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+The Project Gutenberg EBook Old Mortality, by Sir Walter Scott, Vol. 1
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+Title: Old Mortality, Volume 1.
+
+Author: Sir Walter Scott
+
+Release Date: November 2004  [EBook #6939]
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+[This file was first posted on February 16, 2003]
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+Edition: 10
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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OLD MORTALITY, BY SCOTT, V1 ***
+
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+This eBook was produced by David Widger, widger@cecomet.net
+with help from an etext produced by David Moynihan
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+
+
+                              OLD MORTALITY
+
+                           by Sir Walter Scott
+
+
+
+
+                          EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION
+                                    TO
+                              OLD MORTALITY.
+
+The origin of "Old Mortality," perhaps the best of Scott's historical
+romances, is well known. In May, 1816, Mr. Joseph Train, the gauger from
+Galloway, breakfasted with Scott in Castle Street. He brought gifts in
+his hand,--a relic of Rob Roy, and a parcel of traditions. Among these
+was a letter from Mr. Broadfoot, schoolmaster in Pennington, who
+facetiously signed himself "Clashbottom." To cleish, or clash, is to
+"flog," in Scots. From Mr. Broadfoot's joke arose Jedediah Cleishbotham,
+the dominie of Gandercleugh; the real place of Broadfoot's revels was the
+Shoulder of Mutton Inn, at Newton Stewart. Mr. Train, much pleased with
+the antiques in "the den" of Castle Street, was particularly charmed by
+that portrait of Claverhouse which now hangs on the staircase of the
+study at Abbotsford. Scott expressed the Cavalier opinions about Dundee,
+which were new to Mr. Train, who had been bred in the rural tradition of
+"Bloody Claver'se."
+
+     [The Editor's first acquaintance with Claverhouse was obtained
+     through an old nurse, who had lived on a farm beside a burn where,
+     she said, the skulls of Covenanters shot by Bloody Claver'se were
+     still occasionally found. The stream was a tributary of the
+     Ettrick.]
+
+"Might he not," asked Mr. Train, "be made, in good hands, the hero of a
+national romance as interesting as any about either Wallace or Prince
+Charlie?" He suggested that the story should be delivered "as if from the
+mouth of Old Mortality." This probably recalled to Scott his own meeting
+with Old Mortality in Dunnottar Churchyard, as described in the
+Introduction to the novel.
+
+The account of the pilgrim, as given by Sir Walter from Mr. Train's
+memoranda, needs no addition. About Old Mortality's son, John, who went
+to America in 1776 (? 1774), and settled in Baltimore, a curious romantic
+myth has gathered. Mr. Train told Scott more, as his manuscript at
+Abbotsford shows, than Scott printed. According to Mr. Train, John
+Paterson, of Baltimore, had a son Robert and a daughter Elizabeth. Robert
+married an American lady, who, after his decease, was married to the
+Marquis of Wellesley. Elizabeth married Jerome Bonaparte! Sir Walter
+distrusted these legends, though derived from a Scotch descendant of Old
+Mortality. Mr. Ramage, in March, 1871, wrote to "Notes and Queries"
+dispelling the myth.
+
+According to Jerome Bonaparte's descendant, Madame Bonaparte, her family
+were Pattersons, not Patersons. Her Baltimore ancestor's will is extant,
+has been examined by Old Mortality's great-grandson, and announces in a
+kind of preamble that the testator was a native of Donegal; his Christian
+name was William ("Notes and Queries," Fourth Series, vol. vii. p. 219,
+and Fifth Series, August, 1874). This, of course, quite settles the
+question; but the legend is still current among American descendants of
+the old Roxburghshire wanderer.
+
+"Old Mortality," with its companion, "The Black Dwarf," was published on
+December 1, 1816, by Mr. Murray in London, and Mr. Blackwood in
+Edinburgh.
+
+The name of "The Author of 'Waverley'" was omitted on the title-page. The
+reason for a change of publisher may have been chiefly financial
+(Lockhart, v. 152). Scott may have also thought it amusing to appear as
+his own rival in a new field. He had not yet told his secret to Lady
+Abercorn, but he seems to reveal it (for who but he could have known so
+much about the subject?) in a letter to her, of November 29, 1816.  "You
+must know the Marquis well,--or rather you must be the Marquis himself!"
+quoth Dalgetty. Here follow portions of the letter:
+
+     I do not like the first story, "The Black Dwarf," at all; but the
+     long one which occupies three volumes is a most remarkable
+     production. . . . I should like to know if you are of my opinion as
+     to these new volumes coming from the same hand. . . . I wander about
+     from nine in the morning till five at night with a plaid about my
+     shoulders and an immensely large bloodhound at my heels, and stick
+     in sprigs which are to become trees when I shall have no eyes to
+     look at them. . . .
+
+     I am truly glad that the Tales have amused you. In my poor opinion
+     they are the best of the four sets, though perhaps I only think so
+     on account of their opening ground less familiar to me than the
+     manners of the Highlanders. . . . If Tom--[His brother, Mr. Thomas
+     Scott.]--wrote those volumes, he has not put me in his secret. . . .
+     General rumour here attributes them to a very ingenious but most
+     unhappy man, a clergyman of the Church of Scotland, who, many years
+     since, was obliged to retire from his profession, and from society,
+     who hides himself under a borrowed name. This hypothesis seems to
+     account satisfactorily for the rigid secrecy observed; but from what
+     I can recollect of the unfortunate individual, these are not the
+     kind of productions I should expect from him. Burley, if I mistake
+     not, was on board the Prince of Orange's own vessel at the time of
+     his death. There was also in the Life Guards such a person as
+     Francis Stewart, grandson of the last Earl of Bothwell. I have in my
+     possession various proceedings at his father's instance for
+     recovering some part of the Earl's large estates which had been
+     granted to the Earls of Buccleugh and Roxburgh. It would appear that
+     Charles I. made some attempts to reinstate him in those lands, but,
+     like most of that poor monarch's measures, the attempt only served
+     to augment his own enemies, for Buccleugh was one of the first who
+     declared against him in Scotland, and raised a regiment of twelve
+     hundred men, of whom my grandfather's grandfather (Sir William Scott
+     of Harden) was lieutenant-colonel. This regiment was very active at
+     the destruction of Montrose's Highland army at Philiphaugh. In
+     Charles the Second's time the old knight suffered as much through
+     the nonconformity of his wife as Cuddie through that of his mother.
+     My father's grandmother, who lived to the uncommon age of
+     ninety-eight years, perfectly remembered being carried, when a
+     child, to the field-preachings, where the clergyman thundered from
+     the top of a rock, and the ladies sat upon their side-saddles, which
+     were placed upon the turf for their accommodation, while the men
+     stood round, all armed with swords and pistols. . . . Old Mortality
+     was a living person; I have myself seen him about twenty years ago
+     repairing the Covenanters' tombs as far north as Dunnottar.
+
+If Lady Abercorn was in any doubt after this ingenuous communication, Mr.
+Murray, the publisher, was in none. (Lockhart, v. 169.) He wrote to Scott
+on December 14, 1816, rejoicing in the success of the Tales, "which must
+be written either by Walter Scott or the Devil. . . . I never experienced
+such unmixed pleasure as the reading of this exquisite work has afforded
+me; and if you could see me, as the author's literary chamberlain,
+receiving the unanimous and vehement praises of those who have read it,
+and the curses of those whose needs my scanty supply could not satisfy,
+you might judge of the sincerity with which I now entreat you to assure
+the Author of the most complete success." Lord Holland had said, when Mr.
+Murray asked his opinion, "Opinion! We did not one of us go to bed last
+night,--nothing slept but my gout."
+
+The very Whigs were conquered. But not the Scottish Whigs, the Auld
+Leaven of the Covenant,--they were still dour, and offered many
+criticisms. Thereon Scott, by way of disproving his authorship, offered
+to review the Tales in the "Quarterly." His true reason for this step was
+the wish to reply to Dr. Thomas McCrie, author of the "Life of John
+Knox," who had been criticising Scott's historical view of the Covenant,
+in the "Edinburgh Christian Instructor." Scott had, perhaps, no better
+mode of answering his censor. He was indifferent to reviews, but here his
+historical knowledge and his candour had been challenged. Scott always
+recognised the national spirit of the Covenanters, which he remarks on in
+"The Heart of Mid-Lothian," and now he was treated as a faithless
+Scotsman. For these reasons he reviewed himself; but it is probable, as
+Lockhart says, that William Erskine wrote the literary or aesthetic part
+of the criticism (Lockhart, v.174, note).
+
+Dr. McCrie's review may be read, or at least may be found, in the fourth
+volume of his collected works (Blackwood, Edinburgh 1857). The critique
+amounts to about eighty-five thousand words. Since the "Princesse de
+Cleves" was reviewed in a book as long as the original, never was so
+lengthy a criticism. As Dr. McCrie's performance scarcely shares the
+popularity of "Old Mortality," a note on his ideas may not be
+superfluous, though space does not permit a complete statement of his
+many objections. The Doctor begins by remarks on novels in general, then
+descends to the earlier Waverley romances. "The Antiquary" he pronounces
+to be "tame and fatiguing." Acknowledging the merits of the others, he
+finds fault with "the foolish lines" (from Burns), "which must have been
+foisted without the author's knowledge into the title page," and he
+denounces the "bad taste" of the quotation from "Don Quixote." Burns and
+Cervantes had done no harm to Dr. McCrie, but his anger was aroused, and
+he, like the McCallum More as described by Andrew Fairservice, "got up
+wi' an unto' bang, and garr'd them a' look about them." The view of the
+Covenanters is "false and distorted." These worthies are not to be
+"abused with profane wit or low buffoonery." "Prayers were not read in
+the parish churches of Scotland" at that time. As Episcopacy was restored
+when Charles II. returned "upon the unanimous petition of the Scottish
+Parliament" (Scott's Collected Works, vol. xix. p. 78) it is not
+unnatural for the general reader to suppose that prayers would be read by
+the curates. Dr. McCrie maintains that "at the Restoration neither the
+one nor the other" (neither the Scotch nor English Prayer Books) "was
+imposed," and that the Presbyterians repeatedly "admitted they had no
+such grievance." No doubt Dr. McCrie is correct. But Mr. James Guthrie,
+who was executed on June 1, 1661, said in his last speech, "Oh that there
+were not many who study to build again what they did formerly
+unwarrantably destroy: I mean Prelacy and the Service Book, a mystery of
+iniquity that works amongst us, whose steps lead unto the house of the
+great Whore, Babylon, the mother of fornication," and so forth. Either
+this mystery of iniquity, the Book of Common Prayer, "was working amongst
+us," or it was not. If it was not, of what did Mr. Guthrie complain? If
+it was "working," was read by certain curates, as by Burnet, afterwards
+Bishop of Salisbury, at Saltoun, Scott is not incorrect. He makes Morton,
+in danger of death, pray in the words of the Prayer Book, "a circumstance
+which so enraged his murderers that they determined to precipitate his
+fate." Dr. McCrie objects to this incident, which is merely borrowed, one
+may conjecture, from the death of Archbishop Sharpe. The assassins told
+the Archbishop that they would slay him. "Hereupon he began to think of
+death. But (here are just the words of the person who related the story)
+behold! God did not give him the grace to pray to Him without the help of
+a book. But he pulled out of his pocket a small book, and began to read
+over some words to himself, which filled us with amazement and
+indignation." So they fired their pistols into the old man, and then
+chopped him up with their swords, supposing that he had a charm against
+bullets!  Dr. McCrie seems to have forgotten, or may have disbelieved the
+narrative telling how Sharpe's use of the Prayer Book, like Morton's,
+"enraged" his murderers. The incident does not occur in the story of the
+murder by Russell, one of the murderers, a document published in C. K.
+Sharpe's edition of Kirkton. It need not be true, but it may have
+suggested the prayer of Morton.
+
+If Scott thought that the Prayer Book was ordained to be read in Scotch
+churches, he was wrong; if he merely thought that it might have been read
+in some churches, was "working amongst us," he was right: at least,
+according to Mr. James Guthrie.
+
+Dr. McCrie argues that Burley would never have wrestled with a soldier in
+an inn, especially in the circumstances. This, he says, was inconsistent
+with Balfour's "character." Wodrow remarks, "I cannot hear that this
+gentleman had ever any great character for religion among those that knew
+him, and such were the accounts of him, when abroad, that the reverend
+ministers of the Scots congregation at Rotterdam would never allow him to
+communicate with them." In Scott's reading of Burley's character, there
+was a great deal of the old Adam. That such a man should so resent the
+insolence of a soldier is far from improbable, and our sympathies are
+with Burley on this occasion.
+
+Mause Headrigg is next criticised. Scott never asserted that she was a
+representative of sober Presbyterianism. She had long conducted herself
+prudently, but, when she gave way to her indignation, she only used such
+language as we find on many pages of Wodrow, in the mouths of many
+Covenanters. Indeed, though Manse is undeniably comic, she also commands
+as much respect as the Spartan mother when she bids her only son bear
+himself boldly in the face of torture. If Scott makes her grotesque, he
+also makes her heroic. But Dr. McCrie could not endure the ridiculous
+element, which surely no fair critic can fail to observe in the speeches
+of the gallant and courageous, but not philosophical, members of the
+Covenant's Extreme Left. Dr. McCrie talks of "the creeping loyalty of the
+Cavaliers." "Staggering" were a more appropriate epithet. Both sides were
+loyal to principle, both courageous; but the inappropriate and
+promiscuous scriptural language of many Covenanters was, and remains,
+ridiculous. Let us admit that the Covenanters were not averse to all
+games. In one or two sermons they illustrate religion by phrases derived
+from golf!
+
+When Dr. McCrie exclaims, in a rich anger, "Your Fathers!" as if Scott's
+must either have been Presbyterians or Cavaliers, the retort is cleverly
+put by Sir Walter in the mouth of Jedediah. His ancestors of these days
+had been Quakers, and persecuted by both parties.
+
+Throughout the novel Scott keeps insisting that the Presbyterians had
+been goaded into rebellion, and even into revenge, by cruelty of
+persecution, and that excesses and bloodthirstiness were confined to the
+"High Flyers," as the milder Covenanters called them. Morton represents
+the ideal of a good Scot in the circumstances. He comes to be ashamed of
+his passive attitude in the face of oppression. He stands up for "that
+freedom from stripes and bondage" which was claimed, as you may read in
+Scripture, by the Apostle Paul, and which every man who is free-born is
+called upon to defend, for his own sake and that of his countrymen. The
+terms demanded by Morton from Monmouth before the battle of Bothwell
+Bridge are such as Scott recognises to be fair. Freedom of worship, and a
+free Parliament, are included.
+
+Dr. McCrie's chief charges are that Scott does not insist enough on the
+hardships and brutalities of the persecution, and that the ferocity of
+the Covenanters is overstated. He does not admit that the picture drawn
+of "the more rigid Presbyterians" is just. But it is almost impossible to
+overstate the ferocity of the High Flyers' conduct and creed. Thus
+Wodrow, a witness not quite unfriendly to the rigid Presbyterians, though
+not high-flying enough for Patrick Walker, writes "Mr. Tate informs me
+that he had this account front Mr. Antony Shau, and others of the
+Indulged; that at some time, under the Indulgence, there was a meeting of
+some people, when they resolved in one night . . . to go to every house
+of the Indulged Ministers and kill them, and all in one night."
+This anecdote was confirmed by Mr. John Millar, to whose father's house
+one of these High Flyers came, on this errand. This massacre was not
+aimed at the persecutors, but at the Poundtexts. As to their creed,
+Wodrow has an anecdote of one of his own elders, who told a poor woman
+with many children that "it would be an uncouth mercy" if they were all
+saved.
+
+A pleasant evangel was this, and peacefully was it to have been
+propagated!
+
+Scott was writing a novel, not history. In "The Minstrelsy of the
+Scottish Border" (1802-3) Sir Walter gave this account of the
+persecutions. "Had the system of coercion been continued until our day,
+Blair and Robertson would have preached in the wilderness, and only
+discovered their powers of eloquence and composition by rolling along a
+deeper torrent of gloomy fanaticism. . . . The genius of the persecuted
+became stubborn, obstinate, and ferocious." He did not, in his romance,
+draw a complete picture of the whole persecution, but he did show, by
+that insolence of Bothwell at Milnwood, which stirs the most sluggish
+blood, how the people were misused. This scene, to Dr. McCrie's mind, is
+"a mere farce," because it is enlivened by Manse's declamations. Scott
+displays the abominable horrors of the torture as forcibly as literature
+may dare to do. But Dr. McCrie is not satisfied, because Macbriar, the
+tortured man, had been taken in arms. Some innocent person should have
+been put in the Boot, to please Dr. McCrie. He never remarks that
+Macbriar conquers our sympathy by his fortitude. He complains of what the
+Covenanters themselves called "the language of Canaan," which is put into
+their mouths, "a strange, ridiculous, and incoherent jargon compounded of
+Scripture phrases, and cant terms peculiar to their own party opinions in
+ecclesiastical politics." But what other language did many of them speak?
+"Oh, all ye that can pray, tell all the Lord's people to try, by mourning
+and prayer, if ye can taigle him, taigle him especially in Scotland, for
+we fear, he will depart from it." This is the theology of a savage, in
+the style of a clown, but it is quoted by Walker as Mr. Alexander
+Peden's.' Mr. John Menzie's "Testimony" (1670) is all about "hardened
+men, whom though they walk with you for the present with horns of a lamb,
+yet afterward ye may hear them speak with the mouth of a dragon, pricks
+in your eyes and thorns in your sides." Manse Headrigg scarcely
+caricatures this eloquence, or Peden's "many and long seventy-eight years
+left-hand defections, and forty-nine years right-hand extremes;" while
+"Professor Simson in Glasgow, and Mr. Glass in Tealing, both with Edom's
+children cry Raze, raze the very foundation!" Dr. McCrie is reduced to
+supposing that some of the more absurd sermons were incorrectly reported.
+Very possibly they were, but the reports were in the style which the
+people liked. As if to remove all possible charge of partiality, Scott
+made the one faultless Christian of his tale a Covenanting widow, the
+admirable Bessie McLure. But she, says the doctor, "repeatedly banns and
+minces oaths in her conversation." This outrageous conduct of Bessie's
+consists in saying "Gude protect us!" and "In Heaven's name, who are ye?"
+Next the Doctor congratulates Scott on his talent for buffoonery. "Oh, le
+grand homme, rien ne lui peut plaire." Scott is later accused of not
+making his peasants sufficiently intelligent.  Cuddie Headrigg and Jenny
+Dennison suffice as answers to this censure.
+
+Probably the best points made by Dr. McCrie are his proof that biblical
+names were not common among the Covenanteers and that Episcopal eloquence
+and Episcopal superstition were often as tardy and as dark as the
+eloquence and superstition of the Presbyterians. He carries the war into
+the opposite camp, with considerable success. His best answer to "Old
+Mortality" would have been a novel, as good and on the whole as fair,
+written from the Covenanting side. Hogg attempted this reply, not to
+Scott's pleasure according to the Shepherd, in "The Brownie of Bodsbeck."
+The Shepherd says that when Scott remarked that the "Brownie" gave an
+untrue description of the age, he replied, "It's a devilish deal truer
+than yours!" Scott, in his defence, says that to please the friends of
+the Covenanters, "their portraits must be drawn without shadow, and the
+objects of their political antipathy be blackened, hooved, and horned ere
+they will acknowledge the likeness of either." He gives examples of
+clemency, and even considerateness, in Dundee; for example, he did not
+bring with him a prisoner, "who laboured under a disease rendering it
+painful to him to be on horseback." He examines the story of John Brown,
+and disproves the blacker circumstances. Yet he appears to hold that
+Dundee should have resigned his commission rather than carry out the
+orders of Government? Burley's character for ruthlessness is defended by
+the evidence of the "Scottish Worthies." As Dr. McCrie objects to his
+"buffoonery," it is odd that he palliates the "strong propensity" of Knox
+"to indulge his vein of humour," when describing, with ghoul-like mirth,
+the festive circumstances of the murder and burial of Cardinal Beaton.
+The odious part of his satire, Scott says, is confined to "the fierce and
+unreasonable set of extra-Presbyterians," Wodrow's High Flyers. "We have
+no delight to dwell either upon the atrocities or absurdities of a people
+whose ignorance and fanaticism were rendered frantic by persecution."
+To sum up the controversy, we may say that Scott was unfair, if at all,
+in tone rather than in statement. He grants to the Covenanters dauntless
+resolution and fortitude; he admits their wrongs; we cannot see, on the
+evidence of their literature, that he exaggerates their grotesqueness,
+their superstition, their impossible attitude as of Israelites under a
+Theocracy, which only existed as an ideal, or their ruthlessness on
+certain occasions. The books of Wodrow, Kirkton, and Patrick Walker, the
+sermons, the ghost stories, the dying speeches, the direct testimony of
+their own historians, prove all that Scott says, a hundred times over.
+The facts are correct, the testimony to the presence of another, an
+angelic temper, remains immortal in the figure of Bessie McLure. But an
+unfairness of tone may be detected in the choice of such names as
+Kettledrummle and Poundtext: probably the "jog-trot" friends of the
+Indulgence have more right to complain than the "high-flying" friends of
+the Covenant. Scott had Cavalier sympathies, as Macaulay had Covenanting
+sympathies. That Scott is more unjust to the Covenanters than Macaulay to
+Claverhouse historians will scarcely maintain. Neither history or fiction
+would be very delightful if they were warless.  This must serve as an
+apology more needed by Macaulay--than by Sir Walter. His reply to Dr.
+McCrie is marked by excellent temper, humour, and good humor. The
+"Quarterly Review" ends with the well known reference to his brother
+Tom's suspected authorship: "We intended here to conclude this long
+article, when a strong report reached us of certain transatlantic
+confessions, which, if genuine (though of this we know nothing), assign a
+different author to those volumes than the party suspected by our
+Scottish correspondents. Yet a critic may be excused for seizing upon the
+nearest suspected person, or the principle happily expressed by
+Claverhouse in a letter to the Earl of Linlithgow. He had been, it seems,
+in search of a gifted weaver who used to hold forth at conventicles: 'I
+sent for the webster, they brought in his brother for him: though he,
+maybe, cannot preach like his brother, I doubt not but he is as well
+principled as he, wherefore I thought it would be no great fault to give
+him the trouble to go to jail with the rest.'"
+
+Nobody who read this could doubt that Scott was, at least, "art and part"
+in the review. His efforts to disguise himself as an Englishman, aided by
+a Scotch antiquary, are divertingly futile. He seized the chance of
+defending his earlier works from some criticisms on Scotch manners
+suggested by the ignorance of Gifford. Nor was it difficult to see that
+the author of the review was also the author of the novel. In later years
+Lady Louisa Stuart reminded Scott that "Old Mortality," like the Iliad,
+had been ascribed by clever critics to several hands working together. On
+December 5, 1816, she wrote to him, "I found something you wot of upon my
+table; and as I dare not take it with me to a friend's house, for fear of
+arousing curiosity"--she read it at once. She could not sleep afterwards,
+so much had she been excited. "Manse and Cuddie forced me to laugh out
+aloud, which one seldom does when alone." Many of the Scotch words "were
+absolutely Hebrew" to her. She not unjustly objected to Claverhouse's use
+of the word "sentimental" as an anachronism. Sentiment, like nerves, had
+not been invented in Claverhouse's day.
+
+The pecuniary success of "Old Mortality" was less, perhaps, than might
+have been expected. The first edition was only of two thousand copies.
+Two editions of this number were sold in six weeks, and a third was
+printed. Constable's gallant enterprise of ten thousand, in "Rob Roy,"
+throws these figures into the shade.
+
+"Old Mortality" is the first of Scott's works in which he invades history
+beyond the range of what may be called living oral tradition. In
+"Waverley," and even in "Rob Roy," he had the memories of Invernahyle, of
+Miss Nairne, of many persons of the last generation for his guides. In
+"Old Mortality" his fancy had to wander among the relics of another age,
+among the inscribed tombs of the Covenanters, which are common in the
+West Country, as in the churchyards of Balmaclellan and Dalry. There the
+dust of these enduring and courageous men, like that of Bessie Bell and
+Marion Gray in the ballad, "beiks forenenst the sun," which shines on
+them from beyond the hills of their wanderings, while the brown waters of
+the Ken murmur at their feet.
+
+               Here now in peace sweet rest we take,
+               Once murdered for religion's sake,
+
+says the epitaph on the flat table-stone, beneath the wind tormented
+trees of Iron Gray. Concerning these /Manes Presbyteriani/, "Guthrie's
+and Giffan's Passions" and the rest, Scott had a library of rare volumes
+full of prophecies, "remarkable Providences," angelic ministrations,
+diabolical persecutions by The Accuser of the Brethren,--in fact, all
+that Covenanteers had written or that had been written about
+Covenanteers. "I'll tickle ye off a Covenanter as readily as old Jack
+could do a young Prince; and a rare fellow he is, when brought forth in
+his true colours," he says to Terry (November 12, 1816). He certainly was
+not an unprejudiced witness, some ten years earlier, when he wrote to
+Southey, "You can hardly conceive the perfidy, cruelty, and stupidity of
+these people, according to the accounts they have themselves preserved.
+But I admit I had many prejudices instilled into me, as my ancestor was a
+Killiecrankie man." He used to tease Grahame of "The Sabbath," "but never
+out of his good humour, by praising Dundee, and laughing at the
+Covenanters." Even as a boy he had been familiar with that godly company
+in "the original edition of the lives of Cameron and others, by Patrick
+Walker." The more curious parts of those biographies were excised by the
+care of later editors, but they may all be found now in the "Biographia
+Presbyteriana" (1827), published by True Jock, chief clerk to "Leein'
+Johnnie," Mr. John Ballantyne. To this work the inquirer may turn, if he
+is anxious to see whether Scott's colouring is correct. The true blue of
+the Covenant is not dulled in the "Biographia Presbyteriana."
+
+With all these materials at his command, Scott was able almost to dwell
+in the age of the Covenant hence the extraordinary life and brilliance of
+this, his first essay in fiction dealing with a remote time and obsolete
+manners. His opening, though it may seem long and uninviting to modern
+readers, is interesting for the sympathetic sketch of the gentle
+consumptive dominie. If there was any class of men whom Sir Walter could
+not away with, it was the race of schoolmasters, "black cattle" whom he
+neither trusted nor respected. But he could make or invent exceptions, as
+in the uncomplaining and kindly usher of the verbose Cleishbotham. Once
+launched in his legend, with the shooting of the Popinjay, he never
+falters. The gallant, dauntless, overbearing Bothwell, the dour Burley,
+the handful of Preachers, representing every current of opinion in the
+Covenant, the awful figure of Habakkuk Mucklewrath, the charm of goodness
+in Bessie McLure, are all immortal, deathless as Shakspeare's men and
+women. Indeed here, even more than elsewhere, we admire the life which
+Scott breathes into his minor characters, Halliday and Inglis, the
+troopers, the child who leads Morton to Burley's retreat in the cave,
+that auld Laird Nippy, old Milnwood (a real "Laird Nippy" was a neighbour
+of Scott's at Ashiestiel), Ailie Wilson, the kind, crabbed old
+housekeeper, generous in great things, though habitually niggardly in
+things small. Most of these are persons whom we might still meet in
+Scotland, as we might meet Cuddie Headrigg--the shrewd, the blithe, the
+faithful and humorous Cuddie. As to Miss Jenny Dennison, we can hardly
+forgive Scott for making that gayest of soubrettes hard and selfish in
+married life. He is too severe on the harmless and even beneficent race
+of coquettes, who brighten life so much, who so rapidly "draw up with the
+new pleugh lad," and who do so very little harm when all is said. Jenny
+plays the part of a leal and brave lass in the siege of Tillietudlem,
+hunger and terror do not subdue her spirit; she is true, in spite of many
+temptations, to her Cuddie, and we decline to believe that she was untrue
+to his master and friend. Ikuse, no doubt, is a caricature, though Wodrow
+makes us acquainted with at least one Mause, Jean Biggart, who "all the
+winter over was exceedingly straitened in wrestling and prayer as to the
+Parliament, and said that still that place was brought before her, Our
+hedges are broken down!" ("Analecta," ii. 173.) Surely even Dr. McCrie
+must have laughed out loud, like Lady Louisa Stuart, when Mause exclaims:
+"Neither will I peace for the bidding of no earthly potsherd, though it
+be painted as red as a brick from the tower o' Babel, and ca' itsel' a
+corporal." Manse, as we have said, is not more comic than heroic, a
+mother in that Sparta of the Covenant. The figure of Morton, as usual, is
+not very attractive. In his review, Scott explains the weakness of his
+heroes as usually strangers in the land (Waverley, Lovel, Mannering,
+Osbaldistone), who need to have everything explained to them, and who are
+less required to move than to be the pivots of the general movement. But
+Morton is no stranger in the land. His political position in the juste
+milieu is unexciting. A schoolboy wrote to Scott at this time, "Oh, Sir
+Walter, how could you take the lady from the gallant Cavalier, and give
+her to the crop-eared Covenanter?" Probably Scott sympathised with his
+young critic, who longed "to be a feudal chief, and to see his retainers
+happy around him." But Edith Bellenden loved Morton, with that love
+which, as she said, and thought, "disturbs the repose of the dead." Scott
+had no choice. Besides, Dr. McCrie might have disapproved of so fortunate
+an arrangement. The heroine herself does not live in the memory like Di
+Vernon; she does not even live like Jenny Dennison. We remember Corporal
+Raddlebanes better, the stoutest fighting man of Major Bellenden's
+acquaintance; and the lady of Tillietudlem has admirers more numerous and
+more constant. The lovers of the tale chiefly engage our interest by the
+rare constancy of their affections.
+
+The most disputed character is, of course, that of Claverhouse. There is
+no doubt that, if Claverhouse had been a man of the ordinary mould, he
+would never have reckoned so many enthusiastic friends in future ages.
+But Beauty, which makes Helen immortal, had put its seal on Bonny Dundee.
+With that face "which limners might have loved to paint, and ladies to
+look upon," he still conquers hearts from his dark corner above the
+private staircase in Sir Walter's deserted study. He was brave, he was
+loyal when all the world forsook his master; in that reckless age of
+revelry he looks on with the austere and noble contempt which he wears in
+Hell among the tippling shades of Cavaliers. He died in the arms of
+victory, but he lives among
+
+                         The chiefs of ancient names
+     Who swore to fight and die beneath the banner of King James,
+     And he fell in Killiecrankie Pass, the glory of the Grahames.
+
+Sentiment in romance, not in history, may be excused for pardoning the
+rest.
+
+Critics of the time, as Lady Louisa Stuart reminds Sir Walter, did not
+believe the book was his, because it lacked his "tedious descriptions."
+The descriptions, as of the waterfall where Burley had his den, are
+indeed far from "tedious." There is a tendency in Scott to exalt into
+mountains "his own grey hills," the /bosses verdatres/ as Prosper Merimee
+called them, of the Border. But the horrors of such linns as that down
+which Hab Dab and Davie Dinn "dang the deil" are not exaggerated.
+
+"Old Mortality" was the last novel written by Scott before the malady
+which tormented his stoicism in 1817-1820. Every reader has his own
+favourite, but few will place this glorious tale lower than second in the
+list of his incomparable romances.
+
+ANDREW LANG.
+
+
+
+
+
+                              INTRODUCTION
+                                   TO
+                       THE TALES OF MY LANDLORD.
+
+As I may, without vanity, presume that the name and official description
+prefixed to this Proem will secure it, from the sedate and reflecting
+part of mankind, to whom only I would be understood to address myself,
+such attention as is due to the sedulous instructor of youth, and the
+careful performer of my Sabbath duties, I will forbear to hold up a
+candle to the daylight, or to point out to the judicious those
+recommendations of my labours which they must necessarily anticipate from
+the perusal of the title-page. Nevertheless, I am not unaware, that, as
+Envy always dogs Merit at the heels, there may be those who will whisper,
+that albeit my learning and good principles cannot (lauded be the
+heavens) be denied by any one, yet that my situation at Gandercleugh hath
+been more favourable to my acquisitions in learning than to the
+enlargement of my views of the ways and works of the present generation.
+To the which objection, if, peradventure, any such shall be started, my
+answer shall be threefold:
+
+First, Gandercleugh is, as it were, the central part--the navel (/si fas
+sit dicere/) of this our native realm of Scotland; so that men, from
+every corner thereof, when travelling on their concernments of business,
+either towards our metropolis of law, by which I mean Edinburgh, or
+towards our metropolis and mart of gain, whereby I insinuate Glasgow, are
+frequently led to make Gandercleugh their abiding stage and place of rest
+for the night. And it must be acknowledged by the most sceptical, that I,
+who have sat in the leathern armchair, on the left-hand side of the fire,
+in the common room of the Wallace Inn, winter and summer, for every
+evening in my life, during forty years bypast, (the Christian Sabbaths
+only excepted,) must have seen more of the manners and customs of various
+tribes and people, than if I had sought them out by my own painful travel
+and bodily labour. Even so doth the tollman at the well-frequented
+turnpike on the Wellbrae-head, sitting at his ease in his own dwelling,
+gather more receipt of custom, than if, moving forth upon the road, he
+were to require a contribution from each person whom he chanced to meet
+in his journey, when, according to the vulgar adage, he might possibly be
+greeted with more kicks than halfpence.
+
+But, secondly, supposing it again urged, that Ithacus, the most wise of
+the Greeks, acquired his renown, as the Roman poet hath assured us, by
+visiting states and men, I reply to the Zoilus who shall adhere to this
+objection,  that, /de facto/, I have seen states and men also; for I have
+visited the famous cities of Edinburgh and Glasgow, the former twice, and
+the latter three times, in the course of my earthly pilgrimage. And,
+moreover, I had the honour to sit in the General Assembly (meaning, as an
+auditor, in the galleries thereof,) and have heard as much goodly
+speaking on the law of patronage, as, with the fructification thereof in
+mine own understanding, hath made me be considered as an oracle upon that
+doctrine ever since my safe and happy return to Gandercleugh.
+
+Again,--and thirdly, If it be nevertheless pretended that my information
+and knowledge of mankind, however extensive, and however painfully
+acquired, by constant domestic enquiry, and by foreign travel, is,
+natheless, incompetent to the task of recording the pleasant narratives
+of my Landlord, I will let these critics know, to their own eternal shame
+and confusion, as well as to the abashment and discomfiture of all who
+shall rashly take up a song against me, that I am NOT the writer,
+redacter, or compiler, of the "Tales of my Landlord;" nor am I, in one
+single iota, answerable for their contents, more or less. And now, ye
+generation of critics, who raise yourselves up as if it were brazen
+serpents, to hiss with your tongues, and to smite with your stings, bow
+yourselves down to your native dust, and acknowledge that yours have been
+the thoughts of ignorance, and the words of vain foolishness. Lo! ye are
+caught in your own snare, and your own pit hath yawned for you. Turn,
+then, aside from the task that is too heavy for you; destroy not your
+teeth by gnawing a file; waste not your strength by spurning against a
+castle wall; nor spend your breath in contending in swiftness with a
+fleet steed; and let those weigh the "Tales of my Landlord," who shall
+bring with them the scales of candour cleansed from the rust of prejudice
+by the hands of intelligent modesty. For these alone they were compiled,
+as will appear from a brief narrative which my zeal for truth compelled
+me to make supplementary to the present Proem.
+
+It is well known that my Landlord was a pleasing and a facetious man,
+acceptable unto all the parish of Gandercleugh, excepting only the Laird,
+the Exciseman, and those for whom he refused to draw liquor upon trust.
+Their causes of dislike I will touch separately, adding my own refutation
+thereof.
+
+His honour, the Laird, accused our Landlord, deceased, of having
+encouraged, in various times and places, the destruction of hares,
+rabbits, fowls black and grey, partridges, moor-pouts, roe-deer, and
+other birds and quadrupeds, at unlawful seasons, and contrary to the laws
+of this realm, which have secured, in their wisdom, the slaughter of such
+animals for the great of the earth, whom I have remarked to take an
+uncommon (though to me, an unintelligible) pleasure therein. Now, in
+humble deference to his honour, and in justifiable defence of my friend
+deceased, I reply to this charge, that howsoever the form of such animals
+might appear to be similar to those so protected by the law, yet it was a
+mere /deceptio visus/; for what resembled hares were, in fact, hill-kids,
+and those partaking of the appearance of moor-fowl, were truly wood
+pigeons, and consumed and eaten /eo nomine/, and not otherwise.
+Again, the Exciseman pretended, that my deceased Landlord did encourage
+that species of manufacture called distillation, without having an
+especial permission from the Great, technically called a license, for
+doing so. Now, I stand up to confront this falsehood; and in defiance of
+him, his gauging-stick, and pen and inkhorn, I tell him, that I never
+saw, or tasted, a glass of unlawful aqua vitae in the house of my
+Landlord; nay, that, on the contrary, we needed not such devices, in
+respect of a pleasing and somewhat seductive liquor, which was vended and
+consumed at the Wallace Inn, under the name of mountain dew. If there is
+a penalty against manufacturing such a liquor, let him show me the
+statute; and when he does, I'll tell him if I will obey it or no.
+Concerning those who came to my Landlord for liquor, and went thirsty
+away, for lack of present coin, or future credit, I cannot but say it has
+grieved my bowels as if the case had been mine own. Nevertheless, my
+Landlord considered the necessities of a thirsty soul, and would permit
+them, in extreme need, and when their soul was impoverished for lack of
+moisture, to drink to the full value of their watches and wearing
+apparel, exclusively of their inferior habiliments, which he was
+uniformly inexorable in obliging them to retain, for the credit of the
+house. As to mine own part, I may well say, that he never refused me that
+modicum of refreshment with which I am wont to recruit nature after the
+fatigues of my school. It is true, I taught his five sons English and
+Latin, writing, book-keeping, with a tincture of mathematics, and that I
+instructed his daughter in psalmody. Nor do I remember me of any fee or
+honorarium received from him on account of these my labours, except the
+compotations aforesaid. Nevertheless this compensation suited my humour
+well, since it is a hard sentence to bid a dry throat wait till
+quarter-day.
+
+But, truly, were I to speak my simple conceit and belief, I think my
+Landlord was chiefly moved to waive in my behalf the usual requisition of
+a symbol, or reckoning, from the pleasure he was wont to take in my
+conversation, which, though solid and edifying in the main, was, like a
+well-built palace, decorated with facetious narratives and devices,
+tending much to the enhancement and ornament thereof. And so pleased was
+my Landlord of the Wallace in his replies during such colloquies, that
+there was no district in Scotland, yea, and no peculiar, and, as it were,
+distinctive custom therein practised, but was discussed betwixt us;
+insomuch, that those who stood by were wont to say, it was worth a bottle
+of ale to hear us communicate with each other. And not a few travellers,
+from distant parts, as well as from the remote districts of our kingdom,
+were wont to mingle in the conversation, and to tell news that had been
+gathered in foreign lands, or preserved from oblivion in this our own.
+Now I chanced to have contracted for teaching the lower classes with a
+young person called Peter, or Patrick, Pattieson, who had been educated
+for our Holy Kirk, yea, had, by the license of presbytery, his voice
+opened therein as a preacher, who delighted in the collection of olden
+tales and legends, and in garnishing them with the flowers of poesy,
+whereof he was a vain and frivolous professor. For he followed not the
+example of those strong poets whom I proposed to him as a pattern, but
+formed versification of a flimsy and modern texture, to the compounding
+whereof was necessary small pains and less thought. And hence I have chid
+him as being one of those who bring forward the fatal revolution
+prophesied by Mr. Robert Carey, in his Vaticination on the Death of the
+celebrated Dr. John Donne:
+
+          Now thou art gone, and thy strict laws will be
+          Too hard for libertines in poetry;
+          Till verse (by thee refined) in this last age
+          Turn ballad rhyme.
+
+I had also disputations with him touching his indulging rather a flowing
+and redundant than a concise and stately diction in his prose
+exercitations. But notwithstanding these symptoms of inferior taste, and
+a humour of contradicting his betters upon passages of dubious
+construction in Latin authors, I did grievously lament when Peter
+Pattieson was removed from me by death, even as if he had been the
+offspring of my own loins. And in respect his papers had been left in my
+care, (to answer funeral and death-bed expenses,) I conceived myself
+entitled to dispose of one parcel thereof, entitled, "Tales of my
+Landlord," to one cunning in the trade (as it is called) of book
+selling. He was a mirthful man, of small stature, cunning in
+counterfeiting of voices, and in making facetious tales and responses,
+and whom I have to laud for the truth of his dealings towards me.
+Now, therefore, the world may see the injustice that charges me with
+incapacity to write these narratives, seeing, that though I have proved
+that I could have written them if I would, yet, not having done so, the
+censure will deservedly fall, if at all due, upon the memory of Mr. Peter
+Pattieson; whereas I must be justly entitled to the praise, when any is
+due, seeing that, as the Dean of St. Patrick's wittily and logically
+expresseth it,
+
+               That without which a thing is not,
+               Is Causa sine qua non.
+
+The work, therefore, is unto me as a child is to a parent; in the which
+child, if it proveth worthy, the parent hath honour and praise; but, if
+otherwise, the disgrace will deservedly attach to itself alone.
+
+I have only further to intimate, that Mr. Peter Pattieson, in arranging
+these Tales for the press, hath more consulted his own fancy than the
+accuracy of the narrative; nay, that he hath sometimes blended two or
+three stories together for the mere grace of his plots. Of which
+infidelity, although I disapprove and enter my testimony against it, yet
+I have not taken upon me to correct the same, in respect it was the will
+of the deceased, that his manuscript should be submitted to the press
+without diminution or alteration. A fanciful nicety it was on the part of
+my deceased friend, who, if thinking wisely, ought rather to have
+conjured me, by all the tender ties of our friendship and common
+pursuits, to have carefully revised, altered, and augmented, at my
+judgment and discretion. But the will of the dead must be scrupulously
+obeyed, even when we weep over their pertinacity and self-delusion. So,
+gentle reader, I bid you farewell, recommending you to such fare as the
+mountains of your own country produce; and I will only farther premise,
+that each Tale is preceded by a short introduction, mentioning the
+persons by whom, and the circumstances under which, the materials thereof
+were collected.
+                                   JEDEDIAH CLEISHBOTHAM.
+
+
+
+
+
+                               INTRODUCTION
+                                    TO
+                              OLD MORTALITY.
+
+The remarkable person, called by the title of Old Mortality, was we'll
+known in Scotland about the end of the last century. His real name was
+Robert Paterson. He was a native, it is said, of the parish of Closeburn,
+in Dumfries-shire, and probably a mason by profession--at least educated
+to the use of the chisel. Whether family dissensions, or the deep and
+enthusiastic feeling of supposed duty, drove him to leave his dwelling,
+and adopt the singular mode of life in which he wandered, like a palmer,
+through Scotland, is not known. It could not be poverty, however, which
+prompted his journeys, for he never accepted anything beyond the
+hospitality which was willingly rendered him, and when that was not
+proffered, he always had money enough to provide for his own humble
+wants. His personal appearance, and favourite, or rather sole occupation,
+are accurately described in the preliminary chapter of the following
+work.
+
+It is about thirty years since, or more, that the author met this
+singular person in the churchyard of Dunnottar, when spending a day or
+two with the late learned and excellent clergyman, Mr. Walker, the
+minister of that parish, for the purpose of a close examination of the
+ruins of the Castle of Dunnottar, and other subjects of antiquarian
+research in that neighbourhood. Old Mortality chanced to be at the same
+place, on the usual business of his pilgrimage; for the Castle of
+Dunnottar, though lying in the anti-covenanting district of the Mearns,
+was, with the parish churchyard, celebrated for the oppressions sustained
+there by the Cameronians in the time of James II.
+
+It was in 1685, when Argyle was threatening a descent upon Scotland, and
+Monmouth was preparing to invade the west of England, that the Privy
+Council of Scotland, with cruel precaution, made a general arrest of more
+than a hundred persons in the southern and western provinces, supposed,
+from their religious principles, to be inimical to Government, together
+with many women and children. These captives were driven northward like a
+flock of bullocks, but with less precaution to provide for their wants,
+and finally penned up in a subterranean dungeon in the Castle of
+Dunnottar, having a window opening to the front of a precipice which
+overhangs the German Ocean. They had suffered not a little on the
+journey, and were much hurt both at the scoffs of the northern
+prelatists, and the mocks, gibes, and contemptuous tunes played by the
+fiddlers and pipers who had come from every quarter as they passed, to
+triumph over the revilers of their calling. The repose which the
+melancholy dungeon afforded them, was anything but undisturbed. The
+guards made them pay for every indulgence, even that of water; and when
+some of the prisoners resisted a demand so unreasonable, and insisted on
+their right to have this necessary of life untaxed, their keepers emptied
+the water on the prison floor, saying, "If they were obliged to bring
+water for the canting whigs, they were not bound to afford them the use
+of bowls or pitchers gratis."
+
+In this prison, which is still termed the Whig's Vault, several died of
+the diseases incidental to such a situation; and others broke their
+limbs, and incurred fatal injury, in desperate attempts to escape from
+their stern prison-house. Over the graves of these unhappy persons, their
+friends, after the Revolution, erected a monument with a suitable
+inscription.
+
+This peculiar shrine of the Whig martyrs is very much honoured by their
+descendants, though residing at a great distance from the land of their
+captivity and death. My friend, the Rev. Mr. Walker, told me, that being
+once upon a tour in the south of Scotland, probably about forty years
+since, he had the bad luck to involve himself in the labyrinth of
+passages and tracks which cross, in every direction, the extensive waste
+called Lochar Moss, near Dumfries, out of which it is scarcely possible
+for a stranger to extricate himself; and there was no small difficulty in
+procuring a guide, since such people as he saw were engaged in digging
+their peats--a work of paramount necessity, which will hardly brook
+interruption. Mr. Walker could, therefore, only procure unintelligible
+directions in the southern brogue, which differs widely from that of the
+Mearns. He was beginning to think himself in a serious dilemma, when he
+stated his case to a farmer of rather the better class, who was employed,
+as the others, in digging his winter fuel. The old man at first made the
+same excuse with those who had already declined acting as the traveller's
+guide; but perceiving him in great perplexity, and paying the respect due
+to his profession, "You are a clergyman, sir?" he said. Mr. Walker
+assented. "And I observe from your speech, that you are from the
+north?"--"You are right, my good friend," was the reply. "And may I ask
+if you have ever heard of a place called Dunnottar?"--"I ought to know
+something about it, my friend," said Mr. Walker, "since I have been
+several years the minister of the parish."--"I am glad to hear it," said
+the Dumfriesian, "for one of my near relations lies buried there, and
+there is, I believe, a monument over his grave. I would give half of what
+I am aught, to know if it is still in existence."--"He was one of those
+who perished in the Whig's Vault at the castle?" said the minister; "for
+there are few southlanders besides lying in our churchyard, and none, I
+think, having monuments."--"Even sae--even sae," said the old Cameronian,
+for such was the farmer. He then laid down his spade, cast on his coat,
+and heartily offered to see the minister out of the moss, if he should
+lose the rest of the /day's dargue/. Mr. Walker was able to requite him
+amply, in his opinion, by reciting the epitaph, which he remembered by
+heart. The old man was enchanted with finding the memory of his
+grandfather or great-grandfather faithfully recorded amongst the names of
+brother sufferers; and rejecting all other offers of recompense, only
+requested, after he had guided Mr. Walker to a safe and dry road, that he
+would let him have a written copy of the inscription.
+
+It was whilst I was listening to this story, and looking at the monument
+referred to, that I saw Old Mortality engaged in his daily task of
+cleaning and repairing the ornaments and epitaphs upon the tomb. His
+appearance and equipment were exactly as described in the Novel. I was
+very desirous to see something of a person so singular, and expected to
+have done so, as he took up his quarters with the hospitable and
+liberal-spirited minister. But though Mr. Walker invited him up after
+dinner to partake of a glass of spirits and water, to which he was
+supposed not to be very averse, yet he would not speak frankly upon the
+subject of his occupation. He was in bad humour, and had, according to
+his phrase, no freedom for conversation with us.
+
+His spirit had been sorely vexed by hearing, in a certain Aberdonian
+kirk, the psalmody directed by a pitch-pipe, or some similar instrument,
+which was to Old Mortality the abomination of abominations. Perhaps,
+after all, he did not feel himself at ease with his company; he might
+suspect the questions asked by a north-country minister and a young
+barrister to savour more of idle curiosity than profit. At any rate, in
+the phrase of John Bunyan, Old Mortality went on his way, and I saw him
+no more.
+
+The remarkable figure and occupation of this ancient pilgrim was recalled
+to my memory by an account transmitted by my friend Mr. Joseph Train,
+supervisor of excise at Dumfries, to whom I owe many obligations of a
+similar nature. From this, besides some other circumstances, among which
+are those of the old man's death, I learned the particulars described in
+the text. I am also informed, that the old palmer's family, in the third
+generation, survives, and is highly respected both for talents and worth.
+While these sheets were passing through the press, I received the
+following communication from Mr. Train, whose undeviating kindness had,
+during the intervals of laborious duty, collected its materials from an
+indubitable source.
+
+     "In the course of my periodical visits to the Glenkens, I have
+     become intimately acquainted with Robert Paterson, a son of Old
+     Mortality, who lives in the little village of Balmaclellan; and
+     although he is now in the 70th year of his age, preserves all the
+     vivacity of youth--has a most retentive memory, and a mind stored
+     with information far above what could be expected from a person in
+     his station of life. To him I am indebted for the following
+     particulars relative to his father, and his descendants down to the
+     present time.
+
+     "Robert Paterson, alias Old Mortality, was the son of Walter
+     Paterson and Margaret Scott, who occupied the farm of Ilaggisha, in
+     the parish of Hawick, during nearly the first half of the eighteenth
+     century. Here Robert was born, in the memorable year 1715.
+
+     "Being the youngest son of a numerous family, he, at an early age,
+     went to serve with an elder brother, named Francis, who rented, from
+     Sir John Jardine of Applegarth, a small tract in Comcockle Moor,
+     near Lochmaben. During his residence there, he became acquainted
+     with Elizabeth Gray, daughter of Robert Gray, gardener to Sir John
+     Jardine, whom he afterwards married. His wife had been, for a
+     considerable time, a cook-maid to Sir Thomas Kirkpatrick of
+     Closeburn, who procured for her husband, from the Duke of
+     Queensberry, an advantageous lease of the freestone quarry of
+     Gatelowbrigg, in the parish of Morton. Here he built a house, and
+     had as much land as kept a horse and cow. My informant cannot say,
+     with certainty, the year in which his father took up his residence
+     at Gatelowbrigg, but he is sure it must have been only a short time
+     prior to the year 1746, as, during the memorable frost in 1740, he
+     says his mother still resided in the service of Sir Thomas
+     Kirkpatrick. When the Highlanders were returning from England on
+     their route to Glasgow, in the year 1745-6, they plundered Mr.
+     Paterson's house at Gatelowbrigg, and carried him a prisoner as far
+     as Glenbuck, merely because he said to one of the straggling army,
+     that their retreat might have been easily foreseen, as the strong
+     arm of the Lord was evidently raised, not only against the bloody
+     and wicked house of Stewart, but against all who attempted to
+     support the abominable heresies of the Church of Rome. From this
+     circumstance it appears that Old Mortality had, even at that early
+     period of his life, imbibed the religious enthusiasm by which he
+     afterwards became so much distinguished.
+
+     "The religious sect called Hill-men, or Cameronians, was at that
+     time much noted for austerity and devotion, in imitation of Cameron,
+     their founder, of whose tenets Old Mortality became a most strenuous
+     supporter. He made frequent journeys into Galloway to attend their
+     conventicles, and occasionally carried with him gravestones from his
+     quarry at Gatelowbrigg, to keep in remembrance the righteous whose
+     dust had been gathered to their fathers. Old Mortality was not one
+     of those religious devotees, who, although one eye is seemingly
+     turned towards heaven, keep the other steadfastly fixed on some
+     sublunary object. As his enthusiasm increased, his journeys into
+     Galloway became more frequent; and he gradually neglected even the
+     common prudential duty of providing for his offspring. From about
+     the year 1758, he neglected wholly to return from Galloway to his
+     wife and five children at Gatelowbrigg, which induced her to send
+     her eldest son Walter, then only twelve years of age, to Galloway,
+     in search of his father. After traversing nearly the whole of that
+     extensive district, from the Nick of Benncorie to the Fell of
+     Barullion, he found him at last working on the Cameronian monuments,
+     in the old kirkyard of Kirkchrist, on the west side of the Dee,
+     opposite the town of Kirkcudbright. The little wanderer used all the
+     influence in his power to induce his father to return to his family;
+     but in vain. Mrs. Paterson sent even some of her female children
+     into Galloway in search of their father, for the same purpose of
+     persuading him to return home; but without any success. At last, in
+     the summer of 1768, she removed to the little upland village of
+     Balmaclellan, in the Glenkens of Galloway, where, upon the small
+     pittance derived from keeping a little school, she supported her
+     numerous family in a respectable manner.
+
+     "There is a small monumental stone in the farm of the Caldon, near
+     the House of the Hill, in Wigtonshire, which is highly venerated as
+     being the first erected, by Old Mortality, to the memory of several
+     persons who fell at that place in defence of their religious tenets
+     in the civil war, in the reign of Charles Second.
+
+     "From the Caldon, the labours of Old Mortality, in the course of
+     time, spread over nearly all the Lowlands of Scotland. There are few
+     churchyards in Ayrshire, Galloway, or Dumfries-shire, where the work
+     of his chisel is not yet to be seen. It is easily distinguished from
+     the work of any other artist by the primitive rudeness of the
+     emblems of death, and of the inscriptions which adorn the ill-formed
+     blocks of his erection. This task of repairing and erecting
+     gravestones, practised without fee or reward, was the only
+     ostensible employment of this singular person for upwards of forty
+     years. The door of every Cameronian's house was indeed open to him
+     at all times when he chose to enter, and he was gladly received as
+     an inmate of the family; but he did not invariably accept of these
+     civilities, as may be seen by the following account of his frugal
+     expenses, found, amongst other little papers, (some of which I have
+     likewise in my possession,) in his pocket-book after his death.
+
+          Gatehouse of Fleet, 4th February, 1796.
+          ROBERT PATERBON debtor to MARGARET CHRYSTALE.
+          To drye Lodginge for seven weeks,....... 0  4  1
+          To Four Auchlet of Ait Meal,............ 0  3  4
+          To 6 Lippies of Potatoes................ 0  1  3
+          To Lent Money at the time of Mr. Reid's
+               Sacrament,......................... 0  6  0
+          To 3 Chappins of Yell with Sandy the
+               Keelman,*.......................... 0  0  9
+
+                                                 L.0 15  5
+          Received in part,....................... 0 10  0
+          Unpaid,............................... L.0  5  5
+
+
+     *["A well-known humourist, still alive, popularly called by the name
+     of Old Keelybags, who deals in the keel or chalk with which farmers
+     mark their flocks."]
+
+"This statement shows the religious wanderer to have been very poor in
+his old age; but he was so more by choice than through necessity, as at
+the period here alluded to, his children were all comfortably situated,
+and were most anxious to keep their father at home, but no entreaty could
+induce him to alter his erratic way of life. He travelled from one
+churchyard to another, mounted on his old white pony, till the last day
+of his existence, and died, as you have described, at Bankhill, near
+Lockerby, on the 14th February, 1801, in the 86th year of his age. As
+soon as his body was found, intimation was sent to his sons at
+Balmaclellan; but from the great depth of the snow at that time, the
+letter communicating the particulars of his death was so long detained by
+the way, that the remains of the pilgrim were interred before any of his
+relations could arrive at Bankhill.
+
+"The following is an exact copy of the account of his funeral expenses,--
+the original of which I have in my possession:--
+
+          "Memorandum of the Funral Charges of Robert Paterson,
+          who dyed at Bankhill on the 14th day of February, 1801.
+          To a Coffon................... L.0 12  0
+          To Munting for do............... 0  2  8
+          To a Shirt for him.............. 0  5  6
+          To a pair of Cotten Stockings... 0  2  0
+          To Bread at the Founral......... 0  2  6
+          To Chise at ditto............... 0  3  0
+          To 1 pint Rume.................. 0  4  6
+          To I pint Whiskie............... 0  4  0
+          To a man going to Annam......... 0  2  0
+          To the grave diger.............. 0  1  0
+          To Linnen for a sheet to him.... 0  2  8
+                                         L.2  1 10
+          Taken off him when dead,.........1  7  6
+                                         L.0 14  4
+
+"The above account is authenticated by the son of the deceased.
+
+"My friend was prevented by indisposition from even going to Bankhill to
+attend the funeral of his father, which I regret very much, as he is not
+aware in what churchyard he was interred.
+
+"For the purpose of erecting a small monument to his memory, I have made
+every possible enquiry, wherever I thought there was the least chance of
+finding out where Old Mortality was laid; but I have done so in vain, as
+his death is not registered in the session-book of any of the
+neighbouring parishes. I am sorry to think, that in all probability, this
+singular person, who spent so many years of his lengthened existence in
+striving with his chisel and mallet to perpetuate the memory of many less
+deserving than himself, must remain even without a single stone to mark
+out the resting place of his mortal remains.
+
+"Old Mortality had three sons, Robert, Walter, and John; the former, as
+has been already mentioned, lives in the village of Balmaclellan, in
+comfortable circumstances, and is much respected by his neighbours.
+Walter died several years ago, leaving behind him a family now
+respectably situated in this point. John went to America in the year
+1776, and, after various turns of fortune, settled at Baltimore."
+
+Old Nol himself is said to have loved an innocent jest. (See Captain
+Hodgson's Memoirs.) Old Mortality somewhat resembled the Protector in
+this turn to festivity. Like Master Silence, he had been merry twice and
+once in his time; but even his jests were of a melancholy and sepulchral
+nature, and sometimes attended with inconvenience to himself, as will
+appear from the following anecdote:--
+
+The old man was at one time following his wonted occupation of repairing
+the tombs of the martyrs, in the churchyard of Girthon, and the sexton of
+the parish was plying his kindred task at no small distance. Some roguish
+urchins were sporting near them, and by their noisy gambols disturbing
+the old men in their serious occupation. The most petulant of the
+juvenile party were two or three boys, grandchildren of a person well
+known by the name of Cooper Climent. This artist enjoyed almost a
+monopoly in Girthon and the neighbouring parishes, for making and selling
+ladles, caups, bickers, bowls, spoons, cogues, and trenchers, formed of
+wood, for the use of the country people. It must be noticed, that
+notwithstanding the excellence of the Cooper's vessels, they were apt,
+when new, to impart a reddish tinge to whatever liquor was put into them,
+a circumstance not uncommon in like cases.
+
+The grandchildren of this dealer in wooden work took it into their head
+to ask the sexton, what use he could possibly make of the numerous
+fragments of old coffins which were thrown up in opening new graves. "Do
+you not know," said Old Mortality, "that he sells them to your
+grandfather, who makes them into spoons, trenchers, bickers, bowies, and
+so forth?" At this assertion, the youthful group broke up in great
+confusion and disgust, on reflecting how many meals they had eaten out of
+dishes which, by Old Mortality's account, were only fit to be used at a
+banquet of witches or of ghoules. They carried the tidings home, when
+many a dinner was spoiled by the loathing which the intelligence
+imparted; for the account of the materials was supposed to explain the
+reddish tinge which, even in the days of the Cooper's fame, had seemed
+somewhat suspicious. The ware of Cooper Climent was rejected in horror,
+much to the benefit of his rivals the muggers, who dealt in earthenware.
+The man of cutty-spoon and ladle saw his trade interrupted, and learned
+the reason, by his quondam customers coming upon him in wrath to return
+the goods which were composed of such unhallowed materials, and demand
+repayment of their money. In this disagreeable predicament, the forlorn
+artist cited Old Mortality into a court of justice, where he proved that
+the wood he used in his trade was that of the staves of old wine-pipes
+bought from smugglers, with whom the country then abounded, a
+circumstance which fully accounted for their imparting a colour to their
+contents. Old Mortality himself made the fullest declaration, that he had
+no other purpose in making the assertion, than to check the petulance of
+the children. But it is easier to take away a good name than to restore
+it. Cooper Climent's business continued to languish, and he died in a
+state of poverty.
+
+
+
+                                VOLUME I.
+
+
+                                CHAPTER I.
+
+                               Preliminary.
+
+                    Why seeks he with unwearied toil
+                    Through death's dim walks to urge his way,
+                    Reclaim his long-asserted spoil,
+                    And lead oblivion into day?
+                                        Langhorne.
+
+"Most readers," says the Manuscript of Mr Pattieson, "must have witnessed
+with delight the joyous burst which attends the dismissing of a
+village-school on a fine summer evening. The buoyant spirit of childhood,
+repressed with so much difficulty during the tedious hours of discipline,
+may then be seen to explode, as it were, in shout, and song, and frolic,
+as the little urchins join in groups on their play-ground, and arrange
+their matches of sport for the evening. But there is one individual who
+partakes of the relief afforded by the moment of dismission, whose
+feelings are not so obvious to the eye of the spectator, or so apt to
+receive his sympathy. I mean the teacher himself, who, stunned with the
+hum, and suffocated with the closeness of his school-room, has spent the
+whole day (himself against a host) in controlling petulance, exciting
+indifference to action, striving to enlighten stupidity, and labouring to
+soften obstinacy; and whose very powers of intellect have been confounded
+by hearing the same dull lesson repeated a hundred times by rote, and
+only varied by the various blunders of the reciters. Even the flowers of
+classic genius, with which his solitary fancy is most gratified, have
+been rendered degraded, in his imagination, by their connexion with
+tears, with errors, and with punishment; so that the Eclogues of Virgil
+and Odes of Horace are each inseparably allied in association with the
+sullen figure and monotonous recitation of some blubbering school-boy. If
+to these mental distresses are added a delicate frame of body, and a mind
+ambitious of some higher distinction than that of being the tyrant of
+childhood, the reader may have some slight conception of the relief which
+a solitary walk, in the cool of a fine summer evening, affords to the
+head which has ached, and the nerves which have been shattered, for so
+many hours, in plying the irksome task of public instruction.
