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You can also find out about how to make a +donation to Project Gutenberg, and how to get involved. + + +**Welcome To The World of Free Plain Vanilla Electronic Texts** + +**EBooks Readable By Both Humans and By Computers, Since 1971** + +*****These EBooks Were Prepared By Thousands of Volunteers***** + + +Title: The Heart of Mid-Lothian, Complete + +Author: Sir Walter Scott + +Release Date: November 2004 [EBook #6944] +[Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] +[This file was first posted on February 16, 2003] + +Edition: 10 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + + + + + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HEART OF MID-LOTHIAN, BY SCOTT *** + + + +This eBook was produced by David Widger, widger@cecomet.net + + + + + + THE HEART OF MID-LOTHIAN + + By Walter Scott + + TALES OF MY LANDLORD + + COLLECTED AND ARRANGED + + BY JEDEDIAH CLEISHBOTHAM, + + SCHOOLMASTER AND PARISH CLERK OF GANDERCLEUGH. + + + + SECOND SERIES. + + THE HEART OF MID-LOTHIAN. + + + Hear, Land o' Cakes and brither Scots, + Frae Maidenkirk to Johnny Groat's, + If there's a hole in a' your coats, + I rede ye tent it; + A chiel's amang you takin' notes, + An' faith he'll prent it! + Burns. + + + + + EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION + TO + THE HEART OF MID-LOTHIAN. + +SCOTT began to work on "The Heart of Mid-Lothian" almost before he had +completed "Rob Roy." On Nov. 10, 1817, he writes to Archibald Constable +announcing that the negotiations for the sale of the story to Messrs. +Longman have fallen through, their firm declining to relieve the +Ballantynes of their worthless "stock." "So you have the staff in your +own hands, and, as you are on the spot, can manage it your own way. +Depend on it that, barring unforeseen illness or death, these will be the +best volumes which have appeared. I pique myself on the first tale, which +is called 'The Heart of Mid-Lothian.'" Sir Walter had thought of adding a +romance, "The Regalia," on the Scotch royal insignia, which had been +rediscovered in the Castle of Edinburgh. This story he never wrote. Mr. +Cadell was greatly pleased at ousting the Longmans--"they have themselves +to blame for the want of the Tales, and may grumble as they choose: we +have Taggy by the tail, and, if we have influence to keep the best author +of the day, we ought to do it."--[Archibald Constable, iii. 104.] + +Though contemplated and arranged for, "The Heart of Mid-Lothian" was not +actually taken in hand till shortly after Jan. 15, 1818, when Cadell +writes that the tracts and pamphlets on the affair of Porteous are to be +collected for Scott. "The author was in great glee . . . he says that he +feels very strong with what he has now in hand." But there was much +anxiety concerning Scott's health. "I do not at all like this illness of +Scott's," said James Ballantyne to Hogg. "I have eften seen him look +jaded of late, and am afraid it is serious." "Hand your tongue, or I'll +gar you measure your length on the pavement," replied Hogg. "You fause, +down-hearted loon, that ye are, you daur to speak as if Scott were on his +death-bed! It cannot be, it must not be! I will not suffer you to speak +that gait." Scott himself complains to Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe of +"these damned spasms. The merchant Abudah's hag was a henwife to them +when they give me a real night of it." + +"The Heart of Mid-Lothian," in spite of the author's malady, was +published in June 1818. As to its reception, and the criticism which it +received, Lockhart has left nothing to be gleaned. Contrary to his +custom, he has published, but without the writer's name, a letter from +Lady Louisa Stuart, which really exhausts what criticism can find to say +about the new novel. "I have not only read it myself," says Lady Louisa, +"but am in a house where everybody is tearing it out of each other's +hands, and talking of nothing else." She preferred it to all but +"Waverley," and congratulates him on having made "the perfectly good +character the most interesting. . . . Had this very story been conducted +by a common hand, Effie would have attracted all our concern and +sympathy, Jeanie only cold approbation. Whereas Jeanie, without youth, +beauty, genius, warns passions, or any other novel-perfection, is here +our object from beginning to end." Lady Louisa, with her usual frankness, +finds the Edinburgh lawyers tedious, in the introduction, and thinks that +Mr. Saddletree "will not entertain English readers." The conclusion +"flags"; "but the chief fault I have to find relates to the reappearance +and shocking fate of the boy. I hear on all sides 'Oh, I do not like +that!' I cannot say what I would have had instead, but I do not like it +either; it is a lame, huddled conclusion. I know you so well in it, +by-the-by! You grow tired yourself, want to get rid of the story, and +hardly care how." Lady Lousia adds that Sir George Staunton would never +have hazarded himself in the streets of Edinburgh. "The end of poor Madge +Wildfire is most pathetic. The meeting at Muschat's Cairn tremendous. +Dumbiedikes and Rory Beau are delightful. . . . I dare swear many of your +readers never heard of the Duke of Argyle before." She ends: "If I had +known nothing, and the whole world had told me the contrary, I should +have found you out in that one parenthesis, 'for the man was mortal, and +had been a schoolmaster.'" + +Lady Louisa omits a character who was probably as essential to Scott's +scheme as any--Douce Davie Deans, the old Cameronian. He had almost been +annoyed by the criticism of his Covenanters in "Old Mortality," "the +heavy artillery out of the Christian Instructor or some such obscure +field work," and was determined to "tickle off" another. There are signs +of a war between literary Cavaliers and literary Covenanters at this +time, after the discharge