle of the room. I did this +amid a buzz of surprise, and I heard one gallant say, 'Parbleu, this +Scotsman asked the lady's patronage and takes herself.' Neatly put, I +thought, and the French mind is neat, as well as swift. + +"The music struck up as I passed my right hand about the responding +waist of Madame and lifted her elegance through a Highland round-dance. +There was no need to lift her through it a second time, because the god +of dancing was in that woman's feet, and between us we fairly wove +poetry on the polished floor. Never, after the first moment, was there +such a partner as Angelique; never, perhaps, if I may be allowed the +conceit, such a pair of partners, a picture, my friend, a picture! + +"As we warmed to the dance we lost all sense of an audience, and only +drank the intoxication of the music. At first there had been a cold +silence around us, but we infected it with our own sultry spirit and +melted it. 'Bravo!' shouted the Frenchmen, and 'Divine!' said the +ladies, and I took the praise of the women and Madame Angelique the +praise of the men, a fair division, pleasing to us both. + +"Monsieur Bigot alone remained aloof from praise, and as we turned once +very close to him--so close that he wilted in the hot draught made by +our wrapt figures--I saw a hard look come into his eyes and a hard +expression cross his coarse mouth. When we finished at last and I had +conducted Madame Angelique to a chair and thanked her, a huzza rang to +the roof, but the Intendant took no part in it. He did, however, +approach me with what others thought to be words of congratulation, +only you shall judge when I repeat them. + +"'You dance like the devil himself,' were his words, 'but you had +better not dance again with Madame Angelique or you may find yourself +in the devil's company. We have other uses in Quebec for you than +this, and your native Scottish wisdom will convince you of it without +more ado.' + +"Well, the thing was done, the harm or good of it, for one cannot +always act with deliberation, and never, I should say, when Madame +Angelique beckons, for she is a witch incarnate. Rarely is it any use +revising what has been done, and, frankly, I would not have missed that +dance even if it were to have cost me my head. At the moment I am not +sure whether or not it has cost me my heart; temporarily, shall I say, +keeping on the safe side of truth? + +"Anyhow, my dear Captain Ian Gordon, you will be made aware by these +greetings, should they reach you in the goodness of time, and the +friend who carries them, that I am having an experience which agrees +with me, and so I sign myself with the more heartiness, + +"Your very faithful + "JOCK FARQUHARSON OF INVEREY." + + + + +_XVI--The Wooin' O't!_ + +There are two kinds of people who make a difference in our lives when +they leave us: those we like and who like us, and those we do not like +and who dislike us, for that is one way in which the world wags. + +We feel, in the first case, a quick sadness, we dwell on happy +memories, now tinted to a soft melancholy, and we ask ourselves, "Have +we been all to them we could have been, and they the most to us?" + +Our feeling in the second case is one of relief, coupled with the +passing of an influence which, if not sympathetic, may yet have been a +stimulus to us. Something that has been roused in our nature, goes +back into its hidden place with the cause which unhappily called it +out, rivalry, perhaps. It is a whip that may carry you to the top of a +hill when otherwise, tempted by a warm sun and a soft wind, you might +recline on a half-way bank of heather. Ah! it is good to day-dream at +the sun, our Highland sun, which plays hide-and-seek with the sailing +clouds. + +But, may be, the incomplete parting is the best, that which has many +things unsaid, silences which are not silent; because it leaves room +for the imagination, lets us gild the picture in the roses of hope. + +The going of the Black Colonel had meant a difference for myself +certainly, and also, I could suppose, for Marget and her mother. But +it was a mixture of the two feelings which I have suggested, because, +in a fashion, I had a regard for the man, as well as something else, +and to the ladies of the Dower House he was both the kinsman and the +venturer who wanted to be more. I admired his manly qualities and was +willing to clothe the others in a veil, as long as he did not make that +impossible. They had the bond of family with him, a quiet pride in his +championage of the Stuart side, which had been theirs, and, well, they +wished no more of him. But what, perhaps, we mostly felt, Marget and +I, without daring for a moment to confess as much, was that some +element which kept us apart, and might, unhappily, even divide us, had +passed across the sea to the New World with the Black Colonel. + +We began unconsciously, and then, I suspect, noticeably, to