+
+"To me these evening strolls have been the happiest hours of an unhappy
+life; and if any gentle reader shall hereafter find pleasure in perusing
+these lucubrations, I am not unwilling he should know, that the plan of
+them has been usually traced in those moments, when relief from toil and
+clamour, combined with the quiet scenery around me, has disposed my mind
+to the task of composition.
+
+"My chief haunt, in these hours of golden leisure, is the banks of the
+small stream, which, winding through a 'lone vale of green bracken,'
+passes in front of the village school-house of Gandercleugh. For the
+first quarter of a mile, perhaps, I may be disturbed from my meditations,
+in order to return the scrape, or doffed bonnet, of such stragglers among
+my pupils as fish for trouts or minnows in the little brook, or seek
+rushes and wild-flowers by its margin. But, beyond the space I have
+mentioned, the juvenile anglers do not, after sunset, voluntarily extend
+their excursions. The cause is, that farther up the narrow valley, and in
+a recess which seems scooped out of the side of the steep heathy bank,
+there is a deserted burial-ground, which the little cowards are fearful
+of approaching in the twilight. To me, however, the place has an
+inexpressible charm. It has been long the favourite termination of my
+walks, and, if my kind patron forgets not his promise, will (and probably
+at no very distant day) be my final resting-place after my mortal
+pilgrimage. [Note: Note, by Mr Jedediah Cleishbotham.--That I kept my
+plight in this melancholy matter with my deceased and lamented friend,
+appeareth from a handsome headstone, erected at my proper charges in this
+spot, bearing the name and calling of Peter Pattieson, with the date of
+his nativity and sepulture; together also with a testimony of his merits,
+attested by myself, as his superior and patron.--J. C.]
+
+"It is a spot which possesses all the solemnity of feeling attached to a
+burial-ground, without exciting those of a more unpleasing description.
+Having been very little used for many years, the few hillocks which rise
+above the level plain are covered with the same short velvet turf. The
+monuments, of which there are not above seven or eight, are half sunk in
+the ground, and overgrown with moss. No newly-erected tomb disturbs the
+sober serenity of our reflections by reminding us of recent calamity, and
+no rank-springing grass forces upon our imagination the recollection,
+that it owes its dark luxuriance to the foul and festering remnants of
+mortality which ferment beneath. The daisy which sprinkles the sod, and
+the harebell which hangs over it, derive their pure nourishment from the
+dew of heaven, and their growth impresses us with no degrading or
+disgusting recollections. Death has indeed been here, and its traces are
+before us; but they are softened and deprived of their horror by our
+distance from the period when they have been first impressed. Those who
+sleep beneath are only connected with us by the reflection, that they
+have once been what we now are, and that, as their relics are now
+identified with their mother earth, ours shall, at some future period,
+undergo the same transformation.
+
+"Yet, although the moss has been collected on the most modern of these
+humble tombs during four generations of mankind, the memory of some of
+those who sleep beneath them is still held in reverent remembrance. It is
+true, that, upon the largest, and, to an antiquary, the most interesting
+monument of the group, which bears the effigies of a doughty knight in
+his hood of mail, with his shield hanging on his breast, the armorial
+bearings are defaced by time, and a few worn-out letters may be read at
+the pleasure of the decipherer, Dns. Johan--de Hamel,--or Johan--de
+Lamel--And it is also true, that of another tomb, richly sculptured with
+an ornamental cross, mitre, and pastoral staff, tradition can only aver,
+that a certain nameless bishop lies interred there. But upon other two
+stones which lie beside, may still be read in rude prose, and ruder
+rhyme, the history of those who sleep beneath them. They belong, we are
+assured by the epitaph, to the class of persecuted Presbyterians who
+afforded a melancholy subject for history in the times of Charles II. and
+his successor. [Note: James, Seventh King of Scotland of that name, and
+Second according to the numeration of the Kings of England.--J. C.] In
+returning from the battle of Pentland Hills, a party of the insurgents
+had been attacked in this glen by a small detachment of the King's
+troops, and three or four either killed in the skirmish, or shot after
+being made prisoners, as rebels taken with arms in their hands. The
+peasantry continued to attach to the tombs of those victims of prelacy an
+honour which they do not render to more splendid mausoleums; and, when
+they point them out to their sons, and narrate the fate of the sufferers,
+usually conclude, by exhorting them to be ready, should times call for
+it, to resist to the death in the cause of civil and religious liberty,
+like their brave forefathers.
+
+"Although I am far from venerating the peculiar tenets asserted by those
+who call themselves the followers of those men, and whose intolerance and
+narrow-minded bigotry are at least as conspicuous as their devotional
+zeal, yet it is without depreciating the memory of those sufferers, many
+of whom united the independent sentiments of a Hampden with the suffering
+zeal of a Hooper or Latimer. On the other hand, it would be unjust to
+forget, that many even of those who had been most active in crushing what
+they conceived the rebellious and seditious spirit of those unhappy
+wanderers, displayed themselves, when called upon to suffer for their
+political and religious opinions, the same daring and devoted zeal,
+tinctured, in their case, with chivalrous loyalty, as in the former with
+republican enthusiasm. It has often been remarked of the Scottish
+character, that the stubbornness with which it is moulded shows most to
+advantage in adversity, when it seems akin to the native sycamore of
+their hills, which scorns to be biassed in its mode of growth even by the
+influence of the prevailing wind, but, shooting its branches with equal
+boldness in every direction, shows no weather-side to the storm, and may
+be broken, but can never be bended. It must be understood that I speak of
+my countrymen as they fall under my own observation. When in foreign
+countries, I have been informed that they are more docile. But it is time
+to return from this digression.
+
+"One summer evening, as in a stroll, such as I have described, I
+approached this deserted mansion of the dead, I was somewhat surprised to
+hear sounds distinct from those which usually soothe its solitude, the
+gentle chiding, namely, of the brook, and the sighing of the wind in the
+boughs of three gigantic ash-trees, which mark the cemetery. The clink of
+a hammer was, on this occasion, distinctly heard; and I entertained some
+alarm that a march-dike, long meditated by the two proprietors whose
+estates were divided by my favourite brook, was about to be drawn up the
+glen, in order to substitute its rectilinear deformity for the graceful
+winding of the natural boundary. [Note: I deem it fitting that the reader
+should be apprised that this limitary boundary between the conterminous
+heritable property of his honour the Laird of Gandercleugh, and his
+honour the Laird of Gusedub, was to have been in fashion an agger, or
+rather murus of uncemented granite, called by the vulgar a drystane dyke,
+surmounted, or coped, /cespite viridi/, i.e. with a sodturf. Truly their
+honours fell into discord concerning two roods of marshy ground, near the
+cove called the Bedral's Beild; and the controversy, having some years
+bygone been removed from before the judges of the land, (with whom it
+abode long,) even unto the Great City of London and the Assembly of the
+Nobles therein, is, as I may say, adhuc in pendente.--J. C.] As I
+approached, I was agreeably undeceived. An old man was seated upon the
+monument of the slaughtered presbyterians, and busily employed in
+deepening, with his chisel, the letters of the inscription, which,
+announcing, in scriptural language, the promised blessings of futurity to
+be the lot of the slain, anathematized the murderers with corresponding
+violence. A blue bonnet of unusual dimensions covered the grey hairs of
+the pious workman. His dress was a large old-fashioned coat of the coarse
+cloth called hoddingrey, usually worn by the elder peasants, with
+waistcoat and breeches of the same; and the whole suit, though still in
+decent repair, had obviously seen a train of long service. Strong clouted
+shoes, studded with hobnails, and gramoches or leggins, made of thick
+black cloth, completed his equipment. Beside him, fed among the graves a
+pony, the companion of his journey, whose extreme whiteness, as well as
+its projecting bones and hollow eyes, indicated its antiquity. It was
+harnessed in the most simple manner, with a pair of branks, a hair
+tether, or halter, and a sunk, or cushion of straw, instead of bridle and
+saddle. A canvass pouch hung around the neck of the animal, for the
+purpose, probably, of containing the rider's tools, and any thing else he
+might have occasion to carry with him. Although I had never seen the old
+man before, yet from the singularity of his employment, and the style of
+his equipage, I had no difficulty in recognising a religious itinerant
+whom I had often heard talked of, and who was known in various parts of
+Scotland by the title of Old Mortality.
+
+"Where this man was born, or what was his real name, I have never been
+able to learn; nor are the motives which made him desert his home, and
+adopt the erratic mode of life which he pursued, known to me except very
+generally. According to the belief of most people, he was a native of
+either the county of Dumfries or Galloway, and lineally descended from
+some of those champions of the Covenant, whose deeds and sufferings were
+his favourite theme. He is said to have held, at one period of his life,
+a small moorland farm; but, whether from pecuniary losses, or domestic
+misfortune, he had long renounced that and every other gainful calling.
+In the language of Scripture, he left his house, his home, and his
+kindred, and wandered about until the day of his death, a period of
+nearly thirty years.
+
+"During this long pilgrimage, the pious enthusiast regulated his circuit
+so as annually to visit the graves of the unfortunate Covenanters, who
+suffered by the sword, or by the executioner, during the reigns of the
+two last monarchs of the Stewart line. These are most numerous in the
+western districts of Ayr, Galloway, and Dumfries; but they are also to be
+found in other parts of Scotland, wherever the fugitives had fought, or
+fallen, or suffered by military or civil execution. Their tombs are often
+apart from all human habitation, in the remote moors and wilds to which
+the wanderers had fled for concealment. But wherever they existed, Old
+Mortality was sure to visit them when his annual round brought them
+within his reach. In the most lonely recesses of the mountains, the
+moor-fowl shooter has been often surprised to find him busied in cleaning
+the moss from the grey stones, renewing with his chisel the half-defaced
+inscriptions, and repairing the emblems of death with which these simple
+monuments are usually adorned. Motives of the most sincere, though
+fanciful devotion, induced the old man to dedicate so many years of
+existence to perform this tribute to the memory of the deceased warriors
+of the church. He considered himself as fulfilling a sacred duty, while
+renewing to the eyes of posterity the decaying emblems of the zeal and
+sufferings of their forefathers, and thereby trimming, as it were, the
+beacon-light, which was to warn future generations to defend their
+religion even unto blood.
+
+"In all his wanderings, the old pilgrim never seemed to need, or was
+known to accept, pecuniary assistance. It is true, his wants were very
+few; for wherever he went, he found ready quarters in the house of some
+Cameronian of his own sect, or of some other religious person. The
+hospitality which was reverentially paid to him he always acknowledged,
+by repairing the gravestones (if there existed any) belonging to the
+family or ancestors of his host. As the wanderer was usually to be seen
+bent on this pious task within the precincts of some country churchyard,
+or reclined on the solitary tombstone among the heath, disturbing the
+plover and the black-cock with the clink of his chisel and mallet, with
+his old white pony grazing by his side, he acquired, from his converse
+among the dead, the popular appellation of Old Mortality.
+
+"The character of such a man could have in it little connexion even with
+innocent gaiety. Yet, among those of his own religious persuasion, he is
+reported to have been cheerful. The descendants of persecutors, or those
+whom he supposed guilty of entertaining similar tenets, and the scoffers
+at religion by whom he was sometimes assailed, he usually termed the
+generation of vipers. Conversing with others, he was grave and
+sententious, not without a cast of severity. But he is said never to have
+been observed to give way to violent passion, excepting upon one
+occasion, when a mischievous truant-boy defaced with a stone the nose of
+a cherub's face, which the old man was engaged in retouching. I am in
+general a sparer of the rod, notwithstanding the maxim of Solomon, for
+which school-boys have little reason to thank his memory; but on this
+occasion I deemed it proper to show that I did not hate the child.--But I
+must return to the circumstances attending my first interview with this
+interesting enthusiast.
+
+"In accosting Old Mortality, I did not fail to pay respect to his years
+and his principles, beginning my address by a respectful apology for
+interrupting his labours. The old man intermitted the operation of the
+chisel, took off his spectacles and wiped them, then, replacing them on
+his nose, acknowledged my courtesy by a suitable return. Encouraged by
+his affability, I intruded upon him some questions concerning the
+sufferers on whose monument he was now employed. To talk of the exploits
+of the Covenanters was the delight, as to repair their monuments was the
+business, of his life. He was profuse in the communication of all the
+minute information which he had collected concerning them, their wars,
+and their wanderings. One would almost have supposed he must have been
+their contemporary, and have actually beheld the passages which he
+related, so much had he identified his feelings and opinions with theirs,
+and so much had his narratives the circumstantiality of an eye-witness.
+
+"'We,' he said, in a tone of exultation,--'we are the only true whigs.
+Carnal men have assumed that triumphant appellation, following him whose
+kingdom is of this world. Which of them would sit six hours on a wet
+hill-side to hear a godly sermon? I trow an hour o't wad staw them. They
+are ne'er a hair better than them that shamena to take upon themsells the
+persecuting name of bludethirsty tories. Self-seekers all of them,
+strivers after wealth, power, and worldly ambition, and forgetters alike
+of what has been dree'd and done by the mighty men who stood in the gap
+in the great day of wrath. Nae wonder they dread the accomplishment of
+what was spoken by the mouth of the worthy Mr Peden, (that precious
+servant of the Lord, none of whose words fell to the ground,) that the
+French monzies [Note: Probably monsieurs. It would seem that this was
+spoken during the apprehensions of invason from France.--Publishers.]
+sall rise as fast in the glens of Ayr, and the kenns of Galloway, as ever
+the Highlandmen did in 1677. And now they are gripping to the bow and to
+the spear, when they suld be mourning for a sinfu' land and a broken
+covenant.'
+
+"Soothing the old man by letting his peculiar opinions pass without
+contradiction, and anxious to prolong conversation with so singular a
+character, I prevailed upon him to accept that hospitality, which Mr
+Cleishbotham is always willing to extend to those who need it. In our way
+to the schoolmaster's house, we called at the Wallace Inn, where I was
+pretty certain I should find my patron about that hour of the evening.
+After a courteous interchange of civilities, Old Mortality was, with
+difficulty, prevailed upon to join his host in a single glass of liquor,
+and that on condition that he should be permitted to name the pledge,
+which he prefaced with a grace of about five minutes, and then, with
+bonnet doffed and eyes uplifted, drank to the memory of those heroes of
+the Kirk who had first uplifted her banner upon the mountains. As no
+persuasion could prevail on him to extend his conviviality to a second
+cup, my patron accompanied him home, and accommodated him in the
+Prophet's Chamber, as it is his pleasure to call the closet which holds a
+spare bed, and which is frequently a place of retreat for the poor
+traveller. [Note: He might have added, and for the rich also; since, I
+laud my stars, the great of the earth have also taken harbourage in my
+poor domicile. And, during the service of my hand-maiden, Dorothy, who
+was buxom and comely of aspect, his Honour the Laird of Smackawa, in his
+peregrinations to and from the metropolis, was wont to prefer my
+Prophet's Chamber even to the sanded chamber of dais in the Wallace Inn,
+and to bestow a mutchkin, as he would jocosely say, to obtain the freedom
+of the house, but, in reality, to assure himself of my company during the
+evening.--J. C.]
+
+"The next day I took leave of Old Mortality, who seemed affected by the
+unusual attention with which I had cultivated his acquaintance and
+listened to his conversation. After he had mounted, not without
+difficulty, the old white pony, he took me by the hand and said, 'The
+blessing of our Master be with you, young man! My hours are like the ears
+of the latter harvest, and your days are yet in the spring; and yet you
+may be gathered into the garner of mortality before me, for the sickle of
+death cuts down the green as oft as the ripe, and there is a colour in
+your cheek, that, like the bud of the rose, serveth oft to hide the worm
+of corruption. Wherefore labour as one who knoweth not when his master
+calleth. And if it be my lot to return to this village after ye are gane
+hame to your ain place, these auld withered hands will frame a stane of
+memorial, that your name may not perish from among the people.'
+
+"I thanked Old Mortality for his kind intentions in my behalf, and heaved
+a sigh, not, I think, of regret so much as of resignation, to think of
+the chance that I might soon require his good offices. But though, in all
+human probability, he did not err in supposing that my span of life may
+be abridged in youth, he had over-estimated the period of his own
+pilgrimage on earth. It is now some years since he has been missed in all
+his usual haunts, while moss, lichen, and deer-hair, are fast covering
+those stones, to cleanse which had been the business of his life. About
+the beginning of this century he closed his mortal toils, being found on
+the highway near Lockerby, in Dumfries-shire, exhausted and just
+expiring. The old white pony, the companion of all his wanderings, was
+standing by the side of his dying master. There was found about his
+person a sum of money sufficient for his decent interment, which serves
+to show that his death was in no ways hastened by violence or by want.
+The common people still regard his memory with great respect; and many
+are of opinion, that the stones which he repaired will not again require
+the assistance of the chisel. They even assert, that on the tombs where
+the manner of the martyrs' murder is recorded, their names have remained
+indelibly legible since the death of Old Mortality, while those of the
+persecutors, sculptured on the same monuments, have been entirely
+defaced. It is hardly necessary to say that this is a fond imagination,
+and that, since the time of the pious pilgrim, the monuments which were
+the objects of his care are hastening, like all earthly memorials, into
+ruin or decay.
+
+"My readers will of course understand, that in embodying into one
+compressed narrative many of the anecdotes which I had the advantage of
+deriving from Old Mortality, I have been far from adopting either his
+style, his opinions, or even his facts, so far as they appear to have
+been distorted by party prejudice. I have endeavoured to correct or
+verify them from the most authentic sources of tradition, afforded by the
+representatives of either party.
+
+"On the part of the Presbyterians, I have consulted such moorland farmers
+from the western districts, as, by the kindness of their landlords, or
+otherwise, have been able, during the late general change of property, to
+retain possession of the grazings on which their grandsires fed their
+flocks and herds. I must own, that of late days, I have found this a
+limited source of information. I have, therefore, called in the
+supplementary aid of those modest itinerants, whom the scrupulous
+civility of our ancestors denominated travelling merchants, but whom, of
+late, accommodating ourselves in this as in more material particulars, to
+the feelings and sentiments of our more wealthy neighbours, we have
+learned to call packmen or pedlars. To country weavers travelling in
+hopes to get rid of their winter web, but more especially to tailors,
+who, from their sedentary profession, and the necessity, in our country,
+of exercising it by temporary residence in the families by whom they are
+employed, may be considered as possessing a complete register of rural
+traditions, I have been indebted for many illustrations of the narratives
+of Old Mortality, much in the taste and spirit of the original.
+
+"I had more difficulty in finding materials for correcting the tone of
+partiality which evidently pervaded those stores of traditional learning,
+in order that I might be enabled to present an unbiassed picture of the
+manners of that unhappy period, and, at the same time, to do justice to
+the merits of both parties. But I have been enabled to qualify the
+narratives of Old Mortality and his Cameronian friends, by the reports of
+more than one descendant of ancient and honourable families, who,
+themselves decayed into the humble vale of life, yet look proudly back on
+the period when their ancestors fought and fell in behalf of the exiled
+house of Stewart. I may even boast right reverend authority on the same
+score; for more than one nonjuring bishop, whose authority and income
+were upon as apostolical a scale as the greatest abominator of Episcopacy
+could well desire, have deigned, while partaking of the humble cheer of
+the Wallace Inn, to furnish me with information corrective of the facts
+which I learned from others. There are also here and there a laird or
+two, who, though they shrug their shoulders, profess no great shame in
+their fathers having served in the persecuting squadrons of Earlshall and
+Claverhouse. From the gamekeepers of these gentlemen, an office the most
+apt of any other to become hereditary in such families, I have also
+contrived to collect much valuable information.
+
+"Upon the whole, I can hardly fear, that, at this time, in describing the
+operation which their opposite principles produced upon the good and bad
+men of both parties, I can be suspected of meaning insult or injustice to
+either. If recollection of former injuries, extra-loyalty, and contempt
+and hatred of their adversaries, produced rigour and tyranny in the one
+party, it will hardly be denied, on the other hand, that, if the zeal for
+God's house did not eat up the conventiclers, it devoured at least, to
+imitate the phrase of Dryden, no small portion of their loyalty, sober
+sense, and good breeding. We may safely hope, that the souls of the brave
+and sincere on either side have long looked down with surprise and pity
+upon the ill-appreciated motives which caused their mutual hatred and
+hostility, while in this valley of darkness, blood, and tears. Peace to
+their memory! Let us think of them as the heroine of our only Scottish
+tragedy entreats her lord to think of her departed sire:--
+
+               'O rake not up the ashes of our fathers!
+               Implacable resentment was their crime,
+               And grievous has the expiation been.'"
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER II.
+
+               Summon an hundred horse, by break of day,
+               To wait our pleasure at the castle gates.
+                                                  Douglas.
+
+Under the reign of the last Stewarts, there was an anxious wish on the
+part of government to counteract, by every means in their power, the
+strict or puritanical spirit which had been the chief characteristic of
+the republican government, and to revive those feudal institutions which
+united the vassal to the liege lord, and both to the crown. Frequent
+musters and assemblies of the people, both for military exercise and for
+sports and pastimes, were appointed by authority. The interference, in
+the latter case, was impolitic, to say the least; for, as usual on such
+occasions, the consciences which were at first only scrupulous, became
+confirmed in their opinions, instead of giving way to the terrors of
+authority; and the youth of both sexes, to whom the pipe and tabor in
+England, or the bagpipe in Scotland, would have been in themselves an
+irresistible temptation, were enabled to set them at defiance, from the
+proud consciousness that they were, at the same time, resisting an act of
+council. To compel men to dance and be merry by authority, has rarely
+succeeded even on board of slave-ships, where it was formerly sometimes
+attempted by way of inducing the wretched captives to agitate their limbs
+and restore the circulation, during the few minutes they were permitted
+to enjoy the fresh air upon deck. The rigour of the strict Calvinists
+increased, in proportion to the wishes of the government that it should
+be relaxed. A judaical observance of the Sabbath--a supercilious
+condemnation of all manly pastimes and harmless recreations, as well as
+of the profane custom of promiscuous dancing, that is, of men and women
+dancing together in the same party (for I believe they admitted that the
+exercise might be inoffensive if practised by the parties separately)--
+distinguishing those who professed a more than ordinary share of
+sanctity, they discouraged, as far as lay in their power, even the
+ancient wappen-schaws, as they were termed, when the feudal array of the
+county was called out, and each crown-vassal was required to appear with
+such muster of men and armour as he was bound to make by his fief, and
+that under high statutory penalties. The Covenanters were the more
+jealous of those assemblies, as the lord lieutenants and sheriffs under
+whom they were held had instructions from the government to spare no
+pains which might render them agreeable to the young men who were thus
+summoned together, upon whom the military exercise of the morning, and
+the sports which usually closed the evening, might naturally be supposed
+to have a seductive effect.
+
+The preachers and proselytes of the more rigid presbyterians laboured,
+therefore, by caution, remonstrance, and authority, to diminish the
+attendance upon these summonses, conscious that in doing so, they
+lessened not only the apparent, but the actual strength of the
+government, by impeding the extension of that esprit de corps which soon
+unites young men who are in the habit of meeting together for manly
+sport, or military exercise. They, therefore, exerted themselves
+earnestly to prevent attendance on these occasions by those who could
+find any possible excuse for absence, and were especially severe upon
+such of their hearers as mere curiosity led to be spectators, or love of
+exercise to be partakers, of the array and the sports which took place.
+Such of the gentry as acceded to these doctrines were not always,
+however, in a situation to be ruled by them. The commands of the law were
+imperative; and the privy council, who administered the executive power
+in Scotland, were severe in enforcing the statutory penalties against the
+crown-vassals who did not appear at the periodical wappen-schaw. The
+landholders were compelled, therefore, to send their sons, tenants, and
+vassals to the rendezvous, to the number of horses, men, and spears, at
+which they were rated; and it frequently happened, that notwithstanding
+the strict charge of their elders, to return as soon as the formal
+inspection was over, the young men-at-arms were unable to resist the
+temptation of sharing in the sports which succeeded the muster, or to
+avoid listening to the prayers read in the churches on these occasions,
+and thus, in the opinion of their repining parents, meddling with the
+accursed thing which is an abomination in the sight of the Lord.
+
+The sheriff of the county of Lanark was holding the wappen-schaw of a
+wild district, called the Upper Ward of Clydesdale, on a haugh or level
+plain, near to a royal borough, the name of which is no way essential to
+my story, on the morning of the 5th of May, 1679, when our narrative
+commences. When the musters had been made, and duly reported, the young
+men, as was usual, were to mix in various sports, of which the chief was
+to shoot at the popinjay, an ancient game formerly practised with
+archery, but at this period with fire-arms.
+
+     [Note: Festival of the Popinjay. The Festival of the Popinjay is
+     still, I believe, practised at Maybole, in Ayrshire. The following
+     passage in the history of the Somerville family, suggested the
+     scenes in the text. The author of that curious manuscript thus
+     celebrates his father's demeanour at such an assembly.
+
+     "Having now passed his infancie, in the tenth year of his age, he
+     was by his grandfather putt to the grammar school, ther being then
+     att the toune of Delserf a very able master that taught the grammar,
+     and fitted boyes for the colledge. Dureing his educating in this
+     place, they had then a custome every year to solemnize the first
+     Sunday of May with danceing about a May-pole, fyreing of pieces, and
+     all manner of ravelling then in use. Ther being at that tyme feu or
+     noe merchants in this pettie village, to furnish necessaries for the
+     schollars sports, this youth resolves to provide himself elsewhere,
+     so that he may appear with the bravest. In order to this, by break
+     of day he ryses and goes to Hamiltoune, and there bestowes all the
+     money that for a long tyme before he had gotten from his freinds, or
+     had otherwayes purchased, upon ribbones of diverse coloures, a new
+     hatt and gloves. But in nothing he bestowed his money more
+     liberallie than upon gunpowder, a great quantitie whereof he buyes
+     for his owne use, and to supplie the wantes of his comerades; thus
+     furnished with these commodities, but ane empty purse, he returnes
+     to Delserf by seven a clock, (haveing travelled that Sabbath morning
+     above eight myles,) puttes on his cloathes and new hatt, flying with
+     ribbones of all culloures; and in this equipage, with his little
+     phizie (fusee) upon his shoulder, he marches to the church yaird,
+     where the May-pole was sett up, and the solemnitie of that day was
+     to be kept. There first at the foot-ball he equalled any one that
+     played; but in handleing his piece, in chargeing and dischargeing,
+     he was so ready, and shott so near the marke, that he farre
+     surpassed all his fellow schollars, and became a teacher of that art
+     to them before the thretteenth year of his oune age. And really, I
+     have often admired his dexterity in this, both at the exercizeing of
+     his soulders, and when for recreatione. I have gone to the gunning
+     with him when I was but a stripeling myself; and albeit that
+     passetyme was the exercize I delighted most in, yet could I never
+     attaine to any perfectione comparable to him. This dayes sport being
+     over, he had the applause of all the spectatores, the kyndnesse of
+     his fellow-condisciples, and the favour of the whole inhabitants of
+     that little village."]
+
+This was the figure of a bird, decked with party-coloured feathers, so as
+to resemble a popinjay or parrot. It was suspended to a pole, and served
+for a mark, at which the competitors discharged their fusees and
+carabines in rotation, at the distance of sixty or seventy paces. He
+whose ball brought down the mark, held the proud title of Captain of the
+Popinjay for the remainder of the day, and was usually escorted in
+triumph to the most reputable change-house in the neighbourhood, where
+the evening was closed with conviviality, conducted under his auspices,
+and, if he was able to sustain it, at his expense.
+
+It will, of course, be supposed, that the ladies of the country assembled
+to witness this gallant strife, those excepted who held the stricter
+tenets of puritanism, and would therefore have deemed it criminal to
+afford countenance to the profane gambols of the malignants. Landaus,
+barouches, or tilburies, there were none in those simple days. The lord
+lieutenant of the county (a personage of ducal rank) alone pretended to
+the magnificence of a wheel-carriage, a thing covered with tarnished
+gilding and sculpture, in shape like the vulgar picture of Noah's ark,
+dragged by eight long-tailed Flanders mares, bearing eight insides and
+six outsides. The insides were their graces in person, two maids of
+honour, two children, a chaplain stuffed into a sort of lateral recess,
+formed by a projection at the door of the vehicle, and called, from its
+appearance, the boot, and an equerry to his Grace ensconced in the
+corresponding convenience on the opposite side. A coachman and three
+postilions, who wore short swords, and tie-wigs with three tails, had
+blunderbusses slung behind them, and pistols at their saddle-bow,
+conducted the equipage. On the foot-board, behind this moving
+mansion-house, stood, or rather hung, in triple file, six lacqueys in
+rich liveries, armed up to the teeth. The rest of the gentry, men and
+women, old and young, were on horseback followed by their servants; but
+the company, for the reasons already assigned, was rather select than
+numerous.
+
+Near to the enormous leathern vehicle which we have attempted to
+describe, vindicating her title to precedence over the untitled gentry of
+the country, might be seen the sober palfrey of Lady Margaret Bellenden,
+bearing the erect and primitive form of Lady Margaret herself, decked in
+those widow's weeds which the good lady had never laid aside, since the
+execution of her husband for his adherence to Montrose.
+
+Her grand-daughter, and only earthly care, the fair-haired Edith, who was
+generally allowed to be the prettiest lass in the Upper Ward, appeared
+beside her aged relative like Spring placed close to Winter. Her black
+Spanish jennet, which she managed with much grace, her gay riding-dress,
+and laced side-saddle, had been anxiously prepared to set her forth to
+the best advantage. But the clustering profusion of ringlets, which,
+escaping from under her cap, were only confined by a green ribbon from
+wantoning over her shoulders; her cast of features, soft and feminine,
+yet not without a certain expression of playful archness, which redeemed
+their sweetness from the charge of insipidity, sometimes brought against
+blondes and blue-eyed beauties,--these attracted more admiration from the
+western youth than either the splendour of her equipments or the figure
+of her palfrey.
+
+The attendance of these distinguished ladies was rather inferior to their
+birth and fashion in those times, as it consisted only of two servants on
+horseback. The truth was, that the good old lady had been obliged to make
+all her domestic servants turn out to complete the quota which her barony
+ought to furnish for the muster, and in which she would not for the
+universe have been found deficient. The old steward, who, in steel cap
+and jack-boots, led forth her array, had, as he said, sweated blood and
+water in his efforts to overcome the scruples and evasions of the
+moorland farmers, who ought to have furnished men, horse, and harness, on
+these occasions. At last, their dispute came near to an open declaration
+of hostilities, the incensed episcopalian bestowing on the recusants the
+whole thunders of the commination, and receiving from them, in return,
+the denunciations of a Calvinistic excommunication. What was to be done?
+To punish the refractory tenants would have been easy enough. The privy
+council would readily have imposed fines, and sent a troop of horse to
+collect them. But this would have been calling the huntsman and hounds
+into the garden to kill the hare.
+
+"For," said Harrison to himself, "the carles have little eneugh gear at
+ony rate, and if I call in the red-coats and take away what little they
+have, how is my worshipful lady to get her rents paid at Candlemas, which
+is but a difficult matter to bring round even in the best of times?"
+
+So he armed the fowler, and falconer, the footman, and the ploughman, at
+the home farm, with an old drunken cavaliering butler, who had served
+with the late Sir Richard under Montrose, and stunned the family nightly
+with his exploits at Kilsythe and Tippermoor, and who was the only man in
+the party that had the smallest zeal for the work in hand. In this
+manner, and by recruiting one or two latitudinarian poachers and
+black-fishers, Mr Harrison completed the quota of men which fell to the
+share of Lady Margaret Bellenden, as life-rentrix of the barony of
+Tillietudlem and others. But when the steward, on the morning of the
+eventful day, had mustered his /troupe dore/ before the iron gate of the
+tower, the mother of Cuddie Headrigg the ploughman appeared, loaded with
+the jackboots, buff coat, and other accoutrements which had been issued
+forth for the service of the day, and laid them before the steward;
+demurely assuring him, that "whether it were the colic, or a qualm of
+conscience, she couldna tak upon her to decide, but sure it was, Cuddie
+had been in sair straits a' night, and she couldna say he was muckle
+better this morning. The finger of Heaven," she said, "was in it, and her
+bairn should gang on nae sic errands." Pains, penalties, and threats of
+dismission, were denounced in vain; the mother was obstinate, and Cuddie,
+who underwent a domiciliary visitation for the purpose of verifying his
+state of body, could, or would, answer only by deep groans. Mause, who
+had been an ancient domestic in the family, was a sort of favourite with
+Lady Margaret, and presumed accordingly. Lady Margaret had herself set
+forth, and her authority could not be appealed to. In this dilemma, the
+good genius of the old butler suggested an expedient.
+
+"He had seen mony a braw callant, far less than Guse Gibbie, fight brawly
+under Montrose. What for no tak Guse Gibbie?"
+
+This was a half-witted lad, of very small stature, who had a kind of
+charge of the poultry under the old henwife; for in a Scottish family of
+that day there was a wonderful substitution of labour. This urchin being
+sent for from the stubble-field, was hastily muffled in the buff coat,
+and girded rather to than with the sword of a full-grown man, his little
+legs plunged into jack-boots, and a steel cap put upon his head, which
+seemed, from its size, as if it had been intended to extinguish him. Thus
+accoutred, he was hoisted, at his own earnest request, upon the quietest
+horse of the party; and, prompted and supported by old Gudyill the
+butler, as his front file, he passed muster tolerably enough; the sheriff
+not caring to examine too closely the recruits of so well-affected a
+person as Lady Margaret Bellenden.
+
+To the above cause it was owing that the personal retinue of Lady
+Margaret, on this eventful day, amounted only to two lacqueys, with which
+diminished train she would, on any other occasion, have been much ashamed
+to appear in public. But, for the cause of royalty, she was ready at any
+time to have made the most unreserved personal sacrifices. She had lost
+her husband and two promising sons in the civil wars of that unhappy
+period; but she had received her reward, for, on his route through the
+west of Scotland to meet Cromwell in the unfortunate field of Worcester,
+Charles the Second had actually breakfasted at the Tower of Tillietudlem;
+an incident which formed, from that moment, an important era in the life
+of Lady Margaret, who seldom afterwards partook of that meal, either at
+home or abroad, without detailing the whole circumstances of the royal
+visit, not forgetting the salutation which his majesty conferred on each
+side of her face, though she sometimes omitted to notice that he bestowed
+the same favour on two buxom serving-wenches who appeared at her back,
+elevated for the day into the capacity of waiting gentlewomen.
+
+These instances of royal favour were decisive; and if Lady Margaret had
+not been a confirmed royalist already, from sense of high birth,
+influence of education, and hatred to the opposite party, through whom
+she had suffered such domestic calamity, the having given a breakfast to
+majesty, and received the royal salute in return, were honours enough of
+themselves to unite her exclusively to the fortunes of the Stewarts.
+These were now, in all appearance, triumphant; but Lady Margaret's zeal
+had adhered to them through the worst of times, and was ready to sustain
+the same severities of fortune should their scale once more kick the
+beam. At present she enjoyed, in full extent, the military display of the
+force which stood ready to support the crown, and stifled, as well as she
+could, the mortification she felt at the unworthy desertion of her own
+retainers.
+
+Many civilities passed between her ladyship and the representatives of
+sundry ancient loyal families who were upon the ground, by whom she was
+held in high reverence; and not a young man of rank passed by them in the
+course of the muster, but he carried his body more erect in the saddle,
+and threw his horse upon its haunches, to display his own horsemanship
+and the perfect bitting of his steed to the best advantage in the eyes of
+Miss Edith Bellenden. But the young cavaliers, distinguished by high
+descent and undoubted loyalty, attracted no more attention from Edith
+than the laws of courtesy peremptorily demanded; and she turned an
+indifferent ear to the compliments with which she was addressed, most of
+which were little the worse for the wear, though borrowed for the nonce
+from the laborious and long-winded romances of Calprenede and Scuderi,
+the mirrors in which the youth of that age delighted to dress themselves,
+ere Folly had thrown her ballast overboard, and cut down her vessels of
+the first-rate, such as the romances of Cyrus, Cleopatra, and others,
+into small craft, drawing as little water, or, to speak more plainly,
+consuming as little time as the little cockboat in which the gentle
+reader has deigned to embark. It was, however, the decree of fate that
+Miss Bellenden should not continue to evince the same equanimity till the
+conclusion of the day.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER III.
+
+               Horseman and horse confess'd the bitter pang,
+               And arms and warrior fell with heavy clang.
+                                             Pleasures of Hope.
+
+When the military evolutions had been gone through tolerably well,
+allowing for the awkwardness of men and of horses, a loud shout announced
+that the competitors were about to step forth for the game of the
+popinjay already described. The mast, or pole, having a yard extended
+across it, from which the mark was displayed, was raised amid the
+acclamations of the assembly; and even those who had eyed the evolutions
+of the feudal militia with a sort of malignant and sarcastic sneer, from
+disinclination to the royal cause in which they were professedly
+embodied, could not refrain from taking considerable interest in the
+strife which was now approaching. They crowded towards the goal, and
+criticized the appearance of each competitor, as they advanced in
+succession, discharged their pieces at the mark, and had their good or
+bad address rewarded by the laughter or applause of the spectators. But
+when a slender young man, dressed with great simplicity, yet not without
+a certain air of pretension to elegance and gentility, approached the
+station with his fusee in his hand, his dark-green cloak thrown back over
+his shoulder, his laced ruff and feathered cap indicating a superior rank
+to the vulgar, there was a murmur of interest among the spectators,
+whether altogether favourable to the young adventurer, it was difficult
+to discover.
+
+"Ewhow, sirs, to see his father's son at the like o' thae fearless
+follies!" was the ejaculation of the elder and more rigid puritans, whose
+curiosity had so far overcome their bigotry as to bring them to the
+play-ground. But the generality viewed the strife less morosely, and were
+contented to wish success to the son of a deceased presbyterian leader,
+without strictly examining the propriety of his being a competitor for
+the prize.
+
+Their wishes were gratified. At the first discharge of his piece the
+green adventurer struck the popinjay, being the first palpable hit of the
+day, though several balls had passed very near the mark. A loud shout of
+applause ensued. But the success was not decisive, it being necessary
+that each who followed should have his chance, and that those who
+succeeded in hitting the mark, should renew the strife among themselves,
+till one displayed a decided superiority over the others. Two only of
+those who followed in order succeeded in hitting the popinjay. The first
+was a young man of low rank, heavily built, and who kept his face muffled
+in his grey cloak; the second a gallant young cavalier, remarkable for a
+handsome exterior, sedulously decorated for the day. He had been since
+the muster in close attendance on Lady Margaret and Miss Bellenden, and
+had left them with an air of indifference, when Lady Margaret had asked
+whether there was no young man of family and loyal principles who would
+dispute the prize with the two lads who had been successful. In half a
+minute, young Lord Evandale threw himself from his horse, borrowed a gun
+from a servant, and, as we have already noticed, hit the mark. Great was
+the interest excited by the renewal of the contest between the three
+candidates who had been hitherto successful. The state equipage of the
+Duke was, with some difficulty, put in motion, and approached more near
+to the scene of action. The riders, both male and female, turned their
+horses' heads in the same direction, and all eyes were bent upon the
+issue of the trial of skill.
+
+It was the etiquette in the second contest, that the competitors should
+take their turn of firing after drawing lots. The first fell upon the
+young plebeian, who, as he took his stand, half-uncloaked his rustic
+countenance, and said to the gallant in green, "Ye see, Mr Henry, if it
+were ony other day, I could hae wished to miss for your sake; but Jenny
+Dennison is looking at us, sae I maun do my best."
+
+He took his aim, and his bullet whistled past the mark so nearly, that
+the pendulous object at which it was directed was seen to shiver. Still,
+however, he had not hit it, and, with a downcast look, he withdrew
+himself from further competition, and hastened to disappear from the
+assembly, as if fearful of being recognised. The green chasseur next
+advanced, and his ball a second time struck the popinjay. All shouted;
+and from the outskirts of the assembly arose a cry of, "The good old
+cause for ever!"
+
+While the dignitaries bent their brows at these exulting shouts of the
+disaffected, the young Lord Evandale advanced again to the hazard, and
+again was successful. The shouts and congratulations of the well-affected
+and aristocratical part of the audience attended his success, but still a
+subsequent trial of skill remained.
+
+The green marksman, as if determined to bring the affair to a decision,
+took his horse from a person who held him, having previously looked
+carefully to the security of his girths and the fitting of his saddle,
+vaulted on his back, and motioning with his hand for the bystanders to
+make way, set spurs, passed the place from which he was to fire at a
+gallop, and, as he passed, threw up the reins, turned sideways upon his
+saddle, discharged his carabine, and brought down the popinjay. Lord
+Evandale imitated his example, although many around him said it was an
+innovation on the established practice, which he was not obliged to
+follow. But his skill was not so perfect, or his horse was not so well
+trained. The animal swerved at the moment his master fired, and the ball
+missed the popinjay. Those who had been surprised by the address of the
+green marksman were now equally pleased by his courtesy. He disclaimed
+all merit from the last shot, and proposed to his antagonist that it
+should not be counted as a hit, and that they should renew the contest on
+foot.
+
+"I would prefer horseback, if I had a horse as well bitted, and,
+probably, as well broken to the exercise, as yours," said the young Lord,
+addressing his antagonist.
+
+"Will you do me the honour to use him for the next trial, on condition
+you will lend me yours?" said the young gentleman.
+
+Lord Evandale was ashamed to accept this courtesy, as conscious how much
+it would diminish the value of victory; and yet, unable to suppress his
+wish to redeem his reputation as a marksman, he added, "that although he
+renounced all pretensions to the honour of the day," (which he said
+some-what scornfully,) "yet, if the victor had no particular objection,
+he would willingly embrace his obliging offer, and change horses with
+him, for the purpose of trying a shot for love."
+
+As he said so, he looked boldly towards Miss Bellenden, and tradition
+says, that the eyes of the young tirailleur travelled, though more
+covertly, in the same direction. The young Lord's last trial was as
+unsuccessful as the former, and it was with difficulty that he preserved
+the tone of scornful indifference which he had hitherto assumed. But,
+conscious of the ridicule which attaches itself to the resentment of a
+losing party, he returned to his antagonist the horse on which he had
+made his last unsuccessful attempt, and received back his own; giving, at
+the same time, thanks to his competitor, who, he said, had re-established
+his favourite horse in his good opinion, for he had been in great danger
+of transferring to the poor nag the blame of an inferiority, which every
+one, as well as himself, must now be satisfied remained with the rider.
+Having made this speech in a tone in which mortification assumed the veil
+of indifference, he mounted his horse and rode off the ground.
+
+As is the usual way of the world, the applause and attention even of
+those whose wishes had favoured Lord Evandale, were, upon his decisive
+discomfiture, transferred to his triumphant rival.
+
+"Who is he? what is his name?" ran from mouth to mouth among the gentry
+who were present, to few of whom he was personally known. His style and
+title having soon transpired, and being within that class whom a great
+man might notice without derogation, four of the Duke's friends, with the
+obedient start which poor Malvolio ascribes to his imaginary retinue,
+made out to lead the victor to his presence. As they conducted him in
+triumph through the crowd of spectators, and stunned him at the same time
+with their compliments on his success, he chanced to pass, or rather to
+be led, immediately in front of Lady Margaret and her grand-daughter. The
+Captain of the popinjay and Miss Bellenden coloured like crimson, as the
+latter returned, with embarrassed courtesy, the low inclination which the
+victor made, even to the saddle-bow, in passing her.
+
+"Do you know that young person?" said Lady Margaret.
+
+"I--I--have seen him, madam, at my uncle's, and--and elsewhere
+occasionally," stammered Miss Edith Bellenden.
+
+"I hear them say around me," said Lady Margaret, "that the young spark is
+the nephew of old Milnwood."
+
+"The son of the late Colonel Morton of Milnwood, who commanded a regiment
+of horse with great courage at Dunbar and Inverkeithing," said a
+gentleman who sate on horseback beside Lady Margaret.
+
+"Ay, and who, before that, fought for the Covenanters both at
+Marston-Moor and Philiphaugh," said Lady Margaret, sighing as she
+pronounced the last fatal words, which her husband's death gave her such
+sad reason to remember.
+
+"Your ladyship's memory is just," said the gentleman, smiling, "but it
+were well all that were forgot now."
+
+"He ought to remember it, Gilbertscleugh," returned Lady Margaret, "and
+dispense with intruding himself into the company of those to whom his
+name must bring unpleasing recollections."
+
+"You forget, my dear lady," said her nomenclator, "that the young
+gentleman comes here to discharge suit and service in name of his uncle.
+I would every estate in the country sent out as pretty a fellow."
+
+"His uncle, as well as his umquhile father, is a roundhead, I presume,"
+said Lady Margaret.
+
+"He is an old miser," said Gilbertscleugh, "with whom a broad piece would
+at any time weigh down political opinions, and, therefore, although
+probably somewhat against the grain, he sends the young gentleman to
+attend the muster to save pecuniary pains and penalties. As for the rest,
+I suppose the youngster is happy enough to escape here for a day from the
+dulness of the old house at Milnwood, where he sees nobody but his
+hypochondriac uncle and the favourite housekeeper."
+
+"Do you know how many men and horse the lands of Milnwood are rated at?"
+said the old lady, continuing her enquiry.
+
+"Two horsemen with complete harness," answered Gilbertscleugh.
+
+"Our land," said Lady Margaret, drawing herself up with dignity, "has
+always furnished to the muster eight men, cousin Gilbertscleugh, and
+often a voluntary aid of thrice the number. I remember his sacred Majesty
+King Charles, when he took his disjune at Tillietudlem, was particular in
+enquiring"--"I see the Duke's carriage in motion," said Gilbertscleugh,
+partaking at the moment an alarm common to all Lady Margaret's friends,
+when she touched upon the topic of the royal visit at the family
+mansion,--"I see the Duke's carriage in motion; I presume your ladyship
+will take your right of rank in leaving the field. May I be permitted to
+convoy your ladyship and Miss Bellenden home?--Parties of the wild whigs
+have been abroad, and are said to insult and disarm the wellaffected who
+travel in small numbers."
+
+"We thank you, cousin Gilbertscleugh," said Lady Margaret; "but as we
+shall have the escort of my own people, I trust we have less need than
+others to be troublesome to our friends. Will you have the goodness to
+order Harrison to bring up our people somewhat more briskly; he rides
+them towards us as if he were leading a funeral procession."
+
+The gentleman in attendance communicated his lady's orders to the trusty
+steward.
+
+Honest Harrison had his own reasons for doubting the prudence of this
+command; but, once issued and received, there was a necessity for obeying
+it. He set off, therefore, at a hand-gallop, followed by the butler, in
+such a military attitude as became one who had served under Montrose, and
+with a look of defiance, rendered sterner and fiercer by the inspiring
+fumes of a gill of brandy, which he had snatched a moment to bolt to the
+king's health, and confusion to the Covenant, during the intervals of
+military duty. Unhappily this potent refreshment wiped away from the
+tablets of his memory the necessity of paying some attention to the
+distresses and difficulties of his rear-file, Goose Gibbie. No sooner had
+the horses struck a canter, than Gibbie's jack-boots, which the poor
+boy's legs were incapable of steadying, began to play alternately against
+the horse's flanks, and, being armed with long-rowelled spurs, overcame
+the patience of the animal, which bounced and plunged, while poor
+Gibbie's entreaties for aid never reached the ears of the too heedless
+butler, being drowned partly in the concave of the steel cap in which his
+head was immersed, and partly in the martial tune of the Gallant Grames,
+which Mr Gudyill whistled with all his power of lungs.
+
+The upshot was, that the steed speedily took the matter into his own
+hands, and having gambolled hither and thither to the great amusement of
+all spectators, set off at full speed towards the huge family-coach
+already described. Gibbie's pike, escaping from its sling, had fallen to
+a level direction across his hands, which, I grieve to say, were seeking
+dishonourable safety in as strong a grasp of the mane as their muscles
+could manage. His casque, too, had slipped completely over his face, so
+that he saw as little in front as he did in rear. Indeed, if he could, it
+would have availed him little in the circumstances; for his horse, as if
+in league with the disaffected, ran full tilt towards the solemn equipage
+of the Duke, which the projecting lance threatened to perforate from
+window to window, at the risk of transfixing as many in its passage as
+the celebrated thrust of Orlando, which, according to the Italian epic
+poet, broached as many Moors as a Frenchman spits frogs.
+
+On beholding the bent of this misdirected career, a panic shout of
+mingled terror and wrath was set up by the whole equipage, insides and
+outsides, at once, which had the happy effect of averting the threatened
+misfortune. The capricious horse of Goose Gibbie was terrified by the
+noise, and stumbling as he turned short round, kicked and plunged
+violently as soon as he recovered. The jack-boots, the original cause of
+the disaster, maintaining the reputation they had acquired when worn by
+better cavaliers, answered every plunge by a fresh prick of the spurs,
+and, by their ponderous weight, kept their place in the stirrups. Not so
+Goose Gibbie, who was fairly spurned out of those wide and ponderous
+greaves, and precipitated over the horse's head, to the infinite
+amusement of all the spectators. His lance and helmet had forsaken him in
+his fall, and, for the completion of his disgrace, Lady Margaret
+Bellenden, not perfectly aware that it was one of her warriors who was
+furnishing so much entertainment, came up in time to see her diminutive
+man-at-arms stripped of his lion's hide,--of the buff-coat, that is, in
+which he was muffled.
+
+As she had not been made acquainted with this metamorphosis, and could
+not even guess its cause, her surprise and resentment were extreme, nor
+were they much modified by the excuses and explanations of her steward
+and butler. She made a hasty retreat homeward, extremely indignant at the
+shouts and laughter of the company, and much disposed to vent her
+displeasure on the refractory agriculturist whose place Goose Gibbie had
+so unhappily supplied. The greater part of the gentry now dispersed, the
+whimsical misfortune which had befallen the gens d'armerie of
+Tillietudlem furnishing them with huge entertainment on their road
+homeward. The horsemen also, in little parties, as their road lay
+together, diverged from the place of rendezvous, excepting such as,
+having tried their dexterity at the popinjay, were, by ancient custom,
+obliged to partake of a grace-cup with their captain before their
+departure.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER IV.
+
+          At fairs he play'd before the spearmen,
+          And gaily graithed in their gear then,
+          Steel bonnets, pikes, and swords shone clear then
+          As ony bead;  Now wha sall play before sic weir men,
+                    Since Habbie's dead!
+                                        Elegy on Habbie Simpson.
+
+The cavalcade of horsemen on their road to the little borough-town were
+preceded by Niel Blane, the town-piper, mounted on his white galloway,
+armed with his dirk and broadsword, and bearing a chanter streaming with
+as many ribbons as would deck out six country belles for a fair or
+preaching. Niel, a clean, tight, well-timbered, long-winded fellow, had
+gained the official situation of town-piper of--by his merit, with all
+the emoluments thereof; namely, the Piper's Croft, as it is still called,
+a field of about an acre in extent, five merks, and a new livery-coat of
+the town's colours, yearly; some hopes of a dollar upon the day of the
+election of magistrates, providing the provost were able and willing to
+afford such a gratuity; and the privilege of paying, at all the
+respectable houses in the neighbourhood, an annual visit at spring-time,
+to rejoice their hearts with his music, to comfort his own with their ale
+and brandy, and to beg from each a modicum of seed-corn.
+
+In addition to these inestimable advantages, Niel's personal, or
+professional, accomplishments won the heart of a jolly widow, who then
+kept the principal change-house in the borough. Her former husband having
+been a strict presbyterian, of such note that he usually went among his
+sect by the name of Gaius the publican, many of the more rigid were
+scandalized by the profession of the successor whom his relict had chosen
+for a second helpmate. As the browst (or brewing) of the Howff retained,
+nevertheless, its unrivalled reputation, most of the old customers
+continued to give it a preference. The character of the new landlord,
+indeed, was of that accommodating kind, which enabled him, by close
+attention to the helm, to keep his little vessel pretty steady amid the
+contending tides of faction. He was a good-humoured, shrewd, selfish sort
+of fellow, indifferent alike to the disputes about church and state, and
+only anxious to secure the good-will of customers of every description.
+But his character, as well as the state of the country, will be best
+understood by giving the reader an account of the instructions which he
+issued to his daughter, a girl about eighteen, whom he was initiating in
+those cares which had been faithfully discharged by his wife, until about
+six months before our story commences, when the honest woman had been
+carried to the kirkyard.
+
+"Jenny," said Niel Blane, as the girl assisted to disencumber him of his
+bagpipes, "this is the first day that ye are to take the place of your
+worthy mother in attending to the public; a douce woman she was, civil to
+the customers, and had a good name wi' Whig and Tory, baith up the street
+and down the street. It will be hard for you to fill her place,
+especially on sic a thrang day as this; but Heaven's will maun be
+obeyed.--Jenny, whatever Milnwood ca's for, be sure he maun hae't, for
+he's the Captain o' the Popinjay, and auld customs maun be supported; if
+he canna pay the lawing himsell, as I ken he's keepit unco short by the
+head, I'll find a way to shame it out o' his uncle.--The curate is
+playing at dice wi' Cornet Grahame. Be eident and civil to them baith--
+clergy and captains can gie an unco deal o' fash in thae times, where
+they take an ill-will.--The dragoons will be crying for ale, and they
+wunna want it, and maunna want it--they are unruly chields, but they pay
+ane some gate or other. I gat the humle-cow, that's the best in the byre,
+frae black Frank Inglis and Sergeant Bothwell, for ten pund Scots, and
+they drank out the price at ae downsitting."
+
+"But, father," interrupted Jenny, "they say the twa reiving loons drave
+the cow frae the gudewife o' Bell's-moor, just because she gaed to hear a
+field-preaching ae Sabbath afternoon."
+
+"Whisht! ye silly tawpie," said her father, "we have naething to do how
+they come by the bestial they sell--be that atween them and their
+consciences.--Aweel--Take notice, Jenny, of that dour, stour-looking
+carle that sits by the cheek o' the ingle, and turns his back on a' men.
+He looks like ane o' the hill-folk, for I saw him start a wee when he saw
+the red-coats, and I jalouse he wad hae liked to hae ridden by, but his
+horse (it's a gude gelding) was ower sair travailed; he behoved to stop
+whether he wad or no. Serve him cannily, Jenny, and wi' little din, and
+dinna bring the sodgers on him by speering ony questions at him; but let
+na him hae a room to himsell, they wad say we were hiding him.--For
+yoursell, Jenny, ye'll be civil to a' the folk, and take nae heed o' ony
+nonsense and daffing the young lads may say t'ye. Folk in the hostler
+line maun put up wi' muckle. Your mither, rest her saul, could pit up wi'
+as muckle as maist women--but aff hands is fair play; and if ony body be
+uncivil ye may gie me a cry--Aweel,--when the malt begins to get aboon
+the meal, they'll begin to speak about government in kirk and state, and
+then, Jenny, they are like to quarrel--let them be doing--anger's a
+drouthy passion, and the mair they dispute, the mair ale they'll drink;
+but ye were best serve them wi' a pint o' the sma' browst, it will heat
+them less, and they'll never ken the difference."
+
+"But, father," said Jenny, "if they come to lounder ilk ither, as they
+did last time, suldna I cry on you?"
+
+"At no hand, Jenny; the redder gets aye the warst lick in the fray. If
+the sodgers draw their swords, ye'll cry on the corporal and the guard.
+If the country folk tak the tangs and poker, ye'll cry on the bailie and
+town-officers. But in nae event cry on me, for I am wearied wi' doudling
+the bag o' wind a' day, and I am gaun to eat my dinner quietly in the
+spence.--And, now I think on't, the Laird of Lickitup (that's him that
+was the laird) was speering for sma' drink and a saut herring--gie him a
+pu' be the sleeve, and round into his lug I wad be blithe o' his company
+to dine wi' me; he was a gude customer anes in a day, and wants naething
+but means to be a gude ane again--he likes drink as weel as e'er he did.
+And if ye ken ony puir body o' our acquaintance that's blate for want o'
+siller, and has far to gang hame, ye needna stick to gie them a waught o'
+drink and a bannock--we'll ne'er miss't, and it looks creditable in a
+house like ours. And now, hinny, gang awa', and serve the folk, but first
+bring me my dinner, and twa chappins o' yill and the mutchkin stoup o'
+brandy."
+
+Having thus devolved his whole cares on Jenny as prime minister, Niel
+Blane and the ci-devant laird, once his patron, but now glad to be his
+trencher-companion, sate down to enjoy themselves for the remainder of
+the evening, remote from the bustle of the public room.
+
+All in Jenny's department was in full activity. The knights of the
+popinjay received and requited the hospitable entertainment of their
+captain, who, though he spared the cup himself, took care it should go
+round with due celerity among the rest, who might not have otherwise
+deemed themselves handsomely treated. Their numbers melted away by
+degrees, and were at length diminished to four or five, who began to talk
+of breaking up their party. At another table, at some distance, sat two
+of the dragoons, whom Niel Blane had mentioned, a sergeant and a private
+in the celebrated John Grahame of Claverhouse's regiment of Life-Guards.
+Even the non-commissioned officers and privates in these corps were not
+considered as ordinary mercenaries, but rather approached to the rank of
+the French mousquetaires, being regarded in the light of cadets, who
+performed the duties of rank-and-file with the prospect of obtaining
+commissions in case of distinguishing themselves.
+
+Many young men of good families were to be found in the ranks, a
+circumstance which added to the pride and self-consequence of these
+troops. A remarkable instance of this occurred in the person of the
+non-commissioned officer in question. His real name was Francis Stewart,
+but he was universally known by the appellation of Bothwell, being
+lineally descended from the last earl of that name; not the infamous
+lover of the unfortunate Queen Mary, but Francis Stewart, Earl of
+Bothwell, whose turbulence and repeated conspiracies embarrassed the
+early part of James Sixth's reign, and who at length died in exile in
+great poverty. The son of this Earl had sued to Charles I. for the
+restitution of part of his father's forfeited estates, but the grasp of
+the nobles to whom they had been allotted was too tenacious to be
+unclenched. The breaking out of the civil wars utterly ruined him, by
+intercepting a small pension which Charles I. had allowed him, and he
+died in the utmost indigence. His son, after having served as a soldier
+abroad and in Britain, and passed through several vicissitudes of
+fortune, was fain to content himself with the situation of a
+non-commissioned officer in the Life-Guards, although lineally descended
+from the royal family, the father of the forfeited Earl of Bothwell
+having been a natural son of James VI.
+
+     [Note: Sergeant Bothwell. The history of the restless and ambitious
+     Francis Stewart, Earl of Bothwell, makes a considerable figure in
+     the reign of James VI. of Scotland, and First of England. After
+     being repeatedly pardoned for acts of treason, he was at length
+     obliged to retire abroad, where he died in great misery. Great part
+     of his forfeited estate was bestowed on Walter Scott, first Lord of
+     Buccleuch, and on the first Earl of Roxburghe.
+
+     Francis Stewart, son of the forfeited Earl, obtained from the favour
+     of Charles I. a decreet-arbitral, appointing the two noblemen,
+     grantees of his father's estate, to restore the same, or make some
+     compensation for retaining it. The barony of Crichton, with its
+     beautiful castle, was surrendered by the curators of Francis, Earl
+     of Buccleuch, but he retained the far more extensive property in
+     Liddesdale. James Stewart also, as appears from writings in the
+     author's possession, made an advantageous composition with the Earl
+     of Roxburghe. "But," says the satirical Scotstarvet, "male parta
+     pejus dilabuntur; for he never brooked them, (enjoyed them,) nor was
+     any thing the richer, since they accrued to his creditors, and are
+     now in the possession of Dr Seaton. His eldest son Francis became a
+     trooper in the late war; as for the other brother John, who was
+     Abbot of Coldingham, he also disponed all that estate, and now has
+     nothing, but lives on the charity of his friends. "The Staggering
+     State of the Scots Statesmen for One Hundred Years," by Sir John
+     Scot of Scotstarvet. Edinburgh, 1754. P. 154.
+
+     Francis Stewart, who had been a trooper during the great Civil War,
+     seems to have received no preferment, after the Restoration, suited
+     to his high birth, though, in fact, third cousin to Charles II.
+     Captain Crichton, the friend of Dean Swift, who published his
+     Memoirs, found him a private gentleman in the King's Life-Guards. At
+     the same time this was no degrading condition; for Fountainhall
+     records a duel fought between a Life-Guardsman and an officer in the
+     militia, because the latter had taken upon him to assume superior
+     rank as an officer, to a gentleman private in the Life-Guards. The
+     Life-Guards man was killed in the rencontre, and his antagonist was
+     executed for murder.
+
+     The character of Bothwell, except in relation to the name, is
+     entirely ideal.]
+
+Great personal strength, and dexterity in the use of his arms, as well as
+the remarkable circumstances of his descent, had recommended this man to
+the attention of his officers. But he partook in a great degree of the
+licentiousness and oppressive disposition, which the habit of acting as
+agents for government in levying fines, exacting free quarters, and
+otherwise oppressing the Presbyterian recusants, had rendered too general
+among these soldiers. They were so much accustomed to such missions, that
+they conceived themselves at liberty to commit all manner of license with
+impunity, as if totally exempted from all law and authority, excepting
+the command of their officers. On such occasions Bothwell was usually the
+most forward.