of Dr. McCrie's "heavy artillery." Charles +Kirkpatrick Sharpe was presented by Surtees of Mainsforth with a +manuscript of Kirkton's unprinted "History of the Church of Scotland." +This he set forth to edite, with the determination not to "let the Whig +dogs have the best of it." Every Covenanting scandal and absurdity, such +as the old story of Mess David Williamson--"Dainty Davie"--and his +remarkable prowess, and presence of mind at Cherrytrees, was raked up, +and inserted in notes to Kirkton. Scott was Sharpe's ally in this +enterprise. "I had in the persons of my forbears a full share, you see, +of religious persecution . . . for all my greatgrandfathers were under +the ban, and I think there were hardly two of them out of jail at once." +"I think it would be most scandalous to let the godly carry it oft thus." +"It" seems to have been the editing of Kirkton. "It is very odd the +volume of Wodrow, containing the memoir of Russell concerning the murder, +is positively vanished from the library" (the Advocates' Library). +"Neither book nor receipt is to be found: surely they have stolen it in +the fear of the Lord." The truth seems to have been that Cavaliers and +Covenanters were racing for the manuscripts wherein they found smooth +stones of the brook to pelt their opponents withal. Soon after Scott +writes: "It was not without exertion and trouble that I this day detected +Russell's manuscript (the account of the murder of Sharpe by one of the +murderers), also Kirkton and one or two others, which Mr. McCrie had +removed from their place in the library and deposited in a snug and +secret corner." The Covenanters had made a raid on the ammunition of the +Cavaliers. "I have given," adds Sir Walter, "an infernal row on the +subject of hiding books in this manner." Sharpe replies that the +"villainous biographer of John Knox" (Dr. McCrie), "that canting rogue," +is about to edite Kirkton. Sharpe therefore advertised his own edition at +once, and edited Kirkton by forced marches as it were. Scott reviewed the +book in the Quarterly (Jan. 1818). He remarked that Sharpe "had not +escaped the censure of these industrious literary gentlemen of opposite +principles, who have suffered a work always relied upon as one of their +chief authorities to lie dormant for a hundred and forty years." Their +"querulous outcries" (probably from the field-work of the Christian +Instructor) he disregards. Among the passions of this literary "bicker," +which Scott allowed to amuse him, was Davie Deans conceived. Scott was +not going to be driven by querulous outcries off the Covenanting field, +where he erected another trophy. This time he was more friendly to the +"True Blue Presbyterians." His Scotch patriotism was one of his most +earnest feelings, the Covenanters, at worst, were essentially Scotch, and +he introduced a new Cameronian, with all the sterling honesty, the +Puritanism, the impracticable ideas of the Covenant, in contact with +changed times, and compelled to compromise. + +He possessed a curious pamphlet, Haldane's "Active Testimony of the true +blue Presbyterians" (12mo, 1749). It is a most impartial work, +"containing a declaration and testimony against the late unjust invasion +of Scotland by Charles, Pretended Prince of Wales, and William, Pretended +Duke of Cumberland." Everything and everybody not Covenanted, the House +of Stuart, the House of Brunswick, the House of Hapsburg, Papists, +Prelatists and Turks, are cursed up hill and down dale, by these worthy +survivors of the Auld Leaven. Everybody except the authors, Haldane and +Leslie, "has broken the everlasting Covenant." The very Confession of +Westminster is arraigned for its laxity. "The whole Civil and Judicial +Law of God," as given to the Jews (except the ritual, polygamy, divorce, +slavery, and so forth), is to be maintained in the law of Scotland. Sins +are acknowledged, and since the Covenant every political step-- +Cromwell's Protectorate, the Restoration, the Revolution, the accession +of the "Dukes of Hanover"--has been a sin. A Court of Elders is to be +established to put in execution the Law of Moses. All offenders against +the Kirk are to be "capitally punished." Stage plays are to be suppressed +by the successors of the famous convention at Lanark, Anno 1682. +Toleration of all religions is "sinful," and "contrary to the word of +God." Charles Edward and the Duke of Cumberland are cursed. "Also we +reckon it a great vice in Charles, his foolish Pity and Lenity, in +sparing these profane, blasphemous Redcoats, that Providence delivered +into his hand, when, by putting them to death, this poor land might have +been eased of the heavy burden of these vermin of Hell." The Auld Leaven +swore terribly in Scotland. The atrocious cruelties of Cumberland after +Culloden are stated with much frankness and power. The German soldiers +are said to have carried off "a vast deal of Spoil and Plunder into +Germany," and the Redcoats had Plays and Diversions (cricket, probably) +on the Inch of Perth, on a Sabbath. "The Hellish, Pagan, Juggler plays +are set up and frequented with more impudence and audacity than ever." +Only the Jews, "our elder Brethren," are exempted from the curses of +Haldane and Leslie, who promise to recover for them the Holy Land. "The +Massacre in Edinburgh" in 1736, by wicked Porteous, calls for vengeance +upon the authors and abettors thereof. The army and navy are "the most +wicked and flagitious in the Universe." In fact, the True Blue Testimony +is very active indeed, and could be delivered, thanks to hellish +Toleration, with perfect safety, by Leslie and Haldane. The candour of +their eloquence assuredly proves that Davie Deans is not overdrawn; +indeed, he is much less truculent than those who actually were testifying +even after his decease. + +In "The Heart of Mid-Lothian" Scott set himself to draw his own people at +their best. He had a heroine to