grow +closer, to live the vital little things of life nearer to each other, +as it this were natural. That, perhaps, is the most critical period in +the mating of two young people, as you may learn from the delicate +nurturing of Mother Nature herself in the spring-time, when the earth +grows warm. They are so in the thrill of emotion, that they have no +thought for the building of the permanent house of the spirit in which +they are to dwell. But it goes forward about them and otherwise the +prospect would be bleak for them, sad for them, and sadness should not +come to lovers in the honeymoon of their hopes. + +"I suppose," Marget said to me one evening while we chatted in the +Dower House and her mother, tempted by the long summer light of the +north, read in the garden, "I suppose you really have nothing to do now +that the Black Colonel is gone, and his disturbance--for you--with him." + +"Oh," answered I, "there are still things to do, things, some of them, +which I don't like, as my military superiors down there in Aberdeen +town may be suspecting, for only last week, you know, they sent up a +troop of horse to make a special search of Corgarff for any hidden +Jacobite powder and shot. What happened you also know. Our friends of +your Stuart faith heard of this expedition long before it arrived, +filled their knapsacks with bannocks, and went to the hills. The +troopers came, found, by persistent search in deserted homes, a few +barrels of Spanish powder, some hundreds of bullets and a broken +cannon, and threw them all into the Water of Don. It was not very +exciting, especially to me, because it was a kind of censure; but +nothing worse happened than the breaking of a drunken trooper's neck, +by a fall from his horse. Here was one more way of death, not a pretty +way, for the man's commanding officer said jocosely, 'The idiot, he +must have come upon bad drink in his searches, and a bad woman is less +dangerous.'" + +"Your statement," said Marget, "is, I see, a confidential apology to me +for the ongoings of those set over us and you! I hope you don't spend +too many hours in reflections as unprofitable as the subject of these," +and she made, with this advice, to be a very serious young woman. + +"What," I asked, "would you have me do with my spare time?" + +"I'm afraid I don't know." + +"Well, if you don't, who does?" + +"I think I see a compliment in what you say, but I'm not quite sure." + +"It's against rules, isn't it, to repeat a compliment? It would be no +compliment then." + +"The more need to make it clear at first." + +"I thought I had." + +"Men think such a lot of things which are too unsubtle, too clumsy, for +a woman to comprehend. Yes, it is so." + +"Men--myself--the Black Colonel?" + +"He is far away; why bring him back?" + +"Only because it may concern you, and anything which concerns you . . . +is not to be spoken." + +"It is more interesting to speculate on what might have happened if he +had stayed, instead of running from his guns--no, I mean to his guns, +for he was no coward. Discount a good deal from him and he remains a +taking man. It flatters any woman to be coveted by a man of parts, +good or bad. She likes the homage thus implied, and if she did not she +would be no woman. She says to herself, 'What a pity that man should +be in love with me because I would not have him at all.' With her next +breath she says, 'A resolute lover, something like a lover, a great +lover.'" + +"The unconventional lover--and more," said I; "that's it, all down +time, the primitive trait of sex, he who can lift a woman out of her +groove into a surprise." + +"Well," said Marget, "the Black Colonel has the right blood for an +unconventional lover. You cannot make a Farquharson respectable by +force, and I'm not sure about the Gordons!" + +She looked at me with amusement in one eye and the rebel woman in the +other and I laughed, and that was all. No; not all. + +Such talks between Marget and myself may have seemed to lead nowhere, +but actually they did. The unspoken side of them was full of those +secrets which cannot be put into language, because they would perish in +the effort. What is spoken may be good, but what is unspoken in love +is still better. Behind the word, there hides the speech of the soul. +You say one thing, and with the eye mean another, or you say it in a +fashion only intelligible to a particular person. There is a +telegraphy of souls, as well as of hearts and minds, and the lesson is +never to believe your ears. + +Things came to be understood between myself and Marget, and the Black +Colonel had a part in this, far away as he had taken himself and his +troubles. He was not out of the picture, because he might return to +it, but we could paint him in or out as we liked, and that left us +canvas room. One day he was returning to set us all by the heels +again; another day he was gone, to return no