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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/32862-8.txt b/32862-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..db4b876 --- /dev/null +++ b/32862-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9692 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of +Scotland, Volume I, by Various + +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: Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland, Volume I + Historical, Traditionary, and Imaginative + +Author: Various + +Editor: Alexander Leighton + +Release Date: June 17, 2010 [EBook #32862] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WILSON'S TALES OF SCOTLAND, VOL I *** + + + + +Produced by David Clarke, David J. Cole and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + + Wilson's + + Tales of the Borders + + AND OF SCOTLAND. + + + HISTORICAL, TRADITIONARY, & IMAGINATIVE. + + + WITH A GLOSSARY. + + + REVISED BY + ALEXANDER LEIGHTON, + ONE OF THE ORIGINAL EDITORS AND CONTRIBUTORS + + + + + LONDON: + WALTER SCOTT, 24 WARWICK LANE, + AND NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE. + 1887. + + + + + CONTENTS. + + + PAGE + +THE VACANT CHAIR (_John Mackay Wilson_) 1 + +THE FAA'S REVENGE (_John Mackay Wilson_) 18 + +KATE KENNEDY (_Alexander Leighton_) 50 + +RECOLLECTIONS OF FERGUSON (_Hugh Miller_) 83 + +THE DISASTERS + OF JOHNNY ARMSTRONG (_Alexander Campbell_) 128 + +THE PROFESSOR'S TALES--(_Professor Thomas Gillespie_):-- + + THE MOUNTAIN STORM 160 + + THE FAIR MAID OF CELLARDYKES 172 + +PRESCRIPTION; + OR, THE 29TH OF SEPTEMBER (_Alex. Leighton_) 193 + +THE COUNTESS OF WISTONBURY (_Alexander Campbell_) 225 + +MIDSIDE MAGGIE; OR, THE BANNOCK O' TOLLISHILL-- + (_John Mackay Wilson_) 257 + + + + +PREFACE. + + +This series of Tales, now so well known in this country and also in +America, was begun by JOHN MACKAY WILSON, originally a printer, and who +subsequently betook himself to literature. In the beginning of the +undertaking he was inspired by a success probably greater than he had +ever anticipated, and a sudden and wide-spread reputation induced him to +overtask his energies, in a manner inconsistent with the care due to a +delicate constitution. After having carried on the work, almost +single-handed, for a period of more than a year--furnishing a tale every +week--he took ill, and died. Subsequently, the charge of conducting the +work devolved upon the present Editor, who was fortunate enough to +secure the assistance of certain writers well qualified to sustain the +reputation which the first part of the series had acquired. Among these +were the late Hugh Miller, the late Professor Thomas Gillespie of St. +Andrew's, Alexander Campbell, Alexander and John Bethune, and John +Howell, all of whom possessed those natural gifts, enabling them to +succeed in a species of literature which, while in one sense it may be +called the most easy, is, in another, perhaps among the most difficult +of any. + +The only condition by which the natural promptings of their genius might +have been restrained was, that the contributions should be genuine +stories, not the ordinary mixture of narrative, didactic essay, and +fanciful prolusion, but tales in the proper every-day sense, with such +an objectiveness as would portray, graphically and naturally, the men +and women of the times, acting on the stage where they were destined to +perform their strange parts, and would exclude all false colourings of a +sentimental fiction, belonging to mere subjective moods of the writer's +fancy or feeling. The greatest care was also taken with the moral aspect +of the Tales, with the view that parents and guardians might feel a +confidence that, in committing them into the hands of their children and +wards, they would be imparting the means of instruction, and at the same +time securing a guarantee for the growth of moral convictions. By such +means, the Tales were kept true to history, legend, morality, and man's +nature, and, at the same time, made acceptable to the great class of +readers who had declared their predilection in favour of the manner of +the early examples. + +The Tales in this series have been carefully selected and revised; and +the reader will be pleased to be informed that, in the course of the +publication, there will, for the purpose of imparting to it a fresh +interest, be inserted New Tales, written by authors deemed capable of +attaining the mark of the Original Series. + +YORK LODGE, TRINITY, + _March_, 1857. + + + + + WILSON'S + + TALES OF THE BORDERS, + + AND OF SCOTLAND. + + + + +THE VACANT CHAIR.[1] + +[1] Our commencement with "The Vacant Chair"--the first written of the +Tales of the Borders--is not inconsistent with our principle of +selection in this edition, which is to distribute the contributions of +the authors, so as to secure variety without any view to an early +exhaustion of the best of the Tales.--_Ed._ + + +You have all heard of the Cheviot mountains. They are a rough, rugged, +majestic chain of hills, which a poet might term the Roman wall of +nature; crowned with snow, belted with storms, surrounded by pastures +and fruitful fields, and still dividing the northern portion of Great +Britain from the southern. With their proud summits piercing the clouds, +and their dark rocky declivities frowning upon the glens below, they +appear symbolical of the wild and untamable spirits of the Borderers who +once inhabited their sides. We say, you have all heard of the Cheviots, +and know them to be very high hills, like a huge clasp riveting England +and Scotland together; but we are not aware that you may have heard of +Marchlaw, an old, gray-looking farm-house, substantial as a modern +fortress, recently, and, for aught we know to the contrary, still +inhabited by Peter Elliot, the proprietor of some five hundred +surrounding acres. The boundaries of Peter's farm, indeed, were defined +neither by fields, hedges, nor stone walls. A wooden stake here, and a +stone there, at considerable distances from each other, were the general +landmarks; but neither Peter nor his neighbours considered a few acres +worth quarrelling about; and their sheep frequently visited each other's +pastures in a friendly way, harmoniously sharing a family dinner, in the +same spirit as their masters made themselves free at each other's +tables. + +Peter was placed in very unpleasant circumstances, owing to the +situation of Marchlaw House, which, unfortunately, was built immediately +across the "ideal line," dividing the two kingdoms; and his misfortune +was, that, being born within it, he knew not whether he was an +Englishman or a Scotchman. He could trace his ancestral line no farther +back than his great-grandfather, who, it appeared from the family Bible, +had, together with his grandfather and father, claimed Marchlaw as their +birth-place. They, however, were not involved in the same perplexities +as their descendant. The parlour was distinctly acknowledged to be in +Scotland, and two-thirds of the kitchen were as certainly allowed to be +in England: his three ancestors were born in the room over the parlour, +and, therefore, were Scotchmen beyond question; but Peter, unluckily, +being brought into the world before the death of his grandfather, his +parents occupied a room immediately over the debatable boundary line +which crossed the kitchen. The room, though scarcely eight feet square, +was evidently situated between the two countries; but, no one being able +to ascertain what portion belonged to each, Peter, after many arguments +and altercations upon the subject, was driven to the disagreeable +alternative of confessing he knew not what countryman he was. What +rendered the confession the more painful was, that it was Peter's +highest ambition to be thought a Scotchman. All his arable land lay on +the Scotch side; his mother was collaterally related to the Stuarts; and +few families were more ancient or respectable than the Elliots. Peter's +speech, indeed, betrayed him to be a walking partition between the two +kingdoms, a living representation of the Union; for in one word he +pronounced the letter _r_ with the broad, masculine sound of the North +Briton, and in the next with the liquid _burr_ of the Northumbrians. + +Peter, or, if you prefer it, Peter Elliot, Esquire of Marchlaw, in the +counties of Northumberland and Roxburgh, was, for many years, the best +runner, leaper, and wrestler between Wooler and Jedburgh. Whirled from +his hand, the ponderous bullet whizzed through the air like a pigeon on +the wing; and the best putter on the Borders quailed from competition. +As a feather in his grasp, he seized the unwieldy hammer, swept it round +and round his head, accompanying with agile limb its evolutions, swiftly +as swallows play around a circle, and hurled it from his hands like a +shot from a rifle, till antagonists shrunk back, and the spectators +burst into a shout. "Well done, Squire! the Squire for ever!" once +exclaimed a servile observer of titles. "Squire! wha are ye squiring +at?" returned Peter. "Confound ye! where was ye when I was christened +Squire? My name's Peter Elliot--your man, or onybody's man, at whatever +they like!" + +Peter's soul was free, bounding, and buoyant, as the wind that carolled +in a zephyr, or shouted in a hurricane, upon his native hills; and his +body was thirteen stone of healthy substantial flesh, steeped in the +spirits of life. He had been long married, but marriage had wrought no +change upon him. They who suppose that wedlock transforms the lark into +an owl, offer an insult to the lovely beings who, brightening our +darkest hours with the smiles of affection, teach us that that only is +unbecoming in the husband which is disgraceful in the man. Nearly twenty +years had passed over them; but Janet was still as kind, and, in his +eyes, as beautiful as when, bestowing on him her hand, she blushed her +vows at the altar; and he was still as happy, as generous, and as free. +Nine fair children sat around their domestic hearth, and one, the +youngling of the flock, smiled upon its mother's knee. Peter had never +known sorrow; he was blest in his wife, in his children, in his flocks. +He had become richer than his fathers. He was beloved by his neighbours, +the tillers of his ground, and his herdsmen; yea, no man envied his +prosperity. But a blight passed over the harvest of his joys, and gall +was rained into the cup of his felicity. + +It was Christmas-day, and a more melancholy-looking sun never rose on +the 25th of December. One vast, sable cloud, like a universal pall, +overspread the heavens. For weeks, the ground had been covered with +clear, dazzling snow; and as, throughout the day, the rain continued its +unwearied and monotonous drizzle, the earth assumed a character and +appearance melancholy and troubled as the heavens. Like a mastiff that +has lost its owner, the wind howled dolefully down the glens, and was +re-echoed from the caves of the mountains, as the lamentations of a +legion of invisible spirits. The frowning, snow-clad precipices were +instinct with motion, as avalanche upon avalanche, the larger burying +the less, crowded downward in their tremendous journey to the plain. The +simple mountain rills had assumed the majesty of rivers; the broader +streams were swollen into the wild torrent, and, gushing forth as +cataracts, in fury and in foam, enveloped the valleys in an angry flood. +But, at Marchlaw, the fire blazed blithely; the kitchen groaned beneath +the load of preparations for a joyful feast; and glad faces glided from +room to room. + +Peter Elliot kept Christmas, not so much because it was Christmas, as in +honour of its being the birthday of Thomas, his first-born, who, that +day, entered his nineteenth year. With a father's love, his heart +yearned for all his children; but Thomas was the pride of his eyes. +Cards of apology had not then found their way among our Border hills; +and as all knew that, although Peter admitted no spirits within his +threshold, nor a drunkard at his table, he was, nevertheless, no +niggard in his hospitality, his invitations were accepted without +ceremony. The guests were assembled; and the kitchen being the only +apartment in the building large enough to contain them, the cloth was +spread upon a long, clear, oaken table, stretching from England into +Scotland. On the English end of the board were placed a ponderous +plum-pudding, studded with temptation, and a smoking sirloin; on +Scotland, a savoury and well-seasoned haggis, with a sheep's-head and +trotters; while the intermediate space was filled with the good things +of this life, common to both kingdoms and to the season. + +The guests from the north and from the south were arranged +promiscuously. Every seat was filled--save one. The chair by Peter's +right hand remained unoccupied. He had raised his hands before his eyes, +and besought a blessing on what was placed before them, and was +preparing to carve for his visitors, when his eyes fell upon the vacant +chair. The knife dropped upon the table. Anxiety flashed across his +countenance, like an arrow from an unseen hand. + +"Janet, where is Thomas?" he inquired; "hae nane o' ye seen him?" and, +without waiting an answer, he continued--"How is it possible he can be +absent at a time like this? And on such a day, too? Excuse me a minute, +friends, till I just step out and see if I can find him. Since ever I +kept this day, as mony o' ye ken, he has always been at my right hand, +in that very chair; and I canna think o' beginning our dinner while I +see it empty." + +"If the filling of the chair be all," said a pert young sheep-farmer, +named Johnson, "I will step into it till Master Thomas arrive." + +"Ye're not a faither, young man," said Peter, and walked out of the +room. + +Minute succeeded minute, but Peter returned not. The guests became +hungry, peevish, and gloomy, while an excellent dinner continued +spoiling before them. Mrs. Elliot, whose good-nature was the most +prominent feature in her character, strove, by every possible effort, to +beguile the unpleasant impressions she perceived gathering upon their +countenances. + +"Peter is just as bad as him," she remarked, "to hae gane to seek him +when he kenned the dinner wouldna keep. And I'm sure Thomas kenned it +would be ready at one o'clock to a minute. It's sae unthinking and +unfriendly like to keep folk waiting." And, endeavouring to smile upon a +beautiful black-haired girl of seventeen, who sat by her elbow, she +continued in an anxious whisper--"Did ye see naething o' him, Elizabeth, +hinny?" + +The maiden blushed deeply; the question evidently gave freedom to a +tear, which had, for some time, been an unwilling prisoner in the +brightest eyes in the room; and the monosyllable, "No," that trembled +from her lips, was audible only to the ear of the inquirer. In vain Mrs. +Elliot despatched one of her children after another, in quest of their +father and brother; they came and went, but brought no tidings more +cheering than the moaning of the hollow wind. Minutes rolled into hours, +yet neither came. She perceived the prouder of her guests preparing to +withdraw, and, observing that "Thomas's absence was so singular and +unaccountable, and so unlike either him or his father, she didna ken +what apology to make to her friends for such treatment; but it was +needless waiting, and begged they would use no ceremony, but just +begin." + +No second invitation was necessary. Good humour appeared to be restored, +and sirloins, pies, pasties, and moor-fowl began to disappear like the +lost son. For a moment, Mrs. Elliot apparently partook in the +restoration of cheerfulness; but a low sigh at her elbow again drove the +colour from her rosy cheeks. Her eye wandered to the farther end of the +table, and rested on the unoccupied seat of her husband, and the vacant +chair of her first-born. Her heart fell heavily within her; all the +mother gushed into her bosom; and, rising from the table, "What in the +world can be the meaning o' this?" said she, as she hurried, with a +troubled countenance, towards the door. Her husband met her on the +threshold. + +"Where hae ye been, Peter?" said she, eagerly; "hae ye seen naething o' +him?" + +"Naething! naething!" replied he; "is he no cast up yet?" And, with a +melancholy glance, his eyes sought an answer in the deserted chair. His +lips quivered, his tongue faltered. + +"Gude forgie me!" said he; "and such a day for even an enemy to be out +in! I've been up and doun every way that I can think on, but not a +living creature has seen or heard tell o' him. Ye'll excuse me, +neebors," he added, leaving the house; "I must awa again, for I canna +rest." + +"I ken by mysel', friends," said Adam Bell, a decent-looking +Northumbrian, "that a faither's heart is as sensitive as the apple o' +his e'e; and I think we would show a want o' natural sympathy and +respect for our worthy neighbour, if we didna every one get his foot +into the stirrup without loss o' time, and assist him in his search. +For, in my rough, country way o' thinking, it must be something +particularly out o' the common that would tempt Thomas to be amissing. +Indeed, I needna say _tempt_, for there could be no inclination in the +way. And our hills," he concluded, in a lower tone, "are not ower chancy +in other respects, besides the breaking up o' the storm." + +"Oh!" said Mrs. Elliot, wringing her hands, "I have had the coming o' +this about me for days and days. My head was growing dizzy with +happiness, but thoughts came stealing upon me like ghosts, and I felt a +lonely soughing about my heart, without being able to tell the cause; +but the cause is come at last! And my dear Thomas--the very pride and +staff o' my life--is lost!--lost to me for ever!" + +"I ken, Mrs. Elliot," replied the Northumbrian, "it is an easy matter to +say compose yourself, for them that dinna ken what it is to feel. But, +at the same time, in our plain, country way o' thinking, we are always +ready to believe the worst. I've often heard my father say, and I've as +often remarked it myself, that, before anything happens to a body, there +is _a something_ comes ower them, like a cloud before the face o' the +sun; a sort o' dumb whispering about the breast from the other world. +And though I trust there is naething o' the kind in your case, yet, as +you observe, when I find myself growing dizzy, as it were, with +happiness, it makes good a saying o' my mother's, poor body! 'Bairns, +bairns,' she used to say, 'there is ower muckle singing in your heads +to-night; we will have a shower before bedtime.' And I never, in my born +days, saw it fail." + +At any other period, Mr. Bell's dissertation on presentiments would have +been found a fitting text on which to hang all the dreams, wraiths, +warnings, and marvellous circumstances, that had been handed down to the +company from the days of their grandfathers; but, in the present +instance, they were too much occupied in consultation regarding the +different routes to be taken in their search. + +Twelve horsemen, and some half-dozen pedestrians, were seen hurrying in +divers directions from Marchlaw, as the last faint lights of a +melancholy day were yielding to the heavy darkness which appeared +pressing in solid masses down the sides of the mountains. The wives and +daughters of the party were alone left with the disconsolate mother, who +alternately pressed her weeping children to her heart, and told them to +weep not, for their brother would soon return; while the tears stole +down her own cheeks, and the infant in her arms wept because its mother +wept. Her friends strove with each other to inspire hope, and poured +upon her ear their mingled and loquacious consolation. But one remained +silent. The daughter of Adam Bell, who sat by Mrs. Elliot's elbow at +table, had shrunk into an obscure corner of the room. Before her face +she held a handkerchief wet with tears. Her bosom throbbed convulsively; +and, as occasionally her broken sighs burst from their prison-house, a +significant whisper passed among the younger part of the company. + +Mrs. Elliot approached her, and taking her hand tenderly within both of +hers--"O hinny! hinny!" said she, "yer sighs gae through my heart like a +knife! An' what can I do to comfort ye? Come, Elizabeth, my bonny love, +let us hope for the best. Ye see before ye a sorrowin' mother!--a mother +that fondly hoped to see you an'--I canna say it!--an' am ill qualified +to gie comfort, when my own heart is like a furnace! But, oh! let us try +and remember the blessed portion, 'Whom the LORD loveth HE chasteneth,' +an' inwardly pray for strength to say, 'His will be done!'" + +Time stole on towards midnight, and one by one the unsuccessful party +returned. As foot after foot approached, every breath was held to +listen. "No, no, no!" cried the mother again and again, with increasing +anguish, "it's no the foot o' my ain bairn;" while her keen gaze still +remained riveted upon the door, and was not withdrawn, nor the hope of +despair relinquished, till the individual entered, and, with a silent +and ominous shake of his head, betokened his fruitless efforts. The +clock had struck twelve; all were returned save the father. The wind +howled more wildly; the rain poured upon the windows in ceaseless +torrents; and the roaring of the mountain rivers gave a character of +deeper ghostliness to their sepulchral silence; for they sat, each wrapt +in forebodings, listening to the storm; and no sounds were heard, save +the groans of the mother, the weeping of her children, and the bitter +and broken sobs of the bereaved maiden, who leaned her head upon her +father's bosom, refusing to be comforted. + +At length the barking of the farm-dog announced footsteps at a distance. +Every ear was raised to listen, every eye turned to the door; but, +before the tread was yet audible to the listeners--"Oh! it is only +Peter's foot!" said the miserable mother, and, weeping, rose to meet +him. + +"Janet, Janet!" he exclaimed, as he entered, and threw his arms around +her neck, "what's this come upon us at last?" + +He cast an inquisitive glance around his dwelling, and a convulsive +shiver passed over his manly frame, as his eye again fell on the vacant +chair, which no one had ventured to occupy. Hour succeeded hour, but the +company separated not; and low, sorrowful whispers mingled with the +lamentations of the parents. + +"Neighbours," said Adam Bell, "the morn is a new day, and we will wait +to see what it may bring forth; but, in the meantime, let us read a +portion o' the Divine word, an' kneel together in prayer, that, whether +or not the day-dawn cause light to shine upon this singular bereavement, +the Sun o' Righteousness may arise wi' healing on his wings, upon the +hearts o' this afflicted family, an' upon the hearts o' all present." + +"Amen!" responded Peter, wringing his hands; and his friend, taking down +the Ha' Bible, read the chapter wherein it is written--"It is better to +be in the house of mourning than in the house of feasting;" and again +the portion which sayeth--"It is well for me that I have been afflicted, +for before I was afflicted I went astray." + +The morning came, but brought no tidings of the lost son. After a solemn +farewell, all the visitants, save Adam Bell and his daughter, returned +every one to their own house; and the disconsolate father, with his +servants, again renewed their search among the hills and surrounding +villages. + +Days, weeks, months, and years rolled on. Time had subdued the anguish +of the parents into a holy calm; but their lost first-born was not +forgotten, although no trace of his fate had been discovered. The +general belief was, that he had perished on the breaking up of the snow; +and the few in whose remembrance he still lived, merely spoke of his +death as a "very extraordinary circumstance," remarking that "he was a +wild, venturesome sort o' lad." + +Christmas had succeeded Christmas, and Peter Elliot still kept it in +commemoration of the birthday of him who was not. For the first few +years after the loss of their son, sadness and silence characterized the +party who sat down to dinner at Marchlaw, and still at Peter's right +hand was placed the vacant chair. But, as the younger branches of the +family advanced in years, the remembrance of their brother became less +poignant. Christmas was, with all around them, a day of rejoicing, and +they began to make merry with their friends; while their parents partook +in their enjoyment, with a smile, half of approval and half of sorrow. + +Twelve years had passed away; Christmas had again come. It was the +counterpart of its fatal predecessor. The hills had not yet cast off +their summer verdure; the sun, although shorn of its heat, had lost none +of its brightness or glory, and looked down upon the earth as though +participating in its gladness; and the clear blue sky was tranquil as +the sea sleeping beneath the moon. Many visitors had again assembled at +Marchlaw. The sons of Mr. Elliot, and the young men of the party, were +assembled upon a level green near the house, amusing themselves with +throwing the hammer, and other Border games, while himself and the elder +guests stood by as spectators, recounting the deeds of their youth. +Johnson, the sheep-farmer, whom we have already mentioned, now a brawny +and gigantic fellow of two-and-thirty, bore away in every game the palm +from all competitors. More than once, as Peter beheld his sons defeated, +he felt the spirit of youth glowing in his veins, and, "Oh!" muttered +he, in bitterness, "had my Thomas been spared to me, he would hae thrown +his heart's bluid after the hammer, before he would hae been beat by +e'er a Johnson in the country!" + +While he thus soliloquized, and with difficulty restrained an impulse to +compete with the victor himself, a dark, foreign-looking, strong-built +seaman, unceremoniously approached, and, with his arms folded, cast a +look of contempt upon the boasting conqueror. Every eye was turned with +a scrutinizing glance upon the stranger. In height he could not exceed +five feet nine, but his whole frame was the model of muscular strength; +his features open and manly, but deeply sunburnt and weather-beaten; his +long, glossy, black hair, curled into ringlets by the breeze and the +billow, fell thickly over his temples and forehead; and whiskers of a +similar hue, more conspicuous for size than elegance, gave a character +of fierceness to a countenance otherwise possessing a striking impress +of manly beauty. Without asking permission, he stepped forward, lifted +the hammer, and, swinging it around his head, hurled it upwards of five +yards beyond Johnson's most successful throw. "Well done!" shouted the +astonished spectators. The heart of Peter Elliot warmed within him, and +he was hurrying forward to grasp the stranger by the hand, when the +words groaned in his throat, "It was just such a throw as my Thomas +would have made!--my own lost Thomas!" The tears burst into his eyes, +and, without speaking, he turned back, and hurried towards the house to +conceal his emotion. + +Successively, at every game, the stranger had defeated all who ventured +to oppose him, when a messenger announced that dinner waited their +arrival. Some of the guests were already seated, others entering; and, +as heretofore, placed beside Mrs. Elliot was Elizabeth Bell, still in +the noontide of her beauty; but sorrow had passed over her features, +like a veil before the countenance of an angel. Johnson, crest-fallen +and out of humour at his defeat, seated himself by her side. In early +life he had regarded Thomas Elliot as a rival for her affections; and, +stimulated by the knowledge that Adam Bell would be able to bestow +several thousands upon his daughter for a dowry, he yet prosecuted his +attentions with unabated assiduity, in despite of the daughter's +aversion and the coldness of her father. Peter had taken his place at +the table; and still by his side, unoccupied and sacred, appeared the +vacant chair, the chair of his first-born, whereon none had sat since +his mysterious death or disappearance. + +"Bairns," said he, "did nane o' ye ask the sailor to come up and tak a +bit o' dinner wi' us?" + +"We were afraid it might lead to a quarrel with Mr. Johnson," whispered +one of the sons. + +"He is come without asking," replied the stranger, entering; "and the +wind shall blow from a new point if I destroy the mirth or happiness of +the company." + +"Ye're a stranger, young man," said Peter, "or ye would ken this is no a +meeting o' mirth-makers. But, I assure ye, ye are welcome, heartily +welcome. Haste ye, lasses," he added to the servants; "some o' ye get a +chair for the gentleman." + +"Gentleman, indeed!" muttered Johnson between his teeth. + +"Never mind about a chair, my hearties," said the seaman; "this will +do!" And, before Peter could speak to withhold him, he had thrown +himself carelessly into the hallowed, the venerated, the +twelve-years-unoccupied chair! The spirit of sacrilege uttering +blasphemies from a pulpit could not have smitten a congregation of pious +worshippers with deeper horror and consternation, than did this filling +of the vacant chair the inhabitants of Marchlaw. + +"Excuse me, sir! excuse me, sir!" said Peter, the words trembling upon +his tongue; "but ye cannot--ye cannot sit there!" + +"O man! man!" cried Mrs. Elliot, "get out o' that! get out o' +that!--take my chair!--take ony chair i' the house!--but dinna, dinna +sit there! It has never been sat in by mortal being since the death o' +my dear bairn!--and to see it filled by another is a thing I canna +endure!" + +"Sir! sir!" continued the father, "ye have done it through ignorance, +and we excuse ye. But that was my Thomas's seat! Twelve years this very +day--his birthday--he perished, Heaven kens how! He went out from our +sight, like the cloud that passes over the hills--never--never to +return. And, O sir, spare a father's feelings! for to see it filled +wrings the blood from my heart!" + +"Give me your hand, my worthy soul!" exclaimed the seaman; "I +revere--nay, hang it! I would die for your feelings! But Tom Elliot was +my friend, and I cast anchor in this chair by special commission. I know +that a sudden broadside of joy is a bad thing; but, as I don't know how +to preach a sermon before telling you, all I have to say is--that Tom +an't dead." + +"Not dead!" said Peter, grasping the hand of the stranger, and speaking +with an eagerness that almost choked his utterance: "O sir! sir! tell me +how!--how!--Did ye say, living?--Is my ain Thomas living?" + +"Not dead, do ye say?" cried Mrs. Elliot, hurrying towards him and +grasping his other hand--"not dead! And shall I see my bairn again? Oh! +may the blessing o' Heaven, and the blessing o' a broken-hearted mother +be upon the bearer o' the gracious tidings! But tell me--tell me, how is +it possible! As ye would expect happiness here or hereafter, dinna, +dinna deceive me!" + +"Deceive you!" returned the stranger, grasping, with impassioned +earnestness, their hands in his--"Never!--never! and all I can say +is--Tom Elliot is alive and hearty." + +"No, no!" said Elizabeth, rising from her seat, "he does not deceive us; +there is that in his countenance which bespeaks a falsehood impossible." +And she also endeavoured to move towards him, when Johnson threw his arm +around her to withhold her. + +"Hands off, you land-lubber!" exclaimed the seaman, springing towards +them, "or, shiver me! I'll show daylight through your timbers in the +turning of a hand-spike!" And, clasping the lovely girl in his arms, +"Betty! Betty, my love!" he cried, "don't you know your own Tom? Father, +mother, don't you know me? Have you really forgot your own son? If +twelve years have made some change on his face, his heart is sound as +ever." + +His father, his mother, and his brothers, clung around him, weeping, +smiling, and mingling a hundred questions together. He threw his arms +around the neck of each, and in answer to their inquiries, +replied--"Well! well! there is time enough to answer questions, but not +to-day--not to-day!" + +"No, my bairn," said his mother, "we'll ask you no questions--nobody +shall ask you any! But how--how were ye torn away from us, my love? And, +O hinny! where--where hae you been?" + +"It's a long story, mother," said he, "and would take a week to tell it. +But, howsoever, to make a long story short, you remember when the +smugglers were pursued, and wished to conceal their brandy in our house, +my father prevented them; they left muttering revenge--and they have +been revenged. This day twelve years, I went out with the intention of +meeting Elizabeth and her father, when I came upon a party of the gang +concealed in Hell's Hole. In a moment half a dozen pistols were held to +my breast, and, tying my hands to my sides, they dragged me into the +cavern. Here I had not been long their prisoner, when the snow, rolling +down the mountains, almost totally blocked up its mouth. On the second +night they cut through the snow, and, hurrying me along with them, I was +bound to a horse between two, and, before daylight, found myself stowed, +like a piece of old junk, in the hold of a smuggling lugger. Within a +week I was shipped on board a Dutch man-of-war, and for six years was +kept dodging about on different stations, till our old yawning hulk +received orders to join the fleet, which was to fight against the +gallant Duncan at Camperdown. To think of fighting against my own +countrymen, my own flesh and blood, was worse than to be cut to pieces +by a cat-o'-nine tails; and, under cover of the smoke of the first +broadside, I sprang upon the gunwale, plunged into the sea, and swam for +the English fleet. Never, never shall I forget the moment that my feet +first trode upon the deck of a British frigate! My nerves felt as firm +as her oak, and my heart, free as the pennant that waved defiance from +her masthead! I was as active as any one during the battle; and when it +was over, and I found myself again among my own countrymen, and all +speaking my own language, I fancied--nay, hang it! I almost believed--I +should meet my father, my mother, or my dear Bess, on board of the +British frigate. I expected to see you all again in a few weeks at +farthest; but, instead of returning to Old England, before I was aware, +I found it was helm about with us. As to writing, I never had an +opportunity but once. We were anchored before a French fort; a packet +was lying alongside ready to sail; I had half a side written, and was +scratching my head to think how I should come over writing about you, +Bess, my love, when, as bad luck would have it, our lieutenant comes to +me, and says he, 'Elliot,' says he,' I know you like a little smart +service; come, my lad, take the head oar, while we board some of those +French bumb-boats under the batteries!' I couldn't say no. We pulled +ashore, made a bonfire of one of their craft, and were setting fire to a +second, when a deadly shower of small shot from the garrison scuttled +our boat, killed our commanding officer with half of the crew, and the +few who were left of us were made prisoners. It is of no use bothering +you by telling how we escaped from French prison. We did escape; and Tom +will once more fill his vacant chair." + +Should any of our readers wish farther acquaintance with our friends, +all we can say is, the new year was still young when Adam Bell bestowed +his daughter's hand upon the heir of Marchlaw, and Peter beheld the once +vacant chair again occupied, and a namesake of the third generation +prattling on his knee! + + + + +THE FAA'S REVENGE. + +A TALE OF THE BORDER GIPSIES. + + +Brown October was drawing to a close--the breeze had acquired a degree +of sharpness too strong to be merely termed bracing--and the fire, as +the saying is, was becoming the best flower in the garden--for the +hardiest and the latest plants had either shed their leaves, or their +flowers had shrivelled at the breath of approaching winter--when a +stranger drew his seat towards the parlour fire of the Three-Half-Moons +inn, in Rothbury. He had sat for the space of half an hour when a party +entered, who, like himself (as appeared from their conversation), were +strangers, or rather visitors of the scenery, curiosities, and +antiquities in the vicinity. One of them having ordered the waiter to +bring each of them a glass of brandy and warm water, without appearing +to notice the presence of the first mentioned stranger, after a few +remarks on the objects of interest in the neighbourhood, the following +conversation took place amongst them:-- + +"Why," said one, "but even Rothbury here, secluded as it is from the +world, and shut out from the daily intercourse of men, is a noted place. +It was here that the ancient and famous northern bard and unrivalled +ballad writer, Bernard Rumney, was born, bred, and died. Here, too, was +born Dr. Brown, who, like Young and Home, united the characters of +divine and dramatist, and was the author of '_Barbarossa_,' '_The Cure +of Saul_,' and other works, of which posterity and his country are +proud. The immediate neighbourhood, also, was the birth-place of the +inspired boy, the heaven-taught mathematician, George Coughran, who +knew no rival, and who bade fair to eclipse the glory of Newton, but +whom death struck down ere he had reached the years of manhood." + +"Why, I can't tell," said another; "I don't know much about what you've +been talking of; but I know, for one thing, that Rothbury was a famous +place for every sort of games; and, at Fastren's E'en times, the rule +was, every male inhabitant above eight years of age to pay a shilling, +or out to the foot-ball. It was noted for its game-cocks, too--they were +the best breed on the Borders." + +"May be so," said the first speaker; "but though I should be loath to +see the foot-ball, or any other innocent game which keeps up a manly +spirit, put down, yet I do trust that the brutal practice of +cock-fighting will be abolished, not only on the Borders, but throughout +every country which professes the name of Christian; and I rejoice that +the practice is falling into disrepute. But, although my hairs are not +yet honoured with the silver tints of age, I am old enough to remember, +that, when a boy at school on the Scottish side of the Border, at every +Fastren's E'en which you have spoken of, every schoolboy was expected to +provide a cock for the battle, or main, and the teacher or his deputy +presided as umpire. The same practice prevailed on the southern Border. +It is a very old, savage amusement, even in this country; and perhaps +the preceptors of youth, in former days, considered it _classical_, and +that it would instil into their pupils sentiments of emulation; inasmuch +as the practice is said to have taken rise from Themistocles perceiving +two cocks tearing at and fighting with each other, while marching his +army against the Persians, when he called upon his soldiers to observe +them, and remarked that they neither fought for territory, defence of +country, nor for glory, but they fought because the one would not yield +to, or be defeated by the other; and he desired his soldiers to take a +_moral_ lesson from the barn-door fowls. Cock-fighting thus became among +the heathen Greeks a political precept and a religious observance--and +the _Christian_ inhabitants of Britain, disregarding the _religious and +political moral_, kept up the practice, adding to it more disgusting +barbarity, for _their amusement_." + +"Coom," said a third, who, from his tongue, appeared to be a thorough +Northumbrian, "we wur talking about Rothbury, but you are goin' to give +us a regular sarmin on cock-fighting. Let's hae none o' that. You was +saying what clever chaps had been born here--but none o' ye mentioned +Jamie Allan, the gipsy and Northumberland piper, who was born here as +weel as the best o' them. But I hae heard that Rothbury, as weel as +Yetholm and Tweedmouth Moor, was a great resort for the Faa or gipsy +gangs in former times. Now, I understand that thae folk were a sort o' +bastard Egyptians; and though I am nae scholar, it strikes me forcibly +that the meaning o' the word _gipsies_, is just _Egypts_, or +_Gypties_--a contraction and corruption o' _Gyptian_!" + +"Gipsies," said he who spoke of Rumney and Brown, and abused the +practice of cock-fighting, "still do in some degree, and formerly did in +great numbers, infest this county; and I will tell you a story +concerning them." + +"Do so," said the thorough Northumbrian; "I like a story when it's weel +put thegither. The gipsies were queer folk. I've heard my faither tell +many a funny thing about them, when he used to whistle 'Felton Loanin,' +which was made by awd piper Allan--Jamie's faither." And here the +speaker struck up a lively air, which, to the stranger by the fire, +seemed a sort of parody on the well-known tune of "Johnny Cope." + +The other then proceeded with his tale, thus:-- + +You have all heard of the celebrated Johnny Faa, the Lord and Earl of +Little Egypt, who penetrated into Scotland in the reign of James IV., +and with whom that gallant monarch was glad to conclude a treaty. Johnny +was not only the king, but the first of the Faa gang of whom we have +mention. I am not aware that gipsies get the name of Faas anywhere but +upon the Borders; and though it is difficult to account for the name +satisfactorily, it is said to have had its origin from a family of the +name of _Fall_ or _Fa'_, who resided here (in Rothbury), and that their +superiority in their cunning and desperate profession, gave the same +cognomen to all and sundry who followed the same mode of life upon the +Borders. One thing is certain, that the name _Faa_ not only was given to +individuals whose surname might be _Fall_, but to the _Winters_ and +_Clarkes_--_id genus omne_--gipsy families well known on the Borders. +Since waste lands, which were their hiding-places and resorts, began to +be cultivated, and especially since the sun of knowledge snuffed out the +taper of superstition and credulity, most of them are beginning to form +a part of society, to learn trades of industry, and live with men. Those +who still prefer their fathers' vagabond mode of life--finding that, in +the northern counties, their old trade of fortune-telling is at a +discount, and that thieving has thinned their tribe and is +dangerous--now follow the more useful and respectable callings of +muggers, besom-makers, and tinkers. I do not know whether, in etiquette, +I ought to give precedence to the besom-maker or tinker; though, as +compared with them, I should certainly suppose that the "muggers" of the +present day belong to the Faa aristocracy; if it be not that they, like +others, derive their nobility from descent of blood rather than weight +of pocket--and that, after all, the mugger with his encampment, his +caravans, horses, crystal, and crockery, is but a mere wealthy plebeian +or _bourgeois_ in the vagrant community.--But to my tale. + +On a dark and tempestuous night in the December of 1628, a Faa gang +requested shelter in the out-houses of the laird of Clennel. The laird +himself had retired to rest; and his domestics being fewer in number +than the Faas, feared to refuse them their request. + +"Ye shall have up-putting for the night, good neighbours," said Andrew +Smith, who was a sort of major-domo in the laird's household, and he +spoke in a tone of mingled authority and terror. "But, sir," added he, +addressing the chief of the tribe--"I will trust to your honour that ye +will allow none o' your folk to be making free with the kye, or the +sheep, or the poultry--that is, that ye will not allow them to mistake +ony o' them for your own, lest it bring me into trouble. For the laird +has been in a fearful rage at some o' your people lately; and if +onything were to be amissing in the morning, or he kenned that ye had +been here, it might be as meikle as my life is worth." + +"Tush, man!" said Willie Faa, the king of the tribe, "ye dree the death +ye'll never die. Willie Faa and his folk maun live as weel as the laird +o' Clennel. But, there's my thumb, not a four-footed thing, nor the +feather o' a bird, shall be touched by me or mine. But I see the light +is out in the laird's chamber window--he is asleep and high up amang the +turrets--and wherefore should ye set human bodies in byres and stables +in a night like this, when your Ha' fire is bleezing bonnily, and there +is room eneugh around it for us a'? Gie us a seat by the cheek o' your +hearth, and ye shall be nae loser; and I promise ye that we shall be +off, bag and baggage, before the skreigh o' day, or the laird kens where +his head lies." + +Andrew would fain have refused this request, but he knew that it +amounted to a command; and, moreover, while he had been speaking with +the chief of the tribe, the maid-servants of the household, who had +followed him and the other men-servants to the door, had divers of them +been solicited by the females of the gang to have futurity revealed to +them. And whether it indeed be that curiosity is more powerful in woman +than in man (as it is generally said to be), I do not profess to +determine; but certain it is, that the laird of Clennel's maid-servants, +immediately on the hint being given by the gipsies, felt a very ardent +desire to have a page or two from the sybilline leaves read to them--at +least that part of them which related to their future husbands, and the +time when they should obtain them. Therefore, they backed the petition +or command of King Willie, and said to Andrew-- + +"Really, Mr. Smith, it would be very unchristian-like to put poor +wandering folk into cauld out-houses on a night like this; and, as +Willie says, there is room enough in the Ha'." + +"That may be a' very true, lasses," returned Andrew, "but only ye think +what a dirdum there would be if the laird were to waken or get wit o't!" + +"Fearna the laird," said Elspeth, the wife of King Willie--"I will lay a +spell on him that he canna be roused frae sleep, till I, at sunrise, +wash my hands in Darden Lough." + +The sybil then raised her arms and waved them fantastically in the air, +uttering, as she waved them, the following uncouth rhymes by way of +incantation-- + + "Bonny Queen Mab, bonny Queen Mab, + Wave ye your wee bits o' poppy wings + Ower Clennel's laird, that he may sleep + Till I hae washed where Darden springs." + +Thus assured, Andrew yielded to his fears and the wishes of his +fellow-servants, and ushered the Faas into his master's hall for the +night. But scarce had they taken their seats upon the oaken forms around +the fire, when-- + +"Come," said the Faa king, "the night is cold, pinching cold, Mr. Smith: +and, while the fire warms without, is there naething in the cellar that +will warm within? See to it, Andrew, man--thou art no churl, or they +face is fause." + +"Really, sir," replied Andrew--and, in spite of all his efforts to +appear at ease, his tongue faultered as he spoke--"I'm not altogether +certain what to say upon that subject; for ye observe that our laird is +really a very singular man; ye might as weel put your head in the fire +there as displease him in the smallest; and though Heaven kens that I +would gie to you just as freely as I would tak to mysel, yet ye'll +observe that the liquor in the cellars is not mine, but his--and they +are never sae weel plenished but I believe he would miss a thimblefu'. +But there is some excellent cold beef in the pantry, if ye could put up +wi' the like o' it, and the home-brewed which we servants use." + +"Andrew," returned the Faa king, proudly--"castle have I none, flocks +and herds have I none, neither have I haughs where the wheat, and the +oats, and the barley grow--but, like Ishmael, my great forefather, every +man's hand is against me, and mine against them--yet, when I am hungry, +I never lack the flesh-pots o' my native land, where the moorfowl and +the venison make brown broo together. Cauld meat agrees nae wi' my +stomach, and servants' drink was never brewed for the lord o' Little +Egypt. Ye comprehend me, Andrew?" + +"Oh, I daresay I do, sir," said the chief domestic of the house of +Clennel; "but only, as I have said, ye will recollect that the drink is +not mine to give; and if I venture upon a jug, I hope ye winna think o' +asking for another." + +"We shall try it," said the royal vagrant. + +Andrew, with trembling and reluctance, proceeded to the cellar, and +returned with a large earthen vessel filled with the choicest +home-brewed, which he placed upon a table in the midst of them. + + "Then each took a smack + Of the old black jack, + While the fire burned in the hall." + +The Faa king pronounced the liquor to be palatable, and drank to his +better acquaintance with the cellars of the laird of Clennel; and his +gang followed his example. + +Now, I should remark that Willie Faa, the chief of his tribe, was a man +of gigantic stature; the colour of his skin was the dingy brown peculiar +to his race; his arms were of remarkable length, and his limbs a union +of strength and lightness; his raven hair was mingled with grey; while, +in his dark eyes, the impetuosity of youth and the cunning of age seemed +blended together. It is in vain to speak of his dress, for it was +changed daily as his circumstances or avocations directed. He was ever +ready to assume all characters, from the courtier down to the mendicant. +Like his wife, he was skilled in the reading of no book but the book of +fate. Now, Elspeth was a less agreeable personage to look upon than even +her husband. The hue of her skin was as dark as his. She was also of his +age--a woman of full fifty. She was the tallest female in her tribe; but +her stoutness took away from her stature. Her eyes were small and +piercing, her nose aquiline, and her upper lip was "bearded like the +pard." + +While her husband sat at his carousals, and handing the beverage to his +followers and the domestics of the house, Elspeth sat examining the +lines upon the palms of the hands of the maid-servants--pursuing her +calling as a spaewife. And ever as she traced the lines of matrimony, +the sybil would pause and exclaim-- + +"Ha!--money!--money!--cross my loof again, hinny. There is fortune +before ye! Let me see! A spur!--a sword!--a shield!--a gowden purse! +Heaven bless ye! They are there!--there, as plain as a pikestaff; they +are a' in your path. But cross my loof again, hinny, for until siller +again cross it, I canna see whether they are to be yours or no." + +Thus did Elspeth go on until her "loof had been crossed" by the last +coin amongst the domestics of the house of Clennel; and when these were +exhausted, their trinkets were demanded and given to assist the spell of +the prophetess. Good fortune was prognosticated to the most of them, and +especially to those who crossed the loof of the reader of futurity most +freely; but to others, perils, and sudden deaths, and disappointments in +love, and grief in wedlock, were hinted, though to all and each of these +forebodings, a something like hope--an undefined way of escape--was +pended. + +Now, as the voice of Elspeth rose in solemn tones, and as the mystery of +her manner increased, not only were the maid-servants stricken with awe +and reverence for the wondrous woman, but the men-servants also began to +inquire into their fate. And as they extended their hands, and Elspeth +traced the lines of the past upon them, ever and anon she spoke strange +words, which intimated secret facts; and she spoke also of love-makings +and likings; and ever, as she spoke, she would raise her head and grin a +ghastly smile, now at the individual whose hand she was examining, and +again at a maid-servant whose fortune she had read; while the former +would smile and the latter blush, and their fellow domestics exclaim-- + +"That's wonderfu'!--that dings a'!--ye are queer folk! hoo in the world +do ye ken?" + +Even the curiosity of Mr. Andrew Smith was raised, and his wonder +excited; and, after he had quaffed his third cup with the gipsy king, +he, too, reverentially approached the bearded princess, extending his +hand, and begging to know what futurity had in store for him. + +She raised it before her eyes, she rubbed hers over it. + +"It is a dark and a difficult hand," muttered she: "here are ships and +the sea, and crossing the sea, and great danger, and a way to avoid +it--but the gowd!--the gowd that's there! And yet ye may lose it a'! +Cross my loof, sir--yours is an ill hand to spae--for it's set wi' +fortune, and danger and adventure." + +Andrew gave her all the money in his possession. Now it was understood +that she was to return the money and the trinkets with which her loof +had been crossed; and Andrew's curiosity overcoming his fears, he +ventured to intrust his property in her keeping; for, as he thought, it +was not every day that people could have everything that was to happen +unto them revealed. But when she had again looked upon his hand-- + +"It winna do," said she--"I canna see ower the danger ye hae to +encounter, the seas ye hae to cross, and the mountains o' gowd that lie +before ye yet--ye maun cross my loof again." And when, with a woful +countenance, he stated that he had crossed it with his last coin-- + +"Ye hae a chronometer, man," said she--"it tells you the minutes now, it +may enable me to show ye those that are to come!" + +Andrew hesitated, and, with doubt and unwillingness, placed the +chronometer in her hand. + +Elspeth wore a short cloak of faded crimson; and in a sort of pouch in +it, every coin, trinket, and other article of value which was put into +her hands were deposited, in order, as she stated, to forward her mystic +operations. Now, the chronometer had just disappeared in the general +receptacle of offerings to the oracle, when heavy footsteps were heard +descending the staircase leading to the hall. Poor Andrew, the ruler of +the household, gasped--the blood forsook his cheeks, his knees +involuntarily knocked one against another, and he stammered out-- + +"For Heaven's sake, gie me my chronometer!--Oh, gie me it!--we are a' +ruined!" + +"It canna be returned till the spell's completed," rejoined Elspeth, in +a solemn and determined tone--and her countenance betrayed nothing of +her dupe's uneasiness; while her husband deliberately placed his right +hand upon a sort of dagger which he wore beneath a large coarse jacket +that was loosely flung over his shoulders. The males in his retinue, +who were eight in number, followed his example. + +In another moment, the laird, with wrath upon his countenance, burst +into the hall. + +"Andrew Smith," cried he, sternly, and stamping his foot fiercely on the +floor, "what scene is this I see? Answer me, ye robber, answer me;--ye +shall hang for it!" + +"O sir! sir!" groaned Andrew, "mercy!--mercy!--O sir!" and he wrung his +hands together and shook exceedingly. + +"Ye fause knave!" continued the laird, grasping him by the neck--and +dashing him from him, Andrew fell flat upon the floor, and his terror +had almost shook him from his feet before--"Speak, ye fause knave!" +resumed the laird; "what means your carousin' wi' sic a gang? Ye robber, +speak!" And he kicked him with his foot as he lay upon the ground. + +"O sir!--mercy, sir!" vociferated Andrew, in the stupor and wildness of +terror; "I canna speak!--ye hae killed me outright! I am dead--stone +dead! But it wasna my blame--they'll a' say that, if they speak the +truth." + +"Out! out, ye thieves!--ye gang o' plunderers, born to the gallows!--out +o' my house!" added the laird, addressing Willie Faa and his followers. + +"Thieves! ye acred loon!" exclaimed the Faa king, starting to his feet, +and drawing himself up to his full height--"wha does the worm that +burrows in the lands o' Clennel ca' thieves? Thieves, say ye!--speak +such words to your equals, but no to me. Your forebears came ower wi' +the Norman, invaded the nation, and seized upon land--mine invaded it +also, and only laid a tax upon the flocks, the cattle, and the +poultry--and wha ca' ye thieves?--or wi' what grace do ye speak the +word?" + +"Away, ye audacious vagrant!" continued the laird; "ken ye not that the +king's authority is in my hands?--and for your former plunderings, if I +again find you setting foot upon ground o' mine, on the nearest tree ye +shall find a gibbet." + +"Boast awa--boast awa, man," said Willie; "ye are safe here, for me and +mine winna harm ye; and it is a fougie cock indeed that darena craw in +its ain barn-yard. But wait until the day when we may meet upon the wide +moor, wi' only twa bits o' steel between us, and see wha shall brag +then." + +"Away!--instantly away!" exclaimed Clennel, drawing his sword, and +waving it threateningly over the head of the gipsy. + +"Proud, cauld-hearted, and unfeeling mortal," said Elspeth, "will ye +turn fellow-beings from beneath your roof in a night like this, when the +fox darena creep frae its hole, and the raven trembles on the tree?" + +"Out! out! ye witch!" rejoined the laird. + +"Farewell, Clennel," said the Faa king; "we will leave your roof, and +seek the shelter o' the hill-side. But ye shall rue! As I speak, man, ye +shall rue it!" + +"Rue it!" screamed Elspeth, rising--and her small dark eyes flashed with +indignation--"he shall rue it--the bairn unborn shall rue it--and the +bann o' Elspeth Faa shall be on Clennel and his kin, until his hearth be +desolate and his spirit howl within him like the tempest which this +night rages in the heavens!" + +The servants shrank together into a corner of the hall, to avoid the +rage of their master; and they shook the more at the threatening words +of the weird woman, lest she should involve them in his doom; but he +laughed with scorn at her words. + +"Proud, pitiless fool," resumed Elspeth, more bitterly than before, +"repress your scorn. Whom, think ye, ye treat wi' contempt? Ken ye not +that the humble adder which ye tread upon can destroy ye--that the very +wasp can sting ye, and there is poison in its sting? Ye laugh, but for +your want of humanity this night, sorrow shall turn your head grey, lang +before age sit down upon your brow." + +"Off! off! ye wretches!" added the laird; "vent your threats on the +wind, if it will hear ye, for I regard them as little as it will. But +keep out o' my way for the future, as ye would escape the honours o' a +hempen cravat, and the hereditary exaltation o' your race." + +Willie Faa made a sign to his followers, and without speaking they +instantly rose and departed; but, as he himself reached the door, he +turned round, and significantly striking the hilt of his dagger, +exclaimed-- + +"Clennel! ye shall rue it!" + +And the hoarse voice of Elspeth without, as the sound was borne away on +the storm, was heard crying--"He shall rue it!" and repeating her +imprecations. + +Until now, poor Andrew Smith had lain groaning upon the floor more dead +than alive, though not exactly "stone dead" as he expressed it; and +ever, as he heard his master's angry voice, he groaned the more, until +in his agony he doubted his existence. When, therefore, on the departure +of the Faas, the laird dragged him to his feet, and feeling some pity +for his terror, spoke to him more mildly, Andrew gazed vacantly around +him, his teeth chattering together, and he first placed his hands upon +his sides, to feel whether he was still indeed the identical flesh, +blood, and bones of Andrew Smith, or his disembodied spirit; and being +assured that he was still a man, he put down his hand to feel for his +chronometer, and again he groaned bitterly--and although he now knew he +was not dead, he almost wished he were so. The other servants thought +also of their money and their trinkets, which, as well as poor Andrew's +chronometer, Elspeth, in the hurry in which she was rudely driven from +the house, had, by a slip of memory, neglected to return to their lawful +owners. + +It is unnecessary to dwell upon the laird's anger at his domestics, or +farther to describe Andrew's agitation; but I may say that the laird was +not wroth against the Faa gang without reason. They had committed +ravages on his flocks--they had carried off the choicest of his +oxen--they destroyed his deer--they plundered him of his poultry--and +they even made free with the grain that he reared, and which he could +spare least of all. But Willie Faa considered every landed proprietor as +his enemy, and thought it his duty to quarter on them. Moreover, it was +his boisterous laugh, as he pushed round the tankard, which aroused the +laird from his slumbers, and broke Elspeth's spell. And the destruction +of the charm, by the appearance of their master, before she had washed +her hands in Darden Lough, caused those who had parted with their money +and trinkets to grieve for them the more, and to doubt the promises of +the prophetess, or to + + "Take all for gospel that the spaefolk say." + +Many weeks, however, had not passed until the laird of Clennel found +that Elspeth the gipsy's threat, that he should "_rue it_," meant more +than idle words. His cattle sickened and died in their stalls, or the +choicest of them disappeared; his favourite horses were found maimed in +the mornings, wounded and bleeding in the fields; and, notwithstanding +the vigilance of his shepherds, the depredations on his flocks augmented +tenfold. He doubted not but that Willie Faa and his tribe were the +authors of all the evils which were besetting him: but he knew also +their power and their matchless craft, which rendered it almost +impossible either to detect or punish them. He had a favourite steed, +which had borne him in boyhood, and in battle when he served in foreign +wars, and one morning when he went into his park, he found it lying +bleeding upon the ground. Grief and indignation strove together in +arousing revenge within his bosom. He ordered his sluthhound to be +brought, and his dependants to be summoned together, and to bring arms +with them. He had previously observed foot-prints on the ground, and he +exclaimed-- + +"Now the fiend take the Faas, they shall find whose turn it is to rue +before the sun gae down." + +The gong was pealed on the turrets of Clennel Hall, and the kempers with +their poles bounded in every direction, with the fleetness of mountain +stags, to summon all capable of bearing arms to the presence of the +laird. The mandate was readily obeyed; and within two hours thirty armed +men appeared in the park. The sluthhound was led to the footprint; and +after following it for many a weary mile over moss, moor, and mountain, +it stood and howled, and lashed its lips with its tongue, and again ran +as though its prey were at hand, as it approached what might be called a +gap in the wilderness between Keyheugh and Clovencrag. + +Now, in the space between these desolate crags stood some score of +peels, or rather half hovels, half encampments--and this primitive city +in the wilderness was the capital of the Faa king's people. + +"Now for vengeance!" exclaimed Clennel; and his desire of revenge was +excited the more from perceiving several of the choicest of his cattle, +which had disappeared, grazing before the doors or holes of the gipsy +village. + +"Bring whins and heather," he continued--"pile them around it, and burn +the den of thieves to the ground." + +His order was speedily obeyed, and when he commanded the trumpet to be +sounded, that the inmates might defend themselves if they dared, only +two or three men and women of extreme age, and some half-dozen children, +crawled upon their hands and knees from the huts--for it was impossible +to stand upright in them. + +The aged men and women howled when they beheld the work of destruction +that was in preparation, and the children screamed when they heard them +howl. But the laird of Clennel had been injured, and he turned a deaf +ear to their misery. A light was struck, and a dozen torches applied at +once. The whins crackled, the heather blazed, and the flames overtopped +the hovels which they surrounded, and which within an hour became a heap +of smouldering ashes. + +Clennel and his dependants returned home, driving the cattle which had +been stolen from him before them, and rejoicing in what they had done. +On the following day, Willie Faa and a part of his tribe returned to the +place of rendezvous--their city and home in the mountains--and they +found it a heap of smoking ruins, and the old men and the old women of +the tribe--their fathers and their mothers--sitting wailing upon the +ruins, and warming over them their shivering limbs, while the children +wept around them for food. + +"Whose work is this?" inquired Willie, while anxiety and anger flashed +in his eyes. + +"The Laird o' Clennel!--the Laird o' Clennel!" answered every voice at +the same instant. + +"By this I swear!" exclaimed the king of the Faas, drawing his dagger +from beneath his coat, "from this night henceforth he is laird nor man +nae langer." And he turned hastily from the ruins, as if to put his +threat in execution. + +"Stay, ye madcap!" cried Elspeth, following him, "would ye fling away +revenge for half a minute's satisfaction?" + +"No, wife," cried he, "nae mair than I would sacrifice living a free and +a fu' life for half an hour's hangin'." + +"Stop, then," returned she, "and let our vengeance fa' upon him, so that +it may wring his life away, drap by drap, until his heart be dry; and +grief, shame, and sorrow burn him up, as he has here burned house and +home o' Elspeth Faa and her kindred." + +"What mean ye, woman?" said Willie, hastily; "if I thought ye would come +between me and my revenge, I would drive this bit steel through you wi' +as goodwill as I shall drive it through him." + +"And ye shall be welcome," said Elspeth. She drew him aside, and +whispered a few minutes in his ear. He listened attentively. At times he +seemed to start, and at length, sheathing his dagger and grasping her +hand, he exclaimed--"Excellent, Elspeth!--ye have it!--ye have it!" + +At this period, the laird of Clennel was about thirty years of age, and +two years before he had been married to Eleanor de Vere, a lady alike +distinguished for her beauty and accomplishments. They had an infant +son, who was the delight of his mother, and his father's pride. Now, for +two years after the conflagration of their little town, Clennel heard +nothing of his old enemies the Faas, neither did they molest him, nor +had they been seen in the neighbourhood, and he rejoiced in having +cleared his estate of such dangerous visitors. But the Faa king, +listening to the advice of his wife, only "nursed his wrath to keep it +warm," and retired from the neighbourhood, that he might accomplish, in +its proper season, his design of vengeance more effectually, and with +greater cruelty. + +The infant heir of the house of Clennel had been named Henry, and he was +about completing his third year--an age at which children are, perhaps, +most interesting, and when their fondling and their prattling sink +deepest into a parent's heart--for all is then beheld on childhood's +sunny side, and all is innocence and love. Now, it was in a lovely day +in April, when every bird had begun its annual song, and flowers were +bursting into beauty, buds into leaves, and the earth resuming its green +mantle, when Lady Clennel and her infant son, who then, as I have said, +was about three years of age, went forth to enjoy the loveliness and the +luxuries of nature, in the woods which surrounded their mansion, and +Andrew Smith accompanied them as their guide and protector. They had +proceeded somewhat more than a mile from the house, and the child, at +intervals breaking away from them, sometimes ran before his mother, and +at others sauntered behind her, pulling the wild flowers that strewed +their path, when a man, springing from a dark thicket, seized the child +in his arms, and again darted into the wood. Lady Clennel screamed +aloud, and rushed after him. Andrew, who was coming dreaming behind, got +but a glance of the ruffian stranger--but that glance was enough to +reveal to him the tall, terrible figure of Willie Faa, the Gipsy king. + +There are moments when, and circumstances under which even cowards +become courageous, and this was one of those moments and circumstances +which suddenly inspired Andrew (who was naturally no hero) with courage. +He, indeed, loved the child as though he had been his own; and following +the example of Lady Clennel, he drew his sword and rushed into the wood. +He possessed considerable speed of foot, and he soon passed the wretched +mother, and came in sight of the pursued. The unhappy lady, who ran +panting and screaming as she rushed along, unable to keep pace with +them, lost all trace of where the robber of her child had fled, and her +cries of agony and bereavement rang through the woods. + +Andrew, however, though he did not gain ground upon the gipsy, still +kept within sight of him, and shouted to him as he ran, saying that all +the dependants of Clennel would soon be on horseback at his heels, and +trusting that every moment he would drop the child upon the ground. +Still Faa flew forward, bearing the boy in his arm, and disregarding the +cries and threats of his pursuer. He knew that Andrew's was not what +could be called a heart of steel, but he was aware that he had a +powerful arm, and could use a sword as well as a better man; and he knew +also that cowards will fight as desperately, when their life is at +stake, as the brave. + +The desperate chase continued for four hours, and till after the sun had +set, and the gloaming was falling thick on the hills. Andrew, being +younger and unencumbered, had at length gained ground upon the gipsy, +and was within ten yards of him when he reached the Coquet side, about a +mile below this town, at the hideous Thrumb, where the deep river, for +many yards, rushes through a mere chasm in the rock. The Faa, with the +child beneath his arm, leaped across the fearful gulf, and the dark +flood gushed between him and his pursuer. He turned round, and, with a +horrid laugh, looked towards Andrew and unsheathed his dagger. But even +at this moment the unwonted courage of the chief servant of Clennel did +not fail him, and as he rushed up and down upon one side of the gulf, +that he might spring across and avoid the dagger of the gipsy, the other +ran in like manner on the other side; and when Andrew stood as if ready +to leap, the Faa king, pointing with his dagger to the dark flood that +rolled between them, cried-- + +"See, fool! eternity divides us!" + +"And for that bairn's sake, ye wretch, I'll brave it!" exclaimed Andrew, +while his teeth gnashed together; and he stepped back, in order that he +might spring across with the greater force and safety. + +"Hold man!" cried the Faa; "attempt to cross to me, and I will plunge +this bonny heir o' Clennel into the flood below." + +"Oh, gracious! gracious!" cried Andrew, and his resolution and courage +forsook him; "ye monster!--ye barbarian!--oh, what shall I do now!" + +"Go back whence you came," said the gipsy, "or follow me another step +and the child dies." + +"Oh, ye butcher!--ye murderer!" continued the other--and he tore his +hair in agony--"hae ye nae mercy?" + +"Sic mercy as your maister had," returned the Faa, "when he burned our +dwellings about the ears o' the aged and infirm, and o' my helpless +bairns! Ye shall find in me the mercy o' the fasting wolf, o' the tiger +when it laps blood!" + +Andrew perceived that to rescue the child was now impossible, and with a +heavy heart he returned to his master's house, in which there was no +sound save that of lamentation. + +For many weeks, yea months, the laird of Clennel, his friends and his +servants, sought anxiously throughout every part of the country to +obtain tidings of his child, but their search was vain. It was long ere +his lady was expected to recover the shock, and the affliction sat heavy +on his soul, while in his misery he vowed revenge upon all of the gipsy +race. But neither Willie Faa nor any of his tribe were again seen upon +his estates, or heard of in their neighbourhood. + +Four years were passed from the time that their son was stolen from +them, and an infant daughter smiled upon the knee of Lady Clennel; and +oft as it smiled in her face, and stretched its little hands towards +her, she would burst into tears, as the smile and the infantine fondness +of her little daughter reminded her of her lost Henry. They had had +other children, but they had died while but a few weeks old. + +For two years there had been a maiden in the household named Susan, and +to her care, when the child was not in her own arms, Lady Clennel +intrusted her infant daughter; for every one loved Susan, because of her +affectionate nature and docile manners--she was, moreover, an orphan, +and they pitied while they loved her. But one evening, when Lady Clennel +desired that her daughter might be brought her in order that she might +present her to a company who had come to visit them (an excusable, +though not always a pleasant vanity in mothers), neither Susan nor the +child were to be found. Wild fears seized the bosom of the already +bereaved mother, and her husband felt his heart throb within him. They +sought the woods, the hills, the cottages around; they wandered by the +sides of the rivers and the mountain burns, but no one had seen, no +trace could be discovered of either the girl or the child. + +I will not, because I cannot, describe the overwhelming misery of the +afflicted parents. Lady Clennel spent her days in tears and her nights +in dreams of her children, and her husband sank into a settled +melancholy, while his hatred of the Faa race became more implacable, and +he burst into frequent exclamations of vengeance against them. + +More than fifteen years had passed, and though the poignancy of their +grief had abated, yet their sadness was not removed, for they had been +able to hear nothing that could throw light upon the fate of their +children. About this period, sheep were again missed from the flocks, +and, in one night, the hen-roosts were emptied. There needed no other +proof that a Faa gang was again in the neighbourhood. Now, +Northumberland at that period was still thickly covered with wood, and +abounded with places where thieves might conceal themselves in security. +Partly from a desire of vengeance, and partly from the hope of being +able to extort from some of the tribe information respecting his +children, Clennel armed his servants, and taking his hounds with him, +set out in quest of the plunderers. + +For two days their search was unsuccessful, but on the third the dogs +raised their savage cry, and rushed into a thicket in a deep glen +amongst the mountains. Clennel and his followers hurried forward, and in +a few minutes perceived the fires of the Faa encampment. The hounds had +already alarmed the vagrant colony, they had sprung upon many of them +and torn their flesh with their tusks; but the Faas defended themselves +against them with their poniards, and, before Clennel's approach, more +than half his hounds lay dead upon the ground, and his enemies fled. +Yet there was one poor girl amongst them, who had been attacked by a +fierce hound, and whom no one attempted to rescue, as she strove to +defend herself against it with her bare hands. Her screams for +assistance rose louder and more loud; and as Clennel and his followers +drew near, and her companions fled, they turned round, and, with a +fiendish laugh, cried-- + +"Rue it now!" + +Maddened more keenly by the words, he was following on in pursuit, +without rescuing the screaming girl from the teeth of the hound, or +seeming to perceive her, when a woman, suddenly turning round from +amongst the flying gypsies, exclaimed-- + +"For your sake!--for Heaven's sake! Laird Clennel! save my bairn!" + +He turned hastily aside, and, seizing the hound by the throat, tore it +from the lacerated girl, who sank, bleeding, terrified, and exhausted, +upon the ground. Her features were beautiful, and her yellow hair +contrasted ill with the tawny hue of her countenance and the snowy +whiteness of her bosom, which in the struggle had been revealed. The +elder gipsy woman approached. She knelt by the side of the wounded girl. + +"O my bairn!" she exclaimed, "what has this day brought upon me!--they +have murdered you! This is rueing, indeed; and I rue too!" + +"Susan!" exclaimed Clennel, as he listened to her words, and his eyes +had been for several seconds fixed upon her countenance. + +"Yes!--Susan!--guilty Susan!" cried the gipsy. + +"Wretch!" he exclaimed, "my child!--where is my child?--is +_this_"----and he gazed on the poor girl, his voice failed him, and he +burst into tears. + +"Yes!--yes!" replied she bitterly, "it is her--there lies your +daughter--look upon her face." + +He needed, indeed, but to look upon her countenance--disfigured as it +was, and dyed with weeds to give it a sallow hue--to behold in it every +lineament of her mother's, lovely as when they first met his eye and +entered his heart. He flung himself on the ground by her side, he raised +her head, he kissed her cheek, he exclaimed, "My child!--my child!--my +lost one! I have destroyed thee!" + +He bound up her lacerated arms, and applied a flask of wine, which he +carried with him, to her lips, and he supported her on his knee, and +again kissing her cheek, sobbed, "My child!--my own!" + +Andrew Smith also bent over her and said, "Oh, it is her! there isna the +smallest doubt o' that. I could swear to her among a thousand. She's her +mother's very picture." And, turning to Susan, he added, "O Susan, +woman, but ye hae been a terrible hypocrite!" + +Clennel having placed his daughter on horseback before him, supporting +her with his arm, Susan was set between two of his followers, and +conducted to the Hall. + +Before the tidings were made known to Lady Clennel, the wounds of her +daughter were carefully dressed, the dye that changed the colour of her +countenance was removed, and her gipsy garb was exchanged for more +seemly apparel. + +Clennel anxiously entered the apartment of his lady, to reveal to her +the tale of joy; but when he entered, he wist not how to introduce it. +He knew that excess of sudden joy was not less dangerous than excess of +grief, and his countenance was troubled, though its expression was less +sad than it had been for many years. + +"Eleanor," he at length began, "cheer up." + +"Why, I am not sadder than usual, dear," replied she, in her wonted +gentle manner; "and to be more cheerful would ill become one who has +endured my sorrows." + +"True, true," said he, "but our affliction may not be so severe as we +have thought--there may be hope--there may be joy for us yet." + +"What mean ye, husband?" inquired she, eagerly; "have ye heard +aught--aught of my children?--you have!--you have!--your countenance +speaks it." + +"Yes, dear Eleanor," returned he, "I have heard of our daughter." + +"And she lives?--she lives?--tell me that she lives!" + +"Yes, she lives." + +"And I shall see her--I shall embrace my child again?" + +"Yes, love, yes," replied he, and burst into tears. + +"When--oh, when?" she exclaimed, "can you take me to her now?" + +"Be calm, my sweet one. You shall see our child--our long-lost child. +You shall see her now--she is here." + +"Here!--my child!" she exclaimed, and sank back upon her seat. + +Words would fail to paint the tender interview--the mother's joy--the +daughter's wonder--the long, the passionate embrace--the tears of +all--the looks--the words--the moments of unutterable feeling. + +I shall next notice the confession of Susan. Clennel promised her +forgiveness if she would confess the whole truth; and he doubted not, +that from her he would also obtain tidings of his son, and learn where +he might find him, if he yet lived. I shall give her story in her own +words. + +"When I came amongst you," she began, "I said that I was an orphan, and +I told ye truly, so far as I knew myself. I have been reared amongst the +people ye call gipsies from infancy. They fed me before I could provide +for myself. I have wandered with them through many lands. They taught me +many things; and, while young, sent me as a servant into families, that +I might gather information to assist them in upholding their mysteries +of fortune-telling, I dared not to disobey them--they kept me as their +slave--and I knew that they would destroy my life for an act of +disobedience. I was in London when ye cruelly burned down the bit town +between the Keyheugh and Clovencrag. That night would have been your +last, but Elspeth Faa vowed more cruel vengeance than death on you and +yours. After our king had carried away your son, I was ordered from +London to assist in the plot o' revenge. I at length succeeded in +getting into your family, and the rest ye know. When ye were a' busy wi' +your company, I slipped into the woods wi' the bairn in my arms, where +others were ready to meet us; and long before ye missed us, we were +miles across the hills, and frae that day to this your daughter has +passed as mine." + +"But tell me all, woman," cried Clennel, "as you hope for either pardon +or protection--where is my son, my little Harry? Does he live?--where +shall I find him?" + +"As I live," replied Susan, "I cannot tell. There are but two know +concerning him--and that is the king and his wife Elspeth; and there is +but one way of discovering anything respecting him, which is by crossing +Elspeth's loof, that she may betray her husband: and she would do it for +revenge's sake, for an ill husband has he been to her, and in her old +days he has discarded her for another." + +"And where may she be found?" inquired Clennel, earnestly. + +"That," added Susan, "is a question I cannot answer. She was with the +people in the glen to-day, and was first to raise the laugh when your +dog fastened its teeth in the flesh of your ain bairn. But she may be +far to seek and ill to find now--for she is wi' those that travel fast +and far, and that will not see her hindmost." + +Deep was the disappointment of the laird when he found he could obtain +no tidings of his son. But, at the intercession of his daughter (whose +untutored mind her fond mother had begun to instruct), Susan was freely +pardoned, promised protection from her tribe, and again admitted as one +of the household. + +I might describe the anxious care of the fond mother, as, day by day, +she sat by her new-found and lovely daughter's side, teaching her, and +telling her of a hundred things of which she had never heard before, +while her father sat gazing and listening near them, rejoicing over +both. + +But the ray of sunshine which had penetrated the house of Clennel was +not destined to be of long duration. At that period a fearful cloud +overhung the whole land, and the fury of civil war seemed about to burst +forth. + +The threatening storm did explode; a bigoted king overstepped his +prerogative, set at nought the rights and the liberties of the subject, +and an indignant people stained their hands with blood. A political +convulsion shook the empire to its centre. Families and individuals +became involved in the general catastrophe; and the house of Clennel did +not escape. In common with the majority of the English gentry of that +period, Clennel was a stanch loyalist, and if not exactly a lover of the +king, or an ardent admirer of his acts, yet one who would fight for the +crown though it should (as it was expressed about the time) "hang by a +bush." When, therefore, the parliament declared war against the king, +and the name of Cromwell spread awe throughout the country, and when +some said that a prophet and deliverer had risen amongst them, and +others an ambitious hypocrite and a tyrant, Clennel armed a body of his +dependants, and hastened to the assistance of his sovereign, leaving his +wife and his newly-found daughter with the promise of a speedy return. + +It is unnecessary to describe all that he did or encountered during the +civil wars. He had been a zealous partizan of the first Charles, and he +fought for the fortunes of his son to the last. He was present at the +battle of Worcester, which Cromwell calls his "crowning mercy," in the +September of 1651, where the already dispirited royalists were finally +routed; and he fought by the side of the king until the streets were +heaped with dead; and when Charles fled, he, with others, accompanied +him to the borders of Staffordshire. + +Having bid the young prince an affectionate farewell, Clennel turned +back, with the intention of proceeding on his journey, on the following +day, to Northumberland, though he was aware, that, from the part which +he had taken in the royal cause, even his person was in danger. Yet the +desire again to behold his wife and daughter overcame his fears, and the +thought of meeting them in some degree consoled him for the fate of his +prince, and the result of the struggle in which he had been engaged. + +But he had not proceeded far when he was met by two men dressed as +soldiers of the Parliamentary army--the one a veteran with grey hairs, +and the other a youth. The shades of night had set in; but the latter he +instantly recognized as a young soldier whom he had that day wounded in +the streets of Worcester. + +"Stand!" said the old man, as they met him; and the younger drew his +sword. + +"If I stand!" exclaimed Clennel, "it shall not be when an old man and a +boy command me." And, following their example, he unsheathed his sword. + +"Boy!" exclaimed the youth; "whom call ye boy?--think ye, because ye +wounded me this morn, that fortune shall aye sit on your arm?--yield or +try." + +They made several thrusts at each other, and the old man, as an +indifferent spectator, stood looking on. But the youth, by a dexterous +blow, shivered the sword in Clennel's hand, and left him at his mercy. + +"Now yield ye," he exclaimed; "the chance is mine now--in the morning it +was thine." + +"Ye seem a fair foe," replied Clennel, "and loath am I to yield, but +that I am weaponless." + +"Despatch him at once!" growled the old man. "If he spilled your blood +in the morning, there can be no harm in spilling his the night--and +especially after giein' him a fair chance." + +"Father," returned the youth, "would ye have me to kill a man in cold +blood?" + +"Let him submit to be bound then, hands and eyes, or I will," cried the +senior. + +The younger obeyed, and Clennel, finding himself disarmed, submitted to +his fate; and his hands were bound, and his eyes tied up, so that he +knew not where they led him. + +After wandering many miles, and having lain upon what appeared the cold +earth for a lodging, he was aroused from a comfortless and troubled +sleep, by a person tearing the bandage from his eyes, and ordering him +to prepare for his trial. He started to his feet. He looked around, and +beheld that he stood in the midst of a gipsy encampment. He was not a +man given to fear, but a sickness came over his heart when he thought of +his wife and daughter, and that, knowing the character of the people in +whose power he was, he should never behold them again. + +The males of the Faa tribe began to assemble in a sort of half circle in +the area of the encampment, and in the midst of them, towering over the +heads of all, he immediately distinguished the tall figure of Willie +Faa, in whom he also discovered the grey-haired Parliamentary soldier of +the previous night. But the youth with whom he had twice contended and +once wounded, and by whom he had been made prisoner, he was unable to +single out amongst them. + +He was rudely dragged before them, and Willie Faa cried--"Ken ye the +culprit?" + +"Clennel o' Northumberland!--our enemy!" exclaimed twenty voices. + +"Yes," continued Willie, "Clennel our enemy--the burner o' our humble +habitations--that left the auld, the sick, the infirm, and the helpless, +and the infants o' our kindred, to perish in the flaming ruins. Had we +burned his house, the punishment would have been death; and shall we do +less to him than he would do to us?" + +"No! no!" they exclaimed with one voice. + +"But," added Willie, "though he would have disgraced us wi' a gallows, +as he has been a soldier, I propose that he hae the honour o' a +soldier's death, and that Harry Faa be appointed to shoot him." + +"All! all! all!" was the cry. + +"He shall die with the setting sun," said Willie, and again they cried, +"Agreed!" + +Such was the form of trial which Clennel underwent, when he was again +rudely dragged away, and placed in a tent round which four strong Faas +kept guard. He had not been alone an hour, when his judge, the Faa king, +entered, and addressed him-- + +"Now, Laird Clennel, say ye that I haena lived to see day about wi' ye? +When ye turned me frae beneath your roof, when the drift was fierce and +the wind howled in the moors, was it not tauld to ye that _ye would rue +it_!--but ye mocked the admonition and the threat, and, after that, +cruelly burned us out o' house and ha'. When I came hame, I saw my auld +mother, that was within three years o' a hunder, couring ower the +reeking ruins, without a wa' to shelter her, and crooning curses on the +doer o' the black deed. There were my youngest bairns, too, crouching by +their granny's side, starving wi' hunger as weel as wi' cauld, for ye +had burned a', and haudin' their bits o' hands before the burnin' ruins +o' the house that they were born in, to warm them! That night I vowed +vengeance on you; and even on that night I would have executed it, but I +was prevented; and glad am I now that I was prevented, for my vengeance +has been complete--or a' but complete. Wi' my ain hand I snatched your +son and heir from his mother's side, and a terrible chase I had for it; +but revenge lent me baith strength and speed. And when ye had anither +bairn that was like to live, I forced a lassie, that some o' our folk +had stolen when an infant, to bring it to us. Ye have got your daughter +back again, but no before she has cost ye mony a sad heart and mony a +saut tear; and that was some revenge. But the substance o' my +satisfaction and revenge lies in what I hae to tell ye. Ye die this +night as the sun gaes down; and, hearken to me now--the young soldier +whom ye wounded on the streets o' Worcester, and who last night made you +prisoner, was your son--your heir--your lost son! Ha! ha!--Clennel, am I +revenged?" + +"My son!" screamed the prisoner--"monster, what is it that ye say? +Strike me dead, now I am in your power--but torment me not!" + +"Ha! ha! ha!" again laughed the grey-haired savage--"man, ye are about +to die, and ye know not ye are born. Ye have not heard half I have to +tell. I heard that ye had joined the standard o' King Charles. I, a king +in my ain right, care for neither your king nor parliament; but I +resolved to wear, for a time, the cloth o' old Noll, and to make your +son do the same, that I might hae an opportunity o' meeting you as an +enemy, and seeing _him_ strike you to the heart. That satisfaction I had +not; but I had its equivalent. Yesterday, I saw you shed his blood on +the streets o' Worcester, and in the evening he gave you a prisoner into +my hands that desired you." + +"Grey-haired monster!" exclaimed Clennel. "Have ye no feeling--no heart? +Speak ye to torment me, or tell me truly, have I seen my son?" + +"Patience, man!" said the Faa, with a smile of sardonic triumph--"my +story is but half finished. It was the blood o' your son ye shed +yesterday at Worcester--it was your son who disarmed ye, and gave ye +into my power; and, best o' a'!--now, hear me! hear me! lose not a +word!--it is the hand o' your son that this night, at sunset, shall send +you to eternity! Now, tell me, Clennel, am I no revenged? Do ye no rue +it?" + +"Wretch! wretch!" cried the miserable parent, "in mercy strike me dead. +If I have raised my sword against my son, let that suffice ye!--but +spare, oh, spare my child from being an involuntary parricide!" + +"Hush, fool!" said the Faa; "I have waited for this consummation o' my +revenge for twenty years, and think ye that I will be deprived o' it now +by a few whining words? Remember, sunset!" he added, and left the tent. + +Evening came, and the disk of the sun began to disappear behind the +western hills. Men and women, the old and the young, amongst the Faas, +came out from their encampment to behold the death of their enemy. +Clennel was brought forth between two, his hands fastened to his sides, +and a bandage round his mouth, to prevent him making himself known to +his executioner. A rope was also brought round his body, and he was tied +to the trunk of an old ash tree. The women of the tribe began a sort of +yell or coronach; and their king, stepping forward, and smiling savagely +in the face of his victim, cried aloud-- + +"Harry Faa! stand forth and perform the duty your tribe have imposed on +you." + +A young man, reluctantly, and with a slow and trembling step, issued +from one of the tents. He carried a musket in his hand, and placed +himself in front of the prisoner, at about twenty yards from him. + +"Make ready!" cried Willie Faa, in a voice like thunder. And the youth, +though his hands shook, levelled the musket at his victim. + +But, at that moment, one who, to appearance, seemed a maniac, sprang +from a clump of whins behind the ash tree where the prisoner was bound, +and, throwing herself before him, she cried--"Hold!--would you murder +your own father? Harry Clennel!--would you murder your father? Mind ye +not when ye was stolen frae your mother's side, as ye gathered wild +flowers in the wood?" + +It was Elspeth Faa. + +The musket dropped from the hands of the intended executioner--a +thousand recollections, that he had often fancied dreams, rushed across +his memory. He again seized the musket, he rushed forward to his father, +but, ere he reached, Elspeth had cut the cords that bound the laird, and +placed a dagger in his hand for his defence, and, with extended arms, he +flew to meet the youth, crying--"My son!--my son!" + +The old Faa king shook with rage and disappointment, and his first +impulse was to poniard his wife--but he feared to do so; for although he +had injured her, and had not seen her for years, her influence was +greater with the tribe than his. + +"Now, Willie," cried she, addressing him, "wha rues it now? Fareweel for +ance and a'--and the bairn I brought up will find a shelter for my auld +head." + +It were vain to tell how Clennel and his son wept on each other's neck, +and how they exchanged forgiveness. But such was the influence of +Elspeth, that they departed from the midst of the Faas unmolested, and +she accompanied them. + +Imagination must picture the scene when the long-lost son flung himself +upon the bosom of his mother, and pressed his sister's hand in his. +Clennel Hall rang with the sounds of joy for many days; and, ere they +were ended, Andrew Smith placed a ring upon the finger of Susan, and +they became one flesh--she a respectable woman. And old Elspeth lived to +the age of ninety and seven years beneath its roof. + + + + +KATE KENNEDY; + +OR, THE MAID OF INNERKEPPLE. + + +Innerkepple was, some three hundred years ago, as complete a +fortification as could be seen along the Borders--presenting its +bastions, its turrets and donjon, and all the appurtenances of a +military strength, in the face of a Border riever, with that solemn air +of defiance that belongs to the style of the old castles. Many a blow of +a mangonel it had received; and Scotch and English engines of war had, +with equal force and address, poured into its old grey ribs their +destructive bolts; every wound was an acquisition of glory; and, unless +where a breach demanded a repair for the sake of security, the scars on +the old warrior were allowed to remain as a proof of his prowess. +Indeed, these very wounds appearing on the walls had their names--being +christened after the leaders of the sieges that had been in vain +directed against it; and, among the number, the kings of England might +have been seen indicated by the futile instruments of vengeance they had +flung into the rough ribs of old Innerkepple. But let us proceed. The +proprietor, good Walter Kennedy, better known by the appellative of +Innerkepple, was not unlike the old strength which he inhabited; being +an old, rough, burly baron, on whose face Time had succeeded in making +many impressions, notwithstanding of all the opposing energies of a soul +that gloried, in all manner of ways, of cheating the old greybeard of +his rights and clearing off _his scores_. As a good spirit is said to be +like good old wine, getting softer and more balmy as it increases in +age, old Innerkepple proved, by his good humour and jovial manners, the +sterling qualities of his heart, which seemed, as he progressed in +years, to swell in proportion as that organ in others shrivelled and +decreased. He saw nothing in age but the necessity it imposes of having +more frequent recourse to its great enemy, the grape; and that power he +delighted to bow to, as he bent his head to empty the flagon which his +forebear, Kenneth, got from the first King James, as a reward for his +services against the house of Albany. Yet the good humour of the old +baron was not that of the toper, which, produced by the bowl, would not +exist but for its inspiring draught; the feeling of happiness and +universal good-will lay at the bottom of the heart itself, and was only +swelled into a state of glorious ebullition by the charm of the magic of +the vine branch--the true Mercurial _caduceus_, the only true magic wand +upon earth. + +Though the spirit of antiquarianism is seldom associated with the +swelling affections of the heart that is dedicated to Momus, old +Innerkepple had, notwithstanding, been able to combine the two qualities +or powers. Sitting in his old wainscotted hall, over a goblet of spiced +Tokay, there were three old subjects he loved to speculate upon; and +these were--his old castle, with its chronicled wounds, where the Genius +of War sat alongside of the "auld carle" Time, in grim companionship; +secondly, the family tree of the Innerkepples--with himself, a good old +branch, kept green by good humour and Tokay, at the further verge; and a +small green twig, as slender as a lily stalk, issuing from the old +branch--no other than the daughter of Innerkepple, the fair Kate +Kennedy, a buxom damsel, of goodly proportions, and as merry, with the +aid of health and young sparkling blood, as the old baron was with the +spiced wine of Tokay; and, in the third place, there was the true +legitimate study of the antiquary, the ancient wine itself, the mortal +years of which he counted with an eye as bright as Cocker's over a +triumphant solution. As this last subject grew upon him, he became +inspired, like the old poet of Teos, and the rafters of Innerkepple rang +to the sound of his voice, tuned to the air of "The Guidwife o' +Tullybody," and fraught with the deeds, active and passive, of the +barons of Innerkepple and their castle. + +The fair Katherine Kennedy inherited her father's good humour, and, +maugre all the polishing and freezing influences of high birth, retained +her inborn freedom of thought and action, heedless whether the +contortion of the _buccæ_ in a broad laugh were consistent with the +placidity of beauty, or the scream of the heart-excited risibility were +in accordance with the formula of high breeding. Buxom in her person, +and gay in her manners, she formed the most enchanting baggage of all +the care-killing damsels of her day--the most exquisite ronion that ever +chased Melancholy from her yellow throne on the face of Hypochondria, or +threw the cracker of her persiflage into the midst of the crew of blue +devils that bind down care-worn mortals by the bonds of _ennui_. She was +no antiquary, even in the limited sense of her father's study of the +science of cobwebs; being rather given to _neoterics_, or the science +which teaches the qualities of things of to-day or yesterday. Age in all +things she hated with a very good feminine spirit of detestation; and, +following up her principles, she arrived at the conclusion that youth +and beauty were two of the very best qualities that could be possessed +by a lover. Her father's impassioned praises of the old branches of the +tree of the Innerkepples--comprehending the brave Ludovick, who fell at +Homildon, and the memorable Walter, who sold his life at the price of a +score of fat Englishmen at the red Flodden--produced only her best and +loudest laugh, as she figured to herself the folly of preferring the +rugged trunk to the green branches that suspend at their points the +red-cheeked apple full of sweetness and juice. Neither cared the +hilarious damsel much for the reverend turrets of Innerkepple. Her +father's description, full of good humour as it was, of the various +perils they had passed, and the service they had done their country, +seemed to her, as she stood on the old walls, listening to the +narrative, like the croak of the old corbies that sat on the pinnacles; +and her laugh came again full of glee through the loopholes, or echoed +from the battered curtain or recesses of the ballium. + +That such a person as merry old Innerkepple should have a bitter and +relentless foe in the proprietor of the old strength called Otterstone, +in the neighbourhood, is one of the most instructive facts connected +with the system of war and pillage that prevailed on the Borders, +principally during the reign of Henry VIII. of England and James V. of +Scotland, when the spirit of religion furnished a cause of aggression +that could not have been afforded by the pugnacious temperaments of the +victims of attack. Magnus Fotheringham of Otterstone had had a deadly +feud with Kenneth Kennedy, the father of the good old Innerkepple, and +ever since had nourished against his neighbour a deadly spite, which he +had taken many means of gratifying. His opponent had acted merely on the +defensive; but his plea had been so well vindicated by his retainers, +who loved him with the affection of children, that the splenetic +aggressor had been twice repulsed with great slaughter. Most readily +would the jovial baron, who had never given any cause of offence, have +seized upon the demon of Enmity, and, _obtorto collo_, forced the fiend +into the smoking flagon of spiced wine, while he held out the hand of +friendship to his hereditary foe; but such was Otterstone's inveteracy, +that he would not meet him but with arms in his hands, so that all the +endeavours of the warm-hearted and jolly Innerkepple to overcome the +hostility of his neighbour, were looked upon as secret modes of wishing +to entrap him, and take vengeance on him for his repeated attacks upon +the old castle. + +Some short time previous to the period about which we shall become more +interested, Innerkepple, with twenty rangers, was riding the marches of +his property, when he was set upon by his enemy, who had nearly twice +that number of retainers. Taking up with great spirit the plea of their +lord, the men who were attacked rallied round the old chief, and fought +for him like lions, drowning (perhaps purposely) in the noise of the +battle the cries of Innerkepple, who roared, at the top of his voice-- + +"Otterstone, man--hear me!--A pint o' my auld Canary will do baith you +and me mair guid than a' that bluid o' your men and mine. Stop the +fecht, man. I hae nae feud against you, an' I'm no answerable for the +wrangs o' thy father Kenneth." + +These peaceful words were lost amidst the sounds of the battle, and +Otterstone construed the contortions of the peacemaker into indications +of revenge, and his bawling was set down as his mode of inspiriting his +followers. The fight accordingly progressed, old Innerkepple at +intervals holding up a white handkerchief as a sign of peace; but which, +having been used by him in stopping the wounds of one of his men, was +received with its blood-marks as a signal of revenge, both by his men +and those of the aggressor. The strife accordingly increased, and all +was soon mixed up in the confusion of the melée. + +"Has feud ran awa wi' yer senses, Otterstone?" again roared the good old +baron. "I'll gie yer son, wha's at St. Omers, the hand o' my dochter +Kate. Do you hear me, man? If you will mix the bluids o' oor twa houses, +let it be dune by Haly Kirk." + +His words never reached Otterstone; but his own men who adored and +idolized their beautiful young mistress, whose unvaried cheerfulness and +kindness had won their hearts, heard the proposition of their master +with astonishment and dissatisfaction. They were still sorely pressed by +their enemy, who, seeing the stained handkerchief in the hands of +Innerkepple, were roused to stronger efforts. At this moment an +extraordinary vision met their eyes. A detachment of retainers from the +castle came forward in the most regular warlike array, having at their +head their young mistress, armed with a helmet and a light jerkin, and +bearing in her hand a sword of suitable proportions. A loud shout from +the worsted combatants expressed their satisfaction and surprise, and in +a moment the assistant corps joined their friends, and commenced to +fight. The unusual vision relaxed for a moment the energies of +Otterstone's men; but a cry from their chief, that they would that day +be ten times vanquished if they were defeated by a female leader, again +inspired them, and instigated them to the fight. + +"Press forward, brave vassals of Innerkepple!" cried Katherine. "Your +foes have no fair damsel to inspire them; and who shall resist those +whose arms are nerved in defence of an old chief and a young mistress? +He who kills the greatest number of Otterstone's men shall have the +privilege of demanding a woman's guerdon from Katherine Kennedy. If this +be not enough to make ye fight like lions, ye deserve to be hung in +chains on the towers of Otterstone." + +Smiling as she uttered her strange speech, she hurried to her father, +who was still making all the efforts in his power to bring about a +parley. He had got within a few yards of Otterstone, and it required all +the energies of Katherine to keep him back and defend him from insidious +blows--an office she executed with great agility, by keeping her light +sword whirling round her head, and inflicting wounds--not perhaps of +great depth--on those who were ungallant and temerarious enough to +approach her parent. + +"See, Otterstone, man," cried the laird, still intent on peace, and +sorry for the deadly work that was going on around him. "Is she no fit +to mak heirs to Otterstone? Up wi' yer helm, Kate, and show him yer fair +face. Ha! man, stop this bluidy work, and let us mend a' by a carousal. +Deil's in the heart and stamack o' the man that prefers warring to +wassailing!" + +"He does not hear you, father," cried Kate. "We must defend ourselves. +On, brave followers! Ye know your guerdon. Gallant knights have kneeled +for it and been refused it. You are to fight for it, and to receive it. +Hurrah for Innerkepple!" And she swung her light falchion round her +head, while the war-cry of the family, "_Festina lente!_" arose in +answer to her inspiriting appeal, and the men rushed forward with new +ardour on their foes. + +"You are as bluid-thirsty as he is, Kate," cried the baron. "What mean +ye, woman? Haste ye up to Otterstone, and fling yer arms round his neck, +and greet a guid greet, according to the fashion o' womankind. Awa! +haste ye, and say, mairower, that ye'll be the wife o' his son, and join +the twa baronies that are gaping for ane anither. Quick, woman; tears +are mere water--thin aneuch, Gude kens!--but thae men's bluid is thicker +than my vintage o' the year '90." + +"Katherine Kennedy never yet wept either to friend or foe, unless in the +wild glee of her frolics," replied the maiden. "By the bones of Camilla! +I thought I was only fit for sewing battle scenes on satin, and laughing +as I killed a knight with my needle; but I find I have the Innerkepple +blood in my veins, and my cheek is glowing like a blood-red rose. Take +care of yourself, good father, and leave the affair to me. A single +glance of my eye has more power in it than the command of the proudest +baron of the Borders. On, good hearts!" And she again rode among the +men, and inspired them with her voice and looks. + +The effect of the silvery tones of the voice of Katherine on the hearts +of her father's retainers was electric; they fought like lions, and it +soon became apparent to Otterstone that a woman is a more dangerous +enemy than a man. The cry, "For the fair maid of Innerkepple!" resounded +among the combatants, and soon exhibited greater virtue than the war-cry +of the house. Against men actuated by the chivalrous feelings that +naturally arose out of the defence of a beautiful woman, all resistance +was vain; the ranks of Otterstone's men were broken, and this advantage +having been seized by their opponents, whose energies were rising every +moment, as the sound of Katherine's voice saluted their ears, a route +ensued, and the usual consequences of that last resource of the +vanquished--flight--were soon apparent in the wounded victims, who fell +ingloriously with wounds on their backs. The pursuers were inclined to +continue the pursuit even to the walls of Otterstone, but Katherine +called them back. + +"To slay the flying," said she, with a laugh, as the usual hilarity of +her spirits returned upon her, "is what I call effeminate warfare. When +men flee, women pursue; and what get they for their pains more than the +wench got from Theseus, whom she hunted for his heart, and got, as our +hunters do, the kick of his heel? Away, and carry in our disabled, that +I may, with woman's art, cure the wounds that have been received in +defence of a woman." + +The men obeyed with alacrity, and Innerkepple himself stared in +amazement at his daughter, who had always before appeared to him as a +wild romp, fit only for killing men with her beauty, or tormenting them +with the elfin tricks or bewitching waggeries of her restless salient +spirit. + +"I'll hae ye in the wainscotted ha', Kate," said the father, as he +entered his private chamber, leaning on the arm of his daughter, +"painted wi' helm, habergeon, and halberd, and placed alongside o' Lewie +o' Homildon and Watt o' Flodden." + +"I care not, father," replied Katherine, "if you give the painter +instructions to paint me laughing at those famous progenitors of our +house, who were foolish enough to give their lives for that glory I can +purchase for nothing, and get the lives of my enemies to boot; but I +must go and minister to the gallant men who have been wounded." + +"Minister first to your father, Kate," replied Innerkepple, with a +knowing look. + +"And to your father's daughter, you would add," replied she, with a +smile. "A bridal and a battle lack wine." And, hastening to a cupboard, +she took out and placed on the table a flagon and two cups, the latter +of which she filled. + +"Rest to the souls of the men I have slain!" said she, laughing, as she +lifted the wine cup to her head, while her father was performing the +same act. + +"What! did ye kill ony o' Otterstone's men?" said Innerkepple. + +"Every time I lifted up my visor," replied she, "I scattered death +around me. Ha! ha! what fools men are! Their bodies are tenantless; we +women are the souls that live outside of them, and take up our residence +within their clayey precincts only when we have an object to serve. The +tourney has taught me the power of our sex; and there I have thrown my +spirit into the man I hated, to gratify my humour by seeing him, poor +caitiff! as he caught my hazel eye, writhe and wring, and contort +himself into all the attitudes of Proteus." + +"Wicked imp!" said Innerkepple, laughing. + +"And when he had sufficiently twisted himself," continued she, "I have, +with a grave face given the same hazel eye to his opponent, and set his +body in motion in the same way. The serpent-charmer is nothing to a +woman. By this art, I to-day gained the victory; and I'll stake my +auburn toupée against thy grey wig, that I beat, in the same way, the +boldest baron of the Borders." + +"By the faith o' Innerkepple, ye're no blate, Kate!" said the old baron, +still laughing; "but come, let us see our wounded men"--taking his +daughter's arm. + +"Leave their wounds to me, father," said she. "The sting of the +tarantula is cured by an old song. We women are the true leeches; +doctors are quacks and medicasters to us. We kill and cure like the +Delphic sword, which makes wounds and heals them by alternate strokes." + +"Ever at your quips, roisterer," said Innerkepple, as they arrived at +the court. + +The wounded men had been brought in, and were consigned to the care of +one of the retainers, skilled in medicine, Katherine's medicaments--her +looks and tones--being reserved for a balsamic application, after the +wounds were cicatrized. The other retainers were, meanwhile, busy in +consultation, as might have been seen by their congregating into +parties, talking low, and throwing looks at Innerkepple and his fair +daughter, as they stood on the steps of the inner door of the castle. + +"The guerdon! the guerdon!" at last said one of the vassals, advancing +and throwing himself at the feet of Kate. + +"Ha! ha! I forgot," replied she laughing; "but turn up thy face--art +thou the man?" + +"So say my companions, fair leddy," replied he. "I brocht doon wi' this +arm five o' Otterstone's men." + +"With that arm!" replied she, "and what spirit nerved the dead lumber, +thinkest thou?" + +"Dootless yours, fair leddy," answered he, smiling knowingly; "but, +though the spirit was borrowed, I'm no the less entitled to my reward." + +"A good stickler for the rights of your sex," answered she, keeping up +the humour; "but what guerdon demandest thou?" + +"That whilk knights hae sued in vain for at your fair feet," answered +the man, smiling, as he uttered nearly the words she had used at the +battle. + +"Caught in my own snare," replied she, laughing loudly. + +"Ah, Kate, Kate!" said the baron, joining in the humour, "hoo mony +gallant barons, and knights, and gentlemen hae ye tormented by thae fair +lips o' yours, which carry in their cunnin' words a defence o' themsels +sae weel contrived that nane daur approach them! Ye're caught at last. +Stand to yer richts, man. A kiss was promised ye, and by the honour o' +Innerkepple, a kiss ye'll hae, if I should haud her head by a grip o' +her bonny auburn locks." + +"Hold! hold!" cried Katherine; "this matter dependeth on the answer to a +question. Art thou married, sirrah?" + +The man hesitated, fearful of being caught by his clever adversary. + +"Have a care o' yoursel, Gregory," said Innerkepple, "ye're on dangerous +ground." + +"What if I am or am not?" said the man, cautiously, turning up his eye +into the face of the wicked querist. + +"If thou art not," said she, "then would a kiss of so fair a damsel be +to thee beyond the value of a croft of the best land o' the barony o' +Innerkepple; but if thou art, then would the guerdon be as nothing to +the kiss of thy wife, and as the weight of a feather in the scale +against an oxengate of good land." + +"I'm no married," replied the man; "but, an't please yer leddyship, I'll +take the oxengate." + +"Audacious varlet!" cried Kate, rejoicing in the adroitness she +exhibited; "wouldst thou prefer a piece of earth to a kiss of Kate +Kennedy--a boon which the gayest knights of the Borders have sued for in +vain! But 'tis well--thou hast refused the guerdon. Ha! ha! Men of +Innerkepple, ye are witnesses to the fact. This man hath spurned my +guerdon, and sought dull earth for my rosy lips." + +"We are witnesses," cried the retainers; and the court-yard rang with the +laugh which the cleverness of their fair mistress had elicited from +those who envied Gregory of his privilege. + +"Kate, Kate!" said the old baron, joining in the laugh, "will ever +mortal be able to seize what are sae weel guarded? I believe ye will be +able to argue yer husband oot o' his richts o' proving whether thae +little traitors be made of mortal flesh or ripe cherries. But wine is +better than women's lips; and since Kate has sae cleverly got quit o' +her obligation, I'll mak amends by gieing ye a _surrogatum_." + +Several measures of good old wine were served out to the men by the +hands of Katherine, who rejoiced in the contradiction of refusing one +thing to give a better. Her health, and that of Innerkepple, were drunk +with loud shouts of approbation; and the wassail was kept up till a late +hour of the night. + +Meanwhile, Otterstone was struggling with his disappointment, and +nourishing a deep spirit of revenge. The shame of his defeat, +accomplished by a girl, was insufferable; and the gnawing pain of the +loss of honour and men, in a cause where he had calculated securely on +crushing his supposed enemy, affected him so severely, that he sent, it +was reported, for his son, who had lived from his infancy at St. Omers, +to come over to administer to him consolation. When Innerkepple heard of +these things, he marvelled greatly at the stubbornness of his neighbour, +whom he wished, above all things, to drag, _nolente volente_, into a +deep wassail in the old wainscotted hall of his castle, whereby he +might drown, with reason itself, all their hereditary grudges, and +transform a foe into a friend. These feelings were also participated in +by the warlike Kate, who acknowledged that she did not, on that +memorable day, fight for anything on earth that she knew of, but the +safety of her father, and the sheer glory of victory. She entertained +the best possible feelings towards Otterstone, though she admitted, with +a laugh, that if his men had not that day run for their lives, she would +have fought till they and their lord lay all dead upon the field, and +the glory of Otterstone was extinguished for ever. + +A considerable period that passed in quietness, seemed to indicate that +the anger of the vanquished baron had escaped by the valves appointed by +nature for freeing the liver of its redundant bile. Meanwhile, +Innerkepple's universal love of mankind increased, as his friendship for +the juice of the grape grew stronger and stronger, and his potations +waxed deeper and deeper; so that he was represented, all over the +Borders, as being the most jovial baron of his time. The fame of Kate +also went abroad like fire-flaughts; but no one knew what to make of +her--whether to set her down as a beautiful virago, or as a merry imp of +sportive devilry, who fought her father's enemy with the same good-will +she felt towards the lovers whom she delighted with her beauty and +gaiety, and tormented by her cruel waggeries and wiles. + +This apparent quietness, and the consequent freedom from all danger, +induced the old baron to comply with a request made to him by King +James, to lend him forty of his followers, to aid in suppressing some +disturbances caused by a number of outlawed reivers at that time +ravaging the Borders. Katherine gave her consent to the measure; but she +wisely exacted the condition that the men should not be removed to a +greater distance from the castle than ten miles. When James' emissary +asked her why she adjected this condition to her father's agreement, she +answered, with that waggish mystery in which she often loved to indulge, +that she had such a universal love for his--the emissary's--sex, that +she could not suffer the idea of her gallant men being further removed +from her than the distance on which she had condescended. A question for +explanation only produced another wicked _quodlibet_; so that the royal +messenger was obliged to be contented with a reason that sounded in his +ears very like a contempt of royal authority--a circumstance for which +she cared no more than she did for the mute expression of admiration of +her beauty, that her quick eye detected on the face of the deputy. + +The men having been detached from the castle for the service of the +king, there remained only a small number, not more than sufficient for +occupying the more important stations on the walls of the strength. +There was, however, no cause for alarm; and old Innerkepple continued to +speculate over his spiced Tokay, on his three grand subjects of +antiquarian research; while Katherine followed her various occupations +of listening to and laughing at his reveries, sewing battle scenes on +satin, and killing her knights with her needle, in as many grotesque +ways as her inventive fancy could devise. One day the sound of a horn +cut right through the middle a long pull of Canary in the act of being +perfected by the old baron's powers of swallow; and, in a short time, +the warder came in and said that a wine merchant, with sumpter mules and +panniers, was at the end of the drawbridge, and had expressed a strong +desire to submit his commodity to the test of such a famous judge of the +spirit of the grape as the baron of Innerkepple, whose name had gone +forth as transcending that of all modern wine-drinkers. + +"A wine merchant!" ejaculated Innerkepple, smacking his lips after his +interrupted draught of vintage '90. "What species o' sma' potation does +he deal in? Ha! ha! It suits my humour to see the quack's een reel, as +he finds his tongue and palate glued thegither wi' what I ca' wine, and +gets them loosed again by his ain coloured water. Show him in, George." + +"Whar is my leddy, yer Honour?" said the seneschal, looking bluntly. +"Will she consent to the drawbridge bein' raised at a time when the +castle's nearly empty?" + +"She has just gane into the green parlour in the west tower," said the +baron. "But I'll tak Kate in my ain hands. She likes fun as weel as her +auld father, and will laugh to see this quack beaten wi' his ain bowls." + +The seneschal withdrew, though reluctantly, and casting his eyes about +for the indispensable Katherine; but she was not within his reach, and +he felt himself compelled, by the impatience of the old baron, to admit +the merchant. The creaking hinges of the bridge resounded through the +castle and the merchant and his mules were seen by Katherine, looking +through a loophole, slowly making their way into the castle. It was too +late for her now to consider of the propriety of the permission to +enter; so she leant her chin on her hand, and quietly scanned the +stranger, as he crossed the bridge, driving his mules before him with a +large stick, which he brought down with a loud thwack on their +backs--accompanying his act with a loud "Whoop, ho!" and occasionally +throwing his eyes over the walls as he proceeded. + +"Whom have we here?" said she, as she communed with herself, and nodded +her head, still apparent through the loophole. "By'r Lady! neither +Gascon nor Fleming, or my eyes are no better than my father's, when he +looks at _antiques_ through the red medium of his vintage of '90. +Perchance, a lover come to run away with Kate Kennedy. Hey! the thought +tickles my wild wits, and sends me on the wings of fancy into the +regions of romance. Yet I have not read that the catching and carrying +off of _Tartars_ hath anything to do with the themes of romantic +love-errantry. I'm witty at the expense of this poor packman; but, +seriously, Katherine Kennedy must carry off her lover. True to the +difference that opposes me to the rest of my sex, I could not love a man +whom I did not vanquish and abduct, as a riever does the chattels of the +farmer." + +Continuing her gaze, as she laughed at her own strange thoughts, she saw +the merchant bind his mules to a ring fixed in the inside of the wall, +and take out of his panniers a vessel, with which he proceeded in the +direction of the door that led to the hall. When the merchant had +disappeared, she saw one of the retainers of the castle examining +intently the mules and their panniers. He looked up and caught her eye; +and placing his finger on his forehead, made a sign for her to come +down. She obeyed with her usual alacrity, and in a moment was at the +side of the retainer, who, slipping gently under the shade of the +castle, so as to be out of the view of those within the hall, +communicated to the ear of Katherine some intelligence of an important +nature. The man looked grave; Kate snapped her fingers; the fire of her +eyes glanced from the balls like the sparks of struck flint, and the +expression of her countenance indicated that she had formed a purpose +which she gloried in executing. + +"Hark ye, Gregory," said she; "I am still your debtor, but I require +again your services." And, looking carefully around her, she whispered +some words into the ear of the man; and, upon receiving his nod of +intelligence and assent, sprung up the steps that led to the hall. + +The wine merchant was, as she entered, sitting at the oaken table, +opposite to the old baron, who was holding up in his hand a species of +glass jug, and looking through it with that peculiar expression which is +only to be found in the face of a luxurious wine-toper in the act of +passing sentence. + +"Wha, in God's name, are ye, man?" cried the baron, under the cover of +whose speech Kate slipped cleverly up to the window, and sat down, with +her cheek resting on her hand, in apparent listlessness, but eyeing +intently the stranger. "I could have wad the picture o' my ancestor, +Watt o' Flodden, or King Henry's turret, in the east wing o' +Innerkepple, wi' its twenty wounds, mair precious than goold, that there +wasna a cup o' vintage '90 in Scotland except what I had mysel. Whar got +ye't, man? Are ye the Devil? Hae ye brocht it frae my ain cellars? +Speak, Satan!" + +"Vy, _mon cher_ Innerkepple," replied the merchant, "did I not know that +you were one grand biberon--I mean drinker of vin? It is known all over +the marches--I mean the Bordures. Aha! no one Frenchman could cheat the +famous Innerkepple; so I brought the best that was in all my celliers. +Is it not grand and magnifique?" + +"Grand an' magnifique, man!" replied Innerkepple, as he sipped the wine +with the gravity of a judge. "It's mair than a' that, man, if my tongue +could coin a word to express its ain sense o' what it is at this moment +enjoying. But the organ's stupified wi' sheer delight, and forgets its +very mither's tongue; an' nae wonder, for my very een, that didna taste +it, reel and get drunk wi' the sight." And the delighted baron took +another pull of the goblet. + +"Aha! Innerkepple, you are von of the grandest biberons I have ever seen +in all this contrée," said the merchant. "It is one great pleasir to +trafique vit von so learned in the science of _bon gout_. That grand +smack of your lips would tempt me to ruin myself, and drink mine own +commodity." + +"Hae ye a stock o' the treasure?" said the baron; "I canna suppose it." + +"Just five barrils in my celliers at Berwick," answered the merchant, +"containing quatre hundred pints de Paris in each one of them." + +"I could walk on my bare feet to Berwick to see it and taste it," said +the baron; "but what clatter o' a horse's feet is that in the court, +Kate?" + +"Ha! sure it is my mules," said the Frenchman, starting to his feet in +alarm. + +"Oh! keep your seat, Monsieur Merchant," cried Kate, laughing and +looking out of the window. "Can a lady not despatch her servitor to +Selkirk for a pair of sandals, that should this day have been on my feet +in place of in Gilbert Skinner's hands, without raising folks from their +wine?" + +The Frenchman was satisfied, and retook his seat; but the baron looked +at Kate, as if at a loss to know what freak had now come into her +inventive head. The letting down of the drawbridge, and the sound of the +horse's feet passing along the sounding wood, verified her statement, +but carried no conviction to the mind of Innerkepple. He had long +ceased, however, the vain effort to understand the workings of his +daughter's mind, and on the present occasion he was occupied about too +important a subject to be interested in the vagaries of a madcap wench. + +"By the Virgin!" she said again, "my jennet will lose her own sandals in +going for mine, if Gregory thus strikes the rowels into her sides." + +Covering, by these words, the rapid departure of the messenger, she +turned her eyes to continue the study of the merchant, whom she watched +with feline assiduity. The conversation was again resumed. + +"Five barrels, said ye, Monsieur?" resumed Innerkepple. "Let me +see--that, wi' what I hae mysel, may see me out; but it will be a guid +heir-loom to Kate's husband. What is the price?" + +"One merk the gallon of four pints de Paris," answered the merchant. + +("Yet I see no marks of Otterstone about him," muttered Kate to herself. +"How beautiful he is, maugre his disguise! Had he come on a message of +love, in place of war, I would have taken him prisoner, and bound him +with the rays of light that come from my languishing eyes.") + +"That's dear, man," said Innerkepple. "But ye're a cunning rogue; if I +keep drinking at this rate, the price will sink as the flavour rises, +and ye'll catch me, as men do gudgeons, by the tongue." + +"Aha! _mon cher_ Innerkepple," said the merchant, "you have von +excellent humour of fun about ye. If I vere not _un pauvre merchand_, I +would have one grand plaisir in getting _mouillé_--I mean drunk--vit +you." + +("Ha! my treacherous Adonis, art on that tack, with a foul wind in thy +fair face?" was Kate's mental ejaculation. "If thou nearest thy haven, I +am a worse pilot than Palinurus.") + +"Wi' wine like that before ane," responded the baron, "the topers +alongside o' ye may be Frenchmen or Dutchmen, warriors or warlocks, +wraiths or wassailers, merchants or mahouns--a's alike. It will put a +soul into a ghaist, a yearning heart into a gowl, and a spirit o' +nobility in the breast o' ane wha never quartered arms but wi' the fair +anes o' flesh an' bluid that belang to his wife. I'll be oblivious o' a' +warldly things before Kate's sandals come frae Selkirk; but yer price, +man, I fear, will stick to me to the end." + +"I cannot make one deduction," said the merchant, "but I vill give to +the men in the base-court one jolly debauch of very good vin, vich is in +my hampers." + +("The kaim of chanticleer is in the wind's eye," muttered Katherine. +"Thou pointest nobly for the direction of treachery; but my sandals +will be back from Selkirk long before I am obliged to march with thee to +the prison of Otterstone.") + +"Weel, mak it a merk," said Innerkepple, "for five pints, an' a bouse to +my retainers, wha are as muckle beloved by me as if they were my bairns; +an' I will close wi' ye." + +"Vell, that is one covenant _inter nous_," said the merchant; "but I +cannot return to Berwick until _demain_--I mean the morrow; and we vill +have the long night for one jolly carousal. I vill go _sans delai_, and +give the poor fellows, in the meantime, one leetle tasting of the grand +cheer." + +("Then I am too long here," muttered Kate. "Alexander told his men that +the Persian stream was poisonous, to prevent them from stopping to +drink, whereby they would have fallen into the hands of the enemy. One +not less than he--ha! ha!--will save her men, by telling them there is +treachery in the cup.") + +She descended instantly to the base-court, and, passing from one guard +to another, she whispered in their ears certain instructions, which, by +the nodding of their heads, they seemed to understand, while those she +had not time to visit received from their neighbours the communication +at second-hand, and thus, in a short space of time, she prepared the +whole retainers for the part they were destined to play. She had +scarcely finished this part of her operations, and got out of the court, +when the wine merchant made his appearance on the steps leading to the +hall. He nodded pleasantly to the men, and, proceeding to his mules, +took out of one of the panniers a large vessel filled with wine. This he +laid on the flagstones of the base-court, and alongside of it he placed +a large cup. He then called out to the retainers to approach, and seemed +pleased with the readiness with which they complied with his request. + +"Mine very good fellows," said he, "I have sold your master, +Innerkepple, one grand quantity of vine; and he says I am under one +obligation to treat you vit a hamper, for the sake of the grand +affection he bears to you. You may drink as much as ever you vill +please; and ven this is brought to one termination, I will supply you +vit more." + +"We're a' under a suitable obligation to ye, sir," replied the oldest of +the retainers, a sly, pawky Scotchman--"and winna fail to do credit to +the present ye've sae nobly presented to us; but do ye no hear +Innerkepple callin' for ye frae the ha'? Awa, sir, to the guid baron, +and leave us to our carouse." + +"Ay," said another; "we'll inform ye when this is finished." + +"Finished!" said a third; "we'll be a' on oor backs before we see the +end o't." + +"Aha! excellent jolly troup!" cried the merchant, delighted with this +company. + +The voice of Katherine, who appeared on the steps leading to the hall, +now arrested their attention. + +"My father is impatient for thee, good merchant," said she. + +"_Ma chere_ leddy," replied he, "I will be there _a present_." And, +looking up to see that she had again disappeared--"Drink, my jolly +mates," he continued. "It is the grand matiere, the _bon_ stuff, the +excellent good liqueur. Aha! you will be so merry, and you know you have +the consent of Innerkepple." + +"We'll be a' as drunk as bats," said he who spoke first, with a sly +leer. + +"The Deil tak him wha has the beddin' o' us!" said another. + +"So say I," added half-a-dozen of voices. + +"Then I am the Deil's property," said the warder, "unless I am saved by +the power o' the wine; and, by my faith, I'll no spare't." + +"Aha! very good! excellent joke!" cried the delighted merchant. "Drink, +and shame the Diable, as we say in France. Wine comes from the gods, and +is the grand poison of Beelzebub." + +And, after enjoying deep potations, the merchant returned to the hall, +amidst the laughter and pretended applause of the men. The moment he had +disappeared, Katherine got carried to the spot a measure filled with +wine and water; and, having emptied in another vessel the contents of +the merchant's hamper, the thin and innocuous potation was poured in to +supply its place. The men assisted in the operation; and, all being +finished, they began to carouse with great glee and jollity. + +"I said, my leddy, to the merchant, that we would be a' as drunk as +bats," said one of the humorists; "and sure this is a fair beginning; +for wha could stand drink o' this fearfu' strength?" + +"The Deil tak him wha has the beddin' o' us!" said the other, laughing, +as he drank off a glass of the thin mixture. + +"Then I am the Deil's property," said the warder, "unless I am saved by +the power o' this strong drink." + +And thus the men, encouraged by the smiles of Kate, who was, with great +activity, conducting the ceremonies, seemed to be getting boisterous on +the strength of the merchant's wine. Their jokes raised real laughter; +and the noise of their mirth went up and entered into the hall, falling +like incense on the heart of the merchant. Katherine, meanwhile, again +betook herself to her station at the hall window, using assiduously both +her eyes and ears; the former being directed to a dark fir plantation +that stood to the left of the castle, and the latter occupied by the +conversations of her father and the merchant. + +"My men," said Innerkepple, "seem to be following the example o' their +master. They are gettin' noisy. I hope, Monsieur, ye were moderate in +yer present. A castle-fu' o' drunk men is as bad as a headfu' o' +intoxicated notions." + +("Hurrah for the French merchant! Long life to him! May he continue as +strong as his liquor!") + +"Aha! the jolly good fellows are feeling the sting of the spirit," said +the merchant, with sparkling eyes. + +"Ungratefu' dogs!" rejoined Innerkepple; "I treat them as if they were +my sons, and hear hoo they praise a stranger for a bellyfu' o' wine! My +beer never produced sae muckle froth o' flattery. But this wine o' +yours, Monsieur, drowns a' my indignation." + +("Long life to Innerkepple and the fair Katherine!") + +"Now you are getting the grand adulation," said the Frenchman. "Ha! they +are a jovial troup of good chaps, and deserve one grand potation; but I +gave them only one leetle hamper, for fear they should get _mouillé_." + +"Very considerate, Monsieur, very prudent and kind," said the baron; +"for twa-thirds o' my men are fechtin fer Jamie, and we hae a kittle +neebor in Otterstone, whase son I hear has come hame frae St. Omers. +By-the-by, saw ye the callant in France? They say he's sair ashamed o' +the defeat o' his father by the generalship o' my dochter Kate." + +"Ha! did _ma chere_ leddy combattre Otterstone?" ejaculated the +Frenchman, laughing. "Very good! ha! ha! ha! I did not know that, ven I +sold him one quantity of vin yesterday; but I assure you, _mon cher_ +Innerkepple, he is not at all your enemy, and his son did praise _ma +chere_ leddy as the most magnificent vench in all the contrée." + +("Excellently sustained," muttered Katherine to herself. "How I do love +the roll of that dark eye, and the curl of that lip covered with the +black moustache! Can so much beauty conceal a deadly purpose? But the +'magnificent vench' shall earn yet a better title to the soubriquet out +of thy discomfiture, fair, deceitful, sweet devil.") + +"I only wish I had Otterstone whar you are, man," said Innerkepple, "wi' +the liquor as sweet an' my bile nae bitterer. I would conquer him in +better style than did my dochter, though, I confess, she man[oe]uvred +him beautifully." + +("Perdition to the faes o' Innerkepple! and, chief o' them, the fause +Otterstone, the leddy-licked loon!") + +"Helas! The master and the men have the very different creeds," said the +Frenchman, shrugging his shoulders; "but my vin is making the _bon_ +companions choleric. Ha! ha!" + +("It is--it is!" muttered Katherine, as she strained her eyes to catch +the signal of a white handkerchief, that floated on the top of one of +the trees in the fir-wood.) + +She now abruptly left the hall, and proceeded to the place in the court +occupied by those who were wassailing on the coloured water she had +brewed for them with her fair hands. They were busily occupied by the +manifestations of their mirth, which was not altogether simulated. A +cessation of the noise evinced the effect of her presence among those +who deified her. + +"Up with the merry strain, my jolly revellers!" said she, smiling, and +immediately "Bertram the Archer," in loud notes, rung in the ballium:-- + + "And Bertram held aloft the horn, + Filled wi' the bluid-red wyne, + And three times has he loudly sworn + His luve he winna tyne. + + "My Anne sits on yon eastern tower, + An' greets baith day and night, + An' sorrows for her luver lost, + An' right turned into might. + + "'Then hie ye all, my merry men, + To yonder lordly ha'! + An if they winna ope the gate, + We'll scale the burly wa'. + + "'Hurra!' then shouted Bertram's men, + And loudly they hae sworn, + That they will right their gallant knigh + Before the opening morn."[2] + +[2] Pinkerton gives only one verse of "Bertram the Archer," but +Innerkepple's men did not require to be antiquaries. + +Under the cover of the noise of the song, which was sung with +bacchanalian glee, Katherine communicated her farther instructions to +the man who had assumed the principal direction; and, retreating +quickly, lest the wine merchant should come out and surprise her, she +left the revellers to continue their work. She was soon again at her +post at the window. The boon companions within the hall were still busy +with their conversation and their wine; and by this time the shades of +evening had begun to darken the view from the castle, and envelop the +towers in gloom; the rooks had retired to rest, the owls had taken up +the screech note which pains the sensitive ear of night, and the bats +were beginning to flap their leathern wings on the rough sides of the +old walls. + +The sounds of the revellers in the court-yard began gradually to die +away, and the strains of "Bertram the Archer" were limited to a weak +repetition of the last lines, somewhat curtailed of their legitimate +syllables:-- + + "And we will right our gallant knight + Before the opening morn." + +These indications of the effect of the wine increased, till, by-and-by, +all seemed to be muffled up in silence. The circumstance seemed to be +noticed at once by the wine merchant; but he took no notice of it to +Innerkepple whom he still continued to ply with the rich vintage. Kate's +senses were all on the alert, and she watched every scene of the acting +drama, set agoing by her own master mind. A noise was now heard at the +door of the hall, as if some one wished to get in, but could not effect +an opening. + +"Who's there?" cried Kate, as she proceeded to open the door. + +"It's me, your Leddyship's Honour," answered George, the seneschal, as +he staggered, apparently in the last stage of drunkenness, into the +hall. + +"What means this?" cried Innerkepple, rising up, and not very well able +to stand himself. "The warder o' my castle in that condition, an' a' our +lives dependin' on his prudence!" + +"Your Honour's maist forgiving pardon," said the warder. "I am come +here, maist lordly Innerkepple"--hiccup--"to inform your Highness that +a' the men o' the castle are lying in the base-court like swine. I am +the only sober man in the hale menyie"--hic--hic. "But whar's the ferly? +The strength o' the Frenchman's wine would have floored the strongest +hensure o' the Borders"--hiccup--"an' I would hae been like the rest, if +I hadna been the keeper o' the keys o' Innerkepple." + +("As well as Roscius, George," muttered Kate, as she, with a smile, +contemplated the actor.) + +"George, George, man," said the baron, "ye're just as bad as the rest. +You've been ower guid to them, Monsieur; but this _mooliness_, as ye ca' +it, has a' its dangers in thae times, when castles are surprised an' +taen like sleepin' mawkins in bushes o' broom. Awa to yer bed ahint the +gratin', man, an' sleep aff the wine, as fast as it is possible for a +drunk man to do." + +George bowed, and staggered out of the hall, to betake himself to his +couch. + +"Aha! this is one sad misadventure," said the merchant. "I did not know +there vas half so much strength in this vin. Let us see the jolly +topers, mon noble Innerkepple. It is one grand vision to a vendeur of +good vin to see the biberons lying on the ground, all _mouillé_. Helas! +I was very wrong; but mon noble baron will forgive the grand fault of +liberality." + +The merchant rose, and, giving his arm to Innerkepple, who had some +difficulty in steadying himself, proceeded towards the court, where they +saw verified the report of the warder. The men were lying about the +yard, apparently in a state of perfect insensibility. The wine measure +was empty and overturned; several drinking horns lay scattered around; +and everything betokened a deep debauch. + +"This maun hae been potent liquor," said the baron, taking up one of the +cups, in which a few drops remained, and drinking it. "Ha! man, puir +gear after a'. A man micht drink three gallons o't, and dance to the +tune o' Gilquhisker after he has finished. What's the meaning o' this?" + +"Aha! your tongue is _mouillé_, mon noble Innerkepple," said the +merchant. + +"It may be sae," replied the baron; "but it wasna made mooly, as ye +denominate it, by drink like that. I canna understand it, Monsieur." + +As he stood musing on the strange circumstance, he caught, by the light +of a torch, the eye of Kate at the window, and felt his bewilderment +increased by a leer in that dark bewitching orb, whose language appeared +to him often--and never more so than at present--like Greek. His +attention was next claimed by the merchant, who proposed that the men +should be allowed to sleep out their inebriety where they lay. This +proposition was reasonable; and it would, besides, operate as a proper +punishment for their exceeding the limits of that prudence which their +duty to their master required them to observe. The baron agreed to it, +and, seeking again the support of the Frenchman's arm, he returned to +the hall. + +The night was now fast closing in. An old female domestic had placed +lamps in the hall, and some supper was served up to the baron and the +merchant. Kate retired, as she said, to her couch; but it may be +surmised that an antechamber received her fair person, where she had +something else to do than to sleep. The loud snoring of the men in the +court-yard was heard distinctly, mixing with the screams of the owls +that perched on the turrets. The two biberons sat down to partake of the +supper, and prepare their stomachs, as Innerkepple said, for another +bouse of the grand liquor. The conduct of the two carousers now assumed +aspects very different from each other. The baron was gradually getting +more easy and comfortable, while the merchant displayed an extreme +restlessness and anxiety. The praises of his wine fell dead upon his +ear, and the jokes of the good Innerkepple seemed to have become vapid +and tiresome to him. + +"That's a grand chorus in the court-yard, Monsieur," said the baron. +"Singing, snoring, groaning, are the three successive acts o' the +wassailers. They would have been better engaged eating their supper. +Yah! I'm gettin' sleepy, Monsieur." + +"Helas! helas!" ejaculated the merchant. "You prick my memory, mon noble +Innerkepple. My poor mules! They have got no souper. Ah! cruel master +that I am to forget the _pauvre_ animals that have got no language to +tell their wants." + +("So, so--the time approaches," ejaculated Kate, mentally, as she +watched behind the door.) + +"Pardon me, _mon cher_ baron," he continued, "I vill go and give them +one leetle feed, and return to you _a present_. I have got beans in my +hampers." + +"Humanity needs nae pardon, man," replied the baron, nodding with sleep. +"Awa and feed the puir creatures; but tak care an' no tramp on an' kill +ony o' my brave men in yer effort to save the lives o' yer mules." + +"Never fear," said the other, taking from his pocket a small lantern, +which he lighted. "Travellers stand in grand need of this machine," he +continued. "I will return on the instant." + +He now left the baron to his sleep, and crept stealthily along the +passage to the door leading to the court. He was followed, unseen, by +Katherine, who watched every motion. He felt some difficulty in avoiding +the men, who still lay on the ground; but with careful steps he reached +the wall, and suddenly sprung on the parapet. + +"Prepare!" whispered Katherine into the ears of the prostrate retainers; +"the time approaches." + +While thus engaged, she kept her eye upon the dark shadow of the +merchant, and saw with surprise a blue light flash up from the top of +the wall, and throw its ominous glare on the surrounding objects. A +scream of the birds on the castle walls announced their wonder at the +strange vision, and Katherine concluded that the merchant had thus +produced his signal from some phosphorescent mixture, which he had +ignited by the aid of the lantern. The light was followed instantly by a +shrill blast of a horn. With a bound he reached the floor of the court, +and, hastening to the warder's post, threw off the guard of the wheel, +and, with all the art and rapidity of a seneschal, prepared for letting +down the bridge. All was still as death; there seemed to be no +interruption to his proceedings; but he started as he saw the rays of a +lamp thrown from a loophole over his head, upon that part of the moat +which the bridge covered. He had gone too far to recede, the creaking of +the hinges grated, and down came the bridge with a hollow sound. A rush +was now heard as of a body of men pressing forward to take possession +of the passage; and tramp, tramp came the sounds of the marching +invaders over the hollow-sounding wood. All was still silent within the +castle, and the sound of the procession continued. In an instant, a +dense, dark body issued from the fir-wood, and rushed with heavy +impetuous force on the rear of the corps that were passing into the +castle; and, simultaneously with that movement, the whole body of the +men within the castle pressed forward to the end of the bridge, and met +the front of the intruders, who were thus hedged in by two forces that +had taken them by surprise, in both front and rear. + +"Caught in our own snare!" cried the voice of old Otterstone. + +"Disarm them," sounded shrilly from the lips of Katherine Kennedy. + +And a scuffle of wrestling men sent its fearful, deathlike sound through +the dark ballium. The strife was short and comparatively silent. The men +who had rushed from the wood, and who were no other than the absent +retainers of Innerkepple, coming from behind, and those within the +strength meeting them in front, produced such an alarm in the enclosed +troops, that the arms were taken from their hands as if they had been +struck with palsy. Every two men seized their prisoner, while some +holding burning torches came running forward, to show the revengeful +baron the full extent of his shame. Ranged along the court, the +spectacle presented by the prisoners was striking and grotesque. Their +eyes sought in surprise the form of a female, who, with a sword in one +hand and a torch in the other, stood in front of them, as the genius of +their misfortune. + +The hall door was now opened, where the old baron still sat sound asleep +in his chair, unconscious of all these proceedings. The prisoners were +led into the spacious apartment, and ranged along the sides in long +ranks. Innerkepple rubbed his eyes, stared, rubbed them again, and +seemed lost in perfect bewilderment. All was conducted in dumb show. The +proud and revengeful Otterstone was placed alongside of the good baron, +his enemy; and Kate smiled as she contemplated the strange looks which +the two rivals threw upon each other. + +"Right happy am I," said Katherine, coming forward in the midst of the +assembly, "to meet my good friends, the noble Otterstone and his men, in +my father's hall, under the auspices of a healing friendship. Father, I +offer thee the hand of Otterstone. Otterstone, I offer thee the hand of +Innerkepple. Ye have long been separated by strife and war, though, on +the one side, there was always a good feeling of generous kindliness, +opposed to a bitterness that had no cause, and a revenge that knew no +excuse. Born nobles and neighbours, educated civilized men, and baptized +Christians, why should ye be foes? but, above all, why should the one +strike with the sword of war the hand that has held out to him the +wine-cup? My father has ever been thy friend, noble Otterstone, and thou +hast ever been his foe. How is this? Ah! I know it. Thou wert ignorant, +noble guest, of my good father's generous and friendly feelings, and I +have taken this opportunity of introducing you to each other, that ye +may mutually come to the knowledge of each other's better qualities and +intentions." + +"What, in the name o' heaven, means a' this, Kate?" ejaculated +Innerkepple, in still unsubdued amazement. "Am I dreamin', or am I +betrayed? Whar is the wine merchant? Hoo cam ye here, Otterstone? Am I a +prisoner in my ain castle, and my ain men and dochter laughing at my +misfortune? But ye spoke o' friendship, Kate. Is it possible, +Otterstone, ye hae repented o' yer ill will, and come to mak amends for +past grievances?" + +"Thou hast heard him, Otterstone," said Kate. "Wilt thou still refuse +the hand?" + +The chief hesitated; but the good-humoured looks of Innerkepple melted +him, and he held out the right hand of good-fellowship to the old baron, +who seized it cordially, and shook it heartily. + +"Now," said Kate, "we must seal this friendship with a cup of wine. +Bring in the wine merchant." + +The Frenchman was produced by the warder, along with the remaining +hampers of the wine that had been left in the court-yard. As may have +been already surmised, he was no other than the son of old Otterstone. +Surprised and confounded by all these proceedings, he stood in the midst +of the company, looking first at his father, and then at Innerkepple, +without forgetting Kate, who stood like a majestic queen, enjoying the +triumph of her spirit and ingenuity. Above all things, he wondered at +the smile of good humour in the face of his father; and his surprise +knew no bounds when he saw every one around as well pleased as if they +had been convened for the ends of friendship. + +"Hector," said old Otterstone, looking at his son, "the game is up. This +maiden has outwitted us, and we are caught in our own snare. Off with +thy disguise, and show this noble damsel that thou art worthy of her +best smiles." + +Hector obeyed, and took off his wig, and the clumsy habiliments that +covered his armour, and stood in the midst of the assembly, a young man +of exquisite beauty. + +"The wine merchant, Hector Fotheringham!" cried Innerkepple. "Ah, Kate, +Kate! is this the way ye bring yer lovers to Innerkepple ha'?--in the +shape o' a wine merchant--the only form o' the Deevil I wad like to see +on this earth? Ha! ye baggage, weel do ye ken hoo to get at the heart o' +your faither. But whar was the use o' secresy, woman? And you, Hector, +man, I needed nae bribe o' Tokay to be friendly to the lover o' my +dochter. A fine youth--a fine youth. Surely, surely, this man was made +for my dochter Kate." + +"And thy daughter Kate was made for him," cried Otterstone. + +The retainers of both houses shouted applause, and the hall rang with +the noise. The wine, which was intended for deception and treachery, was +circulated freely, and opened the hearts of the company. Innerkepple was +ready again for his Tokay, and, lifting a large goblet to his head-- + +"To the union o' the twa hooses!" cried he. "And I wish I had twenty +dochters, and Otterstone as mony sons, that they micht a' be married +thegither; but, on this condition, that the bridegrooms should a' come +in the shape o' wine merchants." + +"Hurra, hurra!" shouted the retainers. The night was spent in good +humour and revelry. All was restored; and, in a short time, the two +houses were united by the marriage of Hector Fotheringham and Katherine +Kennedy. + + + + +RECOLLECTIONS OF FERGUSON.[3] + +CHAPTER I. + + "Of Ferguson, the bauld and slee."--BURNS. + +[3] The perusal of this paper, written at an early period by the +lamented Hugh Miller, cannot fail to suggest some reflections on the +fate of the author himself and that of the poet he describes. It would +be simply fanciful to draw from his choice of subject, and the sympathy +he manifests for the victim of insanity, any conclusion of a felt +affinity of mental type on his part. We would presently get into the +obscure subject of presentiments. It is true that Hugh Miller wrote +poetry, and was thus subject to the Nemesis; but we insist for no more +than a case of coincidence, leaving to psychologists to settle the +question of the alleged connection between certain poetical types of +mind and eventual madness--cases of which are so plentifully recorded in +Germany.--_Ed._ + + +I have, I believe, as little of the egotist in my composition as most +men; nor would I deem the story of my life, though by no means unvaried +by incident, of interest enough to repay the trouble of either writing +or perusing it, were it the story of my own life only; but, though an +obscure man myself, I have been singularly fortunate in my friends. The +party-coloured tissue of my recollections is strangely interwoven, if I +may so speak, with pieces of the domestic history of men whose names +have become as familiar to our ears as that of our country itself; and I +have been induced to struggle with the delicacy which renders one +unwilling to speak much of one's self, and to overcome the dread of +exertion natural to a period of life greatly advanced, through a desire +of preserving to my countrymen a few notices, which would otherwise be +lost to them, of two of their greatest favourites. I could once reckon +among my dearest and most familiar friends, Robert Burns and Robert +Ferguson. + +It is now rather more than sixty years since I studied for a few weeks +at the University of St. Andrew's. I was the son of very poor parents, +who resided in a seaport town on the western coast of Scotland. My +father was a house-carpenter, a quiet, serious man, of industrious +habits and great simplicity of character, but miserably depressed in his +circumstances, through a sickly habit of body: my mother was a +warm-hearted, excellent woman, endowed with no ordinary share of shrewd +good sense and sound feeling, and indefatigable in her exertions for my +father and the family. I was taught to read at a very early age, by an +old woman in the neighbourhood--such a person as Shenstone describes in +his "Schoolmistress;" and, being naturally of a reflective turn, I had +begun, long ere I had attained my tenth year, to derive almost my sole +amusement from books. I read incessantly; and after exhausting the +shelves of all the neighbours, and reading every variety of work that +fell in my way--from "The Pilgrim's Progress" of Bunyan, and the Gospel +Sonnets of Erskine, to a treatise on fortification by Vauban, and the +"History of the Heavens" by the Abbé Pluche--I would have pined away for +lack of my accustomed exercise, had not a benevolent baronet in the +neighbourhood, for whom my father occasionally wrought, taken a fancy to +me, and thrown open to my perusal a large and well-selected library. Nor +did his kindness terminate until, after having secured to me all of +learning that the parish school afforded, he had settled me, now in my +seventeenth year, at the University. + +Youth is the season of warm friendships and romantic wishes and hopes. +We say of the child, in its first attempts to totter along the wall, or +when it has first learned to rise beside its mother's knee, that it is +yet too weak to stand alone; and we may employ the same language in +describing a young and ardent mind. It is, like the child, too weak to +stand alone, and anxiously seeks out some kindred mind on which to lean. +I had had my intimates at school, who, though of no very superior cast, +had served me, if I may so speak, as resting-places, when wearied with +my studies, or when I had exhausted my lighter reading; and now, at St. +Andrew's, where I knew no one, I began to experience the unhappiness of +an unsatisfied sociality. My schoolfellows were mostly stiff, illiterate +lads, who, with a little bad Latin and worse Greek, plumed themselves +mightily on their scholarship; and I had little inducement to form any +intimacies among them; for, of all men, the ignorant scholar is the +least amusing. Among the students of the upper classes, however, there +was at least one individual with whom I longed to be acquainted. He was +apparently much about my own age, rather below than above the middle +size, and rather delicately than robustly formed; but I have rarely seen +a more elegant figure or more interesting face. His features were small, +and there was what might perhaps be deemed a too feminine delicacy in +the whole contour; but there was a broad and very high expansion of +forehead, which, even in those days, when we were acquainted with only +the phrenology taught by Plato, might be regarded as the index of a +capacious and powerful mind; and the brilliant light of his large black +eyes, seemed to give earnest of its activity. + +"Who, in the name of wonder, is that?" I inquired of a class-fellow, as +this interesting-looking young man passed me for the first time. + +"A clever, but very unsettled fellow from Edinburgh," replied the lad; +"a capital linguist, for he gained our first bursary three years ago; +but our Professor says he is certain he will never do any good. He cares +nothing for the company of scholars like himself; and employs +himself--though he excels, I believe, in English composition--in writing +vulgar Scotch rhymes, like Allan Ramsay. His name is Robert Ferguson." + +I felt, from this moment, a strong desire to rank among the friends of +one who cared nothing for the company of such men as my class-fellow, +and who, though acquainted with the literature of England and Rome, +could dwell with interest on the simple poetry of his native country. + +There is no place in the neighbourhood of St. Andrew's where a leisure +hour may be spent more agreeably than among the ruins of the Cathedral. +I was not slow in discovering the eligibilities of the spot; and it soon +became one of my favourite haunts. One evening, a few weeks after I had +entered on my course at college, I had seated myself among the ruins in +a little ivied nook fronting the setting sun, and was deeply engaged +with the melancholy Jaques in the forest of Ardennes, when, on hearing a +light footstep, I looked up, and saw the Edinburgh student whose +appearance had so interested me, not four yards away. He was busied with +his pencil and his tablets, and muttering, as he went, in a half audible +voice, what, from the inflection of the tones, seemed to be verse. On +seeing me, he started, and apologizing, in a few hurried but courteous +words, for what he termed the involuntary intrusion, would have passed; +but, on my rising and stepping up to him, he stood. + +"I am afraid, Mr. Ferguson," I said, "'tis I who owe _you_ an apology; +the ruins have long been yours, and I am but an intruder. But you must +pardon me; I have often heard of them in the west, where they are +hallowed, even more than they are here, from their connection with the +history of some of our noblest Reformers; and, besides, I see no place +in the neighbourhood where Shakspeare can be read to more advantage." + +"Ah," said he, taking the volume out of my hand, "a reader of Shakspeare +and an admirer of Knox. I question whether the heresiarch and the poet +had much in common." + +"Nay, now, Mr. Ferguson," I replied, "you are too true a Scot to +question that. They had much, very much in common. Knox was no rude +Jack Cade, but a great and powerful-minded man; decidedly as much so as +any of the nobler conceptions of the dramatist--his Cæsars, Brutuses, or +Othellos. Buchanan could have told you that he had even much of the +spirit of the poet in him, and wanted only the art; and just remember +how Milton speaks of him in his "Areopagitica." Had the poet of +"Paradise Lost" thought regarding him as it has become fashionable to +think and speak now, he would hardly have apostrophized him as--_Knox, +the reformer of a nation--a great man animated by the spirit of God_." + +"Pardon me," said the young man, "I am little acquainted with the prose +writings of Milton; and have, indeed, picked up most of my opinions of +Knox at second-hand. But I have read his _merry_ account of the murder +of Beaton, and found nothing to alter my preconceived notions of him, +from either the matter or manner of the narrative. Now that I think of +it, however, my opinion of Bacon would be no very adequate one, were it +formed solely from the extract of his history of Henry VII., given by +Kaimes in his late publication.--Will you not extend your walk?" + +We quitted the ruins together, and went sauntering along the shore. +There was a rich sunset glow on the water, and the hills that rise on +the opposite side of the Frith stretched their undulating line of azure +under a gorgeous canopy of crimson and gold. My companion pointed to the +scene:--"These glorious clouds," he said, "are but wreaths of vapour; +and these lovely hills, accumulations of earth and stone. And it is thus +with all the past--with the past of our own little histories, that +borrows so much of its golden beauty from the medium through which we +survey it--with the past, too, of all history. There is poetry in the +remote--the bleak hill seems a darker firmament, and the chill wreath of +vapour a river of fire. And you, sir, seem to have contemplated the +history of our stern Reformers through this poetical medium, till you +forget that the poetry was not in them, but in that through which you +surveyed them." + +"Ah, Mr. Ferguson," I replied, "you must permit me to make a +distinction. I acquiesce fully in the justice of your remark; the +analogy, too, is nice and striking, but I would fain carry it a little +further. Every eye can see the beauty of the remote; but there is a +beauty in the near--an interest, at least--which every eye cannot see. +Each of the thousand little plants that spring up at our feet, has an +interest and beauty to the botanist; the mineralogist would find +something to engage him in every little stone. And it is thus with the +poetry of life--all have a sense of it in the remote and the distant; +but it is only the men who stand high in the art--its men of profound +science--that can discover it in the near. The _mediocre_ poet shares +but the commoner gift, and so he seeks his themes in ages or countries +far removed from his own; while the man of nobler powers, knowing that +all nature is instinct with poetry, seeks and finds it in the men and +scenes in his immediate neighbourhood. As to our Reformers"---- + +"Pardon me," said the young poet; "the remark strikes me, and, ere we +lose it in something else, I must furnish you with an illustration. +There is an acquaintance of mine, a lad much about my own age, greatly +addicted to the study of poetry. He has been making verses all his +life-long; he began ere he had learned to write them even; and his +judgment has been gradually overgrowing his earlier compositions, as you +see the advancing tide rising on the beach and obliterating the prints +on the sand. Now, I have observed, that, in all his earlier +compositions, he went far from home; he could not attempt a pastoral +without first transporting himself to the vales of Arcady; or an ode to +Pity or Hope, without losing the warm living sentiment in the dead, +cold, personifications of the Greek. The Hope and Pity he addressed +were, not the undying attendants of human nature, but the shadowy +spectres of a remote age. Now, however, I feel that a change has come +over me. I seek for poetry among the fields and cottages of my own land. +I--a--a--the friend of whom I speak----But I interrupted your remark on +the Reformers." + +"Nay," I replied, "if you go on so, I would much rather listen than +speak. I only meant to say that the Knoxes and Melvilles of our country +have been robbed of the admiration and sympathy of many a kindred +spirit, by the strangely erroneous notions that have been abroad +regarding them for at least the last two ages. Knox, I am convinced, +would have been as great as Jeremy Taylor, had he not been greater." + +We sauntered along the shore till the evening had darkened into night, +lost in an agreeable interchange of thought, "Ah!" at length exclaimed +my companion, "I had almost forgotten my engagement, Mr. Lindsay; but it +must not part us. You are a stranger here, and I must introduce you to +some of my acquaintance. There are a few of us--choice spirits, of +course--who meet every Saturday evening at John Hogg's; and I must just +bring you to see them. There may be much less wit than mirth among us; +but you will find us all sober when at the gayest; and old John will be +quite a study for you." + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + "Say, ye red gowns that aften here, + Hae toasted cakes to Katie's beer, + Gin e'er thir days hae had their peer, + Sae blythe, sae daft! + Ye'll ne'er again in life's career, + Sit half sae saft." + _Elegy on John Hogg._ + +We returned to town; and, after threading a few of the narrower lanes, +entered by a low door into a long dark room, dimly lighted by a fire. A +tall thin woman was employed in skinning a bundle of dried fish at a +table in a corner. + +"Where's the guidman, Kate?" said my companion, changing the sweet pure +English in which he had hitherto spoken for his mother tongue. + +"John's ben in the spence," replied the woman. "Little Andrew, the +wratch, has been makin' a totum wi' his faither's ae razor, an' the puir +man's trying to shave himsel yonder, an' girnan like a sheep's head on +the tangs." + +"Oh, the wratch! the ill-deedie wratch!" said John, stalking into the +room in a towering passion, his face covered with suds and scratches--"I +might as weel shave mysel wi' a mussel shillet. Rob Ferguson, man, is +that you!" + +"Wearie warld, John," said the poet, "for a' oor philosophy." + +"Philosophy!--it's but a snare, Rob--just vanity an' vexation o' +speerit, as Solomon says. An' isna it clear heterodox besides? Ye study +an' study till your brains gang about like a whirligig; an' then, like +bairns in a boat that see the land sailin', ye think it's the solid +yearth that's turnin' roun'. An' this ye ca' philosophy; as if David +hadna tauld us that the warld sits coshly on the waters, an' canna be +moved." + +"Hoot, John," rejoined my companion, "it's no me, but Jamie Brown, that +differs wi' you on these matters. I'm a Hoggonian, ye ken. The auld Jews +were, doubtless, gran' Christians, an' wherefore no guid philosophers +too? But it was cruel o' you to unkennel me this mornin' afore six, an' +I up sae lang at my studies the nicht afore." + +"Ah, Rob, Rob!" said John--"studying in _Tam Dun's_ kirk. Ye'll be a +minister, like a' the lave." + +"Mendin' fast, John," rejoined the poet. "I was in your kirk on Sabbath +last, hearing worthy Mr. Corkindale; whatever else he may hae to fear, +he's in nae danger o' '_thinking his ain thoughts_,' honest man." + +"In oor kirk!" said John; "ye're dune, then, wi' precentin' in yer +ain--an' troth nae wonder. What could hae possessed ye to gie up the +puir chield's name i' the prayer, an' him sittin' at yer lug?" + +I was unacquainted with the circumstance to which he alluded, and +requested an explanation. "Oh, ye see," said John, "Rob, amang a' the +ither gifts that he misguides, has the gift o' a sweet voice; an' +naething else would ser' some o' oor Professors than to hae him for +their precentor. They micht as weel hae thocht o' an organ--it wad be +just as devout; but the soun's everything now, laddie, ye ken, an' the +heart naething. Weel, Rob, as ye may think, was less than pleased wi' +the job, an' tauld them he could whistle better than sing; but it wasna +that they wanted, and sae it behoved him to tak his seat in the box. An' +lest the folk should no be pleased wi' ae key to ae tune, he gied them, +for the first twa or three days, a hale bunch to each; an' there was +never sic singing in St. Andrew's afore. Weel, but for a' that it +behoved him still to precent, though he has got rid o' it at last--for +what did he do twa Sabbaths agone, but put up drucken Tarn Moffat's name +in the prayer--the very chield that was sittin' at his elbow, though +the minister couldna see him. An' when the puir stibbler was prayin' for +the reprobate as weel's he could, ae half o' the kirk was needcessitated +to come oot, that they micht keep decent, an' the ither half to swallow +their pocket napkins. But what think ye"---- + +"Hoot, John, now, leave oot the moral," said the poet. "Here's a' the +lads." + +Half a dozen young students entered as he spoke; and, after a hearty +greeting, and when he had introduced me to them one by one, as a choice +fellow of immense reading, the door was barred, and we sat down to half +a dozen of home brewed, and a huge platter of dried fish. There was much +mirth and no little humour. Ferguson sat at the head of the table, and +old John Hogg at the foot. I thought of Eastcheap, and the revels of +Prince Henry; but our Falstaff was an old Scotch Seceder, and our Prince +a gifted young fellow, who owed all his influence over his fellows to +the force of his genius alone. + +"Prithee, Hal," I said, "let us drink to Sir John." + +"Why, yes," said the poet, "with all my heart. Not quite so fine a +fellow, though, 'bating his Scotch honesty. Half Sir John's genius would +have served for an epic poet--half his courage for a hero." + +"His courage!" exclaimed one of the lads. + +"Yes, Willie, his courage, man. Do you think a coward could have run +away with half the coolness? With a tithe of the courage necessary for +such a retreat, a man would have stood and fought till he died. Sir John +must have been a fine fellow in his youth." + +"In mony a droll way may a man fa' on the drap drink," remarked John; +"an' meikle ill, dootless, does it do in takin' aff the edge o' the +speerit--the mair if the edge be a fine razor edge, an' no the edge o' a +whittle. I mind about fifty years ago, when I was a slip o' a +callant,"---- + +"Losh, John!" exclaimed one of the lads, "hae ye been fechtin wi' the +cats? sic a scrapit face!" + +"Wheesht," said Ferguson; "we owe the illustration to that, but dinna +interrupt the story." + +"Fifty years ago, when I was a slip o' a callant," continued John, "unco +curious, an' fond o' kennin everything, as callants will be,"---- + +"Hoot, John," said one of the students, interrupting him, "can ye no cut +short, man? Rob promised last Saturday to gie us, 'Fie, let us a' to the +bridal,' an' ye see the ale an' the nicht's baith wearin' dune." + +"The song, Rob, the song!" exclaimed half a dozen voices at once; and +John's story was lost in the clamour. + +"Nay, now," said the good-natured poet, "that's less than kind; the auld +man's stories are aye worth the hearing, an' he can relish the +auld-warld fisher-sang wi' the best o' ye. But we maun hae the story +yet." + +He struck up the old Scotch ditty, "Fie let us a' to the bridal," which +he sung with great power and brilliancy; for his voice was a richly +modulated one, and there was a fulness of meaning imparted to the words +which wonderfully heightened the effect. "How strange it is," he +remarked to me when he had finished, "that our English neighbours deny +us humour! The songs of no country equal our Scotch ones in that +quality. Are you acquainted with 'The Guidwife of Auchtermuchty?'" + +"Well," I replied; "but so are not the English. It strikes me that, with +the exception of Smollet's novels, all our Scotch humour is locked up in +our native tongue. No man can employ in works of humour any language of +which he is not a thorough master; and few of our Scotch writers, with +all their elegance, have attained the necessary command of that +colloquial English which Addison and Swift employed when they were +merry." + +"A braw redd delivery," said John, addressing me. "Are ye gaun to be a +minister tae?" + +"Not quite sure yet," I replied. + +"Ah," rejoined the old man, "'twas better for the Kirk when the minister +just made himsel ready for it, an' then waited till he kent whether it +wanted him. There's young Rob Ferguson beside you,"-- + +"Setting oot for the Kirk," said the young poet, interrupting him, "an' +yet drinkin' ale on Saturday at e'en wi' old John Hogg." + +"Weel, weel, laddie, it's easier for the best o' us to find fault wi' +ithers than to mend oorsels. Ye have the head, onyhow; but Jamie Brown +tells me it's a doctor ye're gaun to be, after a'." + +"Nonsense, John Hogg--I wonder how a man o' your standing"---- + +"Nonsense, I grant you," said one of the students; "but true enough for +a' that, Bob. Ye see, John, Bob an' I were at the King's Muirs last +Saturday, an ca'ed at the _pendicle_, in the passing, for a cup o' whey; +when the guidwife tellt us there was ane o' the callants, who had broken +into the milk-house twa nichts afore, lyin' ill o' a surfeit. 'Dangerous +case,' said Bob; 'but let me see him; I have studied to small purpose if +I know nothing o' medicine, my good woman.' Weel, the woman was just +glad enough to bring him to the bedside; an' no wonder--ye never saw a +wiser phiz in your lives--Dr. Dumpie's was naething till't; an', after +he had sucked the head o' his stick for ten minutes, an' fand the loon's +pulse, an' asked mair questions than the guidwife liked to answer, he +prescribed. But, losh! sic a prescription! A day's fasting an' twa +ladles o' nettle kail was the gist o't; but then there went mair Latin +to the tail o' that, than oor neebor the Doctor ever had to lose." + +But I dwell too long on the conversation of this evening. I feel, +however, a deep interest in recalling it to memory. The education of +Ferguson was of a twofold character--he studied in the schools and among +the people; but it was in the latter tract alone that he acquired the +materials of all his better poetry; and I feel as if, for at least one +brief evening, I was admitted to the privileges of a class-fellow, and +sat with him on the same form. The company broke up a little after ten; +and I did not again hear of John Hogg till I read his elegy, about four +years after, among the poems of my friend. It is by no means one of the +happiest pieces in the volume, nor, it strikes me, highly +characteristic; but I have often perused it with an interest very +independent of its merits. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + "But he is weak--both man and boy + Has been an idler in the land."--WORDSWORTH. + + +I was attempting to listen, on the evening of the following Sunday, to a +dull, listless discourse--one of the discourses so common at this +period, in which there was fine writing without genius, and fine +religion without Christianity--when a person who had just taken his +place beside me, tapped me on the shoulder, and thrust a letter into my +hand. It was my newly-acquired friend of the previous evening; and we +shook hands heartily under the pew. + +"That letter has just been handed me by an acquaintance from your part +of the country," he whispered; "I trust it contains nothing unpleasant." + +I raised it to the light, and on ascertaining that it was sealed and +edged with black, rose and quitted the church, followed by my friend. It +intimated, in two brief lines that my patron, the baronet, had been +killed by a fall from his horse a few evenings before; and that, dying +intestate the allowance which had hitherto enabled me to prosecute my +studies necessarily dropped. I crumpled up the paper in my hand. + +"You have learned something very unpleasant," said Ferguson. "Pardon +me--I have no wish to intrude; but, if at all agreeable, I would fain +spend the evening with you." + +My heart filled, and grasping his hand, I briefly intimated the purport +of the communication, and we walked out together in the direction of the +ruins. + +"It is, perhaps, as hard, Mr. Ferguson," I said, "to fall from one's +hopes as from the place to which they pointed. I was ambitious--too +ambitious, it may be--to rise from that level on which man acts the part +of a machine, and tasks merely his body, to that higher level on which +he performs the proper part of a rational creature, and employs only his +mind. But that ambition need influence me no longer. My poor mother, +too--I had trusted to be of use to her." + +"Ah, my friend," said Ferguson, "I can tell you of a case quite as +hopeless as your own--perhaps more so. But it will make you deem my +sympathy the result of mere selfishness. In scarce any respect do our +circumstances differ." + +We had reached the ruins: the evening was calm and mild as when I had +walked out on the preceding one; but the hour was earlier, and the sun +hung higher over the hill. A newly-formed grave occupied the level spot +in front of the little ivied corner. + +"Let us seat ourselves here," said my companion, "and I will tell you a +story--I am afraid a rather tame one; for there is nothing of adventure +in it, and nothing of incident; but it may at least show you that I am +not unfitted to be your friend. It is now nearly two years since I lost +my father. He was no common man--common neither in intellect nor in +sentiment; but though he once fondly hoped it should be otherwise--for +in early youth he indulged in all the dreams of the poet--he now fills a +grave as nameless as the one before us. He was a native of +Aberdeenshire; but held, latterly, an inferior situation in the office +of the British Linen Company in Edinburgh, where I was born. Ever since +I remember him, he had awakened too fully to the realities of life, and +they pressed too hard on his spirits, to leave him space for the +indulgence of his earlier fancies; but he could dream for his children, +though not for himself; or, as I should perhaps rather say, his children +fell heir to all his more juvenile hopes of fortune, and influence, and +space in the world's eye;--and, for himself, he indulged in hopes of a +later growth and firmer texture, which pointed from the present scene of +things to the future. I have an only brother, my senior by several +years, a lad of much energy, both physical and mental; in brief, one of +those mixtures of reflection and activity which seem best formed for +rising in the world. My father deemed him most fitted for commerce, and +had influence enough to get him introduced into the counting-house of a +respectable Edinburgh merchant. I was always of a graver turn--in part, +perhaps, the effect of less robust health--and me he intended for the +Church. I have been a dreamer, Mr. Lindsay, from my earliest +years--prone to melancholy, and fond of books and of solitude; and the +peculiarities of this temperament the sanguine old man, though no mean +judge of character, had mistaken for a serious and reflective +disposition. You are acquainted with literature, and know something, +from books at least, of the lives of literary men. Judge, then, of his +prospect of usefulness in any profession, who has lived, ever since he +knew himself, among the poets. My hopes, from my earliest years, have +been hopes of celebrity as a writer--not of wealth, or of influence, or +of accomplishing any of the thousand aims which furnish the great bulk +of mankind with motives. You will laugh at me. There is something so +emphatically shadowy and unreal in the object of this ambition, that +even the full attainment of it provokes a smile. For who does not know + + 'How vain that second life in others' breath, + The estate which wits inherit after death!' + +And what can be more fraught with the ludicrous than a union of this +shadowy ambition with _mediocre_ parts and attainments! But I digress. + +"It is now rather more than three years since I entered the classes +here. I competed for a bursary, and was fortunate enough to secure one. +Believe me, Mr. Lindsay, I am little ambitious of the fame of mere +scholarship, and yet I cannot express to you the triumph of that day. I +had seen my poor father labouring, far, far beyond his strength, for my +brother and myself--closely engaged during the day with his duties in +the bank, and copying at night in a lawyer's office. I had seen, with a +throbbing heart, his tall wasted frame becoming tremulous and bent, and +the grey hair thinning on his temples; and I now felt that I could ease +him of at least part of the burden. In the excitement of the moment, I +could hope that I was destined to rise in the world--to gain a name in +it, and something more. You know how a slight success grows in +importance when we can deem it the earnest of future good fortune. I +met, too, with a kind and influential friend in one of the professors, +the late Dr. Wilkie. Alas! good, benevolent man! you may see his tomb +yonder beside the wall; and, on my return from St. Andrew's, at the +close of the session, I found my father on his deathbed. My brother +Henry--who had been unfortunate, and, I am afraid, something worse--had +quitted the counting-house and entered aboard of a man-of-war as a +common sailor; and the poor old man, whose heart had been bound up in +him, never held up his head after. + +"On the evening of my father's funeral, I could have lain down and died. +I never before felt how thoroughly I am unfitted for the world--how +totally I want strength. My father, I have said, had intended me for the +Church; and, in my progress onward from class to class, and from school +to college, I had thought but little of each particular step, as it +engaged me for the time, and nothing of the ultimate objects to which it +led. All my more vigorous aspirations were directed to a remote future +and an unsubstantial shadow. But I had witnessed, beside my father's +bed, what had led me seriously to reflect on the ostensible aim for +which I lived and studied; and the more carefully I weighed myself in +the balance, the more did I find myself awanting. You have heard of Mr. +Brown of the Secession, the author of the "Dictionary of the Bible." He +was an old acquaintance of my father's; and, on hearing of his illness, +had come all the way from Haddington to see him. I felt, for the first +time, as kneeling beside his bed, I heard my father's breathings +becoming every moment shorter and more difficult, and listened to the +prayers of the clergyman, that I had no business in the Church. And thus +I still continue to feel. 'Twere an easy matter to produce such things +as pass for sermons among us, and to go respectably enough through the +mere routine of the profession; but I cannot help feeling that, though I +might do all this and more, my duty, as a clergyman, would be still left +undone. I want singleness of aim--I want earnestness of heart. I cannot +teach men effectually how to live well; I cannot show them, with aught +of confidence, how they may die safe. I cannot enter the Church without +acting the part of a hypocrite; and the miserable part of the hypocrite +it shall never be mine to act. Heaven help me! I am too little a +practical moralist myself to attempt teaching morals to others. + +"But I must conclude my story, if story it may be called:--I saw my +poor mother and my little sister deprived, by my father's death, of +their sole stay, and strove to exert myself in their behalf. In the +daytime I copied in a lawyer's office; my nights were spent among the +poets. You will deem it the very madness of vanity, Mr. Lindsay; but I +could not live without my dreams of literary eminence. I felt that life +would be a blank waste without them; and I feel so still. Do not laugh +at my weakness, when I say I would rather live in the memory of my +country than enjoy her fairest lands--that I dread a nameless grave many +times more than the grave itself. But, I am afraid, the life of the +literary aspirant is rarely a happy one; and I, alas! am one of the +weakest of the class. It is of importance that the means of living be +not disjoined from the end for which we live; and I feel that, in my +case, the disunion is complete. The wants and evils of life are around +me; but the energies through which those should be provided for, and +these warded off, are otherwise employed. I am like a man pressing +onward through a hot and bloody fight, his breast open to every blow, +and tremblingly alive to the sense of injury and the feeling of pain, +but totally unprepared either to attack or defend. And then those +miserable depressions of spirits to which all men who draw largely on +their imagination are so subject; and that wavering irregularity of +effort which seems so unavoidably the effect of pursuing a distant and +doubtful aim, and which proves so hostile to the formation of every +better habit--alas! to a steady morality itself. But I weary you, Mr. +Lindsay; besides, my story is told. I am groping onward, I know not +whither; and, in a few months hence, when my last session shall have +closed, I shall be exactly where you are at present." + +He ceased speaking, and there was a pause of several minutes. I felt +soothed and gratified. There was a sweet melancholy music in the tones +of his voice, that sunk to my very heart; and the confidence he reposed +in me flattered my pride. "How was it," I at length said, "that you were +the gayest in the party of last night?" + +"I do not know that I can better answer you," he replied, "than by +telling you a singular dream which I had about the time of my father's +death. I dreamed that I had suddenly quitted the world, and was +journeying, by a long and dreary passage, to the place of final +punishment. A blue, dismal light glimmered along the lower wall of the +vault; and, from the darkness above, where there flickered a thousand +undefined shapes--things without form or outline--I could hear +deeply-drawn sighs, and long hollow groans and convulsive sobbings, and +the prolonged moanings of an unceasing anguish. I was aware, however, +though I knew not how, that these were but the expressions of a lesser +misery, and that the seats of severer torment were still before me. I +went on and on, and the vault widened, and the light increased, and the +sounds changed. There were loud laughters and low mutterings, in the +tone of ridicule; and shouts of triumph and exultation; and, in brief, +all the thousand mingled tones of a gay and joyous revel. Can these, I +exclaimed, be the sounds of misery when at the deepest? 'Bethink thee,' +said a shadowy form beside me--'bethink thee if it be not so on earth.' +And as I remembered that it was so, and bethought me of the mad revels +of shipwrecked seamen and of plague-stricken cities, I awoke. But on +this subject you must spare me." + +"Forgive me," I said; "to-morrow I leave college, and not with the less +reluctance that I must part from you. But I shall yet find you occupying +a place among the _literati_ of our country, and shall remember, with +pride, that you were my friend." + +He sighed deeply. "My hopes rise and fall with my spirits," he said; +"and to-night I am melancholy. Do you ever go to buffets with yourself, +Mr. Lindsay? Do you ever mock, in your sadder moods, the hopes which +render you happiest when you are gay? Ah! 'tis bitter warfare when a man +contends with Hope!--when he sees her, with little aid from the +personifying influence, as a thing distinct from himself--a lying spirit +that comes to flatter and deceive him. It is thus I see her to-night. + + "See'st thou that grave?--does mortal know + Aught of the dust that lies below? + 'Tis foul, 'tis damp, 'tis void of form-- + A bed where winds the loathsome worm; + A little heap, mouldering and brown, + Like that on flowerless meadow thrown + By mossy stream, when winter reigns + O'er leafless woods and wasted plains: + And yet that brown, damp, formless heap + Once glowed with feelings keen and deep; + Once eyed the light, once heard each sound + Of earth, air, wave, that murmurs round. + But now, ah! now, the name it bore, + Sex, age, or form, is known no more. + This, this alone, O Hope! I know, + That once the dust that lies below, + Was, like myself, of human race, + And made this world its dwelling-place. + Ah! this, when death has swept away + The myriads of life's present day, + Though bright the visions raised by thee, + Will all my fame, my history be!" + +We quitted the ruins and returned to town. + +"Have you yet formed," inquired my companion, "any plan for the future?" + +"I quit St. Andrew's," I replied, "to-morrow morning. I have an uncle, +the master of a West Indiaman, now in the Clyde. Some years ago I had a +fancy for the life of a sailor, which has evaporated, however, with many +of my other boyish fancies and predilections; but I am strong and +active, and it strikes me there is less competition on sea at present +than on land. A man of tolerable steadiness and intelligence has a +better chance of rising as a sailor than as a mechanic. I shall set out, +therefore, with my uncle on his first voyage." + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + "At first, I thought the swankie didna ill-- + Again I glowr'd, to hear him better still; + Bauld, slee, an' sweet, his lines mair glorious grew, + Glow'd round the heart, an' glanc'd the soul out through." + ALEXANDER WILSON. + + +I had seen both the Indies and traversed the wide Pacific, ere I again +set foot on the Eastern coast of Scotland. My uncle, the shipmaster, was +dead, and I was still a common sailor; but I was light-hearted and +skilful in my profession, and as much inclined to hope as ever. Besides, +I had begun to doubt, and there cannot be a more consoling doubt when +one is unfortunate, whether a man may not enjoy as much happiness in the +lower walks of life as in the upper. In one of my later voyages, the +vessel in which I sailed had lain for several weeks at Boston in North +America--then a scene of those fierce and angry contentions which +eventually separated the colonies from the mother country; and when in +this place, I had become acquainted, by the merest accident in the +world, with the brother of my friend the poet. I was passing through one +of the meaner lanes, when I saw my old college friend, as I thought, +looking out at me from the window of a crazy wooden building--a sort of +fencing academy, much frequented, I was told, by the Federalists of +Boston. I crossed the lane in two huge strides. + +"Mr. Ferguson," I said--"Mr. Ferguson," for he was withdrawing his head, +"do you not remember me?" + +"Not quite sure," he replied; "I have met with many sailors in my time; +but I must just see." + +He had stepped down to the door ere I had discovered my mistake. He was +a taller and stronger-looking man than my friend, and his senior +apparently by six or eight years; but nothing could be more striking +than the resemblance which he bore to him, both in face and figure. I +apologized. + +"But have you not a brother, a native of Edinburgh," I inquired, "who +studied at St. Andrew's about four years ago?--never before, certainly, +did I see so remarkable a likeness." + +--"As that which I bear to Robert?" he said. "Happy to hear it. Robert +is a brother of whom a man may well be proud, and I am glad to resemble +him in any way. But you must go in with me, and tell me all you know +regarding him. He was a thin pale slip of a boy when I left Scotland--a +mighty reader, and fond of sauntering into by-holes and corners; I +scarcely knew what to make of him; but he has made much of himself. His +name has been blown far and wide within the last two years." + +He showed me through a large waste apartment, furnished with a few deal +seats, and with here and there a fencing foil leaning against the wall, +into a sort of closet at the upper end, separated from the main room by +a partition of undressed slabs. There was a charcoal stove in the one +corner, and a truckle bed in the other; a few shelves laden with books +ran along the wall; there was a small chest raised on a stool +immediately below the window, to serve as a writing desk, and another +stool standing beside it. A few cooking utensils scattered round the +room, and a corner cupboard, completed the entire furniture of the +place. + +"There is a certain limited number born to be rich, Jack," said my new +companion, "and I just don't happen to be among them; but I have one +stool for myself, you see, and, now that I have unshipped my desk, +another for a visitor, and so get on well enough." + +I related briefly the story of my intimacy with his brother; and we were +soon on such terms as to be in a fair way of emptying a bottle of rum +together. + +"You remind me of old times," said my new acquaintance. "I am weary of +these illiterate, boisterous, longsided Americans, who talk only of +politics and dollars. And yet there are first-rate men among them too. I +met, some years since, with a Philadelphia printer, whom I cannot help +regarding as one of the ablest, best-informed men I ever conversed with. +But there is nothing like general knowledge among the average class; a +mighty privilege of conceit, however." + +"They are just in that stage," I remarked, "in which it needs all the +vigour of an able man to bring his mind into anything like cultivation. +There must be many more facilities of improvement ere the mediocritist +can develop himself. He is in the egg still in America, and must sleep +there till the next age.--But when last heard you of your brother?" + +"Why," he replied, "when all the world heard of him--with the last +number of _Ruddiman's Magazine_. Where can you have been bottled up from +literature of late? Why, man, Robert stands first among our Scotch +poets." + +"Ah! 'tis long since I have anticipated something like that for him," I +said; "but, for the last two years, I have seen only two books, +Shakspeare and 'The Spectator.' Pray, do show me some of the magazines." + +The magazines were produced; and I heard, for the first time, in a +foreign land and from the recitation of the poet's brother, some of the +most national and most highly-finished of his productions. My eyes +filled and my heart wandered to Scotland and her cottage homes, as, +shutting the book, he repeated to me, in a voice faltering with emotion, +stanza after stanza of the "Farmer's Ingle." + +"Do you not see it?--do you not see it all?" exclaimed my companion; +"the wide smoky room, with the bright turf fire, the blackened rafters +shining above, the straw-wrought settle below, the farmer and the +farmer's wife, and auld grannie and the bairns. Never was there truer +painting; and, oh, how it works on a Scotch heart! But hear this other +piece." + +He read "Sandy and Willie." + +"Far, far ahead of Ramsay," I exclaimed. "More imagination, more spirit, +more intellect, and as much truth and nature. Robert has gained his end +already. Hurra for poor old Scotland!--these pieces must live for ever. +But do repeat to me the 'Farmer's Ingle' once more." + +We read, one by one, all the poems in the magazine, dwelling on each +stanza, and expatiating on every recollection of home which the images +awakened. My companion was, like his brother, a kind, open-hearted man, +of superior intellect; much less prone to despondency, however, and of a +more equal temperament. Ere we parted, which was not until next morning, +he had communicated to me all his plans for the future, and all his +fondly cherished hopes of returning to Scotland with wealth enough to be +of use to his friends. He seemed to be one of those universal geniuses +who do a thousand things well, but want steadiness enough to turn any of +them to good account. He showed me a treatise on the use of the sword, +which he had just prepared for the press; and a series of letters on the +stamp act, which had appeared, from time to time, in one of the Boston +newspapers, and in which he had taken part with the Americans. + +"I make a good many dollars in these stirring times," he said. "All the +Yankees seem to be of opinion that they will be best heard across the +water when they have got arms in their hands, and have learned how to +use them; and I know a little of both the sword and the musket. But the +warlike spirit is frightfully thirsty, somehow, and consumes a world of +rum; and so I have not yet begun to make rich." + +He shared with me his supper and bed for the night; and, after rising in +the morning ere I awoke, and writing a long letter for Robert, which he +gave me in the hope I might soon meet with him, he accompanied me to the +vessel, then on the eve of sailing, and we parted, as it proved, for +ever. I know nothing of his after life, or how or where it terminated; +but I have learned that, shortly before the death of his gifted brother, +his circumstances enabled him to send his mother a small remittance for +the use of the family. He was evidently one of the kind-hearted, +improvident few, who can share a very little, and whose destiny it is to +have only a very little to share. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + "O Ferguson! thy glorious parts + Ill suited law's dry, musty arts! + My curse upon your whunstane hearts, + Ye Embrugh gentry! + The tithe o' what ye waste at cartes + Wad stow'd his pantry!" + BURNS. + + +I visited Edinburgh, for the first time, in the latter part of the +autumn of 1773, about two months after I had sailed from Boston. It was +on a fine calm morning--one of those clear sunshiny mornings of October, +when the gossamer goes sailing about in long cottony threads, so light +and fleecy that they seem the skeleton remains of extinct cloudlets; and +when the distant hills, with their covering of grey frost rime, seem, +through the clear cold atmosphere, as if chiselled in marble. The sun +was rising over the town through a deep blood-coloured haze--the smoke +of a thousand fires; and the huge fantastic piles of masonry that +stretched along the ridge, looked dim and spectral through the cloud, +like the ghosts of an army of giants. I felt half a foot taller as I +strode on towards the town. It was Edinburgh I was approaching--the +scene of so many proud associations to a lover of Scotland; and I was +going to meet as an early friend one of the first of Scottish poets. I +entered the town. There was a book stall in a corner of the street; and +I turned aside for half a minute to glance my eye over the books. + +"Ferguson's Poems!" I exclaimed, taking up a little volume. "I was not +aware they had appeared in a separate form. How do you sell this?" + +"Just like a' the ither booksellers," said the man who kept the +stall--"that's nane o' the buiks that come doun in a hurry--just for the +marked selling price." I threw down the money. + +"Could you tell me anything of the writer?" I said. "I have a letter for +him from America." + +"Oh, that'll be frae his brither Henry, I'll wad; a clever cheild too, +but ower fond o' the drap drink, maybe, like Rob himsel'. Baith o' them +fine humane chields, though, without a grain o' pride. Rob takes a stan' +wi' me sometimes o' half an hour at a time, an' we clatter ower the +buiks; an', if I'm no mista'en, yon's him just yonder--the thin, pale +slip o' a lad wi' the broad brow. Ay, an' he's just comin' this way." + +"Anything new to-day, Thomas?" said the young man, coming up to the +stall. "I want a cheap second-hand copy of Ramsay's 'Evergreen;' and, +like a good man as you are, you must just try and find it for me." + +Though considerably altered--for he was taller and thinner than when at +college, and his complexion had assumed a deep sallow hue--I recognised +him at once, and presented him with the letter. + +"Ah! from brother Henry," said he, breaking it open, and glancing his +eye over the contents. "What--_old college chum, Mr. Lindsay_!" he +exclaimed, turning to me. "Yes, sure enough; how happy I am we should +have met! Come this way--let us get out of the streets." + +We passed hurriedly through the Canongate and along the front of +Holyrood-house, and were soon in the King's Park, which seemed this +morning as if left to ourselves. + +"Dear me, and this is you yourself!--and we have again met, Mr. +Lindsay!" said Ferguson; "I thought we were never to meet more. Nothing, +for a long time, has made me half so glad. And so you have been a sailor +for the last four years. Do let us sit down here in the warm sunshine, +beside St. Anthony's Well, and tell me all your story, and how you +happened to meet with brother Henry." + +We sat down, and I briefly related, at his bidding, all that had +befallen me since we had parted at St. Andrew's, and how I was still a +common sailor, but, in the main, perhaps, not less happy than many who +commanded a fleet. + +"Ah, you have been a fortunate fellow," he said; "you have seen much and +enjoyed much; and I have been rusting in unhappiness at home. Would that +I had gone to sea along with you!" + +"Nay, now, that won't do," I replied. "But you are merely taking Bacon's +method of blunting the edge of envy. You have scarcely yet attained the +years of mature manhood, and yet your name has gone abroad over the +whole length and breadth of the land, and over many other lands besides. +I have cried over your poems three thousand miles away, and felt all the +prouder of my country for the sake of my friend. And yet you would fain +persuade me that you wish the charm reversed, and that you were just +such an obscure salt-water man as myself!" + +"You remember," said my companion, "the story of the half-man, +half-marble prince of the Arabian tale. One part was a living creature, +one part a stone; but the parts were incorporated, and the mixture was +misery. I am just such a poor unhappy creature as the enchanted prince +of the story." + +"You surprise and distress me," I rejoined. "Have you not accomplished +all you so fondly purposed--realized even your warmest wishes? And this, +too, in early life. Your most sanguine hopes pointed but to a name, +which you yourself perhaps was never to hear, but which was to dwell on +men's tongues when the grave had closed over you. And now the name is +gained, and you live to enjoy it. I see the _living_ part of your lot, +and it seems instinct with happiness; but in what does the _dead_, the +stony part, consist?" + +He shook his head, and looked up mournfully in my face; there was a +pause of a few seconds. "You, Mr. Lindsay," he at length replied, "you +who are of an equable steady temperament, can know little, from +experience, of the unhappiness of the man who lives only in extremes, +who is either madly gay or miserably depressed. Try and realize the +feelings of one whose mind is like a broken harp--all the medium tones +gone, and only the higher and lower left; of one, too, whose +circumstances seem of a piece with his mind, who can enjoy the exercise +of his better powers, and yet can only live by the monotonous drudgery +of copying page after page in a clerk's office; of one who is +continually either groping his way amid a chill melancholy fog of +nervous depression, or carried headlong, by a wild gaiety, to all which +his better judgment would instruct him to avoid; of one who, when he +indulges most in the pride of superior intellect, cannot away with the +thought that that intellect is on the eve of breaking up, and that he +must yet rate infinitely lower in the scale of rationality than any of +the nameless thousands who carry on the ordinary concerns of life around +him." + +I was grieved and astonished, and knew not what to answer. "You are in a +gloomy mood to-day," I at length said; "you are immersed in one of the +fogs you describe; and all the surrounding objects take a tinge of +darkness from the medium through which you survey them. Come, now, you +must make an exertion, and shake off your melancholy. I have told you +all my story, as I best could, and you must tell me all yours in +return." + +"Well," he replied, "I shall, though it mayn't be the best way in the +world of dissipating my melancholy. I think I must have told you, when +at college, that I had a maternal uncle of considerable wealth, and, as +the world goes, respectability, who resided in Aberdeenshire. He was +placed on what one may term the table-land of society; and my poor +mother, whose recollections of him were limited to a period when there +is warmth in the feelings of the most ordinary minds, had hoped that he +would willingly exert his influence in my behalf. Much, doubtless, +depends on one's setting out in life; and it would have been something +to have been enabled to step into it from a level like that occupied by +my relative. I paid him a visit shortly after leaving college, and met +with apparent kindness. But I can see beyond the surface, Mr. Lindsay, +and I soon saw that my uncle was entirely a different man from the +brother whom my mother remembered. He had risen, by a course of slow +industry, from comparative poverty, and his feelings had worn out in the +process. The character was case-hardened all over; and the polish it +bore--for I have rarely met a smoother man--seemed no improvement. He +was, in brief, one of the class content to dwell for ever in mere +decencies, with consciences made up of the conventional moralities, who +think by precedent, bow to public opinion as their god, and estimate +merit by its weight in guineas." + +"And so your visit," I said, "was a very brief one?" + +"You distress me," he replied. "It should have been so; but it was not. +But what could I do? Ever since my father's death I had been taught to +consider this man as my natural guardian, and I was now unwilling to +part with my last hope. But this is not all. Under much apparent +activity, my friend, there is a substratum of apathetical indolence in +my disposition: I move rapidly when in motion, but when at rest there is +a dull inertness in the character, which the will, when unassisted by +passion, is too feeble to overcome. Poor, weak creature that I am! I had +sitten down by my uncle's fireside, and felt unwilling to rise. Pity me, +my friend--I deserve your pity--but, oh, do not despise me!" + +"Forgive me, Mr. Ferguson," I said; "I have given you pain--but surely +most unwittingly." + +"I am ever a fool," he continued; "but my story lags; and, surely, there +is little in it on which it were pleasure to dwell. I sat at this man's +table for six months, and saw, day after day, his manner towards me +becoming more constrained and his politeness more cold; and yet I staid +on, till at last my clothes were worn threadbare, and he began to feel +that the shabbiness of the nephew affected the respectability of the +uncle. His friend the soap-boiler, and his friend the oil-merchant, and +his friend the manager of the hemp manufactory, with their wives and +daughters--all people of high standing in the world--occasionally +honoured his table with their presence, and how could he be other than +ashamed of mine? It vexes me that I cannot even yet be cool on the +subject--it vexes me that a creature so sordid should have so much the +power to move me--but I cannot, I cannot master my feelings. He--he told +me--and with whom should the blame rest, but with the weak, spiritless +thing who lingered on in mean, bitter dependence, to hear what he had to +tell?--he told me that all his friends were respectable, and that my +appearance was no longer that of a person whom he could wish to see at +his table, or introduce to any one as his nephew. And I had staid to +hear all this! + +"I can hardly tell you how I got home. I travelled, stage after stage, +along the rough dusty roads, with a weak and feverish body, and almost +despairing mind. On meeting with my mother, I could have laid my head on +her bosom and cried like a child. I took to my bed in a high fever, and +trusted that all my troubles were soon to terminate; but, when the die +was cast, it turned up life. I resumed my old miserable employments--for +what could I else?--and, that I might be less unhappy in the prosecution +of them, my old amusements too. I copied during the day in a clerk's +office that I might live, and wrote during the night that I might be +known. And I have in part, perhaps, attained my object. I have pursued +and caught hold of the shadow on which my heart had been so long set; +and if it prove empty, and untangible, and unsatisfactory, like every +other shadow, the blame surely must rest with the pursuer, not with the +thing pursued. I weary you, Mr. Lindsay; but one word more. There are +hours when the mind, weakened by exertion, or by the teazing monotony of +an employment which tasks without exercising it, can no longer exert its +powers, and when, feeling that sociality is a law of our nature, we seek +the society of our fellow-men. With a creature so much the sport of +impulse as I am, it is of these hours of weakness that conscience takes +most note. God help me! I have been told that life is short; but it +stretches on, and on, and on before me; and I know not how it is to be +passed through." + +My spirits had so sunk during this singular conversation, that I had no +heart to reply. + +"You are silent, Mr. Lindsay," said the poet; "I have made you as +melancholy as myself; but look around you, and say if ever you have seen +a lovelier spot. See how richly the yellow sunshine slants along the +green sides of Arthur's Seat, and how the thin blue smoke, that has come +floating from the town, fills the bottom of yonder grassy dell, as if it +were a little lake. Mark, too, how boldly the cliffs stand out along its +sides, each with its little patch of shadow. And here, beside us, is St. +Anthony's Well, so famous in song, coming gushing out to the sunshine, +and then gliding away through the grass like a snake. Had the Deity +purposed that man should be miserable, he would surely never have placed +him in so fair a world. Perhaps much of our unhappiness originates in +our mistaking our proper scope, and thus setting out from the first with +a false aim." + +"Unquestionably," I replied, "there is no man who has not some part to +perform; and, if it be a great and uncommon part, and the powers which +fit him for it proportionably great and uncommon, nature would be in +error could he slight it with impunity. See, there is a wild bee bending +the flower beside you. Even that little creature has a capacity of +happiness and misery; it derives its sense of pleasure from whatever +runs in the line of its instincts, its experience of unhappiness from +whatever thwarts and opposes them; and can it be supposed that so wise a +law should regulate the instincts of only inferior creatures? No, my +friend, it is surely a law of our nature also." + +"And have you not something else to infer?" said the poet. + +"Yes," I replied, "that you are occupied differently from what the scope +and constitution of your mind demand; differently both in your hours of +employment and of relaxation. But do take heart, you will yet find your +proper place, and all shall be well." + +"Alas! no, my friend," said he, rising from the sward. "I could once +entertain such a hope; but I cannot now. My mind is no longer what it +was to me in my happier days, a sort of _terra incognita_, without +bounds or limits. I can see over and beyond it, and have fallen from all +my hopes regarding it. It is not so much the gloom of present +circumstances that disheartens me, as a depressing knowledge of myself, +an abiding conviction that I am a weak dreamer, unfitted for every +occupation of life, and not less so for the greater employments of +literature than for any of the others. I feel that I am a little man and +a little poet, with barely vigour enough to make one half effort at a +time, but wholly devoid of the sustaining will, that highest faculty of +the highest order of minds, which can direct a thousand vigorous efforts +to the accomplishment of one important object. Would that I could +exchange my half celebrity--and it can never be other than a half +celebrity--for a temper as equable and a fortitude as unshrinking as +yours! But I weary you with my complaints; I am a very coward; and you +will deem me as selfish as I am weak." + +We parted. The poet, sadly and unwillingly, went to copy deeds in the +office of the commissary clerk, and I, almost reconciled to obscurity +and hard labour, to assist in unloading a Baltic trader in the harbour +of Leith. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + "Speech without aim and without end employ."--CRABBE. + + +After the lapse of nine months, I again returned to Edinburgh. During +that period, I had been so shut out from literature and the world, that +I had heard nothing of my friend the poet; and it was with a beating +heart I left the vessel, on my first leisure evening, to pay him a +visit. It was about the middle of July; the day had been close and +sultry, and the heavens overcharged with grey ponderous clouds; and, as +I passed hurriedly along the walk which leads from Leith to Edinburgh, I +could hear the newly awakened thunder, bellowing far in the south, peal +after peal, like the artillery of two hostile armies. I reached the door +of the poet's humble domicile, and had raised my hand to the knocker, +when I heard some one singing from within, in a voice by far the most +touchingly mournful I had ever listened to. The tones struck on my +heart; and a frightful suspicion crossed my mind, as I set down the +knocker, that the singer was no other than my friend. But in what +wretched circumstances! what fearful state of mind! I shuddered as I +listened, and heard the strain waxing louder and yet more mournful, and +could distinguish that the words were those of a simple old ballad:-- + + "O Marti'mas wind, when wilt thou blaw, + An' shake the green leaves aff the tree? + O gentle death, when wilt thou come, + An' tak a life that wearies me?" + +I could listen no longer, but raised the latch and went in. The evening +was gloomy, and the apartment ill lighted; but I could see the singer, a +spectral-looking figure, sitting on a bed in the corner, with the +bedclothes wrapped round his shoulders, and a napkin deeply stained +with blood on his head. An elderly female, who stood beside him, was +striving to soothe him, and busied from time to time in adjusting the +clothes, which were ever and anon falling off, as he nodded his head in +time to the music. A young girl of great beauty sat weeping at the +bedfoot. + +"O dearest Robert," said the woman, "you will destroy your poor head; +and Margaret your sister, whom you used to love so much, will break her +heart. Do lie down, dearest, and take a little rest. Your head is +fearfully gashed, and if the bandages loose a second time, you will +bleed to death. Do, dearest Robert, for your poor old mother, to whom +you were always so kind and dutiful a son till now--for your poor old +mother's sake, do lie down." + +The song ceased for a moment, and the tears came bursting from my eyes +as the tune changed, and he again sang:-- + + "O mither dear, make ye my bed, + For my heart it's flichterin' sair; + An' oh, gin I've vexed ye, mither dear, + I'll never vex ye mair. + I've staid ar'out the lang dark nicht, + I' the sleet an' the plashy rain; + But, mither dear, make ye my bed, + An' I'll ne'er gang out again." + +"Dearest, dearest Robert," continued the poor, heart-broken woman, "do +lie down; for your poor old mother's sake, do lie down." + +"No, no," he exclaimed, in a hurried voice, "not just now, mother, not +just now. Here is my friend, Mr. Lindsay, come to see me--my true +friend, Mr. Lindsay, the sailor, who has sailed all round and round the +world; and I have much, much to ask him. A chair, Margaret, for Mr. +Lindsay. I must be a preacher like John Knox, you know--like the great +John Knox, the reformer of a nation--and Mr. Lindsay knows all about +him. A chair, Margaret, for Mr. Lindsay." + +I am not ashamed to say it was with tears, and in a voice faltering with +emotion, that I apologized to the poor woman for my intrusion at such a +time. Were it otherwise, I might well conclude my heart had grown hard +as a piece of the nether millstone. + +"I had known Robert at College," I said--"had loved and respected him; +and had now come to pay him a visit, after an absence of several months, +wholly unprepared for finding him in his present condition." And it +would seem that my tears pled for me, and proved to the poor afflicted +woman and her daughter, by far the most efficient part of my apology. + +"All my friends have left me now, Mr. Lindsay," said the unfortunate +poet--"they have all left me now; they love this present world. We were +all going down, down, down; there was the roll of a river behind us; it +came bursting over the high rocks, roaring, rolling, foaming down upon +us; and though the fog was thick and dark below--far below, in the place +to which we were going--I could see the red fire shining through--the +red, hot, unquenchable fire; and we were all going down, down, down. +Mother, mother, tell Mr. Lindsay I am going to be put on my trials +to-morrow. Careless creature that I am--life is short, and I have lost +much time; but I am going to be put on my trials to-morrow, and shall +come forth a preacher of the word." + +The thunder which had hitherto been muttering at a distance--each peal, +however, nearer and louder than the preceding one--now began to roll +overhead, and the lightning, as it passed the window, to illumine every +object within. The hapless poet stretched out his thin wasted arm, as if +addressing a congregation from the pulpit:-- + +"There were the flashings of lightning," he said, "and the roll of +thunder; and the trumpet waxed louder and louder. And around the summit +of the mountain were the foldings of thick clouds, and the shadow fell +brown and dark over the wide expanse of the desert. And the wild beasts +lay trembling in their dens. But, lo! where the sun breaks through the +opening of the cloud, there is the glitter of tents--the glitter of ten +thousand tents that rise over the sandy waste, thick as waves of the +sea. And there, there is the voice of the dance and of the revel, and +the winding of horns and the clash of cymbals. Oh, sit nearer me, +dearest mother, for the room is growing dark, dark; and, oh, my poor +head! + + 'The lady sat on the castle wa', + Look'd ower baith dale and down, + And then she spied Gil-Morice head + Come steering through the town.' + +Do, dearest mother, put your cool hand on my brow, and do hold it fast +ere it part. How fearfully--oh, how fearfully it aches!--and oh, how it +thunders!" He sunk backward on the pillow, apparently exhausted. "Gone, +gone, gone," he muttered; "my mind gone for ever. But God's will be +done." + +I rose to leave the room; for I could restrain my feelings no longer. + +"Stay, Mr. Lindsay," said the poet, in a feeble voice; "I hear the rain +dashing on the pavement; you must not go till it abates. Would that you +could pray beside me!--but, no--you are not like the dissolute +companions who have now all left me, but you are not yet fitted for +that; and, alas! I cannot pray for myself. Mother, mother, see that +there be prayers at my lykewake; for-- + + 'Her lykewake, it was piously spent + In social prayer and praise, + Performed by judicious men, + Who stricken were in days. + 'And many a heavy, heavy heart + Was in that mournful place; + And many a weary, weary thought + On her who slept in peace.' + +They will come all to my lykewake, mother, won't they?--yes, all, though +they have left me now. Yes, and they will come far to see my grave. I +was poor, very poor, you know, and they looked down upon me; and I was +no son or cousin of theirs, and so they could do nothing for me. Oh, but +they might have looked less coldly! But they will all come to my grave, +mother; they will come all to my grave; and they will say--'Would he +were living now to know how kind we are!' But they will look as coldly +as ever on the living poet beside them--yes, till they have broken his +heart; and then they will go to his grave too. O dearest mother, do lay +your cool hand on my brow." + +He lay silent and exhausted, and, in a few minutes, I could hope, from +the hardness of his breathing, that he had fallen asleep. + +"How long," I inquired of his sister, in a low whisper, "has Mr. +Ferguson been so unwell, and what has injured his head?" + +"Alas!" said the girl, "my brother has been unsettled in mind for nearly +the last six months. We first knew it one evening on his coming home +from the country, where he had been for a few days with a friend. He +burnt a large heap of papers that he had been employed on for weeks +before--songs and poems that his friends say were the finest things he +ever wrote; but he burnt them all, for he was going to be a preacher of +the word, he said, and it did not become a preacher of the word to be a +writer of light rhymes. And, O sir! his mind has been carried ever +since; but he has been always gentle and affectionate, and his sole +delight has lain in reading the Bible. Good Dr. Erskine, of the +Greyfriars, often comes to our house, and sits with him for hours +together; for there are times when his mind seems stronger than ever, +and he says wonderful things, that seem to hover, the minister says, +between the extravagance natural to his present sad condition, and the +higher flights of a philosophic genius. And we had hoped that he was +getting better; but, O sir, our hopes have had a sad ending. He went +out, a few evenings ago, to call on an old acquaintance; and, in +descending a stair, missed footing, and fell to the bottom; and his head +has been fearfully injured by the stones. He has been just as you have +seen him ever since; and, oh! I much fear he cannot now recover. Alas! +my poor brother!--never, never was there a more affectionate heart." + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + "A lowly muse! + She sings of reptiles yet in song unknown." + + +I returned to the vessel with a heavy heart; and it was nearly three +months from this time ere I again set foot in Edinburgh. Alas! for my +unfortunate friend! He was now an inmate of the asylum, and on the verge +of dissolution. I was thrown, by accident, shortly after my arrival at +this time, into the company of one of his boon companions. I had gone +into a tavern with a brother sailor--a shrewd, honest skipper, from the +north country; and, finding the place occupied by half a dozen young +fellows, who were growing noisy over their liquor, I would have +immediately gone out again, had I not caught, in the passing, a few +words regarding my friend. And so, drawing to a side-table, I sat down. + +"Believe me," said one of the topers, a dissolute-looking young man, +"it's all over with Bob Ferguson--all over; and I knew it from the +moment he grew religious. Had old Brown tried to convert me, I would +have broken his face." + +"What Brown?" inquired one of his companions. + +"Is that all you know?" rejoined the other. "Why, John Brown of +Haddington, the Seceder. Bob was at Haddington last year, at the +election; and, one morning, when in the horrors, after holding a rum +night of it, who should he meet in the churchyard but old John +Brown?--he writes, you know, a big book on the Bible. Well, he lectured +Bob at a pretty rate, about election and the call, I suppose; and the +poor fellow has been mad ever since. Your health, Jamie. For my own +part, I'm a freewill man, and detest all cant and humbug." + +"And what has come of Ferguson now?" asked one of the others. + +"Oh, mad, sir, mad," rejoined the toper--"reading the Bible all day, and +cooped up in the asylum yonder. 'Twas I who brought him to it.--But, +lads, the glass has been standing for the last half-hour.--'Twas I and +Jack Robinson who brought him to it, as I say. He was getting wild; and +so we got a sedan for him, and trumped up a story of an invitation for +tea from a lady, and he came with us as quietly as a lamb. But, if you +could have heard the shriek he gave when the chair stopped, and he saw +where we had brought him! I never heard anything half so horrible--it +rang in my ears for a week after; and then, how the mad people in the +upper rooms howled and gibbered in reply, till the very roof echoed! +People say he is getting better; but, when I last saw him, he was as +religious as ever, and spoke so much about heaven, that it was +uncomfortable to hear him. Great loss to his friends, after all the +expense they have been at with his education." + +"You seem to have been intimate with Mr. Ferguson," I said. + +"Oh, intimate with Bob!" he rejoined; "we were hand and glove, man. I +have sat with him in Lucky Middlemass's, almost every evening, for two +years; and I have given him hints for some of the best things in his +book. 'Twas I who tumbled down the cage in the Meadows, and began +breaking the lamps. + + 'Ye who oft finish care in Lethe's cup, + Who love to swear and roar, and _keep it up_, + List to a brother's voice, whose sole delight + Is sleep all day, and riot all the night.' + +There's spirit for you! But Bob was never sound at bottom; and I have +told him so. 'Bob,' I have said, 'Bob, you're but a hypocrite after all, +man--without half the spunk you pretend to. Why don't you take a pattern +by me, who fear nothing, and believe only the agreeable? But, poor +fellow, he had weak nerves, and a church-going propensity that did him +no good; and you see the effects. 'Twas all nonsense, Tom, of his +throwing the squib into the Glassite meeting-house. Between you and I, +that was a cut far beyond him in his best days, poet as he was. 'Twas I +who did it, man, and never was there a cleaner row in auld Reekie." + +"Heartless, contemptible puppy!" said my comrade, the sailor, as we left +the room. "Your poor friend must be ill, indeed, if he be but half as +insane as his quondam companion. But he cannot: there is no madness like +that of the heart. What could have induced a man of genius to associate +with a thing so thoroughly despicable?" + +"The same misery, Miller," I said, "that brings a man _acquainted with +strange bedfellows_." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + "O thou, my elder brother in misfortune, + By far my elder brother in the muses, + With tears I pity thy unhappy fate!"--BURNS. + + +The asylum in which my unfortunate friend was confined, at this time the +only one in Edinburgh, was situated in an angle of the city wall. It was +a dismal-looking mansion, shut in on every side, by the neighbouring +houses, from the view of the surrounding country; and so effectually +covered up from the nearer street, by a large building in front, that it +seemed possible enough to pass a lifetime in Edinburgh without coming to +the knowledge of its existence. I shuddered as I looked up to its +blackened walls, thinly sprinkled with miserable-looking windows, barred +with iron, and thought of it as a sort of burial-place of dead minds. +But it was a Golgotha, which, with more than the horrors of the grave, +had neither its rest nor its silence. I was startled, as I entered the +cell of the hapless poet, by a shout of laughter from a neighbouring +room, which was answered from a dark recess behind me, by a fearfully +prolonged shriek, and the clanking of chains. The mother and sister of +Ferguson were sitting beside his pallet, on a sort of stone settle which +stood out from the wall; and the poet himself, weak and exhausted, and +worn to a shadow, but apparently in his right mind, lay extended on the +straw. He made an attempt to rise as I entered; but the effort was above +his strength, and, again lying down, he extended his hand. + +"This is kind, Mr. Lindsay," he said; "it is ill for me to be alone in +these days; and yet I have few visitors, save my poor old mother and +Margaret. But who cares for the unhappy?" + +I sat down on the settle beside him, still retaining his hand. "I have +been at sea, and in foreign countries," I said, "since I last saw you, +Mr. Ferguson, and it was only this morning I returned; but believe me +there are many, many of your countrymen who sympathize sincerely in your +affliction, and take a warm interest in your recovery." + +He sighed deeply. "Ah," he replied, "I know too well the nature of that +sympathy. You never find it at the bedside of the sufferer--it +evaporates in a few barren expressions of idle pity; and yet, after all, +it is but a paying the poet in kind. He calls so often on the world to +sympathize over fictitious misfortune, that the feeling wears out, and +becomes a mere mood of the imagination; and, with this light, attenuated +pity of his own weaving, it regards his own real sorrows. Dearest +mother, the evening is damp and chill--do gather the bedclothes round +me, and sit on my feet; they are so very cold and so dead, that they +cannot be colder a week hence." + +"O Robert, why do you speak so?" said the poor woman, as she gathered +the clothes round him, and sat on his feet. "You know you are coming +home to-morrow." + +"To-morrow!" he said--"if I see to-morrow, I shall have completed my +twenty-fourth year--a small part, surely, of the threescore and ten; but +what matters it when 'tis past?" + +"You were ever, my friend, of a melancholy temperament," I said, "and +too little disposed to hope. Indulge in brighter views of the future, +and all shall yet be well." + +"I can now hope that it shall," he said. "Yes, all shall be well with +me--and that very soon. But, oh, how this nature of ours shrinks from +dissolution!--yes, and all the lower natures too. You remember, mother, +the poor starling that was killed in the room beside us? Oh, how it +struggled with its ruthless enemy, and filled the whole place with its +shrieks of terror and agony. And yet, poor little thing! it had been +true, all life long, to the laws of its nature, and had no sins to +account for, and no judge to meet. There is a shrinking of heart as I +look before me, and yet I can hope that all shall yet be well with +me--and that very soon. Would that I had been wise in time! Would that I +had thought more and earlier of the things which pertain to my eternal +peace! more of a living soul, and less of a dying name! But, oh, 'tis a +glorious provision, through which a way of return is opened up even at +the eleventh hour!" + +We sat round him in silence; an indescribable feeling of awe pervaded my +whole mind, and his sister was affected to tears. + +"Margaret," he said, in a feeble voice--"Margaret, you will find my +Bible in yonder little recess; 'tis all I have to leave you; but keep +it, dearest sister, and use it, and, in times of sorrow and suffering +that come to all, you will know how to prize the legacy of your poor +brother. Many, many books do well enough for life; but there is only one +of any value when we come to die. + +"You have been a voyager of late, Mr. Lindsay," he continued, "and I +have been a voyager too. I have been journeying in darkness and +discomfort, amid strange unearthly shapes of dread and horror, with no +reason to direct and no will to govern. Oh, the unspeakable unhappiness +of these wanderings!--these dreams of suspicion, and fear, and hatred, +in which shadow and substance, the true and the false, were so wrought +up and mingled together, that they formed but one fantastic and +miserable whole. And, oh! the unutterable horror of every momentary +return to a recollection of what I had been once, and a sense of what I +had become! Oh, when I awoke amid the terrors of the night--when I +turned me on the rustling straw, and heard the wild wail and yet wilder +laugh--when I heard and shuddered, and then felt the demon in all his +might coming over me, till I laughed and wailed with the others--oh the +misery! the utter misery!--But 'tis over, my friend--'tis all over; a +few, few tedious days, a few, few weary nights, and all my sufferings +shall be over." + +I had covered my face with my hands, but the tears came bursting through +my fingers; the mother and sister of the poet sobbed aloud. + +"Why sorrow for me, sirs?" he said; "why grieve for me? I am well, quite +well, and want for nothing. But 'tis cold; oh, 'tis very cold, and the +blood seems freezing at my heart. Ah, but there is neither pain nor cold +where I am going, and I trust it shall be well with my soul. Dearest, +dearest mother, I always told you it would come to this at last." + +The keeper had entered to intimate to us that the hour for locking up +the cells was already past, and we now rose to leave the place. I +stretched out my hand to my unfortunate friend; he took it in silence, +and his thin attenuated fingers felt cold within my grasp, like those of +a corpse. His mother stooped down to embrace him. + +"Oh, do not go yet, mother," he said--"do not go yet--do not leave me; +but it must be so, and I only distress you. Pray for me, dearest mother, +and, oh, forgive me; I have been a grief and a burden to you all +life-long; but I ever loved you, mother; and, oh, you have been kind, +kind and forgiving--and now your task is over. May God bless and reward +you! Margaret, dearest Margaret, farewell!" + +We parted, and, as it proved, for ever. Robert Ferguson expired during +the night; and when the keeper entered the cell next morning, to prepare +him for quitting the asylum, all that remained of this most hapless of +the children of genius, was a pallid and wasted corpse, that lay +stiffening on the straw. I am now a very old man, and the feelings wear +out; but I find that my heart is even yet susceptible of emotion, and +that the source of tears is not yet dried up. + + + + +THE DISASTERS +OF JOHNNY ARMSTRONG. + + +Johnny Armstrong, the hero of our tale, was, and, for aught we know to +the contrary, still is, an inhabitant of the town of Carlisle. He was a +stout, thickset, little man, with a round, good-humoured, ruddy +countenance, and somewhere about fifty years of age at the period to +which our story refers. Although possessed of a good deal of natural +shrewdness, Johnny was, on the whole, rather a simple sort of person. +His character, in short, was that of an honest, well-meaning, +inoffensive man, but with parts that certainly did not shine with a very +dazzling lustre. Johnny was, to business, an ironmonger, and had, by +patient industry and upright dealing, acquired a small independency. He +had stuck to the counter of his little dingy shop for upwards of twenty +years, and used to boast that, during all that time, he had opened and +shut his shop with his own hands every day, not even excepting one. The +result of this steadiness and attention to business was, as has been +already said, a competency. + +Fortunately for Johnny, this propensity to stick fast--which he did like +a limpet--was natural to him. It was a part of his constitution. He had +no desire whatever to travel, or, rather, he had a positive dislike to +it--a dislike, indeed, which was so great that, for an entire quarter of +a century, he had never been three miles out of Carlisle. But when +Johnny had waxed pretty rich, somewhat corpulent, and rather oldish, he +was suddenly struck, one fine summer afternoon, as he stood at the door +of his shop with his hands in his breeches pockets, (a favourite +attitude,) with an amiable and ardent desire to see certain of his +relations who lived at Brechin, in the north of Scotland; and--there is +no accounting for these things--on that afternoon Johnny came to the +extraordinary resolution of paying them a visit--of performing a journey +of upwards of a hundred miles, even as the crow flies. It was a strange +and a desperate resolution for a man of Johnny's peculiar temperament +and habits; but so it was. Travel he would, and travel he did. On the +third day after the doughty determination just alluded to had been +formed, Johnny, swathed in an ample brown greatcoat, with a red +comforter about his neck, appeared in the stable yard of the inn where +most of the stage coaches that passed through Carlisle put up. Of these +there were three: one for Dumfries, one for Glasgow, and one for +Edinburgh--the latter being Johnny's coach; for his route was by the +metropolis. We had almost forgotten to say that Johnny, who was a +widower, was accompanied on this occasion by his son, Johnny junior, an +only child, whom it was his intention to take along with him. The boy +was about fourteen years of age, and though, upon the whole, a shrewd +enough lad for his time of life, did not promise to be a much brighter +genius than his father. In fact he was rather lumpish. + +On arriving at the inn yard--it was about eight o'clock at night, and +pretty dark, being the latter end of September--Johnny Armstrong found +the coach apparently about to start, the horses being all yoked; but the +vehicle happened, at the moment he entered the yard, to be in charge of +an ostler--not of either the guard or driver, who had both gone out of +the way for an instant. Desirous of securing a good seat for his son, +Johnny Armstrong opened the coach door, thrust the lad in, and was about +to follow himself, when he discovered that he had forgotten his watch. +On making this discovery, he banged too the coach door without saying a +word, and hurried home as fast as his little, thick, short legs would +allow him, to recover his time-piece. On his return, which was in less +than five minutes, Johnny himself stepped into the vehicle, which was +now crowded with passengers, and, in a few seconds, was rattling away at +a rapid rate towards Edinburgh. The night was pitch dark, not a star +twinkled; and it was not until Johnny arrived at his journey's end--that +is, at Edinburgh--that he discovered his son was not in the coach, and +had never been there at all. We will not attempt to describe Johnny's +amazement and distress of mind on making this most extraordinary and +most alarming discovery. They were dreadful. In great agitation, he +inquired at every one of the passengers if they had not seen his son, +and one and all denied they ever had. The thing was mysterious and +perfectly inexplicable. + +"I put the boy into the coach with my own hands," said Johnny Armstrong, +in great perturbation, to the guard and half crying as he spoke. + +"Very odd," said the guard. + +"Very odd, indeed," said Johnny. + +"Are you sure it was _our_ coach, Mr. Armstrong?" inquired the guard. + +The emphasis on the word _our_ was startling. It evidently meant more +than met the ear; and Johnny felt that it did so, and he was startled +accordingly. + +"_Your_ coach?" he replied, but now with some hesitation of manner. "It +surely was. What other coach could it be?" + +"Why, it may have been the Glasgow coach," said the guard; "and I rather +think it _must_ have been. You have made a mistake, sir, be assured, and +put the boy into the wrong coach. We start from the same place, and at +the same hour, five minutes or so in or over." + +The mention of this possibility, nay certainty--for Johnny had actually +dispatched the boy to Glasgow--instantly struck him dumb. It relieved +him, indeed, from the misery arising from a dread of some terrible +accident having happened the lad, but threw him into great tribulation +as to his fate in Glasgow, without money or friends. But this being, +after all, comparatively but a small affair, Johnny was now, what he had +not been before, able to pay attention to minor things. + +"Be sae guid," said Johnny to the guard, who was on the top of the +coach, busy unloosing packages, "as haun me doun my trunk." + +"No trunk of yours here, sir," said the guard. "You'll have sent it away +to Glasgow with the boy." + +"No, no," replied Johnny, sadly perplexed by this new misfortune. "I +sent it wi' the lass to the inn half an hour before I gaed mysel." + +"Oh, then, in that case," said the guard, "ten to one it's away to +Dumfries, and not to Glasgow." + +And truly such was the fact. The girl, a fresh-caught country lass, had +thrown it on the first coach she found, saying her master would +immediately follow--and that happened to be the Dumfries one. Here, +then, was Johnny safely arrived himself, indeed, at Edinburgh; but his +son was gone to Glasgow, and his trunk to Dumfries--all with the +greatest precision imaginable. Next day, Johnny Armstrong, being +extremely uneasy about his boy, started for Glasgow on board of one of +the canal passage boats; while the lad, being equally uneasy about his +father, and, moreover, ill at ease on sundry other accounts, did +precisely the same thing with the difference of direction--that is, he +started for Edinburgh by a similar conveyance; and so well timed had +each of their respective departures been, that, without knowing it, they +passed each other exactly halfway between the two cities. On arriving at +Glasgow, Johnny Armstrong could not, for a long while, discover any +trace of his son; but at length succeeded in tracking him to the canal +boat--which led him rightly to conclude that he had proceeded to +Edinburgh. On coming to this conclusion, Johnny again started for the +metropolis, where he safely arrived about two hours after his son had +left it for home, whither, finding no trace of his father in Edinburgh, +he had wisely directed his steps. Johnny Armstrong, now greatly +distressed about the object of his paternal solicitude, whom he vainly +sought up and down the city, at last also bent his way homewards, +thinking, what was true, that the boy might have gone home; and there +indeed he found him. Thus nearly a week had been spent, and that in +almost constant travel, and Johnny found himself precisely at the point +from which he had set out. However, in three days, after having, in the +meantime, recovered his trunk, he again set out on his travels to +Brechin; for his courage was not in the least abated by what had +happened; but on this occasion unaccompanied by his son, as he would not +again run the risk of losing him, or of exposing himself to that +distress of mind on his account, of which he had been before a victim. +In the case of Johnny's second progress, there was "no mistake" +whatever, of any kind--at least at starting. Both himself and his trunk +arrived in perfect safety, and in due time, at Edinburgh. + +Johnny's next route was to steam it to Kirkaldy from Newhaven. The boat +started at six a.m.; and, having informed himself of this particular, he +determined to be at the point of embarkation in good time. But he was +rather late, and, on finding this, he ran every foot of the way from +Edinburgh to the steam-boat, and was in a dreadful state of exhaustion +when he reached it; but, by his exertions, he saved his distance, +thereby exhibiting another proof that all is not lost that's in danger. +An instant longer, however, and he would have been too late, for the +vessel was just on the eve of starting. Johnny leapt on board, or rather +was bundled on board; for Johnny, as already hinted, was in what is +called good bodily condition--rather extra, indeed--and was, moreover, +waxing a little stiff about the joints; so that he could not get over +the side of the boat so cleverly as he would have done some twenty years +before. Over and above all this, he was quite exhausted with the race +against time which he had just run. Seeing his distressed condition, and +that the boat was on the point of sailing, two of the hands leapt on the +pier, when the one seizing him by the waistband of the breeches, and the +other by the breast, they fairly pitched him into the vessel, throwing +his trunk after him. As it was pouring rain, Johnny, on recovering his +perpendicular, immediately descended into the cabin, and, in the next +instant, the boat was ploughing her way through the deep. For two hours +after he had embarked, it continued to rain without intermission; and +for these two hours he remained snug below without stirring. At the end +of this period, however, it cleared up a little, and, in a short while +thereafter, became perfectly fair. Having discovered this he ascended to +the deck, to see what was going on. The captain of the vessel was +himself at the helm; he, therefore, sidled towards him, and, after +making some remarks on the weather and the scenery, asked the captain, +in the blandest and civilest tones imaginable, when he expected they +would be at Kirkaldy. The man stared at Johnny with a look of +astonishment, not unmingled with displeasure; but at length said-- + +"Kirkaldy, sir! What do you mean by asking me that question? I don't +know when _you_ expect to be at Kirkaldy, but _I_ don't expect to be +there for a twelvemonth at least." + +"No!--od, that's queer!" quoth Johnny, amazed in his turn; but thinking, +after a moment, that the captain meant to be facetious, he merely +added--"I wad think, captain, that we wad be there much about the same +time." + +"Ay, ay, may be; but, I say, none of your gammon, friend," said the +latter, gruffly, and now getting really angry at what he conceived to be +some attempt to play upon him, though he could not see the drift of the +joke. "Mind your own business, friend, and I'll mind mine." + +This he said with an air that conveyed very plainly a hint that Johnny +should take himself off, which, without saying any more, he accordingly +did. Much perplexed by the captain's conduct, he now sauntered towards +the fore part of the vessel, where he caught the engineer just as he was +about to descend into the engine-room. Johnny tapped him gently on the +shoulder, and the man, wiping his dripping face with a handful of tow, +looked up to him, while Johnny, afraid to put the question, but anxious +to know when he really would be at Kirkaldy, lowered himself down, by +placing his hands on his knees, so as to bring his face on a level with +the person he was addressing, and, in the mildest accents, and with a +countenance beaming with gentleness, he popped the question in a low, +soft whisper, as if to deprecate the man's wrath. On the fatal inquiry +being made at him, the engineer, as the captain had done before him, +stared at Johnny Armstrong, in amazement, for a second or two, then +burst into a hoarse laugh, and, without vouchsafing any other reply, +plunged down into his den. + +"What in a' the earth can be the meanin' o' this?" quoth Johnny to +himself, now ten times more perplexed than ever. "What can there be in +my simple, natural, and reasonable question, to astonish folk sae +muckle?" + +This was an inquiry which Johnny might put to himself, but it was one +which he could by no means answer. Being, however, an easy, good-natured +man, and seeing how much offence in one instance, and subject for mirth +in another, he had unwittingly given, by putting it, he resolved to make +no further inquiries into the matter, but to await in patience the +arrival of the boat at her destination--an event which he had the sense +to perceive would be neither forwarded nor retarded by his obtaining or +being refused the information he had desired to be possessed of. The +boat arrived in due time at the wished-for haven, and Johnny landed with +the other passengers; the captain giving him a wipe, as he stepped on +the plank that was to convey him ashore, about his Kirkaldy inquiries, +by asking him, though now in perfect good humour, if he knew the precise +length of that celebrated town; but Johnny merely smiled and passed on. + +On landing, Johnny Armstrong proceeded to what had the appearance of, +and really was, a respectable inn. Here, as it was now pretty far in the +day, he had some dinner, and afterwards treated himself to a tumbler of +toddy and a peep at the papers. While thus comfortably enjoying himself, +the waiter having chanced to pop into the room, Johnny raised his eye +from the paper he was reading, and, looking the lad in the face-- + +"Can ye tell me, friend," he said, "when the coach for Dundee starts?" + +"There's no coach at all from this to Dundee, sir," replied the waiter. + +"No!" said Johnny, a little nonplused by this information. "That's odd." +The waiter saw nothing odd in it. + +"I was told," continued Johnny, "that there were twa or three coaches +daily from this to Dundee." + +"Oh, no, sir," said the lad, coolly, "you have been misinformed; but if +you wish to go to Dundee, sir," he added--desirous of being as obliging +as possible--"your best way is to go by steam from this to Newhaven, and +from that cross over to Kirkaldy!!!" + +At this fatal word, which seemed doomed to work Johnny much wo, the +glass which he was about to raise to his lips fell on the floor, and +went into a thousand pieces. + +"Kirkaldy, laddie!" exclaimed Johnny Armstrong, with an expression of +consternation in his face which it would require Cruikshank's art and +skill to do justice to--"Gude hae a care o' me, is _this_ no Kirkaldy?" + +"Kirkaldy, sir!" replied the waiter, no less amazed than Johnny, though +in his case it was at the absurdity of the inquiry--"oh, no, sir," with +a smile--"this is Alloa!!!" + +Alloa it was, to be sure; for Johnny had taken the wrong boat, and that +was all. On embarking, he had made no inquiries at those belonging to +the vessel, and, of course, those in the vessel had put none to him--and +this was the result. He was comfortably planted at Alloa, instead of +Kirkaldy, which all our readers know lies in a very different direction; +and this denouement also explains the captain's displeasure with his +passenger, and the engineer's mirth. At the moment this extraordinary +_eclaircissement_ took place between Johnny Armstrong and the waiter of +the King's Arms, there happened to be a ship captain in the room--for it +was the public one; and this person, who was a good-natured fellow, at +once amused by, and pitying Johnny's dilemma, turned towards him, and +inquired if it was his intention to go any further than Dundee. + +Johnny said that it was--he intended going to Brechin. + +"Oh, in that case," said the captain, "you had better just go with me. +In an hour after this I sail for Montrose, which is within eight miles +of Brechin, and I'll be very glad to give you a cast so far, and we +shan't differ about the terms. Fine, smart little vessel mine, and, with +a spanking breeze from the west or sou'-west, which we'll very likely +catch about Queensferry, I'll land you in a jiffey within a trifle of +your journey's end--a devilish sight cleverer, I warrant you, than your +round-about way of steaming and coaching it, and at half the money too." + +Johnny Armstrong was all gratitude for this very opportune piece of +kindness, and gladly closed with the offer--the captain and he taking a +couple of additional tumblers each, on the head of it, to begin with. We +say to begin with; for it by no means ended with the quantity named. The +captain was a jolly dog, and loved his liquor, and was, withal, so +facetious a companion, that he prevailed on his new friend to swallow a +great deal more than did him any good. To tell a truth, which, however, +we would not have known at Carlisle, Johnny Armstrong, who had the +character of a sober man, got, on this occasion, into a rather +discreditable condition, and, in this state, he was escorted by the +captain--who stood liquor like a water-cask--to the vessel, and was once +more embarked; but it was now on board the _Fifteen Sisters_ of +Skatehaven. On getting him on board, the captain, seeing the state he +was in, prudently bundled him down into the cabin, and thrust him into +his own bed, where he immediately fell into a profound sleep that +extended over twelve mortal hours. At the end of this period, however, +Johnny awoke; but it was not by any means of his own accord, for he was +awakened by a variety of stimulants, or _rousers_, if we may be allowed +to coin a word for the occasion, all operating at once. These were, a +tremendous uproar on the deck, a fearful rolling of the vessel, the +roaring of wind, and the splashing, dashing, and gurling of waves; and, +to crown all, a feeling of deadly sickness. When he first opened his +eyes, he could not conceive where he was, or what was the meaning of the +furious motion that he felt, and of the tremendous sounds that he heard. +A few minutes' cogitation with himself, however, solved the mystery, and +exposed to him his true position. In great alarm--for he thought the +vessel was on the eve of going down--Johnny Armstrong rolled himself out +of his bed, and crawled in his shirt up the cabin ladder. On gaining the +summit, he found himself confronted by the captain, who, with a very +serious face, was standing by the helm. + +"Are--are--are--we--near--Mon--trose, captain?" inquired Johnny, in a +voice rendered so feeble by sickness and terror, that it was impossible +to hear him a yard off, amidst the roaring of the winds and waves; for +we suppose we need not more explicitly state, that he was in the midst +of a storm, and as pretty a one it was as the most devoted admirer of +the picturesque could desire to see. + +"What?" roared the captain, in a voice of thunder, at the same time +stooping down to catch his feeble interrogatory. Johnny repeated it; +but, ere he could obtain an answer, a raking wave, which came in at the +stern, took him full on the breast as he stood on the companion ladder, +with his bust just above the level of the deck, sent him down, heels +over head, into the cabin, and, in a twinkling, buried him in a foot and +a half of water on the floor, where he lay for some time at full length, +sprawling and floundering amidst the wreck which the sudden and violent +influx of water had occasioned. On recovering from the stunning effects +of his descent--for he had, amongst other small matters, received a +violent contusion on the head--Johnny for an instant imagined that he +had somehow or other got to the bottom of the sea. Finding, however, at +length, that this was not precisely the case, he arose, though dripping +with wet, yet not very like a sea god, and having denuded himself of his +only garment, his shirt, crawled into his bed, where he now determined +to await quietly and patiently the fate that might be intended for him; +and this fate, he had no doubt, was suffocation by drowning. + +"Very extraordinar this," said Johnny Armstrong to himself, as he lay +musing in bed on the perilous situation into which he had so simply and +innocently got--"very extraordinar, that I couldna get the length o' +Brechin without a' this uproar, and confusion, and difficulty, and +danger; this knocking about frae place to place, half drooned and half +murdered. Here have I been now for mair than a week at it, and it's my +opinion I'm no twenty mile nearer't yet than I was, for a' this kick up. +Dear me," he went on soliloquizing, "I'm sure Brechin's no sic an out o' +the way place. The road's straught, and the distance no great. Then, +how, in the name o' wonder, is it that I canna mak' it out like ither +folk, let me do as I like?" + +Thus cogitated Johnny Armstrong as he lay on his bed of sickness, +sorrow, and danger. But his cogitations could in no way mend the matter, +nor, though they could, was he long permitted to indulge in them; for +that mortal sickness under which he had been before suffering, but which +the little incident of the visit from the wave, with its consequences, +had temporarily banished, again returned with tenfold vigour, making him +regardless of all sublunary things--even of life itself. In this state +of supineness and suffering did Johnny lie for three entire days and +nights--for so long did the storm continue with unabated fury--the +vessel having, for some four-and-twenty hours previously, been quite +unmanageable, and driving at the mercy of the winds and waves. A +dreadful crash, however, at length announced that some horrible crisis +was at hand. The vessel had struck, and, in a few seconds more, she was +in a thousand pieces, and her unfortunate crew, including Johnny +Armstrong, were struggling in the waves. From this instant he lost all +consciousness; and, when he again awoke to life, he found himself lying +on the sea-beach; but how he had come there he never could tell, nor +could he at all conjecture by what accident his life had been saved, +when all the rest in the ill-fated vessel had perished; for Johnny was +indeed the only person that had escaped. On coming to himself he started +to his feet, and gazed around him, with a bewildered look, to see if any +object would present itself that might help him to guess where he was. +But his survey affording him no such aid to recognition, he began to +move inland, in the hope of meeting with somebody who could give him +the information desired; and in this he was not disappointed, that is, +he did meet somebody; but the appearance of that somebody surprised +Johnny "pretty considerably." He had a high-crowned hat on, such as +Johnny had never seen in his life before; an enormous pair of breeches; +and a pipe a yard long in his mouth. His _tout ensemble_, in short, was +exceeding strange in Johnny Armstrong's eyes. Nevertheless, he accosted +him. + +"Can ye tell me, freen, how far I may be frae Brechin?" he inquired. + +The stranger shook his head, but made no reply. + +"I'm sayin', freen," repeated Johnny, in a louder tone, thinking that +his friend, as he called him, might possibly be dull of hearing, "can ye +tell me if I'm onything near Brechin?" + +The stranger again shook his head, but still said nothing. Johnny was +confounded. At length, however, after puffing away for some seconds with +a suddenly-increased energy, he slowly withdrew his pipe from his mouth, +and delivered himself of what sounded to Johnny's ears very much like +this, spoken with great rapidity. + +"Futra butara rap a ruara dutera muttera purra murra footra den, +Preekin, humph." + +Of this Johnny of course could make nothing, no more than the reader +can, further than recognising in the word "Preekin" a resemblance to the +name of the town he so anxiously inquired after; and he was sorely +perplexed thereat. Neither could he at all comprehend what sort of a +being he had fallen in with. + +"I dinna understan' a word o' what ye say, freen," at length said +Johnny, staring hard at the stranger with open mouth. + +"Umph!" said the latter; and he again withdrew his pipe from his mouth, +and again sent a volley of his "dutera mutteras" about Johnny's ears, +to precisely the same purpose as before. + +Finding that it was of no use making any further attempt at +conversation, Johnny passed on, not doubting that he had met either with +a _dummy_ or a madman. But what was Johnny's amazement when, shortly +afterwards, meeting a woman, whose dress, in its own way, was equally +odd and strange with that of the person he had just left, he was +answered (that is, to his queries again about Brechin), in the same +gibberish in which the former had responded to him. + +"What can be the meanin' o' this?" said Johnny to himself, in great +perplexity of mind, as he jogged on, after leaving the lady in the same +unsatisfactory way as he had left the gentleman. "Whar in a' the earth +can I hae gotten to, that naebody I meet wi' can understan' a word o' +plain English, or can speak themsels onything like an intelligible +language?" + +He now began to think that he had probably got into the Highlands; but, +although this supposition might account for the strangeness of the +language he had heard, it would not, he perceived, tally very well with +the enormous breeches which the gentleman he had met with wore, and +which he had seen from a distance others wearing, knowing, as he did +very well, that the national dress of the Highlanders was the kilt, of +which the trousers in question were the very antipodes. There was +another circumstance, too, that appeared to Johnny at variance with his +first conjecture, namely, that he might have got into the Highlands. +Where he was there were no high lands, not an eminence the height of a +mole-hill. On the contrary, the whole country, as far as his eye could +reach, seemed one vast plain. Though greatly puzzled by these +reflections, Johnny jogged on, and his progress at length brought him to +a respectable-looking farm-house. + +"'Od," said Johnny, "I'll surely get a mouthfu' o' sense frae somebody +here, an' fin' out whar I am." + +In this Johnny certainly did succeed; but not much to his comfort, as +the sequel will show. The first person he addressed, on approaching the +house, was a little girl, who, when he spoke, stared at him in the +greatest amazement, then rushed screaming into the house. This +proceeding brought out several young men and women, to whom Johnny now +addressed himself; but the only answer he obtained was a stare of +astonishment similar to the child's, and then a general burst of +laughter. At length one of the girls went into the house and brought out +a jolly-looking elderly man, who, from certain parts of his dress, +seemed to be in the seafaring way. + +"Vell, mine freend, vat you vant?" said this person, who spoke broken +English--"vere you come from?" + +"I cam last frae Alloa," said Johnny, "and I want to ken, sir, if I'm +onything near to Brechin?" + +"Preekin! Vere dat?" + +"'Od, I thocht everbody in Scotland kent that," said Johnny, smiling. + +"Ah! maybe Scotlan', mine freend, but no Hollands," replied he of the +broken English. + +"I dinna ken whether they ken't it in Holland or no," said Johnny, +"that's a country I'm no in the least acquaint wi'; but I'm sure it's +weel aneuch kent in Scotland." + +"Ah! maybe Scotlan', but no Hollands, my freend," repeated the man, +smiling in his turn; "but you vas in Hollands." + +"Never in my life," said Johnny, earnestly. + +"No, no," replied the man, impatiently, "you vas no in Hollands--but you +vas in Hollands." + +Johnny could make nothing of this; but it was soon cleared up by the +person adding, "You vas in Hollands _now_--dis moment." + +We will not even attempt to describe Johnny's amazement, horror, and +consternation, on this announcement being made to him, for we feel how +vain it would be, and how far short any idea we could convey would be of +the reality. + +"Holland!" said Johnny. "Heaven hae a care o' me! Ye surely dinna mean +to say that I'm in Holland the noo?" + +"To be sure I vas," said the Dutchman, smiling at Johnny's ludicrous +perturbation. "Mine Got, did you not know you vas in Hollands? Vere you +come from, in all de vorlds, you not know dat?" + +"I tell't ye already," replied Johnny, with a most rueful countenance, +"that I cam last frae Alloa. But ye're surely no in earnest, freen," he +added, in a desperate hope that it might, after all, be but a joke, +"when ye say that I'm in Holland?" + +"Ah! sure earneest--no doubt--true," said the Dutchman, now laughing +outright at Johnny's perplexity. + +As in the former case, we presume we need not be more explicit in saying +that Johnny had actually been wrecked on the coast of Holland. + +"Weel, weel," said the Brechin voyager, with an air expressive of more +calmness and resignation than might have been expected, "this does cowe +the gowan! How, in Heaven's name, am I ever to fin' my way hame again? +Little did I think I was ever to be landed this way amang savages." + +Johnny Armstrong, it will be here observed, could have been no great +reader--otherwise, he never would have applied the term savages to so +decent, industrious, and civilized a people as the Dutch. The Dutchman, +who was a kind, good-natured fellow--taking no offence whatever at +Johnny's unbecoming expression, because probably he did not understand +it, and compassionating his situation--now invited him into the house, +where Johnny, having succeeded in conveying to the whole household, +through the medium of the speaker of broken English, the story of his +misfortunes, was treated with much hospitality. With these kind people +Johnny Armstrong remained for about a week--for they would not allow him +to go sooner--when, having entirely recovered from the effects of his +sea voyage and shipwreck, he proceeded to Rotterdam; being accompanied +and assisted in all his movements by his benevolent host, Dunder Vander +Dunder, of Slootzsloykin. On arriving at Rotterdam, a passage was +engaged for Johnny on board one of the Leith packets, or regular +traders, in which he was next day snugly deposited; and, in an hour +after, he was again braving the dangers of the ocean. For some time all +went on well on this occasion with him, and he was beginning to feel +comfortable, and even happy, from the prospect of being soon again in +his native land, and from the superior accommodations of the vessel in +which he was embarked--far surpassing, as they did, those of the +unfortunate _Sisters_ of Skatehaven. His present ship was, in truth, a +remarkably fine one, and altogether seemed well adapted for encountering +the elements. The weather, too, was moderate, and the wind fair; so that +a quick and pleasant passage was confidently anticipated by all on +board, including Johnny Armstrong. All these agreeable circumstances +combined, made him feel extremely comfortable and happy; and, in the +exuberance of his feelings, and from the exciting sense of having at +length triumphed over his misfortunes--it might almost be said his +fate--Johnny even began to joke and laugh with those whom he found +willing to joke and laugh with him. It was while in this happy frame of +mind, and as he stood luxuriously leaning over the bulwark of the +vessel, that the captain suddenly espied a little, smart, cutter-looking +craft, sailing exactly in the same course with themselves, and +evidently endeavouring to make up with them. + +"What can the folk be wantin'?" quoth Johnny Armstrong, taking an +interest in the approaching barge. His question was one which nobody +could answer. In the meantime, the little vessel, moving with great +velocity, was fast nearing them, when the captain, now convinced that +those in her desired to have some communication with him, arrested his +own vessel's way, and awaited their coming. In a very few minutes, the +little cutter was alongside, and two men leapt from her to the deck of +the packet, when one of them, approaching the captain, told him that +they were messengers, that they had a warrant against John Jones, a +native of Britain, for debt, and that they had reason to believe he was +in the vessel. The captain said he did not believe he had any such +passenger on board, but informed them that they were perfectly at +liberty to search the ship. During this conversation, the other officer +kept his eye fixed on Johnny Armstrong, and when rejoined by his +comrade, seemed to inform him--for their language was not +understood--that there was something about that person well worthy of +his attention. They now both looked at Johnny, and appeared both +convinced that he was a fit subject for further inquiry. Accordingly one +of them addressed him:-- + +"Your name vas John Jones, mynheer?" + +"No, sir," said Johnny; "my name's John Armstrong." + +"Ah, a small shange--dat is all. You vas John, and he vas John, and you +be both John togidder; so, you must come to de shore wid us." + +"Catch me there, lads," quoth Johnny. "The deil a shore I'll gang to, +please Providence, but Leith shore. Na, na; I've had aneuch o' this +wark, and I'm determined to bring't till an' end noo." + +"Donner and blitzen!" shouted out one of the men, passionately, "but +you must go!"--at the same time seizing Johnny by the collar, and +drawing a pistol from his bosom. + +In utter amazement at this extraordinary treatment, Johnny Armstrong +imploringly called on the captain and the other passengers for +protection; but, as none of them were in the least acquainted with him, +and therefore did not know whether he was John Jones or not, they all +declined interfering--the captain saying that it would be more than his +ship and situation were worth to aid any one in resisting the laws of +the country--that he could not, dare not do it. His appeals, therefore, +to those around him being vain, he was eventually bundled into the +cutter and conveyed on shore, placed in a temporary place of confinement +for the night, and next day carried before a magistrate to be +identified. To effect this, several witnesses were called, when one and +all of them, after examining Johnny pretty narrowly, pronounced, to the +great disappointment of the officers who had apprehended him, that he +was _not_ the man! They, however, asserted that the resemblance between +the real and supposed John Jones was very remarkable. On the discovery +being made that the prisoner was not Jones, the magistrate apologized to +Johnny in the most polite terms for the trouble he had been put to, and +expressed great regret for the mistake of the officers; but said that, +as the witnesses had stated there was a strong resemblance--an +unfortunate one, he must call it--between him and the real defaulter, +and seeing, moreover, that they were both natives of Britain, the +officers were perfectly justified in doing what they had done, however +much the hardship of the case might be matter of regret. The magistrate +having thus delivered himself, Johnny Armstrong was dismissed with great +civility, and wished, by all present, safe home to his own country--a +wish in which he most heartily concurred, but which seemed to him more +easily entertained than gratified. On regaining his liberty, the first +thing he did was to endeavour to find out when the next ship sailed for +Scotland; he having, of course, lost that in which he had first +embarked, and, to his great consternation and dismay, learned that there +would be no vessel for a fortnight. This was sad intelligence to Johnny; +for, to add to his other distresses, his funds were now waxing low, and +he felt that it would require the utmost economy to enable him to spin +out the time and leave sufficient to pay his passage to his native land. +This economy he could very easily have practised at home, for he had a +natural tendency that way; but he did not know how to set about it in a +foreign country. His unhappiness and anxiety, therefore, on this point +were very great. In this dilemma, he bethought him of again seeking out +and quartering on his friend Vander Dunder, of Slootzsloykin, till the +vessel should sail; but not having, of course, a word of Dutch, he could +make no inquiries on the subject of his route, or indeed of anything +regarding his friend at all. This idea, therefore, he ultimately +abandoned, principally through a fear that he should, by some mistake, +be despatched upon a wrong scent, a species of disaster to which he was +now so sensitively alive, that he would neither turn to the right nor to +the left without having made himself perfectly sure that he was about to +take the right course; and, as to conveyances of all kinds, of which he +now entertained an especial suspicion, he had prudently determined that +he would know every particular about them and their destinations before +he would put a foot in one of them, for he had found, from dear-bought +experience, that if he did not take this precaution, the chance was that +he would never reach the place he desired to get at, and might be +whisked away to some unknown country, where he would never more be heard +of. + +Under this wholesome terror, Johnny made no attempt to find out his +friend Vander Dunder; but chance effected, in part at least, what his +limited knowledge of Dutch put it out of his power, with set purpose, to +accomplish. On turning the corner of a street, who should he have the +good fortune to meet with but Vander Dunder. The astonishment of the +good Dutchman on seeing Johnny was great, so great, indeed, as to +overcome the natural phlegm of his constitution. Holding up his hands in +amazement-- + +"Mine Got, my freend! are you shipwrack agen?" he exclaimed. + +"No, no," quoth Johnny--"bad aneuch, but no just sae bad as that." And +he proceeded to inform his friend of the real state of the case. + +The good-natured Dutchman was shocked at the recital, and felt ten times +more than ever for Johnny's unhappy situation and complicated +misfortunes. When he had concluded his affecting story-- + +"I tell you what you do, mine goot freend," said Vander Dunder--"you go +vith me to Slootzsloykin, and you remain vith me dere till your ship +sail. You do dat, mine goot freend." + +"Wi' a' my heart," said Johnny, "and muckle obleeged to ye for yer +kindness." + +"No, no--no obleege at all," replied the kind-hearted Dutchman, +impatiently. "Yo do the same to me in your coontry if I was shipwrack +and in misfortune, and put to trooble for an innocent thief." + +"Aweel, maybe I wad; but, nevertheless, its kind o' you to offer me the +shelter o' yer roof," replied Johnny. + +Dunder Vander Dunder now took his friend into a tavern, and treated him +to a glass of schnaps. Shortly thereafter the two embarked in a canal +boat for Slootzsloykin, where they finally arrived in safety. Here +Johnny met with the same kind treatment as before; and of that kindness +there was no abatement during the whole fortnight of his sojourn. At the +end of this period, Johnny Armstrong once more set out for Rotterdam, on +the day previous to the sailing of the vessel in which he now hoped to +reach his native land, without further molestation or interruption. And, +certainly, everything had the appearance of going right on this +occasion. The vessel, with Johnny on board, sailed at the appointed +time, and, before embarking, he had read distinctly on the ticket--a +large black board, with yellow letters, which was fastened to the +shrouds--that she was bound for Leith, and was the identical vessel he +had had in his eye. So far as this went, there could be no mistake +whatever. There was, indeed, one little circumstance that startled +Johnny, but which he had not discovered till the vessel had been some +time at sea. This was, that all the crew were Dutchmen, there not being +a Scotchman amongst them. The circumstance did not, indeed, greatly +alarm Johnny, but he certainly did think it a little odd; for he +naturally expected that, as she was a Leith vessel, her crew would be, +for the most part, at any rate, natives of Britain. However, he made no +remarks on the subject, thinking it, as it really was, a matter of +perfect indifference whether they were Scotchmen or Dutchmen. There were +two or three passengers in the vessel besides himself; but they were all +foreigners too, so that he could hold no converse with any of them; and +thus debarred from intercourse with his fellow voyagers, he sat by +himself, gazing from the deck of the vessel on the waste of waters with +which he was surrounded, and musing on the strange series of mishaps of +which he had so simply and innocently become the victim. It was while +thus employed--the vessel having been now a good many hours at sea, and +at the moment scudding away before a fine fresh breeze--that the captain +approached Johnny, and in very polite and civil terms, demanded his +passage money. As he spoke in Dutch, however, the latter did not +understand him. The captain observing this, and now guessing what +countryman he was, addressed him in very good English, and in that +language repeated his demand. With this demand, Johnny instantly +complied; and, finding that he was a civil, good-natured fellow, began +to open up a little conversation with him. His first remark was, that he +hoped they would have good weather. The captain hoped so too. His second +remark was, that they had a fine breeze. The captain agreed with +him--said it was a delightful breeze--and added that, if it continued to +blow as it then blew for four-and-twenty hours, he expected they would +be all safe at _Rouen_! + +"At whar?" shouted out Johnny, looking aghast at the speaker. + +"At Rouen, to be sure," repeated the captain, wondering at Johnny's +amazement. + +"Gude's mercy!" exclaimed Johnny, with dreadful energy, "are ye no gaun +to Leith?--is this no a Leith boat?" + +"Oh, no," said the captain smiling; "this is the Rouen packet. Were ye +not aware of that, sir? You have got into a sad scrape, my friend, if +you were not," he added, and now laughing outright at the dismal +expression of Johnny's countenance. + +"Heaven hae a care o' me!" said Johnny despairingly. "Did I no read +distinctly on the ticket that was fastened to yer shroods, that ye were +bound for Leith?" + +"Yes, yes," replied the captain, "you may have seen such a ticket as you +speak of, and there was certainly such a ticket on our shrouds as you +say, but it did not refer to this ship, but to the vessel outside of us. +We allowed the board to be exhibited on our shrouds merely to +accommodate our neighbour, as it could not be read from his--he being on +the outside, and we next the quay. That, my friend, is a piece of +civility very commonly practised at seaports by one vessel to another, +when similarly situated as we and they were. You will see it at all +quays and wharfs." + +Johnny Armstrong groaned, but said nothing. At length, however, he +muttered, in a tone of Christian-like resignation-- + +"The Lord's will be dune! I see it's settled that I am never to get hame +again; but to be keepit gaun frae place to place ower the face o' the +earth, like anither wanderin' Jew. Gude hae a care o' me, but this is +awfu'! Its judgment like." + +It certainly was very remarkable, but not in the least mysterious. This +new mistake of Johnny, like all the rest, was a perfectly simple +occurrence; and, like them, too, arose as plainly and naturally out of +circumstances as it was possible for any effect to do from a cause. But, +however, this may be, the captain--although he could not help laughing +at the awkward predicament of his passenger--really felt for him, seeing +the distress he was in, and was so much influenced by this feeling as to +offer to convey him back to Rotterdam, to which, he said, he would +return in two days, free of any charge; adding, with a smile, and with +the kind intention of reconciling Johnny to what could not now be +helped, that it was nothing, after all--that it would make a difference +of only a few days--and that it would be always showing him a little +more of the world. + +"Mony thanks to ye," said Johnny, perceiving and appreciating the +friendly purpose of the captain; "and I'll e'en tak advantage o' yer +kind offer; but as to seein' the world, by my faith, I've seen now about +just as muckle o't as I want to see, and maybe a trifle mair--a hantle +mair, at ony rate, than I ever expected to see." Then, in a +soliloquizing tone and manner--"God keep me, whar's Brechin noo! A' that +I wanted, and a' that I intended, was to get to that bit paltry place; +and, instead o' that, here am I within a stane-cast o' the north pole, +for aught I ken to the contrar, and, to a' appearances, no half dune +wi't yet. Heaven kens whar I'll be sent niest!--maybe be landed on +Owhyhee, or on some desert island, like another Robinson Crusoe. Na, +it's certain, if things gang on muckle langer this way." + +Of the drift or scope of these remarks, or, at any rate, of the feelings +that dictated them, the captain could make nothing, not knowing Johnny's +precise circumstances; nor did he seek to have them explained, but +contented himself with repeating his offer of conveying Johnny back to +Rotterdam, and renewing his well-meant efforts to reconcile him to his +fate, in so far as his present voyage was concerned. In the meantime, +the wind continued to blow in a manner perfectly satisfactory in every +respect to all on board the _Jungfrau_ of Rotterdam and Rouen; and, in +about the space of time mentioned by the captain, the vessel reached her +destination in safety. Johnny Armstrong, whose whole mind was absorbed +by anxiety to reach that home which he yet seemed destined never again +to see, took no interest whatever in the scenes presented to him in the +part of the world he was now in. Indeed, he never left the vessel at +all, for fear she would slip through his fingers; for, if he was afraid +of accidents of this kind before, he was ten times more so now; and, +with this fear upon him, that the packet might, by some chance or other, +escape him, he determined to stick by her--never to lose sight of her +for a moment, till she had conveyed him back to Rotterdam; and his +vigilance ultimately secured the end he had in view. The _Jungfrau_ +sailed from Rouen with Johnny on board, and, in due time, deposited him +once more at Rotterdam. But what was Johnny's surprise, what Dunder +Vander Dunder's amazement, when they again encountered one another, and +that within ten minutes of the former's landing! The amazement of the +latter, however, was, on this occasion, evidently mingled with a degree +of suspicion of the perfect uprightness of Johnny's character. He began +now to think, in short, that there had been more in the circumstance of +Johnny's apprehension than he had been informed of. He did not like +these frequent reappearances; he thought them very odd--and he did not +hesitate to say so. + +"Mine Got! vat you here again for, man? Vat is de meaning of all dis, +mine goot freend?" he exclaimed, with a somewhat dry and doubtful +manner, quite at variance with the cordial tone of his former greetings. + +Johnny Armstrong explained to him, but seemingly without obtaining +implicit credence for all he said. When he had done-- + +"'Tis veree odd," said Vander Dunder, coldly; "veree straunge. But, you +really vant to go to Scotlan, dere is vessel going to sail for Leet now, +and I vill see you on board mineself." + +It was very questionable whether Vander's civility, in this case, +proceeded from a desire really to serve Johnny, or from a wish to get +fairly rid of him. However this might be, Johnny readily accepted his +offer, and at once accompanied him to the vessel he alluded to, which +was, indeed, on the point of sailing. Vander, taking care that there +should be no mistake in this case, conducted him down into the cabin, +and waited on the quay till he saw the vessel fairly under weigh. + +Having brought the disasters of Johnny Armstrong to this point, we +proceed now to finish what we assure our readers, is an "ower true +tale." + +As we were strolling down the pier of Leith, with a friend, one +afternoon in the year 18--, we saw a vessel making for the harbour. It +was high water, and the scene altogether was a very pleasing and a very +stirring one. But, amongst the various objects of interest that +presented themselves, there was none that attracted so much of our +attention as the stately vessel that, with outspread canvas, was rapidly +nearing the pier. We asked a seaman who stood beside us, where she was +from. He replied--"Rotterdam." + +On approaching the pier, the vessel shortened sail, and, by this +process, enabled us deliberately to scan her decks from our elevated +position, as she glided gently along with us. During this scrutiny, we +observed amongst the passengers a stout little man in a brown greatcoat, +with a large red comforter about his neck, and his hat secured on his +head--for it was blowing pretty hard--by a blue pocket-handkerchief, +which was passed beneath his chin, and gave him, in a very particular +manner, the peculiar air of a traveller or _vóyageur_. There was nothing +whatever in the appearance of the little man in the brown greatcoat +which would have led any one to suppose, _à priori_, that there possibly +could be anything remarkable or extraordinary in his history; but I was +induced suddenly to change my opinion, or at least to take some interest +in him, by my friend's exclaiming, in the utmost amazement, and, at the +same time, pointing to him with the red comforter-- + +"Gracious Heaven, if there is not Johnny Armstrong! Or it is his ghost!" + +"No ghost at all, we warrant you," said we; "ghosts do not generally +wear greatcoats and red comforters. But who in all the world is Johnny +Armstrong?" + +"Johnny Armstrong," replied our friend, greatly excited, "is a person, a +particular acquaintance of mine, who has been missing these six weeks; +and who was supposed, by everybody who knew him, to have perished by +some accident or other, but of what nature could never be ascertained, +on his way to Brechin, where he had gone to visit some relations." + +We felt interested in Johnny, by this brief sketch of his mysterious +story; and, not a little curious to know where on earth he could +possibly have been all the time, we readily closed with our friend's +proposal to run round to the berth for which we saw the vessel was +making, and to await his coming on shore. + +"But how, in all the world," said our friend, communing with himself +during this interval, "has he got into a vessel from Rotterdam? He could +not have been there, surely? It's impossible." + +As to this we could say nothing, not knowing at the time anything at all +of Johnny's adventures; but of these we were not now long kept in +ignorance. On his stepping on shore, our friend seized him joyously by +the hand, and expressed great satisfaction at seeing him again. This +satisfaction appeared to be mutual; for Johnny returned his friend's +grasp with great cordiality and warmth. The first salutations over-- + +"But where on all the earth, Mr. Armstrong," said our friend, "have you +been for these three months back?" + +Johnny smiled, and said it was "ower lang a tale" to tell where we then +were; but, as he meant to stop either in Leith or Edinburgh for the +night, it being now pretty far in the evening, if my friend and I would +adjourn with him to some respectable house, where he could get a night's +quarters, he would give us the whole story of his adventures. With this +proposal we readily closed; and on Johnny asking if we could point out +such a house as he alluded to, we at once named the New Ship Tavern. +Thither we accordingly repaired; and, in less than two hours thereafter, +we were put, good reader, in possession, by Johnny himself, of that part +of his story to which the preceding pages have been devoted. What +follows--for Johnny's misfortunes had not yet terminated--we learned +afterwards from another quarter. + +On the next day--we mean the day succeeding the evening we spent with +Johnny--the latter proceeded to Edinburgh, with the view of taking +coach there for Carlisle. But, in making his way up Catherine Street, +and when precisely opposite No. 12, Calton Street--we like to be +particular--Johnny found himself suddenly accosted by one of his oldest +and most intimate friends. This was a Mr. James Stevenson, a +fellow-townsman and fellow-shopkeeper of his own. + +The astonishment of the latter, on meeting with Johnny, and, indeed, of +finding him at all in the land of the living, was very great; and he +sufficiently expressed this feeling by the lively and highly excited +manner in which he addressed him. + +Having put the usual queries, with that air of intense interest which +they naturally excited, as to where Johnny had been, what he had been +about, &c. &c., and having obtained a brief sketch of his adventures, +with the promise of a fuller one afterwards, Mr. Stevenson, in reply, +asked Johnny what course he was now steering. + +"Hame, to be sure," said Johnny, with a smile. "It's time noo, I +think--I'm just sae far on my way to tak' oot a ticket for the coach." + +"Ye needna do that unless ye like," replied Johnny's friend. "Ye may +save your siller, and no be abune an hour langer tarried, by takin' a +seat wi' me in the gig I hae in wi' me. I'm sure ye're welcome, and I'll +be blythe o' your company." + +"Hae ye a gig in wi' ye?" said Johnny, looking pleased by the +intelligence. + +"'Deed hae I, Mr. Armstrong, and ye'll just clink down beside me in't." + +"I'll do that wi' great thankfu'ness," replied Johnny, "and muckle +obleeged by the offer." + +The friends now walked away, arm in arm together; and in about two hours +afterwards--Mr. Stevenson having, in the meantime, despatched what +business he had to do in the city--they were both, seated in the gig, +and birring it on merrily towards Carlisle. + +Neither Mr. Stevenson nor Johnny, however, were great whips--a +deficiency which was by no means compensated for by the circumstance of +their having a rather spirited horse, although blind of an eye. He was, +in truth, a very troublesome animal; boggling and shying at everything +that presented itself to his solitary optic. Notwithstanding this, the +travellers got on very well for a time, and were whirling over the +ground at a rapid rate, when an unlucky cart of hay came in their way at +a narrow turn of the road. How this simple occurrence should have +operated so unfavourably as it did for them, we shall explain. + +A cart of hay is not a very alarming object to rational creatures like +ourselves, but to the one-eyed horse of the travellers it appeared a +very serious affair; for it had no sooner presented itself to his +solitary organ of vision than he pricked up his ears, snorted furiously, +and began to exhibit sundry other symptoms of disquietude. By dint, +however, of some well-directed punishment from Jamie Stevenson's whip, +which Johnny increased by an energetic application of his stick, the +restive animal was brought _up_ to the waggon of hay; but, for some +time, the inducements just mentioned failed to prevail on him to _pass_ +it. + +At length, however, Johnny having added greatly to the vigour of his +blows with his stick, and his neighbour to that of his strokes with the +whip, the horse _did_ pass the waggon, and that with a vengeance. Taking +heart, or rather becoming desperate, he bolted past it with the rapidity +of a cannon shot; and not only this, but when he had cleared it, +continued the velocity of his movements with unabated energy, to the +great discomfort and no small terror of both Johnny and his companion, +who now found themselves going at a rate which they had neither +anticipated nor desired. Indeed, this was so very great that both +directly saw that something was wrong. Both saw, in short, what was, +indeed, too true, that the horse had fairly run away with them; for he +was now going like the wind, with fury and distraction in his looks. It +was a shocking and most dreadfully alarming affair; and so Johnny and +his friend felt it to be, as might be distinctly seen by their +horror-stricken faces. + +On discovering the predicament they were in, both the travellers--the +one dropping his whip, and the other his stick--seized on the reins, and +began pulling with all their might, in the desperate hope of checking +the animal's speed by main force; Johnny, in his terror, exclaiming the +while, distractedly-- + +"Mair o't yet, mair o't yet! Lord have a care o' me, but this is awfu'! +This is waur than onything I hae met wi' yet. Waur than the _Fifteen +Sisters_, Dutchmen, and a'. God be wi' us! are my misfortunes never to +hae an end, till they hae finished me outricht? Am I never to get safe +to either ae place or anither?--either to hame or to Brechin? Surely ane +o' them might be permitted to me. O, Jamie, see hoo he's gaun! He doesna +seem to fin' us at his hurdies, nae mair than if we war a pair o' +preencushions." + +This was true enough. The horse in his fury did not indeed seem to feel +either them or the vehicle they were seated in, but pushed madly +onwards, till he came to where the road divided itself into two distinct +roads--the one being the right one, and the other, of course, the +wrong--when, as if inspired by Johnny's evil genius, he at once took the +latter, and in little more than twenty minutes, had him and his friend +fully half as many miles out of their way. Now, however, the catastrophe +was to be wound up. A milestone caught one of the wheels of the gig, +canted it over, and threw Johnny sprawling on the road with a broken +leg; his friend, although also thrown, escaping wholly unhurt. + +"Aweel, here it's at last," said Johnny, sitting up in the mud amongst +which he had been planted, and fully believing that his injuries were +fatal. "Here it's at last. I'm clean dune for noo, after a' my escapes. +It may be noo plainly seen, I think," he went on, "that some evil spirit +has had me in its power, for these six weeks past at ony rate, and has +been gowfin' me about the world like a fitba', to kill me wi' a gig at +last." + +Luckily, Johnny's injuries did not prove so serious as he had feared +they would do; and no less fortunate was it that the accident to which +they were owing happened not far from a small country town in which +there was a resident surgeon. To the latter place Johnny was immediately +removed on a temporary bier, hastily constructed for the purpose by some +labouring men who chanced to be near the spot where the accident +happened, and there he lay for six entire weeks, when the surgeon above +alluded to, and who had attended him all that time, intimated to him +that he might now venture to return home. Delighted with the +intelligence, Johnny instantly acted on it, and next day entered +Carlisle triumphantly in a post-chaise--not looking, nor really being, +after all, much the worse for his unprecedented adventures, save and +except a lameness in the injured limb, which ever after imparted to his +movements the graceful up-and-down motion produced by that peculiar +longitudinal proportion of the nether limbs, designated by the +descriptive definition of "a short leg and a shorter." Having, with this +last occurrence, concluded the story of Johnny's disasters, we have only +to add that Johnny has never, to this good hour, got the length of +Brechin--nor will, he says, ever again make the attempt. + + + + +THE PROFESSOR'S TALES.[4] +THE MOUNTAIN STORM. + +[4] The author of these stories (to be continued), the well-known +Professor Thomas Gillespie, was one of the principal writers in +_Blackwood_ during the "storm and stress" period of that magazine. As an +author, his peculiarity consisted in vivid descriptions of scenery and +incidents coming within the range of a very eccentric experience, all +given with a versatility and _abandon_ which he could not restrain, and +which, being the reflex of a poetical enthusiasm, formed the charm of +his writings.--_Ed._ + + +Packman _loquitur_.--For several days the wind had been easterly, with +an intense frost. At last, however, the weather subsided into a calm and +dense fog, under which, at mid-day, it was difficult to find one's way +amidst those mountain tracks along which, in general, my route lay. The +grass and heath were absolutely loaded with hoar-frost. My cheeks became +encompassed by a powdered covering; my breath was intensely visible, and +floated and lingered about my face with an oppressive and almost +suffocating density. No sun, moon, or star had appeared for upwards of +forty-eight hours; when, according to my preconcerted plan, I reached +the farm town of Burnfoot. I was now in the centre of Queensberry Hills, +the most notable sheep-pasturage in the south of Scotland. It was about +three o'clock of the fifteenth day of January, when, under a cheerful +welcome from the guidwife, I rested my pack (for, be it known, I belong +to this class of peripatetic merchants) upon the meal ark, disengaged my +arms from the leather straps by which the pack was suspended from my +shoulders, and proceeded to light my pipe at the blazing peat-fire. +Refreshments, such as are best suited to the _packman's drouth_, were +soon and amply supplied, and I had the happiness of seeing my old +acquaintances (for I visited Burnfoot twice a year, on my going and +coming from Glasgow to Manchester) drop _in_ from their several +avocations, one after another, and all truly rejoiced to behold my face, +and still more delighted to inspect the treasure and the wonders of "the +pack." At last the guidman himself suspended his plaid from the mid-door +head, put off his shoes and leggings, assumed his slippers, along with +his prescriptive seat at the head or upper end of the lang-settle. The +guidwife, returning _butt_ from bedding the youngest of some half-score +of children, welcomed her husband with a look of the most genuine +affection. She put a little creepie stool under his feet, felt that his +clothes were not wet, scolded the dogs to a respectful distance, and +inspired the peats into a double blaze. The oldest daughter, now "woman +grown," sat combing the hoar-frost from her raven locks, and looking out +from beneath beautifully arched and bushy eyebrows upon the interesting +addition which had been made to the meal-ark. Some half-a-score of +healthy lads and lasses occupied the bench ayont the fire, o'er-canopied +by sheep-skins, aprons, stockings, and footless hose. The dogs, after +various and somewhat noisy differences had been adjusted, fell into +order and position around the hearth, enjoying the warmth, and licking, +peacefully and carefully, the wet from their sides. The cat, by this +time, had made a returning motion from the cupboard head, from which she +had been watching the arrangements and movements beneath. As this +appeared to "Help" to be an infringement of the terms of armistice and +of the frontier laws, he sprang with eagerness over the hearth. Pussy, +finding it dangerous, under this sudden and somewhat unexpected +movement, "_dare terga_," instantly drew up her whole body into an +attitude not only of defence, but defiance; curving herself into a +bristling crescent, with the head of a dragon attached to it, and, with +one horrid hiss and sputter, compelled Help first to hesitate and then +to retreat. + + "Three paces back the youth retired, + And saved himself from harm." + +The guidwife, however,--who seemed not unaccustomed to such +demonstrations, and who manifestly acted on the humane principle of +assisting the weaker by assailing the stronger combatant--gave Help such +demonstrations of her intentions, as at once reduced matters to the +_status quo ante bellum_. (I have as good a right to scholarship as my +brother packman, Plato, who carried oil to Egypt.) Thus peace and good +order being restored, the treasures of my burden became an immediate and +a universal subject of inquiry. I was compelled, nothing loath, to +unstrap my various packages, and disclose to view all the varied +treasures of the spindle and loom. Shawls were spread out into enormous +display, with central, and corner, and border ornaments, the most +amazing and the most fashionable; waistcoat pieces of every stripe and +figure, from the straight line to the circle, of every hue and colouring +which the rainbow exhibits, were unfolded in the presence and under the +scrutinizing thumb of many purchasers. The guidwife herself half coaxed +and half scolded a fine remnant of Flanders lace, of most tempting +aspect, out of the guidman's reluctant pocket. The very dogs seemed +anxious to be accommodated, and applied their noses to some unopened +bales, with a knowing look of inquiry. Things were proceeding in this +manner, when the door opened, and there entered a young man of the most +prepossessing appearance; in fact, what Burns terms a "strapping youth." +I could observe that, at his entrance, the daughter's eye (of whom I +have formerly made mention) immediately kindled into an expression of +the most universal kindness and benevolence. Hitherto she had taken but +a limited interest in what was going on; but now she became the most +prominent figure in the group--whilst the mother dusted a chair for the +welcome stranger with her apron, and the guidman welcomed him with a-- + +"Come awa, Willie Wilson, an' tak a seat. The nicht's gay dark an' +dreary. I wonder how ye cleared the Whitstane Cleugh and the Side Scaur, +man, on sic an eerie nicht." + +"Indeed," responded the stranger, casting a look, in the meantime, +towards the guidman's buxom, and, indeed, lovely daughter--"indeed, it's +an unco fearfu' nicht--sic a mist and sic a cauld I hae seldom if ever +encountered; but I dinna ken hoo it was--I coulda rest at hame till I +had tellt ye a' the news o' the last Langhom market." + +"Ay, ay," interrupted the guidwife; "the last Langhom market, man, is an +auld tale noo, I trow. Na, na, yer mither's son camna here on sic a +nicht, and at sic an hour, on sic an unmeaning errand"--finishing her +sentence, however, by a whisper into Willie's ear, which brought a +deeper red into his cheek, and seemed to operate in a similar manner on +the apparently deeply engaged daughter. + +"But, Watty," continued my fair purchaser, "you _must_ give me this +Bible a little cheaper--it's ower dear, man--heard ever onybody o' five +white shillings gien for a Bible, and it only a New Testament, after +a'?--it's baith a sin an' a shame, Watty." + +After some suitable reluctance, I was on the point of reducing the price +by a single sixpence, when Willie Wilson advanced towards the pack, and +at once taking up the book and the conversation-- + +"Ower dear, Jessie, my dear!--it's the word o' God, ye ken--his ain +precious word; and I'll e'en mak ye a present o' the book at Watty's ain +price. Ye ken he maun live, as we a' do, by his trade." + +The money was instantly paid down from a purse pretty will filled; for +William Wilson was the son of a wealthy and much respected sheep-farmer +in the neighbourhood, and had had his name _once_ called in the kirk, +along with that of "Janet Harkness of Burnfoot, both in this parish." + +"Hoot noo, bairns," rejoined the mother; "ye're baith wrang--that Bible +winna do ava. Ye maun hae a big ha' Bible to take the buik wi', and +worship the God o' yer fathers nicht and morning, as they hae dune afore +ye; and Watty will bring ye ane frae Glasgow the next time he comes +roun'; and it will, maybe, be usefu', ye ken, in _anither way_." + +"Tout, mither, wi' yer nonsense," interrupted the conscious bride; "I +never liked to see my name and age marked and pointed out to onybody on +oor muckle Bible; sae just haud yer tongue, mither, and tak a present +frae William and _me_," added she, blushing deeply, "o' that big printed +Testament. The minister, ye ken, seldom meddles wi' the auld Bible, +unless it be a bit o' the Psalms; and yer een noo are no sae gleg as +they were whan ye were married to my father there." + +The father, overcome by this well-timed and well-directed evidence of +goodness, piety, and filial affection, rose from his seat on the +long-settle, and, with tears in his eyes, pronounced a most fervent +benediction over the shoulders of his child. + +"O God in heaven, bless and preserve my dear Jessie!" said he--his +child's tears now falling fast and faster. "Oh, may the God of thy +fathers make thee happy--thee and thine--him there and his!--and when +thy mother's grey hairs and mine are laid and hid in the dust, mayest +thou have children, such as thy fond and dutiful self, to bless and +comfort, to rejoice and support thy heart!" + +There was not, by this time, a dry eye in the family; and, as a painful +silence was on the point of succeeding to this outbreaking of nature, +the venerable parent slowly and deliberately took down the big ha' Bible +from its bole in the wall, and, placing it on the lang-settle table, he +proceeded to family worship with the usual solemn prefatory +annunciation--"Let us worship God." + +Love, filial affection, and piety--what a noble, what a beautiful +triumvirate! By means of these, Scotland has rendered herself +comparatively great, independent, and happy. These are the graces which, +in beautiful union, have protected her liberties, sweetened her +enjoyments, and exalted her head amongst the nations, and which, over +all, have cast an expression and a feature irresistibly winning and +nationally characteristic. It is over such scenes as the kitchen +fireside of Burnfoot now presented, that the soul hovers with +ever-awakening and ever-intenser delight; that even amidst the coldness, +and unconcern, and irreligion of an iron age, the mind, at least at +intervals, is redeemed into ecstasy, and feels, in spite of habit, and +example, and deadened apprehensions, that there is a beauty in pure and +virgin love, a depth in genuine and spontaneous filial regard, and an +impulse in communion with Him that is most high, which, even when taken +separately, are hallowing, sacred, and elevating; but which, when +blended and softened down into one great and leading feature, prove +incontestably that man is, in his origin and unalloyed nature, but a +little lower than the angels. + +Such was the aspect of matters in this sequestered and sanctified +dwelling, when the house seemed, all at once, to be smitten, like Job's, +at the four corners. The soot fell in showers into the grate; the +rafters creaked; the dust descended; every door in the house rattled on +its sneck and hinges; and the very dogs sprung at once from their +slumbers and barked. There was something so awful in the suddenness and +violence of the commotion, that the prayer was abruptly and suddenly +brought to a conclusion. + +"Ay, fearfu', sirs!" were John Harkness' first words when springing to +his feet; "but there's an awfu' nicht. Open the outer door, Jamie, and +let us see what it is like." The outer door was opened; but the drift +burst in with such a suffocating swirl, that a strong lad who +encountered it, reeled and gasped for breath. + +"The hogs!" exclaimed the guidman, "and the gimmers!--where did ye leave +them, Jamie?" + +"In Capleslacks," was the answer, "by east the Dod. The wind has set in +frae the nor'-east, and fifty score o' sheep, if this continue, will +never see the mornin'." + +But what was to be done? + + "The wind blew as 'twould blawn its last," + +and the whole atmosphere was one almost solid wreath of penetrating +snow; when you thrust forth your hand into the open air, it was as if +you had perforated an iceberg. Burnfoot stands at the convergence of two +mountain glens, adown one of which the tempest came as from a +funnel--collected, compressed, irresistible. There was a momentary look +of suspense--every one eying the rest with an expression of indecision +and utter helplessness. The young couple, by some law of affinity, stood +together in a corner. The shepherd lads, with Jamie Hogg at their head, +were employed in adjusting plaids to their persons. The guidman had +already resumed his leggings, and the dogs were all exceedingly +excited--amazed at this unexpected movement, but perfectly resolved to +do their duty. + +"Jamie," said the guidman, "you and I will try to mak oor way by the +Head Scaur to Capleyetts, where the main hirsel was left; and Will, Tam, +and Geordie will see after the hogs and gimmers ayont the Dod." + +"I, too," exclaimed a voice from the corner, over which, however, a fair +hand was pressed, and which was therefore but indistinctly heard--"I +will--(canna ye let me speak, Jessie!)--I will not, I shall not be left +behind--I will accompany the guidman, and do what I can to seek and to +save." + +"Indeed and indeed, my dear William, ye can do nae guid--ye dinna ken +the grun' like my faither; and there's mony a kittle step forbye the +Head Scaur; and, the Lord be wi' us! on sic a nicht too." So saying, she +clasped her betrothed firmly around the neck, and absolutely compelled +him to relinquish his purpose. Having gained this one object, the fair +and affectionate bride rushed across the room to her father, and falling +down on her knees, grasped him by the legs, and exclaimed-- + +"O mither, mither! come and help me--come and help me! faither, my dear +faither, let Jamie Hogg gang, and the rest; they are young, ye ken, and +as weel acquant as yersel' wi' the ly o' the glens! but this is no a +nicht for the faither o' a family to risk his life to save his +substance. O faither, faither! I am soon, ye ken, to leave you and bonny +Burnfoot--grant me, oh, grant me this one, this last request!" + +The mother sat all this while wringing her hands and exclaiming-- + +"Ay, ay, Jenny, get him to stay, get him to stay!" + +The father answered not a word, but, making a sign to Hogg, and +whistling on Help, and at the same time kissing his _now_ all but +fainting child, he rushed out of the door (as Mrs. Harkness said) "like +a fey man," and he and his companion, with a suitable accompaniment of +dogs, were almost instantly invisible. The three other lads, suitably +armed and accompanied, followed the example set to them, and the +guidwife, the two lovers, five or six younger branches, and the female +servants of the family, with myself, remained at home in a state of +anxiety and suspense which can be better conceived than expressed. + + "The varnished clock that clicked behind the door," + +with a force and a stroke loud and painful in the extreme, struck first +ten, then eleven, then twelve; but there was no return. Again and again +were voices heard commingling with the tempest's rush; again and again +did the outer door seem to move backwards on its hinges; but nothing +entered save the shrill pipe of the blast, accompanied by the comminuted +drift, which penetrated through every seam and cranny. This state of +uncertainty was awful; even the ascertained reality of death, partial or +universal, had perhaps less of soul-benumbing cold in it than this +inconceivable suspense. It required Willie Wilson's utmost efforts and +mine to keep the frantic woman from madly rushing into the drift; and +the voice of lamentation was sad and loud amongst the children and the +servant lasses--each of the latter class lamented, indeed, the fate of +all, but there was always an under prayer offered up for the safety of +Geordie, or Will, or Jamie, in particular. At last the three lads who +had encompassed the Dod arrived--alive, indeed, but almost breathless +and frozen to death. They had, however, surmounted incredible +difficulties, and had succeeded in placing their hirsel in a position of +comparative security; but where were Jamie Hogg and the guidman? The +violence of the storm had nothing abated, the snow was every moment +accumulating, and the danger and difficulty increasing tenfold. Spirits, +heat, and friction gradually restored the three lads to their senses, +and to the kind attentions of their several favourites of the female +order; but _there_ sat the mother and the daughter, whilst the father +was either, in all probability, dead or dying. The very thought was +distracting; and, accordingly, the young bride, now turning to her lover +with a look of inexpressible anguish, exclaimed-- + +"O Willie! my ain dear Willie, ye maun gang, after a', ye maun gang this +instant," (Willie was on his feet and plaided whilst yet the sentence +was unfinished,) "and try to rescue my dear, dear faither from this +awfu' and untimely end; but tak care, oh tak care o' the big Scaur, and +keep far west by Caplecleuch, and maybe ye'll meet them coming back that +way." These last words were lost in the drift, whilst Willie Wilson, +with his faithful follower, Rover, were penetrating, and flouncing, and +floundering their way towards the place pointed out. + +In about half an hour after this, the howl and scratch of a dog were +heard at the door-back, and Help immediately rushed in, the welcome +forerunner of his master and Hogg. They had, indeed, had a fearful +struggle, and fearful wanderings; but, in endeavouring to avoid the +dangerous, because precipitous, Head Scaur, they had wandered from the +track, and from the object of their travel; and, after having been +inclined once or twice to lie down and take a rest (the deceitful +messenger of death), they had at last got upon the track of Caple Water; +and, by keeping to its windings--which they had often traced at the risk +of being drowned--they had at last weathered the old cham'er, the byre, +and peat-stack, and were now, thank God! within "bigget wa's." + +But where, alas! was Willie Wilson? Him, in consequence of their +deviations, they had missed; and over him, thus exposed, the tempest was +still renewing at intervals its hurricane gusts. There was one scream +heard, such as would have penetrated the heart of a tiger, and all was +still. There she lay, the beauteous, but now marble bride; her head +reposing on her mother's lap, her lips pale as the snowdrop, her eyes +fixed and soulless, her cheek without a tint, and her mouth half-open +and breathless. Long, long was the withdrawment--again and again was the +dram-glass applied to the mouth, to catch the first expiration of +returning breath--ere the frame began to quiver, the hands to move, the +lips and cheeks to colour, and the eyes to indicate the approaching +return to reason and perception. + +"I have killed him! I have killed him!" were the first frantic accents. +"I have murdered, murdered my dear Willie! It was me that sent +him--forced him--compelled him out--out into the drift--the cold, cold +drift. Away!" added the maniac--"away! I'll go after him--I'll perish +with him--where he lies, there will I lie, and there will I be buried. +What! is there none of ye that will make an effort to save a +perishing--a choking--oh, my God! a suffocating man?" + +Hereupon she again sank backwards, and was prevented from falling by the +arms of a father. + +"O my child!" said parental love and affection--"O my dear wean!--oh, be +patient!--God is guid--He has preserved _us_ all--He will not desert +_him_ in the hour of his need--He neither slumbers nor sleeps--His hand +is not shortened that He cannot save--and what He can, He will--He never +deserted any that trusted in Him. O my child! my bairn!--my +first-born!--be patient--be patient. There--there--there is a scratch at +the door-back--it is Rover." + +And to be sure Rover it was--but Rover in despair. His faithful +companion and friend only entered the house to solicit immediate aid--he +ran round and round, looking up into the face of every one with an +expression of the most imploring anxiety. The poor frantic girl sprung +from her father's embrace, and clung to the neck of the well-known +cur--she absolutely kissed him--(oh, to what will not love, omnipotent, +virtuous love, descend!)--then rising, in renewed recollection, she sat +herself down on the long-settle beside her father, and burst into loud +and passionate grief. + +It was now manifest to all that something must be attempted, else the +young farmer must perish. Hogg, though awfully exhausted, was the first +to volunteer a new excursion. The whole band were at once on their +feet; but Jessie now clung to her father, as she had formerly done to +her lover, and would not let him go--indeed, the guidman was in no +danger of putting his purpose into effect, for he could scarcely stand +on his feet. He sat, or rather fell down, consequently, beside his +daughter, and continued in constant prayer and supplication at the +throne of grace. The daughter listened, and said she was comforted--the +voyagers were again on their way--the tempest had somewhat abated--the +moon had once or twice shone out--and there was now a greater chance of +success in their undertaking. + +How we all contrived to exist during an interval of about two hours, I +cannot say; but this I know, that the endurance of this second trial was +worse than the first, to all but the sweet bride herself. Her mind had +now taken a more calm and religious view of the case. She repeated, at +intervals and pauses in her father's ejaculatory prayer-- + +"Yes--oh, yes--_His_ will--His holy will be done! The Lord giveth and +the Lord taketh away--blessed be the name of the Lord for ever! We shall +meet again--oh, yes--where the weary are at rest. + + 'A few short years of evil past, + We reach the happy shore + Where death-divided friends at last + Shall meet, to part no more.' + +O father, is not that a gracious saying, and worthy of all acceptation!" + +At length the door opened, and in walked William Wilson. + +The reader need scarcely to be told that the sagacious dog had left his +master floundered, and unable to extricate himself in a snow wreath; +that the same faithful guide had taken the searchers to the spot, where +they found Wilson just in the act of falling into a sleep--from which, +indeed, but for the providential sagacity of his dog, he had never +wakened; and that, by means of some spirits which they had taken in a +bottle, they completely restored and conducted him home. + + "Lives there one with soul so dead" + +as not now to image the happy meeting betwixt bride and bridegroom, and, +above all, the influence which this trial had upon the happiness and +religious character of their future married and prosperous lot? + +It is, indeed, long since I have laid aside the pack--to which, after a +good education, I had taken, from a wandering propensity--and taken up +my residence in the flourishing village of Thornhill, Dumfriesshire; +living, at first, on the profits of my shop, and now retired on my +little, but, to me, ample competency; but I still have great pleasure in +paying a yearly visit to my friends of Mitchelslacks, and in recalling +with them, over a comfortable meal, the interesting incidents of the +snow storm 1794. + + + + +THE FAIR MAID OF CELLARDYKES. + + +I did not like the idea of having all the specimens of the fine arts in +Europe collected into one "bonne bouche" at the Louvre. It was like +collecting, while a boy, a handful of strawberries, and devouring them +at one indiscriminating gulp. I do not like floral exhibitions, for the +same reason. I had rather a thousand times meet my old and my new +friends in my solitary walks, or in my country rambles. All museums in +this way confound and bewilder me; and had the Turk not been master of +Greece, I should have preferred a view of the Elgin marbles in the land +of their nativity. And it is for a similar reason that my mind still +reverts, with a kind of dreamy delight, to the time when I viewed +mankind in detail, and in all their individual and natural +peculiarities, rather than _en masse_, and in one regimental uniform. +Educate up! Educate up! Invent machinery--discover agencies--saddle +nature with the panniers of labour--and, at last, stand alongside of +her, clothed, from the peasant to the prince, in the wonders of her +manufacture, and merrily whistling, in idle unconcern, to the tune of +her unerring despatch! But what have we gained? One mass of +similarities: the housemaid, the housekeeper, the lady, and the +princess, speaking the same language, clothed in the same habiliments, +and enjoying the same immunities from corporeal labour--the colours of +the rainbow whirled and blended into one glare of white! Towards this +_ultimatum_ we are now fast hastening. Where is the shepherd +stocking-weaver, with his wires and his fingers moving invisibly? Where +the "wee and the muckle wheel," with the aged dames, in pletted toys, +singing "Tarry woo?" Where the hodden-grey clad patriarch, sitting in +the midst of his family, and mixing familiarly, and in perfect equality +with all the household--servant and child? My heart constantly warms to +these recollections; and I feel as if wandering over a landscape +variegated by pleasant and contrasting colouring, and overshadowed with +associations which have long been a part of myself. One exception to the +general progression and assimilation still happily remains to gratify, I +must confess, my liking for things as they were. The fisher population +of Newhaven, Buckhaven, and Cellardykes--(my observation extends no +farther, and I limit my remarks accordingly)--are, in fact, the Scottish +highlanders, the Irish, the Welsh, and the Manks of Fisherdom. Differing +each somewhat from the other, they are united by one common bond of +character--they are varieties of the same animal--the different species +under one genus. I like this. I am always in high spirits when I pass +through a fishing village or a fisher street. No accumulation of filth +in every hue--of shell, and gill, and fish-tail--can disgust me. I even +smell a sweet savour from their empty baskets, as they exhale themselves +dry in the sunbeam. And then there is a hue of robust health over all. +No mincing of matters. Female arms and legs of the true Tuscan +order--cheeks and chins where neither the rose nor the bone has been +stinted. Children of the dub and the mire--all agog in demi-nudity, and +following nature most vociferously. Snug, comfortable cabins, where +garish day makes no unhandsome inquiries, and where rousing fires and +plentiful meals abide from June to January. They have a language, too, +of their own--the true Mucklebacket dialect; and freely and firmly do +they throw from them censure, praise, or ribaldry. The men are here but +men; mere human machines--useful, but not ornamental--necessary +incumbrances rather than valuable protectors. "Poor creature!" says Meg +of the Mucklebacket, "she canna maintain a man." Sir Walter saw through +the character I am labouring to describe; and, in one sentence, put life +and identity into it. I know he was exceedingly fond of conversing with +fisherwomen in particular. But, whilst such are the general features, +each locality I have mentioned has its distinctive lineaments. The +Newhaven fisherwoman (for the man is unknown) is a bundle of snug +comfort. Her body, her dress, her countenance, her basket, her voice, +all partake of the same character of _enbonpointness_. Yet there is +nothing at all untidy about her. She may ensconce her large limbs in +more plaiden coverings than the gravedigger in "Hamlet" had waistcoats, +but still she moves without constraint; and under a burden which would +press my lady's waiting-maid to the carpet, she moves free, firm, +elastic. Her tongue is not labour-logged, her feet are not +creel-retarded; but, altogether unconscious of the presence of hundreds, +she holds on her way and her discourse as if she were a caravan in the +desert. She is to be found in every street and alley of Auld Reekie, +till her work is accomplished. Her voice of call is exceedingly musical, +and sounds sweetly in the ears of the infirm and bedrid. All night long +she holds her stand close by the theatre, with her broad knife and her +opened oyster. In vain does the young spark endeavour to engage her in +licentious talk. He soon discovers that, wherever her feelings or +affections tend, they do not point in his favour. Thus, loaded with +pence, and primed with gin, she returns by midnight to her home--there +to share a supper-pint with her man and her neighbours, and to prepare, +by deep repose, for the duties of a new day. Far happier and far more +useful she, in her day and generation, than that thing of fashion which +men call a beau or a belle--in whose labours no one rejoices, and in +whose bosom no sentiment but self finds a place. In Buckhaven, again, +the Salique law prevails. There men are men, and women mere appendages. +The sea department is here all in all. The women, indeed, crawl a little +way, and through a few deserted fields, into the surrounding country; +but the man drives the cart, and the cart carries the fish; and the fish +are found in all the larger inland towns eastward. Cellardykes is a +mixture of the two--a kind of William and Mary government, where, side +by side, at the same cart, and not unfrequently in the same boat, are to +be found man and woman, lad and lass. Oh, it is a pretty sight to see +the Cellardyke fishers leaving the coast for the herring-fishing in the +north! I witnessed it some years ago, as I passed to Edinburgh; and this +year I witnessed it again. + +Meeting and conversing with my old friend the minister of the parish of +Kilrenny, we laid us down on the sunny slope of the brae facing the east +and the Isle of May, whilst he gave me the following narrative:-- + +Thomas Laing and Sarah Black were born and brought up under the same +roof--namely, that double-storied tenement which stands somewhat by +itself, overlooking the harbour. They entered by the same outer door, +but occupied each a separate story. Thomas Laing was always a stout, +hardy, fearless boy, better acquainted with every boat on the station +than with his single questions, and far fonder of little Sarah's company +than of the schoolmaster's. Sarah was likewise a healthy, stirring +child, extremely sensitive and easily offended, but capable, at the same +time, of the deepest feelings of gratitude and attachment. Thomas Laing +was, in fact, her champion, her Don Quixote, from the time when he could +square his arms and manage his fists; and much mischief and obloquy did +he suffer among his companions on account of his chivalrous defence of +little Sally. One day whilst the fisher boys and girls were playing on +the pier, whilst the tide was at the full, a mischievous boy, wishing to +annoy Thomas, pushed little Sall into the harbour, where, but for +Thomas's timely and skilful aid (for he was an excellent swimmer,) she +would probably have been drowned. Having placed his favourite in a +condition and place of safety, Tom felled the offender, with a terrible +fister, to the earth. The blow had taken place on the pit of the +stomach, and was mortal. Tom was taken up, imprisoned, and tried for +manslaughter; but, on account of his youth--being then only thirteen--he +was merely imprisoned for a certain number of months. Poor Sally, on +whose account Tom had incurred the punishment of the law, visited him, +as did many good-natured fishermen, whilst in prison, where he always +expressed extreme contrition for his rashness. After the expiry of his +imprisonment, Tom returned to Cellardykes, only to take farewell of his +parents, and his now more than ever dear Sally. He could not bear, he +said, to face the parents of the boy whose death he had occasioned. The +parting was momentary. He promised to spend one night at home; but he +had no such intention--and, for several years, nobody knew what had +become of Thomas Laing. The subject was at first a speculation, then a +wonder, next an occasional recollection; and, in a few months, the place +which once knew bold Tom Laing, knew him no more. Even his parents, +engaged as they were in the active pursuits of fishing, and surrounded +as they were by a large and dependent family, soon learned to forget +him. One bosom alone retained the image of Tom, more faithfully and +indelibly than ever did coin the impression of royalty. Meanwhile, Sarah +grew--for she was a year older than Tom--into womanhood, and fairly took +her share in all the more laborious parts of a fisher's life. She could +row a boat, carry a creel, or drive a cart with the best of them; and, +whilst her frame was thus hardened, her limbs acquired a consistency and +proportion which bespoke the buxom woman rather than the bonny lass. Her +eye, however, was large and brown, and her lips had that variety of +expression which lips only can exhibit. Many a jolly fisher wished and +attempted to press these lips to his; but was always repulsed. She +neither spoke of her Thomas, nor did she grieve for him much in secret; +but her heart revolted from a union with any other person whilst Thomas +might still be alive. Upon a person differently situated, the passion +(for passion assuredly it was) which she entertained for her absent +lover, might and would have produced very different effects. Had Sarah +been a young boarding-school miss, she would assuredly either have +eloped with another, or have died in a madhouse; had she been a +sentimental sprig of gentility, consumption must have followed: but +Sarah was neither of these. She had a heart to feel, and deeply too; but +she knew that labour was her destiny, and that when "want came in at the +door, love escapes by the window." So she just laboured, laughed, ate, +drank, and slept, very much like other people. Yet few sailors came to +the place whom she did not question about Thomas; and many a time and +oft did she retire to the rocks of a Sabbath eve, to think of and pray +for Thomas Laing. People imagine, from the free and open mariner, and +talk of the fisherwomen, that they are all or generally people of +doubtful morality. Never was there a greater mistake. To the public in +general they are inaccessible; they almost universally intermarry with +one another; and there are fewer cases (said my reverend informant) of +public or sessional reproof in Cellardykes, than in any other district +of my parish. But, from the precarious and somewhat solitary nature of +their employment, they are exceedingly superstitious; and I had access +to know, that many a sly sixpence passed from Sally's pocket into old +Effie the wise woman's, with the view of having the cards cut and cups +read for poor Thomas. + +Time, however, passed on--with time came, but did not pass misfortune. +Sally's father, who had long been addicted, at intervals, to hard +drinking, was found one morning dead at the bottom of a cliff, over +which, in returning home inebriated, he had tumbled. There were now +three sisters, all below twelve, to provide for, and Sally's mother had +long been almost bedrid with severe and chronic rheumatism; +consequently, the burden of supporting this helpless family devolved +upon Sarah, who was now in the bloom and in the strength of her +womanhood. Instead of sitting down, however, to lament what could not be +helped, Sarah immediately redoubled her diligence. She even learned to +row a boat as well as a man, and contrived, by the help of the men her +father used to employ, to keep his boat still going. Things prospered +with her for a while; but, in a sudden storm, wherein five boats +perished with all on board, she lost her whole resources. They are a +high-minded people those Cellardyke fishers. The Blacks scorned to come +upon the session. The young girls salted herrings, and cried haddocks in +small baskets through the village and the adjoining burghs, and Sarah +contrived still to keep up a cart for country service. Meanwhile, Sarah +became the object of attention through the whole neighbourhood. Though +somewhat larger in feature and limb than the Venus de Medicis, she was, +notwithstanding, tight, clean, and sunny--her skin white as snow, and +her frame a well-proportioned Doric--just such a help-mate as a husband +who has to rough it through life might be disposed to select. Captain +William M'Guffock, or, as he was commonly called, Big Bill, was the +commander of a coasting craft, and a man of considerable substance. +True, he was considerably older than Sally, and a widower, but he had no +family, and a "bien house to bide in." You see that manse-looking +tenement there, on the broad head towards the east--that was Captain +M'Guffock's residence when his seafaring avocations did not demand his +presence elsewhere. Well, Bill came acourting to Sally; but Sally +"looked asclent and unco skeich." Someway or other, whenever she thought +of matrimony--which she did occasionally--she at the same time thought +of Thomas Laing, and, as she expressed it, her heart _scunnered_ at the +thought. Consequently, Bill made little progress in his courtship; which +was likewise liable to be interrupted, for weeks at a time, by his +professional voyages. At last a letter arrived from on board a king's +vessel, then lying in Leith Roads, apprising Thomas Laing's relatives +that he had died of fever on the West India station. This news affected +Sally more than anything which had hitherto happened to her. She shut +herself up for two hours in her mother's bedroom, weeping aloud and +bitterly, exclaiming, from time to time--"Oh! my Thomas!--my own dearest +Thomas! I shall never love man again. I am thine in life and in +death--in time and in eternity!" In vain did the poor bedrid woman try +to comfort her daughter. Nature had her way; and, in less than three +hours, Sarah Black was again in the streets, following, with a confused +but a cheerful look, her ordinary occupation. This grief of Sarah's, had +it been well nursed, might well have lasted a twelvemonth; but, luckily +for Sarah, and for the labouring classes in general, she had not time to +nurse her grief to keep it warm. "Give us this day our daily bread," +said a poor helpless mother and three somewhat dependent sisters--and +Sarah's exertions were redoubled. + +"Oh, what a feelingless woman!" said Mrs. Paterson to me, as Sarah +passed her door one day in my presence, absolutely singing--"Oh, what a +feelingless woman!--and her father dead, and her mother bedrid, and poor +Thomas Laing, whom she made such a fuss about, gone too--and there is +she, absolutely singing after all!" + +Mrs. Paterson is now Mrs. Robson, having married her second husband just +six weeks after the death of the first, whom her improper conduct and +unhappy temper contributed first to render miserable here, and at last +to convey to the churchyard! Verily (added the worthy clergyman), the +heart is deceitful above all things. But what, after all, could poor +Sarah do, but marry Will M'Guffock, and thus amply provide, not only for +herself, but for her mother and sister? Had Thomas (and her heart heaved +at the thought) still been alive, she thought, she never would have +brought herself to think of it in earnest; but now that Thomas had long +ceased to think of her or of anything earthly, why should she not make a +man happy who seemed distractedly in love with her, and at the same time +honourably provide for her poor and dependent relatives? In the +meantime, the sacramental occasion came round, and I had a private +meeting previous to the first communion with Sarah Black. To me, in +secret, she laid open her whole heart as if in the presence of her God; +and I found her, though not a well-informed Christian by any means on +doctrinal points, yet well disposed and exceedingly humble; in short, I +had great pleasure in putting a token into her hand, at which she +continued to look for an instant, and then returned it to me. I +expressed surprise, at least by my looks. "I fear," said she, "that I am +_unworthy_; for I have not told you that I am thinking of marrying a man +whom I cannot love, merely to provide for our family. Is not this a +sin?--and can I, with an intention of doing what I know to be wrong, +safely communicate?" I assured her that, instead of thinking it a sin, I +thought her resolution commendable, particularly as the object of her +real affection was beyond its reach; and I mention the circumstance to +show that there is often much honour, and even delicacy of feeling, +natural as well as religious, under very uncongenial circumstances and +appearances. Having satisfied her mind on this subject, I had the +pleasure to see her at the communion table, conducting herself with much +seeming seriousness of spirit. I could see her shed tears, and formed +the very best opinion of her from her conduct throughout. + +In a few days or weeks after this, the proclamation lines were put into +my hands, and I had the pleasure of uniting her to Captain M'Guffock in +due course. They had, however, only been married a few weeks, when an +occurrence of a very awkward character threw her and her husband, who +was, in fact, an ill-tempered, passionate man, into much perplexity. The +captain was absent on a coasting voyage, as usual; and his wife was +superintending the washing of some clothes, whilst the sun was setting. +It was a lovely evening in the month of July, and the fishing boats were +spread out all over the mouth of the Firth, from the East Neuk to the +Isle of May, in the same manner in which you see them at present. Mrs. +M'Guffock's mind assumed, notwithstanding the glorious scenery around +her, a serious cast, for she could not help recalling many such evenings +in which she had rejoiced in company and in unison with her beloved +Thomas. She felt and knew that it was wrong to indulge such emotions; +but she could not help it. At last, altogether overcome, she threw +herself forward on the green turf, and prayed audibly--"O my God, give +me strength and grace to forget my own truly beloved Thomas! Alas! he +knows not the struggles which I have to exclude him from my sinful +meditations. Even suppose he were again to arise from the dead, and +appear in all the reality of his youthful being, I must, and would fly +from him as from my most dangerous foe." She lifted up her eyes in the +twilight, and in the next instant felt herself in the arms of a powerful +person, who pressed her in silence to his breast. Amazed and bewildered, +she neither screamed nor fainted, but, putting his eager kisses aside, +calmly inquired who he was who dared thus to insult her. She had no +sooner pronounced the inquiry, than she heard the words, "Thomas--your +own Thomas!" pronounced in tones which could not be mistaken. This, +indeed, overpowered her; and, with a scream of agony, she sank down dead +on the earth. This brought immediate assistance; but she was found lying +by herself, and talking wildly about her Thomas Laing. Everybody who +heard her concluded that she had either actually seen her lover's ghost, +or that her mind had given way under the pressure of regret for her +marriage, and that she was now actually a lunatic. For twelve hours she +continued to evince the most manifest marks of insanity; but sleep at +last soothed and restored her, and she immediately sent for me. I +endeavoured to persuade her that it must be all a delusion, and that the +imagination oftentimes created such fancies. I gave instances from books +which I had read, as well as from a particular friend of my own who had +long been subject to such delusive impressions, and at last she became +actually persuaded that there had been no reality in what she had so +vividly perceived, and still most distinctly and fearfully recollected. +I took occasion then to urge upon her the exceeding sinfulness of +allowing any image to come betwixt her and her lawful married husband; +and left her restored, if not to her usual serenity, at least to a +conviction that she had only been disturbed by a vision. + +When her husband returned, I took him aside, and explained my views of +the case, and stated my most decided apprehension that some similar +impression might return upon her nerves, and that her sisters (her +mother being now removed by death) should dwell in the same house with +her. To this, however, the captain objected, on the score that, though +he was willing to pay a person to take care of them in their own house, +he did not deem them proper company, in short, for a _captain's wife_. I +disliked the reasoning, and told him so; but he became passionate, and I +saw it was useless to contend further. From that day, however, Bill +M'Guffock seemed to have become an altered man. Jealousy, or something +nearly resembling it, took possession of his heart; and he even ventured +to affirm that his wife had a paramour somewhere concealed, with whom, +in his long and necessary absences, she associated. He alleged, too, +that in her sleep she would repeat the name of her favourite, and in +terms of present love and fondness. I now saw that I had not known the +depth of "a first love," otherwise I should not have advised this +unhappy marriage, all advantageous as it was in a worldly point of view. +A sailor's life, however, is one of manifest risk, and in less than a +twelvemonth Sarah M'Guffock was a young widow, without incumbrance, and +with her rights to her just share of the captain's effects. Her sorrow +for the death of her husband was, I believe, sincere; but I observed +that she took an early opportunity of joining her sisters in her old +habitation, immediately beneath that still tenanted by the friends of +Laing. + +Matters were in this situation, when I was surprised one evening, whilst +sitting meditating in the manse of Kilrenny, about dusk, with a visit +from a tall and well-dressed stranger. He asked me at once if I could +give him a private interview for a few minutes, as he had something of +importance to communicate. Having taken him into my study, and shut the +door, I reached him a chair, and desired him to proceed. + +"I had left the parish," said the stranger, "before you were minister of +Kilrenny, in the time of worthy Mr. Brown, and therefore you will +probably not know even my name. I am Thomas Laing!" + +"I did not indeed," said I, "know you, but I have heard much about you; +and I know one who has taken but too deep an interest in your fate. But +how comes it," added I, beginning to think that I was conversing either +with a vision or an impostor--"how comes it that you are here, seemingly +alive and well, whilst we have all been assured of your death some years +ago?" + +The stranger started, and immediately exclaimed--"Dead!--dead!--who said +I was dead?" + +"Why," said I, "there was a letter came, I think, to your own father, +mentioning your death by fever in the West Indies." + +"Do I look like a dead man?" said the stranger; but, immediately +becoming absent and embarrassed, he sat for a while silent, and then +resumed:--"Some one," said he, "has imposed upon my dear Sarah, and for +the basest of purposes. I now see it all. My dear girl has been sadly +used." + +"This is, indeed, strange," said I; "but let me hear how it is that I +have the honour of a visit from you at this time and in this place?" + +"Oh," replied Thomas Laing (for it was he in verity), "I will soon give +you the whole story:-- + +"When I left this, fourteen years ago come the time, I embarked at +Greenock, working my way out to New York. As I was an excellent hand at +a rope and an oar, I early attracted the captain's notice, who made some +inquiries respecting my place of birth and my views in life. I told him +that I was literally "at sea," having nothing particularly in view--that +I had been bred a fisher, and understood sailing and rowing as well as +any one on board. The captain seemed to have something in his head, for +he nodded to me, saying, 'Very well, we will see what can be done for +you when we arrive at New York.' When we were off Newfoundland, we were +overtaken by a terrible storm, which drove us completely out of our +latitude, till, at last, we struck on a sandbank--the sea making for +several hours a complete breach over the deck. Many were swept away into +the devouring flood; whilst some of us--amongst several others the +captain and myself--clung to what remained of the ship's masts till the +storm somewhat abated. We then got the boat launched, and made for land, +which we could see looming at some distance ahead. We got, however, +entangled amongst currents and breakers; and, within sight of a boat +which was making towards us from the shore, we fairly upset--and I +remember nothing more till I awoke, in dreadful torment, in some +fishermen's boat. Beside me lay the captain, the rest had perished. When +we arrived at the land, we were placed in one of the fishermen's huts, +where we were most kindly treated--assisting, as we did occasionally, in +the daily labours of the cod fishery. I displayed so much alertness and +skill in this employment, that the factor on the station made me an +advantageous offer, if I would remain with them and assist in their +labours. With this offer, having no other object distinctly in view, I +complied. But my kind and good-hearted captain, possessing less +dexterity in this employment, was early shipped at his own request for +England. The most of the hands, about two hundred in all, on the station +where I remained, were Scotch and Irish, and a merry, jovial set we +were. The men had wives and families; and the governor or factor lived +in a large slated house, very like your manse, upon a gentle eminence, a +little inland. Towards the coast the land is sandy and flat; but in the +interior there is much wood, a very rich soil, and excellent fresh +water. Where we remained the water was brackish, and constituted the +chief inconvenience of our station. The factor or agent, commonly called +by the men the governor, used to visit us almost every day, and remained +much on board when ships were loading for Europe. One fine summer's day +we were all enjoying the luxury of bathing, when, all on a sudden, the +shout was raised--'A shark! a shark!' I had just taken my place in the +boat, and was still undressed, when I observed one man disappear, being +dragged under the water by the sea monster. The factor, who was swimming +about in the neighbourhood, seemed to be paralyzed by terror, for he +made for the boat, plashing like a dog, with his hands and arms +frequently stretched out of the water. I saw his danger, and immediately +plunged in to his rescue, which, with some difficulty, I at last +effected. + +"Poor Pat Moonie was seen no more; nor did the devouring monster +reappear. The factor immediately acknowledged his obligations to me, by +carrying me home with him, and introducing me to his lady and an only +daughter--I think I never beheld a more beautiful creature; but I looked +upon her as a being of a different order from myself, and I still +thought of my own dear Sally and sweet home at Cellardykes. Through the +factor's kindness, I got the management of a boat's crew, with +considerable emolument which belonged to the situation. I then behoved +to dress better, at least while on land, than I used to do, and I was an +almost daily visitor at Codfield House, the name of the captain's +residence. My affairs prospered; I made, and had no way of spending +money. The factor was my banker, and his fair daughter wrote out the +acknowledgments for her father to sign. One beautiful Sabbath-day, after +the factor--who officiated at our small station as clergyman--had read +us prayers and a sermon, I took a walk into the interior of the country, +where, with a book in her hand, and an accompaniment of Newfoundland +dogs, I chanced to meet with Miss Woodburn, the factor's beautiful +child. She was only fourteen, but quite grown, and as blooming a piece +of womanhood as ever wore kid gloves or black leather. She seemed +somewhat embarrassed at my presence, and blushed scarlet, entreating me +to prevent one of her dogs from running away with her glove, which he +was playfully tossing about in his mouth. The dog would not surrender +his charge to any one but to his mistress; and, in the struggle, he bit +my hand somewhat severely. You may see the marks of his teeth there +still" (holding out his hand while he spoke). "Poor Miss Woodburn knew +not what to do first; she immediately dropped the book which she was +reading--scolded the offending dog to a distance--took up the glove, +which the dog at her bidding had dropped, and wrapped it close and +firmly around my bleeding hand; a band of long grass served for thread +to make all secure, and in a few days my hand was in a fair way of +recovery--but not so my heart; I felt as if I had been all at once +transformed into a gentleman--the soft touch of Miss Eliza's fair +fingers seemed to have transformed me, skin, flesh, and bones, into +another species of being. I shook like an aspen leaf whenever I thought +of our interesting interview; and I could observe that Eliza changed +colour, and looked out of the window whenever I entered the room. But, +sir, I am too particular, and I will now hasten to a close." I entreated +him (said the parson) to go on in his own way, and without any reference +to my leisure. He then proceeded:--"Well, sir, from year to year I +prospered, and from year to year got more deeply in love with the angel +which moved about in my presence. At last our attachment became manifest +to the young lady's parent; and, to my great surprise, it was proposed +that we should make a voyage to New York, and there be united in +matrimony. All this while, sir, I thought of my own dear Sally, and the +thought not unfrequently made me miserable; but what was Sally to me +now?--perhaps she was dead--perhaps she was married--perhaps--but I +could scarcely think it--she had forgot me; and then the blooming +rosebud was ever in my presence, and hallowed me, by its superior purity +and beauty, into a complete gentleman. Well, married we were at New +York, and for several months I was the happiest of men, and my dear wife +(I know it) the happiest of women; but the time of her labour +approached--and child and mother lie buried in the cemetery at New York, +where we had now fixed our residence." (Here poor Thomas wept +plentifully, and, after a pause proceeded.)--"I could not reside longer +in a place which was so dismally associated in my mind; so, having wound +up my worldly affairs, and placed my little fortune--about one thousand +pounds--in the bank, I embarked for Europe, along with my father and +mother-in-law, who were going home to end their days in the place of +their nativity, Belfast, in Ireland. I determined upon landing at the +Cove of Cork, to visit once more my native village, and to have at least +one interview with Sally. I learned, on my arrival at Largo, that Sally +was married to the old captain. I resolved, however, ere I went finally +to settle in Belfast, to have one stolen peep at my first love--my own +dear Sally. I came upon her whilst repeating my name in her prayers--I +embraced her convulsively--repeated her name twice in her hearing--heard +her scream--saw her faint--kissed her fondly again and again--and, +strangers appearing, I immediately absconded." + +"This," said the minister, "explains all;--but go on--I am anxious to +hear the conclusion of your somewhat eventful history." + +"Why, I was off immediately for Belfast, where I at present reside with +my father-in-law, whose temper, since the loss of his child, has been +much altered for the worse. But I am here on a particular errand, in +which your kind offices, sir--for I have heard of your goodness of +heart--may be of service to me. I observed the death of the old captain +in the newspaper, and I am here once more to enjoy an interview with his +widow. I wish you, sir, to break the business to her; meanwhile, I will +lodge at the Old Inn, Mrs. Laing's, at Anstruther, and await your +return." + +I agreed (continued the parson of Kilrenny) to wait upon the widow; and +to see, in fact, how the wind set, in regard to "first love." I found +her, as I expected, neatly clad in her habiliments of widowhood, and +employed in making some dresses for a sister's marriage. I asked and +obtained a private interview, when I detailed, as cautiously as I could, +the particulars of Thomas Laing's history. I could observe that her +whole frame shook occasionally, and that tears came, again and again, +into her eyes. I was present, but a fortnight ago, at their first +interview at the inn; and I never saw two human beings evince more real +attachment for each other. On their bended knees, and with faces turned +towards heaven, did they unite in thanking God that he had permitted +them, to have another interview with each other in this world of +uncertainty and death. It has been since discovered that the letter +announcing Laing's death was a forgery of the old captain, which has +reconciled his widow very much to the idea of shortening her days of +mourning. In a word, this evening, and in a few hours, I am going to +unite the widower and the widowed, together with a younger sister and a +fine young sailor, in the holy bonds of matrimony; and, as a punishment +for your giving me all this trouble in narrating this story, I shall +insist upon your eating fresh herring, with the fresh-herring Presbytery +of St. Andrew's, which meets here at Mrs. Laing's to-day, and afterwards +witnessing the double ceremony. + +To this I assented, and certainly never spent an evening more agreeably +than that which I divided betwixt the merry lads of St. Andrew's +Presbytery, and the fair dames and maidens of Cellardykes, who graced +the marriage ceremony. Such dancing as there was, and such screaming, +and such music, and such laughing; yet, amidst it all, Mr. and Mrs. +Laing preserved that decent decorum, which plainly said, "We will not +mar the happiness of the young; but we feel the goodness and providence +of our God too deeply, to permit us to join in the noisy part of the +festivity." + +"The fair maid of Cellardykes," with her kind-hearted husband--I may +mention, for the satisfaction of my fair readers in particular--may now +be seen daily at their own door, and in their own garden, on the face of +the steep which overlooks the village. They have already lived three +years in complete happiness, and have been blessed with two as fine +healthy children as a Cellardykes sun ever rose upon. Mr. Laing has +become an elder in the church, and both husband and wife are most +exemplary in the discharge of their religious, as well as relative +duties. God has blessed them with an ample competence; and sure is the +writer of this narrative, that no poor fisherman or woman ever applied +to this worthy couple without obtaining relief. + +One circumstance more, and my narrative closes. As Mr. Laing was one +evening taking a walk along the seashore, viewing the boats as they +mustered for the herring fishing, he was shot at from behind one of the +rocks, and severely wounded in the shoulder--the ball or slug-shot +having lodged in the clavicle, and refusing, for some days, to be +extracted. The hue-and-cry was immediately raised; but the guilty person +was nowhere to be seen. He had escaped in a boat, or had hid himself in +a crevice of the rock, or in some private and friendly house in the +village. Poor Thomas Laing was carried home to his distracted wife more +dead than alive; and Dr. Goodsir being called, disclosed that, in his +present state, the lead could not be extracted. Poor Sarah was never a +moment from her husband's side, who fevered, and became occasionally +delirious--talking incoherently of murder and shipwreck, and Woodburn, +and love, and marriage, and Sarah Black. All within his brain was one +mad wheel of mixed and confused colours, such as children make when they +wheel a stick, dyed white, black, and red, rapidly around. Suspicion, +from the first, fell upon the brother of the boy Rob Paterson, whom +Laing had killed many years before. Revenge is the most enduring, +perhaps, of all the passions, and rather feeds upon itself than decays. +Like fame, "it acquires strength by time;" and it was suspected that Dan +Paterson, a reckless and a dissipated man, had done the deed. In +confirmation of this supposition, Dan was nowhere to be found, and it +was strongly suspected that his wife and his son, who returned at +midnight with the boat, had set Dan on shore somewhere on the coast, and +that he had effected his escape. Death, for some time, seemed every day +and hour nearer at hand; but at last the symptoms softened, the fever +mitigated, the swelling subsided, and, after much careful and skilful +surgery, most admirably conducted by Dr. Goodsir's son, the ball was +extracted. The wound closed without mortification; and, in a week or +two, Mr. Laing was not only out of danger, but out of bed, and walking +about, as he does to this hour, with his arm in a sling. It was about +the period of his recovery, that Dan Paterson was taken as he was +skulking about in the west country, apparently looking out for a ship in +which to sail to America. He was immediately brought back to +Cellardykes, and lodged in Anstruther prison. Mr. Laing would willingly +have forborne the prosecution; but the law behoved to have its course. +Dan was tried for "maiming with the intention of murder," and was +condemned to fourteen years' transportation. This happened in the year +1822, the year of the King's visit to Scotland. Mr. and Mrs. Laing +actually waited upon his Majesty King George the Fourth, at the palace +of Dalkeith, and, backed by the learned judge and counsel, obtained a +commutation of the punishment, from banishment to imprisonment for a +limited period. The great argument in his favour was the provocation he +had received. Dan Paterson now inhabits a neat cottage in the village, +and Mr. Laing has quite set him up with a boat of his own, ready rigged +and fitted for use. He has entirely reformed, has become a member of a +temperance society, and his wife and family are as happy as the day is +long. Mr. and Mrs. Laing are supplied with the very best of fish, and +stockings and mittens are manufactured by the Patersons for the little +Laings, particularly during boisterous weather, when fishing is out of +the question. Thus has a wise Providence made even the wrath of man to +praise him. The truth of the above narrative may be tested any day, by +waiting upon the Rev. Mr. Dickson, or upon the parties themselves at +Braehead of Cellardykes. + + + + +PRESCRIPTION; + +OR, THE 29TH OF SEPTEMBER. + + +The serene calmness and holy inspiration of some of our cottage retreats +in Scotland are often the envy of the town-poet or philosopher, who +looks upon the sequestered spots as possessing all the beauty and repose +of the beatific Beulah, where the feet of the pilgrim found repose, and +his spirit rest. The desire arises out of that discontent which, less or +more, is the inheritance of man in this sphere; it is the residuum of +the worldly feelings which, like the clay that, in inspired hands, gave +the power of sight to the blind, opens the eyes to immortality. The wish +for retirement belongs to good, if it is not a part of the great +principle that inclines us to look far away to purer regions for the +rest which is never disturbed, and the joy that knows no abatement. Yet +how vain are often our thoughts as we survey the white-washed hut in the +valley, covered with honeysuckle and white roses; the plot before the +door; the croonin dame on her tripod; the lass with the lint-white +locks, singing, in snatches of Nature's own language, her purest +feelings, like the swelling of a mountain spring! The heart is not still +there, any more than in the crowded mart. The birds whistle, but they +die too; the rose blooms, but it is eaten in the heart by the palmer +worm; the sun shines, but there is a shade at his back. Alas for mortal +aspirations--there is nothing here of one side. Like the two parties who +fought for the truth of the two pleas--that the statue was white, or +that it was black--we find, after all our labour lost, that one side is +of the one colour, and the other of the opposite. These thoughts arise +in us at this moment, as we recollect the little cottage of Homestead, +situated in a collateral valley on the Borders. We were born at a +stone-cast from it; and, even in the dream of age, see issuing from it, +or entering it, a creature who might have stood for Wordsworth's +Highland Girl--a slender, gracile thing, retiring and modest; as +delicate in her feelings as in the hue of her complexion; her thoughts +of her glen and waterfall only natural to her--all others, fearful even +to herself, glenting forth through a flushed medium, which equally +betrayed the workings of the blood in the transparent veins--a being of +young life, elasticity, and sensitiveness, such as, like some modest +flower, we find only in certain recesses of the valleys in +mountain-lands. Such were you, Alice Scott, when you first darted across +our path on the hills. We have said that we see you now through the +dream of age; and, holding to the parallel, there is a change o'er the +mood of our vision, for we see you again in a form like that of "The +Ladye Geraldine"--your mountain russets off; the bandeau that bound the +flying locks laid aside; the irritability and flush of the young spirit +abated; and, instead of these, the gown of silk, the coif of satin, and +the slow and dignified step of conscious worth and superiority. And +whence this change? + +The young female we have thus apostrophised, was the daughter of Adam +Scott, a cottar, who occupied the small cottage of Homestead, under the +proprietor of Whitecraigs--a fine property, lying to the south of the +cottage; and the mansion of which is yet to be seen by the traveller who +seeks the Tweed by the windings of the river Lyne. Old Adam died, and +left his widow and daughter to the protection of his superior, Mr. +Hayston, who, recollecting the services and stanch qualities of his +tenant, did not despise the charge. The small bield was allowed to the +mother and daughter, rent free; and some assistance, in addition to the +produce of their hands, enabled them to live as thousands in this +country live, whose capability of supporting life might be deemed a +problem difficult of solution by those whose only care is how to destroy +God's gifts. Nature is as curious in her disposal of qualities as the +great genius of chance or convention is of the distribution of means. +Literature has worn out the characteristic and gloomy lines of the +description of the fair and the good; and the impatience of the mind of +the nineteenth century--a mind greedy of caricature, and regardless of +written sentiment--may warn us from the portrayment of what people now +like better to see than to read or hear of. Away, then, with the usual +terms, and let old Dame Scott and her daughter be deemed as of those +beings who have interested you in the quiet recesses of humble poverty, +where Nature, as if in sport or satire, loves to play fantastic tricks. +If you have no living models to go by, call up some of the pages of the +thousand volumes that have been multiplied on a subject which has been +more spoiled by poetical imagery, than benefited by sober observation. + +Within about five years of the death of the husband and father, old +Hayston died, and left Whitecraigs to his only son, Hector, who was kind +enough to continue the gift of the father to the inmates of Homestead; +but he loaded them with a condition, unspoken, yet implied. The young +laird and the pretty cottage maiden had foregathered often amidst the +romantic scenes on the Lyne; and that which Nature probably intended as +a guard and a mean of segregation--the shrinking timidity of her own +mountain child, when looked upon by the eye of, to her, +aristocracy--only tended to an opposite effect. A poet has compared love +to an Eastern bird, which loses all its beauty when it flies, and it is +as true as it is a pretty conceit; but if there was any feathered +creature whose wings, reflecting, from its monaul tints, the sun in +greater splendour, when on the wing, it would supply as applicable and +not less poetical an emblem of the object of the little god's +heart-stirrings; and so it seemed to the young laird of Whitecraigs, +that, as Alice Scott bounded away over the green hills, or down by the +Lyne banks, at his approach, her flight added to the interest which she +had already inspired when she had no means of escape. But, as the +wildest doe may be caught and tamed, so was she, who was as a white one +removed from the herd. The young man possessed attractions beside those +of imputed wealth and station; and probably, though we mean not to be +severe upon the sex, the process by which his affection had been +increased was reversed in its effects upon her, to whom assiduous +seeking was as the assiduous retreating had been to him. + +Yet all was, we believe, honourable in the intentions of young Hayston; +and, as for Alice, she was in the primeval condition of a total +unconsciousness of evil. The "one blossom on earth's tree," as the poet +has it, was by her yet unplucked, nor knew she how many thousands have +had cause to sing-- + + "I have plucked the one blossom that hangs on earth's tree; + I have lived--I have loved, and die." + +Her former timidity was the _à priori_ proof of the strength of the +feeling that followed, when the sensitiveness of fear gave way to +confidence. Town loves are a thing of sorry account: the best of them +are a mere preference of the one to the many; and he who is fortunate +enough to outshine his rivals, may pride himself in the possession of +some superior recommendations which have achieved a triumph. Were he to +look better to it, he might detect something, too, in the force of +resources. At best, a few hundred pounds will turn the scale; for he is +by all that a better man; and the trained eye of town beauties has a +strange responsive twinkle in the glare of the one thing needful. In the +remote and beautiful parts of a romantic country, things are otherwise +ordered: affection there, is as the mountain flower to the gallipot +rose; and it is a mockery to tell us that the difference is only +perceptible to those who are weak enough to be romantic. A doughty +warrior would recognise and acknowledge the difference, and fight a +great deal better too, after he had blubbered over a mountain or glen +born love for a creature who would look upon him as the soul of the +retreat, and hang on his breast in the outpourings of Nature's feelings. +That young Whitecraigs appreciated the triumph he had secured, there can +be no reason to doubt. He had been within the drying atmosphere of +towns, and had sung and waltzed, probably, with a round hundred of +creatures who understood the passion, much as Audrey understood +poetry--deeming it honest enough, but yet a composition made up of the +elements of side glances, arias, smorzando-sighs, and quadrilles. With +Alice Scott on his bosom, the quiet glen as their retreat, the green +umbrageous woods their defence, its birds as their musicians, and the +wimpling Lyne as the speaking Naiad, he forgot, if he did not despise, +the scenes he had left. She flew from him now no longer. The fowler had +succeeded to captivate, not intentionally to kill. + +Two years passed over in this intercourse. There was no secret about it. +The dame was well apprised of their proceeding; and the open frankness +of the youth dispelled all the fears of wrong which the innocence of the +daughter, undefended by experience, might have scarcely guaranteed to +one who, at least, had heard something of the ways of the world. The +income from Whitecraigs, somewhere about seven hundred a-year, was more +than sufficient for the expenditure of the older Haystons; and Hector, +at this time, did not seem inclined to alter the line of life followed +by his fathers. He had not spoken of marriage to the mother; but he had +not hesitated to breathe into the ear of Alice all that was necessary to +lead her to the conclusion, to which her heart jumped, that she was to +be the lady of the stately white mansion that, at one time, had appeared +to her as a great temple where humble worshippers of the glen and the +wood might not lay their sandals at the doorway. She had entered the +vestibule only as an alms-seeker, and trembled to think she might have +been observed throwing a side glance into the interior, where +pier-glasses might have reflected the form of the russet-clad child of +the valley and hill. The tale has been told a thousand times, and the +world is not mended by it. The young master pressed her to his bosom, +imprinted a kiss, and was away into the mazes of life in the metropolis, +whither some affairs, left unsettled by his father, carried him. Six +months passed away, and the rents of the succeeding term were collected +by Mr. Pringle, the agent of the family, in Peebles. There was no word +for poor Alice, though the small allowance was handed in by the agent, +who, ignorant of the state of matters between the young couple, informed +the mother that the master of Whitecraigs was on the eve of being +married to a young lady of some wealth in the metropolis. The statement +was heard by the daughter; and what henceforth but that of Thekla's +song:-- + + "The clouds are flying, the woods are sighing-- + The maiden is walking the grassy shore; + And as the wave breaks with might, with might, + She singeth aloud through the darksome night; + But a tear is in her troubled eye." + +Alice Scott was changed; yet, who shall tell what that change was? If +the slow and even progress of the spirit may defy the eye of the +metaphysician, who may describe its moods of disturbance? Poetry is +familiar with these things, and we have fair rhymes to tell us of the +wanderings, and the lonely musings by mountain streams, and the eye that +looks and sees not, and the wasting form, and the words that come like +the sounds from deep caves; yet, after all, they tell us but little, +and that little is but to tickle us with the resonance of spoken +sentiment, leaving the sad truth as little understood as before. True it +was, that Alice Scott did all these things, and more too: the charm of +the hills and the water banks was gone: the light spirit that carried +her along, as if borne on the winds, was quenched; the songs by which +she gladdened the ears of her mother, as she plied her portable handwork +on the green, was no more heard mingling its notes with the music of the +Lyne; and the face that shone transparently, like painted alabaster, as +if part of the light came from within, was as the poet says-- + + "Like an April morn + Clad in a wintry cloud." + +Nor did additional time seem to possess any power save that of +increasing the pain of the heart-stroke. Most of the griefs of mortals +have their appointed modes of alleviation--some are complaining griefs, +some are talkative, and some sorrows are sociable for selfishness. But +the heart-wound of her who has only those scenes of nature which were +associated with the image of the unkind one, to wear off the impressions +of which, under other hues, they form a part, is a silent mourner. There +is enough of a painful eloquence around her, and her voice would be only +the small whisper that is lost in the wailings of the storm in the glen. +Yet painful as the language is, she courts it in silence, even while it +mixes and blends with the poison which consumes her. It was in vain that +her mother, who saw with a parental eye the malady which is the best +understood by those of her class and age, urged her with kindness to +betake herself to her household duties. She was seldom to be prevailed +upon to remain within doors; the hill-side, or the bosom of the glen, or +the back of the willows by the water-side, were her choice. Ordinary +meal times were forgotten or unheeded, where Nature had renounced her +cravings, or given all her energies to the heart. + +The next intelligence received at Homestead was that of the marriage of +Hector Hayston, and his departure for France. The servants at +Whitecraigs were discharged, as if there had been no expectation, for a +long period, of the return of the young laird. The supply to the two +females was increased, and paid by Mr. Pringle, who, now probably aware +of the situation of Alice, delicately avoided any allusion to his +employer. Report, however, was busy with her tales; and the absence of +the youth was attributed to the workings of conscience or of shame. +There was little truth in the report. The object of his first affections +might easily have been banished from Whitecraigs, and he who had been +guilty of leaving her maybe supposed capable of removing her from scenes +which could only add to her sorrow. A true solution of his conduct might +have been found in the fact, that Hayston was now following his +pleasures in the society of his wife's friends--a gay and lavish +circle--and did not wish to detract from his enjoyment by adding +banishment and destitution to a wrong now irremediable. Little more was +heard of him for some time, with the exception of a floating report, +that he had borrowed, through his agent, the sum of ten thousand pounds +from a Mr. Colville, a neighbouring proprietor, and pledged to him +Whitecraigs in security. The circumstance interested greatly the +neighbouring proprietors, who shook their heads in significant augury of +the probable fate of their young neighbour in the whirlpool of +continental life. Yet the allowance to Dame Scott at the next term was +regularly paid; and if there was a tear in her eye, as she looked, first +at the money, and then at the thin, pallid creature who sat silent at +the window, it was not that she dreaded its discontinuance from the +result of the extravagance of the giver. The effect of the act of +payment of the money had, on a former occasion, been noticed by Pringle +on the conduct of Alice: it was on this occasion repeated. She rose from +her seat, looked steadfastly for a moment at the gift as it lay on the +table, placed her hand on her forehead, and flitted out of the room. The +eye of the agent followed her from the window: her step was hurried, +without an object of impulse. She might go--but whither? probably she +knew not herself; yet on she sped till she was lost among the trees on +the edge of the glen. + +Thus longer time passed, but there seemed no change to Alice, save in +the continual decrease of the frame, under the pressure of a mind that +communed with the past, and only looked to the future as containing some +day that would witness the termination of her sorrows. The anglers on +the Lyne became familiar with her figure, for they had seen it on the +heights, with her garments floating in the breeze, and had come up to +her as she sat by the waterside, but they passed on. At the worst she +could be but one whose spirit was not settled enough to admit of her +according with the ways of honest maidens; and they might regret that +the beauty that still lurked amidst the ravages of the disease of the +heart, had not been turned to better account. It is thus that one part +of mankind surveys another: they form their theory of a condition whose +secret nature is only known to its possessor; draw their moral from +false premises, formed as a compliment to their own conduct and +situation, and pass on to their pleasure. + +Yet there occurred an important exception to these remarks:--One day +Alice had taken up her seat on the banks of a small pond in front of the +house of Whitecraigs. She sat opposite to the front of the dwelling, and +seemed to survey its closed windows and deserted appearance, with the +long grass growing up through the gravel of the walks--the broken +pailings and decayed out-houses; a scene that might be supposed to +harmonize with the feelings of a mind broken and desolate. There might +seem even a consanguinity in the causes of the condition of both. The +scene might have suited the genius of a Danby. There was no living +creature to disturb the silence. The house of faded white, among the +dark trees, cheerless and forsaken; the face of Alice Scott emaciated +and pale, with the lustre of the loch, shining in the sun, reflected on +it, directed towards the habitation of which she should have been +mistress; her eyes, which had forgotten the relief of tears, fixed on +the scene so pregnant with unavailing reminiscences--with these we would +aid the artist. + +But the charm was gone, as a voice sounded behind her. She started, and, +according to her custom, would have fled as the hare that remembers the +snare; but she was detained. A man, advanced in years, poorly clad, with +hair well smitten with snow tints, and a staff in his hand, stood beside +her, holding her by the skirt of the gown. + +"I am weary," said he; "I have walked from Moffat, and would sit here +for a time, if you would speak to me of the scenes and people of these +parts." And the application of his hand again to her gown secured a +compliance, dictated more by fear than inclination. She sat, while she +trembled. "You are fair," continued he; "but my experience of sorrow +tells me that grief has been busier with your young heart than years. I +will not pry into your secrets. To whom does Whitecraigs now belong?" + +The name had not been breathed by her to mortal since that day she had +heard of the intended marriage. She made an effort to pronounce it, +failed, and fixed her eyes on the pond. The stranger gazed on her, +waiting for her reply. + +"Hector Hayston," she at length muttered. + +"And why has he left so fair a retreat to the desolation that has +overtaken it?" rejoined he again. The question was still more +unfortunate. She had no power to reply. Her face was turned from him, +and repressed breathings heaved her bosom. "You may tell me, then, if +one Dame Scott lives in these parts?" he said again, as he marked her +strange manner, and probably augured that his prior question was fraught +with pain. + +"Yes--yes," she replied, with a sudden start, as if relieved from pain, +while she regained her feet; "yonder lives my mother." + +The stranger stood with his eyes fixed upon her, as if in deep scrutiny +of the inexplicable features of her character and appearance; but he +added not a word, till he saw her move as if she wished to be gone. + +"You will go with me?" he said. + +But the words were scarcely uttered, when she was away through the +woods, leaving him to seek his way to the house of her mother, whither, +accordingly, he directed his steps, from some prior knowledge he +possessed of the locality about which he had been making inquiries. As +he went along, he seemed wrapt in meditation--again and again looking +back, to endeavour to get another sight of the girl, who was now seated +on the edge of the stream, and again seized by some engrossing thought +that claimed all the energies of his spirit. On coming up to the door of +the cottage, he tapped gently with his long staff; and, upon being +required by the dame to enter, he passed into the middle of the floor, +and stood and surveyed the house and its inmate. + +"I have nothing for you," said the latter; "so you must pass on to those +whom God has ordained as the distributors of what the needy require. +Alas! I am myself but a beggar." + +The words seemed to have been wrung out of her by the meditative mood in +which the stranger had found her, and, whether it was that the interest +which had been excited in him by the appearance of the daughter had +been increased by the confession of the mother, or that there was some +secret cause working in his mind, he passed his hand over his eyes, and +for a moment turned away his head. + +"I have been both a beggar and a giver in my day," he replied, as he +laid down his hat and staff, and took a chair opposite to the dame; "and +I am weary of the one character and of the other. I have got with a +curse; and I have given for ingratitude. But I may here give, and you +may receive, without either. There is an unoccupied bed; I am weary of +wandering, and have enough to pay for rest." + +"That is better than charity," rejoined the dame--"ay, even the charity +of the stranger." + +"And why of the _stranger_, dame?" added he. "I have hitherto thought +that the charity of _friends_ was that which might be most easily borne. +And who may be your benefactor?" + +"Hector Hayston of Whitecraigs," replied she, hanging her head, and +drawing a deep breath. + +The stranger detected the same symptoms of pain in the mother as those +he had observed in the daughter. + +"Then forgets he not his cottars in his absence," he added. "But why has +he left a retreat fairer than any I have yet seen throughout a long +pilgrimage over many lands?" + +"We will not speak of that," she replied, rising slowly, and going to +the window, where she stood for a time in silence. + +"You have a daughter, dame," resumed the man, as he watched the +indications of movement in the heart of the mother. "I saw her sitting +looking at the mansion of Whitecraigs. I fear she can lend you small +aid; yet, if her powers of mind and body were equal to the beauty that +has too clearly faded from her cheeks, methinks you would have had +small need to have taken the charity of either friends or strangers." + +"Ay, poor Alice! poor Alice!" rejoined the mother, turning suddenly, and +applying her hand to something which required not her care at that +time--"Ay, poor Alice!" she added. + +"Is it a bargain, then," said he, wishing to retreat from a subject that +so evidently pained her, "that I may remain here for a time, on your own +terms of remuneration?" + +"It may be as you say," replied she, again taking her seat; "but only on +a condition." + +"What is it?" inquired he. + +"That you never mention the name of Hector Hayston, or of Whitecraigs, +while Alice is by. She harms no one; and I would not see her harmed." + +"I perceive," said he, muttering to himself, "that I am not the only one +in the world who carries in his bosom a secret. But," he continued, in a +louder tone, "your condition, dame, shall be fulfilled; and now I may +hold myself to be your lodger." And he proceeded to take from the +stuffed pockets of his coat some night-clothes of a homely character, +and handed them to the dame. "And now," he said, "you may be, now or +after, wondering who he may be who has thus come, like a weary bird from +the waste that seeks refuge among the sere leaves, to live in the +habitation of sorrow. But you must question me not; and farther than my +name, which is Wallace, you may know nothing of me till after the 29th +day of September--ay, ay," he continued, as if calculating, "the 29th +day of September." + +The dame started as she heard the mention of the day, looked steadfastly +at him, and was silent. + +"Yes," he continued, "that day past, and I will once more draw my breath +freely in the land of my fathers; and my foot, which has only bowed the +head of the heather-bell in the valley, may yet collect energy enough +from my unstrung nerves to press fearlessly the sod of the mountain. How +long is it since your husband died?" + +"Seven years," replied she. + +"Well, short as our acquaintance has yet been," said he, "our words have +been only of unpleasant things. Now, I require refreshment; and here is +some small pay in advance, to remove the ordinary prejudice against +strangers. We shall be better acquainted by times. I will take, now, +what is readiest in the house; for you may guess, from my attire, that I +have been accustomed to that fare by which the poor contrive to spin out +the weary term of their pilgrimage." + +So much being arranged, the dame set about preparing a meal; and Mr. +Wallace, as he had called himself, proceeded to transform his staff into +a fishing-rod, and arrange his other small matters connected with his +future residence. When the humble dish was prepared, the dame went out, +and, taking her position on a green tumulus that rose between the +cottage and the Lyne, stood, and, placing her hands over her eyes, +looked down the water. Her eye, accustomed to the search, detected the +form of her daughter far down the stream, and, waving her hand to her, +she beckoned her home. But she came not; and the two inmates sat down to +their repast. + +"This shall be for my poor Alice," said the mother, as she laid aside a +portion of the frugal fare; "but she will take it at her own time, or +perhaps not at all." + +"And yet how much she needs it," added the stranger, "her wasted form +and pale face too plainly show." + +"There is a sad change there, sir," rejoined she. "There was not a +fairer or more gentle creature from Tweedscross to Tweedmouth than Alice +Scott; nor did ever the foot of light-hearted innocence pass swifter +over the hill or down the glen. You have seen her to-day where she is +often to be seen--by the pond opposite the closed-up house of +Whitecraigs--and may wonder to hear how one so wasted may still reach +the hill-heads; yet there, too, she is sometimes seen. I have struggled +sore to make her what she once was; but in vain. She will wander and +wander, and return and wander again; nor will this cease till I some day +find her dead body among the seggs of the Lyne, or in the lirk of the +hill. When I know you better, I may tell you more. At present, I am +eating the bread of one who is more connected with this sad subject than +I may now confess; and I have never been accounted ungrateful." + +The stranger was moved, and ate his meal in meditative silence. In an +hour afterwards, Alice returned to the house, and, as she entered, +started as her eye met that of him who had, by his questions, stirred to +greater activity the feelings that were already too busy with her heart; +but her fears were removed, by his avoidance of the subject which had +pained her; and a few hours seemed to have rendered him as indifferent +to her as seemed the other objects around her. Some days passed, and the +widow would have been as well satisfied with her lodger as he was with +her, had it not been that he enjoined secrecy as to his residence in the +house--retiring to the spence when any one entered; and if at any time +he went along the Lyne in the morning, he avoided those whom he met; and +betook himself to private acts in the inner apartment during the day. At +times he left the cottage in the evening, and did not return for two +days; but whither he went, the inmates knew not. The dame conjectured he +had been as far as Peebles; but her reason was merely that he brought +newspapers with him, and intelligence of matters transacting there. The +secrecy was not suited to the open and simple manners to which she had +been accustomed; but she recollected his words, that on the 29th of +September, she would know all concerning him. Now these words were +connected by a chain of associations that startled her. The 29th of +September had been set apart by her deceased husband as a day of prayer. +He had never allowed it to pass without an offering of the contrite +heart to God; this practice he had continued till his death, and she had +witnessed the act repeated for fifteen years. She was no more +superstitious than the rest of her class; she was, indeed, probably less +so; and her theories, formed for an adequate explanation of the +startling coincidence, were probably as philosophical as if they had +been formed by reason acting under the astute direction of scepticism. +Yet where is the mind, untutored or learned, that can throw away at all +times, at all hours--when the heart is in the sunshine of the cheerful +day of worldly intercourse, or in the deep shadow of the wing of +eternity--all thoughts of all powers save those of natural causes, which +are themselves a mystery? We may sport with the subject; but it comes +again back on the heart, and we sigh in whispering words of fear, that +in the hands of God we are nothing. + +One day Mr. Wallace was seated at breakfast; he had been away for two +nights; Alice was sitting by the side of the fire, looking into the +heart of the red embers, and the mother was superintending the +breakfast; he took out a newspaper from his pocket, and, without a word +of premonition, read a paragraph in a deep, solemn voice. + +"Died at ---- Street, London, Maria Knight, wife of Hector Hayston, +Esq., of Whitecraigs, in the county of Peebles, in Scotland." + +A peculiar sound struggled in the throat of Alice; but it passed, and +she was silent. The mother sat and looked Wallace in the face, to +ascertain what construction to put upon the occurrence which he had thus +read with an emphasis betokening a greater interest than it might +demand from one, as yet, all but ignorant, as she thought, of the true +circumstances of the condition of her daughter. He made no commentary on +what he had read; but looking again at the paper, and turning it over, +as if searching for some other news, he fixed his eyes on an +advertisement in the fourth page. He then read-- + +"On the 1st day of October next, there will be exposed to public roup +and sale, within the Town-Hall of Peebles, by virtue of the powers of +sale contained in a mortgage granted by Hector Hayston, Esq., of +Whitecraigs, in favour of George Colville of Haughton, all and hail the +lands and estate of Whitecraigs, situated in the parish of ----, and +shire of Peebles, with the mansion-house, offices, &c." + +He then laid down the paper, and, looking the widow full in the face-- + +"The day of sale of Whitecraigs," said he, "is the _second_ day after +the 29th of September. It would have been too much had it been on that +day itself." + +No reply was made to his remark. The announcement called up in the mind +of the dame more than she could express; but that which concerned more +closely herself, was too apparently veiled with no mystery. The sale of +Whitecraigs was the ejection of herself and daughter from Homestead; and +she knew not whither she and her daughter were now to be driven, to seek +refuge and sustenance from a world from which she had been so long +estranged. + +"All things come to a termination," she said. "For many years I have +lived here, wife and widow; and if I have felt sorrow, I have also +enjoyed. The world is wide; and if I may be obliged to ask and to +receive charity, the God who moves the hand to give it, may not +again--now that His purpose may be served by my contrition--select that +of the destroyer of my child. But there is another that must be taken +from these haunts;" and, turning to Alice, whose face was still +directed to the fire, she gazed on her hapless daughter, while the tear +stole down her cheeks. + +Wallace's eye was fixed on the couple. He seemed to understand the +allusion of the mother, which indicated plainly enough, that though the +hills and glens of Whitecraigs had been the scene of the ruin of her +daughter's peace, she anticipated still more fatal consequences from +taking her away from them. Meanwhile, Alice, who had listened to and +understood all, arose from her seat. + +"I will never leave Whitecraigs, mother," she said; and bent her steps +towards the door. + +"Let her follow her fancy," said Wallace. Then relapsing into a fit of +musing, he added--"the 29th of September of this year will soon be of +the time that is. For twenty years I have looked forward to that +day--under a burning sun, far from my native land, I have sighed for +it--in the midnight hour I have counted the years and days that were +between. Every anniversary was devoted to the God who has chastened the +heart of the sinner; and there was need, when that heart was full of the +thoughts inspired by that day, and penitence came on the wings of +terror. Now it approaches; and I have not miscalculated the benefits it +may pour on other heads than mine." + +"Alas!" said the widow, as she cast her eye through the window after her +daughter, "there is no appointed day for the termination of the sorrows +of that poor creature. To the broken-hearted, one day as another, +sunshine or shower, is the same. But what hand shall bear Alice Scott +from Whitecraigs?" + +"Perhaps none," replied Wallace, as, taking up the newspaper, he retired +to an inner apartment, where he usually spent the day. Some hours +passed; and, in the afternoon, Mr. Pringle, while passing, took occasion +to call at Homestead, and informed the widow that it would be her duty +to look out for another habitation, as Whitecraigs was to be sold by the +creditor, Mr. Colville, whose object in granting the loan was, if +possible, to take advantage of the difficulties into which extravagance +had plunged the young proprietor, and to bring the property into the +market, that he might purchase it as an appanage of the old estate of +Haughton, from which it had been disjoined. He represented it as a cruel +proceeding, and that its cruelty was enhanced by the circumstance of the +sale being advertised in the same paper which contained the intelligence +of the death of Hector's young wife. Another listener might have replied +that God's ways are just; but Dame Scott, if she thought at the time of +her daughter, considered also that Hayston had supported her for many +years. + +"Good dame," added the agent, "it might have been well for my young +friend if he had remained at Whitecraigs. I never saw the wife he +married, and has just lost in the bloom of youth; but she must have been +fair indeed, if she was fairer than she whom he left. Yet Hector's +better principles did not, I am satisfied, entirely forsake him. The +disinclination he has shown to visit his paternal property, was the +result of a clinging remembrance of her he left mourning in the midst of +its glens; nor do I wonder at it, for even I have turned aside to avoid +the sight of Alice Scott. Misfortunes, however, are sometimes mercies; +and the change of residence you will be now driven to, may aid in the +cure of a disease that is only fed by these scenes of Whitecraigs." + +He here paused, and, putting his hand in his pocket, took out some +money. + +"This may be the last gift," he said, as he presented it to her, "that +Hector Hayston may ever send you. These are his words. His fortunes are +ruined, his wife is dead, and, worse than all, his peace of mind is +fled." + +"Heaven have mercy on him!" replied the widow. "One word of reproach has +never escaped the lips of me or my daughter. I have suffered in this +cottage without murmuring, and the glens and hollows of Whitecraigs have +alone heard the complainings of Alice Scott. She will cling to these +places to the last; but were the windows of the deserted house again +opened, with strange faces there, and maybe the lights of the +entertainments of the happy shining through them, she might feel less +pleasure in sitting by the pond from which she now so often surveys the +deserted mansion. This last gift, sir, moves my tears--yea, for all I +and mine have suffered from Hector Hayston." + +The agent had performed his duty, and departed with the promise that he +would, of his own accord, endeavour to prevail upon some of his +employers to grant her a cottage, if the purchaser of Whitecraigs should +resist an appeal for her to remain. He had no sooner gone, than the +stranger Wallace, who had heard the conversation, entered. He asked her +how much money Hector had sent as his last gift; and, on being +informed-- + +"That young man," he said, "has fallen a victim to the allurements of a +town life. The story of your daughter has been known to me; but I have +avoided the mention of the name of Hayston, which could only have +yielded pain without an amelioration of its cause. That gift speaks to +me volumes. Even fashion has not sterilized the heart of that young man. +He has erred--he may have transgressed--but for all, all, there is a +29th of September!" + +The allusion he thus made was as inscrutable as ever. Again she +reflected upon her husband's conduct upon that day of the year; and +again, as she had done a hundred times, searched the face of the +speaker. But she abstained from question; and the day passed, and others +came, till the eventful morning was ushered in by sunshine. Wallace was +up by times; and his prayers were heard directed to the Throne of Mercy, +in thanks and heart-expressed contrition. In the forenoon he went forth +with freedom, climbed the hills, and conversed with the anglers he met +on the Lyne. He seemed as if relieved from some weighty burden; and the +dame, who had carefully watched his motions, waited anxiously for the +secret. He had not, however, pledged himself to reveal it on that day. +He had only said that all would be made known some time after the day +had passed; and, accordingly, he made no declaration. Yet, at bedtime, +he was again engaged in prayers, and even during the night he was heard +muttering expressions of thanksgiving to the Author of the day, and what +the day bringeth. + +On the following morning, he announced his intention of going to +Peebles, whither he was supposed to have gone before; but now his manner +of going was changed. He purposed taking the coach, which, as it passed +within some miles of Whitecraigs, he intended to wait for, and on +departing-- + +"You will not hear of me till to-morrow night," he said. "I can now face +man; would that I could with the same confidence hold up my countenance +to God. Alice Scott," he continued, as he looked to the girl, "I will +not forget you in my absence. Your day of sorrow has been long; but +there may yet be a 29th of September even to you." + +And, taking the maiden kindly in his arms, he whispered some words in +her ear, in which the magic syllables of a name she trembled to hear +were mixed. Her eyes exhibited a momentary brightness, a deep sigh +heaved her bosom, and again her head declined, with a whisper on her +lips--"Never, O never!" In a moment after, he was gone; and the widow +was left to ascertain from Alice what he had said, to bring again, even +for a moment, the blood to her cheek. + +On the day after, there was a crowd of people in the Town-Hall of +Peebles, and the auctioneer was reading aloud the articles of roup of +the lands of Whitecraigs. Mr. Colville was there in high hopes; but +there were others too, who seemed inclined to disappoint them. The +property was set up at the price of fifteen thousand pounds, and that +sum was soon offered by the holder of the mortgage. Other bodes quickly +followed, and a competition commenced, which soon raised the price to +eighteen thousand, at which it seemed to be destined to be given to +Haughton. The other competitors appeared timid; and several declared +themselves done, one by one, until no one was expected to advance a +pound higher. All was silence, save for the voice of the auctioneer; and +he had already begun his ominous once, twice, when a voice which had not +yet been heard, cried--"Eighteen thousand two hundred." The hammer was +suspended, and all eyes turned to view the doughty assailant, who would, +at the end of the day, vanquish the champion who had as yet retained the +field. Those eyes recognised in the bidder a man poorly clothed, and +more like an alms-seeker than the purchaser of an estate--no other was +that man than Mr. Wallace. The auctioneer looked at him; others looked +and wondered; and Haughton gloomed, as he advanced another hundred; and +that was soon followed by a hundred more, which led to a competition +that seemed to be embittered on the one part by pride and contempt, and +on the other by determination. Hundred upon hundred followed in rapid +succession, till Haughton gave up in despair, and a shout rung through +the hall as the hammer fell, and the estate was declared the property of +the humble stranger, whom no one knew, and whom no one would have +considered worth more than the clothes he carried on his back. A +certificate of a banker at Peebles--that he held in his hands funds, +belonging to the purchaser, of greater amount than the price--satisfied +the judge of the roup; and the party were divided in circles, conversing +on the strange turn which had been given to the sale of Whitecraigs. + +On the same night, Wallace returned to Homestead, and sat down +composedly to the humble meal that had been prepared for him by the +widow. Alice was in her usual seat; and the placidity of manner which +distinguished them from ordinary sufferers, spoke their usual obedience +to the Divine will. + +"This day the property of Whitecraigs has changed masters!" said he. + +"And who has purchased it?" inquired the mother. + +"He who is now sitting before you!" replied he. + +Alice turned her head to look at him; the mother sat mute with surprise; +while he rose and fastened the door. + +"It is even so," he continued, as he again sat down; "David Scott, the +brother of your husband, and the uncle of Alice, has this day purchased +Whitecraigs." + +A faint scream from the mother followed this announcement, and, +recovering herself, she again fixed her eyes on the stranger. + +"It is true," continued he; "I am the brother of your deceased husband. +For two years after you were married to Adam, you would, doubtless, hear +him speak of me, as then engaged in a calling of which I may now be +ashamed, for I was one of the most daring smugglers on the Solway. The +29th of September, 17--, dawned upon me, yet with hands unsullied in the +blood of man; but the sun of that day set upon me as proscribed by God +and my country. My name was read on the house walls, and execration +followed my steps, as I flew from cave to cave. Yet who could have told +that that day in which my evil spirit wrought its greatest triumph over +good, was that whose evening shades closed upon a repentant soul!" + +He paused, and placed his hand on his brow. + +"These things are to me as an old dream," replied the widow, looking +round her, as if in search of memorials of stationary space. "My husband +never afterwards mentioned your name, save to inform me that you had +died in the West Indies; yet now I see the import of his devotion, in +the coming round of the day that shamed the honest family to whom he +belonged." + +"And it was to save that shame, and to secure my safety under my assumed +name, that, after I flew to the islands of the west, I got intelligence +of my death sent to Scotland. What other than the issue of this day must +have been in the view of the great Disposer of events, when, in addition +to the grace He poured on the heart of the sinner, He invested the arm +that had been lifted against His creatures with the prosperity that +filled my coffers! But, alas! though I may have reason to trust to the +forgiveness of Heaven, that of man I may never expect." + +"And punishment still awaits you?" rejoined she. + +"No, no!" he cried, as he rose and placed his foot firmly on the floor. +"I am free--the heart may hate me, the tongue may scorn me, the hand may +point at me, but it dare not strike. On the 29th of September I was no +longer amenable to the laws for the crime which drove me to foreign +lands: twenty years free the culprit from the vengeance of man; the last +day of that period was the 29th of September--it is past; and now God is +my only judge." He again paused. "But I must live still as David +Wallace. The name of Scott shall not be sullied by me. As David Wallace +I have made my fortune, and as David Wallace made my supplications to +Heaven. By the same name I have bought Whitecraigs, and by that name I +shall make it over to one who may yet retrieve the honour of our humble +house--to Alice, who should, through other means, have been mistress. +Come to your natural protector, Alice, and tell him if you will consent +to be the lady of Whitecraigs." + +The girl, on whom the ordinary occurrences of life now seldom made any +impression, had listened attentively to the extraordinary facts and +intentions thus evolved; and, at his bidding, rose and stood by his +side. He took her hand, and looked into her face. + +"I knew," said he, "that I was pledged not to mention a certain name +while you were by; and I kept my word, with the exception of the whisper +I stole into your ear on the day I set out for Peebles. But things are +now changed. The rights of Whitecraigs are now in the act of being made +out in your name. Within a month you will be mistress of that mansion, +and of those green dells and hills you have loved to wander among in joy +and in sorrow. Now, will you answer me a question?" + +"I will!" she replied. + +"What would be your answer to Hector Hayston--who is now no longer a +husband, and no longer rich--were he to come to Whitecraigs and make +amends for all that is by and gone? Would you receive him kindly, or +turn him from the door of the house of his fathers?" + +The question was too sudden, or too touchingly devised. She looked for a +moment in his face, burst into tears, and hid her face in his breast. + +"Try her poor heart not thus!" cried the mother. "Time, that as yet has +done nothing but made ravages, may now, when things are so changed, work +miracles. Do not press the question. A woman and a mother knows better +than you can do what are now her feelings. The answer is not +asked--Alice, your uncle has taken back his question!" + +"I have--I have!" replied he, as he pressed her to his breast. "Look up, +my dear Alice. I have, in my pride and power, been hasty, and thought I +could rule the heart of woman as I have done my own, even in its +rebellion against God. I have yet all to learn of those secret workings +of the spirit, in all save repentance. I never myself knew what it was +to love, far less what it is to love and be forsaken. No more--no more. +I will not again touch those strings." + +And, rising hurriedly, he consigned the maid to her mother, and went +out, to afford her time to collect again her thoughts. During the +following week the furniture of Whitecraigs was disposed of by Mr. +Pringle, for behoof of the other creditors of Hayston, and purchased by +the uncle, who took another journey to Peebles, for the purpose of +negotiating the sale, and making further preparations for obtaining +entry. In a fortnight after, the keys were sent to Homestead by a +messenger, while the making up of the titles was in the course of +progress. It was no part of the intention of Wallace to reside in the +mansion-house: his object was still secrecy; and, though the form and +character of the transaction might lead ultimately to a discovery, he +cared not. By the prescription of the crime he had committed, he was +free from punishment; while, by retaining his name, and living +ostensibly in a humble condition, he had a chance of escaping a +detection of his true character, at the same time that he might, by +humility and good services, render himself more acceptable to that Great +Power whose servant he now considered himself to be. + +On the twenty-first day of October, the house of Whitecraigs was again +open. Servants had been procured from Peebles; the fires were again +burning; the wreaths of smoke again ascended from among the trees; and +life and living action were taking the place of desertedness. On the +forenoon of that day, Wallace took the two females from Homestead, and +conducted them, hanging on his arms, to their new place of residence. To +speak of feelings, where a change comprehended an entire revolution of +a life of habit, thought, and sentiment, would be as vain as +unintelligible. From that day, when the uncle had put the trying +question to his niece, a change might have been detected working a +gradual influence on her appearance and conduct. Might we say that hope +had again lighted her taper within the recesses where all had been so +long dreary darkness! The change would not authorize an affirmative--it +would have startled the ear that might have feared and yet loved the +sounds. One not less versed in human nature might be safer in the +construction derived from the new objects, new duties, new desires, new +thoughts, from all the thousand things that act on the mind in this +wonderful scene of man's existence; but would he be truer to the nature +of the heart that has once loved? We may be contented with a mean, where +extremes shoot into the darkness of our mysterious nature. Alice Scott +took in gradually the interests of her new sphere; did not despise the +apparel suited to it; did not reject the manners that adorned it; did +not turn a deaf ear or a dead eye to the eloquent ministers that lay +around amidst the beauties of Whitecraigs and hailed her as mistress, +where she was once a servant, if not a beggar. + +Meanwhile the house of Homestead was enlarged, to fit it as a residence +for the uncle. Mr. Pringle was continued agent for the proprietress of +Whitecraigs; and, while many, doubtless, speculated on a thousand +theories as to these strange occurrences, we may not deny to Hector +Hayston, wherever he was, or in whatever circumstances, some interest in +what concerned him so nearly as the disposal of his estate, and the +fortune of her by whom his first affections had been awakened. Neither +shall we say that Wallace and Pringle had not, too, their secret views +and understandings, and that the latter was not silent where the +interests of his old employer called for confidence. In all which we +may be justified by the fact that, one day, the agent of Whitecraigs +introduced to the bachelor of Homestead a young man: it was the former +proprietor of Whitecraigs. + +"It is natural, Mr. Wallace," said Mr. Pringle, "that one should wish to +revisit the scenes of his youth--especially," he added, with a smile, +"when these have been one's own property, come from prior generations, +and lost by the thoughtlessness of youth." + +"It is," replied Wallace, renouncing his usual gravity, "even though +there should be no one there who might claim the hand of old friendship. +But this young man has only, as yet, seen the hill-tops of his father's +lands; and these claim no seclusion from the eye of the traveller. He +might wish, with greater ardency, to see the bed where his mother lay +when she bore him, or the cradle (which may still be in the house) where +she rocked him to sleep." + +"God be merciful to me!" replied the youth, as he turned away his head. +"This man touches strings whose vibrations harrow me. Sir," he added, +"were you ever yourself in the situation of him whose feelings you have +thus, from good motives, quickened so painfully?" + +"What Whitecraigs and she who lives now in the house yonder were or are +to you, Scotland and my kindred were to me; but the house where I was +born knows me not, and the bed and the cradle do not own me. But Alice +Scott recognised me as a fellow-creature, whatever more I say not; and +even that, from one so good, and, even yet, so beautiful--is something +to live for. No more. I know all. Will you risk a meeting?" + +"Mr. Pringle will answer for me," replied he, as he turned, with a full +heart, to the window. + +"And I will answer for Mr. Pringle," said Wallace. + +"But who will answer for _her_?" rejoined the other. + +"Stay there," said Wallace. "I will return in a few minutes." + +And, bending his steps to Whitecraigs House, he was, for a time, engaged +with Alice and her mother. He again returned to Homestead; and, in a few +minutes after, the three were walking towards the mansion. The eye of +the young man glanced furtively from side to side, as if to catch +glimpses of old features which had become strange to him; but in the +direction of the house he seemed to have no power to look--lagging +behind, and displaying an anxiety to be concealed, by the bodies of the +others, from the view of the windows. On arriving at the house, Wallace +and Pringle went into an apartment where the mother was seated. Hector +stood in the passage: he feared that Alice was there, and would not +enter. + +"Think you," whispered Wallace, quickly returning to him, "that I, whom +you accused of touching tender chords, am so little acquainted with +human nature as to admit of witnesses to your meeting with Alice Scott? +There, the green parlour in the west wing," he continued, pointing up +the inside stair to a room well known to the youth. "If you cannot +effect it, who may try? Go--go!" + +"I cannot--I cannot!" he replied, in deep tones. "My feet will not carry +me. That room was my mother's favourite parlour. A thousand associations +are busy with me. And now, who sits there?" + +"Come, come!" said Pringle, as he came forth, in consequence of hearing +Hayston's irresolution. "What did you expect on coming here? Alice to +come and fly to you with open arms?" + +"No, sir; to reject me with a wave of disdain!" replied the youth. "I am +smitten from within, and confidence has left me. Let me see her mother +first. My cruelty to her has been mixed with kindness, and she may give +me some heart." + +And he turned to the apartment where the mother sat. + +"Your confidence will not be restored by anything the mother can say!" +rejoined Pringle, who was getting alarmed for the success of his +efforts. "Alice is now mistress here, and must be won by contrition, and +a prayer for forgiveness." + +"Ho!" interjected Wallace. "To what tends this mummery? Must I take you +by the hand, and lead you to one who, for years, has seen you in every +flitting shade of the hills, and heard you in every note of the sighing +winds of the valley?" + +"To hate me as I deserve to be hated!" replied Hayston, still +irresolute. "None of you can give me any ground for hope, and seem to +push me on to experience a rejection which may seal my misery for ever!" + +Wallace smiled in silence, beckoned Pringle into the room beside the +mother, and taking Hayston by the arm, with a show of humour that +accorded but indifferently with the real anguish of doubt and dismay by +which the young man's mind was occupied, forced him on to the first step +of the inside stair. + +"You are now fairly committed!" said he, smiling; "to retreat, is ruin; +to advance, happiness, and love, and peace." + +And he retreated to the room where Pringle was, leaving the youth to the +strength or weakness of his own resolution. His tread was now heard, +slow and hesitating, on the stair. Some time elapsed before the sound of +the opening door was heard; and that it remained for a time open, held +by the doubtful hand, might also have been observed. At last it was +shut; and quick steps on the floor indicated that the first look had not +been fraught with rejection. + +The party below were, meanwhile, speculating on the result of the +meeting. Even the mother was not certain that it would, at first, be +attended with success. Alice had yielded no consent; and it was only +from the mother's construction of her looks, that she had given her +authority for the interview. + +"All is now decided, for good or evil," said Wallace. "Go up stairs, and +bring us a report of the state of affairs." + +The mother obeyed; and, after a considerable time, returned, with her +eyes swimming in tears. + +"Is it so?" said her friend. "Is it really so? Has all my labour been +fruitless?" + +"No," replied she; "but I could not stand the sight. I found her lying +on the breast of Hector, sobbing out the sorrows of years. Her eyes have +been long dry. The heart is at last opened." + +"Too good a sight for me to lose," replied her friend. "For twenty years +I have only known the tears of penitence: I will now experience those +that flow from the happiness of others." + +And, with these words, he hurried up stairs. We would follow, but that +we are aware of the danger of treading ground almost forbidden to +inspiration. Within two hours afterwards, Hector Hayston and Alice Scott +were again among the glens of Whitecraigs, seeking out those places +where, before, they used to breathe the accents of a first affection. +The one had been true to the end; and the other had been false only to +learn the beauty of truth. We have given these details from a true +record, and have derived pleasure from the recollections they have +awakened; but we fairly admit, that we would yield one half of what we +have experienced of the good, to have marked that day the workings of +the retrieved spirit in the eyes, and speech, and manners of Alice +Scott. These are nature's true magic. The drooping flower that is all +but dead in the dry, parched soil, raises its head, takes on fresh +colours, and gives forth fresh odours, as the spring showers fall on its +withered leaves. Oh! there is a magic there that escapes not even the +eye of dull labour, retiring home sick of all but the repose he needs. +But the process in the frame that is the temple of beauty, worth, +intelligence, sensibility, rearing all in loveliness afresh, out of what +was deemed the ruins only of what is the greatest and best of God's +works--to see this, and to feel it, is to rejoice that we are placed in +a world that, with all its elements of vice and sorrow, is yet a place +where the good and the virtuous may find something analogous to that for +which the spirit pants in other worlds. + +Yet, though we saw it not, we have enough of the conception, through +fancy, to be thankful for the gift even of the _ideal_ of the good; and +here we are satisfied that we have more. Hector Hayston and Alice Scott +were married. David Wallace's history was long concealed, but curiosity +finally triumphed; yet with no effect calculated to impair the +equanimity of a mind which repentance, and a reliance on God's grace, +had long rendered independent of the opinions of men. He had wrought for +evil, and good came of it; and he lived long to see, in the house of +Whitecraigs, its master, mistress, and children, the benefits of the +prescription which the 29th of September effected--a principle of the +law of Scotland that was long deemed inconsistent with the good of the +land, but now more properly considered as being no less in unison with +the feelings of man than it is with divine mercy. + + + + +THE COUNTESS OF WISTONBURY. + + +In the summer of 1836 I had occasion to make a journey into Wiltshire, +in England. As the business that called me there, although of sufficient +importance to me, would have no interest whatever for the reader, I will +readily be excused, I dare say, from saying of what nature that business +was. It will more concern him, from its connection with the sequel, to +know that my residence, while in England, was in a certain beautiful +little village at the southern extremity of the shire above named, and +that mine host, during my stay there, was the worthy landlord of the +White Hart Inn, as intelligent and well-informed a man as it has often +been my good fortune to meet with. The nature of the business which made +me a guest of Michael Jones, left me a great deal more spare time than I +knew well what to do with. It hung heavy upon my hands; and my good +host, perceiving this, suggested a little excursion, which, he said, he +thought would dispose of one day, at any rate, agreeably enough. + +"I would recommend you, sir," he said, "to pay a visit to Oxton Hall, +the seat of the Earl of Wistonbury.