his hand in Helen Walker, "a character so +distinguished for her undaunted love of virtue," who, unlike Jeanie +Deans, "lived and died in poverty, if not want." In 1831 he erected a +pillar over her grave in the old Covenanting stronghold of Irongray. The +inscription ends-- + + Respect the Grave of Poverty, + When combined with Love of Truth + And Dear Affection. + +The sweetness, the courage, the spirit, the integrity of Jeanie Deans +have made her, of all Scott's characters, the dearest to her countrymen, +and the name of Jeanie was given to many children, in pious memory of the +blameless heroine. The foil to her, in the person of Effie, is not less +admirable. Among Scott's qualities was one rare among modern authors: he +had an affectionate toleration for his characters. If we compare Effie +with Hetty in "Adam Bede," this charming and genial quality of Scott's +becomes especially striking. Hetty and Dinah are in very much the same +situation and condition as Effie and Jeanie Deans. But Hetty is a +frivolous little animal, in whom vanity and silliness do duty for +passion: she has no heart: she is only a butterfly broken on the wheel of +the world. Doubtless there are such women in plenty, yet we feel that her +creator persecutes her, and has a kind of spite against her. This was +impossible to Scott. Effie has heart, sincerity, passion, loyalty, +despite her flightiness, and her readiness, when her chance comes, to +play the fine lady. It was distasteful to Scott to create a character not +human and sympathetic on one side or another. Thus his robber "of milder +mood," on Jeanie's journey to England, is comparatively a good fellow, +and the scoundrel Ratcliffe is not a scoundrel utterly. "'To make a Lang +tale short, I canna undertake the job. It gangs against my conscience.' +'Your conscience, Rat?' said Sharpitlaw, with a sneer, which the reader +will probably think very natural upon the occasion. 'Ou ay, sir,' +answered Ratcliffe, calmly, 'just my conscience; a body has a conscience, +though it may be ill wunnin at it. I think mine's as weel out o' the gate +as maist folk's are; and yet it's just like the noop of my elbow, it +whiles gets a bit dirl on a corner.'" Scott insists on leaving his worst +people in possession of something likeable, just as he cannot dismiss +even Captain Craigengelt without assuring us that Bucklaw made a +provision for his necessities. This is certainly a more humane way of +writing fiction than that to which we are accustomed in an age of +humanitarianism. Nor does Scott's art suffer from his kindliness, and +Effie in prison, with a heart to be broken, is not less pathetic than the +heartless Hetty, in the same condemnation. + +As to her lover, Robertson, or Sir George Staunton, he certainly verges +on the melodramatic. Perhaps we know too much about the real George +Robertson, who was no heir to a title in disguise, but merely a "stabler +in Bristol" accused "at the instance of Duncan Forbes, Esq. of Culloden, +his Majesty's advocate, for the crimes of Stouthrieff, Housebreaking, and +Robbery." Robertson "kept an inn in Bristo, at Edinburgh, where the +Newcastle carrier commonly did put up," and is believed to have been a +married man. It is not very clear that the novel gains much by the +elevation of the Bristo innkeeper to a baronetcy, except in so far as +Effie's appearance in the character of a great lady is entertaining and +characteristic, and Jeanie's conquest of her own envy is exemplary. The +change in social rank calls for the tragic conclusion, about which almost +every reader agrees with the criticism of Lady Louisa Stuart and her +friends. Thus the novel "filled more pages" than Mr. Jedediah +Cleishbotham had "opined," and hence comes a languor which does not beset +the story of "Old Mortality." Scott's own love of adventure and of +stirring incidents at any cost is an excellent quality in a novelist, but +it does, in this instance, cause him somewhat to dilute those immortal +studies of Scotch character which are the strength of his genius. +The reader feels a lack of reality in the conclusion, the fatal encounter +of the father and the lost son, an incident as old as the legend of +Odysseus. But this is more than atoned for by the admirable part of Madge +Wildfire, flitting like a /feu follet/ up and down among the douce +Scotch, and the dour rioters. Madge Wildfire is no repetition of Meg +Merrilies, though both are unrestrained natural things, rebels against +the settled life, musical voices out of the past, singing forgotten songs +of nameless minstrels. Nowhere but in Shakspeare can we find such a +distraught woman as Madge Wildfire, so near akin to nature and to the +moods of "the bonny lady Moon." Only he who created Ophelia could have +conceived or rivalled the scene where Madge accompanies the hunters of +Staunton on the moonlit hill and sings her warnings to the fugitive. + + When the glede's in the blue cloud, + The lavrock lies still; + When the hound's in the green-wood, + The hind keeps the hill. + There's a bloodhound ranging Tinwald wood, + There's harness glancing sheen; + There's a maiden sits on Tinwald brae, + And she sings loud between. + O sleep ye sound, Sir James, she said, + When ye suld rise and ride? + There's twenty men, wi' bow and blade, + Are seeking where ye hide. + +The madness of Madge Wildfire has its parallel in the wildness of +Goethe's Marguerite, both of them lamenting the lost child, which, to +Madge's fancy, is now dead, now living in a dream. But the gloom that +hangs about Muschat's Cairn, the ghastly vision of "crying up Ailie +Muschat, and she and I will hae a grand bouking-washing, and bleach our +claise in the beams of the bonny Lady Moon," have a terror beyond the +German, and are unexcelled by Webster or by Ford. "But the moon, and the +dew, and the night-wind, they are just like a caller kail-blade laid on +my brow; and whiles I think