+
+It is probable that Bothwell and his companions would not so long have
+remained quiet, but for respect to the presence of their Cornet, who
+commanded the small party quartered in the borough, and who was engaged
+in a game at dice with the curate of the place. But both of these being
+suddenly called from their amusement to speak with the chief magistrate
+upon some urgent business, Bothwell was not long of evincing his contempt
+for the rest of the company.
+
+"Is it not a strange thing, Halliday," he said to his comrade, "to see a
+set of bumpkins sit carousing here this whole evening, without having
+drank the king's health?"
+
+"They have drank the king's health," said Halliday. "I heard that green
+kail-worm of a lad name his majesty's health."
+
+"Did he?" said Bothwell. "Then, Tom, we'll have them drink the Archbishop
+of St Andrew's health, and do it on their knees too."
+
+"So we will, by G--," said Halliday; "and he that refuses it, we'll have
+him to the guard-house, and teach him to ride the colt foaled of an
+acorn, with a brace of carabines at each foot to keep him steady."
+
+"Right, Tom," continued Bothwell; "and, to do all things in order, I'll
+begin with that sulky blue-bonnet in the ingle-nook."
+
+He rose accordingly, and taking his sheathed broadsword under his arm to
+support the insolence which he meditated, placed himself in front of the
+stranger noticed by Niel Blane, in his admonitions to his daughter, as
+being, in all probability, one of the hill-folk, or refractory
+presbyterians.
+
+"I make so bold as to request of your precision, beloved," said the
+trooper, in a tone of affected solemnity, and assuming the snuffle of a
+country preacher, "that you will arise from your seat, beloved, and,
+having bent your hams until your knees do rest upon the floor, beloved,
+that you will turn over this measure (called by the profane a gill) of
+the comfortable creature, which the carnal denominate brandy, to the
+health and glorification of his Grace the Archbishop of St Andrews, the
+worthy primate of all Scotland."
+
+All waited for the stranger's answer.--His features, austere even to
+ferocity, with a cast of eye, which, without being actually oblique,
+approached nearly to a squint, and which gave a very sinister expression
+to his countenance, joined to a frame, square, strong, and muscular,
+though something under the middle size, seemed to announce a man unlikely
+to understand rude jesting, or to receive insults with impunity.
+
+"And what is the consequence," said he, "if I should not be disposed to
+comply with your uncivil request?"
+
+"The consequence thereof, beloved," said Bothwell, in the same tone of
+raillery, "will be, firstly, that I will tweak thy proboscis or nose.
+Secondly, beloved, that I will administer my fist to thy distorted visual
+optics; and will conclude, beloved, with a practical application of the
+flat of my sword to the shoulders of the recusant."
+
+"Is it even so?" said the stranger; "then give me the cup;" and, taking
+it in his hand, he said, with a peculiar expression of voice and manner,
+"The Archbishop of St Andrews, and the place he now worthily holds;--may
+each prelate in Scotland soon be as the Right Reverend James Sharpe!"
+
+"He has taken the test," said Halliday, exultingly.
+
+"But with a qualification," said Bothwell; "I don't understand what the
+devil the crop-eared whig means."
+
+"Come, gentlemen," said Morton, who became impatient of their insolence,
+"we are here met as good subjects, and on a merry occasion; and we have a
+right to expect we shall not be troubled with this sort of discussion."
+
+Bothwell was about to make a surly answer, but Halliday reminded him in a
+whisper, that there were strict injunctions that the soldiers should give
+no offence to the men who were sent out to the musters agreeably to the
+council's orders. So, after honouring Morton with a broad and fierce
+stare, he said, "Well, Mr Popinjay, I shall not disturb your reign; I
+reckon it will be out by twelve at night.--Is it not an odd thing,
+Halliday," he continued, addressing his companion, "that they should make
+such a fuss about cracking off their birding-pieces at a mark which any
+woman or boy could hit at a day's practice? If Captain Popinjay now, or
+any of his troop, would try a bout, either with the broadsword,
+backsword, single rapier, or rapier and dagger, for a gold noble, the
+first-drawn blood, there would be some soul in it,--or, zounds, would the
+bumpkins but wrestle, or pitch the bar, or putt the stone, or throw the
+axle-tree, if (touching the end of Morton's sword scornfully with his
+toe) they carry things about them that they are afraid to draw."
+
+Morton's patience and prudence now gave way entirely, and he was about to
+make a very angry answer to Bothwell's insolent observations, when the
+stranger stepped forward.
+
+"This is my quarrel," he said, "and in the name of the good cause, I will
+see it out myself.--Hark thee, friend," (to Bothwell,) "wilt thou wrestle
+a fall with me?"
+
+"With my whole spirit, beloved," answered Bothwell; "yea I will strive
+with thee, to the downfall of one or both."
+
+"Then, as my trust is in Him that can help," retorted his antagonist, "I
+will forthwith make thee an example to all such railing Rabshakehs"
+
+With that he dropped his coarse grey horseman's coat from his shoulders,
+and, extending his strong brawny arms with a look of determined
+resolution, he offered himself to the contest. The soldier was nothing
+abashed by the muscular frame, broad chest, square shoulders, and hardy
+look of his antagonist, but, whistling with great composure, unbuckled
+his belt, and laid aside his military coat. The company stood round them,
+anxious for the event.
+
+In the first struggle the trooper seemed to have some advantage, and also
+in the second, though neither could be considered as decisive. But it was
+plain he had put his whole strength too suddenly forth, against an
+antagonist possessed of great endurance, skill, vigour, and length of
+wind. In the third close, the countryman lifted his opponent fairly from
+the floor, and hurled him to the ground with such violence, that he lay
+for an instant stunned and motionless. His comrade Halliday immediately
+drew his sword; "You have killed my sergeant," he exclaimed to the
+victorious wrestler, "and by all that is sacred you shall answer it!"
+
+"Stand back!" cried Morton and his companions, "it was all fair play;
+your comrade sought a fall, and he has got it."
+
+"That is true enough," said Bothwell, as he slowly rose; "put up your
+bilbo, Tom. I did not think there was a crop-ear of them all could have
+laid the best cap and feather in the King's Life-Guards on the floor of a
+rascally change-house.--Hark ye, friend, give me your hand." The stranger
+held out his hand. "I promise you," said Bothwell, squeezing his hand
+very hard, "that the time will come when we shall meet again, and try
+this game over in a more earnest manner."
+
+"And I'll promise you," said the stranger, returning the grasp with equal
+firmness, "that when we next meet, I will lay your head as low as it lay
+even now, when you shall lack the power to lift it up again."
+
+"Well, beloved," answered Bothwell, "if thou be'st a whig, thou art a
+stout and a brave one, and so good even to thee--Hadst best take thy nag
+before the Cornet makes the round; for, I promise thee, he has stay'd
+less suspicious-looking persons."
+
+The stranger seemed to think that the hint was not to be neglected; he
+flung down his reckoning, and going into the stable, saddled and brought
+out a powerful black horse, now recruited by rest and forage, and turning
+to Morton, observed, "I ride towards Milnwood, which I hear is your home;
+will you give me the advantage and protection of your company?"
+
+"Certainly," said Morton; although there was something of gloomy and
+relentless severity in the man's manner from which his mind recoiled. His
+companions, after a courteous good-night, broke up and went off in
+different directions, some keeping them company for about a mile, until
+they dropped off one by one, and the travellers were left alone.
+
+The company had not long left the Howff, as Blane's public-house was
+called, when the trumpets and kettle-drums sounded. The troopers got
+under arms in the market-place at this unexpected summons, while, with
+faces of anxiety and earnestness, Cornet Grahame, a kinsman of
+Claverhouse, and the Provost of the borough, followed by half-a-dozen
+soldiers, and town-officers with halberts, entered the apartment of Niel
+Blane.
+
+"Guard the doors!" were the first words which the Cornet spoke; "let no
+man leave the house.--So, Bothwell, how comes this? Did you not hear them
+sound boot and saddle?"
+
+"He was just going to quarters, sir," said his comrade; "he has had a bad
+fall."
+
+"In a fray, I suppose?" said Grahame. "If you neglect duty in this way,
+your royal blood will hardly protect you."
+
+"How have I neglected duty?" said Bothwell, sulkily.
+
+"You should have been at quarters, Sergeant Bothwell," replied the
+officer; "you have lost a golden opportunity. Here are news come that the
+Archbishop of St Andrews has been strangely and foully assassinated by a
+body of the rebel whigs, who pursued and stopped his carriage on
+Magus-Muir, near the town of St Andrews, dragged him out, and dispatched
+him with their swords and daggers." [Note: The general account of this
+act of assassination is to be found in all histories of the period. A
+more particular narrative may be found in the words of one of the actors,
+James Russell, in the Appendix to Kirkton's History of the Church of
+Scotland, published by Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, Esquire. 4to,
+Edinburgh, 1817.]
+
+All stood aghast at the intelligence.
+
+"Here are their descriptions," continued the Cornet, pulling out a
+proclamation, "the reward of a thousand merks is on each of their heads."
+
+"The test, the test, and the qualification!" said Bothwell to Halliday;
+"I know the meaning now--Zounds, that we should not have stopt him! Go
+saddle our horses, Halliday.--Was there one of the men, Cornet, very
+stout and square-made, double-chested, thin in the flanks, hawk-nosed?"
+
+"Stay, stay," said Cornet Grahame, "let me look at the paper.--Hackston
+of Rathillet, tall, thin, black-haired."
+
+"That is not my man," said Bothwell.
+
+"John Balfour, called Burley, aquiline nose, red-haired, five feet eight
+inches in height"--"It is he--it is the very man!" said Bothwell,--
+"skellies fearfully with one eye?"
+
+"Right," continued Grahame, "rode a strong black horse, taken from the
+primate at the time of the murder."
+
+"The very man," exclaimed Bothwell, "and the very horse! he was in this
+room not a quarter of an hour since."
+
+A few hasty enquiries tended still more to confirm the opinion, that the
+reserved and stern stranger was Balfour of Burley, the actual commander
+of the band of assassins, who, in the fury of misguided zeal, had
+murdered the primate, whom they accidentally met, as they were searching
+for another person against whom they bore enmity. [Note: One Carmichael,
+sheriff-depute in Fife, who had been active in enforcing the penal
+measures against non-conformists. He was on the moors hunting, but
+receiving accidental information that a party was out in quest of him, he
+returned home, and escaped the fate designed for him, which befell his
+patron the Archbishop.] In their excited imagination the casual
+rencounter had the appearance of a providential interference, and they
+put to death the archbishop, with circumstances of great and cold-blooded
+cruelty, under the belief, that the Lord, as they expressed it, had
+delivered him into their hands.
+
+     [Note:  Murderers of Archbishop Sharpe. The leader of this party was
+     David Hackston, of Rathillet, a gentleman of ancient birth and good
+     estate. He had been profligate in his younger days, but having been
+     led from curiosity to attend the conventicles of the nonconforming
+     clergy, he adopted their principles in the fullest extent. It
+     appears, that Hackston had some personal quarrel with Archbishop
+     Sharpe, which induced him to decline the command of the party when
+     the slaughter was determined upon, fearing his acceptance might be
+     ascribed to motives of personal enmity. He felt himself free in
+     conscience, however, to be present; and when the archbishop, dragged
+     from his carriage, crawled towards him on his knees for protection,
+     he replied coldly, "Sir, I will never lay a finger on you." It is
+     remarkable that Hackston, as well as a shepherd who was also
+     present, but passive, on the occasion, were the only two of the
+     party of assassins who suffered death by the hands of the
+     executioner.
+
+     On Hackston refusing the command, it was by universal suffrage
+     conferred on John Balfour of Kinloch, called Burley, who was
+     Hackston's brother-in-law. He is described "as a little man,
+     squint-eyed, and of a very fierce aspect."--"He was," adds the same
+     author, "by some reckoned none of the most religious; yet he was
+     always reckoned zealous and honest-hearted, courageous in every
+     enterprise, and a brave soldier, seldom any escaping that came into
+     his hands. He was the principal actor in killing that arch-traitor
+     to the Lord and his church, James Sharpe." See Scottish Worthies.
+     8vo. Leith, 1816. Page 522.]
+
+"Horse, horse, and pursue, my lads!" exclaimed Cornet Grahame; "the
+murdering dog's head is worth its weight in gold."
+
+
+
+
+                                CHAPTER V.
+
+               Arouse thee, youth!--it is no human call--
+               God's church is leaguer'd--haste to man the wall;
+               Haste where the Redcross banners wave on high,
+               Signal of honour'd death, or victory!
+                                                  James Duff.
+
+Morton and his companion had attained some distance from the town before
+either of them addressed the other. There was something, as we have
+observed, repulsive in the manner of the stranger, which prevented Morton
+from opening the conversation, and he himself seemed to have no desire to
+talk, until, on a sudden, he abruptly demanded, "What has your father's
+son to do with such profane mummeries as I find you this day engaged in?"
+
+"I do my duty as a subject, and pursue my harmless recreations according
+to my own pleasure," replied Morton, somewhat offended.
+
+"Is it your duty, think you, or that of any Christian young man, to bear
+arms in their cause who have poured out the blood of God's saints in the
+wilderness as if it had been water? or is it a lawful recreation to waste
+time in shooting at a bunch of feathers, and close your evening with
+winebibbing in public-houses and market-towns, when He that is mighty is
+come into the land with his fan in his hand, to purge the wheat from the
+chaff?"
+
+"I suppose from your style of conversation," said Morton, "that you are
+one of those who have thought proper to stand out against the government.
+I must remind you that you are unnecessarily using dangerous language in
+the presence of a mere stranger, and that the times do not render it safe
+for me to listen to it."
+
+"Thou canst not help it, Henry Morton," said his companion; "thy Master
+has his uses for thee, and when he calls, thou must obey. Well wot I thou
+hast not heard the call of a true preacher, or thou hadst ere now been
+what thou wilt assuredly one day become."
+
+"We are of the presbyterian persuasion, like yourself," said Morton; for
+his uncle's family attended the ministry of one of those numerous
+presbyterian clergymen, who, complying with certain regulations, were
+licensed to preach without interruption from the government. This
+indulgence, as it was called, made a great schism among the
+presbyterians, and those who accepted of it were severely censured by the
+more rigid sectaries, who refused the proffered terms. The stranger,
+therefore, answered with great disdain to Morton's profession of faith.
+
+"That is but an equivocation--a poor equivocation. Ye listen on the
+Sabbath to a cold, worldly, time-serving discourse, from one who forgets
+his high commission so much as to hold his apostleship by the favour of
+the courtiers and the false prelates, and ye call that hearing the word!
+Of all the baits with which the devil has fished for souls in these days
+of blood and darkness, that Black Indulgence has been the most
+destructive. An awful dispensation it has been, a smiting of the shepherd
+and a scattering of the sheep upon the mountains--an uplifting of one
+Christian banner against another, and a fighting of the wars of darkness
+with the swords of the children of light!"
+
+"My uncle," said Morton, "is of opinion, that we enjoy a reasonable
+freedom of conscience under the indulged clergymen, and I must
+necessarily be guided by his sentiments respecting the choice of a place
+of worship for his family."
+
+"Your uncle," said the horseman, "is one of those to whom the least lamb
+in his own folds at Milnwood is dearer than the whole Christian flock. He
+is one that could willingly bend down to the golden-calf of Bethel, and
+would have fished for the dust thereof when it was ground to powder and
+cast upon the waters. Thy father was a man of another stamp."
+
+"My father," replied Morton, "was indeed a brave and gallant man. And you
+may have heard, sir, that he fought for that royal family in whose name I
+was this day carrying arms."
+
+"Ay; and had he lived to see these days, he would have cursed the hour he
+ever drew sword in their cause. But more of this hereafter--I promise
+thee full surely that thy hour will come, and then the words thou hast
+now heard will stick in thy bosom like barbed arrows. My road lies
+there."
+
+He pointed towards a pass leading up into a wild extent of dreary and
+desolate hills; but as he was about to turn his horse's head into the
+rugged path, which led from the high-road in that direction, an old woman
+wrapped in a red cloak, who was sitting by the cross-way, arose, and
+approaching him, said, in a mysterious tone of voice, "If ye be of our
+ain folk, gangna up the pass the night for your lives. There is a lion in
+the path, that is there. The curate of Brotherstane and ten soldiers hae
+beset the pass, to hae the lives of ony of our puir wanderers that
+venture that gate to join wi' Hamilton and Dingwall."
+
+"Have the persecuted folk drawn to any head among themselves?" demanded
+the stranger.
+
+"About sixty or seventy horse and foot," said the old dame; "but, ewhow!
+they are puirly armed, and warse fended wi' victual."
+
+"God will help his own," said the horseman. "Which way shall I take to
+join them?"
+
+"It's a mere impossibility this night," said the woman, "the troopers
+keep sae strict a guard; and they say there's strange news come frae the
+east, that makes them rage in their cruelty mair fierce than ever--Ye
+maun take shelter somegate for the night before ye get to the muirs, and
+keep yoursell in hiding till the grey o' the morning, and then you may
+find your way through the Drake Moss. When I heard the awfu' threatenings
+o' the oppressors, I e'en took my cloak about me, and sate down by the
+wayside, to warn ony of our puir scattered remnant that chanced to come
+this gate, before they fell into the nets of the spoilers."
+
+"Have you a house near this?" said the stranger; "and can you give me
+hiding there?"
+
+"I have," said the old woman, "a hut by the way-side, it may be a mile
+from hence; but four men of Belial, called dragoons, are lodged therein,
+to spoil my household goods at their pleasure, because I will not wait
+upon the thowless, thriftless, fissenless ministry of that carnal man,
+John Halftext, the curate."
+
+"Good night, good woman, and thanks for thy counsel," said the stranger,
+as he rode away.
+
+"The blessings of the promise upon you," returned the old dame; "may He
+keep you that can keep you."
+
+"Amen!" said the traveller; "for where to hide my head this night, mortal
+skill cannot direct me."
+
+"I am very sorry for your distress," said Morton; "and had I a house or
+place of shelter that could be called my own, I almost think I would risk
+the utmost rigour of the law rather than leave you in such a strait. But
+my uncle is so alarmed at the pains and penalties denounced by the laws
+against such as comfort, receive, or consort with intercommuned persons,
+that he has strictly forbidden all of us to hold any intercourse with
+them."
+
+"It is no less than I expected," said the stranger; "nevertheless, I
+might be received without his knowledge;--a barn, a hay-loft, a
+cart-shed,--any place where I could stretch me down, would be to my
+habits like a tabernacle of silver set about with planks of cedar."
+
+"I assure you," said Morton, much embarrassed, "that I have not the means
+of receiving you at Milnwood without my uncle's consent and knowledge;
+nor, if I could do so, would I think myself justifiable in engaging him
+unconsciously in danger, which, most of all others, he fears and
+deprecates."
+
+"Well," said the traveller, "I have but one word to say. Did you ever
+hear your father mention John Balfour of Burley?"
+
+"His ancient friend and comrade, who saved his life, with almost the loss
+of his own, in the battle of Longmarston-Moor?--Often, very often."
+
+"I am that Balfour," said his companion. "Yonder stands thy uncle's
+house; I see the light among the trees. The avenger of blood is behind
+me, and my death certain unless I have refuge there. Now, make thy
+choice, young man; to shrink from the side of thy father's friend, like a
+thief in the night, and to leave him exposed to the bloody death from
+which he rescued thy father, or to expose thine uncle's wordly goods to
+such peril, as, in this perverse generation, attends those who give a
+morsel of bread or a draught of cold water to a Christian man, when
+perishing for lack of refreshment!"
+
+A thousand recollections thronged on the mind of Morton at once. His
+father, whose memory he idolized, had often enlarged upon his obligations
+to this man, and regretted, that, after having been long comrades, they
+had parted in some unkindness at the time when the kingdom of Scotland
+was divided into Resolutioners and Protesters; the former of whom adhered
+to Charles II. after his father's death upon the scaffold, while the
+Protesters inclined rather to a union with the triumphant republicans.
+The stern fanaticism of Burley had attached him to this latter party, and
+the comrades had parted in displeasure, never, as it happened, to meet
+again. These circumstances the deceased Colonel Morton had often
+mentioned to his son, and always with an expression of deep regret, that
+he had never, in any manner, been enabled to repay the assistance, which,
+on more than one occasion, he had received from Burley.
+
+To hasten Morton's decision, the night-wind, as it swept along, brought
+from a distance the sullen sound of a kettle-drum, which, seeming to
+approach nearer, intimated that a body of horse were upon their march
+towards them.
+
+"It must be Claverhouse, with the rest of his regiment. What can have
+occasioned this night-march? If you go on, you fall into their hands--if
+you turn back towards the borough-town, you are in no less danger from
+Cornet Grahame's party.--The path to the hill is beset. I must shelter
+you at Milnwood, or expose you to instant death;--but the punishment of
+the law shall fall upon myself, as in justice it should, not upon my
+uncle.--Follow me."
+
+Burley, who had awaited his resolution with great composure, now followed
+him in silence.
+
+The house of Milnwood, built by the father of the present proprietor, was
+a decent mansion, suitable to the size of the estate, but, since the
+accession of this owner, it had been suffered to go considerably into
+disrepair. At some little distance from the house stood the court of
+offices. Here Morton paused.
+
+"I must leave you here for a little while," he whispered, "until I can
+provide a bed for you in the house."
+
+"I care little for such delicacy," said Burley; "for thirty years this
+head has rested oftener on the turf, or on the next grey stone, than upon
+either wool or down. A draught of ale, a morsel of bread, to say my
+prayers, and to stretch me upon dry hay, were to me as good as a painted
+chamber and a prince's table."
+
+It occurred to Morton at the same moment, that to attempt to introduce
+the fugitive within the house, would materially increase the danger of
+detection. Accordingly, having struck a light with implements left in the
+stable for that purpose, and having fastened up their horses, he assigned
+Burley, for his place of repose, a wooden bed, placed in a loft half-full
+of hay, which an out-of-door domestic had occupied until dismissed by his
+uncle in one of those fits of parsimony which became more rigid from day
+to day. In this untenanted loft Morton left his companion, with a caution
+so to shade his light that no reflection might be seen from the window,
+and a promise that he would presently return with such refreshments as he
+might be able to procure at that late hour. This last, indeed, was a
+subject on which he felt by no means confident, for the power of
+obtaining even the most ordinary provisions depended entirely upon the
+humour in which he might happen to find his uncle's sole confidant, the
+old housekeeper. If she chanced to be a-bed, which was very likely, or
+out of humour, which was not less so, Morton well knew the case to be at
+least problematical.
+
+Cursing in his heart the sordid parsimony which pervaded every part of
+his uncle's establishment, he gave the usual gentle knock at the bolted
+door, by which he was accustomed to seek admittance, when accident had
+detained him abroad beyond the early and established hours of rest at the
+house of Milnwood. It was a sort of hesitating tap, which carried an
+acknowledgment of transgression in its very sound, and seemed rather to
+solicit than command attention. After it had been repeated again and
+again, the housekeeper, grumbling betwixt her teeth as she rose from the
+chimney corner in the hall, and wrapping her checked handkerchief round
+her head to secure her from the cold air, paced across the stone-passage,
+and repeated a careful "Wha's there at this time o' night?" more than
+once before she undid the bolts and bars, and cautiously opened the door.
+
+"This is a fine time o' night, Mr Henry," said the old dame, with the
+tyrannic insolence of a spoilt and favourite domestic;--"a braw time o'
+night and a bonny, to disturb a peaceful house in, and to keep quiet folk
+out o' their beds waiting for you. Your uncle's been in his maist three
+hours syne, and Robin's ill o' the rheumatize, and he's to his bed too,
+and sae I had to sit up for ye mysell, for as sair a hoast as I hae."
+
+Here she coughed once or twice, in further evidence of the egregious
+inconvenience which she had sustained.
+
+"Much obliged to you, Alison, and many kind thanks."
+
+"Hegh, sirs, sae fair-fashioned as we are! Mony folk ca' me Mistress
+Wilson, and Milnwood himsell is the only ane about this town thinks o'
+ca'ing me Alison, and indeed he as aften says Mrs Alison as ony other
+thing."
+
+"Well, then, Mistress Alison," said Morton, "I really am sorry to have
+kept you up waiting till I came in."
+
+"And now that you are come in, Mr Henry," said the cross old woman, "what
+for do you no tak up your candle and gang to your bed? and mind ye dinna
+let the candle sweal as ye gang alang the wainscot parlour, and haud a'
+the house scouring to get out the grease again."
+
+"But, Alison, I really must have something to eat, and a draught of ale,
+before I go to bed."
+
+"Eat?--and ale, Mr Henry?--My certie, ye're ill to serve! Do ye think we
+havena heard o' your grand popinjay wark yonder, and how ye bleezed away
+as muckle pouther as wad hae shot a' the wild-fowl that we'll want atween
+and Candlemas--and then ganging majoring to the piper's Howff wi' a' the
+idle loons in the country, and sitting there birling, at your poor
+uncle's cost, nae doubt, wi' a' the scaff and raff o' the water-side,
+till sun-down, and then coming hame and crying for ale, as if ye were
+maister and mair!"
+
+Extremely vexed, yet anxious, on account of his guest, to procure
+refreshments if possible, Morton suppressed his resentment, and
+good-humouredly assured Mrs Wilson, that he was really both hungry and
+thirsty; "and as for the shooting at the popinjay, I have heard you say
+you have been there yourself, Mrs Wilson--I wish you had come to look at
+us."
+
+"Ah, Maister Henry," said the old dame, "I wish ye binna beginning to
+learn the way of blawing in a woman's lug wi' a' your whilly-wha's!--
+Aweel, sae ye dinna practise them but on auld wives like me, the less
+matter. But tak heed o' the young queans, lad.--Popinjay--ye think
+yoursell a braw fellow enow; and troth!" (surveying him with the candle,)
+"there's nae fault to find wi' the outside, if the inside be conforming.
+But I mind, when I was a gilpy of a lassock, seeing the Duke, that was
+him that lost his head at London--folk said it wasna a very gude ane, but
+it was aye a sair loss to him, puir gentleman--Aweel, he wan the
+popinjay, for few cared to win it ower his Grace's head--weel, he had a
+comely presence, and when a' the gentles mounted to show their capers,
+his Grace was as near to me as I am to you; and he said to me, 'Tak tent
+o' yoursell, my bonny lassie, (these were his very words,) for my horse
+is not very chancy.'--And now, as ye say ye had sae little to eat or
+drink, I'll let you see that I havena been sae unmindfu' o' you; for I
+dinna think it's safe for young folk to gang to their bed on an empty
+stamach."
+
+To do Mrs Wilson justice, her nocturnal harangues upon such occasions not
+unfrequently terminated with this sage apophthegm, which always prefaced
+the producing of some provision a little better than ordinary, such as
+she now placed before him. In fact, the principal object of her
+maundering was to display her consequence and love of power; for Mrs
+Wilson was not, at the bottom, an illtempered woman, and certainly loved
+her old and young master (both of whom she tormented extremely) better
+than any one else in the world. She now eyed Mr Henry, as she called him,
+with great complacency, as he partook of her good cheer.
+
+"Muckle gude may it do ye, my bonny man. I trow ye dinna get sic a
+skirl-in-the-pan as that at Niel Blane's. His wife was a canny body, and
+could dress things very weel for ane in her line o' business, but no like
+a gentleman's housekeeper, to be sure. But I doubt the daughter's a silly
+thing--an unco cockernony she had busked on her head at the kirk last
+Sunday. I am doubting that there will be news o' a' thae braws. But my
+auld een's drawing thegither--dinna hurry yoursell, my bonny man, tak
+mind about the putting out the candle, and there's a horn of ale, and a
+glass of clow-gillie-flower water; I dinna gie ilka body that; I keep it
+for a pain I hae whiles in my ain stamach, and it's better for your young
+blood than brandy. Sae, gude-night to ye, Mr Henry, and see that ye tak
+gude care o' the candle."
+
+Morton promised to attend punctually to her caution, and requested her
+not to be alarmed if she heard the door opened, as she knew he must
+again, as usual, look to his horse, and arrange him for the night. Mrs
+Wilson then retreated, and Morton, folding up his provisions, was about
+to hasten to his guest, when the nodding head of the old housekeeper was
+again thrust in at the door, with an admonition, to remember to take an
+account of his ways before he laid himself down to rest, and to pray for
+protection during the hours of darkness.
+
+Such were the manners of a certain class of domestics, once common in
+Scotland, and perhaps still to be found in some old manor-houses in its
+remote counties. They were fixtures in the family they belonged to; and
+as they never conceived the possibility of such a thing as dismissal to
+be within the chances of their lives, they were, of course, sincerely
+attached to every member of it. [Note: A masculine retainer of this kind,
+having offended his master extremely, was commanded to leave his service
+instantly. "In troth and that will I not," answered the domestic; "if
+your honour disna ken when ye hae a gude servant, I ken when I hae a gude
+master, and go away I will not." On another occasion of the same nature,
+the master said, "John, you and I shall never sleep under the same roof
+again;" to which John replied, with much, "Whare the deil can your honour
+be ganging?"] On the other hand, when spoiled by the indulgence or
+indolence of their superiors, they were very apt to become ill-tempered,
+self-sufficient, and tyrannical; so much so, that a mistress or master
+would sometimes almost have wished to exchange their crossgrained
+fidelity for the smooth and accommodating duplicity of a modern menial.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER VI.
+
+               Yea, this man's brow, like to a tragic leaf,
+               Foretells the nature of a tragic volume.
+                                                  Shakspeare.
+
+Being at length rid of the housekeeper's presence, Morton made a
+collection of what he had reserved from the provisions set before him,
+and prepared to carry them to his concealed guest. He did not think it
+necessary to take a light, being perfectly acquainted with every turn of
+the road; and it was lucky he did not do so, for he had hardly stepped
+beyond the threshold ere a heavy trampling of horses announced, that the
+body of cavalry, whose kettle-drums [Note: Regimental music is never
+played at night. But who can assure us that such was not the custom in
+Charles the Second's time? Till I am well informed on this point, the
+kettle-drums shall clash on, as adding something to the picturesque
+effect of the night march.] they had before heard, were in the act of
+passing along the high-road which winds round the foot of the bank on
+which the house of Milnwood was placed. He heard the commanding officer
+distinctly give the word halt. A pause of silence followed, interrupted
+only by the occasional neighing or pawing of an impatient charger.
+
+"Whose house is this?" said a voice, in a tone of authority and command.
+
+"Milnwood, if it like your honour," was the reply.
+
+"Is the owner well affected?" said the enquirer.
+
+"He complies with the orders of government, and frequents an indulged
+minister," was the response.
+
+"Hum! ay! indulged? a mere mask for treason, very impolitically allowed
+to those who are too great cowards to wear their principles barefaced.--
+Had we not better send up a party and search the house, in case some of
+the bloody villains concerned in this heathenish butchery may be
+concealed in it?"
+
+Ere Morton could recover from the alarm into which this proposal had
+thrown him, a third speaker rejoined, "I cannot think it at all
+necessary; Milnwood is an infirm, hypochondriac old man, who never
+meddles with politics, and loves his moneybags and bonds better than any
+thing else in the world. His nephew, I hear, was at the wappenschaw
+to-day, and gained the popinjay, which does not look like a fanatic. I
+should think they are all gone to bed long since, and an alarm at this
+time of night might kill the poor old man."
+
+"Well," rejoined the leader, "if that be so, to search the house would be
+lost time, of which we have but little to throw away. Gentlemen of the
+Life-Guards, forward--March!"
+
+A few notes on the trumpet, mingled with the occasional boom of the
+kettle-drum, to mark the cadence, joined with the tramp of hoofs and the
+clash of arms, announced that the troop had resumed its march. The moon
+broke out as the leading files of the column attained a hill up which the
+road winded, and showed indistinctly the glittering of the steel-caps;
+and the dark figures of the horses and riders might be imperfectly traced
+through the gloom. They continued to advance up the hill, and sweep over
+the top of it in such long succession, as intimated a considerable
+numerical force.
+
+When the last of them had disappeared, young Morton resumed his purpose
+of visiting his guest. Upon entering the place of refuge, he found him
+seated on his humble couch with a pocket Bible open in his hand, which he
+seemed to study with intense meditation. His broadsword, which he had
+unsheathed in the first alarm at the arrival of the dragoons, lay naked
+across his knees, and the little taper that stood beside him upon the old
+chest, which served the purpose of a table, threw a partial and imperfect
+light upon those stern and harsh features, in which ferocity was rendered
+more solemn and dignified by a wild cast of tragic enthusiasm. His brow
+was that of one in whom some strong o'ermastering principle has
+overwhelmed all other passions and feelings, like the swell of a high
+spring-tide, when the usual cliffs and breakers vanish from the eye, and
+their existence is only indicated by the chasing foam of the waves that
+burst and wheel over them. He raised his head, after Morton had
+contemplated him for about a minute.
+
+"I perceive," said Morton, looking at his sword, "that you heard the
+horsemen ride by; their passage delayed me for some minutes."
+
+"I scarcely heeded them," said Balfour; "my hour is not yet come. That I
+shall one day fall into their hands, and be honourably associated with
+the saints whom they have slaughtered, I am full well aware. And I would,
+young man, that the hour were come; it should be as welcome to me as ever
+wedding to bridegroom. But if my Master has more work for me on earth, I
+must not do his labour grudgingly."
+
+"Eat and refresh yourself," said Morton; "tomorrow your safety requires
+you should leave this place, in order to gain the hills, so soon as you
+can see to distinguish the track through the morasses."
+
+"Young man," returned Balfour, "you are already weary of me, and would be
+yet more so, perchance, did you know the task upon which I have been
+lately put. And I wonder not that it should be so, for there are times
+when I am weary of myself. Think you not it is a sore trial for flesh and
+blood, to be called upon to execute the righteous judgments of Heaven
+while we are yet in the body, and continue to retain that blinded sense
+and sympathy for carnal suffering, which makes our own flesh thrill when
+we strike a gash upon the body of another? And think you, that when some
+prime tyrant has been removed from his place, that the instruments of his
+punishment can at all times look back on their share in his downfall with
+firm and unshaken nerves? Must they not sometimes even question the truth
+of that inspiration which they have felt and acted under? Must they not
+sometimes doubt the origin of that strong impulse with which their
+prayers for heavenly direction under difficulties have been inwardly
+answered and confirmed, and confuse, in their disturbed apprehensions,
+the responses of Truth itself with some strong delusion of the enemy?"
+
+"These are subjects, Mr Balfour, on which I am ill qualified to converse
+with you," answered Morton; "but I own I should strongly doubt the origin
+of any inspiration which seemed to dictate a line of conduct contrary to
+those feelings of natural humanity, which Heaven has assigned to us as
+the general law of our conduct."
+
+Balfour seemed somewhat disturbed, and drew himself hastily up, but
+immediately composed himself, and answered coolly, "It is natural you
+should think so; you are yet in the dungeon-house of the law, a pit
+darker than that into which Jeremiah was plunged, even the dungeon of
+Malcaiah the son of Hamelmelech, where there was no water but mire. Yet
+is the seal of the covenant upon your forehead, and the son of the
+righteous, who resisted to blood where the banner was spread on the
+mountains, shall not be utterly lost, as one of the children of darkness.
+Trow ye, that in this day of bitterness and calamity, nothing is required
+at our hands but to keep the moral law as far as our carnal frailty will
+permit? Think ye our conquests must be only over our corrupt and evil
+affections and passions? No; we are called upon, when we have girded up
+our loins, to run the race boldly, and when we have drawn the sword, we
+are enjoined to smite the ungodly, though he be our neighbour, and the
+man of power and cruelty, though he were of our own kindred, and the
+friend of our own bosom."
+
+"These are the sentiments," said Morton, "that your enemies impute to
+you, and which palliate, if they do not vindicate, the cruel measures
+which the council have directed against you. They affirm, that you
+pretend to derive your rule of action from what you call an inward light,
+rejecting the restraints of legal magistracy, of national law, and even
+of common humanity, when in opposition to what you call the spirit within
+you."
+
+"They do us wrong," answered the Covenanter; "it is they, perjured as
+they are, who have rejected all law, both divine and civil, and who now
+persecute us for adherence to the Solemn League and Covenant between God
+and the kingdom of Scotland, to which all of them, save a few popish
+malignants, have sworn in former days, and which they now burn in the
+market-places, and tread under foot in derision. When this Charles
+Stewart returned to these kingdoms, did the malignants bring him back?
+They had tried it with strong hand, but they failed, I trow. Could James
+Grahame of Montrose, and his Highland caterans, have put him again in the
+place of his father? I think their heads on the Westport told another
+tale for many a long day. It was the workers of the glorious work--the
+reformers of the beauty of the tabernacle, that called him again to the
+high place from which his father fell. And what has been our reward? In
+the words of the prophet, 'We looked for peace, but no good came; and for
+a time of health, and behold trouble--The snorting of his horses was
+heard from Dan; the whole land trembled at the sound of the neighing of
+his strong ones; for they are come, and have devoured the land and all
+that is in it.'"
+
+"Mr Balfour," answered Morton, "I neither undertake to subscribe to or
+refute your complaints against the government. I have endeavoured to
+repay a debt due to the comrade of my father, by giving you shelter in
+your distress, but you will excuse me from engaging myself either in your
+cause, or in controversy. I will leave you to repose, and heartily wish
+it were in my power to render your condition more comfortable."
+
+"But I shall see you, I trust, in the morning, ere I depart?--I am not a
+man whose bowels yearn after kindred and friends of this world. When I
+put my hand to the plough, I entered into a covenant with my worldly
+affections that I should not look back on the things I left behind me.
+Yet the son of mine ancient comrade is to me as mine own, and I cannot
+behold him without the deep and firm belief, that I shall one day see him
+gird on his sword in the dear and precious cause for which his father
+fought and bled."
+
+With a promise on Morton's part that he would call the refugee when it
+was time for him to pursue his journey, they parted for the night.
+
+Morton retired to a few hours' rest; but his imagination, disturbed by
+the events of the day, did not permit him to enjoy sound repose. There
+was a blended vision of horror before him, in which his new friend seemed
+to be a principal actor. The fair form of Edith Bellenden also mingled in
+his dream, weeping, and with dishevelled hair, and appearing to call on
+him for comfort and assistance, which he had not in his power to render.
+He awoke from these unrefreshing slumbers with a feverish impulse, and a
+heart which foreboded disaster. There was already a tinge of dazzling
+lustre on the verge of the distant hills, and the dawn was abroad in all
+the freshness of a summer morning.
+
+"I have slept too long," he exclaimed to himself, "and must now hasten to
+forward the journey of this unfortunate fugitive."
+
+He dressed himself as fast as possible, opened the door of the house with
+as little noise as he could, and hastened to the place of refuge occupied
+by the Covenanter. Morton entered on tiptoe, for the determined tone and
+manner, as well as the unusual language and sentiments of this singular
+individual, had struck him with a sensation approaching to awe. Balfour
+was still asleep. A ray of light streamed on his uncurtained couch, and
+showed to Morton the working of his harsh features, which seemed agitated
+by some strong internal cause of disturbance. He had not undressed. Both
+his arms were above the bed-cover, the right hand strongly clenched, and
+occasionally making that abortive attempt to strike which usually attends
+dreams of violence; the left was extended, and agitated, from time to
+time, by a movement as if repulsing some one. The perspiration stood on
+his brow, "like bubbles in a late disturbed stream," and these marks of
+emotion were accompanied with broken words which escaped from him at
+intervals--"Thou art taken, Judas--thou art taken--Cling not to my knees
+--cling not to my knees--hew him down!--A priest? Ay, a priest of Baal,
+to be bound and slain, even at the brook Kishon.--Fire arms will not
+prevail against him--Strike--thrust with the cold iron--put him out of
+pain--put him out of pain, were it but for the sake of his grey hairs."
+
+Much alarmed at the import of these expressions, which seemed to burst
+from him even in sleep with the stern energy accompanying the
+perpetration of some act of violence, Morton shook his guest by the
+shoulder in order to awake him. The first words he uttered were, "Bear me
+where ye will, I will avouch the deed!"
+
+His glance around having then fully awakened him, he at once assumed all
+the stern and gloomy composure of his ordinary manner, and throwing
+himself on his knees, before speaking to Morton, poured forth an
+ejaculatory prayer for the suffering Church of Scotland, entreating that
+the blood of her murdered saints and martyrs might be precious in the
+sight of Heaven, and that the shield of the Almighty might be spread over
+the scattered remnant, who, for His name's sake, were abiders in the
+wilderness. Vengeance--speedy and ample vengeance on the oppressors, was
+the concluding petition of his devotions, which he expressed aloud in
+strong and emphatic language, rendered more impressive by the Orientalism
+of Scripture.
+
+When he had finished his prayer he arose, and, taking Morton by the arm,
+they descended together to the stable, where the Wanderer (to give Burley
+a title which was often conferred on his sect) began to make his horse
+ready to pursue his journey. When the animal was saddled and bridled,
+Burley requested Morton to walk with him a gun-shot into the wood, and
+direct him to the right road for gaining the moors. Morton readily
+complied, and they walked for some time in silence under the shade of
+some fine old trees, pursuing a sort of natural path, which, after
+passing through woodland for about half a mile, led into the bare and
+wild country which extends to the foot of the hills.
+
+There was little conversation between them, until at length Burley
+suddenly asked Morton, "Whether the words he had spoken over-night had
+borne fruit in his mind?"
+
+Morton answered, "That he remained of the same opinion which he had
+formerly held, and was determined, at least as far and as long as
+possible, to unite the duties of a good Christian with those of a
+peaceful subject."
+
+"In other words," replied Burley, "you are desirous to serve both God and
+Mammon--to be one day professing the truth with your lips, and the next
+day in arms, at the command of carnal and tyrannic authority, to shed the
+blood of those who for the truth have forsaken all things? Think ye," he
+continued, "to touch pitch and remain undefiled? to mix in the ranks of
+malignants, papists, papa-prelatists, latitudinarians, and scoffers; to
+partake of their sports, which are like the meat offered unto idols; to
+hold intercourse, perchance, with their daughters, as the sons of God
+with the daughters of men in the world before the flood--Think you, I
+say, to do all these things, and yet remain free from pollution? I say
+unto you, that all communication with the enemies of the Church is the
+accursed thing which God hateth! Touch not--taste not--handle not! And
+grieve not, young man, as if you alone were called upon to subdue your
+carnal affections, and renounce the pleasures which are a snare to your
+feet--I say to you, that the Son of David hath denounced no better lot on
+the whole generation of mankind."
+
+He then mounted his horse, and, turning to Morton, repeated the text of
+Scripture, "An heavy yoke was ordained for the sons of Adam from the day
+they go out of their mother's womb, till the day that they return to the
+mother of all things; from him who is clothed in blue silk and weareth a
+crown, even to him who weareth simple linen,--wrath, envy, trouble, and
+unquietness, rigour, strife, and fear of death in the time of rest."
+
+Having uttered these words he set his horse in motion, and soon
+disappeared among the boughs of the forest.
+
+"Farewell, stern enthusiast," said Morton, looking after him; "in some
+moods of my mind, how dangerous would be the society of such a companion!
+If I am unmoved by his zeal for abstract doctrines of faith, or rather
+for a peculiar mode of worship, (such was the purport of his
+reflections,) can I be a man, and a Scotchman, and look with indifference
+on that persecution which has made wise men mad? Was not the cause of
+freedom, civil and religious, that for which my father fought; and shall
+I do well to remain inactive, or to take the part of an oppressive
+government, if there should appear any rational prospect of redressing
+the insufferable wrongs to which my miserable countrymen are subjected?--
+And yet, who shall warrant me that these people, rendered wild by
+persecution, would not, in the hour of victory, be as cruel and as
+intolerant as those by whom they are now hunted down? What degree of
+moderation, or of mercy, can be expected from this Burley, so
+distinguished as one of their principal champions, and who seems even now
+to be reeking from some recent deed of violence, and to feel stings of
+remorse, which even his enthusiasm cannot altogether stifle? I am weary
+of seeing nothing but violence and fury around me--now assuming the mask
+of lawful authority, now taking that of religious zeal. I am sick of my
+country--of myself--of my dependent situation--of my repressed feelings--
+of these woods--of that river--of that house--of all but--Edith, and she
+can never be mine! Why should I haunt her walks?--Why encourage my own
+delusion, and perhaps hers?--She can never be mine. Her grandmother's
+pride--the opposite principles of our families--my wretched state of
+dependence--a poor miserable slave, for I have not even the wages of a
+servant--all circumstances give the lie to the vain hope that we can ever
+be united. Why then protract a delusion so painful?
+
+"But I am no slave," he said aloud, and drawing himself up to his full
+stature--"no slave, in one respect, surely. I can change my abode--my
+father's sword is mine, and Europe lies open before me, as before him and
+hundreds besides of my countrymen, who have filled it with the fame of
+their exploits. Perhaps some lucky chance may raise me to a rank with our
+Ruthvens, our Lesleys, our Monroes, the chosen leaders of the famous
+Protestant champion, Gustavus Adolphus, or, if not, a soldier's life or a
+soldier's grave."
+
+When he had formed this determination, he found himself near the door of
+his uncle's house, and resolved to lose no time in making him acquainted
+with it.
+
+"Another glance of Edith's eye, another walk by Edith's side, and my
+resolution would melt away. I will take an irrevocable step, therefore,
+and then see her for the last time."
+
+In this mood he entered the wainscotted parlour, in which his uncle was
+already placed at his morning's refreshment, a huge plate of oatmeal
+porridge, with a corresponding allowance of butter-milk. The favourite
+housekeeper was in attendance, half standing, half resting on the back of
+a chair, in a posture betwixt freedom and respect. The old gentleman had
+been remarkably tall in his earlier days, an advantage which he now lost
+by stooping to such a degree, that at a meeting, where there was some
+dispute concerning the sort of arch which should be thrown over a
+considerable brook, a facetious neighbour proposed to offer Milnwood a
+handsome sum for his curved backbone, alleging that he would sell any
+thing that belonged to him. Splay feet of unusual size, long thin hands,
+garnished with nails which seldom felt the steel, a wrinkled and puckered
+visage, the length of which corresponded with that of his person,
+together with a pair of little sharp bargain-making grey eyes, that
+seemed eternally looking out for their advantage, completed the highly
+unpromising exterior of Mr Morton of Milnwood. As it would have been very
+injudicious to have lodged a liberal or benevolent disposition in such an
+unworthy cabinet, nature had suited his person with a mind exactly in
+conformity with it, that is to say, mean, selfish, and covetous.
+
+When this amiable personage was aware of the presence of his nephew, he
+hastened, before addressing him, to swallow the spoonful of porridge
+which he was in the act of conveying to his mouth, and, as it chanced to
+be scalding hot, the pain occasioned by its descent down his throat and
+into his stomach, inflamed the ill-humour with which he was already
+prepared to meet his kinsman.
+
+"The deil take them that made them!" was his first ejaculation,
+apostrophizing his mess of porridge.
+
+"They're gude parritch eneugh," said Mrs Wilson, "if ye wad but take time
+to sup them. I made them mysell; but if folk winna hae patience, they
+should get their thrapples causewayed."
+
+"Haud your peace, Alison! I was speaking to my nevoy.--How is this, sir?
+And what sort o' scampering gates are these o' going on? Ye were not at
+hame last night till near midnight."
+
+"Thereabouts, sir, I believe," answered Morton, in an indifferent tone.
+
+"Thereabouts, sir?--What sort of an answer is that, sir? Why came ye na
+hame when other folk left the grund?"
+
+"I suppose you know the reason very well, sir," said Morton; "I had the
+fortune to be the best marksman of the day, and remained, as is usual, to
+give some little entertainment to the other young men."
+
+"The deevil ye did, sir! And ye come to tell me that to my face? You
+pretend to gie entertainments, that canna come by a dinner except by
+sorning on a carefu' man like me? But if ye put me to charges, I'se work
+it out o'ye. I seena why ye shouldna haud the pleugh, now that the
+pleughman has left us; it wad set ye better than wearing thae green duds,
+and wasting your siller on powther and lead; it wad put ye in an honest
+calling, and wad keep ye in bread without being behadden to ony ane."
+
+"I am very ambitious of learning such a calling, sir, but I don't
+understand driving the plough."
+
+"And what for no? It's easier than your gunning and archery that ye like
+sae weel. Auld Davie is ca'ing it e'en now, and ye may be goadsman for
+the first twa or three days, and tak tent ye dinna o'erdrive the owsen,
+and then ye will be fit to gang betweeu the stilts. Ye'll ne'er learn
+younger, I'll be your caution. Haggie-holm is heavy land, and Davie is
+ower auld to keep the coulter down now."
+
+"I beg pardon for interrupting you, sir, but I have formed a scheme for
+myself, which will have the same effect of relieving you of the burden
+and charge attending my company."
+
+"Ay? Indeed? a scheme o' yours? that must be a denty ane!" said the
+uncle, with a very peculiar sneer; "let's hear about it, lad."
+
+"It is said in two words, sir. I intend to leave this country, and serve
+abroad, as my father did before these unhappy troubles broke out at home.
+His name will not be so entirely forgotten in the countries where he
+served, but that it will procure his son at least the opportunity of
+trying his fortune as a soldier."
+
+"Gude be gracious to us!" exclaimed the housekeeper; "our young Mr Harry
+gang abroad? na, na! eh, na! that maun never be."
+
+Milnwood, entertaining no thought or purpose of parting with his nephew,
+who was, moreover, very useful to him in many respects, was thunderstruck
+at this abrupt declaration of independence from a person whose deference
+to him had hitherto been unlimited. He recovered himself, however,
+immediately.
+
+"And wha do you think is to give you the means, young man, for such a
+wild-goose chase? Not I, I am sure. I can hardly support you at hame. And
+ye wad be marrying, I'se warrant, as your father did afore ye, too, and
+sending your uncle hame a pack o' weans to be fighting and skirling
+through the house in my auld days, and to take wing and flee aff like
+yoursell, whenever they were asked to serve a turn about the town?"
+
+"I have no thoughts of ever marrying," answered Henry.
+
+"Hear till him now!" said the housekeeper. "It's a shame to hear a douce
+young lad speak in that way, since a' the warld kens that they maun
+either marry or do waur."
+
+"Haud your peace, Alison," said her master; "and you, Harry," (he added
+more mildly,) "put this nonsense out o' your head--this comes o' letting
+ye gang a-sodgering for a day--mind ye hae nae siller, lad, for ony sic
+nonsense plans."
+
+"I beg your pardon, sir, my wants shall be very few; and would you please
+to give me the gold chain, which the Margrave gave to my father after the
+battle of Lutzen"--"Mercy on us! the gowd chain?" exclaimed his uncle.
+
+"The chain of gowd!" re-echoed the housekeeper, both aghast with
+astonishment at the audacity of the proposal.
+
+--"I will keep a few links," continued the young man, "to remind me of
+him by whom it was won, and the place where he won it," continued Morton;
+"the rest shall furnish me the means of following the same career in
+which my father obtained that mark of distinction."
+
+"Mercifu' powers!" exclaimed the governante, "my master wears it every
+Sunday!"
+
+"Sunday and Saturday," added old Milnwood, "whenever I put on my black
+velvet coat; and Wylie Mactrickit is partly of opinion it's a kind of
+heir-loom, that rather belangs to the head of the house than to the
+immediate descendant. It has three thousand links; I have counted them a
+thousand times. It's worth three hundred pounds sterling."
+
+"That is more than I want, sir; if you choose to give me the third part
+of the money, and five links of the chain, it will amply serve my
+purpose, and the rest will be some slight atonement for the expense and
+trouble I have put you to."
+
+"The laddie's in a creel!" exclaimed his uncle. "O, sirs, what will
+become o' the rigs o' Milnwood when I am dead and gane! He would fling
+the crown of Scotland awa, if he had it."
+
+"Hout, sir," said the old housekeeper, "I maun e'en say it's partly your
+ain faut. Ye maunna curb his head ower sair in neither; and, to be sure,
+since he has gane doun to the Howff, ye maun just e'en pay the lawing."
+
+"If it be not abune twa dollars, Alison," said the old gentleman, very
+reluctantly.
+
+"I'll settle it myself wi'Niel Blane, the first time I gang down to the
+clachan," said Alison, "cheaper than your honour or Mr Harry can do;" and
+then whispered to Henry, "Dinna vex him onymair; I'll pay the lave out o'
+the butter siller, and nae mair words about it." Then proceeding aloud,
+"And ye maunna speak o' the young gentleman hauding the pleugh; there's
+puir distressed whigs enow about the country will be glad to do that for
+a bite and a soup--it sets them far better than the like o' him."
+
+"And then we'll hae the dragoons on us," said Milnwood, "for comforting
+and entertaining intercommuned rebels; a bonny strait ye wad put us in!--
+But take your breakfast, Harry, and then lay by your new green coat, and
+put on your Raploch grey; it's a mair mensfu' and thrifty dress, and a
+mair seemly sight, than thae dangling slops and ribbands."
+
+Morton left the room, perceiving plainly that he had at present no chance
+of gaining his purpose, and, perhaps, not altogether displeased at the
+obstacles which seemed to present themselves to his leaving the
+neighbourhood of Tillietudlem. The housekeeper followed him into the next
+room, patting him on the back, and bidding him "be a gude bairn, and pit
+by his braw things."
+
+"And I'll loop doun your hat, and lay by the band and ribband," said the
+officious dame; "and ye maun never, at no hand, speak o' leaving the
+land, or of selling the gowd chain, for your uncle has an unco pleasure
+in looking on you, and in counting the links of the chainzie; and ye ken
+auld folk canna last for ever; sae the chain, and the lands, and a' will
+be your ain ae day; and ye may marry ony leddy in the country-side ye
+like, and keep a braw house at Milnwood, for there's enow o' means; and
+is not that worth waiting for, my dow?"
+
+There was something in the latter part of the prognostic which sounded so
+agreeably in the ears of Morton, that he shook the old dame cordially by
+the hand, and assured her he was much obliged by her good advice, and
+would weigh it carefully before he proceeded to act upon his former
+resolution.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER VII.
+
+               From seventeen years till now, almost fourscore,
+               Here lived I, but now live here no more.
+               At seventeen years many their fortunes seek,
+               But at fourscore it is too late a week.
+                                                  As You Like it.
+
+We must conduct our readers to the Tower of Tillietudlem, to which Lady
+Margaret Bellenden had returned, in romantic phrase, malecontent and full
+of heaviness, at the unexpected, and, as she deemed it, indelible
+affront, which had been brought upon her dignity by the public
+miscarriage of Goose Gibbie. That unfortunate man-at-arms was forthwith
+commanded to drive his feathered charge to the most remote parts of the
+common moor, and on no account to awaken the grief or resentment of his
+lady, by appearing in her presence while the sense of the affront was yet
+recent.
+
+The next proceeding of Lady Margaret was to hold a solemn court of
+justice, to which Harrison and the butler were admitted, partly on the
+footing of witnesses, partly as assessors, to enquire into the recusancy
+of Cuddie Headrigg the ploughman, and the abetment which he had received
+from his mother--these being regarded as the original causes of the
+disaster which had befallen the chivalry of Tillietudlem. The charge
+being fully made out and substantiated, Lady Margaret resolved to
+reprimand the culprits in person, and, if she found them impenitent, to
+extend the censure into a sentence of expulsion from the barony. Miss
+Bellenden alone ventured to say any thing in behalf of the accused, but
+her countenance did not profit them as it might have done on any other
+occasion. For so soon as Edith had heard it ascertained that the
+unfortunate cavalier had not suffered in his person, his disaster had
+affected her with an irresistible disposition to laugh, which, in spite
+of Lady Margaret's indignation, or rather irritated, as usual, by
+restraint, had broke out repeatedly on her return homeward, until her
+grandmother, in no shape imposed upon by the several fictitious causes
+which the young lady assigned for her ill-timed risibility, upbraided her
+in very bitter terms with being insensible to the honour of her family.
+Miss Bellenden's intercession, therefore, had, on this occasion, little
+or no chance to be listened to.
+
+As if to evince the rigour of her disposition, Lady Margaret, on this
+solemn occasion, exchanged the ivory-headed cane with which she commonly
+walked, for an immense gold-headed staff which had belonged to her
+father, the deceased Earl of Torwood, and which, like a sort of mace of
+office, she only made use of on occasions of special solemnity. Supported
+by this awful baton of command, Lady Margaret Bellenden entered the
+cottage of the delinquents.
+
+There was an air of consciousness about old Mause, as she rose from her
+wicker chair in the chimney-nook, not with the cordial alertness of
+visage which used, on other occasions, to express the honour she felt in
+the visit of her lady, but with a certain solemnity and embarrassment,
+like an accused party on his first appearance in presence of his judge,
+before whom he is, nevertheless, determined to assert his innocence. Her
+arms were folded, her mouth primmed into an expression of respect,
+mingled with obstinacy, her whole mind apparently bent up to the solemn
+interview. With her best curtsey to the ground, and a mute motion of
+reverence, Mause pointed to the chair, which, on former occasions, Lady
+Margaret (for the good lady was somewhat of a gossip) had deigned to
+occupy for half an hour sometimes at a time, hearing the news of the
+county and of the borough. But at present her mistress was far too
+indignant for such condescension. She rejected the mute invitation with a
+haughty wave of her hand, and drawing herself up as she spoke, she
+uttered the following interrogatory in a tone calculated to overwhelm the
+culprit.
+
+"Is it true, Mause, as I am informed by Harrison, Gudyill, and others of
+my people, that you hae taen it upon you, contrary to the faith you owe
+to God and the king, and to me, your natural lady and mistress, to keep
+back your son frae the wappen-schaw, held by the order of the sheriff,
+and to return his armour and abulyiements at a moment when it was
+impossible to find a suitable delegate in his stead, whereby the barony
+of Tullietudlem, baith in the person of its mistress and indwellers, has
+incurred sic a disgrace and dishonour as hasna befa'en the family since
+the days of Malcolm Canmore?"
+
+Mause's habitual respect for her mistress was extreme; she hesitated, and
+one or two short coughs expressed the difficulty she had in defending
+herself.
+
+"I am sure--my leddy--hem, hem!--I am sure I am sorry--very sorry that
+ony cause of displeasure should hae occurred--but my son's illness"--
+"Dinna tell me of your son's illness, Mause! Had he been sincerely
+unweel, ye would hae been at the Tower by daylight to get something that
+wad do him gude; there are few ailments that I havena medical recipes
+for, and that ye ken fu' weel."
+
+"O ay, my leddy! I am sure ye hae wrought wonderful cures; the last thing
+ye sent Cuddie, when he had the batts, e'en wrought like a charm."
+
+"Why, then, woman, did ye not apply to me, if there was only real need?--
+but there was none, ye fause-hearted vassal that ye are!"
+
+"Your leddyship never ca'd me sic a word as that before. Ohon! that I
+suld live to be ca'd sae," she continued, bursting into tears, "and me a
+born servant o' the house o' Tillietudlem! I am sure they belie baith
+Cuddie and me sair, if they said he wadna fight ower the boots in blude
+for your leddyship and Miss Edith, and the auld Tower--ay suld he, and I
+would rather see him buried beneath it, than he suld gie way--but thir
+ridings and wappenschawings, my leddy, I hae nae broo o' them ava. I can
+find nae warrant for them whatsoever."
+
+"Nae warrant for them?" cried the high-born dame. "Do ye na ken, woman,
+that ye are bound to be liege vassals in all hunting, hosting, watching,
+and warding, when lawfully summoned thereto in my name? Your service is
+not gratuitous. I trow ye hae land for it.--Ye're kindly tenants; hae a
+cot-house, a kale-yard, and a cow's grass on the common.--Few hae been
+brought farther ben, and ye grudge your son suld gie me a day's service
+in the field?"
+
+"Na, my leddy--na, my leddy, it's no that," exclaimed Mause, greatly
+embarrassed, "but ane canna serve twa maisters; and, if the truth maun
+e'en come out, there's Ane abune whase commands I maun obey before your
+leddyship's. I am sure I would put neither king's nor kaisar's, nor ony
+earthly creature's, afore them."
+
+"How mean ye by that, ye auld fule woman?--D'ye think that I order ony
+thing against conscience?"
+
+"I dinna pretend to say that, my leddy, in regard o' your leddyship's
+conscience, which has been brought up, as it were, wi' prelatic
+principles; but ilka ane maun walk by the light o' their ain; and mine,"
+said Mause, waxing bolder as the conference became animated, "tells me
+that I suld leave a'--cot, kale-yard, and cow's grass--and suffer a',
+rather than that I or mine should put on harness in an unlawfu' cause,"
+
+"Unlawfu'!" exclaimed her mistress; "the cause to which you are called by
+your lawful leddy and mistress--by the command of the king--by the writ
+of the privy council--by the order of the lordlieutenant--by the warrant
+of the sheriff?"
+
+"Ay, my leddy, nae doubt; but no to displeasure your leddyship, ye'll
+mind that there was ance a king in Scripture they ca'd Nebuchadnezzar,
+and he set up a golden image in the plain o' Dura, as it might be in the
+haugh yonder by the water-side, where the array were warned to meet
+yesterday; and the princes, and the governors, and the captains, and the
+judges themsells, forby the treasurers, the counsellors, and the
+sheriffs, were warned to the dedication thereof, and commanded to fall
+down and worship at the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut,
+psaltery, and all kinds of music."
+
+"And what o' a' this, ye fule wife? Or what had Nebuchadnezzar to do with
+the wappen-schaw of the Upper Ward of Clydesdale?"