[5] It is one of the finest +residences in England; and, as the family are not there just now, you +may see the whole house, both inside and outside. If you think of it, I +will give you a line to the butler, a very old friend of mine, and he +will be glad to show you all that's worth seeing about the place." + +[5] Under this name we choose, for obvious reasons, to conceal the real +one.--_Ed._ + +"How far distant is it?" I inquired. + +"Oh, not more than three miles and a half--little more than an hour's +easy walk," replied mine host. + +"Excellent!" said I; "thank you for the hint, landlord. Let me have the +introduction to the butler you spoke about, and I'll set off directly." + +In less than five minutes, a card, addressed to Mr. John Grafton, +butler, Oxton Hall, was put into my hands, and in two minutes more I was +on my way to the ancient seat of the Earls of Wistonbury. The directions +given me as to my route, carefully noted on my part, brought me, in +little more than an hour, to a spacious and noble gateway, secured by a +magnificent gate of cast-iron. This I at once recognised, from the +description given me by Mr. Jones, to be the principal entrance to Oxton +Hall. Satisfied that it was so, I unhesitatingly entered--and the house +of one of the proudest of England's aristocracy stood before me, in all +its lordly magnificence. A spacious lawn, of the brightest and most +beautiful verdure, dotted over with noble oaks, and tenanted by some +scores of fallow-deer, stretched far and wide on every side. In the +centre of this splendid park--such a park as England alone can +exhibit--arose the mansion-house, an ancient and stately pile, of great +extent and lofty structure. + +Having found the person to whose civilities I was recommended by mine +host of the White Hart--a mild and pleasant-looking old man, of about +seventy years of age--I put my credentials into his hands. On reading +it, the old man looked at me smilingly, and said that he would have much +pleasure in obliging his good friend Mr. Jones, by showing me all that +was worth seeing both in and about the house; and many things both +curious and rare, and, I may add, both costly and splendid, did I see +ere another hour had passed away; but fearing the reader's patience +would scarcely stand the trial of a description of them, I refrain from +the experiment, and proceed to say, that, just as our survey of the +house was concluded, my cicerone, as if suddenly recollecting himself, +said-- + +"By-the-by, sir, perhaps you would like to see the picture gallery, +although it is hardly worth seeing just now--most of the pictures having +been removed to our house in Grosvenor Square last winter; and, being in +this denuded state, I never think of showing it to visitors. There are, +however, a few portraits of different members of the family still left, +and these you may see if you have any curiosity regarding them." + +Such curiosity I avowed I felt, and was immediately conducted into the +presence of a number of the pictorial ancestry of the illustrious house +of Wistonbury. The greater part of the pictures had been removed, as my +conductor had informed me; but a few still remained scattered along the +lofty walls of the gallery. + +"That," said my cicerone, pointing to a grim warrior, clad from head to +heel in a panoply of steel,--"that is Henry, first Earl of Wistonbury, +who fell in Palestine during the holy wars; and this," directing my +attention to another picture, "is the grandfather of the present Earl." + +"A very handsome and pleasant-looking young man," said I, struck with +the forcible representation of these qualities which the painting +exhibited. + +"Ay," replied the old man, "and as good as he was handsome. He is the +pride of the house; and the country around yet rings with his name, +associated with all that is kind and charitable." + +"And who is this lovely creature?" said I, now pointing in my turn to +the portrait of a young female of the most exquisite beauty--the face +strikingly resembling some of the best executed likenesses of the +unfortunate Queen Mary--which hung beside that of the Good Earl of +Wistonbury, as the nobleman of whom my cicerone had just spoken was +called throughout the country. + +"That lady, sir," replied the latter, "was his wife--the Countess of +Wistonbury. She was one of the most beautiful women of her time; and, +like her husband, was beloved by all around her, for the gentleness of +her manners and benevolence of her disposition." + +"But what's this?" said I, advancing a little nearer the picture, to +examine something in her attire that puzzled me. "A Scotch plaid!" I +exclaimed in considerable surprise, on ascertaining that this was the +article of dress which had perplexed me. "Pray, what has the Scotch +plaid to do here? How happens it that we find a Countess of Wistonbury +arrayed in the costume of Caledonia?" + +"Why, sir, the reason is good--perfectly satisfactory," replied Mr. +Grafton, smilingly. "She was a native of that country." + +"Indeed!" said I. "A countrywoman of mine! Of what family?" added I. + +My conductor smiled. + +"Truly," said he, after a pause, "that is a question easier put than +answered." + +"What!" said I, "was she not of some distinguished house?" + +"By no means, sir," replied Mr. Grafton. "She was a person of the +humblest birth and station; but this did not hinder her from becoming +Countess of Wistonbury, nor from being one of the best as well as most +beautiful that ever bore the title." + +"Ah, ha!" said I to myself, "here's a story for the 'Tales of the +Borders.'" I did not say this to Mr. Grafton, however; but to him I did +say--"There must be some interesting story connected with this lady. The +history of her singular good fortune must be curious, and well worth +hearing." + +"Why, it certainly is," replied my conductor, with the air of one who, +while he cannot but acknowledge that there is interest in a certain +piece of information which he possesses, is yet so familiar with it +himself, has owned it so long, and communicated it so often, that his +feelings seem to belie his words--the former remaining unmoved by the +tale which the latter unfolds. "There is certainly something curious in +the Countess's story," said Mr. Grafton; "and, now that we have seen +everything that is worth seeing, if you will come with me to my little +refectory, I will tell you all about it over a tankard of fine old ale +and a slice of cold round." + +Need I say, good reader, that I at once and gladly accepted an +invitation that so happily combined the intellectual and the sensual? +You will give me credit for more sense; and the following story will +prove at once that your good opinion is not misplaced, that I must have +been an attentive listener, and, lastly, that I must be blessed with a +pretty retentive memory. I relate the story in my own way, but without +taking the slightest liberty with any single one of the details given me +by my informant, who, from having been upwards of forty-five years in +the service of the Earls of Wistonbury, and, during the greater part of +that time their principal and most confidential domestic, was minutely +and accurately informed regarding every remarkable event that had +occurred in the family for several generations back. + +"But, before we leave this part of the house," resumed Mr. Grafton, "be +so good as step with me a moment into this small room here, till I show +you a certain little article that cuts some figure in the story which I +shall shortly tell you." + +Saying this, he led the way into the small apartment he alluded to, and, +conducting me towards a handsome ebony or blackwood cabinet that +occupied one end of the room, he threw open its little folding doors, +and exhibited to me, not some rich or rare curiosity, as I had expected, +but a small, plain, very plain--or I should, perhaps, rather say very +coarse--country-looking, blue-painted chest. + +"Do you see that little chest, sir?" said Mr. Grafton, smilingly. + +"I do," said I; "and it seems a very homely article to be so splendidly +entombed, and so carefully kept." + +"Yet," replied Mr. Grafton, "homely as it is, and small as is its +intrinsic value, that is one of the heir-looms of the family, and one of +the most fondly-cherished of them all." + +"Indeed!" said I, in some surprise. "Then I am very sure it cannot be +for its marketable worth. It wouldn't bring sixpence." + +"I verily believe it would not," replied Mr. Grafton. "Yet the Earl of +Wistonbury would not part with that little chest for a good round sum, I +warrant ye." + +"Pray, explain, my good sir." + +"I will. That little, blue-painted chest contained all the worldly +wealth--a few articles of female dress--of the lady whose portrait you +were just now so much admiring, when she became Countess of Wistonbury." + +"Why, then," said I, "that is proof that riches, at any rate, had +nothing to do with her promotion to that high rank." + +"They certainly had not," replied my aged friend. "But all this you will +learn more particularly in the story which I shall tell you presently. +You will then learn, also, how the little, blue-painted chest comes to +figure in the history of a countess." + +Saying this, Mr. Grafton shut the doors of the cabinet, when we left the +apartment, and, in a few minutes after, I found myself in what my worthy +old host called his refectory. This was a snug little room, most +comfortably furnished, and in which I observed a very large quantity of +silver plate,--being, I presumed, the depository of that portion of the +family's wealth. My good old friend now rung his bell, when a female +servant appeared. + +"Let's have summut to eat, Betsy," said the old man; and never was order +more promptly or more effectively obeyed. + +In an instant the table, which occupied the centre of the floor, +absolutely creaked under the load of good things with which it was +encumbered. The "slice of cold round," I found, was but a _nomme de +guerre_ with the old man, and meant everything in the edible way that +was choice and savoury. To this conclusion I came from seeing the table +before me covered with a great variety of good things, amongst which +rose, conspicuous in the centre, a huge venison pasty. When the +_loading_ of the table was completed, and the servant had retired-- + +"Now," said the old man, looking at me with a significant smile, and at +the same time drawing a bunch of small keys from his pocket, from which +he carefully singled out one, "since Betsy has done her part so well, +let me see if I can't do mine as creditably." + +Saying this, he opened what I thought a sly-looking little cupboard, and +brought forth from its mysterious recess an aristocratic-looking bottle, +sealed with black wax, and whose shoulders were still thickly coated +with sawdust. Handling this venerable bottle with a lightness and +delicacy of touch which a long practice only could have given, and with +a degree of reverence which an _à priori_ knowledge of its contents only +could have inspired, my worthy host tenderly brushed off its coating of +sawdust, gently inserted the screw, drew the cork, with a calm, +cautious, steady pull, and, in the next moment, had filled up two +brimmers of the finest old port that the cellars of Oxton Hall could +produce. Having done ample justice to the good things before us-- + +"Now, my good sir, the story, the story, if you please," said I. + +"Oh, to be sure," replied my kind host, smiling. "The story you shall +have. But first let us take another glass of wine, to inspire me with +fortitude to begin so long a story, and you with patience to listen to +it." + +The procedure thus recommended having been complied with, the good old +man immediately began:-- + +"About a hundred and thirteen years since," he said, "there lived in the +neighbourhood of one of the principal cities in Scotland, a farmer of +the name of Flowerdew. He was a man of respectable character, and of +sober and industrious habits. His family consisted only of himself, his +wife, and an only child--a daughter, named Jessy. Gentle and +affectionate, of the most winning manners, and surpassingly beautiful in +form and feature, Jessy was not only the darling of her father, but the +favourite character of the neighbourhood in which she lived. All yielded +the homage of admiration to her supreme loveliness, and of the tenderest +esteem to her worth. + +For many years, Jessy's father contrived, notwithstanding of an enormous +rent, to keep pace with the world, and eventually to raise himself a +little above it; but, in despite of all his industry and all his +prudence, reverses came. A succession of bad crops was followed by a +series of losses of various kinds, and James Flowerdew found himself a +ruined man. + +'It's not for myself I care,' said the honest man, when speaking one day +with his wife of the misfortunes which had overwhelmed them--'it's for +our puir bit lassie, guidwife. God help her! I thought to have left her +independent; but it's been ordained otherwise, and we must submit. But +what's to become of her I know not. Being brocht up a little abune the +common, she cannot be asked to enter into the service of ony o' our +neebors; yet, I see nae other way o't. It must come to that in the lang +run.' + +'I suppose it must, guidman--I suppose it must,' replied his wife, +raising the corner of her apron to her eye, and then bursting into +tears. 'My puir, dear, gentle lassie,' she exclaimed, 'it's a sad change +to her; but I ken she'll meet it cheerfully, and without repining. But, +guidman, if to service she must go, and I fancy there's little doot o' +that, wouldna it be better if we could get her into the service of some +respectable family in the toon, than to put her wi' ony o' our neebors, +where she might be reminded o' her fall, as they will call it?' + +'It's a good thought, Lizzy,' replied her husband, musingly, as he gazed +in sadness on the fire that burned before him. 'It's a good thought,' he +said. 'She will be there unknown, and her feelings saved from the taunts +of callous impertinence. I will think of it,' added Flowerdew. 'In the +meantime, guidwife, prepare Jessy, the best way you can, for the change +of situation in life which she is about to meet with. I canna do it. It +would break my heart a'thegither.' + +This painful task Mrs. Flowerdew undertook; and, as she expected, found +her daughter not only reconciled to the step which was proposed for her, +but eager and anxious to be put in a way of doing for herself, and, as +she fondly hoped and affectionately said, of aiding her parents. + +Shortly after this, the ruin which had overtaken James Flowerdew began +to present itself in its most instant and most distressing shapes. +Arrestments were laid on his funds in all quarters. Visits of messengers +were frequent, almost daily; and his whole stock and crop were +sequestrated by the landlord, and a day for the sale fixed. This last +was a sight from which Flowerdew anxiously wished to save his daughter, +and he meant to do so, if he could, by finding her 'a place' previous to +the day of sale. + +The duty of looking out for a situation for Jessy in town Flowerdew +took upon himself, from the circumstance of his having been in the habit +for many years of supplying a number of respectable families with the +produce of his farm, which he generally delivered himself, his simple +character and industrious habits not permitting him to see any +degradation in driving his own cart on these occasions. Flowerdew had +thus formed a personal acquaintance with many families of the better +class, which he thought might be useful to him in his present views. + +Amongst the oldest and most respected of his customers was a learned +professor, whom, to avoid what might be an inconvenient identification +of circumstances, we shall call Lockerby. With this gentleman Flowerdew +resolved to begin his inquiries respecting a situation for his daughter. +He did so, and on being introduced to him, explained the purpose of his +visit. + +'Dear me, Mr. Flowerdew!' said the worthy professor, in surprise at the +application, 'I thought--I all along thought, that your circumstances +would entitle your daughter, whose modesty of demeanour and great beauty +of person I have had frequent opportunities of admiring--she having +called here frequently, as you know, on various occasions connected with +our little traffic--I say, I thought your circumstances would entitle +your daughter to look for something higher than the situation of a +domestic servant.' + +'I once thought so myself, professor,' replied Mr. Flowerdew, with a +tear standing in his eye; 'but it has turned out otherwise. The truth +is, that I have lately met with such reverses as have entirely ruined +me. I am about to be ejected from my farm, and must betake myself to +daily labour for a subsistence. In this explanation you will see the +reason why I apply to you for a situation in your family for my +daughter.' + +'Too clearly--too clearly,' replied the worthy professor sincerely +grieving for the misfortunes of a man whom he had long known, and whose +uprightness of conduct and character he had long appreciated. 'I am +seriously distressed, Mr. Flowerdew,' he added, 'to learn all +this--seriously distressed, indeed; but, in the meantime, let us consult +Mrs. Lockerby on the subject of your present visit.' And he rang the +bell, and desired the servant who answered it, to request his wife to +come to him. She came, and on being informed of Mr. Flowerdew's +application in behalf of his daughter, at once agreed to receive her +into her service; adding, that she might, if she chose, enter on her +duties immediately. It was finally arranged that Jessy should take +possession of her situation on the following day. + +Highly gratified at having got admission for his daughter into so worthy +and respectable a family, Flowerdew returned home with a lighter heart +than he had possessed for some time before. He felt that his Jessy was +now, in a manner, provided for; and that, although the situation was a +humble one, and far short of what he had once expected for her, it was +yet a creditable one, and one presenting no mean field for the exercise +of some of the best qualities which a woman can possess. + +Equally pleased with her father at the opening that had been found for +her, the gentle girl lost no time in making such preparations as the +impending change in her position in life rendered necessary. Part of +these preparations, all cheerfully performed, consisted in packing a +small trunk with her clothes, and in other procedures of a similar kind. +In this employment her mother endeavoured to assist her, but was too +much affected by the sadness of the task to afford any very efficient +aid, although her daughter did all she could, by assuming a +light-heartedness which she could not altogether feel, to assuage the +grief to which her mother was every moment giving way. + +'Why grieve yourself in that way, mother?' she would say, pausing in her +operations, and flinging her arms around her parent's neck. 'I assure +you I am happy at the prospect of being put in a way of doing for +myself; I consider it no hardship--not in the least. I will take a pride +in discharging my new duties faithfully and diligently; and I hope that, +even in the humble sphere in which I am about to move, I shall contrive +to make myself both esteemed and respected.' + +'_That_ I dinna doubt--that I dinna doubt, my dear lassie,' replied her +mother; 'but, oh, it goes to my heart to see you gaun into the service +o' ithers. I never expected to see the day. Oh, this is a sad change +that's come over us a'!' And again the poor woman burst into a paroxysm +of grief. + +'Mother,' said the girl, 'you will dishearten me if you go on in this +way.' Then smiling through the tears of affection that glistened on her +eye, and assuming a tone of affected cheerfulness, 'Come now, dear +mother, do drop this desponding tone. There's better days in store for +us yet. We'll get above all this by-and-by. In the meantime it is our +duty, as Christians, to submit to the destiny that has been decreed us +with patience and resignation. Come, mother, I'll sing you the song you +used always to like so well to hear me sing.' And, without waiting for +any remark in reply, or pausing in her employment, the girl immediately +began, in a voice whose richness of tone and deep pathos possessed the +most thrilling power:-- + + 'A cheerfu' heart's been always mine, + Whatever might betide me, O! + In foul or fair, in shade or shine, + I've aye had that to guide me, O! + + When luck cam chappin' at my door, + Wi' right goodwill I cheered him, O! + And whan misfortune cam, I swore + The ne'er a bit I feared him, O!' + +'O lassie, lassie!' exclaimed Jessy's mother, here interrupting her, and +now smiling as she spoke--'how can ye think o' singing at such a time? +But God lang vouchsafe ye sae light and cheerfu' a heart! It's a great +blessing, Jessy, and canna be prized too highly.' + +'I'm aware of it, mother,' replied her daughter, 'and am, I trust, +thankful for it. I dinna see, after a', that anything should seriously +distress us--but guilt. If we keep free o' _that_, what hae we to fear? +A' ither mischances will mend, or if they dinna, they'll at least smooth +doon wi' time.' + +'But why are ye no puttin' up your silk goun, Jessy?' here interposed +her mother, abruptly; seeing her daughter laying aside the article of +dress she referred to, as if she did not intend it should have a place +in the little chest she was packing. + +'The silk gown, mother, I'll no tak wi' me,' replied Jessy, smiling; +'I'll leave't at hame till better times come roun'. It would hardly +become my station now, mother, to be gaun flaunting about in silks.' + +'Too true, Jessy,' said her mother with a sigh. 'It may be as weel, as +ye say, to leave't at hame for a wee, till times mend wi' us at ony +rate, although God only knows when that may be, if ever.' + +'I'll keep it for my wedding gown, mother,' said Jessy, laughingly, and +with an intention of counteracting the depressing tendency of her +inadvertent remarks on the propriety of her leaving her silk gown +behind. 'I'll keep it for my wedding dress, mother,' she said, 'although +it's mair than likely that a plainer attire will be mair suitable for +that occasion too.' + +'Nae sayin', Jessy,' replied her mother. 'Ye'll maybe get a canny laird +yet, that can ride to market wi' siller spurs on his boots and gowd lace +on his hat.' + +'Far less will please me, mither,' replied Jessy, blushing and laughing +at the same time. 'I never, even in our best days, looked so high, and +it would ill become me to do so now.' + +With such conversation as this did mother and daughter endeavour to +divert their minds from dwelling on the painful reflection which the +latter's occupation was so well calculated to excite. + +An early hour of the following morning saw Jessy Flowerdew seated in a +little cart, well lined with straw by her doting father, who proposed +driving her himself into the city. A _small, blue-painted chest_, a +bandbox, and one or two small bundles, formed the whole of her +travelling accompaniments. She herself was wrapped in a scarlet mantle, +and wore on her head a light straw bonnet, of tasteful shape, and +admirably adapted to the complexion and contour of the fine countenance +which it gracefully enclosed. + +After a delay of a few minutes--for the cart in which Jessy was seated +was still standing at the door--her father, dressed in his Sunday's +suit, came out of the house, stepped up to the horse's head, took the +reins in his hand, and gently put in motion the little humble conveyance +which was to bear his daughter away from the home of her childhood, and +to place her in the house of the stranger. Unable to sustain the agony +of a last parting, Jessy's mother had not come out of the house to see +her daughter start on her journey; but she was seen, when the cart had +proceeded a little way, standing at the door, with her apron at her +eyes, looking after it with an expression of the most heartfelt sorrow. + +'There's my mother, father,' said Jessy, in a choking voice, on getting +a sight of the former in the affecting attitude above described--but she +could add no more. In the next instant her face was buried in her +handkerchief. Her father turned round on her calling his attention to +her mother, but instantly, and without saying a word, resumed the +silent, plodding pace which the circumstance had for a moment +interrupted. + +In little more than an hour the humble equipage, whose progress we have +been tracing, entered the city. Humble, however, as that equipage was, +it did not prevent the passers-by from marking the singular beauty of +her by whom it was occupied. Many were they who looked round, and stood +and gazed in admiration after the little cart and its occupant, as they +rattled along the 'stony street.' Their further progress, however, was +now a short one. In a few minutes Flowerdew and his daughter found +themselves at the professor's door. The former now tenderly lifted out +Jessy from the cart--for her sylph-like form, so light and slender, was +nothing in the arms of the robust farmer--and placed her in safety on +the flag-stones. Her little trunk and bandbox were next taken out by the +same friendly hand, and deposited beside her. This done, Flowerdew +rapped at the professor's door. It was opened. The father and daughter +entered; and, in an hour after--long before which her father had left +her--the latter was engaged in the duties of her new situation. + +Days, weeks, and months, as they will always do, now passed away, but +they still found Jessy in the service of her first employers, whose +esteem she had gained by the gentleness of her nature, the modesty of +her demeanour, and the extreme propriety of her conduct. + +At the time of her first entering into the service of Professor +Lockerby, Jessy Flowerdew had just completed her sixteenth year. The +charms of her person had not then attained their full perfection. But +now that two years more had passed over her head--for this interval must +be understood to have elapsed before we resume our tale--her face and +figure had attained the zenith of their beauty, a beauty that struck +every beholder, and in every beholder excited feelings of unqualified +admiration. + +It was about the end of two years after Jessy's advent into the family +of the professor, that the latter one morning, raising his head from a +letter which he had just been reading, and, turning to the former, who +was in the act of removing the breakfast equipage, said-- + +'Jessy, my girl, will you be so good as put the little parlour and +bedroom up stairs in the best order you can, as I expect a young +gentleman to-morrow, who is to become a boarder with us.' + +Jessy courtseyed her acquiescence in the order just given her, and +retired from the apartment to fulfil it. + +On the following day a travelling carriage, whose panels were adorned +with a coronet, drove up to the door of Professor Lockerby. From this +carriage descended a young man, apparently between nineteen and twenty +years of age, of the most prepossessing appearance. His countenance was +pale, but bore an expression of extreme mildness and benevolence. His +figure was tall and slender, but handsomely formed; while his whole +manner and bearing bespoke the man of high birth and breeding. + +On descending from his carriage, the young man was received by the +professor with the most respectful deference--too respectful it seemed +to be for the taste of him to whom it was addressed, for he instantly +broke through the cold formality of the meeting, by grasping the +professor's hand, and shaking it with the heartiest and most cordial +goodwill, saying while he did so-- + +'I hope I see you well, professor.' + +'In perfect health, I thank you, my lord,' replied the professor. 'I +hope you left your good lady mother, the countess, well.' + +'Quite well--I'm obliged to you, professor--as lively and stirring, and +active as ever. Hot and hasty, and a little queenly in her style now and +then, as you know, but still the open heart and the open hand of the +Wistonburys.' + +'I have the honour of knowing the countess well, my lord,' replied the +professor, 'and can bear testimony to the nobleness of her nature and +disposition. I have known many, many instances of it.' + +With such conversation as this, the professor and his noble boarder--for +such was the young man whom we have just introduced to the +reader--entered the house. Who this young man was, and what was his +object in taking up his abode with Professor Lockerby, we will explain +in a few words, although such explanation is rendered in part nearly +unnecessary by the conversation just recorded between him and the +professor. It may not be amiss, however, to say, in more distinct terms, +that he was the Earl of Wistonbury, a rank which he had attained just a +year before, by the sudden and premature death of his father, who died +in the forty-fifth year of his age. Since his accession to the title of +his ancestors, the young earl had continued to live in retirement with +his mother, a woman of a noble, elevated, and generous soul, well +becoming her high lineage--for she, too, was descended of one of the +noblest families in England--but in whose temper there was occasionally +made visible a dash of the leaven of aristocracy. + +On her son, the young earl, her only surviving child, she doted with all +the affection of the fondest and tenderest of mothers; and well worthy +was that son of all the love she could bestow. His was one of those +natures which no earthly elevation can corrupt, no factitious system +deprive of its innate simplicity. + +The promotion of the young earl to the head of his illustrious house, +was, however, a premature one in more respects than one. One of these +was to be found in the circumstance of the young man's being found +unprepared--at least so he judged himself--in the matter of education, +to fill with credit the high station to which he was so unexpectedly +called. His education, in truth, had been rather neglected; and it was +to make up for this neglect, to recover his lost ground with all the +speed possible, that he was now come to reside for a few months with +Professor Lockerby, who had once acted as tutor in his father's family +to a brother who had died young. + +Such, then, was the professor's boarder, and such was the purpose for +which he became so. + +The favourable impression which the youthful earl's first appearance had +made, suffered no diminution by length of acquaintance. Mild and +unpresuming, he won the love of all who came in contact with him. The +little personal services he required, he always solicited, never +commanded; and what he could with any propriety do himself, he always +did, without seeking other assistance. + +A quiet and unostentatious inmate of the professor's, time rolled +rapidly, but gently and imperceptibly, over the head of the young earl, +until a single week only intervened between the moment referred to, and +the period fixed on for his return to Oxton Hall. + +Thus, nearly six months had elapsed, not a very long period, but one in +which much may be accomplished, and in which many a change may take +place. And by such features were the six months marked, which the young +Earl of Wistonbury had spent in the house of Professor Lockerby. In that +time, by dint of unrelaxing assiduity and intense application, he had +acquired a respectable knowledge of both Latin and Greek, and in that +time, too, he had taken a step which was to affect the whole tenor of +his after life, and to make him either happy or miserable, as it had +been fortunately or unfortunately made. What that step was we shall +divulge, through precisely the same singular process by which it +actually came to the knowledge of the other parties interested. + +One evening, at the period to which we a short while since +alluded--namely, about a week previous to the expiry of the proposed +term of the earl's residence with Professor Lockerby--as Jessy Flowerdew +was about to remove the tea equipage from the table of the little +parlour in which the professor and his noble pupil usually conducted +their studies, the latter suddenly rose from his seat, and, looking at +their fair handmaiden with a serious countenance, said-- + +'Jessy, my love, you must not perform this service again, nor any other +of a similar kind. You are now my wife--you are now Countess of +Wistonbury.' + +We leave it to the reader to imagine, after his own surprise has a +little subsided, what was that of the worthy professor, on hearing his +noble pupil make so extraordinary, so astounding a declaration--a +declaration not less remarkable for its import, than for the occasion on +which, and the manner in which it was made. + +On recovering from his astonishment, 'My lord,' said the good professor, +with a grave and stern countenance, 'be good enough to inform me what +this extraordinary conduct means? What can have been your motive, my +lord, for using the highly improper and most unguarded language which I +have just now heard you utter?' + +The young earl, with the greatest calmness and deference of manner, +approached the professor, laid his hand upon his heart, and, with a +graceful inclination, said, slowly and emphatically-- + +'Upon my honour, sir, she _is_ my wife!' + +'What, my lord!' exclaimed the still more and more amazed professor--and +now starting from his chair in his excitation--'do you repeat your most +unbecoming and incredible assertion?' + +'I do, sir,' replied the earl, in the same calm and respectful manner. +'I do repeat it, and say, before God, that Jessy Flowerdew is the +lawfully married wife of the Earl of Wistonbury.' + +'Well, my lord, well,' said the professor, in angry agitation, 'I know +what is my duty in this most extraordinary case. It is to give instant +notice to the countess, your mother, of what I must call, my lord, the +extremely rash and unadvised step you have taken.' + +To this threat and rebuke, the earl replied, with the utmost composure +and politeness of manner--'I was not unprepared, sir, for your +resentment on this occasion. Neither do I take it in the least amiss. +You merely do your duty when you tell me I have forgotten mine. But the +step I have taken, sir, allow me to say, although it may appear +unadvised, has not been so in reality. I have weighed well the +consequences, and am quite prepared to abide them.' + +'Be it so, my lord, be it so,' replied the professor. 'I have only now +to remark that, as you say you were prepared for _my_ resentment, I hope +you are also prepared for your mother's, my lord--a matter of much more +serious moment.' + +'My mother, sir, I will take in my own hands,' replied the earl; 'she +can resent, but she can also forgive.' + +'I have no more to say, my lord, no more,' rejoined Mr. Lockerby; 'the +matter must now be put into the hands of those who have a better right +to judge of its propriety than I have. I shall presume on no further +remark on the subject.' + +'Come, sir,' said the earl, smiling and extending his hand to the +professor, 'let this, if you please, be no cause for difference between +us. I propose that we allow the matter to lie in abeyance until my +mother has been appealed to; she being the only person, you know, who +has a right to be displeased with my proceeding, or whose wishes I was +called upon to consult in this matter.' + +'Excuse me, my lord,' replied the worthy professor; 'but I must +positively decline all interchange of courtesies which may, by any +possibility, be construed into an overlooking of this very extraordinary +affair.' + +'Well, well, my good sir,' said the earl, smiling, and still maintaining +the equanimity of his temper, 'judge of me as charitably as you can. In +the morning, we shall meet, I trust, better friends.' Saying this, he +took up one of the candles which were on the table before him, bade the +professor a polite and respectful good night, and retired to his own +apartment. + +The earl had no sooner withdrawn than Mr. Lockerby, after collecting +himself a little, commenced inditing a letter to the Countess Dowager of +Wistonbury, apprising her of what had just occurred. In speaking, +however, of the 'degrading' connection which her son had made, the +honest man's sense of justice compelled him to add a qualifying +explanation of the term which he had employed--'degrading, I mean,' he +said, '_in point of wealth, rank, and accomplishments_; for, in all +other respects, in conduct and character, in temper and disposition, +and, above all, in personal appearance--for she is certainly eminently +beautiful--I must admit that her superior may not easily be found.' + +The letter that contained these remarks, with the other information +connected with it, the professor despatched on the same night on which +it was written; and, having done this, awaited with what composure and +fortitude he could command, the dreadful explosion of aristocratic wrath +and indignation, which, he had no doubt, would speedily follow. + +Leaving matters in this extraordinary position in the house of Professor +Lockerby we shall shift the scene, for a moment, to the Countess +Dowager of Wistonbury's sitting apartment in Oxton Hall; and we shall +choose the moment when her favourite footman, Jacob Asterley, has +entered her presence, after his return from a call at the post-office in +the neighbouring village; the time being the second day after the +occurrence just previously related--namely, the despatch to Oxton Hall +of Professor Lockerby's letter. + +'Well, Jacob, any letters for me to-day?' said the countess, on the +entrance of that worthy official. + +'One, my lady, from Scotland,' replied the servant, deferentially, and, +at the same time, opening the bag in which the letters were usually +carried to and from the post-house. + +'Ah! from the earl,' said the countess. + +'No, my lady, I rather think not. The address is not in his lordship's +handwriting.' + +'Oh! the good Professor Lockerby,' said the countess, contemplating for +a moment the address of the letter in question, which was now in her +ladyship's hands. 'I hope nothing unpleasant has occurred to my son.' +And while she spoke, she hurriedly broke the seal, and, in the next +instant, was intently engaged in perusing the intelligence which it had +secured from the prying curiosity of parties whom it did not concern. + +It would take a much abler pen than that now employed in tracing these +lines, to convey anything like an adequate idea of the mingled +expression of amazement, indignation, and grief exhibited on the +countenance, and in every act and attitude of the proud Countess of +Wistonbury, on reading the story of her son's degradation. The flush of +haughty resentment was succeeded by the sudden paleness of despair; and +in frequent alternation did these strong expressions of varied feeling +flit across the fine countenance--still fine, although it had looked on +fifty summers--of the heart-stricken mother, as she proceeded in her +perusal of the fatal document. On completing the perusal, the countess +threw herself in silent distraction on a sofa, and, still holding the +open letter in her hand, sank into a maze of wild and wandering +thoughts. These, however, seemed at length to concentrate in one +decisive and sudden resolution. Starting from the reclining posture into +which she had thrown herself, she advanced towards the bell-pull, rung +furiously, and, when the servant entered to know what were her +commands-- + +'Order the travelling carriage instantly, Jacob,' she said--'instantly, +instantly; and let four of my best horses be put in the harness. What do +you stare at, fool?' she added, irritated at the look of astonishment +which the inexplicable violence of her manner had called into the +countenance of her trusty domestic. 'Do as you are ordered, directly.' +The man bowed and withdrew; and in pursuance of the commands he had +received, proceeded to the stables. + +'Here's a start, Thomas!' he said, addressing a jolly-looking fellow, +who was busily employed in brushing up some harness; 'the travelling +carriage directly, and four of your best horses for my lady.' + +'Why, what the devil's the matter now?' replied Thomas, pausing in his +operations; 'where's the old girl a-going to?' + +'Not knowing, can't say,' replied Jacob; 'but she's in a woundy fuss, I +warrant you. Never seed her in such a quandary in my life. Something's +wrong somewhere, I guess.' + +'Well, well, all's one to me,' said Thomas, with philosophical +indifference; 'but it looks like a long start, where-ever it may be to; +so I'll get my traps in order.' And this duty was so expeditiously +performed, that, in less than fifteen minutes, the very handsome +travelling carriage of the Earl of Wistonbury, drawn by four spanking +bays, flashed up to the door of Oxton Hall. In an instant after, it was +occupied by the dowager countess, and in another, was rattling away for +Scotland, at the utmost speed of the noble animals by which it was +drawn. + +Changing here, once more, the scene of our story, we return to the house +of Professor Lockerby. There matters continued in that ominous state of +quiescence, that significant and portentous calm, that precedes the +bursting of the storm. Between the professor and the young earl, not a +word more had passed on the subject of the latter's extraordinary +declaration. Neither had made the slightest subsequent allusion to it, +but continued their studies precisely as they had done before; although, +perhaps, a degree of restraint--a consciousness of some point of +difference between them--might now be discerned in their correspondence. +Both, in short, seemed to have tacitly agreed to abide the result of the +professor's letter to the countess, before taking any other step, or +expressing any other feeling, on the subject to which that letter +related. The anticipated crisis which the professor and his noble pupil +were thus composedly awaiting, soon arrived. On the third day after that +remarkable one on which the young Earl of Wistonbury had avowed the +humble daughter of an humble Scotch farmer to be his wife, a carriage +and four, which, we need scarcely say, was the same we saw start from +Oxton Hall, drove furiously up to the door of Professor Lockerby. The +horses' flanks sent forth clouds of smoke; their mouths and +fore-shoulders were covered with foam; and the carriage itself was +almost encased in mud. Everything, in short, told of a long and rapid +journey. And it was so. Night and day, without one hour's intermission, +had that carriage prosecuted its journey. In an instant after, the +carriage stopped; its steps were down, and, bridling with high and lofty +indignation, the Dowager Countess of Wistonbury descended, and, ere any +one of the professor's family were aware of her arrival, she had entered +the house, the door being accidentally open, and was calling loudly for +'her boy.' + +'Where is my son?' she exclaimed, as she made her way into the interior +of the house: 'where is the Earl of Wistonbury?' + +In a moment after the Earl of Wistonbury, who had heard and instantly +recognized his mother's voice, was before her, and was about to rush +into her arms, when she haughtily thrust him back, saying-- + +'Degraded, spiritless boy, dare not too approach me! You have blotted +the noblest, the proudest scutcheon of England. Where is Professor +Lockerby?' + +The professor was by her side before she had completed the sentence, +when, seeing her agitation-- + +'My good lady,' he said, in his most persuasive tone, 'do allow me to +entreat of you to be composed, and to have the honour of conducting you +up stairs.' + +'Anywhere!--anywhere, professor!' exclaimed the countess; 'but, alas! go +where I will, I cannot escape the misery of my own thoughts, nor the +disgrace which my unworthy son has brought upon my head.' + +Without making any reply to this outburst of passionate feeling, the +professor took the countess respectfully by the hand, and silently +conducted her to his drawing-room. With stately step the countess +entered, and walked slowly to the further end of the apartment; this +gained, she turned round, and, when she had done so, a sight awaited her +for which she was but little prepared. This was her son and Jessy +Flowerdew, kneeling side by side, and, by their attitude, eloquently +imploring her forgiveness. It was just one of those sights best +calculated to work on the nobler nature of the Countess of Wistonbury, +and to call up the finer feelings of her generous heart. For some +seconds she looked at the kneeling pair in silent astonishment; her eye, +however, chiefly fixed on the beauteous countenance of Jessy Flowerdew, +pale with terror and emotion, and wet with tears. Having gazed for some +time on this extraordinary sight, without betraying the slightest +symptom of the feelings beyond that of surprise, with which it had +inspired her, the countess slowly advanced towards the kneeling couple. +She still, however, uttered no word, and discovered no emotion; but a +sudden change had come over her proud spirit. That spirit was now laid, +and its place occupied by all the generous impulses of her nature. +Keeping her eye steadily fixed on the kneeling fair one before her, she +approached her, paused a moment, extended her hand, placed it on the +ivory forehead of Jessy Flowerdew, gently laid back her rich auburn +hair, and, as she did so, said, in a tremulous, but emphatic voice-- + +'You _are_, indeed, a lovely girl! God bless you! Alfred, my son, rise,' +she added, in a low, but calm and solemn tone; 'I forgive you.' And she +extended her hand towards him. The earl seized it, kissed it +affectionately, and bathed it with his tears. + +'Rise, my lady--rise, my fair Countess of Wistonbury,' she now said, and +herself aiding in the act she commanded, 'I acknowledge you as my +daughter, and we must now see to fitting you to the high station to +which my son's favour has promoted you, and of which, I trust, you will +prove as worthy in point of conduct as you assuredly already are in that +of personal beauty. God bless you both! And may every happiness that the +conjugal state affords, be yours! Professor,' she added, and now turning +round to that gentleman, 'you will think this weakness--a mother's +weakness--and perhaps it is so--but I would myself fain attribute it to +a more worthy feeling, and, if I know my own heart, it is so. But let +that pass. I _am_ reconciled to the step my son has taken, and +reverently leave it to God, and fearlessly to man, to judge of the +motives by which I have been influenced. I trust they are such as to +merit the approbation of both.' + +Surprised, and greatly affected by the unexpected turn which matters had +taken, so contrary to what he had anticipated, the worthy professor had +listened to these expressions of the countess with averted head, and +making the most ingenious use of the handkerchief which he held to his +face that he could, to conceal the real purpose for which he employed +it. When she had done-- + +'Madam,' he said, with great agitation and confusion of manner, and +still busily plying the handkerchief in its pretended vocation--'Madam, +I--I--I am surprised--much affected, I assure you--much affected, my +lady--with this striking instance of what a noble and generous nature is +capable. I was by no means prepared for it. It does you infinite honour, +my lady--infinite honour; and will, I trust, in its result, be +productive of all that happiness to you which your magnanimous conduct +so eminently deserves.' + +'I trust I have acted rightly, professor,' was the brief reply of the +countess, as she again turned to the young couple, who were now standing +on the floor beside her, 'I hope I have; and, if my heart does not +deceive me, I am sure I have.' + +'You are warranted, my lady, in the confidence you express in the +uprightness, the generosity of your conduct on this very remarkable +occasion--perfectly warranted,' replied the professor. 'It is an +unexampled instance of greatness, of liberality of mind, and as such I +must always look on it.' + +Thus, then, terminated this extraordinary scene. It was subsequently +arranged that the marriage of the earl should, in the meantime, be kept +as secret as possible, and that the young countess should, in the +interim, be sent for a year or two to one of the most celebrated +seminaries of female education in England, under an assumed name, and +that, when she should have acquired the attainments and the polish +befitting her high station, she should be produced to the world as the +Countess of Wistonbury. + +Acting upon this plan of proceedings, the same carriage that brought +down the earl's mother, bore away, on the following day, together with +that lady, the young earl and his bride; the latter, to commence her +educational noviciate in England; the former, to while away the time as +he best could until that noviciate should expire, a period which he +proposed to render less irksome by a tour on the continent. + +About two years after the occurrence of the events just related--it +might be more, perhaps nearly three--Oxton Hall presented a scene of +prodigious confusion and bustle. Little carts of provender were daily +seen making frequent visits to the house. Huge old grates, in deserted +kitchens, that had not been in use for a century before, were cleared of +their rubbish, and glowing with blazing fires, at which enormous roasts +were solemnly revolving. Menials were running to and fro in all +directions, and a crowd of powdered and richly-liveried lackeys bustled +backwards and forwards through the gorgeous apartments, loaded with +silver plate, and bearing huge baskets of wine. Everything at Oxton +Hall, in short, betokened preparations for a splendid fête--and such, in +truth, was the case. To this fête all the nobility and gentry, within a +circuit of ten to fifteen miles were invited; and such an affair it +promised to be, altogether, as had not been seen at Oxton Hall since the +marriage of the last earl--a period of nearly thirty years. None of +those invited knew, or could guess, what was the particular reason for +so extensive a merry-making. Its scale, they learned, was most +magnificent, and the invitations unprecedentedly numerous. + +The whole affair was thus somewhat of a puzzle to the good people who +were to figure as guests at the impending fête; but they comforted +themselves with the reflection that they would know all about it by and +by. In the meantime, the day appointed for the celebration of the +proposed festival at Oxton Hall arrived; and, amongst the other +preparations which more markedly characterized it, was the appearance of +several long tables extended on the lawn in front of the house, and +which were intended for the accommodation of the earl's tenantry, who +were also invited to share in the coming festivities. Towards the +afternoon of the day alluded to, carriages and vehicles of all +descriptions, and of various degrees of elegance, were seen, in +seemingly endless numbers, streaming along the spacious and +well-gravelled walks that led, by many a graceful curve, through the +surrounding lawn, to the noble portals of Oxton Hall. These, by turns, +drew up in front of the principal entrance to the house, and delivered +their several cargoes of lords and ladies, knights and squires, all +honourable personages, and of high degree. An inferior description of +equipages, again, and occupied by persons of a different class, sturdy +yeomen and their wives and daughters, found ther way, or rather were +guided as they came, to a different destination, but with no difference +in the hospitality of their reception. All were alike welcome to Oxton +Hall on this auspicious day. By and by the hour of dinner came, and, +when it did, it exhibited a splendid scene in the magnificent +dining-room of the Earl of Wistonbury. In this dining-room were +assembled a party of at least a hundred-and-fifty ladies and gentlemen, +all in their best attire. Down the middle of the spacious apartment ran +a table of ample length and breadth, and capable of accommodating with +ease even the formidable array by which it was shortly to be +surrounded. On this spacious board glittered as much wealth, in the +shape of silver plate, as would have bought a barony, while everything +around showed that it was still but a small portion of the riches of its +noble owner. At the further end of the lordly hall, in an elevated +recess or interior balcony, were stationed a band of musicians, to +contribute the choicest specimens of the art to the hilarity of the +evening. Altogether the scene was one of the most imposing that can well +be conceived, an effect which was not a little heightened by the antique +character of the noble apartment in which it was exhibited, one of whose +most striking features was a large oriel window, filled with the most +beautifully stained glass, which threw its subdued and sombre light on +the magnificent scene beneath. Hitherto the young earl had not been seen +by any of the company; his mother, the countess-dowager, having +discharged the duties of hospitality in receiving the guests. Many were +the inquiries made for the absent lord of the mansion; but these were +all answered evasively, although always concluded with the assurance +that he would appear in good time. + +Satisfied with this assurance, the subject was no further pressed at the +moment; but, as the dinner hour approached, and the earl had not yet +presented himself, considerable curiosity and impatience began to be +manifested amongst the assembled guests. These feelings increased every +moment, and had attained their height, when the party found themselves +called on to take their seats at table, and yet no earl had appeared. +The general surprise was further excited on its being observed that the +countess-dowager did not, as usual, take the chair at the head of the +table, as was expected, but placed herself on its right. The chair at +the foot of the table remained also yet unoccupied; and great was the +wonder what all this could mean. It was now soon to be explained. Just +as the party had taken their seats, a folding-door, at the further end +of the hall, flew open, and the young Earl of Wistonbury entered, +leading by the hand a young female of exceeding beauty, attired in a +dress of the most dazzling splendour, over which was gracefully thrown a +Scottish plaid. Bowing slightly, but with a graceful and cordial +expression, and smiling affably as he advanced, the earl conducted his +fair charge to the head of the table, where, after a pause of a few +seconds, which he purposely made in order to afford his guests an +opportunity of marking the extreme loveliness of the lady whom he had +thus so unexpectedly introduced to them--an opportunity which was not +thrown away, as was evident from the murmur of admiration that ran round +the brilliant assembly--the earl thus shortly addressed his wondering +guests-- + +'Permit me, my friends,' he said, 'to introduce to you the Countess of +Wistonbury!' + +A shout of applause from the gentlemen, and a waving of handkerchiefs +by the ladies, hailed the pleasing and unexpected intelligence--an +homage whose duration and intensity was increased by the singularly +graceful manner with which it was received and acknowledged by her to +whom it was paid. Nothing could be more captivating than the modest, +winning sweetness of her smile, nothing more pleasing to behold than the +gentle grace of her every motion. On all present the impression was that +she was a woman of birth, education, and high breeding, and nothing in +the part she subsequently acted tended in the slightest degree to affect +this idea. The young and lovely countess conducted herself throughout +the whole of this eventful evening, as she did throughout the remainder +of her life, with the most perfect propriety; and thus evinced that the +pains taken to fit Jessy Flowerdew for the high station to which a +singular good fortune had called her, was very far from having been +taken in vain. + +At the conclusion of the banquet, the earl entreated the indulgence of +the company for an absence for himself and the countess of a quarter of +an hour. This being of course readily acquiesced in, the earl and his +beauteous young wife were seen, arm and arm, on the lawn, going towards +the tables at which his tenantry were enjoying his hospitality. Here he +went through precisely the same ceremony of introduction with that which +we have described as having taken place in the banquet-hall; and here it +was greeted with the same enthusiasm, and acknowledged by the countess +with the same grace and propriety. This proceeding over, the earl and +his young bride returned to their party, when one of the most joyous +evenings followed that the banqueting-room of Oxton Hall had ever +witnessed. There is only now to add, that Jessy Flowerdew's subsequent +conduct as Countess of Wistonbury proved her in every respect worthy of +the high place to which she had been elevated. A mildness and gentleness +of disposition, and a winning modesty of demeanour, which all the wealth +and state with which she was surrounded could not in the slightest +degree impair, distinguished her through life; and no less distinguished +was she by the generosity and benevolence of her nature, a nature which +her change of destiny was wholly unable to pervert." + +Such, then, good reader, is the history of the lady whose portrait, in +which she appears habited in a Scottish plaid, adorns, with others, the +walls of the picture gallery of Oxton Hall, in Wiltshire. + + + + +MIDSIDE MAGGY; + +OR, + +THE BANNOCK O' TOLLISHILL. + + "Every bannock had its maik, but the bannock o' Tollishill." + _Scottish Proverb._ + + +Belike, gentle reader, thou hast often heard the proverb quoted above, +that "Every bannock had its maik, but the bannock o' Tollishill." The +saying hath its origin in a romantic tradition of the Lammermoors, which +I shall relate to thee. Tollishill is the name of a sheep-farm in +Berwickshire, situated in the parish of Lauder. Formerly, it was divided +into three farms, which were occupied by different tenants; and, by way +of distinguishing it from the others, that in which dwelt the subjects +of our present story was generally called Midside, and our heroine +obtained the appellation of Midside Maggy. Tollishill was the property +of John, second Earl, and afterwards Duke of Lauderdale--a personage +whom I shall more than once, in these tales, have occasion to bring +before mine readers, and whose character posterity hath small cause to +hold in veneration. Yet it is a black character, indeed, in which there +is not to be found one streak of sunshine; and the story of the "Bannock +of Tollishill" referreth to such a streak in the history of John, the +Lord of Thirlestane. + +Time hath numbered somewhat more than a hundred and ninety years since +Thomas Hardie became tenant of the principal farm of Tollishill. Now, +that the reader may picture Thomas Hardie as he was, and as tradition +hath described him, he or she must imagine a tall, strong, and +fresh-coloured man of fifty; a few hairs of grey mingling with his brown +locks; a countenance expressive of much good nature and some +intelligence; while a Lowland bonnet was drawn over his brow. The other +parts of his dress were of coarse, grey, homespun cloth, manufactured in +Earlston; and across his shoulders, in summer as well as in winter, he +wore the mountain plaid. His principles assimilated to those held by the +men of the covenant; but Thomas, though a native of the hills, was not +without the worldly prudence which is considered as being more +immediately the characteristic of the buying and selling children of +society. His landlord was no favourer of the Covenant; and, though +Thomas wished well to the cause, he did not see the necessity for making +his laird, the Lord of Lauderdale, his enemy for its sake. He, +therefore, judged it wise to remain a neutral spectator of the religious +and political struggles of the period. + +But Thomas was a bachelor. Half a century had he been in the world, and +the eyes of no woman had had power to throw a spark into his heart. In +his single, solitary state, he was happy, or he thought himself happy; +and that is much the same thing. But an accident occurred which led him +first to believe, and eventually to feel, that he was but a solitary and +comfortless moorland farmer, toiling for he knew not what, and laying up +treasure he knew not for whom. Yea, and while others had their wives +spinning, carding, knitting, and smiling before them, and their bairns +running laughing and sporting round about them, he was but a poor +deserted creature, with nobody to care for, or to care for him. Every +person had some object to strive for and to make them strive but Thomas +Hardie; or, to use his own words, he was "just in the situation o' a +tewhit that has lost its mate--_te-wheet! te-wheet!_ it cried, flapping +its wings impatiently and forlornly--and _te-wheet! te-wheet!_ answered +vacant echo frae the dreary glens." + +Thomas had been to Morpeth disposing of a part of his hirsels, and he +had found a much better market for them than he anticipated. He +returned, therefore, with a heavy purse, which generally hath a tendency +to create a light and merry heart; and he arrived at Westruther, and +went into a hostel, where, three or four times in the year, he was in +the habit of spending a cheerful evening with his friends. He had called +for a quegh of the landlady's best, and he sat down at his ease with the +liquor before him, for he had but a short way to travel. He also pulled +out his tobacco-box and his pipe, and began to inhale the fumes of what, +up to that period, was almost a forbidden weed. But we question much if +the royal book of James the Sixth of Scotland and First of England, +which he published against the use of tobacco, ever found its way into +the Lammermoors, though the Indian weed did; therefore, Thomas Hardie +sat enjoying his glass and his pipe, unconscious or regardless of the +fulminations which he who was king in his boyhood, had published against +the latter. But he had not sat long, when a fair maiden, an acquaintance +of "mine hostess," entered the hostelry, and began to assist her in the +cutting out or fashioning of a crimson kirtle. Her voice fell upon the +ears of Thomas like the "music of sweet sounds." He had never heard a +voice before that not only fell softly on his ear, but left a lingering +murmur in his heart. She, too, was a young thing of not more than +eighteen. If ever hair might be called "gowden," it was hers. It was a +light and shining bronze, where the prevalence of the golden hue gave a +colour to the whole. Her face was a thing of beauty, over which health +spread its roseate hue, yet softly, as though the westling winds had +caused the leaves of the blushing rose to kiss her cheeks, and leave +their delicate hues and impression behind them. She was of a middle +stature, and her figure was such, although arrayed in homely garments, +as would have commanded the worship of a connoisseur of grace and +symmetry. But beyond all that kindled a flame within the hitherto +obdurate heart of Thomas, was the witching influence of her smile. For a +full hour he sat with his eyes fixed upon her; save at intervals, when +he withdrew them to look into the unwonted agitation of his own breast, +and examine the cause. + +"Amongst the daughters of women," thought he unto himself--for he had a +sprinkling of the language of the age about him--"none have I seen so +beautiful. Her cheeks bloom bonnier than the heather on Tollishill, and +her bosom seems saft as the new-shorn fleece. Her smile is like a blink +o' sunshine, and would mak summer to those on whom it fell a' the year +round." + +He also discovered, for the first time, that "Tollishill was a dull +place, especially in the winter season." When, therefore, the fair +damsel had arrayed the fashion of the kirtle and departed, without once +having seemed to observe Thomas, he said unto the goodwife of the +hostelry--"And wha, noo, if it be a fair question, may that bonnie +lassie be?" + +"She is indeed a bonnie lassie," answered the landlady, "and a guid +lassie, too; and I hae nae doot but, as ye are a single man, Maister +Hardie, yer question is fair enough. Her name is Margaret Lylestone, and +she is the only bairn o' a puir infirm widow that cam to live here some +twa or three years syne. They cam frae south owre some way, and I am +sure they hae seen better days. We thocht at first that the auld woman +had been a Catholic; but I suppose that isna the case, though they +certainly are baith o' them strong Episcopawlians, and in nae way +favourable to the preachers or the word o' the Covenant; but I maun say +for Maggie, that she is a bonny, sweet-tempered, and obleegin +lassie--though, puir thing, her mother has brocht her up in a wrang +way." + +Many days had not passed ere Thomas Hardie, arrayed in his Sunday +habiliments, paid another visit to Westruther; and he cautiously asked +of the goodwife of the hostel many questions concerning Margaret; and +although she jeered him, and said that "Maggy would ne'er think o' a +grey-haired carle like him," he brooded over the fond fancy; and +although on this visit he saw her not, he returned to Tollishill, +thinking of her as his bride. It was a difficult thing for a man of +fifty, who had been the companion of solitude from his youth upwards, +and who had lived in single blessedness amidst the silence of the hills, +without feeling the workings of the heart, or being subjected to the +influence of its passions--I say, it was indeed difficult for such a one +to declare, in the ear of a blooming maiden of eighteen, the tale of his +first affections. But an opportunity arrived which enabled him to +disembosom the burden that pressed upon his heart. + +It has been mentioned that Margaret Lylestone and her mother were poor; +and the latter, who had long been bowed down with infirmities, was +supported by the industry of her daughter. They had also a cow, which +was permitted to graze upon the hills without fee or reward; and, with +the milk which it produced, and the cheese they manufactured, together +with the poor earnings of Margaret, positive want was long kept from +them. But the old woman became more and more infirm--the hand of death +seemed stretching over her. She required nourishment which Margaret +could not procure for her; and, that it might be procured--that her +mother might live and not die--the fair maiden sent the cow to Kelso to +be sold, from whence the seller was to bring with him the restoratives +that her parent required. + +Now, it so was that Thomas Hardie, the tenant of Tollishill, was in +Kelso market when the cow of Widow Lylestone was offered for sale; and, +as it possessed the characteristic marks of a good milcher, he inquired +to whom it belonged. On being answered, he turned round for a few +moments, and stood thoughtful; but again turning to the individual who +had been intrusted to dispose of it, he inquired-- + +"And wherefore is she selling it?" + +"Really, Maister Hardie," replied the other, "I could not positively +say, but I hae little doot it is for want--absolute necessity. The auld +woman's very frail and very ill--I hae to tak a' sort o' things oot to +her the nicht frae the doctor's, after selling the cow, and it's no in +the power o' things that her dochter, industrious as she is, should be +able to get them for her otherwise." + +Thomas again turned aside, and drew his sleeve across his eyes. Having +inquired the price sought for the cow, he handed the money to the +seller, and gave the animal in charge to one of his herdsmen. He left +the market earlier than usual, and directed his servant that the cow +should be taken to Westruther. + +It was drawing towards gloaming before Thomas approached the habitation +of the widow; and, before he could summon courage to enter it for the +first time, he sauntered for several minutes, backward and forward on +the moor, by the side of the Blackadder, which there silently wends its +way, as a dull and simple burn, through the moss. He felt all the +awkwardness of an old man struggling beneath the influence of a young +feeling. He thought of what he should say, how he should act, and how he +would be received. At length he had composed a short introductory and +explanatory speech which pleased him. He thought it contained both +feeling and delicacy (according to his notions of the latter) in their +proper proportions, and after repeating it three or four times over by +the side of the Blackadder, he proceeded towards the cottage, still +repeating it to himself as he went. But, when he raised his hand and +knocked at the door, his heart gave a similar knock upon his bosom, as +though it mimicked him; and every idea, every word of the introductory +speech which he had studied and repeated again and again, short though +it was, was knocked from his memory. The door was opened by Margaret, +who invited him to enter. She was beautiful as when he first beheld +her--he thought more beautiful--for she now spoke to him. Her mother sat +in an arm-chair, by the side of the peat fire, and was supported by +pillows. He took off his bonnet, and performed an awkward but his best +salutation. + +"I beg your pardon," said he, hesitatingly, "for the liberty I have +taken in calling upon you. But--I was in Kelso the day--and"----He +paused, and turned his bonnet once or twice in his hands. "And," he +resumed, "I observed, or rather, I should say, I learned that ye +intended to sell your cow; but I also heard that ye was very ill, +and"----Here he made another pause. "I say I heard that ye was very ill, +and I thocht it would be a hardship for ye to part wi' crummie, and +especially at a time when ye are sure to stand maist in need o' every +help. So I bought the cow--but, as I say, it would be a very great +hardship for ye to be without the milk, and what the cheese may bring, +at a time like this; and, therefore, I hae ordered her to be brocht back +to ye, and ane o' my men will bring her hame presently. Never consider +the cow as mine, for a bachelor farmer like me can better afford to want +the siller, than ye can to want yer cow; and I micht hae spent it far +mair foolishly, and wi' less satisfaction. Indeed, if ye only but think +that good I've dune, I'm mair than paid." + +"Maister Hardie," said the widow, "what have I, a stranger widow woman, +done to deserve this kindness at your hands? Or how is it in the power +o' words for me to thank ye? HE who provideth for the widow and the +fatherless will not permit you to go unrewarded, though I cannot. O +Margaret, hinny," added she, "thank our benefactor as we ought to thank +him, for I cannot." + +Fair Margaret's thanks were a flood of tears. + +"Oh, dinna greet!" said Thomas; "I would ten times ower rather no hae +bocht the cow, but hae lost the siller, than I would hae been the cause +o' a single tear rowin' doun yer bonny cheeks." + +"O sir," answered the widow, "but they are tears o' gratitude that +distress my bairn, and nae tears are mair precious." + +I might tell how Thomas sat down by the peat fire between the widow and +her daughter, and how he took the hand of the latter, and entreated her +to dry up her tears, saying that his chief happiness would be to be +thought their friend, and to deserve their esteem. The cow was brought +back to the widow's, and Thomas returned to Tollishill with his +herdsman. But, from that night, he became almost a daily visitor at the +house of Mrs. Lylestone. He provided whatever she required--all that was +ordered for her. He spoke not of love to Margaret, but he wooed her +through his kindness to her mother. It was, perhaps, the most direct +avenue to her affections. Yet it was not because Thomas thought so that +he pursued this course, but because he wanted confidence to make his +appeal in a manner more formal or direct. + +The widow lingered many months; and all that lay within the power of +human means he caused to be done for her, to restore her to health and +strength, or at least to smooth her dying pillow. But the last was all +that could be done. Where death spreadeth the shadow of his wing, there +is no escape from sinking beneath the baneful influence of its shade. +Mrs. Lylestone, finding that the hour of her departure drew near, took +the hand of her benefactor, and when she had thanked him for all the +kindness which he had shown towards her, she added-- + +"But, O sir, there is one thing that makes the hand of death heavy. When +the sod is cauld upon my breast, who will look after my puir orphan--my +bonny faitherless and motherless Margaret? Where will she find a hame?" + +"O mem," said Thomas, "if the like o' me durst say it, she needna hae +far to gang, to find a hame and a heart too. Would she only be mine, I +would be her protector--a' that I have should be hers." + +A gleam of joy brightened in the eye of the dying widow. + +"Margaret!" she exclaimed, faintly; and Margaret laid her face upon the +bed, and wept. "O my bairn! my puir bairn!" continued her mother, "shall +I see ye protected and provided for before I am 'where the wicked cease +from troubling and the weary are at rest,' which canna be lang noo?" + +Thomas groaned--tears glistened in his eyes--he held his breath in +suspense. The moment of trial, of condemnation or acquittal, of +happiness or misery, had arrived. With an eager impatience he waited to +hear her answer. But Margaret's heart was prepared for his proposal. He +had first touched it with gratitude--he had obtained her esteem; and +where these sentiments prevail in the bosom of a woman whose affections +have not been bestowed upon another, love is not far distant--if it be +not between them, and a part of both. + +"Did ever I disobey you, mother?" sobbed Margaret, raising her parent's +hand to her lips. + +"No, my bairn, no!" answered the widow. And raising herself in the bed, +she took her daughter's hand and placed it in the hand of Thomas Hardie. + +"Oh!" said he, "is this possible? Does my bonny Margaret really consent +to make me the happiest man on earth? Shall I hae a gem at Tollishill +that I wadna exchange for a monarch's diadem?" + +It is sufficient to say that the young and lovely Margaret Lylestone +became Mrs. Hardie of Tollishill; or, as she was generally called, +"_Midside Maggie_." Her mother died within three months after their +marriage, but died in peace, having, as she said, "seen her dear bairn +blessed wi' a leal and a kind guidman, and ane that was weel to do." + +For two years after their marriage, and not a happier couple than Thomas +and Midside Maggie was to be found on all the long Lammermoors, in the +Merse, nor yet in the broad Lothians. They saw the broom and the heather +bloom in their season, and they heard the mavis sing before their +dwelling; yea, they beheld the snow falling on the mountains, and the +drift sweeping down the glens; but while the former delighted, the +latter harmed them not, and from all they drew mutual joy and happiness. +Thomas said that "Maggy was a matchless wife;" and she that "he was a +kind, kind husband." + +But the third winter was one of terror among the hills. It was near the +new year; the snow began to fall on a Saturday, and when the following +Friday came, the storm had not ceased. It was accompanied by frost and a +fierce wind, and the drift swept and whirled like awful pillars of +alabaster, down the hills, and along the glens-- + + "Sweeping the flocks and herds." + +Fearful was the wrath of the tempest on the Lammermoors. Many farmers +suffered severely, but none more severely than Thomas Hardie of +Tollishill. Hundreds of his sheep had perished in a single night. He was +brought from prosperity to the brink of adversity. + +But another winter came round. It commenced with a severity scarce +inferior to that which had preceded it, and again scores of his sheep +were buried in the snow. But February had not passed, and scarce had the +sun entered what is represented as the astronomical sign of the _two +fish_, in the heavens, when the genial influence of spring fell with +almost summer warmth upon the earth. During the night the dews came +heavily on the ground, and the sun sucked it up in a vapour. But the +herbage grew rapidly, and the flocks ate of it greedily, and licked the +dew ere the sun rose to dry it up. It brought the murrain amongst them; +they died by hundreds; and those that even fattened, but did not die, no +man would purchase; or, if purchased, it was only upon the understanding +that the money should be returned if the animals were found unsound. +These misfortunes were too much for Thomas Hardie. Within two years he +found himself a ruined man. But he grieved not for the loss of his +flocks, nor yet for his own sake, but for that of his fair young wife, +whom he loved as the apple of his eye. Many, when they heard of his +misfortunes, said that they were sorry for bonny Midside Maggy. + +But, worst of all, the rent-day of Thomas Hardie drew near; and for the +first time since he had held a farm, he was unable to meet his landlord +with his money in his hand. Margaret beheld the agony of his spirit, and +she knew its cause. She put on her Sunday hood and kirtle; and +professing to her husband that she wished to go to Lauder, she took her +way to Thirlestane Castle, the residence of their proud landlord, before +whom every tenant in arrear trembled. With a shaking hand she knocked at +the hall door, and after much perseverance and entreaty, was admitted +into the presence of the haughty earl. She curtsied low before him. + +"Well, what want ye, my bonny lass?" said Lauderdale, eyeing her +significantly. + +"May it please yer lordship," replied Margaret, "I am the wife o' yer +tenant, Thomas Hardie o' Tollishill; an' a guid tenant he has been to +yer lordship for twenty years and mair, as yer lordship maun weel ken." + +"He has been my tenant for more than twenty years, say ye?" interrupted +Lauderdale; "and ye say ye are his wife: why, looking on thy bonny face, +I should say that the heather hasna bloomed twenty times on the knowes +o' Tollishill since thy mother bore thee. Yet ye say ye are his wife! +Beshrew me, but Thomas Hardie is a man o' taste. Arena ye his daughter?" + +"No, my lord; his first, his only, an' his lawfu' wife--an' I would only +say, that to ye an' yer faither before ye, for mair than twenty years, +he has paid his rent regularly an' faithfully; but the seasons hae +visited us sairly, very sairly, for twa years successively, my lord, an' +the drift has destroyed, an' the rot rooted oot oor flocks, sae that we +are hardly able to haud up oor heads amang oor neebors, and to meet yer +lordship at yer rent-day is oot o' oor power; therefore hae I come to ye +to implore ye, that we may hae time to gather oor feet, an' to gie yer +lordship an' every man his due, when it is in oor power." + +"Hear me, guidwife," rejoined the earl; "were I to listen to such +stories as yours, I might have every farmer's wife on my estates coming +whimpering and whinging, till I was left to shake a purse with naething +in't, and allowing others the benefit o' my lands. But it is not every +day that a face like yours comes in the shape o' sorrow before me; and, +for ae kiss o' your cherry mou', (and ye may take my compliments to your +auld man for his taste,) ye shall have a discharge for your half-year's +rent, and see if that may set your husband on his feet again." + +"Na, yer lordship, na!" replied Margaret; "it would ill become ony woman +in my situation in life, an' especially a married ane, to be daffin with +sic as yer lordship. I am the wife o' Thomas Hardie, wha is a guid +guidman to me, an' I cam here this day to entreat ye to deal kindly wi' +him in the day o' his misfortune." + +"Troth," replied Lauderdale--who could feel the force of virtue in +others, though he did not always practise it in his own person--"I hae +heard o' the blossom o' Tollishill before, an' a bonny flower ye are to +blossom in an auld man's bower; but I find ye modest as ye are bonny, +an' upon one condition will I grant yer request. Ye hae tauld me o' yer +hirsels being buried wi' the drift, an' that the snaw has covered the +May primrose on Leader braes; now it is Martinmas, an' if in June ye +bring me a snowball, not only shall ye be quit o' yer back rent, but ye +shall sit free in Tollishill till Martinmas next. But see that in June +ye bring me the snowball or the rent." + +Margaret made her obeisance before the earl, and, thanking him, +withdrew. But she feared the coming of June; for to raise the rent even +then she well knew would be a thing impossible, and she thought also it +would be equally so to preserve a snow-ball beneath the melting sun of +June. Though young, she had too much prudence and honesty to keep a +secret from her husband; it was her maxim, and it was a good one, that +"there ought to be no secrets between a man and his wife, which the one +would conceal from the other." She therefore told him of her journey to +Thirlestane, and of all that had passed between her and the earl. Thomas +kissed her cheek, and called her his "bonny, artless Maggy;" but he had +no more hope of seeing a snowball in June than she had, and he said, +"the bargain was like the bargain o' a crafty Lauderdale." + +Again the winter storms howled upon the Lammermoors, and the snow lay +deep upon the hills. Thomas and his herdsmen were busied in exertions to +preserve the remainder of his flocks; but, one day, when the westling +winds breathed with a thawing influence upon the snow-clad hills, +Margaret went forth to where there was a small, deep, and shadowed +ravine by the side of the Leader. In it the rivulet formed a pool, and +seemed to sleep, and there the grey trout loved to lie at ease; for a +high dark rock, over which the brushwood grew, overhung it, and the +rays of the sun fell not upon it. In the rock, and near the side of the +stream, was a deep cavity, and Margaret formed a snowball on the brae +top, and she rolled it slowly down into the shadowed glen, till it +attained the magnitude of an avalanche in miniature. She trode upon it, +and pressed it firmly together, till it obtained almost the hardness and +consistency of ice. She rolled it far into the cavity, and blocked up +the mouth of the aperture, so that neither light nor air might penetrate +the strange coffer in which she had deposited the equally strange rent +of Tollishill. Verily, common as ice-houses are in our day, let not +Midside Maggy be deprived of the merit of their invention. + +I have said that it was her maxim to keep no secret from her husband; +but, as it is said there is no rule without an exception, even so it was +in the case of Margaret, and there was one secret which she communicated +not to Thomas, and that was--the secret of the hidden snowball. + +But June came, and Thomas Hardie was a sorrowful man. He had in no +measure overcome the calamities of former seasons, and he was still +unprepared with his rent. Margaret shared not his sorrow, but strove to +cheer him, and said-- + +"We shall hae a snawba' in June, though I climb to the top o' Cheviot +for it." + +"O my bonny lassie," replied he--and he could see the summit of Cheviot +from his farm--"dinna deceive yersel' wi' what could only be words +spoken in jest; but, at ony rate, I perceive there has been nae snaw on +Cheviot for a month past." + +Now, not a week had passed, but Margaret had visited the aperture in the +ravine, where the snowball was concealed, not through idle curiosity, to +perceive whether it had melted away, but more effectually to stop up +every crevice that might have been made in the materials with which she +had blocked up the mouth of the cavity. + +But the third day of the dreadful month had not passed, when a messenger +arrived at Tollishill from Thirlestane with the abrupt mandate--"_June +has come!_" + +"And we shall be at Thirlestane the morn," answered Margaret. + +"O my doo," said Thomas, "what nonsense are ye talking!--that isna like +ye, Margaret; I'll be in Greenlaw Jail the morn; and oor bits o' things +in the hoose, and oor flocks, will be seized by the harpies o' the +law--and the only thing that distresses me is, what is to come o' you +hinny." + +"Dinna dree the death ye'll never dee," said Margaret affectionately; +"we shall see, if we be spared, what the morn will bring." + +"The fortitude o' yer mind, Margaret," said Thomas, taking her hand; and +he intended to have said more, to have finished a sentence in admiration +of her worth, but his heart filled, and he was silent. + +On the following morning, Margaret said unto him-- + +"Now, Thomas, if ye are ready, we'll gang to Thirlestane. It is aye waur +to expect or think o' an evil than to face it." + +"Margaret, dear," said he, "I canna comprehend ye--wherefore should I +thrust my head into the lion's den? It will soon enough seek me in my +path." + +Nevertheless, she said unto him, "Come," and bade him be of good heart; +and he rose and accompanied her. But she conducted him to the deep +ravine, where the waters seem to sleep and no sunbeam ever falls; and, +as she removed the earth and the stones, with which she had blocked up +the mouth of the cavity in the rock, he stood wondering. She entered the +aperture, and rolled forth the firm mass of snow, which was yet too +large to be lifted by hands. When Thomas saw this, he smiled and wept +at the same instant, and he pressed his wife's cheek to his bosom, and +said-- + +"Great has been the care o' my poor Margaret; but it is o' no avail; +for, though ye hae proved mair than a match for the seasons, the +proposal was but a jest o' Lauderdale." + +"What is a man but his word?" replied Margaret; "and him a nobleman +too." + +"Nobility are but men," answered Thomas, "and seldom better men than +ither folk. Believe me, if we were to gang afore him wi' a snawba' in +oor hands, we should only get lauched at for our pains." + +"It was his ain agreement," added she; "and, at ony rate, we can be +naething the waur for seeing if he will abide by it." + +Breaking the snowy mass, she rolled up a portion of it in a napkin, and +they went towards Thirlestane together; though often did Thomas stop by +the way and say-- + +"Margaret, dear, I'm perfectly ashamed to gang upon this business; as +sure as I am standing here, as I have tauld ye, we will only get +oorselves lauched at." + +"I would rather be lauched at," added she, "than despised for breaking +my word; and, if oor laird break his noo, wha wadna despise him?" + +Harmonious as their wedded life had hitherto been, there was what might +well nigh be called bickerings between them on the road; for Thomas felt +or believed that she was leading him on a fool's errand. But they +arrived at the castle of Thirlestane, and were ushered into the mansion +of its proud lord. + +"Ha!" said the earl, as they entered, "bonny Midside Maggy and her auld +guidman! Well, what bring ye?--the rents o' Tollishill, or their +equivalent?" Thomas looked at his young wife, for he saw nothing to give +him hope on the countenance of Lauderdale, and he thought that he +pronounced the word "_equivalent_" with a sneer. + +"I bring ye snaw in June, my lord," replied Margaret, "agreeably to the +terms o' yer bargain; and I'm sorry, for your sake and oors, that it +hasna yet been in oor power to bring gowd instead o't." + +Loud laughed the earl as Margaret unrolled the huge snowball before him; +and Thomas thought unto himself, "I said how it would be." But +Lauderdale, calling for his writing materials, sat down and wrote, and +he placed in the hands of Thomas a discharge, not only for his back +rent, but for all that should otherwise be due at the ensuing Martinmas. + +Thomas Hardie bowed and bowed again before the earl, low and yet lower, +awkwardly and still more awkwardly, and he endeavoured to thank him, but +his tongue faltered in the performance of its office. He could have +taken his hand in his and wrung it fervently, leaving his fingers to +express what his tongue could not; but his laird was an earl, and there +was a necessary distance to be observed between an earl and a Lammermoor +farmer. + +"Thank not me, goodman," said Lauderdale, "but thank the modesty and +discretion o' yer winsome wife." + +Margaret was silent; but gratitude for the kindness which the earl had +shown unto her husband and herself took deep root in her heart. +Gratitude, indeed, formed the predominating principle in her character, +and fitted her even for acts of heroism. + +The unexpected and unwonted generosity of the earl had enabled Thomas +Hardie to overcome the losses with which the fury of the seasons had +overwhelmed him, and he prospered beyond any farmer on the hills. But, +while he prospered, the Earl of Lauderdale, in his turn, was overtaken +by adversity. The stormy times of the civil wars raged, and it is well +known with what devotedness Lauderdale followed the fortunes of the +king. When the Commonwealth began, he was made prisoner, conveyed to +London, and confined in the Tower. There, nine years of captivity crept +slowly and gloomily over him; but they neither taught him mercy to +others nor to moderate his ambition, as was manifested when power and +prosperity again cast their beams upon him. But he now lingered in the +Tower, without prospect or hope of release, living upon the bare +sustenance of a prisoner, while his tenants dwelt on his estates, and +did as they pleased with his rents, as though they should not again +behold the face of a landlord. + +But Midside Maggy grieved for the fate of him whose generosity had +brought prosperity, such as they had never known before, to herself and +to her husband; and, in the fulness of her gratitude, she was ever +planning schemes for his deliverance; and she urged upon her husband +that it was their duty to attempt to deliver their benefactor from +captivity, as he had delivered them from the iron grasp of ruin, when +misfortune lay heavily on them. Now, as duly as the rent-day came, from +the Martinmas to which the snowball had been his discharge, Thomas +Hardie faithfully and punctually locked away his rent to the last +farthing, that he might deliver it into the hands of his laird, should +he again be permitted to claim his own; but he saw not in what way they +could attempt his deliverance, as his wife proposed. + +"Thomas," said she, "there are ten lang years o' rent due, and we hae +the siller locked away. It is o' nae use to us, for it isna oors; but it +may be o' use to him. It would enable him to fare better in his prison, +and maybe to put a handfu' o' gowd into the hands o' his keepers, and +thereby to escape abroad, and it wad furnish him wi' the means o' living +when he was abroad. Remember his kindness to us, and think that there is +nae sin equal to the sin o' ingratitude." + +"But," added Thomas, "in what way could we get the money to him? for, if +we were to send it, it would never reach him, and, as a prisoner, he +wouldna be allooed to receive it." + +"Let us tak it to him oorsels, then," said Margaret. + +"Tak it oorsels!" exclaimed Thomas, in amazement, "a' the way to London! +It is oot o' the question a'thegither, Margaret. We wad be robbed o' +every plack before we got half-way; or, if we were even there, hoo, in +a' the world, do ye think we could get it to him, or that we would be +allooed to see him?" + +"Leave that to me," was her reply; "only say ye will gang, and a' that +shall be accomplished. There is nae obstacle in the way but the want o' +yer consent. But the debt, and the ingratitude o' it thegither, hang +heavy upon my heart." + +Thomas at length yielded to the importunities of his wife, and agreed +that they should make a pilgrimage to London, to pay his rent to his +captive laird; though how they were to carry the gold in safety, through +an unsettled country, a distance of more than three hundred miles, was a +difficulty he could not overcome. But Margaret removed his fears; she +desired him to count out the gold, and place it before her; and when he +had done so, she went to the meal-tub and took out a quantity of pease +and of barley meal mixed, sufficient to knead a goodly fadge or bannock; +and, when she had kneaded it, and rolled it out, she took the golden +pieces and pressed them into the paste of the embryo bannock, and again +she doubled it together, and again rolled it out, and kneaded into it +the remainder of the gold. She then fashioned it into a thick bannock, +and placing it on the hearth, covered it with the red ashes of the +peats. + +Thomas sat marvelling, as the formation of the singular purse proceeded, +and when he beheld the operation completed, and the bannock placed upon +the hearth to bake, he only exclaimed--"Weel, woman's ingenuity dings +a'! I wadna hae thocht o' the like o' that, had I lived a thoosand +years! O Margaret, hinny, but ye are a strange ane." + +"Hoots," replied she, "I'm sure ye micht easily hae imagined that it was +the safest plan we could hae thocht upon to carry the siller in safety; +for I am sure there isna a thief between the Tweed and Lon'on toun, that +would covet or carry awa a bear bannock." + +"Troth, my doo, and I believe ye're richt," replied Thomas; "but wha +could hae thocht o' sic an expedient? Sure there never was a bannock +baked like the bannock o' Tollishill." + +On the third day after this, an old man and a fair lad, before the sun +had yet risen, were observed crossing the English Border. They +alternately carried a wallet across their shoulders, which contained a +few articles of apparel and a bannock. They were dressed as shepherds, +and passengers turned and gazed on them as they passed along; for the +beauty of the youth's countenance excited their admiration. Never had +Lowland bonnet covered so fair a brow. The elder stranger was Thomas +Hardie, and the youth none other than his Midside Maggy. + +I will not follow them through the stages of their long and weary +journey, nor dwell upon the perils and adventures they encountered by +the way. But, on the third week after they had left Tollishill, and when +they were beyond the town called Stevenage, and almost within sight of +the metropolis, they were met by an elderly military-looking man, who, +struck with the lovely countenance of the seeming youth, their dress, +and way-worn appearance, accosted them, saying--"Good morrow, strangers; +ye seem to have travelled far. Is this fair youth your son, old man?" + +"He is a gay sib freend," answered Thomas. + +"And whence come ye?" continued the stranger. + +"Frae Leader Haughs, on the bonny Borders o' the north countrie," +replied Margaret. + +"And whence go ye?" resumed the other. + +"First tell me wha ye may be that are sae inquisitive," interrupted +Thomas, in a tone which betrayed something like impatience. + +"Some call me George Monk," replied the stranger mildly, "others, Honest +George. I am a general in the Parliamentary army." Thomas reverentially +raised his hand to his bonnet, and bowed his head. + +"Then pardon me, sir," added Margaret, "and if ye indeed be the guid and +gallant general, sma' offence will ye tak at onything that may be said +amiss by a country laddie. We are tenants o' the Lord o' Lauderdale, +whom ye now keep in captivity; and, though we mayna think as he thinks, +yet we never faund him but a guid landlord; and little guid, in my +opinion, it can do ony body to keep him, as he has been noo for nine +years, caged up like a bird. Therefore, though oor ain business that has +brocht us up to London should fail, I winna regret the journey, since it +has afforded me an opportunity o' seein yer Excellency, and soliciting +yer interest, which maun be pooerfu' in behalf o' oor laird, and that ye +would release him frae his prison, and, if he michtna remain in this +countrie, obtain permission for him to gang abroad." + +"Ye plead fairly and honestly for yer laird, fair youth," returned the +general; "yet, though he is no man to be trusted, I needs say he hath +had his portion of captivity measured out abundantly; and, since ye have +minded me of him, ere a week go round I will think of what may be done +for Lauderdale." Other questions were asked and answered--some truly, +and some evasively; and Thomas and Margaret blessing Honest George in +their hearts, went on their way rejoicing at having met him. + +On arriving in London, she laid aside the shepherd's garb in which she +had journeyed, and resumed her wonted apparel. On the second day after +their arrival, she went out upon Tower-hill, dressed as a Scottish +peasant girl, with a basket on her arm; and in the basket were a few +ballads, and the bannock of Tollishill. She affected silliness, and, +acting the part of a wandering minstrel, went singing her ballads +towards the gate of the Tower. Thomas followed her at a distance. Her +appearance interested the guard; and as she stood singing before the +gate--"What want ye, pretty face?" inquired the officer of the guard. +"Your alms, if you please," said she, smiling innocently, "and to sing a +bonny Scotch sang to the Laird o' Lauderdale." + +The officer and the sentinels laughed; and, after she had sang them +another song or two, she was permitted to enter the gate, and a soldier +pointed out to her the room in which Lauderdale was confined. On +arriving before the grated windows of his prison, she raised her eyes +towards them, and began to sing "_Leader Haughs_." The wild, sweet +melody of his native land, drew Lauderdale to the windows of his +prison-house, and in the countenance of the minstrel he remembered the +lovely features of Midside Maggy. He requested permission of the keeper +that she should be admitted to his presence; and his request was +complied with. + +"Bless thee, sweet face!" said the earl, as she was admitted into his +prison; "and you have not forgotten the snowball in June?" And he took +her hand to raise it to his lips. + +"Hooly, hooly, my guid lord," said she, withdrawing her hand; "my +fingers were made for nae sic purpose--Thomas Hardie is here"--and she +laid her hand upon her fair bosom--"though now standing withoot the yett +o' the Tower." Lauderdale again wondered, and, with a look of mingled +curiosity and confusion, inquired--"Wherefore do ye come--and why do ye +seek me?" "I brocht ye a snaw-ba' before," said she, "for yer rent--I +bring ye a bannock noo." And she took the bannock from the basket and +placed it before him. + +"Woman," added he, "are ye really as demented as I thocht ye but feigned +to be, when ye sang before the window." + +"The proof o' the bannock," replied Margaret, "will be in the breakin' +o't." + +"Then, goodwife, it will not be easily proved," said he--and he took the +bannock, and, with some difficulty, broke it over his knee; but, when he +beheld the golden coins that were kneaded through it, for the first, +perhaps the last and only time in his existence, the Earl of Lauderdale +burst into tears and exclaimed--"Well, every bannock has its maik, but +the bannock o' Tollishill! Yet, kind as ye hae been, the gold is useless +to ane that groans in hopeless captivity." + +"Yours has been a long captivity," said Margaret; "but it is not +hopeless; and, if honest General Monk is to be trusted, from what he +tauld me not three days by-gane, before a week gae roond, ye will be at +liberty to go abroad, and there the bannock o' Tollishill may be o' +use." + +The wonder of Lauderdale increased, and he replied--"Monk will keep his +word--but what mean ye of him?" + +And she related to him the interview they had had with the general by +the way. Lauderdale took her hand, a ray of hope and joy spread over his +face, and he added-- + +"Never shall ye rue the bakin' o' the bannock, if auld times come back +again." + +Margaret left the tower, singing as she had entered it, and joined her +husband, whom she found leaning over the railing around the moat, and +anxiously waiting her return. They spent a few days more in London, to +rest and to gaze upon its wonders, and again set out upon their journey +to Tollishill. General Monk remembered his promise; within a week, the +Earl of Lauderdale was liberated, with permission to go abroad, and +there, as Margaret had intimated, he found the bannock of Tollishill of +service. + +A few more years passed round, during which old Thomas Hardie still +prospered; but, during those years, the Commonwealth came to an end, the +king was recalled, and with him, as one of his chief favourites, +returned the Earl of Lauderdale. And, when he arrived in Scotland, +clothed with power, whatever else he forgot, he remembered the bannock +of Tollishill. Arrayed in what might have passed as royal state, and +attended by fifty of his followers, he rode to the dwelling of Thomas +Hardie and Midside Maggy; and when they came forth to meet him, he +dismounted and drew forth a costly silver girdle of strange workmanship, +and fastened it round her jimp waist, saying--"Wear this, for now it is +my turn to be grateful, and for your husband's life, and your life, and +the life of the generation after ye" (for they had children), "ye shall +sit rent free on the lands ye now farm. For, truly, every bannock had +its maik but the bannock o' Tollishill." + +Thomas and Margaret felt their hearts too full to express their thanks; +and ere they could speak, the earl, mounting his horse, rode towards +Thirlestane; and his followers, waving their bonnets, shouted--"Long +live Midside Maggy, queen of Tollishill." + +Such is the story of "The Bannock o' Tollishill;" and it is only +necessary to add, for the information of the curious, that I believe the +silver girdle may be seen until this day, in the neighbourhood of +Tollishill, and in the possession of a descendant of Midside Maggy, to +whom it was given. + + * * * * * + +[TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE: + +1. On page 28, last line, page 74, footnote, and page 155, last line, +missing text has been restored from scans atThe Internet Archive. + +A few missing letters or words at the ends of lines have been restored +from the same source. + +2. The French word "mouillé" appears, apparently randomly, both with +and without the acute accent. Since the accent is clearly required, +it has been restored where necessary. + +3. On page 2, antepenultimate line, "bewrayed" has been corrected to +"betrayed". + +4. In this Latin-1 version, the only substitution effected is that the +oe-diphthong is indicated by [oe].] + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of +Scotland, Volume I, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WILSON'S TALES OF SCOTLAND, VOL I *** + +***** This file should be named 32862-8.txt or 32862-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/2/8/6/32862/ + +Produced by David Clarke, David J. 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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: Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland, Volume I + Historical, Traditionary, and Imaginative + +Author: Various + +Editor: Alexander Leighton + +Release Date: June 17, 2010 [EBook #32862] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WILSON'S TALES OF SCOTLAND, VOL I *** + + + + +Produced by David Clarke, David J. Cole and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + + +<h1>Wilson's</h1> +<h1>Tales of the Borders</h1> +<h2>AND OF SCOTLAND.</h2> +<p> </p> +<h3>HISTORICAL, TRADITIONARY, & IMAGINATIVE.</h3> +<p> </p> +<h4>WITH A GLOSSARY.</h4> +<p> </p> +<h5>REVISED BY</h5> +<h3>ALEXANDER LEIGHTON,</h3> +<h4>ONE OF THE ORIGINAL EDITORS AND CONTRIBUTORS</h4> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<h4>LONDON:</h4> +<h4>WALTER SCOTT, 24 WARWICK LANE,</h4> +<h5>AND NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE.</h5> +<h5>1887.</h5> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + +<h2>CONTENTS.</h2> +<hr style="width: 20%;" /> + +<table border="0" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="2" summary=""> + +<tr> <td align='left'></td> <td align='right'></td> <td align='right'>PAGE</td> </tr> + +<tr> <td align='left'><span class="smcap"><big><a href="#THE_VACANT_CHAIR">The Vacant Chair</a></big></span></td> <td align='right'>(<i>John Mackay Wilson</i>)</td> <td align='right'><a href="#Page_1">1</a></td> </tr> + +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap"><big><a href="#THE_FAAS_REVENGE">The Faa's Revenge</a></big></span></td> <td align='right'>(<i>John Mackay Wilson</i>)</td> <td align='right'><a href="#Page_18">18</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap"><big><a href="#KATE_KENNEDY">Kate Kennedy</a></big></span></td> <td align='right'>(<i>Alexander Leighton</i>)</td> <td align='right'><a href="#Page_50">50</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap"><big><a href="#RECOLLECTIONS_OF_FERGUSON3">Recollections of Ferguson</a></big></span></td> <td align='right'>(<i>Hugh Miller</i>)</td> <td align='right'><a href="#Page_83">83</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap"><big><a href="#THE_DISASTERS_OF_JOHNNY_ARMSTRONG">The Disasters of Johnny Armstrong</a></big></span></td> <td align='right'>(<i>Alexander Campbell</i>)</td> <td align='right'><a href="#Page_128">128</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td colspan='2' align='left'><span class="smcap"><big><a href="#THE_PROFESSORS_TALES4">The Professor's Tales</a></big></span>—(<i>Professor Thomas Gillespie</i>):—</td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 4em;" class="smcap"><big><a href="#THE_MOUNTAIN_STORM">The Mountain Storm</a></big></span></td> <td></td> <td align='right'><a href="#Page_160">160</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'><span style="margin-left: 4em;" class="smcap"><big><a href="#THE_FAIR_MAID_OF_CELLARDYKES">The Fair Maid of Cellardykes</a></big></span></td> <td></td> <td align='right'><a href="#Page_172">172</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap"><big><a href="#PRESCRIPTION">Prescription; or, The 29th of September</a></big></span></td> <td align='right'>(<i>Alex. Leighton</i>)</td> <td align='right'><a href="#Page_193">193</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td align='left'><span class="smcap"><big><a href="#THE_COUNTESS_OF_WISTONBURY">The Countess of Wistonbury</a></big></span></td> <td align='right'>(<i>Alexander Campbell</i>)</td> <td align='right'><a href="#Page_225">225</a></td></tr> + +<tr><td colspan='2' align='left'><span class="smcap"><big><a href="#MIDSIDE_MAGGY">Midside Maggie; or, The Bannock o' Tollishill</a></big></span>—</td></tr> + +<tr><td></td> <td align='right'>(<i>John Mackay Wilson</i>)</td> <td align='right'><a href="#Page_257">257</a></td></tr> +</table> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="PREFACE" id="PREFACE"></a>PREFACE.</h2> + + +<p>This series of Tales, now so well known in this country and also in +America, was begun by <span class="smcap">John Mackay Wilson</span>, originally a printer, and who +subsequently betook himself to literature. In the beginning of the +undertaking he was inspired by a success probably greater than he had +ever anticipated, and a sudden and wide-spread reputation induced him to +overtask his energies, in a manner inconsistent with the care due to a +delicate constitution. After having carried on the work, almost +single-handed, for a period of more than a year—furnishing a tale every +week—he took ill, and died. Subsequently, the charge of conducting the +work devolved upon the present Editor, who was fortunate enough to +secure the assistance of certain writers well qualified to sustain the +reputation which the first part of the series had acquired. Among these +were the late Hugh Miller, the late Professor Thomas Gillespie of St. +Andrew's, Alexander Campbell, Alexander and John Bethune, and John +Howell, all of whom possessed those natural gifts, enabling them to +succeed in a species of literature which, while in one sense it may be +called the most easy, is, in another, perhaps among the most difficult +<!-- Page vi --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">[Pg vi]</a></span>of any.</p> + +<p>The only condition by which the natural promptings of their genius might +have been restrained was, that the contributions should be genuine +stories, not the ordinary mixture of narrative, didactic essay, and +fanciful prolusion, but tales in the proper every-day sense, with such +an objectiveness as would portray, graphically and naturally, the men +and women of the times, acting on the stage where they were destined to +perform their strange parts, and would exclude all false colourings of a +sentimental fiction, belonging to mere subjective moods of the writer's +fancy or feeling. The greatest care was also taken with the moral aspect +of the Tales, with the view that parents and guardians might feel a +confidence that, in committing them into the hands of their children and +wards, they would be imparting the means of instruction, and at the same +time securing a guarantee for the growth of moral convictions. By such +means, the Tales were kept true to history, legend, morality, and man's +nature, and, at the same time, made acceptable to the great class of +readers who had declared their predilection in favour of the manner of +the early examples.</p> + +<p>The Tales in this series have been carefully selected and revised; and +the reader will be pleased to be informed that, in the course of the +publication, there will, for the purpose of imparting to it a fresh +interest, be inserted New Tales, written by authors deemed capable of +attaining the mark of the Original Series.</p> + +<p> +<span class="smcap">York Lodge, Trinity</span>,<br /> +<i>March</i>, 1857.<br /> +<!-- Page 1 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h1><a name="WILSONS_TALES_OF_THE_BORDERS_AND_OF_SCOTLAND" id="WILSONS_TALES_OF_THE_BORDERS_AND_OF_SCOTLAND"></a>WILSON'S TALES OF THE BORDERS, AND OF SCOTLAND.</h1> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_VACANT_CHAIR" id="THE_VACANT_CHAIR"></a>THE VACANT CHAIR.<a class="fnanchor">[1]</a></h2> + +<div class="footnote"><p>[1] Our commencement with "The Vacant Chair"—the first written of the +Tales of the Borders—is not inconsistent with our principle of +selection in this edition, which is to distribute the contributions of +the authors, so as to secure variety without any view to an early +exhaustion of the best of the Tales.—<i>Ed.</i></p></div> + + +<p>You have all heard of the Cheviot mountains. They are a rough, rugged, +majestic chain of hills, which a poet might term the Roman wall of +nature; crowned with snow, belted with storms, surrounded by pastures +and fruitful fields, and still dividing the northern portion of Great +Britain from the southern. With their proud summits piercing the clouds, +and their dark rocky declivities frowning upon the glens below, they +appear symbolical of the wild and untamable spirits of the Borderers who +once inhabited their sides. We say, you have all heard of the Cheviots, +and know them to be very high hills, like a huge clasp riveting England +and Scotland together; but we are not aware that you may have heard of +Marchlaw, an old, gray-looking farm-house, substantial as a modern +fortress, recently, and, for aught we know to the contrary, still +inhabited by Peter Elliot, the proprietor of some five hundred +surrounding acres. The boundaries of Peter's farm, indeed, were defined +neither by fields, hedges, nor stone walls. A wooden stake here, and a +stone there, at considerable distances from each other, were the general +landmarks; but neither Peter nor his neighbours considered a few acres<!-- Page 2 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span> +worth quarrelling about; and their sheep frequently visited each other's +pastures in a friendly way, harmoniously sharing a family dinner, in the +same spirit as their masters made themselves free at each other's +tables.</p> + +<p>Peter was placed in very unpleasant circumstances, owing to the +situation of Marchlaw House, which, unfortunately, was built immediately +across the "ideal line," dividing the two kingdoms; and his misfortune +was, that, being born within it, he knew not whether he was an +Englishman or a Scotchman. He could trace his ancestral line no farther +back than his great-grandfather, who, it appeared from the family Bible, +had, together with his grandfather and father, claimed Marchlaw as their +birth-place. They, however, were not involved in the same perplexities +as their descendant. The parlour was distinctly acknowledged to be in +Scotland, and two-thirds of the kitchen were as certainly allowed to be +in England: his three ancestors were born in the room over the parlour, +and, therefore, were Scotchmen beyond question; but Peter, unluckily, +being brought into the world before the death of his grandfather, his +parents occupied a room immediately over the debatable boundary line +which crossed the kitchen. The room, though scarcely eight feet square, +was evidently situated between the two countries; but, no one being able +to ascertain what portion belonged to each, Peter, after many arguments +and altercations upon the subject, was driven to the disagreeable +alternative of confessing he knew not what countryman he was. What +rendered the confession the more painful was, that it was Peter's +highest ambition to be thought a Scotchman. All his arable land lay on +the Scotch side; his mother was collaterally related to the Stuarts; and +few families were more ancient or respectable than the Elliots. Peter's +speech, indeed, betrayed him to be a walking partition between the two +kingdoms, a living representation of the Union; for in one word he +pronounced<!-- Page 3 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span> the letter <i>r</i> with the broad, masculine sound of the North +Briton, and in the next with the liquid <i>burr</i> of the Northumbrians.</p> + +<p>Peter, or, if you prefer it, Peter Elliot, Esquire of Marchlaw, in the +counties of Northumberland and Roxburgh, was, for many years, the best +runner, leaper, and wrestler between Wooler and Jedburgh. Whirled from +his hand, the ponderous bullet whizzed through the air like a pigeon on +the wing; and the best putter on the Borders quailed from competition. +As a feather in his grasp, he seized the unwieldy hammer, swept it round +and round his head, accompanying with agile limb its evolutions, swiftly +as swallows play around a circle, and hurled it from his hands like a +shot from a rifle, till antagonists shrunk back, and the spectators +burst into a shout. "Well done, Squire! the Squire for ever!" once +exclaimed a servile observer of titles. "Squire! wha are ye squiring +at?" returned Peter. "Confound ye! where was ye when I was christened +Squire? My name's Peter Elliot—your man, or onybody's man, at whatever +they like!"</p> + +<p>Peter's soul was free, bounding, and buoyant, as the wind that carolled +in a zephyr, or shouted in a hurricane, upon his native hills; and his +body was thirteen stone of healthy substantial flesh, steeped in the +spirits of life. He had been long married, but marriage had wrought no +change upon him. They who suppose that wedlock transforms the lark into +an owl, offer an insult to the lovely beings who, brightening our +darkest hours with the smiles of affection, teach us that that only is +unbecoming in the husband which is disgraceful in the man. Nearly twenty +years had passed over them; but Janet was still as kind, and, in his +eyes, as beautiful as when, bestowing on him her hand, she blushed her +vows at the altar; and he was still as happy, as generous, and as free. +Nine fair children sat around their domestic hearth, and one, the +youngling of<!-- Page 4 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span> the flock, smiled upon its mother's knee. Peter had never +known sorrow; he was blest in his wife, in his children, in his flocks. +He had become richer than his fathers. He was beloved by his neighbours, +the tillers of his ground, and his herdsmen; yea, no man envied his +prosperity. But a blight passed over the harvest of his joys, and gall +was rained into the cup of his felicity.</p> + +<p>It was Christmas-day, and a more melancholy-looking sun never rose on +the 25th of December. One vast, sable cloud, like a universal pall, +overspread the heavens. For weeks, the ground had been covered with +clear, dazzling snow; and as, throughout the day, the rain continued its +unwearied and monotonous drizzle, the earth assumed a character and +appearance melancholy and troubled as the heavens. Like a mastiff that +has lost its owner, the wind howled dolefully down the glens, and was +re-echoed from the caves of the mountains, as the lamentations of a +legion of invisible spirits. The frowning, snow-clad precipices were +instinct with motion, as avalanche upon avalanche, the larger burying +the less, crowded downward in their tremendous journey to the plain. The +simple mountain rills had assumed the majesty of rivers; the broader +streams were swollen into the wild torrent, and, gushing forth as +cataracts, in fury and in foam, enveloped the valleys in an angry flood. +But, at Marchlaw, the fire blazed blithely; the kitchen groaned beneath +the load of preparations for a joyful feast; and glad faces glided from +room to room.</p> + +<p>Peter Elliot kept Christmas, not so much because it was Christmas, as in +honour of its being the birthday of Thomas, his first-born, who, that +day, entered his nineteenth year. With a father's love, his heart +yearned for all his children; but Thomas was the pride of his eyes. +Cards of apology had not then found their way among our Border hills; +and as all knew that, although Peter admitted no spirits within his +threshold, nor a drunkard at his table, he was, nevertheless,<!-- Page 5 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span> no +niggard in his hospitality, his invitations were accepted without +ceremony. The guests were assembled; and the kitchen being the only +apartment in the building large enough to contain them, the cloth was +spread upon a long, clear, oaken table, stretching from England into +Scotland. On the English end of the board were placed a ponderous +plum-pudding, studded with temptation, and a smoking sirloin; on +Scotland, a savoury and well-seasoned haggis, with a sheep's-head and +trotters; while the intermediate space was filled with the good things +of this life, common to both kingdoms and to the season.</p> + +<p>The guests from the north and from the south were arranged +promiscuously. Every seat was filled—save one. The chair by Peter's +right hand remained unoccupied. He had raised his hands before his eyes, +and besought a blessing on what was placed before them, and was +preparing to carve for his visitors, when his eyes fell upon the vacant +chair. The knife dropped upon the table. Anxiety flashed across his +countenance, like an arrow from an unseen hand.</p> + +<p>"Janet, where is Thomas?" he inquired; "hae nane o' ye seen him?" and, +without waiting an answer, he continued—"How is it possible he can be +absent at a time like this? And on such a day, too? Excuse me a minute, +friends, till I just step out and see if I can find him. Since ever I +kept this day, as mony o' ye ken, he has always been at my right hand, +in that very chair; and I canna think o' beginning our dinner while I +see it empty."</p> + +<p>"If the filling of the chair be all," said a pert young sheep-farmer, +named Johnson, "I will step into it till Master Thomas arrive."</p> + +<p>"Ye're not a faither, young man," said Peter, and walked out of the +room.</p> + +<p>Minute succeeded minute, but Peter returned not. The guests became +hungry, peevish, and gloomy, while an excellent dinner continued +spoiling before them. Mrs. Elliot,<!-- Page 6 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> whose good-nature was the most +prominent feature in her character, strove, by every possible effort, to +beguile the unpleasant impressions she perceived gathering upon their +countenances.</p> + +<p>"Peter is just as bad as him," she remarked, "to hae gane to seek him +when he kenned the dinner wouldna keep. And I'm sure Thomas kenned it +would be ready at one o'clock to a minute. It's sae unthinking and +unfriendly like to keep folk waiting." And, endeavouring to smile upon a +beautiful black-haired girl of seventeen, who sat by her elbow, she +continued in an anxious whisper—"Did ye see naething o' him, Elizabeth, +hinny?"</p> + +<p>The maiden blushed deeply; the question evidently gave freedom to a +tear, which had, for some time, been an unwilling prisoner in the +brightest eyes in the room; and the monosyllable, "No," that trembled +from her lips, was audible only to the ear of the inquirer. In vain Mrs. +Elliot despatched one of her children after another, in quest of their +father and brother; they came and went, but brought no tidings more +cheering than the moaning of the hollow wind. Minutes rolled into hours, +yet neither came. She perceived the prouder of her guests preparing to +withdraw, and, observing that "Thomas's absence was so singular and +unaccountable, and so unlike either him or his father, she didna ken +what apology to make to her friends for such treatment; but it was +needless waiting, and begged they would use no ceremony, but just +begin."</p> + +<p>No second invitation was necessary. Good humour appeared to be restored, +and sirloins, pies, pasties, and moor-fowl began to disappear like the +lost son. For a moment, Mrs. Elliot apparently partook in the +restoration of cheerfulness; but a low sigh at her elbow again drove the +colour from her rosy cheeks. Her eye wandered to the farther end of the +table, and rested on the unoccupied seat of her husband, and the vacant +chair of her first-born. Her heart<!-- Page 7 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> fell heavily within her; all the +mother gushed into her bosom; and, rising from the table, "What in the +world can be the meaning o' this?" said she, as she hurried, with a +troubled countenance, towards the door. Her husband met her on the +threshold.</p> + +<p>"Where hae ye been, Peter?" said she, eagerly; "hae ye seen naething o' +him?"</p> + +<p>"Naething! naething!" replied he; "is he no cast up yet?" And, with a +melancholy glance, his eyes sought an answer in the deserted chair. His +lips quivered, his tongue faltered.</p> + +<p>"Gude forgie me!" said he; "and such a day for even an enemy to be out +in! I've been up and doun every way that I can think on, but not a +living creature has seen or heard tell o' him. Ye'll excuse me, +neebors," he added, leaving the house; "I must awa again, for I canna +rest."</p> + +<p>"I ken by mysel', friends," said Adam Bell, a decent-looking +Northumbrian, "that a faither's heart is as sensitive as the apple o' +his e'e; and I think we would show a want o' natural sympathy and +respect for our worthy neighbour, if we didna every one get his foot +into the stirrup without loss o' time, and assist him in his search. +For, in my rough, country way o' thinking, it must be something +particularly out o' the common that would tempt Thomas to be amissing. +Indeed, I needna say <i>tempt</i>, for there could be no inclination in the +way. And our hills," he concluded, in a lower tone, "are not ower chancy +in other respects, besides the breaking up o' the storm."</p> + +<p>"Oh!" said Mrs. Elliot, wringing her hands, "I have had the coming o' +this about me for days and days. My head was growing dizzy with +happiness, but thoughts came stealing upon me like ghosts, and I felt a +lonely soughing about my heart, without being able to tell the cause; +but the cause is come at last! And my dear Thomas—the very pride and +staff o' my life—is lost!—lost to me for ever!"<!-- Page 8 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I ken, Mrs. Elliot," replied the Northumbrian, "it is an easy matter to +say compose yourself, for them that dinna ken what it is to feel. But, +at the same time, in our plain, country way o' thinking, we are always +ready to believe the worst. I've often heard my father say, and I've as +often remarked it myself, that, before anything happens to a body, there +is <i>a something</i> comes ower them, like a cloud before the face o' the +sun; a sort o' dumb whispering about the breast from the other world. +And though I trust there is naething o' the kind in your case, yet, as +you observe, when I find myself growing dizzy, as it were, with +happiness, it makes good a saying o' my mother's, poor body! 'Bairns, +bairns,' she used to say, 'there is ower muckle singing in your heads +to-night; we will have a shower before bedtime.' And I never, in my born +days, saw it fail."</p> + +<p>At any other period, Mr. Bell's dissertation on presentiments would have +been found a fitting text on which to hang all the dreams, wraiths, +warnings, and marvellous circumstances, that had been handed down to the +company from the days of their grandfathers; but, in the present +instance, they were too much occupied in consultation regarding the +different routes to be taken in their search.</p> + +<p>Twelve horsemen, and some half-dozen pedestrians, were seen hurrying in +divers directions from Marchlaw, as the last faint lights of a +melancholy day were yielding to the heavy darkness which appeared +pressing in solid masses down the sides of the mountains. The wives and +daughters of the party were alone left with the disconsolate mother, who +alternately pressed her weeping children to her heart, and told them to +weep not, for their brother would soon return; while the tears stole +down her own cheeks, and the infant in her arms wept because its mother +wept. Her friends strove with each other to inspire hope,<!-- Page 9 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> and poured +upon her ear their mingled and loquacious consolation. But one remained +silent. The daughter of Adam Bell, who sat by Mrs. Elliot's elbow at +table, had shrunk into an obscure corner of the room. Before her face +she held a handkerchief wet with tears. Her bosom throbbed convulsively; +and, as occasionally her broken sighs burst from their prison-house, a +significant whisper passed among the younger part of the company.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Elliot approached her, and taking her hand tenderly within both of +hers—"O hinny! hinny!" said she, "yer sighs gae through my heart like a +knife! An' what can I do to comfort ye? Come, Elizabeth, my bonny love, +let us hope for the best. Ye see before ye a sorrowin' mother!—a mother +that fondly hoped to see you an'—I canna say it!—an' am ill qualified +to gie comfort, when my own heart is like a furnace! But, oh! let us try +and remember the blessed portion, 'Whom the <span class="smcap">Lord</span> loveth <span class="smcap">He</span> chasteneth,' +an' inwardly pray for strength to say, 'His will be done!'"</p> + +<p>Time stole on towards midnight, and one by one the unsuccessful party +returned. As foot after foot approached, every breath was held to +listen. "No, no, no!" cried the mother again and again, with increasing +anguish, "it's no the foot o' my ain bairn;" while her keen gaze still +remained riveted upon the door, and was not withdrawn, nor the hope of +despair relinquished, till the individual entered, and, with a silent +and ominous shake of his head, betokened his fruitless efforts. The +clock had struck twelve; all were returned save the father. The wind +howled more wildly; the rain poured upon the windows in ceaseless +torrents; and the roaring of the mountain rivers gave a character of +deeper ghostliness to their sepulchral silence; for they sat, each wrapt +in forebodings, listening to the storm; and no sounds were heard, save +the groans of the mother, the weeping of her children,<!-- Page 10 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> and the bitter +and broken sobs of the bereaved maiden, who leaned her head upon her +father's bosom, refusing to be comforted.</p> + +<p>At length the barking of the farm-dog announced footsteps at a distance. +Every ear was raised to listen, every eye turned to the door; but, +before the tread was yet audible to the listeners—"Oh! it is only +Peter's foot!" said the miserable mother, and, weeping, rose to meet +him.</p> + +<p>"Janet, Janet!" he exclaimed, as he entered, and threw his arms around +her neck, "what's this come upon us at last?"</p> + +<p>He cast an inquisitive glance around his dwelling, and a convulsive +shiver passed over his manly frame, as his eye again fell on the vacant +chair, which no one had ventured to occupy. Hour succeeded hour, but the +company separated not; and low, sorrowful whispers mingled with the +lamentations of the parents.</p> + +<p>"Neighbours," said Adam Bell, "the morn is a new day, and we will wait +to see what it may bring forth; but, in the meantime, let us read a +portion o' the Divine word, an' kneel together in prayer, that, whether +or not the day-dawn cause light to shine upon this singular bereavement, +the Sun o' Righteousness may arise wi' healing on his wings, upon the +hearts o' this afflicted family, an' upon the hearts o' all present."</p> + +<p>"Amen!" responded Peter, wringing his hands; and his friend, taking down +the Ha' Bible, read the chapter wherein it is written—"It is better to +be in the house of mourning than in the house of feasting;" and again +the portion which sayeth—"It is well for me that I have been afflicted, +for before I was afflicted I went astray."</p> + +<p>The morning came, but brought no tidings of the lost son. After a solemn +farewell, all the visitants, save Adam Bell and his daughter, returned +every one to their own house; and the disconsolate father, with his +servants, again<!-- Page 11 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> renewed their search among the hills and surrounding +villages.</p> + +<p>Days, weeks, months, and years rolled on. Time had subdued the anguish +of the parents into a holy calm; but their lost first-born was not +forgotten, although no trace of his fate had been discovered. The +general belief was, that he had perished on the breaking up of the snow; +and the few in whose remembrance he still lived, merely spoke of his +death as a "very extraordinary circumstance," remarking that "he was a +wild, venturesome sort o' lad."</p> + +<p>Christmas had succeeded Christmas, and Peter Elliot still kept it in +commemoration of the birthday of him who was not. For the first few +years after the loss of their son, sadness and silence characterized the +party who sat down to dinner at Marchlaw, and still at Peter's right +hand was placed the vacant chair. But, as the younger branches of the +family advanced in years, the remembrance of their brother became less +poignant. Christmas was, with all around them, a day of rejoicing, and +they began to make merry with their friends; while their parents partook +in their enjoyment, with a smile, half of approval and half of sorrow.</p> + +<p>Twelve years had passed away; Christmas had again come. It was the +counterpart of its fatal predecessor. The hills had not yet cast off +their summer verdure; the sun, although shorn of its heat, had lost none +of its brightness or glory, and looked down upon the earth as though +participating in its gladness; and the clear blue sky was tranquil as +the sea sleeping beneath the moon. Many visitors had again assembled at +Marchlaw. The sons of Mr. Elliot, and the young men of the party, were +assembled upon a level green near the house, amusing themselves with +throwing the hammer, and other Border games, while himself and the elder +guests stood by as spectators, recounting the deeds of their youth. +Johnson,<!-- Page 12 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> the sheep-farmer, whom we have already mentioned, now a brawny +and gigantic fellow of two-and-thirty, bore away in every game the palm +from all competitors. More than once, as Peter beheld his sons defeated, +he felt the spirit of youth glowing in his veins, and, "Oh!" muttered +he, in bitterness, "had my Thomas been spared to me, he would hae thrown +his heart's bluid after the hammer, before he would hae been beat by +e'er a Johnson in the country!"</p> + +<p>While he thus soliloquized, and with difficulty restrained an impulse to +compete with the victor himself, a dark, foreign-looking, strong-built +seaman, unceremoniously approached, and, with his arms folded, cast a +look of contempt upon the boasting conqueror. Every eye was turned with +a scrutinizing glance upon the stranger. In height he could not exceed +five feet nine, but his whole frame was the model of muscular strength; +his features open and manly, but deeply sunburnt and weather-beaten; his +long, glossy, black hair, curled into ringlets by the breeze and the +billow, fell thickly over his temples and forehead; and whiskers of a +similar hue, more conspicuous for size than elegance, gave a character +of fierceness to a countenance otherwise possessing a striking impress +of manly beauty. Without asking permission, he stepped forward, lifted +the hammer, and, swinging it around his head, hurled it upwards of five +yards beyond Johnson's most successful throw. "Well done!" shouted the +astonished spectators. The heart of Peter Elliot warmed within him, and +he was hurrying forward to grasp the stranger by the hand, when the +words groaned in his throat, "It was just such a throw as my Thomas +would have made!—my own lost Thomas!" The tears burst into his eyes, +and, without speaking, he turned back, and hurried towards the house to +conceal his emotion.</p> + +<p>Successively, at every game, the stranger had defeated<!-- Page 13 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> all who ventured +to oppose him, when a messenger announced that dinner waited their +arrival. Some of the guests were already seated, others entering; and, +as heretofore, placed beside Mrs. Elliot was Elizabeth Bell, still in +the noontide of her beauty; but sorrow had passed over her features, +like a veil before the countenance of an angel. Johnson, crest-fallen +and out of humour at his defeat, seated himself by her side. In early +life he had regarded Thomas Elliot as a rival for her affections; and, +stimulated by the knowledge that Adam Bell would be able to bestow +several thousands upon his daughter for a dowry, he yet prosecuted his +attentions with unabated assiduity, in despite of the daughter's +aversion and the coldness of her father. Peter had taken his place at +the table; and still by his side, unoccupied and sacred, appeared the +vacant chair, the chair of his first-born, whereon none had sat since +his mysterious death or disappearance.</p> + +<p>"Bairns," said he, "did nane o' ye ask the sailor to come up and tak a +bit o' dinner wi' us?"</p> + +<p>"We were afraid it might lead to a quarrel with Mr. Johnson," whispered +one of the sons.</p> + +<p>"He is come without asking," replied the stranger, entering; "and the +wind shall blow from a new point if I destroy the mirth or happiness of +the company."</p> + +<p>"Ye're a stranger, young man," said Peter, "or ye would ken this is no a +meeting o' mirth-makers. But, I assure ye, ye are welcome, heartily +welcome. Haste ye, lasses," he added to the servants; "some o' ye get a +chair for the gentleman."</p> + +<p>"Gentleman, indeed!" muttered Johnson between his teeth.</p> + +<p>"Never mind about a chair, my hearties," said the seaman; "this will +do!" And, before Peter could speak to withhold him, he had thrown +himself carelessly into the<!-- Page 14 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> hallowed, the venerated, the +twelve-years-unoccupied chair! The spirit of sacrilege uttering +blasphemies from a pulpit could not have smitten a congregation of pious +worshippers with deeper horror and consternation, than did this filling +of the vacant chair the inhabitants of Marchlaw.</p> + +<p>"Excuse me, sir! excuse me, sir!" said Peter, the words trembling upon +his tongue; "but ye cannot—ye cannot sit there!"</p> + +<p>"O man! man!" cried Mrs. Elliot, "get out o' that! get out o' +that!—take my chair!—take ony chair i' the house!—but dinna, dinna +sit there! It has never been sat in by mortal being since the death o' +my dear bairn!—and to see it filled by another is a thing I canna +endure!"</p> + +<p>"Sir! sir!" continued the father, "ye have done it through ignorance, +and we excuse ye. But that was my Thomas's seat! Twelve years this very +day—his birthday—he perished, Heaven kens how! He went out from our +sight, like the cloud that passes over the hills—never—never to +return. And, O sir, spare a father's feelings! for to see it filled +wrings the blood from my heart!"</p> + +<p>"Give me your hand, my worthy soul!" exclaimed the seaman; "I +revere—nay, hang it! I would die for your feelings! But Tom Elliot was +my friend, and I cast anchor in this chair by special commission. I know +that a sudden broadside of joy is a bad thing; but, as I don't know how +to preach a sermon before telling you, all I have to say is—that Tom +an't dead."</p> + +<p>"Not dead!" said Peter, grasping the hand of the stranger, and speaking +with an eagerness that almost choked his utterance: "O sir! sir! tell me +how!—how!—Did ye say, living?—Is my ain Thomas living?"</p> + +<p>"Not dead, do ye say?" cried Mrs. Elliot, hurrying towards him and +grasping his other hand—"not dead! And shall I see my bairn again? Oh! +may the blessing o' Heaven, and the blessing o' a broken-hearted mother<!-- Page 15 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> +be upon the bearer o' the gracious tidings! But tell me—tell me, how is +it possible! As ye would expect happiness here or hereafter, dinna, +dinna deceive me!"</p> + +<p>"Deceive you!" returned the stranger, grasping, with impassioned +earnestness, their hands in his—"Never!—never! and all I can say +is—Tom Elliot is alive and hearty."</p> + +<p>"No, no!" said Elizabeth, rising from her seat, "he does not deceive us; +there is that in his countenance which bespeaks a falsehood impossible." +And she also endeavoured to move towards him, when Johnson threw his arm +around her to withhold her.</p> + +<p>"Hands off, you land-lubber!" exclaimed the seaman, springing towards +them, "or, shiver me! I'll show daylight through your timbers in the +turning of a hand-spike" And, clasping the lovely girl in his arms, +"Betty! Betty, my love!" he cried, "don't you know your own Tom? Father, +mother, don't you know me? Have you really forgot your own son? If +twelve years have made some change on his face, his heart is sound as +ever."</p> + +<p>His father, his mother, and his brothers, clung around him, weeping, +smiling, and mingling a hundred questions together. He threw his arms +around the neck of each, and in answer to their inquiries, +replied—"Well! well! there is time enough to answer questions, but not +to-day—not to-day!"</p> + +<p>"No, my bairn," said his mother, "we'll ask you no questions—nobody +shall ask you any! But how—how were ye torn away from us, my love? And, +O hinny! where—where hae you been?"</p> + +<p>"It's a long story, mother," said he, "and would take a week to tell it. +But, howsoever, to make a long story short, you remember when the +smugglers were pursued, and wished to conceal their brandy in our house, +my<!-- Page 16 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> father prevented them; they left muttering revenge—and they have +been revenged. This day twelve years, I went out with the intention of +meeting Elizabeth and her father, when I came upon a party of the gang +concealed in Hell's Hole. In a moment half a dozen pistols were held to +my breast, and, tying my hands to my sides, they dragged me into the +cavern. Here I had not been long their prisoner, when the snow, rolling +down the mountains, almost totally blocked up its mouth. On the second +night they cut through the snow, and, hurrying me along with them, I was +bound to a horse between two, and, before daylight, found myself stowed, +like a piece of old junk, in the hold of a smuggling lugger. Within a +week I was shipped on board a Dutch man-of-war, and for six years was +kept dodging about on different stations, till our old yawning hulk +received orders to join the fleet, which was to fight against the +gallant Duncan at Camperdown. To think of fighting against my own +countrymen, my own flesh and blood, was worse than to be cut to pieces +by a cat-o'-nine tails; and, under cover of the smoke of the first +broadside, I sprang upon the gunwale, plunged into the sea, and swam for +the English fleet. Never, never shall I forget the moment that my feet +first trode upon the deck of a British frigate! My nerves felt as firm +as her oak, and my heart, free as the pennant that waved defiance from +her masthead! I was as active as any one during the battle; and when it +was over, and I found myself again among my own countrymen, and all +speaking my own language, I fancied—nay, hang it! I almost believed—I +should meet my father, my mother, or my dear Bess, on board of the +British frigate. I expected to see you all again in a few weeks at +farthest; but, instead of returning to Old England, before I was aware, +I found it was helm about with us. As to writing, I never had an +opportunity but once. We were anchored before a French fort; a<!-- Page 17 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> packet +was lying alongside ready to sail; I had half a side written, and was +scratching my head to think how I should come over writing about you, +Bess, my love, when, as bad luck would have it, our lieutenant comes to +me, and says he, 'Elliot,' says he,' I know you like a little smart +service; come, my lad, take the head oar, while we board some of those +French bumb-boats under the batteries!' I couldn't say no. We pulled +ashore, made a bonfire of one of their craft, and were setting fire to a +second, when a deadly shower of small shot from the garrison scuttled +our boat, killed our commanding officer with half of the crew, and the +few who were left of us were made prisoners. It is of no use bothering +you by telling how we escaped from French prison. We did escape; and Tom +will once more fill his vacant chair."</p> + +<p>Should any of our readers wish farther acquaintance with our friends, +all we can say is, the new year was still young when Adam Bell bestowed +his daughter's hand upon the heir of Marchlaw, and Peter beheld the once +vacant chair again occupied, and a namesake of the third generation +prattling on his knee!<!-- Page 18 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_FAAS_REVENGE" id="THE_FAAS_REVENGE"></a>THE FAA'S REVENGE.</h2> + +<h3>A TALE OF THE BORDER GIPSIES.</h3> + + +<p>Brown October was drawing to a close—the breeze had acquired a degree +of sharpness too strong to be merely termed bracing—and the fire, as +the saying is, was becoming the best flower in the garden—for the +hardiest and the latest plants had either shed their leaves, or their +flowers had shrivelled at the breath of approaching winter—when a +stranger drew his seat towards the parlour fire of the Three-Half-Moons +inn, in Rothbury. He had sat for the space of half an hour when a party +entered, who, like himself (as appeared from their conversation), were +strangers, or rather visitors of the scenery, curiosities, and +antiquities in the vicinity. One of them having ordered the waiter to +bring each of them a glass of brandy and warm water, without appearing +to notice the presence of the first mentioned stranger, after a few +remarks on the objects of interest in the neighbourhood, the following +conversation took place amongst them:—</p> + +<p>"Why," said one, "but even Rothbury here, secluded as it is from the +world, and shut out from the daily intercourse of men, is a noted place. +It was here that the ancient and famous northern bard and unrivalled +ballad writer, Bernard Rumney, was born, bred, and died. Here, too, was +born Dr. Brown, who, like Young and Home, united the characters of +divine and dramatist, and was the author of '<i>Barbarossa</i>,' '<i>The Cure +of Saul</i>,' and other works, of which posterity and his country are +proud. The immediate neighbourhood, also, was the birth-place of the +inspired<!-- Page 19 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> boy, the heaven-taught mathematician, George Coughran, who +knew no rival, and who bade fair to eclipse the glory of Newton, but +whom death struck down ere he had reached the years of manhood."</p> + +<p>"Why, I can't tell," said another; "I don't know much about what you've +been talking of; but I know, for one thing, that Rothbury was a famous +place for every sort of games; and, at Fastren's E'en times, the rule +was, every male inhabitant above eight years of age to pay a shilling, +or out to the foot-ball. It was noted for its game-cocks, too—they were +the best breed on the Borders."</p> + +<p>"May be so," said the first speaker; "but though I should be loath to +see the foot-ball, or any other innocent game which keeps up a manly +spirit, put down, yet I do trust that the brutal practice of +cock-fighting will be abolished, not only on the Borders, but throughout +every country which professes the name of Christian; and I rejoice that +the practice is falling into disrepute. But, although my hairs are not +yet honoured with the silver tints of age, I am old enough to remember, +that, when a boy at school on the Scottish side of the Border, at every +Fastren's E'en which you have spoken of, every schoolboy was expected to +provide a cock for the battle, or main, and the teacher or his deputy +presided as umpire. The same practice prevailed on the southern Border. +It is a very old, savage amusement, even in this country; and perhaps +the preceptors of youth, in former days, considered it <i>classical</i>, and +that it would instil into their pupils sentiments of emulation; inasmuch +as the practice is said to have taken rise from Themistocles perceiving +two cocks tearing at and fighting with each other, while marching his +army against the Persians, when he called upon his soldiers to observe +them, and remarked that they neither fought for territory, defence of +country, nor for glory, but they fought because the one would not yield +to, or be defeated by the other; and he<!-- Page 20 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> desired his soldiers to take a +<i>moral</i> lesson from the barn-door fowls. Cock-fighting thus became among +the heathen Greeks a political precept and a religious observance—and +the <i>Christian</i> inhabitants of Britain, disregarding the <i>religious and +political moral</i>, kept up the practice, adding to it more disgusting +barbarity, for <i>their amusement</i>."</p> + +<p>"Coom," said a third, who, from his tongue, appeared to be a thorough +Northumbrian, "we wur talking about Rothbury, but you are goin' to give +us a regular sarmin on cock-fighting. Let's hae none o' that. You was +saying what clever chaps had been born here—but none o' ye mentioned +Jamie Allan, the gipsy and Northumberland piper, who was born here as +weel as the best o' them. But I hae heard that Rothbury, as weel as +Yetholm and Tweedmouth Moor, was a great resort for the Faa or gipsy +gangs in former times. Now, I understand that thae folk were a sort o' +bastard Egyptians; and though I am nae scholar, it strikes me forcibly +that the meaning o' the word <i>gipsies</i>, is just <i>Egypts</i>, or +<i>Gypties</i>—a contraction and corruption o' <i>Gyptian</i>!"</p> + +<p>"Gipsies," said he who spoke of Rumney and Brown, and abused the +practice of cock-fighting, "still do in some degree, and formerly did in +great numbers, infest this county; and I will tell you a story +concerning them."</p> + +<p>"Do so," said the thorough Northumbrian; "I like a story when it's weel +put thegither. The gipsies were queer folk. I've heard my faither tell +many a funny thing about them, when he used to whistle 'Felton Loanin,' +which was made by awd piper Allan—Jamie's faither." And here the +speaker struck up a lively air, which, to the stranger by the fire, +seemed a sort of parody on the well-known tune of "Johnny Cope."</p> + +<p>The other then proceeded with his tale, thus:—</p> + +<p>You have all heard of the celebrated Johnny Faa, the Lord and Earl of +Little Egypt, who penetrated into Scotland<!-- Page 21 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> in the reign of James IV., +and with whom that gallant monarch was glad to conclude a treaty. Johnny +was not only the king, but the first of the Faa gang of whom we have +mention. I am not aware that gipsies get the name of Faas anywhere but +upon the Borders; and though it is difficult to account for the name +satisfactorily, it is said to have had its origin from a family of the +name of <i>Fall</i> or <i>Fa'</i>, who resided here (in Rothbury), and that their +superiority in their cunning and desperate profession, gave the same +cognomen to all and sundry who followed the same mode of life upon the +Borders. One thing is certain, that the name <i>Faa</i> not only was given to +individuals whose surname might be <i>Fall</i>, but to the <i>Winters</i> and +<i>Clarkes</i>—<i>id genus omne</i>—gipsy families well known on the Borders. +Since waste lands, which were their hiding-places and resorts, began to +be cultivated, and especially since the sun of knowledge snuffed out the +taper of superstition and credulity, most of them are beginning to form +a part of society, to learn trades of industry, and live with men. Those +who still prefer their fathers' vagabond mode of life—finding that, in +the northern counties, their old trade of fortune-telling is at a +discount, and that thieving has thinned their tribe and is +dangerous—now follow the more useful and respectable callings of +muggers, besom-makers, and tinkers. I do not know whether, in etiquette, +I ought to give precedence to the besom-maker or tinker; though, as +compared with them, I should certainly suppose that the "muggers" of the +present day belong to the Faa aristocracy; if it be not that they, like +others, derive their nobility from descent of blood rather than weight +of pocket—and that, after all, the mugger with his encampment, his +caravans, horses, crystal, and crockery, is but a mere wealthy plebeian +or <i>bourgeois</i> in the vagrant community.—But to my tale.</p> + +<p>On a dark and tempestuous night in the December of<!-- Page 22 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> 1628, a Faa gang +requested shelter in the out-houses of the laird of Clennel. The laird +himself had retired to rest; and his domestics being fewer in number +than the Faas, feared to refuse them their request.</p> + +<p>"Ye shall have up-putting for the night, good neighbours," said Andrew +Smith, who was a sort of major-domo in the laird's household, and he +spoke in a tone of mingled authority and terror. "But, sir," added he, +addressing the chief of the tribe—"I will trust to your honour that ye +will allow none o' your folk to be making free with the kye, or the +sheep, or the poultry—that is, that ye will not allow them to mistake +ony o' them for your own, lest it bring me into trouble. For the laird +has been in a fearful rage at some o' your people lately; and if +onything were to be amissing in the morning, or he kenned that ye had +been here, it might be as meikle as my life is worth."</p> + +<p>"Tush, man!" said Willie Faa, the king of the tribe, "ye dree the death +ye'll never die. Willie Faa and his folk maun live as weel as the laird +o' Clennel. But, there's my thumb, not a four-footed thing, nor the +feather o' a bird, shall be touched by me or mine. But I see the light +is out in the laird's chamber window—he is asleep and high up amang the +turrets—and wherefore should ye set human bodies in byres and stables +in a night like this, when your Ha' fire is bleezing bonnily, and there +is room eneugh around it for us a'? Gie us a seat by the cheek o' your +hearth, and ye shall be nae loser; and I promise ye that we shall be +off, bag and baggage, before the skreigh o' day, or the laird kens where +his head lies."</p> + +<p>Andrew would fain have refused this request, but he knew that it +amounted to a command; and, moreover, while he had been speaking with +the chief of the tribe, the maid-servants of the household, who had +followed him and the other men-servants to the door, had divers of them +been solicited by the females of the gang to have futurity<!-- Page 23 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> revealed to +them. And whether it indeed be that curiosity is more powerful in woman +than in man (as it is generally said to be), I do not profess to +determine; but certain it is, that the laird of Clennel's maid-servants, +immediately on the hint being given by the gipsies, felt a very ardent +desire to have a page or two from the sybilline leaves read to them—at +least that part of them which related to their future husbands, and the +time when they should obtain them. Therefore, they backed the petition +or command of King Willie, and said to Andrew—</p> + +<p>"Really, Mr. Smith, it would be very unchristian-like to put poor +wandering folk into cauld out-houses on a night like this; and, as +Willie says, there is room enough in the Ha'."</p> + +<p>"That may be a' very true, lasses," returned Andrew, "but only ye think +what a dirdum there would be if the laird were to waken or get wit o't!"</p> + +<p>"Fearna the laird," said Elspeth, the wife of King Willie—"I will lay a +spell on him that he canna be roused frae sleep, till I, at sunrise, +wash my hands in Darden Lough."</p> + +<p>The sybil then raised her arms and waved them fantastically in the air, +uttering, as she waved them, the following uncouth rhymes by way of +incantation—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Bonny Queen Mab, bonny Queen Mab,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Wave ye your wee bits o' poppy wings<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ower Clennel's laird, that he may sleep<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Till I hae washed where Darden springs."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Thus assured, Andrew yielded to his fears and the wishes of his +fellow-servants, and ushered the Faas into his master's hall for the +night. But scarce had they taken their seats upon the oaken forms around +the fire, when—</p> + +<p>"Come," said the Faa king, "the night is cold, pinching cold, Mr. Smith: +and, while the fire warms without, is there naething in the cellar that +will warm within? See to it, Andrew, man—thou art no churl, or they +face is fause."<!-- Page 24 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Really, sir," replied Andrew—and, in spite of all his efforts to +appear at ease, his tongue faultered as he spoke—"I'm not altogether +certain what to say upon that subject; for ye observe that our laird is +really a very singular man; ye might as weel put your head in the fire +there as displease him in the smallest; and though Heaven kens that I +would gie to you just as freely as I would tak to mysel, yet ye'll +observe that the liquor in the cellars is not mine, but his—and they +are never sae weel plenished but I believe he would miss a thimblefu'. +But there is some excellent cold beef in the pantry, if ye could put up +wi' the like o' it, and the home-brewed which we servants use."</p> + +<p>"Andrew," returned the Faa king, proudly—"castle have I none, flocks +and herds have I none, neither have I haughs where the wheat, and the +oats, and the barley grow—but, like Ishmael, my great forefather, every +man's hand is against me, and mine against them—yet, when I am hungry, +I never lack the flesh-pots o' my native land, where the moorfowl and +the venison make brown broo together. Cauld meat agrees nae wi' my +stomach, and servants' drink was never brewed for the lord o' Little +Egypt. Ye comprehend me, Andrew?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, I daresay I do, sir," said the chief domestic of the house of +Clennel; "but only, as I have said, ye will recollect that the drink is +not mine to give; and if I venture upon a jug, I hope ye winna think o' +asking for another."</p> + +<p>"We shall try it," said the royal vagrant.</p> + +<p>Andrew, with trembling and reluctance, proceeded to the cellar, and +returned with a large earthen vessel filled with the choicest +home-brewed, which he placed upon a table in the midst of them.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i2">"Then each took a smack<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Of the old black jack,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">While the fire burned in the hall."<br /></span> +<!-- Page 25 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span></div></div> + +<p>The Faa king pronounced the liquor to be palatable, and drank to his +better acquaintance with the cellars of the laird of Clennel; and his +gang followed his example.</p> + +<p>Now, I should remark that Willie Faa, the chief of his tribe, was a man +of gigantic stature; the colour of his skin was the dingy brown peculiar +to his race; his arms were of remarkable length, and his limbs a union +of strength and lightness; his raven hair was mingled with grey; while, +in his dark eyes, the impetuosity of youth and the cunning of age seemed +blended together. It is in vain to speak of his dress, for it was +changed daily as his circumstances or avocations directed. He was ever +ready to assume all characters, from the courtier down to the mendicant. +Like his wife, he was skilled in the reading of no book but the book of +fate. Now, Elspeth was a less agreeable personage to look upon than even +her husband. The hue of her skin was as dark as his. She was also of his +age—a woman of full fifty. She was the tallest female in her tribe; but +her stoutness took away from her stature. Her eyes were small and +piercing, her nose aquiline, and her upper lip was "bearded like the +pard."</p> + +<p>While her husband sat at his carousals, and handing the beverage to his +followers and the domestics of the house, Elspeth sat examining the +lines upon the palms of the hands of the maid-servants—pursuing her +calling as a spaewife. And ever as she traced the lines of matrimony, +the sybil would pause and exclaim—</p> + +<p>"Ha!—money!—money!—cross my loof again, hinny. There is fortune +before ye! Let me see! A spur!—a sword!—a shield!—a gowden purse! +Heaven bless ye! They are there!—there, as plain as a pikestaff; they +are a' in your path. But cross my loof again, hinny, for until siller +again cross it, I canna see whether they are to be yours or no."</p> + +<p>Thus did Elspeth go on until her "loof had been crossed" by the last +coin amongst the domestics of the house of Clennel;<!-- Page 26 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> and when these were +exhausted, their trinkets were demanded and given to assist the spell of +the prophetess. Good fortune was prognosticated to the most of them, and +especially to those who crossed the loof of the reader of futurity most +freely; but to others, perils, and sudden deaths, and disappointments in +love, and grief in wedlock, were hinted, though to all and each of these +forebodings, a something like hope—an undefined way of escape—was +pended.</p> + +<p>Now, as the voice of Elspeth rose in solemn tones, and as the mystery of +her manner increased, not only were the maid-servants stricken with awe +and reverence for the wondrous woman, but the men-servants also began to +inquire into their fate. And as they extended their hands, and Elspeth +traced the lines of the past upon them, ever and anon she spoke strange +words, which intimated secret facts; and she spoke also of love-makings +and likings; and ever, as she spoke, she would raise her head and grin a +ghastly smile, now at the individual whose hand she was examining, and +again at a maid-servant whose fortune she had read; while the former +would smile and the latter blush, and their fellow domestics exclaim—</p> + +<p>"That's wonderfu'!—that dings a'!—ye are queer folk! hoo in the world +do ye ken?"</p> + +<p>Even the curiosity of Mr. Andrew Smith was raised, and his wonder +excited; and, after he had quaffed his third cup with the gipsy king, +he, too, reverentially approached the bearded princess, extending his +hand, and begging to know what futurity had in store for him.</p> + +<p>She raised it before her eyes, she rubbed hers over it.</p> + +<p>"It is a dark and a difficult hand," muttered she: "here are ships and +the sea, and crossing the sea, and great danger, and a way to avoid +it—but the gowd!—the gowd that's there! And yet ye may lose it a'! +Cross my loof, sir—yours is an ill hand to spae—for it's set wi' +fortune, and danger and adventure."<!-- Page 27 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span></p> + +<p>Andrew gave her all the money in his possession. Now it was understood +that she was to return the money and the trinkets with which her loof +had been crossed; and Andrew's curiosity overcoming his fears, he +ventured to intrust his property in her keeping; for, as he thought, it +was not every day that people could have everything that was to happen +unto them revealed. But when she had again looked upon his hand—</p> + +<p>"It winna do," said she—"I canna see ower the danger ye hae to +encounter, the seas ye hae to cross, and the mountains o' gowd that lie +before ye yet—ye maun cross my loof again." And when, with a woful +countenance, he stated that he had crossed it with his last coin—</p> + +<p>"Ye hae a chronometer, man," said she—"it tells you the minutes now, it +may enable me to show ye those that are to come!"</p> + +<p>Andrew hesitated, and, with doubt and unwillingness, placed the +chronometer in her hand.</p> + +<p>Elspeth wore a short cloak of faded crimson; and in a sort of pouch in +it, every coin, trinket, and other article of value which was put into +her hands were deposited, in order, as she stated, to forward her mystic +operations. Now, the chronometer had just disappeared in the general +receptacle of offerings to the oracle, when heavy footsteps were heard +descending the staircase leading to the hall. Poor Andrew, the ruler of +the household, gasped—the blood forsook his cheeks, his knees +involuntarily knocked one against another, and he stammered out—</p> + +<p>"For Heaven's sake, gie me my chronometer!—Oh, gie me it!—we are a' +ruined!"</p> + +<p>"It canna be returned till the spell's completed," rejoined Elspeth, in +a solemn and determined tone—and her countenance betrayed nothing of +her dupe's uneasiness; while her husband deliberately placed his right +hand upon a sort of dagger which he wore beneath a large coarse jacket +that<!-- Page 28 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> was loosely flung over his shoulders. The males in his retinue, +who were eight in number, followed his example.</p> + +<p>In another moment, the laird, with wrath upon his countenance, burst +into the hall.</p> + +<p>"Andrew Smith," cried he, sternly, and stamping his foot fiercely on the +floor, "what scene is this I see? Answer me, ye robber, answer me;—ye +shall hang for it!"</p> + +<p>"O sir! sir!" groaned Andrew, "mercy!—mercy!—O sir!" and he wrung his +hands together and shook exceedingly.</p> + +<p>"Ye fause knave!" continued the laird, grasping him by the neck—and +dashing him from him, Andrew fell flat upon the floor, and his terror +had almost shook him from his feet before—"Speak, ye fause knave!" +resumed the laird; "what means your carousin' wi' sic a gang? Ye robber, +speak!" And he kicked him with his foot as he lay upon the ground.</p> + +<p>"O sir!—mercy, sir!" vociferated Andrew, in the stupor and wildness of +terror; "I canna speak!—ye hae killed me outright! I am dead—stone +dead! But it wasna my blame—they'll a' say that, if they speak the +truth."</p> + +<p>"Out! out, ye thieves!—ye gang o' plunderers, born to the gallows!—out +o' my house!" added the laird, addressing Willie Faa and his followers.</p> + +<p>"Thieves! ye acred loon!" exclaimed the Faa king, starting to his feet, +and drawing himself up to his full height—"wha does the worm that +burrows in the lands o' Clennel ca' thieves? Thieves, say ye!—speak +such words to your equals, but no to me. Your forebears came ower wi' +the Norman, invaded the nation, and seized upon land—mine invaded it +also, and only laid a tax upon the flocks, the cattle, and the +poultry—and wha ca' ye thieves?—or wi' what grace do ye speak the +word?"</p> + +<p>"Away, ye audacious vagrant!" continued the laird; "ken ye not that the +king's authority is in my hands?—and for your former plunderings, if I +again find you setting foot upon ground o' mine, on the nearest tree ye +shall find a gibbet."<!-- Page 29 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Boast awa—boast awa, man," said Willie; "ye are safe here, for me and +mine winna harm ye; and it is a fougie cock indeed that darena craw in +its ain barn-yard. But wait until the day when we may meet upon the wide +moor, wi' only twa bits o' steel between us, and see wha shall brag +then."</p> + +<p>"Away!—instantly away!" exclaimed Clennel, drawing his sword, and +waving it threateningly over the head of the gipsy.</p> + +<p>"Proud, cauld-hearted, and unfeeling mortal," said Elspeth, "will ye +turn fellow-beings from beneath your roof in a night like this, when the +fox darena creep frae its hole, and the raven trembles on the tree?"</p> + +<p>"Out! out! ye witch!" rejoined the laird.</p> + +<p>"Farewell, Clennel," said the Faa king; "we will leave your roof, and +seek the shelter o' the hill-side. But ye shall rue! As I speak, man, ye +shall rue it!"</p> + +<p>"Rue it!" screamed Elspeth, rising—and her small dark eyes flashed with +indignation—"he shall rue it—the bairn unborn shall rue it—and the +bann o' Elspeth Faa shall be on Clennel and his kin, until his hearth be +desolate and his spirit howl within him like the tempest which this +night rages in the heavens!"</p> + +<p>The servants shrank together into a corner of the hall, to avoid the +rage of their master; and they shook the more at the threatening words +of the weird woman, lest she should involve them in his doom; but he +laughed with scorn at her words.</p> + +<p>"Proud, pitiless fool," resumed Elspeth, more bitterly than before, +"repress your scorn. Whom, think ye, ye treat wi' contempt? Ken ye not +that the humble adder which ye tread upon can destroy ye—that the very +wasp can sting ye, and there is poison in its sting? Ye laugh, but for +your want of humanity this night, sorrow shall turn your head grey, lang +before age sit down upon your brow."<!-- Page 30 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Off! off! ye wretches!" added the laird; "vent your threats on the +wind, if it will hear ye, for I regard them as little as it will. But +keep out o' my way for the future, as ye would escape the honours o' a +hempen cravat, and the hereditary exaltation o' your race."</p> + +<p>Willie Faa made a sign to his followers, and without speaking they +instantly rose and departed; but, as he himself reached the door, he +turned round, and significantly striking the hilt of his dagger, +exclaimed—</p> + +<p>"Clennel! ye shall rue it!"</p> + +<p>And the hoarse voice of Elspeth without, as the sound was borne away on +the storm, was heard crying—"He shall rue it!" and repeating her +imprecations.</p> + +<p>Until now, poor Andrew Smith had lain groaning upon the floor more dead +than alive, though not exactly "stone dead" as he expressed it; and +ever, as he heard his master's angry voice, he groaned the more, until +in his agony he doubted his existence. When, therefore, on the departure +of the Faas, the laird dragged him to his feet, and feeling some pity +for his terror, spoke to him more mildly, Andrew gazed vacantly around +him, his teeth chattering together, and he first placed his hands upon +his sides, to feel whether he was still indeed the identical flesh, +blood, and bones of Andrew Smith, or his disembodied spirit; and being +assured that he was still a man, he put down his hand to feel for his +chronometer, and again he groaned bitterly—and although he now knew he +was not dead, he almost wished he were so. The other servants thought +also of their money and their trinkets, which, as well as poor Andrew's +chronometer, Elspeth, in the hurry in which she was rudely driven from +the house, had, by a slip of memory, neglected to return to their lawful +owners.</p> + +<p>It is unnecessary to dwell upon the laird's anger at his domestics, or +farther to describe Andrew's agitation; but I may say that the laird was +not wroth against the Faa gang<!-- Page 31 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> without reason. They had committed +ravages on his flocks—they had carried off the choicest of his +oxen—they destroyed his deer—they plundered him of his poultry—and +they even made free with the grain that he reared, and which he could +spare least of all. But Willie Faa considered every landed proprietor as +his enemy, and thought it his duty to quarter on them. Moreover, it was +his boisterous laugh, as he pushed round the tankard, which aroused the +laird from his slumbers, and broke Elspeth's spell. And the destruction +of the charm, by the appearance of their master, before she had washed +her hands in Darden Lough, caused those who had parted with their money +and trinkets to grieve for them the more, and to doubt the promises of +the prophetess, or to</p> + +<p class="center">"Take all for gospel that the spaefolk say."</p> + +<p>Many weeks, however, had not passed until the laird of Clennel found +that Elspeth the gipsy's threat, that he should "<i>rue it</i>," meant more +than idle words. His cattle sickened and died in their stalls, or the +choicest of them disappeared; his favourite horses were found maimed in +the mornings, wounded and bleeding in the fields; and, notwithstanding +the vigilance of his shepherds, the depredations on his flocks augmented +tenfold. He doubted not but that Willie Faa and his tribe were the +authors of all the evils which were besetting him: but he knew also +their power and their matchless craft, which rendered it almost +impossible either to detect or punish them. He had a favourite steed, +which had borne him in boyhood, and in battle when he served in foreign +wars, and one morning when he went into his park, he found it lying +bleeding upon the ground. Grief and indignation strove together in +arousing revenge within his bosom. He ordered his sluthhound to be +brought, and his dependants to be summoned together, and to bring arms +with them. He had previously observed foot-prints on the ground, and he +exclaimed<!-- Page 32 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span>—</p> + +<p>"Now the fiend take the Faas, they shall find whose turn it is to rue +before the sun gae down."</p> + +<p>The gong was pealed on the turrets of Clennel Hall, and the kempers with +their poles bounded in every direction, with the fleetness of mountain +stags, to summon all capable of bearing arms to the presence of the +laird. The mandate was readily obeyed; and within two hours thirty armed +men appeared in the park. The sluthhound was led to the footprint; and +after following it for many a weary mile over moss, moor, and mountain, +it stood and howled, and lashed its lips with its tongue, and again ran +as though its prey were at hand, as it approached what might be called a +gap in the wilderness between Keyheugh and Clovencrag.</p> + +<p>Now, in the space between these desolate crags stood some score of +peels, or rather half hovels, half encampments—and this primitive city +in the wilderness was the capital of the Faa king's people.</p> + +<p>"Now for vengeance!" exclaimed Clennel; and his desire of revenge was +excited the more from perceiving several of the choicest of his cattle, +which had disappeared, grazing before the doors or holes of the gipsy +village.</p> + +<p>"Bring whins and heather," he continued—"pile them around it, and burn +the den of thieves to the ground."</p> + +<p>His order was speedily obeyed, and when he commanded the trumpet to be +sounded, that the inmates might defend themselves if they dared, only +two or three men and women of extreme age, and some half-dozen children, +crawled upon their hands and knees from the huts—for it was impossible +to stand upright in them.</p> + +<p>The aged men and women howled when they beheld the work of destruction +that was in preparation, and the children screamed when they heard them +howl. But the laird of Clennel had been injured, and he turned a deaf +ear to their misery. A light was struck, and a dozen torches applied at +once. The whins crackled, the heather blazed, and<!-- Page 33 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> the flames overtopped +the hovels which they surrounded, and which within an hour became a heap +of smouldering ashes.</p> + +<p>Clennel and his dependants returned home, driving the cattle which had +been stolen from him before them, and rejoicing in what they had done. +On the following day, Willie Faa and a part of his tribe returned to the +place of rendezvous—their city and home in the mountains—and they +found it a heap of smoking ruins, and the old men and the old women of +the tribe—their fathers and their mothers—sitting wailing upon the +ruins, and warming over them their shivering limbs, while the children +wept around them for food.</p> + +<p>"Whose work is this?" inquired Willie, while anxiety and anger flashed +in his eyes.</p> + +<p>"The Laird o' Clennel!—the Laird o' Clennel!" answered every voice at +the same instant.</p> + +<p>"By this I swear!" exclaimed the king of the Faas, drawing his dagger +from beneath his coat, "from this night henceforth he is laird nor man +nae langer." And he turned hastily from the ruins, as if to put his +threat in execution.</p> + +<p>"Stay, ye madcap!" cried Elspeth, following him, "would ye fling away +revenge for half a minute's satisfaction?"</p> + +<p>"No, wife," cried he, "nae mair than I would sacrifice living a free and +a fu' life for half an hour's hangin'."</p> + +<p>"Stop, then," returned she, "and let our vengeance fa' upon him, so that +it may wring his life away, drap by drap, until his heart be dry; and +grief, shame, and sorrow burn him up, as he has here burned house and +home o' Elspeth Faa and her kindred."</p> + +<p>"What mean ye, woman?" said Willie, hastily; "if I thought ye would come +between me and my revenge, I would drive this bit steel through you wi' +as goodwill as I shall drive it through him."<!-- Page 34 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span></p> + +<p>"And ye shall be welcome," said Elspeth. She drew him aside, and +whispered a few minutes in his ear. He listened attentively. At times he +seemed to start, and at length, sheathing his dagger and grasping her +hand, he exclaimed—"Excellent, Elspeth!—ye have it!—ye have it!"</p> + +<p>At this period, the laird of Clennel was about thirty years of age, and +two years before he had been married to Eleanor de Vere, a lady alike +distinguished for her beauty and accomplishments. They had an infant +son, who was the delight of his mother, and his father's pride. Now, for +two years after the conflagration of their little town, Clennel heard +nothing of his old enemies the Faas, neither did they molest him, nor +had they been seen in the neighbourhood, and he rejoiced in having +cleared his estate of such dangerous visitors. But the Faa king, +listening to the advice of his wife, only "nursed his wrath to keep it +warm," and retired from the neighbourhood, that he might accomplish, in +its proper season, his design of vengeance more effectually, and with +greater cruelty.</p> + +<p>The infant heir of the house of Clennel had been named Henry, and he was +about completing his third year—an age at which children are, perhaps, +most interesting, and when their fondling and their prattling sink +deepest into a parent's heart—for all is then beheld on childhood's +sunny side, and all is innocence and love. Now, it was in a lovely day +in April, when every bird had begun its annual song, and flowers were +bursting into beauty, buds into leaves, and the earth resuming its green +mantle, when Lady Clennel and her infant son, who then, as I have said, +was about three years of age, went forth to enjoy the loveliness and the +luxuries of nature, in the woods which surrounded their mansion, and +Andrew Smith accompanied them as their guide and protector. They had +proceeded somewhat more than a mile from the house, and the child, at +intervals breaking away from them, sometimes ran before his<!-- Page 35 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> mother, and +at others sauntered behind her, pulling the wild flowers that strewed +their path, when a man, springing from a dark thicket, seized the child +in his arms, and again darted into the wood. Lady Clennel screamed +aloud, and rushed after him. Andrew, who was coming dreaming behind, got +but a glance of the ruffian stranger—but that glance was enough to +reveal to him the tall, terrible figure of Willie Faa, the Gipsy king.</p> + +<p>There are moments when, and circumstances under which even cowards +become courageous, and this was one of those moments and circumstances +which suddenly inspired Andrew (who was naturally no hero) with courage. +He, indeed, loved the child as though he had been his own; and following +the example of Lady Clennel, he drew his sword and rushed into the wood. +He possessed considerable speed of foot, and he soon passed the wretched +mother, and came in sight of the pursued. The unhappy lady, who ran +panting and screaming as she rushed along, unable to keep pace with +them, lost all trace of where the robber of her child had fled, and her +cries of agony and bereavement rang through the woods.</p> + +<p>Andrew, however, though he did not gain ground upon the gipsy, still +kept within sight of him, and shouted to him as he ran, saying that all +the dependants of Clennel would soon be on horseback at his heels, and +trusting that every moment he would drop the child upon the ground. +Still Faa flew forward, bearing the boy in his arm, and disregarding the +cries and threats of his pursuer. He knew that Andrew's was not what +could be called a heart of steel, but he was aware that he had a +powerful arm, and could use a sword as well as a better man; and he knew +also that cowards will fight as desperately, when their life is at +stake, as the brave.</p> + +<p>The desperate chase continued for four hours, and till after the sun had +set, and the gloaming was falling thick on<!-- Page 36 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> the hills. Andrew, being +younger and unencumbered, had at length gained ground upon the gipsy, +and was within ten yards of him when he reached the Coquet side, about a +mile below this town, at the hideous Thrumb, where the deep river, for +many yards, rushes through a mere chasm in the rock. The Faa, with the +child beneath his arm, leaped across the fearful gulf, and the dark +flood gushed between him and his pursuer. He turned round, and, with a +horrid laugh, looked towards Andrew and unsheathed his dagger. But even +at this moment the unwonted courage of the chief servant of Clennel did +not fail him, and as he rushed up and down upon one side of the gulf, +that he might spring across and avoid the dagger of the gipsy, the other +ran in like manner on the other side; and when Andrew stood as if ready +to leap, the Faa king, pointing with his dagger to the dark flood that +rolled between them, cried—</p> + +<p>"See, fool! eternity divides us!"</p> + +<p>"And for that bairn's sake, ye wretch, I'll brave it!" exclaimed Andrew, +while his teeth gnashed together; and he stepped back, in order that he +might spring across with the greater force and safety.</p> + +<p>"Hold man!" cried the Faa; "attempt to cross to me, and I will plunge +this bonny heir o' Clennel into the flood below."</p> + +<p>"Oh, gracious! gracious!" cried Andrew, and his resolution and courage +forsook him; "ye monster!—ye barbarian!—oh, what shall I do now!"</p> + +<p>"Go back whence you came," said the gipsy, "or follow me another step +and the child dies."</p> + +<p>"Oh, ye butcher!—ye murderer!" continued the other—and he tore his +hair in agony—"hae ye nae mercy?"</p> + +<p>"Sic mercy as your maister had," returned the Faa, "when he burned our +dwellings about the ears o' the aged and infirm, and o' my helpless +bairns! Ye shall find in me<!-- Page 37 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> the mercy o' the fasting wolf, o' the tiger +when it laps blood!"</p> + +<p>Andrew perceived that to rescue the child was now impossible, and with a +heavy heart he returned to his master's house, in which there was no +sound save that of lamentation.</p> + +<p>For many weeks, yea months, the laird of Clennel, his friends and his +servants, sought anxiously throughout every part of the country to +obtain tidings of his child, but their search was vain. It was long ere +his lady was expected to recover the shock, and the affliction sat heavy +on his soul, while in his misery he vowed revenge upon all of the gipsy +race. But neither Willie Faa nor any of his tribe were again seen upon +his estates, or heard of in their neighbourhood.</p> + +<p>Four years were passed from the time that their son was stolen from +them, and an infant daughter smiled upon the knee of Lady Clennel; and +oft as it smiled in her face, and stretched its little hands towards +her, she would burst into tears, as the smile and the infantine fondness +of her little daughter reminded her of her lost Henry. They had had +other children, but they had died while but a few weeks old.