more, leaving us to +fashion our own lives, as we were doing. + +"Marget," I asked, "suppose the Colonel comes back, is he to find us +just as he left us?" + +"Not very friendly--or more friendly?" she replied vaguely, teasingly. +And then a little anxiously, as I thought, "Did you and the Black +Colonel make any bargain about our old Forbes property which need ever +call him back?" + +"Dear me, no! But if it would give you pleasure to see him again soon, +why, let us pray for his coming." + +Marget was hurt at this, for she said, "I was only wondering whether +the Black Colonel will renew the quest here, if he does not reach his +ends through the New France venture." + +That question was to be answered by a last long epistle from him, which +came to me about this time, and which tells his further part in our +story, a wandering story, like Jock Farquharson. + + + + +_XVII---A Song of Other Shores_ + +"Quebec, North America. + +My Worthy Kinsman, + +"You have not written me in reply to a previous letter of mine, nor did +I expect you would, but I hope you have not lost all interest in my +fortunes, and I make sure that the great events which have happened +here, in New France, must interest you, when told with some +particularity by me. + +"You will be well aware, before this reaches you, that the +_fleur-de-lys_ of his Christian Majesty, King Louis, no longer flies +over the citadel of Quebec, and that in its place there blows the flag +of His Britannic Majesty--whom God bless, I suppose! But of how all +this happened you will only have general intelligence, and none about +my own fortunate part in it. + +"Well, it was not mere fortune, because I did exert myself strenuously +to discharge the mission confided to me, and General Wolfe said +privily, before he marched to a glorious victory and a glorious death, +that I had succeeded beyond his expectation. But I should tell you +that I had necessary audiences of him more than once, while I served +with the French in Quebec, and these we managed with perfect secrecy, +thanks to methods which I may not disclose, except that the high esteem +felt by the French for the Black Colonel, and their faith in his +honour, alone made them possible. + +"Saying so much of General Wolfe, I wish to set down my own monument to +his evident high parts as a soldier and a man. I found him modest in +demeanour, graceful of manner, reasonable in attitude, altogether a +gallant gentleman. He was simple and to the point, and when he had +finished with you he dispatched you courteously, pleased with him and +with yourself. + +"His excellency, the Marquis Montcalm, who also did me the honour of +various conversations, and who likewise fell gloriously, had qualities +not dissimilar. He was a French gentleman with the grand manner, +meaning he carried his air so quietly that you hardly knew its +presence, except by feeling it. I will further say, in token to his +attributes, that he was of a moral stature in whose presence I felt +ashamed of my secret trade, a trade which a man can only follow once in +a life time, and then because he must. + +"Perhaps you will scarce believe that several times my tongue was +bubbling to deliver all to his knowledge, and to throw myself on his +mercy. His very trustfulness made that impossible, because in each of +us there is a natural refusal to destroy confidence, wherever we find +it. That would be uprooting a plant which does not grow strongly +enough anywhere, and I, for one, love to cultivate it. 'So, so,' I +hear you say, my friend! + +"Certainly at times I wished that my Lord Montcalm would treat me with +less consideration and not ask me questions about the British invading +forces, because I gathered information from those questions, and, in +truth, here was the basis of much I imparted to General Wolfe. He +asked, did Monsieur Montcalm, in some detail, about the Highlanders of +Fraser's Regiment, and said that, far away as he had seen them from the +ramparts, they appeared so picturesque in their tartans as to be hardly +associable with the even, undeviating, outward English character. + +"I answered that there were greater similarities between the +Highlanders of Scotland and the French than between those same +Highlanders and the English, both having Celtic blood in them, and that +this resulted in a natural brotherhood which even the hazards of war +could not disturb, or only temporarily. Nay, I said once to his +excellency that we Jacobites still look more over the water to France +and to our Stuart King than we look, or ever may look, over the +Scottish border to England. + +"You will mark how I sprawl between my native land and this New France, +as it was termed until the other month. A man's heart can be in many +places, a woman's only in one, and my affections, I confess, have +mostly been a divided allegiance. They have gone out and come home +again, and now, thanks to