+
+"Only just thus far, my leddy," continued Mause, firmly, "that prelacy is
+like the great golden image in the plain of Dura, and that as Shadrach,
+Meshach, and Abednego, were borne out in refusing to bow down and
+worship, so neither shall Cuddy Headrigg, your leddyship's poor
+pleughman, at least wi' his auld mither's consent, make murgeons or
+Jenny-flections, as they ca' them, in the house of the prelates and
+curates, nor gird him wi' armour to fight in their cause, either at the
+sound of kettle-drums, organs, bagpipes, or ony other kind of music
+whatever."
+
+Lady Margaret Bellenden heard this exposition of Scripture with the
+greatest possible indignation, as well as surprise.
+
+"I see which way the wind blaws," she exclaimed, after a pause of
+astonishment; "the evil spirit of the year sixteen hundred and forty-twa
+is at wark again as merrily as ever, and ilka auld wife in the
+chimley-neuck will be for knapping doctrine wi' doctors o' divinity and
+the godly fathers o' the church."
+
+"If your leddyship means the bishops and curates, I'm sure they hae been
+but stepfathers to the Kirk o' Scotland. And, since your leddyship is
+pleased to speak o' parting wi' us, I am free to tell you a piece o' my
+mind in another article. Your leddyship and the steward hae been pleased
+to propose that my son Cuddie suld work in the barn wi' a new-fangled
+machine [Note: Probably something similar to the barn-fanners now used
+for winnowing corn, which were not, however, used in their present shape
+until about 1730. They were objected to by the more rigid sectaries on
+their first introduction, upon such reasoning as that of honest Mause in
+the text.] for dighting the corn frae the chaff, thus impiously thwarting
+the will of Divine Providence, by raising wind for your leddyship's ain
+particular use by human art, instead of soliciting it by prayer, or
+waiting patiently for whatever dispensation of wind Providence was
+pleased to send upon the sheeling-hill. Now, my leddy"--"The woman would
+drive ony reasonable being daft!" said Lady Margaret; then resuming her
+tone of authority and indifference, she concluded, "Weel, Mause, I'll
+just end where I sud hae begun--ye're ower learned and ower godly for me
+to dispute wi'; sae I have just this to say,--either Cuddie must attend
+musters when he's lawfully warned by the ground officer, or the sooner he
+and you flit and quit my bounds the better; there's nae scarcity o' auld
+wives or ploughmen; but, if there were, I had rather that the rigs of
+Tillietudlem bare naething but windle-straes and sandy lavrocks [Note:
+Bent-grass and sand-larks.] than that they were ploughed by rebels to the
+king."
+
+"Aweel, my leddy," said Mause, "I was born here, and thought to die where
+my father died; and your leddyship has been a kind mistress, I'll ne'er
+deny that, and I'se ne'er cease to pray for you, and for Miss Edith, and
+that ye may be brought to see the error of your ways. But still"--"The
+error of my ways!" interrupted Lady Margaret, much incensed--"The error
+of my ways, ye uncivil woman?"
+
+"Ou, ay, my leddy, we are blinded that live in this valley of tears and
+darkness, and hae a' ower mony errors, grit folks as weel as sma'--but,
+as I said, my puir bennison will rest wi' you and yours wherever I am. I
+will be wae to hear o' your affliction, and blithe to hear o' your
+prosperity, temporal and spiritual. But I canna prefer the commands of an
+earthly mistress to those of a heavenly master, and sae I am e'en ready
+to suffer for righteousness' sake."
+
+"It is very well," said Lady Margaret, turning her back in great
+displeasure; "ye ken my will, Mause, in the matter. I'll hae nae whiggery
+in the barony of Tillietudlem--the next thing wad be to set up a
+conventicle in my very withdrawing room."
+
+Having said this, she departed, with an air of great dignity; and Mause,
+giving way to feelings which she had suppressed during the interview,--
+for she, like her mistress, had her own feeling of pride,--now lifted up
+her voice and wept aloud.
+
+Cuddie, whose malady, real or pretended, still detained him in bed, lay
+perdu during all this conference, snugly ensconced within his boarded
+bedstead, and terrified to death lest Lady Margaret, whom he held in
+hereditary reverence, should have detected his presence, and bestowed on
+him personally some of those bitter reproaches with which she loaded his
+mother. But as soon as he thought her ladyship fairly out of hearing, he
+bounced up in his nest.
+
+"The foul fa' ye, that I suld say sae," he cried out to his mother, "for
+a lang-tongued clavering wife, as my father, honest man, aye ca'd ye!
+Couldna ye let the leddy alane wi' your whiggery? And I was e'en as great
+a gomeral to let ye persuade me to lie up here amang the blankets like a
+hurcheon, instead o' gaun to the wappen-schaw like other folk. Odd, but I
+put a trick on ye, for I was out at the window-bole when your auld back
+was turned, and awa down by to hae a baff at the popinjay, and I shot
+within twa on't. I cheated the leddy for your clavers, but I wasna gaun
+to cheat my joe. But she may marry whae she likes now, for I'm clean dung
+ower. This is a waur dirdum than we got frae Mr Gudyill when ye garr'd me
+refuse to eat the plum-porridge on Yule-eve, as if it were ony matter to
+God or man whether a pleughman had suppit on minched pies or sour
+sowens."
+
+"O, whisht, my bairn, whisht," replied Mause; "thou kensna about thae
+things--It was forbidden meat, things dedicated to set days and holidays,
+which are inhibited to the use of protestant Christians."
+
+"And now," continued her son, "ye hae brought the leddy hersell on our
+hands!--An I could but hae gotten some decent claes in, I wad hae spanged
+out o' bed, and tauld her I wad ride where she liked, night or day, an
+she wad but leave us the free house and the yaird, that grew the best
+early kale in the haill country, and the cow's grass."
+
+"O wow! my winsome bairn, Cuddie," continued the old dame, "murmur not at
+the dispensation; never grudge suffering in the gude cause."
+
+"But what ken I if the cause is gude or no, mither," rejoined Cuddie,
+"for a' ye bleeze out sae muckle doctrine about it? It's clean beyond my
+comprehension a'thegither. I see nae sae muckle difference atween the twa
+ways o't as a' the folk pretend. It's very true the curates read aye the
+same words ower again; and if they be right words, what for no? A gude
+tale's no the waur o' being twice tauld, I trow; and a body has aye the
+better chance to understand it. Every body's no sae gleg at the uptake as
+ye are yoursell, mither."
+
+"O, my dear Cuddie, this is the sairest distress of a'," said the anxious
+mother--"O, how aften have I shown ye the difference between a pure
+evangelical doctrine, and ane that's corrupt wi' human inventions? O, my
+bairn, if no for your ain saul's sake, yet for my grey hairs"--"Weel,
+mither," said Cuddie, interrupting her, "what need ye mak sae muckle din
+about it? I hae aye dune whate'er ye bade me, and gaed to kirk whare'er
+ye likit on the Sundays, and fended weel for ye in the ilka days besides.
+And that's what vexes me mair than a' the rest, when I think how I am to
+fend for ye now in thae brickle times. I am no clear if I can pleugh ony
+place but the Mains and Mucklewhame, at least I never tried ony other
+grund, and it wadna come natural to me. And nae neighbouring heritors
+will daur to take us, after being turned aff thae bounds for
+non-enormity."
+
+"Non-conformity, hinnie," sighed Mause, "is the name that thae warldly
+men gie us."
+
+"Weel, aweel--we'll hae to gang to a far country, maybe twall or fifteen
+miles aff. I could be a dragoon, nae doubt, for I can ride and play wi'
+the broadsword a bit, but ye wad be roaring about your blessing and your
+grey hairs." (Here Mause's exclamations became extreme.) "Weel, weel, I
+but spoke o't; besides, ye're ower auld to be sitting cocked up on a
+baggage-waggon wi' Eppie Dumblane, the corporal's wife. Sae what's to
+come o' us I canna weel see--I doubt I'll hae to tak the hills wi' the
+wild whigs, as they ca' them, and then it will be my lo to be shot down
+like a mawkin at some dikeside, or to be sent to heaven wi' a Saint
+Johnstone's tippit about my hause."
+
+"O, my bonnie Cuddie," said the zealous Mause, "forbear sic carnal,
+self-seeking language, whilk is just a misdoubting o' Providence--I have
+not seen the son of the righteous begging his bread, sae says the text;
+and your father was a douce honest man, though somewhat warldly in his
+dealings, and cumbered about earthly things, e'en like yoursell, my jo!"
+
+"Aweel," said Cuddie, after a little consideration, "I see but ae gate
+for't, and that's a cauld coal to blaw at, mither. Howsomever, mither, ye
+hae some guess o' a wee bit kindness that's atween Miss Edith and young
+Mr Henry Morton, that suld be ca'd young Milnwood, and that I hae whiles
+carried a bit book, or maybe a bit letter, quietly atween them, and made
+believe never to ken wha it cam frae, though I kend brawly. There's
+whiles convenience in a body looking a wee stupid--and I have aften seen
+them walking at e'en on the little path by Dinglewood-burn; but naebody
+ever kend a word about it frae Cuddie; I ken I'm gay thick in the head,
+but I'm as honest as our auld fore-hand ox, puir fallow, that I'll ne'er
+work ony mair--I hope they'll be as kind to him that come ahint me as I
+hae been.--But, as I was saying, we'll awa down to Milnwood and tell Mr
+Harry our distress They want a pleughman, and the grund's no unlike our
+ain--I am sure Mr Harry will stand my part, for he's a kind-hearted
+gentleman.--I'll get but little penny-fee, for his uncle, auld Nippie
+Milnwood, has as close a grip as the deil himsell. But we'l, aye win a
+bit bread, and a drap kale, and a fire-side and theeking ower our heads,
+and that's a' we'll want for a season.--Sae get up, mither, and sort your
+things to gang away; for since sae it is that gang we maun, I wad like
+ill to wait till Mr Harrison and auld Gudyill cam to pu' us out by the
+lug and the horn."
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER VIII.
+
+     The devil a puritan, or any thing else he is, but a time-server.
+                                                  Twelfth Night.
+
+It was evening when Mr Henry Morton perceived an old woman, wrapped in
+her tartan plaid, supported by a stout, stupid-looking fellow, in
+hoddin-grey, approach the house of Milnwood. Old Mause made her courtesy,
+but Cuddie took the lead in addressing Morton. Indeed, he had previously
+stipulated with his mother that he was to manage matters his own way; for
+though he readily allowed his general inferiority of understanding, and
+filially submitted to the guidance of his mother on most ordinary
+occasions, yet he said, "For getting a service, or getting forward in the
+warld, he could somegate gar the wee pickle sense he had gang muckle
+farther than hers, though she could crack like ony minister o' them a'."
+
+Accordingly, he thus opened the conversation with young Morton: "A braw
+night this for the rye, your honour; the west park will be breering
+bravely this e'en."
+
+"I do not doubt it, Cuddie; but what can have brought your mother--this
+is your mother, is it not?" (Cuddie nodded.) "What can have brought your
+mother and you down the water so late?"
+
+"Troth, stir, just what gars the auld wives trot--neshessity, stir--I'm
+seeking for service, stir."
+
+"For service, Cuddie, and at this time of the year? how comes that?"
+
+Mause could forbear no longer. Proud alike of her cause and her
+sufferings, she commenced with an affected humility of tone, "It has
+pleased Heaven, an it like your honour, to distinguish us by a
+visitation"--"Deil's in the wife and nae gude!" whispered Cuddie to his
+mother, "an ye come out wi' your whiggery, they'll no daur open a door to
+us through the haill country!" Then aloud and addressing Morton, "My
+mother's auld, stir, and she has rather forgotten hersell in speaking to
+my leddy, that canna weel bide to be contradickit, (as I ken nae-body
+likes it if they could help themsells,) especially by her ain folk,--and
+Mr Harrison the steward, and Gudyill the butler, they're no very fond o'
+us, and it's ill sitting at Rome and striving wi' the Pope; sae I thought
+it best to flit before ill came to waur--and here's a wee bit line to
+your honour frae a friend will maybe say some mair about it."
+
+Morton took the billet, and crimsoning up to the ears, between joy and
+surprise, read these words: "If you can serve these poor helpless people,
+you will oblige E. B."
+
+It was a few instants before he could attain composure enough to ask,
+"And what is your object, Cuddie? and how can I be of use to you?"
+
+"Wark, stir, wark, and a service, is my object--a bit beild for my mither
+and mysell--we hae gude plenishing o' our ain, if we had the cast o' a
+cart to bring it down--and milk and meal, and greens enow, for I'm gay
+gleg at meal-time, and sae is my mither, lang may it be sae--And, for the
+penny-fee and a' that, I'll just leave it to the laird and you. I ken
+ye'll no see a poor lad wranged, if ye can help it."
+
+Morton shook his head. "For the meat and lodging, Cuddie, I think I can
+promise something; but the penny-fee will be a hard chapter, I doubt."
+
+"I'll tak my chance o't, stir," replied the candidate for service,
+"rather than gang down about Hamilton, or ony sic far country."
+
+"Well; step into the kitchen, Cuddie, and I'll do what I can for you."
+
+The negotiation was not without difficulties. Morton had first to bring
+over the housekeeper, who made a thousand objections, as usual, in order
+to have the pleasure of being besought and entreated; but, when she was
+gained over, it was comparatively easy to induce old Milnwood to accept
+of a servant, whose wages were to be in his own option. An outhouse was,
+therefore, assigned to Mause and her son for their habitation, and it was
+settled that they were for the time to be admitted to eat of the frugal
+fare provided for the family, until their own establishment should be
+completed. As for Morton, he exhausted his own very slender stock of
+money in order to make Cuddie such a present, under the name of arles, as
+might show his sense of the value of the recommendation delivered to him.
+
+"And now we're settled ance mair," said: Cuddie to his mother, "and if
+we're no sae bien and comfortable as we were up yonder, yet life's life
+ony gate, and we're wi' decent kirk-ganging folk o' your ain persuasion,
+mither; there will be nae quarrelling about that."
+
+"Of my persuasion, hinnie!" said the too-enlightened Mause; "wae's me for
+thy blindness and theirs. O, Cuddie, they are but in the court of the
+Gentiles, and will ne'er win farther ben, I doubt; they are but little
+better than the prelatists themsells. They wait on the ministry of that
+blinded man, Peter Poundtext, ance a precious teacher of the Word, but
+now a backsliding pastor, that has, for the sake of stipend and family
+maintenance, forsaken the strict path, and gane astray after the black
+Indulgence. O, my son, had ye but profited by the gospel doctrines ye hae
+heard in the Glen of Bengonnar, frae the dear Richard Rumbleberry, that
+sweet youth, who suffered martyrdom in the Grassmarket, afore Candlemas!
+Didna ye hear him say, that Erastianism was as bad as Prelacy, and that
+the Indulgence was as bad as Erastianism?"
+
+"Heard ever ony body the like o' this!" interrupted Cuddie; "we'll be
+driven out o' house and ha' again afore we ken where to turn oursells.
+Weej, mither, I hae just ae word mair--An I hear ony mair o' your din--
+afore folk, that is, for I dinna mind your clavers mysell, they aye set
+me sleeping--but if I hear ony mair din afore folk, as I was saying,
+about Poundtexts and Rumbleberries, and doctrines and malignants, I'se
+e'en turn a single sodger mysell, or maybe a sergeant or a captain, if ye
+plague me the mair, and let Rumbleberry and you gang to the deil
+thegither. I ne'er gat ony gude by his doctrine, as ye ca't, but a sour
+fit o' the batts wi' sitting amang the wat moss-hags for four hours at a
+yoking, and the leddy cured me wi' some hickery-pickery; mair by token,
+an she had kend how I came by the disorder, she wadna hae been in sic a
+hurry to mend it."
+
+Although groaning in spirit over the obdurate and impenitent state, as
+she thought it, of her son Cuddie, Mause durst neither urge him farther
+on the topic, nor altogether neglect the warning he had given her. She
+knew the disposition of her deceased helpmate, whom this surviving pledge
+of their union greatly resembled, and remembered, that although
+submitting implicitly in most things to her boast of superior acuteness,
+he used on certain occasions, when driven to extremity, to be seized with
+fits of obstinacy, which neither remonstrance, flattery, nor threats,
+were capable of overpowering. Trembling, therefore, at the very
+possibility of Cuddie's fulfilling his threat, she put a guard over her
+tongue, and even when Poundtext was commended in her presence, as an able
+and fructifying preacher, she had the good sense to suppress the
+contradiction which thrilled upon her tongue, and to express her
+sentiments no otherwise than by deep groans, which the hearers charitably
+construed to flow from a vivid recollection of the more pathetic parts of
+his homilies. How long she could have repressed her feelings it is
+difficult to say. An unexpected accident relieved her from the necessity.
+
+The Laird of Milnwood kept up all old fashions which were connected with
+economy. It was, therefore, still the custom in his house, as it had been
+universal in Scotland about fifty years before, that the domestics, after
+having placed the dinner on the table, sate down at the lower end of the
+board, and partook of the share which was assigned to them, in company
+with their masters. On the day, therefore, after Cuddie's arrival, being
+the third from the opening of this narrative, old Robin, who was butler,
+valet-de-chambre, footman, gardener, and what not, in the house of
+Milnwood, placed on the table an immense charger of broth, thickened with
+oatmeal and colewort, in which ocean of liquid was indistinctly
+discovered, by close observers, two or three short ribs of lean mutton
+sailing to and fro. Two huge baskets, one of bread made of barley and
+pease, and one of oat-cakes, flanked this standing dish. A large boiled
+salmon would now-a-days have indicated more liberal house-keeping; but at
+that period salmon was caught in such plenty in the considerable rivers
+in Scotland, that instead of being accounted a delicacy, it was generally
+applied to feed the servants, who are said sometimes to have stipulated
+that they should not be required to eat a food so luscious and surfeiting
+in its quality above five times a-week. The large black jack, filled with
+very small beer of Milnwood's own brewing, was allowed to the company at
+discretion, as were the bannocks, cakes, and broth; but the mutton was
+reserved for the heads of the family, Mrs Wilson included: and a measure
+of ale, somewhat deserving the name, was set apart in a silver tankard
+for their exclusive use. A huge kebbock, (a cheese, that is, made with
+ewemilk mixed with cow's milk,) and a jar of salt butter, were in common
+to the company.
+
+To enjoy this exquisite cheer, was placed, at the head of the table, the
+old Laird himself, with his nephew on the one side, and the favourite
+housekeeper on the other. At a long interval, and beneath the salt of
+course, sate old Robin, a meagre, half-starved serving-man, rendered
+cross and cripple by rheumatism, and a dirty drab of a housemaid, whom
+use had rendered callous to the daily exercitations which her temper
+underwent at the hands of her master and Mrs Wilson. A barnman, a
+white-headed cow-herd boy, with Cuddie the new ploughman and his mother,
+completed the party. The other labourers belonging to the property
+resided in their own houses, happy at least in this, that if their cheer
+was not more delicate than that which we have described, they could eat
+their fill, unwatched by the sharp, envious grey eyes of Milnwood, which
+seemed to measure the quantity that each of his dependents swallowed, as
+closely as if their glances attended each mouthful in its progress from
+the lips to the stomach. This close inspection was unfavourable to
+Cuddie, who sustained much prejudice in his new master's opinion, by the
+silent celerity with which he caused the victuals to disappear before
+him. And ever and anon Milnwood turned his eyes from the huge feeder to
+cast indignant glances upon his nephew, whose repugnance to rustic labour
+was the principal cause of his needing a ploughman, and who had been the
+direct means of his hiring this very cormorant.
+
+"Pay thee wages, quotha?" said Milnwood to himself,--"Thou wilt eat in a
+week the value of mair than thou canst work for in a month."
+
+These disagreeable ruminations were interrupted by a loud knocking at the
+outer-gate. It was a universal custom in Scotland, that, when the family
+was at dinner, the outer-gate of the courtyard, if there was one, and if
+not, the door of the house itself, was always shut and locked, and only
+guests of importance, or persons upon urgent business, sought or received
+admittance at that time.
+
+     [Note:  Locking the Door during Dinner. The custom of keeping the
+     door of a house or chateau locked during the time of dinner,
+     probably arose from the family being anciently assembled in the hall
+     at that meal, and liable to surprise. But it was in many instances
+     continued as a point of high etiquette, of which the following is an
+     example:
+
+     A considerable landed proprietor in Dumfries-shire, being a
+     bachelor, without near relations, and determined to make his will,
+     resolved previously to visit his two nearest kinsmen, and decide
+     which should be his heir, according to the degree of kindness with
+     which he should be received. Like a good clansman, he first visited
+     his own chief, a baronet in rank, descendant and representative of
+     one of the oldest families in Scotland. Unhappily the dinner-bell
+     had rung, and the door of the castle had been locked before his
+     arrival. The visitor in vain announced his name and requested
+     admittance; but his chief adhered to the ancient etiquette, and
+     would on no account suffer the doors to be unbarred. Irritated at
+     this cold reception, the old Laird rode on to Sanquhar Castle, then
+     the residence of the Duke of Queensberry, who no sooner heard his
+     name, than, knowing well he had a will to make, the drawbridge
+     dropped, and the gates flew open--the table was covered anew--his
+     grace's bachelor and intestate kinsman was received with the utmost
+     attention and respect; and it is scarcely necessary to add, that
+     upon his death some years after, the visitor's considerable landed
+     property went to augment the domains of the Ducal House of
+     Queensberry. This happened about the end of the seventeenth
+     century.]
+
+The family of Milnwood were therefore surprised, and, in the unsettled
+state of the times, something alarmed, at the earnest and repeated
+knocking with which the gate was now assailed. Mrs Wilson ran in person
+to the door, and, having reconnoitred those who were so clamorous for
+admittance, through some secret aperture with which most Scottish
+door-ways were furnished for the express purpose, she returned wringing
+her hands in great dismay, exclaiming, "The red-coats! the red-coats!"
+
+"Robin--Ploughman--what ca' they ye?--Barnsman--Nevoy Harry--open the
+door, open the door!" exclaimed old Milnwood, snatching up and slipping
+into his pocket the two or three silver spoons with which the upper end
+of the table was garnished, those beneath the salt being of goodly horn.
+"Speak them fair, sirs--Lord love ye, speak them fair--they winna bide
+thrawing--we're a' harried--we're a' harried!"
+
+While the servants admitted the troopers, whose oaths and threats already
+indicated resentment at the delay they had been put to, Cuddie took the
+opportunity to whisper to his mother, "Now, ye daft auld carline, mak
+yoursell deaf--ye hae made us a' deaf ere now--and let me speak for ye. I
+wad like ill to get my neck raxed for an auld wife's clashes, though ye
+be our mither."
+
+"O, hinny, ay; I'se be silent or thou sall come to ill," was the
+corresponding whisper of Mause "but bethink ye, my dear, them that deny
+the Word, the Word will deny"--Her admonition was cut short by the
+entrance of the Life-Guardsmen, a party of four troopers, commanded by
+Bothwell.
+
+In they tramped, making a tremendous clatter upon the stone-floor with
+the iron-shod heels of their large jack-boots, and the clash and clang of
+their long, heavy, basket-hilted broadswords. Milnwood and his
+housekeeper trembled, from wellgrounded apprehensions of the system of
+exaction and plunder carried on during these domiciliary visits. Henry
+Morton was discomposed with more special cause, for he remembered that he
+stood answerable to the laws for having harboured Burley. The widow Mause
+Headrigg, between fear for her son's life and an overstrained and
+enthusiastic zeal, which reproached her for consenting even tacitly to
+belie her religious sentiments, was in a strange quandary. The other
+servants quaked for they knew not well what. Cuddie alone, with the look
+of supreme indifference and stupidity which a Scottish peasant can at
+times assume as a mask for considerable shrewdness and craft, continued
+to swallow large spoonfuls of his broth, to command which he had drawn
+within his sphere the large vessel that contained it, and helped himself,
+amid the confusion, to a sevenfold portion.
+
+"What is your pleasure here, gentlemen?" said Milnwood, humbling himself
+before the satellites of power.
+
+"We come in behalf of the king," answered Bothwell; "why the devil did
+you keep us so long standing at the door?"
+
+"We were at dinner," answered Milnwood, "and the door was locked, as is
+usual in landward towns [Note: The Scots retain the use of the word town
+in its comprehensive Saxon meaning, as a place of habitation. A mansion
+or a farm house, though solitary, is called the town. A landward town is
+a dwelling situated in the country.] in this country. I am sure,
+gentlemen, if I had kend ony servants of our gude king had stood at the
+door--But wad ye please to drink some ale--or some brandy--or a cup of
+canary sack, or claret wine?" making a pause between each offer as long
+as a stingy bidder at an auction, who is loath to advance his offer for a
+favourite lot.
+
+"Claret for me," said one fellow.
+
+"I like ale better," said another, "provided it is right juice of John
+Barleycorn."
+
+"Better never was malted," said Milnwood; "I can hardly say sae muckle
+for the claret. It's thin and cauld, gentlemen."
+
+"Brandy will cure that," said a third fellow; "a glass of brandy to three
+glasses of wine prevents the curmurring in the stomach."
+
+"Brandy, ale, sack, and claret?--we'll try them all," said Bothwell, "and
+stick to that which is best. There's good sense in that, if the damn'dest
+whig in Scotland had said it."
+
+Hastily, yet with a reluctant quiver of his muscles, Milnwood lugged out
+two ponderous keys, and delivered them to the governante.
+
+"The housekeeper," said Bothwell, taking a seat, and throwing himself
+upon it, "is neither so young nor so handsome as to tempt a man to follow
+her to the gauntrees, and devil a one here is there worth sending in her
+place.--What's this?--meat?" (searching with a fork among the broth, and
+fishing up a cutlet of mutton)--"I think I could eat a bit--why, it's as
+tough as if the devil's dam had hatched it."
+
+"If there is any thing better in the house, sir," said Milnwood, alarmed
+at these symptoms of disapprobation--"No, no," said Bothwell, "it's not
+worth while, I must proceed to business.--You attend Poundtext, the
+presbyterian parson, I understand, Mr Morton?"
+
+Mr Morton hastened to slide in a confession and apology.
+
+"By the indulgence of his gracious majesty and the government, for I wad
+do nothing out of law--I hae nae objection whatever to the establishment
+of a moderate episcopacy, but only that I am a country-bred man, and the
+ministers are a hamelier kind of folk, and I can follow their doctrine
+better; and, with reverence, sir, it's a mair frugal establishment for
+the country."
+
+"Well, I care nothing about that," said Bothwell; "they are indulged, and
+there's an end of it; but, for my part, if I were to give the law, never
+a crop-ear'd cur of the whole pack should bark in a Scotch pulpit.
+However, I am to obey commands.--There comes the liquor; put it down, my
+good old lady."
+
+He decanted about one-half of a quart bottle of claret into a wooden
+quaigh or bicker, and took it off at a draught.
+
+"You did your good wine injustice, my friend;--it's better than your
+brandy, though that's good too. Will you pledge me to the king's health?"
+
+"With pleasure," said Milnwood, "in ale,--but I never drink claret, and
+keep only a very little for some honoured friends."
+
+"Like me, I suppose," said Bothwell; and then, pushing the bottle to
+Henry, he said, "Here, young man, pledge you the king's health."
+
+Henry filled a moderate glass in silence, regardless of the hints and
+pushes of his uncle, which seemed to indicate that he ought to have
+followed his example, in preferring beer to wine.
+
+"Well," said Bothwell, "have ye all drank the toast?--What is that old
+wife about? Give her a glass of brandy, she shall drink the king's
+health, by"--"If your honour pleases," said Cuddie, with great stolidity
+of aspect, "this is my mither, stir; and she's as deaf as Corra-linn; we
+canna mak her hear day nor door; but if your honour pleases, I am ready
+to drink the king's health for her in as mony glasses of brandy as ye
+think neshessary."
+
+"I dare swear you are," answered Bothwell; "you look like a fellow that
+would stick to brandy--help thyself, man; all's free where'er I come.--
+Tom, help the maid to a comfortable cup, though she's but a dirty jilt
+neither. Fill round once more--Here's to our noble commander, Colonel
+Graham of Claverhouse!--What the devil is the old woman groaning for? She
+looks as very a whig as ever sate on a hill-side--Do you renounce the
+Covenant, good woman?"
+
+"Whilk Covenant is your honour meaning? Is it the Covenant of Works, or
+the Covenant of Grace?" said Cuddie, interposing.
+
+"Any covenant; all covenants that ever were hatched," answered the
+trooper.
+
+"Mither," cried Cuddie, affecting to speak as to a deaf person, "the
+gentleman wants to ken if ye will renunce the Covenant of Works?"
+
+"With all my heart, Cuddie," said Mause, "and pray that my feet may be
+delivered from the snare thereof."
+
+"Come," said Bothwell, "the old dame has come more frankly off than I
+expected. Another cup round, and then we'll proceed to business.--You
+have all heard, I suppose, of the horrid and barbarous murder committed
+upon the person of the Archbishop of St Andrews, by ten or eleven armed
+fanatics?"
+
+All started and looked at each other; at length Milnwood himself
+answered, "They had heard of some such misfortune, but were in hopes it
+had not been true."
+
+"There is the relation published by government, old gentleman; what do
+you think of it?"
+
+"Think, sir? Wh--wh--whatever the council please to think of it,"
+stammered Milnwood.
+
+"I desire to have your opinion more explicitly, my friend," said the
+dragoon, authoritatively.
+
+Milnwood's eyes hastily glanced through the paper to pick out the
+strongest expressions of censure with which it abounded, in gleaning
+which he was greatly aided by their being printed in italics.
+
+"I think it a--bloody and execrable--murder and parricide--devised by
+hellish and implacable cruelty--utterly abominable, and a scandal to the
+land."
+
+"Well said, old gentleman!" said the querist--"Here's to thee, and I wish
+you joy of your good principles. You owe me a cup of thanks for having
+taught you them; nay, thou shalt pledge me in thine own sack--sour ale
+sits ill upon a loyal stomach.--Now comes your turn, young man; what
+think you of the matter in hand?"
+
+"I should have little objection to answer you," said Henry, "if I knew
+what right you had to put the question."
+
+"The Lord preserve us!" said the old housekeeper, "to ask the like o'
+that at a trooper, when a' folk ken they do whatever they like through
+the haill country wi' man and woman, beast and body."
+
+The old gentleman exclaimed, in the same horror at his nephew's audacity,
+"Hold your peace, sir, or answer the gentleman discreetly. Do you mean to
+affront the king's authority in the person of a sergeant of the
+Life-Guards?"
+
+"Silence, all of you!" exclaimed Bothwell, striking his hand fiercely on
+the table--"Silence, every one of you, and hear me!--You ask me for my
+right to examine you, sir (to Henry); my cockade and my broadsword are my
+commission, and a better one than ever Old Nol gave to his roundheads;
+and if you want to know more about it, you may look at the act of council
+empowering his majesty's officers and soldiers to search for, examine,
+and apprehend suspicious persons; and, therefore, once more, I ask you
+your opinion of the death of Archbishop Sharpe--it's a new touch-stone we
+have got for trying people's metal."
+
+Henry had, by this time, reflected upon the useless risk to which he
+would expose the family by resisting the tyrannical power which was
+delegated to such rude hands; he therefore read the narrative over, and
+replied, composedly, "I have no hesitation to say, that the perpetrators
+of this assassination have committed, in my opinion, a rash and wicked
+action, which I regret the more, as I foresee it will be made the cause
+of proceedings against many who are both innocent of the deed, and as far
+from approving it as myself."
+
+While Henry thus expressed himself, Bothwell, who bent his eyes keenly
+upon him, seemed suddenly to recollect his features.
+
+"Aha! my friend Captain Popinjay, I think I have seen you before, and in
+very suspicious company."
+
+"I saw you once," answered Henry, "in the public-house of the town of--."
+
+"And with whom did you leave that public-house, youngster?--Was it not
+with John Balfour of Burley, one of the murderers of the Archbishop?"
+
+"I did leave the house with the person you have named," answered Henry,
+"I scorn to deny it; but, so far from knowing him to be a murderer of the
+primate, I did not even know at the time that such a crime had been
+committed."
+
+"Lord have mercy on me, I am ruined!--utterly ruined and undone!"
+exclaimed Milnwood. "That callant's tongue will rin the head aff his ain
+shoulders, and waste my gudes to the very grey cloak on my back!"
+
+"But you knew Burley," continued Bothwell, still addressing Henry, and
+regardless of his uncle's interruption, "to be an intercommuned rebel and
+traitor, and you knew the prohibition to deal with such persons. You
+knew, that, as a loyal subject, you were prohibited to reset, supply, or
+intercommune with this attainted traitor, to correspond with him by word,
+writ, or message, or to supply him with meat, drink, house, harbour, or
+victual, under the highest pains--you knew all this, and yet you broke
+the law." (Henry was silent.) "Where did you part from him?" continued
+Bothwell; "was it in the highway, or did you give him harbourage in this
+very house?"
+
+"In this house!" said his uncle; "he dared not for his neck bring ony
+traitor into a house of mine."
+
+"Dare he deny that he did so?" said Bothwell.
+
+"As you charge it to me as a crime," said Henry, "you will excuse my
+saying any thing that will criminate myself."
+
+"O, the lands of Milnwood!--the bonny lands of Milnwood, that have been
+in the name of Morton twa hundred years!" exclaimed his uncle; "they are
+barking and fleeing, outfield and infield, haugh and holme!"
+
+"No, sir," said Henry, "you shall not suffer on my account.--I own," he
+continued, addressing Bothwell, "I did give this man a night's lodging,
+as to an old military comrade of my father. But it was not only without
+my uncle's knowledge, but contrary to his express general orders. I
+trust, if my evidence is considered as good against myself, it will have
+some weight in proving my uncle's innocence."
+
+"Come, young man," said the soldier, in a somewhat milder tone, "you're a
+smart spark enough, and I am sorry for you; and your uncle here is a fine
+old Trojan, kinder, I see, to his guests than himself, for he gives us
+wine and drinks his own thin ale--tell me all you know about this Burley,
+what he said when you parted from him, where he went, and where he is
+likely now to be found; and, d--n it, I'll wink as hard on your share of
+the business as my duty will permit. There's a thousand merks on the
+murdering whigamore's head, an I could but light on it--Come, out with
+it--where did you part with him?"
+
+"You will excuse my answering that question, sir," said Morton; "the same
+cogent reasons which induced me to afford him hospitality at considerable
+risk to myself and my friends, would command me to respect his secret,
+if, indeed, he had trusted me with any."
+
+"So you refuse to give me an answer?" said Bothwell.
+
+"I have none to give," returned Henry.
+
+"Perhaps I could teach you to find one, by tying a piece of lighted match
+betwixt your fingers," answered Bothwell.
+
+"O, for pity's sake, sir," said old Alison apart to her master, "gie them
+siller--it's siller they're seeking--they'll murder Mr Henry, and
+yoursell next!"
+
+Milnwood groaned in perplexity and bitterness of spirit, and, with a tone
+as if he was giving up the ghost, exclaimed, "If twenty p--p--punds would
+make up this unhappy matter"--"My master," insinuated Alison to the
+sergeant, "would gie twenty punds sterling"--"Punds Scotch, ye b--h!"
+interrupted Milnwood; for the agony of his avarice overcame alike his
+puritanic precision and the habitual respect he entertained for his
+housekeeper.
+
+"Punds sterling," insisted the housekeeper, "if ye wad hae the gudeness
+to look ower the lad's misconduct; he's that dour ye might tear him to
+pieces, and ye wad ne'er get a word out o' him; and it wad do ye little
+gude, I'm sure, to burn his bonny fingerends."
+
+"Why," said Bothwell, hesitating, "I don't know--most of my cloth would
+have the money, and take off the prisoner too; but I bear a conscience,
+and if your master will stand to your offer, and enter into a bond to
+produce his nephew, and if all in the house will take the test-oath, I do
+not know but"--"O ay, ay, sir," cried Mrs Wilson, "ony test, ony oaths ye
+please!" And then aside to her master, "Haste ye away, sir, and get the
+siller, or they will burn the house about our lugs."
+
+Old Milnwood cast a rueful look upon his adviser, and moved off, like a
+piece of Dutch clockwork, to set at liberty his imprisoned angels in this
+dire emergency. Meanwhile, Sergeant Bothwell began to put the test-oath
+with such a degree of solemn reverence as might have been expected, being
+just about the same which is used to this day in his majesty's
+custom-house.
+
+"You--what's your name, woman?"
+
+"Alison Wilson, sir."
+
+"You, Alison Wilson, solemnly swear, certify, and declare, that you judge
+it unlawful for subjects, under pretext of reformation, or any other
+pretext whatsoever, to enter into Leagues and Covenants"--Here the
+ceremony was interrupted by a strife between Cuddie and his mother,
+which, long conducted in whispers, now became audible.
+
+"Oh, whisht, mither, whisht! they're upon a communing--Oh! whisht, and
+they'll agree weel eneuch e'enow."
+
+"I will not whisht, Cuddie," replied his mother, "I will uplift my voice
+and spare not--I will confound the man of sin, even the scarlet man, and
+through my voice shall Mr Henry be freed from the net of the fowler."
+
+"She has her leg ower the harrows now," said Cuddie, "stop her wha can--I
+see her cocked up behint a dragoon on her way to the Tolbooth--I find my
+ain legs tied below a horse's belly--Ay--she has just mustered up her
+sermon, and there--wi' that grane--out it comes, and we are a'ruined,
+horse and foot!"
+
+"And div ye think to come here," said Mause, her withered hand shaking in
+concert with her keen, though wrinkled visage, animated by zealous wrath,
+and emancipated, by the very mention of the test, from the restraints of
+her own prudence, and Cuddie's admonition--"Div ye think to come here,
+wi' your soul-killing, saint-seducing, conscience-confounding oaths, and
+tests, and bands--your snares, and your traps, and your gins?--Surely it
+is in vain that a net is spread in the sight of any bird."
+
+"Eh! what, good dame?" said the soldier. "Here's a whig miracle, egad!
+the old wife has got both her ears and tongue, and we are like to be
+driven deaf in our turn.--Go to, hold your peace, and remember whom you
+talk to, you old idiot."
+
+"Whae do I talk to! Eh, sirs, ower weel may the sorrowing land ken what
+ye are. Malignant adherents ye are to the prelates, foul props to a
+feeble and filthy cause, bloody beasts of prey, and burdens to the
+earth."
+
+"Upon my soul," said Bothwell, astonished as a mastiff-dog might be
+should a hen-partridge fly at him in defence of her young, "this is the
+finest language I ever heard! Can't you give us some more of it?"
+
+"Gie ye some mair o't?" said Mause, clearing her voice with a preliminary
+cough, "I will take up my testimony against you ance and again.--
+Philistines ye are, and Edomites--leopards are ye, and foxes--evening
+wolves, that gnaw not the bones till the morrow--wicked dogs, that
+compass about the chosen--thrusting kine, and pushing bulls of Bashan--
+piercing serpents ye are, and allied baith in name and nature with the
+great Red Dragon; Revelations, twalfth chapter, third and fourth verses."
+
+Here the old lady stopped, apparently much more from lack of breath than
+of matter.
+
+"Curse the old hag!" said one of the dragoons, "gag her, and take her to
+head-quarters."
+
+"For shame, Andrews," said Bothwell; "remember the good lady belongs to
+the fair sex, and uses only the privilege of her tongue.--But, hark ye,
+good woman, every bull of Bashan and Red Dragon will not be so civil as I
+am, or be contented to leave you to the charge of the constable and
+ducking-stool. In the meantime I must necessarily carry off this young
+man to head-quarters. I cannot answer to my commanding-officer to leave
+him in a house where I have heard so much treason and fanaticism."
+
+"Se now, mither, what ye hae dune," whispered Cuddie; "there's the
+Philistines, as ye ca' them, are gaun to whirry awa' Mr Henry, and a' wi'
+your nash-gab, deil be on't!"
+
+"Haud yere tongue, ye cowardly loon," said the mother, "and layna the
+wyte on me; if you and thae thowless gluttons, that are sitting staring
+like cows bursting on clover, wad testify wi' your hands as I have
+testified wi' my tongue, they should never harle the precious young lad
+awa' to captivity."
+
+While this dialogue passed, the soldiers had already bound and secured
+their prisoner. Milnwood returned at this instant, and, alarmed at the
+preparations he beheld, hastened to proffer to Bothwell, though with many
+a grievous groan, the purse of gold which he had been obliged to rummage
+out as ransom for his nephew. The trooper took the purse with an air of
+indifference, weighed it in his hand, chucked it up into the air, and
+caught it as it fell, then shook his head, and said, "There's many a
+merry night in this nest of yellow boys, but d--n me if I dare venture
+for them--that old woman has spoken too loud, and before all the men
+too.--Hark ye, old gentleman," to Milnwood, "I must take your nephew to
+head-quarters, so I cannot, in conscience, keep more than is my due as
+civility-money;" then opening the purse, he gave a gold piece to each of
+the soldiers, and took three to himself. "Now," said he, "you have the
+comfort to know that your kinsman, young Captain Popinjay, will be
+carefully looked after and civilly used; and the rest of the money I
+return to you."
+
+Milnwood eagerly extended his hand.
+
+"Only you know," said Bothwell, still playing with the purse, "that every
+landholder is answerable for the conformity and loyalty of his household,
+and that these fellows of mine are not obliged to be silent on the
+subject of the fine sermon we have had from that old puritan in the
+tartan plaid there; and I presume you are aware that the consequences of
+delation will be a heavy fine before the council."
+
+"Good sergeant,--worthy captain!" exclaimed the terrified miser, "I am
+sure there is no person in my house, to my knowledge, would give cause of
+offence."
+
+"Nay," answered Bothwell, "you shall hear her give her testimony, as she
+calls it, herself.--You fellow," (to Cuddie,) "stand back, and let your
+mother speak her mind. I see she's primed and loaded again since her
+first discharge."
+
+"Lord! noble sir," said Cuddie, "an auld wife's tongue's but a feckless
+matter to mak sic a fash about. Neither my father nor me ever minded
+muckle what our mither said."
+
+"Hold your peace, my lad, while you are well," said Bothwell; "I promise
+you I think you are slyer than you would like to be supposed.--Come, good
+dame, you see your master will not believe that you can give us so bright
+a testimony."
+
+Mause's zeal did not require this spur to set her again on full career.
+
+"Woe to the compliers and carnal self-seekers," she said, "that daub over
+and drown their consciences by complying with wicked exactions, and
+giving mammon of unrighteousness to the sons of Belial, that it may make
+their peace with them! It is a sinful compliance, a base confederacy with
+the Enemy. It is the evil that Menahem did in the sight of the Lord, when
+he gave a thousand talents to Pul, King of Assyria, that his hand might
+be with him; Second Kings, feifteen chapter, nineteen verse. It is the
+evil deed of Ahab, when he sent money to Tiglath-Peleser; see the saame
+Second Kings, saxteen and aught. And if it was accounted a backsliding
+even in godly Hezekiah, that he complied with Sennacherib, giving him
+money, and offering to bear that which was put upon him, (see the saame
+Second Kings, aughteen chapter, fourteen and feifteen verses,) even so it
+is with them that in this contumacious and backsliding generation pays
+localities and fees, and cess and fines, to greedy and unrighteous
+publicans, and extortions and stipends to hireling curates, (dumb dogs
+which bark not, sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber,) and gives gifts
+to be helps and hires to our oppressors and destroyers. They are all like
+the casters of a lot with them--like the preparing of a table for the
+troop, and the furnishing a drink-offering to the number."
+
+"There's a fine sound of doctrine for you, Mr Morton! How like you that?"
+said Bothwell; "or how do you think the Council will like it? I think we
+can carry the greatest part of it in our heads without a kylevine pen and
+a pair of tablets, such as you bring to conventicles. She denies paying
+cess, I think, Andrews?"
+
+"Yes, by G--," said Andrews; "and she swore it was a sin to give a
+trooper a pot of ale, or ask him to sit down to a table."
+
+"You hear," said Bothwell, addressing Milnwood; "but it's your own
+affair;" and he proffered back the purse with its diminished contents,
+with an air of indifference.
+
+Milnwood, whose head seemed stunned by the accumulation of his
+misfortunes, extended his hand mechanically to take the purse.
+
+"Are ye mad?" said his housekeeper, in a whisper; "tell them to keep it;
+--they will keep it either by fair means or foul, and it's our only
+chance to make them quiet."
+
+"I canna do it, Ailie--I canna do it," said Milnwood, in the bitterness
+of his heart. "I canna part wi' the siller I hae counted sae often ower,
+to thae blackguards."
+
+"Then I maun do it mysell, Milnwood," said the housekeeper, "or see a'
+gang wrang thegither.--My master, sir," she said, addressing Bothwell,
+"canna think o' taking back ony thing at the hand of an honourable
+gentleman like you; he implores ye to pit up the siller, and be as kind
+to his nephew as ye can, and be favourable in reporting our dispositions
+to government, and let us tak nae wrang for the daft speeches of an auld
+jaud," (here she turned fiercely upon Mause, to indulge herself for the
+effort which it cost her to assume a mild demeanour to the soldiers,) "a
+daft auld whig randy, that ne'er was in the house (foul fa' her) till
+yesterday afternoon, and that sall ne'er cross the door-stane again an
+anes I had her out o't."
+
+"Ay, ay," whispered Cuddie to his parent, "e'en sae! I kend we wad be put
+to our travels again whene'er ye suld get three words spoken to an end. I
+was sure that wad be the upshot o't, mither."
+
+"Whisht, my bairn," said she, "and dinna murmur at the cross--cross their
+door-stane! weel I wot I'll ne'er cross their door-stane. There's nae
+mark on their threshold for a signal that the destroying angel should
+pass by. They'll get a back-cast o' his hand yet, that think sae muckle
+o' the creature and sae little o' the Creator--sae muckle o' warld's gear
+and sae little o' a broken covenant--sae muckle about thae wheen pieces
+o' yellow muck, and sae little about the pure gold o' the Scripture--sae
+muckle about their ain friend and kinsman, and sae little about the
+elect, that are tried wi' hornings, harassings, huntings, searchings,
+chasings, catchings, imprisonments, torturings, banishments, headings,
+hangings, dismemberings, and quarterings quick, forby the hundreds forced
+from their ain habitations to the deserts, mountains, muirs, mosses,
+moss-flows, and peat-hags, there to hear the word like bread eaten in
+secret."
+
+"She's at the Covenant now, sergeant, shall we not have her away?" said
+one of the soldiers.
+
+"You be d--d!" said Bothwell, aside to him; "cannot you see she's better
+where she is, so long as there is a respectable, sponsible, money-broking
+heritor, like Mr Morton of Milnwood, who has the means of atoning her
+trespasses? Let the old mother fly to raise another brood, she's too
+tough to be made any thing of herself--Here," he cried, "one other round
+to Milnwood and his roof-tree, and to our next merry meeting with him!--
+which I think will not be far distant, if he keeps such a fanatical
+family."
+
+He then ordered the party to take their horses, and pressed the best in
+Milnwood's stable into the king's service to carry the prisoner. Mrs
+Wilson, with weeping eyes, made up a small parcel of necessaries for
+Henry's compelled journey, and as she bustled about, took an opportunity,
+unseen by the party, to slip into his hand a small sum of money. Bothwell
+and his troopers, in other respects, kept their promise, and were civil.
+They did not bind their prisoner, but contented themselves with leading
+his horse between a file of men. They then mounted, and marched off with
+much mirth and laughter among themselves, leaving the Milnwood family in
+great confusion. The old Laird himself, overpowered by the loss of his
+nephew, and the unavailing outlay of twenty pounds sterling, did nothing
+the whole evening but rock himself backwards and forwards in his great
+leathern easy-chair, repeating the same lamentation, of "Ruined on a'
+sides, ruined on a' sides--harried and undone--harried and undone--body
+and gudes, body and gudes!"
+
+Mrs Alison Wilson's grief was partly indulged and partly relieved by the
+torrent of invectives with which she accompanied Mause and Cuddie's
+expulsion from Milnwood.
+
+"Ill luck be in the graning corse o' thee! the prettiest lad in
+Clydesdale this day maun be a sufferer, and a' for you and your daft
+whiggery!"
+
+"Gae wa'," replied Mause; "I trow ye are yet in the bonds of sin, and in
+the gall of iniquity, to grudge your bonniest and best in the cause of
+Him that gave ye a' ye hae--I promise I hae dune as muckle for Mr Harry
+as I wad do for my ain; for if Cuddie was found worthy to bear testimony
+in the Grassmarket"--"And there's gude hope o't," said Alison, "unless
+you and he change your courses."
+
+"--And if," continued Mause, disregarding the interruption, "the bloody
+Doegs and the flattering Ziphites were to seek to ensnare me with a
+proffer of his remission upon sinful compliances, I wad persevere,
+natheless, in lifting my testimony against popery, prelacy,
+antinomianism, erastianism, lapsarianism, sublapsarianism, and the sins
+and snares of the times--I wad cry as a woman in labour against the black
+Indulgence, that has been a stumbling-block to professors--I wad uplift
+my voice as a powerful preacher."
+
+"Hout tout, mither," cried Cuddie, interfering and dragging her off
+forcibly, "dinna deave the gentlewoman wi' your testimony! ye hae
+preached eneugh for sax days. Ye preached us out o' our canny free-house
+and gude kale-yard, and out o' this new city o' refuge afore our hinder
+end was weel hafted in it; and ye hae preached Mr Harry awa to the
+prison; and ye hae preached twenty punds out o' the Laird's pocket that
+he likes as ill to quit wi'; and sae ye may haud sae for ae wee while,
+without preaching me up a ladder and down a tow. Sae, come awa, come awa;
+the family hae had eneugh o' your testimony to mind it for ae while."
+
+So saying he dragged off Mause, the words, "Testimony--Covenant--
+malignants--indulgence," still thrilling upon her tongue, to make
+preparations for instantly renewing their travels in quest of an asylum.
+
+"Ill-fard, crazy, crack-brained gowk, that she is!" exclaimed the
+housekeeper, as she saw them depart, "to set up to be sae muckle better
+than ither folk, the auld besom, and to bring sae muckle distress on a
+douce quiet family! If it hadna been that I am mair than half a
+gentlewoman by my station, I wad hae tried my ten nails in the wizen'd
+hide o' her!"
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER IX.
+
+          I am a son of Mars who have been in many wars,
+          And show my cuts and scars wherever I come;
+          This here was for a wench, and that other in a trench,
+          When welcoming the French at the sound of the drum.
+                                                            Burns.
+
+"Don't be too much cast down," said Sergeant Bothwell to his prisoner as
+they journeyed on towards the head-quarters; "you are a smart pretty lad,
+and well connected; the worst that will happen will be strapping up for
+it, and that is many an honest fellow's lot. I tell you fairly your
+life's within the compass of the law, unless you make submission, and get
+off by a round fine upon your uncle's estate; he can well afford it."
+
+"That vexes me more than the rest," said Henry. "He parts with his money
+with regret; and, as he had no concern whatever with my having given this
+person shelter for a night, I wish to Heaven, if I escape a capital
+punishment, that the penalty may be of a kind I could bear in my own
+person."
+
+"Why, perhaps," said Bothwell, "they will propose to you to go into one
+of the Scotch regiments that are serving abroad. It's no bad line of
+service; if your friends are active, and there are any knocks going, you
+may soon get a commission."
+
+"I am by no means sure," answered Morton, "that such a sentence is not
+the best thing that can happen to me."
+
+"Why, then, you are no real whig after all?" said the sergeant.
+
+"I have hitherto meddled with no party in the state," said Henry, "but
+have remained quietly at home; and sometimes I have had serious thoughts
+of joining one of our foreign regiments."
+
+"Have you?" replied Bothwell; "why, I honour you for it; I have served in
+the Scotch French guards myself many a long day; it's the place for
+learning discipline, d--n me. They never mind what you do when you are
+off duty; but miss you the roll-call, and see how they'll arrange you--D-
+-n me, if old Captain Montgomery didn't make me mount guard upon the
+arsenal in my steel-back and breast, plate-sleeves and head-piece, for
+six hours at once, under so burning a sun, that gad I was baked like a
+turtle at Port Royale. I swore never to miss answering to Francis Stewart
+again, though I should leave my hand of cards upon the drum-head--Ah!
+discipline is a capital thing."
+
+"In other respects you liked the service?" said Morton,
+
+"Par excellence," said Bothwell; "women, wine, and wassail, all to be had
+for little but the asking; and if you find it in your conscience to let a
+fat priest think he has some chance to convert you, gad he'll help you to
+these comforts himself, just to gain a little ground in your good
+affection. Where will you find a crop-eared whig parson will be so
+civil?"
+
+"Why, nowhere, I agree with you," said Henry; "but what was your chief
+duty?"
+
+"To guard the king's person," said Bothwell, "to look after the safety of
+Louis le Grand, my boy, and now and then to take a turn among the
+Huguenots (protestants, that is.) And there we had fine scope; it brought
+my hand pretty well in for the service in this country. But, come, as you
+are to be a bon camerado, as the Spaniards say, I must put you in cash
+with some of your old uncle's broad-pieces. This is cutter's law; we must
+not see a pretty fellow want, if we have cash ourselves."
+
+Thus speaking, he pulled out his purse, took out some of the contents,
+and offered them to Henry without counting them. Young Morton declined
+the favour; and, not judging it prudent to acquaint the sergeant,
+notwithstanding his apparent generosity, that he was actually in
+possession of some money, he assured him he should have no difficulty in
+getting a supply from his uncle.
+
+"Well," said Bothwell, "in that case these yellow rascals must serve to
+ballast my purse a little longer. I always make it a rule never to quit
+the tavern (unless ordered on duty) while my purse is so weighty that I
+can chuck it over the signpost. [Note: A Highland laird, whose
+peculiarities live still in the recollection of his countrymen, used to
+regulate his residence at Edinburgh in the following manner: Every day he
+visited the Water-gate, as it is called, of the Canongate, over which is
+extended a wooden arch. Specie being then the general currency, he threw
+his purse over the gate, and as long as it was heavy enough to be thrown
+over, he continued his round of pleasure in the metropolis; when it was
+too light, he thought it time to retire to the Highlands. Query--How
+often would he have repeated this experiment at Temple Bar?] When it is
+so light that the wind blows it back, then, boot and saddle,--we must
+fall on some way of replenishing.--But what tower is that before us,
+rising so high upon the steep bank, out of the woods that surround it on
+every side?"
+
+"It is the tower of Tillietudlem," said one of the soldiers. "Old Lady
+Margaret Bellenden lives there. She's one of the best affected women in
+the country, and one that's a soldier's friend. When I was hurt by one of
+the d--d whig dogs that shot at me from behind a fauld-dike, I lay a
+month there, and would stand such another wound to be in as good quarters
+again."
+
+"If that be the case," said Bothwell, "I will pay my respects to her as
+we pass, and request some refreshment for men and horses; I am as thirsty
+already as if I had drunk nothing at Milnwood. But it is a good thing in
+these times," he continued, addressing himself to Henry, "that the King's
+soldier cannot pass a house without getting a refreshment. In such houses
+as Tillie--what d'ye call it? you are served for love; in the houses of
+the avowed fanatics you help yourself by force; and among the moderate
+presbyterians and other suspicious persons, you are well treated from
+fear; so your thirst is always quenched on some terms or other."
+
+"And you purpose," said Henry, anxiously, "to go upon that errand up to
+the tower younder?"
+
+"To be sure I do," answered Bothwell. "How should I be able to report
+favourably to my officers of the worthy lady's sound principles, unless I
+know the taste of her sack, for sack she will produce--that I take for
+granted; it is the favourite consoler of your old dowager of quality, as
+small claret is the potation of your country laird."
+
+"Then, for heaven's sake," said Henry, "if you are determined to go
+there, do not mention my name, or expose me to a family that I am
+acquainted with. Let me be muffled up for the time in one of your
+soldier's cloaks, and only mention me generally as a prisoner under your
+charge."
+
+"With all my heart," said Bothwell; "I promised to use you civilly, and I
+scorn to break my word.--Here, Andrews, wrap a cloak round the prisoner,
+and do not mention his name, nor where we caught him, unless you would
+have a trot on a horse of wood."
+
+     [Note:  Wooden Mare. The punishment of riding the wooden mare was,
+     in the days of Charles and long after, one of the various and cruel
+     modes of enforcing military discipline. In front of the old
+     guard-house in the High Street of Edinburgh, a large horse of this
+     kind was placed, on which now and then, in the more ancient times, a
+     veteran might be seen mounted, with a firelock tied to each foot,
+     atoning for some small offence.
+
+     There is a singular work, entitled Memoirs of Prince William Henry,
+     Duke of Gloucester, (son of Queen Anne,) from his birth to his ninth
+     year, in which Jenkin Lewis, an honest Welshman in attendance on the
+     royal infant's person, is pleased to record that his Royal Highness
+     laughed, cried, crow'd, and said Gig and Dy, very like a babe of
+     plebeian descent. He had also a premature taste for the discipline
+     as well as the show of war, and had a corps of twenty-two boys,
+     arrayed with paper caps and wooden swords. For the maintenance of
+     discipline in this juvenile corps, a wooden horse was established in
+     the Presence-chamber, and was sometimes employed in the punishment
+     of offences not strictly military. Hughes, the Duke's tailor, having
+     made him a suit of clothes which were too tight, was appointed, in
+     an order of the day issued by the young prince, to be placed on this
+     penal steed. The man of remnants, by dint of supplication and
+     mediation, escaped from the penance, which was likely to equal the
+     inconveniences of his brother artist's equestrian trip to Brentford.
+     But an attendant named Weatherly, who had presumed to bring the
+     young Prince a toy, (after he had discarded the use of them,) was
+     actually mounted on the wooden horse without a saddle, with his face
+     to the tail, while he was plied by four servants of the household
+     with syringes and squirts, till he had a thorough wetting. "He was a
+     waggish fellow," says Lewis, "and would not lose any thing for the
+     joke's sake when he was putting his tricks upon others, so he was
+     obliged to submit cheerfully to what was inflicted upon him, being
+     at our mercy to play him off well, which we did accordingly." Amid
+     much such nonsense, Lewis's book shows that this poor child, the
+     heir of the British monarchy, who died when he was eleven years old,
+     was, in truth, of promising parts, and of a good disposition. The
+     volume, which rarely occurs, is an octavo, published in 1789, the
+     editor being Dr Philip Hayes of Oxford.]
+
+They were at this moment at an arched gateway, battlemented and flanked
+with turrets, one whereof was totally ruinous, excepting the lower story,
+which served as a cow-house to the peasant, whose family inhabited the
+turret that remained entire. The gate had been broken down by Monk's
+soldiers during the civil war, and had never been replaced, therefore
+presented no obstacle to Bothwell and his party. The avenue, very steep
+and narrow, and causewayed with large round stones, ascended the side of
+the precipitous bank in an oblique and zigzag course, now showing now
+hiding a view of the tower and its exterior bulwarks, which seemed to
+rise almost perpendicularly above their heads. The fragments of Gothic
+defences which it exhibited were upon such a scale of strength, as
+induced Bothwell to exclaim, "It's well this place is in honest and loyal
+hands. Egad, if the enemy had it, a dozen of old whigamore wives with
+their distaffs might keep it against a troop of dragoons, at least if
+they had half the spunk of the old girl we left at Milnwood. Upon my
+life," he continued, as they came in front of the large double tower and
+its surrounding defences and flankers, "it is a superb place, founded,
+says the worn inscription over the gate--unless the remnant of my Latin
+has given me the slip--by Sir Ralph de Bellenden in 1350--a respectable
+antiquity. I must greet the old lady with due honour, though it should
+put me to the labour of recalling some of the compliments that I used to
+dabble in when I was wont to keep that sort of company."
+
+As he thus communed with himself, the butler, who had reconnoitred the
+soldiers from an arrowslit in the wall, announced to his lady, that a
+commanded party of dragoons, or, as he thought, Life-Guardsmen, waited at
+the gate with a prisoner under their charge.
+
+"I am certain," said Gudyill, "and positive, that the sixth man is a
+prisoner; for his horse is led, and the two dragoons that are before have
+their carabines out of their budgets, and rested upon their thighs. It
+was aye the way we guarded prisoners in the days of the great Marquis."
+
+"King's soldiers?" said the lady; "probably in want of refreshment. Go,
+Gudyill, make them welcome, and let them be accommodated with what
+provision and forage the Tower can afford.--And stay, tell my gentlewoman
+to bring my black scarf and manteau. I will go down myself to receive
+them; one cannot show the King's Life-Guards too much respect in times
+when they are doing so much for royal authority. And d'ye hear, Gudyill,
+let Jenny Dennison slip on her pearlings to walk before my niece and me,
+and the three women to walk behind; and bid my niece attend me
+instantly."
+
+Fully accoutred, and attended according to her directions, Lady Margaret
+now sailed out into the court-yard of her tower with great courtesy and
+dignity. Sergeant Bothwell saluated the grave and reverend lady of the
+manor with an assurance which had something of the light and careless
+address of the dissipated men of fashion in Charles the Second's time,
+and did not at all savour of the awkward or rude manners of a
+non-commissioned officer of dragoons. His language, as well as his
+manners, seemed also to be refined for the time and occasion; though the
+truth was, that, in the fluctuations of an adventurous and profligate
+life, Bothwell had sometimes kept company much better suited to his
+ancestry than to his present situation of life. To the lady's request to
+know whether she could be of service to them, he answered, with a
+suitable bow, "That as they had to march some miles farther that night,
+they would be much accommodated by permission to rest their horses for an
+hour before continuing their journey."
+
+"With the greatest pleasure," answered Lady Margaret; "and I trust that
+my people will see that neither horse nor men want suitable refreshment."