</p> + +<p>For two years there had been a maiden in the household named Susan, and +to her care, when the child was not in her own arms, Lady Clennel +intrusted her infant daughter; for every one loved Susan, because of her +affectionate nature and docile manners—she was, moreover, an orphan, +and they pitied while they loved her. But one evening, when Lady Clennel +desired that her daughter might be brought her in order that she might +present her to a company who had come to visit them (an excusable, +though not always a pleasant vanity in mothers), neither Susan nor the +child were to be found. Wild fears seized the bosom of the already +bereaved mother, and her husband felt his<!-- Page 38 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> heart throb within him. They +sought the woods, the hills, the cottages around; they wandered by the +sides of the rivers and the mountain burns, but no one had seen, no +trace could be discovered of either the girl or the child.</p> + +<p>I will not, because I cannot, describe the overwhelming misery of the +afflicted parents. Lady Clennel spent her days in tears and her nights +in dreams of her children, and her husband sank into a settled +melancholy, while his hatred of the Faa race became more implacable, and +he burst into frequent exclamations of vengeance against them.</p> + +<p>More than fifteen years had passed, and though the poignancy of their +grief had abated, yet their sadness was not removed, for they had been +able to hear nothing that could throw light upon the fate of their +children. About this period, sheep were again missed from the flocks, +and, in one night, the hen-roosts were emptied. There needed no other +proof that a Faa gang was again in the neighbourhood. Now, +Northumberland at that period was still thickly covered with wood, and +abounded with places where thieves might conceal themselves in security. +Partly from a desire of vengeance, and partly from the hope of being +able to extort from some of the tribe information respecting his +children, Clennel armed his servants, and taking his hounds with him, +set out in quest of the plunderers.</p> + +<p>For two days their search was unsuccessful, but on the third the dogs +raised their savage cry, and rushed into a thicket in a deep glen +amongst the mountains. Clennel and his followers hurried forward, and in +a few minutes perceived the fires of the Faa encampment. The hounds had +already alarmed the vagrant colony, they had sprung upon many of them +and torn their flesh with their tusks; but the Faas defended themselves +against them with their poniards, and, before Clennel's approach, more +than half his hounds lay dead upon the ground, and his enemies fled.<!-- Page 39 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> +Yet there was one poor girl amongst them, who had been attacked by a +fierce hound, and whom no one attempted to rescue, as she strove to +defend herself against it with her bare hands. Her screams for +assistance rose louder and more loud; and as Clennel and his followers +drew near, and her companions fled, they turned round, and, with a +fiendish laugh, cried—</p> + +<p>"Rue it now!"</p> + +<p>Maddened more keenly by the words, he was following on in pursuit, +without rescuing the screaming girl from the teeth of the hound, or +seeming to perceive her, when a woman, suddenly turning round from +amongst the flying gypsies, exclaimed—</p> + +<p>"For your sake!—for Heaven's sake! Laird Clennel! save my bairn!"</p> + +<p>He turned hastily aside, and, seizing the hound by the throat, tore it +from the lacerated girl, who sank, bleeding, terrified, and exhausted, +upon the ground. Her features were beautiful, and her yellow hair +contrasted ill with the tawny hue of her countenance and the snowy +whiteness of her bosom, which in the struggle had been revealed. The +elder gipsy woman approached. She knelt by the side of the wounded girl.</p> + +<p>"O my bairn!" she exclaimed, "what has this day brought upon me!—they +have murdered you! This is rueing, indeed; and I rue too!"</p> + +<p>"Susan!" exclaimed Clennel, as he listened to her words, and his eyes +had been for several seconds fixed upon her countenance.</p> + +<p>"Yes!—Susan!—guilty Susan!" cried the gipsy.</p> + +<p>"Wretch!" he exclaimed, "my child!—where is my child?—is +<i>this</i>"——and he gazed on the poor girl, his voice failed him, and he +burst into tears.</p> + +<p>"Yes!—yes!" replied she bitterly, "it is her—there lies your +daughter—look upon her face."<!-- Page 40 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span></p> + +<p>He needed, indeed, but to look upon her countenance—disfigured as it +was, and dyed with weeds to give it a sallow hue—to behold in it every +lineament of her mother's, lovely as when they first met his eye and +entered his heart. He flung himself on the ground by her side, he raised +her head, he kissed her cheek, he exclaimed, "My child!—my child!—my +lost one! I have destroyed thee!"</p> + +<p>He bound up her lacerated arms, and applied a flask of wine, which he +carried with him, to her lips, and he supported her on his knee, and +again kissing her cheek, sobbed, "My child!—my own!"</p> + +<p>Andrew Smith also bent over her and said, "Oh, it is her! there isna the +smallest doubt o' that. I could swear to her among a thousand. She's her +mother's very picture." And, turning to Susan, he added, "O Susan, +woman, but ye hae been a terrible hypocrite!"</p> + +<p>Clennel having placed his daughter on horseback before him, supporting +her with his arm, Susan was set between two of his followers, and +conducted to the Hall.</p> + +<p>Before the tidings were made known to Lady Clennel, the wounds of her +daughter were carefully dressed, the dye that changed the colour of her +countenance was removed, and her gipsy garb was exchanged for more +seemly apparel.</p> + +<p>Clennel anxiously entered the apartment of his lady, to reveal to her +the tale of joy; but when he entered, he wist not how to introduce it. +He knew that excess of sudden joy was not less dangerous than excess of +grief, and his countenance was troubled, though its expression was less +sad than it had been for many years.</p> + +<p>"Eleanor," he at length began, "cheer up."</p> + +<p>"Why, I am not sadder than usual, dear," replied she, in her wonted +gentle manner; "and to be more cheerful would ill become one who has +endured my sorrows."<!-- Page 41 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span></p> + +<p>"True, true," said he, "but our affliction may not be so severe as we +have thought—there may be hope—there may be joy for us yet."</p> + +<p>"What mean ye, husband?" inquired she, eagerly; "have ye heard +aught—aught of my children?—you have!—you have!—your countenance +speaks it."</p> + +<p>"Yes, dear Eleanor," returned he, "I have heard of our daughter."</p> + +<p>"And she lives?—she lives?—tell me that she lives!"</p> + +<p>"Yes, she lives."</p> + +<p>"And I shall see her—I shall embrace my child again?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, love, yes," replied he, and burst into tears.</p> + +<p>"When—oh, when?" she exclaimed, "can you take me to her now?"</p> + +<p>"Be calm, my sweet one. You shall see our child—our long-lost child. +You shall see her now—she is here."</p> + +<p>"Here!—my child!" she exclaimed, and sank back upon her seat.</p> + +<p>Words would fail to paint the tender interview—the mother's joy—the +daughter's wonder—the long, the passionate embrace—the tears of +all—the looks—the words—the moments of unutterable feeling.</p> + +<p>I shall next notice the confession of Susan. Clennel promised her +forgiveness if she would confess the whole truth; and he doubted not, +that from her he would also obtain tidings of his son, and learn where +he might find him, if he yet lived. I shall give her story in her own +words.</p> + +<p>"When I came amongst you," she began, "I said that I was an orphan, and +I told ye truly, so far as I knew myself. I have been reared amongst the +people ye call gipsies from infancy. They fed me before I could provide +for myself. I have wandered with them through many lands. They taught me +many things; and, while young, sent me as a<!-- Page 42 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> servant into families, that +I might gather information to assist them in upholding their mysteries +of fortune-telling, I dared not to disobey them—they kept me as their +slave—and I knew that they would destroy my life for an act of +disobedience. I was in London when ye cruelly burned down the bit town +between the Keyheugh and Clovencrag. That night would have been your +last, but Elspeth Faa vowed more cruel vengeance than death on you and +yours. After our king had carried away your son, I was ordered from +London to assist in the plot o' revenge. I at length succeeded in +getting into your family, and the rest ye know. When ye were a' busy wi' +your company, I slipped into the woods wi' the bairn in my arms, where +others were ready to meet us; and long before ye missed us, we were +miles across the hills, and frae that day to this your daughter has +passed as mine."</p> + +<p>"But tell me all, woman," cried Clennel, "as you hope for either pardon +or protection—where is my son, my little Harry? Does he live?—where +shall I find him?"</p> + +<p>"As I live," replied Susan, "I cannot tell. There are but two know +concerning him—and that is the king and his wife Elspeth; and there is +but one way of discovering anything respecting him, which is by crossing +Elspeth's loof, that she may betray her husband: and she would do it for +revenge's sake, for an ill husband has he been to her, and in her old +days he has discarded her for another."</p> + +<p>"And where may she be found?" inquired Clennel, earnestly.</p> + +<p>"That," added Susan, "is a question I cannot answer. She was with the +people in the glen to-day, and was first to raise the laugh when your +dog fastened its teeth in the flesh of your ain bairn. But she may be +far to seek and ill to find now—for she is wi' those that travel fast +and far, and that will not see her hindmost."</p> + +<p>Deep was the disappointment of the laird when he found<!-- Page 43 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> he could obtain +no tidings of his son. But, at the intercession of his daughter (whose +untutored mind her fond mother had begun to instruct), Susan was freely +pardoned, promised protection from her tribe, and again admitted as one +of the household.</p> + +<p>I might describe the anxious care of the fond mother, as, day by day, +she sat by her new-found and lovely daughter's side, teaching her, and +telling her of a hundred things of which she had never heard before, +while her father sat gazing and listening near them, rejoicing over +both.</p> + +<p>But the ray of sunshine which had penetrated the house of Clennel was +not destined to be of long duration. At that period a fearful cloud +overhung the whole land, and the fury of civil war seemed about to burst +forth.</p> + +<p>The threatening storm did explode; a bigoted king overstepped his +prerogative, set at nought the rights and the liberties of the subject, +and an indignant people stained their hands with blood. A political +convulsion shook the empire to its centre. Families and individuals +became involved in the general catastrophe; and the house of Clennel did +not escape. In common with the majority of the English gentry of that +period, Clennel was a stanch loyalist, and if not exactly a lover of the +king, or an ardent admirer of his acts, yet one who would fight for the +crown though it should (as it was expressed about the time) "hang by a +bush." When, therefore, the parliament declared war against the king, +and the name of Cromwell spread awe throughout the country, and when +some said that a prophet and deliverer had risen amongst them, and +others an ambitious hypocrite and a tyrant, Clennel armed a body of his +dependants, and hastened to the assistance of his sovereign, leaving his +wife and his newly-found daughter with the promise of a speedy return.</p> + +<p>It is unnecessary to describe all that he did or encountered during the +civil wars. He had been a zealous partizan<!-- Page 44 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> of the first Charles, and he +fought for the fortunes of his son to the last. He was present at the +battle of Worcester, which Cromwell calls his "crowning mercy," in the +September of 1651, where the already dispirited royalists were finally +routed; and he fought by the side of the king until the streets were +heaped with dead; and when Charles fled, he, with others, accompanied +him to the borders of Staffordshire.</p> + +<p>Having bid the young prince an affectionate farewell, Clennel turned +back, with the intention of proceeding on his journey, on the following +day, to Northumberland, though he was aware, that, from the part which +he had taken in the royal cause, even his person was in danger. Yet the +desire again to behold his wife and daughter overcame his fears, and the +thought of meeting them in some degree consoled him for the fate of his +prince, and the result of the struggle in which he had been engaged.</p> + +<p>But he had not proceeded far when he was met by two men dressed as +soldiers of the Parliamentary army—the one a veteran with grey hairs, +and the other a youth. The shades of night had set in; but the latter he +instantly recognized as a young soldier whom he had that day wounded in +the streets of Worcester.</p> + +<p>"Stand!" said the old man, as they met him; and the younger drew his +sword.</p> + +<p>"If I stand!" exclaimed Clennel, "it shall not be when an old man and a +boy command me." And, following their example, he unsheathed his sword.</p> + +<p>"Boy!" exclaimed the youth; "whom call ye boy?—think ye, because ye +wounded me this morn, that fortune shall aye sit on your arm?—yield or +try."</p> + +<p>They made several thrusts at each other, and the old man, as an +indifferent spectator, stood looking on. But the youth, by a dexterous +blow, shivered the sword in Clennel's hand, and left him at his mercy.<!-- Page 45 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Now yield ye," he exclaimed; "the chance is mine now—in the morning it +was thine."</p> + +<p>"Ye seem a fair foe," replied Clennel, "and loath am I to yield, but +that I am weaponless."</p> + +<p>"Despatch him at once!" growled the old man. "If he spilled your blood +in the morning, there can be no harm in spilling his the night—and +especially after giein' him a fair chance."</p> + +<p>"Father," returned the youth, "would ye have me to kill a man in cold +blood?"</p> + +<p>"Let him submit to be bound then, hands and eyes, or I will," cried the +senior.</p> + +<p>The younger obeyed, and Clennel, finding himself disarmed, submitted to +his fate; and his hands were bound, and his eyes tied up, so that he +knew not where they led him.</p> + +<p>After wandering many miles, and having lain upon what appeared the cold +earth for a lodging, he was aroused from a comfortless and troubled +sleep, by a person tearing the bandage from his eyes, and ordering him +to prepare for his trial. He started to his feet. He looked around, and +beheld that he stood in the midst of a gipsy encampment. He was not a +man given to fear, but a sickness came over his heart when he thought of +his wife and daughter, and that, knowing the character of the people in +whose power he was, he should never behold them again.</p> + +<p>The males of the Faa tribe began to assemble in a sort of half circle in +the area of the encampment, and in the midst of them, towering over the +heads of all, he immediately distinguished the tall figure of Willie +Faa, in whom he also discovered the grey-haired Parliamentary soldier of +the previous night. But the youth with whom he had twice contended and +once wounded, and by whom he had been made prisoner, he was unable to +single out amongst them.</p> + +<p>He was rudely dragged before them, and Willie Faa cried—"Ken ye the +culprit?"<!-- Page 46 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Clennel o' Northumberland!—our enemy!" exclaimed twenty voices.</p> + +<p>"Yes," continued Willie, "Clennel our enemy—the burner o' our humble +habitations—that left the auld, the sick, the infirm, and the helpless, +and the infants o' our kindred, to perish in the flaming ruins. Had we +burned his house, the punishment would have been death; and shall we do +less to him than he would do to us?"</p> + +<p>"No! no!" they exclaimed with one voice.</p> + +<p>"But," added Willie, "though he would have disgraced us wi' a gallows, +as he has been a soldier, I propose that he hae the honour o' a +soldier's death, and that Harry Faa be appointed to shoot him."</p> + +<p>"All! all! all!" was the cry.</p> + +<p>"He shall die with the setting sun," said Willie, and again they cried, +"Agreed!"</p> + +<p>Such was the form of trial which Clennel underwent, when he was again +rudely dragged away, and placed in a tent round which four strong Faas +kept guard. He had not been alone an hour, when his judge, the Faa king, +entered, and addressed him—</p> + +<p>"Now, Laird Clennel, say ye that I haena lived to see day about wi' ye? +When ye turned me frae beneath your roof, when the drift was fierce and +the wind howled in the moors, was it not tauld to ye that <i>ye would rue +it</i>!—but ye mocked the admonition and the threat, and, after that, +cruelly burned us out o' house and ha'. When I came hame, I saw my auld +mother, that was within three years o' a hunder, couring ower the +reeking ruins, without a wa' to shelter her, and crooning curses on the +doer o' the black deed. There were my youngest bairns, too, crouching by +their granny's side, starving wi' hunger as weel as wi' cauld, for ye +had burned a', and haudin' their bits o' hands before the burnin' ruins +o' the house that they were born in, to warm them! That night I vowed +vengeance on you; and even on that night I would have executed it, but I +was<!-- Page 47 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> prevented; and glad am I now that I was prevented, for my vengeance +has been complete—or a' but complete. Wi' my ain hand I snatched your +son and heir from his mother's side, and a terrible chase I had for it; +but revenge lent me baith strength and speed. And when ye had anither +bairn that was like to live, I forced a lassie, that some o' our folk +had stolen when an infant, to bring it to us. Ye have got your daughter +back again, but no before she has cost ye mony a sad heart and mony a +saut tear; and that was some revenge. But the substance o' my +satisfaction and revenge lies in what I hae to tell ye. Ye die this +night as the sun gaes down; and, hearken to me now—the young soldier +whom ye wounded on the streets o' Worcester, and who last night made you +prisoner, was your son—your heir—your lost son! Ha! ha!—Clennel, am I +revenged?"</p> + +<p>"My son!" screamed the prisoner—"monster, what is it that ye say? +Strike me dead, now I am in your power—but torment me not!"</p> + +<p>"Ha! ha! ha!" again laughed the grey-haired savage—"man, ye are about +to die, and ye know not ye are born. Ye have not heard half I have to +tell. I heard that ye had joined the standard o' King Charles. I, a king +in my ain right, care for neither your king nor parliament; but I +resolved to wear, for a time, the cloth o' old Noll, and to make your +son do the same, that I might hae an opportunity o' meeting you as an +enemy, and seeing <i>him</i> strike you to the heart. That satisfaction I had +not; but I had its equivalent. Yesterday, I saw you shed his blood on +the streets o' Worcester, and in the evening he gave you a prisoner into +my hands that desired you."</p> + +<p>"Grey-haired monster!" exclaimed Clennel. "Have ye no feeling—no heart? +Speak ye to torment me, or tell me truly, have I seen my son?"</p> + +<p>"Patience, man!" said the Faa, with a smile of sardonic triumph—"my +story is but half finished. It was the blood o' your son ye shed +yesterday at Worcester—it was your<!-- Page 48 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> son who disarmed ye, and gave ye +into my power; and, best o' a'!—now, hear me! hear me! lose not a +word!—it is the hand o' your son that this night, at sunset, shall send +you to eternity! Now, tell me, Clennel, am I no revenged? Do ye no rue +it?"</p> + +<p>"Wretch! wretch!" cried the miserable parent, "in mercy strike me dead. +If I have raised my sword against my son, let that suffice ye!—but +spare, oh, spare my child from being an involuntary parricide!"</p> + +<p>"Hush, fool!" said the Faa; "I have waited for this consummation o' my +revenge for twenty years, and think ye that I will be deprived o' it now +by a few whining words? Remember, sunset!" he added, and left the tent.</p> + +<p>Evening came, and the disk of the sun began to disappear behind the +western hills. Men and women, the old and the young, amongst the Faas, +came out from their encampment to behold the death of their enemy. +Clennel was brought forth between two, his hands fastened to his sides, +and a bandage round his mouth, to prevent him making himself known to +his executioner. A rope was also brought round his body, and he was tied +to the trunk of an old ash tree. The women of the tribe began a sort of +yell or coronach; and their king, stepping forward, and smiling savagely +in the face of his victim, cried aloud—</p> + +<p>"Harry Faa! stand forth and perform the duty your tribe have imposed on +you."</p> + +<p>A young man, reluctantly, and with a slow and trembling step, issued +from one of the tents. He carried a musket in his hand, and placed +himself in front of the prisoner, at about twenty yards from him.</p> + +<p>"Make ready!" cried Willie Faa, in a voice like thunder. And the youth, +though his hands shook, levelled the musket at his victim.</p> + +<p>But, at that moment, one who, to appearance, seemed a maniac, sprang +from a clump of whins behind the ash tree<!-- Page 49 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> where the prisoner was bound, +and, throwing herself before him, she cried—"Hold!—would you murder +your own father? Harry Clennel!—would you murder your father? Mind ye +not when ye was stolen frae your mother's side, as ye gathered wild +flowers in the wood?"</p> + +<p>It was Elspeth Faa.</p> + +<p>The musket dropped from the hands of the intended executioner—a +thousand recollections, that he had often fancied dreams, rushed across +his memory. He again seized the musket, he rushed forward to his father, +but, ere he reached, Elspeth had cut the cords that bound the laird, and +placed a dagger in his hand for his defence, and, with extended arms, he +flew to meet the youth, crying—"My son!—my son!"</p> + +<p>The old Faa king shook with rage and disappointment, and his first +impulse was to poniard his wife—but he feared to do so; for although he +had injured her, and had not seen her for years, her influence was +greater with the tribe than his.</p> + +<p>"Now, Willie," cried she, addressing him, "wha rues it now? Fareweel for +ance and a'—and the bairn I brought up will find a shelter for my auld +head."</p> + +<p>It were vain to tell how Clennel and his son wept on each other's neck, +and how they exchanged forgiveness. But such was the influence of +Elspeth, that they departed from the midst of the Faas unmolested, and +she accompanied them.</p> + +<p>Imagination must picture the scene when the long-lost son flung himself +upon the bosom of his mother, and pressed his sister's hand in his. +Clennel Hall rang with the sounds of joy for many days; and, ere they +were ended, Andrew Smith placed a ring upon the finger of Susan, and +they became one flesh—she a respectable woman. And old Elspeth lived to +the age of ninety and seven years beneath its roof.<!-- Page 50 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="KATE_KENNEDY" id="KATE_KENNEDY"></a>KATE KENNEDY;</h2> + +<h3>OR, THE MAID OF INNERKEPPLE.</h3> + + +<p>Innerkepple was, some three hundred years ago, as complete a +fortification as could be seen along the Borders—presenting its +bastions, its turrets and donjon, and all the appurtenances of a +military strength, in the face of a Border riever, with that solemn air +of defiance that belongs to the style of the old castles. Many a blow of +a mangonel it had received; and Scotch and English engines of war had, +with equal force and address, poured into its old grey ribs their +destructive bolts; every wound was an acquisition of glory; and, unless +where a breach demanded a repair for the sake of security, the scars on +the old warrior were allowed to remain as a proof of his prowess. +Indeed, these very wounds appearing on the walls had their names—being +christened after the leaders of the sieges that had been in vain +directed against it; and, among the number, the kings of England might +have been seen indicated by the futile instruments of vengeance they had +flung into the rough ribs of old Innerkepple. But let us proceed. The +proprietor, good Walter Kennedy, better known by the appellative of +Innerkepple, was not unlike the old strength which he inhabited; being +an old, rough, burly baron, on whose face Time had succeeded in making +many impressions, notwithstanding of all the opposing energies of a soul +that gloried, in all manner of ways, of cheating the old greybeard of +his rights and clearing off <i>his scores</i>. As a good spirit is said to be +like good old wine, getting softer and more balmy<!-- Page 51 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> as it increases in +age, old Innerkepple proved, by his good humour and jovial manners, the +sterling qualities of his heart, which seemed, as he progressed in +years, to swell in proportion as that organ in others shrivelled and +decreased. He saw nothing in age but the necessity it imposes of having +more frequent recourse to its great enemy, the grape; and that power he +delighted to bow to, as he bent his head to empty the flagon which his +forebear, Kenneth, got from the first King James, as a reward for his +services against the house of Albany. Yet the good humour of the old +baron was not that of the toper, which, produced by the bowl, would not +exist but for its inspiring draught; the feeling of happiness and +universal good-will lay at the bottom of the heart itself, and was only +swelled into a state of glorious ebullition by the charm of the magic of +the vine branch—the true Mercurial <i>caduceus</i>, the only true magic wand +upon earth.</p> + +<p>Though the spirit of antiquarianism is seldom associated with the +swelling affections of the heart that is dedicated to Momus, old +Innerkepple had, notwithstanding, been able to combine the two qualities +or powers. Sitting in his old wainscotted hall, over a goblet of spiced +Tokay, there were three old subjects he loved to speculate upon; and +these were—his old castle, with its chronicled wounds, where the Genius +of War sat alongside of the "auld carle" Time, in grim companionship; +secondly, the family tree of the Innerkepples—with himself, a good old +branch, kept green by good humour and Tokay, at the further verge; and a +small green twig, as slender as a lily stalk, issuing from the old +branch—no other than the daughter of Innerkepple, the fair Kate +Kennedy, a buxom damsel, of goodly proportions, and as merry, with the +aid of health and young sparkling blood, as the old baron was with the +spiced wine of Tokay; and, in the third place, there was the true<!-- Page 52 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> +legitimate study of the antiquary, the ancient wine itself, the mortal +years of which he counted with an eye as bright as Cocker's over a +triumphant solution. As this last subject grew upon him, he became +inspired, like the old poet of Teos, and the rafters of Innerkepple rang +to the sound of his voice, tuned to the air of "The Guidwife o' +Tullybody," and fraught with the deeds, active and passive, of the +barons of Innerkepple and their castle.</p> + +<p>The fair Katherine Kennedy inherited her father's good humour, and, +maugre all the polishing and freezing influences of high birth, retained +her inborn freedom of thought and action, heedless whether the +contortion of the <i>buccæ</i> in a broad laugh were consistent with the +placidity of beauty, or the scream of the heart-excited risibility were +in accordance with the formula of high breeding. Buxom in her person, +and gay in her manners, she formed the most enchanting baggage of all +the care-killing damsels of her day—the most exquisite ronion that ever +chased Melancholy from her yellow throne on the face of Hypochondria, or +threw the cracker of her persiflage into the midst of the crew of blue +devils that bind down care-worn mortals by the bonds of <i>ennui</i>. She was +no antiquary, even in the limited sense of her father's study of the +science of cobwebs; being rather given to <i>neoterics</i>, or the science +which teaches the qualities of things of to-day or yesterday. Age in all +things she hated with a very good feminine spirit of detestation; and, +following up her principles, she arrived at the conclusion that youth +and beauty were two of the very best qualities that could be possessed +by a lover. Her father's impassioned praises of the old branches of the +tree of the Innerkepples—comprehending the brave Ludovick, who fell at +Homildon, and the memorable Walter, who sold his life at the price of a +score of fat Englishmen at the red Flodden—produced only her best and +loudest laugh, as she figured to herself the folly<!-- Page 53 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> of preferring the +rugged trunk to the green branches that suspend at their points the +red-cheeked apple full of sweetness and juice. Neither cared the +hilarious damsel much for the reverend turrets of Innerkepple. Her +father's description, full of good humour as it was, of the various +perils they had passed, and the service they had done their country, +seemed to her, as she stood on the old walls, listening to the +narrative, like the croak of the old corbies that sat on the pinnacles; +and her laugh came again full of glee through the loopholes, or echoed +from the battered curtain or recesses of the ballium.</p> + +<p>That such a person as merry old Innerkepple should have a bitter and +relentless foe in the proprietor of the old strength called Otterstone, +in the neighbourhood, is one of the most instructive facts connected +with the system of war and pillage that prevailed on the Borders, +principally during the reign of Henry VIII. of England and James V. of +Scotland, when the spirit of religion furnished a cause of aggression +that could not have been afforded by the pugnacious temperaments of the +victims of attack. Magnus Fotheringham of Otterstone had had a deadly +feud with Kenneth Kennedy, the father of the good old Innerkepple, and +ever since had nourished against his neighbour a deadly spite, which he +had taken many means of gratifying. His opponent had acted merely on the +defensive; but his plea had been so well vindicated by his retainers, +who loved him with the affection of children, that the splenetic +aggressor had been twice repulsed with great slaughter. Most readily +would the jovial baron, who had never given any cause of offence, have +seized upon the demon of Enmity, and, <i>obtorto collo</i>, forced the fiend +into the smoking flagon of spiced wine, while he held out the hand of +friendship to his hereditary foe; but such was Otterstone's inveteracy, +that he would not meet him but with arms in his hands, so that all the +endeavours of<!-- Page 54 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> the warm-hearted and jolly Innerkepple to overcome the +hostility of his neighbour, were looked upon as secret modes of wishing +to entrap him, and take vengeance on him for his repeated attacks upon +the old castle.</p> + +<p>Some short time previous to the period about which we shall become more +interested, Innerkepple, with twenty rangers, was riding the marches of +his property, when he was set upon by his enemy, who had nearly twice +that number of retainers. Taking up with great spirit the plea of their +lord, the men who were attacked rallied round the old chief, and fought +for him like lions, drowning (perhaps purposely) in the noise of the +battle the cries of Innerkepple, who roared, at the top of his voice—</p> + +<p>"Otterstone, man—hear me!—A pint o' my auld Canary will do baith you +and me mair guid than a' that bluid o' your men and mine. Stop the +fecht, man. I hae nae feud against you, an' I'm no answerable for the +wrangs o' thy father Kenneth."</p> + +<p>These peaceful words were lost amidst the sounds of the battle, and +Otterstone construed the contortions of the peacemaker into indications +of revenge, and his bawling was set down as his mode of inspiriting his +followers. The fight accordingly progressed, old Innerkepple at +intervals holding up a white handkerchief as a sign of peace; but which, +having been used by him in stopping the wounds of one of his men, was +received with its blood-marks as a signal of revenge, both by his men +and those of the aggressor. The strife accordingly increased, and all +was soon mixed up in the confusion of the melée.</p> + +<p>"Has feud ran awa wi' yer senses, Otterstone?" again roared the good old +baron. "I'll gie yer son, wha's at St. Omers, the hand o' my dochter +Kate. Do you hear me, man? If you will mix the bluids o' oor twa houses, +let it be dune by Haly Kirk."</p> + +<p>His words never reached Otterstone; but his own men<!-- Page 55 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> who adored and +idolized their beautiful young mistress, whose unvaried cheerfulness and +kindness had won their hearts, heard the proposition of their master +with astonishment and dissatisfaction. They were still sorely pressed by +their enemy, who, seeing the stained handkerchief in the hands of +Innerkepple, were roused to stronger efforts. At this moment an +extraordinary vision met their eyes. A detachment of retainers from the +castle came forward in the most regular warlike array, having at their +head their young mistress, armed with a helmet and a light jerkin, and +bearing in her hand a sword of suitable proportions. A loud shout from +the worsted combatants expressed their satisfaction and surprise, and in +a moment the assistant corps joined their friends, and commenced to +fight. The unusual vision relaxed for a moment the energies of +Otterstone's men; but a cry from their chief, that they would that day +be ten times vanquished if they were defeated by a female leader, again +inspired them, and instigated them to the fight.</p> + +<p>"Press forward, brave vassals of Innerkepple!" cried Katherine. "Your +foes have no fair damsel to inspire them; and who shall resist those +whose arms are nerved in defence of an old chief and a young mistress? +He who kills the greatest number of Otterstone's men shall have the +privilege of demanding a woman's guerdon from Katherine Kennedy. If this +be not enough to make ye fight like lions, ye deserve to be hung in +chains on the towers of Otterstone."</p> + +<p>Smiling as she uttered her strange speech, she hurried to her father, +who was still making all the efforts in his power to bring about a +parley. He had got within a few yards of Otterstone, and it required all +the energies of Katherine to keep him back and defend him from insidious +blows—an office she executed with great agility, by keeping her light +sword whirling round her head, and<!-- Page 56 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> inflicting wounds—not perhaps of +great depth—on those who were ungallant and temerarious enough to +approach her parent.</p> + +<p>"See, Otterstone, man," cried the laird, still intent on peace, and +sorry for the deadly work that was going on around him. "Is she no fit +to mak heirs to Otterstone? Up wi' yer helm, Kate, and show him yer fair +face. Ha! man, stop this bluidy work, and let us mend a' by a carousal. +Deil's in the heart and stamack o' the man that prefers warring to +wassailing!"</p> + +<p>"He does not hear you, father," cried Kate. "We must defend ourselves. +On, brave followers! Ye know your guerdon. Gallant knights have kneeled +for it and been refused it. You are to fight for it, and to receive it. +Hurrah for Innerkepple!" And she swung her light falchion round her +head, while the war-cry of the family, "<i>Festina lente!</i>" arose in +answer to her inspiriting appeal, and the men rushed forward with new +ardour on their foes.</p> + +<p>"You are as bluid-thirsty as he is, Kate," cried the baron. "What mean +ye, woman? Haste ye up to Otterstone, and fling yer arms round his neck, +and greet a guid greet, according to the fashion o' womankind. Awa! +haste ye, and say, mairower, that ye'll be the wife o' his son, and join +the twa baronies that are gaping for ane anither. Quick, woman; tears +are mere water—thin aneuch, Gude kens!—but thae men's bluid is thicker +than my vintage o' the year '90."</p> + +<p>"Katherine Kennedy never yet wept either to friend or foe, unless in the +wild glee of her frolics," replied the maiden. "By the bones of Camilla! +I thought I was only fit for sewing battle scenes on satin, and laughing +as I killed a knight with my needle; but I find I have the Innerkepple +blood in my veins, and my cheek is glowing like a blood-red rose. Take +care of yourself, good father.<!-- Page 57 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> and leave the affair to me. A single +glance of my eye has more power in it than the command of the proudest +baron of the Borders. On, good hearts!" And she again rode among the +men, and inspired them with her voice and looks.</p> + +<p>The effect of the silvery tones of the voice of Katherine on the hearts +of her father's retainers was electric; they fought like lions, and it +soon became apparent to Otterstone that a woman is a more dangerous +enemy than a man. The cry, "For the fair maid of Innerkepple!" resounded +among the combatants, and soon exhibited greater virtue than the war-cry +of the house. Against men actuated by the chivalrous feelings that +naturally arose out of the defence of a beautiful woman, all resistance +was vain; the ranks of Otterstone's men were broken, and this advantage +having been seized by their opponents, whose energies were rising every +moment, as the sound of Katherine's voice saluted their ears, a route +ensued, and the usual consequences of that last resource of the +vanquished—flight—were soon apparent in the wounded victims, who fell +ingloriously with wounds on their backs. The pursuers were inclined to +continue the pursuit even to the walls of Otterstone, but Katherine +called them back.</p> + +<p>"To slay the flying," said she, with a laugh, as the usual hilarity of +her spirits returned upon her, "is what I call effeminate warfare. When +men flee, women pursue; and what get they for their pains more than the +wench got from Theseus, whom she hunted for his heart, and got, as our +hunters do, the kick of his heel? Away, and carry in our disabled, that +I may, with woman's art, cure the wounds that have been received in +defence of a woman."</p> + +<p>The men obeyed with alacrity, and Innerkepple himself stared in +amazement at his daughter, who had always before<!-- Page 58 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> appeared to him as a +wild romp, fit only for killing men with her beauty, or tormenting them +with the elfin tricks or bewitching waggeries of her restless salient +spirit.</p> + +<p>"I'll hae ye in the wainscotted ha', Kate," said the father, as he +entered his private chamber, leaning on the arm of his daughter, +"painted wi' helm, habergeon, and halberd, and placed alongside o' Lewie +o' Homildon and Watt o' Flodden."</p> + +<p>"I care not, father," replied Katherine, "if you give the painter +instructions to paint me laughing at those famous progenitors of our +house, who were foolish enough to give their lives for that glory I can +purchase for nothing, and get the lives of my enemies to boot; but I +must go and minister to the gallant men who have been wounded."</p> + +<p>"Minister first to your father, Kate," replied Innerkepple, with a +knowing look.</p> + +<p>"And to your father's daughter, you would add," replied she, with a +smile. "A bridal and a battle lack wine." And, hastening to a cupboard, +she took out and placed on the table a flagon and two cups, the latter +of which she filled.</p> + +<p>"Rest to the souls of the men I have slain!" said she, laughing, as she +lifted the wine cup to her head, while her father was performing the +same act.</p> + +<p>"What! did ye kill ony o' Otterstone's men?" said Innerkepple.</p> + +<p>"Every time I lifted up my visor," replied she, "I scattered death +around me. Ha! ha! what fools men are! Their bodies are tenantless; we +women are the souls that live outside of them, and take up our residence +within their clayey precincts only when we have an object to serve. The +tourney has taught me the power of our sex; and there I have thrown my +spirit into the man I hated, to gratify my humour by seeing him, poor +caitiff! as he caught my hazel eye, writhe and wring, and contort +himself into all the attitudes of Proteus."<!-- Page 59 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Wicked imp!" said Innerkepple, laughing.</p> + +<p>"And when he had sufficiently twisted himself," continued she, "I have, +with a grave face given the same hazel eye to his opponent, and set his +body in motion in the same way. The serpent-charmer is nothing to a +woman. By this art, I to-day gained the victory; and I'll stake my +auburn toupée against thy grey wig, that I beat, in the same way, the +boldest baron of the Borders."</p> + +<p>"By the faith o' Innerkepple, ye're no blate, Kate!" said the old baron, +still laughing; "but come, let us see our wounded men"—taking his +daughter's arm.</p> + +<p>"Leave their wounds to me, father," said she. "The sting of the +tarantula is cured by an old song. We women are the true leeches; +doctors are quacks and medicasters to us. We kill and cure like the +Delphic sword, which makes wounds and heals them by alternate strokes."</p> + +<p>"Ever at your quips, roisterer," said Innerkepple, as they arrived at +the court.</p> + +<p>The wounded men had been brought in, and were consigned to the care of +one of the retainers, skilled in medicine, Katherine's medicaments—her +looks and tones—being reserved for a balsamic application, after the +wounds were cicatrized. The other retainers were, meanwhile, busy in +consultation, as might have been seen by their congregating into +parties, talking low, and throwing looks at Innerkepple and his fair +daughter, as they stood on the steps of the inner door of the castle.</p> + +<p>"The guerdon! the guerdon!" at last said one of the vassals, advancing +and throwing himself at the feet of Kate.</p> + +<p>"Ha! ha! I forgot," replied she laughing; "but turn up thy face—art +thou the man?"</p> + +<p>"So say my companions, fair leddy," replied he. "I brocht doon wi' this +arm five o' Otterstone's men."</p> + +<p>"With that arm!" replied she, "and what spirit nerved the dead lumber, +thinkest thou?"<!-- Page 60 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Dootless yours, fair leddy," answered he, smiling knowingly; "but, +though the spirit was borrowed, I'm no the less entitled to my reward."</p> + +<p>"A good stickler for the rights of your sex," answered she, keeping up +the humour; "but what guerdon demandest thou?"</p> + +<p>"That whilk knights hae sued in vain for at your fair feet," answered +the man, smiling, as he uttered nearly the words she had used at the +battle.</p> + +<p>"Caught in my own snare," replied she, laughing loudly.</p> + +<p>"Ah, Kate, Kate!" said the baron, joining in the humour, "hoo mony +gallant barons, and knights, and gentlemen hae ye tormented by thae fair +lips o' yours, which carry in their cunnin' words a defence o' themsels +sae weel contrived that nane daur approach them! Ye're caught at last. +Stand to yer richts, man. A kiss was promised ye, and by the honour o' +Innerkepple, a kiss ye'll hae, if I should haud her head by a grip o' +her bonny auburn locks."</p> + +<p>"Hold! hold!" cried Katherine; "this matter dependeth on the answer to a +question. Art thou married, sirrah?"</p> + +<p>The man hesitated, fearful of being caught by his clever adversary.</p> + +<p>"Have a care o' yoursel, Gregory," said Innerkepple, "ye're on dangerous +ground."</p> + +<p>"What if I am or am not?" said the man, cautiously, turning up his eye +into the face of the wicked querist.</p> + +<p>"If thou art not," said she, "then would a kiss of so fair a damsel be +to thee beyond the value of a croft of the best land o' the barony o' +Innerkepple; but if thou art, then would the guerdon be as nothing to +the kiss of thy wife, and as the weight of a feather in the scale +against an oxengate of good land."</p> + +<p>"I'm no married," replied the man; "but, an't please yer leddyship, I'll +take the oxengate."</p> + +<p>"Audacious varlet!" cried Kate, rejoicing in the adroitness<!-- Page 61 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> she +exhibited; "wouldst thou prefer a piece of earth to a kiss of Kate +Kennedy—a boon which the gayest knights of the Borders have sued for in +vain! But 'tis well—thou hast refused the guerdon. Ha! ha! Men of +Innerkepple, ye are witnesses to the fact. This man hath spurned my +guerdon, and sought dull earth for my rosy lips."</p> + +<p>"We are witnesses," cried the retainers; and the court-yard rang with the +laugh which the cleverness of their fair mistress had elicited from +those who envied Gregory of his privilege.</p> + +<p>"Kate, Kate!" said the old baron, joining in the laugh, "will ever +mortal be able to seize what are sae weel guarded? I believe ye will be +able to argue yer husband oot o' his richts o' proving whether thae +little traitors be made of mortal flesh or ripe cherries. But wine is +better than women's lips; and since Kate has sae cleverly got quit o' +her obligation, I'll mak amends by gieing ye a <i>surrogatum</i>."</p> + +<p>Several measures of good old wine were served out to the men by the +hands of Katherine, who rejoiced in the contradiction of refusing one +thing to give a better. Her health, and that of Innerkepple, were drunk +with loud shouts of approbation; and the wassail was kept up till a late +hour of the night.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile, Otterstone was struggling with his disappointment, and +nourishing a deep spirit of revenge. The shame of his defeat, +accomplished by a girl, was insufferable; and the gnawing pain of the +loss of honour and men, in a cause where he had calculated securely on +crushing his supposed enemy, affected him so severely, that he sent, it +was reported, for his son, who had lived from his infancy at St. Omers, +to come over to administer to him consolation. When Innerkepple heard of +these things, he marvelled greatly at the stubbornness of his neighbour, +whom he wished, above all things, to drag, <i>nolente volente</i>, into a +deep<!-- Page 62 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> wassail in the old wainscotted hall of his castle, whereby he +might drown, with reason itself, all their hereditary grudges, and +transform a foe into a friend. These feelings were also participated in +by the warlike Kate, who acknowledged that she did not, on that +memorable day, fight for anything on earth that she knew of, but the +safety of her father, and the sheer glory of victory. She entertained +the best possible feelings towards Otterstone, though she admitted, with +a laugh, that if his men had not that day run for their lives, she would +have fought till they and their lord lay all dead upon the field, and +the glory of Otterstone was extinguished for ever.</p> + +<p>A considerable period that passed in quietness, seemed to indicate that +the anger of the vanquished baron had escaped by the valves appointed by +nature for freeing the liver of its redundant bile. Meanwhile, +Innerkepple's universal love of mankind increased, as his friendship for +the juice of the grape grew stronger and stronger, and his potations +waxed deeper and deeper; so that he was represented, all over the +Borders, as being the most jovial baron of his time. The fame of Kate +also went abroad like fire-flaughts; but no one knew what to make of +her—whether to set her down as a beautiful virago, or as a merry imp of +sportive devilry, who fought her father's enemy with the same good-will +she felt towards the lovers whom she delighted with her beauty and +gaiety, and tormented by her cruel waggeries and wiles.</p> + +<p>This apparent quietness, and the consequent freedom from all danger, +induced the old baron to comply with a request made to him by King +James, to lend him forty of his followers, to aid in suppressing some +disturbances caused by a number of outlawed reivers at that time +ravaging the Borders. Katherine gave her consent to the measure; but she +wisely exacted the condition that the men should not be removed to a +greater distance from the castle than<!-- Page 63 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> ten miles. When James' emissary +asked her why she adjected this condition to her father's agreement, she +answered, with that waggish mystery in which she often loved to indulge, +that she had such a universal love for his—the emissary's—sex, that +she could not suffer the idea of her gallant men being further removed +from her than the distance on which she had condescended. A question for +explanation only produced another wicked <i>quodlibet</i>; so that the royal +messenger was obliged to be contented with a reason that sounded in his +ears very like a contempt of royal authority—a circumstance for which +she cared no more than she did for the mute expression of admiration of +her beauty, that her quick eye detected on the face of the deputy.</p> + +<p>The men having been detached from the castle for the service of the +king, there remained only a small number, not more than sufficient for +occupying the more important stations on the walls of the strength. +There was, however, no cause for alarm; and old Innerkepple continued to +speculate over his spiced Tokay, on his three grand subjects of +antiquarian research; while Katherine followed her various occupations +of listening to and laughing at his reveries, sewing battle scenes on +satin, and killing her knights with her needle, in as many grotesque +ways as her inventive fancy could devise. One day the sound of a horn +cut right through the middle a long pull of Canary in the act of being +perfected by the old baron's powers of swallow; and, in a short time, +the warder came in and said that a wine merchant, with sumpter mules and +panniers, was at the end of the drawbridge, and had expressed a strong +desire to submit his commodity to the test of such a famous judge of the +spirit of the grape as the baron of Innerkepple, whose name had gone +forth as transcending that of all modern wine-drinkers.</p> + +<p>"A wine merchant!" ejaculated Innerkepple, smacking<!-- Page 64 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> his lips after his +interrupted draught of vintage '90. "What species o' sma' potation does +he deal in? Ha! ha! It suits my humour to see the quack's een reel, as +he finds his tongue and palate glued thegither wi' what I ca' wine, and +gets them loosed again by his ain coloured water. Show him in, George."</p> + +<p>"Whar is my leddy, yer Honour?" said the seneschal, looking bluntly. +"Will she consent to the drawbridge bein' raised at a time when the +castle's nearly empty?"</p> + +<p>"She has just gane into the green parlour in the west tower," said the +baron. "But I'll tak Kate in my ain hands. She likes fun as weel as her +auld father, and will laugh to see this quack beaten wi' his ain bowls."</p> + +<p>The seneschal withdrew, though reluctantly, and casting his eyes about +for the indispensable Katherine; but she was not within his reach, and +he felt himself compelled, by the impatience of the old baron, to admit +the merchant. The creaking hinges of the bridge resounded through the +castle and the merchant and his mules were seen by Katherine, looking +through a loophole, slowly making their way into the castle. It was too +late for her now to consider of the propriety of the permission to +enter; so she leant her chin on her hand, and quietly scanned the +stranger, as he crossed the bridge, driving his mules before him with a +large stick, which he brought down with a loud thwack on their +backs—accompanying his act with a loud "Whoop, ho!" and occasionally +throwing his eyes over the walls as he proceeded.</p> + +<p>"Whom have we here?" said she, as she communed with herself, and nodded +her head, still apparent through the loophole. "By'r Lady! neither +Gascon nor Fleming, or my eyes are no better than my father's, when he +looks at <i>antiques</i> through the red medium of his vintage of '90. +Perchance, a lover come to run away with Kate Kennedy. Hey! the thought +tickles my wild wits, and sends me on<!-- Page 65 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span> the wings of fancy into the +regions of romance. Yet I have not read that the catching and carrying +off of <i>Tartars</i> hath anything to do with the themes of romantic +love-errantry. I'm witty at the expense of this poor packman; but, +seriously, Katherine Kennedy must carry off her lover. True to the +difference that opposes me to the rest of my sex, I could not love a man +whom I did not vanquish and abduct, as a riever does the chattels of the +farmer."</p> + +<p>Continuing her gaze, as she laughed at her own strange thoughts, she saw +the merchant bind his mules to a ring fixed in the inside of the wall, +and take out of his panniers a vessel, with which he proceeded in the +direction of the door that led to the hall. When the merchant had +disappeared, she saw one of the retainers of the castle examining +intently the mules and their panniers. He looked up and caught her eye; +and placing his finger on his forehead, made a sign for her to come +down. She obeyed with her usual alacrity, and in a moment was at the +side of the retainer, who, slipping gently under the shade of the +castle, so as to be out of the view of those within the hall, +communicated to the ear of Katherine some intelligence of an important +nature. The man looked grave; Kate snapped her fingers; the fire of her +eyes glanced from the balls like the sparks of struck flint, and the +expression of her countenance indicated that she had formed a purpose +which she gloried in executing.</p> + +<p>"Hark ye, Gregory," said she; "I am still your debtor, but I require +again your services." And, looking carefully around her, she whispered +some words into the ear of the man; and, upon receiving his nod of +intelligence and assent, sprung up the steps that led to the hall.</p> + +<p>The wine merchant was, as she entered, sitting at the oaken table, +opposite to the old baron, who was holding up in his hand a species of +glass jug, and looking through it with that peculiar expression which is +only to be found<!-- Page 66 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> in the face of a luxurious wine-toper in the act of +passing sentence.</p> + +<p>"Wha, in God's name, are ye, man?" cried the baron, under the cover of +whose speech Kate slipped cleverly up to the window, and sat down, with +her cheek resting on her hand, in apparent listlessness, but eyeing +intently the stranger. "I could have wad the picture o' my ancestor, +Watt o' Flodden, or King Henry's turret, in the east wing o' +Innerkepple, wi' its twenty wounds, mair precious than goold, that there +wasna a cup o' vintage '90 in Scotland except what I had mysel. Whar got +ye't, man? Are ye the Devil? Hae ye brocht it frae my ain cellars? +Speak, Satan!"</p> + +<p>"Vy, <i>mon cher</i> Innerkepple," replied the merchant, "did I not know that +you were one grand biberon—I mean drinker of vin? It is known all over +the marches—I mean the Bordures. Aha! no one Frenchman could cheat the +famous Innerkepple; so I brought the best that was in all my celliers. +Is it not grand and magnifique?"</p> + +<p>"Grand an' magnifique, man!" replied Innerkepple, as he sipped the wine +with the gravity of a judge. "It's mair than a' that, man, if my tongue +could coin a word to express its ain sense o' what it is at this moment +enjoying. But the organ's stupified wi' sheer delight, and forgets its +very mither's tongue; an' nae wonder, for my very een, that didna taste +it, reel and get drunk wi' the sight." And the delighted baron took +another pull of the goblet.</p> + +<p>"Aha! Innerkepple, you are von of the grandest biberons I have ever seen +in all this contrée," said the merchant. "It is one great pleasir to +trafique vit von so learned in the science of <i>bon gout</i>. That grand +smack of your lips would tempt me to ruin myself, and drink mine own +commodity."</p> + +<p>"Hae ye a stock o' the treasure?" said the baron; "I canna suppose it."<!-- Page 67 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Just five barrils in my celliers at Berwick," answered the merchant, +"containing quatre hundred pints de Paris in each one of them."</p> + +<p>"I could walk on my bare feet to Berwick to see it and taste it," said +the baron; "but what clatter o' a horse's feet is that in the court, +Kate?"</p> + +<p>"Ha! sure it is my mules," said the Frenchman, starting to his feet in +alarm.</p> + +<p>"Oh! keep your seat, Monsieur Merchant," cried Kate, laughing and +looking out of the window. "Can a lady not despatch her servitor to +Selkirk for a pair of sandals, that should this day have been on my feet +in place of in Gilbert Skinner's hands, without raising folks from their +wine?"</p> + +<p>The Frenchman was satisfied, and retook his seat; but the baron looked +at Kate, as if at a loss to know what freak had now come into her +inventive head. The letting down of the drawbridge, and the sound of the +horse's feet passing along the sounding wood, verified her statement, +but carried no conviction to the mind of Innerkepple. He had long +ceased, however, the vain effort to understand the workings of his +daughter's mind, and on the present occasion he was occupied about too +important a subject to be interested in the vagaries of a madcap wench.</p> + +<p>"By the Virgin!" she said again, "my jennet will lose her own sandals in +going for mine, if Gregory thus strikes the rowels into her sides."</p> + +<p>Covering, by these words, the rapid departure of the messenger, she +turned her eyes to continue the study of the merchant, whom she watched +with feline assiduity. The conversation was again resumed.</p> + +<p>"Five barrels, said ye, Monsieur?" resumed Innerkepple. "Let me +see—that, wi' what I hae mysel, may see me out; but it will be a guid +heir-loom to Kate's husband. What is the price?"<!-- Page 68 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span></p> + +<p>"One merk the gallon of four pints de Paris," answered the merchant.</p> + +<p>("Yet I see no marks of Otterstone about him," muttered Kate to herself. +"How beautiful he is, maugre his disguise! Had he come on a message of +love, in place of war, I would have taken him prisoner, and bound him +with the rays of light that come from my languishing eyes.")</p> + +<p>"That's dear, man," said Innerkepple. "But ye're a cunning rogue; if I +keep drinking at this rate, the price will sink as the flavour rises, +and ye'll catch me, as men do gudgeons, by the tongue."</p> + +<p>"Aha! <i>mon cher</i> Innerkepple," said the merchant, "you have von +excellent humour of fun about ye. If I vere not <i>un pauvre merchand</i>, I +would have one grand plaisir in getting <i>mouillé</i>—I mean drunk—vit +you."</p> + +<p>("Ha! my treacherous Adonis, art on that tack, with a foul wind in thy +fair face?" was Kate's mental ejaculation. "If thou nearest thy haven, I +am a worse pilot than Palinurus.")</p> + +<p>"Wi' wine like that before ane," responded the baron, "the topers +alongside o' ye may be Frenchmen or Dutchmen, warriors or warlocks, +wraiths or wassailers, merchants or mahouns—a's alike. It will put a +soul into a ghaist, a yearning heart into a gowl, and a spirit o' +nobility in the breast o' ane wha never quartered arms but wi' the fair +anes o' flesh an' bluid that belang to his wife. I'll be oblivious o' a' +warldly things before Kate's sandals come frae Selkirk; but yer price, +man, I fear, will stick to me to the end."</p> + +<p>"I cannot make one deduction," said the merchant, "but I vill give to +the men in the base-court one jolly debauch of very good vin, vich is in +my hampers."</p> + +<p>("The kaim of chanticleer is in the wind's eye," muttered Katherine. +"Thou pointest nobly for the direction<!-- Page 69 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> of treachery; but my sandals +will be back from Selkirk long before I am obliged to march with thee to +the prison of Otterstone.")</p> + +<p>"Weel, mak it a merk," said Innerkepple, "for five pints, an' a bouse to +my retainers, wha are as muckle beloved by me as if they were my bairns; +an' I will close wi' ye."</p> + +<p>"Vell, that is one covenant <i>inter nous</i>," said the merchant; "but I +cannot return to Berwick until <i>demain</i>—I mean the morrow; and we vill +have the long night for one jolly carousal. I vill go <i>sans delai</i>, and +give the poor fellows, in the meantime, one leetle tasting of the grand +cheer."</p> + +<p>("Then I am too long here," muttered Kate. "Alexander told his men that +the Persian stream was poisonous, to prevent them from stopping to +drink, whereby they would have fallen into the hands of the enemy. One +not less than he—ha! ha!—will save her men, by telling them there is +treachery in the cup.")</p> + +<p>She descended instantly to the base-court, and, passing from one guard +to another, she whispered in their ears certain instructions, which, by +the nodding of their heads, they seemed to understand, while those she +had not time to visit received from their neighbours the communication +at second-hand, and thus, in a short space of time, she prepared the +whole retainers for the part they were destined to play. She had +scarcely finished this part of her operations, and got out of the court, +when the wine merchant made his appearance on the steps leading to the +hall. He nodded pleasantly to the men, and, proceeding to his mules, +took out of one of the panniers a large vessel filled with wine. This he +laid on the flagstones of the base-court, and alongside of it he placed +a large cup. He then called out to the retainers to approach, and seemed +pleased with the readiness with which they complied with his request.<!-- Page 70 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Mine very good fellows," said he, "I have sold your master, +Innerkepple, one grand quantity of vine; and he says I am under one +obligation to treat you vit a hamper, for the sake of the grand +affection he bears to you. You may drink as much as ever you vill +please; and ven this is brought to one termination, I will supply you +vit more."</p> + +<p>"We're a' under a suitable obligation to ye, sir," replied the oldest of +the retainers, a sly, pawky Scotchman—"and winna fail to do credit to +the present ye've sae nobly presented to us; but do ye no hear +Innerkepple callin' for ye frae the ha'? Awa, sir, to the guid baron, +and leave us to our carouse."</p> + +<p>"Ay," said another; "we'll inform ye when this is finished."</p> + +<p>"Finished!" said a third; "we'll be a' on oor backs before we see the +end o't."</p> + +<p>"Aha! excellent jolly troup!" cried the merchant, delighted with this +company.</p> + +<p>The voice of Katherine, who appeared on the steps leading to the hall, +now arrested their attention.</p> + +<p>"My father is impatient for thee, good merchant," said she.</p> + +<p>"<i>Ma chere</i> leddy," replied he, "I will be there <i>a present</i>." And, +looking up to see that she had again disappeared—"Drink, my jolly +mates," he continued. "It is the grand matiere, the <i>bon</i> stuff, the +excellent good liqueur. Aha! you will be so merry, and you know you have +the consent of Innerkepple."</p> + +<p>"We'll be a' as drunk as bats," said he who spoke first, with a sly +leer.</p> + +<p>"The Deil tak him wha has the beddin' o' us!" said another.</p> + +<p>"So say I," added half-a-dozen of voices.</p> + +<p>"Then I am the Deil's property," said the warder, "unless<!-- Page 71 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> I am saved by +the power o' the wine; and, by my faith, I'll no spare't."</p> + +<p>"Aha! very good! excellent joke!" cried the delighted merchant. "Drink, +and shame the Diable, as we say in France. Wine comes from the gods, and +is the grand poison of Beelzebub."</p> + +<p>And, after enjoying deep potations, the merchant returned to the hall, +amidst the laughter and pretended applause of the men. The moment he had +disappeared, Katherine got carried to the spot a measure filled with +wine and water; and, having emptied in another vessel the contents of +the merchant's hamper, the thin and innocuous potation was poured in to +supply its place. The men assisted in the operation; and, all being +finished, they began to carouse with great glee and jollity.</p> + +<p>"I said, my leddy, to the merchant, that we would be a' as drunk as +bats," said one of the humorists; "and sure this is a fair beginning; +for wha could stand drink o' this fearfu' strength?"</p> + +<p>"The Deil tak him wha has the beddin' o' us!" said the other, laughing, +as he drank off a glass of the thin mixture.</p> + +<p>"Then I am the Deil's property," said the warder, "unless I am saved by +the power o' this strong drink."</p> + +<p>And thus the men, encouraged by the smiles of Kate, who was, with great +activity, conducting the ceremonies, seemed to be getting boisterous on +the strength of the merchant's wine. Their jokes raised real laughter; +and the noise of their mirth went up and entered into the hall, falling +like incense on the heart of the merchant. Katherine, meanwhile, again +betook herself to her station at the hall window, using assiduously both +her eyes and ears; the former being directed to a dark fir plantation +that stood to the left of the castle, and the latter occupied by the +conversations of her father and the merchant.<!-- Page 72 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span></p> + +<p>"My men," said Innerkepple, "seem to be following the example o' their +master. They are gettin' noisy. I hope, Monsieur, ye were moderate in +yer present. A castle-fu' o' drunk men is as bad as a headfu' o' +intoxicated notions."</p> + +<p>("Hurrah for the French merchant! Long life to him! May he continue as +strong as his liquor!")</p> + +<p>"Aha! the jolly good fellows are feeling the sting of the spirit," said +the merchant, with sparkling eyes.</p> + +<p>"Ungratefu' dogs!" rejoined Innerkepple; "I treat them as if they were +my sons, and hear hoo they praise a stranger for a bellyfu' o' wine! My +beer never produced sae muckle froth o' flattery. But this wine o' +yours, Monsieur, drowns a' my indignation."</p> + +<p>("Long life to Innerkepple and the fair Katherine!")</p> + +<p>"Now you are getting the grand adulation," said the Frenchman. "Ha! they +are a jovial troup of good chaps, and deserve one grand potation; but I +gave them only one leetle hamper, for fear they should get <i>mouillé</i>."</p> + +<p>"Very considerate, Monsieur, very prudent and kind," said the baron; +"for twa-thirds o' my men are fechtin fer Jamie, and we hae a kittle +neebor in Otterstone, whase son I hear has come hame frae St. Omers. +By-the-by, saw ye the callant in France? They say he's sair ashamed o' +the defeat o' his father by the generalship o' my dochter Kate."</p> + +<p>"Ha! did <i>ma chere</i> leddy combattre Otterstone?" ejaculated the +Frenchman, laughing. "Very good! ha! ha! ha! I did not know that, ven I +sold him one quantity of vin yesterday; but I assure you, <i>mon cher</i> +Innerkepple, he is not at all your enemy, and his son did praise <i>ma +chere</i> leddy as the most magnificent vench in all the contrée."</p> + +<p>("Excellently sustained," muttered Katherine to herself. "How I do love +the roll of that dark eye, and the curl of<!-- Page 73 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> that lip covered with the +black moustache! Can so much beauty conceal a deadly purpose? But the +'magnificent vench' shall earn yet a better title to the soubriquet out +of thy discomfiture, fair, deceitful, sweet devil.")</p> + +<p>"I only wish I had Otterstone whar you are, man," said Innerkepple, "wi' +the liquor as sweet an' my bile nae bitterer. I would conquer him in +better style than did my dochter, though, I confess, she manœuvred +him beautifully."</p> + +<p>("Perdition to the faes o' Innerkepple! and, chief o' them, the fause +Otterstone, the leddy-licked loon!")</p> + +<p>"Helas! The master and the men have the very different creeds," said the +Frenchman, shrugging his shoulders; "but my vin is making the <i>bon</i> +companions choleric. Ha! ha!"</p> + +<p>("It is—it is!" muttered Katherine, as she strained her eyes to catch +the signal of a white handkerchief, that floated on the top of one of +the trees in the fir-wood.)</p> + +<p>She now abruptly left the hall, and proceeded to the place in the court +occupied by those who were wassailing on the coloured water she had +brewed for them with her fair hands. They were busily occupied by the +manifestations of their mirth, which was not altogether simulated. A +cessation of the noise evinced the effect of her presence among those +who deified her.</p> + +<p>"Up with the merry strain, my jolly revellers!" said she, smiling, and +immediately "Bertram the Archer," in loud notes, rung in the ballium:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"And Bertram held aloft the horn,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Filled wi' the bluid-red wyne,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And three times has he loudly sworn<br /></span> +<span class="i2">His luve he winna tyne.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"My Anne sits on yon eastern tower,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">An' greets baith day and night,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">An' sorrows for her luver lost,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">An' right turned into might.<!-- Page 74 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span><br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"'Then hie ye all, my merry men,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">To yonder lordly ha'!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">An if they winna ope the gate,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">We'll scale the burly wa'.<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"'Hurra!' then shouted Bertram's men,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And loudly they hae sworn,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That they will right their gallant knigh<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Before the opening morn."<a class="fnanchor">[2]</a><br /></span> +</div></div> + +<div class="footnote"><p>[2] Pinkerton gives only one verse of "Bertram the Archer," but +Innerkepple's men did not require to be antiquaries.</p></div> + +<p>Under the cover of the noise of the song, which was sung with +bacchanalian glee, Katherine communicated her farther instructions to +the man who had assumed the principal direction; and, retreating +quickly, lest the wine merchant should come out and surprise her, she +left the revellers to continue their work. She was soon again at her +post at the window. The boon companions within the hall were still busy +with their conversation and their wine; and by this time the shades of +evening had begun to darken the view from the castle, and envelop the +towers in gloom; the rooks had retired to rest, the owls had taken up +the screech note which pains the sensitive ear of night, and the bats +were beginning to flap their leathern wings on the rough sides of the +old walls.</p> + +<p>The sounds of the revellers in the court-yard began gradually to die +away, and the strains of "Bertram the Archer" were limited to a weak +repetition of the last lines, somewhat curtailed of their legitimate +syllables:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"And we will right our gallant knight<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Before the opening morn."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>These indications of the effect of the wine increased, till, by-and-by, +all seemed to be muffled up in silence. The circumstance seemed to be +noticed at once by the wine merchant; but he took no notice of it to +Innerkepple whom he still continued to ply with the rich vintage.<!-- Page 75 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> Kate's +senses were all on the alert, and she watched every scene of the acting +drama, set agoing by her own master mind. A noise was now heard at the +door of the hall, as if some one wished to get in, but could not effect +an opening.</p> + +<p>"Who's there?" cried Kate, as she proceeded to open the door.</p> + +<p>"It's me, your Leddyship's Honour," answered George, the seneschal, as +he staggered, apparently in the last stage of drunkenness, into the +hall.</p> + +<p>"What means this?" cried Innerkepple, rising up, and not very well able +to stand himself. "The warder o' my castle in that condition, an' a' our +lives dependin' on his prudence!"</p> + +<p>"Your Honour's maist forgiving pardon," said the warder. "I am come +here, maist lordly Innerkepple"—hiccup—"to inform your Highness that +a' the men o' the castle are lying in the base-court like swine. I am +the only sober man in the hale menyie"—hic—hic. "But whar's the ferly? +The strength o' the Frenchman's wine would have floored the strongest +hensure o' the Borders"—hiccup—"an' I would hae been like the rest, if +I hadna been the keeper o' the keys o' Innerkepple."</p> + +<p>("As well as Roscius, George," muttered Kate, as she, with a smile, +contemplated the actor.)</p> + +<p>"George, George, man," said the baron, "ye're just as bad as the rest. +You've been ower guid to them, Monsieur; but this <i>mooliness</i>, as ye ca' +it, has a' its dangers in thae times, when castles are surprised an' +taen like sleepin' mawkins in bushes o' broom. Awa to yer bed ahint the +gratin', man, an' sleep aff the wine, as fast as it is possible for a +drunk man to do."</p> + +<p>George bowed, and staggered out of the hall, to betake himself to his +couch.</p> + +<p>"Aha! this is one sad misadventure," said the merchant.<!-- Page 76 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> "I did not know +there vas half so much strength in this vin. Let us see the jolly +topers, mon noble Innerkepple. It is one grand vision to a vendeur of +good vin to see the biberons lying on the ground, all <i>mouillé</i>. Helas! +I was very wrong; but mon noble baron will forgive the grand fault of +liberality."</p> + +<p>The merchant rose, and, giving his arm to Innerkepple, who had some +difficulty in steadying himself, proceeded towards the court, where they +saw verified the report of the warder. The men were lying about the +yard, apparently in a state of perfect insensibility. The wine measure +was empty and overturned; several drinking horns lay scattered around; +and everything betokened a deep debauch.</p> + +<p>"This maun hae been potent liquor," said the baron, taking up one of the +cups, in which a few drops remained, and drinking it. "Ha! man, puir +gear after a'. A man micht drink three gallons o't, and dance to the +tune o' Gilquhisker after he has finished. What's the meaning o' this?"</p> + +<p>"Aha! your tongue is <i>mouillé</i>, mon noble Innerkepple," said the +merchant.</p> + +<p>"It may be sae," replied the baron; "but it wasna made mooly, as ye +denominate it, by drink like that. I canna understand it, Monsieur."</p> + +<p>As he stood musing on the strange circumstance, he caught, by the light +of a torch, the eye of Kate at the window, and felt his bewilderment +increased by a leer in that dark bewitching orb, whose language appeared +to him often—and never more so than at present—like Greek. His +attention was next claimed by the merchant, who proposed that the men +should be allowed to sleep out their inebriety where they lay. This +proposition was reasonable; and it would, besides, operate as a proper +punishment for their exceeding the limits of that prudence which their +duty to<!-- Page 77 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> their master required them to observe. The baron agreed to it, +and, seeking again the support of the Frenchman's arm, he returned to +the hall.</p> + +<p>The night was now fast closing in. An old female domestic had placed +lamps in the hall, and some supper was served up to the baron and the +merchant. Kate retired, as she said, to her couch; but it may be +surmised that an antechamber received her fair person, where she had +something else to do than to sleep. The loud snoring of the men in the +court-yard was heard distinctly, mixing with the screams of the owls +that perched on the turrets. The two biberons sat down to partake of the +supper, and prepare their stomachs, as Innerkepple said, for another +bouse of the grand liquor. The conduct of the two carousers now assumed +aspects very different from each other. The baron was gradually getting +more easy and comfortable, while the merchant displayed an extreme +restlessness and anxiety. The praises of his wine fell dead upon his +ear, and the jokes of the good Innerkepple seemed to have become vapid +and tiresome to him.</p> + +<p>"That's a grand chorus in the court-yard, Monsieur," said the baron. +"Singing, snoring, groaning, are the three successive acts o' the +wassailers. They would have been better engaged eating their supper. +Yah! I'm gettin' sleepy, Monsieur."</p> + +<p>"Helas! helas!" ejaculated the merchant. "You prick my memory, mon noble +Innerkepple. My poor mules! They have got no souper. Ah! cruel master +that I am to forget the <i>pauvre</i> animals that have got no language to +tell their wants."</p> + +<p>("So, so—the time approaches," ejaculated Kate, mentally, as she +watched behind the door.)</p> + +<p>"Pardon me, <i>mon cher</i> baron," he continued, "I vill go and give them +one leetle feed, and return to you <i>a present</i>. I have got beans in my +hampers."<!-- Page 78 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Humanity needs nae pardon, man," replied the baron, nodding with sleep. +"Awa and feed the puir creatures; but tak care an' no tramp on an' kill +ony o' my brave men in yer effort to save the lives o' yer mules."</p> + +<p>"Never fear," said the other, taking from his pocket a small lantern, +which he lighted. "Travellers stand in grand need of this machine," he +continued. "I will return on the instant."</p> + +<p>He now left the baron to his sleep, and crept stealthily along the +passage to the door leading to the court. He was followed, unseen, by +Katherine, who watched every motion. He felt some difficulty in avoiding +the men, who still lay on the ground; but with careful steps he reached +the wall, and suddenly sprung on the parapet.</p> + +<p>"Prepare!" whispered Katherine into the ears of the prostrate retainers; +"the time approaches."</p> + +<p>While thus engaged, she kept her eye upon the dark shadow of the +merchant, and saw with surprise a blue light flash up from the top of +the wall, and throw its ominous glare on the surrounding objects. A +scream of the birds on the castle walls announced their wonder at the +strange vision, and Katherine concluded that the merchant had thus +produced his signal from some phosphorescent mixture, which he had +ignited by the aid of the lantern. The light was followed instantly by a +shrill blast of a horn. With a bound he reached the floor of the court, +and, hastening to the warder's post, threw off the guard of the wheel, +and, with all the art and rapidity of a seneschal, prepared for letting +down the bridge. All was still as death; there seemed to be no +interruption to his proceedings; but he started as he saw the rays of a +lamp thrown from a loophole over his head, upon that part of the moat +which the bridge covered. He had gone too far to recede, the creaking of +the hinges grated, and down came the bridge with a hollow sound. A rush +was now heard as of<!-- Page 79 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> a body of men pressing forward to take possession +of the passage; and tramp, tramp came the sounds of the marching +invaders over the hollow-sounding wood. All was still silent within the +castle, and the sound of the procession continued. In an instant, a +dense, dark body issued from the fir-wood, and rushed with heavy +impetuous force on the rear of the corps that were passing into the +castle; and, simultaneously with that movement, the whole body of the +men within the castle pressed forward to the end of the bridge, and met +the front of the intruders, who were thus hedged in by two forces that +had taken them by surprise, in both front and rear.</p> + +<p>"Caught in our own snare!" cried the voice of old Otterstone.</p> + +<p>"Disarm them," sounded shrilly from the lips of Katherine Kennedy.</p> + +<p>And a scuffle of wrestling men sent its fearful, deathlike sound through +the dark ballium. The strife was short and comparatively silent. The men +who had rushed from the wood, and who were no other than the absent +retainers of Innerkepple, coming from behind, and those within the +strength meeting them in front, produced such an alarm in the enclosed +troops, that the arms were taken from their hands as if they had been +struck with palsy. Every two men seized their prisoner, while some +holding burning torches came running forward, to show the revengeful +baron the full extent of his shame. Ranged along the court, the +spectacle presented by the prisoners was striking and grotesque. Their +eyes sought in surprise the form of a female, who, with a sword in one +hand and a torch in the other, stood in front of them, as the genius of +their misfortune.</p> + +<p>The hall door was now opened, where the old baron still sat sound asleep +in his chair, unconscious of all these proceedings. The prisoners were +led into the spacious<!-- Page 80 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> apartment, and ranged along the sides in long +ranks. Innerkepple rubbed his eyes, stared, rubbed them again, and +seemed lost in perfect bewilderment. All was conducted in dumb show. The +proud and revengeful Otterstone was placed alongside of the good baron, +his enemy; and Kate smiled as she contemplated the strange looks which +the two rivals threw upon each other.</p> + +<p>"Right happy am I," said Katherine, coming forward in the midst of the +assembly, "to meet my good friends, the noble Otterstone and his men, in +my father's hall, under the auspices of a healing friendship. Father, I +offer thee the hand of Otterstone. Otterstone, I offer thee the hand of +Innerkepple. Ye have long been separated by strife and war, though, on +the one side, there was always a good feeling of generous kindliness, +opposed to a bitterness that had no cause, and a revenge that knew no +excuse. Born nobles and neighbours, educated civilized men, and baptized +Christians, why should ye be foes? but, above all, why should the one +strike with the sword of war the hand that has held out to him the +wine-cup? My father has ever been thy friend, noble Otterstone, and thou +hast ever been his foe. How is this? Ah! I know it. Thou wert ignorant, +noble guest, of my good father's generous and friendly feelings, and I +have taken this opportunity of introducing you to each other, that ye +may mutually come to the knowledge of each other's better qualities and +intentions."</p> + +<p>"What, in the name o' heaven, means a' this, Kate?" ejaculated +Innerkepple, in still unsubdued amazement. "Am I dreamin', or am I +betrayed? Whar is the wine merchant? Hoo cam ye here, Otterstone? Am I a +prisoner in my ain castle, and my ain men and dochter laughing at my +misfortune? But ye spoke o' friendship, Kate. Is it possible, +Otterstone, ye hae repented o' yer ill will, and come to mak amends for +past grievances?"<!-- Page 81 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Thou hast heard him, Otterstone," said Kate. "Wilt thou still refuse +the hand?"</p> + +<p>The chief hesitated; but the good-humoured looks of Innerkepple melted +him, and he held out the right hand of good-fellowship to the old baron, +who seized it cordially, and shook it heartily.</p> + +<p>"Now," said Kate, "we must seal this friendship with a cup of wine. +Bring in the wine merchant."</p> + +<p>The Frenchman was produced by the warder, along with the remaining +hampers of the wine that had been left in the court-yard. As may have +been already surmised, he was no other than the son of old Otterstone. +Surprised and confounded by all these proceedings, he stood in the midst +of the company, looking first at his father, and then at Innerkepple, +without forgetting Kate, who stood like a majestic queen, enjoying the +triumph of her spirit and ingenuity. Above all things, he wondered at +the smile of good humour in the face of his father; and his surprise +knew no bounds when he saw every one around as well pleased as if they +had been convened for the ends of friendship.</p> + +<p>"Hector," said old Otterstone, looking at his son, "the game is up. This +maiden has outwitted us, and we are caught in our own snare. Off with +thy disguise, and show this noble damsel that thou art worthy of her +best smiles."</p> + +<p>Hector obeyed, and took off his wig, and the clumsy habiliments that +covered his armour, and stood in the midst of the assembly, a young man +of exquisite beauty.</p> + +<p>"The wine merchant, Hector Fotheringham!" cried Innerkepple. "Ah, Kate, +Kate! is this the way ye bring yer lovers to Innerkepple ha'?—in the +shape o' a wine merchant—the only form o' the Deevil I wad like to see +on this earth? Ha! ye baggage, weel do ye ken hoo to get at the heart o' +your faither. But whar was the use o'<!-- Page 82 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> secresy, woman? And you, Hector, +man, I needed nae bribe o' Tokay to be friendly to the lover o' my +dochter. A fine youth—a fine youth. Surely, surely, this man was made +for my dochter Kate."</p> + +<p>"And thy daughter Kate was made for him," cried Otterstone.</p> + +<p>The retainers of both houses shouted applause, and the hall rang with +the noise. The wine, which was intended for deception and treachery, was +circulated freely, and opened the hearts of the company. Innerkepple was +ready again for his Tokay, and, lifting a large goblet to his head—</p> + +<p>"To the union o' the twa hooses!" cried he. "And I wish I had twenty +dochters, and Otterstone as mony sons, that they micht a' be married +thegither; but, on this condition, that the bridegrooms should a' come +in the shape o' wine merchants."</p> + +<p>"Hurra, hurra!" shouted the retainers. The night was spent in good +humour and revelry. All was restored; and, in a short time, the two +houses were united by the marriage of Hector Fotheringham and Katherine +Kennedy.<!-- Page 83 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="RECOLLECTIONS_OF_FERGUSON3" id="RECOLLECTIONS_OF_FERGUSON3"></a>RECOLLECTIONS OF FERGUSON.<a class="fnanchor">[3]</a></h2> + +<h4>CHAPTER I.</h4> + + +<p class="center">"Of Ferguson, the bauld and slee."—<span class="smcap">Burns</span>.<br /></p> + + +<div class="footnote"><p>[3] The perusal of this paper, written at an early period by the +lamented Hugh Miller, cannot fail to suggest some reflections on the +fate of the author himself and that of the poet he describes. It would +be simply fanciful to draw from his choice of subject, and the sympathy +he manifests for the victim of insanity, any conclusion of a felt +affinity of mental type on his part. We would presently get into the +obscure subject of presentiments. It is true that Hugh Miller wrote +poetry, and was thus subject to the Nemesis; but we insist for no more +than a case of coincidence, leaving to psychologists to settle the +question of the alleged connection between certain poetical types of +mind and eventual madness—cases of which are so plentifully recorded in +Germany.—<i>Ed.</i></p></div> + + +<p>I have, I believe, as little of the egotist in my composition as most +men; nor would I deem the story of my life, though by no means unvaried +by incident, of interest enough to repay the trouble of either writing +or perusing it, were it the story of my own life only; but, though an +obscure man myself, I have been singularly fortunate in my friends. The +party-coloured tissue of my recollections is strangely interwoven, if I +may so speak, with pieces of the domestic history of men whose names +have become as familiar to our ears as that of our country itself; and I +have been induced to struggle with the delicacy which renders one +unwilling to speak much of one's self, and to overcome the dread of +exertion natural to a period of life greatly advanced, through a desire +of preserving to my countrymen a few notices, which would otherwise be +lost to them, of two of their greatest favourites. I could once reckon +among my dearest and most familiar friends, Robert Burns and Robert +Ferguson.</p> + +<p>It is now rather more than sixty years since I studied<!-- Page 84 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> for a few weeks +at the University of St. Andrew's. I was the son of very poor parents, +who resided in a seaport town on the western coast of Scotland. My +father was a house-carpenter, a quiet, serious man, of industrious +habits and great simplicity of character, but miserably depressed in his +circumstances, through a sickly habit of body: my mother was a +warm-hearted, excellent woman, endowed with no ordinary share of shrewd +good sense and sound feeling, and indefatigable in her exertions for my +father and the family. I was taught to read at a very early age, by an +old woman in the neighbourhood—such a person as Shenstone describes in +his "Schoolmistress;" and, being naturally of a reflective turn, I had +begun, long ere I had attained my tenth year, to derive almost my sole +amusement from books. I read incessantly; and after exhausting the +shelves of all the neighbours, and reading every variety of work that +fell in my way—from "The Pilgrim's Progress" of Bunyan, and the Gospel +Sonnets of Erskine, to a treatise on fortification by Vauban, and the +"History of the Heavens" by the Abbé Pluche—I would have pined away for +lack of my accustomed exercise, had not a benevolent baronet in the +neighbourhood, for whom my father occasionally wrought, taken a fancy to +me, and thrown open to my perusal a large and well-selected library. Nor +did his kindness terminate until, after having secured to me all of +learning that the parish school afforded, he had settled me, now in my +seventeenth year, at the University.</p> + +<p>Youth is the season of warm friendships and romantic wishes and hopes. +We say of the child, in its first attempts to totter along the wall, or +when it has first learned to rise beside its mother's knee, that it is +yet too weak to stand alone; and we may employ the same language in +describing a young and ardent mind. It is, like the child, too weak to +stand alone, and anxiously seeks out some kindred mind on which to lean. +I had had my intimates at school,<!-- Page 85 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span> who, though of no very superior cast, +had served me, if I may so speak, as resting-places, when wearied with +my studies, or when I had exhausted my lighter reading; and now, at St. +Andrew's, where I knew no one, I began to experience the unhappiness of +an unsatisfied sociality. My schoolfellows were mostly stiff, illiterate +lads, who, with a little bad Latin and worse Greek, plumed themselves +mightily on their scholarship; and I had little inducement to form any +intimacies among them; for, of all men, the ignorant scholar is the +least amusing. Among the students of the upper classes, however, there +was at least one individual with whom I longed to be acquainted. He was +apparently much about my own age, rather below than above the middle +size, and rather delicately than robustly formed; but I have rarely seen +a more elegant figure or more interesting face. His features were small, +and there was what might perhaps be deemed a too feminine delicacy in +the whole contour; but there was a broad and very high expansion of +forehead, which, even in those days, when we were acquainted with only +the phrenology taught by Plato, might be regarded as the index of a +capacious and powerful mind; and the brilliant light of his large black +eyes, seemed to give earnest of its activity.</p> + +<p>"Who, in the name of wonder, is that?" I inquired of a class-fellow, as +this interesting-looking young man passed me for the first time.</p> + +<p>"A clever, but very unsettled fellow from Edinburgh," replied the lad; +"a capital linguist, for he gained our first bursary three years ago; +but our Professor says he is certain he will never do any good. He cares +nothing for the company of scholars like himself; and employs +himself—though he excels, I believe, in English composition—in writing +vulgar Scotch rhymes, like Allan Ramsay. His name is Robert Ferguson."</p> + +<p>I felt, from this moment, a strong desire to rank among<!-- Page 86 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> the friends of +one who cared nothing for the company of such men as my class-fellow, +and who, though acquainted with the literature of England and Rome, +could dwell with interest on the simple poetry of his native country.</p> + +<p>There is no place in the neighbourhood of St. Andrew's where a leisure +hour may be spent more agreeably than among the ruins of the Cathedral. +I was not slow in discovering the eligibilities of the spot; and it soon +became one of my favourite haunts. One evening, a few weeks after I had +entered on my course at college, I had seated myself among the ruins in +a little ivied nook fronting the setting sun, and was deeply engaged +with the melancholy Jaques in the forest of Ardennes, when, on hearing a +light footstep, I looked up, and saw the Edinburgh student whose +appearance had so interested me, not four yards away. He was busied with +his pencil and his tablets, and muttering, as he went, in a half audible +voice, what, from the inflection of the tones, seemed to be verse. On +seeing me, he started, and apologizing, in a few hurried but courteous +words, for what he termed the involuntary intrusion, would have passed; +but, on my rising and stepping up to him, he stood.</p> + +<p>"I am afraid, Mr. Ferguson," I said, "'tis I who owe <i>you</i> an apology; +the ruins have long been yours, and I am but an intruder. But you must +pardon me; I have often heard of them in the west, where they are +hallowed, even more than they are here, from their connection with the +history of some of our noblest Reformers; and, besides, I see no place +in the neighbourhood where Shakspeare can be read to more advantage."</p> + +<p>"Ah," said he, taking the volume out of my hand, "a reader of Shakspeare +and an admirer of Knox. I question whether the heresiarch and the poet +had much in common."</p> + +<p>"Nay, now, Mr. Ferguson," I replied, "you are too true a Scot to +question that. They had much, very much in<!-- Page 87 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> common. Knox was no rude +Jack Cade, but a great and powerful-minded man; decidedly as much so as +any of the nobler conceptions of the dramatist—his Cæsars, Brutuses, or +Othellos. Buchanan could have told you that he had even much of the +spirit of the poet in him, and wanted only the art; and just remember +how Milton speaks of him in his "Areopagitica." Had the poet of +"Paradise Lost" thought regarding him as it has become fashionable to +think and speak now, he would hardly have apostrophized him as—<i>Knox, +the reformer of a nation—a great man animated by the spirit of God</i>."</p> + +<p>"Pardon me," said the young man, "I am little acquainted with the prose +writings of Milton; and have, indeed, picked up most of my opinions of +Knox at second-hand. But I have read his <i>merry</i> account of the murder +of Beaton, and found nothing to alter my preconceived notions of him, +from either the matter or manner of the narrative. Now that I think of +it, however, my opinion of Bacon would be no very adequate one, were it +formed solely from the extract of his history of Henry VII., given by +Kaimes in his late publication.—Will you not extend your walk?"</p> + +<p>We quitted the ruins together, and went sauntering along the shore. +There was a rich sunset glow on the water, and the hills that rise on +the opposite side of the Frith stretched their undulating line of azure +under a gorgeous canopy of crimson and gold. My companion pointed to the +scene:—"These glorious clouds," he said, "are but wreaths of vapour; +and these lovely hills, accumulations of earth and stone. And it is thus +with all the past—with the past of our own little histories, that +borrows so much of its golden beauty from the medium through which we +survey it—with the past, too, of all history. There is poetry in the +remote—the bleak hill seems a darker firmament, and the chill wreath of +vapour a river of fire. And you, sir, seem to have contemplated the +history of our stern Reformers<!-- Page 88 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> through this poetical medium, till you +forget that the poetry was not in them, but in that through which you +surveyed them."</p> + +<p>"Ah, Mr. Ferguson," I replied, "you must permit me to make a +distinction. I acquiesce fully in the justice of your remark; the +analogy, too, is nice and striking, but I would fain carry it a little +further. Every eye can see the beauty of the remote; but there is a +beauty in the near—an interest, at least—which every eye cannot see. +Each of the thousand little plants that spring up at our feet, has an +interest and beauty to the botanist; the mineralogist would find +something to engage him in every little stone. And it is thus with the +poetry of life—all have a sense of it in the remote and the distant; +but it is only the men who stand high in the art—its men of profound +science—that can discover it in the near. The <i>mediocre</i> poet shares +but the commoner gift, and so he seeks his themes in ages or countries +far removed from his own; while the man of nobler powers, knowing that +all nature is instinct with poetry, seeks and finds it in the men and +scenes in his immediate neighbourhood. As to our Reformers"——</p> + +<p>"Pardon me," said the young poet; "the remark strikes me, and, ere we +lose it in something else, I must furnish you with an illustration. +There is an acquaintance of mine, a lad much about my own age, greatly +addicted to the study of poetry. He has been making verses all his +life-long; he began ere he had learned to write them even; and his +judgment has been gradually overgrowing his earlier compositions, as you +see the advancing tide rising on the beach and obliterating the prints +on the sand. Now, I have observed, that, in all his earlier +compositions, he went far from home; he could not attempt a pastoral +without first transporting himself to the vales of Arcady; or an ode to +Pity or Hope, without losing the warm living sentiment in the dead, +cold, personifications of the Greek. The Hope<!-- Page 89 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> and Pity he addressed +were, not the undying attendants of human nature, but the shadowy +spectres of a remote age. Now, however, I feel that a change has come +over me. I seek for poetry among the fields and cottages of my own land. +I—a—a—the friend of whom I speak——But I interrupted your remark on +the Reformers."</p> + +<p>"Nay," I replied, "if you go on so, I would much rather listen than +speak. I only meant to say that the Knoxes and Melvilles of our country +have been robbed of the admiration and sympathy of many a kindred +spirit, by the strangely erroneous notions that have been abroad +regarding them for at least the last two ages. Knox, I am convinced, +would have been as great as Jeremy Taylor, had he not been greater."</p> + +<p>We sauntered along the shore till the evening had darkened into night, +lost in an agreeable interchange of thought, "Ah!" at length exclaimed +my companion, "I had almost forgotten my engagement, Mr. Lindsay; but it +must not part us. You are a stranger here, and I must introduce you to +some of my acquaintance. There are a few of us—choice spirits, of +course—who meet every Saturday evening at John Hogg's; and I must just +bring you to see them. There may be much less wit than mirth among us; +but you will find us all sober when at the gayest; and old John will be +quite a study for you."<!-- Page 90 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h4>CHAPTER II.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Say, ye red gowns that aften here,</span> +<span class="i0">Hae toasted cakes to Katie's beer,</span> +<span class="i0">Gin e'er thir days hae had their peer,</span> +<span class="i12">Sae blythe, sae daft!</span> +<span class="i0">Ye'll ne'er again in life's career,</span> +<span class="i12">Sit half sae saft."</span><br /> +<span class="i18"><i>Elegy on John Hogg.</i></span> +</div></div> + +<p>We returned to town; and, after threading a few of the narrower lanes, +entered by a low door into a long dark room, dimly lighted by a fire. A +tall thin woman was employed in skinning a bundle of dried fish at a +table in a corner.</p> + +<p>"Where's the guidman, Kate?" said my companion, changing the sweet pure +English in which he had hitherto spoken for his mother tongue.</p> + +<p>"John's ben in the spence," replied the woman. "Little Andrew, the +wratch, has been makin' a totum wi' his faither's ae razor, an' the puir +man's trying to shave himsel yonder, an' girnan like a sheep's head on +the tangs."</p> + +<p>"Oh, the wratch! the ill-deedie wratch!" said John, stalking into the +room in a towering passion, his face covered with suds and scratches—"I +might as weel shave mysel wi' a mussel shillet. Rob Ferguson, man, is +that you!"</p> + +<p>"Wearie warld, John," said the poet, "for a' oor philosophy."</p> + +<p>"Philosophy!—it's but a snare, Rob—just vanity an' vexation o' +speerit, as Solomon says. An' isna it clear heterodox besides? Ye study +an' study till your brains gang about like a whirligig; an' then, like +bairns in a boat that see the land sailin', ye think it's the solid +yearth that's turnin' roun'. An' this ye ca' philosophy; as if David<!-- Page 91 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> +hadna tauld us that the warld sits coshly on the waters, an' canna be +moved."</p> + +<p>"Hoot, John," rejoined my companion, "it's no me, but Jamie Brown, that +differs wi' you on these matters. I'm a Hoggonian, ye ken. The auld Jews +were, doubtless, gran' Christians, an' wherefore no guid philosophers +too? But it was cruel o' you to unkennel me this mornin' afore six, an' +I up sae lang at my studies the nicht afore."</p> + +<p>"Ah, Rob, Rob!" said John—"studying in <i>Tam Dun's</i> kirk. Ye'll be a +minister, like a' the lave."</p> + +<p>"Mendin' fast, John," rejoined the poet. "I was in your kirk on Sabbath +last, hearing worthy Mr. Corkindale; whatever else he may hae to fear, +he's in nae danger o' '<i>thinking his ain thoughts</i>,' honest man."</p> + +<p>"In oor kirk!" said John; "ye're dune, then, wi' precentin' in yer +ain—an' troth nae wonder. What could hae possessed ye to gie up the +puir chield's name i' the prayer, an' him sittin' at yer lug?"</p> + +<p>I was unacquainted with the circumstance to which he alluded, and +requested an explanation. "Oh, ye see," said John, "Rob, amang a' the +ither gifts that he misguides, has the gift o' a sweet voice; an' +naething else would ser' some o' oor Professors than to hae him for +their precentor. They micht as weel hae thocht o' an organ—it wad be +just as devout; but the soun's everything now, laddie, ye ken, an' the +heart naething. Weel, Rob, as ye may think, was less than pleased wi' +the job, an' tauld them he could whistle better than sing; but it wasna +that they wanted, and sae it behoved him to tak his seat in the box. An' +lest the folk should no be pleased wi' ae key to ae tune, he gied them, +for the first twa or three days, a hale bunch to each; an' there was +never sic singing in St. Andrew's afore. Weel, but for a' that it +behoved him still to precent, though he has got rid o' it at last—for +what did he do twa Sabbaths agone, but put up drucken Tarn Moffat's name +in the prayer—the<!-- Page 92 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> very chield that was sittin' at his elbow, though +the minister couldna see him. An' when the puir stibbler was prayin' for +the reprobate as weel's he could, ae half o' the kirk was needcessitated +to come oot, that they micht keep decent, an' the ither half to swallow +their pocket napkins. But what think ye"——</p> + +<p>"Hoot, John, now, leave oot the moral," said the poet. "Here's a' the +lads."</p> + +<p>Half a dozen young students entered as he spoke; and, after a hearty +greeting, and when he had introduced me to them one by one, as a choice +fellow of immense reading, the door was barred, and we sat down to half +a dozen of home brewed, and a huge platter of dried fish. There was much +mirth and no little humour. Ferguson sat at the head of the table, and +old John Hogg at the foot. I thought of Eastcheap, and the revels of +Prince Henry; but our Falstaff was an old Scotch Seceder, and our Prince +a gifted young fellow, who owed all his influence over his fellows to +the force of his genius alone.</p> + +<p>"Prithee, Hal," I said, "let us drink to Sir John."</p> + +<p>"Why, yes," said the poet, "with all my heart. Not quite so fine a +fellow, though, 'bating his Scotch honesty. Half Sir John's genius would +have served for an epic poet—half his courage for a hero."</p> + +<p>"His courage!" exclaimed one of the lads.</p> + +<p>"Yes, Willie, his courage, man. Do you think a coward could have run +away with half the coolness? With a tithe of the courage necessary for +such a retreat, a man would have stood and fought till he died. Sir John +must have been a fine fellow in his youth."</p> + +<p>"In mony a droll way may a man fa' on the drap drink," remarked John; +"an' meikle ill, dootless, does it do in takin' aff the edge o' the +speerit—the mair if the edge be a fine razor edge, an' no the edge o' a +whittle. I mind about fifty years ago, when I was a slip o' a +callant,"—<!-- Page 93 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span>—</p> + +<p>"Losh, John!" exclaimed one of the lads, "hae ye been fechtin wi' the +cats? sic a scrapit face!"</p> + +<p>"Wheesht," said Ferguson; "we owe the illustration to that, but dinna +interrupt the story."</p> + +<p>"Fifty years ago, when I was a slip o' a callant," continued John, "unco +curious, an' fond o' kennin everything, as callants will be,"——</p> + +<p>"Hoot, John," said one of the students, interrupting him, "can ye no cut +short, man? Rob promised last Saturday to gie us, 'Fie, let us a' to the +bridal,' an' ye see the ale an' the nicht's baith wearin' dune."</p> + +<p>"The song, Rob, the song!" exclaimed half a dozen voices at once; and +John's story was lost in the clamour.</p> + +<p>"Nay, now," said the good-natured poet, "that's less than kind; the auld +man's stories are aye worth the hearing, an' he can relish the +auld-warld fisher-sang wi' the best o' ye. But we maun hae the story +yet."</p> + +<p>He struck up the old Scotch ditty, "Fie let us a' to the bridal," which +he sung with great power and brilliancy; for his voice was a richly +modulated one, and there was a fulness of meaning imparted to the words +which wonderfully heightened the effect. "How strange it is," he +remarked to me when he had finished, "that our English neighbours deny +us humour! The songs of no country equal our Scotch ones in that +quality. Are you acquainted with 'The Guidwife of Auchtermuchty?'"</p> + +<p>"Well," I replied; "but so are not the English. It strikes me that, with +the exception of Smollet's novels, all our Scotch humour is locked up in +our native tongue. No man can employ in works of humour any language of +which he is not a thorough master; and few of our Scotch writers, with +all their elegance, have attained the necessary command of that +colloquial English which Addison and Swift employed when they were +merry."</p> + +<p>"A braw redd delivery," said John, addressing me. "Are ye gaun to be a +minister tae?"<!-- Page 94 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Not quite sure yet," I replied.</p> + +<p>"Ah," rejoined the old man, "'twas better for the Kirk when the minister +just made himsel ready for it, an' then waited till he kent whether it +wanted him. There's young Rob Ferguson beside you,"—</p> + +<p>"Setting oot for the Kirk," said the young poet, interrupting him, "an' +yet drinkin' ale on Saturday at e'en wi' old John Hogg."</p> + +<p>"Weel, weel, laddie, it's easier for the best o' us to find fault wi' +ithers than to mend oorsels. Ye have the head, onyhow; but Jamie Brown +tells me it's a doctor ye're gaun to be, after a'."</p> + +<p>"Nonsense, John Hogg—I wonder how a man o' your standing"——</p> + +<p>"Nonsense, I grant you," said one of the students; "but true enough for +a' that, Bob. Ye see, John, Bob an' I were at the King's Muirs last +Saturday, an ca'ed at the <i>pendicle</i>, in the passing, for a cup o' whey; +when the guidwife tellt us there was ane o' the callants, who had broken +into the milk-house twa nichts afore, lyin' ill o' a surfeit. 'Dangerous +case,' said Bob; 'but let me see him; I have studied to small purpose if +I know nothing o' medicine, my good woman.' Weel, the woman was just +glad enough to bring him to the bedside; an' no wonder—ye never saw a +wiser phiz in your lives—Dr. Dumpie's was naething till't; an', after +he had sucked the head o' his stick for ten minutes, an' fand the loon's +pulse, an' asked mair questions than the guidwife liked to answer, he +prescribed. But, losh! sic a prescription! A day's fasting an' twa +ladles o' nettle kail was the gist o't; but then there went mair Latin +to the tail o' that, than oor neebor the Doctor ever had to lose."</p> + +<p>But I dwell too long on the conversation of this evening. I feel, +however, a deep interest in recalling it to memory. The education of +Ferguson was of a twofold character—he studied in the schools and among +the people; but it was<!-- Page 95 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> in the latter tract alone that he acquired the +materials of all his better poetry; and I feel as if, for at least one +brief evening, I was admitted to the privileges of a class-fellow, and +sat with him on the same form. The company broke up a little after ten; +and I did not again hear of John Hogg till I read his elegy, about four +years after, among the poems of my friend. It is by no means one of the +happiest pieces in the volume, nor, it strikes me, highly +characteristic; but I have often perused it with an interest very +independent of its merits.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h4>CHAPTER III.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"But he is weak—both man and boy<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Has been an idler in the land."—<span class="smcap">Wordsworth.</span><br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p>I was attempting to listen, on the evening of the following Sunday, to a +dull, listless discourse—one of the discourses so common at this +period, in which there was fine writing without genius, and fine +religion without Christianity—when a person who had just taken his +place beside me, tapped me on the shoulder, and thrust a letter into my +hand. It was my newly-acquired friend of the previous evening; and we +shook hands heartily under the pew.</p> + +<p>"That letter has just been handed me by an acquaintance from your part +of the country," he whispered; "I trust it contains nothing unpleasant."</p> + +<p>I raised it to the light, and on ascertaining that it was sealed and +edged with black, rose and quitted the church, followed by my friend. It +intimated, in two brief lines that my patron, the baronet, had been +killed by a fall from his horse a few evenings before; and that, dying +intestate the allowance which had hitherto enabled me to prosecute<!-- Page 96 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> my +studies necessarily dropped. I crumpled up the paper in my hand.</p> + +<p>"You have learned something very unpleasant," said Ferguson. "Pardon +me—I have no wish to intrude; but, if at all agreeable, I would fain +spend the evening with you."</p> + +<p>My heart filled, and grasping his hand, I briefly intimated the purport +of the communication, and we walked out together in the direction of the +ruins.</p> + +<p>"It is, perhaps, as hard, Mr. Ferguson," I said, "to fall from one's +hopes as from the place to which they pointed. I was ambitious—too +ambitious, it may be—to rise from that level on which man acts the part +of a machine, and tasks merely his body, to that higher level on which +he performs the proper part of a rational creature, and employs only his +mind. But that ambition need influence me no longer. My poor mother, +too—I had trusted to be of use to her."</p> + +<p>"Ah, my friend," said Ferguson, "I can tell you of a case quite as +hopeless as your own—perhaps more so. But it will make you deem my +sympathy the result of mere selfishness. In scarce any respect do our +circumstances differ."</p> + +<p>We had reached the ruins: the evening was calm and mild as when I had +walked out on the preceding one; but the hour was earlier, and the sun +hung higher over the hill. A newly-formed grave occupied the level spot +in front of the little ivied corner.</p> + +<p>"Let us seat ourselves here," said my companion, "and I will tell you a +story—I am afraid a rather tame one; for there is nothing of adventure +in it, and nothing of incident; but it may at least show you that I am +not unfitted to be your friend. It is now nearly two years since I lost +my father. He was no common man—common neither in intellect nor in +sentiment; but though he once fondly hoped<!-- Page 97 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> it should be otherwise—for +in early youth he indulged in all the dreams of the poet—he now fills a +grave as nameless as the one before us. He was a native of +Aberdeenshire; but held, latterly, an inferior situation in the office +of the British Linen Company in Edinburgh, where I was born. Ever since +I remember him, he had awakened too fully to the realities of life, and +they pressed too hard on his spirits, to leave him space for the +indulgence of his earlier fancies; but he could dream for his children, +though not for himself; or, as I should perhaps rather say, his children +fell heir to all his more juvenile hopes of fortune, and influence, and +space in the world's eye;—and, for himself, he indulged in hopes of a +later growth and firmer texture, which pointed from the present scene of +things to the future. I have an only brother, my senior by several +years, a lad of much energy, both physical and mental; in brief, one of +those mixtures of reflection and activity which seem best formed for +rising in the world. My father deemed him most fitted for commerce, and +had influence enough to get him introduced into the counting-house of a +respectable Edinburgh merchant. I was always of a graver turn—in part, +perhaps, the effect of less robust health—and me he intended for the +Church. I have been a dreamer, Mr. Lindsay, from my earliest +years—prone to melancholy, and fond of books and of solitude; and the +peculiarities of this temperament the sanguine old man, though no mean +judge of character, had mistaken for a serious and reflective +disposition. You are acquainted with literature, and know something, +from books at least, of the lives of literary men. Judge, then, of his +prospect of usefulness in any profession, who has lived, ever since he +knew himself, among the poets. My hopes, from my earliest years, have +been hopes of celebrity as a writer—not of wealth, or of influence, or +of accomplishing any of the thousand aims which furnish the great bulk +of mankind with motives. You will laugh at me. There<!-- Page 98 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> is something so +emphatically shadowy and unreal in the object of this ambition, that +even the full attainment of it provokes a smile. For who does not know</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'How vain that second life in others' breath,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The estate which wits inherit after death!'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>And what can be more fraught with the ludicrous than a union of this +shadowy ambition with <i>mediocre</i> parts and attainments! But I digress.</p> + +<p>"It is now rather more than three years since I entered the classes +here. I competed for a bursary, and was fortunate enough to secure one. +Believe me, Mr. Lindsay, I am little ambitious of the fame of mere +scholarship, and yet I cannot express to you the triumph of that day. I +had seen my poor father labouring, far, far beyond his strength, for my +brother and myself—closely engaged during the day with his duties in +the bank, and copying at night in a lawyer's office. I had seen, with a +throbbing heart, his tall wasted frame becoming tremulous and bent, and +the grey hair thinning on his temples; and I now felt that I could ease +him of at least part of the burden. In the excitement of the moment, I +could hope that I was destined to rise in the world—to gain a name in +it, and something more. You know how a slight success grows in +importance when we can deem it the earnest of future good fortune. I +met, too, with a kind and influential friend in one of the professors, +the late Dr. Wilkie. Alas! good, benevolent man! you may see his tomb +yonder beside the wall; and, on my return from St. Andrew's, at the +close of the session, I found my father on his deathbed. My brother +Henry—who had been unfortunate, and, I am afraid, something worse—had +quitted the counting-house and entered aboard of a man-of-war as a +common sailor; and the poor old man, whose heart had been bound up in +him, never held up his head after.<!-- Page 99 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span></p> + +<p>"On the evening of my father's funeral, I could have lain down and died. +I never before felt how thoroughly I am unfitted for the world—how +totally I want strength. My father, I have said, had intended me for the +Church; and, in my progress onward from class to class, and from school +to college, I had thought but little of each particular step, as it +engaged me for the time, and nothing of the ultimate objects to which it +led. All my more vigorous aspirations were directed to a remote future +and an unsubstantial shadow. But I had witnessed, beside my father's +bed, what had led me seriously to reflect on the ostensible aim for +which I lived and studied; and the more carefully I weighed myself in +the balance, the more did I find myself awanting. You have heard of Mr. +Brown of the Secession, the author of the "Dictionary of the Bible." He +was an old acquaintance of my father's; and, on hearing of his illness, +had come all the way from Haddington to see him. I felt, for the first +time, as kneeling beside his bed, I heard my father's breathings +becoming every moment shorter and more difficult, and listened to the +prayers of the clergyman, that I had no business in the Church. And thus +I still continue to feel. 'Twere an easy matter to produce such things +as pass for sermons among us, and to go respectably enough through the +mere routine of the profession; but I cannot help feeling that, though I +might do all this and more, my duty, as a clergyman, would be still left +undone. I want singleness of aim—I want earnestness of heart. I cannot +teach men effectually how to live well; I cannot show them, with aught +of confidence, how they may die safe. I cannot enter the Church without +acting the part of a hypocrite; and the miserable part of the hypocrite +it shall never be mine to act. Heaven help me! I am too little a +practical moralist myself to attempt teaching morals to others.</p> + +<p>"But I must conclude my story, if story it may be called:—I<!-- Page 100 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> saw my +poor mother and my little sister deprived, by my father's death, of +their sole stay, and strove to exert myself in their behalf. In the +daytime I copied in a lawyer's office; my nights were spent among the +poets. You will deem it the very madness of vanity, Mr. Lindsay; but I +could not live without my dreams of literary eminence. I felt that life +would be a blank waste without them; and I feel so still. Do not laugh +at my weakness, when I say I would rather live in the memory of my +country than enjoy her fairest lands—that I dread a nameless grave many +times more than the grave itself. But, I am afraid, the life of the +literary aspirant is rarely a happy one; and I, alas! am one of the +weakest of the class. It is of importance that the means of living be +not disjoined from the end for which we live; and I feel that, in my +case, the disunion is complete. The wants and evils of life are around +me; but the energies through which those should be provided for, and +these warded off, are otherwise employed. I am like a man pressing +onward through a hot and bloody fight, his breast open to every blow, +and tremblingly alive to the sense of injury and the feeling of pain, +but totally unprepared either to attack or defend. And then those +miserable depressions of spirits to which all men who draw largely on +their imagination are so subject; and that wavering irregularity of +effort which seems so unavoidably the effect of pursuing a distant and +doubtful aim, and which proves so hostile to the formation of every +better habit—alas! to a steady morality itself. But I weary you, Mr. +Lindsay; besides, my story is told. I am groping onward, I know not +whither; and, in a few months hence, when my last session shall have +closed, I shall be exactly where you are at present."</p> + +<p>He ceased speaking, and there was a pause of several minutes. I felt +soothed and gratified. There was a sweet melancholy music in the tones +of his voice, that sunk to my<!-- Page 101 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> very heart; and the confidence he reposed +in me flattered my pride. "How was it," I at length said, "that you were +the gayest in the party of last night?"</p> + +<p>"I do not know that I can better answer you," he replied, "than by +telling you a singular dream which I had about the time of my father's +death. I dreamed that I had suddenly quitted the world, and was +journeying, by a long and dreary passage, to the place of final +punishment. A blue, dismal light glimmered along the lower wall of the +vault; and, from the darkness above, where there flickered a thousand +undefined shapes—things without form or outline—I could hear +deeply-drawn sighs, and long hollow groans and convulsive sobbings, and +the prolonged moanings of an unceasing anguish. I was aware, however, +though I knew not how, that these were but the expressions of a lesser +misery, and that the seats of severer torment were still before me. I +went on and on, and the vault widened, and the light increased, and the +sounds changed. There were loud laughters and low mutterings, in the +tone of ridicule; and shouts of triumph and exultation; and, in brief, +all the thousand mingled tones of a gay and joyous revel. Can these, I +exclaimed, be the sounds of misery when at the deepest? 'Bethink thee,' +said a shadowy form beside me—'bethink thee if it be not so on earth.' +And as I remembered that it was so, and bethought me of the mad revels +of shipwrecked seamen and of plague-stricken cities, I awoke. But on +this subject you must spare me."</p> + +<p>"Forgive me," I said; "to-morrow I leave college, and not with the less +reluctance that I must part from you. But I shall yet find you occupying +a place among the <i>literati</i> of our country, and shall remember, with +pride, that you were my friend."</p> + +<p>He sighed deeply. "My hopes rise and fall with my spirits," he said; +"and to-night I am melancholy. Do you ever go to buffets with yourself, +Mr. Lindsay? Do you<!-- Page 102 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> ever mock, in your sadder moods, the hopes which +render you happiest when you are gay? Ah! 'tis bitter warfare when a man +contends with Hope!—when he sees her, with little aid from the +personifying influence, as a thing distinct from himself—a lying spirit +that comes to flatter and deceive him. It is thus I see her to-night.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"See'st thou that grave?—does mortal know<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Aught of the dust that lies below?<br /></span> +<span class="i0">'Tis foul, 'tis damp, 'tis void of form—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A bed where winds the loathsome worm;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">A little heap, mouldering and brown,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Like that on flowerless meadow thrown<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By mossy stream, when winter reigns<br /></span> +<span class="i0">O'er leafless woods and wasted plains:<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And yet that brown, damp, formless heap<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Once glowed with feelings keen and deep;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Once eyed the light, once heard each sound<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Of earth, air, wave, that murmurs round.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">But now, ah! now, the name it bore,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Sex, age, or form, is known no more.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">This, this alone, O Hope! I know,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">That once the dust that lies below,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Was, like myself, of human race,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And made this world its dwelling-place.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ah! this, when death has swept away<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The myriads of life's present day,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Though bright the visions raised by thee,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Will all my fame, my history be!"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>We quitted the ruins and returned to town.</p> + +<p>"Have you yet formed," inquired my companion, "any plan for the future?"</p> + +<p>"I quit St. Andrew's," I replied, "to-morrow morning. I have an uncle, +the master of a West Indiaman, now in the Clyde. Some years ago I had a +fancy for the life of a sailor, which has evaporated, however, with many +of my other boyish fancies and predilections; but I am strong and +active, and it strikes me there is less competition on<!-- Page 103 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> sea at present +than on land. A man of tolerable steadiness and intelligence has a +better chance of rising as a sailor than as a mechanic. I shall set out, +therefore, with my uncle on his first voyage."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h4>CHAPTER IV.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"At first, I thought the swankie didna ill—<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Again I glowr'd, to hear him better still;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Bauld, slee, an' sweet, his lines mair glorious grew,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Glow'd round the heart, an' glanc'd the soul out through."<br /></span> +<span class="i18"><span class="smcap">Alexander Wilson.</span><br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p>I had seen both the Indies and traversed the wide Pacific, ere I again +set foot on the Eastern coast of Scotland. My uncle, the shipmaster, was +dead, and I was still a common sailor; but I was light-hearted and +skilful in my profession, and as much inclined to hope as ever. Besides, +I had begun to doubt, and there cannot be a more consoling doubt when +one is unfortunate, whether a man may not enjoy as much happiness in the +lower walks of life as in the upper. In one of my later voyages, the +vessel in which I sailed had lain for several weeks at Boston in North +America—then a scene of those fierce and angry contentions which +eventually separated the colonies from the mother country; and when in +this place, I had become acquainted, by the merest accident in the +world, with the brother of my friend the poet. I was passing through one +of the meaner lanes, when I saw my old college friend, as I thought, +looking out at me from the window of a crazy wooden building—a sort of +fencing academy, much frequented, I was told, by the Federalists of +Boston. I crossed the lane in two huge strides.<!-- Page 104 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Mr. Ferguson," I said—"Mr. Ferguson," for he was withdrawing his head, +"do you not remember me?"</p> + +<p>"Not quite sure," he replied; "I have met with many sailors in my time; +but I must just see."</p> + +<p>He had stepped down to the door ere I had discovered my mistake. He was +a taller and stronger-looking man than my friend, and his senior +apparently by six or eight years; but nothing could be more striking +than the resemblance which he bore to him, both in face and figure. I +apologized.</p> + +<p>"But have you not a brother, a native of Edinburgh," I inquired, "who +studied at St. Andrew's about four years ago?—never before, certainly, +did I see so remarkable a likeness."</p> + +<p>—"As that which I bear to Robert?" he said. "Happy to hear it. Robert +is a brother of whom a man may well be proud, and I am glad to resemble +him in any way. But you must go in with me, and tell me all you know +regarding him. He was a thin pale slip of a boy when I left Scotland—a +mighty reader, and fond of sauntering into by-holes and corners; I +scarcely knew what to make of him; but he has made much of himself. His +name has been blown far and wide within the last two years."</p> + +<p>He showed me through a large waste apartment, furnished with a few deal +seats, and with here and there a fencing foil leaning against the wall, +into a sort of closet at the upper end, separated from the main room by +a partition of undressed slabs. There was a charcoal stove in the one +corner, and a truckle bed in the other; a few shelves laden with books +ran along the wall; there was a small chest raised on a stool +immediately below the window, to serve as a writing desk, and another +stool standing beside it. A few cooking utensils scattered round the +room, and a corner cupboard, completed the entire furniture of the +place.<!-- Page 105 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span></p> + +<p>"There is a certain limited number born to be rich, Jack," said my new +companion, "and I just don't happen to be among them; but I have one +stool for myself, you see, and, now that I have unshipped my desk, +another for a visitor, and so get on well enough."</p> + +<p>I related briefly the story of my intimacy with his brother; and we were +soon on such terms as to be in a fair way of emptying a bottle of rum +together.</p> + +<p>"You remind me of old times," said my new acquaintance. "I am weary of +these illiterate, boisterous, longsided Americans, who talk only of +politics and dollars. And yet there are first-rate men among them too. I +met, some years since, with a Philadelphia printer, whom I cannot help +regarding as one of the ablest, best-informed men I ever conversed with. +But there is nothing like general knowledge among the average class; a +mighty privilege of conceit, however."</p> + +<p>"They are just in that stage," I remarked, "in which it needs all the +vigour of an able man to bring his mind into anything like cultivation. +There must be many more facilities of improvement ere the mediocritist +can develop himself. He is in the egg still in America, and must sleep +there till the next age.—But when last heard you of your brother?"</p> + +<p>"Why," he replied, "when all the world heard of him—with the last +number of <i>Ruddiman's Magazine</i>. Where can you have been bottled up from +literature of late? Why, man, Robert stands first among our Scotch +poets."</p> + +<p>"Ah! 'tis long since I have anticipated something like that for him," I +said; "but, for the last two years, I have seen only two books, +Shakspeare and 'The Spectator.' Pray, do show me some of the magazines."</p> + +<p>The magazines were produced; and I heard, for the first time, in a +foreign land and from the recitation of the poet's brother, some of the +most national and most highly-finished<!-- Page 106 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> of his productions. My eyes +filled and my heart wandered to Scotland and her cottage homes, as, +shutting the book, he repeated to me, in a voice faltering with emotion, +stanza after stanza of the "Farmer's Ingle."</p> + +<p>"Do you not see it?—do you not see it all?" exclaimed my companion; +"the wide smoky room, with the bright turf fire, the blackened rafters +shining above, the straw-wrought settle below, the farmer and the +farmer's wife, and auld grannie and the bairns. Never was there truer +painting; and, oh, how it works on a Scotch heart! But hear this other +piece."</p> + +<p>He read "Sandy and Willie."</p> + +<p>"Far, far ahead of Ramsay," I exclaimed. "More imagination, more spirit, +more intellect, and as much truth and nature. Robert has gained his end +already. Hurra for poor old Scotland!—these pieces must live for ever. +But do repeat to me the 'Farmer's Ingle' once more."</p> + +<p>We read, one by one, all the poems in the magazine, dwelling on each +stanza, and expatiating on every recollection of home which the images +awakened. My companion was, like his brother, a kind, open-hearted man, +of superior intellect; much less prone to despondency, however, and of a +more equal temperament. Ere we parted, which was not until next morning, +he had communicated to me all his plans for the future, and all his +fondly cherished hopes of returning to Scotland with wealth enough to be +of use to his friends. He seemed to be one of those universal geniuses +who do a thousand things well, but want steadiness enough to turn any of +them to good account. He showed me a treatise on the use of the sword, +which he had just prepared for the press; and a series of letters on the +stamp act, which had appeared, from time to time, in one of the Boston +newspapers, and in which he had taken part with the Americans.</p> + +<p>"I make a good many dollars in these stirring times,"<!-- Page 107 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> he said. "All the +Yankees seem to be of opinion that they will be best heard across the +water when they have got arms in their hands, and have learned how to +use them; and I know a little of both the sword and the musket. But the +warlike spirit is frightfully thirsty, somehow, and consumes a world of +rum; and so I have not yet begun to make rich."</p> + +<p>He shared with me his supper and bed for the night; and, after rising in +the morning ere I awoke, and writing a long letter for Robert, which he +gave me in the hope I might soon meet with him, he accompanied me to the +vessel, then on the eve of sailing, and we parted, as it proved, for +ever. I know nothing of his after life, or how or where it terminated; +but I have learned that, shortly before the death of his gifted brother, +his circumstances enabled him to send his mother a small remittance for +the use of the family. He was evidently one of the kind-hearted, +improvident few, who can share a very little, and whose destiny it is to +have only a very little to share.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h4>CHAPTER V.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"O Ferguson! thy glorious parts<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Ill suited law's dry, musty arts!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">My curse upon your whunstane hearts,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Ye Embrugh gentry!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">The tithe o' what ye waste at cartes<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Wad stow'd his pantry!"<br /></span> +<span class="i18"><span class="smcap">Burns.</span><br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p>I visited Edinburgh, for the first time, in the latter part of the +autumn of 1773, about two months after I had sailed from Boston. It was +on a fine calm morning—one of those clear sunshiny mornings of October, +when the gossamer<!-- Page 108 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> goes sailing about in long cottony threads, so light +and fleecy that they seem the skeleton remains of extinct cloudlets; and +when the distant hills, with their covering of grey frost rime, seem, +through the clear cold atmosphere, as if chiselled in marble. The sun +was rising over the town through a deep blood-coloured haze—the smoke +of a thousand fires; and the huge fantastic piles of masonry that +stretched along the ridge, looked dim and spectral through the cloud, +like the ghosts of an army of giants. I felt half a foot taller as I +strode on towards the town. It was Edinburgh I was approaching—the +scene of so many proud associations to a lover of Scotland; and I was +going to meet as an early friend one of the first of Scottish poets. I +entered the town. There was a book stall in a corner of the street; and +I turned aside for half a minute to glance my eye over the books.</p> + +<p>"Ferguson's Poems!" I exclaimed, taking up a little volume. "I was not +aware they had appeared in a separate form. How do you sell this?"</p> + +<p>"Just like a' the ither booksellers," said the man who kept the +stall—"that's nane o' the buiks that come doun in a hurry—just for the +marked selling price." I threw down the money.</p> + +<p>"Could you tell me anything of the writer?" I said. "I have a letter for +him from America."</p> + +<p>"Oh, that'll be frae his brither Henry, I'll wad; a clever cheild too, +but ower fond o' the drap drink, maybe, like Rob himsel'. Baith o' them +fine humane chields, though, without a grain o' pride. Rob takes a stan' +wi' me sometimes o' half an hour at a time, an' we clatter ower the +buiks; an', if I'm no mista'en, yon's him just yonder—the thin, pale +slip o' a lad wi' the broad brow. Ay, an' he's just comin' this way."</p> + +<p>"Anything new to-day, Thomas?" said the young man, coming up to the +stall. "I want a cheap second-hand<!-- Page 109 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> copy of Ramsay's 'Evergreen;' and, +like a good man as you are, you must just try and find it for me."</p> + +<p>Though considerably altered—for he was taller and thinner than when at +college, and his complexion had assumed a deep sallow hue—I recognised +him at once, and presented him with the letter.</p> + +<p>"Ah! from brother Henry," said he, breaking it open, and glancing his +eye over the contents. "What—<i>old college chum, Mr. Lindsay</i>!" he +exclaimed, turning to me. "Yes, sure enough; how happy I am we should +have met! Come this way—let us get out of the streets."</p> + +<p>We passed hurriedly through the Canongate and along the front of +Holyrood-house, and were soon in the King's Park, which seemed this +morning as if left to ourselves.</p> + +<p>"Dear me, and this is you yourself!—and we have again met, Mr. +Lindsay!" said Ferguson; "I thought we were never to meet more. Nothing, +for a long time, has made me half so glad. And so you have been a sailor +for the last four years. Do let us sit down here in the warm sunshine, +beside St. Anthony's Well, and tell me all your story, and how you +happened to meet with brother Henry."</p> + +<p>We sat down, and I briefly related, at his bidding, all that had +befallen me since we had parted at St. Andrew's, and how I was still a +common sailor, but, in the main, perhaps, not less happy than many who +commanded a fleet.</p> + +<p>"Ah, you have been a fortunate fellow," he said; "you have seen much and +enjoyed much; and I have been rusting in unhappiness at home. Would that +I had gone to sea along with you!"</p> + +<p>"Nay, now, that won't do," I replied. "But you are merely taking Bacon's +method of blunting the edge of envy. You have scarcely yet attained the +years of mature manhood, and yet your name has gone abroad over the<!-- Page 110 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> +whole length and breadth of the land, and over many other lands besides. +I have cried over your poems three thousand miles away, and felt all the +prouder of my country for the sake of my friend. And yet you would fain +persuade me that you wish the charm reversed, and that you were just +such an obscure salt-water man as myself!"</p> + +<p>"You remember," said my companion, "the story of the half-man, +half-marble prince of the Arabian tale. One part was a living creature, +one part a stone; but the parts were incorporated, and the mixture was +misery. I am just such a poor unhappy creature as the enchanted prince +of the story."</p> + +<p>"You surprise and distress me," I rejoined. "Have you not accomplished +all you so fondly purposed—realized even your warmest wishes? And this, +too, in early life. Your most sanguine hopes pointed but to a name, +which you yourself perhaps was never to hear, but which was to dwell on +men's tongues when the grave had closed over you. And now the name is +gained, and you live to enjoy it. I see the <i>living</i> part of your lot, +and it seems instinct with happiness; but in what does the <i>dead</i>, the +stony part, consist?"</p> + +<p>He shook his head, and looked up mournfully in my face; there was a +pause of a few seconds. "You, Mr. Lindsay," he at length replied, "you +who are of an equable steady temperament, can know little, from +experience, of the unhappiness of the man who lives only in extremes, +who is either madly gay or miserably depressed. Try and realize the +feelings of one whose mind is like a broken harp—all the medium tones +gone, and only the higher and lower left; of one, too, whose +circumstances seem of a piece with his mind, who can enjoy the exercise +of his better powers, and yet can only live by the monotonous drudgery +of copying page after page in a clerk's office; of one who is +continually either groping his way<!-- Page 111 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> amid a chill melancholy fog of +nervous depression, or carried headlong, by a wild gaiety, to all which +his better judgment would instruct him to avoid; of one who, when he +indulges most in the pride of superior intellect, cannot away with the +thought that that intellect is on the eve of breaking up, and that he +must yet rate infinitely lower in the scale of rationality than any of +the nameless thousands who carry on the ordinary concerns of life around +him."</p> + +<p>I was grieved and astonished, and knew not what to answer. "You are in a +gloomy mood to-day," I at length said; "you are immersed in one of the +fogs you describe; and all the surrounding objects take a tinge of +darkness from the medium through which you survey them. Come, now, you +must make an exertion, and shake off your melancholy. I have told you +all my story, as I best could, and you must tell me all yours in +return."</p> + +<p>"Well," he replied, "I shall, though it mayn't be the best way in the +world of dissipating my melancholy. I think I must have told you, when +at college, that I had a maternal uncle of considerable wealth, and, as +the world goes, respectability, who resided in Aberdeenshire. He was +placed on what one may term the table-land of society; and my poor +mother, whose recollections of him were limited to a period when there +is warmth in the feelings of the most ordinary minds, had hoped that he +would willingly exert his influence in my behalf. Much, doubtless, +depends on one's setting out in life; and it would have been something +to have been enabled to step into it from a level like that occupied by +my relative. I paid him a visit shortly after leaving college, and met +with apparent kindness. But I can see beyond the surface, Mr. Lindsay, +and I soon saw that my uncle was entirely a different man from the +brother whom my mother remembered. He had risen, by a course of slow +industry, from comparative poverty, and his feelings had worn out in the +process.<!-- Page 112 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> The character was case-hardened all over; and the polish it +bore—for I have rarely met a smoother man—seemed no improvement. He +was, in brief, one of the class content to dwell for ever in mere +decencies, with consciences made up of the conventional moralities, who +think by precedent, bow to public opinion as their god, and estimate +merit by its weight in guineas."</p> + +<p>"And so your visit," I said, "was a very brief one?"</p> + +<p>"You distress me," he replied. "It should have been so; but it was not. +But what could I do? Ever since my father's death I had been taught to +consider this man as my natural guardian, and I was now unwilling to +part with my last hope. But this is not all. Under much apparent +activity, my friend, there is a substratum of apathetical indolence in +my disposition: I move rapidly when in motion, but when at rest there is +a dull inertness in the character, which the will, when unassisted by +passion, is too feeble to overcome. Poor, weak creature that I am! I had +sitten down by my uncle's fireside, and felt unwilling to rise. Pity me, +my friend—I deserve your pity—but, oh, do not despise me!"</p> + +<p>"Forgive me, Mr. Ferguson," I said; "I have given you pain—but surely +most unwittingly."</p> + +<p>"I am ever a fool," he continued; "but my story lags; and, surely, there +is little in it on which it were pleasure to dwell. I sat at this man's +table for six months, and saw, day after day, his manner towards me +becoming more constrained and his politeness more cold; and yet I staid +on, till at last my clothes were worn threadbare, and he began to feel +that the shabbiness of the nephew affected the respectability of the +uncle. His friend the soap-boiler, and his friend the oil-merchant, and +his friend the manager of the hemp manufactory, with their wives and +daughters—all people of high standing in the world—occasionally +honoured his table with their presence, and how<!-- Page 113 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> could he be other than +ashamed of mine? It vexes me that I cannot even yet be cool on the +subject—it vexes me that a creature so sordid should have so much the +power to move me—but I cannot, I cannot master my feelings. He—he told +me—and with whom should the blame rest, but with the weak, spiritless +thing who lingered on in mean, bitter dependence, to hear what he had to +tell?—he told me that all his friends were respectable, and that my +appearance was no longer that of a person whom he could wish to see at +his table, or introduce to any one as his nephew. And I had staid to +hear all this!</p> + +<p>"I can hardly tell you how I got home. I travelled, stage after stage, +along the rough dusty roads, with a weak and feverish body, and almost +despairing mind. On meeting with my mother, I could have laid my head on +her bosom and cried like a child. I took to my bed in a high fever, and +trusted that all my troubles were soon to terminate; but, when the die +was cast, it turned up life. I resumed my old miserable employments—for +what could I else?—and, that I might be less unhappy in the prosecution +of them, my old amusements too. I copied during the day in a clerk's +office that I might live, and wrote during the night that I might be +known. And I have in part, perhaps, attained my object. I have pursued +and caught hold of the shadow on which my heart had been so long set; +and if it prove empty, and untangible, and unsatisfactory, like every +other shadow, the blame surely must rest with the pursuer, not with the +thing pursued. I weary you, Mr. Lindsay; but one word more. There are +hours when the mind, weakened by exertion, or by the teazing monotony of +an employment which tasks without exercising it, can no longer exert its +powers, and when, feeling that sociality is a law of our nature, we seek +the society of our fellow-men. With a creature so much the sport of +impulse as I am, it is of these hours of weakness that<!-- Page 114 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> conscience takes +most note. God help me! I have been told that life is short; but it +stretches on, and on, and on before me; and I know not how it is to be +passed through."</p> + +<p>My spirits had so sunk during this singular conversation, that I had no +heart to reply.</p> + +<p>"You are silent, Mr. Lindsay," said the poet; "I have made you as +melancholy as myself; but look around you, and say if ever you have seen +a lovelier spot. See how richly the yellow sunshine slants along the +green sides of Arthur's Seat, and how the thin blue smoke, that has come +floating from the town, fills the bottom of yonder grassy dell, as if it +were a little lake. Mark, too, how boldly the cliffs stand out along its +sides, each with its little patch of shadow. And here, beside us, is St. +Anthony's Well, so famous in song, coming gushing out to the sunshine, +and then gliding away through the grass like a snake. Had the Deity +purposed that man should be miserable, he would surely never have placed +him in so fair a world. Perhaps much of our unhappiness originates in +our mistaking our proper scope, and thus setting out from the first with +a false aim."</p> + +<p>"Unquestionably," I replied, "there is no man who has not some part to +perform; and, if it be a great and uncommon part, and the powers which +fit him for it proportionably great and uncommon, nature would be in +error could he slight it with impunity. See, there is a wild bee bending +the flower beside you. Even that little creature has a capacity of +happiness and misery; it derives its sense of pleasure from whatever +runs in the line of its instincts, its experience of unhappiness from +whatever thwarts and opposes them; and can it be supposed that so wise a +law should regulate the instincts of only inferior creatures? No, my +friend, it is surely a law of our nature also."<!-- Page 115 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span></p> + +<p>"And have you not something else to infer?" said the poet.</p> + +<p>"Yes," I replied, "that you are occupied differently from what the scope +and constitution of your mind demand; differently both in your hours of +employment and of relaxation. But do take heart, you will yet find your +proper place, and all shall be well."</p> + +<p>"Alas! no, my friend," said he, rising from the sward. "I could once +entertain such a hope; but I cannot now. My mind is no longer what it +was to me in my happier days, a sort of <i>terra incognita</i>, without +bounds or limits. I can see over and beyond it, and have fallen from all +my hopes regarding it. It is not so much the gloom of present +circumstances that disheartens me, as a depressing knowledge of myself, +an abiding conviction that I am a weak dreamer, unfitted for every +occupation of life, and not less so for the greater employments of +literature than for any of the others. I feel that I am a little man and +a little poet, with barely vigour enough to make one half effort at a +time, but wholly devoid of the sustaining will, that highest faculty of +the highest order of minds, which can direct a thousand vigorous efforts +to the accomplishment of one important object. Would that I could +exchange my half celebrity—and it can never be other than a half +celebrity—for a temper as equable and a fortitude as unshrinking as +yours! But I weary you with my complaints; I am a very coward; and you +will deem me as selfish as I am weak."</p> + +<p>We parted. The poet, sadly and unwillingly, went to copy deeds in the +office of the commissary clerk, and I, almost reconciled to obscurity +and hard labour, to assist in unloading a Baltic trader in the harbour +of Leith.<!-- Page 116 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h4>CHAPTER VI.</h4> + + +<p class="center">"Speech without aim and without end employ."—<span class="smcap">Crabbe.</span></p> + + +<p>After the lapse of nine months, I again returned to Edinburgh. During +that period, I had been so shut out from literature and the world, that +I had heard nothing of my friend the poet; and it was with a beating +heart I left the vessel, on my first leisure evening, to pay him a +visit. It was about the middle of July; the day had been close and +sultry, and the heavens overcharged with grey ponderous clouds; and, as +I passed hurriedly along the walk which leads from Leith to Edinburgh, I +could hear the newly awakened thunder, bellowing far in the south, peal +after peal, like the artillery of two hostile armies. I reached the door +of the poet's humble domicile, and had raised my hand to the knocker, +when I heard some one singing from within, in a voice by far the most +touchingly mournful I had ever listened to. The tones struck on my +heart; and a frightful suspicion crossed my mind, as I set down the +knocker, that the singer was no other than my friend. But in what +wretched circumstances! what fearful state of mind! I shuddered as I +listened, and heard the strain waxing louder and yet more mournful, and +could distinguish that the words were those of a simple old ballad:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"O Marti'mas wind, when wilt thou blaw,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">An' shake the green leaves aff the tree?<br /></span> +<span class="i0"> O gentle death, when wilt thou come,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">An' tak a life that wearies me?"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>I could listen no longer, but raised the latch and went in. The evening +was gloomy, and the apartment ill lighted; but I could see the singer, a +spectral-looking figure, sitting on a bed in the corner, with the +bedclothes wrapped round his shoulders, and a napkin deeply stained<!-- Page 117 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> +with blood on his head. An elderly female, who stood beside him, was +striving to soothe him, and busied from time to time in adjusting the +clothes, which were ever and anon falling off, as he nodded his head in +time to the music. A young girl of great beauty sat weeping at the +bedfoot.</p> + +<p>"O dearest Robert," said the woman, "you will destroy your poor head; +and Margaret your sister, whom you used to love so much, will break her +heart. Do lie down, dearest, and take a little rest. Your head is +fearfully gashed, and if the bandages loose a second time, you will +bleed to death. Do, dearest Robert, for your poor old mother, to whom +you were always so kind and dutiful a son till now—for your poor old +mother's sake, do lie down."</p> + +<p>The song ceased for a moment, and the tears came bursting from my eyes +as the tune changed, and he again sang:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"O mither dear, make ye my bed,</span> +<span class="i2">For my heart it's flichterin' sair;</span> +<span class="i0">An' oh, gin I've vexed ye, mither dear,</span> +<span class="i2">I'll never vex ye mair.</span> +<span class="i0">I've staid ar'out the lang dark nicht,</span> +<span class="i2">I' the sleet an' the plashy rain;</span> +<span class="i0">But, mither dear, make ye my bed,</span> +<span class="i2">An' I'll ne'er gang out again."</span> +</div></div> + +<p>"Dearest, dearest Robert," continued the poor, heart-broken woman, "do +lie down; for your poor old mother's sake, do lie down."</p> + +<p>"No, no," he exclaimed, in a hurried voice, "not just now, mother, not +just now. Here is my friend, Mr. Lindsay, come to see me—my true +friend, Mr. Lindsay, the sailor, who has sailed all round and round the +world; and I have much, much to ask him. A chair, Margaret, for Mr. +Lindsay. I must be a preacher like John Knox, you know—like the great +John Knox, the reformer of a nation—and<!-- Page 118 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> Mr. Lindsay knows all about +him. A chair, Margaret, for Mr. Lindsay."</p> + +<p>I am not ashamed to say it was with tears, and in a voice faltering with +emotion, that I apologized to the poor woman for my intrusion at such a +time. Were it otherwise, I might well conclude my heart had grown hard +as a piece of the nether millstone.</p> + +<p>"I had known Robert at College," I said—"had loved and respected him; +and had now come to pay him a visit, after an absence of several months, +wholly unprepared for finding him in his present condition." And it +would seem that my tears pled for me, and proved to the poor afflicted +woman and her daughter, by far the most efficient part of my apology.</p> + +<p>"All my friends have left me now, Mr. Lindsay," said the unfortunate +poet—"they have all left me now; they love this present world. We were +all going down, down, down; there was the roll of a river behind us; it +came bursting over the high rocks, roaring, rolling, foaming down upon +us; and though the fog was thick and dark below—far below, in the place +to which we were going—I could see the red fire shining through—the +red, hot, unquenchable fire; and we were all going down, down, down. +Mother, mother, tell Mr. Lindsay I am going to be put on my trials +to-morrow. Careless creature that I am—life is short, and I have lost +much time; but I am going to be put on my trials to-morrow, and shall +come forth a preacher of the word."</p> + +<p>The thunder which had hitherto been muttering at a distance—each peal, +however, nearer and louder than the preceding one—now began to roll +overhead, and the lightning, as it passed the window, to illumine every +object within. The hapless poet stretched out his thin wasted arm, as if +addressing a congregation from the pulpit:<!-- Page 119 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span>—</p> + +<p>"There were the flashings of lightning," he said, "and the roll of +thunder; and the trumpet waxed louder and louder. And around the summit +of the mountain were the foldings of thick clouds, and the shadow fell +brown and dark over the wide expanse of the desert. And the wild beasts +lay trembling in their dens. But, lo! where the sun breaks through the +opening of the cloud, there is the glitter of tents—the glitter of ten +thousand tents that rise over the sandy waste, thick as waves of the +sea. And there, there is the voice of the dance and of the revel, and +the winding of horns and the clash of cymbals. Oh, sit nearer me, +dearest mother, for the room is growing dark, dark; and, oh, my poor +head!</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'The lady sat on the castle wa',<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Look'd ower baith dale and down,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And then she spied Gil-Morice head<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Come steering through the town.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>Do, dearest mother, put your cool hand on my brow, and do hold it fast +ere it part. How fearfully—oh, how fearfully it aches!—and oh, how it +thunders!" He sunk backward on the pillow, apparently exhausted. "Gone, +gone, gone," he muttered; "my mind gone for ever. But God's will be +done."</p> + +<p>I rose to leave the room; for I could restrain my feelings no longer.</p> + +<p>"Stay, Mr. Lindsay," said the poet, in a feeble voice; "I hear the rain +dashing on the pavement; you must not go till it abates. Would that you +could pray beside me!—but, no—you are not like the dissolute +companions who have now all left me, but you are not yet fitted for +that; and, alas! I cannot pray for myself. Mother, mother, see that +there be prayers at my lykewake; for—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Her lykewake, it was piously spent<br /></span> +<span class="i2">In social prayer and praise,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Performed by judicious men,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Who stricken were in days.<!-- Page 120 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span><br /></span> +<span class="i0">'And many a heavy, heavy heart<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Was in that mournful place;<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And many a weary, weary thought<br /></span> +<span class="i2">On her who slept in peace.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>They will come all to my lykewake, mother, won't they?—yes, all, though +they have left me now. Yes, and they will come far to see my grave. I +was poor, very poor, you know, and they looked down upon me; and I was +no son or cousin of theirs, and so they could do nothing for me. Oh, but +they might have looked less coldly! But they will all come to my grave, +mother; they will come all to my grave; and they will say—'Would he +were living now to know how kind we are!' But they will look as coldly +as ever on the living poet beside them—yes, till they have broken his +heart; and then they will go to his grave too. O dearest mother, do lay +your cool hand on my brow."</p> + +<p>He lay silent and exhausted, and, in a few minutes, I could hope, from +the hardness of his breathing, that he had fallen asleep.</p> + +<p>"How long," I inquired of his sister, in a low whisper, "has Mr. +Ferguson been so unwell, and what has injured his head?"</p> + +<p>"Alas!" said the girl, "my brother has been unsettled in mind for nearly +the last six months. We first knew it one evening on his coming home +from the country, where he had been for a few days with a friend. He +burnt a large heap of papers that he had been employed on for weeks +before—songs and poems that his friends say were the finest things he +ever wrote; but he burnt them all, for he was going to be a preacher of +the word, he said, and it did not become a preacher of the word to be a +writer of light rhymes. And, O sir! his mind has been carried ever +since; but he has been always gentle and affectionate, and his sole +delight has lain in reading the Bible. Good<!-- Page 121 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> Dr. Erskine, of the +Greyfriars, often comes to our house, and sits with him for hours +together; for there are times when his mind seems stronger than ever, +and he says wonderful things, that seem to hover, the minister says, +between the extravagance natural to his present sad condition, and the +higher flights of a philosophic genius. And we had hoped that he was +getting better; but, O sir, our hopes have had a sad ending. He went +out, a few evenings ago, to call on an old acquaintance; and, in +descending a stair, missed footing, and fell to the bottom; and his head +has been fearfully injured by the stones. He has been just as you have +seen him ever since; and, oh! I much fear he cannot now recover. Alas! +my poor brother!—never, never was there a more affectionate heart."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h4>CHAPTER VII.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i12">"A lowly muse!</span> +<span class="i0">She sings of reptiles yet in song unknown."</span> +</div></div> + + +<p>I returned to the vessel with a heavy heart; and it was nearly three +months from this time ere I again set foot in Edinburgh. Alas! for my +unfortunate friend! He was now an inmate of the asylum, and on the verge +of dissolution. I was thrown, by accident, shortly after my arrival at +this time, into the company of one of his boon companions. I had gone +into a tavern with a brother sailor—a shrewd, honest skipper, from the +north country; and, finding the place occupied by half a dozen young +fellows, who were growing noisy over their liquor, I would have +immediately gone out again, had I not caught, in the passing, a few +words regarding my friend. And so, drawing to a side-table, I sat down.</p> + +<p>"Believe me," said one of the topers, a dissolute-looking<!-- Page 122 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> young man, +"it's all over with Bob Ferguson—all over; and I knew it from the +moment he grew religious. Had old Brown tried to convert me, I would +have broken his face."</p> + +<p>"What Brown?" inquired one of his companions.</p> + +<p>"Is that all you know?" rejoined the other. "Why, John Brown of +Haddington, the Seceder. Bob was at Haddington last year, at the +election; and, one morning, when in the horrors, after holding a rum +night of it, who should he meet in the churchyard but old John +Brown?—he writes, you know, a big book on the Bible. Well, he lectured +Bob at a pretty rate, about election and the call, I suppose; and the +poor fellow has been mad ever since. Your health, Jamie. For my own +part, I'm a freewill man, and detest all cant and humbug."</p> + +<p>"And what has come of Ferguson now?" asked one of the others.</p> + +<p>"Oh, mad, sir, mad," rejoined the toper—"reading the Bible all day, and +cooped up in the asylum yonder. 'Twas I who brought him to it.—But, +lads, the glass has been standing for the last half-hour.—'Twas I and +Jack Robinson who brought him to it, as I say. He was getting wild; and +so we got a sedan for him, and trumped up a story of an invitation for +tea from a lady, and he came with us as quietly as a lamb. But, if you +could have heard the shriek he gave when the chair stopped, and he saw +where we had brought him! I never heard anything half so horrible—it +rang in my ears for a week after; and then, how the mad people in the +upper rooms howled and gibbered in reply, till the very roof echoed! +People say he is getting better; but, when I last saw him, he was as +religious as ever, and spoke so much about heaven, that it was +uncomfortable to hear him. Great loss to his friends, after all the +expense they have been at with his education."<!-- Page 123 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span></p> + +<p>"You seem to have been intimate with Mr. Ferguson," I said.</p> + +<p>"Oh, intimate with Bob!" he rejoined; "we were hand and glove, man. I +have sat with him in Lucky Middlemass's, almost every evening, for two +years; and I have given him hints for some of the best things in his +book. 'Twas I who tumbled down the cage in the Meadows, and began +breaking the lamps.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'Ye who oft finish care in Lethe's cup</span> +<span class="i0">Who love to swear and roar, and <i>keep it up</i>,</span> +<span class="i0">List to a brother's voice, whose sole delight</span> +<span class="i0">Is sleep all day, and riot all the night.'</span> +</div></div> + +<p>There's spirit for you! But Bob was never sound at bottom; and I have +told him so. 'Bob,' I have said, 'Bob, you're but a hypocrite after all, +man—without half the spunk you pretend to. Why don't you take a pattern +by me, who fear nothing, and believe only the agreeable? But, poor +fellow, he had weak nerves, and a church-going propensity that did him +no good; and you see the effects. 'Twas all nonsense, Tom, of his +throwing the squib into the Glassite meeting-house. Between you and I, +that was a cut far beyond him in his best days, poet as he was. 'Twas I +who did it, man, and never was there a cleaner row in auld Reekie."</p> + +<p>"Heartless, contemptible puppy!" said my comrade, the sailor, as we left +the room. "Your poor friend must be ill, indeed, if he be but half as +insane as his quondam companion. But he cannot: there is no madness like +that of the heart. What could have induced a man of genius to associate +with a thing so thoroughly despicable?"</p> + +<p>"The same misery, Miller," I said, "that brings a man <i>acquainted with +strange bedfellows</i>."<!-- Page 124 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h4>CHAPTER VIII.</h4> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"O thou, my elder brother in misfortune,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">By far my elder brother in the muses,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">With tears I pity thy unhappy fate!"—<span class="smcap">Burns.</span><br /></span> +</div></div> + + +<p>The asylum in which my unfortunate friend was confined, at this time the +only one in Edinburgh, was situated in an angle of the city wall. It was +a dismal-looking mansion, shut in on every side, by the neighbouring +houses, from the view of the surrounding country; and so effectually +covered up from the nearer street, by a large building in front, that it +seemed possible enough to pass a lifetime in Edinburgh without coming to +the knowledge of its existence. I shuddered as I looked up to its +blackened walls, thinly sprinkled with miserable-looking windows, barred +with iron, and thought of it as a sort of burial-place of dead minds. +But it was a Golgotha, which, with more than the horrors of the grave, +had neither its rest nor its silence. I was startled, as I entered the +cell of the hapless poet, by a shout of laughter from a neighbouring +room, which was answered from a dark recess behind me, by a fearfully +prolonged shriek, and the clanking of chains. The mother and sister of +Ferguson were sitting beside his pallet, on a sort of stone settle which +stood out from the wall; and the poet himself, weak and exhausted, and +worn to a shadow, but apparently in his right mind, lay extended on the +straw. He made an attempt to rise as I entered; but the effort was above +his strength, and, again lying down, he extended his hand.</p> + +<p>"This is kind, Mr. Lindsay," he said; "it is ill for me to be alone in +these days; and yet I have few visitors, save my poor old mother and +Margaret. But who cares for the unhappy?"<!-- Page 125 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span></p> + +<p>I sat down on the settle beside him, still retaining his hand. "I have +been at sea, and in foreign countries," I said, "since I last saw you, +Mr. Ferguson, and it was only this morning I returned; but believe me +there are many, many of your countrymen who sympathize sincerely in your +affliction, and take a warm interest in your recovery."</p> + +<p>He sighed deeply. "Ah," he replied, "I know too well the nature of that +sympathy. You never find it at the bedside of the sufferer—it +evaporates in a few barren expressions of idle pity; and yet, after all, +it is but a paying the poet in kind. He calls so often on the world to +sympathize over fictitious misfortune, that the feeling wears out, and +becomes a mere mood of the imagination; and, with this light, attenuated +pity of his own weaving, it regards his own real sorrows. Dearest +mother, the evening is damp and chill—do gather the bedclothes round +me, and sit on my feet; they are so very cold and so dead, that they +cannot be colder a week hence."</p> + +<p>"O Robert, why do you speak so?" said the poor woman, as she gathered +the clothes round him, and sat on his feet. "You know you are coming +home to-morrow."</p> + +<p>"To-morrow!" he said—"if I see to-morrow, I shall have completed my +twenty-fourth year—a small part, surely, of the threescore and ten; but +what matters it when 'tis past?"</p> + +<p>"You were ever, my friend, of a melancholy temperament," I said, "and +too little disposed to hope. Indulge in brighter views of the future, +and all shall yet be well."</p> + +<p>"I can now hope that it shall," he said. "Yes, all shall be well with +me—and that very soon. But, oh, how this nature of ours shrinks from +dissolution!—yes, and all the lower natures too. You remember, mother, +the poor starling that was killed in the room beside us? Oh, how it +struggled with its ruthless enemy, and filled the whole place with its +shrieks of terror and agony. And yet, poor little thing! it had been +true, all life long, to the laws of<!-- Page 126 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> its nature, and had no sins to +account for, and no judge to meet. There is a shrinking of heart as I +look before me, and yet I can hope that all shall yet be well with +me—and that very soon. Would that I had been wise in time! Would that I +had thought more and earlier of the things which pertain to my eternal +peace! more of a living soul, and less of a dying name! But, oh, 'tis a +glorious provision, through which a way of return is opened up even at +the eleventh hour!"</p> + +<p>We sat round him in silence; an indescribable feeling of awe pervaded my +whole mind, and his sister was affected to tears.</p> + +<p>"Margaret," he said, in a feeble voice—"Margaret, you will find my +Bible in yonder little recess; 'tis all I have to leave you; but keep +it, dearest sister, and use it, and, in times of sorrow and suffering +that come to all, you will know how to prize the legacy of your poor +brother. Many, many books do well enough for life; but there is only one +of any value when we come to die.</p> + +<p>"You have been a voyager of late, Mr. Lindsay," he continued, "and I +have been a voyager too. I have been journeying in darkness and +discomfort, amid strange unearthly shapes of dread and horror, with no +reason to direct and no will to govern. Oh, the unspeakable unhappiness +of these wanderings!—these dreams of suspicion, and fear, and hatred, +in which shadow and substance, the true and the false, were so wrought +up and mingled together, that they formed but one fantastic and +miserable whole. And, oh! the unutterable horror of every momentary +return to a recollection of what I had been once, and a sense of what I +had become! Oh, when I awoke amid the terrors of the night—when I +turned me on the rustling straw, and heard the wild wail and yet wilder +laugh—when I heard and shuddered, and then felt the demon in all his +might coming over me, till I laughed and wailed with the others—oh<!-- Page 127 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> the +misery! the utter misery!—But 'tis over, my friend—'tis all over; a +few, few tedious days, a few, few weary nights, and all my sufferings +shall be over."</p> + +<p>I had covered my face with my hands, but the tears came bursting through +my fingers; the mother and sister of the poet sobbed aloud.</p> + +<p>"Why sorrow for me, sirs?" he said; "why grieve for me? I am well, quite +well, and want for nothing. But 'tis cold; oh, 'tis very cold, and the +blood seems freezing at my heart. Ah, but there is neither pain nor cold +where I am going, and I trust it shall be well with my soul. Dearest, +dearest mother, I always told you it would come to this at last."</p> + +<p>The keeper had entered to intimate to us that the hour for locking up +the cells was already past, and we now rose to leave the place. I +stretched out my hand to my unfortunate friend; he took it in silence, +and his thin attenuated fingers felt cold within my grasp, like those of +a corpse. His mother stooped down to embrace him.</p> + +<p>"Oh, do not go yet, mother," he said—"do not go yet—do not leave me; +but it must be so, and I only distress you. Pray for me, dearest mother, +and, oh, forgive me; I have been a grief and a burden to you all +life-long; but I ever loved you, mother; and, oh, you have been kind, +kind and forgiving—and now your task is over. May God bless and reward +you! Margaret, dearest Margaret, farewell!"</p> + +<p>We parted, and, as it proved, for ever. Robert Ferguson expired during +the night; and when the keeper entered the cell next morning, to prepare +him for quitting the asylum, all that remained of this most hapless of +the children of genius, was a pallid and wasted corpse, that lay +stiffening on the straw. I am now a very old man, and the feelings wear +out; but I find that my heart is even yet susceptible of emotion, and +that the source of tears is not yet dried up.<!-- Page 128 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_DISASTERS_OF_JOHNNY_ARMSTRONG" id="THE_DISASTERS_OF_JOHNNY_ARMSTRONG"></a>THE DISASTERS OF JOHNNY ARMSTRONG.</h2> + + +<p>Johnny Armstrong, the hero of our tale, was, and, for aught we know to +the contrary, still is, an inhabitant of the town of Carlisle. He was a +stout, thickset, little man, with a round, good-humoured, ruddy +countenance, and somewhere about fifty years of age at the period to +which our story refers. Although possessed of a good deal of natural +shrewdness, Johnny was, on the whole, rather a simple sort of person. +His character, in short, was that of an honest, well-meaning, +inoffensive man, but with parts that certainly did not shine with a very +dazzling lustre. Johnny was, to business, an ironmonger, and had, by +patient industry and upright dealing, acquired a small independency. He +had stuck to the counter of his little dingy shop for upwards of twenty +years, and used to boast that, during all that time, he had opened and +shut his shop with his own hands every day, not even excepting one. The +result of this steadiness and attention to business was, as has been +already said, a competency.</p> + +<p>Fortunately for Johnny, this propensity to stick fast—which he did like +a limpet—was natural to him. It was a part of his constitution. He had +no desire whatever to travel, or, rather, he had a positive dislike to +it—a dislike, indeed, which was so great that, for an entire quarter of +a century, he had never been three miles out of Carlisle. But when +Johnny had waxed pretty rich, somewhat corpulent, and rather oldish, he +was suddenly struck, one fine summer afternoon, as he stood at the door +of his shop with his hands in his breeches pockets, (a favourite +attitude,) with an amiable and ardent desire to see certain of his<!-- Page 129 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span> +relations who lived at Brechin, in the north of Scotland; and—there is +no accounting for these things—on that afternoon Johnny came to the +extraordinary resolution of paying them a visit—of performing a journey +of upwards of a hundred miles, even as the crow flies. It was a strange +and a desperate resolution for a man of Johnny's peculiar temperament +and habits; but so it was. Travel he would, and travel he did. On the +third day after the doughty determination just alluded to had been +formed, Johnny, swathed in an ample brown greatcoat, with a red +comforter about his neck, appeared in the stable yard of the inn where +most of the stage coaches that passed through Carlisle put up. Of these +there were three: one for Dumfries, one for Glasgow, and one for +Edinburgh—the latter being Johnny's coach; for his route was by the +metropolis. We had almost forgotten to say that Johnny, who was a +widower, was accompanied on this occasion by his son, Johnny junior, an +only child, whom it was his intention to take along with him. The boy +was about fourteen years of age, and though, upon the whole, a shrewd +enough lad for his time of life, did not promise to be a much brighter +genius than his father. In fact he was rather lumpish.</p> + +<p>On arriving at the inn yard—it was about eight o'clock at night, and +pretty dark, being the latter end of September—Johnny Armstrong found +the coach apparently about to start, the horses being all yoked; but the +vehicle happened, at the moment he entered the yard, to be in charge of +an ostler—not of either the guard or driver, who had both gone out of +the way for an instant. Desirous of securing a good seat for his son, +Johnny Armstrong opened the coach door, thrust the lad in, and was about +to follow himself, when he discovered that he had forgotten his watch. +On making this discovery, he banged too the coach door without saying a +word, and hurried home as fast as his little, thick, short legs would +allow him, to recover his<!-- Page 130 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span> time-piece. On his return, which was in less +than five minutes, Johnny himself stepped into the vehicle, which was +now crowded with passengers, and, in a few seconds, was rattling away at +a rapid rate towards Edinburgh. The night was pitch dark, not a star +twinkled; and it was not until Johnny arrived at his journey's end—that +is, at Edinburgh—that he discovered his son was not in the coach, and +had never been there at all. We will not attempt to describe Johnny's +amazement and distress of mind on making this most extraordinary and +most alarming discovery. They were dreadful. In great agitation, he +inquired at every one of the passengers if they had not seen his son, +and one and all denied they ever had. The thing was mysterious and +perfectly inexplicable.</p> + +<p>"I put the boy into the coach with my own hands," said Johnny Armstrong, +in great perturbation, to the guard and half crying as he spoke.</p> + +<p>"Very odd," said the guard.</p> + +<p>"Very odd, indeed," said Johnny.</p> + +<p>"Are you sure it was <i>our</i> coach, Mr. Armstrong?" inquired the guard.</p> + +<p>The emphasis on the word <i>our</i> was startling. It evidently meant more +than met the ear; and Johnny felt that it did so, and he was startled +accordingly.</p> + +<p>"<i>Your</i> coach?" he replied, but now with some hesitation of manner. "It +surely was. What other coach could it be?"</p> + +<p>"Why, it may have been the Glasgow coach," said the guard; "and I rather +think it <i>must</i> have been. You have made a mistake, sir, be assured, and +put the boy into the wrong coach. We start from the same place, and at +the same hour, five minutes or so in or over."</p> + +<p>The mention of this possibility, nay certainty—for Johnny had actually +dispatched the boy to Glasgow—instantly struck him dumb. It relieved +him, indeed, from<!-- Page 131 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span> the misery arising from a dread of some terrible +accident having happened the lad, but threw him into great tribulation +as to his fate in Glasgow, without money or friends. But this being, +after all, comparatively but a small affair, Johnny was now, what he had +not been before, able to pay attention to minor things.</p> + +<p>"Be sae guid," said Johnny to the guard, who was on the top of the +coach, busy unloosing packages, "as haun me doun my trunk."</p> + +<p>"No trunk of yours here, sir," said the guard. "You'll have sent it away +to Glasgow with the boy."</p> + +<p>"No, no," replied Johnny, sadly perplexed by this new misfortune. "I +sent it wi' the lass to the inn half an hour before I gaed mysel."</p> + +<p>"Oh, then, in that case," said the guard, "ten to one it's away to +Dumfries, and not to Glasgow."</p> + +<p>And truly such was the fact. The girl, a fresh-caught country lass, had +thrown it on the first coach she found, saying her master would +immediately follow—and that happened to be the Dumfries one. Here, +then, was Johnny safely arrived himself, indeed, at Edinburgh; but his +son was gone to Glasgow, and his trunk to Dumfries—all with the +greatest precision imaginable. Next day, Johnny Armstrong, being +extremely uneasy about his boy, started for Glasgow on board of one of +the canal passage boats; while the lad, being equally uneasy about his +father, and, moreover, ill at ease on sundry other accounts, did +precisely the same thing with the difference of direction—that is, he +started for Edinburgh by a similar conveyance; and so well timed had +each of their respective departures been, that, without knowing it, they +passed each other exactly halfway between the two cities. On arriving at +Glasgow, Johnny Armstrong could not, for a long while, discover any +trace of his son; but at length succeeded in tracking him to the canal +boat—which led him rightly to conclude<!-- Page 132 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> that he had proceeded to +Edinburgh. On coming to this conclusion, Johnny again started for the +metropolis, where he safely arrived about two hours after his son had +left it for home, whither, finding no trace of his father in Edinburgh, +he had wisely directed his steps. Johnny Armstrong, now greatly +distressed about the object of his paternal solicitude, whom he vainly +sought up and down the city, at last also bent his way homewards, +thinking, what was true, that the boy might have gone home; and there +indeed he found him. Thus nearly a week had been spent, and that in +almost constant travel, and Johnny found himself precisely at the point +from which he had set out. However, in three days, after having, in the +meantime, recovered his trunk, he again set out on his travels to +Brechin; for his courage was not in the least abated by what had +happened; but on this occasion unaccompanied by his son, as he would not +again run the risk of losing him, or of exposing himself to that +distress of mind on his account, of which he had been before a victim. +In the case of Johnny's second progress, there was "no mistake" +whatever, of any kind—at least at starting. Both himself and his trunk +arrived in perfect safety, and in due time, at Edinburgh.</p> + +<p>Johnny's next route was to steam it to Kirkaldy from Newhaven. The boat +started at six a.m.; and, having informed himself of this particular, he +determined to be at the point of embarkation in good time. But he was +rather late, and, on finding this, he ran every foot of the way from +Edinburgh to the steam-boat, and was in a dreadful state of exhaustion +when he reached it; but, by his exertions, he saved his distance, +thereby exhibiting another proof that all is not lost that's in danger. +An instant longer, however, and he would have been too late, for the +vessel was just on the eve of starting. Johnny leapt on board, or rather +was bundled on board; for Johnny, as<!-- Page 133 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span> already hinted, was in what is +called good bodily condition—rather extra, indeed—and was, moreover, +waxing a little stiff about the joints; so that he could not get over +the side of the boat so cleverly as he would have done some twenty years +before. Over and above all this, he was quite exhausted with the race +against time which he had just run. Seeing his distressed condition, and +that the boat was on the point of sailing, two of the hands leapt on the +pier, when the one seizing him by the waistband of the breeches, and the +other by the breast, they fairly pitched him into the vessel, throwing +his trunk after him. As it was pouring rain, Johnny, on recovering his +perpendicular, immediately descended into the cabin, and, in the next +instant, the boat was ploughing her way through the deep. For two hours +after he had embarked, it continued to rain without intermission; and +for these two hours he remained snug below without stirring. At the end +of this period, however, it cleared up a little, and, in a short while +thereafter, became perfectly fair. Having discovered this he ascended to +the deck, to see what was going on. The captain of the vessel was +himself at the helm; he, therefore, sidled towards him, and, after +making some remarks on the weather and the scenery, asked the captain, +in the blandest and civilest tones imaginable, when he expected they +would be at Kirkaldy. The man stared at Johnny with a look of +astonishment, not unmingled with displeasure; but at length said—</p> + +<p>"Kirkaldy, sir! What do you mean by asking me that question? I don't +know when <i>you</i> expect to be at Kirkaldy, but <i>I</i> don't expect to be +there for a twelvemonth at least."</p> + +<p>"No!—od, that's queer!" quoth Johnny, amazed in his turn; but thinking, +after a moment, that the captain meant to be facetious, he merely +added—"I wad think, captain, that we wad be there much about the same +time."<!-- Page 134 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Ay, ay, may be; but, I say, none of your gammon, friend," said the +latter, gruffly, and now getting really angry at what he conceived to be +some attempt to play upon him, though he could not see the drift of the +joke. "Mind your own business, friend, and I'll mind mine."</p> + +<p>This he said with an air that conveyed very plainly a hint that Johnny +should take himself off, which, without saying any more, he accordingly +did. Much perplexed by the captain's conduct, he now sauntered towards +the fore part of the vessel, where he caught the engineer just as he was +about to descend into the engine-room. Johnny tapped him gently on the +shoulder, and the man, wiping his dripping face with a handful of tow, +looked up to him, while Johnny, afraid to put the question, but anxious +to know when he really would be at Kirkaldy, lowered himself down, by +placing his hands on his knees, so as to bring his face on a level with +the person he was addressing, and, in the mildest accents, and with a +countenance beaming with gentleness, he popped the question in a low, +soft whisper, as if to deprecate the man's wrath. On the fatal inquiry +being made at him, the engineer, as the captain had done before him, +stared at Johnny Armstrong, in amazement, for a second or two, then +burst into a hoarse laugh, and, without vouchsafing any other reply, +plunged down into his den.</p> + +<p>"What in a' the earth can be the meanin' o' this?" quoth Johnny to +himself, now ten times more perplexed than ever. "What can there be in +my simple, natural, and reasonable question, to astonish folk sae +muckle?"</p> + +<p>This was an inquiry which Johnny might put to himself, but it was one +which he could by no means answer. Being, however, an easy, good-natured +man, and seeing how much offence in one instance, and subject for mirth +in another, he had unwittingly given, by putting it, he resolved to make +no further inquiries into the matter, but to await in<!-- Page 135 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> patience the +arrival of the boat at her destination—an event which he had the sense +to perceive would be neither forwarded nor retarded by his obtaining or +being refused the information he had desired to be possessed of. The +boat arrived in due time at the wished-for haven, and Johnny landed with +the other passengers; the captain giving him a wipe, as he stepped on +the plank that was to convey him ashore, about his Kirkaldy inquiries, +by asking him, though now in perfect good humour, if he knew the precise +length of that celebrated town; but Johnny merely smiled and passed on.</p> + +<p>On landing, Johnny Armstrong proceeded to what had the appearance of, +and really was, a respectable inn. Here, as it was now pretty far in the +day, he had some dinner, and afterwards treated himself to a tumbler of +toddy and a peep at the papers. While thus comfortably enjoying himself, +the waiter having chanced to pop into the room, Johnny raised his eye +from the paper he was reading, and, looking the lad in the face—</p> + +<p>"Can ye tell me, friend," he said, "when the coach for Dundee starts?"</p> + +<p>"There's no coach at all from this to Dundee, sir," replied the waiter.</p> + +<p>"No!" said Johnny, a little nonplused by this information. "That's odd." +The waiter saw nothing odd in it.</p> + +<p>"I was told," continued Johnny, "that there were twa or three coaches +daily from this to Dundee."</p> + +<p>"Oh, no, sir," said the lad, coolly, "you have been misinformed; but if +you wish to go to Dundee, sir," he added—desirous of being as obliging +as possible—"your best way is to go by steam from this to Newhaven, and +from that cross over to Kirkaldy!!!"</p> + +<p>At this fatal word, which seemed doomed to work Johnny much wo, the +glass which he was about to raise to his lips fell on the floor, and +went into a thousand pieces.<!-- Page 136 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Kirkaldy, laddie!" exclaimed Johnny Armstrong, with an expression of +consternation in his face which it would require Cruikshank's art and +skill to do justice to—"Gude hae a care o' me, is <i>this</i> no Kirkaldy?"</p> + +<p>"Kirkaldy, sir!" replied the waiter, no less amazed than Johnny, though +in his case it was at the absurdity of the inquiry—"oh, no, sir," with +a smile—"this is Alloa!!!"</p> + +<p>Alloa it was, to be sure; for Johnny had taken the wrong boat, and that +was all. On embarking, he had made no inquiries at those belonging to +the vessel, and, of course, those in the vessel had put none to him—and +this was the result. He was comfortably planted at Alloa, instead of +Kirkaldy, which all our readers know lies in a very different direction; +and this denouement also explains the captain's displeasure with his +passenger, and the engineer's mirth. At the moment this extraordinary +<i>eclaircissement</i> took place between Johnny Armstrong and the waiter of +the King's Arms, there happened to be a ship captain in the room—for it +was the public one; and this person, who was a good-natured fellow, at +once amused by, and pitying Johnny's dilemma, turned towards him, and +inquired if it was his intention to go any further than Dundee.</p> + +<p>Johnny said that it was—he intended going to Brechin.</p> + +<p>"Oh, in that case," said the captain, "you had better just go with me. +In an hour after this I sail for Montrose, which is within eight miles +of Brechin, and I'll be very glad to give you a cast so far, and we +shan't differ about the terms. Fine, smart little vessel mine, and, with +a spanking breeze from the west or sou'-west, which we'll very likely +catch about Queensferry, I'll land you in a jiffey within a trifle of +your journey's end—a devilish sight cleverer, I warrant you, than your +round-about way of steaming and coaching it, and at half the money too."</p> + +<p>Johnny Armstrong was all gratitude for this very opportune piece of +kindness, and gladly closed with the offer—the<!-- Page 137 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> captain and he taking a +couple of additional tumblers each, on the head of it, to begin with. We +say to begin with; for it by no means ended with the quantity named. The +captain was a jolly dog, and loved his liquor, and was, withal, so +facetious a companion, that he prevailed on his new friend to swallow a +great deal more than did him any good. To tell a truth, which, however, +we would not have known at Carlisle, Johnny Armstrong, who had the +character of a sober man, got, on this occasion, into a rather +discreditable condition, and, in this state, he was escorted by the +captain—who stood liquor like a water-cask—to the vessel, and was once +more embarked; but it was now on board the <i>Fifteen Sisters</i> of +Skatehaven. On getting him on board, the captain, seeing the state he +was in, prudently bundled him down into the cabin, and thrust him into +his own bed, where he immediately fell into a profound sleep that +extended over twelve mortal hours. At the end of this period, however, +Johnny awoke; but it was not by any means of his own accord, for he was +awakened by a variety of stimulants, or <i>rousers</i>, if we may be allowed +to coin a word for the occasion, all operating at once. These were, a +tremendous uproar on the deck, a fearful rolling of the vessel, the +roaring of wind, and the splashing, dashing, and gurling of waves; and, +to crown all, a feeling of deadly sickness. When he first opened his +eyes, he could not conceive where he was, or what was the meaning of the +furious motion that he felt, and of the tremendous sounds that he heard. +A few minutes' cogitation with himself, however, solved the mystery, and +exposed to him his true position. In great alarm—for he thought the +vessel was on the eve of going down—Johnny Armstrong rolled himself out +of his bed, and crawled in his shirt up the cabin ladder. On gaining the +summit, he found himself confronted by the captain, who, with a very +serious face, was standing by the helm.<!-- Page 138 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Are—are—are—we—near—Mon—trose, captain?" inquired Johnny, in a +voice rendered so feeble by sickness and terror, that it was impossible +to hear him a yard off, amidst the roaring of the winds and waves; for +we suppose we need not more explicitly state, that he was in the midst +of a storm, and as pretty a one it was as the most devoted admirer of +the picturesque could desire to see.</p> + +<p>"What?" roared the captain, in a voice of thunder, at the same time +stooping down to catch his feeble interrogatory. Johnny repeated it; +but, ere he could obtain an answer, a raking wave, which came in at the +stern, took him full on the breast as he stood on the companion ladder, +with his bust just above the level of the deck, sent him down, heels +over head, into the cabin, and, in a twinkling, buried him in a foot and +a half of water on the floor, where he lay for some time at full length, +sprawling and floundering amidst the wreck which the sudden and violent +influx of water had occasioned. On recovering from the stunning effects +of his descent—for he had, amongst other small matters, received a +violent contusion on the head—Johnny for an instant imagined that he +had somehow or other got to the bottom of the sea. Finding, however, at +length, that this was not precisely the case, he arose, though dripping +with wet, yet not very like a sea god, and having denuded himself of his +only garment, his shirt, crawled into his bed, where he now determined +to await quietly and patiently the fate that might be intended for him; +and this fate, he had no doubt, was suffocation by drowning.</p> + +<p>"Very extraordinar this," said Johnny Armstrong to himself, as he lay +musing in bed on the perilous situation into which he had so simply and +innocently got—"very extraordinar, that I couldna get the length o' +Brechin without a' this uproar, and confusion, and difficulty, and +danger; this knocking about frae place to place, half drooned and half +murdered. Here have I been now for<!-- Page 139 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> mair than a week at it, and it's my +opinion I'm no twenty mile nearer't yet than I was, for a' this kick up. +Dear me," he went on soliloquizing, "I'm sure Brechin's no sic an out o' +the way place. The road's straught, and the distance no great. Then, +how, in the name o' wonder, is it that I canna mak' it out like ither +folk, let me do as I like?"