my prosperity here, they have a tendency to +abide where my epistle finds me. For there is grateful comfort in +Quebec, and a freshness glad to experience, and the society remains +merry, though the _fleur-de-lys_ has perished for ever. All the French +women here in Quebec did not see, in its changed governors, a burial +for the living, and some of them said, 'It is destiny; let us make the +best of things.' + +"But I anticipate events, and that would be to miss their drama and my +own little share in them, a share with which, in the result, I am +satisfied, although I could sincerely have wished the ways and means to +be more aboveboard. However, you cannot remain the complete gentleman +and make history, and my justification lies in this signal fact: that I +inspired and counselled General Wolfe to his scaling of the cliffs at +the one place where that was possible, a matter on which I beg you will +see that right credit and justice be done towards Jock Farquharson of +Inverey, commonly called the Black Colonel. He and I alone knew +beforehand where exactly the escalade was to be, and it was a singular +joy to share a large, potential secret with another able to make it +good, as General Wolfe most handsomely did, though, once being shown +how, no great difficulty remained. + +"When, in the hurry of Quebec that fated morning, I heard Fraser's +Highlanders had climbed the cliffs, swinging from foothold to foothold +like the wild cats of their native mountains, I said to myself, 'This +is, indeed, my venture, and it is fitting my own people should carry it +out.' But how odd it is that two Highland threads should come together +in such a fashion, only we Celts have been destined to weave many of +the red warps of story. I had knowledge of the part my kinsmen were to +play in the bloody gamble between General Wolfe and the Marquis +Montcalm, and, without desiring to appear on the field of battle, which +was no part of my diplomacy and not hard, with my privileges from the +French, to avoid, I sought an elevation where I could behold the kilted +Frasers drawn up in battle array. + +"My certes, they made a brave picture, with the sun shining on the +colours of their kilts and the cool Canadian breeze waving them as in a +rhythm of martial motion. Ah! the heart aye warms to the tartan, and I +could have given my soul, if it be left me, which I must hope, to stand +in front of that red and green line, an officer of the Fraser's, as I +have now become, by virtue of the successful completion of my contract. +They awaited orders with impatience, for the headlong charge has ever +been the natural form of battle with Highlanders, only the appearance +of General Wolfe, fearlessly wearing a new, conspicuous uniform, and +the entire confidence of his step forward and backward while history +boiled in the pot, held them in like a rein. + +"It was the French who joined battle first, making some confusion among +themselves as they did so, because their several units fired +differently. This wasted and scattered their salvoes, but they +advanced gallantly to within forty yards of the British lines. Then +General Wolfe ordered 'Fire!' and before its solid stroke the French +reeled like trees stricken by lightning. Swiftly, then, the +Highlanders leapt forward with bayonets gleaming, and in what I say of +them--my own people--I say of the British army as a whole: it caught +the French before they could reform, and thus the issue was already +decided. + +"Now here was a change on the message, my Comte Frontenac, in earlier +years, returned to a British admiral who demanded his surrender. 'The +only answer,' he swore, 'I will give will be from the mouth of my +cannon and musketry, that he may learn that it is not in such a style +that a man of my rank may be summoned.' It was a change, too, from the +ill-success of General Wolfe's assault on Montmorency, over beside the +little river falling into the big one, where the very elements were +unfavourable. + +"Montcalm won then, very fairly won, for his fire upon the British was +of a nature which none could overcome. Monsieur Vaudreuil, the +Governor, who, like the Intendant Bigot, had an eternal desire to reap +where he had not sown, was so patronizing as to say after the +Montmorency fight, 'I have no more anxiety about Quebec. Monsieur +Wolfe, I am sure, will make no progress.' 