the moon just shines on purpose to pleasure +me, when naebody sees her but mysell." Scott did not deal much in the +facile pathos of the death-bed, but that of Madge Wildfire has a grace of +poetry, and her latest song is the sweetest and wildest of his lyrics, +the most appropriate in its setting. When we think of the contrasts to +her--the honest, dull good-nature of Dumbiedikes; the common-sense and +humour of Mrs. Saddletree; the pragmatic pedantry of her husband; the +Highland pride, courage, and absurdity of the Captain of Knockdander-- +when we consider all these so various and perfect creations, we need not +wonder that Scott was "in high glee" over "The Heart of Mid-Lothian," +"felt himself very strong," and thought that these would be "the best +volumes that have appeared." The difficulty, as usual, is to understand +how, in all this strength, he permitted himself to be so careless over +what is really by far the easiest part of the novelist's task--the +construction. But so it was; about "The Monastery" he said, "it was +written with as much care as the rest, that is, with no care at all." +His genius flowed free in its own unconscious abundance: where conscious +deliberate workmanship was needed, "the forthright craftsman's hand," +there alone he was lax and irresponsible. In Shakspeare's case we can +often account for similar incongruities by the constraint of the old plot +which he was using; but Scott was making his own plots, or letting them +make themselves. "I never could lay down a plan, or, having laid it down, +I never could adhere to it; the action of composition always diluted some +passages and abridged or omitted others; and personages were rendered +important or insignificant, not according to their agency in the original +conception of the plan, but according to the success or otherwise with +which I was able to bring them out. I only tried to make that which I was +actually writing diverting and interesting, leaving the rest to fate. . . +When I chain my mind to ideas which are purely imaginative--for argument +is a different thing--it seems to me that the sun leaves the landscape, +that I think away the whole vivacity and spirit of my original +conception, and that the results are cold, tame, and spiritless." + +In fact, Sir Walter was like the Magician who can raise spirits that, +once raised, dominate him. Probably this must ever be the case, when an +author's characters are not puppets but real creations. They then have a +will and a way of their own; a free-will which their creator cannot +predetermine and correct. Something like this appears to have been +Scott's own theory of his lack of constructive power. No one was so +assured of its absence, no one criticised it more severely than he did +himself. The Edinburgh Review about this time counselled the "Author of +Waverley" to attempt a drama, doubting only his powers of compression. +Possibly work at a drama might have been of advantage to the genius of +Scott. He was unskilled in selection and rejection, which the drama +especially demands. But he detested the idea of writing for actors, whom +he regarded as ignorant, dull, and conceited. "I shall not fine and renew +a lease of popularity upon the theatre. To write for low, ill-informed, +and conceited actors, whom you must please, for your success is +necessarily at their mercy, I cannot away with," he wrote to Southey. +"Avowedly, I will never write for the stage; if I do, 'call me horse,'" +he remarks to Terry. He wanted "neither the profit nor the shame of it." +"I do not think that the character of the audience in London is such that +one could have the least pleasure in pleasing them." He liked helping +Terry to "Terryfy" "The Heart of Mid-Lothian," and his other novels, but +he had no more desire than a senator of Rome would have had to see his +name become famous by the Theatre. This confirmed repulsion in one so +learned in the dramatic poets is a curious trait in Scott's character. +He could not accommodate his genius to the needs of the stage, and that +crown which has most potently allured most men of genius he would have +thrust away, had it been offered to him, with none of Caesar's +reluctance. At the bottom of all this lay probably the secret conviction +that his genius was his master, that it must take him where it would, on +paths where he was compelled to follow. Terse and concentrated, of set +purpose, he could not be. A notable instance of this inability occurs in +the Introductory Chapter to "The Heart of Mid-Lothian," which has +probably frightened away many modern readers. The Advocate and the Writer +to the Signet and the poor Client are persons quite uncalled for, and +their little adventure at Gandercleugh is unreal. Oddly enough, part of +their conversation is absolutely in the manner of Dickens. + +"'I think,' said I, . . . 'the metropolitan county may, in that case, be +said to have a sad heart.' + +"'Right as my glove, Mr. Pattieson,' added Mr. Hardie; 'and a close +heart, and a hard heart--Keep it up, Jack.' + +"'And a wicked heart, and a poor heart,' answered Halkit, doing his best. + +"'And yet it may be called in some sort a strong heart, and a high +heart,' rejoined the advocate. 