+
+"We are well aware, madam," continued Bothwell, "that such has always
+been the reception, within the walls of Tillietudlem, of those who served
+the King."
+
+"We have studied to discharge our duty faithfully and loyally on all
+occasions, sir," answered Lady Margaret, pleased with the compliment,
+"both to our monarchs and to their followers, particularly to their
+faithful soldiers. It is not long ago, and it probably has not escaped
+the recollection of his sacret majesty, now on the throne, since he
+himself honoured my poor house with his presence and breakfasted in a
+room in this castle, Mr Sergeant, which my waiting-gentlewoman shall show
+you; we still call it the King's room."
+
+Bothwell had by this time dismounted his party, and committed the horses
+to the charge of one file, and the prisoner to that of another; so that
+he himself was at liberty to continue the conversation which the lady had
+so condescendingly opened.
+
+"Since the King, my master, had the honour to experience your
+hospitality, I cannot wonder that it is extended to those that serve him,
+and whose principal merit is doing it with fidelity. And yet I have a
+nearer relation to his majesty than this coarse red coat would seem to
+indicate."
+
+"Indeed, sir? Probably," said Lady Margaret, "you have belonged to his
+household?"
+
+"Not exactly, madam, to his household, but rather to his house; a
+connexion through which I may claim kindred with most of the best
+families in Scotland, not, I believe, exclusive of that of Tillietudlem."
+
+"Sir?" said the old lady, drawing herself up with dignity at hearing what
+she conceived an impertinent jest, "I do not understand you."
+
+"It's but a foolish subject for one in my situation to talk of, madam,"
+answered the trooper; "but you must have heard of the history and
+misfortunes of my grandfather Francis Stewart, to whom James I., his
+cousin-german, gave the title of Bothwell, as my comrades give me the
+nickname. It was not in the long run more advantageous to him than it is
+to me."
+
+"Indeed?" said Lady Margaret, with much sympathy and surprise; "I have
+indeed always understood that the grandson of the last Earl was in
+necessitous circumstances, but I should never have expected to see him so
+low in the service. With such connexions, what ill fortune could have
+reduced you"--
+
+"Nothing much out of the ordinary course, I believe, madam," said
+Bothwell, interrupting and anticipating the question. "I have had my
+moments of good luck like my neighbours--have drunk my bottle with
+Rochester, thrown a merry main with Buckingham, and fought at Tangiers
+side by side with Sheffield. But my luck never lasted; I could not make
+useful friends out of my jolly companions--Perhaps I was not sufficiently
+aware," he continued, with some bitterness, "how much the descendant of
+the Scottish Stewarts was honoured by being admitted into the
+convivialities of Wilmot and Villiers."
+
+"But your Scottish friends, Mr Stewart, your relations here, so numerous
+and so powerful?"
+
+"Why, ay, my lady," replied the sergeant, "I believe some of them might
+have made me their gamekeeper, for I am a tolerable shot--some of them
+would have entertained me as their bravo, for I can use my sword well--
+and here and there was one, who, when better company was not to be had,
+would have made me his companion, since I can drink my three bottles of
+wine.--But I don't know how it is--between service and service among my
+kinsmen, I prefer that of my cousin Charles as the most creditable of
+them all, although the pay is but poor, and the livery far from
+splendid."
+
+"It is a shame, it is a burning scandal!" said Lady Margaret. "Why do you
+not apply to his most sacred majesty? he cannot but be surprised to hear
+that a scion of his august family"--
+
+"I beg your pardon, madam," interrupted the sergeant, "I am but a blunt
+soldier, and I trust you will excuse me when I say, his most sacred
+majesty is more busy in grafting scions of his own, than with nourishing
+those which were planted by his grandfather's grandfather."
+
+"Well, Mr Stewart," said Lady Margaret, "one thing you must promise me--
+remain at Tillietudlem to-night; to-morrow I expect your commanding-
+officer, the gallant Claverhouse, to whom king and country are so much
+obliged for his exertions against those who would turn the world upside
+down. I will speak to him on the subject of your speedy promotion; and I
+am certain he feels too much, both what is due to the blood which is in
+your veins, and to the request of a lady so highly distinguished as
+myself by his most sacred majesty, not to make better provision for you
+than you have yet received."
+
+"I am much obliged to your ladyship, and I certainly will remain her with
+my prisoner, since you request it, especially as it will be the earliest
+way of presenting him to Colonel Grahame, and obtaining his ultimate
+orders about the young spark."
+
+"Who is your prisoner, pray you?" said Lady Margaret.
+
+"A young fellow of rather the better class in this neighbourhood, who has
+been so incautious as to give countenance to one of the murderers of the
+primate, and to facilitate the dog's escape."
+
+"O, fie upon him!" said Lady Margaret; "I am but too apt to forgive the
+injuries I have received at the hands of these rogues, though some of
+them, Mr Stewart, are of a kind not like to be forgotten; but those who
+would abet the perpetrators of so cruel and deliberate a homicide on a
+single man, an old man, and a man of the Archbishop's sacred profession--
+O fie upon him! If you wish to make him secure, with little trouble to
+your people, I will cause Harrison, or Gudyill, look for the key of our
+pit, or principal dungeon. It has not been open since the week after the
+victory of Kilsythe, when my poor Sir Arthur Bellenden put twenty whigs
+into it; but it is not more than two stories beneath ground, so it cannot
+be unwholesome, especially as I rather believe there is somewhere an
+opening to the outer air."
+
+"I beg your pardon, madam," answered the sergeant; "I daresay the dungeon
+is a most admirable one; but I have promised to be civil to the lad, and
+I will take care he is watched, so as to render escape impossible. I'll
+set those to look after him shall keep him as fast as if his legs were in
+the boots, or his fingers in the thumbikins."
+
+"Well, Mr Stewart," rejoined the lady, "you best know your own duty. I
+heartily wish you good evening, and commit you to the care of my steward,
+Harrison. I would ask you to keep ourselves company, but a--a--a--"
+
+"O, madam, it requires no apology; I am sensible the coarse red coat of
+King Charles II. does and ought to annihilate the privileges of the red
+blood of King James V."
+
+"Not with me, I do assure you, Mr Stewart; you do me injustice if you
+think so. I will speak to your officer to-morrow; and I trust you shall
+soon find yourself in a rank where there shall be no anomalies to be
+reconciled."
+
+"I believe, madam," said Bothwell, "your goodness will find itself
+deceived; but I am obliged to you for your intention, and, at all events,
+I will have a merry night with Mr Harrison."
+
+Lady Margaret took a ceremonious leave, with all the respect which she
+owed to royal blood, even when flowing in the veins of a sergeant of the
+Life-Guards; again assuring Mr Stewart, that whatever was in the Tower of
+Tillietudlem was heartily at his service and that of his attendants.
+
+Sergeant Bothwell did not fail to take the lady at her word, and readily
+forgot the height from which his family had descended, in a joyous
+carousal, during which Mr Harrison exerted himself to produce the best
+wine in the cellar, and to excite his guest to be merry by that seducing
+example, which, in matters of conviviality, goes farther than precept.
+Old Gudyill associated himself with a party so much to his taste, pretty
+much as Davy, in the Second Part of Henry the Fourth, mingles in the
+revels of his master, Justice Shallow. He ran down to the cellar at the
+risk of breaking his neck, to ransack some private catacomb, known, as he
+boasted, only to himself, and which never either had, or should, during
+his superintendence, renden forth a bottle of its contents to any one but
+a real king's friend.
+
+"When the Duke dined here," said the butler, seating himself at a
+distance from the table, being somewhat overawed by Bothwell's genealogy,
+but yet hitching his seat half a yard nearer at every clause of his
+speech, "my leddy was importunate to have a bottle of that Burgundy,"--
+(here he advanced his seat a little,)--"but I dinna ken how it was, Mr
+Stewart, I misdoubted him. I jaloused him, sir, no to be the friend to
+government he pretends: the family are not to lippen to. That auld Duke
+James lost his heart before he lost his head; and the Worcester man was
+but wersh parritch, neither gude to fry, boil, nor sup cauld." (With this
+witty observation, he completed his first parallel, and commenced a
+zigzag after the manner of an experienced engineer, in order to continue
+his approaches to the table.) "Sae, sir, the faster my leddy cried
+'Burgundy to his Grace--the auld Burgundy--the choice Burgundy--the
+Burgundy that came ower in the thirty-nine'--the mair did I say to
+mysell, Deil a drap gangs down his hause unless I was mair sensible o'
+his principles; sack and claret may serve him. Na, na, gentlemen, as lang
+as I hae the trust o'butler in this house o'Tillietudlem, I'll tak it
+upon me to see that nae disloyal or doubtfu' person is the better o' our
+binns. But when I can find a true friend to the king and his cause, and a
+moderate episcopacy; when I find a man, as I say, that will stand by
+church and crown as I did mysell in my master's life, and all through
+Montrose's time, I think there's naething in the cellar ower gude to be
+spared on him."
+
+By this time he had completed a lodgment in the body of the place, or, in
+other words, advanced his seat close to the table.
+
+"And now, Mr Francis Stewart of Bothwell, I have the honour to drink your
+gude health, and a commission t'ye, and much luck may ye have in raking
+this country clear o'whigs and roundheads, fanatics and Covenanters."
+
+Bothwell, who, it may well be believed, had long ceased to be very
+scrupulous in point of society, which he regulated more by his
+convenience and station in life than his ancestry, readily answered the
+butler's pledge, acknowledging, at the same time, the excellence of the
+wine; and Mr Gudyill, thus adopted a regular member of the company,
+continued to furnish them with the means of mirth until an early hour in
+the next morning.
+
+
+
+
+                                CHAPTER X.
+
+               Did I but purpose to embark with thee
+               On the smooth surface of a summer sea,
+               And would forsake the skiff and make the shore
+               When the winds whistle and the tempests roar?
+                                                  Prior.
+
+While Lady Margaret held, with the high-descended sergeant of dragoons,
+the conference which we have detailed in the preceding pages, her
+grand-daughter, partaking in a less degree her ladyship's enthusiasm for
+all who were sprung of the blood-royal, did not honour Sergeant Bothwell
+with more attention than a single glance, which showed her a tall
+powerful person, and a set of hardy weather-beaten features, to which
+pride and dissipation had given an air where discontent mingled with the
+reckless gaiety of desperation. The other soldiers offered still less to
+detach her consideration; but from the prisoner, muffled and disguised as
+he was, she found it impossible to withdraw her eyes. Yet she blamed
+herself for indulging a curiosity which seemed obviously to give pain to
+him who was its object.
+
+"I wish," she said to Jenny Dennison, who was the immediate attendant on
+her person, "I wish we knew who that poor fellow is."
+
+"I was just thinking sae mysell, Miss Edith," said the waiting woman,
+"but it canna be Cuddie Headrigg, because he's taller and no sae stout."
+
+"Yet," continued Miss Bellenden, "it may be some poor neigbour, for whom
+we might have cause to interest ourselves."
+
+"I can sune learn wha he is," said the enterprising Jenny, "if the
+sodgers were anes settled and at leisure, for I ken ane o' them very
+weel--the best-looking and the youngest o' them."
+
+"I think you know all the idle young fellows about the country," answered
+her mistress.
+
+"Na, Miss Edith, I am no sae free o' my acquaintance as that," answered
+the fille-de-chambre. "To be sure, folk canna help kenning the folk by
+head-mark that they see aye glowring and looking at them at kirk and
+market; but I ken few lads to speak to unless it be them o' the family,
+and the three Steinsons, and Tam Rand, and the young miller, and the five
+Howisons in Nethersheils, and lang Tam Gilry, and"--
+
+"Pray cut short a list of exceptions which threatens to be a long one,
+and tell me how you come to know this young soldier," said Miss
+Bellenden.
+
+"Lord, Miss Edith, it's Tam Halliday, Trooper Tam, as they ca' him, that
+was wounded by the hill-folk at the conventicle at Outer-side Muir, and
+lay here while he was under cure. I can ask him ony thing, and Tam will
+no refuse to answer me, I'll be caution for him."
+
+"Try, then," said Miss Edith, "if you can find an opportunity to ask him
+the name of his prisoner, and come to my room and tell me what he says."
+
+Jenny Dennison proceeded on her errand, but soon returned with such a
+face of surprise and dismay as evinced a deep interest in the fate of the
+prisoner.
+
+"What is the matter?" said Edith, anxiously; "does it prove to be Cuddie,
+after all, poor fellow?"
+
+"Cuddie, Miss Edith? Na! na! it's nae Cuddie," blubbered out the faithful
+fille-de-chambre, sensible of the pain which her news were about to
+inflict on her young mistress. "O dear, Miss Edith, it's young Milnwood
+himsell!"
+
+"Young Milnwood!" exclaimed Edith, aghast in her turn; "it is impossible
+--totally impossible!--His uncle attends the clergyman indulged by law,
+and has no connexion whatever with the refractory people; and he himself
+has never interfered in this unhappy dissension; he must be totally
+innocent, unless he has been standing up for some invaded right."
+
+"O, my dear Miss Edith," said her attendant, "these are not days to ask
+what's right or what's wrang; if he were as innocent as the new-born
+infant, they would find some way of making him guilty, if they liked; but
+Tam Halliday says it will touch his life, for he has been resetting ane
+o' the Fife gentlemen that killed that auld carle of an Archbishop."
+
+"His life!" exclaimed Edith, starting hastily up, and speaking with a
+hurried and tremulous accent,--"they cannot--they shall not--I will speak
+for him--they shall not hurt him!"
+
+"O, my dear young leddy, think on your grandmother; think on the danger
+and the difficulty," added Jenny; "for he's kept under close confinement
+till Claverhouse comes up in the morning, and if he doesna gie him full
+satisfaction, Tam Halliday says there will be brief wark wi' him--Kneel
+down--mak ready--present--fire--just as they did wi' auld deaf John
+Macbriar, that never understood a single question they pat till him, and
+sae lost his life for lack o' hearing."
+
+"Jenny," said the young lady, "if he should die, I will die with him;
+there is no time to talk of danger or difficulty--I will put on a plaid,
+and slip down with you to the place where they have kept him--I will
+throw myself at the feet of the sentinel, and entreat him, as he has a
+soul to be saved"--
+
+"Eh, guide us!" interrupted the maid, "our young leddy at the feet o'
+Trooper Tam, and speaking to him about his soul, when the puir chield
+hardly kens whether he has ane or no, unless that he whiles swears by it
+--that will never do; but what maun be maun be, and I'll never desert a
+true-love cause--And sae, if ye maun see young Milnwood, though I ken nae
+gude it will do, but to make baith your hearts the sairer, I'll e'en tak
+the risk o't, and try to manage Tam Halliday; but ye maun let me hae my
+ain gate and no speak ae word--he's keeping guard o'er Milnwood in the
+easter round of the tower."
+
+"Go, go, fetch me a plaid," said Edith. "Let me but see him, and I will
+find some remedy for his danger--Haste ye, Jenny, as ever ye hope to have
+good at my hands."
+
+Jenny hastened, and soon returned with a plaid, in which Edith muffled
+herself so as completely to screen her face, and in part to disguise her
+person. This was a mode of arranging the plaid very common among the
+ladies of that century, and the earlier part of the succeeding one; so
+much so, indeed, that the venerable sages of the Kirk, conceiving that
+the mode gave tempting facilities for intrigue, directed more than one
+act of Assembly against this use of the mantle. But fashion, as usual,
+proved too strong for authority, and while plaids continued to be worn,
+women of all ranks occasionally employed them as a sort of muffler or
+veil. [Note: Concealment of an individual, while in public or promiscuous
+society, was then very common. In England, where no plaids were worn, the
+ladies used vizard masks for the same purpose, and the gallants drew the
+skirts of their cloaks over the right shoulder, so as to cover part of
+the face. This is repeatedly alluded to in Pepys's Diary.] Her face and
+figure thus concealed, Edith, holding by her attendant's arm, hastened
+with trembling steps to the place of Morton's confinement.
+
+This was a small study or closet, in one of the turrets, opening upon a
+gallery in which the sentinel was pacing to and fro; for Sergeant
+Bothwell, scrupulous in observing his word, and perhaps touched with some
+compassion for the prisoner's youth and genteel demeanour, had waved the
+indignity of putting his guard into the same apartment with him.
+Halliday, therefore, with his carabine on his arm, walked up and down the
+gallery, occasionally solacing himself with a draught of ale, a huge
+flagon of which stood upoon the table at one end of the apartment, and at
+other times humming the lively Scottish air,
+
+"Between Saint Johnstone and Bonny Dundee, I'll gar ye be fain to follow
+me."
+
+Jenny Dennison cautioned her mistress once more to let her take her own
+way.
+
+"I can manage the trooper weel eneugh," she said, "for as rough as he is
+--I ken their nature weel; but ye maunna say a single word."
+
+She accordingly opened the door of the gallery just as the sentinel had
+turned his back from it, and taking up the tune which he hummed, she sung
+in a coquettish tone of rustic raillery,
+
+"If I were to follow a poor sodger lad, My friends wad be angry, my
+minnie be mad; A laird, or a lord, they were fitter for me, Sae I'll
+never be fain to follow thee."--
+
+"A fair challenge, by Jove," cried the sentinel, turning round, "and from
+two at once; but it's not easy to bang the soldier with his bandoleers;"
+then taking up the song where the damsel had stopt,
+
+"To follow me ye weel may be glad, A share of my supper, a share of my
+bed, To the sound of the drum to range fearless and free, I'll gar ye be
+fain to follow me."--
+
+"Come, my pretty lass, and kiss me for my song."
+
+"I should not have thought of that, Mr Halliday," answered Jenny, with a
+look and tone expressing just the necessary degree of contempt at the
+proposal, "and, I'se assure ye, ye'll hae but little o' my company unless
+ye show gentler havings--It wasna to hear that sort o'nonsense that
+brought me here wi' my friend, and ye should think shame o' yoursell, 'at
+should ye."
+
+"Umph! and what sort of nonsense did bring you here then, Mrs Dennison?"
+
+"My kinswoman has some particular business with your prisoner, young Mr
+Harry Morton, and I am come wi' her to speak till him."
+
+"The devil you are!" answered the sentinel; "and pray, Mrs Dennison, how
+do your kinswoman and you propose to get in? You are rather too plump to
+whisk through a keyhole, and opening the door is a thing not to be spoke
+of."
+
+"It's no a thing to be spoken o', but a thing to be dune," replied the
+persevering damsel.
+
+"We'll see about that, my bonny Jenny;" and the soldier resumed his
+march, humming, as he walked to and fro along the gallery,
+
+"Keek into the draw-well, Janet, Janet, Then ye'll see your bonny sell,
+My joe Janet."
+
+"So ye're no thinking to let us in, Mr Halliday? Weel, weel; gude e'en to
+you--ye hae seen the last o' me, and o' this bonny die too," said Jenny,
+holding between her finger and thumb a splendid silver dollar.
+
+"Give him gold, give him gold," whispered the agitated young lady.
+
+"Silver's e'en ower gude for the like o' him," replied Jenny, "that disna
+care for the blink o' a bonny lassie's ee--and what's waur, he wad think
+there was something mair in't than a kinswoman o' mine. My certy!
+siller's no sae plenty wi' us, let alane gowd." Having addressed this
+advice aside to her mistress, she raised her voice, and said, "My cousin
+winna stay ony langer, Mr Halliday; sae, if ye please, gude e'en t'ye."
+
+"Halt a bit, halt a bit," said the trooper; "rein up and parley, Jenny.
+If I let your kinswoman in to speak to my prisoner, you must stay here
+and keep me company till she come out again, and then we'll all be well
+pleased you know."
+
+"The fiend be in my feet then," said Jenny; "d'ye think my kinswoman and
+me are gaun to lose our gude name wi' cracking clavers wi' the like o'
+you or your prisoner either, without somebody by to see fair play? Hegh,
+hegh, sirs, to see sic a difference between folk's promises and
+performance! Ye were aye willing to slight puir Cuddie; but an I had
+asked him to oblige me in a thing, though it had been to cost his
+hanging, he wadna hae stude twice about it."
+
+"D--n Cuddie!" retorted the dragoon, "he'll be hanged in good earnest, I
+hope. I saw him today at Milnwood with his old puritanical b--of a
+mother, and if I had thought I was to have had him cast in my dish, I
+would have brought him up at my horse's tail--we had law enough to bear
+us out."
+
+"Very weel, very weel--See if Cuddie winna hae a lang shot at you ane o'
+thae days, if ye gar him tak the muir wi' sae mony honest folk. He can
+hit a mark brawly; he was third at the popinjay; and he's as true of his
+promise as of ee and hand, though he disna mak sic a phrase about it as
+some acquaintance o' yours--But it's a' ane to me--Come, cousin, we'll
+awa'."
+
+"Stay, Jenny; d--n me, if I hang fire more than another when I have said
+a thing," said the soldier, in a hesitating tone. "Where is the
+sergeant?"
+
+"Drinking and driving ower," quoth Jenny, "wi' the Steward and John
+Gudyill."
+
+"So, so--he's safe enough--and where are my comrades?" asked Halliday.
+
+"Birling the brown bowl wi' the fowler and the falconer, and some o' the
+serving folk."
+
+"Have they plenty of ale?"
+
+"Sax gallons, as gude as e'er was masked," said the maid.
+
+"Well, then, my pretty Jenny," said the relenting sentinel, "they are
+fast till the hour of relieving guard, and perhaps something later; and
+so, if you will promise to come alone the next time"--"Maybe I will, and
+maybe I winna," said Jenny; "but if ye get the dollar, ye'll like that
+just as weel."
+
+"I'll be d--n'd if I do," said Halliday, taking the money, howeve; "but
+it's always something for my risk; for, if Claverhouse hears what I have
+done, he will build me a horse as high as the Tower of Tillietudlem. But
+every one in the regiment takes what they can come by; I am sure Bothwell
+and his blood-royal shows us a good example. And if I were trusting to
+you, you little jilting devil, I should lose both pains and powder;
+whereas this fellow," looking at the piece, "will be good as far as he
+goes. So, come, there is the door open for you; do not stay groaning and
+praying with the young whig now, but be ready, when I call at the door,
+to start, as if they were sounding 'Horse and away.'"
+
+So speaking, Halliday unlocked the door of the closet, admitted Jenny and
+her pretended kinswoman, locked it behind them, and hastily reassumed the
+indifferent measured step and time-killing whistle of a sentinel upon his
+regular duty.
+
+The door, which slowly opened, discovered Morton with both arms reclined
+upon a table, and his head resting upon them in a posture of deep
+dejection. He raised his face as the door opened, and, perceiving the
+female figures which it admitted, started up in great surprise. Edith, as
+if modesty had quelled the courage which despair had bestowed, stood
+about a yard from the door without having either the power to speak or to
+advance. All the plans of aid, relief, or comfort, which she had proposed
+to lay before her lover, seemed at once to have vanished from her
+recollection, and left only a painful chaos of ideas, with which was
+mingled a fear that she had degraded herself in the eyes of Morton by a
+step which might appear precipitate and unfeminine. She hung motionless
+and almost powerless upon the arm of her attendant, who in vain
+endeavoured to reassure and inspire her with courage, by whispering, "We
+are in now, madam, and we maun mak the best o' our time; for, doubtless,
+the corporal or the sergeant will gang the rounds, and it wad be a pity
+to hae the poor lad Halliday punished for his civility."
+
+Morton, in the meantime, was timidly advancing, suspecting the truth; for
+what other female in the house, excepting Edith herself, was likely to
+take an interest in his misfortunes? and yet afraid, owing to the
+doubtful twilight and the muffled dress, of making some mistake which
+might be prejudicial to the object of his affections. Jenny, whose ready
+wit and forward manners well qualified her for such an office, hastened
+to break the ice.
+
+"Mr Morton, Miss Edith's very sorry for your present situation, and"--
+
+It was needless to say more; he was at her side, almost at her feet,
+pressing her unresisting hands, and loading her with a profusion of
+thanks and gratitude which would be hardly intelligible from the mere
+broken words, unless we could describe the tone, the gesture, the
+impassioned and hurried indications of deep and tumultuous feeling, with
+which they were accompanied.
+
+For two or three minutes, Edith stood as motionless as the statue of a
+saint which receives the adoration of a worshipper; and when she
+recovered herself sufficiently to withdraw her hands from Henry's grasp,
+she could at first only faintly articulate, "I have taken a strange step,
+Mr Morton--a step," she continued with more coherence, as her ideas
+arranged themselves in consequence of a strong effort, "that perhaps may
+expose me to censure in your eyes--But I have long permitted you to use
+the language of friendship--perhaps I might say more--too long to leave
+you when the world seems to have left you. How, or why, is this
+imprisonment? what can be done? can my uncle, who thinks so highly of
+you--can your own kinsman, Milnwood, be of no use? are there no means?
+and what is likely to be the event?"
+
+"Be what it will," answered Henry, contriving to make himself master of
+the hand that had escaped from him, but which was now again abandoned to
+his clasp, "be what it will, it is to me from this moment the most
+welcome incident of a weary life. To you, dearest Edith--forgive me, I
+should have said Miss Bellenden, but misfortune claims strange
+privileges--to you I have owed the few happy moments which have gilded a
+gloomy existence; and if I am now to lay it down, the recollection of
+this honour will be my happiness in the last hour of suffering."
+
+"But is it even thus, Mr Morton?" said Miss Bellenden. "Have you, who
+used to mix so little in these unhappy feuds, become so suddenly and
+deeply implicated, that nothing short of"--
+
+She paused, unable to bring out the word which should have come next.
+
+"Nothing short of my life, you would say?" replied Morton, in a calm, but
+melancholy tone; "I believe that will be entirely in the bosoms of my
+judges. My guards spoke of a possibility of exchanging the penalty for
+entry into foreign service. I thought I could have embraced the
+alternative; and yet, Miss Bellenden, since I have seen you once more, I
+feel that exile would be more galling than death."
+
+"And is it then true," said Edith, "that you have been so desperately
+rash as to entertain communication with any of those cruel wretches who
+assassinated the primate?"
+
+"I knew not even that such a crime had been committed," replied Morton,
+"when I gave unhappily a night's lodging and concealment to one of those
+rash and cruel men, the ancient friend and comrade of my father. But my
+ignorance will avail me little; for who, Miss Bellenden, save you, will
+believe it? And, what is worse, I am at least uncertain whether, even if
+I had known the crime, I could have brought my mind, under all the
+circumstances, to refuse a temporary refuge to the fugitive."
+
+"And by whom," said Edith, anxiously, "or under what authority, will the
+investigation of your conduct take place?"
+
+"Under that of Colonel Grahame of Claverhouse, I am given to understand,"
+said Morton; "one of the military commission, to whom it has pleased our
+king, our privy council, and our parliament, that used to be more
+tenacious of our liberties, to commit the sole charge of our goods and of
+our lives."
+
+"To Claverhouse?" said Edith, faintly; "merciful Heaven, you are lost ere
+you are tried! He wrote to my grandmother that he was to be here
+to-morrow morning, on his road to the head of the county, where some
+desperate men, animated by the presence of two or three of the actors in
+the primate's murder, are said to have assembled for the purpose of
+making a stand against the government. His expressions made me shudder,
+even when I could not guess that--that--a friend"--
+
+"Do not be too much alarmed on my account, my dearest Edith," said Henry,
+as he supported her in his arms; "Claverhouse, though stern and
+relentless, is, by all accounts, brave, fair, and honourable. I am a
+soldier's son, and will plead my cause like a soldier. He will perhaps
+listen more favourably to a blunt and unvarnished defence than a
+truckling and time-serving judge might do. And, indeed, in a time when
+justice is, in all its branches, so completely corrupted, I would rather
+lose my life by open military violence, than be conjured out of it by the
+hocus-pocus of some arbitrary lawyer, who lends the knowledge he has of
+the statutes made for our protection, to wrest them to our destruction."
+
+"You are lost--you are lost, if you are to plead your cause with
+Claverhouse!" sighed Edith; "root and branchwork is the mildest of his
+expressions. The unhappy primate was his intimate friend and early
+patron. 'No excuse, no subterfuge,' said his letter, 'shall save either
+those connected with the deed, or such as have given them countenance and
+shelter, from the ample and bitter penalty of the law, until I shall have
+taken as many lives in vengeance of this atrocious murder, as the old man
+had grey hairs upon his venerable head.' There is neither ruth nor favour
+to be found with him."
+
+Jenny Dennison, who had hitherto remained silent, now ventured, in the
+extremity of distress which the lovers felt, but for which they were
+unable to devise a remedy, to offer her own advice.
+
+"Wi' your leddyship's pardon, Miss Edith, and young Mr Morton's, we
+maunna waste time. Let Milnwood take my plaid and gown; I'll slip them
+aff in the dark corner, if he'll promise no to look about, and he may
+walk past Tam Halliday, who is half blind with his ale, and I can tell
+him a canny way to get out o' the Tower, and your leddyship will gang
+quietly to your ain room, and I'll row mysell in his grey cloak, and pit
+on his hat, and play the prisoner till the coast's clear, and then I'll
+cry in Tam Halliday, and gar him let me out."
+
+"Let you out?" said Morton; "they'll make your life answer it."
+
+"Ne'er a bit," replied Jenny; "Tam daurna tell he let ony body in, for
+his ain sake; and I'll gar him find some other gate to account for the
+escape."
+
+"Will you, by G--?" said the sentinel, suddenly opening the door of the
+apartment; "if I am half blind, I am not deaf, and you should not plan an
+escape quite so loud, if you expect to go through with it. Come, come,
+Mrs Janet--march, troop--quick time--trot, d--n me!--And you, madam
+kinswoman,--I won't ask your real name, though you were going to play me
+so rascally a trick,--but I must make a clear garrison; so beat a
+retreat, unless you would have me turn out the guard."
+
+"I hope," said Morton, very anxiously, "you will not mention this
+circumstance, my good friend, and trust to my honour to acknowledge your
+civility in keeping the secret. If you overheard our conversation, you
+must have observed that we did not accept of, or enter into, the hasty
+proposal made by this good-natured girl."
+
+"Oh, devilish good-natured, to be sure," said Halliday. "As for the rest,
+I guess how it is, and I scorn to bear malice, or tell tales, as much as
+another; but no thanks to that little jilting devil, Jenny Dennison, who
+deserves a tight skelping for trying to lead an honest lad into a scrape,
+just because he was so silly as to like her good-for-little chit face."
+
+Jenny had no better means of justification than the last apology to which
+her sex trust, and usually not in vain; she pressed her handkerchief to
+her face, sobbed with great vehemence, and either wept, or managed, as
+Halliday might have said, to go through the motions wonderfully well.
+
+"And now," continued the soldier, somewhat mollified, "if you have any
+thing to say, say it in two minutes, and let me see your backs turned;
+for if Bothwell take it into his drunken head to make the rounds half an
+hour too soon, it will be a black business to us all."
+
+"Farewell, Edith," whispered Morton, assuming a firmness he was far from
+possessing; "do not remain here--leave me to my fate--it cannot be beyond
+endurance since you are interested in it.--Good night, good night!--Do
+not remain here till you are discovered."
+
+Thus saying, he resigned her to her attendant, by whom she was quietly
+led and partly supported out of the apartment.
+
+"Every one has his taste, to be sure," said Halliday; "but d--n me if I
+would have vexed so sweet a girl as that is, for all the whigs that ever
+swore the Covenant."
+
+When Edith had regained her apartment, she gave way to a burst of grief
+which alarmed Jenny Dennison, who hastened to administer such scraps of
+consolation as occurred to her.
+
+"Dinna vex yoursell sae muckle, Miss Edith," said that faithful
+attendant; "wha kens what may happen to help young Milnwood? He's a brave
+lad, and a bonny, and a gentleman of a good fortune, and they winna
+string the like o' him up as they do the puir whig bodies that they catch
+in the muirs, like straps o' onions; maybe his uncle will bring him aff,
+or maybe your ain grand-uncle will speak a gude word for him--he's weel
+acquent wi' a' the red-coat gentlemen."
+
+"You are right, Jenny! you are right," said Edith, recovering herself
+from the stupor into which she had sunk; "this is no time for despair,
+but for exertion. You must find some one to ride this very night to my
+uncle's with a letter."
+
+"To Charnwood, madam? It's unco late, and it's sax miles an' a bittock
+doun the water; I doubt if we can find man and horse the night, mair
+especially as they hae mounted a sentinel before the gate. Puir Cuddie!
+he's gane, puir fallow, that wad hae dune aught in the warld I bade him,
+and ne'er asked a reason--an' I've had nae time to draw up wi' the new
+pleugh-lad yet; forby that, they say he's gaun to be married to Meg
+Murdieson, illfaur'd cuttie as she is."
+
+"You must find some one to go, Jenny; life and death depend upon it."
+
+"I wad gang mysell, my leddy, for I could creep out at the window o' the
+pantry, and speel down by the auld yew-tree weel eneugh--I hae played
+that trick ere now. But the road's unco wild, and sae mony red-coats
+about, forby the whigs, that are no muckle better (the young lads o'
+them) if they meet a fraim body their lane in the muirs. I wadna stand
+for the walk--I can walk ten miles by moonlight weel eneugh."
+
+"Is there no one you can think of, that, for money or favour, would serve
+me so far?" asked Edith, in great anxiety.
+
+"I dinna ken," said Jenny, after a moment's consideration, "unless it be
+Guse Gibbie; and he'll maybe no ken the way, though it's no sae difficult
+to hit, if he keep the horse-road, and mind the turn at the Cappercleugh,
+and dinna drown himsell in the Whomlekirn-pule, or fa' ower the scaur at
+the Deil's Loaning, or miss ony o' the kittle steps at the Pass o'
+Walkwary, or be carried to the hills by the whigs, or be taen to the
+tolbooth by the red-coats."
+
+"All ventures must be run," said Edith, cutting short the list of chances
+against Goose Gibbie's safe arrival at the end of his pilgrimage; "all
+risks must be run, unless you can find a better messenger.--Go, bid the
+boy get ready, and get him out of the Tower as secretly as you can. If he
+meets any one, let him say he is carrying a letter to Major Bellenden of
+Charnwood, but without mentioning any names."
+
+"I understand, madam," said Jenny Dennison; "I warrant the callant will
+do weel eneugh, and Tib the hen-wife will tak care o' the geese for a
+word o' my mouth; and I'll tell Gibbie your leddyship will mak his peace
+wi' Lady Margaret, and we'll gie him a dollar."
+
+"Two, if he does his errand well," said Edith.
+
+Jenny departed to rouse Goose Gibbie out of his slumbers, to which he was
+usually consigned at sundown, or shortly after, he keeping the hours of
+the birds under his charge. During her absence, Edith took her writing
+materials, and prepared against her return the following letter,
+superscribed, For the hands of Major Bellenden of Charnwood, my much
+honoured uncle, These: "My dear Uncle--This will serve to inform you I am
+desirous to know how your gout is, as we did not see you at the
+wappen-schaw, which made both my grandmother and myself very uneasy. And
+if it will permit you to travel, we shall be happy to see you at our poor
+house to-morrow at the hour of breakfast, as Colonel Grahame of
+Claverhouse is to pass this way on his march, and we would willingly have
+your assistance to receive and entertain a military man of such
+distinction, who, probably, will not be much delighted with the company
+of women. Also, my dear uncle, I pray you to let Mrs Carefor't, your
+housekeeper, send me my double-trimmed paduasoy with the hanging sleeves,
+which she will find in the third drawer of the walnut press in the green
+room, which you are so kind as to call mine. Also, my dear uncle, I pray
+you to send me the second volume of the Grand Cyrus, as I have only read
+as far as the imprisonment of Philidaspes upon the seven hundredth and
+thirty-third page; but, above all, I entreat you to come to us to-morrow
+before eight of the clock, which, as your pacing nag is so good, you may
+well do without rising before your usual hour. So, praying to God to
+preserve your health, I rest your dutiful and loving niece,
+
+"Edith Bellenden.
+
+"Postscriptum. A party of soldiers have last night brought your friend,
+young Mr Henry Morton of Milnwood, hither as a prisoner. I conclude you
+will be sorry for the young gentleman, and, therefore, let you know this,
+in case you may think of speaking to Colonel Grahame in his behalf. I
+have not mentioned his name to my grandmother, knowing her prejudice
+against the family."
+
+This epistle being duly sealed and delivered to Jenny, that faithful
+confidant hastened to put the same in the charge of Goose Gibbie, whom
+she found in readiness to start from the castle. She then gave him
+various instructions touching the road, which she apprehended he was
+likely to mistake, not having travelled it above five or six times, and
+possessing only the same slender proportion of memory as of judgment.
+Lastly, she smuggled him out of the garrison through the pantry window
+into the branchy yew-tree which grew close beside it, and had the
+satisfaction to see him reach the bottom in safety, and take the right
+turn at the commencement of his journey. She then returned to persuade
+her young mistress to go to bed, and to lull her to rest, if possible,
+with assurances of Gibbie's success in his embassy, only qualified by a
+passing regret that the trusty Cuddie, with whom the commission might
+have been more safely reposed, was no longer within reach of serving her.
+
+More fortunate as a messenger than as a cavalier, it was Gibbie's good
+hap rather than his good management, which, after he had gone astray not
+oftener than nine times, and given his garments a taste of the variation
+of each bog, brook, and slough, between Tillietudlem and Charnwood,
+placed him about daybreak before the gate of Major Bellenden's mansion,
+having completed a walk of ten miles (for the bittock, as usual, amounted
+to four) in little more than the same number of hours.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XI.
+
+               At last comes the troop, by the word of command
+               Drawn up in our court, where the Captain cries,
+               Stand!
+                                             Swift
+
+Major Bellenden's ancient valet, Gideon Pike as he adjusted his master's
+clothes by his bedside, preparatory to the worthy veteran's toilet,
+acquainted him, as an apology for disturbing him an hour earlier than his
+usual time of rising, that there was an express from Tillietudlem.
+
+"From Tillietudlem?" said the old gentleman, rising hastily in his bed,
+and sitting bolt upright,--"Open the shutters, Pike--I hope my
+sister-in-law is well--furl up the bed-curtain.--What have we all here?"
+(glancing at Edith's note.) "The gout? why, she knows I have not had a
+fit since Candlemas.--The wappen-schaw? I told her a month since I was
+not to be there.--Paduasoy and hanging sleeves? why, hang the gipsy
+herself!--Grand Cyrus and Philipdastus?--Philip Devil!--is the wench gone
+crazy all at once? was it worth while to send an express and wake me at
+five in the morning for all this trash?--But what says her postscriptum?-
+-Mercy on us!" he exclaimed on perusing it,--"Pike, saddle old Kilsythe
+instantly, and another horse for yourself."
+
+"I hope nae ill news frae the Tower, sir?" said Pike, astonished at his
+master's sudden emotion.
+
+"Yes--no--yes--that is, I must meet Claverhouse there on some express
+business; so boot and saddle, Pike, as fast as you can.--O, Lord! what
+times are these!--the poor lad--my old cronie's son!--and the silly wench
+sticks it into her postscriptum, as she calls it, at the tail of all this
+trumpery about old gowns and new romances!"
+
+In a few minutes the good old officer was fully equipped; and having
+mounted upon his arm-gaunt charger as soberly as Mark Antony himself
+could have done, he paced forth his way to the Tower of Tillietudlem.
+
+On the road he formed the prudent resolution to say nothing to the old
+lady (whose dislike to presbyterians of all kinds he knew to be
+inveterate) of the quality and rank of the prisoner detained within her
+walls, but to try his own influence with Claverhouse to obtain Morton's
+liberation.
+
+"Being so loyal as he is, he must do something for so old a cavalier as I
+am," said the veteran to himself; "and if he is so good a soldier as the
+world speaks of, why, he will be glad to serve an old soldier's son. I
+never knew a real soldier that was not a frank-hearted, honest fellow;
+and I think the execution of the laws (though it's a pity they find it
+necessary to make them so severe) may be a thousand times better
+intrusted with them than with peddling lawyers and thick-skulled country
+gentlemen."
+
+Such were the ruminations of Major Miles Bellenden, which were terminated
+by John Gudyill (not more than half-drunk) taking hold of his bridle, and
+assisting him to dismount in the roughpaved court of Tillietudlem.
+
+"Why, John," said the veteran, "what devil of a discipline is this you
+have been keeping? You have been reading Geneva print this morning
+already."
+
+"I have been reading the Litany," said John, shaking his head with a look
+of drunken gravity, and having only caught one word of the Major's
+address to him; "life is short, sir; we are flowers of the field, sir--
+hiccup--and lilies of the valley."
+
+"Flowers and lilies? Why, man, such carles as thou and I can hardly be
+called better than old hemlocks, decayed nettles, or withered rag-weed;
+but I suppose you think that we are still worth watering."
+
+"I am an old soldier, sir, I thank Heaven--hiccup"--
+
+"An old skinker, you mean, John. But come, never mind, show me the way to
+your mistress, old lad."
+
+John Gudyill led the way to the stone hall, where Lady Margaret was
+fidgeting about, superintending, arranging, and re-forming the
+preparations made for the reception of the celebrated Claverhouse, whom
+one party honoured and extolled as a hero, and another execrated as a
+bloodthirsty oppressor.
+
+"Did I not tell you," said Lady Margaret to her principal female
+attendant--"did I not tell you, Mysie, that it was my especial pleasure
+on this occasion to have every thing in the precise order wherein it was
+upon that famous morning when his most sacred majesty partook of his
+disjune at Tillietudlem?"
+
+"Doubtless, such were your leddyship's commands, and to the best of my
+remembrance"--was Mysie answering, when her ladyship broke in with, "Then
+wherefore is the venison pasty placed on the left side of the throne, and
+the stoup of claret upon the right, when ye may right weel remember,
+Mysie, that his most sacred majesty with his ain hand shifted the pasty
+to the same side with the flagon, and said they were too good friends to
+be parted?"
+
+"I mind that weel, madam," said Mysie; "and if I had forgot, I have heard
+your leddyship often speak about that grand morning sin' syne; but I
+thought every thing was to be placed just as it was when his majesty, God
+bless him, came into this room, looking mair like an angel than a man, if
+he hadna been sae black-a-vised."
+
+"Then ye thought nonsense, Mysie; for in whatever way his most sacred
+majesty ordered the position of the trenchers and flagons, that, as weel
+as his royal pleasure in greater matters, should be a law to his
+subjects, and shall ever be to those of the house of Tillietudlem."
+
+"Weel, madam," said Mysie, making the alterations required, "it's easy
+mending the error; but if every thing is just to be as his majesty left
+it, there should be an unco hole in the venison pasty."
+
+At this moment the door opened.
+
+"Who is that, John Gudyill?" exclaimed the old lady. "I can speak to no
+one just now.--Is it you, my dear brother?" she continued, in some
+surprise, as the Major entered; "this is a right early visit."
+
+"Not more early than welcome, I hope," replied Major Bellenden, as he
+saluted the widow of his deceased brother; "but I heard by a note which
+Edith sent to Charnwood about some of her equipage and books, that you
+were to have Claver'se here this morning, so I thought, like an old
+firelock as I am, that I should like to have a chat with this rising
+soldier. I caused Pike saddle Kilsythe, and here we both are."
+
+"And most kindly welcome you are," said the old lady; "it is just what I
+should have prayed you to do, if I had thought there was time. You see I
+am busy in preparation. All is to be in the same order as when"--"The
+king breakfasted at Tillietudlem," said the Major, who, like all Lady
+Margaret's friends, dreaded the commencement of that narrative, and was
+desirous to cut it short,--"I remember it well; you know I was waiting on
+his majesty."
+
+"You were, brother," said Lady Margaret; "and perhaps you can help me to
+remember the order of the entertainment."
+
+"Nay, good sooth," said the Major, "the damnable dinner that Noll gave us
+at Worcester a few days afterwards drove all your good cheer out of my
+memory.--But how's this?--you have even the great Turkey-leather
+elbow-chair, with the tapestry cushions, placed in state."
+
+"The throne, brother, if you please," said Lady Margaret, gravely.
+
+"Well, the throne be it, then," continued the Major. "Is that to be
+Claver'se's post in the attack upon the pasty?"
+
+"No, brother," said the lady; "as these cushions have been once honoured
+by accommodating the person of our most sacred Monarch, they shall never,
+please Heaven, during my life-time, be pressed by any less dignified
+weight."
+
+"You should not then," said the old soldier, "put them in the way of an
+honest old cavalier, who has ridden ten miles before breakfast; for, to
+confess the truth, they look very inviting. But where is Edith?"
+
+"On the battlements of the warder's turret," answered the old lady,
+"looking out for the approach of our guests."
+
+"Why, I'll go there too; and so should you, Lady Margaret, as soon as you
+have your line of battle properly formed in the hall here. It's a pretty
+thing, I can tell you, to see a regiment of horse upon the march."
+
+Thus speaking, he offered his arm with an air of old-fashioned gallantry,
+which Lady Margaret accepted with such a courtesy of acknowledgment as
+ladies were wont to make in Holyroodhouse before the year 1642, which,
+for one while, drove both courtesies and courts out of fashion.
+
+Upon the bartizan of the turret, to which they ascended by many a winding
+passage and uncouth staircase, they found Edith, not in the attitude of a
+young lady who watches with fluttering curiosity the approach of a smart
+regiment of dragoons, but pale, downcast, and evincing, by her
+countenance, that sleep had not, during the preceding night, been the
+companion of her pillow. The good old veteran was hurt at her appearance,
+which, in the hurry of preparation, her grandmother had omitted to
+notice.
+
+"What is come over you, you silly girl?" he said; "why, you look like an
+officer's wife when she opens the News-letter after an action, and
+expects to find her husband among the killed and wounded. But I know the
+reason--you will persist in reading these nonsensical romances, day and
+night, and whimpering for distresses that never existed. Why, how the
+devil can you believe that Artamines, or what d'ye call him, fought
+singlehanded with a whole battalion? One to three is as great odds as
+ever fought and won, and I never knew any body that cared to take that,
+except old Corporal Raddlebanes. But these d--d books put all pretty
+men's actions out of countenance. I daresay you would think very little
+of Raddlebanes, if he were alongside of Artamines.--I would have the
+fellows that write such nonsense brought to the picquet for
+leasing-making."
+
+     [Note:  Romances of the Seventeenth Century. As few, in the present
+     age, are acquainted with the ponderous folios to which the age of
+     Louis XIV. gave rise, we need only say, that they combine the
+     dulness of the metaphysical courtship with all the improbabilities
+     of the ancient Romance of Chivalry. Their character will be most
+     easily learned from Boileau's Dramatic Satire, or Mrs Lennox's
+     Female Quixote.]
+
+Lady Margaret, herself somewhat attached to the perusal of romances, took
+up the cudgels. "Monsieur Scuderi," she said, "is a soldier, brother;
+and, as I have heard, a complete one, and so is the Sieur d'Urfe."
+
+"More shame for them; they should have known better what they were
+writing about. For my part, I have not read a book these twenty years
+except my Bible, The Whole Duty of Man, and, of late days, Turner's
+Pallas Armata, or Treatise on the Ordering of the Pike Exercise, and I
+don't like his discipline much neither.
+
+     [Note:  Sir James Turner. Sir James Turner was a soldier of fortune,
+     bred in the civil wars. He was intrusted with a commission to levy
+     the fines imposed by the Privy Council for non-conformity, in the
+     district of Dumfries and Galloway. In this capacity he vexed the
+     country so much by his exactions, that the people rose and made him
+     prisoner, and then proceeded in arms towards Mid-Lothian, where they
+     were defeated at Pentland Hills, in 1666. Besides his treatise on
+     the Military Art, Sir James Turner wrote several other works; the
+     most curious of which is his Memoirs of his own Life and Times,
+     which has just been printed, under the charge of the Bannatyne
+     Club.]
+
+He wants to draw up the cavalry in front of a stand of pikes, instead of
+being upon the wings. Sure am I, if we had done so at Kilsythe, instead
+of having our handful of horse on the flanks, the first discharge would
+have sent them back among our Highlanders.--But I hear the kettle-drums."
+
+All heads were now bent from the battlements of the turret, which
+commanded a distant prospect down the vale of the river. The Tower of
+Tillietudlem stood, or perhaps yet stands, upon the angle of a very
+precipitous bank, formed by the junction of a considerable brook with the
+Clyde.
+
+     [Note: The Castle of Tillietudlem is imaginary; but the ruins of
+     Craignethan Castle, situated on the Nethan, about three miles from
+     its junction with the Clyde, have something of the character of the
+     description in the text].
+
+There was a narrow bridge of one steep arch, across the brook near its
+mouth, over which, and along the foot of the high and broken bank, winded
+the public road; and the fortalice, thus commanding both bridge and pass,
+had been, in times of war, a post of considerable importance, the
+possession of which was necessary to secure the communication of the
+upper and wilder districts of the country with those beneath, where the
+valley expands, and is more capable of cultivation. The view downwards is
+of a grand woodland character; but the level ground and gentle slopes
+near the river form cultivated fields of an irregular shape, interspersed
+with hedgerow-trees and copses, the enclosures seeming to have been
+individually cleared out of the forest which surrounds them, and which
+occupies, in unbroken masses, the steeper declivities and more distant
+banks. The stream, in colour a clear and sparkling brown, like the hue of
+the Cairngorm pebbles, rushes through this romantic region in bold sweeps
+and curves, partly visible and partly concealed by the trees which clothe
+its banks. With a providence unknown in other parts of Scotland, the
+peasants have, in most places, planted orchards around their cottages,
+and the general blossom of the appletrees at this season of the year gave
+all the lower part of the view the appearance of a flower-garden.
+
+Looking up the river, the character of the scene was varied considerably
+for the worse. A hilly, waste, and uncultivated country approached close
+to the banks; the trees were few, and limited to the neighbourhood of the
+stream, and the rude moors swelled at a little distance into shapeless
+and heavy hills, which were again surmounted in their turn by a range of
+lofty mountains, dimly seen on the horizon. Thus the tower commanded two
+prospects, the one richly cultivated and highly adorned, the other
+exhibiting the monotonous and dreary character of a wild and inhospitable
+moorland.
+
+The eyes of the spectators on the present occasion were attracted to the
+downward view, not alone by its superior beauty, but because the distant
+sounds of military music began to be heard from the public high-road
+which winded up the vale, and announced the approach of the expected body
+of cavalry. Their glimmering ranks were shortly afterwards seen in the
+distance, appearing and disappearing as the trees and the windings of the
+road permitted them to be visible, and distinguished chiefly by the
+flashes of light which their arms occasionally reflected against the sun.
+The train was long and imposing, for there were about two hundred and
+fifty horse upon the march, and the glancing of the swords and waving of
+their banners, joined to the clang of their trumpets and kettle-drums,
+had at once a lively and awful effect upon the imagination. As they
+advanced still nearer and nearer, they could distinctly see the files of
+those chosen troops following each other in long succession, completely
+equipped and superbly mounted.
+
+"It's a sight that makes me thirty years younger," said the old cavalier;
+"and yet I do not much like the service that these poor fellows are to be
+engaged in. Although I had my share of the civil war, I cannot say I had
+ever so much real pleasure in that sort of service as when I was employed
+on the Continent, and we were hacking at fellows with foreign faces and
+outlandish dialect. It's a hard thing to hear a hamely Scotch tongue cry
+quarter, and be obliged to cut him down just the same as if he called out
+/misricorde/.--So, there they come through the Netherwood haugh; upon my
+word, fine-looking fellows, and capitally mounted.--He that is gallopping
+from the rear of the column must be Claver'se himself;--ay, he gets into
+the front as they cross the bridge, and now they will be with us in less
+than five minutes."
+
+At the bridge beneath the tower the cavalry divided, and the greater
+part, moving up the left bank of the brook and crossing at a ford a
+little above, took the road of the Grange, as it was called, a large set
+of farm-offices belonging to the Tower, where Lady Margaret had ordered
+preparation to be made for their reception and suitable entertainment.
+The officers alone, with their colours and an escort to guard them, were
+seen to take the steep road up to the gate of the Tower, appearing by
+intervals as they gained the ascent, and again hidden by projections of
+the bank and of the huge old trees with which it is covered. When they
+emerged from this narrow path, they found themselves in front of the old
+Tower, the gates of which were hospitably open for their reception. Lady
+Margaret, with Edith and her brother-in-law, having hastily descended
+from their post of observation, appeared to meet and to welcome their
+guests, with a retinue of domestics in as good order as the orgies of the
+preceding evening permitted. The gallant young cornet (a relation as well
+as namesake of Claverhouse, with whom the reader has been already made
+acquainted) lowered the standard amid the fanfare of the trumpets, in
+homage to the rank of Lady Margaret and the charms of her grand-daughter,
+and the old walls echoed to the flourish of the instruments, and the
+stamp and neigh of the chargers.
+
+     [Note:  John Grahame of Claverhouse. This remarkable person united
+     the seemingly inconsistent qualities of courage and cruelty, a
+     disinterested and devoted loyalty to his prince, with a disregard of
+     the rights of his fellow-subjects. He was the unscrupulous agent of
+     the Scottish Privy Council in executing the merciless severities of
+     the government in Scotland during the reigns of Charles II. and
+     James II.; but he redeemed his character by the zeal with which he
+     asserted the cause of the latter monarch after the Revolution, the
+     military skill with which he supported it at the battle of
+     Killiecrankie, and by his own death in the arms of victory.
+
+     It is said by tradition, that he was very desirous to see, and be
+     introduced to, a certain Lady Elphinstoun, who had reached the
+     advanced age of one hundred years and upwards. The noble matron,
+     being a stanch whig, was rather unwilling to receive Claver'se, (as
+     he was called from his title,) but at length consented. After the
+     usual compliments, the officer observed to the lady, that having
+     lived so much beyond the usual term of humanity, she must in her
+     time have seen many strange changes. "Hout na, sir," said Lady
+     Elphinstoun, "the world is just to end with me as it began. When I
+     was entering life, there was ane Knox deaving us a' wi' his clavers,
+     and now I am ganging out, there is ane Claver'se deaving us a' wi'
+     his knocks."
+
+     Clavers signifying, in common parlance, idle chat, the double pun
+     does credit to the ingenuity of a lady of a hundred years old.]
+
+Claverhouse himself alighted from a black horse, the most beautiful
+perhaps in Scotland. He had not a single white hair upon his whole body,
+a circumstance which, joined to his spirit and fleetness, and to his
+being so frequently employed in pursuit of the presbyterian recusants,
+caused an opinion to prevail among them, that the steed had been
+presented to his rider by the great Enemy of Mankind, in order to assist
+him in persecuting the fugitive wanderers. When Claverhouse had paid his
+respects to the ladies with military politeness, had apologized for the
+trouble to which he was putting Lady Margaret's family, and had received
+the corresponding assurances that she could not think any thing an
+inconvenience which brought within the walls of Tillietudlem so
+distinguished a soldier, and so loyal a servant of his sacred majesty;
+when, in short, all forms of hospitable and polite ritual had been duly
+complied with, the Colonel requested permission to receive the report of
+Bothwell, who was now in attendance, and with whom he spoke apart for a
+few minutes. Major Bellenden took that opportunity to say to his niece,
+without the hearing of her grandmother, "What a trifling foolish girl you
+are, Edith, to send me by express a letter crammed with nonsense about
+books and gowns, and to slide the only thing I cared a marvedie about
+into the postscript!"
+
+"I did not know," said Edith, hesitating very much, "whether it would be
+quite--quite proper for me to"--"I know what you would say--whether it
+would be right to take any interest in a presbyterian. But I knew this
+lad's father well. He was a brave soldier; and, if he was once wrong, he
+was once right too. I must commend your caution, Edith, for having said
+nothing of this young gentleman's affair to your grandmother--you may
+rely on it I shall not--I will take an opportunity to speak to Claver'se.
+Come, my love, they are going to breakfast. Let us follow them."
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XII.
+
+               Their breakfast so warm to be sure they did eat,
+               A custom in travellers mighty discreet.
+                                                  Prior.
+
+The breakfast of Lady Margaret Bellenden no more resembled a modern
+/dejune/, than the great stone-hall at Tillietudlem could brook
+comparison with a modern drawing-room. No tea, no coffee, no variety of
+rolls, but solid and substantial viands,--the priestly ham, the knightly
+sirloin, the noble baron of beef, the princely venison pasty; while
+silver flagons, saved with difficulty from the claws of the Covenanters,
+now mantled, some with ale, some with mead, and some with generous wine
+of various qualities and descriptions. The appetites of the guests were
+in correspondence to the magnificence and solidity of the preparation--no
+piddling--no boy's-play, but that steady and persevering exercise of the
+jaws which is best learned by early morning hours, and by occasional hard
+commons.
+
+Lady Margaret beheld with delight the cates which she had provided
+descending with such alacrity into the persons of her honoured guests,
+and had little occasion to exercise, with respect to any of the company
+saving Claverhouse himself, the compulsory urgency of pressing to eat, to
+which, as to the peine forte et dure, the ladies of that period were in
+the custom of subjecting their guests.
+
+But the leader himself, more anxious to pay courtesy to Miss Bellenden,
+next whom he was placed, than to gratify his appetite, appeared somewhat
+negligent of the good cheer set before him. Edith heard, without reply,
+many courtly speeches addressed to her, in a tone of voice of that happy
+modulation which could alike melt in the low tones of interesting
+conversation, and rise amid the din of battle, "loud as a trumpet with a
+silver sound." The sense that she was in the presence of the dreadful
+chief upon whose fiat the fate of Henry Morton must depend--the
+recollection of the terror and awe which were attached to the very name
+of the commander, deprived her for some time, not only of the courage to
+answer, but even of the power of looking upon him. But when, emboldened
+by the soothing tones of his voice, she lifted her eyes to frame some
+reply, the person on whom she looked bore, in his appearance at least,
+none of the terrible attributes in which her apprehensions had arrayed
+him.
+
+Grahame of Claverhouse was in the prime of life, rather low of stature,
+and slightly, though elegantly, formed; his gesture, language, and
+manners, were those of one whose life had been spent among the noble and
+the gay. His features exhibited even feminine regularity. An oval face, a
+straight and well-formed nose, dark hazel eyes, a complexion just
+sufficiently tinged with brown to save it from the charge of effeminacy,
+a short upper lip, curved upward like that of a Grecian statue, and
+slightly shaded by small mustachios of light brown, joined to a profusion
+of long curled locks of the same colour, which fell down on each side of
+his face, contributed to form such a countenance as limners love to paint
+and ladies to look upon.
+
+The severity of his character, as well as the higher attributes of
+undaunted and enterprising valour which even his enemies were compelled
+to admit, lay concealed under an exterior which seemed adapted to the
+court or the saloon rather than to the field. The same gentleness and
+gaiety of expression which reigned in his features seemed to inspire his
+actions and gestures; and, on the whole, he was generally esteemed, at
+first sight, rather qualified to be the votary of pleasure than of
+ambition. But under this soft exterior was hidden a spirit unbounded in
+daring and in aspiring, yet cautious and prudent as that of Machiavel
+himself. Profound in politics, and embued, of course, with that disregard
+for individual rights which its intrigues usually generate, this leader
+was cool and collected in danger, fierce and ardent in pursuing success,
+careless of facing death himself, and ruthless in inflicting it upon
+others. Such are the characters formed in times of civil discord, when
+the highest qualities, perverted by party spirit, and inflamed by
+habitual opposition, are too often combined with vices and excesses which
+deprive them at once of their merit and of their lustre.
+
+In endeavouring to reply to the polite trifles with which Claverhouse
+accosted her, Edith showed so much confusion, that her grandmother
+thought it necessary to come to her relief.
+
+"Edith Bellenden," said the old lady, "has, from my retired mode of
+living, seen so little of those of her own sphere, that truly she can
+hardly frame her speech to suitable answers. A soldier is so rare a sight
+with us, Colonel Grahame, that unless it be my young Lord Evandale, we
+have hardly had an opportunity of receiving a gentleman in uniform. And,
+now I talk of that excellent young nobleman, may I enquire if I was not
+to have had the honour of seeing him this morning with the regiment?"
+
+"Lord Evandale, madam, was on his march with us," answered the leader,
+"but I was obliged to detach him with a small party to disperse a
+conventicle of those troublesome scoundrels, who have had the impudence
+to assemble within five miles of my head-quarters."
+
+"Indeed!" said the old lady; "that is a height of presumption to which I
+would have thought no rebellious fanatics would have ventured to aspire.
+But these are strange times! There is an evil spirit in the land, Colonel
+Grahame, that excites the vassals of persons of rank to rebel against the
+very house that holds and feeds them. There was one of my able-bodied men
+the other day who plainly refused to attend the wappen-schaw at my
+bidding. Is there no law for such recusancy, Colonel Grahame?"
+
+"I think I could find one," said Claverhouse, with great composure, "if
+your ladyship will inform me of the name and residence of the culprit."
+
+"His name," said Lady Margaret, "is Cuthbert Headrigg; I can say nothing
+of his domicile, for ye may weel believe, Colonel Grahame, he did not
+dwell long in Tillietudlem, but was speedily expelled for his contumacy.
+I wish the lad no severe bodily injury; but incarceration, or even a few
+stripes, would be a good example in this neighbourhood. His mother, under
+whose influence I doubt he acted, is an ancient domestic of this family,
+which makes me incline to mercy; although," continued the old lady,
+looking towards the pictures of her husband and her sons, with which the
+wall was hung, and heaving, at the same time, a deep sigh, "I, Colonel
+Grahame, have in my ain person but little right to compassionate that
+stubborn and rebellious generation. They have made me a childless widow,
+and, but for the protection of our sacred sovereign and his gallant
+soldiers, they would soon deprive me of lands and goods, of hearth and
+altar. Seven of my tenants, whose joint rent-mail may mount to wellnigh a
+hundred merks, have already refused to pay either cess or rent, and had
+the assurance to tell my steward that they would acknowledge neither king
+nor landlord but who should have taken the Covenant."