</p> + +<p>Thus cogitated Johnny Armstrong as he lay on his bed of sickness, +sorrow, and danger. But his cogitations could in no way mend the matter, +nor, though they could, was he long permitted to indulge in them; for +that mortal sickness under which he had been before suffering, but which +the little incident of the visit from the wave, with its consequences, +had temporarily banished, again returned with tenfold vigour, making him +regardless of all sublunary things—even of life itself. In this state +of supineness and suffering did Johnny lie for three entire days and +nights—for so long did the storm continue with unabated fury—the +vessel having, for some four-and-twenty hours previously, been quite +unmanageable, and driving at the mercy of the winds and waves. A +dreadful crash, however, at length announced that some horrible crisis +was at hand. The vessel had struck, and, in a few seconds more, she was +in a thousand pieces, and her unfortunate crew, including Johnny +Armstrong, were struggling in the waves. From this instant he lost all +consciousness; and, when he again awoke to life, he found himself lying +on the sea-beach; but how he had come there he never could tell, nor +could he at all conjecture by what accident his life had been saved, +when all the rest in the ill-fated vessel had perished; for Johnny was +indeed the only person that had escaped. On coming to himself he started +to his feet, and gazed around him, with a bewildered look, to see if any +object would present itself that might help him to guess where he was. +But his survey affording him no such aid to recognition, he began to +move inland, in the<!-- Page 140 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> hope of meeting with somebody who could give him +the information desired; and in this he was not disappointed, that is, +he did meet somebody; but the appearance of that somebody surprised +Johnny "pretty considerably." He had a high-crowned hat on, such as +Johnny had never seen in his life before; an enormous pair of breeches; +and a pipe a yard long in his mouth. His <i>tout ensemble</i>, in short, was +exceeding strange in Johnny Armstrong's eyes. Nevertheless, he accosted +him.</p> + +<p>"Can ye tell me, freen, how far I may be frae Brechin?" he inquired.</p> + +<p>The stranger shook his head, but made no reply.</p> + +<p>"I'm sayin', freen," repeated Johnny, in a louder tone, thinking that +his friend, as he called him, might possibly be dull of hearing, "can ye +tell me if I'm onything near Brechin?"</p> + +<p>The stranger again shook his head, but still said nothing. Johnny was +confounded. At length, however, after puffing away for some seconds with +a suddenly-increased energy, he slowly withdrew his pipe from his mouth, +and delivered himself of what sounded to Johnny's ears very much like +this, spoken with great rapidity.</p> + +<p>"Futra butara rap a ruara dutera muttera purra murra footra den, +Preekin, humph."</p> + +<p>Of this Johnny of course could make nothing, no more than the reader +can, further than recognising in the word "Preekin" a resemblance to the +name of the town he so anxiously inquired after; and he was sorely +perplexed thereat. Neither could he at all comprehend what sort of a +being he had fallen in with.</p> + +<p>"I dinna understan' a word o' what ye say, freen," at length said +Johnny, staring hard at the stranger with open mouth.</p> + +<p>"Umph!" said the latter; and he again withdrew his pipe from his mouth, +and again sent a volley of his "dutera<!-- Page 141 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> mutteras" about Johnny's ears, +to precisely the same purpose as before.</p> + +<p>Finding that it was of no use making any further attempt at +conversation, Johnny passed on, not doubting that he had met either with +a <i>dummy</i> or a madman. But what was Johnny's amazement when, shortly +afterwards, meeting a woman, whose dress, in its own way, was equally +odd and strange with that of the person he had just left, he was +answered (that is, to his queries again about Brechin), in the same +gibberish in which the former had responded to him.</p> + +<p>"What can be the meanin' o' this?" said Johnny to himself, in great +perplexity of mind, as he jogged on, after leaving the lady in the same +unsatisfactory way as he had left the gentleman. "Whar in a' the earth +can I hae gotten to, that naebody I meet wi' can understan' a word o' +plain English, or can speak themsels onything like an intelligible +language?"</p> + +<p>He now began to think that he had probably got into the Highlands; but, +although this supposition might account for the strangeness of the +language he had heard, it would not, he perceived, tally very well with +the enormous breeches which the gentleman he had met with wore, and +which he had seen from a distance others wearing, knowing, as he did +very well, that the national dress of the Highlanders was the kilt, of +which the trousers in question were the very antipodes. There was +another circumstance, too, that appeared to Johnny at variance with his +first conjecture, namely, that he might have got into the Highlands. +Where he was there were no high lands, not an eminence the height of a +mole-hill. On the contrary, the whole country, as far as his eye could +reach, seemed one vast plain. Though greatly puzzled by these +reflections, Johnny jogged on, and his progress at length brought him to +a respectable-looking farm-house.<!-- Page 142 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span></p> + +<p>"'Od," said Johnny, "I'll surely get a mouthfu' o' sense frae somebody +here, an' fin' out whar I am."</p> + +<p>In this Johnny certainly did succeed; but not much to his comfort, as +the sequel will show. The first person he addressed, on approaching the +house, was a little girl, who, when he spoke, stared at him in the +greatest amazement, then rushed screaming into the house. This +proceeding brought out several young men and women, to whom Johnny now +addressed himself; but the only answer he obtained was a stare of +astonishment similar to the child's, and then a general burst of +laughter. At length one of the girls went into the house and brought out +a jolly-looking elderly man, who, from certain parts of his dress, +seemed to be in the seafaring way.</p> + +<p>"Vell, mine freend, vat you vant?" said this person, who spoke broken +English—"vere you come from?"</p> + +<p>"I cam last frae Alloa," said Johnny, "and I want to ken, sir, if I'm +onything near to Brechin?"</p> + +<p>"Preekin! Vere dat?"</p> + +<p>"'Od, I thocht everbody in Scotland kent that," said Johnny, smiling.</p> + +<p>"Ah! maybe Scotlan', mine freend, but no Hollands," replied he of the +broken English.</p> + +<p>"I dinna ken whether they ken't it in Holland or no," said Johnny, +"that's a country I'm no in the least acquaint wi'; but I'm sure it's +weel aneuch kent in Scotland."</p> + +<p>"Ah! maybe Scotlan', but no Hollands, my freend," repeated the man, +smiling in his turn; "but you vas in Hollands."</p> + +<p>"Never in my life," said Johnny, earnestly.</p> + +<p>"No, no," replied the man, impatiently, "you vas no in Hollands—but you +vas in Hollands."</p> + +<p>Johnny could make nothing of this; but it was soon cleared up by the +person adding, "You vas in Hollands <i>now</i>—dis moment."<!-- Page 143 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span></p> + +<p>We will not even attempt to describe Johnny's amazement, horror, and +consternation, on this announcement being made to him, for we feel how +vain it would be, and how far short any idea we could convey would be of +the reality.</p> + +<p>"Holland!" said Johnny. "Heaven hae a care o' me! Ye surely dinna mean +to say that I'm in Holland the noo?"</p> + +<p>"To be sure I vas," said the Dutchman, smiling at Johnny's ludicrous +perturbation. "Mine Got, did you not know you vas in Hollands? Vere you +come from, in all de vorlds, you not know dat?"</p> + +<p>"I tell't ye already," replied Johnny, with a most rueful countenance, +"that I cam last frae Alloa. But ye're surely no in earnest, freen," he +added, in a desperate hope that it might, after all, be but a joke, +"when ye say that I'm in Holland?"</p> + +<p>"Ah! sure earneest—no doubt—true," said the Dutchman, now laughing +outright at Johnny's perplexity.</p> + +<p>As in the former case, we presume we need not be more explicit in saying +that Johnny had actually been wrecked on the coast of Holland.</p> + +<p>"Weel, weel," said the Brechin voyager, with an air expressive of more +calmness and resignation than might have been expected, "this does cowe +the gowan! How, in Heaven's name, am I ever to fin' my way hame again? +Little did I think I was ever to be landed this way amang savages."</p> + +<p>Johnny Armstrong, it will be here observed, could have been no great +reader—otherwise, he never would have applied the term savages to so +decent, industrious, and civilized a people as the Dutch. The Dutchman, +who was a kind, good-natured fellow—taking no offence whatever at +Johnny's unbecoming expression, because probably he did not understand +it, and compassionating his situation—now<!-- Page 144 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> invited him into the house, +where Johnny, having succeeded in conveying to the whole household, +through the medium of the speaker of broken English, the story of his +misfortunes, was treated with much hospitality. With these kind people +Johnny Armstrong remained for about a week—for they would not allow him +to go sooner—when, having entirely recovered from the effects of his +sea voyage and shipwreck, he proceeded to Rotterdam; being accompanied +and assisted in all his movements by his benevolent host, Dunder Vander +Dunder, of Slootzsloykin. On arriving at Rotterdam, a passage was +engaged for Johnny on board one of the Leith packets, or regular +traders, in which he was next day snugly deposited; and, in an hour +after, he was again braving the dangers of the ocean. For some time all +went on well on this occasion with him, and he was beginning to feel +comfortable, and even happy, from the prospect of being soon again in +his native land, and from the superior accommodations of the vessel in +which he was embarked—far surpassing, as they did, those of the +unfortunate <i>Sisters</i> of Skatehaven. His present ship was, in truth, a +remarkably fine one, and altogether seemed well adapted for encountering +the elements. The weather, too, was moderate, and the wind fair; so that +a quick and pleasant passage was confidently anticipated by all on +board, including Johnny Armstrong. All these agreeable circumstances +combined, made him feel extremely comfortable and happy; and, in the +exuberance of his feelings, and from the exciting sense of having at +length triumphed over his misfortunes—it might almost be said his +fate—Johnny even began to joke and laugh with those whom he found +willing to joke and laugh with him. It was while in this happy frame of +mind, and as he stood luxuriously leaning over the bulwark of the +vessel, that the captain suddenly espied a little, smart, cutter-looking +craft, sailing exactly in the same course with themselves,<!-- Page 145 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> and +evidently endeavouring to make up with them.</p> + +<p>"What can the folk be wantin'?" quoth Johnny Armstrong, taking an +interest in the approaching barge. His question was one which nobody +could answer. In the meantime, the little vessel, moving with great +velocity, was fast nearing them, when the captain, now convinced that +those in her desired to have some communication with him, arrested his +own vessel's way, and awaited their coming. In a very few minutes, the +little cutter was alongside, and two men leapt from her to the deck of +the packet, when one of them, approaching the captain, told him that +they were messengers, that they had a warrant against John Jones, a +native of Britain, for debt, and that they had reason to believe he was +in the vessel. The captain said he did not believe he had any such +passenger on board, but informed them that they were perfectly at +liberty to search the ship. During this conversation, the other officer +kept his eye fixed on Johnny Armstrong, and when rejoined by his +comrade, seemed to inform him—for their language was not +understood—that there was something about that person well worthy of +his attention. They now both looked at Johnny, and appeared both +convinced that he was a fit subject for further inquiry. Accordingly one +of them addressed him:—</p> + +<p>"Your name vas John Jones, mynheer?"</p> + +<p>"No, sir," said Johnny; "my name's John Armstrong."</p> + +<p>"Ah, a small shange—dat is all. You vas John, and he vas John, and you +be both John togidder; so, you must come to de shore wid us."</p> + +<p>"Catch me there, lads," quoth Johnny. "The deil a shore I'll gang to, +please Providence, but Leith shore. Na, na; I've had aneuch o' this +wark, and I'm determined to bring't till an' end noo."</p> + +<p>"Donner and blitzen!" shouted out one of the men,<!-- Page 146 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> passionately, "but +you must go!"—at the same time seizing Johnny by the collar, and +drawing a pistol from his bosom.</p> + +<p>In utter amazement at this extraordinary treatment, Johnny Armstrong +imploringly called on the captain and the other passengers for +protection; but, as none of them were in the least acquainted with him, +and therefore did not know whether he was John Jones or not, they all +declined interfering—the captain saying that it would be more than his +ship and situation were worth to aid any one in resisting the laws of +the country—that he could not, dare not do it. His appeals, therefore, +to those around him being vain, he was eventually bundled into the +cutter and conveyed on shore, placed in a temporary place of confinement +for the night, and next day carried before a magistrate to be +identified. To effect this, several witnesses were called, when one and +all of them, after examining Johnny pretty narrowly, pronounced, to the +great disappointment of the officers who had apprehended him, that he +was <i>not</i> the man! They, however, asserted that the resemblance between +the real and supposed John Jones was very remarkable. On the discovery +being made that the prisoner was not Jones, the magistrate apologized to +Johnny in the most polite terms for the trouble he had been put to, and +expressed great regret for the mistake of the officers; but said that, +as the witnesses had stated there was a strong resemblance—an +unfortunate one, he must call it—between him and the real defaulter, +and seeing, moreover, that they were both natives of Britain, the +officers were perfectly justified in doing what they had done, however +much the hardship of the case might be matter of regret. The magistrate +having thus delivered himself, Johnny Armstrong was dismissed with great +civility, and wished, by all present, safe home to his own country—a +wish in which he most heartily concurred, but<!-- Page 147 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span> which seemed to him more +easily entertained than gratified. On regaining his liberty, the first +thing he did was to endeavour to find out when the next ship sailed for +Scotland; he having, of course, lost that in which he had first +embarked, and, to his great consternation and dismay, learned that there +would be no vessel for a fortnight. This was sad intelligence to Johnny; +for, to add to his other distresses, his funds were now waxing low, and +he felt that it would require the utmost economy to enable him to spin +out the time and leave sufficient to pay his passage to his native land. +This economy he could very easily have practised at home, for he had a +natural tendency that way; but he did not know how to set about it in a +foreign country. His unhappiness and anxiety, therefore, on this point +were very great. In this dilemma, he bethought him of again seeking out +and quartering on his friend Vander Dunder, of Slootzsloykin, till the +vessel should sail; but not having, of course, a word of Dutch, he could +make no inquiries on the subject of his route, or indeed of anything +regarding his friend at all. This idea, therefore, he ultimately +abandoned, principally through a fear that he should, by some mistake, +be despatched upon a wrong scent, a species of disaster to which he was +now so sensitively alive, that he would neither turn to the right nor to +the left without having made himself perfectly sure that he was about to +take the right course; and, as to conveyances of all kinds, of which he +now entertained an especial suspicion, he had prudently determined that +he would know every particular about them and their destinations before +he would put a foot in one of them, for he had found, from dear-bought +experience, that if he did not take this precaution, the chance was that +he would never reach the place he desired to get at, and might be +whisked away to some unknown country, where he would never more be heard +of.<!-- Page 148 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span></p> + +<p>Under this wholesome terror, Johnny made no attempt to find out his +friend Vander Dunder; but chance effected, in part at least, what his +limited knowledge of Dutch put it out of his power, with set purpose, to +accomplish. On turning the corner of a street, who should he have the +good fortune to meet with but Vander Dunder. The astonishment of the +good Dutchman on seeing Johnny was great, so great, indeed, as to +overcome the natural phlegm of his constitution. Holding up his hands in +amazement—</p> + +<p>"Mine Got, my freend! are you shipwrack agen?" he exclaimed.</p> + +<p>"No, no," quoth Johnny—"bad aneuch, but no just sae bad as that." And +he proceeded to inform his friend of the real state of the case.</p> + +<p>The good-natured Dutchman was shocked at the recital, and felt ten times +more than ever for Johnny's unhappy situation and complicated +misfortunes. When he had concluded his affecting story—</p> + +<p>"I tell you what you do, mine goot freend," said Vander Dunder—"you go +vith me to Slootzsloykin, and you remain vith me dere till your ship +sail. You do dat, mine goot freend."</p> + +<p>"Wi' a' my heart," said Johnny, "and muckle obleeged to ye for yer +kindness."</p> + +<p>"No, no—no obleege at all," replied the kind-hearted Dutchman, +impatiently. "Yo do the same to me in your coontry if I was shipwrack +and in misfortune, and put to trooble for an innocent thief."</p> + +<p>"Aweel, maybe I wad; but, nevertheless, its kind o' you to offer me the +shelter o' yer roof," replied Johnny.</p> + +<p>Dunder Vander Dunder now took his friend into a tavern, and treated him +to a glass of schnaps. Shortly thereafter the two embarked in a canal +boat for Slootzsloykin, where they finally arrived in safety. Here +Johnny<!-- Page 149 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> met with the same kind treatment as before; and of that kindness +there was no abatement during the whole fortnight of his sojourn. At the +end of this period, Johnny Armstrong once more set out for Rotterdam, on +the day previous to the sailing of the vessel in which he now hoped to +reach his native land, without further molestation or interruption. And, +certainly, everything had the appearance of going right on this +occasion. The vessel, with Johnny on board, sailed at the appointed +time, and, before embarking, he had read distinctly on the ticket—a +large black board, with yellow letters, which was fastened to the +shrouds—that she was bound for Leith, and was the identical vessel he +had had in his eye. So far as this went, there could be no mistake +whatever. There was, indeed, one little circumstance that startled +Johnny, but which he had not discovered till the vessel had been some +time at sea. This was, that all the crew were Dutchmen, there not being +a Scotchman amongst them. The circumstance did not, indeed, greatly +alarm Johnny, but he certainly did think it a little odd; for he +naturally expected that, as she was a Leith vessel, her crew would be, +for the most part, at any rate, natives of Britain. However, he made no +remarks on the subject, thinking it, as it really was, a matter of +perfect indifference whether they were Scotchmen or Dutchmen. There were +two or three passengers in the vessel besides himself; but they were all +foreigners too, so that he could hold no converse with any of them; and +thus debarred from intercourse with his fellow voyagers, he sat by +himself, gazing from the deck of the vessel on the waste of waters with +which he was surrounded, and musing on the strange series of mishaps of +which he had so simply and innocently become the victim. It was while +thus employed—the vessel having been now a good many hours at sea, and +at the moment scudding away before a fine fresh breeze—that the captain +approached Johnny, and in very<!-- Page 150 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> polite and civil terms, demanded his +passage money. As he spoke in Dutch, however, the latter did not +understand him. The captain observing this, and now guessing what +countryman he was, addressed him in very good English, and in that +language repeated his demand. With this demand, Johnny instantly +complied; and, finding that he was a civil, good-natured fellow, began +to open up a little conversation with him. His first remark was, that he +hoped they would have good weather. The captain hoped so too. His second +remark was, that they had a fine breeze. The captain agreed with +him—said it was a delightful breeze—and added that, if it continued to +blow as it then blew for four-and-twenty hours, he expected they would +be all safe at <i>Rouen</i>!</p> + +<p>"At whar?" shouted out Johnny, looking aghast at the speaker.</p> + +<p>"At Rouen, to be sure," repeated the captain, wondering at Johnny's +amazement.</p> + +<p>"Gude's mercy!" exclaimed Johnny, with dreadful energy, "are ye no gaun +to Leith?—is this no a Leith boat?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, no," said the captain smiling; "this is the Rouen packet. Were ye +not aware of that, sir? You have got into a sad scrape, my friend, if +you were not," he added, and now laughing outright at the dismal +expression of Johnny's countenance.</p> + +<p>"Heaven hae a care o' me!" said Johnny despairingly. "Did I no read +distinctly on the ticket that was fastened to yer shroods, that ye were +bound for Leith?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, yes," replied the captain, "you may have seen such a ticket as you +speak of, and there was certainly such a ticket on our shrouds as you +say, but it did not refer to this ship, but to the vessel outside of us. +We allowed the board to be exhibited on our shrouds merely to +accommodate our neighbour, as it could not be read from his—he being on +the outside, and we next the quay. That, my friend,<!-- Page 151 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> is a piece of +civility very commonly practised at seaports by one vessel to another, +when similarly situated as we and they were. You will see it at all +quays and wharfs."</p> + +<p>Johnny Armstrong groaned, but said nothing. At length, however, he +muttered, in a tone of Christian-like resignation—</p> + +<p>"The Lord's will be dune! I see it's settled that I am never to get hame +again; but to be keepit gaun frae place to place ower the face o' the +earth, like anither wanderin' Jew. Gude hae a care o' me, but this is +awfu'! Its judgment like."</p> + +<p>It certainly was very remarkable, but not in the least mysterious. This +new mistake of Johnny, like all the rest, was a perfectly simple +occurrence; and, like them, too, arose as plainly and naturally out of +circumstances as it was possible for any effect to do from a cause. But, +however, this may be, the captain—although he could not help laughing +at the awkward predicament of his passenger—really felt for him, seeing +the distress he was in, and was so much influenced by this feeling as to +offer to convey him back to Rotterdam, to which, he said, he would +return in two days, free of any charge; adding, with a smile, and with +the kind intention of reconciling Johnny to what could not now be +helped, that it was nothing, after all—that it would make a difference +of only a few days—and that it would be always showing him a little +more of the world.</p> + +<p>"Mony thanks to ye," said Johnny, perceiving and appreciating the +friendly purpose of the captain; "and I'll e'en tak advantage o' yer +kind offer; but as to seein' the world, by my faith, I've seen now about +just as muckle o't as I want to see, and maybe a trifle mair—a hantle +mair, at ony rate, than I ever expected to see." Then, in a +soliloquizing tone and manner—"God keep me, whar's Brechin noo! A' that +I wanted, and a' that I intended, was to get to that bit paltry place; +and, instead o' that, here am I<!-- Page 152 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> within a stane-cast o' the north pole, +for aught I ken to the contrar, and, to a' appearances, no half dune +wi't yet. Heaven kens whar I'll be sent niest!—maybe be landed on +Owhyhee, or on some desert island, like another Robinson Crusoe. Na, +it's certain, if things gang on muckle langer this way."</p> + +<p>Of the drift or scope of these remarks, or, at any rate, of the feelings +that dictated them, the captain could make nothing, not knowing Johnny's +precise circumstances; nor did he seek to have them explained, but +contented himself with repeating his offer of conveying Johnny back to +Rotterdam, and renewing his well-meant efforts to reconcile him to his +fate, in so far as his present voyage was concerned. In the meantime, +the wind continued to blow in a manner perfectly satisfactory in every +respect to all on board the <i>Jungfrau</i> of Rotterdam and Rouen; and, in +about the space of time mentioned by the captain, the vessel reached her +destination in safety. Johnny Armstrong, whose whole mind was absorbed +by anxiety to reach that home which he yet seemed destined never again +to see, took no interest whatever in the scenes presented to him in the +part of the world he was now in. Indeed, he never left the vessel at +all, for fear she would slip through his fingers; for, if he was afraid +of accidents of this kind before, he was ten times more so now; and, +with this fear upon him, that the packet might, by some chance or other, +escape him, he determined to stick by her—never to lose sight of her +for a moment, till she had conveyed him back to Rotterdam; and his +vigilance ultimately secured the end he had in view. The <i>Jungfrau</i> +sailed from Rouen with Johnny on board, and, in due time, deposited him +once more at Rotterdam. But what was Johnny's surprise, what Dunder +Vander Dunder's amazement, when they again encountered one another, and +that within ten minutes of the former's landing! The amazement of the +latter, however,<!-- Page 153 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span> was, on this occasion, evidently mingled with a degree +of suspicion of the perfect uprightness of Johnny's character. He began +now to think, in short, that there had been more in the circumstance of +Johnny's apprehension than he had been informed of. He did not like +these frequent reappearances; he thought them very odd—and he did not +hesitate to say so.</p> + +<p>"Mine Got! vat you here again for, man? Vat is de meaning of all dis, +mine goot freend?" he exclaimed, with a somewhat dry and doubtful +manner, quite at variance with the cordial tone of his former greetings.</p> + +<p>Johnny Armstrong explained to him, but seemingly without obtaining +implicit credence for all he said. When he had done—</p> + +<p>"'Tis veree odd," said Vander Dunder, coldly; "veree straunge. But, you +really vant to go to Scotlan, dere is vessel going to sail for Leet now, +and I vill see you on board mineself."</p> + +<p>It was very questionable whether Vander's civility, in this case, +proceeded from a desire really to serve Johnny, or from a wish to get +fairly rid of him. However this might be, Johnny readily accepted his +offer, and at once accompanied him to the vessel he alluded to, which +was, indeed, on the point of sailing. Vander, taking care that there +should be no mistake in this case, conducted him down into the cabin, +and waited on the quay till he saw the vessel fairly under weigh.</p> + +<p>Having brought the disasters of Johnny Armstrong to this point, we +proceed now to finish what we assure our readers, is an "ower true +tale."</p> + +<p>As we were strolling down the pier of Leith, with a friend, one +afternoon in the year 18—, we saw a vessel making for the harbour. It +was high water, and the scene altogether was a very pleasing and a very +stirring one. But, amongst the various objects of interest that +presented<!-- Page 154 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span> themselves, there was none that attracted so much of our +attention as the stately vessel that, with outspread canvas, was rapidly +nearing the pier. We asked a seaman who stood beside us, where she was +from. He replied—"Rotterdam."</p> + +<p>On approaching the pier, the vessel shortened sail, and, by this +process, enabled us deliberately to scan her decks from our elevated +position, as she glided gently along with us. During this scrutiny, we +observed amongst the passengers a stout little man in a brown greatcoat, +with a large red comforter about his neck, and his hat secured on his +head—for it was blowing pretty hard—by a blue pocket-handkerchief, +which was passed beneath his chin, and gave him, in a very particular +manner, the peculiar air of a traveller or <i>vóyageur</i>. There was nothing +whatever in the appearance of the little man in the brown greatcoat +which would have led any one to suppose, <i>à priori</i>, that there possibly +could be anything remarkable or extraordinary in his history; but I was +induced suddenly to change my opinion, or at least to take some interest +in him, by my friend's exclaiming, in the utmost amazement, and, at the +same time, pointing to him with the red comforter—</p> + +<p>"Gracious Heaven, if there is not Johnny Armstrong! Or it is his ghost!"</p> + +<p>"No ghost at all, we warrant you," said we; "ghosts do not generally +wear greatcoats and red comforters. But who in all the world is Johnny +Armstrong?"</p> + +<p>"Johnny Armstrong," replied our friend, greatly excited, "is a person, a +particular acquaintance of mine, who has been missing these six weeks; +and who was supposed, by everybody who knew him, to have perished by +some accident or other, but of what nature could never be ascertained, +on his way to Brechin, where he had gone to visit some relations."</p> + +<p>We felt interested in Johnny, by this brief sketch of his mysterious +story; and, not a little curious to know where on<!-- Page 155 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span> earth he could +possibly have been all the time, we readily closed with our friend's +proposal to run round to the berth for which we saw the vessel was +making, and to await his coming on shore.</p> + +<p>"But how, in all the world," said our friend, communing with himself +during this interval, "has he got into a vessel from Rotterdam? He could +not have been there, surely? It's impossible."</p> + +<p>As to this we could say nothing, not knowing at the time anything at all +of Johnny's adventures; but of these we were not now long kept in +ignorance. On his stepping on shore, our friend seized him joyously by +the hand, and expressed great satisfaction at seeing him again. This +satisfaction appeared to be mutual; for Johnny returned his friend's +grasp with great cordiality and warmth. The first salutations over—</p> + +<p>"But where on all the earth, Mr. Armstrong," said our friend, "have you +been for these three months back?"</p> + +<p>Johnny smiled, and said it was "ower lang a tale" to tell where we then +were; but, as he meant to stop either in Leith or Edinburgh for the +night, it being now pretty far in the evening, if my friend and I would +adjourn with him to some respectable house, where he could get a night's +quarters, he would give us the whole story of his adventures. With this +proposal we readily closed; and on Johnny asking if we could point out +such a house as he alluded to, we at once named the New Ship Tavern. +Thither we accordingly repaired; and, in less than two hours thereafter, +we were put, good reader, in possession, by Johnny himself, of that part +of his story to which the preceding pages have been devoted. What +follows—for Johnny's misfortunes had not yet terminated—we learned +afterwards from another quarter.</p> + +<p>On the next day—we mean the day succeeding the evening we spent with +Johnny—the latter proceeded to<!-- Page 156 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> Edinburgh, with the view of taking +coach there for Carlisle. But, in making his way up Catherine Street, +and when precisely opposite No. 12, Calton Street—we like to be +particular—Johnny found himself suddenly accosted by one of his oldest +and most intimate friends. This was a Mr. James Stevenson, a +fellow-townsman and fellow-shopkeeper of his own.</p> + +<p>The astonishment of the latter, on meeting with Johnny, and, indeed, of +finding him at all in the land of the living, was very great; and he +sufficiently expressed this feeling by the lively and highly excited +manner in which he addressed him.</p> + +<p>Having put the usual queries, with that air of intense interest which +they naturally excited, as to where Johnny had been, what he had been +about, &c. &c., and having obtained a brief sketch of his adventures, +with the promise of a fuller one afterwards, Mr. Stevenson, in reply, +asked Johnny what course he was now steering.</p> + +<p>"Hame, to be sure," said Johnny, with a smile. "It's time noo, I +think—I'm just sae far on my way to tak' oot a ticket for the coach."</p> + +<p>"Ye needna do that unless ye like," replied Johnny's friend. "Ye may +save your siller, and no be abune an hour langer tarried, by takin' a +seat wi' me in the gig I hae in wi' me. I'm sure ye're welcome, and I'll +be blythe o' your company."</p> + +<p>"Hae ye a gig in wi' ye?" said Johnny, looking pleased by the +intelligence.</p> + +<p>"'Deed hae I, Mr. Armstrong, and ye'll just clink down beside me in't."</p> + +<p>"I'll do that wi' great thankfu'ness," replied Johnny, "and muckle +obleeged by the offer."</p> + +<p>The friends now walked away, arm in arm together; and in about two hours +afterwards—Mr. Stevenson having, in the meantime, despatched what +business he had to do in<!-- Page 157 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span> the city—they were both, seated in the gig, +and birring it on merrily towards Carlisle.</p> + +<p>Neither Mr. Stevenson nor Johnny, however, were great whips—a +deficiency which was by no means compensated for by the circumstance of +their having a rather spirited horse, although blind of an eye. He was, +in truth, a very troublesome animal; boggling and shying at everything +that presented itself to his solitary optic. Notwithstanding this, the +travellers got on very well for a time, and were whirling over the +ground at a rapid rate, when an unlucky cart of hay came in their way at +a narrow turn of the road. How this simple occurrence should have +operated so unfavourably as it did for them, we shall explain.</p> + +<p>A cart of hay is not a very alarming object to rational creatures like +ourselves, but to the one-eyed horse of the travellers it appeared a +very serious affair; for it had no sooner presented itself to his +solitary organ of vision than he pricked up his ears, snorted furiously, +and began to exhibit sundry other symptoms of disquietude. By dint, +however, of some well-directed punishment from Jamie Stevenson's whip, +which Johnny increased by an energetic application of his stick, the +restive animal was brought <i>up</i> to the waggon of hay; but, for some +time, the inducements just mentioned failed to prevail on him to <i>pass</i> +it.</p> + +<p>At length, however, Johnny having added greatly to the vigour of his +blows with his stick, and his neighbour to that of his strokes with the +whip, the horse <i>did</i> pass the waggon, and that with a vengeance. Taking +heart, or rather becoming desperate, he bolted past it with the rapidity +of a cannon shot; and not only this, but when he had cleared it, +continued the velocity of his movements with unabated energy, to the +great discomfort and no small terror of both Johnny and his companion, +who now found themselves going at a rate which they had neither +anticipated nor desired. Indeed, this was so very great that<!-- Page 158 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> both +directly saw that something was wrong. Both saw, in short, what was, +indeed, too true, that the horse had fairly run away with them; for he +was now going like the wind, with fury and distraction in his looks. It +was a shocking and most dreadfully alarming affair; and so Johnny and +his friend felt it to be, as might be distinctly seen by their +horror-stricken faces.</p> + +<p>On discovering the predicament they were in, both the travellers—the +one dropping his whip, and the other his stick—seized on the reins, and +began pulling with all their might, in the desperate hope of checking +the animal's speed by main force; Johnny, in his terror, exclaiming the +while, distractedly—</p> + +<p>"Mair o't yet, mair o't yet! Lord have a care o' me, but this is awfu'! +This is waur than onything I hae met wi' yet. Waur than the <i>Fifteen +Sisters</i>, Dutchmen, and a'. God be wi' us! are my misfortunes never to +hae an end, till they hae finished me outricht? Am I never to get safe +to either ae place or anither?—either to hame or to Brechin? Surely ane +o' them might be permitted to me. O, Jamie, see hoo he's gaun! He doesna +seem to fin' us at his hurdies, nae mair than if we war a pair o' +preencushions."</p> + +<p>This was true enough. The horse in his fury did not indeed seem to feel +either them or the vehicle they were seated in, but pushed madly +onwards, till he came to where the road divided itself into two distinct +roads—the one being the right one, and the other, of course, the +wrong—when, as if inspired by Johnny's evil genius, he at once took the +latter, and in little more than twenty minutes, had him and his friend +fully half as many miles out of their way. Now, however, the catastrophe +was to be wound up. A milestone caught one of the wheels of the gig, +canted it over, and threw Johnny sprawling on the road with a broken +leg; his friend, although also thrown, escaping wholly unhurt.<!-- Page 159 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Aweel, here it's at last," said Johnny, sitting up in the mud amongst +which he had been planted, and fully believing that his injuries were +fatal. "Here it's at last. I'm clean dune for noo, after a' my escapes. +It may be noo plainly seen, I think," he went on, "that some evil spirit +has had me in its power, for these six weeks past at ony rate, and has +been gowfin' me about the world like a fitba', to kill me wi' a gig at +last."</p> + +<p>Luckily, Johnny's injuries did not prove so serious as he had feared +they would do; and no less fortunate was it that the accident to which +they were owing happened not far from a small country town in which +there was a resident surgeon. To the latter place Johnny was immediately +removed on a temporary bier, hastily constructed for the purpose by some +labouring men who chanced to be near the spot where the accident +happened, and there he lay for six entire weeks, when the surgeon above +alluded to, and who had attended him all that time, intimated to him +that he might now venture to return home. Delighted with the +intelligence, Johnny instantly acted on it, and next day entered +Carlisle triumphantly in a post-chaise—not looking, nor really being, +after all, much the worse for his unprecedented adventures, save and +except a lameness in the injured limb, which ever after imparted to his +movements the graceful up-and-down motion produced by that peculiar +longitudinal proportion of the nether limbs, designated by the +descriptive definition of "a short leg and a shorter." Having, with this +last occurrence, concluded the story of Johnny's disasters, we have only +to add that Johnny has never, to this good hour, got the length of +Brechin—nor will, he says, ever again make the attempt.<!-- Page 160 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_PROFESSORS_TALES4" id="THE_PROFESSORS_TALES4">THE PROFESSOR'S TALES</a><a class="fnanchor">[4]</a></h2> + +<h3><a name="THE_MOUNTAIN_STORM" id="THE_MOUNTAIN_STORM"></a>THE MOUNTAIN STORM.</h3> + +<div class="footnote"><p>[4] The author of these stories (to be continued), the well-known +Professor Thomas Gillespie, was one of the principal writers in +<i>Blackwood</i> during the "storm and stress" period of that magazine. As an +author, his peculiarity consisted in vivid descriptions of scenery and +incidents coming within the range of a very eccentric experience, all +given with a versatility and <i>abandon</i> which he could not restrain, and +which, being the reflex of a poetical enthusiasm, formed the charm of +his writings.—<i>Ed.</i></p></div> + +<p>Packman <i>loquitur</i>.—For several days the wind had been easterly, with +an intense frost. At last, however, the weather subsided into a calm and +dense fog, under which, at mid-day, it was difficult to find one's way +amidst those mountain tracks along which, in general, my route lay. The +grass and heath were absolutely loaded with hoar-frost. My cheeks became +encompassed by a powdered covering; my breath was intensely visible, and +floated and lingered about my face with an oppressive and almost +suffocating density. No sun, moon, or star had appeared for upwards of +forty-eight hours; when, according to my preconcerted plan, I reached +the farm town of Burnfoot. I was now in the centre of Queensberry Hills, +the most notable sheep-pasturage in the south of Scotland. It was about +three o'clock of the fifteenth day of January, when, under a cheerful +welcome from the guidwife, I rested my pack (for, be it known, I belong +to this class of peripatetic merchants) upon the meal ark, disengaged my +arms from the leather straps by which the pack was suspended from my +shoulders, and proceeded to light my pipe at the blazing peat-fire. +Refreshments, such as are best suited to the <i>packman's drouth</i>,<!-- Page 161 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span> were +soon and amply supplied, and I had the happiness of seeing my old +acquaintances (for I visited Burnfoot twice a year, on my going and +coming from Glasgow to Manchester) drop <i>in</i> from their several +avocations, one after another, and all truly rejoiced to behold my face, +and still more delighted to inspect the treasure and the wonders of "the +pack." At last the guidman himself suspended his plaid from the mid-door +head, put off his shoes and leggings, assumed his slippers, along with +his prescriptive seat at the head or upper end of the lang-settle. The +guidwife, returning <i>butt</i> from bedding the youngest of some half-score +of children, welcomed her husband with a look of the most genuine +affection. She put a little creepie stool under his feet, felt that his +clothes were not wet, scolded the dogs to a respectful distance, and +inspired the peats into a double blaze. The oldest daughter, now "woman +grown," sat combing the hoar-frost from her raven locks, and looking out +from beneath beautifully arched and bushy eyebrows upon the interesting +addition which had been made to the meal-ark. Some half-a-score of +healthy lads and lasses occupied the bench ayont the fire, o'er-canopied +by sheep-skins, aprons, stockings, and footless hose. The dogs, after +various and somewhat noisy differences had been adjusted, fell into +order and position around the hearth, enjoying the warmth, and licking, +peacefully and carefully, the wet from their sides. The cat, by this +time, had made a returning motion from the cupboard head, from which she +had been watching the arrangements and movements beneath. As this +appeared to "Help" to be an infringement of the terms of armistice and +of the frontier laws, he sprang with eagerness over the hearth. Pussy, +finding it dangerous, under this sudden and somewhat unexpected +movement, "<i>dare terga</i>," instantly drew up her whole body into an +attitude not only of defence, but defiance; curving herself into a +bristling crescent, with the head of a dragon attached to it,<!-- Page 162 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span> and, with +one horrid hiss and sputter, compelled Help first to hesitate and then +to retreat.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Three paces back the youth retired,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">And saved himself from harm."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>The guidwife, however,—who seemed not unaccustomed to such +demonstrations, and who manifestly acted on the humane principle of +assisting the weaker by assailing the stronger combatant—gave Help such +demonstrations of her intentions, as at once reduced matters to the +<i>status quo ante bellum</i>. (I have as good a right to scholarship as my +brother packman, Plato, who carried oil to Egypt.) Thus peace and good +order being restored, the treasures of my burden became an immediate and +a universal subject of inquiry. I was compelled, nothing loath, to +unstrap my various packages, and disclose to view all the varied +treasures of the spindle and loom. Shawls were spread out into enormous +display, with central, and corner, and border ornaments, the most +amazing and the most fashionable; waistcoat pieces of every stripe and +figure, from the straight line to the circle, of every hue and colouring +which the rainbow exhibits, were unfolded in the presence and under the +scrutinizing thumb of many purchasers. The guidwife herself half coaxed +and half scolded a fine remnant of Flanders lace, of most tempting +aspect, out of the guidman's reluctant pocket. The very dogs seemed +anxious to be accommodated, and applied their noses to some unopened +bales, with a knowing look of inquiry. Things were proceeding in this +manner, when the door opened, and there entered a young man of the most +prepossessing appearance; in fact, what Burns terms a "strapping youth." +I could observe that, at his entrance, the daughter's eye (of whom I +have formerly made mention) immediately kindled into an expression of +the most universal kindness and benevolence. Hitherto she had taken but +a limited interest in<!-- Page 163 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span> what was going on; but now she became the most +prominent figure in the group—whilst the mother dusted a chair for the +welcome stranger with her apron, and the guidman welcomed him with a—</p> + +<p>"Come awa, Willie Wilson, an' tak a seat. The nicht's gay dark an' +dreary. I wonder how ye cleared the Whitstane Cleugh and the Side Scaur, +man, on sic an eerie nicht."</p> + +<p>"Indeed," responded the stranger, casting a look, in the meantime, +towards the guidman's buxom, and, indeed, lovely daughter—"indeed, it's +an unco fearfu' nicht—sic a mist and sic a cauld I hae seldom if ever +encountered; but I dinna ken hoo it was—I coulda rest at hame till I +had tellt ye a' the news o' the last Langhom market."</p> + +<p>"Ay, ay," interrupted the guidwife; "the last Langhom market, man, is an +auld tale noo, I trow. Na, na, yer mither's son camna here on sic a +nicht, and at sic an hour, on sic an unmeaning errand"—finishing her +sentence, however, by a whisper into Willie's ear, which brought a +deeper red into his cheek, and seemed to operate in a similar manner on +the apparently deeply engaged daughter.</p> + +<p>"But, Watty," continued my fair purchaser, "you <i>must</i> give me this +Bible a little cheaper—it's ower dear, man—heard ever onybody o' five +white shillings gien for a Bible, and it only a New Testament, after +a'?—it's baith a sin an' a shame, Watty."</p> + +<p>After some suitable reluctance, I was on the point of reducing the price +by a single sixpence, when Willie Wilson advanced towards the pack, and +at once taking up the book and the conversation—</p> + +<p>"Ower dear, Jessie, my dear!—it's the word o' God, ye ken—his ain +precious word; and I'll e'en mak ye a present o' the book at Watty's ain +price. Ye ken he maun live, as we a' do, by his trade."<!-- Page 164 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span></p> + +<p>The money was instantly paid down from a purse pretty will filled; for +William Wilson was the son of a wealthy and much respected sheep-farmer +in the neighbourhood, and had had his name <i>once</i> called in the kirk, +along with that of "Janet Harkness of Burnfoot, both in this parish."</p> + +<p>"Hoot noo, bairns," rejoined the mother; "ye're baith wrang—that Bible +winna do ava. Ye maun hae a big ha' Bible to take the buik wi', and +worship the God o' yer fathers nicht and morning, as they hae dune afore +ye; and Watty will bring ye ane frae Glasgow the next time he comes +roun'; and it will, maybe, be usefu', ye ken, in <i>anither way</i>."</p> + +<p>"Tout, mither, wi' yer nonsense," interrupted the conscious bride; "I +never liked to see my name and age marked and pointed out to onybody on +oor muckle Bible; sae just haud yer tongue, mither, and tak a present +frae William and <i>me</i>," added she, blushing deeply, "o' that big printed +Testament. The minister, ye ken, seldom meddles wi' the auld Bible, +unless it be a bit o' the Psalms; and yer een noo are no sae gleg as +they were whan ye were married to my father there."</p> + +<p>The father, overcome by this well-timed and well-directed evidence of +goodness, piety, and filial affection, rose from his seat on the +long-settle, and, with tears in his eyes, pronounced a most fervent +benediction over the shoulders of his child.</p> + +<p>"O God in heaven, bless and preserve my dear Jessie!" said he—his +child's tears now falling fast and faster. "Oh, may the God of thy +fathers make thee happy—thee and thine—him there and his!—and when +thy mother's grey hairs and mine are laid and hid in the dust, mayest +thou have children, such as thy fond and dutiful self, to bless and +comfort, to rejoice and support thy heart!"</p> + +<p>There was not, by this time, a dry eye in the family; and, as a painful +silence was on the point of succeeding to<!-- Page 165 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span> this outbreaking of nature, +the venerable parent slowly and deliberately took down the big ha' Bible +from its bole in the wall, and, placing it on the lang-settle table, he +proceeded to family worship with the usual solemn prefatory +annunciation—"Let us worship God."</p> + +<p>Love, filial affection, and piety—what a noble, what a beautiful +triumvirate! By means of these, Scotland has rendered herself +comparatively great, independent, and happy. These are the graces which, +in beautiful union, have protected her liberties, sweetened her +enjoyments, and exalted her head amongst the nations, and which, over +all, have cast an expression and a feature irresistibly winning and +nationally characteristic. It is over such scenes as the kitchen +fireside of Burnfoot now presented, that the soul hovers with +ever-awakening and ever-intenser delight; that even amidst the coldness, +and unconcern, and irreligion of an iron age, the mind, at least at +intervals, is redeemed into ecstasy, and feels, in spite of habit, and +example, and deadened apprehensions, that there is a beauty in pure and +virgin love, a depth in genuine and spontaneous filial regard, and an +impulse in communion with Him that is most high, which, even when taken +separately, are hallowing, sacred, and elevating; but which, when +blended and softened down into one great and leading feature, prove +incontestably that man is, in his origin and unalloyed nature, but a +little lower than the angels.</p> + +<p>Such was the aspect of matters in this sequestered and sanctified +dwelling, when the house seemed, all at once, to be smitten, like Job's, +at the four corners. The soot fell in showers into the grate; the +rafters creaked; the dust descended; every door in the house rattled on +its sneck and hinges; and the very dogs sprung at once from their +slumbers and barked. There was something so awful in the suddenness and +violence of the commotion, that the prayer was abruptly and suddenly +brought to a conclusion.<!-- Page 166 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Ay, fearfu', sirs!" were John Harkness' first words when springing to +his feet; "but there's an awfu' nicht. Open the outer door, Jamie, and +let us see what it is like." The outer door was opened; but the drift +burst in with such a suffocating swirl, that a strong lad who +encountered it, reeled and gasped for breath.</p> + +<p>"The hogs!" exclaimed the guidman, "and the gimmers!—where did ye leave +them, Jamie?"</p> + +<p>"In Capleslacks," was the answer, "by east the Dod. The wind has set in +frae the nor'-east, and fifty score o' sheep, if this continue, will +never see the mornin'"</p> + +<p>But what was to be done?</p> + +<p class="center">"The wind blew as 'twould blawn its last,"</p> + +<p>and the whole atmosphere was one almost solid wreath of penetrating +snow; when you thrust forth your hand into the open air, it was as if +you had perforated an iceberg. Burnfoot stands at the convergence of two +mountain glens, adown one of which the tempest came as from a +funnel—collected, compressed, irresistible. There was a momentary look +of suspense—every one eying the rest with an expression of indecision +and utter helplessness. The young couple, by some law of affinity, stood +together in a corner. The shepherd lads, with Jamie Hogg at their head, +were employed in adjusting plaids to their persons. The guidman had +already resumed his leggings, and the dogs were all exceedingly +excited—amazed at this unexpected movement, but perfectly resolved to +do their duty.</p> + +<p>"Jamie," said the guidman, "you and I will try to mak oor way by the +Head Scaur to Capleyetts, where the main hirsel was left; and Will, Tam, +and Geordie will see after the hogs and gimmers ayont the Dod."</p> + +<p>"I, too," exclaimed a voice from the corner, over which, however, a fair +hand was pressed, and which was therefore but indistinctly heard—"I +will—(canna ye let me speak, Jessie!)—I will not, I shall not be left +behind—I will accompany<!-- Page 167 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span> the guidman, and do what I can to seek and to +save."</p> + +<p>"Indeed and indeed, my dear William, ye can do nae guid—ye dinna ken +the grun' like my faither; and there's mony a kittle step forbye the +Head Scaur; and, the Lord be wi' us! on sic a nicht too." So saying, she +clasped her betrothed firmly around the neck, and absolutely compelled +him to relinquish his purpose. Having gained this one object, the fair +and affectionate bride rushed across the room to her father, and falling +down on her knees, grasped him by the legs, and exclaimed—</p> + +<p>"O mither, mither! come and help me—come and help me! faither, my dear +faither, let Jamie Hogg gang, and the rest; they are young, ye ken, and +as weel acquant as yersel' wi' the ly o' the glens! but this is no a +nicht for the faither o' a family to risk his life to save his +substance. O faither, faither! I am soon, ye ken, to leave you and bonny +Burnfoot—grant me, oh, grant me this one, this last request!"</p> + +<p>The mother sat all this while wringing her hands and exclaiming—</p> + +<p>"Ay, ay, Jenny, get him to stay, get him to stay!"</p> + +<p>The father answered not a word, but, making a sign to Hogg, and +whistling on Help, and at the same time kissing his <i>now</i> all but +fainting child, he rushed out of the door (as Mrs. Harkness said) "like +a fey man," and he and his companion, with a suitable accompaniment of +dogs, were almost instantly invisible. The three other lads, suitably +armed and accompanied, followed the example set to them, and the +guidwife, the two lovers, five or six younger branches, and the female +servants of the family, with myself, remained at home in a state of +anxiety and suspense which can be better conceived than expressed.</p> + +<p class="center">"The varnished clock that clicked behind the door,"</p> + +<p>with a force and a stroke loud and painful in the extreme,<!-- Page 168 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span> struck first +ten, then eleven, then twelve; but there was no return. Again and again +were voices heard commingling with the tempest's rush; again and again +did the outer door seem to move backwards on its hinges; but nothing +entered save the shrill pipe of the blast, accompanied by the comminuted +drift, which penetrated through every seam and cranny. This state of +uncertainty was awful; even the ascertained reality of death, partial or +universal, had perhaps less of soul-benumbing cold in it than this +inconceivable suspense. It required Willie Wilson's utmost efforts and +mine to keep the frantic woman from madly rushing into the drift; and +the voice of lamentation was sad and loud amongst the children and the +servant lasses—each of the latter class lamented, indeed, the fate of +all, but there was always an under prayer offered up for the safety of +Geordie, or Will, or Jamie, in particular. At last the three lads who +had encompassed the Dod arrived—alive, indeed, but almost breathless +and frozen to death. They had, however, surmounted incredible +difficulties, and had succeeded in placing their hirsel in a position of +comparative security; but where were Jamie Hogg and the guidman? The +violence of the storm had nothing abated, the snow was every moment +accumulating, and the danger and difficulty increasing tenfold. Spirits, +heat, and friction gradually restored the three lads to their senses, +and to the kind attentions of their several favourites of the female +order; but <i>there</i> sat the mother and the daughter, whilst the father +was either, in all probability, dead or dying. The very thought was +distracting; and, accordingly, the young bride, now turning to her lover +with a look of inexpressible anguish, exclaimed—</p> + +<p>"O Willie! my ain dear Willie, ye maun gang, after a', ye maun gang this +instant," (Willie was on his feet and plaided whilst yet the sentence +was unfinished,) "and try to rescue my dear, dear faither from this +awfu' and untimely<!-- Page 169 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span> end; but tak care, oh tak care o' the big Scaur, and +keep far west by Caplecleuch, and maybe ye'll meet them coming back that +way." These last words were lost in the drift, whilst Willie Wilson, +with his faithful follower, Rover, were penetrating, and flouncing, and +floundering their way towards the place pointed out.</p> + +<p>In about half an hour after this, the howl and scratch of a dog were +heard at the door-back, and Help immediately rushed in, the welcome +forerunner of his master and Hogg. They had, indeed, had a fearful +struggle, and fearful wanderings; but, in endeavouring to avoid the +dangerous, because precipitous, Head Scaur, they had wandered from the +track, and from the object of their travel; and, after having been +inclined once or twice to lie down and take a rest (the deceitful +messenger of death), they had at last got upon the track of Caple Water; +and, by keeping to its windings—which they had often traced at the risk +of being drowned—they had at last weathered the old cham'er, the byre, +and peat-stack, and were now, thank God! within "bigget wa's."</p> + +<p>But where, alas! was Willie Wilson? Him, in consequence of their +deviations, they had missed; and over him, thus exposed, the tempest was +still renewing at intervals its hurricane gusts. There was one scream +heard, such as would have penetrated the heart of a tiger, and all was +still. There she lay, the beauteous, but now marble bride; her head +reposing on her mother's lap, her lips pale as the snowdrop, her eyes +fixed and soulless, her cheek without a tint, and her mouth half-open +and breathless. Long, long was the withdrawment—again and again was the +dram-glass applied to the mouth, to catch the first expiration of +returning breath—ere the frame began to quiver, the hands to move, the +lips and cheeks to colour, and the eyes to indicate the approaching +return to reason and perception.<!-- Page 170 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I have killed him! I have killed him!" were the first frantic accents. +"I have murdered, murdered my dear Willie! It was me that sent +him—forced him—compelled him out—out into the drift—the cold, cold +drift. Away!" added the maniac—"away! I'll go after him—I'll perish +with him—where he lies, there will I lie, and there will I be buried. +What! is there none of ye that will make an effort to save a +perishing—a choking—oh, my God! a suffocating man?"</p> + +<p>Hereupon she again sank backwards, and was prevented from falling by the +arms of a father.</p> + +<p>"O my child!" said parental love and affection—"O my dear wean!—oh, be +patient!—God is guid—He has preserved <i>us</i> all—He will not desert +<i>him</i> in the hour of his need—He neither slumbers nor sleeps—His hand +is not shortened that He cannot save—and what He can, He will—He never +deserted any that trusted in Him. O my child! my bairn!—my +first-born!—be patient—be patient. There—there—there is a scratch at +the door-back—it is Rover."</p> + +<p>And to be sure Rover it was—but Rover in despair. His faithful +companion and friend only entered the house to solicit immediate aid—he +ran round and round, looking up into the face of every one with an +expression of the most imploring anxiety. The poor frantic girl sprung +from her father's embrace, and clung to the neck of the well-known +cur—she absolutely kissed him—(oh, to what will not love, omnipotent, +virtuous love, descend!)—then rising, in renewed recollection, she sat +herself down on the long-settle beside her father, and burst into loud +and passionate grief.</p> + +<p>It was now manifest to all that something must be attempted, else the +young farmer must perish. Hogg, though awfully exhausted, was the first +to volunteer a new excursion. The whole band were at once on their +feet;<!-- Page 171 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span> but Jessie now clung to her father, as she had formerly done to +her lover, and would not let him go—indeed, the guidman was in no +danger of putting his purpose into effect, for he could scarcely stand +on his feet. He sat, or rather fell down, consequently, beside his +daughter, and continued in constant prayer and supplication at the +throne of grace. The daughter listened, and said she was comforted—the +voyagers were again on their way—the tempest had somewhat abated—the +moon had once or twice shone out—and there was now a greater chance of +success in their undertaking.</p> + +<p>How we all contrived to exist during an interval of about two hours, I +cannot say; but this I know, that the endurance of this second trial was +worse than the first, to all but the sweet bride herself. Her mind had +now taken a more calm and religious view of the case. She repeated, at +intervals and pauses in her father's ejaculatory prayer—</p> + +<p>"Yes—oh, yes—<i>His</i> will—His holy will be done! The Lord giveth and +the Lord taketh away—blessed be the name of the Lord for ever! We shall +meet again—oh, yes—where the weary are at rest.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'A few short years of evil past,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">We reach the happy shore<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Where death-divided friends at last<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Shall meet, to part no more.'<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>O father, is not that a gracious saying, and worthy of all acceptation!"</p> + +<p>At length the door opened, and in walked William Wilson.</p> + +<p>The reader need scarcely to be told that the sagacious dog had left his +master floundered, and unable to extricate himself in a snow wreath; +that the same faithful guide had taken the searchers to the spot, where +they found Wilson just in the act of falling into a sleep—from which,<!-- Page 172 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span> +indeed, but for the providential sagacity of his dog, he had never +wakened; and that, by means of some spirits which they had taken in a +bottle, they completely restored and conducted him home.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Lives there one with soul so dead"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>as not now to image the happy meeting betwixt bride and bridegroom, and, +above all, the influence which this trial had upon the happiness and +religious character of their future married and prosperous lot?</p> + +<p>It is, indeed, long since I have laid aside the pack—to which, after a +good education, I had taken, from a wandering propensity—and taken up +my residence in the flourishing village of Thornhill, Dumfriesshire; +living, at first, on the profits of my shop, and now retired on my +little, but, to me, ample competency; but I still have great pleasure in +paying a yearly visit to my friends of Mitchelslacks, and in recalling +with them, over a comfortable meal, the interesting incidents of the +snow storm 1794.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h3><a name="THE_FAIR_MAID_OF_CELLARDYKES" id="THE_FAIR_MAID_OF_CELLARDYKES"></a>THE FAIR MAID OF CELLARDYKES.</h3> + + +<p>I did not like the idea of having all the specimens of the fine arts in +Europe collected into one "bonne bouche" at the Louvre. It was like +collecting, while a boy, a handful of strawberries, and devouring them +at one indiscriminating gulp. I do not like floral exhibitions, for the +same reason. I had rather a thousand times meet my old and my new +friends in my solitary walks, or in my country rambles. All museums in +this way confound and bewilder me; and had the Turk not been master of +Greece, I should have preferred a view of the Elgin marbles in the land +of their nativity. And it is for a similar reason that my mind still +reverts, with a kind of dreamy delight, to the<!-- Page 173 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span> time when I viewed +mankind in detail, and in all their individual and natural +peculiarities, rather than <i>en masse</i>, and in one regimental uniform. +Educate up! Educate up! Invent machinery—discover agencies—saddle +nature with the panniers of labour—and, at last, stand alongside of +her, clothed, from the peasant to the prince, in the wonders of her +manufacture, and merrily whistling, in idle unconcern, to the tune of +her unerring despatch! But what have we gained? One mass of +similarities: the housemaid, the housekeeper, the lady, and the +princess, speaking the same language, clothed in the same habiliments, +and enjoying the same immunities from corporeal labour—the colours of +the rainbow whirled and blended into one glare of white! Towards this +<i>ultimatum</i> we are now fast hastening. Where is the shepherd +stocking-weaver, with his wires and his fingers moving invisibly? Where +the "wee and the muckle wheel," with the aged dames, in pletted toys, +singing "Tarry woo?" Where the hodden-grey clad patriarch, sitting in +the midst of his family, and mixing familiarly, and in perfect equality +with all the household—servant and child? My heart constantly warms to +these recollections; and I feel as if wandering over a landscape +variegated by pleasant and contrasting colouring, and overshadowed with +associations which have long been a part of myself. One exception to the +general progression and assimilation still happily remains to gratify, I +must confess, my liking for things as they were. The fisher population +of Newhaven, Buckhaven, and Cellardykes—(my observation extends no +farther, and I limit my remarks accordingly)—are, in fact, the Scottish +highlanders, the Irish, the Welsh, and the Manks of Fisherdom. Differing +each somewhat from the other, they are united by one common bond of +character—they are varieties of the same animal—the different species +under one genus. I like this. I am always in high spirits when I pass +through a<!-- Page 174 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span> fishing village or a fisher street. No accumulation of filth +in every hue—of shell, and gill, and fish-tail—can disgust me. I even +smell a sweet savour from their empty baskets, as they exhale themselves +dry in the sunbeam. And then there is a hue of robust health over all. +No mincing of matters. Female arms and legs of the true Tuscan +order—cheeks and chins where neither the rose nor the bone has been +stinted. Children of the dub and the mire—all agog in demi-nudity, and +following nature most vociferously. Snug, comfortable cabins, where +garish day makes no unhandsome inquiries, and where rousing fires and +plentiful meals abide from June to January. They have a language, too, +of their own—the true Mucklebacket dialect; and freely and firmly do +they throw from them censure, praise, or ribaldry. The men are here but +men; mere human machines—useful, but not ornamental—necessary +incumbrances rather than valuable protectors. "Poor creature!" says Meg +of the Mucklebacket, "she canna maintain a man." Sir Walter saw through +the character I am labouring to describe; and, in one sentence, put life +and identity into it. I know he was exceedingly fond of conversing with +fisherwomen in particular. But, whilst such are the general features, +each locality I have mentioned has its distinctive lineaments. The +Newhaven fisherwoman (for the man is unknown) is a bundle of snug +comfort. Her body, her dress, her countenance, her basket, her voice, +all partake of the same character of <i>enbonpointness</i>. Yet there is +nothing at all untidy about her. She may ensconce her large limbs in +more plaiden coverings than the gravedigger in "Hamlet" had waistcoats, +but still she moves without constraint; and under a burden which would +press my lady's waiting-maid to the carpet, she moves free, firm, +elastic. Her tongue is not labour-logged, her feet are not +creel-retarded; but, altogether unconscious of the presence of hundreds, +she holds<!-- Page 175 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span> on her way and her discourse as if she were a caravan in the +desert. She is to be found in every street and alley of Auld Reekie, +till her work is accomplished. Her voice of call is exceedingly musical, +and sounds sweetly in the ears of the infirm and bedrid. All night long +she holds her stand close by the theatre, with her broad knife and her +opened oyster. In vain does the young spark endeavour to engage her in +licentious talk. He soon discovers that, wherever her feelings or +affections tend, they do not point in his favour. Thus, loaded with +pence, and primed with gin, she returns by midnight to her home—there +to share a supper-pint with her man and her neighbours, and to prepare, +by deep repose, for the duties of a new day. Far happier and far more +useful she, in her day and generation, than that thing of fashion which +men call a beau or a belle—in whose labours no one rejoices, and in +whose bosom no sentiment but self finds a place. In Buckhaven, again, +the Salique law prevails. There men are men, and women mere appendages. +The sea department is here all in all. The women, indeed, crawl a little +way, and through a few deserted fields, into the surrounding country; +but the man drives the cart, and the cart carries the fish; and the fish +are found in all the larger inland towns eastward. Cellardykes is a +mixture of the two—a kind of William and Mary government, where, side +by side, at the same cart, and not unfrequently in the same boat, are to +be found man and woman, lad and lass. Oh, it is a pretty sight to see +the Cellardyke fishers leaving the coast for the herring-fishing in the +north! I witnessed it some years ago, as I passed to Edinburgh; and this +year I witnessed it again.</p> + +<p>Meeting and conversing with my old friend the minister of the parish of +Kilrenny, we laid us down on the sunny slope of the brae facing the east +and the Isle of May, whilst he gave me the following narrative:<!-- Page 176 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span>—</p> + +<p>Thomas Laing and Sarah Black were born and brought up under the same +roof—namely, that double-storied tenement which stands somewhat by +itself, overlooking the harbour. They entered by the same outer door, +but occupied each a separate story. Thomas Laing was always a stout, +hardy, fearless boy, better acquainted with every boat on the station +than with his single questions, and far fonder of little Sarah's company +than of the schoolmaster's. Sarah was likewise a healthy, stirring +child, extremely sensitive and easily offended, but capable, at the same +time, of the deepest feelings of gratitude and attachment. Thomas Laing +was, in fact, her champion, her Don Quixote, from the time when he could +square his arms and manage his fists; and much mischief and obloquy did +he suffer among his companions on account of his chivalrous defence of +little Sally. One day whilst the fisher boys and girls were playing on +the pier, whilst the tide was at the full, a mischievous boy, wishing to +annoy Thomas, pushed little Sall into the harbour, where, but for +Thomas's timely and skilful aid (for he was an excellent swimmer,) she +would probably have been drowned. Having placed his favourite in a +condition and place of safety, Tom felled the offender, with a terrible +fister, to the earth. The blow had taken place on the pit of the +stomach, and was mortal. Tom was taken up, imprisoned, and tried for +manslaughter; but, on account of his youth—being then only thirteen—he +was merely imprisoned for a certain number of months. Poor Sally, on +whose account Tom had incurred the punishment of the law, visited him, +as did many good-natured fishermen, whilst in prison, where he always +expressed extreme contrition for his rashness. After the expiry of his +imprisonment, Tom returned to Cellardykes, only to take farewell of his +parents, and his now more than ever dear Sally. He could not bear, he +said, to face the parents of the boy whose death he had<!-- Page 177 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span> occasioned. The +parting was momentary. He promised to spend one night at home; but he +had no such intention—and, for several years, nobody knew what had +become of Thomas Laing. The subject was at first a speculation, then a +wonder, next an occasional recollection; and, in a few months, the place +which once knew bold Tom Laing, knew him no more. Even his parents, +engaged as they were in the active pursuits of fishing, and surrounded +as they were by a large and dependent family, soon learned to forget +him. One bosom alone retained the image of Tom, more faithfully and +indelibly than ever did coin the impression of royalty. Meanwhile, Sarah +grew—for she was a year older than Tom—into womanhood, and fairly took +her share in all the more laborious parts of a fisher's life. She could +row a boat, carry a creel, or drive a cart with the best of them; and, +whilst her frame was thus hardened, her limbs acquired a consistency and +proportion which bespoke the buxom woman rather than the bonny lass. Her +eye, however, was large and brown, and her lips had that variety of +expression which lips only can exhibit. Many a jolly fisher wished and +attempted to press these lips to his; but was always repulsed. She +neither spoke of her Thomas, nor did she grieve for him much in secret; +but her heart revolted from a union with any other person whilst Thomas +might still be alive. Upon a person differently situated, the passion +(for passion assuredly it was) which she entertained for her absent +lover, might and would have produced very different effects. Had Sarah +been a young boarding-school miss, she would assuredly either have +eloped with another, or have died in a madhouse; had she been a +sentimental sprig of gentility, consumption must have followed: but +Sarah was neither of these. She had a heart to feel, and deeply too; but +she knew that labour was her destiny, and that when "want came in at the +door, love escapes by the window." So she<!-- Page 178 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span> just laboured, laughed, ate, +drank, and slept, very much like other people. Yet few sailors came to +the place whom she did not question about Thomas; and many a time and +oft did she retire to the rocks of a Sabbath eve, to think of and pray +for Thomas Laing. People imagine, from the free and open mariner, and +talk of the fisherwomen, that they are all or generally people of +doubtful morality. Never was there a greater mistake. To the public in +general they are inaccessible; they almost universally intermarry with +one another; and there are fewer cases (said my reverend informant) of +public or sessional reproof in Cellardykes, than in any other district +of my parish. But, from the precarious and somewhat solitary nature of +their employment, they are exceedingly superstitious; and I had access +to know, that many a sly sixpence passed from Sally's pocket into old +Effie the wise woman's, with the view of having the cards cut and cups +read for poor Thomas.</p> + +<p>Time, however, passed on—with time came, but did not pass misfortune. +Sally's father, who had long been addicted, at intervals, to hard +drinking, was found one morning dead at the bottom of a cliff, over +which, in returning home inebriated, he had tumbled. There were now +three sisters, all below twelve, to provide for, and Sally's mother had +long been almost bedrid with severe and chronic rheumatism; +consequently, the burden of supporting this helpless family devolved +upon Sarah, who was now in the bloom and in the strength of her +womanhood. Instead of sitting down, however, to lament what could not be +helped, Sarah immediately redoubled her diligence. She even learned to +row a boat as well as a man, and contrived, by the help of the men her +father used to employ, to keep his boat still going. Things prospered +with her for a while; but, in a sudden storm, wherein five boats +perished with all on board, she lost her whole resources. They are<!-- Page 179 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span> a +high-minded people those Cellardyke fishers. The Blacks scorned to come +upon the session. The young girls salted herrings, and cried haddocks in +small baskets through the village and the adjoining burghs, and Sarah +contrived still to keep up a cart for country service. Meanwhile, Sarah +became the object of attention through the whole neighbourhood. Though +somewhat larger in feature and limb than the Venus de Medicis, she was, +notwithstanding, tight, clean, and sunny—her skin white as snow, and +her frame a well-proportioned Doric—just such a help-mate as a husband +who has to rough it through life might be disposed to select. Captain +William M'Guffock, or, as he was commonly called, Big Bill, was the +commander of a coasting craft, and a man of considerable substance. +True, he was considerably older than Sally, and a widower, but he had no +family, and a "bien house to bide in." You see that manse-looking +tenement there, on the broad head towards the east—that was Captain +M'Guffock's residence when his seafaring avocations did not demand his +presence elsewhere. Well, Bill came acourting to Sally; but Sally +"looked asclent and unco skeich." Someway or other, whenever she thought +of matrimony—which she did occasionally—she at the same time thought +of Thomas Laing, and, as she expressed it, her heart <i>scunnered</i> at the +thought. Consequently, Bill made little progress in his courtship; which +was likewise liable to be interrupted, for weeks at a time, by his +professional voyages. At last a letter arrived from on board a king's +vessel, then lying in Leith Roads, apprising Thomas Laing's relatives +that he had died of fever on the West India station. This news affected +Sally more than anything which had hitherto happened to her. She shut +herself up for two hours in her mother's bedroom, weeping aloud and +bitterly, exclaiming, from time to time—"Oh! my Thomas!—my own dearest +Thomas! I shall never love man again. I am thine in<!-- Page 180 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span> life and in +death—in time and in eternity!" In vain did the poor bedrid woman try +to comfort her daughter. Nature had her way; and, in less than three +hours, Sarah Black was again in the streets, following, with a confused +but a cheerful look, her ordinary occupation. This grief of Sarah's, had +it been well nursed, might well have lasted a twelvemonth; but, luckily +for Sarah, and for the labouring classes in general, she had not time to +nurse her grief to keep it warm. "Give us this day our daily bread," +said a poor helpless mother and three somewhat dependent sisters—and +Sarah's exertions were redoubled.</p> + +<p>"Oh, what a feelingless woman!" said Mrs. Paterson to me, as Sarah +passed her door one day in my presence, absolutely singing—"Oh, what a +feelingless woman!—and her father dead, and her mother bedrid, and poor +Thomas Laing, whom she made such a fuss about, gone too—and there is +she, absolutely singing after all!"</p> + +<p>Mrs. Paterson is now Mrs. Robson, having married her second husband just +six weeks after the death of the first, whom her improper conduct and +unhappy temper contributed first to render miserable here, and at last +to convey to the churchyard! Verily (added the worthy clergyman), the +heart is deceitful above all things. But what, after all, could poor +Sarah do, but marry Will M'Guffock, and thus amply provide, not only for +herself, but for her mother and sister? Had Thomas (and her heart heaved +at the thought) still been alive, she thought, she never would have +brought herself to think of it in earnest; but now that Thomas had long +ceased to think of her or of anything earthly, why should she not make a +man happy who seemed distractedly in love with her, and at the same time +honourably provide for her poor and dependent relatives? In the +meantime, the sacramental occasion came round, and I had a private +meeting previous to the first communion with Sarah Black. To me, in +secret, she laid<!-- Page 181 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span> open her whole heart as if in the presence of her God; +and I found her, though not a well-informed Christian by any means on +doctrinal points, yet well disposed and exceedingly humble; in short, I +had great pleasure in putting a token into her hand, at which she +continued to look for an instant, and then returned it to me. I +expressed surprise, at least by my looks. "I fear," said she, "that I am +<i>unworthy</i>; for I have not told you that I am thinking of marrying a man +whom I cannot love, merely to provide for our family. Is not this a +sin?—and can I, with an intention of doing what I know to be wrong, +safely communicate?" I assured her that, instead of thinking it a sin, I +thought her resolution commendable, particularly as the object of her +real affection was beyond its reach; and I mention the circumstance to +show that there is often much honour, and even delicacy of feeling, +natural as well as religious, under very uncongenial circumstances and +appearances. Having satisfied her mind on this subject, I had the +pleasure to see her at the communion table, conducting herself with much +seeming seriousness of spirit. I could see her shed tears, and formed +the very best opinion of her from her conduct throughout.</p> + +<p>In a few days or weeks after this, the proclamation lines were put into +my hands, and I had the pleasure of uniting her to Captain M'Guffock in +due course. They had, however, only been married a few weeks, when an +occurrence of a very awkward character threw her and her husband, who +was, in fact, an ill-tempered, passionate man, into much perplexity. The +captain was absent on a coasting voyage, as usual; and his wife was +superintending the washing of some clothes, whilst the sun was setting. +It was a lovely evening in the month of July, and the fishing boats were +spread out all over the mouth of the Firth, from the East Neuk to the +Isle of May, in the same manner in which you see them at present. Mrs. +M'Guffock's<!-- Page 182 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span> mind assumed, notwithstanding the glorious scenery around +her, a serious cast, for she could not help recalling many such evenings +in which she had rejoiced in company and in unison with her beloved +Thomas. She felt and knew that it was wrong to indulge such emotions; +but she could not help it. At last, altogether overcome, she threw +herself forward on the green turf, and prayed audibly—"O my God, give +me strength and grace to forget my own truly beloved Thomas! Alas! he +knows not the struggles which I have to exclude him from my sinful +meditations. Even suppose he were again to arise from the dead, and +appear in all the reality of his youthful being, I must, and would fly +from him as from my most dangerous foe." She lifted up her eyes in the +twilight, and in the next instant felt herself in the arms of a powerful +person, who pressed her in silence to his breast. Amazed and bewildered, +she neither screamed nor fainted, but, putting his eager kisses aside, +calmly inquired who he was who dared thus to insult her. She had no +sooner pronounced the inquiry, than she heard the words, "Thomas—your +own Thomas!" pronounced in tones which could not be mistaken. This, +indeed, overpowered her; and, with a scream of agony, she sank down dead +on the earth. This brought immediate assistance; but she was found lying +by herself, and talking wildly about her Thomas Laing. Everybody who +heard her concluded that she had either actually seen her lover's ghost, +or that her mind had given way under the pressure of regret for her +marriage, and that she was now actually a lunatic. For twelve hours she +continued to evince the most manifest marks of insanity; but sleep at +last soothed and restored her, and she immediately sent for me. I +endeavoured to persuade her that it must be all a delusion, and that the +imagination oftentimes created such fancies. I gave instances from books +which I had read, as well as from a particular friend of my own who<!-- Page 183 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span> had +long been subject to such delusive impressions, and at last she became +actually persuaded that there had been no reality in what she had so +vividly perceived, and still most distinctly and fearfully recollected. +I took occasion then to urge upon her the exceeding sinfulness of +allowing any image to come betwixt her and her lawful married husband; +and left her restored, if not to her usual serenity, at least to a +conviction that she had only been disturbed by a vision.</p> + +<p>When her husband returned, I took him aside, and explained my views of +the case, and stated my most decided apprehension that some similar +impression might return upon her nerves, and that her sisters (her +mother being now removed by death) should dwell in the same house with +her. To this, however, the captain objected, on the score that, though +he was willing to pay a person to take care of them in their own house, +he did not deem them proper company, in short, for a <i>captain's wife</i>. I +disliked the reasoning, and told him so; but he became passionate, and I +saw it was useless to contend further. From that day, however, Bill +M'Guffock seemed to have become an altered man. Jealousy, or something +nearly resembling it, took possession of his heart; and he even ventured +to affirm that his wife had a paramour somewhere concealed, with whom, +in his long and necessary absences, she associated. He alleged, too, +that in her sleep she would repeat the name of her favourite, and in +terms of present love and fondness. I now saw that I had not known the +depth of "a first love," otherwise I should not have advised this +unhappy marriage, all advantageous as it was in a worldly point of view. +A sailor's life, however, is one of manifest risk, and in less than a +twelvemonth Sarah M'Guffock was a young widow, without incumbrance, and +with her rights to her just share of the captain's effects. Her sorrow +for the death of her husband was, I believe,<!-- Page 184 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span> sincere; but I observed +that she took an early opportunity of joining her sisters in her old +habitation, immediately beneath that still tenanted by the friends of +Laing.</p> + +<p>Matters were in this situation, when I was surprised one evening, whilst +sitting meditating in the manse of Kilrenny, about dusk, with a visit +from a tall and well-dressed stranger. He asked me at once if I could +give him a private interview for a few minutes, as he had something of +importance to communicate. Having taken him into my study, and shut the +door, I reached him a chair, and desired him to proceed.</p> + +<p>"I had left the parish," said the stranger, "before you were minister of +Kilrenny, in the time of worthy Mr. Brown, and therefore you will +probably not know even my name. I am Thomas Laing!"</p> + +<p>"I did not indeed," said I, "know you, but I have heard much about you; +and I know one who has taken but too deep an interest in your fate. But +how comes it," added I, beginning to think that I was conversing either +with a vision or an impostor—"how comes it that you are here, seemingly +alive and well, whilst we have all been assured of your death some years +ago?"</p> + +<p>The stranger started, and immediately exclaimed—"Dead!—dead!—who said +I was dead?"</p> + +<p>"Why," said I, "there was a letter came, I think, to your own father, +mentioning your death by fever in the West Indies."</p> + +<p>"Do I look like a dead man?" said the stranger; but, immediately +becoming absent and embarrassed, he sat for a while silent, and then +resumed:—"Some one," said he, "has imposed upon my dear Sarah, and for +the basest of purposes. I now see it all. My dear girl has been sadly +used."</p> + +<p>"This is, indeed, strange," said I; "but let me hear how it is that I +have the honour of a visit from you at this time and in this place?"<!-- Page 185 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Oh," replied Thomas Laing (for it was he in verity), "I will soon give +you the whole story:—</p> + +<p>"When I left this, fourteen years ago come the time, I embarked at +Greenock, working my way out to New York. As I was an excellent hand at +a rope and an oar, I early attracted the captain's notice, who made some +inquiries respecting my place of birth and my views in life. I told him +that I was literally "at sea," having nothing particularly in view—that +I had been bred a fisher, and understood sailing and rowing as well as +any one on board. The captain seemed to have something in his head, for +he nodded to me, saying, 'Very well, we will see what can be done for +you when we arrive at New York.' When we were off Newfoundland, we were +overtaken by a terrible storm, which drove us completely out of our +latitude, till, at last, we struck on a sandbank—the sea making for +several hours a complete breach over the deck. Many were swept away into +the devouring flood; whilst some of us—amongst several others the +captain and myself—clung to what remained of the ship's masts till the +storm somewhat abated. We then got the boat launched, and made for land, +which we could see looming at some distance ahead. We got, however, +entangled amongst currents and breakers; and, within sight of a boat +which was making towards us from the shore, we fairly upset—and I +remember nothing more till I awoke, in dreadful torment, in some +fishermen's boat. Beside me lay the captain, the rest had perished. When +we arrived at the land, we were placed in one of the fishermen's huts, +where we were most kindly treated—assisting, as we did occasionally, in +the daily labours of the cod fishery. I displayed so much alertness and +skill in this employment, that the factor on the station made me an +advantageous offer, if I would remain with them and assist in their +labours. With this offer, having no other object distinctly in view, I +complied.<!-- Page 186 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span> But my kind and good-hearted captain, possessing less +dexterity in this employment, was early shipped at his own request for +England. The most of the hands, about two hundred in all, on the station +where I remained, were Scotch and Irish, and a merry, jovial set we +were. The men had wives and families; and the governor or factor lived +in a large slated house, very like your manse, upon a gentle eminence, a +little inland. Towards the coast the land is sandy and flat; but in the +interior there is much wood, a very rich soil, and excellent fresh +water. Where we remained the water was brackish, and constituted the +chief inconvenience of our station. The factor or agent, commonly called +by the men the governor, used to visit us almost every day, and remained +much on board when ships were loading for Europe. One fine summer's day +we were all enjoying the luxury of bathing, when, all on a sudden, the +shout was raised—'A shark! a shark!' I had just taken my place in the +boat, and was still undressed, when I observed one man disappear, being +dragged under the water by the sea monster. The factor, who was swimming +about in the neighbourhood, seemed to be paralyzed by terror, for he +made for the boat, plashing like a dog, with his hands and arms +frequently stretched out of the water. I saw his danger, and immediately +plunged in to his rescue, which, with some difficulty, I at last +effected.</p> + +<p>"Poor Pat Moonie was seen no more; nor did the devouring monster +reappear. The factor immediately acknowledged his obligations to me, by +carrying me home with him, and introducing me to his lady and an only +daughter—I think I never beheld a more beautiful creature; but I looked +upon her as a being of a different order from myself, and I still +thought of my own dear Sally and sweet home at Cellardykes. Through the +factor's kindness, I got the management of a boat's crew, with +considerable<!-- Page 187 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span> emolument which belonged to the situation. I then behoved +to dress better, at least while on land, than I used to do, and I was an +almost daily visitor at Codfield House, the name of the captain's +residence. My affairs prospered; I made, and had no way of spending +money. The factor was my banker, and his fair daughter wrote out the +acknowledgments for her father to sign. One beautiful Sabbath-day, after +the factor—who officiated at our small station as clergyman—had read +us prayers and a sermon, I took a walk into the interior of the country, +where, with a book in her hand, and an accompaniment of Newfoundland +dogs, I chanced to meet with Miss Woodburn, the factor's beautiful +child. She was only fourteen, but quite grown, and as blooming a piece +of womanhood as ever wore kid gloves or black leather. She seemed +somewhat embarrassed at my presence, and blushed scarlet, entreating me +to prevent one of her dogs from running away with her glove, which he +was playfully tossing about in his mouth. The dog would not surrender +his charge to any one but to his mistress; and, in the struggle, he bit +my hand somewhat severely. You may see the marks of his teeth there +still" (holding out his hand while he spoke). "Poor Miss Woodburn knew +not what to do first; she immediately dropped the book which she was +reading—scolded the offending dog to a distance—took up the glove, +which the dog at her bidding had dropped, and wrapped it close and +firmly around my bleeding hand; a band of long grass served for thread +to make all secure, and in a few days my hand was in a fair way of +recovery—but not so my heart; I felt as if I had been all at once +transformed into a gentleman—the soft touch of Miss Eliza's fair +fingers seemed to have transformed me, skin, flesh, and bones, into +another species of being. I shook like an aspen leaf whenever I thought +of our interesting interview; and I could observe that Eliza changed +colour, and looked out of the window<!-- Page 188 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span> whenever I entered the room. But, +sir, I am too particular, and I will now hasten to a close." I entreated +him (said the parson) to go on in his own way, and without any reference +to my leisure. He then proceeded:—"Well, sir, from year to year I +prospered, and from year to year got more deeply in love with the angel +which moved about in my presence. At last our attachment became manifest +to the young lady's parent; and, to my great surprise, it was proposed +that we should make a voyage to New York, and there be united in +matrimony. All this while, sir, I thought of my own dear Sally, and the +thought not unfrequently made me miserable; but what was Sally to me +now?—perhaps she was dead—perhaps she was married—perhaps—but I +could scarcely think it—she had forgot me; and then the blooming +rosebud was ever in my presence, and hallowed me, by its superior purity +and beauty, into a complete gentleman. Well, married we were at New +York, and for several months I was the happiest of men, and my dear wife +(I know it) the happiest of women; but the time of her labour +approached—and child and mother lie buried in the cemetery at New York, +where we had now fixed our residence." (Here poor Thomas wept +plentifully, and, after a pause proceeded.)—"I could not reside longer +in a place which was so dismally associated in my mind; so, having wound +up my worldly affairs, and placed my little fortune—about one thousand +pounds—in the bank, I embarked for Europe, along with my father and +mother-in-law, who were going home to end their days in the place of +their nativity, Belfast, in Ireland. I determined upon landing at the +Cove of Cork, to visit once more my native village, and to have at least +one interview with Sally. I learned, on my arrival at Largo, that Sally +was married to the old captain. I resolved, however, ere I went finally +to settle in Belfast, to have one stolen peep at my first love—my own<!-- Page 189 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span> +dear Sally. I came upon her whilst repeating my name in her prayers—I +embraced her convulsively—repeated her name twice in her hearing—heard +her scream—saw her faint—kissed her fondly again and again—and, +strangers appearing, I immediately absconded."</p> + +<p>"This," said the minister, "explains all;—but go on—I am anxious to +hear the conclusion of your somewhat eventful history."</p> + +<p>"Why, I was off immediately for Belfast, where I at present reside with +my father-in-law, whose temper, since the loss of his child, has been +much altered for the worse. But I am here on a particular errand, in +which your kind offices, sir—for I have heard of your goodness of +heart—may be of service to me. I observed the death of the old captain +in the newspaper, and I am here once more to enjoy an interview with his +widow. I wish you, sir, to break the business to her; meanwhile, I will +lodge at the Old Inn, Mrs. Laing's, at Anstruther, and await your +return."</p> + +<p>I agreed (continued the parson of Kilrenny) to wait upon the widow; and +to see, in fact, how the wind set, in regard to "first love." I found +her, as I expected, neatly clad in her habiliments of widowhood, and +employed in making some dresses for a sister's marriage. I asked and +obtained a private interview, when I detailed, as cautiously as I could, +the particulars of Thomas Laing's history. I could observe that her +whole frame shook occasionally, and that tears came, again and again, +into her eyes. I was present, but a fortnight ago, at their first +interview at the inn; and I never saw two human beings evince more real +attachment for each other. On their bended knees, and with faces turned +towards heaven, did they unite in thanking God that he had permitted +them, to have another interview with each other in this world of +uncertainty and death. It has been since discovered that the letter +announcing Laing's death was a forgery of the old captain,<!-- Page 190 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span> which has +reconciled his widow very much to the idea of shortening her days of +mourning. In a word, this evening, and in a few hours, I am going to +unite the widower and the widowed, together with a younger sister and a +fine young sailor, in the holy bonds of matrimony; and, as a punishment +for your giving me all this trouble in narrating this story, I shall +insist upon your eating fresh herring, with the fresh-herring Presbytery +of St. Andrew's, which meets here at Mrs. Laing's to-day, and afterwards +witnessing the double ceremony.</p> + +<p>To this I assented, and certainly never spent an evening more agreeably +than that which I divided betwixt the merry lads of St. Andrew's +Presbytery, and the fair dames and maidens of Cellardykes, who graced +the marriage ceremony. Such dancing as there was, and such screaming, +and such music, and such laughing; yet, amidst it all, Mr. and Mrs. +Laing preserved that decent decorum, which plainly said, "We will not +mar the happiness of the young; but we feel the goodness and providence +of our God too deeply, to permit us to join in the noisy part of the +festivity."</p> + +<p>"The fair maid of Cellardykes," with her kind-hearted husband—I may +mention, for the satisfaction of my fair readers in particular—may now +be seen daily at their own door, and in their own garden, on the face of +the steep which overlooks the village. They have already lived three +years in complete happiness, and have been blessed with two as fine +healthy children as a Cellardykes sun ever rose upon. Mr. Laing has +become an elder in the church, and both husband and wife are most +exemplary in the discharge of their religious, as well as relative +duties. God has blessed them with an ample competence; and sure is the +writer of this narrative, that no poor fisherman or woman ever applied +to this worthy couple without obtaining relief.<!-- Page 191 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span></p> + +<p>One circumstance more, and my narrative closes. As Mr. Laing was one +evening taking a walk along the seashore, viewing the boats as they +mustered for the herring fishing, he was shot at from behind one of the +rocks, and severely wounded in the shoulder—the ball or slug-shot +having lodged in the clavicle, and refusing, for some days, to be +extracted. The hue-and-cry was immediately raised; but the guilty person +was nowhere to be seen. He had escaped in a boat, or had hid himself in +a crevice of the rock, or in some private and friendly house in the +village. Poor Thomas Laing was carried home to his distracted wife more +dead than alive; and Dr. Goodsir being called, disclosed that, in his +present state, the lead could not be extracted. Poor Sarah was never a +moment from her husband's side, who fevered, and became occasionally +delirious—talking incoherently of murder and shipwreck, and Woodburn, +and love, and marriage, and Sarah Black. All within his brain was one +mad wheel of mixed and confused colours, such as children make when they +wheel a stick, dyed white, black, and red, rapidly around. Suspicion, +from the first, fell upon the brother of the boy Rob Paterson, whom +Laing had killed many years before. Revenge is the most enduring, +perhaps, of all the passions, and rather feeds upon itself than decays. +Like fame, "it acquires strength by time;" and it was suspected that Dan +Paterson, a reckless and a dissipated man, had done the deed. In +confirmation of this supposition, Dan was nowhere to be found, and it +was strongly suspected that his wife and his son, who returned at +midnight with the boat, had set Dan on shore somewhere on the coast, and +that he had effected his escape. Death, for some time, seemed every day +and hour nearer at hand; but at last the symptoms softened, the fever +mitigated, the swelling subsided, and, after much careful and skilful +surgery, most admirably conducted by Dr. Goodsir's son, the ball was +extracted.<!-- Page 192 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span> The wound closed without mortification; and, in a week or +two, Mr. Laing was not only out of danger, but out of bed, and walking +about, as he does to this hour, with his arm in a sling. It was about +the period of his recovery, that Dan Paterson was taken as he was +skulking about in the west country, apparently looking out for a ship in +which to sail to America. He was immediately brought back to +Cellardykes, and lodged in Anstruther prison. Mr. Laing would willingly +have forborne the prosecution; but the law behoved to have its course. +Dan was tried for "maiming with the intention of murder," and was +condemned to fourteen years' transportation. This happened in the year +1822, the year of the King's visit to Scotland. Mr. and Mrs. Laing +actually waited upon his Majesty King George the Fourth, at the palace +of Dalkeith, and, backed by the learned judge and counsel, obtained a +commutation of the punishment, from banishment to imprisonment for a +limited period. The great argument in his favour was the provocation he +had received. Dan Paterson now inhabits a neat cottage in the village, +and Mr. Laing has quite set him up with a boat of his own, ready rigged +and fitted for use. He has entirely reformed, has become a member of a +temperance society, and his wife and family are as happy as the day is +long. Mr. and Mrs. Laing are supplied with the very best of fish, and +stockings and mittens are manufactured by the Patersons for the little +Laings, particularly during boisterous weather, when fishing is out of +the question. Thus has a wise Providence made even the wrath of man to +praise him. The truth of the above narrative may be tested any day, by +waiting upon the Rev. Mr. Dickson, or upon the parties themselves at +Braehead of Cellardykes.<!-- Page 193 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="PRESCRIPTION" id="PRESCRIPTION"></a>PRESCRIPTION;</h2> + +<h3>OR, THE 29TH OF SEPTEMBER.</h3> + + +<p>The serene calmness and holy inspiration of some of our cottage retreats +in Scotland are often the envy of the town-poet or philosopher, who +looks upon the sequestered spots as possessing all the beauty and repose +of the beatific Beulah, where the feet of the pilgrim found repose, and +his spirit rest. The desire arises out of that discontent which, less or +more, is the inheritance of man in this sphere; it is the residuum of +the worldly feelings which, like the clay that, in inspired hands, gave +the power of sight to the blind, opens the eyes to immortality. The wish +for retirement belongs to good, if it is not a part of the great +principle that inclines us to look far away to purer regions for the +rest which is never disturbed, and the joy that knows no abatement. Yet +how vain are often our thoughts as we survey the white-washed hut in the +valley, covered with honeysuckle and white roses; the plot before the +door; the croonin dame on her tripod; the lass with the lint-white +locks, singing, in snatches of Nature's own language, her purest +feelings, like the swelling of a mountain spring! The heart is not still +there, any more than in the crowded mart. The birds whistle, but they +die too; the rose blooms, but it is eaten in the heart by the palmer +worm; the sun shines, but there is a shade at his back. Alas for mortal +aspirations—there is nothing here of one side. Like the two parties who +fought for the truth of the two pleas—that the statue was white, or +that it was black—we find, after all our labour lost, that one side is +of the one colour, and the other of the opposite. These thoughts<!-- Page 194 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span> arise +in us at this moment, as we recollect the little cottage of Homestead, +situated in a collateral valley on the Borders. We were born at a +stone-cast from it; and, even in the dream of age, see issuing from it, +or entering it, a creature who might have stood for Wordsworth's +Highland Girl—a slender, gracile thing, retiring and modest; as +delicate in her feelings as in the hue of her complexion; her thoughts +of her glen and waterfall only natural to her—all others, fearful even +to herself, glenting forth through a flushed medium, which equally +betrayed the workings of the blood in the transparent veins—a being of +young life, elasticity, and sensitiveness, such as, like some modest +flower, we find only in certain recesses of the valleys in +mountain-lands. Such were you, Alice Scott, when you first darted across +our path on the hills. We have said that we see you now through the +dream of age; and, holding to the parallel, there is a change o'er the +mood of our vision, for we see you again in a form like that of "The +Ladye Geraldine"—your mountain russets off; the bandeau that bound the +flying locks laid aside; the irritability and flush of the young spirit +abated; and, instead of these, the gown of silk, the coif of satin, and +the slow and dignified step of conscious worth and superiority. And +whence this change?</p> + +<p>The young female we have thus apostrophised, was the daughter of Adam +Scott, a cottar, who occupied the small cottage of Homestead, under the +proprietor of Whitecraigs—a fine property, lying to the south of the +cottage; and the mansion of which is yet to be seen by the traveller who +seeks the Tweed by the windings of the river Lyne. Old Adam died, and +left his widow and daughter to the protection of his superior, Mr. +Hayston, who, recollecting the services and stanch qualities of his +tenant, did not despise the charge. The small bield was allowed to the +mother and daughter, rent free; and some assistance, in addition<!-- Page 195 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span> to the +produce of their hands, enabled them to live as thousands in this +country live, whose capability of supporting life might be deemed a +problem difficult of solution by those whose only care is how to destroy +God's gifts. Nature is as curious in her disposal of qualities as the +great genius of chance or convention is of the distribution of means. +Literature has worn out the characteristic and gloomy lines of the +description of the fair and the good; and the impatience of the mind of +the nineteenth century—a mind greedy of caricature, and regardless of +written sentiment—may warn us from the portrayment of what people now +like better to see than to read or hear of. Away, then, with the usual +terms, and let old Dame Scott and her daughter be deemed as of those +beings who have interested you in the quiet recesses of humble poverty, +where Nature, as if in sport or satire, loves to play fantastic tricks. +If you have no living models to go by, call up some of the pages of the +thousand volumes that have been multiplied on a subject which has been +more spoiled by poetical imagery, than benefited by sober observation.</p> + +<p>Within about five years of the death of the husband and father, old +Hayston died, and left Whitecraigs to his only son, Hector, who was kind +enough to continue the gift of the father to the inmates of Homestead; +but he loaded them with a condition, unspoken, yet implied. The young +laird and the pretty cottage maiden had foregathered often amidst the +romantic scenes on the Lyne; and that which Nature probably intended as +a guard and a mean of segregation—the shrinking timidity of her own +mountain child, when looked upon by the eye of, to her, +aristocracy—only tended to an opposite effect. A poet has compared love +to an Eastern bird, which loses all its beauty when it flies, and it is +as true as it is a pretty conceit; but if there was any feathered +creature whose wings, reflecting, from its monaul tints, the sun in +greater splendour, when on the<!-- Page 196 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span> wing, it would supply as applicable and +not less poetical an emblem of the object of the little god's +heart-stirrings; and so it seemed to the young laird of Whitecraigs, +that, as Alice Scott bounded away over the green hills, or down by the +Lyne banks, at his approach, her flight added to the interest which she +had already inspired when she had no means of escape. But, as the +wildest doe may be caught and tamed, so was she, who was as a white one +removed from the herd. The young man possessed attractions beside those +of imputed wealth and station; and probably, though we mean not to be +severe upon the sex, the process by which his affection had been +increased was reversed in its effects upon her, to whom assiduous +seeking was as the assiduous retreating had been to him.</p> + +<p>Yet all was, we believe, honourable in the intentions of young Hayston; +and, as for Alice, she was in the primeval condition of a total +unconsciousness of evil. The "one blossom on earth's tree," as the poet +has it, was by her yet unplucked, nor knew she how many thousands have +had cause to sing—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"I have plucked the one blossom that hangs on earth's tree;</span> +<span class="i0">I have lived—I have loved, and die."</span> +</div></div> + +<p>Her former timidity was the <i>à priori</i> proof of the strength of the +feeling that followed, when the sensitiveness of fear gave way to +confidence. Town loves are a thing of sorry account: the best of them +are a mere preference of the one to the many; and he who is fortunate +enough to outshine his rivals, may pride himself in the possession of +some superior recommendations which have achieved a triumph. Were he to +look better to it, he might detect something, too, in the force of +resources. At best, a few hundred pounds will turn the scale; for he is +by all that a better man; and the trained eye of town beauties has a +strange responsive twinkle in the glare of the one thing needful. In the +remote and beautiful parts of a romantic country,<!-- Page 197 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span> things are otherwise +ordered: affection there, is as the mountain flower to the gallipot +rose; and it is a mockery to tell us that the difference is only +perceptible to those who are weak enough to be romantic. A doughty +warrior would recognise and acknowledge the difference, and fight a +great deal better too, after he had blubbered over a mountain or glen +born love for a creature who would look upon him as the soul of the +retreat, and hang on his breast in the outpourings of Nature's feelings. +That young Whitecraigs appreciated the triumph he had secured, there can +be no reason to doubt. He had been within the drying atmosphere of +towns, and had sung and waltzed, probably, with a round hundred of +creatures who understood the passion, much as Audrey understood +poetry—deeming it honest enough, but yet a composition made up of the +elements of side glances, arias, smorzando-sighs, and quadrilles. With +Alice Scott on his bosom, the quiet glen as their retreat, the green +umbrageous woods their defence, its birds as their musicians, and the +wimpling Lyne as the speaking Naiad, he forgot, if he did not despise, +the scenes he had left. She flew from him now no longer. The fowler had +succeeded to captivate, not intentionally to kill.</p> + +<p>Two years passed over in this intercourse. There was no secret about it. +The dame was well apprised of their proceeding; and the open frankness +of the youth dispelled all the fears of wrong which the innocence of the +daughter, undefended by experience, might have scarcely guaranteed to +one who, at least, had heard something of the ways of the world. The +income from Whitecraigs, somewhere about seven hundred a-year, was more +than sufficient for the expenditure of the older Haystons; and Hector, +at this time, did not seem inclined to alter the line of life followed +by his fathers. He had not spoken of marriage to the mother; but he had +not hesitated to breathe into the ear of Alice all that was necessary to +lead her to the conclusion,<!-- Page 198 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span> to which her heart jumped, that she was to +be the lady of the stately white mansion that, at one time, had appeared +to her as a great temple where humble worshippers of the glen and the +wood might not lay their sandals at the doorway. She had entered the +vestibule only as an alms-seeker, and trembled to think she might have +been observed throwing a side glance into the interior, where +pier-glasses might have reflected the form of the russet-clad child of +the valley and hill. The tale has been told a thousand times, and the +world is not mended by it. The young master pressed her to his bosom, +imprinted a kiss, and was away into the mazes of life in the metropolis, +whither some affairs, left unsettled by his father, carried him. Six +months passed away, and the rents of the succeeding term were collected +by Mr. Pringle, the agent of the family, in Peebles. There was no word +for poor Alice, though the small allowance was handed in by the agent, +who, ignorant of the state of matters between the young couple, informed +the mother that the master of Whitecraigs was on the eve of being +married to a young lady of some wealth in the metropolis. The statement +was heard by the daughter; and what henceforth but that of Thekla's +song:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"The clouds are flying, the woods are sighing—</span> +<span class="i0">The maiden is walking the grassy shore;</span> +<span class="i0">And as the wave breaks with might, with might,</span> +<span class="i0">She singeth aloud through the darksome night;</span> +<span class="i0">But a tear is in her troubled eye."</span> +</div></div> + +<p>Alice Scott was changed; yet, who shall tell what that change was? If +the slow and even progress of the spirit may defy the eye of the +metaphysician, who may describe its moods of disturbance? Poetry is +familiar with these things, and we have fair rhymes to tell us of the +wanderings, and the lonely musings by mountain streams, and the eye that +looks and sees not, and the wasting form, and the words that come like +the sounds from deep caves; yet,<!-- Page 199 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span> after all, they tell us but little, +and that little is but to tickle us with the resonance of spoken +sentiment, leaving the sad truth as little understood as before. True it +was, that Alice Scott did all these things, and more too: the charm of +the hills and the water banks was gone: the light spirit that carried +her along, as if borne on the winds, was quenched; the songs by which +she gladdened the ears of her mother, as she plied her portable handwork +on the green, was no more heard mingling its notes with the music of the +Lyne; and the face that shone transparently, like painted alabaster, as +if part of the light came from within, was as the poet says—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Like an April morn</span> +<span class="i0">Clad in a wintry cloud."</span> +</div></div> + +<p>Nor did additional time seem to possess any power save that of +increasing the pain of the heart-stroke. Most of the griefs of mortals +have their appointed modes of alleviation—some are complaining griefs, +some are talkative, and some sorrows are sociable for selfishness. But +the heart-wound of her who has only those scenes of nature which were +associated with the image of the unkind one, to wear off the impressions +of which, under other hues, they form a part, is a silent mourner. There +is enough of a painful eloquence around her, and her voice would be only +the small whisper that is lost in the wailings of the storm in the glen. +Yet painful as the language is, she courts it in silence, even while it +mixes and blends with the poison which consumes her. It was in vain that +her mother, who saw with a parental eye the malady which is the best +understood by those of her class and age, urged her with kindness to +betake herself to her household duties. She was seldom to be prevailed +upon to remain within doors; the hill-side, or the bosom of the glen, or +the back of the willows by the water-side, were her choice. Ordinary +meal times were forgotten or unheeded, where<!-- Page 200 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span> Nature had renounced her +cravings, or given all her energies to the heart.</p> + +<p>The next intelligence received at Homestead was that of the marriage of +Hector Hayston, and his departure for France. The servants at +Whitecraigs were discharged, as if there had been no expectation, for a +long period, of the return of the young laird. The supply to the two +females was increased, and paid by Mr. Pringle, who, now probably aware +of the situation of Alice, delicately avoided any allusion to his +employer. Report, however, was busy with her tales; and the absence of +the youth was attributed to the workings of conscience or of shame. +There was little truth in the report. The object of his first affections +might easily have been banished from Whitecraigs, and he who had been +guilty of leaving her maybe supposed capable of removing her from scenes +which could only add to her sorrow. A true solution of his conduct might +have been found in the fact, that Hayston was now following his +pleasures in the society of his wife's friends—a gay and lavish +circle—and did not wish to detract from his enjoyment by adding +banishment and destitution to a wrong now irremediable. Little more was +heard of him for some time, with the exception of a floating report, +that he had borrowed, through his agent, the sum of ten thousand pounds +from a Mr. Colville, a neighbouring proprietor, and pledged to him +Whitecraigs in security. The circumstance interested greatly the +neighbouring proprietors, who shook their heads in significant augury of +the probable fate of their young neighbour in the whirlpool of +continental life. Yet the allowance to Dame Scott at the next term was +regularly paid; and if there was a tear in her eye, as she looked, first +at the money, and then at the thin, pallid creature who sat silent at +the window, it was not that she dreaded its discontinuance from the +result of the extravagance of the giver. The effect of the act of +payment of the money<!-- Page 201 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span> had, on a former occasion, been noticed by Pringle +on the conduct of Alice: it was on this occasion repeated. She rose from +her seat, looked steadfastly for a moment at the gift as it lay on the +table, placed her hand on her forehead, and flitted out of the room. The +eye of the agent followed her from the window: her step was hurried, +without an object of impulse. She might go—but whither? probably she +knew not herself; yet on she sped till she was lost among the trees on +the edge of the glen.</p> + +<p>Thus longer time passed, but there seemed no change to Alice, save in +the continual decrease of the frame, under the pressure of a mind that +communed with the past, and only looked to the future as containing some +day that would witness the termination of her sorrows. The anglers on +the Lyne became familiar with her figure, for they had seen it on the +heights, with her garments floating in the breeze, and had come up to +her as she sat by the waterside, but they passed on. At the worst she +could be but one whose spirit was not settled enough to admit of her +according with the ways of honest maidens; and they might regret that +the beauty that still lurked amidst the ravages of the disease of the +heart, had not been turned to better account. It is thus that one part +of mankind surveys another: they form their theory of a condition whose +secret nature is only known to its possessor; draw their moral from +false premises, formed as a compliment to their own conduct and +situation, and pass on to their pleasure.</p> + +<p>Yet there occurred an important exception to these remarks:—One day +Alice had taken up her seat on the banks of a small pond in front of the +house of Whitecraigs. She sat opposite to the front of the dwelling, and +seemed to survey its closed windows and deserted appearance, with the +long grass growing up through the gravel of the walks—the broken +pailings and decayed out-houses; a scene that<!-- Page 202 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span> might be supposed to +harmonize with the feelings of a mind broken and desolate. There might +seem even a consanguinity in the causes of the condition of both. The +scene might have suited the genius of a Danby. There was no living +creature to disturb the silence. The house of faded white, among the +dark trees, cheerless and forsaken; the face of Alice Scott emaciated +and pale, with the lustre of the loch, shining in the sun, reflected on +it, directed towards the habitation of which she should have been +mistress; her eyes, which had forgotten the relief of tears, fixed on +the scene so pregnant with unavailing reminiscences—with these we would +aid the artist.</p> + +<p>But the charm was gone, as a voice sounded behind her. She started, and, +according to her custom, would have fled as the hare that remembers the +snare; but she was detained. A man, advanced in years, poorly clad, with +hair well smitten with snow tints, and a staff in his hand, stood beside +her, holding her by the skirt of the gown.</p> + +<p>"I am weary," said he; "I have walked from Moffat, and would sit here +for a time, if you would speak to me of the scenes and people of these +parts." And the application of his hand again to her gown secured a +compliance, dictated more by fear than inclination. She sat, while she +trembled. "You are fair," continued he; "but my experience of sorrow +tells me that grief has been busier with your young heart than years. I +will not pry into your secrets. To whom does Whitecraigs now belong?"</p> + +<p>The name had not been breathed by her to mortal since that day she had +heard of the intended marriage. She made an effort to pronounce it, +failed, and fixed her eyes on the pond. The stranger gazed on her, +waiting for her reply.</p> + +<p>"Hector Hayston," she at length muttered.</p> + +<p>"And why has he left so fair a retreat to the desolation that has +overtaken it?" rejoined he again. The question<!-- Page 203 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span> was still more +unfortunate. She had no power to reply. Her face was turned from him, +and repressed breathings heaved her bosom. "You may tell me, then, if +one Dame Scott lives in these parts?" he said again, as he marked her +strange manner, and probably augured that his prior question was fraught +with pain.</p> + +<p>"Yes—yes," she replied, with a sudden start, as if relieved from pain, +while she regained her feet; "yonder lives my mother."</p> + +<p>The stranger stood with his eyes fixed upon her, as if in deep scrutiny +of the inexplicable features of her character and appearance; but he +added not a word, till he saw her move as if she wished to be gone.</p> + +<p>"You will go with me?" he said.</p> + +<p>But the words were scarcely uttered, when she was away through the +woods, leaving him to seek his way to the house of her mother, whither, +accordingly, he directed his steps, from some prior knowledge he +possessed of the locality about which he had been making inquiries. As +he went along, he seemed wrapt in meditation—again and again looking +back, to endeavour to get another sight of the girl, who was now seated +on the edge of the stream, and again seized by some engrossing thought +that claimed all the energies of his spirit. On coming up to the door of +the cottage, he tapped gently with his long staff; and, upon being +required by the dame to enter, he passed into the middle of the floor, +and stood and surveyed the house and its inmate.</p> + +<p>"I have nothing for you," said the latter; "so you must pass on to those +whom God has ordained as the distributors of what the needy require. +Alas! I am myself but a beggar."</p> + +<p>The words seemed to have been wrung out of her by the meditative mood in +which the stranger had found her, and, whether it was that the interest +which had been excited<!-- Page 204 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span> in him by the appearance of the daughter had +been increased by the confession of the mother, or that there was some +secret cause working in his mind, he passed his hand over his eyes, and +for a moment turned away his head.</p> + +<p>"I have been both a beggar and a giver in my day," he replied, as he +laid down his hat and staff, and took a chair opposite to the dame; "and +I am weary of the one character and of the other. I have got with a +curse; and I have given for ingratitude. But I may here give, and you +may receive, without either. There is an unoccupied bed; I am weary of +wandering, and have enough to pay for rest."</p> + +<p>"That is better than charity," rejoined the dame—"ay, even the charity +of the stranger."</p> + +<p>"And why of the <i>stranger</i>, dame?" added he. "I have hitherto thought +that the charity of <i>friends</i> was that which might be most easily borne. +And who may be your benefactor?"</p> + +<p>"Hector Hayston of Whitecraigs," replied she, hanging her head, and +drawing a deep breath.</p> + +<p>The stranger detected the same symptoms of pain in the mother as those +he had observed in the daughter.</p> + +<p>"Then forgets he not his cottars in his absence," he added. "But why has +he left a retreat fairer than any I have yet seen throughout a long +pilgrimage over many lands?"</p> + +<p>"We will not speak of that," she replied, rising slowly, and going to +the window, where she stood for a time in silence.</p> + +<p>"You have a daughter, dame," resumed the man, as he watched the +indications of movement in the heart of the mother. "I saw her sitting +looking at the mansion of Whitecraigs. I fear she can lend you small +aid; yet, if her powers of mind and body were equal to the beauty that +has too clearly faded from her cheeks, methinks you<!-- Page 205 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span> would have had +small need to have taken the charity of either friends or strangers."</p> + +<p>"Ay, poor Alice! poor Alice!" rejoined the mother, turning suddenly, and +applying her hand to something which required not her care at that +time—"Ay, poor Alice!" she added.</p> + +<p>"Is it a bargain, then," said he, wishing to retreat from a subject that +so evidently pained her, "that I may remain here for a time, on your own +terms of remuneration?"</p> + +<p>"It may be as you say," replied she, again taking her seat; "but only on +a condition."</p> + +<p>"What is it?" inquired he.</p> + +<p>"That you never mention the name of Hector Hayston, or of Whitecraigs, +while Alice is by. She harms no one; and I would not see her harmed."</p> + +<p>"I perceive," said he, muttering to himself, "that I am not the only one +in the world who carries in his bosom a secret. But," he continued, in a +louder tone, "your condition, dame, shall be fulfilled; and now I may +hold myself to be your lodger." And he proceeded to take from the +stuffed pockets of his coat some night-clothes of a homely character, +and handed them to the dame. "And now," he said, "you may be, now or +after, wondering who he may be who has thus come, like a weary bird from +the waste that seeks refuge among the sere leaves, to live in the +habitation of sorrow. But you must question me not; and farther than my +name, which is Wallace, you may know nothing of me till after the 29th +day of September—ay, ay," he continued, as if calculating, "the 29th +day of September."</p> + +<p>The dame started as she heard the mention of the day, looked steadfastly +at him, and was silent.</p> + +<p>"Yes," he continued, "that day past, and I will once more draw my breath +freely in the land of my fathers; and my foot, which has only bowed the +head of the<!-- Page 206 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span> heather-bell in the valley, may yet collect energy enough +from my unstrung nerves to press fearlessly the sod of the mountain. How +long is it since your husband died?"</p> + +<p>"Seven years," replied she.</p> + +<p>"Well, short as our acquaintance has yet been," said he, "our words have +been only of unpleasant things. Now, I require refreshment; and here is +some small pay in advance, to remove the ordinary prejudice against +strangers. We shall be better acquainted by times. I will take, now, +what is readiest in the house; for you may guess, from my attire, that I +have been accustomed to that fare by which the poor contrive to spin out +the weary term of their pilgrimage."</p> + +<p>So much being arranged, the dame set about preparing a meal; and Mr. +Wallace, as he had called himself, proceeded to transform his staff into +a fishing-rod, and arrange his other small matters connected with his +future residence. When the humble dish was prepared, the dame went out, +and, taking her position on a green tumulus that rose between the +cottage and the Lyne, stood, and, placing her hands over her eyes, +looked down the water. Her eye, accustomed to the search, detected the +form of her daughter far down the stream, and, waving her hand to her, +she beckoned her home. But she came not; and the two inmates sat down to +their repast.</p> + +<p>"This shall be for my poor Alice," said the mother, as she laid aside a +portion of the frugal fare; "but she will take it at her own time, or +perhaps not at all."</p> + +<p>"And yet how much she needs it," added the stranger, "her wasted form +and pale face too plainly show."</p> + +<p>"There is a sad change there, sir," rejoined she. "There was not a +fairer or more gentle creature from Tweedscross to Tweedmouth than Alice +Scott; nor did ever the foot of light-hearted innocence pass swifter +over the hill or down the glen. You have seen her to-day where she is +often to<!-- Page 207 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span> be seen—by the pond opposite the closed-up house of +Whitecraigs—and may wonder to hear how one so wasted may still reach +the hill-heads; yet there, too, she is sometimes seen. I have struggled +sore to make her what she once was; but in vain. She will wander and +wander, and return and wander again; nor will this cease till I some day +find her dead body among the seggs of the Lyne, or in the lirk of the +hill. When I know you better, I may tell you more. At present, I am +eating the bread of one who is more connected with this sad subject than +I may now confess; and I have never been accounted ungrateful."</p> + +<p>The stranger was moved, and ate his meal in meditative silence. In an +hour afterwards, Alice returned to the house, and, as she entered, +started as her eye met that of him who had, by his questions, stirred to +greater activity the feelings that were already too busy with her heart; +but her fears were removed, by his avoidance of the subject which had +pained her; and a few hours seemed to have rendered him as indifferent +to her as seemed the other objects around her. Some days passed, and the +widow would have been as well satisfied with her lodger as he was with +her, had it not been that he enjoined secrecy as to his residence in the +house—retiring to the spence when any one entered; and if at any time +he went along the Lyne in the morning, he avoided those whom he met; and +betook himself to private acts in the inner apartment during the day. At +times he left the cottage in the evening, and did not return for two +days; but whither he went, the inmates knew not. The dame conjectured he +had been as far as Peebles; but her reason was merely that he brought +newspapers with him, and intelligence of matters transacting there. The +secrecy was not suited to the open and simple manners to which she had +been accustomed; but she recollected his words, that on the<!-- Page 208 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span> 29th of +September, she would know all concerning him. Now these words were +connected by a chain of associations that startled her. The 29th of +September had been set apart by her deceased husband as a day of prayer. +He had never allowed it to pass without an offering of the contrite +heart to God; this practice he had continued till his death, and she had +witnessed the act repeated for fifteen years. She was no more +superstitious than the rest of her class; she was, indeed, probably less +so; and her theories, formed for an adequate explanation of the +startling coincidence, were probably as philosophical as if they had +been formed by reason acting under the astute direction of scepticism. +Yet where is the mind, untutored or learned, that can throw away at all +times, at all hours—when the heart is in the sunshine of the cheerful +day of worldly intercourse, or in the deep shadow of the wing of +eternity—all thoughts of all powers save those of natural causes, which +are themselves a mystery? We may sport with the subject; but it comes +again back on the heart, and we sigh in whispering words of fear, that +in the hands of God we are nothing.</p> + +<p>One day Mr. Wallace was seated at breakfast; he had been away for two +nights; Alice was sitting by the side of the fire, looking into the +heart of the red embers, and the mother was superintending the +breakfast; he took out a newspaper from his pocket, and, without a word +of premonition, read a paragraph in a deep, solemn voice.</p> + +<p>"Died at —— Street, London, Maria Knight, wife of Hector Hayston, +Esq., of Whitecraigs, in the county of Peebles, in Scotland."</p> + +<p>A peculiar sound struggled in the throat of Alice; but it passed, and +she was silent. The mother sat and looked Wallace in the face, to +ascertain what construction to put upon the occurrence which he had thus +read with an emphasis betokening a greater interest than it might +demand<!-- Page 209 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span> from one, as yet, all but ignorant, as she thought, of the true +circumstances of the condition of her daughter. He made no commentary on +what he had read; but looking again at the paper, and turning it over, +as if searching for some other news, he fixed his eyes on an +advertisement in the fourth page. He then read—</p> + +<p>"On the 1st day of October next, there will be exposed to public roup +and sale, within the Town-Hall of Peebles, by virtue of the powers of +sale contained in a mortgage granted by Hector Hayston, Esq., of +Whitecraigs, in favour of George Colville of Haughton, all and hail the +lands and estate of Whitecraigs, situated in the parish of——, and +shire of Peebles, with the mansion-house, offices, &c."</p> + +<p>He then laid down the paper, and, looking the widow full in the face—</p> + +<p>"The day of sale of Whitecraigs," said he, "is the <i>second</i> day after +the 29th of September. It would have been too much had it been on that +day itself."</p> + +<p>No reply was made to his remark. The announcement called up in the mind +of the dame more than she could express; but that which concerned more +closely herself, was too apparently veiled with no mystery. The sale of +Whitecraigs was the ejection of herself and daughter from Homestead; and +she knew not whither she and her daughter were now to be driven, to seek +refuge and sustenance from a world from which she had been so long +estranged.</p> + +<p>"All things come to a termination," she said. "For many years I have +lived here, wife and widow; and if I have felt sorrow, I have also +enjoyed. The world is wide; and if I may be obliged to ask and to +receive charity, the God who moves the hand to give it, may not +again—now that His purpose may be served by my contrition—select that +of the destroyer of my child. But there is another that must be taken +from these haunts;" and, turning to<!-- Page 210 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span> Alice, whose face was still +directed to the fire, she gazed on her hapless daughter, while the tear +stole down her cheeks.</p> + +<p>Wallace's eye was fixed on the couple. He seemed to understand the +allusion of the mother, which indicated plainly enough, that though the +hills and glens of Whitecraigs had been the scene of the ruin of her +daughter's peace, she anticipated still more fatal consequences from +taking her away from them. Meanwhile, Alice, who had listened to and +understood all, arose from her seat.</p> + +<p>"I will never leave Whitecraigs, mother," she said; and bent her steps +towards the door.</p> + +<p>"Let her follow her fancy," said Wallace. Then relapsing into a fit of +musing, he added—"the 29th of September of this year will soon be of +the time that is. For twenty years I have looked forward to that +day—under a burning sun, far from my native land, I have sighed for +it—in the midnight hour I have counted the years and days that were +between. Every anniversary was devoted to the God who has chastened the +heart of the sinner; and there was need, when that heart was full of the +thoughts inspired by that day, and penitence came on the wings of +terror. Now it approaches; and I have not miscalculated the benefits it +may pour on other heads than mine."</p> + +<p>"Alas!" said the widow, as she cast her eye through the window after her +daughter, "there is no appointed day for the termination of the sorrows +of that poor creature. To the broken-hearted, one day as another, +sunshine or shower, is the same. But what hand shall bear Alice Scott +from Whitecraigs?"</p> + +<p>"Perhaps none," replied Wallace, as, taking up the newspaper, he retired +to an inner apartment, where he usually spent the day. Some hours +passed; and, in the afternoon, Mr. Pringle, while passing, took occasion +to call at Homestead, and informed the widow that it would be<!-- Page 211 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span> her duty +to look out for another habitation, as Whitecraigs was to be sold by the +creditor, Mr. Colville, whose object in granting the loan was, if +possible, to take advantage of the difficulties into which extravagance +had plunged the young proprietor, and to bring the property into the +market, that he might purchase it as an appanage of the old estate of +Haughton, from which it had been disjoined. He represented it as a cruel +proceeding, and that its cruelty was enhanced by the circumstance of the +sale being advertised in the same paper which contained the intelligence +of the death of Hector's young wife. Another listener might have replied +that God's ways are just; but Dame Scott, if she thought at the time of +her daughter, considered also that Hayston had supported her for many +years.</p> + +<p>"Good dame," added the agent, "it might have been well for my young +friend if he had remained at Whitecraigs. I never saw the wife he +married, and has just lost in the bloom of youth; but she must have been +fair indeed, if she was fairer than she whom he left. Yet Hector's +better principles did not, I am satisfied, entirely forsake him. The +disinclination he has shown to visit his paternal property, was the +result of a clinging remembrance of her he left mourning in the midst of +its glens; nor do I wonder at it, for even I have turned aside to avoid +the sight of Alice Scott. Misfortunes, however, are sometimes mercies; +and the change of residence you will be now driven to, may aid in the +cure of a disease that is only fed by these scenes of Whitecraigs."</p> + +<p>He here paused, and, putting his hand in his pocket, took out some +money.</p> + +<p>"This may be the last gift," he said, as he presented it to her, "that +Hector Hayston may ever send you. These are his words. His fortunes are +ruined, his wife is dead, and, worse than all, his peace of mind is +fled."<!-- Page 212 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Heaven have mercy on him!" replied the widow. "One word of reproach has +never escaped the lips of me or my daughter. I have suffered in this +cottage without murmuring, and the glens and hollows of Whitecraigs have +alone heard the complainings of Alice Scott. She will cling to these +places to the last; but were the windows of the deserted house again +opened, with strange faces there, and maybe the lights of the +entertainments of the happy shining through them, she might feel less +pleasure in sitting by the pond from which she now so often surveys the +deserted mansion. This last gift, sir, moves my tears—yea, for all I +and mine have suffered from Hector Hayston."</p> + +<p>The agent had performed his duty, and departed with the promise that he +would, of his own accord, endeavour to prevail upon some of his +employers to grant her a cottage, if the purchaser of Whitecraigs should +resist an appeal for her to remain. He had no sooner gone, than the +stranger Wallace, who had heard the conversation, entered. He asked her +how much money Hector had sent as his last gift; and, on being +informed—</p> + +<p>"That young man," he said, "has fallen a victim to the allurements of a +town life. The story of your daughter has been known to me; but I have +avoided the mention of the name of Hayston, which could only have +yielded pain without an amelioration of its cause. That gift speaks to +me volumes. Even fashion has not sterilized the heart of that young man. +He has erred—he may have transgressed—but for all, all, there is a +29th of September!"</p> + +<p>The allusion he thus made was as inscrutable as ever. Again she +reflected upon her husband's conduct upon that day of the year; and +again, as she had done a hundred times, searched the face of the +speaker. But she abstained from question; and the day passed, and others +came, till the eventful morning was ushered in by sunshine. Wallace<!-- Page 213 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span> was +up by times; and his prayers were heard directed to the Throne of Mercy, +in thanks and heart-expressed contrition. In the forenoon he went forth +with freedom, climbed the hills, and conversed with the anglers he met +on the Lyne. He seemed as if relieved from some weighty burden; and the +dame, who had carefully watched his motions, waited anxiously for the +secret. He had not, however, pledged himself to reveal it on that day. +He had only said that all would be made known some time after the day +had passed; and, accordingly, he made no declaration. Yet, at bedtime, +he was again engaged in prayers, and even during the night he was heard +muttering expressions of thanksgiving to the Author of the day, and what +the day bringeth.</p> + +<p>On the following morning, he announced his intention of going to +Peebles, whither he was supposed to have gone before; but now his manner +of going was changed. He purposed taking the coach, which, as it passed +within some miles of Whitecraigs, he intended to wait for, and on +departing—</p> + +<p>"You will not hear of me till to-morrow night," he said. "I can now face +man; would that I could with the same confidence hold up my countenance +to God. Alice Scott," he continued, as he looked to the girl, "I will +not forget you in my absence. Your day of sorrow has been long; but +there may yet be a 29th of September even to you."</p> + +<p>And, taking the maiden kindly in his arms, he whispered some words in +her ear, in which the magic syllables of a name she trembled to hear +were mixed. Her eyes exhibited a momentary brightness, a deep sigh +heaved her bosom, and again her head declined, with a whisper on her +lips—"Never, O never!" In a moment after, he was gone; and the widow +was left to ascertain from Alice what he had said, to bring again, even +for a moment, the blood to her cheek.<!-- Page 214 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span></p> + +<p>On the day after, there was a crowd of people in the Town-Hall of +Peebles, and the auctioneer was reading aloud the articles of roup of +the lands of Whitecraigs. Mr. Colville was there in high hopes; but +there were others too, who seemed inclined to disappoint them. The +property was set up at the price of fifteen thousand pounds, and that +sum was soon offered by the holder of the mortgage. Other bodes quickly +followed, and a competition commenced, which soon raised the price to +eighteen thousand, at which it seemed to be destined to be given to +Haughton. The other competitors appeared timid; and several declared +themselves done, one by one, until no one was expected to advance a +pound higher. All was silence, save for the voice of the auctioneer; and +he had already begun his ominous once, twice, when a voice which had not +yet been heard, cried—"Eighteen thousand two hundred." The hammer was +suspended, and all eyes turned to view the doughty assailant, who would, +at the end of the day, vanquish the champion who had as yet retained the +field. Those eyes recognised in the bidder a man poorly clothed, and +more like an alms-seeker than the purchaser of an estate—no other was +that man than Mr. Wallace. The auctioneer looked at him; others looked +and wondered; and Haughton gloomed, as he advanced another hundred; and +that was soon followed by a hundred more, which led to a competition +that seemed to be embittered on the one part by pride and contempt, and +on the other by determination. Hundred upon hundred followed in rapid +succession, till Haughton gave up in despair, and a shout rung through +the hall as the hammer fell, and the estate was declared the property of +the humble stranger, whom no one knew, and whom no one would have +considered worth more than the clothes he carried on his back. A +certificate of a banker at Peebles—that he held in his hands funds, +belonging to the purchaser, of greater amount than<!-- Page 215 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span> the price—satisfied +the judge of the roup; and the party were divided in circles, conversing +on the strange turn which had been given to the sale of Whitecraigs.</p> + +<p>On the same night, Wallace returned to Homestead, and sat down +composedly to the humble meal that had been prepared for him by the +widow. Alice was in her usual seat; and the placidity of manner which +distinguished them from ordinary sufferers, spoke their usual obedience +to the Divine will.</p> + +<p>"This day the property of Whitecraigs has changed masters!" said he.</p> + +<p>"And who has purchased it?" inquired the mother.</p> + +<p>"He who is now sitting before you!" replied he.</p> + +<p>Alice turned her head to look at him; the mother sat mute with surprise; +while he rose and fastened the door.</p> + +<p>"It is even so," he continued, as he again sat down; "David Scott, the +brother of your husband, and the uncle of Alice, has this day purchased +Whitecraigs."</p> + +<p>A faint scream from the mother followed this announcement, and, +recovering herself, she again fixed her eyes on the stranger.</p> + +<p>"It is true," continued he; "I am the brother of your deceased husband. +For two years after you were married to Adam, you would, doubtless, hear +him speak of me, as then engaged in a calling of which I may now be +ashamed, for I was one of the most daring smugglers on the Solway. The +29th of September, 17—, dawned upon me, yet with hands unsullied in the +blood of man; but the sun of that day set upon me as proscribed by God +and my country. My name was read on the house walls, and execration +followed my steps, as I flew from cave to cave. Yet who could have told +that that day in which my evil spirit wrought its greatest triumph over +good, was that whose evening shades closed upon a repentant soul!"</p> + +<p>He paused, and placed his hand on his brow.<!-- Page 216 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span></p> + +<p>"These things are to me as an old dream," replied the widow, looking +round her, as if in search of memorials of stationary space. "My husband +never afterwards mentioned your name, save to inform me that you had +died in the West Indies; yet now I see the import of his devotion, in +the coming round of the day that shamed the honest family to whom he +belonged."</p> + +<p>"And it was to save that shame, and to secure my safety under my assumed +name, that, after I flew to the islands of the west, I got intelligence +of my death sent to Scotland. What other than the issue of this day must +have been in the view of the great Disposer of events, when, in addition +to the grace He poured on the heart of the sinner, He invested the arm +that had been lifted against His creatures with the prosperity that +filled my coffers! But, alas! though I may have reason to trust to the +forgiveness of Heaven, that of man I may never expect."</p> + +<p>"And punishment still awaits you?" rejoined she.</p> + +<p>"No, no!" he cried, as he rose and placed his foot firmly on the floor. +"I am free—the heart may hate me, the tongue may scorn me, the hand may +point at me, but it dare not strike. On the 29th of September I was no +longer amenable to the laws for the crime which drove me to foreign +lands: twenty years free the culprit from the vengeance of man; the last +day of that period was the 29th of September—it is past; and now God is +my only judge." He again paused. "But I must live still as David +Wallace. The name of Scott shall not be sullied by me. As David Wallace +I have made my fortune, and as David Wallace made my supplications to +Heaven. By the same name I have bought Whitecraigs, and by that name I +shall make it over to one who may yet retrieve the honour of our humble +house—to Alice, who should, through other means, have been mistress. +Come to your natural<!-- Page 217 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span> protector, Alice, and tell him if you will consent +to be the lady of Whitecraigs."</p> + +<p>The girl, on whom the ordinary occurrences of life now seldom made any +impression, had listened attentively to the extraordinary facts and +intentions thus evolved; and, at his bidding, rose and stood by his +side. He took her hand, and looked into her face.</p> + +<p>"I knew," said he, "that I was pledged not to mention a certain name +while you were by; and I kept my word, with the exception of the whisper +I stole into your ear on the day I set out for Peebles. But things are +now changed. The rights of Whitecraigs are now in the act of being made +out in your name. Within a month you will be mistress of that mansion, +and of those green dells and hills you have loved to wander among in joy +and in sorrow. Now, will you answer me a question?"</p> + +<p>"I will!" she replied.</p> + +<p>"What would be your answer to Hector Hayston—who is now no longer a +husband, and no longer rich—were he to come to Whitecraigs and make +amends for all that is by and gone? Would you receive him kindly, or +turn him from the door of the house of his fathers?"</p> + +<p>The question was too sudden, or too touchingly devised. She looked for a +moment in his face, burst into tears, and hid her face in his breast.</p> + +<p>"Try her poor heart not thus!" cried the mother. "Time, that as yet has +done nothing but made ravages, may now, when things are so changed, work +miracles. Do not press the question. A woman and a mother knows better +than you can do what are now her feelings. The answer is not +asked—Alice, your uncle has taken back his question!"</p> + +<p>"I have—I have!" replied he, as he pressed her to his breast. "Look up, +my dear Alice. I have, in my pride and power, been hasty, and thought I +could rule the heart<!-- Page 218 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span> of woman as I have done my own, even in its +rebellion against God. I have yet all to learn of those secret workings +of the spirit, in all save repentance. I never myself knew what it was +to love, far less what it is to love and be forsaken. No more—no more. +I will not again touch those strings."</p> + +<p>And, rising hurriedly, he consigned the maid to her mother, and went +out, to afford her time to collect again her thoughts. During the +following week the furniture of Whitecraigs was disposed of by Mr. +Pringle, for behoof of the other creditors of Hayston, and purchased by +the uncle, who took another journey to Peebles, for the purpose of +negotiating the sale, and making further preparations for obtaining +entry. In a fortnight after, the keys were sent to Homestead by a +messenger, while the making up of the titles was in the course of +progress. It was no part of the intention of Wallace to reside in the +mansion-house: his object was still secrecy; and, though the form and +character of the transaction might lead ultimately to a discovery, he +cared not. By the prescription of the crime he had committed, he was +free from punishment; while, by retaining his name, and living +ostensibly in a humble condition, he had a chance of escaping a +detection of his true character, at the same time that he might, by +humility and good services, render himself more acceptable to that Great +Power whose servant he now considered himself to be.</p> + +<p>On the twenty-first day of October, the house of Whitecraigs was again +open. Servants had been procured from Peebles; the fires were again +burning; the wreaths of smoke again ascended from among the trees; and +life and living action were taking the place of desertedness. On the +forenoon of that day, Wallace took the two females from Homestead, and +conducted them, hanging on his arms, to their new place of residence. To +speak of feelings,<!-- Page 219 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span> where a change comprehended an entire revolution of +a life of habit, thought, and sentiment, would be as vain as +unintelligible. From that day, when the uncle had put the trying +question to his niece, a change might have been detected working a +gradual influence on her appearance and conduct. Might we say that hope +had again lighted her taper within the recesses where all had been so +long dreary darkness! The change would not authorize an affirmative—it +would have startled the ear that might have feared and yet loved the +sounds. One not less versed in human nature might be safer in the +construction derived from the new objects, new duties, new desires, new +thoughts, from all the thousand things that act on the mind in this +wonderful scene of man's existence; but would he be truer to the nature +of the heart that has once loved? We may be contented with a mean, where +extremes shoot into the darkness of our mysterious nature. Alice Scott +took in gradually the interests of her new sphere; did not despise the +apparel suited to it; did not reject the manners that adorned it; did +not turn a deaf ear or a dead eye to the eloquent ministers that lay +around amidst the beauties of Whitecraigs and hailed her as mistress, +where she was once a servant, if not a beggar.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile the house of Homestead was enlarged, to fit it as a residence +for the uncle. Mr. Pringle was continued agent for the proprietress of +Whitecraigs; and, while many, doubtless, speculated on a thousand +theories as to these strange occurrences, we may not deny to Hector +Hayston, wherever he was, or in whatever circumstances, some interest in +what concerned him so nearly as the disposal of his estate, and the +fortune of her by whom his first affections had been awakened. Neither +shall we say that Wallace and Pringle had not, too, their secret views +and understandings, and that the latter was not silent where the +interests of his old employer called for<!-- Page 220 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span> confidence. In all which we +may be justified by the fact that, one day, the agent of Whitecraigs +introduced to the bachelor of Homestead a young man: it was the former +proprietor of Whitecraigs.</p> + +<p>"It is natural, Mr. Wallace," said Mr. Pringle, "that one should wish to +revisit the scenes of his youth—especially," he added, with a smile, +"when these have been one's own property, come from prior generations, +and lost by the thoughtlessness of youth."</p> + +<p>"It is," replied Wallace, renouncing his usual gravity, "even though +there should be no one there who might claim the hand of old friendship. +But this young man has only, as yet, seen the hill-tops of his father's +lands; and these claim no seclusion from the eye of the traveller. He +might wish, with greater ardency, to see the bed where his mother lay +when she bore him, or the cradle (which may still be in the house) where +she rocked him to sleep."</p> + +<p>"God be merciful to me!" replied the youth, as he turned away his head. +"This man touches strings whose vibrations harrow me. Sir," he added, +"were you ever yourself in the situation of him whose feelings you have +thus, from good motives, quickened so painfully?"</p> + +<p>"What Whitecraigs and she who lives now in the house yonder were or are +to you, Scotland and my kindred were to me; but the house where I was +born knows me not, and the bed and the cradle do not own me. But Alice +Scott recognised me as a fellow-creature, whatever more I say not; and +even that, from one so good, and, even yet, so beautiful—is something +to live for. No more. I know all. Will you risk a meeting?"</p> + +<p>"Mr. Pringle will answer for me," replied he, as he turned, with a full +heart, to the window.</p> + +<p>"And I will answer for Mr. Pringle," said Wallace.</p> + +<p>"But who will answer for <i>her</i>?" rejoined the other.<!-- Page 221 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Stay there," said Wallace. "I will return in a few minutes."</p> + +<p>And, bending his steps to Whitecraigs House, he was, for a time, engaged +with Alice and her mother. He again returned to Homestead; and, in a few +minutes after, the three were walking towards the mansion. The eye of +the young man glanced furtively from side to side, as if to catch +glimpses of old features which had become strange to him; but in the +direction of the house he seemed to have no power to look—lagging +behind, and displaying an anxiety to be concealed, by the bodies of the +others, from the view of the windows. On arriving at the house, Wallace +and Pringle went into an apartment where the mother was seated. Hector +stood in the passage: he feared that Alice was there, and would not +enter.</p> + +<p>"Think you," whispered Wallace, quickly returning to him, "that I, whom +you accused of touching tender chords, am so little acquainted with +human nature as to admit of witnesses to your meeting with Alice Scott? +There, the green parlour in the west wing," he continued, pointing up +the inside stair to a room well known to the youth. "If you cannot +effect it, who may try? Go—go!"</p> + +<p>"I cannot—I cannot!" he replied, in deep tones. "My feet will not carry +me. That room was my mother's favourite parlour. A thousand associations +are busy with me. And now, who sits there?"</p> + +<p>"Come, come!" said Pringle, as he came forth, in consequence of hearing +Hayston's irresolution. "What did you expect on coming here? Alice to +come and fly to you with open arms?"</p> + +<p>"No, sir; to reject me with a wave of disdain!" replied the youth. "I am +smitten from within, and confidence has left me. Let me see her mother +first. My cruelty to her has been mixed with kindness, and she may give +me some heart."<!-- Page 222 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span></p> + +<p>And he turned to the apartment where the mother sat.</p> + +<p>"Your confidence will not be restored by anything the mother can say!" +rejoined Pringle, who was getting alarmed for the success of his +efforts. "Alice is now mistress here, and must be won by contrition, and +a prayer for forgiveness."</p> + +<p>"Ho!" interjected Wallace. "To what tends this mummery? Must I take you +by the hand, and lead you to one who, for years, has seen you in every +flitting shade of the hills, and heard you in every note of the sighing +winds of the valley?"</p> + +<p>"To hate me as I deserve to be hated!" replied Hayston, still +irresolute. "None of you can give me any ground for hope, and seem to +push me on to experience a rejection which may seal my misery for ever!"</p> + +<p>Wallace smiled in silence, beckoned Pringle into the room beside the +mother, and taking Hayston by the arm, with a show of humour that +accorded but indifferently with the real anguish of doubt and dismay by +which the young man's mind was occupied, forced him on to the first step +of the inside stair.</p> + +<p>"You are now fairly committed!" said he, smiling; "to retreat, is ruin; +to advance, happiness, and love, and peace."</p> + +<p>And he retreated to the room where Pringle was, leaving the youth to the +strength or weakness of his own resolution. His tread was now heard, +slow and hesitating, on the stair. Some time elapsed before the sound of +the opening door was heard; and that it remained for a time open, held +by the doubtful hand, might also have been observed. At last it was +shut; and quick steps on the floor indicated that the first look had not +been fraught with rejection.</p> + +<p>The party below were, meanwhile, speculating on the result of the +meeting. Even the mother was not certain<!-- Page 223 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span> that it would, at first, be +attended with success. Alice had yielded no consent; and it was only +from the mother's construction of her looks, that she had given her +authority for the interview.</p> + +<p>"All is now decided, for good or evil," said Wallace. "Go up stairs, and +bring us a report of the state of affairs."</p> + +<p>The mother obeyed; and, after a considerable time, returned, with her +eyes swimming in tears.</p> + +<p>"Is it so?" said her friend. "Is it really so? Has all my labour been +fruitless?"</p> + +<p>"No," replied she; "but I could not stand the sight. I found her lying +on the breast of Hector, sobbing out the sorrows of years. Her eyes have +been long dry. The heart is at last opened."</p> + +<p>"Too good a sight for me to lose," replied her friend. "For twenty years +I have only known the tears of penitence: I will now experience those +that flow from the happiness of others."</p> + +<p>And, with these words, he hurried up stairs. We would follow, but that +we are aware of the danger of treading ground almost forbidden to +inspiration. Within two hours afterwards, Hector Hayston and Alice Scott +were again among the glens of Whitecraigs, seeking out those places +where, before, they used to breathe the accents of a first affection. +The one had been true to the end; and the other had been false only to +learn the beauty of truth. We have given these details from a true +record, and have derived pleasure from the recollections they have +awakened; but we fairly admit, that we would yield one half of what we +have experienced of the good, to have marked that day the workings of +the retrieved spirit in the eyes, and speech, and manners of Alice +Scott. These are nature's true magic. The drooping flower that is all +but dead in the dry, parched soil, raises its head, takes on<!-- Page 224 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span> fresh +colours, and gives forth fresh odours, as the spring showers fall on its +withered leaves. Oh! there is a magic there that escapes not even the +eye of dull labour, retiring home sick of all but the repose he needs. +But the process in the frame that is the temple of beauty, worth, +intelligence, sensibility, rearing all in loveliness afresh, out of what +was deemed the ruins only of what is the greatest and best of God's +works—to see this, and to feel it, is to rejoice that we are placed in +a world that, with all its elements of vice and sorrow, is yet a place +where the good and the virtuous may find something analogous to that for +which the spirit pants in other worlds.</p> + +<p>Yet, though we saw it not, we have enough of the conception, through +fancy, to be thankful for the gift even of the <i>ideal</i> of the good; and +here we are satisfied that we have more. Hector Hayston and Alice Scott +were married. David Wallace's history was long concealed, but curiosity +finally triumphed; yet with no effect calculated to impair the +equanimity of a mind which repentance, and a reliance on God's grace, +had long rendered independent of the opinions of men. He had wrought for +evil, and good came of it; and he lived long to see, in the house of +Whitecraigs, its master, mistress, and children, the benefits of the +prescription which the 29th of September effected—a principle of the +law of Scotland that was long deemed inconsistent with the good of the +land, but now more properly considered as being no less in unison with +the feelings of man than it is with divine mercy.<!-- Page 225 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="THE_COUNTESS_OF_WISTONBURY" id="THE_COUNTESS_OF_WISTONBURY"></a>THE COUNTESS OF WISTONBURY.</h2> + + +<p>In the summer of 1836 I had occasion to make a journey into Wiltshire, +in England. As the business that called me there, although of sufficient +importance to me, would have no interest whatever for the reader, I will +readily be excused, I dare say, from saying of what nature that business +was. It will more concern him, from its connection with the sequel, to +know that my residence, while in England, was in a certain beautiful +little village at the southern extremity of the shire above named, and +that mine host, during my stay there, was the worthy landlord of the +White Hart Inn, as intelligent and well-informed a man as it has often +been my good fortune to meet with. The nature of the business which made +me a guest of Michael Jones, left me a great deal more spare time than I +knew well what to do with. It hung heavy upon my hands; and my good +host, perceiving this, suggested a little excursion, which, he said, he +thought would dispose of one day, at any rate, agreeably enough.</p> + +<p>"I would recommend you, sir," he said, "to pay a visit to Oxton Hall, +the seat of the Earl of Wistonbury.<a class="fnanchor">[5]</a> It is one of the finest +residences in England; and, as the family are not there just now, you +may see the whole house, both inside and outside. If you think of it, I +will give you a line to the butler, a very old friend of mine, and he +will be glad to show you all that's worth seeing about the place."</p> + +<div class="footnote"><p> [5]Under this name we choose, for obvious reasons, to conceal the real +one.—<i>Ed.</i></p></div> + +<p>"How far distant is it?" I inquired.<!-- Page 226 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Oh, not more than three miles and a half—little more than an hour's +easy walk," replied mine host.</p> + +<p>"Excellent!" said I; "thank you for the hint, landlord. Let me have the +introduction to the butler you spoke about, and I'll set off directly."</p> + +<p>In less than five minutes, a card, addressed to Mr. John Grafton, +butler, Oxton Hall, was put into my hands, and in two minutes more I was +on my way to the ancient seat of the Earls of Wistonbury. The directions +given me as to my route, carefully noted on my part, brought me, in +little more than an hour, to a spacious and noble gateway, secured by a +magnificent gate of cast-iron. This I at once recognised, from the +description given me by Mr. Jones, to be the principal entrance to Oxton +Hall. Satisfied that it was so, I unhesitatingly entered—and the house +of one of the proudest of England's aristocracy stood before me, in all +its lordly magnificence. A spacious lawn, of the brightest and most +beautiful verdure, dotted over with noble oaks, and tenanted by some +scores of fallow-deer, stretched far and wide on every side. In the +centre of this splendid park—such a park as England alone can +exhibit—arose the mansion-house, an ancient and stately pile, of great +extent and lofty structure.</p> + +<p>Having found the person to whose civilities I was recommended by mine +host of the White Hart—a mild and pleasant-looking old man, of about +seventy years of age—I put my credentials into his hands. On reading +it, the old man looked at me smilingly, and said that he would have much +pleasure in obliging his good friend Mr. Jones, by showing me all that +was worth seeing both in and about the house; and many things both +curious and rare, and, I may add, both costly and splendid, did I see +ere another hour had passed away; but fearing the reader's patience +would scarcely stand the trial of a description of them, I refrain from +the experiment, and proceed to say,<!-- Page 227 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span> that, just as our survey of the +house was concluded, my cicerone, as if suddenly recollecting himself, +said—</p> + +<p>"By-the-by, sir, perhaps you would like to see the picture gallery, +although it is hardly worth seeing just now—most of the pictures having +been removed to our house in Grosvenor Square last winter; and, being in +this denuded state, I never think of showing it to visitors. There are, +however, a few portraits of different members of the family still left, +and these you may see if you have any curiosity regarding them."</p> + +<p>Such curiosity I avowed I felt, and was immediately conducted into the +presence of a number of the pictorial ancestry of the illustrious house +of Wistonbury. The greater part of the pictures had been removed, as my +conductor had informed me; but a few still remained scattered along the +lofty walls of the gallery.</p> + +<p>"That," said my cicerone, pointing to a grim warrior, clad from head to +heel in a panoply of steel,—"that is Henry, first Earl of Wistonbury, +who fell in Palestine during the holy wars; and this," directing my +attention to another picture, "is the grandfather of the present Earl."</p> + +<p>"A very handsome and pleasant-looking young man," said I, struck with +the forcible representation of these qualities which the painting +exhibited.</p> + +<p>"Ay," replied the old man, "and as good as he was handsome. He is the +pride of the house; and the country around yet rings with his name, +associated with all that is kind and charitable."</p> + +<p>"And who is this lovely creature?" said I, now pointing in my turn to +the portrait of a young female of the most exquisite beauty—the face +strikingly resembling some of the best executed likenesses of the +unfortunate Queen Mary—which hung beside that of the Good Earl of +Wistonbury, as the nobleman of whom my cicerone had just spoken was +called throughout the country.<!-- Page 228 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span></p> + +<p>"That lady, sir," replied the latter, "was his wife—the Countess of +Wistonbury. She was one of the most beautiful women of her time; and, +like her husband, was beloved by all around her, for the gentleness of +her manners and benevolence of her disposition."</p> + +<p>"But what's this?" said I, advancing a little nearer the picture, to +examine something in her attire that puzzled me. "A Scotch plaid!" I +exclaimed in considerable surprise, on ascertaining that this was the +article of dress which had perplexed me. "Pray, what has the Scotch +plaid to do here? How happens it that we find a Countess of Wistonbury +arrayed in the costume of Caledonia?"</p> + +<p>"Why, sir, the reason is good—perfectly satisfactory," replied Mr. +Grafton, smilingly. "She was a native of that country."</p> + +<p>"Indeed!" said I. "A countrywoman of mine! Of what family?" added I.</p> + +<p>My conductor smiled.</p> + +<p>"Truly," said he, after a pause, "that is a question easier put than +answered."</p> + +<p>"What!" said I, "was she not of some distinguished house?"</p> + +<p>"By no means, sir," replied Mr. Grafton. "She was a person of the +humblest birth and station; but this did not hinder her from becoming +Countess of Wistonbury, nor from being one of the best as well as most +beautiful that ever bore the title."</p> + +<p>"Ah, ha!" said I to myself, "here's a story for the 'Tales of the +Borders.'" I did not say this to Mr. Grafton, however; but to him I did +say—"There must be some interesting story connected with this lady. The +history of her singular good fortune must be curious, and well worth +hearing."</p> + +<p>"Why, it certainly is," replied my conductor, with the air of one who, +while he cannot but acknowledge that there<!-- Page 229 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span> is interest in a certain +piece of information which he possesses, is yet so familiar with it +himself, has owned it so long, and communicated it so often, that his +feelings seem to belie his words—the former remaining unmoved by the +tale which the latter unfolds. "There is certainly something curious in +the Countess's story," said Mr. Grafton; "and, now that we have seen +everything that is worth seeing, if you will come with me to my little +refectory, I will tell you all about it over a tankard of fine old ale +and a slice of cold round."</p> + +<p>Need I say, good reader, that I at once and gladly accepted an +invitation that so happily combined the intellectual and the sensual? +You will give me credit for more sense; and the following story will +prove at once that your good opinion is not misplaced, that I must have +been an attentive listener, and, lastly, that I must be blessed with a +pretty retentive memory. I relate the story in my own way, but without +taking the slightest liberty with any single one of the details given me +by my informant, who, from having been upwards of forty-five years in +the service of the Earls of Wistonbury, and, during the greater part of +that time their principal and most confidential domestic, was minutely +and accurately informed regarding every remarkable event that had +occurred in the family for several generations back.</p> + +<p>"But, before we leave this part of the house," resumed Mr. Grafton, "be +so good as step with me a moment into this small room here, till I show +you a certain little article that cuts some figure in the story which I +shall shortly tell you."</p> + +<p>Saying this, he led the way into the small apartment he alluded to, and, +conducting me towards a handsome ebony or blackwood cabinet that +occupied one end of the room, he threw open its little folding doors, +and exhibited to me, not some rich or rare curiosity, as I had expected, +but a<!-- Page 230 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span> small, plain, very plain—or I should, perhaps, rather say very +coarse—country-looking, blue-painted chest.</p> + +<p>"Do you see that little chest, sir?" said Mr. Grafton, smilingly.</p> + +<p>"I do," said I; "and it seems a very homely article to be so splendidly +entombed, and so carefully kept."</p> + +<p>"Yet," replied Mr. Grafton, "homely as it is, and small as is its +intrinsic value, that is one of the heir-looms of the family, and one of +the most fondly-cherished of them all."</p> + +<p>"Indeed!" said I, in some surprise. "Then I am very sure it cannot be +for its marketable worth. It wouldn't bring sixpence."</p> + +<p>"I verily believe it would not," replied Mr. Grafton. "Yet the Earl of +Wistonbury would not part with that little chest for a good round sum, I +warrant ye."</p> + +<p>"Pray, explain, my good sir."</p> + +<p>"I will. That little, blue-painted chest contained all the worldly +wealth—a few articles of female dress—of the lady whose portrait you +were just now so much admiring, when she became Countess of Wistonbury."</p> + +<p>"Why, then," said I, "that is proof that riches, at any rate, had +nothing to do with her promotion to that high rank."</p> + +<p>"They certainly had not," replied my aged friend. "But all this you will +learn more particularly in the story which I shall tell you presently. +You will then learn, also, how the little, blue-painted chest comes to +figure in the history of a countess."</p> + +<p>Saying this, Mr. Grafton shut the doors of the cabinet, when we left the +apartment, and, in a few minutes after, I found myself in what my worthy +old host called his refectory. This was a snug little room, most +comfortably furnished, and in which I observed a very large quantity of +silver plate,—being, I presumed, the depository of that<!-- Page 231 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span> portion of the +family's wealth. My good old friend now rung his bell, when a female +servant appeared.</p> + +<p>"Let's have summut to eat, Betsy," said the old man; and never was order +more promptly or more effectively obeyed.</p> + +<p>In an instant the table, which occupied the centre of the floor, +absolutely creaked under the load of good things with which it was +encumbered. The "slice of cold round," I found, was but a <i>nomme de +guerre</i> with the old man, and meant everything in the edible way that +was choice and savoury. To this conclusion I came from seeing the table +before me covered with a great variety of good things, amongst which +rose, conspicuous in the centre, a huge venison pasty. When the +<i>loading</i> of the table was completed, and the servant had retired—</p> + +<p>"Now," said the old man, looking at me with a significant smile, and at +the same time drawing a bunch of small keys from his pocket, from which +he carefully singled out one, "since Betsy has done her part so well, +let me see if I can't do mine as creditably."</p> + +<p>Saying this, he opened what I thought a sly-looking little cupboard, and +brought forth from its mysterious recess an aristocratic-looking bottle, +sealed with black wax, and whose shoulders were still thickly coated +with sawdust. Handling this venerable bottle with a lightness and +delicacy of touch which a long practice only could have given, and with +a degree of reverence which an <i>à priori</i> knowledge of its contents only +could have inspired, my worthy host tenderly brushed off its coating of +sawdust, gently inserted the screw, drew the cork, with a calm, +cautious, steady pull, and, in the next moment, had filled up two +brimmers of the finest old port that the cellars of Oxton Hall could +produce. Having done ample justice to the good things before us—</p> + +<p>"Now, my good sir, the story, the story, if you please," said I.<!-- Page 232 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Oh, to be sure," replied my kind host, smiling. "The story you shall +have. But first let us take another glass of wine, to inspire me with +fortitude to begin so long a story, and you with patience to listen to +it."</p> + +<p>The procedure thus recommended having been complied with, the good old +man immediately began:—</p> + +<p>"About a hundred and thirteen years since," he said, "there lived in the +neighbourhood of one of the principal cities in Scotland, a farmer of +the name of Flowerdew. He was a man of respectable character, and of +sober and industrious habits. His family consisted only of himself, his +wife, and an only child—a daughter, named Jessy. Gentle and +affectionate, of the most winning manners, and surpassingly beautiful in +form and feature, Jessy was not only the darling of her father, but the +favourite character of the neighbourhood in which she lived. All yielded +the homage of admiration to her supreme loveliness, and of the tenderest +esteem to her worth.</p> + +<p>For many years, Jessy's father contrived, notwithstanding of an enormous +rent, to keep pace with the world, and eventually to raise himself a +little above it; but, in despite of all his industry and all his +prudence, reverses came. A succession of bad crops was followed by a +series of losses of various kinds, and James Flowerdew found himself a +ruined man.</p> + +<p>'It's not for myself I care,' said the honest man, when speaking one day +with his wife of the misfortunes which had overwhelmed them—'it's for +our puir bit lassie, guidwife. God help her! I thought to have left her +independent; but it's been ordained otherwise, and we must submit. But +what's to become of her I know not. Being brocht up a little abune the +common, she cannot be asked to enter into the service of ony o' our +neebors; yet, I see nae other way o't. It must come to that in the lang +run.'<!-- Page 233 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span></p> + +<p>'I suppose it must, guidman—I suppose it must,' replied his wife, +raising the corner of her apron to her eye, and then bursting into +tears. 'My puir, dear, gentle lassie,' she exclaimed, 'it's a sad change +to her; but I ken she'll meet it cheerfully, and without repining. But, +guidman, if to service she must go, and I fancy there's little doot o' +that, wouldna it be better if we could get her into the service of some +respectable family in the toon, than to put her wi' ony o' our neebors, +where she might be reminded o' her fall, as they will call it?'</p> + +<p>'It's a good thought, Lizzy,' replied her husband, musingly, as he gazed +in sadness on the fire that burned before him. 'It's a good thought,' he +said. 'She will be there unknown, and her feelings saved from the taunts +of callous impertinence. I will think of it,' added Flowerdew. 'In the +meantime, guidwife, prepare Jessy, the best way you can, for the change +of situation in life which she is about to meet with. I canna do it. It +would break my heart a'thegither.'</p> + +<p>This painful task Mrs. Flowerdew undertook; and, as she expected, found +her daughter not only reconciled to the step which was proposed for her, +but eager and anxious to be put in a way of doing for herself, and, as +she fondly hoped and affectionately said, of aiding her parents.</p> + +<p>Shortly after this, the ruin which had overtaken James Flowerdew began +to present itself in its most instant and most distressing shapes. +Arrestments were laid on his funds in all quarters. Visits of messengers +were frequent, almost daily; and his whole stock and crop were +sequestrated by the landlord, and a day for the sale fixed. This last +was a sight from which Flowerdew anxiously wished to save his daughter, +and he meant to do so, if he could, by finding her 'a place' previous to +the day of sale.</p> + +<p>The duty of looking out for a situation for Jessy in town<!-- Page 234 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span> Flowerdew +took upon himself, from the circumstance of his having been in the habit +for many years of supplying a number of respectable families with the +produce of his farm, which he generally delivered himself, his simple +character and industrious habits not permitting him to see any +degradation in driving his own cart on these occasions. Flowerdew had +thus formed a personal acquaintance with many families of the better +class, which he thought might be useful to him in his present views.</p> + +<p>Amongst the oldest and most respected of his customers was a learned +professor, whom, to avoid what might be an inconvenient identification +of circumstances, we shall call Lockerby. With this gentleman Flowerdew +resolved to begin his inquiries respecting a situation for his daughter. +He did so, and on being introduced to him, explained the purpose of his +visit.</p> + +<p>'Dear me, Mr. Flowerdew!' said the worthy professor, in surprise at the +application, 'I thought—I all along thought, that your circumstances +would entitle your daughter, whose modesty of demeanour and great beauty +of person I have had frequent opportunities of admiring—she having +called here frequently, as you know, on various occasions connected with +our little traffic—I say, I thought your circumstances would entitle +your daughter to look for something higher than the situation of a +domestic servant.'</p> + +<p>'I once thought so myself, professor,' replied Mr. Flowerdew, with a +tear standing in his eye; 'but it has turned out otherwise. The truth +is, that I have lately met with such reverses as have entirely ruined +me. I am about to be ejected from my farm, and must betake myself to +daily labour for a subsistence. In this explanation you will see the +reason why I apply to you for a situation in your family for my +daughter.'</p> + +<p>'Too clearly—too clearly,' replied the worthy professor<!-- Page 235 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span> sincerely +grieving for the misfortunes of a man whom he had long known, and whose +uprightness of conduct and character he had long appreciated. 'I am +seriously distressed, Mr. Flowerdew,' he added, 'to learn all +this—seriously distressed, indeed; but, in the meantime, let us consult +Mrs. Lockerby on the subject of your present visit.' And he rang the +bell, and desired the servant who answered it, to request his wife to +come to him. She came, and on being informed of Mr. Flowerdew's +application in behalf of his daughter, at once agreed to receive her +into her service; adding, that she might, if she chose, enter on her +duties immediately. It was finally arranged that Jessy should take +possession of her situation on the following day.</p> + +<p>Highly gratified at having got admission for his daughter into so worthy +and respectable a family, Flowerdew returned home with a lighter heart +than he had possessed for some time before. He felt that his Jessy was +now, in a manner, provided for; and that, although the situation was a +humble one, and far short of what he had once expected for her, it was +yet a creditable one, and one presenting no mean field for the exercise +of some of the best qualities which a woman can possess.</p> + +<p>Equally pleased with her father at the opening that had been found for +her, the gentle girl lost no time in making such preparations as the +impending change in her position in life rendered necessary. Part of +these preparations, all cheerfully performed, consisted in packing a +small trunk with her clothes, and in other procedures of a similar kind. +In this employment her mother endeavoured to assist her, but was too +much affected by the sadness of the task to afford any very efficient +aid, although her daughter did all she could, by assuming a +light-heartedness which she could not altogether feel, to assuage the +grief to which her mother was every moment giving way.<!-- Page 236 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span></p> + +<p>'Why grieve yourself in that way, mother?' she would say, pausing in her +operations, and flinging her arms around her parent's neck. 'I assure +you I am happy at the prospect of being put in a way of doing for +myself; I consider it no hardship—not in the least. I will take a pride +in discharging my new duties faithfully and diligently; and I hope that, +even in the humble sphere in which I am about to move, I shall contrive +to make myself both esteemed and respected.'</p> + +<p>'<i>That</i> I dinna doubt—that I dinna doubt, my dear lassie,' replied her +mother; 'but, oh, it goes to my heart to see you gaun into the service +o' ithers. I never expected to see the day. Oh, this is a sad change +that's come over us a'!' And again the poor woman burst into a paroxysm +of grief.</p> + +<p>'Mother,' said the girl, 'you will dishearten me if you go on in this +way.' Then smiling through the tears of affection that glistened on her +eye, and assuming a tone of affected cheerfulness, 'Come now, dear +mother, do drop this desponding tone. There's better days in store for +us yet. We'll get above all this by-and-by. In the meantime it is our +duty, as Christians, to submit to the destiny that has been decreed us +with patience and resignation. Come, mother, I'll sing you the song you +used always to like so well to hear me sing.' And, without waiting for +any remark in reply, or pausing in her employment, the girl immediately +began, in a voice whose richness of tone and deep pathos possessed the +most thrilling power:—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">'A cheerfu' heart's been always mine,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Whatever might betide me, O!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">In foul or fair, in shade or shine,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">I've aye had that to guide me, O!<br /></span> +</div><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">When luck cam chappin' at my door,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Wi' right goodwill I cheered him, O!<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And whan misfortune cam, I swore<br /></span> +<span class="i2">The ne'er a bit I feared him, O!'<br /></span> +<!-- Page 237 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span></div></div> + +<p>'O lassie, lassie!' exclaimed Jessy's mother, here interrupting her, and +now smiling as she spoke—'how can ye think o' singing at such a time? +But God lang vouchsafe ye sae light and cheerfu' a heart! It's a great +blessing, Jessy, and canna be prized too highly.'</p> + +<p>'I'm aware of it, mother,' replied her daughter, 'and am, I trust, +thankful for it. I dinna see, after a', that anything should seriously +distress us—but guilt. If we keep free o' <i>that</i>, what hae we to fear? +A' ither mischances will mend, or if they dinna, they'll at least smooth +doon wi' time.'</p> + +<p>'But why are ye no puttin' up your silk goun, Jessy?' here interposed +her mother, abruptly; seeing her daughter laying aside the article of +dress she referred to, as if she did not intend it should have a place +in the little chest she was packing.</p> + +<p>'The silk gown, mother, I'll no tak wi' me,' replied Jessy, smiling; +'I'll leave't at hame till better times come roun'. It would hardly +become my station now, mother, to be gaun flaunting about in silks.'</p> + +<p>'Too true, Jessy,' said her mother with a sigh. 'It may be as weel, as +ye say, to leave't at hame for a wee, till times mend wi' us at ony +rate, although God only knows when that may be, if ever.'</p> + +<p>'I'll keep it for my wedding gown, mother,' said Jessy, laughingly, and +with an intention of counteracting the depressing tendency of her +inadvertent remarks on the propriety of her leaving her silk gown +behind. 'I'll keep it for my wedding dress, mother,' she said, 'although +it's mair than likely that a plainer attire will be mair suitable for +that occasion too.'</p> + +<p>'Nae sayin', Jessy,' replied her mother. 'Ye'll maybe get a canny laird +yet, that can ride to market wi' siller spurs on his boots and gowd lace +on his hat.'</p> + +<p>'Far less will please me, mither,' replied Jessy, blushing<!-- Page 238 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span> and laughing +at the same time. 'I never, even in our best days, looked so high, and +it would ill become me to do so now.'</p> + +<p>With such conversation as this did mother and daughter endeavour to +divert their minds from dwelling on the painful reflection which the +latter's occupation was so well calculated to excite.</p> + +<p>An early hour of the following morning saw Jessy Flowerdew seated in a +little cart, well lined with straw by her doting father, who proposed +driving her himself into the city. A <i>small, blue-painted chest</i>, a +bandbox, and one or two small bundles, formed the whole of her +travelling accompaniments. She herself was wrapped in a scarlet mantle, +and wore on her head a light straw bonnet, of tasteful shape, and +admirably adapted to the complexion and contour of the fine countenance +which it gracefully enclosed.</p> + +<p>After a delay of a few minutes—for the cart in which Jessy was seated +was still standing at the door—her father, dressed in his Sunday's +suit, came out of the house, stepped up to the horse's head, took the +reins in his hand, and gently put in motion the little humble conveyance +which was to bear his daughter away from the home of her childhood, and +to place her in the house of the stranger. Unable to sustain the agony +of a last parting, Jessy's mother had not come out of the house to see +her daughter start on her journey; but she was seen, when the cart had +proceeded a little way, standing at the door, with her apron at her +eyes, looking after it with an expression of the most heartfelt sorrow.</p> + +<p>'There's my mother, father,' said Jessy, in a choking voice, on getting +a sight of the former in the affecting attitude above described—but she +could add no more. In the next instant her face was buried in her +handkerchief. Her father turned round on her calling his attention to +her<!-- Page 239 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span> mother, but instantly, and without saying a word, resumed the +silent, plodding pace which the circumstance had for a moment +interrupted.</p> + +<p>In little more than an hour the humble equipage, whose progress we have +been tracing, entered the city. Humble, however, as that equipage was, +it did not prevent the passers-by from marking the singular beauty of +her by whom it was occupied. Many were they who looked round, and stood +and gazed in admiration after the little cart and its occupant, as they +rattled along the 'stony street.' Their further progress, however, was +now a short one. In a few minutes Flowerdew and his daughter found +themselves at the professor's door. The former now tenderly lifted out +Jessy from the cart—for her sylph-like form, so light and slender, was +nothing in the arms of the robust farmer—and placed her in safety on +the flag-stones. Her little trunk and bandbox were next taken out by the +same friendly hand, and deposited beside her. This done, Flowerdew +rapped at the professor's door. It was opened. The father and daughter +entered; and, in an hour after—long before which her father had left +her—the latter was engaged in the duties of her new situation.</p> + +<p>Days, weeks, and months, as they will always do, now passed away, but +they still found Jessy in the service of her first employers, whose +esteem she had gained by the gentleness of her nature, the modesty of +her demeanour, and the extreme propriety of her conduct.</p> + +<p>At the time of her first entering into the service of Professor +Lockerby, Jessy Flowerdew had just completed her sixteenth year. The +charms of her person had not then attained their full perfection. But +now that two years more had passed over her head—for this interval must +be understood to have elapsed before we resume our tale—her face and +figure had attained the zenith of their beauty, a beauty that struck +every beholder, and<!-- Page 240 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span> in every beholder excited feelings of unqualified +admiration.</p> + +<p>It was about the end of two years after Jessy's advent into the family +of the professor, that the latter one morning, raising his head from a +letter which he had just been reading, and, turning to the former, who +was in the act of removing the breakfast equipage, said—</p> + +<p>'Jessy, my girl, will you be so good as put the little parlour and +bedroom up stairs in the best order you can, as I expect a young +gentleman to-morrow, who is to become a boarder with us.'</p> + +<p>Jessy courtseyed her acquiescence in the order just given her, and +retired from the apartment to fulfil it.</p> + +<p>On the following day a travelling carriage, whose panels were adorned +with a coronet, drove up to the door of Professor Lockerby. From this +carriage descended a young man, apparently between nineteen and twenty +years of age, of the most prepossessing appearance. His countenance was +pale, but bore an expression of extreme mildness and benevolence. His +figure was tall and slender, but handsomely formed; while his whole +manner and bearing bespoke the man of high birth and breeding.</p> + +<p>On descending from his carriage, the young man was received by the +professor with the most respectful deference—too respectful it seemed +to be for the taste of him to whom it was addressed, for he instantly +broke through the cold formality of the meeting, by grasping the +professor's hand, and shaking it with the heartiest and most cordial +goodwill, saying while he did so—</p> + +<p>'I hope I see you well, professor.'