'You see I can put you both out of +heart.'" + +Fortunately we have no more of this easy writing, which makes such very +melancholy reading. + +The narrative of the Porteous mob, as given by the novelist, is not, it +seems, entirely accurate. Like most artists, Sir Walter took the liberty +of "composing" his picture. In his "Illustrations of the Author of +Waverley" (1825) Mr. Robert Chambers records the changes in facts made by +Scott. In the first place, Wilson did not attack his guard, and enable +Robertson to escape, after the sermon, but as soon as the criminals took +their seats in the pew. When fleeing out, Robertson tripped over "the +plate," set on a stand to receive alms and oblations, whereby he hurt +himself, and was seen to stagger and fall in running down the stairs +leading to the Cowgate. Mr. McQueen, Minister of the New Kirk, was coming +up the stairs. He conceived it to be his duty to set Robertson on his +feet again, "and covered his retreat as much as possible from the pursuit +of the guard." Robertson ran up the Horse Wynd, out at Potter Row Port, +got into the King's Park, and headed for the village of Duddingston, +beside the loch on the south-east of Arthur's Seat. He fainted after +jumping a dyke, but was picked up and given some refreshment. He lay in +hiding till he could escape to Holland. + +The conspiracy to hang Porteous did not, in fact, develop in a few hours, +after his failure to appear on the scaffold. The Queen's pardon (or a +reprieve) reached Edinburgh on Thursday, Sept. 2; the Riot occurred on +the night of Sept. 7. The council had been informed that lynching was +intended, thirty-six hours before the fatal evening, but pronounced the +reports to be "caddies' clatters." Their negligence, of course, must have +increased the indignation of the Queen. The riot, according to a very old +man, consulted by Mr. Chambers, was headed by two butchers, named +Cumming, "tall, strong, and exceedingly handsome men, who dressed in +women's clothes as a disguise." The rope was tossed out of a window in a +"small wares shop" by a woman, who received a piece of gold in exchange. +This extravagance is one of the very few points which suggest that people +of some wealth may have been concerned in the affair. Tradition, +according to Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, believed in noble leaders of the +riot. It is certain that several witnesses of good birth and position +testified very strongly against Porteous, at his trial. + +According to Hogg, Scott's "fame was now so firmly established that he +cared not a fig for the opinion of his literary friends beforehand." He +was pleased, however, by the notice of "Ivanhoe," "The Heart of Mid- +Lothian," and "The Bride of Lammermoor" in the Edinburgh Review of 1820, +as he showed by quoting part of its remarks. The Reviewer frankly +observed "that, when we began with one of these works, we were conscious +that we never knew how to leave off. The Porteous mob is rather heavily +described, and the whole part of George Robertson, or Staunton, is +extravagant and displeasing. The final catastrophe is needlessly +improbable and startling." The critic felt that he must be critical, but +his praise of Effie and Jeanie Deans obviously comes from his heart. +Jeanie's character "is superior to anything we can recollect in the +history of invention . . . a remarkable triumph over the greatest of all +difficulties in the conduct of a fictitious narrative." The critique ends +with "an earnest wish that the Author would try his hand in the lore of +Shakspeare"; but, wiser than the woers of Penelope, Scott refused to make +that perilous adventure. + ANDREW LANG. + + +An essay by Mr. George Ormond, based on manuscripts in the Edinburgh +Record office (Scottish Review, July, 1892), adds little to what is known +about the Porteous Riot. It is said that Porteous was let down alive, and +hanged again, more than once, that his arm was broken by a Lochaber axe, +and that a torch was applied to the foot from which the shoe had fallen. +A pamphlet of 1787 says that Robertson became a spy on smugglers in +Holland, returned to London, procured a pardon through the Butcher +Cumberland, and "at last died in misery in London." It is plain that +Colonel Moyle might have rescued Porteous, but he was naturally cautious +about entering the city gates without a written warrant from the civil +authorities. + + + + + + TO THE BEST OF PATRONS, + A PLEASED AND INDULGENT READER + + + JEDEDIAH CLEISHBOTHAM + WISHES HEALTH, AND INCREASE, AND CONTENTMENT. + +Courteous Reader, + +If ingratitude comprehendeth every vice, surely so foul a stain worst of +all beseemeth him whose life has been devoted to instructing youth in +virtue and in humane letters. Therefore have I chosen, in this +prolegomenon, to unload my burden of thanks at thy feet, for the favour +with which thou last kindly entertained the Tales of my Landlord. Certes, +if thou hast chuckled over their factious and festivous descriptions, or +hadst thy mind filled with pleasure at the strange and pleasant turns of +fortune which they record, verily, I have also simpered when I beheld a +second storey with attics, that has arisen on the basis of my small +domicile at Gandercleugh, the walls having been aforehand pronounced by +Deacon Barrow to be capable of enduring such an elevation. Nor has it +been without delectation that I have endued a new coat (snuff-brown, and +with metal buttons), having all nether garments corresponding thereto. We +do therefore lie, in respect of each other, under a reciprocation of +benefits, whereof those received by me being the most solid (in respect +that a new house and a new coat are better than a new tale and an old +song), it is meet that my gratitude should be expressed with the louder +voice and more preponderating vehemence. And how should it be so +expressed?