+
+"I will take a course with them--that is, with your ladyship's
+permission," answered Claverhouse; "it would ill become me to neglect the
+support of lawful authority when it is lodged in such worthy hands as
+those of Lady Margaret Bellenden. But I must needs say this country grows
+worse and worse daily, and reduces me to the necessity of taking measures
+with the recusants that are much more consonant with my duty than with my
+inclinations. And, speaking of this, I must not forget that I have to
+thank your ladyship for the hospitality you have been pleased to extend
+to a party of mine who have brought in a prisoner, charged with having
+resetted [Note: Resetted, i.e. received or harboured.] the murdering
+villain, Balfour of Burley."
+
+"The house of Tillietudlem," answered the lady, "hath ever been open to
+the servants of his majesty, and I hope that the stones of it will no
+longer rest on each other when it surceases to be as much at their
+command as at ours. And this reminds me, Colonel Grahame, that the
+gentleman who commands the party can hardly be said to be in his proper
+place in the army, considering whose blood flows in his veins; and if I
+might flatter myself that any thing would be granted to my request, I
+would presume to entreat that he might be promoted on some favourable
+opportunity."
+
+"Your ladyship means Sergeant Francis Stewart, whom we call Bothwell?"
+said Claverhouse, smiling. "The truth is, he is a little too rough in the
+country, and has not been uniformly so amenable to discipline as the
+rules of the service require. But to instruct me how to oblige Lady
+Margaret Bellenden, is to lay down the law to me.--Bothwell," he
+continued, addressing the sergeant, who just then appeared at the door,
+"go kiss Lady Margaret Bellenden's hand, who interests herself in your
+promotion, and you shall have a commission the first vacancy."
+
+Bothwell went through the salutation in the manner prescribed, but not
+without evident marks of haughty reluctance, and, when he had done so,
+said aloud, "To kiss a lady's hand can never disgrace a gentleman; but I
+would not kiss a man's, save the king's, to be made a general."
+
+"You hear him," said Claverhouse, smiling, "there's the rock he splits
+upon; he cannot forget his pedigree."
+
+"I know, my noble colonel," said Bothwell, in the same tone, "that you
+will not forget your promise; and then, perhaps, you may permit Cornet
+Stewart to have some recollection of his grandfather, though the Sergeant
+must forget him."
+
+"Enough of this, sir," said Claverhouse, in the tone of command which was
+familiar to him; "and let me know what you came to report to me just
+now."
+
+"My Lord Evandale and his party have halted on the high-road with some
+prisoners," said Bothwell.
+
+"My Lord Evandale?" said Lady Margaret. "Surely, Colonel Grahame, you
+will permit him to honour me with his society, and to take his poor
+disjune here, especially considering, that even his most sacred Majesty
+did not pass the Tower of Tillietudlem without halting to partake of some
+refreshment."
+
+As this was the third time in the course of the conversation that Lady
+Margaret had adverted to this distinguished event, Colonel Grahame, as
+speedily as politeness would permit, took advantage of the first pause to
+interrupt the farther progress of the narrative, by saying, "We are
+already too numerous a party of guests; but as I know what Lord Evandale
+will suffer (looking towards Edith) if deprived of the pleasure which we
+enjoy, I will run the risk of overburdening your ladyship's hospitality.-
+-Bothwell, let Lord Evandale know that Lady Margaret Bellenden requests
+the honour of his company."
+
+"And let Harrison take care," added Lady Margaret, "that the people and
+their horses are suitably seen to."
+
+Edith's heart sprung to her lips during this conversation; for it
+instantly occurred to her, that, through her influence over Lord
+Evandale, she might find some means of releasing Morton from his present
+state of danger, in case her uncle's intercession with Claverhouse should
+prove ineffectual. At any other time she would have been much averse to
+exert this influence; for, however inexperienced in the world, her native
+delicacy taught her the advantage which a beautiful young woman gives to
+a young man when she permits him to lay her under an obligation. And she
+would have been the farther disinclined to request any favour of Lord
+Evandale, because the voice of the gossips in Clydesdale had, for reasons
+hereafter to be made known, assigned him to her as a suitor, and because
+she could not disguise from herself that very little encouragement was
+necessary to realize conjectures which had hitherto no foundation. This
+was the more to be dreaded, that, in the case of Lord Evandale's making a
+formal declaration, he had every chance of being supported by the
+influence of Lady Margaret and her other friends, and that she would have
+nothing to oppose to their solicitations and authority, except a
+predilection, to avow which she knew would be equally dangerous and
+unavailing. She determined, therefore, to wait the issue of her uncle's
+intercession, and, should it fail, which she conjectured she should soon
+learn, either from the looks or language of the open-hearted veteran, she
+would then, as a last effort, make use in Morton's favour of her interest
+with Lord Evandale. Her mind did not long remain in suspense on the
+subject of her uncle's application.
+
+Major Bellenden, who had done the honours of the table, laughing and
+chatting with the military guests who were at that end of the board, was
+now, by the conclusion of the repast, at liberty to leave his station,
+and accordingly took an opportunity to approach Claverhouse, requesting
+from his niece, at the same time, the honour of a particular
+introduction. As his name and character were well known, the two military
+men met with expressions of mutual regard; and Edith, with a beating
+heart, saw her aged relative withdraw from the company, together with his
+new acquaintance, into a recess formed by one of the arched windows of
+the hall. She watched their conference with eyes almost dazzled by the
+eagerness of suspense, and, with observation rendered more acute by the
+internal agony of her mind, could guess, from the pantomimic gestures
+which accompanied the conversation, the progress and fate of the
+intercession in behalf of Henry Morton.
+
+The first expression of the countenance of Claverhouse betokened that
+open and willing courtesy, which, ere it requires to know the nature of
+the favour asked, seems to say, how happy the party will be to confer an
+obligation on the suppliant. But as the conversation proceeded, the brow
+of that officer became darker and more severe, and his features, though
+still retaining the expression of the most perfect politeness, assumed,
+at least to Edith's terrified imagination, a harsh and inexorable
+character. His lip was now compressed as if with impatience; now curled
+slightly upward, as if in civil contempt of the arguments urged by Major
+Bellenden. The language of her uncle, as far as expressed in his manner,
+appeared to be that of earnest intercession, urged with all the
+affectionate simplicity of his character, as well as with the weight
+which his age and reputation entitled him to use. But it seemed to have
+little impression upon Colonel Grahame, who soon changed his posture, as
+if about to cut short the Major's importunity, and to break up their
+conference with a courtly expression of regret, calculated to accompany a
+positive refusal of the request solicited. This movement brought them so
+near Edith, that she could distinctly hear Claverhouse say, "It cannot
+be, Major Bellenden; lenity, in his case, is altogether beyond the bounds
+of my commission, though in any thing else I am heartily desirous to
+oblige you.--And here comes Evandale with news, as I think.--What tidings
+do you bring us, Evandale?" he continued, addressing the young lord, who
+now entered in complete uniform, but with his dress disordered, and his
+boots spattered, as if by riding hard.
+
+"Unpleasant news, sir," was his reply. "A large body of whigs are in arms
+among the hills, and have broken out into actual rebellion. They have
+publicly burnt the Act of Supremacy, that which established episcopacy,
+that for observing the martyrdom of Charles I., and some others, and have
+declared their intention to remain together in arms for furthering the
+covenanted work of reformation."
+
+This unexpected intelligence struck a sudden and painful surprise into
+the minds of all who heard it, excepting Claverhouse.
+
+"Unpleasant news call you them?" replied Colonel Grahame, his dark eyes
+flashing fire, "they are the best I have heard these six months. Now that
+the scoundrels are drawn into a body, we will make short work with them.
+When the adder crawls into daylight," he added, striking the heel of his
+boot upon the floor, as if in the act of crushing a noxious reptile, "I
+can trample him to death; he is only safe when he remains lurking in his
+den or morass.--Where are these knaves?" he continued, addressing Lord
+Evandale.
+
+"About ten miles off among the mountains, at a place called Loudon-hill,"
+was the young nobleman's reply. "I dispersed the conventicle against
+which you sent me, and made prisoner an old trumpeter of rebellion,--an
+intercommuned minister, that is to say,--who was in the act of exhorting
+his hearers to rise and be doing in the good cause, as well as one or two
+of his hearers who seemed to be particularly insolent; and from some
+country people and scouts I learned what I now tell you."
+
+"What may be their strength?" asked his commander.
+
+"Probably a thousand men, but accounts differ widely."
+
+"Then," said Claverhouse, "it is time for us to be up and be doing also--
+Bothwell, bid them sound to horse."
+
+Bothwell, who, like the war-horse of scripture, snuffed the battle afar
+off, hastened to give orders to six negroes, in white dresses richly
+laced, and having massive silver collars and armlets. These sable
+functionaries acted as trumpeters, and speedily made the castle and the
+woods around it ring with their summons.
+
+"Must you then leave us?" said Lady Margaret, her heart sinking under
+recollection of former unhappy times; "had ye not better send to learn
+the force of the rebels?--O, how many a fair face hae I heard these
+fearfu' sounds call away frae the Tower of Tillietudlem, that my auld een
+were ne'er to see return to it!"
+
+"It is impossible for me to stop," said Claverhouse; "there are rogues
+enough in this country to make the rebels five times their strength, if
+they are not checked at once."
+
+"Many," said Evandale, "are flocking to them already, and they give out
+that they expect a strong body of the indulged presbyterians, headed by
+young Milnwood, as they call him, the son of the famous old roundhead,
+Colonel Silas Morton."
+
+This speech produced a very different effect upon the hearers. Edith
+almost sunk from her seat with terror, while Claverhouse darted a glance
+of sarcastic triumph at Major Bellenden, which seemed to imply--"You see
+what are the principles of the young man you are pleading for."
+
+"It's a lie--it's a d--d lie of these rascally fanatics," said the Major
+hastily. "I will answer for Henry Morton as I would for my own son. He is
+a lad of as good church-principles as any gentleman in the Life-Guards. I
+mean no offence to any one. He has gone to church service with me fifty
+times, and I never heard him miss one of the responses in my life. Edith
+Bellenden can bear witness to it as well as I. He always read on the same
+Prayer-book with her, and could look out the lessons as well as the
+curate himself. Call him up; let him be heard for himself."
+
+"There can be no harm in that," said Claverhouse, "whether he be innocent
+or guilty.--Major Allan," he said, turning to the officer next in
+command, "take a guide, and lead the regiment forward to Loudon-hill by
+the best and shortest road. Move steadily, and do not let the men blow
+the horses; Lord Evandale and I will overtake you in a quarter of an
+hour. Leave Bothwell with a party to bring up the prisoners."
+
+Allan bowed, and left the apartment, with all the officers, excepting
+Claverhouse and the young nobleman. In a few minutes the sound of the
+military music and the clashing of hoofs announced that the horsemen were
+leaving the castle. The sounds were presently heard only at intervals,
+and soon died away entirely.
+
+While Claverhouse endeavoured to soothe the terrors of Lady Margaret, and
+to reconcile the veteran Major to his opinion of Morton, Evandale,
+getting the better of that conscious shyness which renders an ingenuous
+youth diffident in approaching the object of his affections, drew near to
+Miss Bellenden, and accosted her in a tone of mingled respect and
+interest.
+
+"We are to leave you," he said, taking her hand, which he pressed with
+much emotion--"to leave you for a scene which is not without its dangers.
+Farewell, dear Miss Bellenden;--let me say for the first, and perhaps the
+last time, dear Edith! We part in circumstances so singular as may excuse
+some solemnity in bidding farewell to one, whom I have known so long, and
+whom I--respect so highly."
+
+The manner differing from the words, seemed to express a feeling much
+deeper and more agitating than was conveyed in the phrase he made use of.
+It was not in woman to be utterly insensible to his modest and deep-felt
+expression of tenderness. Although borne down by the misfortunes and
+imminent danger of the man she loved, Edith was touched by the hopeless
+and reverential passion of the gallant youth, who now took leave of her
+to rush into dangers of no ordinary description.
+
+"I hope--I sincerely trust," she said, "there is no danger. I hope there
+is no occasion for this solemn ceremonial--that these hasty insurgents
+will be dispersed rather by fear than force, and that Lord Evandale will
+speedily return to be what he must always be, the dear and valued friend
+of all in this castle."
+
+"Of all," he repeated, with a melancholy emphasis upon the word. "But be
+it so--whatever is near you is dear and valued to me, and I value their
+approbation accordingly. Of our success I am not sanguine. Our numbers
+are so few, that I dare not hope for so speedy, so bloodless, or so safe
+an end of this unhappy disturbance. These men are enthusiastic, resolute,
+and desperate, and have leaders not altogether unskilled in military
+matters. I cannot help thinking that the impetuosity of our Colonel is
+hurrying us against them rather prematurely. But there are few that have
+less reason to shun danger than I have."
+
+Edith had now the opportunity she wished to bespeak the young nobleman's
+intercession and protection for Henry Morton, and it seemed the only
+remaining channel of interest by which he could be rescued from impending
+destruction. Yet she felt at that moment as if, in doing so, she was
+abusing the partiality and confidence of the lover, whose heart was as
+open before her, as if his tongue had made an express declaration. Could
+she with honour engage Lord Evandale in the service of a rival? or could
+she with prudence make him any request, or lay herself under any
+obligation to him, without affording ground for hopes which she could
+never realize? But the moment was too urgent for hesitation, or even for
+those explanations with which her request might otherwise have been
+qualified.
+
+"I will but dispose of this young fellow," said Claverhouse, from the
+other side of the hall, "and then, Lord Evandale--I am sorry to interrupt
+again your conversation--but then we must mount.--Bothwell, why do not
+you bring up the prisoner? and, hark ye, let two files load their
+carabines."
+
+In these words, Edith conceived she heard the death-warrant of her lover.
+She instantly broke through the restraint which had hitherto kept her
+silent.
+
+"My Lord Evandale," she said, "this young gentleman is a particular
+friend of my uncle's--your interest must be great with your colonel--let
+me request your intercession in his favour--it will confer on my uncle a
+lasting obligation."
+
+"You overrate my interest, Miss Bellenden," said Lord Evandale; "I have
+been often unsuccessful in such applications, when I have made them on
+the mere score of humanity."
+
+"Yet try once again for my uncle's sake."
+
+"And why not for your own?" said Lord Evandale. "Will you not allow me to
+think I am obliging you personally in this matter?--Are you so diffident
+of an old friend that you will not allow him even the satisfaction of
+thinking that he is gratifying your wishes?"
+
+"Surely--surely," replied Edith; "you will oblige me infinitely--I am
+interested in the young gentleman on my uncle's account--Lose no time,
+for God's sake!"
+
+She became bolder and more urgent in her entreaties, for she heard the
+steps of the soldiers who were entering with their prisoner.
+
+"By heaven! then," said Evandale, "he shall not die, if I should die in
+his place!--But will not you," he said, resuming the hand, which in the
+hurry of her spirits she had not courage to withdraw, "will not you grant
+me one suit, in return for my zeal in your service?"
+
+"Any thing you can ask, my Lord Evandale, that sisterly affection can
+give."
+
+"And is this all," he continued, "all you can grant to my affection
+living, or my memory when dead?"
+
+"Do not speak thus, my lord," said Edith, "you distress me, and do
+injustice to yourself. There is no friend I esteem more highly, or to
+whom I would more readily grant every mark of regard--providing--But"--A
+deep sigh made her turn her head suddenly, ere she had well uttered the
+last word; and, as she hesitated how to frame the exception with which
+she meant to close the sentence, she became instantly aware she had been
+overheard by Morton, who, heavily ironed and guarded by soldiers, was now
+passing behind her in order to be presented to Claverhouse. As their eyes
+met each other, the sad and reproachful expression of Morton's glance
+seemed to imply that he had partially heard, and altogether
+misinterpreted, the conversation which had just passed. There wanted but
+this to complete Edith's distress and confusion. Her blood, which rushed
+to her brow, made a sudden revulsion to her heart, and left her as pale
+as death. This change did not escape the attention of Evandale, whose
+quick glance easily discovered that there was between the prisoner and
+the object of his own attachment, some singular and uncommon connexion.
+He resigned the hand of Miss Bellenden, again surveyed the prisoner with
+more attention, again looked at Edith, and plainly observed the confusion
+which she could no longer conceal.
+
+"This," he said, after a moment's gloomy silence, "is, I believe, the
+young gentleman who gained the prize at the shooting match."
+
+"I am not sure," hesitated Edith--"yet--I rather think not," scarce
+knowing what she replied.
+
+"It is he," said Evandale, decidedly; "I know him well. A victor," he
+continued, somewhat haughtily, "ought to have interested a fair spectator
+more deeply."
+
+He then turned from Edith, and advancing towards the table at which
+Claverhouse now placed himself, stood at a little distance, resting on
+his sheathed broadsword, a silent, but not an unconcerned, spectator of
+that which passed.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XIII.
+
+                    O, my Lord, beware of jealousy!
+                                        Othello.
+
+To explain the deep effect which the few broken passages of the
+conversation we have detailed made upon the unfortunate prisoner by whom
+they were overheard, it is necessary to say something of his previous
+state of mind, and of the origin of his acquaintance with Edith.
+
+Henry Morton was one of those gifted characters, which possess a force of
+talent unsuspected by the owner himself. He had inherited from his father
+an undaunted courage, and a firm and uncompromising detestation of
+oppression, whether in politics or religion. But his enthusiasm was
+unsullied by fanatic zeal, and unleavened by the sourness of the
+puritanical spirit. From these his mind had been freed, partly by the
+active exertions of his own excellent understanding, partly by frequent
+and long visits at Major Bellenden's, where he had an opportunity of
+meeting with many guests whose conversation taught him, that goodness and
+worth were not limited to those of any single form of religious
+observance.
+
+The base parsimony of his uncle had thrown many obstacles in the way of
+his education; but he had so far improved the opportunities which offered
+themselves, that his instructors as well as his friends were surprised at
+his progress under such disadvantages. Still, however, the current of his
+soul was frozen by a sense of dependence, of poverty, above all, of an
+imperfect and limited education. These feelings impressed him with a
+diffidence and reserve which effectually concealed from all but very
+intimate friends, the extent of talent and the firmness of character,
+which we have stated him to be possessed of. The circumstances of the
+times had added to this reserve an air of indecision and of indifference;
+for, being attached to neither of the factions which divided the kingdom,
+he passed for dull, insensible, and uninfluenced by the feeling of
+religion or of patriotism. No conclusion, however, could be more unjust;
+and the reasons of the neutrality which he had hitherto professed had
+root in very different and most praiseworthy motives. He had formed few
+congenial ties with those who were the objects of persecution, and was
+disgusted alike by their narrow-minded and selfish party-spirit, their
+gloomy fanaticism, their abhorrent condemnation of all elegant studies or
+innocent exercises, and the envenomed rancour of their political hatred.
+But his mind was still more revolted by the tyrannical and oppressive
+conduct of the government, the misrule, license, and brutality of the
+soldiery, the executions on the scaffold, the slaughters in the open
+field, the free quarters and exactions imposed by military law, which
+placed the lives and fortunes of a free people on a level with Asiatic
+slaves. Condemning, therefore, each party as its excesses fell under his
+eyes, disgusted with the sight of evils which he had no means of
+alleviating, and hearing alternate complaints and exultations with which
+he could not sympathize, he would long ere this have left Scotland, had
+it not been for his attachment to Edith Bellenden.
+
+The earlier meetings of these young people had been at Charnwood, when
+Major Bellenden, who was as free from suspicion on such occasions as
+Uncle Toby himself, had encouraged their keeping each other constant
+company, without entertaining any apprehension of the natural
+consequences. Love, as usual in such cases, borrowed the name of
+friendship, used her language, and claimed her privileges. When Edith
+Bellenden was recalled to her mother's castle, it was astonishing by what
+singular and recurring accidents she often met young Morton in her
+sequestered walks, especially considering the distance of their places of
+abode. Yet it somehow happened that she never expressed the surprise
+which the frequency of these rencontres ought naturally to have excited,
+and that their intercourse assumed gradually a more delicate character,
+and their meetings began to wear the air of appointments. Books,
+drawings, letters, were exchanged between them, and every trifling
+commission, given or executed, gave rise to a new correspondence. Love
+indeed was not yet mentioned between them by name, but each knew the
+situation of their own bosom, and could not but guess at that of the
+other. Unable to desist from an intercourse which possessed such charms
+for both, yet trembling for its too probable consequences, it had been
+continued without specific explanation until now, when fate appeared to
+have taken the conclusion into its own hands.
+
+It followed, as a consequence of this state of things, as well as of the
+diffidence of Morton's disposition at this period, that his confidence in
+Edith's return of his affection had its occasional cold fits. Her
+situations was in every respect so superior to his own, her worth so
+eminent, her accomplishments so many, her face so beautiful, and her
+manners so bewitching, that he could not but entertain fears that some
+suitor more favoured than himself by fortune, and more acceptable to
+Edith's family than he durst hope to be, might step in between him and
+the object of his affections. Common rumour had raised up such a rival in
+Lord Evandale, whom birth, fortune, connexions, and political principles,
+as well as his frequent visits at Tillietudlem, and his attendance upon
+Lady Bellenden and her niece at all public places, naturally pointed out
+as a candidate for her favour. It frequently and inevitably happened,
+that engagements to which Lord Evandale was a party, interfered with the
+meeting of the lovers, and Henry could not but mark that Edith either
+studiously avoided speaking of the young nobleman, or did so with obvious
+reserve and hesitation.
+
+These symptoms, which, in fact, arose from the delicacy of her own
+feelings towards Morton himself, were misconstrued by his diffident
+temper, and the jealousy which they excited was fermented by the
+occasional observations of Jenny Dennison. This true-bred serving-damsel
+was, in her own person, a complete country coquette, and when she had no
+opportunity of teasing her own lovers, used to take some occasional
+opportunity to torment her young lady's. This arose from no ill-will to
+Henry Morton, who, both on her mistress's account and his own handsome
+form and countenance, stood high in her esteem. But then Lord Evandale
+was also handsome; he was liberal far beyond what Morton's means could
+afford, and he was a lord, moreover, and, if Miss Edith Bellenden should
+accept his hand, she would become a baron's lady, and, what was more,
+little Jenny Dennison, whom the awful housekeeper at Tillietudlem huffed
+about at her pleasure, would be then Mrs Dennison, Lady Evandale's own
+woman, or perhaps her ladyship's lady-in-waiting. The impartiality of
+Jenny Dennison, therefore, did not, like that of Mrs Quickly, extend to a
+wish that both the handsome suitors could wed her young lady; for it must
+be owned that the scale of her regard was depressed in favour of Lord
+Evandale, and her wishes in his favour took many shapes extremely
+tormenting to Morton; being now expressed as a friendly caution, now as
+an article of intelligence, and anon as a merry jest, but always tending
+to confirm the idea, that, sooner or later, his romantic intercourse with
+her young mistress must have a close, and that Edith Bellenden would, in
+spite of summer walks beneath the greenwood tree, exchange of verses, of
+drawings, and of books, end in becoming Lady Evandale.
+
+These hints coincided so exactly with the very point of his own
+suspicions and fears, that Morton was not long of feeling that jealousy
+which every one has felt who has truly loved, but to which those are most
+liable whose love is crossed by the want of friends' consent, or some
+other envious impediment of fortune. Edith herself, unwittingly, and in
+the generosity of her own frank nature, contributed to the error into
+which her lover was in danger of falling. Their conversation once chanced
+to turn upon some late excesses committed by the soldiery on an occasion
+when it was said (inaccurately however) that the party was commanded by
+Lord Evandale. Edith, as true in friendship as in love, was somewhat hurt
+at the severe strictures which escaped from Morton on this occasion, and
+which, perhaps, were not the less strongly expressed on account of their
+supposed rivalry. She entered into Lord Evandale's defence with such
+spirit as hurt Morton to the very soul, and afforded no small delight to
+Jenny Dennison, the usual companion of their walks. Edith perceived her
+error, and endeavoured to remedy it; but the impression was not so easily
+erased, and it had no small effect in inducing her lover to form that
+resolution of going abroad, which was disappointed in the manner we have
+already mentioned.
+
+The visit which he received from Edith during his confinement, the deep
+and devoted interest which she had expressed in his fate, ought of
+themselves to have dispelled his suspicions; yet, ingenious in tormenting
+himself, even this he thought might be imputed to anxious friendship, or,
+at most, to a temporary partiality, which would probably soon give way to
+circumstances, the entreaties of her friends, the authority of Lady
+Margaret, and the assiduities of Lord Evandale.
+
+"And to what do I owe it," he said, "that I cannot stand up like a man,
+and plead my interest in her ere I am thus cheated out of it?--to what,
+but to the all-pervading and accursed tyranny, which afflicts at once our
+bodies, souls, estates, and affections! And is it to one of the pensioned
+cut-throats of this oppressive government that I must yield my
+pretensions to Edith Bellenden?--I will not, by Heaven!--It is a just
+punishment on me for being dead to public wrongs, that they have visited
+me with their injuries in a point where they can be least brooked or
+borne."
+
+As these stormy resolutions boiled in his bosom, and while he ran over
+the various kinds of insult and injury which he had sustained in his own
+cause and in that of his country, Bothwell entered the tower, followed by
+two dragoons, one of whom carried handcuffs.
+
+"You must follow me, young man," said he, "but first we must put you in
+trim."
+
+"In trim!" said Morton. "What do you mean?"
+
+"Why, we must put on these rough bracelets. I durst not--nay, d--n it, I
+durst do any thing--but I would not for three hours' plunder of a stormed
+town bring a whig before my Colonel without his being ironed. Come, come,
+young man, don't look sulky about it."
+
+He advanced to put on the irons; but, seizing the oaken-seat upon which
+he had rested, Morton threatened to dash out the brains of the first who
+should approach him.
+
+"I could manage you in a moment, my youngster," said Bothwell, "but I had
+rather you would strike sail quietly."
+
+Here indeed he spoke the truth, not from either fear or reluctance to
+adopt force, but because he dreaded the consequences of a noisy scuffle,
+through which it might probably be discovered that he had, contrary to
+express orders, suffered his prisoner to pass the night without being
+properly secured.
+
+"You had better be prudent," he continued, in a tone which he meant to be
+conciliatory, "and don't spoil your own sport. They say here in the
+castle that Lady Margaret's niece is immediately to marry our young
+Captain, Lord Evandale. I saw them close together in the hall yonder, and
+I heard her ask him to intercede for your pardon. She looked so devilish
+handsome and kind upon him, that on my soul--But what the devil's the
+matter with you?--You are as pale as a sheet--Will you have some brandy?"
+
+"Miss Bellenden ask my life of Lord Evandale?" said the prisoner,
+faintly.
+
+"Ay, ay; there's no friend like the women--their interest carries all in
+court and camp.--Come, you are reasonable now--Ay, I thought you would
+come round."
+
+Here he employed himself in putting on the fetters, against which,
+Morton, thunderstruck by this intelligence, no longer offered the least
+resistance.
+
+"My life begged of him, and by her!--ay--ay--put on the irons--my limbs
+shall not refuse to bear what has entered into my very soul--My life
+begged by Edith, and begged of Evandale!"
+
+"Ay, and he has power to grant it too," said Bothwell--"He can do more
+with the Colonel than any man in the regiment."
+
+And as he spoke, he and his party led their prisoner towards the hall. In
+passing behind the seat of Edith, the unfortunate prisoner heard enough,
+as he conceived, of the broken expressions which passed between Edith and
+Lord Evandale, to confirm all that the soldier had told him. That moment
+made a singular and instantaneous revolution in his character. The depth
+of despair to which his love and fortunes were reduced, the peril in
+which his life appeared to stand, the transference of Edith's affections,
+her intercession in his favour, which rendered her fickleness yet more
+galling, seemed to destroy every feeling for which he had hitherto lived,
+but, at the same time, awakened those which had hitherto been smothered
+by passions more gentle though more selfish. Desperate himself, he
+determined to support the rights of his country, insulted in his person.
+His character was for the moment as effectually changed as the appearance
+of a villa, which, from being the abode of domestic quiet and happiness,
+is, by the sudden intrusion of an armed force, converted into a
+formidable post of defence.
+
+We have already said that he cast upon Edith one glance in which reproach
+was mingled with sorrow, as if to bid her farewell for ever; his next
+motion was to walk firmly to the table at which Colonel Grahame was
+seated.
+
+"By what right is it, sir," said he firmly, and without waiting till he
+was questioned,--"By what right is it that these soldiers have dragged me
+from my family, and put fetters on the limbs of a free man?"
+
+"By my commands," answered Claverhouse; "and I now lay my commands on you
+to be silent and hear my questions."
+
+"I will not," replied Morton, in a determined tone, while his boldness
+seemed to electrify all around him. "I will know whether I am in lawful
+custody, and before a civil magistrate, ere the charter of my country
+shall be forfeited in my person."
+
+"A pretty springald this, upon my honour!" said Claverhouse.
+
+"Are you mad?" said Major Bellenden to his young friend. "For God's sake,
+Henry Morton," he continued, in a tone between rebuke and entreaty,
+"remember you are speaking to one of his majesty's officers high in the
+service."
+
+"It is for that very reason, sir," returned Henry, firmly, "that I desire
+to know what right he has to detain me without a legal warrant. Were he a
+civil officer of the law I should know my duty was submission."
+
+"Your friend, here," said Claverhouse to the veteran, coolly, "is one of
+those scrupulous gentlemen, who, like the madman in the play, will not
+tie his cravat without the warrant of Mr Justice Overdo; but I will let
+him see, before we part, that my shoulder-knot is as legal a badge of
+authority as the mace of the Justiciary. So, waving this discussion, you
+will be pleased, young man, to tell me directly when you saw Balfour of
+Burley."
+
+"As I know no right you have to ask such a question," replied Morton, "I
+decline replying to it."
+
+"You confessed to my sergeant," said Claverhouse, "that you saw and
+entertained him, knowing him to be an intercommuned traitor; why are you
+not so frank with me?"
+
+"Because," replied the prisoner, "I presume you are, from education,
+taught to understand the rights upon which you seem disposed to trample;
+and I am willing you should be aware there are yet Scotsmen who can
+assert the liberties of Scotland."
+
+"And these supposed rights you would vindicate with your sword, I
+presume?" said Colonel Grahame.
+
+"Were I armed as you are, and we were alone upon a hill-side, you should
+not ask me the question twice."
+
+"It is quite enough," answered Claverhouse, calmly; "your language
+corresponds with all I have heard of you;--but you are the son of a
+soldier, though a rebellious one, and you shall not die the death of a
+dog; I will save you that indignity."
+
+"Die in what manner I may," replied Morton, "I will die like the son of a
+brave man; and the ignominy you mention shall remain with those who shed
+innocent blood."
+
+"Make your peace, then, with Heaven, in five minutes' space.--Bothwell,
+lead him down to the court-yard, and draw up your party."
+
+The appalling nature of this conversation, and of its result, struck the
+silence of horror into all but the speakers. But now those who stood
+round broke forth into clamour and expostulation. Old Lady Margaret, who,
+with all the prejudices of rank and party, had not laid aside the
+feelings of her sex, was loud in her intercession.
+
+"O, Colonel Grahame," she exclaimed, "spare his young blood! Leave him to
+the law--do not repay my hospitality by shedding men's blood on the
+threshold of my doors!"
+
+"Colonel Grahame," said Major Bellenden, "you must answer this violence.
+Don't think, though I am old and feckless, that my friend's son shall be
+murdered before my eyes with impunity. I can find friends that shall make
+you answer it."
+
+"Be satisfied, Major Bellenden, I will answer it," replied Claverhouse,
+totally unmoved; "and you, madam, might spare me the pain the resisting
+this passionate intercession for a traitor, when you consider the noble
+blood your own house has lost by such as he is."
+
+"Colonel Grahame," answered the lady, her aged frame trembling with
+anxiety, "I leave vengeance to God, who calls it his own. The shedding of
+this young man's blood will not call back the lives that were dear to me;
+and how can it comfort me to think that there has maybe been another
+widowed mother made childless, like mysell, by a deed done at my very
+door-stane!"
+
+"This is stark madness," said Claverhouse; "I must do my duty to church
+and state. Here are a thousand villains hard by in open rebellion, and
+you ask me to pardon a young fanatic who is enough of himself to set a
+whole kingdom in a blaze! It cannot be--Remove him, Bothwell."
+
+She who was most interested in this dreadful decision, had twice strove
+to speak, but her voice had totally failed her; her mind refused to
+suggest words, and her tongue to utter them. She now sprung up and
+attempted to rush forward, but her strength gave way, and she would have
+fallen flat upon the pavement had she not been caught by her attendant.
+
+"Help!" cried Jenny,--"Help, for God's sake! my young lady is dying."
+
+At this exclamation, Evandale, who, during the preceding part of the
+scene, had stood motionless, leaning upon his sword, now stepped forward,
+and said to his commanding-officer, "Colonel Grahame, before proceeding
+in this matter, will you speak a word with me in private?"
+
+Claverhouse looked surprised, but instantly rose and withdrew with the
+young nobleman into a recess, where the following brief dialogue passed
+between them:
+
+"I think I need not remind you, Colonel, that when our family interest
+was of service to you last year in that affair in the privy-council, you
+considered yourself as laid under some obligation to us?"
+
+"Certainly, my dear Evandale," answered Claverhouse, "I am not a man who
+forgets such debts; you will delight me by showing how I can evince my
+gratitude."
+
+"I will hold the debt cancelled," said Lord Evandale, "if you will spare
+this young man's life."
+
+"Evandale," replied Grahame, in great surprise, "you are mad--absolutely
+mad--what interest can you have in this young spawn of an old roundhead?-
+-His father was positively the most dangerous man in all Scotland, cool,
+resolute, soliderly, and inflexible in his cursed principles. His son
+seems his very model; you cannot conceive the mischief he may do. I know
+mankind, Evandale--were he an insignificant, fanatical, country booby, do
+you think I would have refused such a trifle as his life to Lady Margaret
+and this family? But this is a lad of fire, zeal, and education--and
+these knaves want but such a leader to direct their blind enthusiastic
+hardiness. I mention this, not as refusing your request, but to make you
+fully aware of the possible consequences--I will never evade a promise,
+or refuse to return an obligation--if you ask his life, he shall have
+it."
+
+"Keep him close prisoner," answered Evandale, "but do not be surprised if
+I persist in requesting you will not put him to death. I have most urgent
+reasons for what I ask."
+
+"Be it so then," replied Grahame;--"but, young man, should you wish in
+your future life to rise to eminence in the service of your king and
+country, let it be your first task to subject to the public interest, and
+to the discharge of your duty, your private passions, affections, and
+feelings. These are not times to sacrifice to the dotage of greybeards,
+or the tears of silly women, the measures of salutary severity which the
+dangers around compel us to adopt. And remember, that if I now yield this
+point, in compliance with your urgency, my present concession must exempt
+me from future solicitations of the same nature."
+
+He then stepped forward to the table, and bent his eyes keenly on Morton,
+as if to observe what effect the pause of awful suspense between death
+and life, which seemed to freeze the bystanders with horror, would
+produce upon the prisoner himself. Morton maintained a degree of
+firmness, which nothing but a mind that had nothing left upon earth to
+love or to hope, could have supported at such a crisis.
+
+"You see him?" said Claverhouse, in a half whisper to Lord Evandale; "he
+is tottering on the verge between time and eternity, a situation more
+appalling than the most hideous certainty; yet his is the only cheek
+unblenched, the only eye that is calm, the only heart that keeps its
+usual time, the only nerves that are not quivering. Look at him well,
+Evandale--If that man shall ever come to head an army of rebels, you will
+have much to answer for on account of this morning's work." He then said
+aloud, "Young man, your life is for the present safe, through the
+intercession of your friends--Remove him, Bothwell, and let him be
+properly guarded, and brought along with the other prisoners."
+
+"If my life," said Morton, stung with the idea that he owed his respite
+to the intercession of a favoured rival, "if my life be granted at Lord
+Evandale's request"--
+
+"Take the prisoner away, Bothwell," said Colonel Grahame, interrupting
+him; "I have neither time to make nor to hear fine speeches."
+
+Bothwell forced off Morton, saying, as he conducted him into the
+court-yard, "Have you three lives in your pocket, besides the one in your
+body, my lad, that you can afford to let your tongue run away with them
+at this rate? Come, come, I'll take care to keep you out of the Colonel's
+way; for, egad, you will not be five minutes with him before the next
+tree or the next ditch will be the word. So, come along to your
+companions in bondage."
+
+Thus speaking, the sergeant, who, in his rude manner, did not altogether
+want sympathy for a gallant young man, hurried Morton down to the
+courtyard, where three other prisoners, (two men and a woman,) who had
+been taken by Lord Evandale, remained under an escort of dragoons.
+
+Meantime, Claverhouse took his leave of Lady Margaret. But it was
+difficult for the good lady to forgive his neglect of her intercession.
+
+"I have thought till now," she said, "that the Tower of Tillietudlem
+might have been a place of succour to those that are ready to perish,
+even if they werena sae deserving as they should have been--but I see
+auld fruit has little savour--our suffering and our services have been of
+an ancient date."
+
+"They are never to be forgotten by me, let me assure your ladyship," said
+Claverhouse. "Nothing but what seemed my sacred duty could make me
+hesitate to grant a favour requested by you and the Major. Come, my good
+lady, let me hear you say you have forgiven me, and, as I return
+to-night, I will bring a drove of two hundred whigs with me, and pardon
+fifty head of them for your sake."
+
+"I shall be happy to hear of your success, Colonel," said Major
+Bellenden; "but take an old soldier's advice, and spare blood when
+battle's over,--and once more let me request to enter bail for young
+Morton."
+
+"We will settle that when I return," said Claverhouse. "Meanwhile, be
+assured his life shall be safe."
+
+During this conversation, Evandale looked anxiously around for Edith; but
+the precaution of Jenny Dennison had occasioned her mistress being
+transported to her own apartment.
+
+Slowly and heavily he obeyed the impatient summons of Claverhouse, who,
+after taking a courteous leave of Lady Margaret and the Major, had
+hastened to the court-yard. The prisoners with their guard were already
+on their march, and the officers with their escort mounted and followed.
+All pressed forward to overtake the main body, as it was supposed they
+would come in sight of the enemy in little more than two hours.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XIV.
+
+                    My hounds may a' rin masterless,
+                    My hawks may fly frae tree to tree,
+                    My lord may grip my vassal lands,
+                    For there again maun I never be!
+                    Old Ballad.
+
+We left Morton, along with three companions in captivity, travelling in
+the custody of a small body of soldiers, who formed the rear-guard of the
+column under the command of Claverhouse, and were immediately under the
+charge of Sergeant Bothwell. Their route lay towards the hills in which
+the insurgent presbyterians were reported to be in arms. They had not
+prosecuted their march a quarter of a mile ere Claverhouse and Evandale
+galloped past them, followed by their orderly-men, in order to take their
+proper places in the column which preceded them. No sooner were they past
+than Bothwell halted the body which he commanded, and disencumbered
+Morton of his irons.
+
+"King's blood must keep word," said the dragoon. "I promised you should
+be civilly treated as far as rested with me.--Here, Corporal Inglis, let
+this gentleman ride alongside of the other young fellow who is prisoner;
+and you may permit them to converse together at their pleasure, under
+their breath, but take care they are guarded by two files with loaded
+carabines. If they attempt an escape, blow their brains out.--You cannot
+call that using you uncivilly," he continued, addressing himself to
+Morton, "it's the rules of war, you know.--And, Inglis, couple up the
+parson and the old woman, they are fittest company for each other, d--n
+me; a single file may guard them well enough. If they speak a word of
+cant or fanatical nonsense, let them have a strapping with a
+shoulder-belt. There's some hope of choking a silenced parson; if he is
+not allowed to hold forth, his own treason will burst him."
+
+Having made this arrangement, Bothwell placed himself at the head of the
+party, and Inglis, with six dragoons, brought up the rear. The whole then
+set forward at a trot, with the purpose of overtaking the main body of
+the regiment.
+
+Morton, overwhelmed with a complication of feelings, was totally
+indifferent to the various arrangements made for his secure custody, and
+even to the relief afforded him by his release from the fetters. He
+experienced that blank and waste of the heart which follows the hurricane
+of passion, and, no longer supported by the pride and conscious rectitude
+which dictated his answers to Claverhouse, he surveyed with deep
+dejection the glades through which he travelled, each turning of which
+had something to remind him of past happiness and disappointed love. The
+eminence which they now ascended was that from which he used first and
+last to behold the ancient tower when approaching or retiring from it;
+and, it is needless to add, that there he was wont to pause, and gaze
+with a lover's delight on the battlements, which, rising at a distance
+out of the lofty wood, indicated the dwelling of her, whom he either
+hoped soon to meet or had recently parted from. Instinctively he turned
+his head back to take a last look of a scene formerly so dear to him, and
+no less instinctively he heaved a deep sigh. It was echoed by a loud
+groan from his companion in misfortune, whose eyes, moved, perchance, by
+similar reflections, had taken the same direction. This indication of
+sympathy, on the part of the captive, was uttered in a tone more coarse
+than sentimental; it was, however, the expression of a grieved spirit,
+and so far corresponded with the sigh of Morton. In turning their heads
+their eyes met, and Morton recognised the stolid countenance of Cuddie
+Headrigg, bearing a rueful expression, in which sorrow for his own lot
+was mixed with sympathy for the situation of his companion.
+
+"Hegh, sirs!" was the expression of the ci-devant ploughman of the mains
+of Tillietudlem; "it's an unco thing that decent folk should be harled
+through the country this gate, as if they were a warld's wonder."
+
+"I am sorry to see you here, Cuddie," said Morton, who, even in his own
+distress, did not lose feeling for that of others.
+
+"And sae am I, Mr Henry," answered Cuddie, "baith for mysell and you; but
+neither of our sorrows will do muckle gude that I can see. To be sure,
+for me," continued the captive agriculturist, relieving his heart by
+talking, though he well knew it was to little purpose,--"to be sure, for
+my part, I hae nae right to be here ava', for I never did nor said a word
+against either king or curate; but my mither, puir body, couldna haud the
+auld tongue o' her, and we maun baith pay for't, it's like."
+
+"Your mother is their prisoner likewise?" said Morton, hardly knowing
+what he said.
+
+"In troth is she, riding ahint ye there like a bride, wi' that auld carle
+o' a minister that they ca' Gabriel Kettledrummle--Deil that he had been
+in the inside of a drum or a kettle either, for my share o' him! Ye see,
+we were nae sooner chased out o' the doors o' Milnwood, and your uncle
+and the housekeeper banging them to and barring them ahint us, as if we
+had had the plague on our bodies, that I says to my mother, What are we
+to do neist? for every hole and bore in the country will be steekit
+against us, now that ye hae affronted my auld leddy, and gar't the
+troopers tak up young Milnwood. Sae she says to me, Binna cast doun, but
+gird yoursell up to the great task o' the day, and gie your testimony
+like a man upon the mount o' the Covenant."
+
+"And so I suppose you went to a conventicle?" said Morton.
+
+"Ye sall hear," continued Cuddie.--"Aweel, I kendna muckle better what to
+do, sae I e'en gaed wi' her to an auld daft carline like hersell, and we
+got some water-broo and bannocks; and mony a weary grace they said, and
+mony a psalm they sang, or they wad let me win to, for I was amaist
+famished wi' vexation. Aweel, they had me up in the grey o' the morning,
+and I behoved to whig awa wi' them, reason or nane, to a great gathering
+o' their folk at the Miry-sikes; and there this chield, Gabriel
+Kettledrummle, was blasting awa to them on the hill-side, about lifting
+up their testimony, nae doubt, and ganging down to the battle of Roman
+Gilead, or some sic place. Eh, Mr Henry! but the carle gae them a screed
+o' doctrine! Ye might hae heard him a mile down the wind--He routed like
+a cow in a fremd loaning.--Weel, thinks I, there's nae place in this
+country they ca' Roman Gilead--it will be some gate in the west
+muirlands; and or we win there I'll see to slip awa wi' this mither o'
+mine, for I winna rin my neck into a tether for ony Kettledrummle in the
+country side--Aweel," continued Cuddie, relieving himself by detailing
+his misfortunes, without being scrupulous concerning the degree of
+attention which his companion bestowed on his narrative, "just as I was
+wearying for the tail of the preaching, cam word that the dragoons were
+upon us.--Some ran, and some cried, Stand! and some cried, Down wi' the
+Philistines!--I was at my mither to get her awa sting and ling or the
+red-coats cam up, but I might as weel hae tried to drive our auld
+fore-a-hand ox without the goad--deil a step wad she budge.--Weel, after
+a', the cleugh we were in was strait, and the mist cam thick, and there
+was good hope the dragoons wad hae missed us if we could hae held our
+tongues; but, as if auld Kettledrummle himsell hadna made din eneugh to
+waken the very dead, they behoved a' to skirl up a psalm that ye wad hae
+heard as far as Lanrick!--Aweel, to mak a lang tale short, up cam my
+young Lord Evandale, skelping as fast as his horse could trot, and twenty
+red-coats at his back. Twa or three chields wad needs fight, wi' the
+pistol and the whinger in the tae hand, and the Bible in the tother, and
+they got their crouns weel cloured; but there wasna muckle skaith dune,
+for Evandale aye cried to scatter us, but to spare life."
+
+"And did you not resist?" said Morton, who probably felt, that, at that
+moment, he himself would have encountered Lord Evandale on much slighter
+grounds.
+
+"Na, truly," answered Cuddie, "I keepit aye before the auld woman, and
+cried for mercy to life and limb; but twa o' the red-coats cam up, and
+ane o' them was gaun to strike my mither wi' the side o' his broadsword--
+So I got up my kebbie at them, and said I wad gie them as gude. Weel,
+they turned on me, and clinked at me wi' their swords, and I garr'd my
+hand keep my head as weel as I could till Lord Evandale came up, and then
+I cried out I was a servant at Tillietudlem--ye ken yoursell he was aye
+judged to hae a look after the young leddy--and he bade me fling down my
+kent, and sae me and my mither yielded oursells prisoners. I'm thinking
+we wad hae been letten slip awa, but Kettledrummle was taen near us--for
+Andrew Wilson's naig that he was riding on had been a dragooner lang
+syne, and the sairer Kettledrummle spurred to win awa, the readier the
+dour beast ran to the dragoons when he saw them draw up.--Aweel, when my
+mother and him forgathered, they set till the sodgers, and I think they
+gae them their kale through the reek! Bastards o' the hure o' Babylon was
+the best words in their wame. Sae then the kiln was in a bleeze again,
+and they brought us a' three on wi' them to mak us an example, as they
+ca't."
+
+"It is most infamous and intolerable oppression!" said Morton, half
+speaking to himself; "here is a poor peaceable fellow, whose only motive
+for joining the conventicle was a sense of filial piety, and he is
+chained up like a thief or murderer, and likely to die the death of one,
+but without the privilege of a formal trial, which our laws indulge to
+the worst malefactor! Even to witness such tyranny, and still more to
+suffer under it, is enough to make the blood of the tamest slave boil
+within him."
+
+"To be sure," said Cuddie, hearing, and partly understanding, what had
+broken from Morton in resentment of his injuries, "it is no right to
+speak evil o' dignities--my auld leddy aye said that, as nae doubt she
+had a gude right to do, being in a place o' dignity hersell; and troth I
+listened to her very patiently, for she aye ordered a dram, or a sowp
+kale, or something to us, after she had gien us a hearing on our duties.
+But deil a dram, or kale, or ony thing else--no sae muckle as a cup o'
+cauld water--do thae lords at Edinburgh gie us; and yet they are heading
+and hanging amang us, and trailing us after thae blackguard troopers, and
+taking our goods and gear as if we were outlaws. I canna say I tak it
+kind at their hands."
+
+"It would be very strange if you did," answered Morton, with suppressed
+emotion.
+
+"And what I like warst o' a'," continued poor Cuddie, "is thae ranting
+red-coats coming amang the lasses, and taking awa our joes. I had a sair
+heart o' my ain when I passed the Mains down at Tillietudlem this morning
+about parritch-time, and saw the reek comin' out at my ain lum-head, and
+kend there was some ither body than my auld mither sitting by the
+ingle-side. But I think my heart was e'en sairer, when I saw that
+hellicat trooper, Tam Halliday, kissing Jenny Dennison afore my face. I
+wonder women can hae the impudence to do sic things; but they are a' for
+the red-coats. Whiles I hae thought o' being a trooper mysell, when I
+thought naething else wad gae down wi' Jenny--and yet I'll no blame her
+ower muckle neither, for maybe it was a' for my sake that she loot Tam
+touzle her tap-knots that gate."
+
+"For your sake?" said Morton, unable to refrain from taking some interest
+in a story which seemed to bear a singular coincidence with his own.
+
+"E'en sae, Milnwood," replied Cuddie; "for the puir quean gat leave to
+come near me wi' speaking the loun fair, (d--n him, that I suld say sae!)
+and sae she bade me God speed, and she wanted to stap siller into my
+hand;--I'se warrant it was the tae half o' her fee and bountith, for she
+wared the ither half on pinners and pearlings to gang to see us shoot yon
+day at the popinjay."
+
+"And did you take it, Cuddie?" said Morton.
+
+"Troth did I no, Milnwood; I was sic a fule as to fling it back to her--
+my heart was ower grit to be behadden to her, when I had seen that loon
+slavering and kissing at her. But I was a great fule for my pains; it wad
+hae dune my mither and me some gude, and she'll ware't a' on duds and
+nonsense."
+
+There was here a deep and long pause. Cuddie was probably engaged in
+regretting the rejection of his mistress's bounty, and Henry Morton in
+considering from what motives, or upon what conditions, Miss Bellenden
+had succeeded in procuring the interference of Lord Evandale in his
+favour.
+
+Was it not possible, suggested his awakening hopes, that he had construed
+her influence over Lord Evandale hastily and unjustly? Ought he to
+censure her severely, if, submitting to dissimulation for his sake, she
+had permitted the young nobleman to entertain hopes which she had no
+intention to realize? Or what if she had appealed to the generosity which
+Lord Evandale was supposed to possess, and had engaged his honour to
+protect the person of a favoured rival?
+
+Still, however, the words which he had overheard recurred ever and anon
+to his remembrance, with a pang which resembled the sting of an adder.
+
+"Nothing that she could refuse him!--was it possible to make a more
+unlimited declaration of predilection? The language of affection has not,
+within the limits of maidenly delicacy, a stronger expression. She is
+lost to me wholly, and for ever; and nothing remains for me now, but
+vengeance for my own wrongs, and for those which are hourly inflicted on
+my country."
+
+Apparently, Cuddie, though with less refinement, was following out a
+similar train of ideas; for he suddenly asked Morton in a low whisper--
+"Wad there be ony ill in getting out o' thae chields' hands an ane could
+compass it?"
+
+"None in the world," said Morton; "and if an opportunity occurs of doing
+so, depend on it I for one will not let it slip."
+
+"I'm blythe to hear ye say sae," answered Cuddie. "I'm but a puir silly
+fallow, but I canna think there wad be muckle ill in breaking out by
+strength o' hand, if ye could mak it ony thing feasible. I am the lad
+that will ne'er fear to lay on, if it were come to that; but our auld
+leddy wad hae ca'd that a resisting o' the king's authority."
+
+"I will resist any authority on earth," said Morton, "that invades
+tyrannically my chartered rights as a freeman; and I am determined I will
+not be unjustly dragged to a jail, or perhaps a gibbet, if I can possibly
+make my escape from these men either by address or force."
+
+"Weel, that's just my mind too, aye supposing we hae a feasible
+opportunity o' breaking loose. But then ye speak o' a charter; now these
+are things that only belang to the like o' you that are a gentleman, and
+it mightna bear me through that am but a husbandman."
+
+"The charter that I speak of," said Morton, "is common to the meanest
+Scotchman. It is that freedom from stripes and bondage which was claimed,
+as you may read in Scripture, by the Apostle Paul himself, and which
+every man who is free-born is called upon to defend, for his own sake and
+that of his countrymen."
+
+"Hegh, sirs!" replied Cuddie, "it wad hae been lang or my Leddy Margaret,
+or my mither either, wad hae fund out sic a wiselike doctrine in the
+Bible! The tane was aye graning about giving tribute to Caesar, and the
+tither is as daft wi' her whiggery. I hae been clean spoilt, just wi'
+listening to twa blethering auld wives; but if I could get a gentleman
+that wad let me tak on to be his servant, I am confident I wad be a clean
+contrary creature; and I hope your honour will think on what I am saying,
+if ye were ance fairly delivered out o' this house of bondage, and just
+take me to be your ain wally-de-shamble."
+
+"My valet, Cuddie?" answered Morton; "alas! that would be sorry
+preferment, even if we were at liberty."
+
+"I ken what ye're thinking--that because I am landward-bred, I wad be
+bringing ye to disgrace afore folk; but ye maun ken I'm gay gleg at the
+uptak; there was never ony thing dune wi' hand but I learned gay readily,
+'septing reading, writing, and ciphering; but there's no the like o' me
+at the fit-ba', and I can play wi' the broadsword as weel as Corporal
+Inglis there. I hae broken his head or now, for as massy as he's riding
+ahint us.--And then ye'll no be gaun to stay in this country?"--said he,
+stopping and interrupting himself.
+
+"Probably not," replied Morton.
+
+"Weel, I carena a boddle. Ye see I wad get my mither bestowed wi' her
+auld graning tittie, auntie Meg, in the Gallowgate o' Glasgow, and then I
+trust they wad neither burn her for a witch, or let her fail for fau't o'
+fude, or hang her up for an auld whig wife; for the provost, they say, is
+very regardfu' o' sic puir bodies. And then you and me wad gang and pouss
+our fortunes, like the folk i' the daft auld tales about Jock the
+Giant-killer and Valentine and Orson; and we wad come back to merry
+Scotland, as the sang says, and I wad tak to the stilts again, and turn
+sic furs on the bonny rigs o' Milnwood holms, that it wad be worth a pint
+but to look at them."
+
+"I fear," said Morton, "there is very little chance, my good friend
+Cuddie, of our getting back to our old occupation."
+
+"Hout, stir--hout, stir," replied Cuddie, "it's aye gude to keep up a
+hardy heart--as broken a ship's come to land.--But what's that I hear?
+never stir, if my auld mither isna at the preaching again! I ken the
+sough o' her texts, that sound just like the wind blawing through the
+spence; and there's Kettledrummle setting to wark, too--Lordsake, if the
+sodgers anes get angry, they'll murder them baith, and us for company!"
+
+Their farther conversation was in fact interrupted by a blatant noise
+which rose behind them, in which the voice of the preacher emitted, in
+unison with that of the old woman, tones like the grumble of a bassoon
+combined with the screaking of a cracked fiddle. At first, the aged pair
+of sufferers had been contented to condole with each other in smothered
+expressions of complaint and indignation; but the sense of their injuries
+became more pungently aggravated as they communicated with each other,
+and they became at length unable to suppress their ire.
+
+"Woe, woe, and a threefold woe unto you, ye bloody and violent
+persecutors!" exclaimed the Reverend Gabriel Kettledrummle--"Woe, and
+threefold woe unto you, even to the breaking of seals, the blowing of
+trumpets, and the pouring forth of vials!"
+
+"Ay--ay--a black cast to a' their ill-fa'ur'd faces, and the outside o'
+the loof to them at the last day!" echoed the shrill counter-tenor of
+Mause, falling in like the second part of a catch.
+
+"I tell you," continued the divine, "that your rankings and your ridings
+--your neighings and your prancings--your bloody, barbarous, and inhuman
+cruelties--your benumbing, deadening, and debauching the conscience of
+poor creatures by oaths, soul-damning and self-contradictory, have arisen
+from earth to Heaven like a foul and hideous outcry of perjury for
+hastening the wrath to come--hugh! hugh! hugh!"
+
+"And I say," cried Mause, in the same tune, and nearly at the same time,
+"that wi' this auld breath o' mine, and it's sair taen down wi' the
+asthmatics and this rough trot"--
+
+"Deil gin they would gallop," said Cuddie, "wad it but gar her haud her
+tongue!"
+
+"--Wi' this auld and brief breath," continued Mause, "will I testify
+against the backslidings, defections, defalcations, and declinings of the
+land--against the grievances and the causes of wrath!"
+
+"Peace, I pr'ythee--Peace, good woman," said the preacher, who had just
+recovered from a violent fit of coughing, and found his own anathema
+borne down by Mause's better wind; "peace, and take not the word out of
+the mouth of a servant of the altar.--I say, I uplift my voice and tell
+you, that before the play is played out--ay, before this very sun gaes
+down, ye sall learn that neither a desperate Judas, like your prelate
+Sharpe that's gane to his place; nor a sanctuary-breaking Holofernes,
+like bloody-minded Claverhouse; nor an ambitious Diotrephes, like the lad
+Evandale; nor a covetous and warld-following Demas, like him they ca'
+Sergeant Bothwell, that makes every wife's plack and her meal-ark his
+ain; neither your carabines, nor your pistols, nor your broadswords, nor
+your horses, nor your saddles, bridles, surcingles, nose-bags, nor
+martingales, shall resist the arrows that are whetted and the bow that is
+bent against you!"
+
+"That shall they never, I trow," echoed Mause; "castaways are they ilk
+ane o' them--besoms of destruction, fit only to be flung into the fire
+when they have sweepit the filth out o' the Temple--whips of small cords,
+knotted for the chastisement of those wha like their warldly gudes and
+gear better than the Cross or the Covenant, but when that wark's done,
+only meet to mak latchets to the deil's brogues."
+
+"Fiend hae me," said Cuddie, addressing himself to Morton, "if I dinna
+think our mither preaches as weel as the minister!--But it's a sair pity
+o' his hoast, for it aye comes on just when he's at the best o't, and
+that lang routing he made air this morning, is sair again him too--Deil
+an I care if he wad roar her dumb, and then he wad hae't a' to answer for
+himsell--It's lucky the road's rough, and the troopers are no taking
+muckle tent to what they say, wi' the rattling o' the horse's feet; but
+an we were anes on saft grund, we'll hear news o' a' this."
+
+Cuddie's conjecture were but too true. The words of the prisoners had not
+been much attended to while drowned by the clang of horses' hoofs on a
+rough and stony road; but they now entered upon the moorlands, where the
+testimony of the two zealous captives lacked this saving accompaniment.
+And, accordingly, no sooner had their steeds begun to tread heath and
+green sward, and Gabriel Kettledrummle had again raised his voice with,
+"Also I uplift my voice like that of a pelican in the wilderness"--
+
+"And I mine," had issued from Mause, "like a sparrow on the house-tops"--
+
+When "Hollo, ho!" cried the corporal from the rear; "rein up your
+tongues, the devil blister them, or I'll clap a martingale on them."
+
+"I will not peace at the commands of the profane," said Gabriel.
+
+"Nor I neither," said Mause, "for the bidding of no earthly potsherd,
+though it be painted as red as a brick from the Tower of Babel, and ca'
+itsell a corporal."
+
+"Halliday," cried the corporal, "hast got never a gag about thee, man?--
+We must stop their mouths before they talk us all dead."
+
+Ere any answer could be made, or any measure taken in consequence of the
+corporal's motion, a dragoon galloped towards Sergeant Bothwell, who was
+considerably a-head of the party he commanded. On hearing the orders
+which he brought, Bothwell instantly rode back to the head of his party,
+ordered them to close their files, to mend their pace, and to move with
+silence and precaution, as they would soon be in presence of the enemy.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XV.
+
+               Quantum in nobis, we've thought good
+               To save the expense of Christian blood,
+               And try if we, by mediation
+               Of treaty, and accommodation,
+               Can end the quarrel, and compose
+               This bloody duel without blows.
+                                             Butler.
+
+The increased pace of the party of horsemen soon took away from their
+zealous captives the breath, if not the inclination, necessary for
+holding forth. They had now for more than a mile got free of the
+woodlands, whose broken glades had, for some time, accompanied them after
+they had left the woods of Tillietudlem. A few birches and oaks still
+feathered the narrow ravines, or occupied in dwarf-clusters the hollow
+plains of the moor. But these were gradually disappearing; and a wide and
+waste country lay before them, swelling into bare hills of dark heath,
+intersected by deep gullies; being the passages by which torrents forced
+their course in winter, and during summer the disproportioned channels
+for diminutive rivulets that winded their puny way among heaps of stones
+and gravel, the effects and tokens of their winter fury;--like so many
+spendthrifts dwindled down by the consequences of former excesses and
+extravagance. This desolate region seemed to extend farther than the eye
+could reach, without grandeur, without even the dignity of mountain
+wildness, yet striking, from the huge proportion which it seemed to bear
+to such more favoured spots of the country as were adapted to
+cultivation, and fitted for the support of man; and thereby impressing
+irresistibly the mind of the spectator with a sense of the omnipotence of
+nature, and the comparative inefficacy of the boasted means of
+amelioration which man is capable of opposing to the disadvantages of
+climate and soil.
+
+It is a remarkable effect of such extensive wastes, that they impose an
+idea of solitude even upon those who travel through them in considerable
+numbers; so much is the imagination affected by the disproportion between
+the desert around and the party who are traversing it. Thus the members
+of a caravan of a thousand souls may feel, in the deserts of Africa or
+Arabia, a sense of loneliness unknown to the individual traveller, whose
+solitary course is through a thriving and cultivated country.