</p> + +<p>'In perfect health, I thank you, my lord,' replied the professor. 'I +hope you left your good lady mother, the countess, well.'</p> + +<p>'Quite well—I'm obliged to you, professor—as lively<!-- Page 241 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span> and stirring, and +active as ever. Hot and hasty, and a little queenly in her style now and +then, as you know, but still the open heart and the open hand of the +Wistonburys.'</p> + +<p>'I have the honour of knowing the countess well, my lord,' replied the +professor, 'and can bear testimony to the nobleness of her nature and +disposition. I have known many, many instances of it.'</p> + +<p>With such conversation as this, the professor and his noble boarder—for +such was the young man whom we have just introduced to the +reader—entered the house. Who this young man was, and what was his +object in taking up his abode with Professor Lockerby, we will explain +in a few words, although such explanation is rendered in part nearly +unnecessary by the conversation just recorded between him and the +professor. It may not be amiss, however, to say, in more distinct terms, +that he was the Earl of Wistonbury, a rank which he had attained just a +year before, by the sudden and premature death of his father, who died +in the forty-fifth year of his age. Since his accession to the title of +his ancestors, the young earl had continued to live in retirement with +his mother, a woman of a noble, elevated, and generous soul, well +becoming her high lineage—for she, too, was descended of one of the +noblest families in England—but in whose temper there was occasionally +made visible a dash of the leaven of aristocracy.</p> + +<p>On her son, the young earl, her only surviving child, she doted with all +the affection of the fondest and tenderest of mothers; and well worthy +was that son of all the love she could bestow. His was one of those +natures which no earthly elevation can corrupt, no factitious system +deprive of its innate simplicity.</p> + +<p>The promotion of the young earl to the head of his illustrious house, +was, however, a premature one in more respects than one. One of these +was to be found in the<!-- Page 242 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span> circumstance of the young man's being found +unprepared—at least so he judged himself—in the matter of education, +to fill with credit the high station to which he was so unexpectedly +called. His education, in truth, had been rather neglected; and it was +to make up for this neglect, to recover his lost ground with all the +speed possible, that he was now come to reside for a few months with +Professor Lockerby, who had once acted as tutor in his father's family +to a brother who had died young.</p> + +<p>Such, then, was the professor's boarder, and such was the purpose for +which he became so.</p> + +<p>The favourable impression which the youthful earl's first appearance had +made, suffered no diminution by length of acquaintance. Mild and +unpresuming, he won the love of all who came in contact with him. The +little personal services he required, he always solicited, never +commanded; and what he could with any propriety do himself, he always +did, without seeking other assistance.</p> + +<p>A quiet and unostentatious inmate of the professor's, time rolled +rapidly, but gently and imperceptibly, over the head of the young earl, +until a single week only intervened between the moment referred to, and +the period fixed on for his return to Oxton Hall.</p> + +<p>Thus, nearly six months had elapsed, not a very long period, but one in +which much may be accomplished, and in which many a change may take +place. And by such features were the six months marked, which the young +Earl of Wistonbury had spent in the house of Professor Lockerby. In that +time, by dint of unrelaxing assiduity and intense application, he had +acquired a respectable knowledge of both Latin and Greek, and in that +time, too, he had taken a step which was to affect the whole tenor of +his after life, and to make him either happy or miserable, as it had +been fortunately or unfortunately made. What that step was we shall +divulge, through precisely the same<!-- Page 243 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span> singular process by which it +actually came to the knowledge of the other parties interested.</p> + +<p>One evening, at the period to which we a short while since +alluded—namely, about a week previous to the expiry of the proposed +term of the earl's residence with Professor Lockerby—as Jessy Flowerdew +was about to remove the tea equipage from the table of the little +parlour in which the professor and his noble pupil usually conducted +their studies, the latter suddenly rose from his seat, and, looking at +their fair handmaiden with a serious countenance, said—</p> + +<p>'Jessy, my love, you must not perform this service again, nor any other +of a similar kind. You are now my wife—you are now Countess of +Wistonbury.'</p> + +<p>We leave it to the reader to imagine, after his own surprise has a +little subsided, what was that of the worthy professor, on hearing his +noble pupil make so extraordinary, so astounding a declaration—a +declaration not less remarkable for its import, than for the occasion on +which, and the manner in which it was made.</p> + +<p>On recovering from his astonishment, 'My lord,' said the good professor, +with a grave and stern countenance, 'be good enough to inform me what +this extraordinary conduct means? What can have been your motive, my +lord, for using the highly improper and most unguarded language which I +have just now heard you utter?'</p> + +<p>The young earl, with the greatest calmness and deference of manner, +approached the professor, laid his hand upon his heart, and, with a +graceful inclination, said, slowly and emphatically—</p> + +<p>'Upon my honour, sir, she <i>is</i> my wife!'</p> + +<p>'What, my lord!' exclaimed the still more and more amazed professor—and +now starting from his chair in his excitation—'do you repeat your most +unbecoming and incredible assertion?'<!-- Page 244 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span></p> + +<p>'I do, sir,' replied the earl, in the same calm and respectful manner. +'I do repeat it, and say, before God, that Jessy Flowerdew is the +lawfully married wife of the Earl of Wistonbury.'</p> + +<p>'Well, my lord, well,' said the professor, in angry agitation, 'I know +what is my duty in this most extraordinary case. It is to give instant +notice to the countess, your mother, of what I must call, my lord, the +extremely rash and unadvised step you have taken.'</p> + +<p>To this threat and rebuke, the earl replied, with the utmost composure +and politeness of manner—'I was not unprepared, sir, for your +resentment on this occasion. Neither do I take it in the least amiss. +You merely do your duty when you tell me I have forgotten mine. But the +step I have taken, sir, allow me to say, although it may appear +unadvised, has not been so in reality. I have weighed well the +consequences, and am quite prepared to abide them.'</p> + +<p>'Be it so, my lord, be it so,' replied the professor. 'I have only now +to remark that, as you say you were prepared for <i>my</i> resentment, I hope +you are also prepared for your mother's, my lord—a matter of much more +serious moment.'</p> + +<p>'My mother, sir, I will take in my own hands,' replied the earl; 'she +can resent, but she can also forgive.'</p> + +<p>'I have no more to say, my lord, no more,' rejoined Mr. Lockerby; 'the +matter must now be put into the hands of those who have a better right +to judge of its propriety than I have. I shall presume on no further +remark on the subject.'</p> + +<p>'Come, sir,' said the earl, smiling and extending his hand to the +professor, 'let this, if you please, be no cause for difference between +us. I propose that we allow the matter to lie in abeyance until my +mother has been appealed to; she being the only person, you know, who +has<!-- Page 245 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span> a right to be displeased with my proceeding, or whose wishes I was +called upon to consult in this matter.'</p> + +<p>'Excuse me, my lord,' replied the worthy professor; 'but I must +positively decline all interchange of courtesies which may, by any +possibility, be construed into an overlooking of this very extraordinary +affair.'</p> + +<p>'Well, well, my good sir,' said the earl, smiling, and still maintaining +the equanimity of his temper, 'judge of me as charitably as you can. In +the morning, we shall meet, I trust, better friends.' Saying this, he +took up one of the candles which were on the table before him, bade the +professor a polite and respectful good night, and retired to his own +apartment.</p> + +<p>The earl had no sooner withdrawn than Mr. Lockerby, after collecting +himself a little, commenced inditing a letter to the Countess Dowager of +Wistonbury, apprising her of what had just occurred. In speaking, +however, of the 'degrading' connection which her son had made, the +honest man's sense of justice compelled him to add a qualifying +explanation of the term which he had employed—'degrading, I mean,' he +said, '<i>in point of wealth, rank, and accomplishments</i>; for, in all +other respects, in conduct and character, in temper and disposition, +and, above all, in personal appearance—for she is certainly eminently +beautiful—I must admit that her superior may not easily be found.'</p> + +<p>The letter that contained these remarks, with the other information +connected with it, the professor despatched on the same night on which +it was written; and, having done this, awaited with what composure and +fortitude he could command, the dreadful explosion of aristocratic wrath +and indignation, which, he had no doubt, would speedily follow.</p> + +<p>Leaving matters in this extraordinary position in the house of Professor +Lockerby we shall shift the scene, for<!-- Page 246 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span> a moment, to the Countess +Dowager of Wistonbury's sitting apartment in Oxton Hall; and we shall +choose the moment when her favourite footman, Jacob Asterley, has +entered her presence, after his return from a call at the post-office in +the neighbouring village; the time being the second day after the +occurrence just previously related—namely, the despatch to Oxton Hall +of Professor Lockerby's letter.</p> + +<p>'Well, Jacob, any letters for me to-day?' said the countess, on the +entrance of that worthy official.</p> + +<p>'One, my lady, from Scotland,' replied the servant, deferentially, and, +at the same time, opening the bag in which the letters were usually +carried to and from the post-house.</p> + +<p>'Ah! from the earl,' said the countess.</p> + +<p>'No, my lady, I rather think not. The address is not in his lordship's +handwriting.'</p> + +<p>'Oh! the good Professor Lockerby,' said the countess, contemplating for +a moment the address of the letter in question, which was now in her +ladyship's hands. 'I hope nothing unpleasant has occurred to my son.' +And while she spoke, she hurriedly broke the seal, and, in the next +instant, was intently engaged in perusing the intelligence which it had +secured from the prying curiosity of parties whom it did not concern.</p> + +<p>It would take a much abler pen than that now employed in tracing these +lines, to convey anything like an adequate idea of the mingled +expression of amazement, indignation, and grief exhibited on the +countenance, and in every act and attitude of the proud Countess of +Wistonbury, on reading the story of her son's degradation. The flush of +haughty resentment was succeeded by the sudden paleness of despair; and +in frequent alternation did these strong expressions of varied feeling +flit across the fine countenance—still fine, although it had looked on +fifty summers—of<!-- Page 247 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span> the heart-stricken mother, as she proceeded in her +perusal of the fatal document. On completing the perusal, the countess +threw herself in silent distraction on a sofa, and, still holding the +open letter in her hand, sank into a maze of wild and wandering +thoughts. These, however, seemed at length to concentrate in one +decisive and sudden resolution. Starting from the reclining posture into +which she had thrown herself, she advanced towards the bell-pull, rung +furiously, and, when the servant entered to know what were her +commands—</p> + +<p>'Order the travelling carriage instantly, Jacob,' she said—'instantly, +instantly; and let four of my best horses be put in the harness. What do +you stare at, fool?' she added, irritated at the look of astonishment +which the inexplicable violence of her manner had called into the +countenance of her trusty domestic. 'Do as you are ordered, directly.' +The man bowed and withdrew; and in pursuance of the commands he had +received, proceeded to the stables.</p> + +<p>'Here's a start, Thomas!' he said, addressing a jolly-looking fellow, +who was busily employed in brushing up some harness; 'the travelling +carriage directly, and four of your best horses for my lady.'</p> + +<p>'Why, what the devil's the matter now?' replied Thomas, pausing in his +operations; 'where's the old girl a-going to?'</p> + +<p>'Not knowing, can't say,' replied Jacob; 'but she's in a woundy fuss, I +warrant you. Never seed her in such a quandary in my life. Something's +wrong somewhere, I guess.'</p> + +<p>'Well, well, all's one to me,' said Thomas, with philosophical +indifference; 'but it looks like a long start, where-ever it may be to; +so I'll get my traps in order.' And this duty was so expeditiously +performed, that, in less than fifteen minutes, the very handsome +travelling carriage of<!-- Page 248 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span> the Earl of Wistonbury, drawn by four spanking +bays, flashed up to the door of Oxton Hall. In an instant after, it was +occupied by the dowager countess, and in another, was rattling away for +Scotland, at the utmost speed of the noble animals by which it was +drawn.</p> + +<p>Changing here, once more, the scene of our story, we return to the house +of Professor Lockerby. There matters continued in that ominous state of +quiescence, that significant and portentous calm, that precedes the +bursting of the storm. Between the professor and the young earl, not a +word more had passed on the subject of the latter's extraordinary +declaration. Neither had made the slightest subsequent allusion to it, +but continued their studies precisely as they had done before; although, +perhaps, a degree of restraint—a consciousness of some point of +difference between them—might now be discerned in their correspondence. +Both, in short, seemed to have tacitly agreed to abide the result of the +professor's letter to the countess, before taking any other step, or +expressing any other feeling, on the subject to which that letter +related. The anticipated crisis which the professor and his noble pupil +were thus composedly awaiting, soon arrived. On the third day after that +remarkable one on which the young Earl of Wistonbury had avowed the +humble daughter of an humble Scotch farmer to be his wife, a carriage +and four, which, we need scarcely say, was the same we saw start from +Oxton Hall, drove furiously up to the door of Professor Lockerby. The +horses' flanks sent forth clouds of smoke; their mouths and +fore-shoulders were covered with foam; and the carriage itself was +almost encased in mud. Everything, in short, told of a long and rapid +journey. And it was so. Night and day, without one hour's intermission, +had that carriage prosecuted its journey. In an instant after, the +carriage stopped; its steps were down, and, bridling with high and lofty +indignation, the Dowager Countess of Wistonbury<!-- Page 249 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span> descended, and, ere any +one of the professor's family were aware of her arrival, she had entered +the house, the door being accidentally open, and was calling loudly for +'her boy.'</p> + +<p>'Where is my son?' she exclaimed, as she made her way into the interior +of the house: 'where is the Earl of Wistonbury?'</p> + +<p>In a moment after the Earl of Wistonbury, who had heard and instantly +recognized his mother's voice, was before her, and was about to rush +into her arms, when she haughtily thrust him back, saying—</p> + +<p>'Degraded, spiritless boy, dare not too approach me! You have blotted +the noblest, the proudest scutcheon of England. Where is Professor +Lockerby?'</p> + +<p>The professor was by her side before she had completed the sentence, +when, seeing her agitation—</p> + +<p>'My good lady,' he said, in his most persuasive tone, 'do allow me to +entreat of you to be composed, and to have the honour of conducting you +up stairs.'</p> + +<p>'Anywhere!—anywhere, professor!' exclaimed the countess; 'but, alas! go +where I will, I cannot escape the misery of my own thoughts, nor the +disgrace which my unworthy son has brought upon my head.'</p> + +<p>Without making any reply to this outburst of passionate feeling, the +professor took the countess respectfully by the hand, and silently +conducted her to his drawing-room. With stately step the countess +entered, and walked slowly to the further end of the apartment; this +gained, she turned round, and, when she had done so, a sight awaited her +for which she was but little prepared. This was her son and Jessy +Flowerdew, kneeling side by side, and, by their attitude, eloquently +imploring her forgiveness. It was just one of those sights best +calculated to work on the nobler nature of the Countess of Wistonbury, +and to call up the finer feelings of her generous heart.<!-- Page 250 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span> For some +seconds she looked at the kneeling pair in silent astonishment; her eye, +however, chiefly fixed on the beauteous countenance of Jessy Flowerdew, +pale with terror and emotion, and wet with tears. Having gazed for some +time on this extraordinary sight, without betraying the slightest +symptom of the feelings beyond that of surprise, with which it had +inspired her, the countess slowly advanced towards the kneeling couple. +She still, however, uttered no word, and discovered no emotion; but a +sudden change had come over her proud spirit. That spirit was now laid, +and its place occupied by all the generous impulses of her nature. +Keeping her eye steadily fixed on the kneeling fair one before her, she +approached her, paused a moment, extended her hand, placed it on the +ivory forehead of Jessy Flowerdew, gently laid back her rich auburn +hair, and, as she did so, said, in a tremulous, but emphatic voice—</p> + +<p>'You <i>are</i>, indeed, a lovely girl! God bless you! Alfred, my son, rise,' +she added, in a low, but calm and solemn tone; 'I forgive you.' And she +extended her hand towards him. The earl seized it, kissed it +affectionately, and bathed it with his tears.</p> + +<p>'Rise, my lady—rise, my fair Countess of Wistonbury,' she now said, and +herself aiding in the act she commanded, 'I acknowledge you as my +daughter, and we must now see to fitting you to the high station to +which my son's favour has promoted you, and of which, I trust, you will +prove as worthy in point of conduct as you assuredly already are in that +of personal beauty. God bless you both! And may every happiness that the +conjugal state affords, be yours! Professor,' she added, and now turning +round to that gentleman, 'you will think this weakness—a mother's +weakness—and perhaps it is so—but I would myself fain attribute it to +a more worthy feeling, and, if I know my own heart, it is so. But let +that pass.<!-- Page 251 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span> I <i>am</i> reconciled to the step my son has taken, and +reverently leave it to God, and fearlessly to man, to judge of the +motives by which I have been influenced. I trust they are such as to +merit the approbation of both.'</p> + +<p>Surprised, and greatly affected by the unexpected turn which matters had +taken, so contrary to what he had anticipated, the worthy professor had +listened to these expressions of the countess with averted head, and +making the most ingenious use of the handkerchief which he held to his +face that he could, to conceal the real purpose for which he employed +it. When she had done—</p> + +<p>'Madam,' he said, with great agitation and confusion of manner, and +still busily plying the handkerchief in its pretended vocation—'Madam, +I—I—I am surprised—much affected, I assure you—much affected, my +lady—with this striking instance of what a noble and generous nature is +capable. I was by no means prepared for it. It does you infinite honour, +my lady—infinite honour; and will, I trust, in its result, be +productive of all that happiness to you which your magnanimous conduct +so eminently deserves.'</p> + +<p>'I trust I have acted rightly, professor,' was the brief reply of the +countess, as she again turned to the young couple, who were now standing +on the floor beside her, 'I hope I have; and, if my heart does not +deceive me, I am sure I have.'</p> + +<p>'You are warranted, my lady, in the confidence you express in the +uprightness, the generosity of your conduct on this very remarkable +occasion—perfectly warranted,' replied the professor. 'It is an +unexampled instance of greatness, of liberality of mind, and as such I +must always look on it.'</p> + +<p>Thus, then, terminated this extraordinary scene. It was subsequently +arranged that the marriage of the earl should, in the meantime, be kept +as secret as possible, and that<!-- Page 252 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span> the young countess should, in the +interim, be sent for a year or two to one of the most celebrated +seminaries of female education in England, under an assumed name, and +that, when she should have acquired the attainments and the polish +befitting her high station, she should be produced to the world as the +Countess of Wistonbury.</p> + +<p>Acting upon this plan of proceedings, the same carriage that brought +down the earl's mother, bore away, on the following day, together with +that lady, the young earl and his bride; the latter, to commence her +educational noviciate in England; the former, to while away the time as +he best could until that noviciate should expire, a period which he +proposed to render less irksome by a tour on the continent.</p> + +<p>About two years after the occurrence of the events just related—it +might be more, perhaps nearly three—Oxton Hall presented a scene of +prodigious confusion and bustle. Little carts of provender were daily +seen making frequent visits to the house. Huge old grates, in deserted +kitchens, that had not been in use for a century before, were cleared of +their rubbish, and glowing with blazing fires, at which enormous roasts +were solemnly revolving. Menials were running to and fro in all +directions, and a crowd of powdered and richly-liveried lackeys bustled +backwards and forwards through the gorgeous apartments, loaded with +silver plate, and bearing huge baskets of wine. Everything at Oxton +Hall, in short, betokened preparations for a splendid fête—and such, in +truth, was the case. To this fête all the nobility and gentry, within a +circuit of ten to fifteen miles were invited; and such an affair it +promised to be, altogether, as had not been seen at Oxton Hall since the +marriage of the last earl—a period of nearly thirty years. None of +those invited knew, or could guess, what was the particular reason for +so extensive a merry-making.<!-- Page 253 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span> Its scale, they learned, was most +magnificent, and the invitations unprecedentedly numerous.</p> + +<p>The whole affair was thus somewhat of a puzzle to the good people who +were to figure as guests at the impending fête; but they comforted +themselves with the reflection that they would know all about it by and +by. In the meantime, the day appointed for the celebration of the +proposed festival at Oxton Hall arrived; and, amongst the other +preparations which more markedly characterized it, was the appearance of +several long tables extended on the lawn in front of the house, and +which were intended for the accommodation of the earl's tenantry, who +were also invited to share in the coming festivities. Towards the +afternoon of the day alluded to, carriages and vehicles of all +descriptions, and of various degrees of elegance, were seen, in +seemingly endless numbers, streaming along the spacious and +well-gravelled walks that led, by many a graceful curve, through the +surrounding lawn, to the noble portals of Oxton Hall. These, by turns, +drew up in front of the principal entrance to the house, and delivered +their several cargoes of lords and ladies, knights and squires, all +honourable personages, and of high degree. An inferior description of +equipages, again, and occupied by persons of a different class, sturdy +yeomen and their wives and daughters, found ther way, or rather were +guided as they came, to a different destination, but with no difference +in the hospitality of their reception. All were alike welcome to Oxton +Hall on this auspicious day. By and by the hour of dinner came, and, +when it did, it exhibited a splendid scene in the magnificent +dining-room of the Earl of Wistonbury. In this dining-room were +assembled a party of at least a hundred-and-fifty ladies and gentlemen, +all in their best attire. Down the middle of the spacious apartment ran +a table of ample length and breadth, and capable of accommodating with +ease even the formidable<!-- Page 254 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span> array by which it was shortly to be +surrounded. On this spacious board glittered as much wealth, in the +shape of silver plate, as would have bought a barony, while everything +around showed that it was still but a small portion of the riches of its +noble owner. At the further end of the lordly hall, in an elevated +recess or interior balcony, were stationed a band of musicians, to +contribute the choicest specimens of the art to the hilarity of the +evening. Altogether the scene was one of the most imposing that can well +be conceived, an effect which was not a little heightened by the antique +character of the noble apartment in which it was exhibited, one of whose +most striking features was a large oriel window, filled with the most +beautifully stained glass, which threw its subdued and sombre light on +the magnificent scene beneath. Hitherto the young earl had not been seen +by any of the company; his mother, the countess-dowager, having +discharged the duties of hospitality in receiving the guests. Many were +the inquiries made for the absent lord of the mansion; but these were +all answered evasively, although always concluded with the assurance +that he would appear in good time.</p> + +<p>Satisfied with this assurance, the subject was no further pressed at the +moment; but, as the dinner hour approached, and the earl had not yet +presented himself, considerable curiosity and impatience began to be +manifested amongst the assembled guests. These feelings increased every +moment, and had attained their height, when the party found themselves +called on to take their seats at table, and yet no earl had appeared. +The general surprise was further excited on its being observed that the +countess-dowager did not, as usual, take the chair at the head of the +table, as was expected, but placed herself on its right. The chair at +the foot of the table remained also yet unoccupied; and great was the +wonder what all this could<!-- Page 255 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span> mean. It was now soon to be explained. Just +as the party had taken their seats, a folding-door, at the further end +of the hall, flew open, and the young Earl of Wistonbury entered, +leading by the hand a young female of exceeding beauty, attired in a +dress of the most dazzling splendour, over which was gracefully thrown a +Scottish plaid. Bowing slightly, but with a graceful and cordial +expression, and smiling affably as he advanced, the earl conducted his +fair charge to the head of the table, where, after a pause of a few +seconds, which he purposely made in order to afford his guests an +opportunity of marking the extreme loveliness of the lady whom he had +thus so unexpectedly introduced to them—an opportunity which was not +thrown away, as was evident from the murmur of admiration that ran round +the brilliant assembly—the earl thus shortly addressed his wondering +guests—</p> + +<p>'Permit me, my friends,' he said, 'to introduce to you the Countess of +Wistonbury!'</p> + +<p>A shout of applause from the gentlemen, and a waving of handkerchiefs +by the ladies, hailed the pleasing and unexpected intelligence—an +homage whose duration and intensity was increased by the singularly +graceful manner with which it was received and acknowledged by her to +whom it was paid. Nothing could be more captivating than the modest, +winning sweetness of her smile, nothing more pleasing to behold than the +gentle grace of her every motion. On all present the impression was that +she was a woman of birth, education, and high breeding, and nothing in +the part she subsequently acted tended in the slightest degree to affect +this idea. The young and lovely countess conducted herself throughout +the whole of this eventful evening, as she did throughout the remainder +of her life, with the most perfect propriety; and thus evinced that the +pains taken to fit Jessy Flowerdew for the high station to which a +singular good fortune<!-- Page 256 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span> had called her, was very far from having been +taken in vain.</p> + +<p>At the conclusion of the banquet, the earl entreated the indulgence of +the company for an absence for himself and the countess of a quarter of +an hour. This being of course readily acquiesced in, the earl and his +beauteous young wife were seen, arm and arm, on the lawn, going towards +the tables at which his tenantry were enjoying his hospitality. Here he +went through precisely the same ceremony of introduction with that which +we have described as having taken place in the banquet-hall; and here it +was greeted with the same enthusiasm, and acknowledged by the countess +with the same grace and propriety. This proceeding over, the earl and +his young bride returned to their party, when one of the most joyous +evenings followed that the banqueting-room of Oxton Hall had ever +witnessed. There is only now to add, that Jessy Flowerdew's subsequent +conduct as Countess of Wistonbury proved her in every respect worthy of +the high place to which she had been elevated. A mildness and gentleness +of disposition, and a winning modesty of demeanour, which all the wealth +and state with which she was surrounded could not in the slightest +degree impair, distinguished her through life; and no less distinguished +was she by the generosity and benevolence of her nature, a nature which +her change of destiny was wholly unable to pervert."</p> + +<p>Such, then, good reader, is the history of the lady whose portrait, in +which she appears habited in a Scottish plaid, adorns, with others, the +walls of the picture gallery of Oxton Hall, in Wiltshire.<!-- Page 257 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="MIDSIDE_MAGGY" id="MIDSIDE_MAGGY"></a>MIDSIDE MAGGY;</h2> + +<h4>OR,</h4> + +<h3>THE BANNOCK O' TOLLISHILL.</h3> +<p class="center">"Every bannock had its maik, but the bannock o' Tollishill."</p> +<p class="right"><i>Scottish Proverb.</i></p> + + +<p>Belike, gentle reader, thou hast often heard the proverb quoted above, +that "Every bannock had its maik, but the bannock o' Tollishill." The +saying hath its origin in a romantic tradition of the Lammermoors, which +I shall relate to thee. Tollishill is the name of a sheep-farm in +Berwickshire, situated in the parish of Lauder. Formerly, it was divided +into three farms, which were occupied by different tenants; and, by way +of distinguishing it from the others, that in which dwelt the subjects +of our present story was generally called Midside, and our heroine +obtained the appellation of Midside Maggy. Tollishill was the property +of John, second Earl, and afterwards Duke of Lauderdale—a personage +whom I shall more than once, in these tales, have occasion to bring +before mine readers, and whose character posterity hath small cause to +hold in veneration. Yet it is a black character, indeed, in which there +is not to be found one streak of sunshine; and the story of the "Bannock +of Tollishill" referreth to such a streak in the history of John, the +Lord of Thirlestane.</p> + +<p>Time hath numbered somewhat more than a hundred and ninety years since +Thomas Hardie became tenant of the principal farm of Tollishill. Now, +that the reader may picture Thomas Hardie as he was, and as tradition +hath described him, he or she must imagine a tall, strong, and<!-- Page 258 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span> +fresh-coloured man of fifty; a few hairs of grey mingling with his brown +locks; a countenance expressive of much good nature and some +intelligence; while a Lowland bonnet was drawn over his brow. The other +parts of his dress were of coarse, grey, homespun cloth, manufactured in +Earlston; and across his shoulders, in summer as well as in winter, he +wore the mountain plaid. His principles assimilated to those held by the +men of the covenant; but Thomas, though a native of the hills, was not +without the worldly prudence which is considered as being more +immediately the characteristic of the buying and selling children of +society. His landlord was no favourer of the Covenant; and, though +Thomas wished well to the cause, he did not see the necessity for making +his laird, the Lord of Lauderdale, his enemy for its sake. He, +therefore, judged it wise to remain a neutral spectator of the religious +and political struggles of the period.</p> + +<p>But Thomas was a bachelor. Half a century had he been in the world, and +the eyes of no woman had had power to throw a spark into his heart. In +his single, solitary state, he was happy, or he thought himself happy; +and that is much the same thing. But an accident occurred which led him +first to believe, and eventually to feel, that he was but a solitary and +comfortless moorland farmer, toiling for he knew not what, and laying up +treasure he knew not for whom. Yea, and while others had their wives +spinning, carding, knitting, and smiling before them, and their bairns +running laughing and sporting round about them, he was but a poor +deserted creature, with nobody to care for, or to care for him. Every +person had some object to strive for and to make them strive but Thomas +Hardie; or, to use his own words, he was "just in the situation o' a +tewhit that has lost its mate—<i>te-wheet! te-wheet!</i> it cried, flapping +its wings impatiently and forlornly—and <i>te-wheet! te-wheet!</i> answered +vacant echo frae the dreary glens."<!-- Page 259 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span></p> + +<p>Thomas had been to Morpeth disposing of a part of his hirsels, and he +had found a much better market for them than he anticipated. He +returned, therefore, with a heavy purse, which generally hath a tendency +to create a light and merry heart; and he arrived at Westruther, and +went into a hostel, where, three or four times in the year, he was in +the habit of spending a cheerful evening with his friends. He had called +for a quegh of the landlady's best, and he sat down at his ease with the +liquor before him, for he had but a short way to travel. He also pulled +out his tobacco-box and his pipe, and began to inhale the fumes of what, +up to that period, was almost a forbidden weed. But we question much if +the royal book of James the Sixth of Scotland and First of England, +which he published against the use of tobacco, ever found its way into +the Lammermoors, though the Indian weed did; therefore, Thomas Hardie +sat enjoying his glass and his pipe, unconscious or regardless of the +fulminations which he who was king in his boyhood, had published against +the latter. But he had not sat long, when a fair maiden, an acquaintance +of "mine hostess," entered the hostelry, and began to assist her in the +cutting out or fashioning of a crimson kirtle. Her voice fell upon the +ears of Thomas like the "music of sweet sounds." He had never heard a +voice before that not only fell softly on his ear, but left a lingering +murmur in his heart. She, too, was a young thing of not more than +eighteen. If ever hair might be called "gowden," it was hers. It was a +light and shining bronze, where the prevalence of the golden hue gave a +colour to the whole. Her face was a thing of beauty, over which health +spread its roseate hue, yet softly, as though the westling winds had +caused the leaves of the blushing rose to kiss her cheeks, and leave +their delicate hues and impression behind them. She was of a middle +stature, and her figure was such, although arrayed in<!-- Page 260 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span> homely garments, +as would have commanded the worship of a connoisseur of grace and +symmetry. But beyond all that kindled a flame within the hitherto +obdurate heart of Thomas, was the witching influence of her smile. For a +full hour he sat with his eyes fixed upon her; save at intervals, when +he withdrew them to look into the unwonted agitation of his own breast, +and examine the cause.</p> + +<p>"Amongst the daughters of women," thought he unto himself—for he had a +sprinkling of the language of the age about him—"none have I seen so +beautiful. Her cheeks bloom bonnier than the heather on Tollishill, and +her bosom seems saft as the new-shorn fleece. Her smile is like a blink +o' sunshine, and would mak summer to those on whom it fell a' the year +round."</p> + +<p>He also discovered, for the first time, that "Tollishill was a dull +place, especially in the winter season." When, therefore, the fair +damsel had arrayed the fashion of the kirtle and departed, without once +having seemed to observe Thomas, he said unto the goodwife of the +hostelry—"And wha, noo, if it be a fair question, may that bonnie +lassie be?"</p> + +<p>"She is indeed a bonnie lassie," answered the landlady, "and a guid +lassie, too; and I hae nae doot but, as ye are a single man, Maister +Hardie, yer question is fair enough. Her name is Margaret Lylestone, and +she is the only bairn o' a puir infirm widow that cam to live here some +twa or three years syne. They cam frae south owre some way, and I am +sure they hae seen better days. We thocht at first that the auld woman +had been a Catholic; but I suppose that isna the case, though they +certainly are baith o' them strong Episcopawlians, and in nae way +favourable to the preachers or the word o' the Covenant; but I maun say +for Maggie, that she is a bonny, sweet-tempered, and obleegin +lassie—though, puir thing, her mother has brocht her up in a wrang +way."<!-- Page 261 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span></p> + +<p>Many days had not passed ere Thomas Hardie, arrayed in his Sunday +habiliments, paid another visit to Westruther; and he cautiously asked +of the goodwife of the hostel many questions concerning Margaret; and +although she jeered him, and said that "Maggy would ne'er think o' a +grey-haired carle like him," he brooded over the fond fancy; and +although on this visit he saw her not, he returned to Tollishill, +thinking of her as his bride. It was a difficult thing for a man of +fifty, who had been the companion of solitude from his youth upwards, +and who had lived in single blessedness amidst the silence of the hills, +without feeling the workings of the heart, or being subjected to the +influence of its passions—I say, it was indeed difficult for such a one +to declare, in the ear of a blooming maiden of eighteen, the tale of his +first affections. But an opportunity arrived which enabled him to +disembosom the burden that pressed upon his heart.</p> + +<p>It has been mentioned that Margaret Lylestone and her mother were poor; +and the latter, who had long been bowed down with infirmities, was +supported by the industry of her daughter. They had also a cow, which +was permitted to graze upon the hills without fee or reward; and, with +the milk which it produced, and the cheese they manufactured, together +with the poor earnings of Margaret, positive want was long kept from +them. But the old woman became more and more infirm—the hand of death +seemed stretching over her. She required nourishment which Margaret +could not procure for her; and, that it might be procured—that her +mother might live and not die—the fair maiden sent the cow to Kelso to +be sold, from whence the seller was to bring with him the restoratives +that her parent required.</p> + +<p>Now, it so was that Thomas Hardie, the tenant of Tollishill, was in +Kelso market when the cow of Widow Lylestone was offered for sale; and, +as it possessed the<!-- Page 262 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span> characteristic marks of a good milcher, he inquired +to whom it belonged. On being answered, he turned round for a few +moments, and stood thoughtful; but again turning to the individual who +had been intrusted to dispose of it, he inquired—</p> + +<p>"And wherefore is she selling it?"</p> + +<p>"Really, Maister Hardie," replied the other, "I could not positively +say, but I hae little doot it is for want—absolute necessity. The auld +woman's very frail and very ill—I hae to tak a' sort o' things oot to +her the nicht frae the doctor's, after selling the cow, and it's no in +the power o' things that her dochter, industrious as she is, should be +able to get them for her otherwise."</p> + +<p>Thomas again turned aside, and drew his sleeve across his eyes. Having +inquired the price sought for the cow, he handed the money to the +seller, and gave the animal in charge to one of his herdsmen. He left +the market earlier than usual, and directed his servant that the cow +should be taken to Westruther.</p> + +<p>It was drawing towards gloaming before Thomas approached the habitation +of the widow; and, before he could summon courage to enter it for the +first time, he sauntered for several minutes, backward and forward on +the moor, by the side of the Blackadder, which there silently wends its +way, as a dull and simple burn, through the moss. He felt all the +awkwardness of an old man struggling beneath the influence of a young +feeling. He thought of what he should say, how he should act, and how he +would be received. At length he had composed a short introductory and +explanatory speech which pleased him. He thought it contained both +feeling and delicacy (according to his notions of the latter) in their +proper proportions, and after repeating it three or four times over by +the side of the Blackadder, he proceeded towards the cottage, still +repeating it to himself as he went. But,<!-- Page 263 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span> when he raised his hand and +knocked at the door, his heart gave a similar knock upon his bosom, as +though it mimicked him; and every idea, every word of the introductory +speech which he had studied and repeated again and again, short though +it was, was knocked from his memory. The door was opened by Margaret, +who invited him to enter. She was beautiful as when he first beheld +her—he thought more beautiful—for she now spoke to him. Her mother sat +in an arm-chair, by the side of the peat fire, and was supported by +pillows. He took off his bonnet, and performed an awkward but his best +salutation.</p> + +<p>"I beg your pardon," said he, hesitatingly, "for the liberty I have +taken in calling upon you. But—I was in Kelso the day—and"——He +paused, and turned his bonnet once or twice in his hands. "And," he +resumed, "I observed, or rather, I should say, I learned that ye +intended to sell your cow; but I also heard that ye was very ill, +and"——Here he made another pause. "I say I heard that ye was very ill, +and I thocht it would be a hardship for ye to part wi' crummie, and +especially at a time when ye are sure to stand maist in need o' every +help. So I bought the cow—but, as I say, it would be a very great +hardship for ye to be without the milk, and what the cheese may bring, +at a time like this; and, therefore, I hae ordered her to be brocht back +to ye, and ane o' my men will bring her hame presently. Never consider +the cow as mine, for a bachelor farmer like me can better afford to want +the siller, than ye can to want yer cow; and I micht hae spent it far +mair foolishly, and wi' less satisfaction. Indeed, if ye only but think +that good I've dune, I'm mair than paid."</p> + +<p>"Maister Hardie," said the widow, "what have I, a stranger widow woman, +done to deserve this kindness at your hands? Or how is it in the power +o' words for me to thank ye? HE who provideth for the widow and the +fatherless will not permit you to go unrewarded, though I<!-- Page 264 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span> cannot. O +Margaret, hinny," added she, "thank our benefactor as we ought to thank +him, for I cannot."</p> + +<p>Fair Margaret's thanks were a flood of tears.</p> + +<p>"Oh, dinna greet!" said Thomas; "I would ten times ower rather no hae +bocht the cow, but hae lost the siller, than I would hae been the cause +o' a single tear rowin' doun yer bonny cheeks."</p> + +<p>"O sir," answered the widow, "but they are tears o' gratitude that +distress my bairn, and nae tears are mair precious."</p> + +<p>I might tell how Thomas sat down by the peat fire between the widow and +her daughter, and how he took the hand of the latter, and entreated her +to dry up her tears, saying that his chief happiness would be to be +thought their friend, and to deserve their esteem. The cow was brought +back to the widow's, and Thomas returned to Tollishill with his +herdsman. But, from that night, he became almost a daily visitor at the +house of Mrs. Lylestone. He provided whatever she required—all that was +ordered for her. He spoke not of love to Margaret, but he wooed her +through his kindness to her mother. It was, perhaps, the most direct +avenue to her affections. Yet it was not because Thomas thought so that +he pursued this course, but because he wanted confidence to make his +appeal in a manner more formal or direct.</p> + +<p>The widow lingered many months; and all that lay within the power of +human means he caused to be done for her, to restore her to health and +strength, or at least to smooth her dying pillow. But the last was all +that could be done. Where death spreadeth the shadow of his wing, there +is no escape from sinking beneath the baneful influence of its shade. +Mrs. Lylestone, finding that the hour of her departure drew near, took +the hand of her benefactor, and when she had thanked him for all the +kindness which he had shown towards her, she added<!-- Page 265 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span>—</p> + +<p>"But, O sir, there is one thing that makes the hand of death heavy. When +the sod is cauld upon my breast, who will look after my puir orphan—my +bonny faitherless and motherless Margaret? Where will she find a hame?"</p> + +<p>"O mem," said Thomas, "if the like o' me durst say it, she needna hae +far to gang, to find a hame and a heart too. Would she only be mine, I +would be her protector—a' that I have should be hers."</p> + +<p>A gleam of joy brightened in the eye of the dying widow.</p> + +<p>"Margaret!" she exclaimed, faintly; and Margaret laid her face upon the +bed, and wept. "O my bairn! my puir bairn!" continued her mother, "shall +I see ye protected and provided for before I am 'where the wicked cease +from troubling and the weary are at rest,' which canna be lang noo?"</p> + +<p>Thomas groaned—tears glistened in his eyes—he held his breath in +suspense. The moment of trial, of condemnation or acquittal, of +happiness or misery, had arrived. With an eager impatience he waited to +hear her answer. But Margaret's heart was prepared for his proposal. He +had first touched it with gratitude—he had obtained her esteem; and +where these sentiments prevail in the bosom of a woman whose affections +have not been bestowed upon another, love is not far distant—if it be +not between them, and a part of both.</p> + +<p>"Did ever I disobey you, mother?" sobbed Margaret, raising her parent's +hand to her lips.</p> + +<p>"No, my bairn, no!" answered the widow. And raising herself in the bed, +she took her daughter's hand and placed it in the hand of Thomas Hardie.</p> + +<p>"Oh!" said he, "is this possible? Does my bonny Margaret really consent +to make me the happiest man on earth? Shall I hae a gem at Tollishill +that I wadna exchange for a monarch's diadem?"<!-- Page 266 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span></p> + +<p>It is sufficient to say that the young and lovely Margaret Lylestone +became Mrs. Hardie of Tollishill; or, as she was generally called, +"<i>Midside Maggie</i>." Her mother died within three months after their +marriage, but died in peace, having, as she said, "seen her dear bairn +blessed wi' a leal and a kind guidman, and ane that was weel to do."</p> + +<p>For two years after their marriage, and not a happier couple than Thomas +and Midside Maggie was to be found on all the long Lammermoors, in the +Merse, nor yet in the broad Lothians. They saw the broom and the heather +bloom in their season, and they heard the mavis sing before their +dwelling; yea, they beheld the snow falling on the mountains, and the +drift sweeping down the glens; but while the former delighted, the +latter harmed them not, and from all they drew mutual joy and happiness. +Thomas said that "Maggy was a matchless wife;" and she that "he was a +kind, kind husband."</p> + +<p>But the third winter was one of terror among the hills. It was near the +new year; the snow began to fall on a Saturday, and when the following +Friday came, the storm had not ceased. It was accompanied by frost and a +fierce wind, and the drift swept and whirled like awful pillars of +alabaster, down the hills, and along the glens—</p> + +<p class="center">"Sweeping the flocks and herds."</p> + +<p>Fearful was the wrath of the tempest on the Lammermoors. Many farmers +suffered severely, but none more severely than Thomas Hardie of +Tollishill. Hundreds of his sheep had perished in a single night. He was +brought from prosperity to the brink of adversity.</p> + +<p>But another winter came round. It commenced with a severity scarce +inferior to that which had preceded it, and again scores of his sheep +were buried in the snow. But February had not passed, and scarce had the +sun entered what is represented as the astronomical sign of the <i>two +fish</i>, in the heavens, when the genial influence of spring fell with<!-- Page 267 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span> +almost summer warmth upon the earth. During the night the dews came +heavily on the ground, and the sun sucked it up in a vapour. But the +herbage grew rapidly, and the flocks ate of it greedily, and licked the +dew ere the sun rose to dry it up. It brought the murrain amongst them; +they died by hundreds; and those that even fattened, but did not die, no +man would purchase; or, if purchased, it was only upon the understanding +that the money should be returned if the animals were found unsound. +These misfortunes were too much for Thomas Hardie. Within two years he +found himself a ruined man. But he grieved not for the loss of his +flocks, nor yet for his own sake, but for that of his fair young wife, +whom he loved as the apple of his eye. Many, when they heard of his +misfortunes, said that they were sorry for bonny Midside Maggy.</p> + +<p>But, worst of all, the rent-day of Thomas Hardie drew near; and for the +first time since he had held a farm, he was unable to meet his landlord +with his money in his hand. Margaret beheld the agony of his spirit, and +she knew its cause. She put on her Sunday hood and kirtle; and +professing to her husband that she wished to go to Lauder, she took her +way to Thirlestane Castle, the residence of their proud landlord, before +whom every tenant in arrear trembled. With a shaking hand she knocked at +the hall door, and after much perseverance and entreaty, was admitted +into the presence of the haughty earl. She curtsied low before him.</p> + +<p>"Well, what want ye, my bonny lass?" said Lauderdale, eyeing her +significantly.</p> + +<p>"May it please yer lordship," replied Margaret, "I am the wife o' yer +tenant, Thomas Hardie o' Tollishill; an' a guid tenant he has been to +yer lordship for twenty years and mair, as yer lordship maun weel ken."</p> + +<p>"He has been my tenant for more than twenty years,<!-- Page 268 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span> say ye?" interrupted +Lauderdale; "and ye say ye are his wife: why, looking on thy bonny face, +I should say that the heather hasna bloomed twenty times on the knowes +o' Tollishill since thy mother bore thee. Yet ye say ye are his wife! +Beshrew me, but Thomas Hardie is a man o' taste. Arena ye his daughter?"</p> + +<p>"No, my lord; his first, his only, an' his lawfu' wife—an' I would only +say, that to ye an' yer faither before ye, for mair than twenty years, +he has paid his rent regularly an' faithfully; but the seasons hae +visited us sairly, very sairly, for twa years successively, my lord, an' +the drift has destroyed, an' the rot rooted oot oor flocks, sae that we +are hardly able to haud up oor heads amang oor neebors, and to meet yer +lordship at yer rent-day is oot o' oor power; therefore hae I come to ye +to implore ye, that we may hae time to gather oor feet, an' to gie yer +lordship an' every man his due, when it is in oor power."</p> + +<p>"Hear me, guidwife," rejoined the earl; "were I to listen to such +stories as yours, I might have every farmer's wife on my estates coming +whimpering and whinging, till I was left to shake a purse with naething +in't, and allowing others the benefit o' my lands. But it is not every +day that a face like yours comes in the shape o' sorrow before me; and, +for ae kiss o' your cherry mou', (and ye may take my compliments to your +auld man for his taste,) ye shall have a discharge for your half-year's +rent, and see if that may set your husband on his feet again."</p> + +<p>"Na, yer lordship, na!" replied Margaret; "it would ill become ony woman +in my situation in life, an' especially a married ane, to be daffin with +sic as yer lordship. I am the wife o' Thomas Hardie, wha is a guid +guidman to me, an' I cam here this day to entreat ye to deal kindly wi' +him in the day o' his misfortune."</p> + +<p>"Troth," replied Lauderdale—who could feel the force of virtue in +others, though he did not always practise it<!-- Page 269 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span> in his own person—"I hae +heard o' the blossom o' Tollishill before, an' a bonny flower ye are to +blossom in an auld man's bower; but I find ye modest as ye are bonny, +an' upon one condition will I grant yer request. Ye hae tauld me o' yer +hirsels being buried wi' the drift, an' that the snaw has covered the +May primrose on Leader braes; now it is Martinmas, an' if in June ye +bring me a snowball, not only shall ye be quit o' yer back rent, but ye +shall sit free in Tollishill till Martinmas next. But see that in June +ye bring me the snowball or the rent."</p> + +<p>Margaret made her obeisance before the earl, and, thanking him, +withdrew. But she feared the coming of June; for to raise the rent even +then she well knew would be a thing impossible, and she thought also it +would be equally so to preserve a snow-ball beneath the melting sun of +June. Though young, she had too much prudence and honesty to keep a +secret from her husband; it was her maxim, and it was a good one, that +"there ought to be no secrets between a man and his wife, which the one +would conceal from the other." She therefore told him of her journey to +Thirlestane, and of all that had passed between her and the earl. Thomas +kissed her cheek, and called her his "bonny, artless Maggy;" but he had +no more hope of seeing a snowball in June than she had, and he said, +"the bargain was like the bargain o' a crafty Lauderdale."</p> + +<p>Again the winter storms howled upon the Lammermoors, and the snow lay +deep upon the hills. Thomas and his herdsmen were busied in exertions to +preserve the remainder of his flocks; but, one day, when the westling +winds breathed with a thawing influence upon the snow-clad hills, +Margaret went forth to where there was a small, deep, and shadowed +ravine by the side of the Leader. In it the rivulet formed a pool, and +seemed to sleep, and there the grey trout loved to lie at ease; for a +high dark<!-- Page 270 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span> rock, over which the brushwood grew, overhung it, and the +rays of the sun fell not upon it. In the rock, and near the side of the +stream, was a deep cavity, and Margaret formed a snowball on the brae +top, and she rolled it slowly down into the shadowed glen, till it +attained the magnitude of an avalanche in miniature. She trode upon it, +and pressed it firmly together, till it obtained almost the hardness and +consistency of ice. She rolled it far into the cavity, and blocked up +the mouth of the aperture, so that neither light nor air might penetrate +the strange coffer in which she had deposited the equally strange rent +of Tollishill. Verily, common as ice-houses are in our day, let not +Midside Maggy be deprived of the merit of their invention.</p> + +<p>I have said that it was her maxim to keep no secret from her husband; +but, as it is said there is no rule without an exception, even so it was +in the case of Margaret, and there was one secret which she communicated +not to Thomas, and that was—the secret of the hidden snowball.</p> + +<p>But June came, and Thomas Hardie was a sorrowful man. He had in no +measure overcome the calamities of former seasons, and he was still +unprepared with his rent. Margaret shared not his sorrow, but strove to +cheer him, and said—</p> + +<p>"We shall hae a snawba' in June, though I climb to the top o' Cheviot +for it."</p> + +<p>"O my bonny lassie," replied he—and he could see the summit of Cheviot +from his farm—"dinna deceive yersel' wi' what could only be words +spoken in jest; but, at ony rate, I perceive there has been nae snaw on +Cheviot for a month past."</p> + +<p>Now, not a week had passed, but Margaret had visited the aperture in the +ravine, where the snowball was concealed, not through idle curiosity, to +perceive whether it had melted away, but more effectually to stop up +every<!-- Page 271 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span> crevice that might have been made in the materials with which she +had blocked up the mouth of the cavity.</p> + +<p>But the third day of the dreadful month had not passed, when a messenger +arrived at Tollishill from Thirlestane with the abrupt mandate—"<i>June +has come!</i>"</p> + +<p>"And we shall be at Thirlestane the morn," answered Margaret.</p> + +<p>"O my doo," said Thomas, "what nonsense are ye talking!—that isna like +ye, Margaret; I'll be in Greenlaw Jail the morn; and oor bits o' things +in the hoose, and oor flocks, will be seized by the harpies o' the +law—and the only thing that distresses me is, what is to come o' you +hinny."</p> + +<p>"Dinna dree the death ye'll never dee," said Margaret affectionately; +"we shall see, if we be spared, what the morn will bring."</p> + +<p>"The fortitude o' yer mind, Margaret," said Thomas, taking her hand; and +he intended to have said more, to have finished a sentence in admiration +of her worth, but his heart filled, and he was silent.</p> + +<p>On the following morning, Margaret said unto him—</p> + +<p>"Now, Thomas, if ye are ready, we'll gang to Thirlestane. It is aye waur +to expect or think o' an evil than to face it."</p> + +<p>"Margaret, dear," said he, "I canna comprehend ye—wherefore should I +thrust my head into the lion's den? It will soon enough seek me in my +path."</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, she said unto him, "Come," and bade him be of good heart; +and he rose and accompanied her. But she conducted him to the deep +ravine, where the waters seem to sleep and no sunbeam ever falls; and, +as she removed the earth and the stones, with which she had blocked up +the mouth of the cavity in the rock, he stood wondering. She entered the +aperture, and rolled forth the firm mass of snow, which was yet too +large to be lifted by hands. When Thomas saw this, he smiled and<!-- Page 272 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span> wept +at the same instant, and he pressed his wife's cheek to his bosom, and +said—</p> + +<p>"Great has been the care o' my poor Margaret; but it is o' no avail; +for, though ye hae proved mair than a match for the seasons, the +proposal was but a jest o' Lauderdale."</p> + +<p>"What is a man but his word?" replied Margaret; "and him a nobleman +too."</p> + +<p>"Nobility are but men," answered Thomas, "and seldom better men than +ither folk. Believe me, if we were to gang afore him wi' a snawba' in +oor hands, we should only get lauched at for our pains."</p> + +<p>"It was his ain agreement," added she; "and, at ony rate, we can be +naething the waur for seeing if he will abide by it."</p> + +<p>Breaking the snowy mass, she rolled up a portion of it in a napkin, and +they went towards Thirlestane together; though often did Thomas stop by +the way and say—</p> + +<p>"Margaret, dear, I'm perfectly ashamed to gang upon this business; as +sure as I am standing here, as I have tauld ye, we will only get +oorselves lauched at."</p> + +<p>"I would rather be lauched at," added she, "than despised for breaking +my word; and, if oor laird break his noo, wha wadna despise him?"</p> + +<p>Harmonious as their wedded life had hitherto been, there was what might +well nigh be called bickerings between them on the road; for Thomas felt +or believed that she was leading him on a fool's errand. But they +arrived at the castle of Thirlestane, and were ushered into the mansion +of its proud lord.</p> + +<p>"Ha!" said the earl, as they entered, "bonny Midside Maggy and her auld +guidman! Well, what bring ye?—the rents o' Tollishill, or their +equivalent?" Thomas looked at his young wife, for he saw nothing to give +him hope on the countenance of Lauderdale, and he<!-- Page 273 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span> thought that he +pronounced the word "<i>equivalent</i>" with a sneer.</p> + +<p>"I bring ye snaw in June, my lord," replied Margaret, "agreeably to the +terms o' yer bargain; and I'm sorry, for your sake and oors, that it +hasna yet been in oor power to bring gowd instead o't."</p> + +<p>Loud laughed the earl as Margaret unrolled the huge snowball before him; +and Thomas thought unto himself, "I said how it would be." But +Lauderdale, calling for his writing materials, sat down and wrote, and +he placed in the hands of Thomas a discharge, not only for his back +rent, but for all that should otherwise be due at the ensuing Martinmas.</p> + +<p>Thomas Hardie bowed and bowed again before the earl, low and yet lower, +awkwardly and still more awkwardly, and he endeavoured to thank him, but +his tongue faltered in the performance of its office. He could have +taken his hand in his and wrung it fervently, leaving his fingers to +express what his tongue could not; but his laird was an earl, and there +was a necessary distance to be observed between an earl and a Lammermoor +farmer.</p> + +<p>"Thank not me, goodman," said Lauderdale, "but thank the modesty and +discretion o' yer winsome wife."</p> + +<p>Margaret was silent; but gratitude for the kindness which the earl had +shown unto her husband and herself took deep root in her heart. +Gratitude, indeed, formed the predominating principle in her character, +and fitted her even for acts of heroism.</p> + +<p>The unexpected and unwonted generosity of the earl had enabled Thomas +Hardie to overcome the losses with which the fury of the seasons had +overwhelmed him, and he prospered beyond any farmer on the hills. But, +while he prospered, the Earl of Lauderdale, in his turn, was overtaken +by adversity. The stormy times of the civil wars raged, and it is well +known with what devotedness Lauderdale<!-- Page 274 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span> followed the fortunes of the +king. When the Commonwealth began, he was made prisoner, conveyed to +London, and confined in the Tower. There, nine years of captivity crept +slowly and gloomily over him; but they neither taught him mercy to +others nor to moderate his ambition, as was manifested when power and +prosperity again cast their beams upon him. But he now lingered in the +Tower, without prospect or hope of release, living upon the bare +sustenance of a prisoner, while his tenants dwelt on his estates, and +did as they pleased with his rents, as though they should not again +behold the face of a landlord.</p> + +<p>But Midside Maggy grieved for the fate of him whose generosity had +brought prosperity, such as they had never known before, to herself and +to her husband; and, in the fulness of her gratitude, she was ever +planning schemes for his deliverance; and she urged upon her husband +that it was their duty to attempt to deliver their benefactor from +captivity, as he had delivered them from the iron grasp of ruin, when +misfortune lay heavily on them. Now, as duly as the rent-day came, from +the Martinmas to which the snowball had been his discharge, Thomas +Hardie faithfully and punctually locked away his rent to the last +farthing, that he might deliver it into the hands of his laird, should +he again be permitted to claim his own; but he saw not in what way they +could attempt his deliverance, as his wife proposed.</p> + +<p>"Thomas," said she, "there are ten lang years o' rent due, and we hae +the siller locked away. It is o' nae use to us, for it isna oors; but it +may be o' use to him. It would enable him to fare better in his prison, +and maybe to put a handfu' o' gowd into the hands o' his keepers, and +thereby to escape abroad, and it wad furnish him wi' the means o' living +when he was abroad. Remember his kindness to us, and think that there is +nae sin equal to the sin o' ingratitude."<!-- Page 275 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span></p> + +<p>"But," added Thomas, "in what way could we get the money to him? for, if +we were to send it, it would never reach him, and, as a prisoner, he +wouldna be allooed to receive it."</p> + +<p>"Let us tak it to him oorsels, then," said Margaret.</p> + +<p>"Tak it oorsels!" exclaimed Thomas, in amazement, "a' the way to London! +It is oot o' the question a'thegither, Margaret. We wad be robbed o' +every plack before we got half-way; or, if we were even there, hoo, in +a' the world, do ye think we could get it to him, or that we would be +allooed to see him?"</p> + +<p>"Leave that to me," was her reply; "only say ye will gang, and a' that +shall be accomplished. There is nae obstacle in the way but the want o' +yer consent. But the debt, and the ingratitude o' it thegither, hang +heavy upon my heart."</p> + +<p>Thomas at length yielded to the importunities of his wife, and agreed +that they should make a pilgrimage to London, to pay his rent to his +captive laird; though how they were to carry the gold in safety, through +an unsettled country, a distance of more than three hundred miles, was a +difficulty he could not overcome. But Margaret removed his fears; she +desired him to count out the gold, and place it before her; and when he +had done so, she went to the meal-tub and took out a quantity of pease +and of barley meal mixed, sufficient to knead a goodly fadge or bannock; +and, when she had kneaded it, and rolled it out, she took the golden +pieces and pressed them into the paste of the embryo bannock, and again +she doubled it together, and again rolled it out, and kneaded into it +the remainder of the gold. She then fashioned it into a thick bannock, +and placing it on the hearth, covered it with the red ashes of the +peats.</p> + +<p>Thomas sat marvelling, as the formation of the singular purse proceeded, +and when he beheld the operation completed,<!-- Page 276 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span> and the bannock placed upon +the hearth to bake, he only exclaimed—"Weel, woman's ingenuity dings +a'! I wadna hae thocht o' the like o' that, had I lived a thoosand +years! O Margaret, hinny, but ye are a strange ane."</p> + +<p>"Hoots," replied she, "I'm sure ye micht easily hae imagined that it was +the safest plan we could hae thocht upon to carry the siller in safety; +for I am sure there isna a thief between the Tweed and Lon'on toun, that +would covet or carry awa a bear bannock."</p> + +<p>"Troth, my doo, and I believe ye're richt," replied Thomas; "but wha +could hae thocht o' sic an expedient? Sure there never was a bannock +baked like the bannock o' Tollishill."</p> + +<p>On the third day after this, an old man and a fair lad, before the sun +had yet risen, were observed crossing the English Border. They +alternately carried a wallet across their shoulders, which contained a +few articles of apparel and a bannock. They were dressed as shepherds, +and passengers turned and gazed on them as they passed along; for the +beauty of the youth's countenance excited their admiration. Never had +Lowland bonnet covered so fair a brow. The elder stranger was Thomas +Hardie, and the youth none other than his Midside Maggy.</p> + +<p>I will not follow them through the stages of their long and weary +journey, nor dwell upon the perils and adventures they encountered by +the way. But, on the third week after they had left Tollishill, and when +they were beyond the town called Stevenage, and almost within sight of +the metropolis, they were met by an elderly military-looking man, who, +struck with the lovely countenance of the seeming youth, their dress, +and way-worn appearance, accosted them, saying—"Good morrow, strangers; +ye seem to have travelled far. Is this fair youth your son, old man?"<!-- Page 277 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span></p> + +<p>"He is a gay sib freend," answered Thomas.</p> + +<p>"And whence come ye?" continued the stranger.</p> + +<p>"Frae Leader Haughs, on the bonny Borders o' the north countrie," +replied Margaret.</p> + +<p>"And whence go ye?" resumed the other.</p> + +<p>"First tell me wha ye may be that are sae inquisitive," interrupted +Thomas, in a tone which betrayed something like impatience.</p> + +<p>"Some call me George Monk," replied the stranger mildly, "others, Honest +George. I am a general in the Parliamentary army." Thomas reverentially +raised his hand to his bonnet, and bowed his head.</p> + +<p>"Then pardon me, sir," added Margaret, "and if ye indeed be the guid and +gallant general, sma' offence will ye tak at onything that may be said +amiss by a country laddie. We are tenants o' the Lord o' Lauderdale, +whom ye now keep in captivity; and, though we mayna think as he thinks, +yet we never faund him but a guid landlord; and little guid, in my +opinion, it can do ony body to keep him, as he has been noo for nine +years, caged up like a bird. Therefore, though oor ain business that has +brocht us up to London should fail, I winna regret the journey, since it +has afforded me an opportunity o' seein yer Excellency, and soliciting +yer interest, which maun be pooerfu' in behalf o' oor laird, and that ye +would release him frae his prison, and, if he michtna remain in this +countrie, obtain permission for him to gang abroad."</p> + +<p>"Ye plead fairly and honestly for yer laird, fair youth," returned the +general; "yet, though he is no man to be trusted, I needs say he hath +had his portion of captivity measured out abundantly; and, since ye have +minded me of him, ere a week go round I will think of what may be done +for Lauderdale." Other questions were asked and answered—some truly, +and some evasively; and Thomas and Margaret blessing Honest George<!-- Page 278 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span> in +their hearts, went on their way rejoicing at having met him.</p> + +<p>On arriving in London, she laid aside the shepherd's garb in which she +had journeyed, and resumed her wonted apparel. On the second day after +their arrival, she went out upon Tower-hill, dressed as a Scottish +peasant girl, with a basket on her arm; and in the basket were a few +ballads, and the bannock of Tollishill. She affected silliness, and, +acting the part of a wandering minstrel, went singing her ballads +towards the gate of the Tower. Thomas followed her at a distance. Her +appearance interested the guard; and as she stood singing before the +gate—"What want ye, pretty face?" inquired the officer of the guard. +"Your alms, if you please," said she, smiling innocently, "and to sing a +bonny Scotch sang to the Laird o' Lauderdale."</p> + +<p>The officer and the sentinels laughed; and, after she had sang them +another song or two, she was permitted to enter the gate, and a soldier +pointed out to her the room in which Lauderdale was confined. On +arriving before the grated windows of his prison, she raised her eyes +towards them, and began to sing "<i>Leader Haughs</i>." The wild, sweet +melody of his native land, drew Lauderdale to the windows of his +prison-house, and in the countenance of the minstrel he remembered the +lovely features of Midside Maggy. He requested permission of the keeper +that she should be admitted to his presence; and his request was +complied with.</p> + +<p>"Bless thee, sweet face!" said the earl, as she was admitted into his +prison; "and you have not forgotten the snowball in June?" And he took +her hand to raise it to his lips.</p> + +<p>"Hooly, hooly, my guid lord," said she, withdrawing her hand; "my +fingers were made for nae sic purpose—Thomas Hardie is here"—and she +laid her hand upon her fair bosom—"though now standing withoot the yett +o' the<!-- Page 279 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span> Tower." Lauderdale again wondered, and, with a look of mingled +curiosity and confusion, inquired—"Wherefore do ye come—and why do ye +seek me?" "I brocht ye a snaw-ba' before," said she, "for yer rent—I +bring ye a bannock noo." And she took the bannock from the basket and +placed it before him.</p> + +<p>"Woman," added he, "are ye really as demented as I thocht ye but feigned +to be, when ye sang before the window."</p> + +<p>"The proof o' the bannock," replied Margaret, "will be in the breakin' +o't."</p> + +<p>"Then, goodwife, it will not be easily proved," said he—and he took the +bannock, and, with some difficulty, broke it over his knee; but, when he +beheld the golden coins that were kneaded through it, for the first, +perhaps the last and only time in his existence, the Earl of Lauderdale +burst into tears and exclaimed—"Well, every bannock has its maik, but +the bannock o' Tollishill! Yet, kind as ye hae been, the gold is useless +to ane that groans in hopeless captivity."</p> + +<p>"Yours has been a long captivity," said Margaret; "but it is not +hopeless; and, if honest General Monk is to be trusted, from what he +tauld me not three days by-gane, before a week gae roond, ye will be at +liberty to go abroad, and there the bannock o' Tollishill may be o' +use."</p> + +<p>The wonder of Lauderdale increased, and he replied—"Monk will keep his +word—but what mean ye of him?"</p> + +<p>And she related to him the interview they had had with the general by +the way. Lauderdale took her hand, a ray of hope and joy spread over his +face, and he added—</p> + +<p>"Never shall ye rue the bakin' o' the bannock, if auld times come back +again."</p> + +<p>Margaret left the tower, singing as she had entered it, and joined her +husband, whom she found leaning over the railing around the moat, and +anxiously waiting her return.<!-- Page 280 --><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span> They spent a few days more in London, to +rest and to gaze upon its wonders, and again set out upon their journey +to Tollishill. General Monk remembered his promise; within a week, the +Earl of Lauderdale was liberated, with permission to go abroad, and +there, as Margaret had intimated, he found the bannock of Tollishill of +service.</p> + +<p>A few more years passed round, during which old Thomas Hardie still +prospered; but, during those years, the Commonwealth came to an end, the +king was recalled, and with him, as one of his chief favourites, +returned the Earl of Lauderdale. And, when he arrived in Scotland, +clothed with power, whatever else he forgot, he remembered the bannock +of Tollishill. Arrayed in what might have passed as royal state, and +attended by fifty of his followers, he rode to the dwelling of Thomas +Hardie and Midside Maggy; and when they came forth to meet him, he +dismounted and drew forth a costly silver girdle of strange workmanship, +and fastened it round her jimp waist, saying—"Wear this, for now it is +my turn to be grateful, and for your husband's life, and your life, and +the life of the generation after ye" (for they had children), "ye shall +sit rent free on the lands ye now farm. For, truly, every bannock had +its maik but the bannock o' Tollishill."</p> + +<p>Thomas and Margaret felt their hearts too full to express their thanks; +and ere they could speak, the earl, mounting his horse, rode towards +Thirlestane; and his followers, waving their bonnets, shouted—"Long +live Midside Maggy, queen of Tollishill."</p> + +<p>Such is the story of "The Bannock o' Tollishill;" and it is only +necessary to add, for the information of the curious, that I believe the +silver girdle may be seen until this day, in the neighbourhood of +Tollishill, and in the possession of a descendant of Midside Maggy, to +whom it was given.</p> + +<div class="notes"><p>Transcriber’s Note:<br /> +<br /> +1. On page 28, last line, page 74, footnote, and page 155, last line, +missing text has been restored from scans at The Internet Archive<br /> +<br /> +A few missing letters or words at the ends of lines have been restored +from the same source.</p> + +<p>2. The French word "mouillé" appears, apparently randomly, both with +and without the acute accent. Since the accent is clearly required, +it has been restored where necessary.</p> + +<p>3. On page 2, antepenultimate line, "bewrayed" has been corrected to "betrayed".</p> + +</div> + + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of +Scotland, Volume I, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WILSON'S TALES OF SCOTLAND, VOL I *** + +***** This file should be named 32862-h.htm or 32862-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/2/8/6/32862/ + +Produced by David Clarke, David J. 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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: Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland, Volume I + Historical, Traditionary, and Imaginative + +Author: Various + +Editor: Alexander Leighton + +Release Date: June 17, 2010 [EBook #32862] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WILSON'S TALES OF SCOTLAND, VOL I *** + + + + +Produced by David Clarke, David J. Cole and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + + Wilson's + + Tales of the Borders + + AND OF SCOTLAND. + + + HISTORICAL, TRADITIONARY, & IMAGINATIVE. + + + WITH A GLOSSARY. + + + REVISED BY + ALEXANDER LEIGHTON, + ONE OF THE ORIGINAL EDITORS AND CONTRIBUTORS + + + + + LONDON: + WALTER SCOTT, 24 WARWICK LANE, + AND NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE. + 1887. + + + + + CONTENTS. + + + PAGE + +THE VACANT CHAIR (_John Mackay Wilson_) 1 + +THE FAA'S REVENGE (_John Mackay Wilson_) 18 + +KATE KENNEDY (_Alexander Leighton_) 50 + +RECOLLECTIONS OF FERGUSON (_Hugh Miller_) 83 + +THE DISASTERS + OF JOHNNY ARMSTRONG (_Alexander Campbell_) 128 + +THE PROFESSOR'S TALES--(_Professor Thomas Gillespie_):-- + + THE MOUNTAIN STORM 160 + + THE FAIR MAID OF CELLARDYKES 172 + +PRESCRIPTION; + OR, THE 29TH OF SEPTEMBER (_Alex. Leighton_) 193 + +THE COUNTESS OF WISTONBURY (_Alexander Campbell_) 225 + +MIDSIDE MAGGIE; OR, THE BANNOCK O' TOLLISHILL-- + (_John Mackay Wilson_) 257 + + + + +PREFACE. + + +This series of Tales, now so well known in this country and also in +America, was begun by JOHN MACKAY WILSON, originally a printer, and who +subsequently betook himself to literature. In the beginning of the +undertaking he was inspired by a success probably greater than he had +ever anticipated, and a sudden and wide-spread reputation induced him to +overtask his energies, in a manner inconsistent with the care due to a +delicate constitution. After having carried on the work, almost +single-handed, for a period of more than a year--furnishing a tale every +week--he took ill, and died. Subsequently, the charge of conducting the +work devolved upon the present Editor, who was fortunate enough to +secure the assistance of certain writers well qualified to sustain the +reputation which the first part of the series had acquired. Among these +were the late Hugh Miller, the late Professor Thomas Gillespie of St. +Andrew's, Alexander Campbell, Alexander and John Bethune, and John +Howell, all of whom possessed those natural gifts, enabling them to +succeed in a species of literature which, while in one sense it may be +called the most easy, is, in another, perhaps among the most difficult +of any. + +The only condition by which the natural promptings of their genius might +have been restrained was, that the contributions should be genuine +stories, not the ordinary mixture of narrative, didactic essay, and +fanciful prolusion, but tales in the proper every-day sense, with such +an objectiveness as would portray, graphically and naturally, the men +and women of the times, acting on the stage where they were destined to +perform their strange parts, and would exclude all false colourings of a +sentimental fiction, belonging to mere subjective moods of the writer's +fancy or feeling. The greatest care was also taken with the moral aspect +of the Tales, with the view that parents and guardians might feel a +confidence that, in committing them into the hands of their children and +wards, they would be imparting the means of instruction, and at the same +time securing a guarantee for the growth of moral convictions. By such +means, the Tales were kept true to history, legend, morality, and man's +nature, and, at the same time, made acceptable to the great class of +readers who had declared their predilection in favour of the manner of +the early examples. + +The Tales in this series have been carefully selected and revised; and +the reader will be pleased to be informed that, in the course of the +publication, there will, for the purpose of imparting to it a fresh +interest, be inserted New Tales, written by authors deemed capable of +attaining the mark of the Original Series. + +YORK LODGE, TRINITY, + _March_, 1857. + + + + + WILSON'S + + TALES OF THE BORDERS, + + AND OF SCOTLAND. + + + + +THE VACANT CHAIR.[1] + +[1] Our commencement with "The Vacant Chair"--the first written of the +Tales of the Borders--is not inconsistent with our principle of +selection in this edition, which is to distribute the contributions of +the authors, so as to secure variety without any view to an early +exhaustion of the best of the Tales.--_Ed._ + + +You have all heard of the Cheviot mountains. They are a rough, rugged, +majestic chain of hills, which a poet might term the Roman wall of +nature; crowned with snow, belted with storms, surrounded by pastures +and fruitful fields, and still dividing the northern portion of Great +Britain from the southern. With their proud summits piercing the clouds, +and their dark rocky declivities frowning upon the glens below, they +appear symbolical of the wild and untamable spirits of the Borderers who +once inhabited their sides. We say, you have all heard of the Cheviots, +and know them to be very high hills, like a huge clasp riveting England +and Scotland together; but we are not aware that you may have heard of +Marchlaw, an old, gray-looking farm-house, substantial as a modern +fortress, recently, and, for aught we know to the contrary, still +inhabited by Peter Elliot, the proprietor of some five hundred +surrounding acres. The boundaries of Peter's farm, indeed, were defined +neither by fields, hedges, nor stone walls. A wooden stake here, and a +stone there, at considerable distances from each other, were the general +landmarks; but neither Peter nor his neighbours considered a few acres +worth quarrelling about; and their sheep frequently visited each other's +pastures in a friendly way, harmoniously sharing a family dinner, in the +same spirit as their masters made themselves free at each other's +tables. + +Peter was placed in very unpleasant circumstances, owing to the +situation of Marchlaw House, which, unfortunately, was built immediately +across the "ideal line," dividing the two kingdoms; and his misfortune +was, that, being born within it, he knew not whether he was an +Englishman or a Scotchman. He could trace his ancestral line no farther +back than his great-grandfather, who, it appeared from the family Bible, +had, together with his grandfather and father, claimed Marchlaw as their +birth-place. They, however, were not involved in the same perplexities +as their descendant. The parlour was distinctly acknowledged to be in +Scotland, and two-thirds of the kitchen were as certainly allowed to be +in England: his three ancestors were born in the room over the parlour, +and, therefore, were Scotchmen beyond question; but Peter, unluckily, +being brought into the world before the death of his grandfather, his +parents occupied a room immediately over the debatable boundary line +which crossed the kitchen. The room, though scarcely eight feet square, +was evidently situated between the two countries; but, no one being able +to ascertain what portion belonged to each, Peter, after many arguments +and altercations upon the subject, was driven to the disagreeable +alternative of confessing he knew not what countryman he was. What +rendered the confession the more painful was, that it was Peter's +highest ambition to be thought a Scotchman. All his arable land lay on +the Scotch side; his mother was collaterally related to the Stuarts; and +few families were more ancient or respectable than the Elliots. Peter's +speech, indeed, betrayed him to be a walking partition between the two +kingdoms, a living representation of the Union; for in one word he +pronounced the letter _r_ with the broad, masculine sound of the North +Briton, and in the next with the liquid _burr_ of the Northumbrians. + +Peter, or, if you prefer it, Peter Elliot, Esquire of Marchlaw, in the +counties of Northumberland and Roxburgh, was, for many years, the best +runner, leaper, and wrestler between Wooler and Jedburgh. Whirled from +his hand, the ponderous bullet whizzed through the air like a pigeon on +the wing; and the best putter on the Borders quailed from competition. +As a feather in his grasp, he seized the unwieldy hammer, swept it round +and round his head, accompanying with agile limb its evolutions, swiftly +as swallows play around a circle, and hurled it from his hands like a +shot from a rifle, till antagonists shrunk back, and the spectators +burst into a shout. "Well done, Squire! the Squire for ever!" once +exclaimed a servile observer of titles. "Squire! wha are ye squiring +at?" returned Peter. "Confound ye! where was ye when I was christened +Squire? My name's Peter Elliot--your man, or onybody's man, at whatever +they like!" + +Peter's soul was free, bounding, and buoyant, as the wind that carolled +in a zephyr, or shouted in a hurricane, upon his native hills; and his +body was thirteen stone of healthy substantial flesh, steeped in the +spirits of life. He had been long married, but marriage had wrought no +change upon him. They who suppose that wedlock transforms the lark into +an owl, offer an insult to the lovely beings who, brightening our +darkest hours with the smiles of affection, teach us that that only is +unbecoming in the husband which is disgraceful in the man. Nearly twenty +years had passed over them; but Janet was still as kind, and, in his +eyes, as beautiful as when, bestowing on him her hand, she blushed her +vows at the altar; and he was still as happy, as generous, and as free. +Nine fair children sat around their domestic hearth, and one, the +youngling of the flock, smiled upon its mother's knee. Peter had never +known sorrow; he was blest in his wife, in his children, in his flocks. +He had become richer than his fathers. He was beloved by his neighbours, +the tillers of his ground, and his herdsmen; yea, no man envied his +prosperity. But a blight passed over the harvest of his joys, and gall +was rained into the cup of his felicity. + +It was Christmas-day, and a more melancholy-looking sun never rose on +the 25th of December. One vast, sable cloud, like a universal pall, +overspread the heavens. For weeks, the ground had been covered with +clear, dazzling snow; and as, throughout the day, the rain continued its +unwearied and monotonous drizzle, the earth assumed a character and +appearance melancholy and troubled as the heavens. Like a mastiff that +has lost its owner, the wind howled dolefully down the glens, and was +re-echoed from the caves of the mountains, as the lamentations of a +legion of invisible spirits. The frowning, snow-clad precipices were +instinct with motion, as avalanche upon avalanche, the larger burying +the less, crowded downward in their tremendous journey to the plain. The +simple mountain rills had assumed the majesty of rivers; the broader +streams were swollen into the wild torrent, and, gushing forth as +cataracts, in fury and in foam, enveloped the valleys in an angry flood. +But, at Marchlaw, the fire blazed blithely; the kitchen groaned beneath +the load of preparations for a joyful feast; and glad faces glided from +room to room. + +Peter Elliot kept Christmas, not so much because it was Christmas, as in +honour of its being the birthday of Thomas, his first-born, who, that +day, entered his nineteenth year. With a father's love, his heart +yearned for all his children; but Thomas was the pride of his eyes. +Cards of apology had not then found their way among our Border hills; +and as all knew that, although Peter admitted no spirits within his +threshold, nor a drunkard at his table, he was, nevertheless, no +niggard in his hospitality, his invitations were accepted without +ceremony. The guests were assembled; and the kitchen being the only +apartment in the building large enough to contain them, the cloth was +spread upon a long, clear, oaken table, stretching from England into +Scotland. On the English end of the board were placed a ponderous +plum-pudding, studded with temptation, and a smoking sirloin; on +Scotland, a savoury and well-seasoned haggis, with a sheep's-head and +trotters; while the intermediate space was filled with the good things +of this life, common to both kingdoms and to the season. + +The guests from the north and from the south were arranged +promiscuously. Every seat was filled--save one. The chair by Peter's +right hand remained unoccupied. He had raised his hands before his eyes, +and besought a blessing on what was placed before them, and was +preparing to carve for his visitors, when his eyes fell upon the vacant +chair. The knife dropped upon the table. Anxiety flashed across his +countenance, like an arrow from an unseen hand. + +"Janet, where is Thomas?" he inquired; "hae nane o' ye seen him?" and, +without waiting an answer, he continued--"How is it possible he can be +absent at a time like this? And on such a day, too? Excuse me a minute, +friends, till I just step out and see if I can find him. Since ever I +kept this day, as mony o' ye ken, he has always been at my right hand, +in that very chair; and I canna think o' beginning our dinner while I +see it empty." + +"If the filling of the chair be all," said a pert young sheep-farmer, +named Johnson, "I will step into it till Master Thomas arrive." + +"Ye're not a faither, young man," said Peter, and walked out of the +room. + +Minute succeeded minute, but Peter returned not. The guests became +hungry, peevish, and gloomy, while an excellent dinner continued +spoiling before them. Mrs. Elliot, whose good-nature was the most +prominent feature in her character, strove, by every possible effort, to +beguile the unpleasant impressions she perceived gathering upon their +countenances. + +"Peter is just as bad as him," she remarked, "to hae gane to seek him +when he kenned the dinner wouldna keep. And I'm sure Thomas kenned it +would be ready at one o'clock to a minute. It's sae unthinking and +unfriendly like to keep folk waiting." And, endeavouring to smile upon a +beautiful black-haired girl of seventeen, who sat by her elbow, she +continued in an anxious whisper--"Did ye see naething o' him, Elizabeth, +hinny?" + +The maiden blushed deeply; the question evidently gave freedom to a +tear, which had, for some time, been an unwilling prisoner in the +brightest eyes in the room; and the monosyllable, "No," that trembled +from her lips, was audible only to the ear of the inquirer. In vain Mrs. +Elliot despatched one of her children after another, in quest of their +father and brother; they came and went, but brought no tidings more +cheering than the moaning of the hollow wind. Minutes rolled into hours, +yet neither came. She perceived the prouder of her guests preparing to +withdraw, and, observing that "Thomas's absence was so singular and +unaccountable, and so unlike either him or his father, she didna ken +what apology to make to her friends for such treatment; but it was +needless waiting, and begged they would use no ceremony, but just +begin." + +No second invitation was necessary. Good humour appeared to be restored, +and sirloins, pies, pasties, and moor-fowl began to disappear like the +lost son. For a moment, Mrs. Elliot apparently partook in the +restoration of cheerfulness; but a low sigh at her elbow again drove the +colour from her rosy cheeks. Her eye wandered to the farther end of the +table, and rested on the unoccupied seat of her husband, and the vacant +chair of her first-born. Her heart fell heavily within her; all the +mother gushed into her bosom; and, rising from the table, "What in the +world can be the meaning o' this?" said she, as she hurried, with a +troubled countenance, towards the door. Her husband met her on the +threshold. + +"Where hae ye been, Peter?" said she, eagerly; "hae ye seen naething o' +him?" + +"Naething! naething!" replied he; "is he no cast up yet?" And, with a +melancholy glance, his eyes sought an answer in the deserted chair. His +lips quivered, his tongue faltered. + +"Gude forgie me!" said he; "and such a day for even an enemy to be out +in! I've been up and doun every way that I can think on, but not a +living creature has seen or heard tell o' him. Ye'll excuse me, +neebors," he added, leaving the house; "I must awa again, for I canna +rest." + +"I ken by mysel', friends," said Adam Bell, a decent-looking +Northumbrian, "that a faither's heart is as sensitive as the apple o' +his e'e; and I think we would show a want o' natural sympathy and +respect for our worthy neighbour, if we didna every one get his foot +into the stirrup without loss o' time, and assist him in his search. +For, in my rough, country way o' thinking, it must be something +particularly out o' the common that would tempt Thomas to be amissing. +Indeed, I needna say _tempt_, for there could be no inclination in the +way. And our hills," he concluded, in a lower tone, "are not ower chancy +in other respects, besides the breaking up o' the storm." + +"Oh!" said Mrs. Elliot, wringing her hands, "I have had the coming o' +this about me for days and days. My head was growing dizzy with +happiness, but thoughts came stealing upon me like ghosts, and I felt a +lonely soughing about my heart, without being able to tell the cause; +but the cause is come at last! And my dear Thomas--the very pride and +staff o' my life--is lost!--lost to me for ever!" + +"I ken, Mrs. Elliot," replied the Northumbrian, "it is an easy matter to +say compose yourself, for them that dinna ken what it is to feel. But, +at the same time, in our plain, country way o' thinking, we are always +ready to believe the worst. I've often heard my father say, and I've as +often remarked it myself, that, before anything happens to a body, there +is _a something_ comes ower them, like a cloud before the face o' the +sun; a sort o' dumb whispering about the breast from the other world. +And though I trust there is naething o' the kind in your case, yet, as +you observe, when I find myself growing dizzy, as it were, with +happiness, it makes good a saying o' my mother's, poor body! 'Bairns, +bairns,' she used to say, 'there is ower muckle singing in your heads +to-night; we will have a shower before bedtime.' And I never, in my born +days, saw it fail." + +At any other period, Mr. Bell's dissertation on presentiments would have +been found a fitting text on which to hang all the dreams, wraiths, +warnings, and marvellous circumstances, that had been handed down to the +company from the days of their grandfathers; but, in the present +instance, they were too much occupied in consultation regarding the +different routes to be taken in their search. + +Twelve horsemen, and some half-dozen pedestrians, were seen hurrying in +divers directions from Marchlaw, as the last faint lights of a +melancholy day were yielding to the heavy darkness which appeared +pressing in solid masses down the sides of the mountains. The wives and +daughters of the party were alone left with the disconsolate mother, who +alternately pressed her weeping children to her heart, and told them to +weep not, for their brother would soon return; while the tears stole +down her own cheeks, and the infant in her arms wept because its mother +wept. Her friends strove with each other to inspire hope, and poured +upon her ear their mingled and loquacious consolation. But one remained +silent. The daughter of Adam Bell, who sat by Mrs. Elliot's elbow at +table, had shrunk into an obscure corner of the room. Before her face +she held a handkerchief wet with tears. Her bosom throbbed convulsively; +and, as occasionally her broken sighs burst from their prison-house, a +significant whisper passed among the younger part of the company. + +Mrs. Elliot approached her, and taking her hand tenderly within both of +hers--"O hinny! hinny!" said she, "yer sighs gae through my heart like a +knife! An' what can I do to comfort ye? Come, Elizabeth, my bonny love, +let us hope for the best. Ye see before ye a sorrowin' mother!--a mother +that fondly hoped to see you an'--I canna say it!--an' am ill qualified +to gie comfort, when my own heart is like a furnace! But, oh! let us try +and remember the blessed portion, 'Whom the LORD loveth HE chasteneth,' +an' inwardly pray for strength to say, 'His will be done!'" + +Time stole on towards midnight, and one by one the unsuccessful party +returned. As foot after foot approached, every breath was held to +listen. "No, no, no!" cried the mother again and again, with increasing +anguish, "it's no the foot o' my ain bairn;" while her keen gaze still +remained riveted upon the door, and was not withdrawn, nor the hope of +despair relinquished, till the individual entered, and, with a silent +and ominous shake of his head, betokened his fruitless efforts. The +clock had struck twelve; all were returned save the father. The wind +howled more wildly; the rain poured upon the windows in ceaseless +torrents; and the roaring of the mountain rivers gave a character of +deeper ghostliness to their sepulchral silence; for they sat, each wrapt +in forebodings, listening to the storm; and no sounds were heard, save +the groans of the mother, the weeping of her children, and the bitter +and broken sobs of the bereaved maiden, who leaned her head upon her +father's bosom, refusing to be comforted. + +At length the barking of the farm-dog announced footsteps at a distance. +Every ear was raised to listen, every eye turned to the door; but, +before the tread was yet audible to the listeners--"Oh! it is only +Peter's foot!" said the miserable mother, and, weeping, rose to meet +him. + +"Janet, Janet!" he exclaimed, as he entered, and threw his arms around +her neck, "what's this come upon us at last?" + +He cast an inquisitive glance around his dwelling, and a convulsive +shiver passed over his manly frame, as his eye again fell on the vacant +chair, which no one had ventured to occupy. Hour succeeded hour, but the +company separated not; and low, sorrowful whispers mingled with the +lamentations of the parents. + +"Neighbours," said Adam Bell, "the morn is a new day, and we will wait +to see what it may bring forth; but, in the meantime, let us read a +portion o' the Divine word, an' kneel together in prayer, that, whether +or not the day-dawn cause light to shine upon this singular bereavement, +the Sun o' Righteousness may arise wi' healing on his wings, upon the +hearts o' this afflicted family, an' upon the hearts o' all present." + +"Amen!" responded Peter, wringing his hands; and his friend, taking down +the Ha' Bible, read the chapter wherein it is written--"It is better to +be in the house of mourning than in the house of feasting;" and again +the portion which sayeth--"It is well for me that I have been afflicted, +for before I was afflicted I went astray." + +The morning came, but brought no tidings of the lost son. After a solemn +farewell, all the visitants, save Adam Bell and his daughter, returned +every one to their own house; and the disconsolate father, with his +servants, again renewed their search among the hills and surrounding +villages. + +Days, weeks, months, and years rolled on. Time had subdued the anguish +of the parents into a holy calm; but their lost first-born was not +forgotten, although no trace of his fate had been discovered. The +general belief was, that he had perished on the breaking up of the snow; +and the few in whose remembrance he still lived, merely spoke of his +death as a "very extraordinary circumstance," remarking that "he was a +wild, venturesome sort o' lad." + +Christmas had succeeded Christmas, and Peter Elliot still kept it in +commemoration of the birthday of him who was not. For the first few +years after the loss of their son, sadness and silence characterized the +party who sat down to dinner at Marchlaw, and still at Peter's right +hand was placed the vacant chair. But, as the younger branches of the +family advanced in years, the remembrance of their brother became less +poignant. Christmas was, with all around them, a day of rejoicing, and +they began to make merry with their friends; while their parents partook +in their enjoyment, with a smile, half of approval and half of sorrow. + +Twelve years had passed away; Christmas had again come. It was the +counterpart of its fatal predecessor. The hills had not yet cast off +their summer verdure; the sun, although shorn of its heat, had lost none +of its brightness or glory, and looked down upon the earth as though +participating in its gladness; and the clear blue sky was tranquil as +the sea sleeping beneath the moon. Many visitors had again assembled at +Marchlaw. The sons of Mr. Elliot, and the young men of the party, were +assembled upon a level green near the house, amusing themselves with +throwing the hammer, and other Border games, while himself and the elder +guests stood by as spectators, recounting the deeds of their youth. +Johnson, the sheep-farmer, whom we have already mentioned, now a brawny +and gigantic fellow of two-and-thirty, bore away in every game the palm +from all competitors. More than once, as Peter beheld his sons defeated, +he felt the spirit of youth glowing in his veins, and, "Oh!" muttered +he, in bitterness, "had my Thomas been spared to me, he would hae thrown +his heart's bluid after the hammer, before he would hae been beat by +e'er a Johnson in the country!" + +While he thus soliloquized, and with difficulty restrained an impulse to +compete with the victor himself, a dark, foreign-looking, strong-built +seaman, unceremoniously approached, and, with his arms folded, cast a +look of contempt upon the boasting conqueror. Every eye was turned with +a scrutinizing glance upon the stranger. In height he could not exceed +five feet nine, but his whole frame was the model of muscular strength; +his features open and manly, but deeply sunburnt and weather-beaten; his +long, glossy, black hair, curled into ringlets by the breeze and the +billow, fell thickly over his temples and forehead; and whiskers of a +similar hue, more conspicuous for size than elegance, gave a character +of fierceness to a countenance otherwise possessing a striking impress +of manly beauty. Without asking permission, he stepped forward, lifted +the hammer, and, swinging it around his head, hurled it upwards of five +yards beyond Johnson's most successful throw. "Well done!" shouted the +astonished spectators. The heart of Peter Elliot warmed within him, and +he was hurrying forward to grasp the stranger by the hand, when the +words groaned in his throat, "It was just such a throw as my Thomas +would have made!--my own lost Thomas!" The tears burst into his eyes, +and, without speaking, he turned back, and hurried towards the house to +conceal his emotion. + +Successively, at every game, the stranger had defeated all who ventured +to oppose him, when a messenger announced that dinner waited their +arrival. Some of the guests were already seated, others entering; and, +as heretofore, placed beside Mrs. Elliot was Elizabeth Bell, still in +the noontide of her beauty; but sorrow had passed over her features, +like a veil before the countenance of an angel. Johnson, crest-fallen +and out of humour at his defeat, seated himself by her side. In early +life he had regarded Thomas Elliot as a rival for her affections; and, +stimulated by the knowledge that Adam Bell would be able to bestow +several thousands upon his daughter for a dowry, he yet prosecuted his +attentions with unabated assiduity, in despite of the daughter's +aversion and the coldness of her father. Peter had taken his place at +the table; and still by his side, unoccupied and sacred, appeared the +vacant chair, the chair of his first-born, whereon none had sat since +his mysterious death or disappearance. + +"Bairns," said he, "did nane o' ye ask the sailor to come up and tak a +bit o' dinner wi' us?" + +"We were afraid it might lead to a quarrel with Mr. Johnson," whispered +one of the sons. + +"He is come without asking," replied the stranger, entering; "and the +wind shall blow from a new point if I destroy the mirth or happiness of +the company." + +"Ye're a stranger, young man," said Peter, "or ye would ken this is no a +meeting o' mirth-makers. But, I assure ye, ye are welcome, heartily +welcome. Haste ye, lasses," he added to the servants; "some o' ye get a +chair for the gentleman." + +"Gentleman, indeed!" muttered Johnson between his teeth. + +"Never mind about a chair, my hearties," said the seaman; "this will +do!" And, before Peter could speak to withhold him, he had thrown +himself carelessly into the hallowed, the venerated, the +twelve-years-unoccupied chair! The spirit of sacrilege uttering +blasphemies from a pulpit could not have smitten a congregation of pious +worshippers with deeper horror and consternation, than did this filling +of the vacant chair the inhabitants of Marchlaw. + +"Excuse me, sir! excuse me, sir!" said Peter, the words trembling upon +his tongue; "but ye cannot--ye cannot sit there!" + +"O man! man!" cried Mrs. Elliot, "get out o' that! get out o' +that!--take my chair!--take ony chair i' the house!--but dinna, dinna +sit there! It has never been sat in by mortal being since the death o' +my dear bairn!--and to see it filled by another is a thing I canna +endure!" + +"Sir! sir!" continued the father, "ye have done it through ignorance, +and we excuse ye. But that was my Thomas's seat! Twelve years this very +day--his birthday--he perished, Heaven kens how! He went out from our +sight, like the cloud that passes over the hills--never--never to +return. And, O sir, spare a father's feelings! for to see it filled +wrings the blood from my heart!" + +"Give me your hand, my worthy soul!" exclaimed the seaman; "I +revere--nay, hang it! I would die for your feelings! But Tom Elliot was +my friend, and I cast anchor in this chair by special commission. I know +that a sudden broadside of joy is a bad thing; but, as I don't know how +to preach a sermon before telling you, all I have to say is--that Tom +an't dead." + +"Not dead!" said Peter, grasping the hand of the stranger, and speaking +with an eagerness that almost choked his utterance: "O sir! sir! tell me +how!--how!--Did ye say, living?--Is my ain Thomas living?" + +"Not dead, do ye say?" cried Mrs. Elliot, hurrying towards him and +grasping his other hand--"not dead! And shall I see my bairn again? Oh! +may the blessing o' Heaven, and the blessing o' a broken-hearted mother +be upon the bearer o' the gracious tidings! But tell me--tell me, how is +it possible! As ye would expect happiness here or hereafter, dinna, +dinna deceive me!" + +"Deceive you!" returned the stranger, grasping, with impassioned +earnestness, their hands in his--"Never!--never! and all I can say +is--Tom Elliot is alive and hearty." + +"No, no!" said Elizabeth, rising from her seat, "he does not deceive us; +there is that in his countenance which bespeaks a falsehood impossible." +And she also endeavoured to move towards him, when Johnson threw his arm +around her to withhold her. + +"Hands off, you land-lubber!" exclaimed the seaman, springing towards +them, "or, shiver me! I'll show daylight through your timbers in the +turning of a hand-spike!" And, clasping the lovely girl in his arms, +"Betty! Betty, my love!" he cried, "don't you know your own Tom? Father, +mother, don't you know me? Have you really forgot your own son? If +twelve years have made some change on his face, his heart is sound as +ever." + +His father, his mother, and his brothers, clung around him, weeping, +smiling, and mingling a hundred questions together. He threw his arms +around the neck of each, and in answer to their inquiries, +replied--"Well! well! there is time enough to answer questions, but not +to-day--not to-day!" + +"No, my bairn," said his mother, "we'll ask you no questions--nobody +shall ask you any! But how--how were ye torn away from us, my love? And, +O hinny! where--where hae you been?" + +"It's a long story, mother," said he, "and would take a week to tell it. +But, howsoever, to make a long story short, you remember when the +smugglers were pursued, and wished to conceal their brandy in our house, +my father prevented them; they left muttering revenge--and they have +been revenged. This day twelve years, I went out with the intention of +meeting Elizabeth and her father, when I came upon a party of the gang +concealed in Hell's Hole. In a moment half a dozen pistols were held to +my breast, and, tying my hands to my sides, they dragged me into the +cavern. Here I had not been long their prisoner, when the snow, rolling +down the mountains, almost totally blocked up its mouth. On the second +night they cut through the snow, and, hurrying me along with them, I was +bound to a horse between two, and, before daylight, found myself stowed, +like a piece of old junk, in the hold of a smuggling lugger. Within a +week I was shipped on board a Dutch man-of-war, and for six years was +kept dodging about on different stations, till our old yawning hulk +received orders to join the fleet, which was to fight against the +gallant Duncan at Camperdown. To think of fighting against my own +countrymen, my own flesh and blood, was worse than to be cut to pieces +by a cat-o'-nine tails; and, under cover of the smoke of the first +broadside, I sprang upon the gunwale, plunged into the sea, and swam for +the English fleet. Never, never shall I forget the moment that my feet +first trode upon the deck of a British frigate! My nerves felt as firm +as her oak, and my heart, free as the pennant that waved defiance from +her masthead! I was as active as any one during the battle; and when it +was over, and I found myself again among my own countrymen, and all +speaking my own language, I fancied--nay, hang it! I almost believed--I +should meet my father, my mother, or my dear Bess, on board of the +British frigate. I expected to see you all again in a few weeks at +farthest; but, instead of returning to Old England, before I was aware, +I found it was helm about with us. As to writing, I never had an +opportunity but once. We were anchored before a French fort; a packet +was lying alongside ready to sail; I had half a side written, and was +scratching my head to think how I should come over writing about you, +Bess, my love, when, as bad luck would have it, our lieutenant comes to +me, and says he, 'Elliot,' says he,' I know you like a little smart +service; come, my lad, take the head oar, while we board some of those +French bumb-boats under the batteries!' I couldn't say no. We pulled +ashore, made a bonfire of one of their craft, and were setting fire to a +second, when a deadly shower of small shot from the garrison scuttled +our boat, killed our commanding officer with half of the crew, and the +few who were left of us were made prisoners. It is of no use bothering +you by telling how we escaped from French prison. We did escape; and Tom +will once more fill his vacant chair." + +Should any of our readers wish farther acquaintance with our friends, +all we can say is, the new year was still young when Adam Bell bestowed +his daughter's hand upon the heir of Marchlaw, and Peter beheld the once +vacant chair again occupied, and a namesake of the third generation +prattling on his knee! + + + + +THE FAA'S REVENGE. + +A TALE OF THE BORDER GIPSIES. + + +Brown October was drawing to a close--the breeze had acquired a degree +of sharpness too strong to be merely termed bracing--and the fire, as +the saying is, was becoming the best flower in the garden--for the +hardiest and the latest plants had either shed their leaves, or their +flowers had shrivelled at the breath of approaching winter--when a +stranger drew his seat towards the parlour fire of the Three-Half-Moons +inn, in Rothbury. He had sat for the space of half an hour when a party +entered, who, like himself (as appeared from their conversation), were +strangers, or rather visitors of the scenery, curiosities, and +antiquities in the vicinity. One of them having ordered the waiter to +bring each of them a glass of brandy and warm water, without appearing +to notice the presence of the first mentioned stranger, after a few +remarks on the objects of interest in the neighbourhood, the following +conversation took place amongst them:-- + +"Why," said one, "but even Rothbury here, secluded as it is from the +world, and shut out from the daily intercourse of men, is a noted place. +It was here that the ancient and famous northern bard and unrivalled +ballad writer, Bernard Rumney, was born, bred, and died. Here, too, was +born Dr. Brown, who, like Young and Home, united the characters of +divine and dramatist, and was the author of '_Barbarossa_,' '_The Cure +of Saul_,' and other works, of which posterity and his country are +proud. The immediate neighbourhood, also, was the birth-place of the +inspired boy, the heaven-taught mathematician, George Coughran, who +knew no rival, and who bade fair to eclipse the glory of Newton, but +whom death struck down ere he had reached the years of manhood." + +"Why, I can't tell," said another; "I don't know much about what you've +been talking of; but I know, for one thing, that Rothbury was a famous +place for every sort of games; and, at Fastren's E'en times, the rule +was, every male inhabitant above eight years of age to pay a shilling, +or out to the foot-ball. It was noted for its game-cocks, too--they were +the best breed on the Borders." + +"May be so," said the first speaker; "but though I should be loath to +see the foot-ball, or any other innocent game which keeps up a manly +spirit, put down, yet I do trust that the brutal practice of +cock-fighting will be abolished, not only on the Borders, but throughout +every country which professes the name of Christian; and I rejoice that +the practice is falling into disrepute. But, although my hairs are not +yet honoured with the silver tints of age, I am old enough to remember, +that, when a boy at school on the Scottish side of the Border, at every +Fastren's E'en which you have spoken of, every schoolboy was expected to +provide a cock for the battle, or main, and the teacher or his deputy +presided as umpire. The same practice prevailed on the southern Border. +It is a very old, savage amusement, even in this country; and perhaps +the preceptors of youth, in former days, considered it _classical_, and +that it would instil into their pupils sentiments of emulation; inasmuch +as the practice is said to have taken rise from Themistocles perceiving +two cocks tearing at and fighting with each other, while marching his +army against the Persians, when he called upon his soldiers to observe +them, and remarked that they neither fought for territory, defence of +country, nor for glory, but they fought because the one would not yield +to, or be defeated by the other; and he desired his soldiers to take a +_moral_ lesson from the barn-door fowls. Cock-fighting thus became among +the heathen Greeks a political precept and a religious observance--and +the _Christian_ inhabitants of Britain, disregarding the _religious and +political moral_, kept up the practice, adding to it more disgusting +barbarity, for _their amusement_." + +"Coom," said a third, who, from his tongue, appeared to be a thorough +Northumbrian, "we wur talking about Rothbury, but you are goin' to give +us a regular sarmin on cock-fighting. Let's hae none o' that. You was +saying what clever chaps had been born here--but none o' ye mentioned +Jamie Allan, the gipsy and Northumberland piper, who was born here as +weel as the best o' them. But I hae heard that Rothbury, as weel as +Yetholm and Tweedmouth Moor, was a great resort for the Faa or gipsy +gangs in former times. Now, I understand that thae folk were a sort o' +bastard Egyptians; and though I am nae scholar, it strikes me forcibly +that the meaning o' the word _gipsies_, is just _Egypts_, or +_Gypties_--a contraction and corruption o' _Gyptian_!" + +"Gipsies," said he who spoke of Rumney and Brown, and abused the +practice of cock-fighting, "still do in some degree, and formerly did in +great numbers, infest this county; and I will tell you a story +concerning them." + +"Do so," said the thorough Northumbrian; "I like a story when it's weel +put thegither. The gipsies were queer folk. I've heard my faither tell +many a funny thing about them, when he used to whistle 'Felton Loanin,' +which was made by awd piper Allan--Jamie's faither." And here the +speaker struck up a lively air, which, to the stranger by the fire, +seemed a sort of parody on the well-known tune of "Johnny Cope." + +The other then proceeded with his tale, thus:-- + +You have all heard of the celebrated Johnny Faa, the Lord and Earl of +Little Egypt, who penetrated into Scotland in the reign of James IV., +and with whom that gallant monarch was glad to conclude a treaty. Johnny +was not only the king, but the first of the Faa gang of whom we have +mention. I am not aware that gipsies get the name of Faas anywhere but +upon the Borders; and though it is difficult to account for the name +satisfactorily, it is said to have had its origin from a family of the +name of _Fall_ or _Fa'_, who resided here (in Rothbury), and that their +superiority in their cunning and desperate profession, gave the same +cognomen to all and sundry who followed the same mode of life upon the +Borders. One thing is certain, that the name _Faa_ not only was given to +individuals whose surname might be _Fall_, but to the _Winters_ and +_Clarkes_--_id genus omne_--gipsy families well known on the Borders. +Since waste lands, which were their hiding-places and resorts, began to +be cultivated, and especially since the sun of knowledge snuffed out the +taper of superstition and credulity, most of them are beginning to form +a part of society, to learn trades of industry, and live with men. Those +who still prefer their fathers' vagabond mode of life--finding that, in +the northern counties, their old trade of fortune-telling is at a +discount, and that thieving has thinned their tribe and is +dangerous--now follow the more useful and respectable callings of +muggers, besom-makers, and tinkers. I do not know whether, in etiquette, +I ought to give precedence to the besom-maker or tinker; though, as +compared with them, I should certainly suppose that the "muggers" of the +present day belong to the Faa aristocracy; if it be not that they, like +others, derive their nobility from descent of blood rather than weight +of pocket--and that, after all, the mugger with his encampment, his +caravans, horses, crystal, and crockery, is but a mere wealthy plebeian +or _bourgeois_ in the vagrant community.--But to my tale. + +On a dark and tempestuous night in the December of 1628, a Faa gang +requested shelter in the out-houses of the laird of Clennel. The laird +himself had retired to rest; and his domestics being fewer in number +than the Faas, feared to refuse them their request. + +"Ye shall have up-putting for the night, good neighbours," said Andrew +Smith, who was a sort of major-domo in the laird's household, and he +spoke in a tone of mingled authority and terror. "But, sir," added he, +addressing the chief of the tribe--"I will trust to your honour that ye +will allow none o' your folk to be making free with the kye, or the +sheep, or the poultry--that is, that ye will not allow them to mistake +ony o' them for your own, lest it bring me into trouble. For the laird +has been in a fearful rage at some o' your people lately; and if +onything were to be amissing in the morning, or he kenned that ye had +been here, it might be as meikle as my life is worth." + +"Tush, man!" said Willie Faa, the king of the tribe, "ye dree the death +ye'll never die. Willie Faa and his folk maun live as weel as the laird +o' Clennel. But, there's my thumb, not a four-footed thing, nor the +feather o' a bird, shall be touched by me or mine. But I see the light +is out in the laird's chamber window--he is asleep and high up amang the +turrets--and wherefore should ye set human bodies in byres and stables +in a night like this, when your Ha' fire is bleezing bonnily, and there +is room eneugh around it for us a'? Gie us a seat by the cheek o' your +hearth, and ye shall be nae loser; and I promise ye that we shall be +off, bag and baggage, before the skreigh o' day, or the laird kens where +his head lies." + +Andrew would fain have refused this request, but he knew that it +amounted to a command; and, moreover, while he had been speaking with +the chief of the tribe, the maid-servants of the household, who had +followed him and the other men-servants to the door, had divers of them +been solicited by the females of the gang to have futurity revealed to +them. And whether it indeed be that curiosity is more powerful in woman +than in man (as it is generally said to be), I do not profess to +determine; but certain it is, that the laird of Clennel's maid-servants, +immediately on the hint being given by the gipsies, felt a very ardent +desire to have a page or two from the sybilline leaves read to them--at +least that part of them which related to their future husbands, and the +time when they should obtain them. Therefore, they backed the petition +or command of King Willie, and said to Andrew-- + +"Really, Mr. Smith, it would be very unchristian-like to put poor +wandering folk into cauld out-houses on a night like this; and, as +Willie says, there is room enough in the Ha'." + +"That may be a' very true, lasses," returned Andrew, "but only ye think +what a dirdum there would be if the laird were to waken or get wit o't!" + +"Fearna the laird," said Elspeth, the wife of King Willie--"I will lay a +spell on him that he canna be roused frae sleep, till I, at sunrise, +wash my hands in Darden Lough." + +The sybil then raised her arms and waved them fantastically in the air, +uttering, as she waved them, the following uncouth rhymes by way of +incantation-- + + "Bonny Queen Mab, bonny Queen Mab, + Wave ye your wee bits o' poppy wings + Ower Clennel's laird, that he may sleep + Till I hae washed where Darden springs." + +Thus assured, Andrew yielded to his fears and the wishes of his +fellow-servants, and ushered the Faas into his master's hall for the +night. But scarce had they taken their seats upon the oaken forms around +the fire, when-- + +"Come," said the Faa king, "the night is cold, pinching cold, Mr. Smith: +and, while the fire warms without, is there naething in the cellar that +will warm within? See to it, Andrew, man--thou art no churl, or they +face is fause." + +"Really, sir," replied Andrew--and, in spite of all his efforts to +appear at ease, his tongue faultered as he spoke--"I'm not altogether +certain what to say upon that subject; for ye observe that our laird is +really a very singular man; ye might as weel put your head in the fire +there as displease him in the smallest; and though Heaven kens that I +would gie to you just as freely as I would tak to mysel, yet ye'll +observe that the liquor in the cellars is not mine, but his--and they +are never sae weel plenished but I believe he would miss a thimblefu'. +But there is some excellent cold beef in the pantry, if ye could put up +wi' the like o' it, and the home-brewed which we servants use." + +"Andrew," returned the Faa king, proudly--"castle have I none, flocks +and herds have I none, neither have I haughs where the wheat, and the +oats, and the barley grow--but, like Ishmael, my great forefather, every +man's hand is against me, and mine against them--yet, when I am hungry, +I never lack the flesh-pots o' my native land, where the moorfowl and +the venison make brown broo together. Cauld meat agrees nae wi' my +stomach, and servants' drink was never brewed for the lord o' Little +Egypt. Ye comprehend me, Andrew?" + +"Oh, I daresay I do, sir," said the chief domestic of the house of +Clennel; "but only, as I have said, ye will recollect that the drink is +not mine to give; and if I venture upon a jug, I hope ye winna think o' +asking for another." + +"We shall try it," said the royal vagrant. + +Andrew, with trembling and reluctance, proceeded to the cellar, and +returned with a large earthen vessel filled with the choicest +home-brewed, which he placed upon a table in the midst of them. + + "Then each took a smack + Of the old black jack, + While the fire burned in the hall." + +The Faa king pronounced the liquor to be palatable, and drank to his +better acquaintance with the cellars of the laird of Clennel; and his +gang followed his example. + +Now, I should remark that Willie Faa, the chief of his tribe, was a man +of gigantic stature; the colour of his skin was the dingy brown peculiar +to his race; his arms were of remarkable length, and his limbs a union +of strength and lightness; his raven hair was mingled with grey; while, +in his dark eyes, the impetuosity of youth and the cunning of age seemed +blended together. It is in vain to speak of his dress, for it was +changed daily as his circumstances or avocations directed. He was ever +ready to assume all characters, from the courtier down to the mendicant. +Like his wife, he was skilled in the reading of no book but the book of +fate. Now, Elspeth was a less agreeable personage to look upon than even +her husband. The hue of her skin was as dark as his. She was also of his +age--a woman of full fifty. She was the tallest female in her tribe; but +her stoutness took away from her stature. Her eyes were small and +piercing, her nose aquiline, and her upper lip was "bearded like the +pard." + +While her husband sat at his carousals, and handing the beverage to his +followers and the domestics of the house, Elspeth sat examining the +lines upon the palms of the hands of the maid-servants--pursuing her +calling as a spaewife. And ever as she traced the lines of matrimony, +the sybil would pause and exclaim-- + +"Ha!--money!--money!--cross my loof again, hinny. There is fortune +before ye! Let me see! A spur!--a sword!--a shield!--a gowden purse! +Heaven bless ye! They are there!--there, as plain as a pikestaff; they +are a' in your path. But cross my loof again, hinny, for until siller +again cross it, I canna see whether they are to be yours or no." + +Thus did Elspeth go on until her "loof had been crossed" by the last +coin amongst the domestics of the house of Clennel; and when these were +exhausted, their trinkets were demanded and given to assist the spell of +the prophetess. Good fortune was prognosticated to the most of them, and +especially to those who crossed the loof of the reader of futurity most +freely; but to others, perils, and sudden deaths, and disappointments in +love, and grief in wedlock, were hinted, though to all and each of these +forebodings, a something like hope--an undefined way of escape--was +pended. + +Now, as the voice of Elspeth rose in solemn tones, and as the mystery of +her manner increased, not only were the maid-servants stricken with awe +and reverence for the wondrous woman, but the men-servants also began to +inquire into their fate. And as they extended their hands, and Elspeth +traced the lines of the past upon them, ever and anon she spoke strange +words, which intimated secret facts; and she spoke also of love-makings +and likings; and ever, as she spoke, she would raise her head and grin a +ghastly smile, now at the individual whose hand she was examining, and +again at a maid-servant whose fortune she had read; while the former +would smile and the latter blush, and their fellow domestics exclaim-- + +"That's wonderfu'!--that dings a'!--ye are queer folk! hoo in the world +do ye ken?" + +Even the curiosity of Mr. Andrew Smith was raised, and his wonder +excited; and, after he had quaffed his third cup with the gipsy king, +he, too, reverentially approached the bearded princess, extending his +hand, and begging to know what futurity had in store for him. + +She raised it before her eyes, she rubbed hers over it. + +"It is a dark and a difficult hand," muttered she: "here are ships and +the sea, and crossing the sea, and great danger, and a way to avoid +it--but the gowd!--the gowd that's there! And yet ye may lose it a'! +Cross my loof, sir--yours is an ill hand to spae--for it's set wi' +fortune, and danger and adventure." + +Andrew gave her all the money in his possession. Now it was understood +that she was to return the money and the trinkets with which her loof +had been crossed; and Andrew's curiosity overcoming his fears, he +ventured to intrust his property in her keeping; for, as he thought, it +was not every day that people could have everything that was to happen +unto them revealed. But when she had again looked upon his hand-- + +"It winna do," said she--"I canna see ower the danger ye hae to +encounter, the seas ye hae to cross, and the mountains o' gowd that lie +before ye yet--ye maun cross my loof again." And when, with a woful +countenance, he stated that he had crossed it with his last coin-- + +"Ye hae a chronometer, man," said she--"it tells you the minutes now, it +may enable me to show ye those that are to come!" + +Andrew hesitated, and, with doubt and unwillingness, placed the +chronometer in her hand. + +Elspeth wore a short cloak of faded crimson; and in a sort of pouch in +it, every coin, trinket, and other article of value which was put into +her hands were deposited, in order, as she stated, to forward her mystic +operations. Now, the chronometer had just disappeared in the general +receptacle of offerings to the oracle, when heavy footsteps were heard +descending the staircase leading to the hall. Poor Andrew, the ruler of +the household, gasped--the blood forsook his cheeks, his knees +involuntarily knocked one against another, and he stammered out-- + +"For Heaven's sake, gie me my chronometer!--Oh, gie me it!--we are a' +ruined!" + +"It canna be returned till the spell's completed," rejoined Elspeth, in +a solemn and determined tone--and her countenance betrayed nothing of +her dupe's uneasiness; while her husband deliberately placed his right +hand upon a sort of dagger which he wore beneath a large coarse jacket +that was loosely flung over his shoulders. The males in his retinue, +who were eight in number, followed his example. + +In another moment, the laird, with wrath upon his countenance, burst +into the hall. + +"Andrew Smith," cried he, sternly, and stamping his foot fiercely on the +floor, "what scene is this I see? Answer me, ye robber, answer me;--ye +shall hang for it!" + +"O sir! sir!" groaned Andrew, "mercy!--mercy!--O sir!" and he wrung his +hands together and shook exceedingly. + +"Ye fause knave!" continued the laird, grasping him by the neck--and +dashing him from him, Andrew fell flat upon the floor, and his terror +had almost shook him from his feet before--"Speak, ye fause knave!" +resumed the laird; "what means your carousin' wi' sic a gang? Ye robber, +speak!" And he kicked him with his foot as he lay upon the ground. + +"O sir!--mercy, sir!" vociferated Andrew, in the stupor and wildness of +terror; "I canna speak!--ye hae killed me outright! I am dead--stone +dead! But it wasna my blame--they'll a' say that, if they speak the +truth." + +"Out! out, ye thieves!--ye gang o' plunderers, born to the gallows!--out +o' my house!" added the laird, addressing Willie Faa and his followers. + +"Thieves! ye acred loon!" exclaimed the Faa king, starting to his feet, +and drawing himself up to his full height--"wha does the worm that +burrows in the lands o' Clennel ca' thieves? Thieves, say ye!--speak +such words to your equals, but no to me. Your forebears came ower wi' +the Norman, invaded the nation, and seized upon land--mine invaded it +also, and only laid a tax upon the flocks, the cattle, and the +poultry--and wha ca' ye thieves?--or wi' what grace do ye speak the +word?" + +"Away, ye audacious vagrant!" continued the laird; "ken ye not that the +king's authority is in my hands?--and for your former plunderings, if I +again find you setting foot upon ground o' mine, on the nearest tree ye +shall find a gibbet." + +"Boast awa--boast awa, man," said Willie; "ye are safe here, for me and +mine winna harm ye; and it is a fougie cock indeed that darena craw in +its ain barn-yard. But wait until the day when we may meet upon the wide +moor, wi' only twa bits o' steel between us, and see wha shall brag +then." + +"Away!--instantly away!" exclaimed Clennel, drawing his sword, and +waving it threateningly over the head of the gipsy. + +"Proud, cauld-hearted, and unfeeling mortal," said Elspeth, "will ye +turn fellow-beings from beneath your roof in a night like this, when the +fox darena creep frae its hole, and the raven trembles on the tree?" + +"Out! out! ye witch!" rejoined the laird. + +"Farewell, Clennel," said the Faa king; "we will leave your roof, and +seek the shelter o' the hill-side. But ye shall rue! As I speak, man, ye +shall rue it!" + +"Rue it!" screamed Elspeth, rising--and her small dark eyes flashed with +indignation--"he shall rue it--the bairn unborn shall rue it--and the +bann o' Elspeth Faa shall be on Clennel and his kin, until his hearth be +desolate and his spirit howl within him like the tempest which this +night rages in the heavens!" + +The servants shrank together into a corner of the hall, to avoid the +rage of their master; and they shook the more at the threatening words +of the weird woman, lest she should involve them in his doom; but he +laughed with scorn at her words. + +"Proud, pitiless fool," resumed Elspeth, more bitterly than before, +"repress your scorn. Whom, think ye, ye treat wi' contempt? Ken ye not +that the humble adder which ye tread upon can destroy ye--that the very +wasp can sting ye, and there is poison in its sting? Ye laugh, but for +your want of humanity this night, sorrow shall turn your head grey, lang +before age sit down upon your brow." + +"Off! off! ye wretches!" added the laird; "vent your threats on the +wind, if it will hear ye, for I regard them as little as it will. But +keep out o' my way for the future, as ye would escape the honours o' a +hempen cravat, and the hereditary exaltation o' your race." + +Willie Faa made a sign to his followers, and without speaking they +instantly rose and departed; but, as he himself reached the door, he +turned round, and significantly striking the hilt of his dagger, +exclaimed-- + +"Clennel! ye shall rue it!" + +And the hoarse voice of Elspeth without, as the sound was borne away on +the storm, was heard crying--"He shall rue it!" and repeating her +imprecations. + +Until now, poor Andrew Smith had lain groaning upon the floor more dead +than alive, though not exactly "stone dead" as he expressed it; and +ever, as he heard his master's angry voice, he groaned the more, until +in his agony he doubted his existence. When, therefore, on the departure +of the Faas, the laird dragged him to his feet, and feeling some pity +for his terror, spoke to him more mildly, Andrew gazed vacantly around +him, his teeth chattering together, and he first placed his hands upon +his sides, to feel whether he was still indeed the identical flesh, +blood, and bones of Andrew Smith, or his disembodied spirit; and being +assured that he was still a man, he put down his hand to feel for his +chronometer, and again he groaned bitterly--and although he now knew he +was not dead, he almost wished he were so. The other servants thought +also of their money and their trinkets, which, as well as poor Andrew's +chronometer, Elspeth, in the hurry in which she was rudely driven from +the house, had, by a slip of memory, neglected to return to their lawful +owners. + +It is unnecessary to dwell upon the laird's anger at his domestics, or +farther to describe Andrew's agitation; but I may say that the laird was +not wroth against the Faa gang without reason. They had committed +ravages on his flocks--they had carried off the choicest of his +oxen--they destroyed his deer--they plundered him of his poultry--and +they even made free with the grain that he reared, and which he could +spare least of all. But Willie Faa considered every landed proprietor as +his enemy, and thought it his duty to quarter on them. Moreover, it was +his boisterous laugh, as he pushed round the tankard, which aroused the +laird from his slumbers, and broke Elspeth's spell. And the destruction +of the charm, by the appearance of their master, before she had washed +her hands in Darden Lough, caused those who had parted with their money +and trinkets to grieve for them the more, and to doubt the promises of +the prophetess, or to + + "Take all for gospel that the spaefolk say." + +Many weeks, however, had not passed until the laird of Clennel found +that Elspeth the gipsy's threat, that he should "_rue it_," meant more +than idle words. His cattle sickened and died in their stalls, or the +choicest of them disappeared; his favourite horses were found maimed in +the mornings, wounded and bleeding in the fields; and, notwithstanding +the vigilance of his shepherds, the depredations on his flocks augmented +tenfold. He doubted not but that Willie Faa and his tribe were the +authors of all the evils which were besetting him: but he knew also +their power and their matchless craft, which rendered it almost +impossible either to detect or punish them. He had a favourite steed, +which had borne him in boyhood, and in battle when he served in foreign +wars, and one morning when he went into his park, he found it lying +bleeding upon the ground. Grief and indignation strove together in +arousing revenge within his bosom. He ordered his sluthhound to be +brought, and his dependants to be summoned together, and to bring arms +with them. He had previously observed foot-prints on the ground, and he +exclaimed-- + +"Now the fiend take the Faas, they shall find whose turn it is to rue +before the sun gae down." + +The gong was pealed on the turrets of Clennel Hall, and the kempers with +their poles bounded in every direction, with the fleetness of mountain +stags, to summon all capable of bearing arms to the presence of the +laird. The mandate was readily obeyed; and within two hours thirty armed +men appeared in the park. The sluthhound was led to the footprint; and +after following it for many a weary mile over moss, moor, and mountain, +it stood and howled, and lashed its lips with its tongue, and again ran +as though its prey were at hand, as it approached what might be called a +gap in the wilderness between Keyheugh and Clovencrag. + +Now, in the space between these desolate crags stood some score of +peels, or rather half hovels, half encampments--and this primitive city +in the wilderness was the capital of the Faa king's people. + +"Now for vengeance!" exclaimed Clennel; and his desire of revenge was +excited the more from perceiving several of the choicest of his cattle, +which had disappeared, grazing before the doors or holes of the gipsy +village. + +"Bring whins and heather," he continued--"pile them around it, and burn +the den of thieves to the ground." + +His order was speedily obeyed, and when he commanded the trumpet to be +sounded, that the inmates might defend themselves if they dared, only +two or three men and women of extreme age, and some half-dozen children, +crawled upon their hands and knees from the huts--for it was impossible +to stand upright in them. + +The aged men and women howled when they beheld the work of destruction +that was in preparation, and the children screamed when they heard them +howl. But the laird of Clennel had been injured, and he turned a deaf +ear to their misery. A light was struck, and a dozen torches applied at +once. The whins crackled, the heather blazed, and the flames overtopped +the hovels which they surrounded, and which within an hour became a heap +of smouldering ashes. + +Clennel and his dependants returned home, driving the cattle which had +been stolen from him before them, and rejoicing in what they had done. +On the following day, Willie Faa and a part of his tribe returned to the +place of rendezvous--their city and home in the mountains--and they +found it a heap of smoking ruins, and the old men and the old women of +the tribe--their fathers and their mothers--sitting wailing upon the +ruins, and warming over them their shivering limbs, while the children +wept around them for food. + +"Whose work is this?" inquired Willie, while anxiety and anger flashed +in his eyes. + +"The Laird o' Clennel!--the Laird o' Clennel!" answered every voice at +the same instant. + +"By this I swear!" exclaimed the king of the Faas, drawing his dagger +from beneath his coat, "from this night henceforth he is laird nor man +nae langer." And he turned hastily from the ruins, as if to put his +threat in execution. + +"Stay, ye madcap!" cried Elspeth, following him, "would ye fling away +revenge for half a minute's satisfaction?" + +"No, wife," cried he, "nae mair than I would sacrifice living a free and +a fu' life for half an hour's hangin'." + +"Stop, then," returned she, "and let our vengeance fa' upon him, so that +it may wring his life away, drap by drap, until his heart be dry; and +grief, shame, and sorrow burn him up, as he has here burned house and +home o' Elspeth Faa and her kindred." + +"What mean ye, woman?" said Willie, hastily; "if I thought ye would come +between me and my revenge, I would drive this bit steel through you wi' +as goodwill as I shall drive it through him." + +"And ye shall be welcome," said Elspeth. She drew him aside, and +whispered a few minutes in his ear. He listened attentively. At times he +seemed to start, and at length, sheathing his dagger and grasping her +hand, he exclaimed--"Excellent, Elspeth!--ye have it!--ye have it!" + +At this period, the laird of Clennel was about thirty years of age, and +two years before he had been married to Eleanor de Vere, a lady alike +distinguished for her beauty and accomplishments. They had an infant +son, who was the delight of his mother, and his father's pride. Now, for +two years after the conflagration of their little town, Clennel heard +nothing of his old enemies the Faas, neither did they molest him, nor +had they been seen in the neighbourhood, and he rejoiced in having +cleared his estate of such dangerous visitors. But the Faa king, +listening to the advice of his wife, only "nursed his wrath to keep it +warm," and retired from the neighbourhood, that he might accomplish, in +its proper season, his design of vengeance more effectually, and with +greater cruelty. + +The infant heir of the house of Clennel had been named Henry, and he was +about completing his third year--an age at which children are, perhaps, +most interesting, and when their fondling and their prattling sink +deepest into a parent's heart--for all is then beheld on childhood's +sunny side, and all is innocence and love. Now, it was in a lovely day +in April, when every bird had begun its annual song, and flowers were +bursting into beauty, buds into leaves, and the earth resuming its green +mantle, when Lady Clennel and her infant son, who then, as I have said, +was about three years of age, went forth to enjoy the loveliness and the +luxuries of nature, in the woods which surrounded their mansion, and +Andrew Smith accompanied them as their guide and protector. They had +proceeded somewhat more than a mile from the house, and the child, at +intervals breaking away from them, sometimes ran before his mother, and +at others sauntered behind her, pulling the wild flowers that strewed +their path, when a man, springing from a dark thicket, seized the child +in his arms, and again darted into the wood. Lady Clennel screamed +aloud, and rushed after him. Andrew, who was coming dreaming behind, got +but a glance of the ruffian stranger--but that glance was enough to +reveal to him the tall, terrible figure of Willie Faa, the Gipsy king. + +There are moments when, and circumstances under which even cowards +become courageous, and this was one of those moments and circumstances +which suddenly inspired Andrew (who was naturally no hero) with courage. +He, indeed, loved the child as though he had been his own; and following +the example of Lady Clennel, he drew his sword and rushed into the wood. +He possessed considerable speed of foot, and he soon passed the wretched +mother, and came in sight of the pursued. The unhappy lady, who ran +panting and screaming as she rushed along, unable to keep pace with +them, lost all trace of where the robber of her child had fled, and her +cries of agony and bereavement rang through the woods. + +Andrew, however, though he did not gain ground upon the gipsy, still +kept within sight of him, and shouted to him as he ran, saying that all +the dependants of Clennel would soon be on horseback at his heels, and +trusting that every moment he would drop the child upon the ground. +Still Faa flew forward, bearing the boy in his arm, and disregarding the +cries and threats of his pursuer. He knew that Andrew's was not what +could be called a heart of steel, but he was aware that he had a +powerful arm, and could use a sword as well as a better man; and he knew +also that cowards will fight as desperately, when their life is at +stake, as the brave. + +The desperate chase continued for four hours, and till after the sun had +set, and the gloaming was falling thick on the hills. Andrew, being +younger and unencumbered, had at length gained ground upon the gipsy, +and was within ten yards of him when he reached the Coquet side, about a +mile below this town, at the hideous Thrumb, where the deep river, for +many yards, rushes through a mere chasm in the rock. The Faa, with the +child beneath his arm, leaped across the fearful gulf, and the dark +flood gushed between him and his pursuer. He turned round, and, with a +horrid laugh, looked towards Andrew and unsheathed his dagger. But even +at this moment the unwonted courage of the chief servant of Clennel did +not fail him, and as he rushed up and down upon one side of the gulf, +that he might spring across and avoid the dagger of the gipsy, the other +ran in like manner on the other side; and when Andrew stood as if ready +to leap, the Faa king, pointing with his dagger to the dark flood that +rolled between them, cried-- + +"See, fool! eternity divides us!" + +"And for that bairn's sake, ye wretch, I'll brave it!" exclaimed Andrew, +while his teeth gnashed together; and he stepped back, in order that he +might spring across with the greater force and safety. + +"Hold man!" cried the Faa; "attempt to cross to me, and I will plunge +this bonny heir o' Clennel into the flood below." + +"Oh, gracious! gracious!" cried Andrew, and his resolution and courage +forsook him; "ye monster!--ye barbarian!--oh, what shall I do now!" + +"Go back whence you came," said the gipsy, "or follow me another step +and the child dies." + +"Oh, ye butcher!--ye murderer!" continued the other--and he tore his +hair in agony--"hae ye nae mercy?" + +"Sic mercy as your maister had," returned the Faa, "when he burned our +dwellings about the ears o' the aged and infirm, and o' my helpless +bairns! Ye shall find in me the mercy o' the fasting wolf, o' the tiger +when it laps blood!" + +Andrew perceived that to rescue the child was now impossible, and with a +heavy heart he returned to his master's house, in which there was no +sound save that of lamentation. + +For many weeks, yea months, the laird of Clennel, his friends and his +servants, sought anxiously throughout every part of the country to +obtain tidings of his child, but their search was vain. It was long ere +his lady was expected to recover the shock, and the affliction sat heavy +on his soul, while in his misery he vowed revenge upon all of the gipsy +race. But neither Willie Faa nor any of his tribe were again seen upon +his estates, or heard of in their neighbourhood. + +Four years were passed from the time that their son was stolen from +them, and an infant daughter smiled upon the knee of Lady Clennel; and +oft as it smiled in her face, and stretched its little hands towards +her, she would burst into tears, as the smile and the infantine fondness +of her little daughter reminded her of her lost Henry. They had had +other children, but they had died while but a few weeks old. + +For two years there had been a maiden in the household named Susan, and +to her care, when the child was not in her own arms, Lady Clennel +intrusted her infant daughter; for every one loved Susan, because of her +affectionate nature and docile manners--she was, moreover, an orphan, +and they pitied while they loved her. But one evening, when Lady Clennel +desired that her daughter might be brought her in order that she might +present her to a company who had come to visit them (an excusable, +though not always a pleasant vanity in mothers), neither Susan nor the +child were to be found. Wild fears seized the bosom of the already +bereaved mother, and her husband felt his heart throb within him. They +sought the woods, the hills, the cottages around; they wandered by the +sides of the rivers and the mountain burns, but no one had seen, no +trace could be discovered of either the girl or the child. + +I will not, because I cannot, describe the overwhelming misery of the +afflicted parents. Lady Clennel spent her days in tears and her nights +in dreams of her children, and her husband sank into a settled +melancholy, while his hatred of the Faa race became more implacable, and +he burst into frequent exclamations of vengeance against them. + +More than fifteen years had passed, and though the poignancy of their +grief had abated, yet their sadness was not removed, for they had been +able to hear nothing that could throw light upon the fate of their +children. About this period, sheep were again missed from the flocks, +and, in one night, the hen-roosts were emptied. There needed no other +proof that a Faa gang was again in the neighbourhood. Now, +Northumberland at that period was still thickly covered with wood, and +abounded with places where thieves might conceal themselves in security. +Partly from a desire of vengeance, and partly from the hope of being +able to extort from some of the tribe information respecting his +children, Clennel armed his servants, and taking his hounds with him, +set out in quest of the plunderers. + +For two days their search was unsuccessful, but on the third the dogs +raised their savage cry, and rushed into a thicket in a deep glen +amongst the mountains. Clennel and his followers hurried forward, and in +a few minutes perceived the fires of the Faa encampment. The hounds had +already alarmed the vagrant colony, they had sprung upon many of them +and torn their flesh with their tusks; but the Faas defended themselves +against them with their poniards, and, before Clennel's approach, more +than half his hounds lay dead upon the ground, and his enemies fled. +Yet there was one poor girl amongst them, who had been attacked by a +fierce hound, and whom no one attempted to rescue, as she strove to +defend herself against it with her bare hands. Her screams for +assistance rose louder and more loud; and as Clennel and his followers +drew near, and her companions fled, they turned round, and, with a +fiendish laugh, cried-- + +"Rue it now!" + +Maddened more keenly by the words, he was following on in pursuit, +without rescuing the screaming girl from the teeth of the hound, or +seeming to perceive her, when a woman, suddenly turning round from +amongst the flying gypsies, exclaimed-- + +"For your sake!--for Heaven's sake! Laird Clennel! save my bairn!" + +He turned hastily aside, and, seizing the hound by the throat, tore it +from the lacerated girl, who sank, bleeding, terrified, and exhausted, +upon the ground. Her features were beautiful, and her yellow hair +contrasted ill with the tawny hue of her countenance and the snowy +whiteness of her bosom, which in the struggle had been revealed. The +elder gipsy woman approached. She knelt by the side of the wounded girl. + +"O my bairn!" she exclaimed, "what has this day brought upon me!--they +have murdered you! This is rueing, indeed; and I rue too!" + +"Susan!" exclaimed Clennel, as he listened to her words, and his eyes +had been for several seconds fixed upon her countenance. + +"Yes!--Susan!--guilty Susan!" cried the gipsy. + +"Wretch!" he exclaimed, "my child!--where is my child?--is +_this_"----and he gazed on the poor girl, his voice failed him, and he +burst into tears. + +"Yes!--yes!" replied she bitterly, "it is her--there lies your +daughter--look upon her face." + +He needed, indeed, but to look upon her countenance--disfigured as it +was, and dyed with weeds to give it a sallow hue--to behold in it every +lineament of her mother's, lovely as when they first met his eye and +entered his heart. He flung himself on the ground by her side, he raised +her head, he kissed her cheek, he exclaimed, "My child!--my child!--my +lost one! I have destroyed thee!" + +He bound up her lacerated arms, and applied a flask of wine, which he +carried with him, to her lips, and he supported her on his knee, and +again kissing her cheek, sobbed, "My child!--my own!" + +Andrew Smith also bent over her and said, "Oh, it is her! there isna the +smallest doubt o' that. I could swear to her among a thousand. She's her +mother's very picture." And, turning to Susan, he added, "O Susan, +woman, but ye hae been a terrible hypocrite!" + +Clennel having placed his daughter on horseback before him, supporting +her with his arm, Susan was set between two of his followers, and +conducted to the Hall. + +Before the tidings were made known to Lady Clennel, the wounds of her +daughter were carefully dressed, the dye that changed the colour of her +countenance was removed, and her gipsy garb was exchanged for more +seemly apparel. + +Clennel anxiously entered the apartment of his lady, to reveal to her +the tale of joy; but when he entered, he wist not how to introduce it. +He knew that excess of sudden joy was not less dangerous than excess of +grief, and his countenance was troubled, though its expression was less +sad than it had been for many years. + +"Eleanor," he at length began, "cheer up." + +"Why, I am not sadder than usual, dear," replied she, in her wonted +gentle manner; "and to be more cheerful would ill become one who has +endured my sorrows." + +"True, true," said he, "but our affliction may not be so severe as we +have thought--there may be hope--there may be joy for us yet." + +"What mean ye, husband?" inquired she, eagerly; "have ye heard +aught--aught of my children?--you have!--you have!--your countenance +speaks it." + +"Yes, dear Eleanor," returned he, "I have heard of our daughter." + +"And she lives?--she lives?--tell me that she lives!" + +"Yes, she lives." + +"And I shall see her--I shall embrace my child again?" + +"Yes, love, yes," replied he, and burst into tears. + +"When--oh, when?" she exclaimed, "can you take me to her now?" + +"Be calm, my sweet one. You shall see our child--our long-lost child. +You shall see her now--she is here." + +"Here!--my child!" she exclaimed, and sank back upon her seat. + +Words would fail to paint the tender interview--the mother's joy--the +daughter's wonder--the long, the passionate embrace--the tears of +all--the looks--the words--the moments of unutterable feeling. + +I shall next notice the confession of Susan. Clennel promised her +forgiveness if she would confess the whole truth; and he doubted not, +that from her he would also obtain tidings of his son, and learn where +he might find him, if he yet lived. I shall give her story in her own +words. + +"When I came amongst you," she began, "I said that I was an orphan, and +I told ye truly, so far as I knew myself. I have been reared amongst the +people ye call gipsies from infancy. They fed me before I could provide +for myself. I have wandered with them through many lands. They taught me +many things; and, while young, sent me as a servant into families, that +I might gather information to assist them in upholding their mysteries +of fortune-telling, I dared not to disobey them--they kept me as their +slave--and I knew that they would destroy my life for an act of +disobedience. I was in London when ye cruelly burned down the bit town +between the Keyheugh and Clovencrag. That night would have been your +last, but Elspeth Faa vowed more cruel vengeance than death on you and +yours. After our king had carried away your son, I was ordered from +London to assist in the plot o' revenge. I at length succeeded in +getting into your family, and the rest ye know. When ye were a' busy wi' +your company, I slipped into the woods wi' the bairn in my arms, where +others were ready to meet us; and long before ye missed us, we were +miles across the hills, and frae that day to this your daughter has +passed as mine." + +"But tell me all, woman," cried Clennel, "as you hope for either pardon +or protection--where is my son, my little Harry? Does he live?--where +shall I find him?" + +"As I live," replied Susan, "I cannot tell. There are but two know +concerning him--and that is the king and his wife Elspeth; and there is +but one way of discovering anything respecting him, which is by crossing +Elspeth's loof, that she may betray her husband: and she would do it for +revenge's sake, for an ill husband has he been to her, and in her old +days he has discarded her for another." + +"And where may she be found?" inquired Clennel, earnestly. + +"That," added Susan, "is a question I cannot answer. She was with the +people in the glen to-day, and was first to raise the laugh when your +dog fastened its teeth in the flesh of your ain bairn. But she may be +far to seek and ill to find now--for she is wi' those that travel fast +and far, and that will not see her hindmost." + +Deep was the disappointment of the laird when he found he could obtain +no tidings of his son. But, at the intercession of his daughter (whose +untutored mind her fond mother had begun to instruct), Susan was freely +pardoned, promised protection from her tribe, and again admitted as one +of the household. + +I might describe the anxious care of the fond mother, as, day by day, +she sat by her new-found and lovely daughter's side, teaching her, and +telling her of a hundred things of which she had never heard before, +while her father sat gazing and listening near them, rejoicing over +both. + +But the ray of sunshine which had penetrated the house of Clennel was +not destined to be of long duration. At that period a fearful cloud +overhung the whole land, and the fury of civil war seemed about to burst +forth. + +The threatening storm did explode; a bigoted king overstepped his +prerogative, set at nought the rights and the liberties of the subject, +and an indignant people stained their hands with blood. A political +convulsion shook the empire to its centre. Families and individuals +became involved in the general catastrophe; and the house of Clennel did +not escape. In common with the majority of the English gentry of that +period, Clennel was a stanch loyalist, and if not exactly a lover of the +king, or an ardent admirer of his acts, yet one who would fight for the +crown though it should (as it was expressed about the time) "hang by a +bush." When, therefore, the parliament declared war against the king, +and the name of Cromwell spread awe throughout the country, and when +some said that a prophet and deliverer had risen amongst them, and +others an ambitious hypocrite and a tyrant, Clennel armed a body of his +dependants, and hastened to the assistance of his sovereign, leaving his +wife and his newly-found daughter with the promise of a speedy return. + +It is unnecessary to describe all that he did or encountered during the +civil wars. He had been a zealous partizan of the first Charles, and he +fought for the fortunes of his son to the last. He was present at the +battle of Worcester, which Cromwell calls his "crowning mercy," in the +September of 1651, where the already dispirited royalists were finally +routed; and he fought by the side of the king until the streets were +heaped with dead; and when Charles fled, he, with others, accompanied +him to the borders of Staffordshire. + +Having bid the young prince an affectionate farewell, Clennel turned +back, with the intention of proceeding on his journey, on the following +day, to Northumberland, though he was aware, that, from the part which +he had taken in the royal cause, even his person was in danger. Yet the +desire again to behold his wife and daughter overcame his fears, and the +thought of meeting them in some degree consoled him for the fate of his +prince, and the result of the struggle in which he had been engaged. + +But he had not proceeded far when he was met by two men dressed as +soldiers of the Parliamentary army--the one a veteran with grey hairs, +and the other a youth. The shades of night had set in; but the latter he +instantly recognized as a young soldier whom he had that day wounded in +the streets of Worcester. + +"Stand!" said the old man, as they met him; and the younger drew his +sword. + +"If I stand!" exclaimed Clennel, "it shall not be when an old man and a +boy command me." And, following their example, he unsheathed his sword. + +"Boy!" exclaimed the youth; "whom call ye boy?--think ye, because ye +wounded me this morn, that fortune shall aye sit on your arm?--yield or +try." + +They made several thrusts at each other, and the old man, as an +indifferent spectator, stood looking on. But the youth, by a dexterous +blow, shivered the sword in Clennel's hand, and left him at his mercy. + +"Now yield ye," he exclaimed; "the chance is mine now--in the morning it +was thine." + +"Ye seem a fair foe," replied Clennel, "and loath am I to yield, but +that I am weaponless." + +"Despatch him at once!" growled the old man. "If he spilled your blood +in the morning, there can be no harm in spilling his the night--and +especially after giein' him a fair chance." + +"Father," returned the youth, "would ye have me to kill a man in cold +blood?" + +"Let him submit to be bound then, hands and eyes, or I will," cried the +senior. + +The younger obeyed, and Clennel, finding himself disarmed, submitted to +his fate; and his hands were bound, and his eyes tied up, so that he +knew not where they led him. + +After wandering many miles, and having lain upon what appeared the cold +earth for a lodging, he was aroused from a comfortless and troubled +sleep, by a person tearing the bandage from his eyes, and ordering him +to prepare for his trial. He started to his feet. He looked around, and +beheld that he stood in the midst of a gipsy encampment. He was not a +man given to fear, but a sickness came over his heart when he thought of +his wife and daughter, and that, knowing the character of the people in +whose power he was, he should never behold them again. + +The males of the Faa tribe began to assemble in a sort of half circle in +the area of the encampment, and in the midst of them, towering over the +heads of all, he immediately distinguished the tall figure of Willie +Faa, in whom he also discovered the grey-haired Parliamentary soldier of +the previous night. But the youth with whom he had twice contended and +once wounded, and by whom he had been made prisoner, he was unable to +single out amongst them. + +He was rudely dragged before them, and Willie Faa cried--"Ken ye the +culprit?" + +"Clennel o' Northumberland!--our enemy!" exclaimed twenty voices. + +"Yes," continued Willie, "Clennel our enemy--the burner o' our humble +habitations--that left the auld, the sick, the infirm, and the helpless, +and the infants o' our kindred, to perish in the flaming ruins. Had we +burned his house, the punishment would have been death; and shall we do +less to him than he would do to us?" + +"No! no!" they exclaimed with one voice. + +"But," added Willie, "though he would have disgraced us wi' a gallows, +as he has been a soldier, I propose that he hae the honour o' a +soldier's death, and that Harry Faa be appointed to shoot him." + +"All! all! all!" was the cry. + +"He shall die with the setting sun," said Willie, and again they cried, +"Agreed!" + +Such was the form of trial which Clennel underwent, when he was again +rudely dragged away, and placed in a tent round which four strong Faas +kept guard. He had not been alone an hour, when his judge, the Faa king, +entered, and addressed him-- + +"Now, Laird Clennel, say ye that I haena lived to see day about wi' ye? +When ye turned me frae beneath your roof, when the drift was fierce and +the wind howled in the moors, was it not tauld to ye that _ye would rue +it_!--but ye mocked the admonition and the threat, and, after that, +cruelly burned us out o' house and ha'. When I came hame, I saw my auld +mother, that was within three years o' a hunder, couring ower the +reeking ruins, without a wa' to shelter her, and crooning curses on the +doer o' the black deed. There were my youngest bairns, too, crouching by +their granny's side, starving wi' hunger as weel as wi' cauld, for ye +had burned a', and haudin' their bits o' hands before the burnin' ruins +o' the house that they were born in, to warm them! That night I vowed +vengeance on you; and even on that night I would have executed it, but I +was prevented; and glad am I now that I was prevented, for my vengeance +has been complete--or a' but complete. Wi' my ain hand I snatched your +son and heir from his mother's side, and a terrible chase I had for it; +but revenge lent me baith strength and speed. And when ye had anither +bairn that was like to live, I forced a lassie, that some o' our folk +had stolen when an infant, to bring it to us. Ye have got your daughter +back again, but no before she has cost ye mony a sad heart and mony a +saut tear; and that was some revenge. But the substance o' my +satisfaction and revenge lies in what I hae to tell ye. Ye die this +night as the sun gaes down; and, hearken to me now--the young soldier +whom ye wounded on the streets o' Worcester, and who last night made you +prisoner, was your son--your heir--your lost son! Ha! ha!--Clennel, am I +revenged?" + +"My son!" screamed the prisoner--"monster, what is it that ye say? +Strike me dead, now I am in your power--but torment me not!" + +"Ha! ha! ha!" again laughed the grey-haired savage--"man, ye are about +to die, and ye know not ye are born. Ye have not heard half I have to +tell. I heard that ye had joined the standard o' King Charles. I, a king +in my ain right, care for neither your king nor parliament; but I +resolved to wear, for a time, the cloth o' old Noll, and to make your +son do the same, that I might hae an opportunity o' meeting you as an +enemy, and seeing _him_ strike you to the heart. That satisfaction I had +not; but I had its equivalent. Yesterday, I saw you shed his blood on +the streets o' Worcester, and in the evening he gave you a prisoner into +my hands that desired you." + +"Grey-haired monster!" exclaimed Clennel. "Have ye no feeling--no heart? +Speak ye to torment me, or tell me truly, have I seen my son?" + +"Patience, man!" said the Faa, with a smile of sardonic triumph--"my +story is but half finished. It was the blood o' your son ye shed +yesterday at Worcester--it was your son who disarmed ye, and gave ye +into my power; and, best o' a'!--now, hear me! hear me! lose not a +word!--it is the hand o' your son that this night, at sunset, shall send +you to eternity! Now, tell me, Clennel, am I no revenged? Do ye no rue +it?" + +"Wretch! wretch!" cried the miserable parent, "in mercy strike me dead. +If I have raised my sword against my son, let that suffice ye!--but +spare, oh, spare my child from being an involuntary parricide!" + +"Hush, fool!" said the Faa; "I have waited for this consummation o' my +revenge for twenty years, and think ye that I will be deprived o' it now +by a few whining words? Remember, sunset!" he added, and left the tent. + +Evening came, and the disk of the sun began to disappear behind the +western hills. Men and women, the old and the young, amongst the Faas, +came out from their encampment to behold the death of their enemy. +Clennel was brought forth between two, his hands fastened to his sides, +and a bandage round his mouth, to prevent him making himself known to +his executioner. A rope was also brought round his body, and he was tied +to the trunk of an old ash tree. The women of the tribe began a sort of +yell or coronach; and their king, stepping forward, and smiling savagely +in the face of his victim, cried aloud-- + +"Harry Faa! stand forth and perform the duty your tribe have imposed on +you." + +A young man, reluctantly, and with a slow and trembling step, issued +from one of the tents. He carried a musket in his hand, and placed +himself in front of the prisoner, at about twenty yards from him. + +"Make ready!" cried Willie Faa, in a voice like thunder. And the youth, +though his hands shook, levelled the musket at his victim. + +But, at that moment, one who, to appearance, seemed a maniac, sprang +from a clump of whins behind the ash tree where the prisoner was bound, +and, throwing herself before him, she cried--"Hold!--would you murder +your own father? Harry Clennel!--would you murder your father? Mind ye +not when ye was stolen frae your mother's side, as ye gathered wild +flowers in the wood?" + +It was Elspeth Faa. + +The musket dropped from the hands of the intended executioner--a +thousand recollections, that he had often fancied dreams, rushed across +his memory. He again seized the musket, he rushed forward to his father, +but, ere he reached, Elspeth had cut the cords that bound the laird, and +placed a dagger in his hand for his defence, and, with extended arms, he +flew to meet the youth, crying--"My son!--my son!" + +The old Faa king shook with rage and disappointment, and his first +impulse was to poniard his wife--but he feared to do so; for although he +had injured her, and had not seen her for years, her influence was +greater with the tribe than his. + +"Now, Willie," cried she, addressing him, "wha rues it now? Fareweel for +ance and a'--and the bairn I brought up will find a shelter for my auld +head." + +It were vain to tell how Clennel and his son wept on each other's neck, +and how they exchanged forgiveness. But such was the influence of +Elspeth, that they departed from the midst of the Faas unmolested, and +she accompanied them. + +Imagination must picture the scene when the long-lost son flung himself +upon the bosom of his mother, and pressed his sister's hand in his. +Clennel Hall rang with the sounds of joy for many days; and, ere they +were ended, Andrew Smith placed a ring upon the finger of Susan, and +they became one flesh--she a respectable woman. And old Elspeth lived to +the age of ninety and seven years beneath its roof. + + + + +KATE KENNEDY; + +OR, THE MAID OF INNERKEPPLE. + + +Innerkepple was, some three hundred years ago, as complete a +fortification as could be seen along the Borders--presenting its +bastions, its turrets and donjon, and all the appurtenances of a +military strength, in the face of a Border riever, with that solemn air +of defiance that belongs to the style of the old castles. Many a blow of +a mangonel it had received; and Scotch and English engines of war had, +with equal force and address, poured into its old grey ribs their +destructive bolts; every wound was an acquisition of glory; and, unless +where a breach demanded a repair for the sake of security, the scars on +the old warrior were allowed to remain as a proof of his prowess. +Indeed, these very wounds appearing on the walls had their names--being +christened after the leaders of the sieges that had been in vain +directed against it; and, among the number, the kings of England might +have been seen indicated by the futile instruments of vengeance they had +flung into the rough ribs of old Innerkepple. But let us proceed. The +proprietor, good Walter Kennedy, better known by the appellative of +Innerkepple, was not unlike the old strength which he inhabited; being +an old, rough, burly baron, on whose face Time had succeeded in making +many impressions, notwithstanding of all the opposing energies of a soul +that gloried, in all manner of ways, of cheating the old greybeard of +his rights and clearing off _his scores_. As a good spirit is said to be +like good old wine, getting softer and more balmy as it increases in +age, old Innerkepple proved, by his good humour and jovial manners, the +sterling qualities of his heart, which seemed, as he progressed in +years, to swell in proportion as that organ in others shrivelled and +decreased. He saw nothing in age but the necessity it imposes of having +more frequent recourse to its great enemy, the grape; and that power he +delighted to bow to, as he bent his head to empty the flagon which his +forebear, Kenneth, got from the first King James, as a reward for his +services against the house of Albany. Yet the good humour of the old +baron was not that of the toper, which, produced by the bowl, would not +exist but for its inspiring draught; the feeling of happiness and +universal good-will lay at the bottom of the heart itself, and was only +swelled into a state of glorious ebullition by the charm of the magic of +the vine branch--the true Mercurial _caduceus_, the only true magic wand +upon earth. + +Though the spirit of antiquarianism is seldom associated with the +swelling affections of the heart that is dedicated to Momus, old +Innerkepple had, notwithstanding, been able to combine the two qualities +or powers. Sitting in his old wainscotted hall, over a goblet of spiced +Tokay, there were three old subjects he loved to speculate upon; and +these were--his old castle, with its chronicled wounds, where the Genius +of War sat alongside of the "auld carle" Time, in grim companionship; +secondly, the family tree of the Innerkepples--with himself, a good old +branch, kept green by good humour and Tokay, at the further verge; and a +small green twig, as slender as a lily stalk, issuing from the old +branch--no other than the daughter of Innerkepple, the fair Kate +Kennedy, a buxom damsel, of goodly proportions, and as merry, with the +aid of health and young sparkling blood, as the old baron was with the +spiced wine of Tokay; and, in the third place, there was the true +legitimate study of the antiquary, the ancient wine itself, the mortal +years of which he counted with an eye as bright as Cocker's over a +triumphant solution. As this last subject grew upon him, he became +inspired, like the old poet of Teos, and the rafters of Innerkepple rang +to the sound of his voice, tuned to the air of "The Guidwife o' +Tullybody," and fraught with the deeds, active and passive, of the +barons of Innerkepple and their castle. + +The fair Katherine Kennedy inherited her father's good humour, and, +maugre all the polishing and freezing influences of high birth, retained +her inborn freedom of thought and action, heedless whether the +contortion of the _buccae_ in a broad laugh were consistent with the +placidity of beauty, or the scream of the heart-excited risibility were +in accordance with the formula of high breeding. Buxom in her person, +and gay in her manners, she formed the most enchanting baggage of all +the care-killing damsels of her day--the most exquisite ronion that ever +chased Melancholy from her yellow throne on the face of Hypochondria, or +threw the cracker of her persiflage into the midst of the crew of blue +devils that bind down care-worn mortals by the bonds of _ennui_. She was +no antiquary, even in the limited sense of her father's study of the +science of cobwebs; being rather given to _neoterics_, or the science +which teaches the qualities of things of to-day or yesterday. Age in all +things she hated with a very good feminine spirit of detestation; and, +following up her principles, she arrived at the conclusion that youth +and beauty were two of the very best qualities that could be possessed +by a lover. Her father's impassioned praises of the old branches of the +tree of the Innerkepples--comprehending the brave Ludovick, who fell at +Homildon, and the memorable Walter, who sold his life at the price of a +score of fat Englishmen at the red Flodden--produced only her best and +loudest laugh, as she figured to herself the folly of preferring the +rugged trunk to the green branches that suspend at their points the +red-cheeked apple full of sweetness and juice. Neither cared the +hilarious damsel much for the reverend turrets of Innerkepple. Her +father's description, full of good humour as it was, of the various +perils they had passed, and the service they had done their country, +seemed to her, as she stood on the old walls, listening to the +narrative, like the croak of the old corbies that sat on the pinnacles; +and her laugh came again full of glee through the loopholes, or echoed +from the battered curtain or recesses of the ballium. + +That such a person as merry old Innerkepple should have a bitter and +relentless foe in the proprietor of the old strength called Otterstone, +in the neighbourhood, is one of the most instructive facts connected +with the system of war and pillage that prevailed on the Borders, +principally during the reign of Henry VIII. of England and James V. of +Scotland, when the spirit of religion furnished a cause of aggression +that could not have been afforded by the pugnacious temperaments of the +victims of attack. Magnus Fotheringham of Otterstone had had a deadly +feud with Kenneth Kennedy, the father of the good old Innerkepple, and +ever since had nourished against his neighbour a deadly spite, which he +had taken many means of gratifying. His opponent had acted merely on the +defensive; but his plea had been so well vindicated by his retainers, +who loved him with the affection of children, that the splenetic +aggressor had been twice repulsed with great slaughter. Most readily +would the jovial baron, who had never given any cause of offence, have +seized upon the demon of Enmity, and, _obtorto collo_, forced the fiend +into the smoking flagon of spiced wine, while he held out the hand of +friendship to his hereditary foe; but such was Otterstone's inveteracy, +that he would not meet him but with arms in his hands, so that all the +endeavours of the warm-hearted and jolly Innerkepple to overcome the +hostility of his neighbour, were looked upon as secret modes of wishing +to entrap him, and take vengeance on him for his repeated attacks upon +the old castle. + +Some short time previous to the period about which we shall become more +interested, Innerkepple, with twenty rangers, was riding the marches of +his property, when he was set upon by his enemy, who had nearly twice +that number of retainers. Taking up with great spirit the plea of their +lord, the men who were attacked rallied round the old chief, and fought +for him like lions, drowning (perhaps purposely) in the noise of the +battle the cries of Innerkepple, who roared, at the top of his voice-- + +"Otterstone, man--hear me!--A pint o' my auld Canary will do baith you +and me mair guid than a' that bluid o' your men and mine. Stop the +fecht, man. I hae nae feud against you, an' I'm no answerable for the +wrangs o' thy father Kenneth." + +These peaceful words were lost amidst the sounds of the battle, and +Otterstone construed the contortions of the peacemaker into indications +of revenge, and his bawling was set down as his mode of inspiriting his +followers. The fight accordingly progressed, old Innerkepple at +intervals holding up a white handkerchief as a sign of peace; but which, +having been used by him in stopping the wounds of one of his men, was +received with its blood-marks as a signal of revenge, both by his men +and those of the aggressor. The strife accordingly increased, and all +was soon mixed up in the confusion of the melee. + +"Has feud ran awa wi' yer senses, Otterstone?" again roared the good old +baron. "I'll gie yer son, wha's at St. Omers, the hand o' my dochter +Kate. Do you hear me, man? If you will mix the bluids o' oor twa houses, +let it be dune by Haly Kirk." + +His words never reached Otterstone; but his own men who adored and +idolized their beautiful young mistress, whose unvaried cheerfulness and +kindness had won their hearts, heard the proposition of their master +with astonishment and dissatisfaction. They were still sorely pressed by +their enemy, who, seeing the stained handkerchief in the hands of +Innerkepple, were roused to stronger efforts. At this moment an +extraordinary vision met their eyes. A detachment of retainers from the +castle came forward in the most regular warlike array, having at their +head their young mistress, armed with a helmet and a light jerkin, and +bearing in her hand a sword of suitable proportions. A loud shout from +the worsted combatants expressed their satisfaction and surprise, and in +a moment the assistant corps joined their friends, and commenced to +fight. The unusual vision relaxed for a moment the energies of +Otterstone's men; but a cry from their chief, that they would that day +be ten times vanquished if they were defeated by a female leader, again +inspired them, and instigated them to the fight. + +"Press forward, brave vassals of Innerkepple!" cried Katherine. "Your +foes have no fair damsel to inspire them; and who shall resist those +whose arms are nerved in defence of an old chief and a young mistress? +He who kills the greatest number of Otterstone's men shall have the +privilege of demanding a woman's guerdon from Katherine Kennedy. If this +be not enough to make ye fight like lions, ye deserve to be hung in +chains on the towers of Otterstone." + +Smiling as she uttered her strange speech, she hurried to her father, +who was still making all the efforts in his power to bring about a +parley. He had got within a few yards of Otterstone, and it required all +the energies of Katherine to keep him back and defend him from insidious +blows--an office she executed with great agility, by keeping her light +sword whirling round her head, and inflicting wounds--not perhaps of +great depth--on those who were ungallant and temerarious enough to +approach her parent. + +"See, Otterstone, man," cried the laird, still intent on peace, and +sorry for the deadly work that was going on around him. "Is she no fit +to mak heirs to Otterstone? Up wi' yer helm, Kate, and show him yer fair +face. Ha! man, stop this bluidy work, and let us mend a' by a carousal. +Deil's in the heart and stamack o' the man that prefers warring to +wassailing!" + +"He does not hear you, father," cried Kate. "We must defend ourselves. +On, brave followers! Ye know your guerdon. Gallant knights have kneeled +for it and been refused it. You are to fight for it, and to receive it. +Hurrah for Innerkepple!" And she swung her light falchion round her +head, while the war-cry of the family, "_Festina lente!_" arose in +answer to her inspiriting appeal, and the men rushed forward with new +ardour on their foes. + +"You are as bluid-thirsty as he is, Kate," cried the baron. "What mean +ye, woman? Haste ye up to Otterstone, and fling yer arms round his neck, +and greet a guid greet, according to the fashion o' womankind. Awa! +haste ye, and say, mairower, that ye'll be the wife o' his son, and join +the twa baronies that are gaping for ane anither. Quick, woman; tears +are mere water--thin aneuch, Gude kens!--but thae men's bluid is thicker +than my vintage o' the year '90." + +"Katherine Kennedy never yet wept either to friend or foe, unless in the +wild glee of her frolics," replied the maiden. "By the bones of Camilla! +I thought I was only fit for sewing battle scenes on satin, and laughing +as I killed a knight with my needle; but I find I have the Innerkepple +blood in my veins, and my cheek is glowing like a blood-red rose. Take +care of yourself, good father, and leave the affair to me. A single +glance of my eye has more power in it than the command of the proudest +baron of the Borders. On, good hearts!" And she again rode among the +men, and inspired them with her voice and looks. + +The effect of the silvery tones of the voice of Katherine on the hearts +of her father's retainers was electric; they fought like lions, and it +soon became apparent to Otterstone that a woman is a more dangerous +enemy than a man. The cry, "For the fair maid of Innerkepple!" resounded +among the combatants, and soon exhibited greater virtue than the war-cry +of the house. Against men actuated by the chivalrous feelings that +naturally arose out of the defence of a beautiful woman, all resistance +was vain; the ranks of Otterstone's men were broken, and this advantage +having been seized by their opponents, whose energies were rising every +moment, as the sound of Katherine's voice saluted their ears, a route +ensued, and the usual consequences of that last resource of the +vanquished--flight--were soon apparent in the wounded victims, who fell +ingloriously with wounds on their backs. The pursuers were inclined to +continue the pursuit even to the walls of Otterstone, but Katherine +called them back. + +"To slay the flying," said she, with a laugh, as the usual hilarity of +her spirits returned upon her, "is what I call effeminate warfare. When +men flee, women pursue; and what get they for their pains more than the +wench got from Theseus, whom she hunted for his heart, and got, as our +hunters do, the kick of his heel? Away, and carry in our disabled, that +I may, with woman's art, cure the wounds that have been received in +defence of a woman." + +The men obeyed with alacrity, and Innerkepple himself stared in +amazement at his daughter, who had always before appeared to him as a +wild romp, fit only for killing men with her beauty, or tormenting them +with the elfin tricks or bewitching waggeries of her restless salient +spirit. + +"I'll hae ye in the wainscotted ha', Kate," said the father, as he +entered his private chamber, leaning on the arm of his daughter, +"painted wi' helm, habergeon, and halberd, and placed alongside o' Lewie +o' Homildon and Watt o' Flodden." + +"I care not, father," replied Katherine, "if you give the painter +instructions to paint me laughing at those famous progenitors of our +house, who were foolish enough to give their lives for that glory I can +purchase for nothing, and get the lives of my enemies to boot; but I +must go and minister to the gallant men who have been wounded." + +"Minister first to your father, Kate," replied Innerkepple, with a +knowing look. + +"And to your father's daughter, you would add," replied she, with a +smile. "A bridal and a battle lack wine." And, hastening to a cupboard, +she took out and placed on the table a flagon and two cups, the latter +of which she filled. + +"Rest to the souls of the men I have slain!" said she, laughing, as she +lifted the wine cup to her head, while her father was performing the +same act. + +"What! did ye kill ony o' Otterstone's men?" said Innerkepple. + +"Every time I lifted up my visor," replied she, "I scattered death +around me. Ha! ha! what fools men are! Their bodies are tenantless; we +women are the souls that live outside of them, and take up our residence +within their clayey precincts only when we have an object to serve. The +tourney has taught me the power of our sex; and there I have thrown my +spirit into the man I hated, to gratify my humour by seeing him, poor +caitiff! as he caught my hazel eye, writhe and wring, and contort +himself into all the attitudes of Proteus." + +"Wicked imp!" said Innerkepple, laughing. + +"And when he had sufficiently twisted himself," continued she, "I have, +with a grave face given the same hazel eye to his opponent, and set his +body in motion in the same way. The serpent-charmer is nothing to a +woman. By this art, I to-day gained the victory; and I'll stake my +auburn toupee against thy grey wig, that I beat, in the same way, the +boldest baron of the Borders." + +"By the faith o' Innerkepple, ye're no blate, Kate!" said the old baron, +still laughing; "but come, let us see our wounded men"--taking his +daughter's arm. + +"Leave their wounds to me, father," said she. "The sting of the +tarantula is cured by an old song. We women are the true leeches; +doctors are quacks and medicasters to us. We kill and cure like the +Delphic sword, which makes wounds and heals them by alternate strokes." + +"Ever at your quips, roisterer," said Innerkepple, as they arrived at +the court. + +The wounded men had been brought in, and were consigned to the care of +one of the retainers, skilled in medicine, Katherine's medicaments--her +looks and tones--being reserved for a balsamic application, after the +wounds were cicatrized. The other retainers were, meanwhile, busy in +consultation, as might have been seen by their congregating into +parties, talking low, and throwing looks at Innerkepple and his fair +daughter, as they stood on the steps of the inner door of the castle. + +"The guerdon! the guerdon!" at last said one of the vassals, advancing +and throwing himself at the feet of Kate. + +"Ha! ha! I forgot," replied she laughing; "but turn up thy face--art +thou the man?" + +"So say my companions, fair leddy," replied he. "I brocht doon wi' this +arm five o' Otterstone's men." + +"With that arm!" replied she, "and what spirit nerved the dead lumber, +thinkest thou?" + +"Dootless yours, fair leddy," answered he, smiling knowingly; "but, +though the spirit was borrowed, I'm no the less entitled to my reward." + +"A good stickler for the rights of your sex," answered she, keeping up +the humour; "but what guerdon demandest thou?" + +"That whilk knights hae sued in vain for at your fair feet," answered +the man, smiling, as he uttered nearly the words she had used at the +battle. + +"Caught in my own snare," replied she, laughing loudly. + +"Ah, Kate, Kate!" said the baron, joining in the humour, "hoo mony +gallant barons, and knights, and gentlemen hae ye tormented by thae fair +lips o' yours, which carry in their cunnin' words a defence o' themsels +sae weel contrived that nane daur approach them! Ye're caught at last. +Stand to yer richts, man. A kiss was promised ye, and by the honour o' +Innerkepple, a kiss ye'll hae, if I should haud her head by a grip o' +her bonny auburn locks." + +"Hold! hold!" cried Katherine; "this matter dependeth on the answer to a +question. Art thou married, sirrah?" + +The man hesitated, fearful of being caught by his clever adversary. + +"Have a care o' yoursel, Gregory," said Innerkepple, "ye're on dangerous +ground." + +"What if I am or am not?" said the man, cautiously, turning up his eye +into the face of the wicked querist. + +"If thou art not," said she, "then would a kiss of so fair a damsel be +to thee beyond the value of a croft of the best land o' the barony o' +Innerkepple; but if thou art, then would the guerdon be as nothing to +the kiss of thy wife, and as the weight of a feather in the scale +against an oxengate of good land." + +"I'm no married," replied the man; "but, an't please yer leddyship, I'll +take the oxengate." + +"Audacious varlet!" cried Kate, rejoicing in the adroitness she +exhibited; "wouldst thou prefer a piece of earth to a kiss of Kate +Kennedy--a boon which the gayest knights of the Borders have sued for in +vain! But 'tis well--thou hast refused the guerdon. Ha! ha! Men of +Innerkepple, ye are witnesses to the fact. This man hath spurned my +guerdon, and sought dull earth for my rosy lips." + +"We are witnesses," cried the retainers; and the court-yard rang with the +laugh which the cleverness of their fair mistress had elicited from +those who envied Gregory of his privilege. + +"Kate, Kate!" said the old baron, joining in the laugh, "will ever +mortal be able to seize what are sae weel guarded? I believe ye will be +able to argue yer husband oot o' his richts o' proving whether thae +little traitors be made of mortal flesh or ripe cherries. But wine is +better than women's lips; and since Kate has sae cleverly got quit o' +her obligation, I'll mak amends by gieing ye a _surrogatum_." + +Several measures of good old wine were served out to the men by the +hands of Katherine, who rejoiced in the contradiction of refusing one +thing to give a better. Her health, and that of Innerkepple, were drunk +with loud shouts of approbation; and the wassail was kept up till a late +hour of the night. + +Meanwhile, Otterstone was struggling with his disappointment, and +nourishing a deep spirit of revenge. The shame of his defeat, +accomplished by a girl, was insufferable; and the gnawing pain of the +loss of honour and men, in a cause where he had calculated securely on +crushing his supposed enemy, affected him so severely, that he sent, it +was reported, for his son, who had lived from his infancy at St. Omers, +to come over to administer to him consolation. When Innerkepple heard of +these things, he marvelled greatly at the stubbornness of his neighbour, +whom he wished, above all things, to drag, _nolente volente_, into a +deep wassail in the old wainscotted hall of his castle, whereby he +might drown, with reason itself, all their hereditary grudges, and +transform a foe into a friend. These feelings were also participated in +by the warlike Kate, who acknowledged that she did not, on that +memorable day, fight for anything on earth that she knew of, but the +safety of her father, and the sheer glory of victory. She entertained +the best possible feelings towards Otterstone, though she admitted, with +a laugh, that if his men had not that day run for their lives, she would +have fought till they and their lord lay all dead upon the field, and +the glory of Otterstone was extinguished for ever. + +A considerable period that passed in quietness, seemed to indicate that +the anger of the vanquished baron had escaped by the valves appointed by +nature for freeing the liver of its redundant bile. Meanwhile, +Innerkepple's universal love of mankind increased, as his friendship for +the juice of the grape grew stronger and stronger, and his potations +waxed deeper and deeper; so that he was represented, all over the +Borders, as being the most jovial baron of his time. The fame of Kate +also went abroad like fire-flaughts; but no one knew what to make of +her--whether to set her down as a beautiful virago, or as a merry imp of +sportive devilry, who fought her father's enemy with the same good-will +she felt towards the lovers whom she delighted with her beauty and +gaiety, and tormented by her cruel waggeries and wiles. + +This apparent quietness, and the consequent freedom from all danger, +induced the old baron to comply with a request made to him by King +James, to lend him forty of his followers, to aid in suppressing some +disturbances caused by a number of outlawed reivers at that time +ravaging the Borders. Katherine gave her consent to the measure; but she +wisely exacted the condition that the men should not be removed to a +greater distance from the castle than ten miles. When James' emissary +asked her why she adjected this condition to her father's agreement, she +answered, with that waggish mystery in which she often loved to indulge, +that she had such a universal love for his--the emissary's--sex, that +she could not suffer the idea of her gallant men being further removed +from her than the distance on which she had condescended. A question for +explanation only produced another wicked _quodlibet_; so that the royal +messenger was obliged to be contented with a reason that sounded in his +ears very like a contempt of royal authority--a circumstance for which +she cared no more than she did for the mute expression of admiration of +her beauty, that her quick eye detected on the face of the deputy. + +The men having been detached from the castle for the service of the +king, there remained only a small number, not more than sufficient for +occupying the more important stations on the walls of the strength. +There was, however, no cause for alarm; and old Innerkepple continued to +speculate over his spiced Tokay, on his three grand subjects of +antiquarian research; while Katherine followed her various occupations +of listening to and laughing at his reveries, sewing battle scenes on +satin, and killing her knights with her needle, in as many grotesque +ways as her inventive fancy could devise. One day the sound of a horn +cut right through the middle a long pull of Canary in the act of being +perfected by the old baron's powers of swallow; and, in a short time, +the warder came in and said that a wine merchant, with sumpter mules and +panniers, was at the end of the drawbridge, and had expressed a strong +desire to submit his commodity to the test of such a famous judge of the +spirit of the grape as the baron of Innerkepple, whose name had gone +forth as transcending that of all modern wine-drinkers. + +"A wine merchant!" ejaculated Innerkepple, smacking his lips after his +interrupted draught of vintage '90. "What species o' sma' potation does +he deal in? Ha! ha! It suits my humour to see the quack's een reel, as +he finds his tongue and palate glued thegither wi' what I ca' wine, and +gets them loosed again by his ain coloured water. Show him in, George." + +"Whar is my leddy, yer Honour?" said the seneschal, looking bluntly. +"Will she consent to the drawbridge bein' raised at a time when the +castle's nearly empty?" + +"She has just gane into the green parlour in the west tower," said the +baron. "But I'll tak Kate in my ain hands. She likes fun as weel as her +auld father, and will laugh to see this quack beaten wi' his ain bowls." + +The seneschal withdrew, though reluctantly, and casting his eyes about +for the indispensable Katherine; but she was not within his reach, and +he felt himself compelled, by the impatience of the old baron, to admit +the merchant. The creaking hinges of the bridge resounded through the +castle and the merchant and his mules were seen by Katherine, looking +through a loophole, slowly making their way into the castle. It was too +late for her now to consider of the propriety of the permission to +enter; so she leant her chin on her hand, and quietly scanned the +stranger, as he crossed the bridge, driving his mules before him with a +large stick, which he brought down with a loud thwack on their +backs--accompanying his act with a loud "Whoop, ho!" and occasionally +throwing his eyes over the walls as he proceeded. + +"Whom have we here?" said she, as she communed with herself, and nodded +her head, still apparent through the loophole. "By'r Lady! neither +Gascon nor Fleming, or my eyes are no better than my father's, when he +looks at _antiques_ through the red medium of his vintage of '90. +Perchance, a lover come to run away with Kate Kennedy. Hey! the thought +tickles my wild wits, and sends me on the wings of fancy into the +regions of romance. Yet I have not read that the catching and carrying +off of _Tartars_ hath anything to do with the themes of romantic +love-errantry. I'm witty at the expense of this poor packman; but, +seriously, Katherine Kennedy must carry off her lover. True to the +difference that opposes me to the rest of my sex, I could not love a man +whom I did not vanquish and abduct, as a riever does the chattels of the +farmer." + +Continuing her gaze, as she laughed at her own strange thoughts, she saw +the merchant bind his mules to a ring fixed in the inside of the wall, +and take out of his panniers a vessel, with which he proceeded in the +direction of the door that led to the hall. When the merchant had +disappeared, she saw one of the retainers of the castle examining +intently the mules and their panniers. He looked up and caught her eye; +and placing his finger on his forehead, made a sign for her to come +down. She obeyed with her usual alacrity, and in a moment was at the +side of the retainer, who, slipping gently under the shade of the +castle, so as to be out of the view of those within the hall, +communicated to the ear of Katherine some intelligence of an important +nature. The man looked grave; Kate snapped her fingers; the fire of her +eyes glanced from the balls like the sparks of struck flint, and the +expression of her countenance indicated that she had formed a purpose +which she gloried in executing. + +"Hark ye, Gregory," said she; "I am still your debtor, but I require +again your services." And, looking carefully around her, she whispered +some words into the ear of the man; and, upon receiving his nod of +intelligence and assent, sprung up the steps that led to the hall. + +The wine merchant was, as she entered, sitting at the oaken table, +opposite to the old baron, who was holding up in his hand a species of +glass jug, and looking through it with that peculiar expression which is +only to be found in the face of a luxurious wine-toper in the act of +passing sentence. + +"Wha, in God's name, are ye, man?" cried the baron, under the cover of +whose speech Kate slipped cleverly up to the window, and sat down, with +her cheek resting on her hand, in apparent listlessness, but eyeing +intently the stranger. "I could have wad the picture o' my ancestor, +Watt o' Flodden, or King Henry's turret, in the east wing o' +Innerkepple, wi' its twenty wounds, mair precious than goold, that there +wasna a cup o' vintage '90 in Scotland except what I had mysel. Whar got +ye't, man? Are ye the Devil? Hae ye brocht it frae my ain cellars? +Speak, Satan!" + +"Vy, _mon cher_ Innerkepple," replied the merchant, "did I not know that +you were one grand biberon--I mean drinker of vin? It is known all over +the marches--I mean the Bordures. Aha! no one Frenchman could cheat the +famous Innerkepple; so I brought the best that was in all my celliers. +Is it not grand and magnifique?" + +"Grand an' magnifique, man!" replied Innerkepple, as he sipped the wine +with the gravity of a judge. "It's mair than a' that, man, if my tongue +could coin a word to express its ain sense o' what it is at this moment +enjoying. But the organ's stupified wi' sheer delight, and forgets its +very mither's tongue; an' nae wonder, for my very een, that didna taste +it, reel and get drunk wi' the sight." And the delighted baron took +another pull of the goblet. + +"Aha! Innerkepple, you are von of the grandest biberons I have ever seen +in all this contree," said the merchant. "It is one great pleasir to +trafique vit von so learned in the science of _bon gout_. That grand +smack of your lips would tempt me to ruin myself, and drink mine own +commodity." + +"Hae ye a stock o' the treasure?" said the baron; "I canna suppose it." + +"Just five barrils in my celliers at Berwick," answered the merchant, +"containing quatre hundred pints de Paris in each one of them." + +"I could walk on my bare feet to Berwick to see it and taste it," said +the baron; "but what clatter o' a horse's feet is that in the court, +Kate?" + +"Ha! sure it is my mules," said the Frenchman, starting to his feet in +alarm. + +"Oh! keep your seat, Monsieur Merchant," cried Kate, laughing and +looking out of the window. "Can a lady not despatch her servitor to +Selkirk for a pair of sandals, that should this day have been on my feet +in place of in Gilbert Skinner's hands, without raising folks from their +wine?" + +The Frenchman was satisfied, and retook his seat; but the baron looked +at Kate, as if at a loss to know what freak had now come into her +inventive head. The letting down of the drawbridge, and the sound of the +horse's feet passing along the sounding wood, verified her statement, +but carried no conviction to the mind of Innerkepple. He had long +ceased, however, the vain effort to understand the workings of his +daughter's mind, and on the present occasion he was occupied about too +important a subject to be interested in the vagaries of a madcap wench. + +"By the Virgin!" she said again, "my jennet will lose her own sandals in +going for mine, if Gregory thus strikes the rowels into her sides." + +Covering, by these words, the rapid departure of the messenger, she +turned her eyes to continue the study of the merchant, whom she watched +with feline assiduity. The conversation was again resumed. + +"Five barrels, said ye, Monsieur?" resumed Innerkepple. "Let me +see--that, wi' what I hae mysel, may see me out; but it will be a guid +heir-loom to Kate's husband. What is the price?" + +"One merk the gallon of four pints de Paris," answered the merchant. + +("Yet I see no marks of Otterstone about him," muttered Kate to herself. +"How beautiful he is, maugre his disguise! Had he come on a message of +love, in place of war, I would have taken him prisoner, and bound him +with the rays of light that come from my languishing eyes.") + +"That's dear, man," said Innerkepple. "But ye're a cunning rogue; if I +keep drinking at this rate, the price will sink as the flavour rises, +and ye'll catch me, as men do gudgeons, by the tongue." + +"Aha! _mon cher_ Innerkepple," said the merchant, "you have von +excellent humour of fun about ye. If I vere not _un pauvre merchand_, I +would have one grand plaisir in getting _mouille_--I mean drunk--vit +you." + +("Ha! my treacherous Adonis, art on that tack, with a foul wind in thy +fair face?" was Kate's mental ejaculation. "If thou nearest thy haven, I +am a worse pilot than Palinurus.") + +"Wi' wine like that before ane," responded the baron, "the topers +alongside o' ye may be Frenchmen or Dutchmen, warriors or warlocks, +wraiths or wassailers, merchants or mahouns--a's alike. It will put a +soul into a ghaist, a yearning heart into a gowl, and a spirit o' +nobility in the breast o' ane wha never quartered arms but wi' the fair +anes o' flesh an' bluid that belang to his wife. I'll be oblivious o' a' +warldly things before Kate's sandals come frae Selkirk; but yer price, +man, I fear, will stick to me to the end." + +"I cannot make one deduction," said the merchant, "but I vill give to +the men in the base-court one jolly debauch of very good vin, vich is in +my hampers." + +("The kaim of chanticleer is in the wind's eye," muttered Katherine. +"Thou pointest nobly for the direction of treachery; but my sandals +will be back from Selkirk long before I am obliged to march with thee to +the prison of Otterstone.") + +"Weel, mak it a merk," said Innerkepple, "for five pints, an' a bouse to +my retainers, wha are as muckle beloved by me as if they were my bairns; +an' I will close wi' ye." + +"Vell, that is one covenant _inter nous_," said the merchant; "but I +cannot return to Berwick until _demain_--I mean the morrow; and we vill +have the long night for one jolly carousal. I vill go _sans delai_, and +give the poor fellows, in the meantime, one leetle tasting of the grand +cheer." + +("Then I am too long here," muttered Kate. "Alexander told his men that +the Persian stream was poisonous, to prevent them from stopping to +drink, whereby they would have fallen into the hands of the enemy. One +not less than he--ha! ha!