--Certainly not in words only, but in act and deed. It is with +this sole purpose, and disclaiming all intention of purchasing that +pendicle or poffle of land called the Carlinescroft, lying adjacent to my +garden, and measuring seven acres, three roods, and four perches, that I +have committed to the eyes of those who thought well of the former tomes, +these four additional volumes of the Tales of my Landlord. Not the less, +if Peter Prayfort be minded to sell the said poffle, it is at his own +choice to say so; and, peradventure, he may meet with a purchaser: unless +(gentle reader) the pleasing pourtraictures of Peter Pattieson, now given +unto thee in particular, and unto the public in general, shall have lost +their favour in thine eyes, whereof I am no way distrustful. And so much +confidence do I repose in thy continued favour, that, should thy lawful +occasions call thee to the town of Gandercleugh, a place frequented by +most at one time or other in their lives, I will enrich thine eyes with a +sight of those precious manuscripts whence thou hast derived so much +delectation, thy nose with a snuff from my mull, and thy palate with a +dram from my bottle of strong waters, called by the learned of +Gandercleugh, the Dominie's Dribble o' Drink. + +It is there, O highly esteemed and beloved reader, thou wilt be able to +bear testimony, through the medium of thine own senses, against the +children of vanity, who have sought to identify thy friend and servant +with I know not what inditer of vain fables; who hath cumbered the world +with his devices, but shrunken from the responsibility thereof. Truly, +this hath been well termed a generation hard of faith; since what can a +man do to assert his property in a printed tome, saving to put his name +in the title-page thereof, with his description, or designation, as the +lawyers term it, and place of abode? Of a surety I would have such +sceptics consider how they themselves would brook to have their works +ascribed to others, their names and professions imputed as forgeries, and +their very existence brought into question; even although, peradventure, +it may be it is of little consequence to any but themselves, not only +whether they are living or dead, but even whether they ever lived or no. +Yet have my maligners carried their uncharitable censures still farther. + +These cavillers have not only doubted mine identity, although thus +plainly proved, but they have impeached my veracity and the authenticity +of my historical narratives! Verily, I can only say in answer, that I +have been cautelous in quoting mine authorities. It is true, indeed, that +if I had hearkened with only one ear, I might have rehearsed my tale with +more acceptation from those who love to hear but half the truth. It is, +it may hap, not altogether to the discredit of our kindly nation of +Scotland, that we are apt to take an interest, warm, yea partial, in the +deeds and sentiments of our forefathers. He whom his adversaries describe +as a perjured Prelatist, is desirous that his predecessors should be held +moderate in their power, and just in their execution of its privileges, +when truly, the unimpassioned peruser of the annals of those times shall +deem them sanguinary, violent, and tyrannical. Again, the representatives +of the suffering Nonconformists desire that their ancestors, the +Cameronians, shall be represented not simply as honest enthusiasts, +oppressed for conscience' sake, but persons of fine breeding, and valiant +heroes. Truly, the historian cannot gratify these predilections. He must +needs describethe cavaliers as proud and high-spirited, cruel, +remorseless, and vindictive; the suffering party as honourably tenacious +of their opinions under persecution; their own tempers being, however, +sullen, fierce, and rude; their opinions absurd and extravagant; and +their whole course of conduct that of persons whom hellebore would better +have suited than prosecutions unto death for high-treason. Natheless, +while such and so preposterous were the opinions on either side, there +were, it cannot be doubted, men of virtue and worth on both, to entitle +either party to claim merit from its martyrs. It has been demanded of me, +Jedediah Cleishbotham, by what right I am entitled to constitute myself +an impartial judge of their discrepancies of opinions, seeing (as it is +stated) that I must necessarily have descended from one or other of the +contending parties, and be, of course, wedded for better or for worse, +according to the reasonable practice of Scotland, to its dogmata, or +opinions, and bound, as it were, by the tie matrimonial, or, to speak +without metaphor, /ex jure sanguinis,/ to maintain them in preference to +all others. + +But, nothing denying the rationality of the rule, which calls on all now +living to rule their political and religious opinions by those of their +great-grandfathers, and inevitable as seems the one or the other horn of +the dilemma betwixt which my adversaries conceive they have pinned me to +the wall, I yet spy some means of refuge, and claim a privilege to write +and speak of both parties with impartiality. For, O ye powers of logic! +when the Prelatists and Presbyterians of old times went together by the +ears in this unlucky country, my ancestor (venerated be his memory!) was +one of the people called Quakers, and suffered severe handling from +either side, even to the extenuation of his purse and the incarceration +of his person. + +Craving thy pardon, gentle Reader, for these few words concerning me and +mine, I rest, as above expressed, thy sure and obligated friend,* + +J. C. +GANDERCLEUGH, +this 1st of April, 1818. + +* Note A. Author's connection with Quakerism. + + + + + INTRODUCTION + + TO THE HEART OF MID-LOTHIAN--(1830). + +The author has stated, in the preface to the Chronicles of the Canongate, +1827, that he received from an anonymous correspondent an account of the +incident upon which the following story is founded. He is now at liberty +to say, that the information was conveyed to him by a late amiable and +ingenious lady, whose wit and power of remarking and judging of character +still survive in the memory of her friends. Her maiden name was Miss +Helen Lawson, of Girthhead, and she was wife of Thomas Goldie, Esq. of +Craigmuie, Commissary of Dumfries. + +Her communication was in these words:-- + +"I had taken for summer lodgings a cottage near the old Abbey of +Lincluden. It had formerly been inhabited by a lady who had pleasure in +embellishing cottages, which she found perhaps homely and even poor +enough; mine, therefore, possessed many marks of taste and elegance +unusual in