'La, la,' as Madame +Angelique would say when she teases me, what a poor prophet was his +excellency Vaudreuil, but, indeed, prophecy has a trick of falling into +incapable hands and I, being, I trust, capable, have rarely tried it. + +"You needed my broad account of events in Quebec to do me justice, and +that is why I have lingered over it. I have given you hints enough for +the proper fitting of me into those events, as when, most casually, I +hope, I mentioned my advising of General Wolfe precisely where to make +his ascent to the Plains of Abraham. However, there are small personal +items you cannot know, without they are told you, and very chiefly that +refers to the ingenuity with which, my mission, as compacted, being +done, I passed from the ranks of the vanquished French to those of the +conquering British, where I had been expected. + +"There was such confusion everywhere, such a tearing up of things, that +I could do what I wished, and have it go unchallenged. Moreover, there +was a want of bitterness between the contending parties, for one +reason, possibly, because the deaths of Wolfe and Montcalm had softened +enmity: and nobody has yet hurled the words 'traitor,' 'spy,' at me, +and I feel I am not truly open to them, my task having been that of an +intelligence officer on the highest scale. As much is recognized in +the affability which I have continued to find among the French since +the close of the siege, but they are by nature surprisingly agreeable, +as I would wish, with my heart to subscribe. + +"Why, man, and this will make you curious, if envy there be in you, +young French ladies take pains and pleasure to teach British officers +French, with what view I know not, if it be not to hear themselves +praised, flattered and courted, without loss of time. To praise comes +natural to me, to flatter is not amiss, and, as to courting, I judge +you have always appreciated that in me. You may have doubted me in +some respects; you had no doubts I fancy, in that particular. + +"This quality of mine--I claim it a quality--has made me take, with +growing kindness, to where I am, and the idea of coming home again, +when it arises in my mind, I rather put aside. My natural dream is +that I shall return, but mostly I am content to play with the fancy, to +catch it up, put it aside, and again catch it up, and once more let it +rest. + +"There I am backed by the circumstance that I have no tidings whatever +touching my plans, as declared to you, in regard to Corgarff, and I +suppose that your thankless rulers have forgotten me. They were +willing to use me as a pacifier, and when that did not promise an +immediate result they found me of use in the war of New France. This +service being completed, faithfully, honourably, I dare aver, and to +the very letter of the bargain, I am, I repeat, for much I repeat, +given my commission in Fraser's Highlanders. But, of a settlement in +the larger spirit which the inclusion of Corgarff would have implied, I +have no intelligence, and it is conceivable that I may get none. + +"Therefore I may remain at Quebec with the Fraser Highlanders so long +as they continue here, and, when they go hence, still remain as an +independent gentleman, provided I were, by happy chance, shall I say? +to find genial companionship. I am not old, not of the sort ever to +grow actually old, but the excursions of life have wearied me, and I +begin to sigh for a permanent holding ground, the anchorage of rest +which should come to us all. + +"That desire, if I may make you a great confidence, would satisfy +itself in a woman of the qualities of Mistress Marget Forbes. I do no +more than quote her because she is known to us both, and therefore she +makes clear the exact shade of my meaning. But I imply no freedom with +her name, except what the honouring of it carries, and if any man +implied anything more she would know how to answer him. She has, I +will say, the tang of the Forbes blood full in her, and I have always +thought it warmer in its flow of both love and pride than the Gordon +blood, although of that you should be a better judge than I am. + +"One needs a wife of parts if one is, as I hope, to found a new clan in +a new country, for, mind you, many of the Fraser Highlanders, when they +end their period of enrolment, will prefer to settle in this lush, +virgin country where the days go by like a dream. They will sit down +on the untilled lands, and out of them find a competence of food and +raiment, and they will marry French women who are buxom and healthy and +will be good wives and mothers. + +"Granted all this, and it follows that there will be materials for a +new house of Inverey in some valley by the River Saint Lawrence, where +the Red Man at present reigns in indolence. He who can sit on a knoll +for an hour and let old Mother Earth spin her tune to the fathering +sun, is ever a friend of mine. But the Red Man carries the pastime +beyond me, unless when he is on the warpath, and then he is a devil. +It would give me no compunction to reign with a hundred or more Fraser +Highlanders, in a strath from which the Red Man has to be persuaded +away, or driven by force. Perhaps I could even hold out a helping +invitation to smaller 'broken men' still in the Aberdeenshire Highlands +or elsewhere in dear Scotland, and that would please my self-importance. + +"I renounce nothing, give up no legitimate claim that I have put +forward for hand