--will save her men, by telling them there is +treachery in the cup.") + +She descended instantly to the base-court, and, passing from one guard +to another, she whispered in their ears certain instructions, which, by +the nodding of their heads, they seemed to understand, while those she +had not time to visit received from their neighbours the communication +at second-hand, and thus, in a short space of time, she prepared the +whole retainers for the part they were destined to play. She had +scarcely finished this part of her operations, and got out of the court, +when the wine merchant made his appearance on the steps leading to the +hall. He nodded pleasantly to the men, and, proceeding to his mules, +took out of one of the panniers a large vessel filled with wine. This he +laid on the flagstones of the base-court, and alongside of it he placed +a large cup. He then called out to the retainers to approach, and seemed +pleased with the readiness with which they complied with his request. + +"Mine very good fellows," said he, "I have sold your master, +Innerkepple, one grand quantity of vine; and he says I am under one +obligation to treat you vit a hamper, for the sake of the grand +affection he bears to you. You may drink as much as ever you vill +please; and ven this is brought to one termination, I will supply you +vit more." + +"We're a' under a suitable obligation to ye, sir," replied the oldest of +the retainers, a sly, pawky Scotchman--"and winna fail to do credit to +the present ye've sae nobly presented to us; but do ye no hear +Innerkepple callin' for ye frae the ha'? Awa, sir, to the guid baron, +and leave us to our carouse." + +"Ay," said another; "we'll inform ye when this is finished." + +"Finished!" said a third; "we'll be a' on oor backs before we see the +end o't." + +"Aha! excellent jolly troup!" cried the merchant, delighted with this +company. + +The voice of Katherine, who appeared on the steps leading to the hall, +now arrested their attention. + +"My father is impatient for thee, good merchant," said she. + +"_Ma chere_ leddy," replied he, "I will be there _a present_." And, +looking up to see that she had again disappeared--"Drink, my jolly +mates," he continued. "It is the grand matiere, the _bon_ stuff, the +excellent good liqueur. Aha! you will be so merry, and you know you have +the consent of Innerkepple." + +"We'll be a' as drunk as bats," said he who spoke first, with a sly +leer. + +"The Deil tak him wha has the beddin' o' us!" said another. + +"So say I," added half-a-dozen of voices. + +"Then I am the Deil's property," said the warder, "unless I am saved by +the power o' the wine; and, by my faith, I'll no spare't." + +"Aha! very good! excellent joke!" cried the delighted merchant. "Drink, +and shame the Diable, as we say in France. Wine comes from the gods, and +is the grand poison of Beelzebub." + +And, after enjoying deep potations, the merchant returned to the hall, +amidst the laughter and pretended applause of the men. The moment he had +disappeared, Katherine got carried to the spot a measure filled with +wine and water; and, having emptied in another vessel the contents of +the merchant's hamper, the thin and innocuous potation was poured in to +supply its place. The men assisted in the operation; and, all being +finished, they began to carouse with great glee and jollity. + +"I said, my leddy, to the merchant, that we would be a' as drunk as +bats," said one of the humorists; "and sure this is a fair beginning; +for wha could stand drink o' this fearfu' strength?" + +"The Deil tak him wha has the beddin' o' us!" said the other, laughing, +as he drank off a glass of the thin mixture. + +"Then I am the Deil's property," said the warder, "unless I am saved by +the power o' this strong drink." + +And thus the men, encouraged by the smiles of Kate, who was, with great +activity, conducting the ceremonies, seemed to be getting boisterous on +the strength of the merchant's wine. Their jokes raised real laughter; +and the noise of their mirth went up and entered into the hall, falling +like incense on the heart of the merchant. Katherine, meanwhile, again +betook herself to her station at the hall window, using assiduously both +her eyes and ears; the former being directed to a dark fir plantation +that stood to the left of the castle, and the latter occupied by the +conversations of her father and the merchant. + +"My men," said Innerkepple, "seem to be following the example o' their +master. They are gettin' noisy. I hope, Monsieur, ye were moderate in +yer present. A castle-fu' o' drunk men is as bad as a headfu' o' +intoxicated notions." + +("Hurrah for the French merchant! Long life to him! May he continue as +strong as his liquor!") + +"Aha! the jolly good fellows are feeling the sting of the spirit," said +the merchant, with sparkling eyes. + +"Ungratefu' dogs!" rejoined Innerkepple; "I treat them as if they were +my sons, and hear hoo they praise a stranger for a bellyfu' o' wine! My +beer never produced sae muckle froth o' flattery. But this wine o' +yours, Monsieur, drowns a' my indignation." + +("Long life to Innerkepple and the fair Katherine!") + +"Now you are getting the grand adulation," said the Frenchman. "Ha! they +are a jovial troup of good chaps, and deserve one grand potation; but I +gave them only one leetle hamper, for fear they should get _mouille_." + +"Very considerate, Monsieur, very prudent and kind," said the baron; +"for twa-thirds o' my men are fechtin fer Jamie, and we hae a kittle +neebor in Otterstone, whase son I hear has come hame frae St. Omers. +By-the-by, saw ye the callant in France? They say he's sair ashamed o' +the defeat o' his father by the generalship o' my dochter Kate." + +"Ha! did _ma chere_ leddy combattre Otterstone?" ejaculated the +Frenchman, laughing. "Very good! ha! ha! ha! I did not know that, ven I +sold him one quantity of vin yesterday; but I assure you, _mon cher_ +Innerkepple, he is not at all your enemy, and his son did praise _ma +chere_ leddy as the most magnificent vench in all the contree." + +("Excellently sustained," muttered Katherine to herself. "How I do love +the roll of that dark eye, and the curl of that lip covered with the +black moustache! Can so much beauty conceal a deadly purpose? But the +'magnificent vench' shall earn yet a better title to the soubriquet out +of thy discomfiture, fair, deceitful, sweet devil.") + +"I only wish I had Otterstone whar you are, man," said Innerkepple, "wi' +the liquor as sweet an' my bile nae bitterer. I would conquer him in +better style than did my dochter, though, I confess, she man[oe]uvred +him beautifully." + +("Perdition to the faes o' Innerkepple! and, chief o' them, the fause +Otterstone, the leddy-licked loon!") + +"Helas! The master and the men have the very different creeds," said the +Frenchman, shrugging his shoulders; "but my vin is making the _bon_ +companions choleric. Ha! ha!" + +("It is--it is!" muttered Katherine, as she strained her eyes to catch +the signal of a white handkerchief, that floated on the top of one of +the trees in the fir-wood.) + +She now abruptly left the hall, and proceeded to the place in the court +occupied by those who were wassailing on the coloured water she had +brewed for them with her fair hands. They were busily occupied by the +manifestations of their mirth, which was not altogether simulated. A +cessation of the noise evinced the effect of her presence among those +who deified her. + +"Up with the merry strain, my jolly revellers!" said she, smiling, and +immediately "Bertram the Archer," in loud notes, rung in the ballium:-- + + "And Bertram held aloft the horn, + Filled wi' the bluid-red wyne, + And three times has he loudly sworn + His luve he winna tyne. + + "My Anne sits on yon eastern tower, + An' greets baith day and night, + An' sorrows for her luver lost, + An' right turned into might. + + "'Then hie ye all, my merry men, + To yonder lordly ha'! + An if they winna ope the gate, + We'll scale the burly wa'. + + "'Hurra!' then shouted Bertram's men, + And loudly they hae sworn, + That they will right their gallant knigh + Before the opening morn."[2] + +[2] Pinkerton gives only one verse of "Bertram the Archer," but +Innerkepple's men did not require to be antiquaries. + +Under the cover of the noise of the song, which was sung with +bacchanalian glee, Katherine communicated her farther instructions to +the man who had assumed the principal direction; and, retreating +quickly, lest the wine merchant should come out and surprise her, she +left the revellers to continue their work. She was soon again at her +post at the window. The boon companions within the hall were still busy +with their conversation and their wine; and by this time the shades of +evening had begun to darken the view from the castle, and envelop the +towers in gloom; the rooks had retired to rest, the owls had taken up +the screech note which pains the sensitive ear of night, and the bats +were beginning to flap their leathern wings on the rough sides of the +old walls. + +The sounds of the revellers in the court-yard began gradually to die +away, and the strains of "Bertram the Archer" were limited to a weak +repetition of the last lines, somewhat curtailed of their legitimate +syllables:-- + + "And we will right our gallant knight + Before the opening morn." + +These indications of the effect of the wine increased, till, by-and-by, +all seemed to be muffled up in silence. The circumstance seemed to be +noticed at once by the wine merchant; but he took no notice of it to +Innerkepple whom he still continued to ply with the rich vintage. Kate's +senses were all on the alert, and she watched every scene of the acting +drama, set agoing by her own master mind. A noise was now heard at the +door of the hall, as if some one wished to get in, but could not effect +an opening. + +"Who's there?" cried Kate, as she proceeded to open the door. + +"It's me, your Leddyship's Honour," answered George, the seneschal, as +he staggered, apparently in the last stage of drunkenness, into the +hall. + +"What means this?" cried Innerkepple, rising up, and not very well able +to stand himself. "The warder o' my castle in that condition, an' a' our +lives dependin' on his prudence!" + +"Your Honour's maist forgiving pardon," said the warder. "I am come +here, maist lordly Innerkepple"--hiccup--"to inform your Highness that +a' the men o' the castle are lying in the base-court like swine. I am +the only sober man in the hale menyie"--hic--hic. "But whar's the ferly? +The strength o' the Frenchman's wine would have floored the strongest +hensure o' the Borders"--hiccup--"an' I would hae been like the rest, if +I hadna been the keeper o' the keys o' Innerkepple." + +("As well as Roscius, George," muttered Kate, as she, with a smile, +contemplated the actor.) + +"George, George, man," said the baron, "ye're just as bad as the rest. +You've been ower guid to them, Monsieur; but this _mooliness_, as ye ca' +it, has a' its dangers in thae times, when castles are surprised an' +taen like sleepin' mawkins in bushes o' broom. Awa to yer bed ahint the +gratin', man, an' sleep aff the wine, as fast as it is possible for a +drunk man to do." + +George bowed, and staggered out of the hall, to betake himself to his +couch. + +"Aha! this is one sad misadventure," said the merchant. "I did not know +there vas half so much strength in this vin. Let us see the jolly +topers, mon noble Innerkepple. It is one grand vision to a vendeur of +good vin to see the biberons lying on the ground, all _mouille_. Helas! +I was very wrong; but mon noble baron will forgive the grand fault of +liberality." + +The merchant rose, and, giving his arm to Innerkepple, who had some +difficulty in steadying himself, proceeded towards the court, where they +saw verified the report of the warder. The men were lying about the +yard, apparently in a state of perfect insensibility. The wine measure +was empty and overturned; several drinking horns lay scattered around; +and everything betokened a deep debauch. + +"This maun hae been potent liquor," said the baron, taking up one of the +cups, in which a few drops remained, and drinking it. "Ha! man, puir +gear after a'. A man micht drink three gallons o't, and dance to the +tune o' Gilquhisker after he has finished. What's the meaning o' this?" + +"Aha! your tongue is _mouille_, mon noble Innerkepple," said the +merchant. + +"It may be sae," replied the baron; "but it wasna made mooly, as ye +denominate it, by drink like that. I canna understand it, Monsieur." + +As he stood musing on the strange circumstance, he caught, by the light +of a torch, the eye of Kate at the window, and felt his bewilderment +increased by a leer in that dark bewitching orb, whose language appeared +to him often--and never more so than at present--like Greek. His +attention was next claimed by the merchant, who proposed that the men +should be allowed to sleep out their inebriety where they lay. This +proposition was reasonable; and it would, besides, operate as a proper +punishment for their exceeding the limits of that prudence which their +duty to their master required them to observe. The baron agreed to it, +and, seeking again the support of the Frenchman's arm, he returned to +the hall. + +The night was now fast closing in. An old female domestic had placed +lamps in the hall, and some supper was served up to the baron and the +merchant. Kate retired, as she said, to her couch; but it may be +surmised that an antechamber received her fair person, where she had +something else to do than to sleep. The loud snoring of the men in the +court-yard was heard distinctly, mixing with the screams of the owls +that perched on the turrets. The two biberons sat down to partake of the +supper, and prepare their stomachs, as Innerkepple said, for another +bouse of the grand liquor. The conduct of the two carousers now assumed +aspects very different from each other. The baron was gradually getting +more easy and comfortable, while the merchant displayed an extreme +restlessness and anxiety. The praises of his wine fell dead upon his +ear, and the jokes of the good Innerkepple seemed to have become vapid +and tiresome to him. + +"That's a grand chorus in the court-yard, Monsieur," said the baron. +"Singing, snoring, groaning, are the three successive acts o' the +wassailers. They would have been better engaged eating their supper. +Yah! I'm gettin' sleepy, Monsieur." + +"Helas! helas!" ejaculated the merchant. "You prick my memory, mon noble +Innerkepple. My poor mules! They have got no souper. Ah! cruel master +that I am to forget the _pauvre_ animals that have got no language to +tell their wants." + +("So, so--the time approaches," ejaculated Kate, mentally, as she +watched behind the door.) + +"Pardon me, _mon cher_ baron," he continued, "I vill go and give them +one leetle feed, and return to you _a present_. I have got beans in my +hampers." + +"Humanity needs nae pardon, man," replied the baron, nodding with sleep. +"Awa and feed the puir creatures; but tak care an' no tramp on an' kill +ony o' my brave men in yer effort to save the lives o' yer mules." + +"Never fear," said the other, taking from his pocket a small lantern, +which he lighted. "Travellers stand in grand need of this machine," he +continued. "I will return on the instant." + +He now left the baron to his sleep, and crept stealthily along the +passage to the door leading to the court. He was followed, unseen, by +Katherine, who watched every motion. He felt some difficulty in avoiding +the men, who still lay on the ground; but with careful steps he reached +the wall, and suddenly sprung on the parapet. + +"Prepare!" whispered Katherine into the ears of the prostrate retainers; +"the time approaches." + +While thus engaged, she kept her eye upon the dark shadow of the +merchant, and saw with surprise a blue light flash up from the top of +the wall, and throw its ominous glare on the surrounding objects. A +scream of the birds on the castle walls announced their wonder at the +strange vision, and Katherine concluded that the merchant had thus +produced his signal from some phosphorescent mixture, which he had +ignited by the aid of the lantern. The light was followed instantly by a +shrill blast of a horn. With a bound he reached the floor of the court, +and, hastening to the warder's post, threw off the guard of the wheel, +and, with all the art and rapidity of a seneschal, prepared for letting +down the bridge. All was still as death; there seemed to be no +interruption to his proceedings; but he started as he saw the rays of a +lamp thrown from a loophole over his head, upon that part of the moat +which the bridge covered. He had gone too far to recede, the creaking of +the hinges grated, and down came the bridge with a hollow sound. A rush +was now heard as of a body of men pressing forward to take possession +of the passage; and tramp, tramp came the sounds of the marching +invaders over the hollow-sounding wood. All was still silent within the +castle, and the sound of the procession continued. In an instant, a +dense, dark body issued from the fir-wood, and rushed with heavy +impetuous force on the rear of the corps that were passing into the +castle; and, simultaneously with that movement, the whole body of the +men within the castle pressed forward to the end of the bridge, and met +the front of the intruders, who were thus hedged in by two forces that +had taken them by surprise, in both front and rear. + +"Caught in our own snare!" cried the voice of old Otterstone. + +"Disarm them," sounded shrilly from the lips of Katherine Kennedy. + +And a scuffle of wrestling men sent its fearful, deathlike sound through +the dark ballium. The strife was short and comparatively silent. The men +who had rushed from the wood, and who were no other than the absent +retainers of Innerkepple, coming from behind, and those within the +strength meeting them in front, produced such an alarm in the enclosed +troops, that the arms were taken from their hands as if they had been +struck with palsy. Every two men seized their prisoner, while some +holding burning torches came running forward, to show the revengeful +baron the full extent of his shame. Ranged along the court, the +spectacle presented by the prisoners was striking and grotesque. Their +eyes sought in surprise the form of a female, who, with a sword in one +hand and a torch in the other, stood in front of them, as the genius of +their misfortune. + +The hall door was now opened, where the old baron still sat sound asleep +in his chair, unconscious of all these proceedings. The prisoners were +led into the spacious apartment, and ranged along the sides in long +ranks. Innerkepple rubbed his eyes, stared, rubbed them again, and +seemed lost in perfect bewilderment. All was conducted in dumb show. The +proud and revengeful Otterstone was placed alongside of the good baron, +his enemy; and Kate smiled as she contemplated the strange looks which +the two rivals threw upon each other. + +"Right happy am I," said Katherine, coming forward in the midst of the +assembly, "to meet my good friends, the noble Otterstone and his men, in +my father's hall, under the auspices of a healing friendship. Father, I +offer thee the hand of Otterstone. Otterstone, I offer thee the hand of +Innerkepple. Ye have long been separated by strife and war, though, on +the one side, there was always a good feeling of generous kindliness, +opposed to a bitterness that had no cause, and a revenge that knew no +excuse. Born nobles and neighbours, educated civilized men, and baptized +Christians, why should ye be foes? but, above all, why should the one +strike with the sword of war the hand that has held out to him the +wine-cup? My father has ever been thy friend, noble Otterstone, and thou +hast ever been his foe. How is this? Ah! I know it. Thou wert ignorant, +noble guest, of my good father's generous and friendly feelings, and I +have taken this opportunity of introducing you to each other, that ye +may mutually come to the knowledge of each other's better qualities and +intentions." + +"What, in the name o' heaven, means a' this, Kate?" ejaculated +Innerkepple, in still unsubdued amazement. "Am I dreamin', or am I +betrayed? Whar is the wine merchant? Hoo cam ye here, Otterstone? Am I a +prisoner in my ain castle, and my ain men and dochter laughing at my +misfortune? But ye spoke o' friendship, Kate. Is it possible, +Otterstone, ye hae repented o' yer ill will, and come to mak amends for +past grievances?" + +"Thou hast heard him, Otterstone," said Kate. "Wilt thou still refuse +the hand?" + +The chief hesitated; but the good-humoured looks of Innerkepple melted +him, and he held out the right hand of good-fellowship to the old baron, +who seized it cordially, and shook it heartily. + +"Now," said Kate, "we must seal this friendship with a cup of wine. +Bring in the wine merchant." + +The Frenchman was produced by the warder, along with the remaining +hampers of the wine that had been left in the court-yard. As may have +been already surmised, he was no other than the son of old Otterstone. +Surprised and confounded by all these proceedings, he stood in the midst +of the company, looking first at his father, and then at Innerkepple, +without forgetting Kate, who stood like a majestic queen, enjoying the +triumph of her spirit and ingenuity. Above all things, he wondered at +the smile of good humour in the face of his father; and his surprise +knew no bounds when he saw every one around as well pleased as if they +had been convened for the ends of friendship. + +"Hector," said old Otterstone, looking at his son, "the game is up. This +maiden has outwitted us, and we are caught in our own snare. Off with +thy disguise, and show this noble damsel that thou art worthy of her +best smiles." + +Hector obeyed, and took off his wig, and the clumsy habiliments that +covered his armour, and stood in the midst of the assembly, a young man +of exquisite beauty. + +"The wine merchant, Hector Fotheringham!" cried Innerkepple. "Ah, Kate, +Kate! is this the way ye bring yer lovers to Innerkepple ha'?--in the +shape o' a wine merchant--the only form o' the Deevil I wad like to see +on this earth? Ha! ye baggage, weel do ye ken hoo to get at the heart o' +your faither. But whar was the use o' secresy, woman? And you, Hector, +man, I needed nae bribe o' Tokay to be friendly to the lover o' my +dochter. A fine youth--a fine youth. Surely, surely, this man was made +for my dochter Kate." + +"And thy daughter Kate was made for him," cried Otterstone. + +The retainers of both houses shouted applause, and the hall rang with +the noise. The wine, which was intended for deception and treachery, was +circulated freely, and opened the hearts of the company. Innerkepple was +ready again for his Tokay, and, lifting a large goblet to his head-- + +"To the union o' the twa hooses!" cried he. "And I wish I had twenty +dochters, and Otterstone as mony sons, that they micht a' be married +thegither; but, on this condition, that the bridegrooms should a' come +in the shape o' wine merchants." + +"Hurra, hurra!" shouted the retainers. The night was spent in good +humour and revelry. All was restored; and, in a short time, the two +houses were united by the marriage of Hector Fotheringham and Katherine +Kennedy. + + + + +RECOLLECTIONS OF FERGUSON.[3] + +CHAPTER I. + + "Of Ferguson, the bauld and slee."--BURNS. + +[3] The perusal of this paper, written at an early period by the +lamented Hugh Miller, cannot fail to suggest some reflections on the +fate of the author himself and that of the poet he describes. It would +be simply fanciful to draw from his choice of subject, and the sympathy +he manifests for the victim of insanity, any conclusion of a felt +affinity of mental type on his part. We would presently get into the +obscure subject of presentiments. It is true that Hugh Miller wrote +poetry, and was thus subject to the Nemesis; but we insist for no more +than a case of coincidence, leaving to psychologists to settle the +question of the alleged connection between certain poetical types of +mind and eventual madness--cases of which are so plentifully recorded in +Germany.--_Ed._ + + +I have, I believe, as little of the egotist in my composition as most +men; nor would I deem the story of my life, though by no means unvaried +by incident, of interest enough to repay the trouble of either writing +or perusing it, were it the story of my own life only; but, though an +obscure man myself, I have been singularly fortunate in my friends. The +party-coloured tissue of my recollections is strangely interwoven, if I +may so speak, with pieces of the domestic history of men whose names +have become as familiar to our ears as that of our country itself; and I +have been induced to struggle with the delicacy which renders one +unwilling to speak much of one's self, and to overcome the dread of +exertion natural to a period of life greatly advanced, through a desire +of preserving to my countrymen a few notices, which would otherwise be +lost to them, of two of their greatest favourites. I could once reckon +among my dearest and most familiar friends, Robert Burns and Robert +Ferguson. + +It is now rather more than sixty years since I studied for a few weeks +at the University of St. Andrew's. I was the son of very poor parents, +who resided in a seaport town on the western coast of Scotland. My +father was a house-carpenter, a quiet, serious man, of industrious +habits and great simplicity of character, but miserably depressed in his +circumstances, through a sickly habit of body: my mother was a +warm-hearted, excellent woman, endowed with no ordinary share of shrewd +good sense and sound feeling, and indefatigable in her exertions for my +father and the family. I was taught to read at a very early age, by an +old woman in the neighbourhood--such a person as Shenstone describes in +his "Schoolmistress;" and, being naturally of a reflective turn, I had +begun, long ere I had attained my tenth year, to derive almost my sole +amusement from books. I read incessantly; and after exhausting the +shelves of all the neighbours, and reading every variety of work that +fell in my way--from "The Pilgrim's Progress" of Bunyan, and the Gospel +Sonnets of Erskine, to a treatise on fortification by Vauban, and the +"History of the Heavens" by the Abbe Pluche--I would have pined away for +lack of my accustomed exercise, had not a benevolent baronet in the +neighbourhood, for whom my father occasionally wrought, taken a fancy to +me, and thrown open to my perusal a large and well-selected library. Nor +did his kindness terminate until, after having secured to me all of +learning that the parish school afforded, he had settled me, now in my +seventeenth year, at the University. + +Youth is the season of warm friendships and romantic wishes and hopes. +We say of the child, in its first attempts to totter along the wall, or +when it has first learned to rise beside its mother's knee, that it is +yet too weak to stand alone; and we may employ the same language in +describing a young and ardent mind. It is, like the child, too weak to +stand alone, and anxiously seeks out some kindred mind on which to lean. +I had had my intimates at school, who, though of no very superior cast, +had served me, if I may so speak, as resting-places, when wearied with +my studies, or when I had exhausted my lighter reading; and now, at St. +Andrew's, where I knew no one, I began to experience the unhappiness of +an unsatisfied sociality. My schoolfellows were mostly stiff, illiterate +lads, who, with a little bad Latin and worse Greek, plumed themselves +mightily on their scholarship; and I had little inducement to form any +intimacies among them; for, of all men, the ignorant scholar is the +least amusing. Among the students of the upper classes, however, there +was at least one individual with whom I longed to be acquainted. He was +apparently much about my own age, rather below than above the middle +size, and rather delicately than robustly formed; but I have rarely seen +a more elegant figure or more interesting face. His features were small, +and there was what might perhaps be deemed a too feminine delicacy in +the whole contour; but there was a broad and very high expansion of +forehead, which, even in those days, when we were acquainted with only +the phrenology taught by Plato, might be regarded as the index of a +capacious and powerful mind; and the brilliant light of his large black +eyes, seemed to give earnest of its activity. + +"Who, in the name of wonder, is that?" I inquired of a class-fellow, as +this interesting-looking young man passed me for the first time. + +"A clever, but very unsettled fellow from Edinburgh," replied the lad; +"a capital linguist, for he gained our first bursary three years ago; +but our Professor says he is certain he will never do any good. He cares +nothing for the company of scholars like himself; and employs +himself--though he excels, I believe, in English composition--in writing +vulgar Scotch rhymes, like Allan Ramsay. His name is Robert Ferguson." + +I felt, from this moment, a strong desire to rank among the friends of +one who cared nothing for the company of such men as my class-fellow, +and who, though acquainted with the literature of England and Rome, +could dwell with interest on the simple poetry of his native country. + +There is no place in the neighbourhood of St. Andrew's where a leisure +hour may be spent more agreeably than among the ruins of the Cathedral. +I was not slow in discovering the eligibilities of the spot; and it soon +became one of my favourite haunts. One evening, a few weeks after I had +entered on my course at college, I had seated myself among the ruins in +a little ivied nook fronting the setting sun, and was deeply engaged +with the melancholy Jaques in the forest of Ardennes, when, on hearing a +light footstep, I looked up, and saw the Edinburgh student whose +appearance had so interested me, not four yards away. He was busied with +his pencil and his tablets, and muttering, as he went, in a half audible +voice, what, from the inflection of the tones, seemed to be verse. On +seeing me, he started, and apologizing, in a few hurried but courteous +words, for what he termed the involuntary intrusion, would have passed; +but, on my rising and stepping up to him, he stood. + +"I am afraid, Mr. Ferguson," I said, "'tis I who owe _you_ an apology; +the ruins have long been yours, and I am but an intruder. But you must +pardon me; I have often heard of them in the west, where they are +hallowed, even more than they are here, from their connection with the +history of some of our noblest Reformers; and, besides, I see no place +in the neighbourhood where Shakspeare can be read to more advantage." + +"Ah," said he, taking the volume out of my hand, "a reader of Shakspeare +and an admirer of Knox. I question whether the heresiarch and the poet +had much in common." + +"Nay, now, Mr. Ferguson," I replied, "you are too true a Scot to +question that. They had much, very much in common. Knox was no rude +Jack Cade, but a great and powerful-minded man; decidedly as much so as +any of the nobler conceptions of the dramatist--his Caesars, Brutuses, or +Othellos. Buchanan could have told you that he had even much of the +spirit of the poet in him, and wanted only the art; and just remember +how Milton speaks of him in his "Areopagitica." Had the poet of +"Paradise Lost" thought regarding him as it has become fashionable to +think and speak now, he would hardly have apostrophized him as--_Knox, +the reformer of a nation--a great man animated by the spirit of God_." + +"Pardon me," said the young man, "I am little acquainted with the prose +writings of Milton; and have, indeed, picked up most of my opinions of +Knox at second-hand. But I have read his _merry_ account of the murder +of Beaton, and found nothing to alter my preconceived notions of him, +from either the matter or manner of the narrative. Now that I think of +it, however, my opinion of Bacon would be no very adequate one, were it +formed solely from the extract of his history of Henry VII., given by +Kaimes in his late publication.--Will you not extend your walk?" + +We quitted the ruins together, and went sauntering along the shore. +There was a rich sunset glow on the water, and the hills that rise on +the opposite side of the Frith stretched their undulating line of azure +under a gorgeous canopy of crimson and gold. My companion pointed to the +scene:--"These glorious clouds," he said, "are but wreaths of vapour; +and these lovely hills, accumulations of earth and stone. And it is thus +with all the past--with the past of our own little histories, that +borrows so much of its golden beauty from the medium through which we +survey it--with the past, too, of all history. There is poetry in the +remote--the bleak hill seems a darker firmament, and the chill wreath of +vapour a river of fire. And you, sir, seem to have contemplated the +history of our stern Reformers through this poetical medium, till you +forget that the poetry was not in them, but in that through which you +surveyed them." + +"Ah, Mr. Ferguson," I replied, "you must permit me to make a +distinction. I acquiesce fully in the justice of your remark; the +analogy, too, is nice and striking, but I would fain carry it a little +further. Every eye can see the beauty of the remote; but there is a +beauty in the near--an interest, at least--which every eye cannot see. +Each of the thousand little plants that spring up at our feet, has an +interest and beauty to the botanist; the mineralogist would find +something to engage him in every little stone. And it is thus with the +poetry of life--all have a sense of it in the remote and the distant; +but it is only the men who stand high in the art--its men of profound +science--that can discover it in the near. The _mediocre_ poet shares +but the commoner gift, and so he seeks his themes in ages or countries +far removed from his own; while the man of nobler powers, knowing that +all nature is instinct with poetry, seeks and finds it in the men and +scenes in his immediate neighbourhood. As to our Reformers"---- + +"Pardon me," said the young poet; "the remark strikes me, and, ere we +lose it in something else, I must furnish you with an illustration. +There is an acquaintance of mine, a lad much about my own age, greatly +addicted to the study of poetry. He has been making verses all his +life-long; he began ere he had learned to write them even; and his +judgment has been gradually overgrowing his earlier compositions, as you +see the advancing tide rising on the beach and obliterating the prints +on the sand. Now, I have observed, that, in all his earlier +compositions, he went far from home; he could not attempt a pastoral +without first transporting himself to the vales of Arcady; or an ode to +Pity or Hope, without losing the warm living sentiment in the dead, +cold, personifications of the Greek. The Hope and Pity he addressed +were, not the undying attendants of human nature, but the shadowy +spectres of a remote age. Now, however, I feel that a change has come +over me. I seek for poetry among the fields and cottages of my own land. +I--a--a--the friend of whom I speak----But I interrupted your remark on +the Reformers." + +"Nay," I replied, "if you go on so, I would much rather listen than +speak. I only meant to say that the Knoxes and Melvilles of our country +have been robbed of the admiration and sympathy of many a kindred +spirit, by the strangely erroneous notions that have been abroad +regarding them for at least the last two ages. Knox, I am convinced, +would have been as great as Jeremy Taylor, had he not been greater." + +We sauntered along the shore till the evening had darkened into night, +lost in an agreeable interchange of thought, "Ah!" at length exclaimed +my companion, "I had almost forgotten my engagement, Mr. Lindsay; but it +must not part us. You are a stranger here, and I must introduce you to +some of my acquaintance. There are a few of us--choice spirits, of +course--who meet every Saturday evening at John Hogg's; and I must just +bring you to see them. There may be much less wit than mirth among us; +but you will find us all sober when at the gayest; and old John will be +quite a study for you." + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + "Say, ye red gowns that aften here, + Hae toasted cakes to Katie's beer, + Gin e'er thir days hae had their peer, + Sae blythe, sae daft! + Ye'll ne'er again in life's career, + Sit half sae saft." + _Elegy on John Hogg._ + +We returned to town; and, after threading a few of the narrower lanes, +entered by a low door into a long dark room, dimly lighted by a fire. A +tall thin woman was employed in skinning a bundle of dried fish at a +table in a corner. + +"Where's the guidman, Kate?" said my companion, changing the sweet pure +English in which he had hitherto spoken for his mother tongue. + +"John's ben in the spence," replied the woman. "Little Andrew, the +wratch, has been makin' a totum wi' his faither's ae razor, an' the puir +man's trying to shave himsel yonder, an' girnan like a sheep's head on +the tangs." + +"Oh, the wratch! the ill-deedie wratch!" said John, stalking into the +room in a towering passion, his face covered with suds and scratches--"I +might as weel shave mysel wi' a mussel shillet. Rob Ferguson, man, is +that you!" + +"Wearie warld, John," said the poet, "for a' oor philosophy." + +"Philosophy!--it's but a snare, Rob--just vanity an' vexation o' +speerit, as Solomon says. An' isna it clear heterodox besides? Ye study +an' study till your brains gang about like a whirligig; an' then, like +bairns in a boat that see the land sailin', ye think it's the solid +yearth that's turnin' roun'. An' this ye ca' philosophy; as if David +hadna tauld us that the warld sits coshly on the waters, an' canna be +moved." + +"Hoot, John," rejoined my companion, "it's no me, but Jamie Brown, that +differs wi' you on these matters. I'm a Hoggonian, ye ken. The auld Jews +were, doubtless, gran' Christians, an' wherefore no guid philosophers +too? But it was cruel o' you to unkennel me this mornin' afore six, an' +I up sae lang at my studies the nicht afore." + +"Ah, Rob, Rob!" said John--"studying in _Tam Dun's_ kirk. Ye'll be a +minister, like a' the lave." + +"Mendin' fast, John," rejoined the poet. "I was in your kirk on Sabbath +last, hearing worthy Mr. Corkindale; whatever else he may hae to fear, +he's in nae danger o' '_thinking his ain thoughts_,' honest man." + +"In oor kirk!" said John; "ye're dune, then, wi' precentin' in yer +ain--an' troth nae wonder. What could hae possessed ye to gie up the +puir chield's name i' the prayer, an' him sittin' at yer lug?" + +I was unacquainted with the circumstance to which he alluded, and +requested an explanation. "Oh, ye see," said John, "Rob, amang a' the +ither gifts that he misguides, has the gift o' a sweet voice; an' +naething else would ser' some o' oor Professors than to hae him for +their precentor. They micht as weel hae thocht o' an organ--it wad be +just as devout; but the soun's everything now, laddie, ye ken, an' the +heart naething. Weel, Rob, as ye may think, was less than pleased wi' +the job, an' tauld them he could whistle better than sing; but it wasna +that they wanted, and sae it behoved him to tak his seat in the box. An' +lest the folk should no be pleased wi' ae key to ae tune, he gied them, +for the first twa or three days, a hale bunch to each; an' there was +never sic singing in St. Andrew's afore. Weel, but for a' that it +behoved him still to precent, though he has got rid o' it at last--for +what did he do twa Sabbaths agone, but put up drucken Tarn Moffat's name +in the prayer--the very chield that was sittin' at his elbow, though +the minister couldna see him. An' when the puir stibbler was prayin' for +the reprobate as weel's he could, ae half o' the kirk was needcessitated +to come oot, that they micht keep decent, an' the ither half to swallow +their pocket napkins. But what think ye"---- + +"Hoot, John, now, leave oot the moral," said the poet. "Here's a' the +lads." + +Half a dozen young students entered as he spoke; and, after a hearty +greeting, and when he had introduced me to them one by one, as a choice +fellow of immense reading, the door was barred, and we sat down to half +a dozen of home brewed, and a huge platter of dried fish. There was much +mirth and no little humour. Ferguson sat at the head of the table, and +old John Hogg at the foot. I thought of Eastcheap, and the revels of +Prince Henry; but our Falstaff was an old Scotch Seceder, and our Prince +a gifted young fellow, who owed all his influence over his fellows to +the force of his genius alone. + +"Prithee, Hal," I said, "let us drink to Sir John." + +"Why, yes," said the poet, "with all my heart. Not quite so fine a +fellow, though, 'bating his Scotch honesty. Half Sir John's genius would +have served for an epic poet--half his courage for a hero." + +"His courage!" exclaimed one of the lads. + +"Yes, Willie, his courage, man. Do you think a coward could have run +away with half the coolness? With a tithe of the courage necessary for +such a retreat, a man would have stood and fought till he died. Sir John +must have been a fine fellow in his youth." + +"In mony a droll way may a man fa' on the drap drink," remarked John; +"an' meikle ill, dootless, does it do in takin' aff the edge o' the +speerit--the mair if the edge be a fine razor edge, an' no the edge o' a +whittle. I mind about fifty years ago, when I was a slip o' a +callant,"---- + +"Losh, John!" exclaimed one of the lads, "hae ye been fechtin wi' the +cats? sic a scrapit face!" + +"Wheesht," said Ferguson; "we owe the illustration to that, but dinna +interrupt the story." + +"Fifty years ago, when I was a slip o' a callant," continued John, "unco +curious, an' fond o' kennin everything, as callants will be,"---- + +"Hoot, John," said one of the students, interrupting him, "can ye no cut +short, man? Rob promised last Saturday to gie us, 'Fie, let us a' to the +bridal,' an' ye see the ale an' the nicht's baith wearin' dune." + +"The song, Rob, the song!" exclaimed half a dozen voices at once; and +John's story was lost in the clamour. + +"Nay, now," said the good-natured poet, "that's less than kind; the auld +man's stories are aye worth the hearing, an' he can relish the +auld-warld fisher-sang wi' the best o' ye. But we maun hae the story +yet." + +He struck up the old Scotch ditty, "Fie let us a' to the bridal," which +he sung with great power and brilliancy; for his voice was a richly +modulated one, and there was a fulness of meaning imparted to the words +which wonderfully heightened the effect. "How strange it is," he +remarked to me when he had finished, "that our English neighbours deny +us humour! The songs of no country equal our Scotch ones in that +quality. Are you acquainted with 'The Guidwife of Auchtermuchty?'" + +"Well," I replied; "but so are not the English. It strikes me that, with +the exception of Smollet's novels, all our Scotch humour is locked up in +our native tongue. No man can employ in works of humour any language of +which he is not a thorough master; and few of our Scotch writers, with +all their elegance, have attained the necessary command of that +colloquial English which Addison and Swift employed when they were +merry." + +"A braw redd delivery," said John, addressing me. "Are ye gaun to be a +minister tae?" + +"Not quite sure yet," I replied. + +"Ah," rejoined the old man, "'twas better for the Kirk when the minister +just made himsel ready for it, an' then waited till he kent whether it +wanted him. There's young Rob Ferguson beside you,"-- + +"Setting oot for the Kirk," said the young poet, interrupting him, "an' +yet drinkin' ale on Saturday at e'en wi' old John Hogg." + +"Weel, weel, laddie, it's easier for the best o' us to find fault wi' +ithers than to mend oorsels. Ye have the head, onyhow; but Jamie Brown +tells me it's a doctor ye're gaun to be, after a'." + +"Nonsense, John Hogg--I wonder how a man o' your standing"---- + +"Nonsense, I grant you," said one of the students; "but true enough for +a' that, Bob. Ye see, John, Bob an' I were at the King's Muirs last +Saturday, an ca'ed at the _pendicle_, in the passing, for a cup o' whey; +when the guidwife tellt us there was ane o' the callants, who had broken +into the milk-house twa nichts afore, lyin' ill o' a surfeit. 'Dangerous +case,' said Bob; 'but let me see him; I have studied to small purpose if +I know nothing o' medicine, my good woman.' Weel, the woman was just +glad enough to bring him to the bedside; an' no wonder--ye never saw a +wiser phiz in your lives--Dr. Dumpie's was naething till't; an', after +he had sucked the head o' his stick for ten minutes, an' fand the loon's +pulse, an' asked mair questions than the guidwife liked to answer, he +prescribed. But, losh! sic a prescription! A day's fasting an' twa +ladles o' nettle kail was the gist o't; but then there went mair Latin +to the tail o' that, than oor neebor the Doctor ever had to lose." + +But I dwell too long on the conversation of this evening. I feel, +however, a deep interest in recalling it to memory. The education of +Ferguson was of a twofold character--he studied in the schools and among +the people; but it was in the latter tract alone that he acquired the +materials of all his better poetry; and I feel as if, for at least one +brief evening, I was admitted to the privileges of a class-fellow, and +sat with him on the same form. The company broke up a little after ten; +and I did not again hear of John Hogg till I read his elegy, about four +years after, among the poems of my friend. It is by no means one of the +happiest pieces in the volume, nor, it strikes me, highly +characteristic; but I have often perused it with an interest very +independent of its merits. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + "But he is weak--both man and boy + Has been an idler in the land."--WORDSWORTH. + + +I was attempting to listen, on the evening of the following Sunday, to a +dull, listless discourse--one of the discourses so common at this +period, in which there was fine writing without genius, and fine +religion without Christianity--when a person who had just taken his +place beside me, tapped me on the shoulder, and thrust a letter into my +hand. It was my newly-acquired friend of the previous evening; and we +shook hands heartily under the pew. + +"That letter has just been handed me by an acquaintance from your part +of the country," he whispered; "I trust it contains nothing unpleasant." + +I raised it to the light, and on ascertaining that it was sealed and +edged with black, rose and quitted the church, followed by my friend. It +intimated, in two brief lines that my patron, the baronet, had been +killed by a fall from his horse a few evenings before; and that, dying +intestate the allowance which had hitherto enabled me to prosecute my +studies necessarily dropped. I crumpled up the paper in my hand. + +"You have learned something very unpleasant," said Ferguson. "Pardon +me--I have no wish to intrude; but, if at all agreeable, I would fain +spend the evening with you." + +My heart filled, and grasping his hand, I briefly intimated the purport +of the communication, and we walked out together in the direction of the +ruins. + +"It is, perhaps, as hard, Mr. Ferguson," I said, "to fall from one's +hopes as from the place to which they pointed. I was ambitious--too +ambitious, it may be--to rise from that level on which man acts the part +of a machine, and tasks merely his body, to that higher level on which +he performs the proper part of a rational creature, and employs only his +mind. But that ambition need influence me no longer. My poor mother, +too--I had trusted to be of use to her." + +"Ah, my friend," said Ferguson, "I can tell you of a case quite as +hopeless as your own--perhaps more so. But it will make you deem my +sympathy the result of mere selfishness. In scarce any respect do our +circumstances differ." + +We had reached the ruins: the evening was calm and mild as when I had +walked out on the preceding one; but the hour was earlier, and the sun +hung higher over the hill. A newly-formed grave occupied the level spot +in front of the little ivied corner. + +"Let us seat ourselves here," said my companion, "and I will tell you a +story--I am afraid a rather tame one; for there is nothing of adventure +in it, and nothing of incident; but it may at least show you that I am +not unfitted to be your friend. It is now nearly two years since I lost +my father. He was no common man--common neither in intellect nor in +sentiment; but though he once fondly hoped it should be otherwise--for +in early youth he indulged in all the dreams of the poet--he now fills a +grave as nameless as the one before us. He was a native of +Aberdeenshire; but held, latterly, an inferior situation in the office +of the British Linen Company in Edinburgh, where I was born. Ever since +I remember him, he had awakened too fully to the realities of life, and +they pressed too hard on his spirits, to leave him space for the +indulgence of his earlier fancies; but he could dream for his children, +though not for himself; or, as I should perhaps rather say, his children +fell heir to all his more juvenile hopes of fortune, and influence, and +space in the world's eye;--and, for himself, he indulged in hopes of a +later growth and firmer texture, which pointed from the present scene of +things to the future. I have an only brother, my senior by several +years, a lad of much energy, both physical and mental; in brief, one of +those mixtures of reflection and activity which seem best formed for +rising in the world. My father deemed him most fitted for commerce, and +had influence enough to get him introduced into the counting-house of a +respectable Edinburgh merchant. I was always of a graver turn--in part, +perhaps, the effect of less robust health--and me he intended for the +Church. I have been a dreamer, Mr. Lindsay, from my earliest +years--prone to melancholy, and fond of books and of solitude; and the +peculiarities of this temperament the sanguine old man, though no mean +judge of character, had mistaken for a serious and reflective +disposition. You are acquainted with literature, and know something, +from books at least, of the lives of literary men. Judge, then, of his +prospect of usefulness in any profession, who has lived, ever since he +knew himself, among the poets. My hopes, from my earliest years, have +been hopes of celebrity as a writer--not of wealth, or of influence, or +of accomplishing any of the thousand aims which furnish the great bulk +of mankind with motives. You will laugh at me. There is something so +emphatically shadowy and unreal in the object of this ambition, that +even the full attainment of it provokes a smile. For who does not know + + 'How vain that second life in others' breath, + The estate which wits inherit after death!' + +And what can be more fraught with the ludicrous than a union of this +shadowy ambition with _mediocre_ parts and attainments! But I digress. + +"It is now rather more than three years since I entered the classes +here. I competed for a bursary, and was fortunate enough to secure one. +Believe me, Mr. Lindsay, I am little ambitious of the fame of mere +scholarship, and yet I cannot express to you the triumph of that day. I +had seen my poor father labouring, far, far beyond his strength, for my +brother and myself--closely engaged during the day with his duties in +the bank, and copying at night in a lawyer's office. I had seen, with a +throbbing heart, his tall wasted frame becoming tremulous and bent, and +the grey hair thinning on his temples; and I now felt that I could ease +him of at least part of the burden. In the excitement of the moment, I +could hope that I was destined to rise in the world--to gain a name in +it, and something more. You know how a slight success grows in +importance when we can deem it the earnest of future good fortune. I +met, too, with a kind and influential friend in one of the professors, +the late Dr. Wilkie. Alas! good, benevolent man! you may see his tomb +yonder beside the wall; and, on my return from St. Andrew's, at the +close of the session, I found my father on his deathbed. My brother +Henry--who had been unfortunate, and, I am afraid, something worse--had +quitted the counting-house and entered aboard of a man-of-war as a +common sailor; and the poor old man, whose heart had been bound up in +him, never held up his head after. + +"On the evening of my father's funeral, I could have lain down and died. +I never before felt how thoroughly I am unfitted for the world--how +totally I want strength. My father, I have said, had intended me for the +Church; and, in my progress onward from class to class, and from school +to college, I had thought but little of each particular step, as it +engaged me for the time, and nothing of the ultimate objects to which it +led. All my more vigorous aspirations were directed to a remote future +and an unsubstantial shadow. But I had witnessed, beside my father's +bed, what had led me seriously to reflect on the ostensible aim for +which I lived and studied; and the more carefully I weighed myself in +the balance, the more did I find myself awanting. You have heard of Mr. +Brown of the Secession, the author of the "Dictionary of the Bible." He +was an old acquaintance of my father's; and, on hearing of his illness, +had come all the way from Haddington to see him. I felt, for the first +time, as kneeling beside his bed, I heard my father's breathings +becoming every moment shorter and more difficult, and listened to the +prayers of the clergyman, that I had no business in the Church. And thus +I still continue to feel. 'Twere an easy matter to produce such things +as pass for sermons among us, and to go respectably enough through the +mere routine of the profession; but I cannot help feeling that, though I +might do all this and more, my duty, as a clergyman, would be still left +undone. I want singleness of aim--I want earnestness of heart. I cannot +teach men effectually how to live well; I cannot show them, with aught +of confidence, how they may die safe. I cannot enter the Church without +acting the part of a hypocrite; and the miserable part of the hypocrite +it shall never be mine to act. Heaven help me! I am too little a +practical moralist myself to attempt teaching morals to others. + +"But I must conclude my story, if story it may be called:--I saw my +poor mother and my little sister deprived, by my father's death, of +their sole stay, and strove to exert myself in their behalf. In the +daytime I copied in a lawyer's office; my nights were spent among the +poets. You will deem it the very madness of vanity, Mr. Lindsay; but I +could not live without my dreams of literary eminence. I felt that life +would be a blank waste without them; and I feel so still. Do not laugh +at my weakness, when I say I would rather live in the memory of my +country than enjoy her fairest lands--that I dread a nameless grave many +times more than the grave itself. But, I am afraid, the life of the +literary aspirant is rarely a happy one; and I, alas! am one of the +weakest of the class. It is of importance that the means of living be +not disjoined from the end for which we live; and I feel that, in my +case, the disunion is complete. The wants and evils of life are around +me; but the energies through which those should be provided for, and +these warded off, are otherwise employed. I am like a man pressing +onward through a hot and bloody fight, his breast open to every blow, +and tremblingly alive to the sense of injury and the feeling of pain, +but totally unprepared either to attack or defend. And then those +miserable depressions of spirits to which all men who draw largely on +their imagination are so subject; and that wavering irregularity of +effort which seems so unavoidably the effect of pursuing a distant and +doubtful aim, and which proves so hostile to the formation of every +better habit--alas! to a steady morality itself. But I weary you, Mr. +Lindsay; besides, my story is told. I am groping onward, I know not +whither; and, in a few months hence, when my last session shall have +closed, I shall be exactly where you are at present." + +He ceased speaking, and there was a pause of several minutes. I felt +soothed and gratified. There was a sweet melancholy music in the tones +of his voice, that sunk to my very heart; and the confidence he reposed +in me flattered my pride. "How was it," I at length said, "that you were +the gayest in the party of last night?" + +"I do not know that I can better answer you," he replied, "than by +telling you a singular dream which I had about the time of my father's +death. I dreamed that I had suddenly quitted the world, and was +journeying, by a long and dreary passage, to the place of final +punishment. A blue, dismal light glimmered along the lower wall of the +vault; and, from the darkness above, where there flickered a thousand +undefined shapes--things without form or outline--I could hear +deeply-drawn sighs, and long hollow groans and convulsive sobbings, and +the prolonged moanings of an unceasing anguish. I was aware, however, +though I knew not how, that these were but the expressions of a lesser +misery, and that the seats of severer torment were still before me. I +went on and on, and the vault widened, and the light increased, and the +sounds changed. There were loud laughters and low mutterings, in the +tone of ridicule; and shouts of triumph and exultation; and, in brief, +all the thousand mingled tones of a gay and joyous revel. Can these, I +exclaimed, be the sounds of misery when at the deepest? 'Bethink thee,' +said a shadowy form beside me--'bethink thee if it be not so on earth.' +And as I remembered that it was so, and bethought me of the mad revels +of shipwrecked seamen and of plague-stricken cities, I awoke. But on +this subject you must spare me." + +"Forgive me," I said; "to-morrow I leave college, and not with the less +reluctance that I must part from you. But I shall yet find you occupying +a place among the _literati_ of our country, and shall remember, with +pride, that you were my friend." + +He sighed deeply. "My hopes rise and fall with my spirits," he said; +"and to-night I am melancholy. Do you ever go to buffets with yourself, +Mr. Lindsay? Do you ever mock, in your sadder moods, the hopes which +render you happiest when you are gay? Ah! 'tis bitter warfare when a man +contends with Hope!--when he sees her, with little aid from the +personifying influence, as a thing distinct from himself--a lying spirit +that comes to flatter and deceive him. It is thus I see her to-night. + + "See'st thou that grave?--does mortal know + Aught of the dust that lies below? + 'Tis foul, 'tis damp, 'tis void of form-- + A bed where winds the loathsome worm; + A little heap, mouldering and brown, + Like that on flowerless meadow thrown + By mossy stream, when winter reigns + O'er leafless woods and wasted plains: + And yet that brown, damp, formless heap + Once glowed with feelings keen and deep; + Once eyed the light, once heard each sound + Of earth, air, wave, that murmurs round. + But now, ah! now, the name it bore, + Sex, age, or form, is known no more. + This, this alone, O Hope! I know, + That once the dust that lies below, + Was, like myself, of human race, + And made this world its dwelling-place. + Ah! this, when death has swept away + The myriads of life's present day, + Though bright the visions raised by thee, + Will all my fame, my history be!" + +We quitted the ruins and returned to town. + +"Have you yet formed," inquired my companion, "any plan for the future?" + +"I quit St. Andrew's," I replied, "to-morrow morning. I have an uncle, +the master of a West Indiaman, now in the Clyde. Some years ago I had a +fancy for the life of a sailor, which has evaporated, however, with many +of my other boyish fancies and predilections; but I am strong and +active, and it strikes me there is less competition on sea at present +than on land. A man of tolerable steadiness and intelligence has a +better chance of rising as a sailor than as a mechanic. I shall set out, +therefore, with my uncle on his first voyage." + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + "At first, I thought the swankie didna ill-- + Again I glowr'd, to hear him better still; + Bauld, slee, an' sweet, his lines mair glorious grew, + Glow'd round the heart, an' glanc'd the soul out through." + ALEXANDER WILSON. + + +I had seen both the Indies and traversed the wide Pacific, ere I again +set foot on the Eastern coast of Scotland. My uncle, the shipmaster, was +dead, and I was still a common sailor; but I was light-hearted and +skilful in my profession, and as much inclined to hope as ever. Besides, +I had begun to doubt, and there cannot be a more consoling doubt when +one is unfortunate, whether a man may not enjoy as much happiness in the +lower walks of life as in the upper. In one of my later voyages, the +vessel in which I sailed had lain for several weeks at Boston in North +America--then a scene of those fierce and angry contentions which +eventually separated the colonies from the mother country; and when in +this place, I had become acquainted, by the merest accident in the +world, with the brother of my friend the poet. I was passing through one +of the meaner lanes, when I saw my old college friend, as I thought, +looking out at me from the window of a crazy wooden building--a sort of +fencing academy, much frequented, I was told, by the Federalists of +Boston. I crossed the lane in two huge strides. + +"Mr. Ferguson," I said--"Mr. Ferguson," for he was withdrawing his head, +"do you not remember me?" + +"Not quite sure," he replied; "I have met with many sailors in my time; +but I must just see." + +He had stepped down to the door ere I had discovered my mistake. He was +a taller and stronger-looking man than my friend, and his senior +apparently by six or eight years; but nothing could be more striking +than the resemblance which he bore to him, both in face and figure. I +apologized. + +"But have you not a brother, a native of Edinburgh," I inquired, "who +studied at St. Andrew's about four years ago?--never before, certainly, +did I see so remarkable a likeness." + +--"As that which I bear to Robert?" he said. "Happy to hear it. Robert +is a brother of whom a man may well be proud, and I am glad to resemble +him in any way. But you must go in with me, and tell me all you know +regarding him. He was a thin pale slip of a boy when I left Scotland--a +mighty reader, and fond of sauntering into by-holes and corners; I +scarcely knew what to make of him; but he has made much of himself. His +name has been blown far and wide within the last two years." + +He showed me through a large waste apartment, furnished with a few deal +seats, and with here and there a fencing foil leaning against the wall, +into a sort of closet at the upper end, separated from the main room by +a partition of undressed slabs. There was a charcoal stove in the one +corner, and a truckle bed in the other; a few shelves laden with books +ran along the wall; there was a small chest raised on a stool +immediately below the window, to serve as a writing desk, and another +stool standing beside it. A few cooking utensils scattered round the +room, and a corner cupboard, completed the entire furniture of the +place. + +"There is a certain limited number born to be rich, Jack," said my new +companion, "and I just don't happen to be among them; but I have one +stool for myself, you see, and, now that I have unshipped my desk, +another for a visitor, and so get on well enough." + +I related briefly the story of my intimacy with his brother; and we were +soon on such terms as to be in a fair way of emptying a bottle of rum +together. + +"You remind me of old times," said my new acquaintance. "I am weary of +these illiterate, boisterous, longsided Americans, who talk only of +politics and dollars. And yet there are first-rate men among them too. I +met, some years since, with a Philadelphia printer, whom I cannot help +regarding as one of the ablest, best-informed men I ever conversed with. +But there is nothing like general knowledge among the average class; a +mighty privilege of conceit, however." + +"They are just in that stage," I remarked, "in which it needs all the +vigour of an able man to bring his mind into anything like cultivation. +There must be many more facilities of improvement ere the mediocritist +can develop himself. He is in the egg still in America, and must sleep +there till the next age.--But when last heard you of your brother?" + +"Why," he replied, "when all the world heard of him--with the last +number of _Ruddiman's Magazine_. Where can you have been bottled up from +literature of late? Why, man, Robert stands first among our Scotch +poets." + +"Ah! 'tis long since I have anticipated something like that for him," I +said; "but, for the last two years, I have seen only two books, +Shakspeare and 'The Spectator.' Pray, do show me some of the magazines." + +The magazines were produced; and I heard, for the first time, in a +foreign land and from the recitation of the poet's brother, some of the +most national and most highly-finished of his productions. My eyes +filled and my heart wandered to Scotland and her cottage homes, as, +shutting the book, he repeated to me, in a voice faltering with emotion, +stanza after stanza of the "Farmer's Ingle." + +"Do you not see it?--do you not see it all?" exclaimed my companion; +"the wide smoky room, with the bright turf fire, the blackened rafters +shining above, the straw-wrought settle below, the farmer and the +farmer's wife, and auld grannie and the bairns. Never was there truer +painting; and, oh, how it works on a Scotch heart! But hear this other +piece." + +He read "Sandy and Willie." + +"Far, far ahead of Ramsay," I exclaimed. "More imagination, more spirit, +more intellect, and as much truth and nature. Robert has gained his end +already. Hurra for poor old Scotland!--these pieces must live for ever. +But do repeat to me the 'Farmer's Ingle' once more." + +We read, one by one, all the poems in the magazine, dwelling on each +stanza, and expatiating on every recollection of home which the images +awakened. My companion was, like his brother, a kind, open-hearted man, +of superior intellect; much less prone to despondency, however, and of a +more equal temperament. Ere we parted, which was not until next morning, +he had communicated to me all his plans for the future, and all his +fondly cherished hopes of returning to Scotland with wealth enough to be +of use to his friends. He seemed to be one of those universal geniuses +who do a thousand things well, but want steadiness enough to turn any of +them to good account. He showed me a treatise on the use of the sword, +which he had just prepared for the press; and a series of letters on the +stamp act, which had appeared, from time to time, in one of the Boston +newspapers, and in which he had taken part with the Americans. + +"I make a good many dollars in these stirring times," he said. "All the +Yankees seem to be of opinion that they will be best heard across the +water when they have got arms in their hands, and have learned how to +use them; and I know a little of both the sword and the musket. But the +warlike spirit is frightfully thirsty, somehow, and consumes a world of +rum; and so I have not yet begun to make rich." + +He shared with me his supper and bed for the night; and, after rising in +the morning ere I awoke, and writing a long letter for Robert, which he +gave me in the hope I might soon meet with him, he accompanied me to the +vessel, then on the eve of sailing, and we parted, as it proved, for +ever. I know nothing of his after life, or how or where it terminated; +but I have learned that, shortly before the death of his gifted brother, +his circumstances enabled him to send his mother a small remittance for +the use of the family. He was evidently one of the kind-hearted, +improvident few, who can share a very little, and whose destiny it is to +have only a very little to share. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + "O Ferguson! thy glorious parts + Ill suited law's dry, musty arts! + My curse upon your whunstane hearts, + Ye Embrugh gentry! + The tithe o' what ye waste at cartes + Wad stow'd his pantry!" + BURNS. + + +I visited Edinburgh, for the first time, in the latter part of the +autumn of 1773, about two months after I had sailed from Boston. It was +on a fine calm morning--one of those clear sunshiny mornings of October, +when the gossamer goes sailing about in long cottony threads, so light +and fleecy that they seem the skeleton remains of extinct cloudlets; and +when the distant hills, with their covering of grey frost rime, seem, +through the clear cold atmosphere, as if chiselled in marble. The sun +was rising over the town through a deep blood-coloured haze--the smoke +of a thousand fires; and the huge fantastic piles of masonry that +stretched along the ridge, looked dim and spectral through the cloud, +like the ghosts of an army of giants. I felt half a foot taller as I +strode on towards the town. It was Edinburgh I was approaching--the +scene of so many proud associations to a lover of Scotland; and I was +going to meet as an early friend one of the first of Scottish poets. I +entered the town. There was a book stall in a corner of the street; and +I turned aside for half a minute to glance my eye over the books. + +"Ferguson's Poems!" I exclaimed, taking up a little volume. "I was not +aware they had appeared in a separate form. How do you sell this?" + +"Just like a' the ither booksellers," said the man who kept the +stall--"that's nane o' the buiks that come doun in a hurry--just for the +marked selling price." I threw down the money. + +"Could you tell me anything of the writer?" I said. "I have a letter for +him from America." + +"Oh, that'll be frae his brither Henry, I'll wad; a clever cheild too, +but ower fond o' the drap drink, maybe, like Rob himsel'. Baith o' them +fine humane chields, though, without a grain o' pride. Rob takes a stan' +wi' me sometimes o' half an hour at a time, an' we clatter ower the +buiks; an', if I'm no mista'en, yon's him just yonder--the thin, pale +slip o' a lad wi' the broad brow. Ay, an' he's just comin' this way." + +"Anything new to-day, Thomas?" said the young man, coming up to the +stall. "I want a cheap second-hand copy of Ramsay's 'Evergreen;' and, +like a good man as you are, you must just try and find it for me." + +Though considerably altered--for he was taller and thinner than when at +college, and his complexion had assumed a deep sallow hue--I recognised +him at once, and presented him with the letter. + +"Ah! from brother Henry," said he, breaking it open, and glancing his +eye over the contents. "What--_old college chum, Mr. Lindsay_!" he +exclaimed, turning to me. "Yes, sure enough; how happy I am we should +have met! Come this way--let us get out of the streets." + +We passed hurriedly through the Canongate and along the front of +Holyrood-house, and were soon in the King's Park, which seemed this +morning as if left to ourselves. + +"Dear me, and this is you yourself!--and we have again met, Mr. +Lindsay!" said Ferguson; "I thought we were never to meet more. Nothing, +for a long time, has made me half so glad. And so you have been a sailor +for the last four years. Do let us sit down here in the warm sunshine, +beside St. Anthony's Well, and tell me all your story, and how you +happened to meet with brother Henry." + +We sat down, and I briefly related, at his bidding, all that had +befallen me since we had parted at St. Andrew's, and how I was still a +common sailor, but, in the main, perhaps, not less happy than many who +commanded a fleet. + +"Ah, you have been a fortunate fellow," he said; "you have seen much and +enjoyed much; and I have been rusting in unhappiness at home. Would that +I had gone to sea along with you!" + +"Nay, now, that won't do," I replied. "But you are merely taking Bacon's +method of blunting the edge of envy. You have scarcely yet attained the +years of mature manhood, and yet your name has gone abroad over the +whole length and breadth of the land, and over many other lands besides. +I have cried over your poems three thousand miles away, and felt all the +prouder of my country for the sake of my friend. And yet you would fain +persuade me that you wish the charm reversed, and that you were just +such an obscure salt-water man as myself!" + +"You remember," said my companion, "the story of the half-man, +half-marble prince of the Arabian tale. One part was a living creature, +one part a stone; but the parts were incorporated, and the mixture was +misery. I am just such a poor unhappy creature as the enchanted prince +of the story." + +"You surprise and distress me," I rejoined. "Have you not accomplished +all you so fondly purposed--realized even your warmest wishes? And this, +too, in early life. Your most sanguine hopes pointed but to a name, +which you yourself perhaps was never to hear, but which was to dwell on +men's tongues when the grave had closed over you. And now the name is +gained, and you live to enjoy it. I see the _living_ part of your lot, +and it seems instinct with happiness; but in what does the _dead_, the +stony part, consist?" + +He shook his head, and looked up mournfully in my face; there was a +pause of a few seconds. "You, Mr. Lindsay," he at length replied, "you +who are of an equable steady temperament, can know little, from +experience, of the unhappiness of the man who lives only in extremes, +who is either madly gay or miserably depressed. Try and realize the +feelings of one whose mind is like a broken harp--all the medium tones +gone, and only the higher and lower left; of one, too, whose +circumstances seem of a piece with his mind, who can enjoy the exercise +of his better powers, and yet can only live by the monotonous drudgery +of copying page after page in a clerk's office; of one who is +continually either groping his way amid a chill melancholy fog of +nervous depression, or carried headlong, by a wild gaiety, to all which +his better judgment would instruct him to avoid; of one who, when he +indulges most in the pride of superior intellect, cannot away with the +thought that that intellect is on the eve of breaking up, and that he +must yet rate infinitely lower in the scale of rationality than any of +the nameless thousands who carry on the ordinary concerns of life around +him." + +I was grieved and astonished, and knew not what to answer. "You are in a +gloomy mood to-day," I at length said; "you are immersed in one of the +fogs you describe; and all the surrounding objects take a tinge of +darkness from the medium through which you survey them. Come, now, you +must make an exertion, and shake off your melancholy. I have told you +all my story, as I best could, and you must tell me all yours in +return." + +"Well," he replied, "I shall, though it mayn't be the best way in the +world of dissipating my melancholy. I think I must have told you, when +at college, that I had a maternal uncle of considerable wealth, and, as +the world goes, respectability, who resided in Aberdeenshire. He was +placed on what one may term the table-land of society; and my poor +mother, whose recollections of him were limited to a period when there +is warmth in the feelings of the most ordinary minds, had hoped that he +would willingly exert his influence in my behalf. Much, doubtless, +depends on one's setting out in life; and it would have been something +to have been enabled to step into it from a level like that occupied by +my relative. I paid him a visit shortly after leaving college, and met +with apparent kindness. But I can see beyond the surface, Mr. Lindsay, +and I soon saw that my uncle was entirely a different man from the +brother whom my mother remembered. He had risen, by a course of slow +industry, from comparative poverty, and his feelings had worn out in the +process. The character was case-hardened all over; and the polish it +bore--for I have rarely met a smoother man--seemed no improvement. He +was, in brief, one of the class content to dwell for ever in mere +decencies, with consciences made up of the conventional moralities, who +think by precedent, bow to public opinion as their god, and estimate +merit by its weight in guineas." + +"And so your visit," I said, "was a very brief one?" + +"You distress me," he replied. "It should have been so; but it was not. +But what could I do? Ever since my father's death I had been taught to +consider this man as my natural guardian, and I was now unwilling to +part with my last hope. But this is not all. Under much apparent +activity, my friend, there is a substratum of apathetical indolence in +my disposition: I move rapidly when in motion, but when at rest there is +a dull inertness in the character, which the will, when unassisted by +passion, is too feeble to overcome. Poor, weak creature that I am! I had +sitten down by my uncle's fireside, and felt unwilling to rise. Pity me, +my friend--I deserve your pity--but, oh, do not despise me!" + +"Forgive me, Mr. Ferguson," I said; "I have given you pain--but surely +most unwittingly." + +"I am ever a fool," he continued; "but my story lags; and, surely, there +is little in it on which it were pleasure to dwell. I sat at this man's +table for six months, and saw, day after day, his manner towards me +becoming more constrained and his politeness more cold; and yet I staid +on, till at last my clothes were worn threadbare, and he began to feel +that the shabbiness of the nephew affected the respectability of the +uncle. His friend the soap-boiler, and his friend the oil-merchant, and +his friend the manager of the hemp manufactory, with their wives and +daughters--all people of high standing in the world--occasionally +honoured his table with their presence, and how could he be other than +ashamed of mine? It vexes me that I cannot even yet be cool on the +subject--it vexes me that a creature so sordid should have so much the +power to move me--but I cannot, I cannot master my feelings. He--he told +me--and with whom should the blame rest, but with the weak, spiritless +thing who lingered on in mean, bitter dependence, to hear what he had to +tell?--he told me that all his friends were respectable, and that my +appearance was no longer that of a person whom he could wish to see at +his table, or introduce to any one as his nephew. And I had staid to +hear all this! + +"I can hardly tell you how I got home. I travelled, stage after stage, +along the rough dusty roads, with a weak and feverish body, and almost +despairing mind. On meeting with my mother, I could have laid my head on +her bosom and cried like a child. I took to my bed in a high fever, and +trusted that all my troubles were soon to terminate; but, when the die +was cast, it turned up life. I resumed my old miserable employments--for +what could I else?--and, that I might be less unhappy in the prosecution +of them, my old amusements too. I copied during the day in a clerk's +office that I might live, and wrote during the night that I might be +known. And I have in part, perhaps, attained my object. I have pursued +and caught hold of the shadow on which my heart had been so long set; +and if it prove empty, and untangible, and unsatisfactory, like every +other shadow, the blame surely must rest with the pursuer, not with the +thing pursued. I weary you, Mr. Lindsay; but one word more. There are +hours when the mind, weakened by exertion, or by the teazing monotony of +an employment which tasks without exercising it, can no longer exert its +powers, and when, feeling that sociality is a law of our nature, we seek +the society of our fellow-men. With a creature so much the sport of +impulse as I am, it is of these hours of weakness that conscience takes +most note. God help me! I have been told that life is short; but it +stretches on, and on, and on before me; and I know not how it is to be +passed through." + +My spirits had so sunk during this singular conversation, that I had no +heart to reply. + +"You are silent, Mr. Lindsay," said the poet; "I have made you as +melancholy as myself; but look around you, and say if ever you have seen +a lovelier spot. See how richly the yellow sunshine slants along the +green sides of Arthur's Seat, and how the thin blue smoke, that has come +floating from the town, fills the bottom of yonder grassy dell, as if it +were a little lake. Mark, too, how boldly the cliffs stand out along its +sides, each with its little patch of shadow. And here, beside us, is St. +Anthony's Well, so famous in song, coming gushing out to the sunshine, +and then gliding away through the grass like a snake. Had the Deity +purposed that man should be miserable, he would surely never have placed +him in so fair a world. Perhaps much of our unhappiness originates in +our mistaking our proper scope, and thus setting out from the first with +a false aim." + +"Unquestionably," I replied, "there is no man who has not some part to +perform; and, if it be a great and uncommon part, and the powers which +fit him for it proportionably great and uncommon, nature would be in +error could he slight it with impunity. See, there is a wild bee bending +the flower beside you. Even that little creature has a capacity of +happiness and misery; it derives its sense of pleasure from whatever +runs in the line of its instincts, its experience of unhappiness from +whatever thwarts and opposes them; and can it be supposed that so wise a +law should regulate the instincts of only inferior creatures? No, my +friend, it is surely a law of our nature also." + +"And have you not something else to infer?" said the poet. + +"Yes," I replied, "that you are occupied differently from what the scope +and constitution of your mind demand; differently both in your hours of +employment and of relaxation. But do take heart, you will yet find your +proper place, and all shall be well." + +"Alas! no, my friend," said he, rising from the sward. "I could once +entertain such a hope; but I cannot now. My mind is no longer what it +was to me in my happier days, a sort of _terra incognita_, without +bounds or limits. I can see over and beyond it, and have fallen from all +my hopes regarding it. It is not so much the gloom of present +circumstances that disheartens me, as a depressing knowledge of myself, +an abiding conviction that I am a weak dreamer, unfitted for every +occupation of life, and not less so for the greater employments of +literature than for any of the others. I feel that I am a little man and +a little poet, with barely vigour enough to make one half effort at a +time, but wholly devoid of the sustaining will, that highest faculty of +the highest order of minds, which can direct a thousand vigorous efforts +to the accomplishment of one important object. Would that I could +exchange my half celebrity--and it can never be other than a half +celebrity--for a temper as equable and a fortitude as unshrinking as +yours! But I weary you with my complaints; I am a very coward; and you +will deem me as selfish as I am weak." + +We parted. The poet, sadly and unwillingly, went to copy deeds in the +office of the commissary clerk, and I, almost reconciled to obscurity +and hard labour, to assist in unloading a Baltic trader in the harbour +of Leith. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + "Speech without aim and without end employ."--CRABBE. + + +After the lapse of nine months, I again returned to Edinburgh. During +that period, I had been so shut out from literature and the world, that +I had heard nothing of my friend the poet; and it was with a beating +heart I left the vessel, on my first leisure evening, to pay him a +visit. It was about the middle of July; the day had been close and +sultry, and the heavens overcharged with grey ponderous clouds; and, as +I passed hurriedly along the walk which leads from Leith to Edinburgh, I +could hear the newly awakened thunder, bellowing far in the south, peal +after peal, like the artillery of two hostile armies. I reached the door +of the poet's humble domicile, and had raised my hand to the knocker, +when I heard some one singing from within, in a voice by far the most +touchingly mournful I had ever listened to. The tones struck on my +heart; and a frightful suspicion crossed my mind, as I set down the +knocker, that the singer was no other than my friend. But in what +wretched circumstances! what fearful state of mind! I shuddered as I +listened, and heard the strain waxing louder and yet more mournful, and +could distinguish that the words were those of a simple old ballad:-- + + "O Marti'mas wind, when wilt thou blaw, + An' shake the green leaves aff the tree? + O gentle death, when wilt thou come, + An' tak a life that wearies me?" + +I could listen no longer, but raised the latch and went in. The evening +was gloomy, and the apartment ill lighted; but I could see the singer, a +spectral-looking figure, sitting on a bed in the corner, with the +bedclothes wrapped round his shoulders, and a napkin deeply stained +with blood on his head. An elderly female, who stood beside him, was +striving to soothe him, and busied from time to time in adjusting the +clothes, which were ever and anon falling off, as he nodded his head in +time to the music. A young girl of great beauty sat weeping at the +bedfoot. + +"O dearest Robert," said the woman, "you will destroy your poor head; +and Margaret your sister, whom you used to love so much, will break her +heart. Do lie down, dearest, and take a little rest. Your head is +fearfully gashed, and if the bandages loose a second time, you will +bleed to death. Do, dearest Robert, for your poor old mother, to whom +you were always so kind and dutiful a son till now--for your poor old +mother's sake, do lie down." + +The song ceased for a moment, and the tears came bursting from my eyes +as the tune changed, and he again sang:-- + + "O mither dear, make ye my bed, + For my heart it's flichterin' sair; + An' oh, gin I've vexed ye, mither dear, + I'll never vex ye mair. + I've staid ar'out the lang dark nicht, + I' the sleet an' the plashy rain; + But, mither dear, make ye my bed, + An' I'll ne'er gang out again." + +"Dearest, dearest Robert," continued the poor, heart-broken woman, "do +lie down; for your poor old mother's sake, do lie down." + +"No, no," he exclaimed, in a hurried voice, "not just now, mother, not +just now. Here is my friend, Mr. Lindsay, come to see me--my true +friend, Mr. Lindsay, the sailor, who has sailed all round and round the +world; and I have much, much to ask him. A chair, Margaret, for Mr. +Lindsay. I must be a preacher like John Knox, you know--like the great +John Knox, the reformer of a nation--and Mr. Lindsay knows all about +him. A chair, Margaret, for Mr. Lindsay." + +I am not ashamed to say it was with tears, and in a voice faltering with +emotion, that I apologized to the poor woman for my intrusion at such a +time. Were it otherwise, I might well conclude my heart had grown hard +as a piece of the nether millstone. + +"I had known Robert at College," I said--"had loved and respected him; +and had now come to pay him a visit, after an absence of several months, +wholly unprepared for finding him in his present condition." And it +would seem that my tears pled for me, and proved to the poor afflicted +woman and her daughter, by far the most efficient part of my apology. + +"All my friends have left me now, Mr. Lindsay," said the unfortunate +poet--"they have all left me now; they love this present world. We were +all going down, down, down; there was the roll of a river behind us; it +came bursting over the high rocks, roaring, rolling, foaming down upon +us; and though the fog was thick and dark below--far below, in the place +to which we were going--I could see the red fire shining through--the +red, hot, unquenchable fire; and we were all going down, down, down. +Mother, mother, tell Mr. Lindsay I am going to be put on my trials +to-morrow. Careless creature that I am--life is short, and I have lost +much time; but I am going to be put on my trials to-morrow, and shall +come forth a preacher of the word." + +The thunder which had hitherto been muttering at a distance--each peal, +however, nearer and louder than the preceding one--now began to roll +overhead, and the lightning, as it passed the window, to illumine every +object within. The hapless poet stretched out his thin wasted arm, as if +addressing a congregation from the pulpit:-- + +"There were the flashings of lightning," he said, "and the roll of +thunder; and the trumpet waxed louder and louder. And around the summit +of the mountain were the foldings of thick clouds, and the shadow fell +brown and dark over the wide expanse of the desert. And the wild beasts +lay trembling in their dens. But, lo! where the sun breaks through the +opening of the cloud, there is the glitter of tents--the glitter of ten +thousand tents that rise over the sandy waste, thick as waves of the +sea. And there, there is the voice of the dance and of the revel, and +the winding of horns and the clash of cymbals. Oh, sit nearer me, +dearest mother, for the room is growing dark, dark; and, oh, my poor +head! + + 'The lady sat on the castle wa', + Look'd ower baith dale and down, + And then she spied Gil-Morice head + Come steering through the town.' + +Do, dearest mother, put your cool hand on my brow, and do hold it fast +ere it part. How fearfully--oh, how fearfully it aches!--and oh, how it +thunders!" He sunk backward on the pillow, apparently exhausted. "Gone, +gone, gone," he muttered; "my mind gone for ever. But God's will be +done." + +I rose to leave the room; for I could restrain my feelings no longer. + +"Stay, Mr. Lindsay," said the poet, in a feeble voice; "I hear the rain +dashing on the pavement; you must not go till it abates. Would that you +could pray beside me!--but, no--you are not like the dissolute +companions who have now all left me, but you are not yet fitted for +that; and, alas! I cannot pray for myself. Mother, mother, see that +there be prayers at my lykewake; for-- + + 'Her lykewake, it was piously spent + In social prayer and praise, + Performed by judicious men, + Who stricken were in days. + 'And many a heavy, heavy heart + Was in that mournful place; + And many a weary, weary thought + On her who slept in peace.' + +They will come all to my lykewake, mother, won't they?--yes, all, though +they have left me now. Yes, and they will come far to see my grave. I +was poor, very poor, you know, and they looked down upon me; and I was +no son or cousin of theirs, and so they could do nothing for me. Oh, but +they might have looked less coldly! But they will all come to my grave, +mother; they will come all to my grave; and they will say--'Would he +were living now to know how kind we are!' But they will look as coldly +as ever on the living poet beside them--yes, till they have broken his +heart; and then they will go to his grave too. O dearest mother, do lay +your cool hand on my brow." + +He lay silent and exhausted, and, in a few minutes, I could hope, from +the hardness of his breathing, that he had fallen asleep. + +"How long," I inquired of his sister, in a low whisper, "has Mr. +Ferguson been so unwell, and what has injured his head?" + +"Alas!" said the girl, "my brother has been unsettled in mind for nearly +the last six months. We first knew it one evening on his coming home +from the country, where he had been for a few days with a friend. He +burnt a large heap of papers that he had been employed on for weeks +before--songs and poems that his friends say were the finest things he +ever wrote; but he burnt them all, for he was going to be a preacher of +the word, he said, and it did not become a preacher of the word to be a +writer of light rhymes. And, O sir! his mind has been carried ever +since; but he has been always gentle and affectionate, and his sole +delight has lain in reading the Bible. Good Dr. Erskine, of the +Greyfriars, often comes to our house, and sits with him for hours +together; for there are times when his mind seems stronger than ever, +and he says wonderful things, that seem to hover, the minister says, +between the extravagance natural to his present sad condition, and the +higher flights of a philosophic genius. And we had hoped that he was +getting better; but, O sir, our hopes have had a sad ending. He went +out, a few evenings ago, to call on an old acquaintance; and, in +descending a stair, missed footing, and fell to the bottom; and his head +has been fearfully injured by the stones. He has been just as you have +seen him ever since; and, oh! I much fear he cannot now recover. Alas! +my poor brother!--never, never was there a more affectionate heart." + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + "A lowly muse! + She sings of reptiles yet in song unknown." + + +I returned to the vessel with a heavy heart; and it was nearly three +months from this time ere I again set foot in Edinburgh. Alas! for my +unfortunate friend! He was now an inmate of the asylum, and on the verge +of dissolution. I was thrown, by accident, shortly after my arrival at +this time, into the company of one of his boon companions. I had gone +into a tavern with a brother sailor--a shrewd, honest skipper, from the +north country; and, finding the place occupied by half a dozen young +fellows, who were growing noisy over their liquor, I would have +immediately gone out again, had I not caught, in the passing, a few +words regarding my friend. And so, drawing to a side-table, I sat down. + +"Believe me," said one of the topers, a dissolute-looking young man, +"it's all over with Bob Ferguson--all over; and I knew it from the +moment he grew religious. Had old Brown tried to convert me, I would +have broken his face." + +"What Brown?" inquired one of his companions. + +"Is that all you know?" rejoined the other. "Why, John Brown of +Haddington, the Seceder. Bob was at Haddington last year, at the +election; and, one morning, when in the horrors, after holding a rum +night of it, who should he meet in the churchyard but old John +Brown?--he writes, you know, a big book on the Bible. Well, he lectured +Bob at a pretty rate, about election and the call, I suppose; and the +poor fellow has been mad ever since. Your health, Jamie. For my own +part, I'm a freewill man, and detest all cant and humbug." + +"And what has come of Ferguson now?" asked one of the others. + +"Oh, mad, sir, mad," rejoined the toper--"reading the Bible all day, and +cooped up in the asylum yonder. 'Twas I who brought him to it.--But, +lads, the glass has been standing for the last half-hour.--'Twas I and +Jack Robinson who brought him to it, as I say. He was getting wild; and +so we got a sedan for him, and trumped up a story of an invitation for +tea from a lady, and he came with us as quietly as a lamb. But, if you +could have heard the shriek he gave when the chair stopped, and he saw +where we had brought him! I never heard anything half so horrible--it +rang in my ears for a week after; and then, how the mad people in the +upper rooms howled and gibbered in reply, till the very roof echoed! +People say he is getting better; but, when I last saw him, he was as +religious as ever, and spoke so much about heaven, that it was +uncomfortable to hear him. Great loss to his friends, after all the +expense they have been at with his education." + +"You seem to have been intimate with Mr. Ferguson," I said. + +"Oh, intimate with Bob!" he rejoined; "we were hand and glove, man. I +have sat with him in Lucky Middlemass's, almost every evening, for two +years; and I have given him hints for some of the best things in his +book. 'Twas I who tumbled down the cage in the Meadows, and began +breaking the lamps. + + 'Ye who oft finish care in Lethe's cup, + Who love to swear and roar, and _keep it up_, + List to a brother's voice, whose sole delight + Is sleep all day, and riot all the night.' + +There's spirit for you! But Bob was never sound at bottom; and I have +told him so. 'Bob,' I have said, 'Bob, you're but a hypocrite after all, +man--without half the spunk you pretend to. Why don't you take a pattern +by me, who fear nothing, and believe only the agreeable? But, poor +fellow, he had weak nerves, and a church-going propensity that did him +no good; and you see the effects. 'Twas all nonsense, Tom, of his +throwing the squib into the Glassite meeting-house. Between you and I, +that was a cut far beyond him in his best days, poet as he was. 'Twas I +who did it, man, and never was there a cleaner row in auld Reekie." + +"Heartless, contemptible puppy!" said my comrade, the sailor, as we left +the room. "Your poor friend must be ill, indeed, if he be but half as +insane as his quondam companion. But he cannot: there is no madness like +that of the heart. What could have induced a man of genius to associate +with a thing so thoroughly despicable?" + +"The same misery, Miller," I said, "that brings a man _acquainted with +strange bedfellows_." + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + "O thou, my elder brother in misfortune, + By far my elder brother in the muses, + With tears I pity thy unhappy fate!"--BURNS. + + +The asylum in which my unfortunate friend was confined, at this time the +only one in Edinburgh, was situated in an angle of the city wall. It was +a dismal-looking mansion, shut in on every side, by the neighbouring +houses, from the view of the surrounding country; and so effectually +covered up from the nearer street, by a large building in front, that it +seemed possible enough to pass a lifetime in Edinburgh without coming to +the knowledge of its existence. I shuddered as I looked up to its +blackened walls, thinly sprinkled with miserable-looking windows, barred +with iron, and thought of it as a sort of burial-place of dead minds. +But it was a Golgotha, which, with more than the horrors of the grave, +had neither its rest nor its silence. I was startled, as I entered the +cell of the hapless poet, by a shout of laughter from a neighbouring +room, which was answered from a dark recess behind me, by a fearfully +prolonged shriek, and the clanking of chains. The mother and sister of +Ferguson were sitting beside his pallet, on a sort of stone settle which +stood out from the wall; and the poet himself, weak and exhausted, and +worn to a shadow, but apparently in his right mind, lay extended on the +straw. He made an attempt to rise as I entered; but the effort was above +his strength, and, again lying down, he extended his hand. + +"This is kind, Mr. Lindsay," he said; "it is ill for me to be alone in +these days; and yet I have few visitors, save my poor old mother and +Margaret. But who cares for the unhappy?" + +I sat down on the settle beside him, still retaining his hand. "I have +been at sea, and in foreign countries," I said, "since I last saw you, +Mr. Ferguson, and it was only this morning I returned; but believe me +there are many, many of your countrymen who sympathize sincerely in your +affliction, and take a warm interest in your recovery." + +He sighed deeply. "Ah," he replied, "I know too well the nature of that +sympathy. You never find it at the bedside of the sufferer--it +evaporates in a few barren expressions of idle pity; and yet, after all, +it is but a paying the poet in kind. He calls so often on the world to +sympathize over fictitious misfortune, that the feeling wears out, and +becomes a mere mood of the imagination; and, with this light, attenuated +pity of his own weaving, it regards his own real sorrows. Dearest +mother, the evening is damp and chill--do gather the bedclothes round +me, and sit on my feet; they are so very cold and so dead, that they +cannot be colder a week hence." + +"O Robert, why do you speak so?" said the poor woman, as she gathered +the clothes round him, and sat on his feet. "You know you are coming +home to-morrow." + +"To-morrow!" he said--"if I see to-morrow, I shall have completed my +twenty-fourth year--a small part, surely, of the threescore and ten; but +what matters it when 'tis past?" + +"You were ever, my friend, of a melancholy temperament," I said, "and +too little disposed to hope. Indulge in brighter views of the future, +and all shall yet be well." + +"I can now hope that it shall," he said. "Yes, all shall be well with +me--and that very soon. But, oh, how this nature of ours shrinks from +dissolution!--yes, and all the lower natures too. You remember, mother, +the poor starling that was killed in the room beside us? Oh, how it +struggled with its ruthless enemy, and filled the whole place with its +shrieks of terror and agony. And yet, poor little thing! it had been +true, all life long, to the laws of its nature, and had no sins to +account for, and no judge to meet. There is a shrinking of heart as I +look before me, and yet I can hope that all shall yet be well with +me--and that very soon. Would that I had been wise in time! Would that I +had thought more and earlier of the things which pertain to my eternal +peace! more of a living soul, and less of a dying name! But, oh, 'tis a +glorious provision, through which a way of return is opened up even at +the eleventh hour!" + +We sat round him in silence; an indescribable feeling of awe pervaded my +whole mind, and his sister was affected to tears. + +"Margaret," he said, in a feeble voice--"Margaret, you will find my +Bible in yonder little recess; 'tis all I have to leave you; but keep +it, dearest sister, and use it, and, in times of sorrow and suffering +that come to all, you will know how to prize the legacy of your poor +brother. Many, many books do well enough for life; but there is only one +of any value when we come to die. + +"You have been a voyager of late, Mr. Lindsay," he continued, "and I +have been a voyager too. I have been journeying in darkness and +discomfort, amid strange unearthly shapes of dread and horror, with no +reason to direct and no will to govern. Oh, the unspeakable unhappiness +of these wanderings!--these dreams of suspicion, and fear, and hatred, +in which shadow and substance, the true and the false, were so wrought +up and mingled together, that they formed but one fantastic and +miserable whole. And, oh! the unutterable horror of every momentary +return to a recollection of what I had been once, and a sense of what I +had become! Oh, when I awoke amid the terrors of the night--when I +turned me on the rustling straw, and heard the wild wail and yet wilder +laugh--when I heard and shuddered, and then felt the demon in all his +might coming over me, till I laughed and wailed with the others--oh the +misery! the utter misery!--But 'tis over, my friend--'tis all over; a +few, few tedious days, a few, few weary nights, and all my sufferings +shall be over." + +I had covered my face with my hands, but the tears came bursting through +my fingers; the mother and sister of the poet sobbed aloud. + +"Why sorrow for me, sirs?" he said; "why grieve for me? I am well, quite +well, and want for nothing. But 'tis cold; oh, 'tis very cold, and the +blood seems freezing at my heart. Ah, but there is neither pain nor cold +where I am going, and I trust it shall be well with my soul. Dearest, +dearest mother, I always told you it would come to this at last." + +The keeper had entered to intimate to us that the hour for locking up +the cells was already past, and we now rose to leave the place. I +stretched out my hand to my unfortunate friend; he took it in silence, +and his thin attenuated fingers felt cold within my grasp, like those of +a corpse. His mother stooped down to embrace him. + +"Oh, do not go yet, mother," he said--"do not go yet--do not leave me; +but it must be so, and I only distress you. Pray for me, dearest mother, +and, oh, forgive me; I have been a grief and a burden to you all +life-long; but I ever loved you, mother; and, oh, you have been kind, +kind and forgiving--and now your task is over. May God bless and reward +you! Margaret, dearest Margaret, farewell!" + +We parted, and, as it proved, for ever. Robert Ferguson expired during +the night; and when the keeper entered the cell next morning, to prepare +him for quitting the asylum, all that remained of this most hapless of +the children of genius, was a pallid and wasted corpse, that lay +stiffening on the straw. I am now a very old man, and the feelings wear +out; but I find that my heart is even yet susceptible of emotion, and +that the source of tears is not yet dried up. + + + + +THE DISASTERS +OF JOHNNY ARMSTRONG. + + +Johnny Armstrong, the hero of our tale, was, and, for aught we know to +the contrary, still is, an inhabitant of the town of Carlisle. He was a +stout, thickset, little man, with a round, good-humoured, ruddy +countenance, and somewhere about fifty years of age at the period to +which our story refers. Although possessed of a good deal of natural +shrewdness, Johnny was, on the whole, rather a simple sort of person. +His character, in short, was that of an honest, well-meaning, +inoffensive man, but with parts that certainly did not shine with a very +dazzling lustre. Johnny was, to business, an ironmonger, and had, by +patient industry and upright dealing, acquired a small independency. He +had stuck to the counter of his little dingy shop for upwards of twenty +years, and used to boast that, during all that time, he had opened and +shut his shop with his own hands every day, not even excepting one. The +result of this steadiness and attention to business was, as has been +already said, a competency. + +Fortunately for Johnny, this propensity to stick fast--which he did like +a limpet--was natural to him. It was a part of his constitution. He had +no desire whatever to travel, or, rather, he had a positive dislike to +it--a dislike, indeed, which was so great that, for an entire quarter of +a century, he had never been three miles out of Carlisle. But when +Johnny had waxed pretty rich, somewhat corpulent, and rather oldish, he +was suddenly struck, one fine summer afternoon, as he stood at the door +of his shop with his hands in his breeches pockets, (a favourite +attitude,) with an amiable and ardent desire to see certain of his +relations who lived at Brechin, in the north of Scotland; and--there is +no accounting for these things--on that afternoon Johnny came to the +extraordinary resolution of paying them a visit--of performing a journey +of upwards of a hundred miles, even as the crow flies. It was a strange +and a desperate resolution for a man of Johnny's peculiar temperament +and habits; but so it was. Travel he would, and travel he did. On the +third day after the doughty determination just alluded to had been +formed, Johnny, swathed in an ample brown greatcoat, with a red +comforter about his neck, appeared in the stable yard of the inn where +most of the stage coaches that passed through Carlisle put up. Of these +there were three: one for Dumfries, one for Glasgow, and one for +Edinburgh--the latter being Johnny's coach; for his route was by the +metropolis. We had almost forgotten to say that Johnny, who was a +widower, was accompanied on this occasion by his son, Johnny junior, an +only child, whom it was his intention to take along with him. The boy +was about fourteen years of age, and though, upon the whole, a shrewd +enough lad for his time of life, did not promise to be a much brighter +genius than his father. In fact he was rather lumpish. + +On arriving at the inn yard--it was about eight o'clock at night, and +pretty dark, being the latter end of September--Johnny Armstrong found +the coach apparently about to start, the horses being all yoked; but the +vehicle happened, at the moment he entered the yard, to be in charge of +an ostler--not of either the guard or driver, who had both gone out of +the way for an instant. Desirous of securing a good seat for his son, +Johnny Armstrong opened the coach door, thrust the lad in, and was about +to follow himself, when he discovered that he had forgotten his watch. +On making this discovery, he banged too the coach door without saying a +word, and hurried home as fast as his little, thick, short legs would +allow him, to recover his time-piece. On his return, which was in less +than five minutes, Johnny himself stepped into the vehicle, which was +now crowded with passengers, and, in a few seconds, was rattling away at +a rapid rate towards Edinburgh. The night was pitch dark, not a star +twinkled; and it was not until Johnny arrived at his journey's end--that +is, at Edinburgh--that he discovered his son was not in the coach, and +had never been there at all. We will not attempt to describe Johnny's +amazement and distress of mind on making this most extraordinary and +most alarming discovery. They were dreadful. In great agitation, he +inquired at every one of the passengers if they had not seen his son, +and one and all denied they ever had. The thing was mysterious and +perfectly inexplicable. + +"I put the boy into the coach with my own hands," said Johnny Armstrong, +in great perturbation, to the guard and half crying as he spoke. + +"Very odd," said the guard. + +"Very odd, indeed," said Johnny. + +"Are you sure it was _our_ coach, Mr. Armstrong?" inquired the guard. + +The emphasis on the word _our_ was startling. It evidently meant more +than met the ear; and Johnny felt that it did so, and he was startled +accordingly. + +"_Your_ coach?" he replied, but now with some hesitation of manner. "It +surely was. What other coach could it be?" + +"Why, it may have been the Glasgow coach," said the guard; "and I rather +think it _must_ have been. You have made a mistake, sir, be assured, and +put the boy into the wrong coach. We start from the same place, and at +the same hour, five minutes or so in or over." + +The mention of this possibility, nay certainty--for Johnny had actually +dispatched the boy to Glasgow--instantly struck him dumb. It relieved +him, indeed, from the misery arising from a dread of some terrible +accident having happened the lad, but threw him into great tribulation +as to his fate in Glasgow, without money or friends. But this being, +after all, comparatively but a small affair, Johnny was now, what he had +not been before, able to pay attention to minor things. + +"Be sae guid," said Johnny to the guard, who was on the top of the +coach, busy unloosing packages, "as haun me doun my trunk." + +"No trunk of yours here, sir," said the guard. "You'll have sent it away +to Glasgow with the boy." + +"No, no," replied Johnny, sadly perplexed by this new misfortune. "I +sent it wi' the lass to the inn half an hour before I gaed mysel." + +"Oh, then, in that case," said the guard, "ten to one it's away to +Dumfries, and not to Glasgow." + +And truly such was the fact. The girl, a fresh-caught country lass, had +thrown it on the first coach she found, saying her master would +immediately follow--and that happened to be the Dumfries one. Here, +then, was Johnny safely arrived himself, indeed, at Edinburgh; but his +son was gone to Glasgow, and his trunk to Dumfries--all with the +greatest precision imaginable. Next day, Johnny Armstrong, being +extremely uneasy about his boy, started for Glasgow on board of one of +the canal passage boats; while the lad, being equally uneasy about his +father, and, moreover, ill at ease on sundry other accounts, did +precisely the same thing with the difference of direction--that is, he +started for Edinburgh by a similar conveyance; and so well timed had +each of their respective departures been, that, without knowing it, they +passed each other exactly halfway between the two cities. On arriving at +Glasgow, Johnny Armstrong could not, for a long while, discover any +trace of his son; but at length succeeded in tracking him to the canal +boat--which led him rightly to conclude that he had proceeded to +Edinburgh. On coming to this conclusion, Johnny again started for the +metropolis, where he safely arrived about two hours after his son had +left it for home, whither, finding no trace of his father in Edinburgh, +he had wisely directed his steps. Johnny Armstrong, now greatly +distressed about the object of his paternal solicitude, whom he vainly +sought up and down the city, at last also bent his way homewards, +thinking, what was true, that the boy might have gone home; and there +indeed he found him. Thus nearly a week had been spent, and that in +almost constant travel, and Johnny found himself precisely at the point +from which he had set out. However, in three days, after having, in the +meantime, recovered his trunk, he again set out on his travels to +Brechin; for his courage was not in the least abated by what had +happened; but on this occasion unaccompanied by his son, as he would not +again run the risk of losing him, or of exposing himself to that +distress of mind on his account, of which he had been before a victim. +In the case of Johnny's second progress, there was "no mistake" +whatever, of any kind--at least at starting. Both himself and his trunk +arrived in perfect safety, and in due time, at Edinburgh. + +Johnny's next route was to steam it to Kirkaldy from Newhaven. The boat +started at six a.m.; and, having informed himself of this particular, he +determined to be at the point of embarkation in good time. But he was +rather late, and, on finding this, he ran every foot of the way from +Edinburgh to the steam-boat, and was in a dreadful state of exhaustion +when he reached it; but, by his exertions, he saved his distance, +thereby exhibiting another proof that all is not lost that's in danger. +An instant longer, however, and he would have been too late, for the +vessel was just on the eve of starting. Johnny leapt on board, or rather +was bundled on board; for Johnny, as already hinted, was in what is +called good bodily condition--rather extra, indeed--and was, moreover, +waxing a little stiff about the joints; so that he could not get over +the side of the boat so cleverly as he would have done some twenty years +before. Over and above all this, he was quite exhausted with the race +against time which he had just run. Seeing his distressed condition, and +that the boat was on the point of sailing, two of the hands leapt on the +pier, when the one seizing him by the waistband of the breeches, and the +other by the breast, they fairly pitched him into the vessel, throwing +his trunk after him. As it was pouring rain, Johnny, on recovering his +perpendicular, immediately descended into the cabin, and, in the next +instant, the boat was ploughing her way through the deep. For two hours +after he had embarked, it continued to rain without intermission; and +for these two hours he remained snug below without stirring. At the end +of this period, however, it cleared up a little, and, in a short while +thereafter, became perfectly fair. Having discovered this he ascended to +the deck, to see what was going on. The captain of the vessel was +himself at the helm; he, therefore, sidled towards him, and, after +making some remarks on the weather and the scenery, asked the captain, +in the blandest and civilest tones imaginable, when he expected they +would be at Kirkaldy. The man stared at Johnny with a look of +astonishment, not unmingled with displeasure; but at length said-- + +"Kirkaldy, sir! What do you mean by asking me that question? I don't +know when _you_ expect to be at Kirkaldy, but _I_ don't expect to be +there for a twelvemonth at least." + +"No!--od, that's queer!" quoth Johnny, amazed in his turn; but thinking, +after a moment, that the captain meant to be facetious, he merely +added--"I wad think, captain, that we wad be there much about the same +time." + +"Ay, ay, may be; but, I say, none of your gammon, friend," said the +latter, gruffly, and now getting really angry at what he conceived to be +some attempt to play upon him, though he could not see the drift of the +joke. "Mind your own business, friend, and I'll mind mine." + +This he said with an air that conveyed very plainly a hint that Johnny +should take himself off, which, without saying any more, he accordingly +did. Much perplexed by the captain's conduct, he now sauntered towards +the fore part of the vessel, where he caught the engineer just as he was +about to descend into the engine-room. Johnny tapped him gently on the +shoulder, and the man, wiping his dripping face with a handful of tow, +looked up to him, while Johnny, afraid to put the question, but anxious +to know when he really would be at Kirkaldy, lowered himself down, by +placing his hands on his knees, so as to bring his face on a level with +the person he was addressing, and, in the mildest accents, and with a +countenance beaming with gentleness, he popped the question in a low, +soft whisper, as if to deprecate the man's wrath. On the fatal inquiry +being made at him, the engineer, as the captain had done before him, +stared at Johnny Armstrong, in amazement, for a second or two, then +burst into a hoarse laugh, and, without vouchsafing any other reply, +plunged down into his den. + +"What in a' the earth can be the meanin' o' this?" quoth Johnny to +himself, now ten times more perplexed than ever. "What can there be in +my simple, natural, and reasonable question, to astonish folk sae +muckle?" + +This was an inquiry which Johnny might put to himself, but it was one +which he could by no means answer. Being, however, an easy, good-natured +man, and seeing how much offence in one instance, and subject for mirth +in another, he had unwittingly given, by putting it, he resolved to make +no further inquiries into the matter, but to await in patience the +arrival of the boat at her destination--an event which he had the sense +to perceive would be neither forwarded nor retarded by his obtaining or +being refused the information he had desired to be possessed of. The +boat arrived in due time at the wished-for haven, and Johnny landed with +the other passengers; the captain giving him a wipe, as he stepped on +the plank that was to convey him ashore, about his Kirkaldy inquiries, +by asking him, though now in perfect good humour, if he knew the precise +length of that celebrated town; but Johnny merely smiled and passed on. + +On landing, Johnny Armstrong proceeded to what had the appearance of, +and really was, a respectable inn. Here, as it was now pretty far in the +day, he had some dinner, and afterwards treated himself to a tumbler of +toddy and a peep at the papers. While thus comfortably enjoying himself, +the waiter having chanced to pop into the room, Johnny raised his eye +from the paper he was reading, and, looking the lad in the face-- + +"Can ye tell me, friend," he said, "when the coach for Dundee starts?" + +"There's no coach at all from this to Dundee, sir," replied the waiter. + +"No!" said Johnny, a little nonplused by this information. "That's odd." +The waiter saw nothing odd in it. + +"I was told," continued Johnny, "that there were twa or three coaches +daily from this to Dundee." + +"Oh, no, sir," said the lad, coolly, "you have been misinformed; but if +you wish to go to Dundee, sir," he added--desirous of being as obliging +as possible--"your best way is to go by steam from this to Newhaven, and +from that cross over to Kirkaldy!!!" + +At this fatal word, which seemed doomed to work Johnny much wo, the +glass which he was about to raise to his lips fell on the floor, and +went into a thousand pieces. + +"Kirkaldy, laddie!" exclaimed Johnny Armstrong, with an expression of +consternation in his face which it would require Cruikshank's art and +skill to do justice to--"Gude hae a care o' me, is _this_ no Kirkaldy?" + +"Kirkaldy, sir!" replied the waiter, no less amazed than Johnny, though +in his case it was at the absurdity of the inquiry--"oh, no, sir," with +a smile--"this is Alloa!!!" + +Alloa it was, to be sure; for Johnny had taken the wrong boat, and that +was all. On embarking, he had made no inquiries at those belonging to +the vessel, and, of course, those in the vessel had put none to him--and +this was the result. He was comfortably planted at Alloa, instead of +Kirkaldy, which all our readers know lies in a very different direction; +and this denouement also explains the captain's displeasure with his +passenger, and the engineer's mirth. At the moment this extraordinary +_eclaircissement_ took place between Johnny Armstrong and the waiter of +the King's Arms, there happened to be a ship captain in the room--for it +was the public one; and this person, who was a good-natured fellow, at +once amused by, and pitying Johnny's dilemma, turned towards him, and +inquired if it was his intention to go any further than Dundee. + +Johnny said that it was--he intended going to Brechin. + +"Oh, in that case," said the captain, "you had better just go with me. +In an hour after this I sail for Montrose, which is within eight miles +of Brechin, and I'll be very glad to give you a cast so far, and we +shan't differ about the terms. Fine, smart little vessel mine, and, with +a spanking breeze from the west or sou'-west, which we'll very likely +catch about Queensferry, I'll land you in a jiffey within a trifle of +your journey's end--a devilish sight cleverer, I warrant you, than your +round-about way of steaming and coaching it, and at half the money too." + +Johnny Armstrong was all gratitude for this very opportune piece of +kindness, and gladly closed with the offer--the captain and he taking a +couple of additional tumblers each, on the head of it, to begin with. We +say to begin with; for it by no means ended with the quantity named. The +captain was a jolly dog, and loved his liquor, and was, withal, so +facetious a companion, that he prevailed on his new friend to swallow a +great deal more than did him any good. To tell a truth, which, however, +we would not have known at Carlisle, Johnny Armstrong, who had the +character of a sober man, got, on this occasion, into a rather +discreditable condition, and, in this state, he was escorted by the +captain--who stood liquor like a water-cask--to the vessel, and was once +more embarked; but it was now on board the _Fifteen Sisters_ of +Skatehaven. On getting him on board, the captain, seeing the state he +was in, prudently bundled him down into the cabin, and thrust him into +his own bed, where he immediately fell into a profound sleep that +extended over twelve mortal hours. At the end of this period, however, +Johnny awoke; but it was not by any means of his own accord, for he was +awakened by a variety of stimulants, or _rousers_, if we may be allowed +to coin a word for the occasion, all operating at once. These were, a +tremendous uproar on the deck, a fearful rolling of the vessel, the +roaring of wind, and the splashing, dashing, and gurling of waves; and, +to crown all, a feeling of deadly sickness. When he first opened his +eyes, he could not conceive where he was, or what was the meaning of the +furious motion that he felt, and of the tremendous sounds that he heard. +A few minutes' cogitation with himself, however, solved the mystery, and +exposed to him his true position. In great alarm--for he thought the +vessel was on the eve of going down--Johnny Armstrong rolled himself out +of his bed, and crawled in his shirt up the cabin ladder. On gaining the +summit, he found himself confronted by the captain, who, with a very +serious face, was standing by the helm. + +"Are--are--are--we--near--Mon--trose, captain?" inquired Johnny, in a +voice rendered so feeble by sickness and terror, that it was impossible +to hear him a yard off, amidst the roaring of the winds and waves; for +we suppose we need not more explicitly state, that he was in the midst +of a storm, and as pretty a one it was as the most devoted admirer of +the picturesque could desire to see. + +"What?" roared the captain, in a voice of thunder, at the same time +stooping down to catch his feeble interrogatory. Johnny repeated it; +but, ere he could obtain an answer, a raking wave, which came in at the +stern, took him full on the breast as he stood on the companion ladder, +with his bust just above the level of the deck, sent him down, heels +over head, into the cabin, and, in a twinkling, buried him in a foot and +a half of water on the floor, where he lay for some time at full length, +sprawling and floundering amidst the wreck which the sudden and violent +influx of water had occasioned. On recovering from the stunning effects +of his descent--for he had, amongst other small matters, received a +violent contusion on the head--Johnny for an instant imagined that he +had somehow or other got to the bottom of the sea. Finding, however, at +length, that this was not precisely the case, he arose, though dripping +with wet, yet not very like a sea god, and having denuded himself of his +only garment, his shirt, crawled into his bed, where he now determined +to await quietly and patiently the fate that might be intended for him; +and this fate, he had no doubt, was suffocation by drowning. + +"Very extraordinar this," said Johnny Armstrong to himself, as he lay +musing in bed on the perilous situation into which he had so simply and +innocently got--"very extraordinar, that I couldna get the length o' +Brechin without a' this uproar, and confusion, and difficulty, and +danger; this knocking about frae place to place, half drooned and half +murdered. Here have I been now for mair than a week at it, and it's my +opinion I'm no twenty mile nearer't yet than I was, for a' this kick up. +Dear me," he went on soliloquizing, "I'm sure Brechin's no sic an out o' +the way place. The road's straught, and the distance no great. Then, +how, in the name o' wonder, is it that I canna mak' it out like ither +folk, let me do as I like?" + +Thus cogitated Johnny Armstrong as he lay on his bed of sickness, +sorrow, and danger. But his cogitations could in no way mend the matter, +nor, though they could, was he long permitted to indulge in them; for +that mortal sickness under which he had been before suffering, but which +the little incident of the visit from the wave, with its consequences, +had temporarily banished, again returned with tenfold vigour, making him +regardless of all sublunary things--even of life itself. In this state +of supineness and suffering did Johnny lie for three entire days and +nights--for so long did the storm continue with unabated fury--the +vessel having, for some four-and-twenty hours previously, been quite +unmanageable, and driving at the mercy of the winds and waves. A +dreadful crash, however, at length announced that some horrible crisis +was at hand. The vessel had struck, and, in a few seconds more, she was +in a thousand pieces, and her unfortunate crew, including Johnny +Armstrong, were struggling in the waves. From this instant he lost all +consciousness; and, when he again awoke to life, he found himself lying +on the sea-beach; but how he had come there he never could tell, nor +could he at all conjecture by what accident his life had been saved, +when all the rest in the ill-fated vessel had perished; for Johnny was +indeed the only person that had escaped. On coming to himself he started +to his feet, and gazed around him, with a bewildered look, to see if any +object would present itself that might help him to guess where he was. +But his survey affording him no such aid to recognition, he began to +move inland, in the hope of meeting with somebody who could give him +the information desired; and in this he was not disappointed, that is, +he did meet somebody; but the appearance of that somebody surprised +Johnny "pretty considerably." He had a high-crowned hat on, such as +Johnny had never seen in his life before; an enormous pair of breeches; +and a pipe a yard long in his mouth. His _tout ensemble_, in short, was +exceeding strange in Johnny Armstrong's eyes. Nevertheless, he accosted +him. + +"Can ye tell me, freen, how far I may be frae Brechin?" he inquired. + +The stranger shook his head, but made no reply. + +"I'm sayin', freen," repeated Johnny, in a louder tone, thinking that +his friend, as he called him, might possibly be dull of hearing, "can ye +tell me if I'm onything near Brechin?" + +The stranger again shook his head, but still said nothing. Johnny was +confounded. At length, however, after puffing away for some seconds with +a suddenly-increased energy, he slowly withdrew his pipe from his mouth, +and delivered himself of what sounded to Johnny's ears very much like +this, spoken with great rapidity. + +"Futra butara rap a ruara dutera muttera purra murra footra den, +Preekin, humph." + +Of this Johnny of course could make nothing, no more than the reader +can, further than recognising in the word "Preekin" a resemblance to the +name of the town he so anxiously inquired after; and he was sorely +perplexed thereat. Neither could he at all comprehend what sort of a +being he had fallen in with. + +"I dinna understan' a word o' what ye say, freen," at length said +Johnny, staring hard at the stranger with open mouth. + +"Umph!" said the latter; and he again withdrew his pipe from his mouth, +and again sent a volley of his "dutera mutteras" about Johnny's ears, +to precisely the same purpose as before. + +Finding that it was of no use making any further attempt at +conversation, Johnny passed on, not doubting that he had met either with +a _dummy_ or a madman. But what was Johnny's amazement when, shortly +afterwards, meeting a woman, whose dress, in its own way, was equally +odd and strange with that of the person he had just left, he was +answered (that is, to his queries again about Brechin), in the same +gibberish in which the former had responded to him. + +"What can be the meanin' o' this?" said Johnny to himself, in great +perplexity of mind, as he jogged on, after leaving the lady in the same +unsatisfactory way as he had left the gentleman. "Whar in a' the earth +can I hae gotten to, that naebody I meet wi' can understan' a word o' +plain English, or can speak themsels onything like an intelligible +language?" + +He now began to think that he had probably got into the Highlands; but, +although this supposition might account for the strangeness of the +language he had heard, it would not, he perceived, tally very well with +the enormous breeches which the gentleman he had met with wore, and +which he had seen from a distance others wearing, knowing, as he did +very well, that the national dress of the Highlanders was the kilt, of +which the trousers in question were the very antipodes. There was +another circumstance, too, that appeared to Johnny at variance with his +first conjecture, namely, that he might have got into the Highlands. +Where he was there were no high lands, not an eminence the height of a +mole-hill. On the contrary, the whole country, as far as his eye could +reach, seemed one vast plain. Though greatly puzzled by these +reflections, Johnny jogged on, and his progress at length brought him to +a respectable-looking farm-house. + +"'Od," said Johnny, "I'll surely get a mouthfu' o' sense frae somebody +here, an' fin' out whar I am." + +In this Johnny certainly did succeed; but not much to his comfort, as +the sequel will show. The first person he addressed, on approaching the +house, was a little girl, who, when he spoke, stared at him in the +greatest amazement, then rushed screaming into the house. This +proceeding brought out several young men and women, to whom Johnny now +addressed himself; but the only answer he obtained was a stare of +astonishment similar to the child's, and then a general burst of +laughter. At length one of the girls went into the house and brought out +a jolly-looking elderly man, who, from certain parts of his dress, +seemed to be in the seafaring way. + +"Vell, mine freend, vat you vant?" said this person, who spoke broken +English--"vere you come from?" + +"I cam last frae Alloa," said Johnny, "and I want to ken, sir, if I'm +onything near to Brechin?" + +"Preekin! Vere dat?" + +"'Od, I thocht everbody in Scotland kent that," said Johnny, smiling. + +"Ah! maybe Scotlan', mine freend, but no Hollands," replied he of the +broken English. + +"I dinna ken whether they ken't it in Holland or no," said Johnny, +"that's a country I'm no in the least acquaint wi'; but I'm sure it's +weel aneuch kent in Scotland." + +"Ah! maybe Scotlan', but no Hollands, my freend," repeated the man, +smiling in his turn; "but you vas in Hollands." + +"Never in my life," said Johnny, earnestly. + +"No, no," replied the man, impatiently, "you vas no in Hollands--but you +vas in Hollands." + +Johnny could make nothing of this; but it was soon cleared up by the +person adding, "You vas in Hollands _now_--dis moment." + +We will not even attempt to describe Johnny's amazement, horror, and +consternation, on this announcement being made to him, for we feel how +vain it would be, and how far short any idea we could convey would be of +the reality. + +"Holland!" said Johnny. "Heaven hae a care o' me! Ye surely dinna mean +to say that I'm in Holland the noo?" + +"To be sure I vas," said the Dutchman, smiling at Johnny's ludicrous +perturbation. "Mine Got, did you not know you vas in Hollands? Vere you +come from, in all de vorlds, you not know dat?" + +"I tell't ye already," replied Johnny, with a most rueful countenance, +"that I cam last frae Alloa. But ye're surely no in earnest, freen," he +added, in a desperate hope that it might, after all, be but a joke, +"when ye say that I'm in Holland?" + +"Ah! sure earneest--no doubt--true," said the Dutchman, now laughing +outright at Johnny's perplexity. + +As in the former case, we presume we need not be more explicit in saying +that Johnny had actually been wrecked on the coast of Holland. + +"Weel, weel," said the Brechin voyager, with an air expressive of more +calmness and resignation than might have been expected, "this does cowe +the gowan! How, in Heaven's name, am I ever to fin' my way hame again? +Little did I think I was ever to be landed this way amang savages." + +Johnny Armstrong, it will be here observed, could have been no great +reader--otherwise, he never would have applied the term savages to so +decent, industrious, and civilized a people as the Dutch. The Dutchman, +who was a kind, good-natured fellow--taking no offence whatever at +Johnny's unbecoming expression, because probably he did not understand +it, and compassionating his situation--now invited him into the house, +where Johnny, having succeeded in conveying to the whole household, +through the medium of the speaker of broken English, the story of his +misfortunes, was treated with much hospitality. With these kind people +Johnny Armstrong remained for about a week--for they would not allow him +to go sooner--when, having entirely recovered from the effects of his +sea voyage and shipwreck, he proceeded to Rotterdam; being accompanied +and assisted in all his movements by his benevolent host, Dunder Vander +Dunder, of Slootzsloykin. On arriving at Rotterdam, a passage was +engaged for Johnny on board one of the Leith packets, or regular +traders, in which he was next day snugly deposited; and, in an hour +after, he was again braving the dangers of the ocean. For some time all +went on well on this occasion with him, and he was beginning to feel +comfortable, and even happy, from the prospect of being soon again in +his native land, and from the superior accommodations of the vessel in +which he was embarked--far surpassing, as they did, those of the +unfortunate _Sisters_ of Skatehaven. His present ship was, in truth, a +remarkably fine one, and altogether seemed well adapted for encountering +the elements. The weather, too, was moderate, and the wind fair; so that +a quick and pleasant passage was confidently anticipated by all on +board, including Johnny Armstrong. All these agreeable circumstances +combined, made him feel extremely comfortable and happy; and, in the +exuberance of his feelings, and from the exciting sense of having at +length triumphed over his misfortunes--it might almost be said his +fate--Johnny even began to joke and laugh with those whom he found +willing to joke and laugh with him. It was while in this happy frame of +mind, and as he stood luxuriously leaning over the bulwark of the +vessel, that the captain suddenly espied a little, smart, cutter-looking +craft, sailing exactly in the same course with themselves, and +evidently endeavouring to make up with them. + +"What can the folk be wantin'?" quoth Johnny Armstrong, taking an +interest in the approaching barge. His question was one which nobody +could answer. In the meantime, the little vessel, moving with great +velocity, was fast nearing them, when the captain, now convinced that +those in her desired to have some communication with him, arrested his +own vessel's way, and awaited their coming. In a very few minutes, the +little cutter was alongside, and two men leapt from her to the deck of +the packet, when one of them, approaching the captain, told him that +they were messengers, that they had a warrant against John Jones, a +native of Britain, for debt, and that they had reason to believe he was +in the vessel. The captain said he did not believe he had any such +passenger on board, but informed them that they were perfectly at +liberty to search the ship. During this conversation, the other officer +kept his eye fixed on Johnny Armstrong, and when rejoined by his +comrade, seemed to inform him--for their language was not +understood--that there was something about that person well worthy of +his attention. They now both looked at Johnny, and appeared both +convinced that he was a fit subject for further inquiry. Accordingly one +of them addressed him:-- + +"Your name vas John Jones, mynheer?" + +"No, sir," said Johnny; "my name's John Armstrong." + +"Ah, a small shange--dat is all. You vas John, and he vas John, and you +be both John togidder; so, you must come to de shore wid us." + +"Catch me there, lads," quoth Johnny. "The deil a shore I'll gang to, +please Providence, but Leith shore. Na, na; I've had aneuch o' this +wark, and I'm determined to bring't till an' end noo." + +"Donner and blitzen!" shouted out one of the men, passionately, "but +you must go!"--at the same time seizing Johnny by the collar, and +drawing a pistol from his bosom. + +In utter amazement at this extraordinary treatment, Johnny Armstrong +imploringly called on the captain and the other passengers for +protection; but, as none of them were in the least acquainted with him, +and therefore did not know whether he was John Jones or not, they all +declined interfering--the captain saying that it would be more than his +ship and situation were worth to aid any one in resisting the laws of +the country--that he could not, dare not do it. His appeals, therefore, +to those around him being vain, he was eventually bundled into the +cutter and conveyed on shore, placed in a temporary place of confinement +for the night, and next day carried before a magistrate to be +identified. To effect this, several witnesses were called, when one and +all of them, after examining Johnny pretty narrowly, pronounced, to the +great disappointment of the officers who had apprehended him, that he +was _not_ the man! They, however, asserted that the resemblance between +the real and supposed John Jones was very remarkable. On the discovery +being made that the prisoner was not Jones, the magistrate apologized to +Johnny in the most polite terms for the trouble he had been put to, and +expressed great regret for the mistake of the officers; but said that, +as the witnesses had stated there was a strong resemblance--an +unfortunate one, he must call it--between him and the real defaulter, +and seeing, moreover, that they were both natives of Britain, the +officers were perfectly justified in doing what they had done, however +much the hardship of the case might be matter of regret. The magistrate +having thus delivered himself, Johnny Armstrong was dismissed with great +civility, and wished, by all present, safe home to his own country--a +wish in which he most heartily concurred, but which seemed to him more +easily entertained than gratified. On regaining his liberty, the first +thing he did was to endeavour to find out when the next ship sailed for +Scotland; he having, of course, lost that in which he had first +embarked, and, to his great consternation and dismay, learned that there +would be no vessel for a fortnight. This was sad intelligence to Johnny; +for, to add to his other distresses, his funds were now waxing low, and +he felt that it would require the utmost economy to enable him to spin +out the time and leave sufficient to pay his passage to his native land. +This economy he could very easily have practised at home, for he had a +natural tendency that way; but he did not know how to set about it in a +foreign country. His unhappiness and anxiety, therefore, on this point +were very great. In this dilemma, he bethought him of again seeking out +and quartering on his friend Vander Dunder, of Slootzsloykin, till the +vessel should sail; but not having, of course, a word of Dutch, he could +make no inquiries on the subject of his route, or indeed of anything +regarding his friend at all. This idea, therefore, he ultimately +abandoned, principally through a fear that he should, by some mistake, +be despatched upon a wrong scent, a species of disaster to which he was +now so sensitively alive, that he would neither turn to the right nor to +the left without having made himself perfectly sure that he was about to +take the right course; and, as to conveyances of all kinds, of which he +now entertained an especial suspicion, he had prudently determined that +he would know every particular about them and their destinations before +he would put a foot in one of them, for he had found, from dear-bought +experience, that if he did not take this precaution, the chance was that +he would never reach the place he desired to get at, and might be +whisked away to some unknown country, where he would never more be heard +of. + +Under this wholesome terror, Johnny made no attempt to find out his +friend Vander Dunder; but chance effected, in part at least, what his +limited knowledge of Dutch put it out of his power, with set purpose, to +accomplish. On turning the corner of a street, who should he have the +good fortune to meet with but Vander Dunder. The astonishment of the +good Dutchman on seeing Johnny was great, so great, indeed, as to +overcome the natural phlegm of his constitution. Holding up his hands in +amazement-- + +"Mine Got, my freend! are you shipwrack agen?" he exclaimed. + +"No, no," quoth Johnny--"bad aneuch, but no just sae bad as that." And +he proceeded to inform his friend of the real state of the case. + +The good-natured Dutchman was shocked at the recital, and felt ten times +more than ever for Johnny's unhappy situation and complicated +misfortunes. When he had concluded his affecting story-- + +"I tell you what you do, mine goot freend," said Vander Dunder--"you go +vith me to Slootzsloykin, and you remain vith me dere till your ship +sail. You do dat, mine goot freend." + +"Wi' a' my heart," said Johnny, "and muckle obleeged to ye for yer +kindness." + +"No, no--no obleege at all," replied the kind-hearted Dutchman, +impatiently. "Yo do the same to me in your coontry if I was shipwrack +and in misfortune, and put to trooble for an innocent thief." + +"Aweel, maybe I wad; but, nevertheless, its kind o' you to offer me the +shelter o' yer roof," replied Johnny. + +Dunder Vander Dunder now took his friend into a tavern, and treated him +to a glass of schnaps. Shortly thereafter the two embarked in a canal +boat for Slootzsloykin, where they finally arrived in safety. Here +Johnny met with the same kind treatment as before; and of that kindness +there was no abatement during the whole fortnight of his sojourn. At the +end of this period, Johnny Armstrong once more set out for Rotterdam, on +the day previous to the sailing of the vessel in which he now hoped to +reach his native land, without further molestation or interruption. And, +certainly, everything had the appearance of going right on this +occasion. The vessel, with Johnny on board, sailed at the appointed +time, and, before embarking, he had read distinctly on the ticket--a +large black board, with yellow letters, which was fastened to the +shrouds--that she was bound for Leith, and was the identical vessel he +had had in his eye. So far as this went, there could be no mistake +whatever. There was, indeed, one little circumstance that startled +Johnny, but which he had not discovered till the vessel had been some +time at sea. This was, that all the crew were Dutchmen, there not being +a Scotchman amongst them. The circumstance did not, indeed, greatly +alarm Johnny, but he certainly did think it a little odd; for he +naturally expected that, as she was a Leith vessel, her crew would be, +for the most part, at any rate, natives of Britain. However, he made no +remarks on the subject, thinking it, as it really was, a matter of +perfect indifference whether they were Scotchmen or Dutchmen. There were +two or three passengers in the vessel besides himself; but they were all +foreigners too, so that he could hold no converse with any of them; and +thus debarred from intercourse with his fellow voyagers, he sat by +himself, gazing from the deck of the vessel on the waste of waters with +which he was surrounded, and musing on the strange series of mishaps of +which he had so simply and innocently become the victim. It was while +thus employed--the vessel having been now a good many hours at sea, and +at the moment scudding away before a fine fresh breeze--that the captain +approached Johnny, and in very polite and civil terms, demanded his +passage money. As he spoke in Dutch, however, the latter did not +understand him. The captain observing this, and now guessing what +countryman he was, addressed him in very good English, and in that +language repeated his demand. With this demand, Johnny instantly +complied; and, finding that he was a civil, good-natured fellow, began +to open up a little conversation with him. His first remark was, that he +hoped they would have good weather. The captain hoped so too. His second +remark was, that they had a fine breeze. The captain agreed with +him--said it was a delightful breeze--and added that, if it continued to +blow as it then blew for four-and-twenty hours, he expected they would +be all safe at _Rouen_! + +"At whar?" shouted out Johnny, looking aghast at the speaker. + +"At Rouen, to be sure," repeated the captain, wondering at Johnny's +amazement. + +"Gude's mercy!" exclaimed Johnny, with dreadful energy, "are ye no gaun +to Leith?--is this no a Leith boat?" + +"Oh, no," said the captain smiling; "this is the Rouen packet. Were ye +not aware of that, sir? You have got into a sad scrape, my friend, if +you were not," he added, and now laughing outright at the dismal +expression of Johnny's countenance. + +"Heaven hae a care o' me!" said Johnny despairingly. "Did I no read +distinctly on the ticket that was fastened to yer shroods, that ye were +bound for Leith?" + +"Yes, yes," replied the captain, "you may have seen such a ticket as you +speak of, and there was certainly such a ticket on our shrouds as you +say, but it did not refer to this ship, but to the vessel outside of us. +We allowed the board to be exhibited on our shrouds merely to +accommodate our neighbour, as it could not be read from his--he being on +the outside, and we next the quay. That, my friend, is a piece of +civility very commonly practised at seaports by one vessel to another, +when similarly situated as we and they were. You will see it at all +quays and wharfs." + +Johnny Armstrong groaned, but said nothing. At length, however, he +muttered, in a tone of Christian-like resignation-- + +"The Lord's will be dune! I see it's settled that I am never to get hame +again; but to be keepit gaun frae place to place ower the face o' the +earth, like anither wanderin' Jew. Gude hae a care o' me, but this is +awfu'! Its judgment like." + +It certainly was very remarkable, but not in the least mysterious. This +new mistake of Johnny, like all the rest, was a perfectly simple +occurrence; and, like them, too, arose as plainly and naturally out of +circumstances as it was possible for any effect to do from a cause. But, +however, this may be, the captain--although he could not help laughing +at the awkward predicament of his passenger--really felt for him, seeing +the distress he was in, and was so much influenced by this feeling as to +offer to convey him back to Rotterdam, to which, he said, he would +return in two days, free of any charge; adding, with a smile, and with +the kind intention of reconciling Johnny to what could not now be +helped, that it was nothing, after all--that it would make a difference +of only a few days--and that it would be always showing him a little +more of the world. + +"Mony thanks to ye," said Johnny, perceiving and appreciating the +friendly purpose of the captain; "and I'll e'en tak advantage o' yer +kind offer; but as to seein' the world, by my faith, I've seen now about +just as muckle o't as I want to see, and maybe a trifle mair--a hantle +mair, at ony rate, than I ever expected to see." Then, in a +soliloquizing tone and manner--"God keep me, whar's Brechin noo! A' that +I wanted, and a' that I intended, was to get to that bit paltry place; +and, instead o' that, here am I within a stane-cast o' the north pole, +for aught I ken to the contrar, and, to a' appearances, no half dune +wi't yet. Heaven kens whar I'll be sent niest!--maybe be landed on +Owhyhee, or on some desert island, like another Robinson Crusoe. Na, +it's certain, if things gang on muckle langer this way." + +Of the drift or scope of these remarks, or, at any rate, of the feelings +that dictated them, the captain could make nothing, not knowing Johnny's +precise circumstances; nor did he seek to have them explained, but +contented himself with repeating his offer of conveying Johnny back to +Rotterdam, and renewing his well-meant efforts to reconcile him to his +fate, in so far as his present voyage was concerned. In the meantime, +the wind continued to blow in a manner perfectly satisfactory in every +respect to all on board the _Jungfrau_ of Rotterdam and Rouen; and, in +about the space of time mentioned by the captain, the vessel reached her +destination in safety. Johnny Armstrong, whose whole mind was absorbed +by anxiety to reach that home which he yet seemed destined never again +to see, took no interest whatever in the scenes presented to him in the +part of the world he was now in. Indeed, he never left the vessel at +all, for fear she would slip through his fingers; for, if he was afraid +of accidents of this kind before, he was ten times more so now; and, +with this fear upon him, that the packet might, by some chance or other, +escape him, he determined to stick by her--never to lose sight of her +for a moment, till she had conveyed him back to Rotterdam; and his +vigilance ultimately secured the end he had in view. The _Jungfrau_ +sailed from Rouen with Johnny on board, and, in due time, deposited him +once more at Rotterdam. But what was Johnny's surprise, what Dunder +Vander Dunder's amazement, when they again encountered one another, and +that within ten minutes of the former's landing! The amazement of the +latter, however, was, on this occasion, evidently mingled with a degree +of suspicion of the perfect uprightness of Johnny's character. He began +now to think, in short, that there had been more in the circumstance of +Johnny's apprehension than he had been informed of. He did not like +these frequent reappearances; he thought them very odd--and he did not +hesitate to say so. + +"Mine Got! vat you here again for, man? Vat is de meaning of all dis, +mine goot freend?" he exclaimed, with a somewhat dry and doubtful +manner, quite at variance with the cordial tone of his former greetings. + +Johnny Armstrong explained to him, but seemingly without obtaining +implicit credence for all he said. When he had done-- + +"'Tis veree odd," said Vander Dunder, coldly; "veree straunge. But, you +really vant to go to Scotlan, dere is vessel going to sail for Leet now, +and I vill see you on board mineself." + +It was very questionable whether Vander's civility, in this case, +proceeded from a desire really to serve Johnny, or from a wish to get +fairly rid of him. However this might be, Johnny readily accepted his +offer, and at once accompanied him to the vessel he alluded to, which +was, indeed, on the point of sailing. Vander, taking care that there +should be no mistake in this case, conducted him down into the cabin, +and waited on the quay till he saw the vessel fairly under weigh. + +Having brought the disasters of Johnny Armstrong to this point, we +proceed now to finish what we assure our readers, is an "ower true +tale." + +As we were strolling down the pier of Leith, with a friend, one +afternoon in the year 18--, we saw a vessel making for the harbour. It +was high water, and the scene altogether was a very pleasing and a very +stirring one. But, amongst the various objects of interest that +presented themselves, there was none that attracted so much of our +attention as the stately vessel that, with outspread canvas, was rapidly +nearing the pier. We asked a seaman who stood beside us, where she was +from. He replied--"Rotterdam." + +On approaching the pier, the vessel shortened sail, and, by this +process, enabled us deliberately to scan her decks from our elevated +position, as she glided gently along with us. During this scrutiny, we +observed amongst the passengers a stout little man in a brown greatcoat, +with a large red comforter about his neck, and his hat secured on his +head--for it was blowing pretty hard--by a blue pocket-handkerchief, +which was passed beneath his chin, and gave him, in a very particular +manner, the peculiar air of a traveller or _voyageur_. There was nothing +whatever in the appearance of the little man in the brown greatcoat +which would have led any one to suppose, _a priori_, that there possibly +could be anything remarkable or extraordinary in his history; but I was +induced suddenly to change my opinion, or at least to take some interest +in him, by my friend's exclaiming, in the utmost amazement, and, at the +same time, pointing to him with the red comforter-- + +"Gracious Heaven, if there is not Johnny Armstrong! Or it is his ghost!" + +"No ghost at all, we warrant you," said we; "ghosts do not generally +wear greatcoats and red comforters. But who in all the world is Johnny +Armstrong?" + +"Johnny Armstrong," replied our friend, greatly excited, "is a person, a +particular acquaintance of mine, who has been missing these six weeks; +and who was supposed, by everybody who knew him, to have perished by +some accident or other, but of what nature could never be ascertained, +on his way to Brechin, where he had gone to visit some relations." + +We felt interested in Johnny, by this brief sketch of his mysterious +story; and, not a little curious to know where on earth he could +possibly have been all the time, we readily closed with our friend's +proposal to run round to the berth for which we saw the vessel was +making, and to await his coming on shore. + +"But how, in all the world," said our friend, communing with himself +during this interval, "has he got into a vessel from Rotterdam? He could +not have been there, surely? It's impossible." + +As to this we could say nothing, not knowing at the time anything at all +of Johnny's adventures; but of these we were not now long kept in +ignorance. On his stepping on shore, our friend seized him joyously by +the hand, and expressed great satisfaction at seeing him again. This +satisfaction appeared to be mutual; for Johnny returned his friend's +grasp with great cordiality and warmth. The first salutations over-- + +"But where on all the earth, Mr. Armstrong," said our friend, "have you +been for these three months back?" + +Johnny smiled, and said it was "ower lang a tale" to tell where we then +were; but, as he meant to stop either in Leith or Edinburgh for the +night, it being now pretty far in the evening, if my friend and I would +adjourn with him to some respectable house, where he could get a night's +quarters, he would give us the whole story of his adventures. With this +proposal we readily closed; and on Johnny asking if we could point out +such a house as he alluded to, we at once named the New Ship Tavern. +Thither we accordingly repaired; and, in less than two hours thereafter, +we were put, good reader, in possession, by Johnny himself, of that part +of his story to which the preceding pages have been devoted. What +follows--for Johnny's misfortunes had not yet terminated--we learned +afterwards from another quarter. + +On the next day--we mean the day succeeding the evening we spent with +Johnny--the latter proceeded to Edinburgh, with the view of taking +coach there for Carlisle. But, in making his way up Catherine Street, +and when precisely opposite No. 12, Calton Street--we like to be +particular--Johnny found himself suddenly accosted by one of his oldest +and most intimate friends. This was a Mr. James Stevenson, a +fellow-townsman and fellow-shopkeeper of his own. + +The astonishment of the latter, on meeting with Johnny, and, indeed, of +finding him at all in the land of the living, was very great; and he +sufficiently expressed this feeling by the lively and highly excited +manner in which he addressed him. + +Having put the usual queries, with that air of intense interest which +they naturally excited, as to where Johnny had been, what he had been +about, &c. &c., and having obtained a brief sketch of his adventures, +with the promise of a fuller one afterwards, Mr. Stevenson, in reply, +asked Johnny what course he was now steering. + +"Hame, to be sure," said Johnny, with a smile. "It's time noo, I +think--I'm just sae far on my way to tak' oot a ticket for the coach." + +"Ye needna do that unless ye like," replied Johnny's friend. "Ye may +save your siller, and no be abune an hour langer tarried, by takin' a +seat wi' me in the gig I hae in wi' me. I'm sure ye're welcome, and I'll +be blythe o' your company." + +"Hae ye a gig in wi' ye?" said Johnny, looking pleased by the +intelligence. + +"'Deed hae I, Mr. Armstrong, and ye'll just clink down beside me in't." + +"I'll do that wi' great thankfu'ness," replied Johnny, "and muckle +obleeged by the offer." + +The friends now walked away, arm in arm together; and in about two hours +afterwards--Mr. Stevenson having, in the meantime, despatched what +business he had to do in the city--they were both, seated in the gig, +and birring it on merrily towards Carlisle. + +Neither Mr. Stevenson nor Johnny, however, were great whips--a +deficiency which was by no means compensated for by the circumstance of +their having a rather spirited horse, although blind of an eye. He was, +in truth, a very troublesome animal; boggling and shying at everything +that presented itself to his solitary optic. Notwithstanding this, the +travellers got on very well for a time, and were whirling over the +ground at a rapid rate, when an unlucky cart of hay came in their way at +a narrow turn of the road. How this simple occurrence should have +operated so unfavourably as it did for them, we shall explain. + +A cart of hay is not a very alarming object to rational creatures like +ourselves, but to the one-eyed horse of the travellers it appeared a +very serious affair; for it had no sooner presented itself to his +solitary organ of vision than he pricked up his ears, snorted furiously, +and began to exhibit sundry other symptoms of disquietude. By dint, +however, of some well-directed punishment from Jamie Stevenson's whip, +which Johnny increased by an energetic application of his stick, the +restive animal was brought _up_ to the waggon of hay; but, for some +time, the inducements just mentioned failed to prevail on him to _pass_ +it. + +At length, however, Johnny having added greatly to the vigour of his +blows with his stick, and his neighbour to that of his strokes with the +whip, the horse _did_ pass the waggon, and that with a vengeance. Taking +heart, or rather becoming desperate, he bolted past it with the rapidity +of a cannon shot; and not only this, but when he had cleared it, +continued the velocity of his movements with unabated energy, to the +great discomfort and no small terror of both Johnny and his companion, +who now found themselves going at a rate which they had neither +anticipated nor desired. Indeed, this was so very great that both +directly saw that something was wrong. Both saw, in short, what was, +indeed, too true, that the horse had fairly run away with them; for he +was now going like the wind, with fury and distraction in his looks. It +was a shocking and most dreadfully alarming affair; and so Johnny and +his friend felt it to be, as might be distinctly seen by their +horror-stricken faces. + +On discovering the predicament they were in, both the travellers--the +one dropping his whip, and the other his stick--seized on the reins, and +began pulling with all their might, in the desperate hope of checking +the animal's speed by main force; Johnny, in his terror, exclaiming the +while, distractedly-- + +"Mair o't yet, mair o't yet! Lord have a care o' me, but this is awfu'! +This is waur than onything I hae met wi' yet. Waur than the _Fifteen +Sisters_, Dutchmen, and a'. God be wi' us! are my misfortunes never to +hae an end, till they hae finished me outricht? Am I never to get safe +to either ae place or anither?--either to hame or to Brechin? Surely ane +o' them might be permitted to me. O, Jamie, see hoo he's gaun! He doesna +seem to fin' us at his hurdies, nae mair than if we war a pair o' +preencushions." + +This was true enough. The horse in his fury did not indeed seem to feel +either them or the vehicle they were seated in, but pushed madly +onwards, till he came to where the road divided itself into two distinct +roads--the one being the right one, and the other, of course, the +wrong--when, as if inspired by Johnny's evil genius, he at once took the +latter, and in little more than twenty minutes, had him and his friend +fully half as many miles out of their way. Now, however, the catastrophe +was to be wound up. A milestone caught one of the wheels of the gig, +canted it over, and threw Johnny sprawling on the road with a broken +leg; his friend, although also thrown, escaping wholly unhurt. + +"Aweel, here it's at last," said Johnny, sitting up in the mud amongst +which he had been planted, and fully believing that his injuries were +fatal. "Here it's at last. I'm clean dune for noo, after a' my escapes. +It may be noo plainly seen, I think," he went on, "that some evil spirit +has had me in its power, for these six weeks past at ony rate, and has +been gowfin' me about the world like a fitba', to kill me wi' a gig at +last." + +Luckily, Johnny's injuries did not prove so serious as he had feared +they would do; and no less fortunate was it that the accident to which +they were owing happened not far from a small country town in which +there was a resident surgeon. To the latter place Johnny was immediately +removed on a temporary bier, hastily constructed for the purpose by some +labouring men who chanced to be near the spot where the accident +happened, and there he lay for six entire weeks, when the surgeon above +alluded to, and who had attended him all that time, intimated to him +that he might now venture to return home. Delighted with the +intelligence, Johnny instantly acted on it, and next day entered +Carlisle triumphantly in a post-chaise--not looking, nor really being, +after all, much the worse for his unprecedented adventures, save and +except a lameness in the injured limb, which ever after imparted to his +movements the graceful up-and-down motion produced by that peculiar +longitudinal proportion of the nether limbs, designated by the +descriptive definition of "a short leg and a shorter." Having, with this +last occurrence, concluded the story of Johnny's disasters, we have only +to add that Johnny has never, to this good hour, got the length of +Brechin--nor will, he says, ever again make the attempt. + + + + +THE PROFESSOR'S TALES.[4] +THE MOUNTAIN STORM. + +[4] The author of these stories (to be continued), the well-known +Professor Thomas Gillespie, was one of the principal writers in +_Blackwood_ during the "storm and stress" period of that magazine. As an +author, his peculiarity consisted in vivid descriptions of scenery and +incidents coming within the range of a very eccentric experience, all +given with a versatility and _abandon_ which he could not restrain, and +which, being the reflex of a poetical enthusiasm, formed the charm of +his writings.--_Ed._ + + +Packman _loquitur_.--For several days the wind had been easterly, with +an intense frost. At last, however, the weather subsided into a calm and +dense fog, under which, at mid-day, it was difficult to find one's way +amidst those mountain tracks along which, in general, my route lay. The +grass and heath were absolutely loaded with hoar-frost. My cheeks became +encompassed by a powdered covering; my breath was intensely visible, and +floated and lingered about my face with an oppressive and almost +suffocating density. No sun, moon, or star had appeared for upwards of +forty-eight hours; when, according to my preconcerted plan, I reached +the farm town of Burnfoot. I was now in the centre of Queensberry Hills, +the most notable sheep-pasturage in the south of Scotland. It was about +three o'clock of the fifteenth day of January, when, under a cheerful +welcome from the guidwife, I rested my pack (for, be it known, I belong +to this class of peripatetic merchants) upon the meal ark, disengaged my +arms from the leather straps by which the pack was suspended from my +shoulders, and proceeded to light my pipe at the blazing peat-fire. +Refreshments, such as are best suited to the _packman's drouth_, were +soon and amply supplied, and I had the happiness of seeing my old +acquaintances (for I visited Burnfoot twice a year, on my going and +coming from Glasgow to Manchester) drop _in_ from their several +avocations, one after another, and all truly rejoiced to behold my face, +and still more delighted to inspect the treasure and the wonders of "the +pack." At last the guidman himself suspended his plaid from the mid-door +head, put off his shoes and leggings, assumed his slippers, along with +his prescriptive seat at the head or upper end of the lang-settle. The +guidwife, returning _butt_ from bedding the youngest of some half-score +of children, welcomed her husband with a look of the most genuine +affection. She put a little creepie stool under his feet, felt that his +clothes were not wet, scolded the dogs to a respectful distance, and +inspired the peats into a double blaze. The oldest daughter, now "woman +grown," sat combing the hoar-frost from her raven locks, and looking out +from beneath beautifully arched and bushy eyebrows upon the interesting +addition which had been made to the meal-ark. Some half-a-score of +healthy lads and lasses occupied the bench ayont the fire, o'er-canopied +by sheep-skins, aprons, stockings, and footless hose. The dogs, after +various and somewhat noisy differences had been adjusted, fell into +order and position around the hearth, enjoying the warmth, and licking, +peacefully and carefully, the wet from their sides. The cat, by this +time, had made a returning motion from the cupboard head, from which she +had been watching the arrangements and movements beneath. As this +appeared to "Help" to be an infringement of the terms of armistice and +of the frontier laws, he sprang with eagerness over the hearth. Pussy, +finding it dangerous, under this sudden and somewhat unexpected +movement, "_dare terga_," instantly drew up her whole body into an +attitude not only of defence, but defiance; curving herself into a +bristling crescent, with the head of a dragon attached to it, and, with +one horrid hiss and sputter, compelled Help first to hesitate and then +to retreat. + + "Three paces back the youth retired, + And saved himself from harm." + +The guidwife, however,--who seemed not unaccustomed to such +demonstrations, and who manifestly acted on the humane principle of +assisting the weaker by assailing the stronger combatant--gave Help such +demonstrations of her intentions, as at once reduced matters to the +_status quo ante bellum_. (I have as good a right to scholarship as my +brother packman, Plato, who carried oil to Egypt.) Thus peace and good +order being restored, the treasures of my burden became an immediate and +a universal subject of inquiry. I was compelled, nothing loath, to +unstrap my various packages, and disclose to view all the varied +treasures of the spindle and loom. Shawls were spread out into enormous +display, with central, and corner, and border ornaments, the most +amazing and the most fashionable; waistcoat pieces of every stripe and +figure, from the straight line to the circle, of every hue and colouring +which the rainbow exhibits, were unfolded in the presence and under the +scrutinizing thumb of many purchasers. The guidwife herself half coaxed +and half scolded a fine remnant of Flanders lace, of most tempting +aspect, out of the guidman's reluctant pocket. The very dogs seemed +anxious to be accommodated, and applied their noses to some unopened +bales, with a knowing look of inquiry. Things were proceeding in this +manner, when the door opened, and there entered a young man of the most +prepossessing appearance; in fact, what Burns terms a "strapping youth." +I could observe that, at his entrance, the daughter's eye (of whom I +have formerly made mention) immediately kindled into an expression of +the most universal kindness and benevolence. Hitherto she had taken but +a limited interest in what was going on; but now she became the most +prominent figure in the group--whilst the mother dusted a chair for the +welcome stranger with her apron, and the guidman welcomed him with a-- + +"Come awa, Willie Wilson, an' tak a seat. The nicht's gay dark an' +dreary. I wonder how ye cleared the Whitstane Cleugh and the Side Scaur, +man, on sic an eerie nicht." + +"Indeed," responded the stranger, casting a look, in the meantime, +towards the guidman's buxom, and, indeed, lovely daughter--"indeed, it's +an unco fearfu' nicht--sic a mist and sic a cauld I hae seldom if ever +encountered; but I dinna ken hoo it was--I coulda rest at hame till I +had tellt ye a' the news o' the last Langhom market." + +"Ay, ay," interrupted the guidwife; "the last Langhom market, man, is an +auld tale noo, I trow. Na, na, yer mither's son camna here on sic a +nicht, and at sic an hour, on sic an unmeaning errand"--finishing her +sentence, however, by a whisper into Willie's ear, which brought a +deeper red into his cheek, and seemed to operate in a similar manner on +the apparently deeply engaged daughter. + +"But, Watty," continued my fair purchaser, "you _must_ give me this +Bible a little cheaper--it's ower dear, man--heard ever onybody o' five +white shillings gien for a Bible, and it only a New Testament, after +a'?--it's baith a sin an' a shame, Watty." + +After some suitable reluctance, I was on the point of reducing the price +by a single sixpence, when Willie Wilson advanced towards the pack, and +at once taking up the book and the conversation-- + +"Ower dear, Jessie, my dear!--it's the word o' God, ye ken--his ain +precious word; and I'll e'en mak ye a present o' the book at Watty's ain +price. Ye ken he maun live, as we a' do, by his trade." + +The money was instantly paid down from a purse pretty will filled; for +William Wilson was the son of a wealthy and much respected sheep-farmer +in the neighbourhood, and had had his name _once_ called in the kirk, +along with that of "Janet Harkness of Burnfoot, both in this parish." + +"Hoot noo, bairns," rejoined the mother; "ye're baith wrang--that Bible +winna do ava. Ye maun hae a big ha' Bible to take the buik wi', and +worship the God o' yer fathers nicht and morning, as they hae dune afore +ye; and Watty will bring ye ane frae Glasgow the next time he comes +roun'; and it will, maybe, be usefu', ye ken, in _anither way_." + +"Tout, mither, wi' yer nonsense," interrupted the conscious bride; "I +never liked to see my name and age marked and pointed out to onybody on +oor muckle Bible; sae just haud yer tongue, mither, and tak a present +frae William and _me_," added she, blushing deeply, "o' that big printed +Testament. The minister, ye ken, seldom meddles wi' the auld Bible, +unless it be a bit o' the Psalms; and yer een noo are no sae gleg as +they were whan ye were married to my father there." + +The father, overcome by this well-timed and well-directed evidence of +goodness, piety, and filial affection, rose from his seat on the +long-settle, and, with tears in his eyes, pronounced a most fervent +benediction over the shoulders of his child. + +"O God in heaven, bless and preserve my dear Jessie!" said he--his +child's tears now falling fast and faster. "Oh, may the God of thy +fathers make thee happy--thee and thine--him there and his!--and when +thy mother's grey hairs and mine are laid and hid in the dust, mayest +thou have children, such as thy fond and dutiful self, to bless and +comfort, to rejoice and support thy heart!" + +There was not, by this time, a dry eye in the family; and, as a painful +silence was on the point of succeeding to this outbreaking of nature, +the venerable parent slowly and deliberately took down the big ha' Bible +from its bole in the wall, and, placing it on the lang-settle table, he +proceeded to family worship with the usual solemn prefatory +annunciation--"Let us worship God." + +Love, filial affection, and piety--what a noble, what a beautiful +triumvirate! By means of these, Scotland has rendered herself +comparatively great, independent, and happy. These are the graces which, +in beautiful union, have protected her liberties, sweetened her +enjoyments, and exalted her head amongst the nations, and which, over +all, have cast an expression and a feature irresistibly winning and +nationally characteristic. It is over such scenes as the kitchen +fireside of Burnfoot now presented, that the soul hovers with +ever-awakening and ever-intenser delight; that even amidst the coldness, +and unconcern, and irreligion of an iron age, the mind, at least at +intervals, is redeemed into ecstasy, and feels, in spite of habit, and +example, and deadened apprehensions, that there is a beauty in pure and +virgin love, a depth in genuine and spontaneous filial regard, and an +impulse in communion with Him that is most high, which, even when taken +separately, are hallowing, sacred, and elevating; but which, when +blended and softened down into one great and leading feature, prove +incontestably that man is, in his origin and unalloyed nature, but a +little lower than the angels. + +Such was the aspect of matters in this sequestered and sanctified +dwelling, when the house seemed, all at once, to be smitten, like Job's, +at the four corners. The soot fell in showers into the grate; the +rafters creaked; the dust descended; every door in the house rattled on +its sneck and hinges; and the very dogs sprung at once from their +slumbers and barked. There was something so awful in the suddenness and +violence of the commotion, that the prayer was abruptly and suddenly +brought to a conclusion. + +"Ay, fearfu', sirs!" were John Harkness' first words when springing to +his feet; "but there's an awfu' nicht. Open the outer door, Jamie, and +let us see what it is like." The outer door was opened; but the drift +burst in with such a suffocating swirl, that a strong lad who +encountered it, reeled and gasped for breath. + +"The hogs!" exclaimed the guidman, "and the gimmers!--where did ye leave +them, Jamie?" + +"In Capleslacks," was the answer, "by east the Dod. The wind has set in +frae the nor'-east, and fifty score o' sheep, if this continue, will +never see the mornin'." + +But what was to be done? + + "The wind blew as 'twould blawn its last," + +and the whole atmosphere was one almost solid wreath of penetrating +snow; when you thrust forth your hand into the open air, it was as if +you had perforated an iceberg. Burnfoot stands at the convergence of two +mountain glens, adown one of which the tempest came as from a +funnel--collected, compressed, irresistible. There was a momentary look +of suspense--every one eying the rest with an expression of indecision +and utter helplessness. The young couple, by some law of affinity, stood +together in a corner. The shepherd lads, with Jamie Hogg at their head, +were employed in adjusting plaids to their persons. The guidman had +already resumed his leggings, and the dogs were all exceedingly +excited--amazed at this unexpected movement, but perfectly resolved to +do their duty. + +"Jamie," said the guidman, "you and I will try to mak oor way by the +Head Scaur to Capleyetts, where the main hirsel was left; and Will, Tam, +and Geordie will see after the hogs and gimmers ayont the Dod." + +"I, too," exclaimed a voice from the corner, over which, however, a fair +hand was pressed, and which was therefore but indistinctly heard--"I +will--(canna ye let me speak, Jessie!)--I will not, I shall not be left +behind--I will accompany the guidman, and do what I can to seek and to +save." + +"Indeed and indeed, my dear William, ye can do nae guid--ye dinna ken +the grun' like my faither; and there's mony a kittle step forbye the +Head Scaur; and, the Lord be wi' us! on sic a nicht too." So saying, she +clasped her betrothed firmly around the neck, and absolutely compelled +him to relinquish his purpose. Having gained this one object, the fair +and affectionate bride rushed across the room to her father, and falling +down on her knees, grasped him by the legs, and exclaimed-- + +"O mither, mither! come and help me--come and help me! faither, my dear +faither, let Jamie Hogg gang, and the rest; they are young, ye ken, and +as weel acquant as yersel' wi' the ly o' the glens! but this is no a +nicht for the faither o' a family to risk his life to save his +substance. O faither, faither! I am soon, ye ken, to leave you and bonny +Burnfoot--grant me, oh, grant me this one, this last request!" + +The mother sat all this while wringing her hands and exclaiming-- + +"Ay, ay, Jenny, get him to stay, get him to stay!" + +The father answered not a word, but, making a sign to Hogg, and +whistling on Help, and at the same time kissing his _now_ all but +fainting child, he rushed out of the door (as Mrs. Harkness said) "like +a fey man," and he and his companion, with a suitable accompaniment of +dogs, were almost instantly invisible. The three other lads, suitably +armed and accompanied, followed the example set to them, and the +guidwife, the two lovers, five or six younger branches, and the female +servants of the family, with myself, remained at home in a state of +anxiety and suspense which can be better conceived than expressed. + + "The varnished clock that clicked behind the door," + +with a force and a stroke loud and painful in the extreme, struck first +ten, then eleven, then twelve; but there was no return. Again and again +were voices heard commingling with the tempest's rush; again and again +did the outer door seem to move backwards on its hinges; but nothing +entered save the shrill pipe of the blast, accompanied by the comminuted +drift, which penetrated through every seam and cranny. This state of +uncertainty was awful; even the ascertained reality of death, partial or +universal, had perhaps less of soul-benumbing cold in it than this +inconceivable suspense. It required Willie Wilson's utmost efforts and +mine to keep the frantic woman from madly rushing into the drift; and +the voice of lamentation was sad and loud amongst the children and the +servant lasses--each of the latter class lamented, indeed, the fate of +all, but there was always an under prayer offered up for the safety of +Geordie, or Will, or Jamie, in particular. At last the three lads who +had encompassed the Dod arrived--alive, indeed, but almost breathless +and frozen to death. They had, however, surmounted incredible +difficulties, and had succeeded in placing their hirsel in a position of +comparative security; but where were Jamie Hogg and the guidman? The +violence of the storm had nothing abated, the snow was every moment +accumulating, and the danger and difficulty increasing tenfold. Spirits, +heat, and friction gradually restored the three lads to their senses, +and to the kind attentions of their several favourites of the female +order; but _there_ sat the mother and the daughter, whilst the father +was either, in all probability, dead or dying. The very thought was +distracting; and, accordingly, the young bride, now turning to her lover +with a look of inexpressible anguish, exclaimed-- + +"O Willie! my ain dear Willie, ye maun gang, after a', ye maun gang this +instant," (Willie was on his feet and plaided whilst yet the sentence +was unfinished,) "and try to rescue my dear, dear faither from this +awfu' and untimely end; but tak care, oh tak care o' the big Scaur, and +keep far west by Caplecleuch, and maybe ye'll meet them coming back that +way." These last words were lost in the drift, whilst Willie Wilson, +with his faithful follower, Rover, were penetrating, and flouncing, and +floundering their way towards the place pointed out. + +In about half an hour after this, the howl and scratch of a dog were +heard at the door-back, and Help immediately rushed in, the welcome +forerunner of his master and Hogg. They had, indeed, had a fearful +struggle, and fearful wanderings; but, in endeavouring to avoid the +dangerous, because precipitous, Head Scaur, they had wandered from the +track, and from the object of their travel; and, after having been +inclined once or twice to lie down and take a rest (the deceitful +messenger of death), they had at last got upon the track of Caple Water; +and, by keeping to its windings--which they had often traced at the risk +of being drowned--they had at last weathered the old cham'er, the byre, +and peat-stack, and were now, thank God! within "bigget wa's." + +But where, alas! was Willie Wilson? Him, in consequence of their +deviations, they had missed; and over him, thus exposed, the tempest was +still renewing at intervals its hurricane gusts. There was one scream +heard, such as would have penetrated the heart of a tiger, and all was +still. There she lay, the beauteous, but now marble bride; her head +reposing on her mother's lap, her lips pale as the snowdrop, her eyes +fixed and soulless, her cheek without a tint, and her mouth half-open +and breathless. Long, long was the withdrawment--again and again was the +dram-glass applied to the mouth, to catch the first expiration of +returning breath--ere the frame began to quiver, the hands to move, the +lips and cheeks to colour, and the eyes to indicate the approaching +return to reason and perception. + +"I have killed him! I have killed him!" were the first frantic accents. +"I have murdered, murdered my dear Willie! It was me that sent +him--forced him--compelled him out--out into the drift--the cold, cold +drift. Away!" added the maniac--"away! I'll go after him--I'll perish +with him--where he lies, there will I lie, and there will I be buried. +What! is there none of ye that will make an effort to save a +perishing--a choking--oh, my God! a suffocating man?" + +Hereupon she again sank backwards, and was prevented from falling by the +arms of a father. + +"O my child!" said parental love and affection--"O my dear wean!--oh, be +patient!--God is guid--He has preserved _us_ all--He will not desert +_him_ in the hour of his need--He neither slumbers nor sleeps--His hand +is not shortened that He cannot save--and what He can, He will--He never +deserted any that trusted in Him. O my child! my bairn!--my +first-born!--be patient--be patient. There--there--there is a scratch at +the door-back--it is Rover." + +And to be sure Rover it was--but Rover in despair. His faithful +companion and friend only entered the house to solicit immediate aid--he +ran round and round, looking up into the face of every one with an +expression of the most imploring anxiety. The poor frantic girl sprung +from her father's embrace, and clung to the neck of the well-known +cur--she absolutely kissed him--(oh, to what will not love, omnipotent, +virtuous love, descend!)