this species of habitation in Scotland, where a cottage is +literally what its name declares. + +"From my cottage door I had a partial view of the old Abbey before +mentioned; some of the highest arches were seen over, and some through, +the trees scattered along a lane which led down to the ruin, and the +strange fantastic shapes of almost all those old ashes accorded +wonderfully well with the building they at once shaded and ornamented. + +"The Abbey itself from my door was almost on a level with the cottage; +but on coming to the end of the lane, it was discovered to be situated on +a high perpendicular bank, at the foot of which run the clear waters of +the Cluden, where they hasten to join the sweeping Nith, + + 'Whose distant roaring swells and fa's.' + +As my kitchen and parlour were not very far distant, I one day went in to +purchase some chickens from a person I heard offering them for sale. It +was a little, rather stout-looking woman, who seemed to be between +seventy and eighty years of age; she was almost covered with a tartan +plaid, and her cap had over it a black silk hood, tied under the chin, a +piece of dress still much in use among elderly women of that rank of life +in Scotland; her eyes were dark, and remarkably lively and intelligent; I +entered into conversation with her, and began by asking how she +maintained herself, etc. + +"She said that in winter she footed stockings, that is, knit feet to +country-people's stockings, which bears about the same relation to +stocking-knitting that cobbling does to shoe-making, and is of course +both less profitable and less dignified; she likewise taught a few +children to read, and in summer she whiles reared a few chickens. + +"I said I could venture to guess from her face she had never been +married. She laughed heartily at this, and said, 'I maun hae the queerest +face that ever was seen, that ye could guess that. Now, do tell me, +madam, how ye cam to think sae?' I told her it was from her cheerful +disengaged countenance. She said, 'Mem, have ye na far mair reason to be +happy than me, wi' a gude husband and a fine family o' bairns, and plenty +o' everything? for me, I'm the puirest o' a' puir bodies, and can hardly +contrive to keep mysell alive in a' the wee bits o' ways I hae tell't +ye.' After some more conversation, during which I was more and more +pleased with the old womans sensible conversation, and the /naivete/ of +her remarks, she rose to go away, when I asked her name. Her countenance +suddenly clouded, and she said gravely, rather colouring, 'My name is +Helen Walker; but your husband kens weel about me.' + +"In the evening I related how much I had been pleased, and inquired what +was extraordinary in the history of the poor woman. Mr.---- said, there +were perhaps few more remarkable people than Helen Walker. She had been +left an orphan, with the charge of a sister considerably younger than +herself, and who was educated and maintained by her exertions. Attached +to herby so many ties, therefore, it will not be easy to conceive her +feelings, when she found that this only sister must be tried by the laws +of her country for child-murder, and upon being called as principal +witness against her. The counsel for the prisoner told Helen, that if she +could declare that her sister had made any preparations, however slight, +or had given her any intimation on the subject, that such a statement +would save her sister's life, as she was the principal witness against +her. Helen said, 'It is impossible for me to swear to a falsehood; and, +whatever may be the consequence, I will give my oath according to my +conscience.' + +"The trial came on, and the sister was found guilty and condemned; but in +Scotland six weeks must elapse between the sentence and the execution, +and Helen Walker availed herself of it. The very day of her sister's +condemnation she got a petition drawn, stating the peculiar circumstances +of the case, and that very night set out on foot to London. + +"Without introduction or recommendation, with her simple (perhaps +ill-expressed) petition, drawn up by some inferior clerk of the court, +she presented herself, in her tartan plaid and country attire, to the +late Duke of Argyle, who immediately procured the pardon she petitioned +for, and Helen returned with it on foot just in time to save her sister. + +"I was so strongly interested by this narrative, that I determined +immediately to prosecute my acquaintance with Helen Walker; but as I was +to leave the country next day, I was obliged to defer it till my return +in spring, when the first walk I took was to Helen Walker's cottage. + +"She had died a short time before. My regret was extreme, and I +endeavoured to obtain some account of Helen from an old woman who +inhabited the other end of her cottage. I inquired if Helen ever spoke of +her past history--her journey to London, etc., 'Na,' the old woman said, +'Helen was a wily body, and whene'er ony o' the neebors asked anything +about it, she aye turned the conversation.' + +"In short, every answer I received only tended to increase my regret, and +raise my opinion of Helen Walker, who could unite so much prudence with +so much heroic virtue." + +This narrative was inclosed in the following letter to the author, +without date or signature-- + +"Sir,--The occurrence just related happened to me twenty-six years ago. +Helen Walker lies buried in the churchyard of Irongray, about six miles +from Dumfries. I once proposed that a small monument should have been +erected to commemorate so remarkable a character, but I now prefer +leaving it to you to perpetuate her memory in a more durable manner." + +The reader is now able to judge how far the author has improved upon, or +fallen short of, the pleasing and interesting sketch of high principle +and steady affection displayed by Helen Walker, the prototype of the +fictitious Jeanie Deans. Mrs. Goldie