or land in our native country, but I see that I am +come to leaving them unclaimed. Madame Angelique, to whom, mayhap, I +have confided those consolations and aspirations, and who has a comely +sense as well as comely looks, says very properly that changed +circumstances carry other changes, and that even a Highland gentleman +may recognize as much without loss of self-respect. + +"Madame has, in the crash which sank Bigot's fortunes, come to plain +faring, but I have made no difference in my friendship to her, and she, +I feel, has increased hers towards me. She tells me she has no clamant +ties left in Old France, any more than in New France, where the lustre +of her powerful French friends has set, and my heart goes out to her in +sympathy, and, I know not what more, except that she is a very fine +woman and would adorn the home of. . . . Why give a name? + +"You must make what you can of this scattered epistle and read it into +my future because you may not hear from me again, or, if you do, only +briefly in unlikelihoods. I am no practised writer, though I might +have acquired the trade, and it is only out of a felt duty, combined +with a personal regard of some durability, that I have set down, for +you, those epistles of my doings far across the sea. Farewell, if it +be farewell, and to Mistress Marget Forbes the like salutation, if she +will accept it, as I am sure she will, when presented through you; and +similarly to Madame Forbes, her mother, my humble duty. + +"Always your well-wisher, + "JOCK FARQUHARSON, late of Inverey." + + + + +_XVIII--My Garden of Content_ + + "Said Edom o' Gordon to his men + We maun draw to a close." + + +That close, whether to a love story or a life, should come in the +quiet, natural way which Providence orders, unexpectedly almost, not in +tumult and trappings. + +I am of a family which has been accustomed to storm through the world, +sometimes with all the world could give, at other times with mighty +little. This element has got into our blood, become, you might say, a +habit, and often, myself, I have felt its prickings. After all, it +must be a finely insurgent thing to drive to the devil in a golden +carriage built for two, or more; and the Gordons have never been +accustomed to count their guests, so long as they made good company. + +Then I had grown up at a time in our Highlands when the kettle of +history was about to boil over, scalding a great many people in the +process. The fiery cross of war carried its message from one valley to +another and left its embers on new graves wherever it went. + +You are asking what this excursion in deep waters has to do with Marget +and myself and the Black Colonel, Jock Farquharson. It has everything +to do with us, because it is the lamp of the road along which we +journeyed. Anybody can count turnings in a path, but it is harder to +catch the other-world glow which sees us past them to our desired haven. + +We were in sight of it, and, although we said little, I knew that we +both rejoiced exceedingly over the news which the Black Colonel sent in +his last letter. When we met I looked at Marget as much as to ask, +"Shall I say it?" And she looked at me answering, "No, you need not, +because I understand." + +It is a curious state this which, at some time or other, exists between +two loving people cast for each other's welfaring. A delicate mystery +lies in it, and that is an essential strand in every true affection, +but it can readily be destroyed. Break it rudely, even shock it a +little, and a chasm may yawn where, before, there was a silken thread +of union, tender in its fibre, but beautifully elastic. + +You may exclaim, when you read these confidences and remember others to +which I have confessed, that I was not so awkward a lover as I +sometimes appeared to be. No, I was not awkward in thought, but I +could be, I know full well, very awkward in its expression as deeds. +Often I would go wrong in form, rarely in feeling, if you can assume a +man built on those colliding lines. + +Marget has told me, in raillery, that she was more than once tempted to +give me "a good shaking," as the woman's saying goes. It was not, +perhaps, that she expected to shake much out of me, or to shake me out +of myself, but that she would herself have been relieved by the +exercise, for women, you see, are like that. + +My reflection has to do with a day when we spoke of it as settled that +the Black Colonel would never come back, that the whole episode which +he represented was over, and that an open road, undisturbed surely by +any more surprises and alarms, lay before us. How could I forget the +scene, for it was to open out our true life, our deep, full love. + +She looked at me as much as to ask had I been planning a stratagem, I +the unsophisticated, which I had not. She looked again, and I saw she +knew, that at long length, we were face to face with the soft