+
+It was not, therefore, without a peculiar feeling of emotion, that Morton
+beheld, at the distance of about half a mile, the body of the cavalry to
+which his escort belonged, creeping up a steep and winding path which
+ascended from the more level moor into the hills. Their numbers, which
+appeared formidable when they crowded through narrow roads, and seemed
+multiplied by appearing partially, and at different points, among the
+trees, were now apparently diminished by being exposed at once to view,
+and in a landscape whose extent bore such immense proportion to the
+columns of horses and men, which, showing more like a drove of black
+cattle than a body of soldiers, crawled slowly along the face of the
+hill, their force and their numbers seeming trifling and contemptible.
+
+"Surely," said Morton to himself, "a handful of resolute men may defend
+any defile in these mountains against such a small force as this is,
+providing that their bravery is equal to their enthusiasm."
+
+While he made these reflections, the rapid movement of the horsemen who
+guarded him, soon traversed the space which divided them from their
+companions; and ere the front of Claverhouse's column had gained the brow
+of the hill which they had been seen ascending, Bothwell, with his
+rearguard and prisoners, had united himself, or nearly so, with the main
+body led by his commander. The extreme difficulty of the road, which was
+in some places steep, and in others boggy, retarded the progress of the
+column, especially in the rear; for the passage of the main body, in many
+instances, poached up the swamps through which they passed, and rendered
+them so deep, that the last of their followers were forced to leave the
+beaten path, and find safer passage where they could.
+
+On these occasions, the distresses of the Reverend Gabriel Kettledrummle
+and of Mause Headrigg, were considerably augmented, as the brutal
+troopers, by whom they were guarded, compelled them, at all risks which
+such inexperienced riders were likely to incur, to leap their horses over
+drains and gullies, or to push them through morasses and swamps.
+
+"Through the help of the Lord I have luppen ower a wall," cried poor
+Mause, as her horse was, by her rude attendants, brought up to leap the
+turf enclosure of a deserted fold, in which feat her curch flew off,
+leaving her grey hairs uncovered.
+
+"I am sunk in deep mire where there is no standing--I am come into deep
+waters where the floods overflow me," exclaimed Kettledrummle, as the
+charger on which he was mounted plunged up to the saddle-girths in a
+well-head, as the springs are called which supply the marshes, the sable
+streams beneath spouting over the face and person of the captive
+preacher.
+
+These exclamations excited shouts of laughter among their military
+attendants; but events soon occurred which rendered them all sufficiently
+serious.
+
+The leading files of the regiment had nearly attained the brow of the
+steep hill we have mentioned, when two or three horsemen, speedily
+discovered to be a part of their own advanced guard, who had acted as a
+patrol, appeared returning at full gallop, their horses much blown, and
+the men apparently in a disordered flight. They were followed upon the
+spur by five or six riders, well armed with sword and pistol, who halted
+upon the top of the hill, on observing the approach of the Life-Guards.
+One or two who had carabines dismounted, and, taking a leisurely and
+deliberate aim at the foremost rank of the regiment, discharged their
+pieces, by which two troopers were wounded, one severely. They then
+mounted their horses, and disappeared over the ridge of the hill,
+retreating with so much coolness as evidently showed, that, on the one
+hand, they were undismayed by the approach of so considerable a force as
+was moving against them, and conscious, on the other, that they were
+supported by numbers sufficient for their protection. This incident
+occasioned a halt through the whole body of cavalry; and while
+Claverhouse himself received the report of his advanced guard, which had
+been thus driven back upon the main body, Lord Evandale advanced to the
+top of the ridge over which the enemy's horsemen had retired, and Major
+Allan, Cornet Grahame, and the other officers, employed themselves in
+extricating the regiment from the broken ground, and drawing them up on
+the side of the hill in two lines, the one to support the other.
+
+The word was then given to advance; and in a few minutes the first lines
+stood on the brow and commanded the prospect on the other side. The
+second line closed upon them, and also the rear-guard with the prisoners;
+so that Morton and his companions in captivity could, in like manner, see
+the form of opposition which was now offered to the farther progress of
+their captors.
+
+The brow of the hill, on which the royal Life-Guards were now drawn up,
+sloped downwards (on the side opposite to that which they had ascended)
+with a gentle declivity, for more than a quarter of a mile, and presented
+ground, which, though unequal in some places, was not altogether
+unfavourable for the manoeuvres of cavalry, until near the bottom, when
+the slope terminated in a marshy level, traversed through its whole
+length by what seemed either a natural gully, or a deep artificial drain,
+the sides of which were broken by springs, trenches filled with water,
+out of which peats and turf had been dug, and here and there by some
+straggling thickets of alders which loved the moistness so well, that
+they continued to live as bushes, although too much dwarfed by the sour
+soil and the stagnant bog-water to ascend into trees. Beyond this ditch,
+or gully, the ground arose into a second heathy swell, or rather hill,
+near to the foot of which, and' as if with the object of defending the
+broken ground and ditch that covered their front, the body of insurgents
+appeared to be drawn up with the purpose of abiding battle.
+
+Their infantry was divided into three lines. The first, tolerably
+provided with fire-arms, were advanced almost close to the verge of the
+bog, so that their fire must necessarily annoy the royal cavalry as they
+descended the opposite hill, the whole front of which was exposed, and
+would probably be yet more fatal if they attempted to cross the morass.
+Behind this first line was a body of pikemen, designed for their support
+in case the dragoons should force the passage of the marsh. In their rear
+was their third line, consisting of countrymen armed with scythes set
+straight on poles, hay-forks, spits, clubs, goads, fish-spears, and such
+other rustic implements as hasty resentment had converted into
+instruments of war. On each flank of the infantry, but a little backward
+from the bog, as if to allow themselves dry and sound ground whereon to
+act in case their enemies should force the pass, there was drawn up a
+small body of cavalry, who were, in general, but indifferently armed, and
+worse mounted, but full of zeal for the cause, being chiefly either
+landholders of small property, or farmers of the better class, whose
+means enabled them to serve on horseback. A few of those who had been
+engaed in driving back the advanced guard of the royalists, might now be
+seen returning slowly towards their own squadrons. These were the only
+individuals of the insurgent army which seemed to be in motion. All the
+others stood firm and motionless, as the grey stones that lay scattered
+on the heath around them.
+
+The total number of the insurgents might amount to about a thousand men;
+but of these there were scarce a hundred cavalry, nor were the half of
+them even tolerably armed. The strength of their position, however, the
+sense of their having taken a desperate step, the superiority of their
+numbers, but, above all, the ardour of their enthusiasm, were the means
+on which their leaders reckoned, for supplying the want of arms,
+equipage, and military discipline.
+
+On the side of the hill that rose above the array of battle which they
+had adopted, were seen the women and even the children, whom zeal,
+opposed to persecution, had driven into the wilderness. They seemed
+stationed there to be spectators of the engagement, by which their own
+fate, as well as that of their parents, husbands, and sons, was to be
+decided. Like the females of the ancient German tribes, the shrill cries
+which they raised, when they beheld the glittering ranks of their enemy
+appear on the brow of the opposing eminence, acted as an incentive to
+their relatives to fight to the last in defence of that which was dearest
+to them. Such exhortations seemed to have their full and emphatic effect;
+for a wild halloo, which went from rank to rank on the appearance of the
+soldiers, intimated the resolution of the insurgents to fight to the
+uttermost.
+
+As the horsemen halted their lines on the ridge of the hill, their
+trumpets and kettle-drums sounded a bold and warlike flourish of menace
+and defiance, that rang along the waste like the shrill summons of a
+destroying angel. The wanderers, in answer, united their voices, and sent
+forth, in solemn modulation, the two first verses of the seventy-sixth
+Psalm, according to the metrical version of the Scottish Kirk:
+
+                    "In Judah's land God is well known,
+                    His name's in Israel great:
+                    In Salem is his tabernacle,
+                    In Zion is his seat.
+                    There arrows of the bow he brake,
+                    The shield, the sword, the war.
+                    More glorious thou than hills of prey,
+                    More excellent art far."
+
+A shout, or rather a solemn acclamation, attended the close of the
+stanza; and after a dead pause, the second verse was resumed by the
+insurgents, who applied the destruction of the Assyrians as prophetical
+of the issue of their own impending contest:--
+
+               "Those that were stout of heart are spoil'd,
+               They slept their sleep outright;
+               And none of those their hands did find,
+               That were the men of might.
+
+               When thy rebuke, O Jacob's God,
+               Had forth against them past,
+               Their horses and their chariots both
+               Were in a deep sleep cast."
+
+There was another acclamation, which was followed by the most profound
+silence.
+
+While these solemn sounds, accented by a thousand voices, were prolonged
+amongst the waste hills, Claverhouse looked with great attention on the
+ground, and on the order of battle which the wanderers had adopted, and
+in which they determined to await the assault.
+
+"The churls," he said, "must have some old soldiers with them; it was no
+rustic that made choice of that ground."
+
+"Burley is said to be with them for certain," answered Lord Evandale,
+"and also Hackston of Rathillet, Paton of Meadowhead, Cleland, and some
+other men of military skill."
+
+"I judged as much," said Claverhouse, "from the style in which these
+detached horsemen leapt their horses over the ditch, as they returned to
+their position. It was easy to see that there were a few roundheaded
+troopers amongst them, the true spawn of the old Covenant. We must manage
+this matter warily as well as boldly. Evandale, let the officers come to
+this knoll."
+
+He moved to a small moss-grown cairn, probably the resting-place of some
+Celtic chief of other times, and the call of "Officers to the front,"
+soon brought them around their commander.
+
+"I do not call you around me, gentlemen," said Claverhouse, "in the
+formal capacity of a council of war, for I will never turn over on others
+the responsibility which my rank imposes on myself. I only want the
+benefit of your opinions, reserving to myself, as most men do when they
+ask advice, the liberty of following my own.--What say you, Cornet
+Grahame? Shall we attack these fellows who are bellowing younder? You are
+youngest and hottest, and therefore will speak first whether I will or
+no."
+
+"Then," said Cornet Grahame, "while I have the honour to carry the
+standard of the Life-Guards, it shall never, with my will, retreat before
+rebels. I say, charge, in God's name and the King's!"
+
+"And what say you, Allan?" continued Claverhouse, "for Evandale is so
+modest, we shall never get him to speak till you have said what you have
+to say."
+
+"These fellows," said Major Allan, an old cavalier officer of experience,
+"are three or four to one--I should not mind that much upon a fair field,
+but they are posted in a very formidable strength, and show no
+inclination to quit it. I therefore think, with deference to Cornet
+Grahame's opinion, that we should draw back to Tillietudlem, occupy the
+pass between the hills and the open country, and send for reinforcements
+to my Lord Ross, who is lying at Glasgow with a regiment of infantry. In
+this way we should cut them off from the Strath of Clyde, and either
+compel them to come out of their stronghold, and give us battle on fair
+terms, or, if they remain here, we will attack them so soon as our
+infantry has joined us, and enabled us to act with effect among these
+ditches, bogs, and quagmires."
+
+"Pshaw!" said the young Cornet, "what signifies strong ground, when it is
+only held by a crew of canting, psalm-singing old women?"
+
+"A man may fight never the worse," retorted Major Allan, "for honouring
+both his Bible and Psalter. These fellows will prove as stubborn as
+steel; I know them of old."
+
+"Their nasal psalmody," said the Cornet, "reminds our Major of the race
+of Dunbar."
+
+"Had you been at that race, young man," retorted Allan, "you would have
+wanted nothing to remind you of it for the longest day you have to live."
+
+"Hush, hush, gentlemen," said Claverhouse, "these are untimely
+repartees.--I should like your advice well, Major Allan, had our rascally
+patrols (whom I will see duly punished) brought us timely notice of the
+enemy's numbers and position. But having once presented ourselves before
+them in line, the retreat of the Life-Guards would argue gross timidity,
+and be the general signal for insurrection throughout the west. In which
+case, so far from obtaining any assistance from my Lord Ross, I promise
+you I should have great apprehensions of his being cut off before we can
+join him, or he us. A retreat would have quite the same fatal effect upon
+the king's cause as the loss of a battle--and as to the difference of
+risk or of safety it might make with respect to ourselves, that, I am
+sure, no gentleman thinks a moment about. There must be some gorges or
+passes in the morass through which we can force our way; and, were we
+once on firm ground, I trust there is no man in the Life-Guards who
+supposes our squadrons, though so weak in numbers, are unable to trample
+into dust twice the number of these unpractised clowns.--What say you, my
+Lord Evandale?"
+
+"I humbly think," said Lord Evandale, "that, go the day how it will, it
+must be a bloody one; and that we shall lose many brave fellows, and
+probably be obliged to slaughter a great number of these misguided men,
+who, after all, are Scotchmen and subjects of King Charles as well as we
+are."
+
+"Rebels! rebels! and undeserving the name either of Scotchmen or of
+subjects," said Claverhouse; "but come, my lord, what does your opinion
+point at?"
+
+"To enter into a treaty with these ignorant and misled men," said the
+young nobleman.
+
+"A treaty! and with rebels having arms in their hands? Never while I
+live," answered his commander.
+
+"At least send a trumpet and flag of truce, summoning them to lay down
+their weapons and disperse," said Lord Evandale, "upon promise of a free
+pardon--I have always heard, that had that been done before the battle of
+Pentland hills, much blood might have been saved."
+
+"Well," said Claverhouse, "and who the devil do you think would carry a
+summons to these headstrong and desperate fanatics? They acknowledge no
+laws of war. Their leaders, who have been all most active in the murder
+of the Archbishop of St Andrews, fight with a rope round their necks, and
+are likely to kill the messenger, were it but to dip their followers in
+loyal blood, and to make them as desperate of pardon as themselves."
+
+"I will go myself," said Evandale, "if you will permit me. I have often
+risked my blood to spill that of others, let me do so now in order to
+save human lives."
+
+"You shall not go on such an errand, my lord," said Claverhouse; "your
+rank and situation render your safety of too much consequence to the
+country in an age when good principles are so rare.--Here's my brother's
+son Dick Grahame, who fears shot or steel as little as if the devil had
+given him armour of proof against it, as the fanatics say he has given to
+his uncle.
+
+     [Note:  Cornet Grahame. There was actually a young cornet of the
+     Life-Guards named Grahame, and probably some relation of
+     Claverhouse, slain in the skirmish of Drumclog. In the old ballad on
+     the Battle of Bothwell Bridge, Claverhouse is said to have continued
+     the slaughter of the fugitives in revenge of this gentleman's death.
+
+     "Haud up your hand," then Monmouth said; "Gie quarters to these men
+     for me;" But bloody Claver'se swore an oath, His kinsman's death
+     avenged should be.
+
+     The body of this young man was found shockingly mangled after the
+     battle, his eyes pulled out, and his features so much defaced, that
+     it was impossible to recognise him. The Tory writers say that this
+     was done by the Whigs; because, finding the name Grahame wrought in
+     the young gentleman's neckcloth, they took the corpse for that of
+     Claver'se himself. The Whig authorities give a different account,
+     from tradition, of the cause of Cornet Grahame's body being thus
+     mangled. He had, say they, refused his own dog any food on the
+     morning of the battle, affirming, with an oath, that he should have
+     no breakfast but upon the flesh of the Whigs. The ravenous animal,
+     it is said, flew at his master as soon as he fell, and lacerated his
+     face and throat.
+
+     These two stories are presented to the reader, leaving it to him to
+     judge whether it is most likely that a party of persecuted and
+     insurgent fanatics should mangle a body supposed to be that of their
+     chief enemy, in the same manner as several persons present at
+     Drumclog had shortly before treated the person of Archbishop Sharpe;
+     or that a domestic dog should, for want of a single breakfast,
+     become so ferocious as to feed on his own master, selecting his body
+     from scores that were lying around, equally accessible to his
+     ravenous appetite.]
+
+He shall take a flag of truce and a trumpet, and ride down to the edge of
+the morass to summon them to lay down their arms and disperse."
+
+"With all my soul, Colonel," answered the Cornet; "and I'll tie my cravat
+on a pike to serve for a white flag--the rascals never saw such a pennon
+of Flanders lace in their lives before."
+
+"Colonel Grahame," said Evandale, while the young officer prepared for
+his expedition, "this young gentleman is your nephew and your apparent
+heir; for God's sake, permit me to go. It was my counsel, and I ought to
+stand the risk."
+
+"Were he my only son," said Claverhouse, "this is no cause and no time to
+spare him. I hope my private affections will never interfere with my
+public duty. If Dick Grahame falls, the loss is chiefly mine; were your
+lordship to die, the King and country would be the sufferers.--Come,
+gentlemen, each to his post. If our summons is unfavourably received, we
+will instantly attack; and, as the old Scottish blazon has it, God shaw
+the right!"
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XVI.
+
+               With many a stout thwack and many a bang,
+               Hard crab-tree and old iron rang.
+                                             Hudibras.
+
+Cornet Richard Grahame descended the hill, bearing in his hand the
+extempore flag of truce, and making his managed horse keep time by bounds
+and curvets to the tune which he whistled. The trumpeter followed. Five
+or six horsemen, having something the appearance of officers, detached
+themselves from each flank of the Presbyterian army, and, meeting in the
+centre, approached the ditch which divided the hollow as near as the
+morass would permit. Towards this group, but keeping the opposite side of
+the swamp, Cornet Grahame directed his horse, his motions being now the
+conspicuous object of attention to both armies; and, without
+disparagement to the courage of either, it is probable there was a
+general wish on both sides that this embassy might save the risks and
+bloodshed of the impending conflict.
+
+When he had arrived right opposite to those, who, by their advancing to
+receive his message, seemed to take upon themselves as the leaders of the
+enemy, Cornet Grahame commanded his trumpeter to sound a parley. The
+insurgents having no instrument of martial music wherewith to make the
+appropriate reply, one of their number called out with a loud, strong
+voice, demanding to know why he approached their leaguer.
+
+"To summon you in the King's name, and in that of Colonel John Grahame of
+Claverhouse, specially commissioned by the right honourable Privy Council
+of Scotland," answered the Cornet, "to lay down your arms, and dismiss
+the followers whom ye have led into rebellion, contrary to the laws of
+God, of the King, and of the country."
+
+"Return to them that sent thee," said the insurgent leader, "and tell
+them that we are this day in arms for a broken Covenant and a persecuted
+Kirk; tell them that we renounce the licentious and perjured Charles
+Stewart, whom you call king, even as he renounced the Covenant, after
+having once and again sworn to prosecute to the utmost of his power all
+the ends thereof, really, constantly, and sincerely, all the days of his
+life, having no enemies but the enemies of the Covenant, and no friends
+but its friends. Whereas, far from keeping the oath he had called God and
+angels to witness, his first step, after his incoming into these
+kingdoms, was the fearful grasping at the prerogative of the Almighty, by
+that hideous Act of Supremacy, together with his expulsing, without
+summons, libel, or process of law, hundreds of famous faithful preachers,
+thereby wringing the bread of life out of the mouth of hungry, poor
+creatures, and forcibly cramming their throats with the lifeless,
+saltless, foisonless, lukewarm drammock of the fourteen false prelates,
+and their sycophantic, formal, carnal, scandalous creature-curates."
+
+"I did not come to hear you preach," answered the officer, "but to know,
+in one word, if you will disperse yourselves, on condition of a free
+pardon to all but the murderers of the late Archbishop of St Andrews; or
+whether you will abide the attack of his majesty's forces, which will
+instantly advance upon you."
+
+"In one word, then," answered the spokesman, "we are here with our swords
+on our thighs, as men that watch in the night. We will take one part and
+portion together, as brethren in righteousness. Whosoever assails us in
+our good cause, his blood be on his own head. So return to them that sent
+thee, and God give them and thee a sight of the evil of your ways!"
+
+"Is not your name," said the Cornet, who began to recollect having seen
+the person whom he was now speaking with, "John Balfour of Burley?"
+
+"And if it be," said the spokesman, "hast thou aught to say against it?"
+
+"Only," said the Cornet, "that, as you are excluded from pardon in the
+name of the King and of my commanding officer, it is to these country
+people, and not to you, that I offer it; and it is not with you, or such
+as you, that I am sent to treat."
+
+"Thou art a young soldier, friend," said Burley, "and scant well learned
+in thy trade, or thou wouldst know that the bearer of a flag of truce
+cannot treat with the army but through their officers; and that if he
+presume to do otherwise, he forfeits his safe conduct."
+
+While speaking these words, Burley unslung his carabine, and held it in
+readiness.
+
+"I am not to be intimidated from the discharge of my duty by the menaces
+of a murderer," said Cornet Grahame.--"Hear me, good people; I proclaim,
+in the name of the King and of my commanding officer, full and free
+pardon to all, excepting"--
+
+"I give thee fair warning," said Burley, presenting his piece.
+
+"A free pardon to all," continued the young officer, still addressing the
+body of the insurgents--"to all but"--
+
+"Then the Lord grant grace to thy soul--amen!" said Burley.
+
+With these words he fired, and Cornet Richard Grahame dropped from his
+horse. The shot was mortal. The unfortunate young gentleman had only
+strength to turn himself on the ground and mutter forth, "My poor
+mother!" when life forsook him in the effort. His startled horse fled
+back to the regiment at the gallop, as did his scarce less affrighted
+attendant.
+
+"What have you done?" said one of Balfour's brother officers.
+
+"My duty," said Balfour, firmly. "Is it not written, Thou shalt be
+zealous even to slaying? Let those, who dare, now venture to speak of
+truce or pardon!"
+
+Claverhouse saw his nephew fall. He turned his eye on Evandale, while a
+transitory glance of indescribable emotion disturbed, for a second's
+space, the serenity of his features, and briefly said, "You see the
+event."
+
+"I will avenge him, or die!" exclaimed Evandale; and, putting his horse
+into motion, rode furiously down the hill, followed by his own troop, and
+that of the deceased Cornet, which broke down without orders; and, each
+striving to be the foremost to revenge their young officer, their ranks
+soon fell into confusion. These forces formed the first line of the
+royalists. It was in vain that Claverhouse exclaimed, "Halt! halt! this
+rashness will undo us." It was all that he could accomplish, by galloping
+along the second line, entreating, commanding, and even menacing the men
+with his sword, that he could restrain them from following an example so
+contagious.
+
+"Allan," he said, as soon as he had rendered the men in some degree more
+steady, "lead them slowly down the hill to support Lord Evandale, who is
+about to need it very much.--Bothwell, thou art a cool and a daring
+fellow"--
+
+"Ay," muttered Bothwell, "you can remember that in a moment like this."
+
+"Lead ten file up the hollow to the right," continued his commanding
+officer, "and try every means to get through the bog; then form and
+charge the rebels in flank and rear, while they are engaged with us in
+front."
+
+Bothwell made a signal of intelligence and obedience, and moved off with
+his party at a rapid pace.
+
+Meantime, the disaster which Claverhouse had apprehended, did not fail to
+take place. The troopers, who, with Lord Evandale, had rushed down upon
+the enemy, soon found their disorderly career interrupted by the
+impracticable character of the ground. Some stuck fast in the morass as
+they attempted to struggle through, some recoiled from the attempt and
+remained on the brink, others dispersed to seek a more favourable place
+to pass the swamp. In the midst of this confusion, the first line of the
+enemy, of which the foremost rank knelt, the second stooped, and the
+third stood upright, poured in a close and destructive fire that emptied
+at least a score of saddles, and increased tenfold the disorder into
+which the horsemen had fallen. Lord Evandale, in the meantime, at the
+head of a very few well-mounted men, had been able to clear the ditch,
+but was no sooner across than he was charged by the left body of the
+enemy's cavalry, who, encouraged by the small number of opponents that
+had made their way through the broken ground, set upon them with the
+utmost fury, crying, "Woe, woe to the uncircumcised Philistines! down
+with Dagon and all his adherents!"
+
+The young nobleman fought like a lion; but most of his followers were
+killed, and he himself could not have escaped the same fate but for a
+heavy fire of carabines, which Claverhouse, who had now advanced with the
+second line near to the ditch, poured so effectually upon the enemy, that
+both horse and foot for a moment began to shrink, and Lord Evandale,
+disengaged from his unequal combat, and finding himself nearly alone,
+took the opportunity to effect his retreat through the morass. But
+notwithstanding the loss they had sustained by Claverhouse's first fire,
+the insurgents became soon aware that the advantage of numbers and of
+position were so decidedly theirs, that, if they could but persist in
+making a brief but resolute defence, the Life-Guards must necessarily be
+defeated. Their leaders flew through their ranks, exhorting them to stand
+firm, and pointing out how efficacious their fire must be where both men
+and horse were exposed to it; for the troopers, according to custom,
+fired without having dismounted. Claverhouse, more than once, when he
+perceived his best men dropping by a fire which they could not
+effectually return, made desperate efforts to pass the bog at various
+points, and renew the battle on firm ground and fiercer terms. But the
+close fire of the insurgents, joined to the natural difficulties of the
+pass, foiled his attempts in every point.
+
+"We must retreat," he said to Evandale, "unless Bothwell can effect a
+diversion in our favour. In the meantime, draw the men out of fire, and
+leave skirmishers behind these patches of alderbushes to keep the enemy
+in check."
+
+These directions being accomplished, the appearance of Bothwell with his
+party was earnestly expected. But Bothwell had his own disadvantages to
+struggle with. His detour to the right had not escaped the penetrating
+observation of Burley, who made a corresponding movement with the left
+wing of the mounted insurgents, so that when Bothwell, after riding a
+considerable way up the valley, found a place at which the bog could be
+passed, though with some difficulty, he perceived he was still in front
+of a superior enemy. His daring character was in no degree checked by
+this unexpected opposition.
+
+"Follow me, my lads!" he called to his men; "never let it be said that we
+turned our backs before these canting roundheads!"
+
+With that, as if inspired by the spirit of his ancestors, he shouted,
+"Bothwell! Bothwell!" and throwing himself into the morass, he struggled
+through it at the head of his party, and attacked that of Burley with
+such fury, that he drove them back above a pistol-shot, killing three men
+with his own hand. Burley, perceiving the consequences of a defeat on
+this point, and that his men, though more numerous, were unequal to the
+regulars in using their arms and managing their horses, threw himself
+across Bothwell's way, and attacked him hand to hand. Each of the
+combatants was considered as the champion of his respective party, and a
+result ensued more usual in romance than in real story. Their followers,
+on either side, instantly paused, and looked on as if the fate of the day
+were to be decided by the event of the combat between these two redoubted
+swordsmen. The combatants themselves seemed of the same opinion; for,
+after two or three eager cuts and pushes had been exchanged, they paused,
+as if by joint consent, to recover the breath which preceding exertions
+had exhausted, and to prepare for a duel in which each seemed conscious
+he had met his match.
+
+"You are the murdering villain, Burley," said Bothwell, griping his sword
+firmly, and setting his teeth close--"you escaped me once, but"--(he
+swore an oath too tremendous to be written down)--"thy head is worth its
+weight of silver, and it shall go home at my saddle-bow, or my saddle
+shall go home empty for me."
+
+"Yes," replied Burley, with stern and gloomy deliberation, "I am that
+John Balfour, who promised to lay thy head where thou shouldst never lift
+it again; and God do so unto me, and more also, if I do not redeem my
+word!"
+
+"Then a bed of heather, or a thousand merks!" said Bothwell, striking at
+Burley with his full force.
+
+"The sword of the Lord and of Gideon!" answered Balfour, as he parried
+and returned the blow.
+
+There have seldom met two combatants more equally matched in strength of
+body, skill in the management of their weapons and horses, determined
+courage, and unrelenting hostility. After exchanging many desperate
+blows, each receiving and inflicting several wounds, though of no great
+consequence, they grappled together as if with the desperate impatience
+of mortal hate, and Bothwell, seizing his enemy by the shoulder-belt,
+while the grasp of Balfour was upon his own collar, they came headlong to
+the ground. The companions of Burley hastened to his assistance, but were
+repelled by the dragoons, and the battle became again general. But
+nothing could withdraw the attention of the combatants from each other,
+or induce them to unclose the deadly clasp in which they rolled together
+on the ground, tearing, struggling, and foaming, with the inveteracy of
+thorough-bred bull-dogs.
+
+Several horses passed over them in the melee without their quitting hold
+of each other, until the sword-arm of Bothwell was broken by the kick of
+a charger. He then relinquished his grasp with a deep and suppressed
+groan, and both combatants started to their feet. Bothwell's right hand
+dropped helpless by his side, but his left griped to the place where his
+dagger hung; it had escaped from the sheath in the struggle,--and, with a
+look of mingled rage and despair, he stood totally defenceless, as
+Balfour, with a laugh of savage joy, flourished his sword aloft, and then
+passed it through his adversary's body. Bothwell received the thrust
+without falling--it had only grazed on his ribs. He attempted no farther
+defence, but, looking at Burley with a grin of deadly hatred, exclaimed--
+"Base peasant churl, thou hast spilt the blood of a line of kings!"
+
+"Die, wretch!--die!" said Balfour, redoubling the thrust with better aim;
+and, setting his foot on Bothwell's body as he fell, he a third time
+transfixed him with his sword.--"Die, bloodthirsty dog! die as thou hast
+lived!--die, like the beasts that perish--hoping nothing--believing
+nothing--"
+
+"And fearing nothing!" said Bothwell, collecting the last effort of
+respiration to utter these desperate words, and expiring as soon as they
+were spoken.
+
+To catch a stray horse by the bridle, throw himself upon it, and rush to
+the assistance of his followers, was, with Burley, the affair of a
+moment. And as the fall of Bothwell had given to the insurgents all the
+courage of which it had deprived his comrades, the issue of this partial
+contest did not remain long undecided. Several soldiers were slain, the
+rest driven back over the morass and dispersed, and the victorious
+Burley, with his party, crossed it in their turn, to direct against
+Claverhouse the very manoeuvre which he had instructed Bothwell to
+execute. He now put his troop in order, with the view of attacking the
+right wing of the royalists; and, sending news of his success to the main
+body, exhorted them, in the name of Heaven, to cross the marsh, and work
+out the glorious work of the Lord by a general attack upon the enemy.
+
+Meanwhile, Claverhouse, who had in some degree remedied the confusion
+occasioned by the first irregular and unsuccessful attack, and reduced
+the combat in front to a distant skirmish with firearms, chiefly
+maintained by some dismounted troopers whom he had posted behind the
+cover of the shrub-by copses of alders, which in some places covered the
+edge of the morass, and whose close, cool, and well-aimed fire greatly
+annoyed the enemy, and concealed their own deficiency of numbers,--
+Claverhouse, while he maintained the contest in this manner, still
+expecting that a diversion by Bothwell and his party might facilitate a
+general attack, was accosted by one of the dragoons, whose bloody face
+and jaded horse bore witness he was come from hard service.
+
+"What is the matter, Halliday?" said Claverhouse, for he knew every man
+in his regiment by name--"Where is Bothwell?"
+
+"Bothwell is down," replied Halliday, "and many a pretty fellow with
+him."
+
+"Then the king," said Claverhouse, with his usual composure, "has lost a
+stout soldier.--The enemy have passed the marsh, I suppose?"
+
+"With a strong body of horse, commanded by the devil incarnate that
+killed Bothwell," answered the terrified soldier.
+
+"Hush! hush!" said Claverhouse, putting his finger on his lips, "not a
+word to any one but me.--Lord Evandale, we must retreat. The fates will
+have it so. Draw together the men that are dispersed in the skirmishing
+work. Let Allan form the regiment, and do you two retreat up the hill in
+two bodies, each halting alternately as the other falls back. I'll keep
+the rogues in check with the rear-guard, making a stand and facing from
+time to time. They will be over the ditch presently, for I see their
+whole line in motion and preparing to cross; therefore lose no time."
+
+"Where is Bothwell with his party?" said Lord Evandale, astonished at the
+coolness of his commander.
+
+"Fairly disposed of," said Claverhouse, in his ear--"the king has lost a
+servant, and the devil has got one. But away to business, Evandale--ply
+your spurs and get the men together. Allan and you must keep them steady.
+This retreating is new work for us all; but our turn will come round
+another day."
+
+Evandale and Allan betook themselves to their task; but ere they had
+arranged the regiment for the purpose of retreating in two alternate
+bodies, a considerable number of the enemy had crossed the marsh.
+Claverhouse, who had retained immediately around his person a few of his
+most active and tried men, charged those who had crossed in person, while
+they were yet disordered by the broken ground. Some they killed, others
+they repulsed into the morass, and checked the whole so as to enable the
+main body, now greatly diminished, as well as disheartened by the loss
+they had sustained, to commence their retreat up the hill.
+
+But the enemy's van being soon reinforced and supported, compelled
+Claverhouse to follow his troops. Never did man, however, better maintain
+the character of a soldier than he did that day. Conspicuous by his black
+horse and white feather, he was first in the repeated charges which he
+made at every favourable opportunity, to arrest the progress of the
+pursuers, and to cover the retreat of his regiment. The object of aim to
+every one, he seemed as if he were impassive to their shot. The
+superstitious fanatics, who looked upon him as a man gifted by the Evil
+Spirit with supernatural means of defence, averred that they saw the
+bullets recoil from his jack-boots and buff-coat like hailstones from a
+rock of granite, as he galloped to and fro amid the storm of the battle.
+Many a whig that day loaded his musket with a dollar cut into slugs, in
+order that a silver bullet (such was their belief) might bring down the
+persecutor of the holy kirk, on whom lead had no power.
+
+"Try him with the cold steel," was the cry at every renewed charge--
+"powder is wasted on him. Ye might as weel shoot at the Auld Enemy
+himsell."
+
+     [Note: Proof against Shot given by Satan. The belief of the
+     Covenanters that their principal enemies, and Claverhouse in
+     particular, had obtained from the Devil a charm which rendered them
+     proof against leaden bullets, led them to pervert even the
+     circumstances of his death. Howie of Lochgoin, after giving some
+     account of the battle of Killicrankie, adds:
+
+     "The battle was very bloody, and by Mackay's third fire, Claverhouse
+     fell, of whom historians give little account; but it has been said
+     for certain, that his own waiting-servant, taking a resolution to
+     rid the world of this truculent bloody monster, and knowing he had
+     proof of lead, shot him with a silver button he had before taken off
+     his own coat for that purpose. However, he fell, and with him
+     Popery, and King James's interest in Scotland."--God's Judgment on
+     Persecutors, p. xxxix.
+
+     Original note.--"Perhaps some may think this anent proof of a shot a
+     paradox, and be ready to object here, as formerly, concerning Bishop
+     Sharpe and Dalziel--'How can the Devil have or give a power to save
+     life?' Without entering upon the thing in its reality, I shall only
+     observe, 1st, That it is neither in his power, or of his nature, to
+     be a saviour of men's lives; he is called Apollyon the destroyer.
+     2d, That even in this case he is said only to give enchantment
+     against one kind of metal, and this does not save life: for the lead
+     would not take Sharpe or Claverhouse's lives, yet steel and silver
+     would do it; and for Dalziel, though he died not on the field, he
+     did not escape the arrows of the Almighty."--Ibidem.]
+
+But though this was loudly shouted, yet the awe on the insurgents' minds
+was such, that they gave way before Claverhouse as before a supernatural
+being, and few men ventured to cross swords with him. Still, however, he
+was fighting in retreat, and with all the disadvantages attending that
+movement. The soldiers behind him, as they beheld the increasing number
+of enemies who poured over the morass, became unsteady; and, at every
+successive movement, Major Allan and Lord Evandale found it more and more
+difficult to bring them to halt and form line regularly, while, on the
+other hand, their motions in the act of retreating became, by degrees,
+much more rapid than was consistent with good order. As the retiring
+soldiers approached nearer to the top of the ridge, from which in so
+luckless an hour they had descended, the panic began to increase. Every
+one became impatient to place the brow of the hill between him and the
+continued fire of the pursuers; nor could any individual think it
+reasonable that he should be the last in the retreat, and thus sacrifice
+his own safety for that of others. In this mood, several troopers set
+spurs to their horses and fled outright, and the others became so
+unsteady in their movements and formations, that their officers every
+moment feared they would follow the same example.
+
+Amid this scene of blood and confusion, the trampling of the horses, the
+groans of the wounded, the continued fire of the enemy, which fell in a
+succession of unintermitted musketry, while loud shouts accompanied each
+bullet which the fall of a trooper showed to have been successfully
+aimed--amid all the terrors and disorders of such a scene, and when it
+was dubious how soon they might be totally deserted by their dispirited
+soldiery, Evandale could not forbear remarking the composure of his
+commanding officer. Not at Lady Margaret's breakfast-table that morning
+did his eye appear more lively, or his demeanour more composed. He had
+closed up to Evandale for the purpose of giving some orders, and picking
+out a few men to reinforce his rear-guard.
+
+"If this bout lasts five minutes longer," he said, in a whisper, "our
+rogues will leave you, my lord, old Allan, and myself, the honour of
+fighting this battle with our own hands. I must do something to disperse
+the musketeers who annoy them so hard, or we shall be all shamed. Don't
+attempt to succour me if you see me go down, but keep at the head of your
+men; get off as you can, in God's name, and tell the king and the council
+I died in my duty!"
+
+So saying, and commanding about twenty stout men to follow him, he gave,
+with this small body, a charge so desperate and unexpected, that he drove
+the foremost of the pursuers back to some distance. In the confusion of
+the assault he singled out Burley, and, desirous to strike terror into
+his followers, he dealt him so severe a blow on the head, as cut through
+his steel head-piece, and threw him from his horse, stunned for the
+moment, though unwounded. A wonderful thing it was afterwards thought,
+that one so powerful as Balfour should have sunk under the blow of a man,
+to appearance so slightly made as Claverhouse; and the vulgar, of course,
+set down to supernatural aid the effect of that energy, which a
+determined spirit can give to a feebler arm. Claverhouse had, in this
+last charge, however, involved himself too deeply among the insurgents,
+and was fairly surrounded.
+
+Lord Evandale saw the danger of his commander, his body of dragoons being
+then halted, while that commanded by Allan was in the act of retreating.
+Regardless of Claverhouse's disinterested command to the contrary, he
+ordered the party which he headed to charge down hill and extricate their
+Colonel. Some advanced with him--most halted and stood uncertain--many
+ran away. With those who followed Evandale, he disengaged Claverhouse.
+His assistance just came in time, for a rustic had wounded his horse in a
+most ghastly manner by the blow of a scythe, and was about to repeat the
+stroke when Lord Evandale cut him down. As they got out of the press,
+they looked round them. Allan's division had ridden clear over the hill,
+that officer's authority having proved altogether unequal to halt them.
+Evandale's troop was scattered and in total confusion.
+
+"What is to be done, Colonel?" said Lord Evandale.
+
+"We are the last men in the field, I think," said Claverhouse; "and when
+men fight as long as they can, there is no shame in flying. Hector
+himself would say, 'Devil take the hindmost,' when there are but twenty
+against a thousand.--Save yourselves, my lads, and rally as soon as you
+can.--Come, my lord, we must e'en ride for it."
+
+So saying, he put spurs to his wounded horse; and the generous animal, as
+if conscious that the life of his rider depended on his exertions,
+pressed forward with speed, unabated either by pain or loss of blood.
+
+     [Note:  Claverhouse's Charger. It appears, from the letter of
+     Claverhouse afterwards quoted, that the horse on which he rode at
+     Drumclog was not black, but sorrel. The author has been misled as to
+     the colour by the many extraordinary traditions current in Scotland
+     concerning Claverhouse's famous black charger, which was generally
+     believed to have been a gift to its rider from the Author of Evil,
+     who is said to have performed the Caesarean operation upon its dam.
+     This horse was so fleet, and its rider so expert, that they are said
+     to have outstripped and coted, or turned, a hare upon the Bran-Law,
+     near the head of Moffat Water, where the descent is so precipitous,
+     that no merely earthly horse could keep its feet, or merely mortal
+     rider could keep the saddle.
+
+     There is a curious passage in the testimony of John Dick, one of the
+     suffering Presbyterians, in which the author, by describing each of
+     the persecutors by their predominant qualities or passions, shows
+     how little their best-loved attributes would avail them in the great
+     day of judgment. When he introduces Claverhouse, it is to reproach
+     him with his passion for horses in general, and for that steed in
+     particular, which was killed at Drumclog, in the manner described in
+     the text:
+
+     "As for that bloodthirsty wretch, Claverhouse, how thinks he to
+     shelter himself that day? Is it possible the pitiful thing can be so
+     mad as to think to secure himself by the fleetness of his horse, (a
+     creature he has so much respect for, that he regarded more the loss
+     of his horse at Drumclog, than all the men that fell there, and sure
+     there fell prettier men on either side than himself?) No, sure--
+     could he fall upon a chemist that could extract the spirit out of
+     all the horses in the world, and infuse them into his one, though he
+     were on that horse never so well mounted, he need not dream of
+     escaping."--The Testimony to the Doctrine, Worship, Discipline, and
+     Government of the Church of Scotland, as it was left in write by
+     that truly pious and eminently faithful, and now glorified Martyr,
+     Mr John Dick. To which is added, his last Speech and Behaviour on
+     the Scaffold, on 5th March, 1684, which day he sealed this
+     testimony. 57 pp. 4to. No year or place of publication.
+
+     The reader may perhaps receive some farther information on the
+     subject of Cornet Grahame's death and the flight of Claverhouse,
+     from the following Latin lines, a part of a poem entitled, Bellum
+     Bothuellianum, by Andrew Guild, which exists in manuscript in the
+     Advocates' Library.]
+
+A few officers and soldiers followed him, but in a very irregular and
+tumultuary manner. The flight of Claverhouse was the signal for all the
+stragglers, who yet offered desultory resistance, to fly as fast as they
+could, and yield up the field of battle to the victorious insurgents.
+
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XVII.
+
+          But see! through the fast-flashing lightnings of war,
+          What steed to the desert flies frantic and far?
+                                                  Campbell.
+
+During the severe skirmish of which we have given the details, Morton,
+together with Cuddie and his mother, and the Reverend Gabriel
+Kettledrummle, remained on the brow of the hill, near to the small cairn,
+or barrow, beside which Claverhouse had held his preliminary council of
+war, so that they had a commanding view of the action which took place in
+the bottom. They were guarded by Corporal Inglis and four soldiers, who,
+as may readily be supposed, were much more intent on watching the
+fluctuating fortunes of the battle, than in attending to what passed
+among their prisoners.
+
+"If you lads stand to their tackle," said Cuddie, "we'll hae some chance
+o' getting our necks out o' the brecham again; but I misdoubt them--they
+hae little skeel o' arms."
+
+"Much is not necessary, Cuddie," answered Morton; "they have a strong
+position, and weapons in their hands, and are more than three times the
+number of their assailants. If they cannot fight for their freedom now,
+they and theirs deserve to lose it for ever."
+
+"O, sirs," exclaimed Mause, "here's a goodly spectacle indeed! My spirit
+is like that of the blessed Elihu, it burns within me--my bowels are as
+wine which lacketh vent--they are ready to burst like new bottles. O,
+that He may look after His ain people in this day of judgment and
+deliverance!--And now, what ailest thou, precious Mr Gabriel
+Kettledrummle? I say, what ailest thou, that wert a Nazarite purer than
+snow, whiter than milk, more ruddy than sulphur," (meaning, perhaps,
+sapphires,)--"I say, what ails thee now, that thou art blacker than a
+coal, that thy beauty is departed, and thy loveliness withered like a dry
+potsherd? Surely it is time to be up and be doing, to cry loudly and to
+spare not, and to wrestle for the puir lads that are yonder testifying
+with their ain blude and that of their enemies."
+
+This expostulation implied a reproach on Mr Kettledrummle, who, though an
+absolute Boanerges, or son of thunder, in the pulpit, when the enemy were
+afar, and indeed sufficiently contumacious, as we have seen, when in
+their power, had been struck dumb by the firing, shouts, and shrieks,
+which now arose from the valley, and--as many an honest man might have
+been, in a situation where he could neither fight nor fly--was too much
+dismayed to take so favourable an opportunity to preach the terrors of
+presbytery, as the courageous Mause had expected at his hand, or even to
+pray for the successful event of the battle. His presence of mind was
+not, however, entirely lost, any more than his jealous respect for his
+reputation as a pure and powerful preacher of the word.
+
+"Hold your peace, woman!" he said, "and do not perturb my inward
+meditations and the wrestlings wherewith I wrestle.--But of a verity the
+shooting of the foemen doth begin to increase! peradventure, some pellet
+may attain unto us even here. Lo! I will ensconce me behind the cairn, as
+behind a strong wall of defence."
+
+"He's but a coward body after a'," said Cuddie, who was himself by no
+means deficient in that sort of courage which consists in insensibility
+to danger; "he's but a daidling coward body. He'll never fill
+Rumbleberry's bonnet.--Odd! Rumbleberry fought and flyted like a fleeing
+dragon. It was a great pity, puir man, he couldna cheat the woodie. But
+they say he gaed singing and rejoicing till't, just as I wad gang to a
+bicker o' brose, supposing me hungry, as I stand a gude chance to be.--
+Eh, sirs! yon's an awfu' sight, and yet ane canna keep their een aff frae
+it!"
+
+Accordingly, strong curiosity on the part of Morton and Cuddie, together
+with the heated enthusiasm of old Mause, detained them on the spot from
+which they could best hear and see the issue of the action, leaving to
+Kettledrummle to occupy alone his place of security. The vicissitudes of
+combat, which we have already described, were witnessed by our spectators
+from the top of the eminence, but without their being able positively to
+determine to what they tended. That the presbyterians defended themselves
+stoutly was evident from the heavy smoke, which, illumined by frequent
+flashes of fire, now eddied along the valley, and hid the contending
+parties in its sulphureous shade. On the other hand, the continued firing
+from the nearer side of the morass indicated that the enemy persevered in
+their attack, that the affair was fiercely disputed, and that every thing
+was to be apprehended from a continued contest in which undisciplined
+rustics had to repel the assaults of regular troops, so completely
+officered and armed.
+
+At length horses, whose caparisons showed that they belonged to the
+Life-Guards, began to fly masterless out of the confusion. Dismounted
+soldiers next appeared, forsaking the conflict, and straggling over the
+side of the hill, in order to escape from the scene of action. As the
+numbers of these fugitives increased, the fate of the day seemed no
+longer doubtful. A large body was then seen emerging from the smoke,
+forming irregularly on the hill-side, and with difficulty kept stationary
+by their officers, until Evandale's corps also appeared in full retreat.
+The result of the conflict was then apparent, and the joy of the
+prisoners was corresponding to their approaching deliverance.
+
+"They hae dune the job for anes," said Cuddie, "an they ne'er do't
+again."
+
+"They flee!--they flee!" exclaimed Mause, in ecstasy. "O, the truculent
+tyrants! they are riding now as they never rode before. O, the false
+Egyptians--the proud Assyrians--the Philistines--the Moabites--the
+Edomites--the Ishmaelites!--The Lord has brought sharp swords upon them,
+to make them food for the fowls of heaven and the beasts of the field.
+See how the clouds roll, and the fire flashes ahint them, and goes forth
+before the chosen of the Covenant, e'en like the pillar o' cloud and the
+pillar o' flame that led the people of Israel out o' the land of Egypt!
+This is indeed a day of deliverance to the righteous, a day of pouring
+out of wrath to the persecutors and the ungodly!"
+
+"Lord save us, mither," said Cuddie, "haud the clavering tongue o' ye,
+and lie down ahint the cairn, like Kettledrummle, honest man! The
+whigamore bullets ken unco little discretion, and will just as sune knock
+out the harns o' a psalm-singing auld wife as a swearing dragoon."
+
+"Fear naething for me, Cuddie," said the old dame, transported to ecstasy
+by the success of her party; "fear naething for me! I will stand, like
+Deborah, on the tap o' the cairn, and tak up my sang o' reproach against
+these men of Harosheth of the Gentiles, whose horse-hoofs are broken by
+their prancing."
+
+The enthusiastic old woman would, in fact, have accomplished her purpose,
+of mounting on the cairn, and becoming, as she said, a sign and a banner
+to the people, had not Cuddie, with more filial tenderness than respect,
+detained her by such force as his shackled arms would permit him to
+exert.
+
+"Eh, sirs!" he said, having accomplished this task, "look out yonder,
+Milnwood; saw ye ever mortal fight like the deevil Claver'se?--Yonder
+he's been thrice doun amang them, and thrice cam free aff.--But I think
+we'll soon be free oursells, Milnwood. Inglis and his troopers look ower
+their shouthers very aften, as if they liked the road ahint them better
+than the road afore."
+
+Cuddie was not mistaken; for, when the main tide of fugitives passed at a
+little distance from the spot where they were stationed, the corporal and
+his party fired their carabines at random upon the advancing insurgents,
+and, abandoning all charge of their prisoners, joined the retreat of
+their comrades. Morton and the old woman, whose hands were at liberty,
+lost no time in undoing the bonds of Cuddie and of the clergyman, both of
+whom had been secured by a cord tied round their arms above the elbows.
+By the time this was accomplished, the rear-guard of the dragoons, which
+still preserved some order, passed beneath the hillock or rising ground
+which was surmounted by the cairn already repeatedly mentioned. They
+exhibited all the hurry and confusion incident to a forced retreat, but
+still continued in a body. Claverhouse led the van, his naked sword
+deeply dyed with blood, as were his face and clothes. His horse was all
+covered with gore, and now reeled with weakness. Lord Evandale, in not
+much better plight, brought up the rear, still exhorting the soldiers to
+keep together and fear nothing. Several of the men were wounded, and one
+or two dropped from their horses as they surmounted the hill.
+
+Mause's zeal broke forth once more at this spectacle, while she stood on
+the heath with her head uncovered, and her grey hairs streaming in the
+wind, no bad representation of a superannuated bacchante, or Thessalian
+witch in the agonies of incantation. She soon discovered Claverhouse at
+the head of the fugitive party, and exclaimed with bitter irony, "Tarry,
+tarry, ye wha were aye sae blithe to be at the meetings of the saints,
+and wad ride every muir in Scotland to find a conventicle! Wilt thou not
+tarry, now thou hast found ane? Wilt thou not stay for one word mair?
+Wilt thou na bide the afternoon preaching?--Wae betide ye!" she said,
+suddenly changing her tone, "and cut the houghs of the creature whase
+fleetness ye trust in!--Sheugh--sheugh!--awa wi'ye, that hae spilled sae
+muckle blude, and now wad save your ain--awa wi'ye for a railing
+Rabshakeh, a cursing Shimei, a bloodthirsty Doeg!--The swords drawn now
+that winna be lang o' o'ertaking ye, ride as fast as ye will."
+
+Claverhouse, it may be easily supposed, was too busy to attend to her
+reproaches, but hastened over the hill, anxious to get the remnant of his
+men out of gun-shot, in hopes of again collecting the fugitives round his
+standard. But as the rear of his followers rode over the ridge, a shot
+struck Lord Evandale's horse, which instantly sunk down dead beneath him.
+Two of the whig horsemen, who were the foremost in the pursuit, hastened
+up with the purpose of killing him, for hitherto there had been no
+quarter given. Morton, on the other hand, rushed forward to save his
+life, if possible, in order at once to indulge his natural generosity,
+and to requite the obligation which Lord Evandale had conferred on him
+that morning, and under which circumstances had made him wince so
+acutely. Just as he had assisted Evandale, who was much wounded, to
+extricate himself from his dying horse, and to gain his feet, the two
+horsemen came up, and one of them exclaiming, "Have at the red-coated
+tyrant!" made a blow at the young nobleman, which Morton parried with
+difficulty, exclaiming to the rider, who was no other than Burley
+himself, "Give quarter to this gentleman, for my sake--for the sake," he
+added, observing that Burley did not immediately recognise him, "of Henry
+Morton, who so lately sheltered you."
+
+"Henry Morton?" replied Burley, wiping his bloody brow with his bloodier
+hand; "did I not say that the son of Silas Morton would come forth out of
+the land of bondage, nor be long an indweller in the tents of Ham? Thou
+art a brand snatched out of the burning--But for this booted apostle of
+prelacy, he shall die the death!--We must smite them hip and thigh, even
+from the rising to the going down of the sun. It is our commission to
+slay them like Amalek, and utterly destroy all they have, and spare
+neither man nor woman, infant nor suckling; therefore, hinder me not," he
+continued, endeavouring again to cut down Lord Evandale, "for this work
+must not be wrought negligently."
+
+"You must not, and you shall not, slay him, more especially while
+incapable of defence," said Morton, planting himself before Lord Evandale
+so as to intercept any blow that should be aimed at him; "I owed my life
+to him this morning--my life, which was endangered solely by my having
+sheltered you; and to shed his blood when he can offer no effectual
+resistance, were not only a cruelty abhorrent to God and man, but
+detestable ingratitude both to him and to me."
+
+Burley paused.--"Thou art yet," he said, "in the court of the Gentiles,
+and I compassionate thy human blindness and frailty. Strong meat is not
+fit for babes, nor the mighty and grinding dispensation under which I
+draw my sword, for those whose hearts are yet dwelling in huts of clay,
+whose footsteps are tangled in the mesh of mortal sympathies, and who
+clothe themselves in the righteousness that is as filthy rags. But to
+gain a soul to the truth is better than to send one to Tophet; therefore
+I give quarter to this youth, providing the grant is confirmed by the
+general council of God's army, whom he hath this day blessed with so
+signal a deliverance.--Thou art unarmed--Abide my return here. I must yet
+pursue these sinners, the Amalekites, and destroy them till they be
+utterly consumed from the face of the land, even from Havilah unto Shur."
+
+So saying, he set spurs to his horse, and continued to pursue the chase.
+
+"Cuddie," said Morton, "for God's sake catch a horse as quickly as you
+can. I will not trust Lord Evandale's life with these obdurate men.--You
+are wounded, my lord.--Are you able to continue your retreat?" he
+continued, addressing himself to his prisoner, who, half-stunned by the
+fall, was but beginning to recover himself.
+
+"I think so," replied Lord Evandale. "But is it possible?--Do I owe my
+life to Mr Morton?"
+
+"My interference would have been the same from common humanity," replied
+Morton; "to your lordship it was a sacred debt of gratitude."
+
+Cuddie at this instant returned with a horse.
+
+"God-sake, munt--munt, and ride like a fleeing hawk, my lord," said the
+good-natured fellow, "for ne'er be in me, if they arena killing every ane
+o' the wounded and prisoners!"
+
+Lord Evandale mounted the horse, while Cuddie officiously held the
+stirrup.
+
+"Stand off, good fellow, thy courtesy may cost thy life.--Mr Morton," he
+continued, addressing Henry, "this makes us more than even--rely on it, I
+will never forget your generosity--Farewell."
+
+He turned his horse, and rode swiftly away in the direction which seemed
+least exposed to pursuit.
+
+Lord Evandale had just rode off, when several of the insurgents, who were
+in the front of the pursuit, came up, denouncing vengeance on Henry
+Morton and Cuddie for having aided the escape of a Philistine, as they
+called the young nobleman.
+
+"What wad ye hae had us to do?" cried Cuddie. "Had we aught to stop a man
+wi' that had twa pistols and a sword? Sudna ye hae come faster up
+yoursells, instead of flyting at huz?"
+
+This excuse would hardly have passed current; but Kettledrummle, who now
+awoke from his trance of terror, and was known to, and reverenced by,
+most of the wanderers, together with Mause, who possessed their
+appropriate language as well as the preacher himself, proved active and
+effectual intercessors.
+
+"Touch them not, harm them not," exclaimed Kettledrummle, in his very
+best double-bass tones; "this is the son of the famous Silas Morton, by
+whom the Lord wrought great things in this land at the breaking forth of
+the reformation from prelacy, when there was a plentiful pouring forth of
+the Word and a renewing of the Covenant; a hero and champion of those
+blessed days, when there was power and efficacy, and convincing and
+converting of sinners, and heart-exercises, and fellowships of saints,
+and a plentiful flowing forth of the spices of the garden of Eden."
+
+"And this is my son Cuddie," exclaimed Mause, in her turn, "the son of
+his father, Judden Headrigg, wha was a douce honest man, and of me, Mause
+Middlemas, an unworthy professor and follower of the pure gospel, and ane
+o' your ain folk. Is it not written, 'Cut ye not off the tribe of the
+families of the Kohathites from among the Levites?' Numbers, fourth and
+aughteenth--O! sirs! dinna be standing here prattling wi' honest folk,
+when ye suld be following forth your victory with which Providence has
+blessed ye."
+
+This party having passed on, they were immediately beset by another, to
+whom it was necessary to give the same explanation. Kettledrummle, whose
+fear was much dissipated since the firing had ceased, again took upon him
+to be intercessor, and grown bold, as he felt his good word necessary for
+the protection of his late fellow-captives, he laid claim to no small
+share of the merit of the victory, appealing to Morton and Cuddie,
+whether the tide of battle had not turned while he prayed on the Mount of
+Jehovah-Nissi, like Moses, that Israel might prevail over Amalek; but
+granting them, at the same time, the credit of holding up his hands when
+they waxed heavy, as those of the prophet were supported by Aaron and
+Hur. It seems probable that Kettledrummle allotted this part in the
+success to his companions in adversity, lest they should be tempted to
+disclose his carnal self-seeking and falling away, in regarding too
+closely his own personal safety. These strong testimonies in favour of
+the liberated captives quickly flew abroad, with many exaggerations,
+among the victorious army. The reports on the subject were various; but
+it was universally agreed, that young Morton of Milnwood, the son of the
+stout soldier of the Covenant, Silas Morton, together with the precious
+Gabriel Kettledrummle, and a singular devout Christian woman, whom many
+thought as good as himself at extracting a doctrine or an use, whether of
+terror or consolation, had arrived to support the good old cause, with a
+reinforcement of a hundred well-armed men from the Middle Ward.
+
+     [Note: Skirmish at Drumclog. This affair, the only one in which
+     Claverhouse was defeated, or the insurgent Cameronians successful,
+     was fought pretty much in the manner mentioned in the text. The
+     Royalists lost about thirty or forty men. The commander of the
+     Presbyterian, or rather Convenanting party, was Mr Robert Hamilton,
+     of the honourable House of Preston, brother of Sir William Hamilton,
+     to whose title and estate he afterwards succeeded; but, according to
+     his biographer, Howie of Lochgoin, he never took possession of
+     either, as he could not do so without acknowledging the right of
+     King William (an uncovenanted monarch) to the crown. Hamilton had
+     been bred by Bishop Burnet, while the latter lived at Glasgow; his
+     brother, Sir Thomas, having married a sister of that historian. "He
+     was then," says the Bishop, "a lively, hopeful young man; but
+     getting into that company, and into their notions, he became a
+     crack-brained enthusiast."
+
+     Several well-meaning persons have been much scandalized at the
+     manner in which the victors are said to have conducted themselves
+     towards the prisoners at Drumclog. But the principle of these poor
+     fanatics, (I mean the high-flying, or Cameronian party,) was to
+     obtain not merely toleration for their church, but the same
+     supremacy which Presbytery had acquired in Scotland after the treaty
+     of Rippon, betwixt Charles I. and his Scottish subjects, in 1640.
+
+     The fact is, that they conceived themselves a chosen people, sent
+     forth to extirpate the heathen, like the Jews of old, and under a
+     similar charge to show no quarter.
+
+     The historian of the Insurrection of Bothwell makes the following
+     explicit avowal of the principles on which their General acted:--
+
+     "Mr Hamilton discovered a great deal of bravery and valour, both in
+     the conflict with, and pursuit of, the enemy; but when he and some
+     other were pursuing the enemy, others flew too greedily upon the
+     spoil, small as it was, instead of pursuing the victory; and some,
+     without Mr Hamilton's knowledge, and directly contrary to his
+     express command, gave five of those bloody enemies quarter, and then
+     let them go; this greatly grieved Mr Hamilton when he saw some of
+     Babel's brats spared, after that the Lord had delivered them into
+     their hands, that they might dash them against the stones. Psalm
+     cxxxvii., 9. In his own account of this, he reckons the sparing of
+     these enemies, and letting them go, to be among their first
+     steppings aside, for which he feared that the Lord would not honour
+     them to do much more for him; and says, that he was neither for
+     taking favours from, nor giving favours to, the Lord's enemies." See
+     A true and impartial Account of the persecuted Presbyterians in
+     Scotland, their being in arms, and defeat at Bothwell Brigg, in
+     1679, by William Wilson, late Schoolmaster in the parish of Douglas.
+     The reader who would authenticate the quotation, must not consult
+     any other edition than that of 1697; for somehow or other the
+     publisher of the last edition has omitted this remarkable part of
+     the narrative.
+
+     Sir Robert Hamilton himself felt neither remorse nor shame for
+     having put to death one of the prisoners after the battle with his
+     own hand, which appears to have been a charge against him, by some
+     whose fanaticism was less exalted than his own.
+
+     "As for that accusation they bring against me of killing that poor
+     man (as they call him) at Drumclog, I may easily guess that my
+     accusers can be no other but some of the house of Saul or Shimei, or
+     some such risen again to espouse that poor gentleman (Saul) his
+     quarrel against honest Samuel, for his offering to kill that poor
+     man Agag, after the king's giving him quarter. But I, being to
+     command that day, gave out the word that no quarter should be given;
+     and returning from pursuing Claverhouse, one or two of these fellows
+     were standing in the midst of a company of our friends, and some
+     were debating for quarter, others against it. None could blame me to
+     decide the controversy, and I bless the Lord for it to this day.
+     There were five more that without my knowledge got quarter, who were
+     brought to me after we were a mile from the place as having got
+     quarter, which I reckoned among the first steppings aside; and
+     seeing that spirit amongst us at that time, I then told it to some
+     that were with me, (to my best remembrance, it was honest old John
+     Nisbet,) that I feared the Lord would not honour us to do much more
+     for him. I shall only say this,--I desire to bless his holy name,
+     that since ever he helped me to set my face to his work, I never
+     had, nor would take, a favour from enemies, either on right or left
+     hand, and desired to give as few."