--then rising, in renewed recollection, she sat +herself down on the long-settle beside her father, and burst into loud +and passionate grief. + +It was now manifest to all that something must be attempted, else the +young farmer must perish. Hogg, though awfully exhausted, was the first +to volunteer a new excursion. The whole band were at once on their +feet; but Jessie now clung to her father, as she had formerly done to +her lover, and would not let him go--indeed, the guidman was in no +danger of putting his purpose into effect, for he could scarcely stand +on his feet. He sat, or rather fell down, consequently, beside his +daughter, and continued in constant prayer and supplication at the +throne of grace. The daughter listened, and said she was comforted--the +voyagers were again on their way--the tempest had somewhat abated--the +moon had once or twice shone out--and there was now a greater chance of +success in their undertaking. + +How we all contrived to exist during an interval of about two hours, I +cannot say; but this I know, that the endurance of this second trial was +worse than the first, to all but the sweet bride herself. Her mind had +now taken a more calm and religious view of the case. She repeated, at +intervals and pauses in her father's ejaculatory prayer-- + +"Yes--oh, yes--_His_ will--His holy will be done! The Lord giveth and +the Lord taketh away--blessed be the name of the Lord for ever! We shall +meet again--oh, yes--where the weary are at rest. + + 'A few short years of evil past, + We reach the happy shore + Where death-divided friends at last + Shall meet, to part no more.' + +O father, is not that a gracious saying, and worthy of all acceptation!" + +At length the door opened, and in walked William Wilson. + +The reader need scarcely to be told that the sagacious dog had left his +master floundered, and unable to extricate himself in a snow wreath; +that the same faithful guide had taken the searchers to the spot, where +they found Wilson just in the act of falling into a sleep--from which, +indeed, but for the providential sagacity of his dog, he had never +wakened; and that, by means of some spirits which they had taken in a +bottle, they completely restored and conducted him home. + + "Lives there one with soul so dead" + +as not now to image the happy meeting betwixt bride and bridegroom, and, +above all, the influence which this trial had upon the happiness and +religious character of their future married and prosperous lot? + +It is, indeed, long since I have laid aside the pack--to which, after a +good education, I had taken, from a wandering propensity--and taken up +my residence in the flourishing village of Thornhill, Dumfriesshire; +living, at first, on the profits of my shop, and now retired on my +little, but, to me, ample competency; but I still have great pleasure in +paying a yearly visit to my friends of Mitchelslacks, and in recalling +with them, over a comfortable meal, the interesting incidents of the +snow storm 1794. + + + + +THE FAIR MAID OF CELLARDYKES. + + +I did not like the idea of having all the specimens of the fine arts in +Europe collected into one "bonne bouche" at the Louvre. It was like +collecting, while a boy, a handful of strawberries, and devouring them +at one indiscriminating gulp. I do not like floral exhibitions, for the +same reason. I had rather a thousand times meet my old and my new +friends in my solitary walks, or in my country rambles. All museums in +this way confound and bewilder me; and had the Turk not been master of +Greece, I should have preferred a view of the Elgin marbles in the land +of their nativity. And it is for a similar reason that my mind still +reverts, with a kind of dreamy delight, to the time when I viewed +mankind in detail, and in all their individual and natural +peculiarities, rather than _en masse_, and in one regimental uniform. +Educate up! Educate up! Invent machinery--discover agencies--saddle +nature with the panniers of labour--and, at last, stand alongside of +her, clothed, from the peasant to the prince, in the wonders of her +manufacture, and merrily whistling, in idle unconcern, to the tune of +her unerring despatch! But what have we gained? One mass of +similarities: the housemaid, the housekeeper, the lady, and the +princess, speaking the same language, clothed in the same habiliments, +and enjoying the same immunities from corporeal labour--the colours of +the rainbow whirled and blended into one glare of white! Towards this +_ultimatum_ we are now fast hastening. Where is the shepherd +stocking-weaver, with his wires and his fingers moving invisibly? Where +the "wee and the muckle wheel," with the aged dames, in pletted toys, +singing "Tarry woo?" Where the hodden-grey clad patriarch, sitting in +the midst of his family, and mixing familiarly, and in perfect equality +with all the household--servant and child? My heart constantly warms to +these recollections; and I feel as if wandering over a landscape +variegated by pleasant and contrasting colouring, and overshadowed with +associations which have long been a part of myself. One exception to the +general progression and assimilation still happily remains to gratify, I +must confess, my liking for things as they were. The fisher population +of Newhaven, Buckhaven, and Cellardykes--(my observation extends no +farther, and I limit my remarks accordingly)--are, in fact, the Scottish +highlanders, the Irish, the Welsh, and the Manks of Fisherdom. Differing +each somewhat from the other, they are united by one common bond of +character--they are varieties of the same animal--the different species +under one genus. I like this. I am always in high spirits when I pass +through a fishing village or a fisher street. No accumulation of filth +in every hue--of shell, and gill, and fish-tail--can disgust me. I even +smell a sweet savour from their empty baskets, as they exhale themselves +dry in the sunbeam. And then there is a hue of robust health over all. +No mincing of matters. Female arms and legs of the true Tuscan +order--cheeks and chins where neither the rose nor the bone has been +stinted. Children of the dub and the mire--all agog in demi-nudity, and +following nature most vociferously. Snug, comfortable cabins, where +garish day makes no unhandsome inquiries, and where rousing fires and +plentiful meals abide from June to January. They have a language, too, +of their own--the true Mucklebacket dialect; and freely and firmly do +they throw from them censure, praise, or ribaldry. The men are here but +men; mere human machines--useful, but not ornamental--necessary +incumbrances rather than valuable protectors. "Poor creature!" says Meg +of the Mucklebacket, "she canna maintain a man." Sir Walter saw through +the character I am labouring to describe; and, in one sentence, put life +and identity into it. I know he was exceedingly fond of conversing with +fisherwomen in particular. But, whilst such are the general features, +each locality I have mentioned has its distinctive lineaments. The +Newhaven fisherwoman (for the man is unknown) is a bundle of snug +comfort. Her body, her dress, her countenance, her basket, her voice, +all partake of the same character of _enbonpointness_. Yet there is +nothing at all untidy about her. She may ensconce her large limbs in +more plaiden coverings than the gravedigger in "Hamlet" had waistcoats, +but still she moves without constraint; and under a burden which would +press my lady's waiting-maid to the carpet, she moves free, firm, +elastic. Her tongue is not labour-logged, her feet are not +creel-retarded; but, altogether unconscious of the presence of hundreds, +she holds on her way and her discourse as if she were a caravan in the +desert. She is to be found in every street and alley of Auld Reekie, +till her work is accomplished. Her voice of call is exceedingly musical, +and sounds sweetly in the ears of the infirm and bedrid. All night long +she holds her stand close by the theatre, with her broad knife and her +opened oyster. In vain does the young spark endeavour to engage her in +licentious talk. He soon discovers that, wherever her feelings or +affections tend, they do not point in his favour. Thus, loaded with +pence, and primed with gin, she returns by midnight to her home--there +to share a supper-pint with her man and her neighbours, and to prepare, +by deep repose, for the duties of a new day. Far happier and far more +useful she, in her day and generation, than that thing of fashion which +men call a beau or a belle--in whose labours no one rejoices, and in +whose bosom no sentiment but self finds a place. In Buckhaven, again, +the Salique law prevails. There men are men, and women mere appendages. +The sea department is here all in all. The women, indeed, crawl a little +way, and through a few deserted fields, into the surrounding country; +but the man drives the cart, and the cart carries the fish; and the fish +are found in all the larger inland towns eastward. Cellardykes is a +mixture of the two--a kind of William and Mary government, where, side +by side, at the same cart, and not unfrequently in the same boat, are to +be found man and woman, lad and lass. Oh, it is a pretty sight to see +the Cellardyke fishers leaving the coast for the herring-fishing in the +north! I witnessed it some years ago, as I passed to Edinburgh; and this +year I witnessed it again. + +Meeting and conversing with my old friend the minister of the parish of +Kilrenny, we laid us down on the sunny slope of the brae facing the east +and the Isle of May, whilst he gave me the following narrative:-- + +Thomas Laing and Sarah Black were born and brought up under the same +roof--namely, that double-storied tenement which stands somewhat by +itself, overlooking the harbour. They entered by the same outer door, +but occupied each a separate story. Thomas Laing was always a stout, +hardy, fearless boy, better acquainted with every boat on the station +than with his single questions, and far fonder of little Sarah's company +than of the schoolmaster's. Sarah was likewise a healthy, stirring +child, extremely sensitive and easily offended, but capable, at the same +time, of the deepest feelings of gratitude and attachment. Thomas Laing +was, in fact, her champion, her Don Quixote, from the time when he could +square his arms and manage his fists; and much mischief and obloquy did +he suffer among his companions on account of his chivalrous defence of +little Sally. One day whilst the fisher boys and girls were playing on +the pier, whilst the tide was at the full, a mischievous boy, wishing to +annoy Thomas, pushed little Sall into the harbour, where, but for +Thomas's timely and skilful aid (for he was an excellent swimmer,) she +would probably have been drowned. Having placed his favourite in a +condition and place of safety, Tom felled the offender, with a terrible +fister, to the earth. The blow had taken place on the pit of the +stomach, and was mortal. Tom was taken up, imprisoned, and tried for +manslaughter; but, on account of his youth--being then only thirteen--he +was merely imprisoned for a certain number of months. Poor Sally, on +whose account Tom had incurred the punishment of the law, visited him, +as did many good-natured fishermen, whilst in prison, where he always +expressed extreme contrition for his rashness. After the expiry of his +imprisonment, Tom returned to Cellardykes, only to take farewell of his +parents, and his now more than ever dear Sally. He could not bear, he +said, to face the parents of the boy whose death he had occasioned. The +parting was momentary. He promised to spend one night at home; but he +had no such intention--and, for several years, nobody knew what had +become of Thomas Laing. The subject was at first a speculation, then a +wonder, next an occasional recollection; and, in a few months, the place +which once knew bold Tom Laing, knew him no more. Even his parents, +engaged as they were in the active pursuits of fishing, and surrounded +as they were by a large and dependent family, soon learned to forget +him. One bosom alone retained the image of Tom, more faithfully and +indelibly than ever did coin the impression of royalty. Meanwhile, Sarah +grew--for she was a year older than Tom--into womanhood, and fairly took +her share in all the more laborious parts of a fisher's life. She could +row a boat, carry a creel, or drive a cart with the best of them; and, +whilst her frame was thus hardened, her limbs acquired a consistency and +proportion which bespoke the buxom woman rather than the bonny lass. Her +eye, however, was large and brown, and her lips had that variety of +expression which lips only can exhibit. Many a jolly fisher wished and +attempted to press these lips to his; but was always repulsed. She +neither spoke of her Thomas, nor did she grieve for him much in secret; +but her heart revolted from a union with any other person whilst Thomas +might still be alive. Upon a person differently situated, the passion +(for passion assuredly it was) which she entertained for her absent +lover, might and would have produced very different effects. Had Sarah +been a young boarding-school miss, she would assuredly either have +eloped with another, or have died in a madhouse; had she been a +sentimental sprig of gentility, consumption must have followed: but +Sarah was neither of these. She had a heart to feel, and deeply too; but +she knew that labour was her destiny, and that when "want came in at the +door, love escapes by the window." So she just laboured, laughed, ate, +drank, and slept, very much like other people. Yet few sailors came to +the place whom she did not question about Thomas; and many a time and +oft did she retire to the rocks of a Sabbath eve, to think of and pray +for Thomas Laing. People imagine, from the free and open mariner, and +talk of the fisherwomen, that they are all or generally people of +doubtful morality. Never was there a greater mistake. To the public in +general they are inaccessible; they almost universally intermarry with +one another; and there are fewer cases (said my reverend informant) of +public or sessional reproof in Cellardykes, than in any other district +of my parish. But, from the precarious and somewhat solitary nature of +their employment, they are exceedingly superstitious; and I had access +to know, that many a sly sixpence passed from Sally's pocket into old +Effie the wise woman's, with the view of having the cards cut and cups +read for poor Thomas. + +Time, however, passed on--with time came, but did not pass misfortune. +Sally's father, who had long been addicted, at intervals, to hard +drinking, was found one morning dead at the bottom of a cliff, over +which, in returning home inebriated, he had tumbled. There were now +three sisters, all below twelve, to provide for, and Sally's mother had +long been almost bedrid with severe and chronic rheumatism; +consequently, the burden of supporting this helpless family devolved +upon Sarah, who was now in the bloom and in the strength of her +womanhood. Instead of sitting down, however, to lament what could not be +helped, Sarah immediately redoubled her diligence. She even learned to +row a boat as well as a man, and contrived, by the help of the men her +father used to employ, to keep his boat still going. Things prospered +with her for a while; but, in a sudden storm, wherein five boats +perished with all on board, she lost her whole resources. They are a +high-minded people those Cellardyke fishers. The Blacks scorned to come +upon the session. The young girls salted herrings, and cried haddocks in +small baskets through the village and the adjoining burghs, and Sarah +contrived still to keep up a cart for country service. Meanwhile, Sarah +became the object of attention through the whole neighbourhood. Though +somewhat larger in feature and limb than the Venus de Medicis, she was, +notwithstanding, tight, clean, and sunny--her skin white as snow, and +her frame a well-proportioned Doric--just such a help-mate as a husband +who has to rough it through life might be disposed to select. Captain +William M'Guffock, or, as he was commonly called, Big Bill, was the +commander of a coasting craft, and a man of considerable substance. +True, he was considerably older than Sally, and a widower, but he had no +family, and a "bien house to bide in." You see that manse-looking +tenement there, on the broad head towards the east--that was Captain +M'Guffock's residence when his seafaring avocations did not demand his +presence elsewhere. Well, Bill came acourting to Sally; but Sally +"looked asclent and unco skeich." Someway or other, whenever she thought +of matrimony--which she did occasionally--she at the same time thought +of Thomas Laing, and, as she expressed it, her heart _scunnered_ at the +thought. Consequently, Bill made little progress in his courtship; which +was likewise liable to be interrupted, for weeks at a time, by his +professional voyages. At last a letter arrived from on board a king's +vessel, then lying in Leith Roads, apprising Thomas Laing's relatives +that he had died of fever on the West India station. This news affected +Sally more than anything which had hitherto happened to her. She shut +herself up for two hours in her mother's bedroom, weeping aloud and +bitterly, exclaiming, from time to time--"Oh! my Thomas!--my own dearest +Thomas! I shall never love man again. I am thine in life and in +death--in time and in eternity!" In vain did the poor bedrid woman try +to comfort her daughter. Nature had her way; and, in less than three +hours, Sarah Black was again in the streets, following, with a confused +but a cheerful look, her ordinary occupation. This grief of Sarah's, had +it been well nursed, might well have lasted a twelvemonth; but, luckily +for Sarah, and for the labouring classes in general, she had not time to +nurse her grief to keep it warm. "Give us this day our daily bread," +said a poor helpless mother and three somewhat dependent sisters--and +Sarah's exertions were redoubled. + +"Oh, what a feelingless woman!" said Mrs. Paterson to me, as Sarah +passed her door one day in my presence, absolutely singing--"Oh, what a +feelingless woman!--and her father dead, and her mother bedrid, and poor +Thomas Laing, whom she made such a fuss about, gone too--and there is +she, absolutely singing after all!" + +Mrs. Paterson is now Mrs. Robson, having married her second husband just +six weeks after the death of the first, whom her improper conduct and +unhappy temper contributed first to render miserable here, and at last +to convey to the churchyard! Verily (added the worthy clergyman), the +heart is deceitful above all things. But what, after all, could poor +Sarah do, but marry Will M'Guffock, and thus amply provide, not only for +herself, but for her mother and sister? Had Thomas (and her heart heaved +at the thought) still been alive, she thought, she never would have +brought herself to think of it in earnest; but now that Thomas had long +ceased to think of her or of anything earthly, why should she not make a +man happy who seemed distractedly in love with her, and at the same time +honourably provide for her poor and dependent relatives? In the +meantime, the sacramental occasion came round, and I had a private +meeting previous to the first communion with Sarah Black. To me, in +secret, she laid open her whole heart as if in the presence of her God; +and I found her, though not a well-informed Christian by any means on +doctrinal points, yet well disposed and exceedingly humble; in short, I +had great pleasure in putting a token into her hand, at which she +continued to look for an instant, and then returned it to me. I +expressed surprise, at least by my looks. "I fear," said she, "that I am +_unworthy_; for I have not told you that I am thinking of marrying a man +whom I cannot love, merely to provide for our family. Is not this a +sin?--and can I, with an intention of doing what I know to be wrong, +safely communicate?" I assured her that, instead of thinking it a sin, I +thought her resolution commendable, particularly as the object of her +real affection was beyond its reach; and I mention the circumstance to +show that there is often much honour, and even delicacy of feeling, +natural as well as religious, under very uncongenial circumstances and +appearances. Having satisfied her mind on this subject, I had the +pleasure to see her at the communion table, conducting herself with much +seeming seriousness of spirit. I could see her shed tears, and formed +the very best opinion of her from her conduct throughout. + +In a few days or weeks after this, the proclamation lines were put into +my hands, and I had the pleasure of uniting her to Captain M'Guffock in +due course. They had, however, only been married a few weeks, when an +occurrence of a very awkward character threw her and her husband, who +was, in fact, an ill-tempered, passionate man, into much perplexity. The +captain was absent on a coasting voyage, as usual; and his wife was +superintending the washing of some clothes, whilst the sun was setting. +It was a lovely evening in the month of July, and the fishing boats were +spread out all over the mouth of the Firth, from the East Neuk to the +Isle of May, in the same manner in which you see them at present. Mrs. +M'Guffock's mind assumed, notwithstanding the glorious scenery around +her, a serious cast, for she could not help recalling many such evenings +in which she had rejoiced in company and in unison with her beloved +Thomas. She felt and knew that it was wrong to indulge such emotions; +but she could not help it. At last, altogether overcome, she threw +herself forward on the green turf, and prayed audibly--"O my God, give +me strength and grace to forget my own truly beloved Thomas! Alas! he +knows not the struggles which I have to exclude him from my sinful +meditations. Even suppose he were again to arise from the dead, and +appear in all the reality of his youthful being, I must, and would fly +from him as from my most dangerous foe." She lifted up her eyes in the +twilight, and in the next instant felt herself in the arms of a powerful +person, who pressed her in silence to his breast. Amazed and bewildered, +she neither screamed nor fainted, but, putting his eager kisses aside, +calmly inquired who he was who dared thus to insult her. She had no +sooner pronounced the inquiry, than she heard the words, "Thomas--your +own Thomas!" pronounced in tones which could not be mistaken. This, +indeed, overpowered her; and, with a scream of agony, she sank down dead +on the earth. This brought immediate assistance; but she was found lying +by herself, and talking wildly about her Thomas Laing. Everybody who +heard her concluded that she had either actually seen her lover's ghost, +or that her mind had given way under the pressure of regret for her +marriage, and that she was now actually a lunatic. For twelve hours she +continued to evince the most manifest marks of insanity; but sleep at +last soothed and restored her, and she immediately sent for me. I +endeavoured to persuade her that it must be all a delusion, and that the +imagination oftentimes created such fancies. I gave instances from books +which I had read, as well as from a particular friend of my own who had +long been subject to such delusive impressions, and at last she became +actually persuaded that there had been no reality in what she had so +vividly perceived, and still most distinctly and fearfully recollected. +I took occasion then to urge upon her the exceeding sinfulness of +allowing any image to come betwixt her and her lawful married husband; +and left her restored, if not to her usual serenity, at least to a +conviction that she had only been disturbed by a vision. + +When her husband returned, I took him aside, and explained my views of +the case, and stated my most decided apprehension that some similar +impression might return upon her nerves, and that her sisters (her +mother being now removed by death) should dwell in the same house with +her. To this, however, the captain objected, on the score that, though +he was willing to pay a person to take care of them in their own house, +he did not deem them proper company, in short, for a _captain's wife_. I +disliked the reasoning, and told him so; but he became passionate, and I +saw it was useless to contend further. From that day, however, Bill +M'Guffock seemed to have become an altered man. Jealousy, or something +nearly resembling it, took possession of his heart; and he even ventured +to affirm that his wife had a paramour somewhere concealed, with whom, +in his long and necessary absences, she associated. He alleged, too, +that in her sleep she would repeat the name of her favourite, and in +terms of present love and fondness. I now saw that I had not known the +depth of "a first love," otherwise I should not have advised this +unhappy marriage, all advantageous as it was in a worldly point of view. +A sailor's life, however, is one of manifest risk, and in less than a +twelvemonth Sarah M'Guffock was a young widow, without incumbrance, and +with her rights to her just share of the captain's effects. Her sorrow +for the death of her husband was, I believe, sincere; but I observed +that she took an early opportunity of joining her sisters in her old +habitation, immediately beneath that still tenanted by the friends of +Laing. + +Matters were in this situation, when I was surprised one evening, whilst +sitting meditating in the manse of Kilrenny, about dusk, with a visit +from a tall and well-dressed stranger. He asked me at once if I could +give him a private interview for a few minutes, as he had something of +importance to communicate. Having taken him into my study, and shut the +door, I reached him a chair, and desired him to proceed. + +"I had left the parish," said the stranger, "before you were minister of +Kilrenny, in the time of worthy Mr. Brown, and therefore you will +probably not know even my name. I am Thomas Laing!" + +"I did not indeed," said I, "know you, but I have heard much about you; +and I know one who has taken but too deep an interest in your fate. But +how comes it," added I, beginning to think that I was conversing either +with a vision or an impostor--"how comes it that you are here, seemingly +alive and well, whilst we have all been assured of your death some years +ago?" + +The stranger started, and immediately exclaimed--"Dead!--dead!--who said +I was dead?" + +"Why," said I, "there was a letter came, I think, to your own father, +mentioning your death by fever in the West Indies." + +"Do I look like a dead man?" said the stranger; but, immediately +becoming absent and embarrassed, he sat for a while silent, and then +resumed:--"Some one," said he, "has imposed upon my dear Sarah, and for +the basest of purposes. I now see it all. My dear girl has been sadly +used." + +"This is, indeed, strange," said I; "but let me hear how it is that I +have the honour of a visit from you at this time and in this place?" + +"Oh," replied Thomas Laing (for it was he in verity), "I will soon give +you the whole story:-- + +"When I left this, fourteen years ago come the time, I embarked at +Greenock, working my way out to New York. As I was an excellent hand at +a rope and an oar, I early attracted the captain's notice, who made some +inquiries respecting my place of birth and my views in life. I told him +that I was literally "at sea," having nothing particularly in view--that +I had been bred a fisher, and understood sailing and rowing as well as +any one on board. The captain seemed to have something in his head, for +he nodded to me, saying, 'Very well, we will see what can be done for +you when we arrive at New York.' When we were off Newfoundland, we were +overtaken by a terrible storm, which drove us completely out of our +latitude, till, at last, we struck on a sandbank--the sea making for +several hours a complete breach over the deck. Many were swept away into +the devouring flood; whilst some of us--amongst several others the +captain and myself--clung to what remained of the ship's masts till the +storm somewhat abated. We then got the boat launched, and made for land, +which we could see looming at some distance ahead. We got, however, +entangled amongst currents and breakers; and, within sight of a boat +which was making towards us from the shore, we fairly upset--and I +remember nothing more till I awoke, in dreadful torment, in some +fishermen's boat. Beside me lay the captain, the rest had perished. When +we arrived at the land, we were placed in one of the fishermen's huts, +where we were most kindly treated--assisting, as we did occasionally, in +the daily labours of the cod fishery. I displayed so much alertness and +skill in this employment, that the factor on the station made me an +advantageous offer, if I would remain with them and assist in their +labours. With this offer, having no other object distinctly in view, I +complied. But my kind and good-hearted captain, possessing less +dexterity in this employment, was early shipped at his own request for +England. The most of the hands, about two hundred in all, on the station +where I remained, were Scotch and Irish, and a merry, jovial set we +were. The men had wives and families; and the governor or factor lived +in a large slated house, very like your manse, upon a gentle eminence, a +little inland. Towards the coast the land is sandy and flat; but in the +interior there is much wood, a very rich soil, and excellent fresh +water. Where we remained the water was brackish, and constituted the +chief inconvenience of our station. The factor or agent, commonly called +by the men the governor, used to visit us almost every day, and remained +much on board when ships were loading for Europe. One fine summer's day +we were all enjoying the luxury of bathing, when, all on a sudden, the +shout was raised--'A shark! a shark!' I had just taken my place in the +boat, and was still undressed, when I observed one man disappear, being +dragged under the water by the sea monster. The factor, who was swimming +about in the neighbourhood, seemed to be paralyzed by terror, for he +made for the boat, plashing like a dog, with his hands and arms +frequently stretched out of the water. I saw his danger, and immediately +plunged in to his rescue, which, with some difficulty, I at last +effected. + +"Poor Pat Moonie was seen no more; nor did the devouring monster +reappear. The factor immediately acknowledged his obligations to me, by +carrying me home with him, and introducing me to his lady and an only +daughter--I think I never beheld a more beautiful creature; but I looked +upon her as a being of a different order from myself, and I still +thought of my own dear Sally and sweet home at Cellardykes. Through the +factor's kindness, I got the management of a boat's crew, with +considerable emolument which belonged to the situation. I then behoved +to dress better, at least while on land, than I used to do, and I was an +almost daily visitor at Codfield House, the name of the captain's +residence. My affairs prospered; I made, and had no way of spending +money. The factor was my banker, and his fair daughter wrote out the +acknowledgments for her father to sign. One beautiful Sabbath-day, after +the factor--who officiated at our small station as clergyman--had read +us prayers and a sermon, I took a walk into the interior of the country, +where, with a book in her hand, and an accompaniment of Newfoundland +dogs, I chanced to meet with Miss Woodburn, the factor's beautiful +child. She was only fourteen, but quite grown, and as blooming a piece +of womanhood as ever wore kid gloves or black leather. She seemed +somewhat embarrassed at my presence, and blushed scarlet, entreating me +to prevent one of her dogs from running away with her glove, which he +was playfully tossing about in his mouth. The dog would not surrender +his charge to any one but to his mistress; and, in the struggle, he bit +my hand somewhat severely. You may see the marks of his teeth there +still" (holding out his hand while he spoke). "Poor Miss Woodburn knew +not what to do first; she immediately dropped the book which she was +reading--scolded the offending dog to a distance--took up the glove, +which the dog at her bidding had dropped, and wrapped it close and +firmly around my bleeding hand; a band of long grass served for thread +to make all secure, and in a few days my hand was in a fair way of +recovery--but not so my heart; I felt as if I had been all at once +transformed into a gentleman--the soft touch of Miss Eliza's fair +fingers seemed to have transformed me, skin, flesh, and bones, into +another species of being. I shook like an aspen leaf whenever I thought +of our interesting interview; and I could observe that Eliza changed +colour, and looked out of the window whenever I entered the room. But, +sir, I am too particular, and I will now hasten to a close." I entreated +him (said the parson) to go on in his own way, and without any reference +to my leisure. He then proceeded:--"Well, sir, from year to year I +prospered, and from year to year got more deeply in love with the angel +which moved about in my presence. At last our attachment became manifest +to the young lady's parent; and, to my great surprise, it was proposed +that we should make a voyage to New York, and there be united in +matrimony. All this while, sir, I thought of my own dear Sally, and the +thought not unfrequently made me miserable; but what was Sally to me +now?--perhaps she was dead--perhaps she was married--perhaps--but I +could scarcely think it--she had forgot me; and then the blooming +rosebud was ever in my presence, and hallowed me, by its superior purity +and beauty, into a complete gentleman. Well, married we were at New +York, and for several months I was the happiest of men, and my dear wife +(I know it) the happiest of women; but the time of her labour +approached--and child and mother lie buried in the cemetery at New York, +where we had now fixed our residence." (Here poor Thomas wept +plentifully, and, after a pause proceeded.)--"I could not reside longer +in a place which was so dismally associated in my mind; so, having wound +up my worldly affairs, and placed my little fortune--about one thousand +pounds--in the bank, I embarked for Europe, along with my father and +mother-in-law, who were going home to end their days in the place of +their nativity, Belfast, in Ireland. I determined upon landing at the +Cove of Cork, to visit once more my native village, and to have at least +one interview with Sally. I learned, on my arrival at Largo, that Sally +was married to the old captain. I resolved, however, ere I went finally +to settle in Belfast, to have one stolen peep at my first love--my own +dear Sally. I came upon her whilst repeating my name in her prayers--I +embraced her convulsively--repeated her name twice in her hearing--heard +her scream--saw her faint--kissed her fondly again and again--and, +strangers appearing, I immediately absconded." + +"This," said the minister, "explains all;--but go on--I am anxious to +hear the conclusion of your somewhat eventful history." + +"Why, I was off immediately for Belfast, where I at present reside with +my father-in-law, whose temper, since the loss of his child, has been +much altered for the worse. But I am here on a particular errand, in +which your kind offices, sir--for I have heard of your goodness of +heart--may be of service to me. I observed the death of the old captain +in the newspaper, and I am here once more to enjoy an interview with his +widow. I wish you, sir, to break the business to her; meanwhile, I will +lodge at the Old Inn, Mrs. Laing's, at Anstruther, and await your +return." + +I agreed (continued the parson of Kilrenny) to wait upon the widow; and +to see, in fact, how the wind set, in regard to "first love." I found +her, as I expected, neatly clad in her habiliments of widowhood, and +employed in making some dresses for a sister's marriage. I asked and +obtained a private interview, when I detailed, as cautiously as I could, +the particulars of Thomas Laing's history. I could observe that her +whole frame shook occasionally, and that tears came, again and again, +into her eyes. I was present, but a fortnight ago, at their first +interview at the inn; and I never saw two human beings evince more real +attachment for each other. On their bended knees, and with faces turned +towards heaven, did they unite in thanking God that he had permitted +them, to have another interview with each other in this world of +uncertainty and death. It has been since discovered that the letter +announcing Laing's death was a forgery of the old captain, which has +reconciled his widow very much to the idea of shortening her days of +mourning. In a word, this evening, and in a few hours, I am going to +unite the widower and the widowed, together with a younger sister and a +fine young sailor, in the holy bonds of matrimony; and, as a punishment +for your giving me all this trouble in narrating this story, I shall +insist upon your eating fresh herring, with the fresh-herring Presbytery +of St. Andrew's, which meets here at Mrs. Laing's to-day, and afterwards +witnessing the double ceremony. + +To this I assented, and certainly never spent an evening more agreeably +than that which I divided betwixt the merry lads of St. Andrew's +Presbytery, and the fair dames and maidens of Cellardykes, who graced +the marriage ceremony. Such dancing as there was, and such screaming, +and such music, and such laughing; yet, amidst it all, Mr. and Mrs. +Laing preserved that decent decorum, which plainly said, "We will not +mar the happiness of the young; but we feel the goodness and providence +of our God too deeply, to permit us to join in the noisy part of the +festivity." + +"The fair maid of Cellardykes," with her kind-hearted husband--I may +mention, for the satisfaction of my fair readers in particular--may now +be seen daily at their own door, and in their own garden, on the face of +the steep which overlooks the village. They have already lived three +years in complete happiness, and have been blessed with two as fine +healthy children as a Cellardykes sun ever rose upon. Mr. Laing has +become an elder in the church, and both husband and wife are most +exemplary in the discharge of their religious, as well as relative +duties. God has blessed them with an ample competence; and sure is the +writer of this narrative, that no poor fisherman or woman ever applied +to this worthy couple without obtaining relief. + +One circumstance more, and my narrative closes. As Mr. Laing was one +evening taking a walk along the seashore, viewing the boats as they +mustered for the herring fishing, he was shot at from behind one of the +rocks, and severely wounded in the shoulder--the ball or slug-shot +having lodged in the clavicle, and refusing, for some days, to be +extracted. The hue-and-cry was immediately raised; but the guilty person +was nowhere to be seen. He had escaped in a boat, or had hid himself in +a crevice of the rock, or in some private and friendly house in the +village. Poor Thomas Laing was carried home to his distracted wife more +dead than alive; and Dr. Goodsir being called, disclosed that, in his +present state, the lead could not be extracted. Poor Sarah was never a +moment from her husband's side, who fevered, and became occasionally +delirious--talking incoherently of murder and shipwreck, and Woodburn, +and love, and marriage, and Sarah Black. All within his brain was one +mad wheel of mixed and confused colours, such as children make when they +wheel a stick, dyed white, black, and red, rapidly around. Suspicion, +from the first, fell upon the brother of the boy Rob Paterson, whom +Laing had killed many years before. Revenge is the most enduring, +perhaps, of all the passions, and rather feeds upon itself than decays. +Like fame, "it acquires strength by time;" and it was suspected that Dan +Paterson, a reckless and a dissipated man, had done the deed. In +confirmation of this supposition, Dan was nowhere to be found, and it +was strongly suspected that his wife and his son, who returned at +midnight with the boat, had set Dan on shore somewhere on the coast, and +that he had effected his escape. Death, for some time, seemed every day +and hour nearer at hand; but at last the symptoms softened, the fever +mitigated, the swelling subsided, and, after much careful and skilful +surgery, most admirably conducted by Dr. Goodsir's son, the ball was +extracted. The wound closed without mortification; and, in a week or +two, Mr. Laing was not only out of danger, but out of bed, and walking +about, as he does to this hour, with his arm in a sling. It was about +the period of his recovery, that Dan Paterson was taken as he was +skulking about in the west country, apparently looking out for a ship in +which to sail to America. He was immediately brought back to +Cellardykes, and lodged in Anstruther prison. Mr. Laing would willingly +have forborne the prosecution; but the law behoved to have its course. +Dan was tried for "maiming with the intention of murder," and was +condemned to fourteen years' transportation. This happened in the year +1822, the year of the King's visit to Scotland. Mr. and Mrs. Laing +actually waited upon his Majesty King George the Fourth, at the palace +of Dalkeith, and, backed by the learned judge and counsel, obtained a +commutation of the punishment, from banishment to imprisonment for a +limited period. The great argument in his favour was the provocation he +had received. Dan Paterson now inhabits a neat cottage in the village, +and Mr. Laing has quite set him up with a boat of his own, ready rigged +and fitted for use. He has entirely reformed, has become a member of a +temperance society, and his wife and family are as happy as the day is +long. Mr. and Mrs. Laing are supplied with the very best of fish, and +stockings and mittens are manufactured by the Patersons for the little +Laings, particularly during boisterous weather, when fishing is out of +the question. Thus has a wise Providence made even the wrath of man to +praise him. The truth of the above narrative may be tested any day, by +waiting upon the Rev. Mr. Dickson, or upon the parties themselves at +Braehead of Cellardykes. + + + + +PRESCRIPTION; + +OR, THE 29TH OF SEPTEMBER. + + +The serene calmness and holy inspiration of some of our cottage retreats +in Scotland are often the envy of the town-poet or philosopher, who +looks upon the sequestered spots as possessing all the beauty and repose +of the beatific Beulah, where the feet of the pilgrim found repose, and +his spirit rest. The desire arises out of that discontent which, less or +more, is the inheritance of man in this sphere; it is the residuum of +the worldly feelings which, like the clay that, in inspired hands, gave +the power of sight to the blind, opens the eyes to immortality. The wish +for retirement belongs to good, if it is not a part of the great +principle that inclines us to look far away to purer regions for the +rest which is never disturbed, and the joy that knows no abatement. Yet +how vain are often our thoughts as we survey the white-washed hut in the +valley, covered with honeysuckle and white roses; the plot before the +door; the croonin dame on her tripod; the lass with the lint-white +locks, singing, in snatches of Nature's own language, her purest +feelings, like the swelling of a mountain spring! The heart is not still +there, any more than in the crowded mart. The birds whistle, but they +die too; the rose blooms, but it is eaten in the heart by the palmer +worm; the sun shines, but there is a shade at his back. Alas for mortal +aspirations--there is nothing here of one side. Like the two parties who +fought for the truth of the two pleas--that the statue was white, or +that it was black--we find, after all our labour lost, that one side is +of the one colour, and the other of the opposite. These thoughts arise +in us at this moment, as we recollect the little cottage of Homestead, +situated in a collateral valley on the Borders. We were born at a +stone-cast from it; and, even in the dream of age, see issuing from it, +or entering it, a creature who might have stood for Wordsworth's +Highland Girl--a slender, gracile thing, retiring and modest; as +delicate in her feelings as in the hue of her complexion; her thoughts +of her glen and waterfall only natural to her--all others, fearful even +to herself, glenting forth through a flushed medium, which equally +betrayed the workings of the blood in the transparent veins--a being of +young life, elasticity, and sensitiveness, such as, like some modest +flower, we find only in certain recesses of the valleys in +mountain-lands. Such were you, Alice Scott, when you first darted across +our path on the hills. We have said that we see you now through the +dream of age; and, holding to the parallel, there is a change o'er the +mood of our vision, for we see you again in a form like that of "The +Ladye Geraldine"--your mountain russets off; the bandeau that bound the +flying locks laid aside; the irritability and flush of the young spirit +abated; and, instead of these, the gown of silk, the coif of satin, and +the slow and dignified step of conscious worth and superiority. And +whence this change? + +The young female we have thus apostrophised, was the daughter of Adam +Scott, a cottar, who occupied the small cottage of Homestead, under the +proprietor of Whitecraigs--a fine property, lying to the south of the +cottage; and the mansion of which is yet to be seen by the traveller who +seeks the Tweed by the windings of the river Lyne. Old Adam died, and +left his widow and daughter to the protection of his superior, Mr. +Hayston, who, recollecting the services and stanch qualities of his +tenant, did not despise the charge. The small bield was allowed to the +mother and daughter, rent free; and some assistance, in addition to the +produce of their hands, enabled them to live as thousands in this +country live, whose capability of supporting life might be deemed a +problem difficult of solution by those whose only care is how to destroy +God's gifts. Nature is as curious in her disposal of qualities as the +great genius of chance or convention is of the distribution of means. +Literature has worn out the characteristic and gloomy lines of the +description of the fair and the good; and the impatience of the mind of +the nineteenth century--a mind greedy of caricature, and regardless of +written sentiment--may warn us from the portrayment of what people now +like better to see than to read or hear of. Away, then, with the usual +terms, and let old Dame Scott and her daughter be deemed as of those +beings who have interested you in the quiet recesses of humble poverty, +where Nature, as if in sport or satire, loves to play fantastic tricks. +If you have no living models to go by, call up some of the pages of the +thousand volumes that have been multiplied on a subject which has been +more spoiled by poetical imagery, than benefited by sober observation. + +Within about five years of the death of the husband and father, old +Hayston died, and left Whitecraigs to his only son, Hector, who was kind +enough to continue the gift of the father to the inmates of Homestead; +but he loaded them with a condition, unspoken, yet implied. The young +laird and the pretty cottage maiden had foregathered often amidst the +romantic scenes on the Lyne; and that which Nature probably intended as +a guard and a mean of segregation--the shrinking timidity of her own +mountain child, when looked upon by the eye of, to her, +aristocracy--only tended to an opposite effect. A poet has compared love +to an Eastern bird, which loses all its beauty when it flies, and it is +as true as it is a pretty conceit; but if there was any feathered +creature whose wings, reflecting, from its monaul tints, the sun in +greater splendour, when on the wing, it would supply as applicable and +not less poetical an emblem of the object of the little god's +heart-stirrings; and so it seemed to the young laird of Whitecraigs, +that, as Alice Scott bounded away over the green hills, or down by the +Lyne banks, at his approach, her flight added to the interest which she +had already inspired when she had no means of escape. But, as the +wildest doe may be caught and tamed, so was she, who was as a white one +removed from the herd. The young man possessed attractions beside those +of imputed wealth and station; and probably, though we mean not to be +severe upon the sex, the process by which his affection had been +increased was reversed in its effects upon her, to whom assiduous +seeking was as the assiduous retreating had been to him. + +Yet all was, we believe, honourable in the intentions of young Hayston; +and, as for Alice, she was in the primeval condition of a total +unconsciousness of evil. The "one blossom on earth's tree," as the poet +has it, was by her yet unplucked, nor knew she how many thousands have +had cause to sing-- + + "I have plucked the one blossom that hangs on earth's tree; + I have lived--I have loved, and die." + +Her former timidity was the _a priori_ proof of the strength of the +feeling that followed, when the sensitiveness of fear gave way to +confidence. Town loves are a thing of sorry account: the best of them +are a mere preference of the one to the many; and he who is fortunate +enough to outshine his rivals, may pride himself in the possession of +some superior recommendations which have achieved a triumph. Were he to +look better to it, he might detect something, too, in the force of +resources. At best, a few hundred pounds will turn the scale; for he is +by all that a better man; and the trained eye of town beauties has a +strange responsive twinkle in the glare of the one thing needful. In the +remote and beautiful parts of a romantic country, things are otherwise +ordered: affection there, is as the mountain flower to the gallipot +rose; and it is a mockery to tell us that the difference is only +perceptible to those who are weak enough to be romantic. A doughty +warrior would recognise and acknowledge the difference, and fight a +great deal better too, after he had blubbered over a mountain or glen +born love for a creature who would look upon him as the soul of the +retreat, and hang on his breast in the outpourings of Nature's feelings. +That young Whitecraigs appreciated the triumph he had secured, there can +be no reason to doubt. He had been within the drying atmosphere of +towns, and had sung and waltzed, probably, with a round hundred of +creatures who understood the passion, much as Audrey understood +poetry--deeming it honest enough, but yet a composition made up of the +elements of side glances, arias, smorzando-sighs, and quadrilles. With +Alice Scott on his bosom, the quiet glen as their retreat, the green +umbrageous woods their defence, its birds as their musicians, and the +wimpling Lyne as the speaking Naiad, he forgot, if he did not despise, +the scenes he had left. She flew from him now no longer. The fowler had +succeeded to captivate, not intentionally to kill. + +Two years passed over in this intercourse. There was no secret about it. +The dame was well apprised of their proceeding; and the open frankness +of the youth dispelled all the fears of wrong which the innocence of the +daughter, undefended by experience, might have scarcely guaranteed to +one who, at least, had heard something of the ways of the world. The +income from Whitecraigs, somewhere about seven hundred a-year, was more +than sufficient for the expenditure of the older Haystons; and Hector, +at this time, did not seem inclined to alter the line of life followed +by his fathers. He had not spoken of marriage to the mother; but he had +not hesitated to breathe into the ear of Alice all that was necessary to +lead her to the conclusion, to which her heart jumped, that she was to +be the lady of the stately white mansion that, at one time, had appeared +to her as a great temple where humble worshippers of the glen and the +wood might not lay their sandals at the doorway. She had entered the +vestibule only as an alms-seeker, and trembled to think she might have +been observed throwing a side glance into the interior, where +pier-glasses might have reflected the form of the russet-clad child of +the valley and hill. The tale has been told a thousand times, and the +world is not mended by it. The young master pressed her to his bosom, +imprinted a kiss, and was away into the mazes of life in the metropolis, +whither some affairs, left unsettled by his father, carried him. Six +months passed away, and the rents of the succeeding term were collected +by Mr. Pringle, the agent of the family, in Peebles. There was no word +for poor Alice, though the small allowance was handed in by the agent, +who, ignorant of the state of matters between the young couple, informed +the mother that the master of Whitecraigs was on the eve of being +married to a young lady of some wealth in the metropolis. The statement +was heard by the daughter; and what henceforth but that of Thekla's +song:-- + + "The clouds are flying, the woods are sighing-- + The maiden is walking the grassy shore; + And as the wave breaks with might, with might, + She singeth aloud through the darksome night; + But a tear is in her troubled eye." + +Alice Scott was changed; yet, who shall tell what that change was? If +the slow and even progress of the spirit may defy the eye of the +metaphysician, who may describe its moods of disturbance? Poetry is +familiar with these things, and we have fair rhymes to tell us of the +wanderings, and the lonely musings by mountain streams, and the eye that +looks and sees not, and the wasting form, and the words that come like +the sounds from deep caves; yet, after all, they tell us but little, +and that little is but to tickle us with the resonance of spoken +sentiment, leaving the sad truth as little understood as before. True it +was, that Alice Scott did all these things, and more too: the charm of +the hills and the water banks was gone: the light spirit that carried +her along, as if borne on the winds, was quenched; the songs by which +she gladdened the ears of her mother, as she plied her portable handwork +on the green, was no more heard mingling its notes with the music of the +Lyne; and the face that shone transparently, like painted alabaster, as +if part of the light came from within, was as the poet says-- + + "Like an April morn + Clad in a wintry cloud." + +Nor did additional time seem to possess any power save that of +increasing the pain of the heart-stroke. Most of the griefs of mortals +have their appointed modes of alleviation--some are complaining griefs, +some are talkative, and some sorrows are sociable for selfishness. But +the heart-wound of her who has only those scenes of nature which were +associated with the image of the unkind one, to wear off the impressions +of which, under other hues, they form a part, is a silent mourner. There +is enough of a painful eloquence around her, and her voice would be only +the small whisper that is lost in the wailings of the storm in the glen. +Yet painful as the language is, she courts it in silence, even while it +mixes and blends with the poison which consumes her. It was in vain that +her mother, who saw with a parental eye the malady which is the best +understood by those of her class and age, urged her with kindness to +betake herself to her household duties. She was seldom to be prevailed +upon to remain within doors; the hill-side, or the bosom of the glen, or +the back of the willows by the water-side, were her choice. Ordinary +meal times were forgotten or unheeded, where Nature had renounced her +cravings, or given all her energies to the heart. + +The next intelligence received at Homestead was that of the marriage of +Hector Hayston, and his departure for France. The servants at +Whitecraigs were discharged, as if there had been no expectation, for a +long period, of the return of the young laird. The supply to the two +females was increased, and paid by Mr. Pringle, who, now probably aware +of the situation of Alice, delicately avoided any allusion to his +employer. Report, however, was busy with her tales; and the absence of +the youth was attributed to the workings of conscience or of shame. +There was little truth in the report. The object of his first affections +might easily have been banished from Whitecraigs, and he who had been +guilty of leaving her maybe supposed capable of removing her from scenes +which could only add to her sorrow. A true solution of his conduct might +have been found in the fact, that Hayston was now following his +pleasures in the society of his wife's friends--a gay and lavish +circle--and did not wish to detract from his enjoyment by adding +banishment and destitution to a wrong now irremediable. Little more was +heard of him for some time, with the exception of a floating report, +that he had borrowed, through his agent, the sum of ten thousand pounds +from a Mr. Colville, a neighbouring proprietor, and pledged to him +Whitecraigs in security. The circumstance interested greatly the +neighbouring proprietors, who shook their heads in significant augury of +the probable fate of their young neighbour in the whirlpool of +continental life. Yet the allowance to Dame Scott at the next term was +regularly paid; and if there was a tear in her eye, as she looked, first +at the money, and then at the thin, pallid creature who sat silent at +the window, it was not that she dreaded its discontinuance from the +result of the extravagance of the giver. The effect of the act of +payment of the money had, on a former occasion, been noticed by Pringle +on the conduct of Alice: it was on this occasion repeated. She rose from +her seat, looked steadfastly for a moment at the gift as it lay on the +table, placed her hand on her forehead, and flitted out of the room. The +eye of the agent followed her from the window: her step was hurried, +without an object of impulse. She might go--but whither? probably she +knew not herself; yet on she sped till she was lost among the trees on +the edge of the glen. + +Thus longer time passed, but there seemed no change to Alice, save in +the continual decrease of the frame, under the pressure of a mind that +communed with the past, and only looked to the future as containing some +day that would witness the termination of her sorrows. The anglers on +the Lyne became familiar with her figure, for they had seen it on the +heights, with her garments floating in the breeze, and had come up to +her as she sat by the waterside, but they passed on. At the worst she +could be but one whose spirit was not settled enough to admit of her +according with the ways of honest maidens; and they might regret that +the beauty that still lurked amidst the ravages of the disease of the +heart, had not been turned to better account. It is thus that one part +of mankind surveys another: they form their theory of a condition whose +secret nature is only known to its possessor; draw their moral from +false premises, formed as a compliment to their own conduct and +situation, and pass on to their pleasure. + +Yet there occurred an important exception to these remarks:--One day +Alice had taken up her seat on the banks of a small pond in front of the +house of Whitecraigs. She sat opposite to the front of the dwelling, and +seemed to survey its closed windows and deserted appearance, with the +long grass growing up through the gravel of the walks--the broken +pailings and decayed out-houses; a scene that might be supposed to +harmonize with the feelings of a mind broken and desolate. There might +seem even a consanguinity in the causes of the condition of both. The +scene might have suited the genius of a Danby. There was no living +creature to disturb the silence. The house of faded white, among the +dark trees, cheerless and forsaken; the face of Alice Scott emaciated +and pale, with the lustre of the loch, shining in the sun, reflected on +it, directed towards the habitation of which she should have been +mistress; her eyes, which had forgotten the relief of tears, fixed on +the scene so pregnant with unavailing reminiscences--with these we would +aid the artist. + +But the charm was gone, as a voice sounded behind her. She started, and, +according to her custom, would have fled as the hare that remembers the +snare; but she was detained. A man, advanced in years, poorly clad, with +hair well smitten with snow tints, and a staff in his hand, stood beside +her, holding her by the skirt of the gown. + +"I am weary," said he; "I have walked from Moffat, and would sit here +for a time, if you would speak to me of the scenes and people of these +parts." And the application of his hand again to her gown secured a +compliance, dictated more by fear than inclination. She sat, while she +trembled. "You are fair," continued he; "but my experience of sorrow +tells me that grief has been busier with your young heart than years. I +will not pry into your secrets. To whom does Whitecraigs now belong?" + +The name had not been breathed by her to mortal since that day she had +heard of the intended marriage. She made an effort to pronounce it, +failed, and fixed her eyes on the pond. The stranger gazed on her, +waiting for her reply. + +"Hector Hayston," she at length muttered. + +"And why has he left so fair a retreat to the desolation that has +overtaken it?" rejoined he again. The question was still more +unfortunate. She had no power to reply. Her face was turned from him, +and repressed breathings heaved her bosom. "You may tell me, then, if +one Dame Scott lives in these parts?" he said again, as he marked her +strange manner, and probably augured that his prior question was fraught +with pain. + +"Yes--yes," she replied, with a sudden start, as if relieved from pain, +while she regained her feet; "yonder lives my mother." + +The stranger stood with his eyes fixed upon her, as if in deep scrutiny +of the inexplicable features of her character and appearance; but he +added not a word, till he saw her move as if she wished to be gone. + +"You will go with me?" he said. + +But the words were scarcely uttered, when she was away through the +woods, leaving him to seek his way to the house of her mother, whither, +accordingly, he directed his steps, from some prior knowledge he +possessed of the locality about which he had been making inquiries. As +he went along, he seemed wrapt in meditation--again and again looking +back, to endeavour to get another sight of the girl, who was now seated +on the edge of the stream, and again seized by some engrossing thought +that claimed all the energies of his spirit. On coming up to the door of +the cottage, he tapped gently with his long staff; and, upon being +required by the dame to enter, he passed into the middle of the floor, +and stood and surveyed the house and its inmate. + +"I have nothing for you," said the latter; "so you must pass on to those +whom God has ordained as the distributors of what the needy require. +Alas! I am myself but a beggar." + +The words seemed to have been wrung out of her by the meditative mood in +which the stranger had found her, and, whether it was that the interest +which had been excited in him by the appearance of the daughter had +been increased by the confession of the mother, or that there was some +secret cause working in his mind, he passed his hand over his eyes, and +for a moment turned away his head. + +"I have been both a beggar and a giver in my day," he replied, as he +laid down his hat and staff, and took a chair opposite to the dame; "and +I am weary of the one character and of the other. I have got with a +curse; and I have given for ingratitude. But I may here give, and you +may receive, without either. There is an unoccupied bed; I am weary of +wandering, and have enough to pay for rest." + +"That is better than charity," rejoined the dame--"ay, even the charity +of the stranger." + +"And why of the _stranger_, dame?" added he. "I have hitherto thought +that the charity of _friends_ was that which might be most easily borne. +And who may be your benefactor?" + +"Hector Hayston of Whitecraigs," replied she, hanging her head, and +drawing a deep breath. + +The stranger detected the same symptoms of pain in the mother as those +he had observed in the daughter. + +"Then forgets he not his cottars in his absence," he added. "But why has +he left a retreat fairer than any I have yet seen throughout a long +pilgrimage over many lands?" + +"We will not speak of that," she replied, rising slowly, and going to +the window, where she stood for a time in silence. + +"You have a daughter, dame," resumed the man, as he watched the +indications of movement in the heart of the mother. "I saw her sitting +looking at the mansion of Whitecraigs. I fear she can lend you small +aid; yet, if her powers of mind and body were equal to the beauty that +has too clearly faded from her cheeks, methinks you would have had +small need to have taken the charity of either friends or strangers." + +"Ay, poor Alice! poor Alice!" rejoined the mother, turning suddenly, and +applying her hand to something which required not her care at that +time--"Ay, poor Alice!" she added. + +"Is it a bargain, then," said he, wishing to retreat from a subject that +so evidently pained her, "that I may remain here for a time, on your own +terms of remuneration?" + +"It may be as you say," replied she, again taking her seat; "but only on +a condition." + +"What is it?" inquired he. + +"That you never mention the name of Hector Hayston, or of Whitecraigs, +while Alice is by. She harms no one; and I would not see her harmed." + +"I perceive," said he, muttering to himself, "that I am not the only one +in the world who carries in his bosom a secret. But," he continued, in a +louder tone, "your condition, dame, shall be fulfilled; and now I may +hold myself to be your lodger." And he proceeded to take from the +stuffed pockets of his coat some night-clothes of a homely character, +and handed them to the dame. "And now," he said, "you may be, now or +after, wondering who he may be who has thus come, like a weary bird from +the waste that seeks refuge among the sere leaves, to live in the +habitation of sorrow. But you must question me not; and farther than my +name, which is Wallace, you may know nothing of me till after the 29th +day of September--ay, ay," he continued, as if calculating, "the 29th +day of September." + +The dame started as she heard the mention of the day, looked steadfastly +at him, and was silent. + +"Yes," he continued, "that day past, and I will once more draw my breath +freely in the land of my fathers; and my foot, which has only bowed the +head of the heather-bell in the valley, may yet collect energy enough +from my unstrung nerves to press fearlessly the sod of the mountain. How +long is it since your husband died?" + +"Seven years," replied she. + +"Well, short as our acquaintance has yet been," said he, "our words have +been only of unpleasant things. Now, I require refreshment; and here is +some small pay in advance, to remove the ordinary prejudice against +strangers. We shall be better acquainted by times. I will take, now, +what is readiest in the house; for you may guess, from my attire, that I +have been accustomed to that fare by which the poor contrive to spin out +the weary term of their pilgrimage." + +So much being arranged, the dame set about preparing a meal; and Mr. +Wallace, as he had called himself, proceeded to transform his staff into +a fishing-rod, and arrange his other small matters connected with his +future residence. When the humble dish was prepared, the dame went out, +and, taking her position on a green tumulus that rose between the +cottage and the Lyne, stood, and, placing her hands over her eyes, +looked down the water. Her eye, accustomed to the search, detected the +form of her daughter far down the stream, and, waving her hand to her, +she beckoned her home. But she came not; and the two inmates sat down to +their repast. + +"This shall be for my poor Alice," said the mother, as she laid aside a +portion of the frugal fare; "but she will take it at her own time, or +perhaps not at all." + +"And yet how much she needs it," added the stranger, "her wasted form +and pale face too plainly show." + +"There is a sad change there, sir," rejoined she. "There was not a +fairer or more gentle creature from Tweedscross to Tweedmouth than Alice +Scott; nor did ever the foot of light-hearted innocence pass swifter +over the hill or down the glen. You have seen her to-day where she is +often to be seen--by the pond opposite the closed-up house of +Whitecraigs--and may wonder to hear how one so wasted may still reach +the hill-heads; yet there, too, she is sometimes seen. I have struggled +sore to make her what she once was; but in vain. She will wander and +wander, and return and wander again; nor will this cease till I some day +find her dead body among the seggs of the Lyne, or in the lirk of the +hill. When I know you better, I may tell you more. At present, I am +eating the bread of one who is more connected with this sad subject than +I may now confess; and I have never been accounted ungrateful." + +The stranger was moved, and ate his meal in meditative silence. In an +hour afterwards, Alice returned to the house, and, as she entered, +started as her eye met that of him who had, by his questions, stirred to +greater activity the feelings that were already too busy with her heart; +but her fears were removed, by his avoidance of the subject which had +pained her; and a few hours seemed to have rendered him as indifferent +to her as seemed the other objects around her. Some days passed, and the +widow would have been as well satisfied with her lodger as he was with +her, had it not been that he enjoined secrecy as to his residence in the +house--retiring to the spence when any one entered; and if at any time +he went along the Lyne in the morning, he avoided those whom he met; and +betook himself to private acts in the inner apartment during the day. At +times he left the cottage in the evening, and did not return for two +days; but whither he went, the inmates knew not. The dame conjectured he +had been as far as Peebles; but her reason was merely that he brought +newspapers with him, and intelligence of matters transacting there. The +secrecy was not suited to the open and simple manners to which she had +been accustomed; but she recollected his words, that on the 29th of +September, she would know all concerning him. Now these words were +connected by a chain of associations that startled her. The 29th of +September had been set apart by her deceased husband as a day of prayer. +He had never allowed it to pass without an offering of the contrite +heart to God; this practice he had continued till his death, and she had +witnessed the act repeated for fifteen years. She was no more +superstitious than the rest of her class; she was, indeed, probably less +so; and her theories, formed for an adequate explanation of the +startling coincidence, were probably as philosophical as if they had +been formed by reason acting under the astute direction of scepticism. +Yet where is the mind, untutored or learned, that can throw away at all +times, at all hours--when the heart is in the sunshine of the cheerful +day of worldly intercourse, or in the deep shadow of the wing of +eternity--all thoughts of all powers save those of natural causes, which +are themselves a mystery? We may sport with the subject; but it comes +again back on the heart, and we sigh in whispering words of fear, that +in the hands of God we are nothing. + +One day Mr. Wallace was seated at breakfast; he had been away for two +nights; Alice was sitting by the side of the fire, looking into the +heart of the red embers, and the mother was superintending the +breakfast; he took out a newspaper from his pocket, and, without a word +of premonition, read a paragraph in a deep, solemn voice. + +"Died at ---- Street, London, Maria Knight, wife of Hector Hayston, +Esq., of Whitecraigs, in the county of Peebles, in Scotland." + +A peculiar sound struggled in the throat of Alice; but it passed, and +she was silent. The mother sat and looked Wallace in the face, to +ascertain what construction to put upon the occurrence which he had thus +read with an emphasis betokening a greater interest than it might +demand from one, as yet, all but ignorant, as she thought, of the true +circumstances of the condition of her daughter. He made no commentary on +what he had read; but looking again at the paper, and turning it over, +as if searching for some other news, he fixed his eyes on an +advertisement in the fourth page. He then read-- + +"On the 1st day of October next, there will be exposed to public roup +and sale, within the Town-Hall of Peebles, by virtue of the powers of +sale contained in a mortgage granted by Hector Hayston, Esq., of +Whitecraigs, in favour of George Colville of Haughton, all and hail the +lands and estate of Whitecraigs, situated in the parish of ----, and +shire of Peebles, with the mansion-house, offices, &c." + +He then laid down the paper, and, looking the widow full in the face-- + +"The day of sale of Whitecraigs," said he, "is the _second_ day after +the 29th of September. It would have been too much had it been on that +day itself." + +No reply was made to his remark. The announcement called up in the mind +of the dame more than she could express; but that which concerned more +closely herself, was too apparently veiled with no mystery. The sale of +Whitecraigs was the ejection of herself and daughter from Homestead; and +she knew not whither she and her daughter were now to be driven, to seek +refuge and sustenance from a world from which she had been so long +estranged. + +"All things come to a termination," she said. "For many years I have +lived here, wife and widow; and if I have felt sorrow, I have also +enjoyed. The world is wide; and if I may be obliged to ask and to +receive charity, the God who moves the hand to give it, may not +again--now that His purpose may be served by my contrition--select that +of the destroyer of my child. But there is another that must be taken +from these haunts;" and, turning to Alice, whose face was still +directed to the fire, she gazed on her hapless daughter, while the tear +stole down her cheeks. + +Wallace's eye was fixed on the couple. He seemed to understand the +allusion of the mother, which indicated plainly enough, that though the +hills and glens of Whitecraigs had been the scene of the ruin of her +daughter's peace, she anticipated still more fatal consequences from +taking her away from them. Meanwhile, Alice, who had listened to and +understood all, arose from her seat. + +"I will never leave Whitecraigs, mother," she said; and bent her steps +towards the door. + +"Let her follow her fancy," said Wallace. Then relapsing into a fit of +musing, he added--"the 29th of September of this year will soon be of +the time that is. For twenty years I have looked forward to that +day--under a burning sun, far from my native land, I have sighed for +it--in the midnight hour I have counted the years and days that were +between. Every anniversary was devoted to the God who has chastened the +heart of the sinner; and there was need, when that heart was full of the +thoughts inspired by that day, and penitence came on the wings of +terror. Now it approaches; and I have not miscalculated the benefits it +may pour on other heads than mine." + +"Alas!" said the widow, as she cast her eye through the window after her +daughter, "there is no appointed day for the termination of the sorrows +of that poor creature. To the broken-hearted, one day as another, +sunshine or shower, is the same. But what hand shall bear Alice Scott +from Whitecraigs?" + +"Perhaps none," replied Wallace, as, taking up the newspaper, he retired +to an inner apartment, where he usually spent the day. Some hours +passed; and, in the afternoon, Mr. Pringle, while passing, took occasion +to call at Homestead, and informed the widow that it would be her duty +to look out for another habitation, as Whitecraigs was to be sold by the +creditor, Mr. Colville, whose object in granting the loan was, if +possible, to take advantage of the difficulties into which extravagance +had plunged the young proprietor, and to bring the property into the +market, that he might purchase it as an appanage of the old estate of +Haughton, from which it had been disjoined. He represented it as a cruel +proceeding, and that its cruelty was enhanced by the circumstance of the +sale being advertised in the same paper which contained the intelligence +of the death of Hector's young wife. Another listener might have replied +that God's ways are just; but Dame Scott, if she thought at the time of +her daughter, considered also that Hayston had supported her for many +years. + +"Good dame," added the agent, "it might have been well for my young +friend if he had remained at Whitecraigs. I never saw the wife he +married, and has just lost in the bloom of youth; but she must have been +fair indeed, if she was fairer than she whom he left. Yet Hector's +better principles did not, I am satisfied, entirely forsake him. The +disinclination he has shown to visit his paternal property, was the +result of a clinging remembrance of her he left mourning in the midst of +its glens; nor do I wonder at it, for even I have turned aside to avoid +the sight of Alice Scott. Misfortunes, however, are sometimes mercies; +and the change of residence you will be now driven to, may aid in the +cure of a disease that is only fed by these scenes of Whitecraigs." + +He here paused, and, putting his hand in his pocket, took out some +money. + +"This may be the last gift," he said, as he presented it to her, "that +Hector Hayston may ever send you. These are his words. His fortunes are +ruined, his wife is dead, and, worse than all, his peace of mind is +fled." + +"Heaven have mercy on him!" replied the widow. "One word of reproach has +never escaped the lips of me or my daughter. I have suffered in this +cottage without murmuring, and the glens and hollows of Whitecraigs have +alone heard the complainings of Alice Scott. She will cling to these +places to the last; but were the windows of the deserted house again +opened, with strange faces there, and maybe the lights of the +entertainments of the happy shining through them, she might feel less +pleasure in sitting by the pond from which she now so often surveys the +deserted mansion. This last gift, sir, moves my tears--yea, for all I +and mine have suffered from Hector Hayston." + +The agent had performed his duty, and departed with the promise that he +would, of his own accord, endeavour to prevail upon some of his +employers to grant her a cottage, if the purchaser of Whitecraigs should +resist an appeal for her to remain. He had no sooner gone, than the +stranger Wallace, who had heard the conversation, entered. He asked her +how much money Hector had sent as his last gift; and, on being +informed-- + +"That young man," he said, "has fallen a victim to the allurements of a +town life. The story of your daughter has been known to me; but I have +avoided the mention of the name of Hayston, which could only have +yielded pain without an amelioration of its cause. That gift speaks to +me volumes. Even fashion has not sterilized the heart of that young man. +He has erred--he may have transgressed--but for all, all, there is a +29th of September!" + +The allusion he thus made was as inscrutable as ever. Again she +reflected upon her husband's conduct upon that day of the year; and +again, as she had done a hundred times, searched the face of the +speaker. But she abstained from question; and the day passed, and others +came, till the eventful morning was ushered in by sunshine. Wallace was +up by times; and his prayers were heard directed to the Throne of Mercy, +in thanks and heart-expressed contrition. In the forenoon he went forth +with freedom, climbed the hills, and conversed with the anglers he met +on the Lyne. He seemed as if relieved from some weighty burden; and the +dame, who had carefully watched his motions, waited anxiously for the +secret. He had not, however, pledged himself to reveal it on that day. +He had only said that all would be made known some time after the day +had passed; and, accordingly, he made no declaration. Yet, at bedtime, +he was again engaged in prayers, and even during the night he was heard +muttering expressions of thanksgiving to the Author of the day, and what +the day bringeth. + +On the following morning, he announced his intention of going to +Peebles, whither he was supposed to have gone before; but now his manner +of going was changed. He purposed taking the coach, which, as it passed +within some miles of Whitecraigs, he intended to wait for, and on +departing-- + +"You will not hear of me till to-morrow night," he said. "I can now face +man; would that I could with the same confidence hold up my countenance +to God. Alice Scott," he continued, as he looked to the girl, "I will +not forget you in my absence. Your day of sorrow has been long; but +there may yet be a 29th of September even to you." + +And, taking the maiden kindly in his arms, he whispered some words in +her ear, in which the magic syllables of a name she trembled to hear +were mixed. Her eyes exhibited a momentary brightness, a deep sigh +heaved her bosom, and again her head declined, with a whisper on her +lips--"Never, O never!" In a moment after, he was gone; and the widow +was left to ascertain from Alice what he had said, to bring again, even +for a moment, the blood to her cheek. + +On the day after, there was a crowd of people in the Town-Hall of +Peebles, and the auctioneer was reading aloud the articles of roup of +the lands of Whitecraigs. Mr. Colville was there in high hopes; but +there were others too, who seemed inclined to disappoint them. The +property was set up at the price of fifteen thousand pounds, and that +sum was soon offered by the holder of the mortgage. Other bodes quickly +followed, and a competition commenced, which soon raised the price to +eighteen thousand, at which it seemed to be destined to be given to +Haughton. The other competitors appeared timid; and several declared +themselves done, one by one, until no one was expected to advance a +pound higher. All was silence, save for the voice of the auctioneer; and +he had already begun his ominous once, twice, when a voice which had not +yet been heard, cried--"Eighteen thousand two hundred." The hammer was +suspended, and all eyes turned to view the doughty assailant, who would, +at the end of the day, vanquish the champion who had as yet retained the +field. Those eyes recognised in the bidder a man poorly clothed, and +more like an alms-seeker than the purchaser of an estate--no other was +that man than Mr. Wallace. The auctioneer looked at him; others looked +and wondered; and Haughton gloomed, as he advanced another hundred; and +that was soon followed by a hundred more, which led to a competition +that seemed to be embittered on the one part by pride and contempt, and +on the other by determination. Hundred upon hundred followed in rapid +succession, till Haughton gave up in despair, and a shout rung through +the hall as the hammer fell, and the estate was declared the property of +the humble stranger, whom no one knew, and whom no one would have +considered worth more than the clothes he carried on his back. A +certificate of a banker at Peebles--that he held in his hands funds, +belonging to the purchaser, of greater amount than the price--satisfied +the judge of the roup; and the party were divided in circles, conversing +on the strange turn which had been given to the sale of Whitecraigs. + +On the same night, Wallace returned to Homestead, and sat down +composedly to the humble meal that had been prepared for him by the +widow. Alice was in her usual seat; and the placidity of manner which +distinguished them from ordinary sufferers, spoke their usual obedience +to the Divine will. + +"This day the property of Whitecraigs has changed masters!" said he. + +"And who has purchased it?" inquired the mother. + +"He who is now sitting before you!" replied he. + +Alice turned her head to look at him; the mother sat mute with surprise; +while he rose and fastened the door. + +"It is even so," he continued, as he again sat down; "David Scott, the +brother of your husband, and the uncle of Alice, has this day purchased +Whitecraigs." + +A faint scream from the mother followed this announcement, and, +recovering herself, she again fixed her eyes on the stranger. + +"It is true," continued he; "I am the brother of your deceased husband. +For two years after you were married to Adam, you would, doubtless, hear +him speak of me, as then engaged in a calling of which I may now be +ashamed, for I was one of the most daring smugglers on the Solway. The +29th of September, 17--, dawned upon me, yet with hands unsullied in the +blood of man; but the sun of that day set upon me as proscribed by God +and my country. My name was read on the house walls, and execration +followed my steps, as I flew from cave to cave. Yet who could have told +that that day in which my evil spirit wrought its greatest triumph over +good, was that whose evening shades closed upon a repentant soul!" + +He paused, and placed his hand on his brow. + +"These things are to me as an old dream," replied the widow, looking +round her, as if in search of memorials of stationary space. "My husband +never afterwards mentioned your name, save to inform me that you had +died in the West Indies; yet now I see the import of his devotion, in +the coming round of the day that shamed the honest family to whom he +belonged." + +"And it was to save that shame, and to secure my safety under my assumed +name, that, after I flew to the islands of the west, I got intelligence +of my death sent to Scotland. What other than the issue of this day must +have been in the view of the great Disposer of events, when, in addition +to the grace He poured on the heart of the sinner, He invested the arm +that had been lifted against His creatures with the prosperity that +filled my coffers! But, alas! though I may have reason to trust to the +forgiveness of Heaven, that of man I may never expect." + +"And punishment still awaits you?" rejoined she. + +"No, no!" he cried, as he rose and placed his foot firmly on the floor. +"I am free--the heart may hate me, the tongue may scorn me, the hand may +point at me, but it dare not strike. On the 29th of September I was no +longer amenable to the laws for the crime which drove me to foreign +lands: twenty years free the culprit from the vengeance of man; the last +day of that period was the 29th of September--it is past; and now God is +my only judge." He again paused. "But I must live still as David +Wallace. The name of Scott shall not be sullied by me. As David Wallace +I have made my fortune, and as David Wallace made my supplications to +Heaven. By the same name I have bought Whitecraigs, and by that name I +shall make it over to one who may yet retrieve the honour of our humble +house--to Alice, who should, through other means, have been mistress. +Come to your natural protector, Alice, and tell him if you will consent +to be the lady of Whitecraigs." + +The girl, on whom the ordinary occurrences of life now seldom made any +impression, had listened attentively to the extraordinary facts and +intentions thus evolved; and, at his bidding, rose and stood by his +side. He took her hand, and looked into her face. + +"I knew," said he, "that I was pledged not to mention a certain name +while you were by; and I kept my word, with the exception of the whisper +I stole into your ear on the day I set out for Peebles. But things are +now changed. The rights of Whitecraigs are now in the act of being made +out in your name. Within a month you will be mistress of that mansion, +and of those green dells and hills you have loved to wander among in joy +and in sorrow. Now, will you answer me a question?" + +"I will!" she replied. + +"What would be your answer to Hector Hayston--who is now no longer a +husband, and no longer rich--were he to come to Whitecraigs and make +amends for all that is by and gone? Would you receive him kindly, or +turn him from the door of the house of his fathers?" + +The question was too sudden, or too touchingly devised. She looked for a +moment in his face, burst into tears, and hid her face in his breast. + +"Try her poor heart not thus!" cried the mother. "Time, that as yet has +done nothing but made ravages, may now, when things are so changed, work +miracles. Do not press the question. A woman and a mother knows better +than you can do what are now her feelings. The answer is not +asked--Alice, your uncle has taken back his question!" + +"I have--I have!" replied he, as he pressed her to his breast. "Look up, +my dear Alice. I have, in my pride and power, been hasty, and thought I +could rule the heart of woman as I have done my own, even in its +rebellion against God. I have yet all to learn of those secret workings +of the spirit, in all save repentance. I never myself knew what it was +to love, far less what it is to love and be forsaken. No more--no more. +I will not again touch those strings." + +And, rising hurriedly, he consigned the maid to her mother, and went +out, to afford her time to collect again her thoughts. During the +following week the furniture of Whitecraigs was disposed of by Mr. +Pringle, for behoof of the other creditors of Hayston, and purchased by +the uncle, who took another journey to Peebles, for the purpose of +negotiating the sale, and making further preparations for obtaining +entry. In a fortnight after, the keys were sent to Homestead by a +messenger, while the making up of the titles was in the course of +progress. It was no part of the intention of Wallace to reside in the +mansion-house: his object was still secrecy; and, though the form and +character of the transaction might lead ultimately to a discovery, he +cared not. By the prescription of the crime he had committed, he was +free from punishment; while, by retaining his name, and living +ostensibly in a humble condition, he had a chance of escaping a +detection of his true character, at the same time that he might, by +humility and good services, render himself more acceptable to that Great +Power whose servant he now considered himself to be. + +On the twenty-first day of October, the house of Whitecraigs was again +open. Servants had been procured from Peebles; the fires were again +burning; the wreaths of smoke again ascended from among the trees; and +life and living action were taking the place of desertedness. On the +forenoon of that day, Wallace took the two females from Homestead, and +conducted them, hanging on his arms, to their new place of residence. To +speak of feelings, where a change comprehended an entire revolution of +a life of habit, thought, and sentiment, would be as vain as +unintelligible. From that day, when the uncle had put the trying +question to his niece, a change might have been detected working a +gradual influence on her appearance and conduct. Might we say that hope +had again lighted her taper within the recesses where all had been so +long dreary darkness! The change would not authorize an affirmative--it +would have startled the ear that might have feared and yet loved the +sounds. One not less versed in human nature might be safer in the +construction derived from the new objects, new duties, new desires, new +thoughts, from all the thousand things that act on the mind in this +wonderful scene of man's existence; but would he be truer to the nature +of the heart that has once loved? We may be contented with a mean, where +extremes shoot into the darkness of our mysterious nature. Alice Scott +took in gradually the interests of her new sphere; did not despise the +apparel suited to it; did not reject the manners that adorned it; did +not turn a deaf ear or a dead eye to the eloquent ministers that lay +around amidst the beauties of Whitecraigs and hailed her as mistress, +where she was once a servant, if not a beggar. + +Meanwhile the house of Homestead was enlarged, to fit it as a residence +for the uncle. Mr. Pringle was continued agent for the proprietress of +Whitecraigs; and, while many, doubtless, speculated on a thousand +theories as to these strange occurrences, we may not deny to Hector +Hayston, wherever he was, or in whatever circumstances, some interest in +what concerned him so nearly as the disposal of his estate, and the +fortune of her by whom his first affections had been awakened. Neither +shall we say that Wallace and Pringle had not, too, their secret views +and understandings, and that the latter was not silent where the +interests of his old employer called for confidence. In all which we +may be justified by the fact that, one day, the agent of Whitecraigs +introduced to the bachelor of Homestead a young man: it was the former +proprietor of Whitecraigs. + +"It is natural, Mr. Wallace," said Mr. Pringle, "that one should wish to +revisit the scenes of his youth--especially," he added, with a smile, +"when these have been one's own property, come from prior generations, +and lost by the thoughtlessness of youth." + +"It is," replied Wallace, renouncing his usual gravity, "even though +there should be no one there who might claim the hand of old friendship. +But this young man has only, as yet, seen the hill-tops of his father's +lands; and these claim no seclusion from the eye of the traveller. He +might wish, with greater ardency, to see the bed where his mother lay +when she bore him, or the cradle (which may still be in the house) where +she rocked him to sleep." + +"God be merciful to me!" replied the youth, as he turned away his head. +"This man touches strings whose vibrations harrow me. Sir," he added, +"were you ever yourself in the situation of him whose feelings you have +thus, from good motives, quickened so painfully?" + +"What Whitecraigs and she who lives now in the house yonder were or are +to you, Scotland and my kindred were to me; but the house where I was +born knows me not, and the bed and the cradle do not own me. But Alice +Scott recognised me as a fellow-creature, whatever more I say not; and +even that, from one so good, and, even yet, so beautiful--is something +to live for. No more. I know all. Will you risk a meeting?" + +"Mr. Pringle will answer for me," replied he, as he turned, with a full +heart, to the window. + +"And I will answer for Mr. Pringle," said Wallace. + +"But who will answer for _her_?" rejoined the other. + +"Stay there," said Wallace. "I will return in a few minutes." + +And, bending his steps to Whitecraigs House, he was, for a time, engaged +with Alice and her mother. He again returned to Homestead; and, in a few +minutes after, the three were walking towards the mansion. The eye of +the young man glanced furtively from side to side, as if to catch +glimpses of old features which had become strange to him; but in the +direction of the house he seemed to have no power to look--lagging +behind, and displaying an anxiety to be concealed, by the bodies of the +others, from the view of the windows. On arriving at the house, Wallace +and Pringle went into an apartment where the mother was seated. Hector +stood in the passage: he feared that Alice was there, and would not +enter. + +"Think you," whispered Wallace, quickly returning to him, "that I, whom +you accused of touching tender chords, am so little acquainted with +human nature as to admit of witnesses to your meeting with Alice Scott? +There, the green parlour in the west wing," he continued, pointing up +the inside stair to a room well known to the youth. "If you cannot +effect it, who may try? Go--go!" + +"I cannot--I cannot!" he replied, in deep tones. "My feet will not carry +me. That room was my mother's favourite parlour. A thousand associations +are busy with me. And now, who sits there?" + +"Come, come!" said Pringle, as he came forth, in consequence of hearing +Hayston's irresolution. "What did you expect on coming here? Alice to +come and fly to you with open arms?" + +"No, sir; to reject me with a wave of disdain!" replied the youth. "I am +smitten from within, and confidence has left me. Let me see her mother +first. My cruelty to her has been mixed with kindness, and she may give +me some heart." + +And he turned to the apartment where the mother sat. + +"Your confidence will not be restored by anything the mother can say!" +rejoined Pringle, who was getting alarmed for the success of his +efforts. "Alice is now mistress here, and must be won by contrition, and +a prayer for forgiveness." + +"Ho!" interjected Wallace. "To what tends this mummery? Must I take you +by the hand, and lead you to one who, for years, has seen you in every +flitting shade of the hills, and heard you in every note of the sighing +winds of the valley?" + +"To hate me as I deserve to be hated!" replied Hayston, still +irresolute. "None of you can give me any ground for hope, and seem to +push me on to experience a rejection which may seal my misery for ever!" + +Wallace smiled in silence, beckoned Pringle into the room beside the +mother, and taking Hayston by the arm, with a show of humour that +accorded but indifferently with the real anguish of doubt and dismay by +which the young man's mind was occupied, forced him on to the first step +of the inside stair. + +"You are now fairly committed!" said he, smiling; "to retreat, is ruin; +to advance, happiness, and love, and peace." + +And he retreated to the room where Pringle was, leaving the youth to the +strength or weakness of his own resolution. His tread was now heard, +slow and hesitating, on the stair. Some time elapsed before the sound of +the opening door was heard; and that it remained for a time open, held +by the doubtful hand, might also have been observed. At last it was +shut; and quick steps on the floor indicated that the first look had not +been fraught with rejection. + +The party below were, meanwhile, speculating on the result of the +meeting. Even the mother was not certain that it would, at first, be +attended with success. Alice had yielded no consent; and it was only +from the mother's construction of her looks, that she had given her +authority for the interview. + +"All is now decided, for good or evil," said Wallace. "Go up stairs, and +bring us a report of the state of affairs." + +The mother obeyed; and, after a considerable time, returned, with her +eyes swimming in tears. + +"Is it so?" said her friend. "Is it really so? Has all my labour been +fruitless?" + +"No," replied she; "but I could not stand the sight. I found her lying +on the breast of Hector, sobbing out the sorrows of years. Her eyes have +been long dry. The heart is at last opened." + +"Too good a sight for me to lose," replied her friend. "For twenty years +I have only known the tears of penitence: I will now experience those +that flow from the happiness of others." + +And, with these words, he hurried up stairs. We would follow, but that +we are aware of the danger of treading ground almost forbidden to +inspiration. Within two hours afterwards, Hector Hayston and Alice Scott +were again among the glens of Whitecraigs, seeking out those places +where, before, they used to breathe the accents of a first affection. +The one had been true to the end; and the other had been false only to +learn the beauty of truth. We have given these details from a true +record, and have derived pleasure from the recollections they have +awakened; but we fairly admit, that we would yield one half of what we +have experienced of the good, to have marked that day the workings of +the retrieved spirit in the eyes, and speech, and manners of Alice +Scott. These are nature's true magic. The drooping flower that is all +but dead in the dry, parched soil, raises its head, takes on fresh +colours, and gives forth fresh odours, as the spring showers fall on its +withered leaves. Oh! there is a magic there that escapes not even the +eye of dull labour, retiring home sick of all but the repose he needs. +But the process in the frame that is the temple of beauty, worth, +intelligence, sensibility, rearing all in loveliness afresh, out of what +was deemed the ruins only of what is the greatest and best of God's +works--to see this, and to feel it, is to rejoice that we are placed in +a world that, with all its elements of vice and sorrow, is yet a place +where the good and the virtuous may find something analogous to that for +which the spirit pants in other worlds. + +Yet, though we saw it not, we have enough of the conception, through +fancy, to be thankful for the gift even of the _ideal_ of the good; and +here we are satisfied that we have more. Hector Hayston and Alice Scott +were married. David Wallace's history was long concealed, but curiosity +finally triumphed; yet with no effect calculated to impair the +equanimity of a mind which repentance, and a reliance on God's grace, +had long rendered independent of the opinions of men. He had wrought for +evil, and good came of it; and he lived long to see, in the house of +Whitecraigs, its master, mistress, and children, the benefits of the +prescription which the 29th of September effected--a principle of the +law of Scotland that was long deemed inconsistent with the good of the +land, but now more properly considered as being no less in unison with +the feelings of man than it is with divine mercy. + + + + +THE COUNTESS OF WISTONBURY. + + +In the summer of 1836 I had occasion to make a journey into Wiltshire, +in England. As the business that called me there, although of sufficient +importance to me, would have no interest whatever for the reader, I will +readily be excused, I dare say, from saying of what nature that business +was. It will more concern him, from its connection with the sequel, to +know that my residence, while in England, was in a certain beautiful +little village at the southern extremity of the shire above named, and +that mine host, during my stay there, was the worthy landlord of the +White Hart Inn, as intelligent and well-informed a man as it has often +been my good fortune to meet with. The nature of the business which made +me a guest of Michael Jones, left me a great deal more spare time than I +knew well what to do with. It hung heavy upon my hands; and my good +host, perceiving this, suggested a little excursion, which, he said, he +thought would dispose of one day, at any rate, agreeably enough. + +"I would recommend you, sir," he said, "to pay a visit to Oxton Hall, +the seat of the Earl of Wistonbury.[5] It is one of the finest +residences in England; and, as the family are not there just now, you +may see the whole house, both inside and outside. If you think of it, I +will give you a line to the butler, a very old friend of mine, and he +will be glad to show you all that's worth seeing about the place." + +[5] Under this name we choose, for obvious reasons, to conceal the real +one.--_Ed._ + +"How far distant is it?" I inquired. + +"Oh, not more than three miles and a half--little more than an hour's +easy walk," replied mine host. + +"Excellent!" said I; "thank you for the hint, landlord. Let me have the +introduction to the butler you spoke about, and I'll set off directly." + +In less than five minutes, a card, addressed to Mr. John Grafton, +butler, Oxton Hall, was put into my hands, and in two minutes more I was +on my way to the ancient seat of the Earls of Wistonbury. The directions +given me as to my route, carefully noted on my part, brought me, in +little more than an hour, to a spacious and noble gateway, secured by a +magnificent gate of cast-iron. This I at once recognised, from the +description given me by Mr. Jones, to be the principal entrance to Oxton +Hall. Satisfied that it was so, I unhesitatingly entered--and the house +of one of the proudest of England's aristocracy stood before me, in all +its lordly magnificence. A spacious lawn, of the brightest and most +beautiful verdure, dotted over with noble oaks, and tenanted by some +scores of fallow-deer, stretched far and wide on every side. In the +centre of this splendid park--such a park as England alone can +exhibit--arose the mansion-house, an ancient and stately pile, of great +extent and lofty structure. + +Having found the person to whose civilities I was recommended by mine +host of the White Hart--a mild and pleasant-looking old man, of about +seventy years of age--I put my credentials into his hands. On reading +it, the old man looked at me smilingly, and said that he would have much +pleasure in obliging his good friend Mr. Jones, by showing me all that +was worth seeing both in and about the house; and many things both +curious and rare, and, I may add, both costly and splendid, did I see +ere another hour had passed away; but fearing the reader's patience +would scarcely stand the trial of a description of them, I refrain from +the experiment, and proceed to say, that, just as our survey of the +house was concluded, my cicerone, as if suddenly recollecting himself, +said-- + +"By-the-by, sir, perhaps you would like to see the picture gallery, +although it is hardly worth seeing just now--most of the pictures having +been removed to our house in Grosvenor Square last winter; and, being in +this denuded state, I never think of showing it to visitors. There are, +however, a few portraits of different members of the family still left, +and these you may see if you have any curiosity regarding them." + +Such curiosity I avowed I felt, and was immediately conducted into the +presence of a number of the pictorial ancestry of the illustrious house +of Wistonbury. The greater part of the pictures had been removed, as my +conductor had informed me; but a few still remained scattered along the +lofty walls of the gallery. + +"That," said my cicerone, pointing to a grim warrior, clad from head to +heel in a panoply of steel,--"that is Henry, first Earl of Wistonbury, +who fell in Palestine during the holy wars; and this," directing my +attention to another picture, "is the grandfather of the present Earl." + +"A very handsome and pleasant-looking young man," said I, struck with +the forcible representation of these qualities which the painting +exhibited. + +"Ay," replied the old man, "and as good as he was handsome. He is the +pride of the house; and the country around yet rings with his name, +associated with all that is kind and charitable." + +"And who is this lovely creature?" said I, now pointing in my turn to +the portrait of a young female of the most exquisite beauty--the face +strikingly resembling some of the best executed likenesses of the +unfortunate Queen Mary--which hung beside that of the Good Earl of +Wistonbury, as the nobleman of whom my cicerone had just spoken was +called throughout the country. + +"That lady, sir," replied the latter, "was his wife--the Countess of +Wistonbury. She was one of the most beautiful women of her time; and, +like her husband, was beloved by all around her, for the gentleness of +her manners and benevolence of her disposition." + +"But what's this?" said I, advancing a little nearer the picture, to +examine something in her attire that puzzled me. "A Scotch plaid!" I +exclaimed in considerable surprise, on ascertaining that this was the +article of dress which had perplexed me. "Pray, what has the Scotch +plaid to do here? How happens it that we find a Countess of Wistonbury +arrayed in the costume of Caledonia?" + +"Why, sir, the reason is good--perfectly satisfactory," replied Mr. +Grafton, smilingly. "She was a native of that country." + +"Indeed!" said I. "A countrywoman of mine! Of what family?" added I. + +My conductor smiled. + +"Truly," said he, after a pause, "that is a question easier put than +answered." + +"What!" said I, "was she not of some distinguished house?" + +"By no means, sir," replied Mr. Grafton. "She was a person of the +humblest birth and station; but this did not hinder her from becoming +Countess of Wistonbury, nor from being one of the best as well as most +beautiful that ever bore the title." + +"Ah, ha!" said I to myself, "here's a story for the 'Tales of the +Borders.'" I did not say this to Mr. Grafton, however; but to him I did +say--"There must be some interesting story connected with this lady. The +history of her singular good fortune must be curious, and well worth +hearing." + +"Why, it certainly is," replied my conductor, with the air of one who, +while he cannot but acknowledge that there is interest in a certain +piece of information which he possesses, is yet so familiar with it +himself, has owned it so long, and communicated it so often, that his +feelings seem to belie his words--the former remaining unmoved by the +tale which the latter unfolds. "There is certainly something curious in +the Countess's story," said Mr. Grafton; "and, now that we have seen +everything that is worth seeing, if you will come with me to my little +refectory, I will tell you all about it over a tankard of fine old ale +and a slice of cold round." + +Need I say, good reader, that I at once and gladly accepted an +invitation that so happily combined the intellectual and the sensual? +You will give me credit for more sense; and the following story will +prove at once that your good opinion is not misplaced, that I must have +been an attentive listener, and, lastly, that I must be blessed with a +pretty retentive memory. I relate the story in my own way, but without +taking the slightest liberty with any single one of the details given me +by my informant, who, from having been upwards of forty-five years in +the service of the Earls of Wistonbury, and, during the greater part of +that time their principal and most confidential domestic, was minutely +and accurately informed regarding every remarkable event that had +occurred in the family for several generations back. + +"But, before we leave this part of the house," resumed Mr. Grafton, "be +so good as step with me a moment into this small room here, till I show +you a certain little article that cuts some figure in the story which I +shall shortly tell you." + +Saying this, he led the way into the small apartment he alluded to, and, +conducting me towards a handsome ebony or blackwood cabinet that +occupied one end of the room, he threw open its little folding doors, +and exhibited to me, not some rich or rare curiosity, as I had expected, +but a small, plain, very plain--or I should, perhaps, rather say very +coarse--country-looking, blue-painted chest. + +"Do you see that little chest, sir?" said Mr. Grafton, smilingly. + +"I do," said I; "and it seems a very homely article to be so splendidly +entombed, and so carefully kept." + +"Yet," replied Mr. Grafton, "homely as it is, and small as is its +intrinsic value, that is one of the heir-looms of the family, and one of +the most fondly-cherished of them all." + +"Indeed!" said I, in some surprise. "Then I am very sure it cannot be +for its marketable worth. It wouldn't bring sixpence." + +"I verily believe it would not," replied Mr. Grafton. "Yet the Earl of +Wistonbury would not part with that little chest for a good round sum, I +warrant ye." + +"Pray, explain, my good sir." + +"I will. That little, blue-painted chest contained all the worldly +wealth--a few articles of female dress--of the lady whose portrait you +were just now so much admiring, when she became Countess of Wistonbury." + +"Why, then," said I, "that is proof that riches, at any rate, had +nothing to do with her promotion to that high rank." + +"They certainly had not," replied my aged friend. "But all this you will +learn more particularly in the story which I shall tell you presently. +You will then learn, also, how the little, blue-painted chest comes to +figure in the history of a countess." + +Saying this, Mr. Grafton shut the doors of the cabinet, when we left the +apartment, and, in a few minutes after, I found myself in what my worthy +old host called his refectory. This was a snug little room, most +comfortably furnished, and in which I observed a very large quantity of +silver plate,--being, I presumed, the depository of that portion of the +family's wealth. My good old friend now rung his bell, when a female +servant appeared. + +"Let's have summut to eat, Betsy," said the old man; and never was order +more promptly or more effectively obeyed. + +In an instant the table, which occupied the centre of the floor, +absolutely creaked under the load of good things with which it was +encumbered. The "slice of cold round," I found, was but a _nomme de +guerre_ with the old man, and meant everything in the edible way that +was choice and savoury. To this conclusion I came from seeing the table +before me covered with a great variety of good things, amongst which +rose, conspicuous in the centre, a huge venison pasty. When the +_loading_ of the table was completed, and the servant had retired-- + +"Now," said the old man, looking at me with a significant smile, and at +the same time drawing a bunch of small keys from his pocket, from which +he carefully singled out one, "since Betsy has done her part so well, +let me see if I can't do mine as creditably." + +Saying this, he opened what I thought a sly-looking little cupboard, and +brought forth from its mysterious recess an aristocratic-looking bottle, +sealed with black wax, and whose shoulders were still thickly coated +with sawdust. Handling this venerable bottle with a lightness and +delicacy of touch which a long practice only could have given, and with +a degree of reverence which an _a priori_ knowledge of its contents only +could have inspired, my worthy host tenderly brushed off its coating of +sawdust, gently inserted the screw, drew the cork, with a calm, +cautious, steady pull, and, in the next moment, had filled up two +brimmers of the finest old port that the cellars of Oxton Hall could +produce. Having done ample justice to the good things before us-- + +"Now, my good sir, the story, the story, if you please," said I. + +"Oh, to be sure," replied my kind host, smiling. "The story you shall +have. But first let us take another glass of wine, to inspire me with +fortitude to begin so long a story, and you with patience to listen to +it." + +The procedure thus recommended having been complied with, the good old +man immediately began:-- + +"About a hundred and thirteen years since," he said, "there lived in the +neighbourhood of one of the principal cities in Scotland, a farmer of +the name of Flowerdew. He was a man of respectable character, and of +sober and industrious habits. His family consisted only of himself, his +wife, and an only child--a daughter, named Jessy. Gentle and +affectionate, of the most winning manners, and surpassingly beautiful in +form and feature, Jessy was not only the darling of her father, but the +favourite character of the neighbourhood in which she lived. All yielded +the homage of admiration to her supreme loveliness, and of the tenderest +esteem to her worth. + +For many years, Jessy's father contrived, notwithstanding of an enormous +rent, to keep pace with the world, and eventually to raise himself a +little above it; but, in despite of all his industry and all his +prudence, reverses came. A succession of bad crops was followed by a +series of losses of various kinds, and James Flowerdew found himself a +ruined man. + +'It's not for myself I care,' said the honest man, when speaking one day +with his wife of the misfortunes which had overwhelmed them--'it's for +our puir bit lassie, guidwife. God help her! I thought to have left her +independent; but it's been ordained otherwise, and we must submit. But +what's to become of her I know not. Being brocht up a little abune the +common, she cannot be asked to enter into the service of ony o' our +neebors; yet, I see nae other way o't. It must come to that in the lang +run.' + +'I suppose it must, guidman--I suppose it must,' replied his wife, +raising the corner of her apron to her eye, and then bursting into +tears. 'My puir, dear, gentle lassie,' she exclaimed, 'it's a sad change +to her; but I ken she'll meet it cheerfully, and without repining. But, +guidman, if to service she must go, and I fancy there's little doot o' +that, wouldna it be better if we could get her into the service of some +respectable family in the toon, than to put her wi' ony o' our neebors, +where she might be reminded o' her fall, as they will call it?' + +'It's a good thought, Lizzy,' replied her husband, musingly, as he gazed +in sadness on the fire that burned before him. 'It's a good thought,' he +said. 'She will be there unknown, and her feelings saved from the taunts +of callous impertinence. I will think of it,' added Flowerdew. 'In the +meantime, guidwife, prepare Jessy, the best way you can, for the change +of situation in life which she is about to meet with. I canna do it. It +would break my heart a'thegither.' + +This painful task Mrs. Flowerdew undertook; and, as she expected, found +her daughter not only reconciled to the step which was proposed for her, +but eager and anxious to be put in a way of doing for herself, and, as +she fondly hoped and affectionately said, of aiding her parents. + +Shortly after this, the ruin which had overtaken James Flowerdew began +to present itself in its most instant and most distressing shapes. +Arrestments were laid on his funds in all quarters. Visits of messengers +were frequent, almost daily; and his whole stock and crop were +sequestrated by the landlord, and a day for the sale fixed. This last +was a sight from which Flowerdew anxiously wished to save his daughter, +and he meant to do so, if he could, by finding her 'a place' previous to +the day of sale. + +The duty of looking out for a situation for Jessy in town Flowerdew +took upon himself, from the circumstance of his having been in the habit +for many years of supplying a number of respectable families with the +produce of his farm, which he generally delivered himself, his simple +character and industrious habits not permitting him to see any +degradation in driving his own cart on these occasions. Flowerdew had +thus formed a personal acquaintance with many families of the better +class, which he thought might be useful to him in his present views. + +Amongst the oldest and most respected of his customers was a learned +professor, whom, to avoid what might be an inconvenient identification +of circumstances, we shall call Lockerby. With this gentleman Flowerdew +resolved to begin his inquiries respecting a situation for his daughter. +He did so, and on being introduced to him, explained the purpose of his +visit. + +'Dear me, Mr. Flowerdew!' said the worthy professor, in surprise at the +application, 'I thought--I all along thought, that your circumstances +would entitle your daughter, whose modesty of demeanour and great beauty +of person I have had frequent opportunities of admiring--she having +called here frequently, as you know, on various occasions connected with +our little traffic--I say, I thought your circumstances would entitle +your daughter to look for something higher than the situation of a +domestic servant.' + +'I once thought so myself, professor,' replied Mr. Flowerdew, with a +tear standing in his eye; 'but it has turned out otherwise. The truth +is, that I have lately met with such reverses as have entirely ruined +me. I am about to be ejected from my farm, and must betake myself to +daily labour for a subsistence. In this explanation you will see the +reason why I apply to you for a situation in your family for my +daughter.' + +'Too clearly--too clearly,' replied the worthy professor sincerely +grieving for the misfortunes of a man whom he had long known, and whose +uprightness of conduct and character he had long appreciated. 'I am +seriously distressed, Mr. Flowerdew,' he added, 'to learn all +this--seriously distressed, indeed; but, in the meantime, let us consult +Mrs. Lockerby on the subject of your present visit.' And he rang the +bell, and desired the servant who answered it, to request his wife to +come to him. She came, and on being informed of Mr. Flowerdew's +application in behalf of his daughter, at once agreed to receive her +into her service; adding, that she might, if she chose, enter on her +duties immediately. It was finally arranged that Jessy should take +possession of her situation on the following day. + +Highly gratified at having got admission for his daughter into so worthy +and respectable a family, Flowerdew returned home with a lighter heart +than he had possessed for some time before. He felt that his Jessy was +now, in a manner, provided for; and that, although the situation was a +humble one, and far short of what he had once expected for her, it was +yet a creditable one, and one presenting no mean field for the exercise +of some of the best qualities which a woman can possess. + +Equally pleased with her father at the opening that had been found for +her, the gentle girl lost no time in making such preparations as the +impending change in her position in life rendered necessary. Part of +these preparations, all cheerfully performed, consisted in packing a +small trunk with her clothes, and in other procedures of a similar kind. +In this employment her mother endeavoured to assist her, but was too +much affected by the sadness of the task to afford any very efficient +aid, although her daughter did all she could, by assuming a +light-heartedness which she could not altogether feel, to assuage the +grief to which her mother was every moment giving way. + +'Why grieve yourself in that way, mother?' she would say, pausing in her +operations, and flinging her arms around her parent's neck. 'I assure +you I am happy at the prospect of being put in a way of doing for +myself; I consider it no hardship--not in the least. I will take a pride +in discharging my new duties faithfully and diligently; and I hope that, +even in the humble sphere in which I am about to move, I shall contrive +to make myself both esteemed and respected.' + +'_That_ I dinna doubt--that I dinna doubt, my dear lassie,' replied her +mother; 'but, oh, it goes to my heart to see you gaun into the service +o' ithers. I never expected to see the day. Oh, this is a sad change +that's come over us a'!' And again the poor woman burst into a paroxysm +of grief. + +'Mother,' said the girl, 'you will dishearten me if you go on in this +way.' Then smiling through the tears of affection that glistened on her +eye, and assuming a tone of affected cheerfulness, 'Come now, dear +mother, do drop this desponding tone. There's better days in store for +us yet. We'll get above all this by-and-by. In the meantime it is our +duty, as Christians, to submit to the destiny that has been decreed us +with patience and resignation. Come, mother, I'll sing you the song you +used always to like so well to hear me sing.' And, without waiting for +any remark in reply, or pausing in her employment, the girl immediately +began, in a voice whose richness of tone and deep pathos possessed the +most thrilling power:-- + + 'A cheerfu' heart's been always mine, + Whatever might betide me, O! + In foul or fair, in shade or shine, + I've aye had that to guide me, O! + + When luck cam chappin' at my door, + Wi' right goodwill I cheered him, O! + And whan misfortune cam, I swore + The ne'er a bit I feared him, O!' + +'O lassie, lassie!' exclaimed Jessy's mother, here interrupting her, and +now smiling as she spoke--'how can ye think o' singing at such a time? +But God lang vouchsafe ye sae light and cheerfu' a heart! It's a great +blessing, Jessy, and canna be prized too highly.' + +'I'm aware of it, mother,' replied her daughter, 'and am, I trust, +thankful for it. I dinna see, after a', that anything should seriously +distress us--but guilt. If we keep free o' _that_, what hae we to fear? +A' ither mischances will mend, or if they dinna, they'll at least smooth +doon wi' time.' + +'But why are ye no puttin' up your silk goun, Jessy?' here interposed +her mother, abruptly; seeing her daughter laying aside the article of +dress she referred to, as if she did not intend it should have a place +in the little chest she was packing. + +'The silk gown, mother, I'll no tak wi' me,' replied Jessy, smiling; +'I'll leave't at hame till better times come roun'. It would hardly +become my station now, mother, to be gaun flaunting about in silks.' + +'Too true, Jessy,' said her mother with a sigh. 'It may be as weel, as +ye say, to leave't at hame for a wee, till times mend wi' us at ony +rate, although God only knows when that may be, if ever.' + +'I'll keep it for my wedding gown, mother,' said Jessy, laughingly, and +with an intention of counteracting the depressing tendency of her +inadvertent remarks on the propriety of her leaving her silk gown +behind. 'I'll keep it for my wedding dress, mother,' she said, 'although +it's mair than likely that a plainer attire will be mair suitable for +that occasion too.' + +'Nae sayin', Jessy,' replied her mother. 'Ye'll maybe get a canny laird +yet, that can ride to market wi' siller spurs on his boots and gowd lace +on his hat.' + +'Far less will please me, mither,' replied Jessy, blushing and laughing +at the same time. 'I never, even in our best days, looked so high, and +it would ill become me to do so now.' + +With such conversation as this did mother and daughter endeavour to +divert their minds from dwelling on the painful reflection which the +latter's occupation was so well calculated to excite. + +An early hour of the following morning saw Jessy Flowerdew seated in a +little cart, well lined with straw by her doting father, who proposed +driving her himself into the city. A _small, blue-painted chest_, a +bandbox, and one or two small bundles, formed the whole of her +travelling accompaniments. She herself was wrapped in a scarlet mantle, +and wore on her head a light straw bonnet, of tasteful shape, and +admirably adapted to the complexion and contour of the fine countenance +which it gracefully enclosed. + +After a delay of a few minutes--for the cart in which Jessy was seated +was still standing at the door--her father, dressed in his Sunday's +suit, came out of the house, stepped up to the horse's head, took the +reins in his hand, and gently put in motion the little humble conveyance +which was to bear his daughter away from the home of her childhood, and +to place her in the house of the stranger. Unable to sustain the agony +of a last parting, Jessy's mother had not come out of the house to see +her daughter start on her journey; but she was seen, when the cart had +proceeded a little way, standing at the door, with her apron at her +eyes, looking after it with an expression of the most heartfelt sorrow. + +'There's my mother, father,' said Jessy, in a choking voice, on getting +a sight of the former in the affecting attitude above described--but she +could add no more. In the next instant her face was buried in her +handkerchief. Her father turned round on her calling his attention to +her mother, but instantly, and without saying a word, resumed the +silent, plodding pace which the circumstance had for a moment +interrupted. + +In little more than an hour the humble equipage, whose progress we have +been tracing, entered the city. Humble, however, as that equipage was, +it did not prevent the passers-by from marking the singular beauty of +her by whom it was occupied. Many were they who looked round, and stood +and gazed in admiration after the little cart and its occupant, as they +rattled along the 'stony street.' Their further progress, however, was +now a short one. In a few minutes Flowerdew and his daughter found +themselves at the professor's door. The former now tenderly lifted out +Jessy from the cart--for her sylph-like form, so light and slender, was +nothing in the arms of the robust farmer--and placed her in safety on +the flag-stones. Her little trunk and bandbox were next taken out by the +same friendly hand, and deposited beside her. This done, Flowerdew +rapped at the professor's door. It was opened. The father and daughter +entered; and, in an hour after--long before which her father had left +her--the latter was engaged in the duties of her new situation. + +Days, weeks, and months, as they will always do, now passed away, but +they still found Jessy in the service of her first employers, whose +esteem she had gained by the gentleness of her nature, the modesty of +her demeanour, and the extreme propriety of her conduct. + +At the time of her first entering into the service of Professor +Lockerby, Jessy Flowerdew had just completed her sixteenth year. The +charms of her person had not then attained their full perfection. But +now that two years more had passed over her head--for this interval must +be understood to have elapsed before we resume our tale--her face and +figure had attained the zenith of their beauty, a beauty that struck +every beholder, and in every beholder excited feelings of unqualified +admiration. + +It was about the end of two years after Jessy's advent into the family +of the professor, that the latter one morning, raising his head from a +letter which he had just been reading, and, turning to the former, who +was in the act of removing the breakfast equipage, said-- + +'Jessy, my girl, will you be so good as put the little parlour and +bedroom up stairs in the best order you can, as I expect a young +gentleman to-morrow, who is to become a boarder with us.' + +Jessy courtseyed her acquiescence in the order just given her, and +retired from the apartment to fulfil it. + +On the following day a travelling carriage, whose panels were adorned +with a coronet, drove up to the door of Professor Lockerby. From this +carriage descended a young man, apparently between nineteen and twenty +years of age, of the most prepossessing appearance. His countenance was +pale, but bore an expression of extreme mildness and benevolence. His +figure was tall and slender, but handsomely formed; while his whole +manner and bearing bespoke the man of high birth and breeding. + +On descending from his carriage, the young man was received by the +professor with the most respectful deference--too respectful it seemed +to be for the taste of him to whom it was addressed, for he instantly +broke through the cold formality of the meeting, by grasping the +professor's hand, and shaking it with the heartiest and most cordial +goodwill, saying while he did so-- + +'I hope I see you well, professor.' + +'In perfect health, I thank you, my lord,' replied the professor. 'I +hope you left your good lady mother, the countess, well.' + +'Quite well--I'm obliged to you, professor--as lively and stirring, and +active as ever. Hot and hasty, and a little queenly in her style now and +then, as you know, but still the open heart and the open hand of the +Wistonburys.' + +'I have the honour of knowing the countess well, my lord,' replied the +professor, 'and can bear testimony to the nobleness of her nature and +disposition. I have known many, many instances of it.' + +With such conversation as this, the professor and his noble boarder--for +such was the young man whom we have just introduced to the +reader--entered the house. Who this young man was, and what was his +object in taking up his abode with Professor Lockerby, we will explain +in a few words, although such explanation is rendered in part nearly +unnecessary by the conversation just recorded between him and the +professor. It may not be amiss, however, to say, in more distinct terms, +that he was the Earl of Wistonbury, a rank which he had attained just a +year before, by the sudden and premature death of his father, who died +in the forty-fifth year of his age. Since his accession to the title of +his ancestors, the young earl had continued to live in retirement with +his mother, a woman of a noble, elevated, and generous soul, well +becoming her high lineage--for she, too, was descended of one of the +noblest families in England--but in whose temper there was occasionally +made visible a dash of the leaven of aristocracy. + +On her son, the young earl, her only surviving child, she doted with all +the affection of the fondest and tenderest of mothers; and well worthy +was that son of all the love she could bestow. His was one of those +natures which no earthly elevation can corrupt, no factitious system +deprive of its innate simplicity. + +The promotion of the young earl to the head of his illustrious house, +was, however, a premature one in more respects than one. One of these +was to be found in the circumstance of the young man's being found +unprepared--at least so he judged himself--in the matter of education, +to fill with credit the high station to which he was so unexpectedly +called. His education, in truth, had been rather neglected; and it was +to make up for this neglect, to recover his lost ground with all the +speed possible, that he was now come to reside for a few months with +Professor Lockerby, who had once acted as tutor in his father's family +to a brother who had died young. + +Such, then, was the professor's boarder, and such was the purpose for +which he became so. + +The favourable impression which the youthful earl's first appearance had +made, suffered no diminution by length of acquaintance. Mild and +unpresuming, he won the love of all who came in contact with him. The +little personal services he required, he always solicited, never +commanded; and what he could with any propriety do himself, he always +did, without seeking other assistance. + +A quiet and unostentatious inmate of the professor's, time rolled +rapidly, but gently and imperceptibly, over the head of the young earl, +until a single week only intervened between the moment referred to, and +the period fixed on for his return to Oxton Hall. + +Thus, nearly six months had elapsed, not a very long period, but one in +which much may be accomplished, and in which many a change may take +place. And by such features were the six months marked, which the young +Earl of Wistonbury had spent in the house of Professor Lockerby. In that +time, by dint of unrelaxing assiduity and intense application, he had +acquired a respectable knowledge of both Latin and Greek, and in that +time, too, he had taken a step which was to affect the whole tenor of +his after life, and to make him either happy or miserable, as it had +been fortunately or unfortunately made. What that step was we shall +divulge, through precisely the same singular process by which it +actually came to the knowledge of the other parties interested. + +One evening, at the period to which we a short while since +alluded--namely, about a week previous to the expiry of the proposed +term of the earl's residence with Professor Lockerby--as Jessy Flowerdew +was about to remove the tea equipage from the table of the little +parlour in which the professor and his noble pupil usually conducted +their studies, the latter suddenly rose from his seat, and, looking at +their fair handmaiden with a serious countenance, said-- + +'Jessy, my love, you must not perform this service again, nor any other +of a similar kind. You are now my wife--you are now Countess of +Wistonbury.' + +We leave it to the reader to imagine, after his own surprise has a +little subsided, what was that of the worthy professor, on hearing his +noble pupil make so extraordinary, so astounding a declaration--a +declaration not less remarkable for its import, than for the occasion on +which, and the manner in which it was made. + +On recovering from his astonishment, 'My lord,' said the good professor, +with a grave and stern countenance, 'be good enough to inform me what +this extraordinary conduct means? What can have been your motive, my +lord, for using the highly improper and most unguarded language which I +have just now heard you utter?' + +The young earl, with the greatest calmness and deference of manner, +approached the professor, laid his hand upon his heart, and, with a +graceful inclination, said, slowly and emphatically-- + +'Upon my honour, sir, she _is_ my wife!' + +'What, my lord!' exclaimed the still more and more amazed professor--and +now starting from his chair in his excitation--'do you repeat your most +unbecoming and incredible assertion?' + +'I do, sir,' replied the earl, in the same calm and respectful manner. +'I do repeat it, and say, before God, that Jessy Flowerdew is the +lawfully married wife of the Earl of Wistonbury.' + +'Well, my lord, well,' said the professor, in angry agitation, 'I know +what is my duty in this most extraordinary case. It is to give instant +notice to the countess, your mother, of what I must call, my lord, the +extremely rash and unadvised step you have taken.' + +To this threat and rebuke, the earl replied, with the utmost composure +and politeness of manner--'I was not unprepared, sir, for your +resentment on this occasion. Neither do I take it in the least amiss. +You merely do your duty when you tell me I have forgotten mine. But the +step I have taken, sir, allow me to say, although it may appear +unadvised, has not been so in reality. I have weighed well the +consequences, and am quite prepared to abide them.' + +'Be it so, my lord, be it so,' replied the professor. 'I have only now +to remark that, as you say you were prepared for _my_ resentment, I hope +you are also prepared for your mother's, my lord--a matter of much more +serious moment.' + +'My mother, sir, I will take in my own hands,' replied the earl; 'she +can resent, but she can also forgive.' + +'I have no more to say, my lord, no more,' rejoined Mr. Lockerby; 'the +matter must now be put into the hands of those who have a better right +to judge of its propriety than I have. I shall presume on no further +remark on the subject.' + +'Come, sir,' said the earl, smiling and extending his hand to the +professor, 'let this, if you please, be no cause for difference between +us. I propose that we allow the matter to lie in abeyance until my +mother has been appealed to; she being the only person, you know, who +has a right to be displeased with my proceeding, or whose wishes I was +called upon to consult in this matter.' + +'Excuse me, my lord,' replied the worthy professor; 'but I must +positively decline all interchange of courtesies which may, by any +possibility, be construed into an overlooking of this very extraordinary +affair.' + +'Well, well, my good sir,' said the earl, smiling, and still maintaining +the equanimity of his temper, 'judge of me as charitably as you can. In +the morning, we shall meet, I trust, better friends.' Saying this, he +took up one of the candles which were on the table before him, bade the +professor a polite and respectful good night, and retired to his own +apartment. + +The earl had no sooner withdrawn than Mr. Lockerby, after collecting +himself a little, commenced inditing a letter to the Countess Dowager of +Wistonbury, apprising her of what had just occurred. In speaking, +however, of the 'degrading' connection which her son had made, the +honest man's sense of justice compelled him to add a qualifying +explanation of the term which he had employed--'degrading, I mean,' he +said, '_in point of wealth, rank, and accomplishments_; for, in all +other respects, in conduct and character, in temper and disposition, +and, above all, in personal appearance--for she is certainly eminently +beautiful--I must admit that her superior may not easily be found.' + +The letter that contained these remarks, with the other information +connected with it, the professor despatched on the same night on which +it was written; and, having done this, awaited with what composure and +fortitude he could command, the dreadful explosion of aristocratic wrath +and indignation, which, he had no doubt, would speedily follow. + +Leaving matters in this extraordinary position in the house of Professor +Lockerby we shall shift the scene, for a moment, to the Countess +Dowager of Wistonbury's sitting apartment in Oxton Hall; and we shall +choose the moment when her favourite footman, Jacob Asterley, has +entered her presence, after his return from a call at the post-office in +the neighbouring village; the time being the second day after the +occurrence just previously related--namely, the despatch to Oxton Hall +of Professor Lockerby's letter. + +'Well, Jacob, any letters for me to-day?' said the countess, on the +entrance of that worthy official. + +'One, my lady, from Scotland,' replied the servant, deferentially, and, +at the same time, opening the bag in which the letters were usually +carried to and from the post-house. + +'Ah! from the earl,' said the countess. + +'No, my lady, I rather think not. The address is not in his lordship's +handwriting.' + +'Oh! the good Professor Lockerby,' said the countess, contemplating for +a moment the address of the letter in question, which was now in her +ladyship's hands. 'I hope nothing unpleasant has occurred to my son.' +And while she spoke, she hurriedly broke the seal, and, in the next +instant, was intently engaged in perusing the intelligence which it had +secured from the prying curiosity of parties whom it did not concern. + +It would take a much abler pen than that now employed in tracing these +lines, to convey anything like an adequate idea of the mingled +expression of amazement, indignation, and grief exhibited on the +countenance, and in every act and attitude of the proud Countess of +Wistonbury, on reading the story of her son's degradation. The flush of +haughty resentment was succeeded by the sudden paleness of despair; and +in frequent alternation did these strong expressions of varied feeling +flit across the fine countenance--still fine, although it had looked on +fifty summers--of the heart-stricken mother, as she proceeded in her +perusal of the fatal document. On completing the perusal, the countess +threw herself in silent distraction on a sofa, and, still holding the +open letter in her hand, sank into a maze of wild and wandering +thoughts. These, however, seemed at length to concentrate in one +decisive and sudden resolution. Starting from the reclining posture into +which she had thrown herself, she advanced towards the bell-pull, rung +furiously, and, when the servant entered to know what were her +commands-- + +'Order the travelling carriage instantly, Jacob,' she said--'instantly, +instantly; and let four of my best horses be put in the harness. What do +you stare at, fool?' she added, irritated at the look of astonishment +which the inexplicable violence of her manner had called into the +countenance of her trusty domestic. 'Do as you are ordered, directly.' +The man bowed and withdrew; and in pursuance of the commands he had +received, proceeded to the stables. + +'Here's a start, Thomas!' he said, addressing a jolly-looking fellow, +who was busily employed in brushing up some harness; 'the travelling +carriage directly, and four of your best horses for my lady.' + +'Why, what the devil's the matter now?' replied Thomas, pausing in his +operations; 'where's the old girl a-going to?' + +'Not knowing, can't say,' replied Jacob; 'but she's in a woundy fuss, I +warrant you. Never seed her in such a quandary in my life. Something's +wrong somewhere, I guess.' + +'Well, well, all's one to me,' said Thomas, with philosophical +indifference; 'but it looks like a long start, where-ever it may be to; +so I'll get my traps in order.' And this duty was so expeditiously +performed, that, in less than fifteen minutes, the very handsome +travelling carriage of the Earl of Wistonbury, drawn by four spanking +bays, flashed up to the door of Oxton Hall. In an instant after, it was +occupied by the dowager countess, and in another, was rattling away for +Scotland, at the utmost speed of the noble animals by which it was +drawn. + +Changing here, once more, the scene of our story, we return to the house +of Professor Lockerby. There matters continued in that ominous state of +quiescence, that significant and portentous calm, that precedes the +bursting of the storm. Between the professor and the young earl, not a +word more had passed on the subject of the latter's extraordinary +declaration. Neither had made the slightest subsequent allusion to it, +but continued their studies precisely as they had done before; although, +perhaps, a degree of restraint--a consciousness of some point of +difference between them--might now be discerned in their correspondence. +Both, in short, seemed to have tacitly agreed to abide the result of the +professor's letter to the countess, before taking any other step, or +expressing any other feeling, on the subject to which that letter +related. The anticipated crisis which the professor and his noble pupil +were thus composedly awaiting, soon arrived. On the third day after that +remarkable one on which the young Earl of Wistonbury had avowed the +humble daughter of an humble Scotch farmer to be his wife, a carriage +and four, which, we need scarcely say, was the same we saw start from +Oxton Hall, drove furiously up to the door of Professor Lockerby. The +horses' flanks sent forth clouds of smoke; their mouths and +fore-shoulders were covered with foam; and the carriage itself was +almost encased in mud. Everything, in short, told of a long and rapid +journey. And it was so. Night and day, without one hour's intermission, +had that carriage prosecuted its journey. In an instant after, the +carriage stopped; its steps were down, and, bridling with high and lofty +indignation, the Dowager Countess of Wistonbury descended, and, ere any +one of the professor's family were aware of her arrival, she had entered +the house, the door being accidentally open, and was calling loudly for +'her boy.' + +'Where is my son?' she exclaimed, as she made her way into the interior +of the house: 'where is the Earl of Wistonbury?' + +In a moment after the Earl of Wistonbury, who had heard and instantly +recognized his mother's voice, was before her, and was about to rush +into her arms, when she haughtily thrust him back, saying-- + +'Degraded, spiritless boy, dare not too approach me! You have blotted +the noblest, the proudest scutcheon of England. Where is Professor +Lockerby?' + +The professor was by her side before she had completed the sentence, +when, seeing her agitation-- + +'My good lady,' he said, in his most persuasive tone, 'do allow me to +entreat of you to be composed, and to have the honour of conducting you +up stairs.' + +'Anywhere!--anywhere, professor!' exclaimed the countess; 'but, alas! go +where I will, I cannot escape the misery of my own thoughts, nor the +disgrace which my unworthy son has brought upon my head.' + +Without making any reply to this outburst of passionate feeling, the +professor took the countess respectfully by the hand, and silently +conducted her to his drawing-room. With stately step the countess +entered, and walked slowly to the further end of the apartment; this +gained, she turned round, and, when she had done so, a sight awaited her +for which she was but little prepared. This was her son and Jessy +Flowerdew, kneeling side by side, and, by their attitude, eloquently +imploring her forgiveness. It was just one of those sights best +calculated to work on the nobler nature of the Countess of Wistonbury, +and to call up the finer feelings of her generous heart. For some +seconds she looked at the kneeling pair in silent astonishment; her eye, +however, chiefly fixed on the beauteous countenance of Jessy Flowerdew, +pale with terror and emotion, and wet with tears. Having gazed for some +time on this extraordinary sight, without betraying the slightest +symptom of the feelings beyond that of surprise, with which it had +inspired her, the countess slowly advanced towards the kneeling couple. +She still, however, uttered no word, and discovered no emotion; but a +sudden change had come over her proud spirit. That spirit was now laid, +and its place occupied by all the generous impulses of her nature. +Keeping her eye steadily fixed on the kneeling fair one before her, she +approached her, paused a moment, extended her hand, placed it on the +ivory forehead of Jessy Flowerdew, gently laid back her rich auburn +hair, and, as she did so, said, in a tremulous, but emphatic voice-- + +'You _are_, indeed, a lovely girl! God bless you! Alfred, my son, rise,' +she added, in a low, but calm and solemn tone; 'I forgive you.' And she +extended her hand towards him. The earl seized it, kissed it +affectionately, and bathed it with his tears. + +'Rise, my lady--rise, my fair Countess of Wistonbury,' she now said, and +herself aiding in the act she commanded, 'I acknowledge you as my +daughter, and we must now see to fitting you to the high station to +which my son's favour has promoted you, and of which, I trust, you will +prove as worthy in point of conduct as you assuredly already are in that +of personal beauty. God bless you both! And may every happiness that the +conjugal state affords, be yours! Professor,' she added, and now turning +round to that gentleman, 'you will think this weakness--a mother's +weakness--and perhaps it is so--but I would myself fain attribute it to +a more worthy feeling, and, if I know my own heart, it is so. But let +that pass. I _am_ reconciled to the step my son has taken, and +reverently leave it to God, and fearlessly to man, to judge of the +motives by which I have been influenced. I trust they are such as to +merit the approbation of both.' + +Surprised, and greatly affected by the unexpected turn which matters had +taken, so contrary to what he had anticipated, the worthy professor had +listened to these expressions of the countess with averted head, and +making the most ingenious use of the handkerchief which he held to his +face that he could, to conceal the real purpose for which he employed +it. When she had done-- + +'Madam,' he said, with great agitation and confusion of manner, and +still busily plying the handkerchief in its pretended vocation--'Madam, +I--I--I am surprised--much affected, I assure you--much affected, my +lady--with this striking instance of what a noble and generous nature is +capable. I was by no means prepared for it. It does you infinite honour, +my lady--infinite honour; and will, I trust, in its result, be +productive of all that happiness to you which your magnanimous conduct +so eminently deserves.' + +'I trust I have acted rightly, professor,' was the brief reply of the +countess, as she again turned to the young couple, who were now standing +on the floor beside her, 'I hope I have; and, if my heart does not +deceive me, I am sure I have.' + +'You are warranted, my lady, in the confidence you express in the +uprightness, the generosity of your conduct on this very remarkable +occasion--perfectly warranted,' replied the professor. 'It is an +unexampled instance of greatness, of liberality of mind, and as such I +must always look on it.' + +Thus, then, terminated this extraordinary scene. It was subsequently +arranged that the marriage of the earl should, in the meantime, be kept +as secret as possible, and that the young countess should, in the +interim, be sent for a year or two to one of the most celebrated +seminaries of female education in England, under an assumed name, and +that, when she should have acquired the attainments and the polish +befitting her high station, she should be produced to the world as the +Countess of Wistonbury. + +Acting upon this plan of proceedings, the same carriage that brought +down the earl's mother, bore away, on the following day, together with +that lady, the young earl and his bride; the latter, to commence her +educational noviciate in England; the former, to while away the time as +he best could until that noviciate should expire, a period which he +proposed to render less irksome by a tour on the continent. + +About two years after the occurrence of the events just related--it +might be more, perhaps nearly three--Oxton Hall presented a scene of +prodigious confusion and bustle. Little carts of provender were daily +seen making frequent visits to the house. Huge old grates, in deserted +kitchens, that had not been in use for a century before, were cleared of +their rubbish, and glowing with blazing fires, at which enormous roasts +were solemnly revolving. Menials were running to and fro in all +directions, and a crowd of powdered and richly-liveried lackeys bustled +backwards and forwards through the gorgeous apartments, loaded with +silver plate, and bearing huge baskets of wine. Everything at Oxton +Hall, in short, betokened preparations for a splendid fete--and such, in +truth, was the case. To this fete all the nobility and gentry, within a +circuit of ten to fifteen miles were invited; and such an affair it +promised to be, altogether, as had not been seen at Oxton Hall since the +marriage of the last earl--a period of nearly thirty years. None of +those invited knew, or could guess, what was the particular reason for +so extensive a merry-making. Its scale, they learned, was most +magnificent, and the invitations unprecedentedly numerous. + +The whole affair was thus somewhat of a puzzle to the good people who +were to figure as guests at the impending fete; but they comforted +themselves with the reflection that they would know all about it by and +by. In the meantime, the day appointed for the celebration of the +proposed festival at Oxton Hall arrived; and, amongst the other +preparations which more markedly characterized it, was the appearance of +several long tables extended on the lawn in front of the house, and +which were intended for the accommodation of the earl's tenantry, who +were also invited to share in the coming festivities. Towards the +afternoon of the day alluded to, carriages and vehicles of all +descriptions, and of various degrees of elegance, were seen, in +seemingly endless numbers, streaming along the spacious and +well-gravelled walks that led, by many a graceful curve, through the +surrounding lawn, to the noble portals of Oxton Hall. These, by turns, +drew up in front of the principal entrance to the house, and delivered +their several cargoes of lords and ladies, knights and squires, all +honourable personages, and of high degree. An inferior description of +equipages, again, and occupied by persons of a different class, sturdy +yeomen and their wives and daughters, found ther way, or rather were +guided as they came, to a different destination, but with no difference +in the hospitality of their reception. All were alike welcome to Oxton +Hall on this auspicious day. By and by the hour of dinner came, and, +when it did, it exhibited a splendid scene in the magnificent +dining-room of the Earl of Wistonbury. In this dining-room were +assembled a party of at least a hundred-and-fifty ladies and gentlemen, +all in their best attire. Down the middle of the spacious apartment ran +a table of ample length and breadth, and capable of accommodating with +ease even the formidable array by which it was shortly to be +surrounded. On this spacious board glittered as much wealth, in the +shape of silver plate, as would have bought a barony, while everything +around showed that it was still but a small portion of the riches of its +noble owner. At the further end of the lordly hall, in an elevated +recess or interior balcony, were stationed a band of musicians, to +contribute the choicest specimens of the art to the hilarity of the +evening. Altogether the scene was one of the most imposing that can well +be conceived, an effect which was not a little heightened by the antique +character of the noble apartment in which it was exhibited, one of whose +most striking features was a large oriel window, filled with the most +beautifully stained glass, which threw its subdued and sombre light on +the magnificent scene beneath. Hitherto the young earl had not been seen +by any of the company; his mother, the countess-dowager, having +discharged the duties of hospitality in receiving the guests. Many were +the inquiries made for the absent lord of the mansion; but these were +all answered evasively, although always concluded with the assurance +that he would appear in good time. + +Satisfied with this assurance, the subject was no further pressed at the +moment; but, as the dinner hour approached, and the earl had not yet +presented himself, considerable curiosity and impatience began to be +manifested amongst the assembled guests. These feelings increased every +moment, and had attained their height, when the party found themselves +called on to take their seats at table, and yet no earl had appeared. +The general surprise was further excited on its being observed that the +countess-dowager did not, as usual, take the chair at the head of the +table, as was expected, but placed herself on its right. The chair at +the foot of the table remained also yet unoccupied; and great was the +wonder what all this could mean. It was now soon to be explained. Just +as the party had taken their seats, a folding-door, at the further end +of the hall, flew open, and the young Earl of Wistonbury entered, +leading by the hand a young female of exceeding beauty, attired in a +dress of the most dazzling splendour, over which was gracefully thrown a +Scottish plaid. Bowing slightly, but with a graceful and cordial +expression, and smiling affably as he advanced, the earl conducted his +fair charge to the head of the table, where, after a pause of a few +seconds, which he purposely made in order to afford his guests an +opportunity of marking the extreme loveliness of the lady whom he had +thus so unexpectedly introduced to them--an opportunity which was not +thrown away, as was evident from the murmur of admiration that ran round +the brilliant assembly--the earl thus shortly addressed his wondering +guests-- + +'Permit me, my friends,' he said, 'to introduce to you the Countess of +Wistonbury!' + +A shout of applause from the gentlemen, and a waving of handkerchiefs +by the ladies, hailed the pleasing and unexpected intelligence--an +homage whose duration and intensity was increased by the singularly +graceful manner with which it was received and acknowledged by her to +whom it was paid. Nothing could be more captivating than the modest, +winning sweetness of her smile, nothing more pleasing to behold than the +gentle grace of her every motion. On all present the impression was that +she was a woman of birth, education, and high breeding, and nothing in +the part she subsequently acted tended in the slightest degree to affect +this idea. The young and lovely countess conducted herself throughout +the whole of this eventful evening, as she did throughout the remainder +of her life, with the most perfect propriety; and thus evinced that the +pains taken to fit Jessy Flowerdew for the high station to which a +singular good fortune had called her, was very far from having been +taken in vain. + +At the conclusion of the banquet, the earl entreated the indulgence of +the company for an absence for himself and the countess of a quarter of +an hour. This being of course readily acquiesced in, the earl and his +beauteous young wife were seen, arm and arm, on the lawn, going towards +the tables at which his tenantry were enjoying his hospitality. Here he +went through precisely the same ceremony of introduction with that which +we have described as having taken place in the banquet-hall; and here it +was greeted with the same enthusiasm, and acknowledged by the countess +with the same grace and propriety. This proceeding over, the earl and +his young bride returned to their party, when one of the most joyous +evenings followed that the banqueting-room of Oxton Hall had ever +witnessed. There is only now to add, that Jessy Flowerdew's subsequent +conduct as Countess of Wistonbury proved her in every respect worthy of +the high place to which she had been elevated. A mildness and gentleness +of disposition, and a winning modesty of demeanour, which all the wealth +and state with which she was surrounded could not in the slightest +degree impair, distinguished her through life; and no less distinguished +was she by the generosity and benevolence of her nature, a nature which +her change of destiny was wholly unable to pervert." + +Such, then, good reader, is the history of the lady whose portrait, in +which she appears habited in a Scottish plaid, adorns, with others, the +walls of the picture gallery of Oxton Hall, in Wiltshire. + + + + +MIDSIDE MAGGY; + +OR, + +THE BANNOCK O' TOLLISHILL. + + "Every bannock had its maik, but the bannock o' Tollishill." + _Scottish Proverb._ + + +Belike, gentle reader, thou hast often heard the proverb quoted above, +that "Every bannock had its maik, but the bannock o' Tollishill." The +saying hath its origin in a romantic tradition of the Lammermoors, which +I shall relate to thee. Tollishill is the name of a sheep-farm in +Berwickshire, situated in the parish of Lauder. Formerly, it was divided +into three farms, which were occupied by different tenants; and, by way +of distinguishing it from the others, that in which dwelt the subjects +of our present story was generally called Midside, and our heroine +obtained the appellation of Midside Maggy. Tollishill was the property +of John, second Earl, and afterwards Duke of Lauderdale--a personage +whom I shall more than once, in these tales, have occasion to bring +before mine readers, and whose character posterity hath small cause to +hold in veneration. Yet it is a black character, indeed, in which there +is not to be found one streak of sunshine; and the story of the "Bannock +of Tollishill" referreth to such a streak in the history of John, the +Lord of Thirlestane. + +Time hath numbered somewhat more than a hundred and ninety years since +Thomas Hardie became tenant of the principal farm of Tollishill. Now, +that the reader may picture Thomas Hardie as he was, and as tradition +hath described him, he or she must imagine a tall, strong, and +fresh-coloured man of fifty; a few hairs of grey mingling with his brown +locks; a countenance expressive of much good nature and some +intelligence; while a Lowland bonnet was drawn over his brow. The other +parts of his dress were of coarse, grey, homespun cloth, manufactured in +Earlston; and across his shoulders, in summer as well as in winter, he +wore the mountain plaid. His principles assimilated to those held by the +men of the covenant; but Thomas, though a native of the hills, was not +without the worldly prudence which is considered as being more +immediately the characteristic of the buying and selling children of +society. His landlord was no favourer of the Covenant; and, though +Thomas wished well to the cause, he did not see the necessity for making +his laird, the Lord of Lauderdale, his enemy for its sake. He, +therefore, judged it wise to remain a neutral spectator of the religious +and political struggles of the period. + +But Thomas was a bachelor. Half a century had he been in the world, and +the eyes of no woman had had power to throw a spark into his heart. In +his single, solitary state, he was happy, or he thought himself happy; +and that is much the same thing. But an accident occurred which led him +first to believe, and eventually to feel, that he was but a solitary and +comfortless moorland farmer, toiling for he knew not what, and laying up +treasure he knew not for whom. Yea, and while others had their wives +spinning, carding, knitting, and smiling before them, and their bairns +running laughing and sporting round about them, he was but a poor +deserted creature, with nobody to care for, or to care for him. Every +person had some object to strive for and to make them strive but Thomas +Hardie; or, to use his own words, he was "just in the situation o' a +tewhit that has lost its mate--_te-wheet! te-wheet!_ it cried, flapping +its wings impatiently and forlornly--and _te-wheet! te-wheet!_ answered +vacant echo frae the dreary glens." + +Thomas had been to Morpeth disposing of a part of his hirsels, and he +had found a much better market for them than he anticipated. He +returned, therefore, with a heavy purse, which generally hath a tendency +to create a light and merry heart; and he arrived at Westruther, and +went into a hostel, where, three or four times in the year, he was in +the habit of spending a cheerful evening with his friends. He had called +for a quegh of the landlady's best, and he sat down at his ease with the +liquor before him, for he had but a short way to travel. He also pulled +out his tobacco-box and his pipe, and began to inhale the fumes of what, +up to that period, was almost a forbidden weed. But we question much if +the royal book of James the Sixth of Scotland and First of England, +which he published against the use of tobacco, ever found its way into +the Lammermoors, though the Indian weed did; therefore, Thomas Hardie +sat enjoying his glass and his pipe, unconscious or regardless of the +fulminations which he who was king in his boyhood, had published against +the latter. But he had not sat long, when a fair maiden, an acquaintance +of "mine hostess," entered the hostelry, and began to assist her in the +cutting out or fashioning of a crimson kirtle. Her voice fell upon the +ears of Thomas like the "music of sweet sounds." He had never heard a +voice before that not only fell softly on his ear, but left a lingering +murmur in his heart. She, too, was a young thing of not more than +eighteen. If ever hair might be called "gowden," it was hers. It was a +light and shining bronze, where the prevalence of the golden hue gave a +colour to the whole. Her face was a thing of beauty, over which health +spread its roseate hue, yet softly, as though the westling winds had +caused the leaves of the blushing rose to kiss her cheeks, and leave +their delicate hues and impression behind them. She was of a middle +stature, and her figure was such, although arrayed in homely garments, +as would have commanded the worship of a connoisseur of grace and +symmetry. But beyond all that kindled a flame within the hitherto +obdurate heart of Thomas, was the witching influence of her smile. For a +full hour he sat with his eyes fixed upon her; save at intervals, when +he withdrew them to look into the unwonted agitation of his own breast, +and examine the cause. + +"Amongst the daughters of women," thought he unto himself--for he had a +sprinkling of the language of the age about him--"none have I seen so +beautiful. Her cheeks bloom bonnier than the heather on Tollishill, and +her bosom seems saft as the new-shorn fleece. Her smile is like a blink +o' sunshine, and would mak summer to those on whom it fell a' the year +round." + +He also discovered, for the first time, that "Tollishill was a dull +place, especially in the winter season." When, therefore, the fair +damsel had arrayed the fashion of the kirtle and departed, without once +having seemed to observe Thomas, he said unto the goodwife of the +hostelry--"And wha, noo, if it be a fair question, may that bonnie +lassie be?" + +"She is indeed a bonnie lassie," answered the landlady, "and a guid +lassie, too; and I hae nae doot but, as ye are a single man, Maister +Hardie, yer question is fair enough. Her name is Margaret Lylestone, and +she is the only bairn o' a puir infirm widow that cam to live here some +twa or three years syne. They cam frae south owre some way, and I am +sure they hae seen better days. We thocht at first that the auld woman +had been a Catholic; but I suppose that isna the case, though they +certainly are baith o' them strong Episcopawlians, and in nae way +favourable to the preachers or the word o' the Covenant; but I maun say +for Maggie, that she is a bonny, sweet-tempered, and obleegin +lassie--though, puir thing, her mother has brocht her up in a wrang +way." + +Many days had not passed ere Thomas Hardie, arrayed in his Sunday +habiliments, paid another visit to Westruther; and he cautiously asked +of the goodwife of the hostel many questions concerning Margaret; and +although she jeered him, and said that "Maggy would ne'er think o' a +grey-haired carle like him," he brooded over the fond fancy; and +although on this visit he saw her not, he returned to Tollishill, +thinking of her as his bride. It was a difficult thing for a man of +fifty, who had been the companion of solitude from his youth upwards, +and who had lived in single blessedness amidst the silence of the hills, +without feeling the workings of the heart, or being subjected to the +influence of its passions--I say, it was indeed difficult for such a one +to declare, in the ear of a blooming maiden of eighteen, the tale of his +first affections. But an opportunity arrived which enabled him to +disembosom the burden that pressed upon his heart. + +It has been mentioned that Margaret Lylestone and her mother were poor; +and the latter, who had long been bowed down with infirmities, was +supported by the industry of her daughter. They had also a cow, which +was permitted to graze upon the hills without fee or reward; and, with +the milk which it produced, and the cheese they manufactured, together +with the poor earnings of Margaret, positive want was long kept from +them. But the old woman became more and more infirm--the hand of death +seemed stretching over her. She required nourishment which Margaret +could not procure for her; and, that it might be procured--that her +mother might live and not die--the fair maiden sent the cow to Kelso to +be sold, from whence the seller was to bring with him the restoratives +that her parent required. + +Now, it so was that Thomas Hardie, the tenant of Tollishill, was in +Kelso market when the cow of Widow Lylestone was offered for sale; and, +as it possessed the characteristic marks of a good milcher, he inquired +to whom it belonged. On being answered, he turned round for a few +moments, and stood thoughtful; but again turning to the individual who +had been intrusted to dispose of it, he inquired-- + +"And wherefore is she selling it?" + +"Really, Maister Hardie," replied the other, "I could not positively +say, but I hae little doot it is for want--absolute necessity. The auld +woman's very frail and very ill--I hae to tak a' sort o' things oot to +her the nicht frae the doctor's, after selling the cow, and it's no in +the power o' things that her dochter, industrious as she is, should be +able to get them for her otherwise." + +Thomas again turned aside, and drew his sleeve across his eyes. Having +inquired the price sought for the cow, he handed the money to the +seller, and gave the animal in charge to one of his herdsmen. He left +the market earlier than usual, and directed his servant that the cow +should be taken to Westruther. + +It was drawing towards gloaming before Thomas approached the habitation +of the widow; and, before he could summon courage to enter it for the +first time, he sauntered for several minutes, backward and forward on +the moor, by the side of the Blackadder, which there silently wends its +way, as a dull and simple burn, through the moss. He felt all the +awkwardness of an old man struggling beneath the influence of a young +feeling. He thought of what he should say, how he should act, and how he +would be received. At length he had composed a short introductory and +explanatory speech which pleased him. He thought it contained both +feeling and delicacy (according to his notions of the latter) in their +proper proportions, and after repeating it three or four times over by +the side of the Blackadder, he proceeded towards the cottage, still +repeating it to himself as he went. But, when he raised his hand and +knocked at the door, his heart gave a similar knock upon his bosom, as +though it mimicked him; and every idea, every word of the introductory +speech which he had studied and repeated again and again, short though +it was, was knocked from his memory. The door was opened by Margaret, +who invited him to enter. She was beautiful as when he first beheld +her--he thought more beautiful--for she now spoke to him. Her mother sat +in an arm-chair, by the side of the peat fire, and was supported by +pillows. He took off his bonnet, and performed an awkward but his best +salutation. + +"I beg your pardon," said he, hesitatingly, "for the liberty I have +taken in calling upon you. But--I was in Kelso the day--and"----He +paused, and turned his bonnet once or twice in his hands. "And," he +resumed, "I observed, or rather, I should say, I learned that ye +intended to sell your cow; but I also heard that ye was very ill, +and"----Here he made another pause. "I say I heard that ye was very ill, +and I thocht it would be a hardship for ye to part wi' crummie, and +especially at a time when ye are sure to stand maist in need o' every +help. So I bought the cow--but, as I say, it would be a very great +hardship for ye to be without the milk, and what the cheese may bring, +at a time like this; and, therefore, I hae ordered her to be brocht back +to ye, and ane o' my men will bring her hame presently. Never consider +the cow as mine, for a bachelor farmer like me can better afford to want +the siller, than ye can to want yer cow; and I micht hae spent it far +mair foolishly, and wi' less satisfaction. Indeed, if ye only but think +that good I've dune, I'm mair than paid." + +"Maister Hardie," said the widow, "what have I, a stranger widow woman, +done to deserve this kindness at your hands? Or how is it in the power +o' words for me to thank ye? HE who provideth for the widow and the +fatherless will not permit you to go unrewarded, though I cannot. O +Margaret, hinny," added she, "thank our benefactor as we ought to thank +him, for I cannot." + +Fair Margaret's thanks were a flood of tears. + +"Oh, dinna greet!" said Thomas; "I would ten times ower rather no hae +bocht the cow, but hae lost the siller, than I would hae been the cause +o' a single tear rowin' doun yer bonny cheeks." + +"O sir," answered the widow, "but they are tears o' gratitude that +distress my bairn, and nae tears are mair precious." + +I might tell how Thomas sat down by the peat fire between the widow and +her daughter, and how he took the hand of the latter, and entreated her +to dry up her tears, saying that his chief happiness would be to be +thought their friend, and to deserve their esteem. The cow was brought +back to the widow's, and Thomas returned to Tollishill with his +herdsman. But, from that night, he became almost a daily visitor at the +house of Mrs. Lylestone. He provided whatever she required--all that was +ordered for her. He spoke not of love to Margaret, but he wooed her +through his kindness to her mother. It was, perhaps, the most direct +avenue to her affections. Yet it was not because Thomas thought so that +he pursued this course, but because he wanted confidence to make his +appeal in a manner more formal or direct. + +The widow lingered many months; and all that lay within the power of +human means he caused to be done for her, to restore her to health and +strength, or at least to smooth her dying pillow. But the last was all +that could be done. Where death spreadeth the shadow of his wing, there +is no escape from sinking beneath the baneful influence of its shade. +Mrs. Lylestone, finding that the hour of her departure drew near, took +the hand of her benefactor, and when she had thanked him for all the +kindness which he had shown towards her, she added-- + +"But, O sir, there is one thing that makes the hand of death heavy. When +the sod is cauld upon my breast, who will look after my puir orphan--my +bonny faitherless and motherless Margaret? Where will she find a hame?" + +"O mem," said Thomas, "if the like o' me durst say it, she needna hae +far to gang, to find a hame and a heart too. Would she only be mine, I +would be her protector--a' that I have should be hers." + +A gleam of joy brightened in the eye of the dying widow. + +"Margaret!" she exclaimed, faintly; and Margaret laid her face upon the +bed, and wept. "O my bairn! my puir bairn!" continued her mother, "shall +I see ye protected and provided for before I am 'where the wicked cease +from troubling and the weary are at rest,' which canna be lang noo?" + +Thomas groaned--tears glistened in his eyes--he held his breath in +suspense. The moment of trial, of condemnation or acquittal, of +happiness or misery, had arrived. With an eager impatience he waited to +hear her answer. But Margaret's heart was prepared for his proposal. He +had first touched it with gratitude--he had obtained her esteem; and +where these sentiments prevail in the bosom of a woman whose affections +have not been bestowed upon another, love is not far distant--if it be +not between them, and a part of both. + +"Did ever I disobey you, mother?" sobbed Margaret, raising her parent's +hand to her lips. + +"No, my bairn, no!" answered the widow. And raising herself in the bed, +she took her daughter's hand and placed it in the hand of Thomas Hardie. + +"Oh!" said he, "is this possible? Does my bonny Margaret really consent +to make me the happiest man on earth? Shall I hae a gem at Tollishill +that I wadna exchange for a monarch's diadem?" + +It is sufficient to say that the young and lovely Margaret Lylestone +became Mrs. Hardie of Tollishill; or, as she was generally called, +"_Midside Maggie_." Her mother died within three months after their +marriage, but died in peace, having, as she said, "seen her dear bairn +blessed wi' a leal and a kind guidman, and ane that was weel to do." + +For two years after their marriage, and not a happier couple than Thomas +and Midside Maggie was to be found on all the long Lammermoors, in the +Merse, nor yet in the broad Lothians. They saw the broom and the heather +bloom in their season, and they heard the mavis sing before their +dwelling; yea, they beheld the snow falling on the mountains, and the +drift sweeping down the glens; but while the former delighted, the +latter harmed them not, and from all they drew mutual joy and happiness. +Thomas said that "Maggy was a matchless wife;" and she that "he was a +kind, kind husband." + +But the third winter was one of terror among the hills. It was near the +new year; the snow began to fall on a Saturday, and when the following +Friday came, the storm had not ceased. It was accompanied by frost and a +fierce wind, and the drift swept and whirled like awful pillars of +alabaster, down the hills, and along the glens-- + + "Sweeping the flocks and herds." + +Fearful was the wrath of the tempest on the Lammermoors. Many farmers +suffered severely, but none more severely than Thomas Hardie of +Tollishill. Hundreds of his sheep had perished in a single night. He was +brought from prosperity to the brink of adversity. + +But another winter came round. It commenced with a severity scarce +inferior to that which had preceded it, and again scores of his sheep +were buried in the snow. But February had not passed, and scarce had the +sun entered what is represented as the astronomical sign of the _two +fish_, in the heavens, when the genial influence of spring fell with +almost summer warmth upon the earth. During the night the dews came +heavily on the ground, and the sun sucked it up in a vapour. But the +herbage grew rapidly, and the flocks ate of it greedily, and licked the +dew ere the sun rose to dry it up. It brought the murrain amongst them; +they died by hundreds; and those that even fattened, but did not die, no +man would purchase; or, if purchased, it was only upon the understanding +that the money should be returned if the animals were found unsound. +These misfortunes were too much for Thomas Hardie. Within two years he +found himself a ruined man. But he grieved not for the loss of his +flocks, nor yet for his own sake, but for that of his fair young wife, +whom he loved as the apple of his eye. Many, when they heard of his +misfortunes, said that they were sorry for bonny Midside Maggy. + +But, worst of all, the rent-day of Thomas Hardie drew near; and for the +first time since he had held a farm, he was unable to meet his landlord +with his money in his hand. Margaret beheld the agony of his spirit, and +she knew its cause. She put on her Sunday hood and kirtle; and +professing to her husband that she wished to go to Lauder, she took her +way to Thirlestane Castle, the residence of their proud landlord, before +whom every tenant in arrear trembled. With a shaking hand she knocked at +the hall door, and after much perseverance and entreaty, was admitted +into the presence of the haughty earl. She curtsied low before him. + +"Well, what want ye, my bonny lass?" said Lauderdale, eyeing her +significantly. + +"May it please yer lordship," replied Margaret, "I am the wife o' yer +tenant, Thomas Hardie o' Tollishill; an' a guid tenant he has been to +yer lordship for twenty years and mair, as yer lordship maun weel ken." + +"He has been my tenant for more than twenty years, say ye?" interrupted +Lauderdale; "and ye say ye are his wife: why, looking on thy bonny face, +I should say that the heather hasna bloomed twenty times on the knowes +o' Tollishill since thy mother bore thee. Yet ye say ye are his wife! +Beshrew me, but Thomas Hardie is a man o' taste. Arena ye his daughter?" + +"No, my lord; his first, his only, an' his lawfu' wife--an' I would only +say, that to ye an' yer faither before ye, for mair than twenty years, +he has paid his rent regularly an' faithfully; but the seasons hae +visited us sairly, very sairly, for twa years successively, my lord, an' +the drift has destroyed, an' the rot rooted oot oor flocks, sae that we +are hardly able to haud up oor heads amang oor neebors, and to meet yer +lordship at yer rent-day is oot o' oor power; therefore hae I come to ye +to implore ye, that we may hae time to gather oor feet, an' to gie yer +lordship an' every man his due, when it is in oor power." + +"Hear me, guidwife," rejoined the earl; "were I to listen to such +stories as yours, I might have every farmer's wife on my estates coming +whimpering and whinging, till I was left to shake a purse with naething +in't, and allowing others the benefit o' my lands. But it is not every +day that a face like yours comes in the shape o' sorrow before me; and, +for ae kiss o' your cherry mou', (and ye may take my compliments to your +auld man for his taste,) ye shall have a discharge for your half-year's +rent, and see if that may set your husband on his feet again." + +"Na, yer lordship, na!" replied Margaret; "it would ill become ony woman +in my situation in life, an' especially a married ane, to be daffin with +sic as yer lordship. I am the wife o' Thomas Hardie, wha is a guid +guidman to me, an' I cam here this day to entreat ye to deal kindly wi' +him in the day o' his misfortune." + +"Troth," replied Lauderdale--who could feel the force of virtue in +others, though he did not always practise it in his own person--"I hae +heard o' the blossom o' Tollishill before, an' a bonny flower ye are to +blossom in an auld man's bower; but I find ye modest as ye are bonny, +an' upon one condition will I grant yer request. Ye hae tauld me o' yer +hirsels being buried wi' the drift, an' that the snaw has covered the +May primrose on Leader braes; now it is Martinmas, an' if in June ye +bring me a snowball, not only shall ye be quit o' yer back rent, but ye +shall sit free in Tollishill till Martinmas next. But see that in June +ye bring me the snowball or the rent." + +Margaret made her obeisance before the earl, and, thanking him, +withdrew. But she feared the coming of June; for to raise the rent even +then she well knew would be a thing impossible, and she thought also it +would be equally so to preserve a snow-ball beneath the melting sun of +June. Though young, she had too much prudence and honesty to keep a +secret from her husband; it was her maxim, and it was a good one, that +"there ought to be no secrets between a man and his wife, which the one +would conceal from the other." She therefore told him of her journey to +Thirlestane, and of all that had passed between her and the earl. Thomas +kissed her cheek, and called her his "bonny, artless Maggy;" but he had +no more hope of seeing a snowball in June than she had, and he said, +"the bargain was like the bargain o' a crafty Lauderdale." + +Again the winter storms howled upon the Lammermoors, and the snow lay +deep upon the hills. Thomas and his herdsmen were busied in exertions to +preserve the remainder of his flocks; but, one day, when the westling +winds breathed with a thawing influence upon the snow-clad hills, +Margaret went forth to where there was a small, deep, and shadowed +ravine by the side of the Leader. In it the rivulet formed a pool, and +seemed to sleep, and there the grey trout loved to lie at ease; for a +high dark rock, over which the brushwood grew, overhung it, and the +rays of the sun fell not upon it. In the rock, and near the side of the +stream, was a deep cavity, and Margaret formed a snowball on the brae +top, and she rolled it slowly down into the shadowed glen, till it +attained the magnitude of an avalanche in miniature. She trode upon it, +and pressed it firmly together, till it obtained almost the hardness and +consistency of ice. She rolled it far into the cavity, and blocked up +the mouth of the aperture, so that neither light nor air might penetrate +the strange coffer in which she had deposited the equally strange rent +of Tollishill. Verily, common as ice-houses are in our day, let not +Midside Maggy be deprived of the merit of their invention. + +I have said that it was her maxim to keep no secret from her husband; +but, as it is said there is no rule without an exception, even so it was +in the case of Margaret, and there was one secret which she communicated +not to Thomas, and that was--the secret of the hidden snowball. + +But June came, and Thomas Hardie was a sorrowful man. He had in no +measure overcome the calamities of former seasons, and he was still +unprepared with his rent. Margaret shared not his sorrow, but strove to +cheer him, and said-- + +"We shall hae a snawba' in June, though I climb to the top o' Cheviot +for it." + +"O my bonny lassie," replied he--and he could see the summit of Cheviot +from his farm--"dinna deceive yersel' wi' what could only be words +spoken in jest; but, at ony rate, I perceive there has been nae snaw on +Cheviot for a month past." + +Now, not a week had passed, but Margaret had visited the aperture in the +ravine, where the snowball was concealed, not through idle curiosity, to +perceive whether it had melted away, but more effectually to stop up +every crevice that might have been made in the materials with which she +had blocked up the mouth of the cavity. + +But the third day of the dreadful month had not passed, when a messenger +arrived at Tollishill from Thirlestane with the abrupt mandate--"_June +has come!_" + +"And we shall be at Thirlestane the morn," answered Margaret. + +"O my doo," said Thomas, "what nonsense are ye talking!--that isna like +ye, Margaret; I'll be in Greenlaw Jail the morn; and oor bits o' things +in the hoose, and oor flocks, will be seized by the harpies o' the +law--and the only thing that distresses me is, what is to come o' you +hinny." + +"Dinna dree the death ye'll never dee," said Margaret affectionately; +"we shall see, if we be spared, what the morn will bring." + +"The fortitude o' yer mind, Margaret," said Thomas, taking her hand; and +he intended to have said more, to have finished a sentence in admiration +of her worth, but his heart filled, and he was silent. + +On the following morning, Margaret said unto him-- + +"Now, Thomas, if ye are ready, we'll gang to Thirlestane. It is aye waur +to expect or think o' an evil than to face it." + +"Margaret, dear," said he, "I canna comprehend ye--wherefore should I +thrust my head into the lion's den? It will soon enough seek me in my +path." + +Nevertheless, she said unto him, "Come," and bade him be of good heart; +and he rose and accompanied her. But she conducted him to the deep +ravine, where the waters seem to sleep and no sunbeam ever falls; and, +as she removed the earth and the stones, with which she had blocked up +the mouth of the cavity in the rock, he stood wondering. She entered the +aperture, and rolled forth the firm mass of snow, which was yet too +large to be lifted by hands. When Thomas saw this, he smiled and wept +at the same instant, and he pressed his wife's cheek to his bosom, and +said-- + +"Great has been the care o' my poor Margaret; but it is o' no avail; +for, though ye hae proved mair than a match for the seasons, the +proposal was but a jest o' Lauderdale." + +"What is a man but his word?" replied Margaret; "and him a nobleman +too." + +"Nobility are but men," answered Thomas, "and seldom better men than +ither folk. Believe me, if we were to gang afore him wi' a snawba' in +oor hands, we should only get lauched at for our pains." + +"It was his ain agreement," added she; "and, at ony rate, we can be +naething the waur for seeing if he will abide by it." + +Breaking the snowy mass, she rolled up a portion of it in a napkin, and +they went towards Thirlestane together; though often did Thomas stop by +the way and say-- + +"Margaret, dear, I'm perfectly ashamed to gang upon this business; as +sure as I am standing here, as I have tauld ye, we will only get +oorselves lauched at." + +"I would rather be lauched at," added she, "than despised for breaking +my word; and, if oor laird break his noo, wha wadna despise him?" + +Harmonious as their wedded life had hitherto been, there was what might +well nigh be called bickerings between them on the road; for Thomas felt +or believed that she was leading him on a fool's errand. But they +arrived at the castle of Thirlestane, and were ushered into the mansion +of its proud lord. + +"Ha!" said the earl, as they entered, "bonny Midside Maggy and her auld +guidman! Well, what bring ye?--the rents o' Tollishill, or their +equivalent?" Thomas looked at his young wife, for he saw nothing to give +him hope on the countenance of Lauderdale, and he thought that he +pronounced the word "_equivalent_" with a sneer. + +"I bring ye snaw in June, my lord," replied Margaret, "agreeably to the +terms o' yer bargain; and I'm sorry, for your sake and oors, that it +hasna yet been in oor power to bring gowd instead o't." + +Loud laughed the earl as Margaret unrolled the huge snowball before him; +and Thomas thought unto himself, "I said how it would be." But +Lauderdale, calling for his writing materials, sat down and wrote, and +he placed in the hands of Thomas a discharge, not only for his back +rent, but for all that should otherwise be due at the ensuing Martinmas. + +Thomas Hardie bowed and bowed again before the earl, low and yet lower, +awkwardly and still more awkwardly, and he endeavoured to thank him, but +his tongue faltered in the performance of its office. He could have +taken his hand in his and wrung it fervently, leaving his fingers to +express what his tongue could not; but his laird was an earl, and there +was a necessary distance to be observed between an earl and a Lammermoor +farmer. + +"Thank not me, goodman," said Lauderdale, "but thank the modesty and +discretion o' yer winsome wife." + +Margaret was silent; but gratitude for the kindness which the earl had +shown unto her husband and herself took deep root in her heart. +Gratitude, indeed, formed the predominating principle in her character, +and fitted her even for acts of heroism. + +The unexpected and unwonted generosity of the earl had enabled Thomas +Hardie to overcome the losses with which the fury of the seasons had +overwhelmed him, and he prospered beyond any farmer on the hills. But, +while he prospered, the Earl of Lauderdale, in his turn, was overtaken +by adversity. The stormy times of the civil wars raged, and it is well +known with what devotedness Lauderdale followed the fortunes of the +king. When the Commonwealth began, he was made prisoner, conveyed to +London, and confined in the Tower. There, nine years of captivity crept +slowly and gloomily over him; but they neither taught him mercy to +others nor to moderate his ambition, as was manifested when power and +prosperity again cast their beams upon him. But he now lingered in the +Tower, without prospect or hope of release, living upon the bare +sustenance of a prisoner, while his tenants dwelt on his estates, and +did as they pleased with his rents, as though they should not again +behold the face of a landlord. + +But Midside Maggy grieved for the fate of him whose generosity had +brought prosperity, such as they had never known before, to herself and +to her husband; and, in the fulness of her gratitude, she was ever +planning schemes for his deliverance; and she urged upon her husband +that it was their duty to attempt to deliver their benefactor from +captivity, as he had delivered them from the iron grasp of ruin, when +misfortune lay heavily on them. Now, as duly as the rent-day came, from +the Martinmas to which the snowball had been his discharge, Thomas +Hardie faithfully and punctually locked away his rent to the last +farthing, that he might deliver it into the hands of his laird, should +he again be permitted to claim his own; but he saw not in what way they +could attempt his deliverance, as his wife proposed. + +"Thomas," said she, "there are ten lang years o' rent due, and we hae +the siller locked away. It is o' nae use to us, for it isna oors; but it +may be o' use to him. It would enable him to fare better in his prison, +and maybe to put a handfu' o' gowd into the hands o' his keepers, and +thereby to escape abroad, and it wad furnish him wi' the means o' living +when he was abroad. Remember his kindness to us, and think that there is +nae sin equal to the sin o' ingratitude." + +"But," added Thomas, "in what way could we get the money to him? for, if +we were to send it, it would never reach him, and, as a prisoner, he +wouldna be allooed to receive it." + +"Let us tak it to him oorsels, then," said Margaret. + +"Tak it oorsels!" exclaimed Thomas, in amazement, "a' the way to London! +It is oot o' the question a'thegither, Margaret. We wad be robbed o' +every plack before we got half-way; or, if we were even there, hoo, in +a' the world, do ye think we could get it to him, or that we would be +allooed to see him?" + +"Leave that to me," was her reply; "only say ye will gang, and a' that +shall be accomplished. There is nae obstacle in the way but the want o' +yer consent. But the debt, and the ingratitude o' it thegither, hang +heavy upon my heart." + +Thomas at length yielded to the importunities of his wife, and agreed +that they should make a pilgrimage to London, to pay his rent to his +captive laird; though how they were to carry the gold in safety, through +an unsettled country, a distance of more than three hundred miles, was a +difficulty he could not overcome. But Margaret removed his fears; she +desired him to count out the gold, and place it before her; and when he +had done so, she went to the meal-tub and took out a quantity of pease +and of barley meal mixed, sufficient to knead a goodly fadge or bannock; +and, when she had kneaded it, and rolled it out, she took the golden +pieces and pressed them into the paste of the embryo bannock, and again +she doubled it together, and again rolled it out, and kneaded into it +the remainder of the gold. She then fashioned it into a thick bannock, +and placing it on the hearth, covered it with the red ashes of the +peats. + +Thomas sat marvelling, as the formation of the singular purse proceeded, +and when he beheld the operation completed, and the bannock placed upon +the hearth to bake, he only exclaimed--"Weel, woman's ingenuity dings +a'! I wadna hae thocht o' the like o' that, had I lived a thoosand +years! O Margaret, hinny, but ye are a strange ane." + +"Hoots," replied she, "I'm sure ye micht easily hae imagined that it was +the safest plan we could hae thocht upon to carry the siller in safety; +for I am sure there isna a thief between the Tweed and Lon'on toun, that +would covet or carry awa a bear bannock." + +"Troth, my doo, and I believe ye're richt," replied Thomas; "but wha +could hae thocht o' sic an expedient? Sure there never was a bannock +baked like the bannock o' Tollishill." + +On the third day after this, an old man and a fair lad, before the sun +had yet risen, were observed crossing the English Border. They +alternately carried a wallet across their shoulders, which contained a +few articles of apparel and a bannock. They were dressed as shepherds, +and passengers turned and gazed on them as they passed along; for the +beauty of the youth's countenance excited their admiration. Never had +Lowland bonnet covered so fair a brow. The elder stranger was Thomas +Hardie, and the youth none other than his Midside Maggy. + +I will not follow them through the stages of their long and weary +journey, nor dwell upon the perils and adventures they encountered by +the way. But, on the third week after they had left Tollishill, and when +they were beyond the town called Stevenage, and almost within sight of +the metropolis, they were met by an elderly military-looking man, who, +struck with the lovely countenance of the seeming youth, their dress, +and way-worn appearance, accosted them, saying--"Good morrow, strangers; +ye seem to have travelled far. Is this fair youth your son, old man?" + +"He is a gay sib freend," answered Thomas. + +"And whence come ye?" continued the stranger. + +"Frae Leader Haughs, on the bonny Borders o' the north countrie," +replied Margaret. + +"And whence go ye?" resumed the other. + +"First tell me wha ye may be that are sae inquisitive," interrupted +Thomas, in a tone which betrayed something like impatience. + +"Some call me George Monk," replied the stranger mildly, "others, Honest +George. I am a general in the Parliamentary army." Thomas reverentially +raised his hand to his bonnet, and bowed his head. + +"Then pardon me, sir," added Margaret, "and if ye indeed be the guid and +gallant general, sma' offence will ye tak at onything that may be said +amiss by a country laddie. We are tenants o' the Lord o' Lauderdale, +whom ye now keep in captivity; and, though we mayna think as he thinks, +yet we never faund him but a guid landlord; and little guid, in my +opinion, it can do ony body to keep him, as he has been noo for nine +years, caged up like a bird. Therefore, though oor ain business that has +brocht us up to London should fail, I winna regret the journey, since it +has afforded me an opportunity o' seein yer Excellency, and soliciting +yer interest, which maun be pooerfu' in behalf o' oor laird, and that ye +would release him frae his prison, and, if he michtna remain in this +countrie, obtain permission for him to gang abroad." + +"Ye plead fairly and honestly for yer laird, fair youth," returned the +general; "yet, though he is no man to be trusted, I needs say he hath +had his portion of captivity measured out abundantly; and, since ye have +minded me of him, ere a week go round I will think of what may be done +for Lauderdale." Other questions were asked and answered--some truly, +and some evasively; and Thomas and Margaret blessing Honest George in +their hearts, went on their way rejoicing at having met him. + +On arriving in London, she laid aside the shepherd's garb in which she +had journeyed, and resumed her wonted apparel. On the second day after +their arrival, she went out upon Tower-hill, dressed as a Scottish +peasant girl, with a basket on her arm; and in the basket were a few +ballads, and the bannock of Tollishill. She affected silliness, and, +acting the part of a wandering minstrel, went singing her ballads +towards the gate of the Tower. Thomas followed her at a distance. Her +appearance interested the guard; and as she stood singing before the +gate--"What want ye, pretty face?" inquired the officer of the guard. +"Your alms, if you please," said she, smiling innocently, "and to sing a +bonny Scotch sang to the Laird o' Lauderdale." + +The officer and the sentinels laughed; and, after she had sang them +another song or two, she was permitted to enter the gate, and a soldier +pointed out to her the room in which Lauderdale was confined. On +arriving before the grated windows of his prison, she raised her eyes +towards them, and began to sing "_Leader Haughs_." The wild, sweet +melody of his native land, drew Lauderdale to the windows of his +prison-house, and in the countenance of the minstrel he remembered the +lovely features of Midside Maggy. He requested permission of the keeper +that she should be admitted to his presence; and his request was +complied with. + +"Bless thee, sweet face!" said the earl, as she was admitted into his +prison; "and you have not forgotten the snowball in June?" And he took +her hand to raise it to his lips. + +"Hooly, hooly, my guid lord," said she, withdrawing her hand; "my +fingers were made for nae sic purpose--Thomas Hardie is here"--and she +laid her hand upon her fair bosom--"though now standing withoot the yett +o' the Tower." Lauderdale again wondered, and, with a look of mingled +curiosity and confusion, inquired--"Wherefore do ye come--and why do ye +seek me?" "I brocht ye a snaw-ba' before," said she, "for yer rent--I +bring ye a bannock noo." And she took the bannock from the basket and +placed it before him. + +"Woman," added he, "are ye really as demented as I thocht ye but feigned +to be, when ye sang before the window." + +"The proof o' the bannock," replied Margaret, "will be in the breakin' +o't." + +"Then, goodwife, it will not be easily proved," said he--and he took the +bannock, and, with some difficulty, broke it over his knee; but, when he +beheld the golden coins that were kneaded through it, for the first, +perhaps the last and only time in his existence, the Earl of Lauderdale +burst into tears and exclaimed--"Well, every bannock has its maik, but +the bannock o' Tollishill! Yet, kind as ye hae been, the gold is useless +to ane that groans in hopeless captivity." + +"Yours has been a long captivity," said Margaret; "but it is not +hopeless; and, if honest General Monk is to be trusted, from what he +tauld me not three days by-gane, before a week gae roond, ye will be at +liberty to go abroad, and there the bannock o' Tollishill may be o' +use." + +The wonder of Lauderdale increased, and he replied--"Monk will keep his +word--but what mean ye of him?" + +And she related to him the interview they had had with the general by +the way. Lauderdale took her hand, a ray of hope and joy spread over his +face, and he added-- + +"Never shall ye rue the bakin' o' the bannock, if auld times come back +again." + +Margaret left the tower, singing as she had entered it, and joined her +husband, whom she found leaning over the railing around the moat, and +anxiously waiting her return. They spent a few days more in London, to +rest and to gaze upon its wonders, and again set out upon their journey +to Tollishill. General Monk remembered his promise; within a week, the +Earl of Lauderdale was liberated, with permission to go abroad, and +there, as Margaret had intimated, he found the bannock of Tollishill of +service. + +A few more years passed round, during which old Thomas Hardie still +prospered; but, during those years, the Commonwealth came to an end, the +king was recalled, and with him, as one of his chief favourites, +returned the Earl of Lauderdale. And, when he arrived in Scotland, +clothed with power, whatever else he forgot, he remembered the bannock +of Tollishill. Arrayed in what might have passed as royal state, and +attended by fifty of his followers, he rode to the dwelling of Thomas +Hardie and Midside Maggy; and when they came forth to meet him, he +dismounted and drew forth a costly silver girdle of strange workmanship, +and fastened it round her jimp waist, saying--"Wear this, for now it is +my turn to be grateful, and for your husband's life, and your life, and +the life of the generation after ye" (for they had children), "ye shall +sit rent free on the lands ye now farm. For, truly, every bannock had +its maik but the bannock o' Tollishill." + +Thomas and Margaret felt their hearts too full to express their thanks; +and ere they could speak, the earl, mounting his horse, rode towards +Thirlestane; and his followers, waving their bonnets, shouted--"Long +live Midside Maggy, queen of Tollishill." + +Such is the story of "The Bannock o' Tollishill;" and it is only +necessary to add, for the information of the curious, that I believe the +silver girdle may be seen until this day, in the neighbourhood of +Tollishill, and in the possession of a descendant of Midside Maggy, to +whom it was given. + + * * * * * + +[TRANSCRIBER'S NOTE: + +1. On page 28, last line, page 74, footnote, and page 155, last line, +missing text has been restored from scans atThe Internet Archive. + +A few missing letters or words at the ends of lines have been restored +from the same source. + +2. The French word "mouille" appears, apparently randomly, both with +and without the acute accent. Since the accent is clearly required, +it has been restored where necessary. + +3. On page 2, antepenultimate line, "bewrayed" has been corrected to +"betrayed". + +4. In this Latin-1 version, the only substitution effected is that the +oe-diphthong is indicated by [oe].] + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of +Scotland, Volume I, by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WILSON'S TALES OF SCOTLAND, VOL I *** + +***** This file should be named 32862.txt or 32862.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/2/8/6/32862/ + +Produced by David Clarke, David J. 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