realities +which, hitherto, had remained dumb, or only whispered. I waited to +take her in my arms, and she told me later her instinct expected me to +do it, and I didn't. What poor fools men may be, to miss so much, and +to place a good woman in the position of having her consent rebuffed, +for that is to outrage her sex-respect. + +I seem to remember that Marget turned her head away in despair with me, +only she pretended to be watching the sun and the clouds as they dipped +the hills in light and shadow. This threw her face into profile, and I +thought I had never seen it quite so beautiful. There was an expectant +vibrancy in it, from the fair forehead to the dimpled chin, but its +flower of expression was in the flowing eye, the ripe mouth, and the +tremulous lips. + +"A wonderful scene," she said, her look lost in the river and the +hills; "a scene which makes one think in parables, as the old men of +Scriptures did." + +"Parables," I replied, remembering, as I saw she did, "are very +unuseful." + +"Why do you say that?" she asked gently, still looking at the dance of +sunlight and shadow upon the heather and the water. + +"Oh, because they are," I said absurdly enough. + +"That's a woman's reason," she observed, "and it should be left to a +woman. Have you nothing more original to say?" + +"Well, if I were to tell you a parable, a parable of my own, as you +once told me one of yours, what would happen?" + +"I'm sure I don't know," she laughed, "but why trouble about what may +happen? A little risk gives a spice to life, and, anyhow, it can +mostly be run away from at the last moment!" + +"Then," said I, fairly and warmly hit by that, "it is the parable of a +maid and a man, the old, old story, in a new setting. They met under +cross circumstances, when things around them were difficult and their +families took separate sides in politics and war. But if it had not +been those very troubles they might never have met, or, what is even +worse, have met too late, as maids and men often do. Perhaps trouble, +because it brought them together in sympathy, also began to bring them +together in heart, that being one road to affection. Love at first +sight? Yes, for a winning face, an elegant figure, a silvery voice, or +even a shapely foot. But that, surely, is the stuff of passion which +may bloom in the morning and fade at night, not love the enduring as, I +promise you, in my parable." + +Marget nodded her head, unconsciously, as if some far voice were +calling to her from the spreading country of red heath and green +fir-trees, of dancing sunshine and rippling stream, that lay beneath +us. She did not speak, and I went on: + +"You do not in parables say much of people, and never by name, but I +must tell you of my maid, the man, and of the other man who came +between them--nearly! She was all simple charm, yet also of pulsing +womanliness, the healthy product of a country life, a fair survival of +many ordeals. Deep in her nature was that intense power of feeling +which belongs to complete womanhood, as music belongs to an ancient +fiddle. There were strings so sweet and subtle, so strange and strong, +that she herself feared to play on them, and when the man appeared she +greeted him as a friend, nothing more." + +Marget waited as I paused, for when one's heart is in one's mouth words +are hard to find, and I am not much in command of them at any time. + +"The man," I resumed, "what shall I say of him, for he had no personal +history. He had an old name, however, which he hoped not to sully, and +he bent himself quietly to duty, as, crookedly and undesirably, it came +his way. He found no call to do great things of the world, but rather +to straighten out the small things of a wee corner of it, and there to +keep the peace. The maid just came into his life, and he, in his plain +way, thanked Providence and held his tongue, except when secrets would +half slip out and tell-tale acts come about." + +Marget made no sign as to whether or not she recognized the portrait, +and thus I was brought up abruptly against the other man of our parable. + +"He," I said, "had all the ruder qualities admired by women, those of +manliness, which good women may like, and the others which the other +women secretly like. It was not difficult to see him, both as a hero +and as a villain, and either way the pull of romance lay about him. He +had particular ambitions which brought him between the maid and the +first man, and there was, thanks to certain elements in human ties and +high affairs, a strong influence favourable to those ambitions. But, +as chance or Providence would have it, he was translated to another +land, and there he found such comfort and companionship that he decided +to stay. This left the maid and the man who feared too much, free to +be to each other what they desired; and there ends my parable." + +"But," asked Marget with unsteady words