+
+     The preceding passage is extracted from a long vindication of his
+     own conduct, sent by Sir Robert Hamilton, 7th December, 1685,
+     addressed to the anti-Popish, anti-Prelatic, anti-Erastian,
+     anti-sectarian true Presbyterian remnant of the Church of Scotland;
+     and the substance is to be found in the work or collection, called,
+     "Faithful Contendings Displayed, collected and transcribed by John
+     Howie."
+
+     As the skirmish of Drumclog has been of late the subject of some
+     enquiry, the reader may be curious to see Claverhouse's own account
+     of the affair, in a letter to the Earl of Linlithgow, written
+     immediately after the action. This gazette, as it may be called,
+     occurs in the volume called Dundee's Letters, printed by Mr Smythe
+     of Methven, as a contribution to the Bannatyne Club. The original is
+     in the library of the Duke of Buckingham. Claverhouse, it may be
+     observed, spells like a chambermaid.
+
+     "FOR THE EARLE OF LINLITHGOW. [COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF OF KING CHARLES
+     II.'s FORCES IN SCOTLAND.]
+
+     "Glaskow, Jun. the 1, 1679.
+
+     "My Lord,--Upon Saturday's night, when my Lord Rosse came into this
+     place, I marched out, and because of the insolency that had been
+     done tue nights before at Ruglen, I went thither and inquyred for
+     the names. So soon as I got them, I sent our partys to sease on
+     them, and found not only three of those rogues, but also ane
+     intercomend minister called King. We had them at Strevan about six
+     in the morning yesterday, and resolving to convey them to this, I
+     thought that we might make a little tour to see if we could fall
+     upon a conventicle; which we did, little to our advantage; for when
+     we came in sight of them, we found them drawn up in batell, upon a
+     most adventageous ground, to which there was no coming but through
+     mosses and lakes. They wer not preaching, and had got away all there
+     women and shildring. They consisted of four battaillons of foot, and
+     all well armed with fusils and pitchforks, and three squadrons of
+     horse. We sent both partys to skirmish, they of foot and we of
+     dragoons; they run for it, and sent down a battaillon of foot
+     against them; we sent threescore of dragoons, who made them run
+     again shamfully; but in end they percaiving that we had the better
+     of them in skirmish, they resolved a generall engadgment, and
+     imediately advanced with there foot, the horse folowing; they came
+     throght the lotche; the greatest body of all made up against my
+     troupe; we keeped our fyre till they wer within ten pace of us: they
+     recaived our fyr, and advanced to shok; the first they gave us
+     broght down the Coronet Mr Crafford and Captain Bleith, besides that
+     with a pitchfork they made such an openeing in my rone horse's
+     belly, that his guts hung out half an elle, and yet he caryed me af
+     an myl; which so discoraged our men, that they sustained not the
+     shok, but fell into disorder. There horse took the occasion of this,
+     and purseued us so hotly that we had no tym to rayly. I saved the
+     standarts, but lost on the place about aight or ten men, besides
+     wounded; but he dragoons lost many mor. They ar not com esily af on
+     the other side, for I sawe severall of them fall befor we cam to the
+     shok. I mad the best retraite the confusion of our people would
+     suffer, and I am now laying with my Lord Rosse. The toun of Streven
+     drew up as we was making our retrait, and thoght of a pass to cut us
+     off, but we took courage and fell to them, made them run, leaving a
+     dousain on the place. What these rogues will dou yet I know not, but
+     the contry was flocking to them from all hands. This may be counted
+     the begining of the rebellion, in my opinion.
+
+     "I am, my lord,
+
+     "Your lordship's most humble servant,
+
+     "J. Grahame.
+
+     "My lord, I am so wearied, and so sleapy, that I have wryton this
+     very confusedly."]
+
+
+
+                              CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+               When pulpit, drum ecclesiastic,
+               Was beat with fist instead of a stick.
+                                                  Hudibras.
+
+In the meantime, the insurgent cavalry returned from the pursuit, jaded
+and worn out with their unwonted efforts, and the infantry assembled on
+the ground which they had won, fatigued with toil and hunger. Their
+success, however, was a cordial to every bosom, and seemed even to serve
+in the stead of food and refreshment. It was, indeed, much more brilliant
+than they durst have ventured to anticipate; for, with no great loss on
+their part, they had totally routed a regiment of picked men, commanded
+by the first officer in Scotland, and one whose very name had long been a
+terror to them. Their success seemed even to have upon their spirits the
+effect of a sudden and violent surprise, so much had their taking up arms
+been a measure of desperation rather than of hope. Their meeting was also
+casual, and they had hastily arranged themselves under such commanders as
+were remarkable for zeal and courage, without much respect to any other
+qualities. It followed, from this state of disorganization, that the
+whole army appeared at once to resolve itself into a general committee
+for considering what steps were to be taken in consequence of their
+success, and no opinion could be started so wild that it had not some
+favourers and advocates. Some proposed they should march to Glasgow, some
+to Hamilton, some to Edinburgh, some to London. Some were for sending a
+deputation of their number to London to convert Charles II. to a sense of
+the error of his ways; and others, less charitable, proposed either to
+call a new successor to the crown, or to declare Scotland a free
+republic. A free parliament of the nation, and a free assembly of the
+Kirk, were the objects of the more sensible and moderate of the party. In
+the meanwhile, a clamour arose among the soldiers for bread and other
+necessaries, and while all complained of hardship and hunger, none took
+the necessary measures to procure supplies. In short, the camp of the
+Covenanters, even in the very moment of success, seemed about to dissolve
+like a rope of sand, from want of the original principles of combination
+and union.
+
+Burley, who had now returned from the pursuit, found his followers in
+this distracted state. With the ready talent of one accustomed to
+encounter exigences, he proposed, that one hundred of the freshest men
+should be drawn out for duty--that a small number of those who had
+hitherto acted as leaders, should constitute a committee of direction
+until officers should be regularly chosen--and that, to crown the
+victory, Gabriel Kettledrummle should be called upon to improve the
+providential success which they had obtained, by a word in season
+addressed to the army. He reckoned very much, and not without reason, on
+this last expedient, as a means of engaging the attention of the bulk of
+the insurgents, while he himself, and two or three of their leaders, held
+a private council of war, undisturbed by the discordant opinions, or
+senseless clamour, of the general body.
+
+Kettledrummle more than answered the expectations of Burley. Two mortal
+hours did he preach at a breathing; and certainly no lungs, or doctrine,
+excepting his own, could have kept up, for so long a time, the attention
+of men in such precarious circumstances. But he possessed in perfection a
+sort of rude and familiar eloquence peculiar to the preachers of that
+period, which, though it would have been fastidiously rejected by an
+audience which possessed any portion of taste, was a cake of the right
+leaven for the palates of those whom he now addressed. His text was from
+the forty-ninth chapter of Isaiah, "Even the captives of the mighty shall
+be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered: for I
+will contend with him that contendeth with thee, and I will save thy
+children.
+
+"And I will feed them that oppress thee with their own flesh; and they
+shall be drunken with their own blood, as with sweet wine: and all flesh
+shall know that I the Lord am thy Saviour and thy Redeemer, the Mighty
+One of Jacob."
+
+The discourse which he pronounced upon this subject was divided into
+fifteen heads, each of which was garnished with seven uses of
+application, two of consolation, two of terror, two declaring the causes
+of backsliding and of wrath, and one announcing the promised and expected
+deliverance. The first part of his text he applied to his own deliverance
+and that of his companions; and took occasion to speak a few words in
+praise of young Milnwood, of whom, as of a champion of the Covenant, he
+augured great things. The second part he applied to the punishments which
+were about to fall upon the persecuting government. At times he was
+familiar and colloquial; now he was loud, energetic, and boisterous;--
+some parts of his discourse might be called sublime, and others sunk
+below burlesque. Occasionally he vindicated with great animation the
+right of every freeman to worship God according to his own conscience;
+and presently he charged the guilt and misery of the people on the awful
+negligence of their rulers, who had not only failed to establish
+presbytery as the national religion, but had tolerated sectaries of
+various descriptions, Papists, Prelatists, Erastians, assuming the name
+of Presbyterians, Independents, Socinians, and Quakers: all of whom
+Kettledrummle proposed, by one sweeping act, to expel from the land, and
+thus re-edify in its integrity the beauty of the sanctuary. He next
+handled very pithily the doctrine of defensive arms and of resistance to
+Charles II., observing, that, instead of a nursing father to the Kirk,
+that monarch had been a nursing father to none but his own bastards. He
+went at some length through the life and conversation of that joyous
+prince, few parts of which, it must be owned, were qualified to stand the
+rough handling of so uncourtly an orator, who conferred on him the hard
+names of Jeroboam, Omri, Ahab, Shallum, Pekah, and every other evil
+monarch recorded in the Chronicles, and concluded with a round
+application of the Scripture, "Tophet is ordained of old; yea, for the
+King it is provided: he hath made it deep and large; the pile thereof is
+fire and much wood: the breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone,
+doth kindle it."
+
+Kettledrummle had no sooner ended his sermon, and descended from the huge
+rock which had served him for a pulpit, than his post was occupied by a
+pastor of a very different description. The reverend Gabriel was advanced
+in years, somewhat corpulent, with a loud voice, a square face, and a set
+of stupid and unanimated features, in which the body seemed more to
+predominate over the spirit than was seemly in a sound divine. The youth
+who succeeded him in exhorting this extraordinary convocation, Ephraim
+Macbriar by name, was hardly twenty years old; yet his thin features
+already indicated, that a constitution, naturally hectic, was worn out by
+vigils, by fasts, by the rigour of imprisonment, and the fatigues
+incident to a fugitive life. Young as he was, he had been twice
+imprisoned for several months, and suffered many severities, which gave
+him great influence with those of his own sect. He threw his faded eyes
+over the multitude and over the scene of battle; and a light of triumph
+arose in his glance, his pale yet striking features were coloured with a
+transient and hectic blush of joy. He folded his hands, raised his face
+to heaven, and seemed lost in mental prayer and thanksgiving ere he
+addressed the people. When he spoke, his faint and broken voice seemed at
+first inadequate to express his conceptions. But the deep silence of the
+assembly, the eagerness with which the ear gathered every word, as the
+famished Israelites collected the heavenly manna, had a corresponding
+effect upon the preacher himself. His words became more distinct, his
+manner more earnest and energetic; it seemed as if religious zeal was
+triumphing over bodily weakness and infirmity. His natural eloquence was
+not altogether untainted with the coarseness of his sect; and yet, by the
+influence of a good natural taste, it was freed from the grosser and more
+ludicrous errors of his contemporaries; and the language of Scripture,
+which, in their mouths, was sometimes degraded by misapplication, gave,
+in Macbriar's exhortation, a rich and solemn effect, like that which is
+produced by the beams of the sun streaming through the storied
+representation of saints and martyrs on the Gothic window of some ancient
+cathedral.
+
+He painted the desolation of the church, during the late period of her
+distresses, in the most affecting colours. He described her, like Hagar
+watching the waning life of her infant amid the fountainless desert; like
+Judah, under her palm-tree, mourning for the devastation of her temple;
+like Rachel, weeping for her children and refusing comfort. But he
+chiefly rose into rough sublimity when addressing the men yet reeking
+from battle. He called on them to remember the great things which God had
+done for them, and to persevere in the career which their victory had
+opened.
+
+"Your garments are dyed--but not with the juice of the wine-press; your
+swords are filled with blood," he exclaimed, "but not with the blood of
+goats or lambs; the dust of the desert on which ye stand is made fat with
+gore, but not with the blood of bullocks, for the Lord hath a sacrifice
+in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Idumea. These were not
+the firstlings of the flock, the small cattle of burnt-offerings, whose
+bodies lie like dung on the ploughed field of the husbandman; this is not
+the savour of myrrh, of frankincense, or of sweet herbs, that is steaming
+in your nostrils; but these bloody trunks are the carcasses of those who
+held the bow and the lance, who were cruel and would show no mercy, whose
+voice roared like the sea, who rode upon horses, every man in array as if
+to battle--they are the carcasses even of the mighty men of war that came
+against Jacob in the day of his deliverance, and the smoke is that of the
+devouring fires that have consumed them. And those wild hills that
+surround you are not a sanctuary planked with cedar and plated with
+silver; nor are ye ministering priests at the altar, with censers and
+with torches; but ye hold in your hands the sword, and the bow, and the
+weapons of death. And yet verily, I say unto you, that not when the
+ancient Temple was in its first glory was there offered sacrifice more
+acceptable than that which you have this day presented, giving to the
+slaughter the tyrant and the oppressor, with the rocks for your altars,
+and the sky for your vaulted sanctuary, and your own good swords for the
+instruments of sacrifice. Leave not, therefore, the plough in the furrow-
+-turn not back from the path in which you have entered like the famous
+worthies of old, whom God raised up for the glorifying of his name and
+the deliverance of his afflicted people--halt not in the race you are
+running, lest the latter end should be worse than the beginning.
+Wherefore, set up a standard in the land; blow a trumpet upon the
+mountains; let not the shepherd tarry by his sheepfold, or the seedsman
+continue in the ploughed field; but make the watch strong, sharpen the
+arrows, burnish the shields, name ye the captains of thousands, and
+captains of hundreds, of fifties, and of tens; call the footmen like the
+rushing of winds, and cause the horsemen to come up like the sound of
+many waters; for the passages of the destroyers are stopped, their rods
+are burned, and the face of their men of battle hath been turned to
+flight. Heaven has been with you, and has broken the bow of the mighty;
+then let every man's heart be as the heart of the valiant Maccabeus,
+every man's hand as the hand of the mighty Sampson, every man's sword as
+that of Gideon, which turned not back from the slaughter; for the banner
+of Reformation is spread abroad on the mountains in its first loveliness,
+and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
+
+"Well is he this day that shall barter his house for a helmet, and sell
+his garment for a sword, and cast in his lot with the children of the
+Covenant, even to the fulfilling of the promise; and woe, woe unto him
+who, for carnal ends and self-seeking, shall withhold himself from the
+great work, for the curse shall abide with him, even the bitter curse of
+Meroz, because he came not to the help of the Lord against the mighty.
+Up, then, and be doing; the blood of martyrs, reeking upon scaffolds, is
+crying for vengeance; the bones of saints, which lie whitening in the
+highways, are pleading for retribution; the groans of innocent captives
+from desolate isles of the sea, and from the dungeons of the tyrants'
+high places, cry for deliverance; the prayers of persecuted Christians,
+sheltering themselves in dens and deserts from the sword of their
+persecutors, famished with hunger, starving with cold, lacking fire,
+food, shelter, and clothing, because they serve God rather than man--all
+are with you, pleading, watching, knocking, storming the gates of heaven
+in your behalf. Heaven itself shall fight for you, as the stars in their
+courses fought against Sisera. Then whoso will deserve immortal fame in
+this world, and eternal happiness in that which is to come, let them
+enter into God's service, and take arles at the hand of his servant,--a
+blessing, namely, upon him and his household, and his children, to the
+ninth generation, even the blessing of the promise, for ever and ever!
+Amen."
+
+The eloquence of the preacher was rewarded by the deep hum of stern
+approbation which resounded through the armed assemblage at the
+conclusion of an exhortation, so well suited to that which they had done,
+and that which remained for them to do. The wounded forgot their pain,
+the faint and hungry their fatigues and privations, as they listened to
+doctrines which elevated them alike above the wants and calamities of the
+world, and identified their cause with that of the Deity. Many crowded
+around the preacher, as he descended from the eminence on which he stood,
+and, clasping him with hands on which the gore was not yet hardened,
+pledged their sacred vow that they would play the part of Heaven's true
+soldiers. Exhausted by his own enthusiasm, and by the animated fervour
+which he had exerted in his discourse, the preacher could only reply, in
+broken accents,--"God bless you, my brethren--it is his cause.--Stand
+strongly up and play the men--the worst that can befall us is but a brief
+and bloody passage to heaven."
+
+Balfour, and the other leaders, had not lost the time which was employed
+in these spiritual exercises. Watch-fires were lighted, sentinels were
+posted, and arrangements were made to refresh the army with such
+provisions as had been hastily collected from the nearest farm-houses and
+villages. The present necessity thus provided for, they turned their
+thoughts to the future. They had dispatched parties to spread the news of
+their victory, and to obtain, either by force or favour, supplies of what
+they stood most in need of. In this they had succeeded beyond their
+hopes, having at one village seized a small magazine of provisions,
+forage, and ammunition, which had been provided for the royal forces.
+This success not only gave them relief at the time, but such hopes for
+the future, that whereas formerly some of their number had begun to
+slacken in their zeal, they now unanimously resolved to abide together in
+arms, and commit themselves and their cause to the event of war.
+
+And whatever may be thought of the extravagance or narrow-minded bigotry
+of many of their tenets, it is impossible to deny the praise of devoted
+courage to a few hundred peasants, who, without leaders, without money,
+without magazines, without any fixed plan of action, and almost without
+arms, borne out only by their innate zeal, and a detestation of the
+oppression of their rulers, ventured to declare open war against an
+established government, supported by a regular army and the whole force
+of three kingdoms.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XIX.
+
+               Why, then, say an old man can do somewhat.
+                                             Henry IV. Part II.
+
+We must now return to the tower of Tillietudlem, which the march of the
+Life-Guards, on the morning of this eventful day, had left to silence and
+anxiety. The assurances of Lord Evandale had not succeeded in quelling
+the apprehensions of Edith. She knew him generous, and faithful to his
+word; but it seemed too plain that he suspected the object of her
+intercession to be a successful rival; and was it not expecting from him
+an effort above human nature, to suppose that he was to watch over
+Morton's safety, and rescue him from all the dangers to which his state
+of imprisonment, and the suspicions which he had incurred, must
+repeatedly expose him? She therefore resigned herself to the most
+heart-rending apprehensions, without admitting, and indeed almost without
+listening to, the multifarious grounds of consolation which Jenny
+Dennison brought forward, one after another, like a skilful general who
+charges with the several divisions of his troops in regular succession.
+
+First, Jenny was morally positive that young Milnwood would come to no
+harm--then, if he did, there was consolation in the reflection, that Lord
+Evandale was the better and more appropriate match of the two--then,
+there was every chance of a battle, in which the said Lord Evandale might
+be killed, and there wad be nae mair fash about that job--then, if the
+whigs gat the better, Milnwood and Cuddie might come to the Castle, and
+carry off the beloved of their hearts by the strong hand.
+
+"For I forgot to tell ye, madam," continued the damsel, putting her
+handkerchief to her eyes, "that puir Cuddie's in the hands of the
+Philistines as weel as young Milnwood, and he was brought here a prisoner
+this morning, and I was fain to speak Tam Halliday fair, and fleech him
+to let me near the puir creature; but Cuddie wasna sae thankfu' as he
+needed till hae been neither," she added, and at the same time changed
+her tone, and briskly withdrew the handkerchief from her face; "so I will
+ne'er waste my een wi' greeting about the matter. There wad be aye enow
+o' young men left, if they were to hang the tae half o' them."
+
+The other inhabitants of the Castle were also in a state of
+dissatisfaction and anxiety. Lady Margaret thought that Colonel Grahame,
+in commanding an execution at the door of her house, and refusing to
+grant a reprieve at her request, had fallen short of the deference due to
+her rank, and had even encroached on her seignorial rights.
+
+"The Colonel," she said, "ought to have remembered, brother, that the
+barony of Tillietudlem has the baronial privilege of pit and gallows; and
+therefore, if the lad was to be executed on my estate, (which I consider
+as an unhandsome thing, seeing it is in the possession of females, to
+whom such tragedies cannot be acceptable,) he ought, at common law, to
+have been delivered up to my bailie, and justified at his sight."
+
+"Martial law, sister," answered Major Bellenden, "supersedes every other.
+But I must own I think Colonel Grahame rather deficient in attention to
+you; and I am not over and above pre-eminently flattered by his granting
+to young Evandale (I suppose because he is a lord, and has interest with
+the privy-council) a request which he refused to so old a servant of the
+king as I am. But so long as the poor young fellow's life is saved, I can
+comfort myself with the fag-end of a ditty as old as myself." And
+therewithal, he hummed a stanza:
+
+'And what though winter will pinch severe Through locks of grey and a
+cloak that's old? Yet keep up thy heart, bold cavalier, For a cup of sack
+shall fence the cold.'
+
+"I must be your guest here to-day, sister. I wish to hear the issue of
+this gathering on Loudon-hill, though I cannot conceive their standing a
+body of horse appointed like our guests this morning.--Woe's me, the time
+has been that I would have liked ill to have sate in biggit wa's waiting
+for the news of a skirmish to be fought within ten miles of me! But, as
+the old song goes,
+
+               'For time will rust the brightest blade,
+               And years will break the strongest bow;
+               Was ever wight so starkly made,
+               But time and years would overthrow?'"
+
+"We are well pleased you will stay, brother," said Lady Margaret; "I will
+take my old privilege to look after my household, whom this collation has
+thrown into some disorder, although it is uncivil to leave you alone."
+
+"O, I hate ceremony as I hate a stumbling horse," replied the Major.
+"Besides, your person would be with me, and your mind with the cold meat
+and reversionary pasties.--Where is Edith?"
+
+"Gone to her room a little evil-disposed, I am informed, and laid down in
+her bed for a gliff," said her grandmother; "as soon as she wakes, she
+shall take some drops."
+
+"Pooh! pooh! she's only sick of the soldiers," answered Major Bellenden.
+"She's not accustomed to see one acquaintance led out to be shot, and
+another marching off to actual service, with some chance of not finding
+his way back again. She would soon be used to it, if the civil war were
+to break out again."
+
+"God forbid, brother!" said Lady Margaret.
+
+"Ay, Heaven forbid, as you say--and, in the meantime, I'll take a hit at
+trick-track with Harrison."
+
+"He has ridden out, sir," said Gudyill, "to try if he can hear any
+tidings of the battle."
+
+"D--n the battle," said the Major; "it puts this family as much out of
+order as if there had never been such a thing in the country before--and
+yet there was such a place as Kilsythe, John."
+
+"Ay, and as Tippermuir, your honour," replied Gudyill, "where I was his
+honour my late master's rear-rank man."
+
+"And Alford, John," pursued the Major, "where I commanded the horse; and
+Innerlochy, where I was the Great Marquis's aid-de-camp; and Auld Earn,
+and Brig o' Dee."
+
+"And Philiphaugh, your honour," said John.
+
+"Umph!" replied the Major; "the less, John, we say about that matter, the
+better."
+
+However, being once fairly embarked on the subject of Montrose's
+campaigns, the Major and John Gudyill carried on the war so stoutly, as
+for a considerable time to keep at bay the formidable enemy called Time,
+with whom retired veterans, during the quiet close of a bustling life,
+usually wage an unceasing hostility.
+
+It has been frequently remarked, that the tidings of important events fly
+with a celerity almost beyond the power of credibility, and that reports,
+correct in the general point, though inaccurate in details, precede the
+certain intelligence, as if carried by the birds of the air. Such rumours
+anticipate the reality, not unlike to the "shadows of coming events,"
+which occupy the imagination of the Highland Seer. Harrison, in his ride,
+encountered some such report concerning the event of the battle, and
+turned his horse back to Tillietudlem in great dismay. He made it his
+first business to seek out the Major, and interrupted him in the midst of
+a prolix account of the siege and storm of Dundee, with the ejaculation,
+"Heaven send, Major, that we do not see a siege of Tillietudlem before we
+are many days older!"
+
+"How is that, Harrison?--what the devil do you mean?" exclaimed the
+astonished veteran.
+
+"Troth, sir, there is strong and increasing belief that Claver'se is
+clean broken, some say killed; that the soldiers are all dispersed, and
+that the rebels are hastening this way, threatening death and devastation
+to a' that will not take the Covenant."
+
+"I will never believe that," said the Major, starting on his feet--"I
+will never believe that the Life-Guards would retreat before rebels;--and
+yet why need I say that," he continued, checking himself, "when I have
+seen such sights myself?--Send out Pike, and one or two of the servants,
+for intelligence, and let all the men in the Castle and in the village
+that can be trusted take up arms. This old tower may hold them play a
+bit, if it were but victualled and garrisoned, and it commands the pass
+between the high and low countries.--It's lucky I chanced to be here.--
+Go, muster men, Harrison.--You, Gudyill, look what provisions you have,
+or can get brought in, and be ready, if the news be confirmed, to knock
+down as many bullocks as you have salt for.--The well never goes dry.--
+There are some old-fashioned guns on the battlements; if we had but
+ammunition, we should do well enough."
+
+"The soldiers left some casks of ammunition at the Grange this morning,
+to bide their return," said Harrison.
+
+"Hasten, then," said the Major, "and bring it into the Castle, with every
+pike, sword, pistol, or gun, that is within our reach; don't leave so
+much as a bodkin--Lucky that I was here!--I will speak to my sister
+instantly."
+
+Lady Margaret Bellenden was astounded at intelligence so unexpected and
+so alarming. It had seemed to her that the imposing force which had that
+morning left her walls, was sufficient to have routed all the disaffected
+in Scotland, if collected in a body; and now her first reflection was
+upon the inadequacy of their own means of resistance, to an army strong
+enough to have defeated Claverhouse and such select troops. "Woe's me!
+woe's me!" said she; "what will all that we can do avail us, brother?--
+What will resistance do but bring sure destruction on the house, and on
+the bairn Edith! for, God knows, I thinkna on my ain auld life."
+
+"Come, sister," said the Major, "you must not be cast down; the place is
+strong, the rebels ignorant and ill-provided: my brother's house shall
+not be made a den of thieves and rebels while old Miles Bellenden is in
+it. My hand is weaker than it was, but I thank my old grey hairs that I
+have some knowledge of war yet. Here comes Pike with intelligence.--What
+news, Pike? Another Philiphaugh job, eh?"
+
+"Ay, ay," said Pike, composedly; "a total scattering.--I thought this
+morning little gude would come of their newfangled gate of slinging their
+carabines."
+
+"Whom did you see?--Who gave you the news?" asked the Major.
+
+"O, mair than half-a-dozen dragoon fellows that are a' on the spur whilk
+to get first to Hamilton. They'll win the race, I warrant them, win the
+battle wha like."
+
+"Continue your preparations, Harrison," said the alert veteran; "get your
+ammunition in, and the cattle killed. Send down to the borough-town for
+what meal you can gather. We must not lose an instant.--Had not Edith and
+you, sister, better return to Charnwood, while we have the means of
+sending you there?"
+
+"No, brother," said Lady Margaret, looking very pale, but speaking with
+the greatest composure; "since the auld house is to be held out, I will
+take my chance in it. I have fled twice from it in my days, and I have
+aye found it desolate of its bravest and its bonniest when I returned;
+sae that I will e'en abide now, and end my pilgrimage in it."
+
+"It may, on the whole, be the safest course both for Edith and you," said
+the Major; "for the whigs will rise all the way between this and Glasgow,
+and make your travelling there, or your dwelling at Charnwood, very
+unsafe."
+
+"So be it then," said Lady Margaret; "and, dear brother, as the nearest
+blood-relation of my deceased husband, I deliver to you, by this
+symbol,"--(here she gave into his hand the venerable goldheaded staff of
+the deceased Earl of Torwood,)--"the keeping and government and
+seneschalship of my Tower of Tillietudlem, and the appurtenances thereof,
+with full power to kill, slay, and damage those who shall assail the
+same, as freely as I might do myself. And I trust you will so defend it,
+as becomes a house in which his most sacred majesty has not disdained"--
+
+"Pshaw! sister," interrupted the Major, "we have no time to speak about
+the king and his breakfast just now."
+
+And, hastily leaving the room, he hurried, with all the alertness of a
+young man of twenty-five, to examine the state of his garrison, and
+superintend the measures which were necessary for defending the place.
+
+The Tower of Tillietudlem, having very thick walls, and very narrow
+windows, having also a very strong court-yard wall, with flanking turrets
+on the only accessible side, and rising on the other from the very verge
+of a precipice, was fully capable of defence against any thing but a
+train of heavy artillery.
+
+Famine or escalade was what the garrison had chiefly to fear. For
+artillery, the top of the Tower was mounted with some antiquated
+wall-pieces, and small cannons, which bore the old-fashioned names of
+culverins, sakers, demi-sakers, falcons, and falconets. These, the Major,
+with the assistance of John Gudyill, caused to be scaled and loaded, and
+pointed them so as to command the road over the brow of the opposite hill
+by which the rebels must advance, causing, at the same time, two or three
+trees to be cut down, which would have impeded the effect of the
+artillery when it should be necessary to use it. With the trunks of these
+trees, and other materials, he directed barricades to be constructed upon
+the winding avenue which rose to the Tower along the high-road, taking
+care that each should command the other. The large gate of the court-yard
+he barricadoed yet more strongly, leaving only a wicket open for the
+convenience of passage. What he had most to apprehend, was the
+slenderness of his garrison; for all the efforts of the steward were
+unable to get more than nine men under arms, himself and Gudyill
+included, so much more popular was the cause of the insurgents than that
+of the government Major Bellenden, and his trusty servant Pike, made the
+garrison eleven in number, of whom one-half were old men. The round dozen
+might indeed have been made up, would Lady Margaret have consented that
+Goose Gibbie should again take up arms. But she recoiled from the
+proposal, when moved by Gudyill, with such abhorrent recollection of the
+former achievements of that luckless cavalier, that she declared she
+would rather the Castle were lost than that he were to be enrolled in the
+defence of it. With eleven men, however, himself included, Major
+Bellenden determined to hold out the place to the uttermost.
+
+The arrangements for defence were not made without the degree of fracas
+incidental to such occasions. Women shrieked, cattle bellowed, dogs
+howled, men ran to and fro, cursing and swearing without intermission,
+the lumbering of the old guns backwards and forwards shook the
+battlements, the court resounded with the hasty gallop of messengers who
+went and returned upon errands of importance, and the din of warlike
+preparation was mingled with the sound of female laments.
+
+Such a Babel of discord might have awakened the slumbers of the very
+dead, and, therefore, was not long ere it dispelled the abstracted
+reveries of Edith Bellenden. She sent out Jenny to bring her the cause of
+the tumult which shook the castle to its very basis; but Jenny, once
+engaged in the bustling tide, found so much to ask and to hear, that she
+forgot the state of anxious uncertainty in which she had left her young
+mistress. Having no pigeon to dismiss in pursuit of information when her
+raven messenger had failed to return with it, Edith was compelled to
+venture in quest of it out of the ark of her own chamber into the deluge
+of confusion which overflowed the rest of the Castle. Six voices speaking
+at once, informed her, in reply to her first enquiry, that Claver'se and
+all his men were killed, and that ten thousand whigs were marching to
+besiege the castle, headed by John Balfour of Burley, young Milnwood, and
+Cuddie Headrigg. This strange association of persons seemed to infer the
+falsehood of the whole story, and yet the general bustle in the Castle
+intimated that danger was certainly apprehended.
+
+"Where is Lady Margaret?" was Edith's second question.
+
+"In her oratory," was the reply: a cell adjoining to the chapel, in which
+the good old lady was wont to spend the greater part of the days destined
+by the rules of the Episcopal Church to devotional observances, as also
+the anniversaries of those on which she had lost her husband and her
+children, and, finally, those hours, in which a deeper and more solemn
+address to Heaven was called for, by national or domestic calamity.
+
+"Where, then," said Edith, much alarmed, "is Major Bellenden?"
+
+"On the battlements of the Tower, madam, pointing the cannon," was the
+reply.
+
+To the battlements, therefore, she made her way, impeded by a thousand
+obstacles, and found the old gentleman in the midst of his natural
+military element, commanding, rebuking, encouraging, instructing, and
+exercising all the numerous duties of a good governor.
+
+"In the name of God, what is the matter, uncle?" exclaimed Edith.
+
+"The matter, my love?" answered the Major coolly, as, with spectacles on
+his nose, he examined the position of a gun--"The matter? Why,--raise her
+breech a thought more, John Gudyill--the matter? Why, Claver'se is
+routed, my dear, and the whigs are coming down upon us in force, that's
+all the matter."
+
+"Gracious powers!" said Edith, whose eye at that instant caught a glance
+of the road which ran up the river, "and yonder they come!"
+
+"Yonder? where?" said the veteran; and, his eyes taking the same
+direction, he beheld a large body of horsemen coming down the path.
+"Stand to your guns, my lads!" was the first exclamation; "we'll make
+them pay toll as they pass the heugh.--But stay, stay, these are
+certainly the Life-Guards."
+
+"O no, uncle, no," replied Edith; "see how disorderly they ride, and how
+ill they keep their ranks; these cannot be the fine soldiers who left us
+this morning."
+
+"Ah, my dear girl!" answered the Major, "you do not know the difference
+between men before a battle and after a defeat; but the Life-Guards it
+is, for I see the red and blue and the King's colours. I am glad they
+have brought them off, however."
+
+His opinion was confirmed as the troopers approached nearer, and finally
+halted on the road beneath the Tower; while their commanding officer,
+leaving them to breathe and refresh their horses, hastily rode up the
+hill.
+
+"It is Claverhouse, sure enough," said the Major; "I am glad he has
+escaped, but he has lost his famous black horse. Let Lady Margaret know,
+John Gudyill; order some refreshments; get oats for the soldiers' horses;
+and let us to the hall, Edith, to meet him. I surmise we shall hear but
+indifferent news."
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XX.
+
+                    With careless gesture, mind unmoved,
+                    On rade he north the plain,
+                    His seem in thrang of fiercest strife,
+                    When winner aye the same.
+                                             Hardyknute.
+
+Colonel Grahame of Claverhouse met the family, assembled in the hall of
+the Tower, with the same serenity and the same courtesy which had graced
+his manners in the morning. He had even had the composure to rectify in
+part the derangement of his dress, to wash the signs of battle from his
+face and hands, and did not appear more disordered in his exterior than
+if returned from a morning ride.
+
+"I am grieved, Colonel Grahame," said the reverend old lady, the tears
+trickling down her face, "deeply grieved."
+
+"And I am grieved, my dear Lady Margaret," replied Claverhouse, "that
+this misfortune may render your remaining at Tillietudlem dangerous for
+you, especially considering your recent hospitality to the King's troops,
+and your well-known loyalty. And I came here chiefly to request Miss
+Bellenden and you to accept my escort (if you will not scorn that of a
+poor runaway) to Glasgow, from whence I will see you safely sent either
+to Edinburgh or to Dunbarton Castle, as you shall think best."
+
+"I am much obliged to you, Colonel Grahame," replied Lady Margaret; "but
+my brother, Major Bellenden, has taken on him the responsibility of
+holding out this house against the rebels; and, please God, they shall
+never drive Margaret Bellenden from her ain hearth-stane while there's a
+brave man that says he can defend it."
+
+"And will Major Bellenden undertake this?" said Claverhouse hastily, a
+joyful light glancing from his dark eye as he turned it on the veteran,--
+"Yet why should I question it? it is of a piece with the rest of his
+life.--But have you the means, Major?"
+
+"All, but men and provisions, with which we are ill supplied," answered
+the Major.
+
+"As for men," said Claverhouse, "I will leave you a dozen or twenty
+fellows who will make good a breach against the devil. It will be of the
+utmost service, if you can defend the place but a week, and by that time
+you must surely be relieved."
+
+"I will make it good for that space, Colonel," replied the Major, "with
+twenty-five good men and store of ammunition, if we should gnaw the soles
+of our shoes for hunger; but I trust we shall get in provisions from the
+country."
+
+"And, Colonel Grahame, if I might presume a request," said Lady Margaret,
+"I would entreat that Sergeant Francis Stewart might command the
+auxiliaries whom you are so good as to add to the garrison of our people;
+it may serve to legitimate his promotion, and I have a prejudice in
+favour of his noble birth."
+
+"The sergeant's wars are ended, madam," said Grahame, in an unaltered
+tone, "and he now needs no promotion that an earthly master can give."
+
+"Pardon me," said Major Bellenden, taking Claverhouse by the arm, and
+turning him away from the ladies, "but I am anxious for my friends; I
+fear you have other and more important loss. I observe another officer
+carries your nephew's standard."
+
+"You are right, Major Bellenden," answered Claverhouse firmly; "my nephew
+is no more. He has died in his duty, as became him."
+
+"Great God!" exclaimed the Major, "how unhappy!--the handsome, gallant,
+high-spirited youth!"
+
+"He was indeed all you say," answered Claverhouse; "poor Richard was to
+me as an eldest son, the apple of my eye, and my destined heir; but he
+died in his duty, and I--I--Major Bellenden"--(he wrung the Major's hand
+hard as he spoke)--"I live to avenge him."
+
+"Colonel Grahame," said the affectionate veteran, his eyes filling with
+tears, "I am glad to see you bear this misfortune with such fortitude."
+
+"I am not a selfish man," replied Claverhouse, "though the world will
+tell you otherwise; I am not selfish either in my hopes or fears, my joys
+or sorrows. I have not been severe for myself, or grasping for myself, or
+ambitious for myself. The service of my master and the good of the
+country are what I have tried to aim at. I may, perhaps, have driven
+severity into cruelty, but I acted for the best; and now I will not yield
+to my own feelings a deeper sympathy than I have given to those of
+others."
+
+"I am astonished at your fortitude under all the unpleasant circumstances
+of this affair," pursued the Major.
+
+"Yes," replied Claverhouse, "my enemies in the council will lay this
+misfortune to my charge--I despise their accusations. They will
+calumniate me to my sovereign--I can repel their charge. The public enemy
+will exult in my flight--I shall find a time to show them that they exult
+too early. This youth that has fallen stood betwixt a grasping kinsman
+and my inheritance, for you know that my marriage-bed is barren; yet,
+peace be with him! the country can better spare him than your friend Lord
+Evandale, who, after behaving very gallantly, has, I fear, also fallen."
+
+"What a fatal day!" ejaculated the Major. "I heard a report of this, but
+it was again contradicted; it was added, that the poor young nobleman's
+impetuosity had occasioned the loss of this unhappy field."
+
+"Not so, Major," said Grahame; "let the living officers bear the blame,
+if there be any; and let the laurels flourish untarnished on the grave of
+the fallen. I do not, however, speak of Lord Evandale's death as certain;
+but killed, or prisoner, I fear he must be. Yet he was extricated from
+the tumult the last time we spoke together. We were then on the point of
+leaving the field with a rear-guard of scarce twenty men; the rest of the
+regiment were almost dispersed."
+
+"They have rallied again soon," said the Major, looking from the window
+on the dragoons, who were feeding their horses and refreshing themselves
+beside the brook.
+
+"Yes," answered Claverhouse, "my blackguards had little temptation either
+to desert, or to straggle farther than they were driven by their first
+panic. There is small friendship and scant courtesy between them and the
+boors of this country; every village they pass is likely to rise on them,
+and so the scoundrels are driven back to their colours by a wholesome
+terror of spits, pike-staves, hay-forks, and broomsticks.--But now let us
+talk about your plans and wants, and the means of corresponding with you.
+To tell you the truth, I doubt being able to make a long stand at
+Glasgow, even when I have joined my Lord Ross; for this transient and
+accidental success of the fanatics will raise the devil through all the
+western counties."
+
+They then discussed Major Bellenden's means of defence, and settled a
+plan of correspondence, in case a general insurrection took place, as was
+to be expected. Claverhouse renewed his offer to escort the ladies to a
+place of safety; but, all things considered, Major Bellenden thought they
+would be in equal safety at Tillietudlem.
+
+The Colonel then took a polite leave of Lady Margaret and Miss Bellenden,
+assuring them, that, though he was reluctantly obliged to leave them for
+the present in dangerous circumstances, yet his earliest means should be
+turned to the redemption of his character as a good knight and true, and
+that they might speedily rely on hearing from or seeing him.
+
+Full of doubt and apprehension, Lady Margaret was little able to reply to
+a speech so much in unison with her usual expressions and feelings, but
+contented herself with bidding Claverhouse farewell, and thanking him for
+the succours which he had promised to leave them. Edith longed to enquire
+the fate of Henry Morton, but could find no pretext for doing so, and
+could only hope that it had made a subject of some part of the long
+private communication which her uncle had held with Claverhouse. On this
+subject, however, she was disappointed; for the old cavalier was so
+deeply immersed in the duties of his own office, that he had scarce said
+a single word to Claverhouse, excepting upon military matters, and most
+probably would have been equally forgetful, had the fate of his own son,
+instead of his friend's, lain in the balance.
+
+Claverhouse now descended the bank on which the castle is founded, in
+order to put his troops again in motion, and Major Bellenden accompanied
+him to receive the detachment who were to be left in the tower.
+
+"I shall leave Inglis with you," said Claverhouse, "for, as I am
+situated, I cannot spare an officer of rank; it is all we can do, by our
+joint efforts, to keep the men together. But should any of our missing
+officers make their appearance, I authorize you to detain them; for my
+fellows can with difficulty be subjected to any other authority."
+
+His troops being now drawn up, he picked out sixteen men by name, and
+committed them to the command of Corporal Inglis, whom he promoted to the
+rank of sergeant on the spot.
+
+"And hark ye, gentlemen," was his concluding harangue, "I leave you to
+defend the house of a lady, and under the command of her brother, Major
+Bellenden, a faithful servant to the king. You are to behave bravely,
+soberly, regularly, and obediently, and each of you shall be handsomely
+rewarded on my return to relieve the garrison. In case of mutiny,
+cowardice, neglect of duty, or the slightest excess in the family, the
+provost-marshal and cord--you know I keep my word for good and evil."
+
+He touched his hat as he bade them farewell, and shook hands cordially
+with Major Bellenden.
+
+"Adieu," he said, "my stout-hearted old friend! Good luck be with you,
+and better times to us both."
+
+The horsemen whom he commanded had been once more reduced to tolerable
+order by the exertions of Major Allan; and, though shorn of their
+splendour, and with their gilding all besmirched, made a much more
+regular and military appearance on leaving, for the second time, the
+tower of Tillietudlem, than when they returned to it after their rout.
+
+Major Bellenden, now left to his own resources sent out several videttes,
+both to obtain supplies of provisions, and especially of meal, and to get
+knowledge of the motions of the enemy. All the news he could collect on
+the second subject tended to prove that the insurgents meant to remain on
+the field of battle for that night. But they, also, had abroad their
+detachments and advanced guards to collect supplies, and great was the
+doubt and distress of those who received contrary orders, in the name of
+the King and in that of the Kirk; the one commanding them to send
+provisions to victual the Castle of Tillietudlem, and the other enjoining
+them to forward supplies to the camp of the godly professors of true
+religion, now in arms for the cause of covenanted reformation, presently
+pitched at Drumclog, nigh to Loudon-hill. Each summons closed with a
+denunciation of fire and sword if it was neglected; for neither party
+could confide so far in the loyalty or zeal of those whom they addressed,
+as to hope they would part with their property upon other terms. So that
+the poor people knew not what hand to turn themselves to; and, to say
+truth, there were some who turned themselves to more than one.
+
+"Thir kittle times will drive the wisest o' us daft," said Niel Blane,
+the prudent host of the Howff; "but I'se aye keep a calm sough.--Jenny,
+what meal is in the girnel?"
+
+"Four bows o' aitmeal, twa bows o' bear, and twa bows o' pease," was
+Jenny's reply.
+
+"Aweel, hinny," continued Niel Blane, sighing deeply, "let Bauldy drive
+the pease and bear meal to the camp at Drumclog--he's a whig, and was the
+auld gudewife's pleughman--the mashlum bannocks will suit their muirland
+stamachs weel. He maun say it's the last unce o' meal in the house, or,
+if he scruples to tell a lie, (as it's no likely he will when it's for
+the gude o' the house,) he may wait till Duncan Glen, the auld drucken
+trooper, drives up the aitmeal to Tillietudlem, wi' my dutifu' service to
+my Leddy and the Major, and I haena as muckle left as will mak my
+parritch; and if Duncan manage right, I'll gie him a tass o' whisky shall
+mak the blue low come out at his mouth."
+
+"And what are we to eat oursells then, father," asked Jenny, "when we hae
+sent awa the haill meal in the ark and the girnel?"
+
+"We maun gar wheat-flour serve us for a blink," said Niel, in a tone of
+resignation; "it's no that ill food, though far frae being sae hearty or
+kindly to a Scotchman's stamach as the curney aitmeal is; the Englishers
+live amaist upon't; but, to be sure, the pock-puddings ken nae better."
+
+While the prudent and peaceful endeavoured, like Niel Blane, to make fair
+weather with both parties, those who had more public (or party) spirit
+began to take arms on all sides. The royalists in the country were not
+numerous, but were respectable from their fortune and influence, being
+chiefly landed proprietors of ancient descent, who, with their brothers,
+cousins, and dependents to the ninth generation, as well as their
+domestic servants, formed a sort of militia, capable of defending their
+own peel-houses against detached bodies of the insurgents, of resisting
+their demand of supplies, and intercepting those which were sent to the
+presbyterian camp by others. The news that the Tower of Tillietudlem was
+to be defended against the insurgents, afforded great courage and support
+to these feudal volunteers, who considered it as a stronghold to which
+they might retreat, in case it should become impossible for them to
+maintain the desultory war they were now about to wage.
+
+On the other hand, the towns, the villages, the farm-houses, the
+properties of small heritors, sent forth numerous recruits to the
+presbyterian interest. These men had been the principal sufferers during
+the oppression of the time. Their minds were fretted, soured, and driven
+to desperation, by the various exactions and cruelties to which they had
+been subjected; and, although by no means united among themselves, either
+concerning the purpose of this formidable insurrection, or the means by
+which that purpose was to be obtained, most of them considered it as a
+door opened by Providence to obtain the liberty of conscience of which
+they had been long deprived, and to shake themselves free of a tyranny,
+directed both against body and soul. Numbers of these men, therefore,
+took up arms; and, in the phrase of their time and party, prepared to
+cast in their lot with the victors of Loudon-hill.
+
+
+
+
+                               CHAPTER XXI.
+
+          Ananias. I do not like the man: He is a heathen,
+          And speaks the language of Canaan truly.
+
+          Tribulation. You must await his calling, and the coming
+          Of the good spirit. You did ill to upbraid him.
+                                             The Alchemist.
+
+We return to Henry Morton, whom we left on the field of battle. He was
+eating, by one of the watch-fires, his portion of the provisions which
+had been distributed to the army, and musing deeply on the path which he
+was next to pursue, when Burley suddenly came up to him, accompanied by
+the young minister, whose exhortation after the victory had produced such
+a powerful effect.
+
+"Henry Morton," said Balfour abruptly, "the council of the army of the
+Covenant, confiding that the son of Silas Morton can never prove a
+lukewarm Laodicean, or an indifferent Gallio, in this great day, have
+nominated you to be a captain of their host, with the right of a vote in
+their council, and all authority fitting for an officer who is to command
+Christian men."
+
+"Mr Balfour," replied Morton, without hesitation, "I feel this mark of
+confidence, and it is not surprising that a natural sense of the injuries
+of my country, not to mention those I have sustained in my own person,
+should make me sufficiently willing to draw my sword for liberty and
+freedom of conscience. But I will own to you, that I must be better
+satisfied concerning the principles on which you bottom your cause ere I
+can agree to take a command amongst you."
+
+"And can you doubt of our principles," answered Burley, "since we have
+stated them to be the reformation both of church and state, the
+rebuilding of the decayed sanctuary, the gathering of the dispersed
+saints, and the destruction of the man of sin?"
+
+"I will own frankly, Mr Balfour," replied Morton, "much of this sort of
+language, which, I observe, is so powerful with others, is entirely lost
+on me. It is proper you should be aware of this before we commune further
+together." (The young clergyman here groaned deeply.) "I distress you,
+sir," said Morton; "but, perhaps, it is because you will not hear me out.
+I revere the Scriptures as deeply as you or any Christian can do. I look
+into them with humble hope of extracting a rule of conduct and a law of
+salvation. But I expect to find this by an examination of their general
+tenor, and of the spirit which they uniformly breathe, and not by
+wresting particular passages from their context, or by the application of
+Scriptural phrases to circumstances and events with which they have often
+very slender relation."
+
+The young divine seemed shocked and thunderstruck with this declaration,
+and was about to remonstrate.
+
+"Hush, Ephraim!" said Burley, "remember he is but as a babe in swaddling
+clothes.--Listen to me, Morton. I will speak to thee in the worldly
+language of that carnal reason, which is, for the present, thy blind and
+imperfect guide. What is the object for which thou art content to draw
+thy sword? Is it not that the church and state should be reformed by the
+free voice of a free parliament, with such laws as shall hereafter
+prevent the executive government from spilling the blood, torturing and
+imprisoning the persons, exhausting the estates, and trampling upon the
+consciences of men, at their own wicked pleasure?"
+
+"Most certainly," said Morton; "such I esteem legitimate causes of
+warfare, and for such I will fight while I can wield a sword."
+
+"Nay, but," said Macbriar, "ye handle this matter too tenderly; nor will
+my conscience permit me to fard or daub over the causes of divine wrath."
+
+"Peace, Ephraim Macbriar!" again interrupted Burley.
+
+"I will not peace," said the young man. "Is it not the cause of my Master
+who hath sent me? Is it not a profane and Erastian destroying of his
+authority, usurpation of his power, denial of his name, to place either
+King or Parliament in his place as the master and governor of his
+household, the adulterous husband of his spouse?"
+
+"You speak well," said Burley, dragging him aside, "but not wisely; your
+own ears have heard this night in council how this scattered remnant are
+broken and divided, and would ye now make a veil of separation between
+them? Would ye build a wall with unslaked mortar?--if a fox go up, it
+will breach it."
+
+"I know," said the young clergyman, in reply, "that thou art faithful,
+honest, and zealous, even unto slaying; but, believe me, this worldly
+craft, this temporizing with sin and with infirmity, is in itself a
+falling away; and I fear me Heaven will not honour us to do much more for
+His glory, when we seek to carnal cunning and to a fleshly arm. The
+sanctified end must be wrought by sanctified means."
+
+"I tell thee," answered Balfour, "thy zeal is too rigid in this matter;
+we cannot yet do without the help of the Laodiceans and the Erastians; we
+must endure for a space the indulged in the midst of the council--the
+sons of Zeruiah are yet too strong for us."
+
+"I tell thee I like it not," said Macbriar; "God can work deliverance by
+a few as well as by a multitude. The host of the faithful that was broken
+upon Pentland-hills, paid but the fitting penalty of acknowledging the
+carnal interest of that tyrant and oppressor, Charles Stewart."
+
+"Well, then," said Balfour, "thou knowest the healing resolution that the
+council have adopted,--to make a comprehending declaration, that may suit
+the tender consciences of all who groan under the yoke of our present
+oppressors. Return to the council if thou wilt, and get them to recall
+it, and send forth one upon narrower grounds. But abide not here to
+hinder my gaining over this youth, whom my soul travails for; his name
+alone will call forth hundreds to our banners."
+
+"Do as thou wilt, then," said Macbriar; "but I will not assist to mislead
+the youth, nor bring him into jeopardy of life, unless upon such grounds
+as will ensure his eternal reward."
+
+The more artful Balfour then dismissed the impatient preacher, and
+returned to his proselyte.
+
+That we may be enabled to dispense with detailing at length the arguments
+by which he urged Morton to join the insurgents, we shall take this
+opportunity to give a brief sketch of the person by whom they were used,
+and the motives which he had for interesting himself so deeply in the
+conversion of young Morton to his cause.
+
+John Balfour of Kinloch, or Burley, for he is designated both ways in the
+histories and proclamations of that melancholy period, was a gentleman of
+some fortune, and of good family, in the county of Fife, and had been a
+soldier from his youth upwards. In the younger part of his life he had
+been wild and licentious, but had early laid aside open profligacy, and
+embraced the strictest tenets of Calvinism. Unfortunately, habits of
+excess and intemperance were more easily rooted out of his dark,
+saturnine, and enterprising spirit, than the vices of revenge and
+ambition, which continued, notwithstanding his religious professions, to
+exercise no small sway over his mind. Daring in design, precipitate and
+violent in execution, and going to the very extremity of the most rigid
+recusancy, it was his ambition to place himself at the head of the
+presbyterian interest.
+
+To attain this eminence among the whigs, he had been active in attending
+their conventicles, and more than once had commanded them when they
+appeared in arms, and beaten off the forces sent to disperse them. At
+length, the gratification of his own fierce enthusiasm, joined, as some
+say, with motives of private revenge, placed him at the head of that
+party who assassinated the Primate of Scotland, as the author of the
+sufferings of the presbyterians. The violent measures adopted by
+government to revenge this deed, not on the perpetrators only, but on the
+whole professors of the religion to which they belonged, together with
+long previous sufferings, without any prospect of deliverance, except by
+force of arms, occasioned the insurrection, which, as we have already
+seen, commenced by the defeat of Claverhouse in the bloody skirmish of
+Loudon-hill.
+
+But Burley, notwithstanding the share he had in the victory, was far from
+finding himself at the summit which his ambition aimed at. This was
+partly owing to the various opinions entertained among the insurgents
+concerning the murder of Archbishop Sharpe. The more violent among them
+did, indeed, approve of this act as a deed of justice, executed upon a
+persecutor of God's church through the immediate inspiration of the
+Deity; but the greater part of the presbyterians disowned the deed as a
+crime highly culpable, although they admitted, that the Archbishop's
+punishment had by no means exceeded his deserts. The insurgents differed
+in another main point, which has been already touched upon. The more warm
+and extravagant fanatics condemned, as guilty of a pusillanimous
+abandonment of the rights of the church, those preachers and
+congregations who were contented, in any manner, to exercise their
+religion through the permission of the ruling government. This, they
+said, was absolute Erastianism, or subjection of the church of God to the
+regulations of an earthly government, and therefore but one degree better
+than prelacy or popery.--Again, the more moderate party were content to
+allow the king's title to the throne, and in secular affairs to
+acknowledge his authority, so long as it was exercised with due regard to
+the liberties of the subject, and in conformity to the laws of the realm.
+But the tenets of the wilder sect, called, from their leader Richard
+Cameron, by the name of Cameronians, went the length of disowning the
+reigning monarch, and every one of his successors, who should not
+acknowledge the Solemn League and Covenant. The seeds of disunion were,
+therefore, thickly sown in this ill-fated party; and Balfour, however
+enthusiastic, and however much attached to the most violent of those
+tenets which we have noticed, saw nothing but ruin to the general cause,
+if they were insisted on during this crisis, when unity was of so much
+consequence. Hence he disapproved, as we have seen, of the honest,
+downright, and ardent zeal of Macbriar, and was extremely desirous to
+receive the assistance of the moderate party of presbyterians in the
+immediate overthrow of the government, with the hope of being hereafter
+able to dictate to them what should be substituted in its place.
+
+He was, on this account, particularly anxious to secure the accession of
+Henry Morton to the cause of the insurgents. The memory of his father was
+generally esteemed among the presbyterians; and as few persons of any
+decent quality had joined the insurgents, this young man's family and
+prospects were such as almost ensured his being chosen a leader. Through
+Morton's means, as being the son of his ancient comrade, Burley conceived
+he might exercise some influence over the more liberal part of the army,
+and ultimately, perhaps, ingratiate himself so far with them, as to be
+chosen commander-in-chief, which was the mark at which his ambition
+aimed. He had, therefore, without waiting till any other person took up
+the subject, exalted to the council the talents and disposition of
+Morton, and easily obtained his elevation to the painful rank of a leader
+in this disunited and undisciplined army.
+
+The arguments by which Balfour pressed Morton to accept of this dangerous
+promotion, as soon as he had gotten rid of his less wary and
+uncompromising companion, Macbriar, were sufficiently artful and urgent.
+He did not affect either to deny or to disguise that the sentiments which
+he himself entertained concerning church government, went as far as those
+of the preacher who had just left them; but he argued, that when the
+affairs of the nation were at such a desperate crisis, minute difference
+of opinion should not prevent those who, in general, wished well to their
+oppressed country, from drawing their swords in its behalf. Many of the
+subjects of division, as, for example, that concerning the Indulgence
+itself, arose, he observed, out of circumstances which would cease to
+exist, provided their attempt to free the country should be successful,
+seeing that the presbytery, being in that case triumphant, would need to
+make no such compromise with the government, and, consequently, with the
+abolition of the Indulgence all discussion of its legality would be at
+once ended. He insisted much and strongly upon the necessity of taking
+advantage of this favourable crisis, upon the certainty of their being
+joined by the force of the whole western shires, and upon the gross guilt
+which those would incur, who, seeing the distress of the country, and the
+increasing tyranny with which it was governed, should, from fear or
+indifference, withhold their active aid from the good cause.
+
+Morton wanted not these arguments to induce him to join in any
+insurrection, which might appear to have a feasible prospect of freedom
+to the country. He doubted, indeed, greatly, whether the present attempt
+was likely to be supported by the strength sufficient to ensure success,
+or by the wisdom and liberality of spirit necessary to make a good use of
+the advantages that might be gained. Upon the whole, however, considering
+the wrongs he had personally endured, and those which he had seen daily
+inflicted on his fellow-subjects; meditating also upon the precarious and
+dangerous situation in which he already stood with relation to the
+government, he conceived himself, in every point of view, called upon to
+join the body of presbyterians already in arms.
+
+But while he expressed to Burley his acquiescence in the vote which had
+named him a leader among the insurgents, and a member of their council of
+war, it was not without a qualification.
+
+"I am willing," he said, "to contribute every thing within my limited
+power to effect the emancipation of my country. But do not mistake me. I
+disapprove, in the utmost degree, of the action in which this rising
+seems to have originated; and no arguments should induce me to join it,
+if it is to be carried on by such measures as that with which it has
+commenced."
+
+Burley's blood rushed to his face, giving a ruddy and dark glow to his
+swarthy brow.
+
+"You mean," he said, in a voice which he designed should not betray any
+emotion--"You mean the death of James Sharpe?"
+
+"Frankly," answered Morton, "such is my meaning."
+
+"You imagine, then," said Burley, "that the Almighty, in times of
+difficulty, does not raise up instruments to deliver his church from her
+oppressors? You are of opinion that the justice of an execution consists,
+not in the extent of the sufferer's crime, or in his having merited
+punishment, or in the wholesome and salutary effect which that example is
+likely to produce upon other evil-doers, but hold that it rests solely in
+the robe of the judge, the height of the bench, and the voice of the
+doomster? Is not just punishment justly inflicted, whether on the
+scaffold or the moor? And where constituted judges, from cowardice, or
+from having cast in their lot with transgressors, suffer them not only to
+pass at liberty through the land, but to sit in the high places, and dye
+their garments in the blood of the saints, is it not well done in any
+brave spirits who shall draw their private swords in the public cause?"
+
+"I have no wish to judge this individual action," replied Morton,
+"further than is necessary to make you fully aware of my principles. I
+therefore repeat, that the case you have supposed does not satisfy my
+judgment. That the Almighty, in his mysterious providence, may bring a
+bloody man to an end deservedly bloody, does not vindicate those who,
+without authority of any kind, take upon themselves to be the instruments
+of execution, and presume to call them the executors of divine
+vengeance."
+
+"And were we not so?" said Burley, in a tone of fierce enthusiasm. "Were
+not we--was not every one who owned the interest of the Covenanted Church
+of Scotland, bound by that covenant to cut off the Judas who had sold the
+cause of God for fifty thousand merks a-year? Had we met him by the way
+as he came down from London, and there smitten him with the edge of the
+sword, we had done but the duty of men faithful to our cause, and to our
+oaths recorded in heaven. Was not the execution itself a proof of our
+warrant? Did not the Lord deliver him into our hands, when we looked out
+but for one of his inferior tools of persecution? Did we not pray to be
+resolved how we should act, and was it not borne in on our hearts as if
+it had been written on them with the point of a diamond, 'Ye shall surely
+take him and slay him?'--Was not the tragedy full half an hour in acting
+ere the sacrifice was completed, and that in an open heath, and within
+the patrols of their garrisons--and yet who interrupted the great work?--
+What dog so much as bayed us during the pursuit, the taking, the slaying,
+and the dispersing? Then, who will say--who dare say, that a mightier arm
+than ours was not herein revealed?"
+
+"You deceive yourself, Mr Balfour," said Morton; "such circumstances of
+facility of execution and escape have often attended the commission of
+the most enormous crimes.--But it is not mine to judge you. I have not
+forgotten that the way was opened to the former liberation of Scotland by
+an act of violence which no man can justify,--the slaughter of Cumming by
+the hand of Robert Bruce; and, therefore, condemning this action, as I do
+and must, I am not unwilling to suppose that you may have motives
+vindicating it in your own eyes, though not in mine, or in those of sober
+reason. I only now mention it, because I desire you to understand, that I
+join a cause supported by men engaged in open war, which it is proposed
+to carry on according to the rules of civilized nations, without, in any
+respect, approving of the act of violence which gave immediate rise to
+it."
+
+Balfour bit his lip, and with difficulty suppressed a violent answer. He
+perceived, with disappointment, that, upon points of principle, his young
+brother-in-arms possessed a clearness of judgment, and a firmness of
+mind, which afforded but little hope of his being able to exert that
+degree of influence over him which he had expected to possess. After a
+moment's pause, however, he said, with coolness, "My conduct is open to
+men and angels. The deed was not done in a corner; I am here in arms to
+avow it, and care not where, or by whom, I am called on to do so; whether
+in the council, the field of battle, the place of execution, or the day
+of the last great trial. I will not now discuss it further with one who
+is yet on the other side of the veil. But if you will cast in your lot
+with us as a brother, come with me to the council, who are still sitting,
+to arrange the future march of the army, and the means of improving our
+victory."
+
+Morton arose and followed him in silence; not greatly delighted with his
+associate, and better satisfied with the general justice of the cause
+which he had espoused, than either with the measures or the motives of
+many of those who were embarked in it.
+
+
+
+
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OLD MORTALITY, BY SCOTT, V1 ***
+
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