which betrayed her agitation, +"where is its moral? A parable must have a moral." + +"Has it none?" I boldly asked her, taking her hand in mine, before she +or I knew it, and kissing it and then her rosy, rebellious lips. + +By-and-by she looked at me through wet eye-lashes and asked, "Shall I +tell you a parable which had a moral, though maybe it has lost it," and +her tears laughed. + +"Do," I said; "I can stand the moral now, whatever it may be." + +"It should be a severe moral for you," she whispered, "because you have +been so foolish, so little understanding with me, yet I'll try and make +it light. It also concerns a maiden and two men, but she only cared +for one of the men, never at all for the other. Nor would all the +family interests in the world have made her marry the other. The real +man, well, he seemed not to know that there is a precipice of +influences, of circumstances, for every woman, over which she may be +let slip by his hesitation; and this without possibility of return, +for, even if she could return, her sex pride would not let her." + +"Ah," I whispered, "and the moral?" + +"That you deserved to lose me; and that it would have broken my heart +if you had." + +We sat very close, hand in hand, mind in mind, heart in heart, and +watched the sun go down behind the silent hills of our beloved +Corgarff, both of us silent, like them. + +Years have gone by since then, and they have proved to us how sure a +conduct is the heart alike to happiness, and, though it matters less, +to prosperity. March where the tune of its soft beating calls, and you +are blessed. Traffic with it, and you miss the real lift of life, that +which makes life good, whatever betides. + +Marget and I had learned this in the school of sweet-hearting, and now +we knew it in the joy of confiding words. Nothing else mattered, +because it mattered all, but when the inner world is well the outer +world responds to it in kind. The private happiness which we had won +made a larger good fortune for us without, or at all events, we saw the +morning radiance, not the morning mists. + +Our poor ruined Highlands still lay under their covering of sorrow, as +grass grows indifferently upon a grave. But they were mending, even +while they suffered, for they had spirit in them. Virile men and +womanly women do not cry all the time, but give thanks to God for his +mercies and go forward. + +It was my fortunate destiny to be helpful beyond myself at Corgarff, +and I will tell you how. When gossip of a purpose of marriage between +Ian Gordon and Marget Forbes reached high quarters, friends in the two +political camps got to work on our behalf. The outcome was that before +Marget Forbes became Marget Forbes, or Gordon, as the Scots legal form +has it, the lands which were her peoples had been returned to her, a +sort of wedding gift. + +Good and bad news like not to travel alone, and what must a kinsman of +my own, an aged bachelor Gordon, do, but say that instead of waiting +for his estate until he was dead, and his will read, I should come into +it and its perquisites at once, if only because there must be acre for +acre exchanged, as between a Gordon and a Forbes. Thus our heart's +house of joy was dowered with worldly goods, though I should, in +justice especially to Marget, add that we laid no stress on that, apart +from the usefulness towards others which it carried. + +At such usefulness, I can fairly say, we laboured whole-heartedly from +the hour when we took each other for better, and never a minute for +worse, in the Castle of Corgarff, with Marget's mother saying, +"Children, you have all my poor old heart, to keep the fire of your +young hearts warm." + +She was a gracious lady, and she dwelt with us until we bore her to the +little churchyard on the hill-side, where there is a clump of trees to +break the cold sough of the winds into a lullaby. By that time another +Marget, beautiful of face like the Forbeses, lithe of limb like the +Gordons--we never could agree whom she most resembled!--had been given +to us. She was our guerdon of the reverent gospel of home, which is +the high altar of this world, the source and sanctuary of our +well-being as men and women. + +We have tried to live up to that ideal, and none can do more, unless, +indeed, it be to seek the perfect heights of the Sermon on the Mount +itself. It is good to look upward there, even if one cannot hope to +reach the golden peaks of that world without an end--Amen! + + + + +THE END + + + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Black Colonel, by James Milne + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE BLACK COLONEL *** + +***** This file should be named 21834.txt or 21834.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/1/8/3/21834/ + +Produced by Al Haines + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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