was unfortunately dead before the +author had given his name to these volumes, so he lost all opportunity of +thanking that lady for her highly valuable communication. But her +daughter, Miss Goldie, obliged him with the following additional +information:-- + +"Mrs. Goldie endeavoured to collect further particulars of Helen Walker, +particularly concerning her journey to London, but found this nearly +impossible; as the natural dignity of her character, and a high sense of +family respectability, made her so indissolubly connect her sister's +disgrace with her own exertions, that none of her neighbours durst ever +question her upon the subject. One old woman, a distant relation of +Helen's, and who is still living, says she worked an harvest with her, +but that she never ventured to ask her about her sister's trial, or her +journey to London; 'Helen,' she added, 'was a lofty body, and used a high +style o' language.' The same old woman says, that every year Helen +received a cheese from her sister, who lived at Whitehaven, and that she +always sent a liberal portion of it to herself, or to her father's +family. This fact, though trivial in itself, strongly marks the affection +subsisting between the two sisters, and the complete conviction on the +mind of the criminal that her sister had acted solely from high +principle, not from any want of feeling, which another small but +characteristic trait will further illustrate. A gentleman, a relation of +Mrs. Goldie's, who happened to be travelling in the North of England, on +coming to a small inn, was shown into the parlour by a female servant, +who, after cautiously shutting the door, said, 'Sir, I'm Nelly Walker's +sister.' Thus practically showing that she considered her sister as +better known by her high conduct than even herself by a different kind of +celebrity. + +"Mrs. Goldie was extremely anxious to have a tombstone and an inscription +upon it erected in Irongray Churchyard; and if Sir Walter Scott will +condescend to write the last, a little subscription could be easily +raised in the immediate neighbourhood, and Mrs. Goldie's wish be thus +fulfilled." + +It is scarcely necessary to add that the request of Miss Goldie will be +most willingly complied with, and without the necessity of any tax on the +public.* Nor is there much occasion to repeat how much the author +conceives himself obliged to his unknown correspondent, who thus supplied +him with a theme affording such a pleasing view of the moral dignity of +virtue, though unaided by birth, beauty, or talent. If the picture has +suffered in the execution, it is from the failure of the author's powers +to present in detail the same simple and striking portrait exhibited in +Mrs. Goldie's letter. + +Abbotsford, April 1, 1830. + +* [Note B. Tombstone to Helen Walker.] + + + + + POSTSCRIPT. + +Although it would be impossible to add much to Mrs. Goldie's picturesque +and most interesting account of Helen Walker, the prototype of the +imaginary Jeanie Deans, the Editor may be pardoned for introducing two or +three anecdotes respecting that excellent person, which he has collected +from a volume entitled, /Sketches from Nature,/ by John M'Diarmid, a +gentleman who conducts an able provincial paper in the town of Dumfries. + +Helen was the daughter of a small farmer in a place called Dalwhairn, in +the parish of Irongray; where, after the death of her father, she +continued, with the unassuming piety of a Scottish peasant, to support +her mother by her own unremitted labour and privations; a case so common, +that even yet, I am proud to say, few of my countrywomen would shrink +from the duty. + +Helen Walker was held among her equals /pensy,/ that is, proud or +conceited; but the facts brought to prove this accusation seem only to +evince a strength of character superior to those around her. Thus it was +remarked, that when it thundered, she went with her work and her Bible to +the front of the cottage, alleging that the Almighty could smite in the +city as well as in the field. + +Mr. M'Diarmid mentions more particularly the misfortune of her sister, +which he supposes to have taken place previous to 1736. Helen Walker, +declining every proposal of saving her relation's life at the expense of +truth, borrowed a sum of money sufficient for her journey, walked the +whole distance to London barefoot, and made her way to John Duke of +Argyle. She was heard to say, that, by the Almighty strength, she had +been enabled to meet the Duke at the most critical moment, which, if +lost, would have caused the inevitable forfeiture of her sister's life. + +Isabella, or Tibby Walker, saved from the fate which impended over her, +was married by the person who had wronged her (named Waugh), and lived +happily for great part of a century, uniformly acknowledging the +extraordinary affection to which she owed her preservation. + +Helen Walker died about the end of the year 1791, and her remains are +interred in the churchyard of her native parish of Irongray, in a +romantic cemetery on the banks of the Cairn. That a character so +distinguished for her undaunted love of virtue, lived and died in +poverty, if not want, serves only to show us how insignificant, in the +sight of Heaven, are our principal objects of ambition upon earth. + + + + + + INTRODUCTORY + + So down thy hill, romantic Ashbourn, glides + The Derby dilly, carrying six insides. + Frere. + +The times have changed in nothing more (we follow as we were wont the +manuscript of Peter Pattieson) than in the rapid conveyance of +intelligence and communication betwixt one part of Scotland and another. +It is not above twenty or thirty years, according to the evidence of many +credible witnesses now alive, since a little miserable horse-cart, +performing with difficulty a journey of thirty miles /per diem,/ carried +our mails from the capital of Scotland to its extremity. Nor was Scotland +much more deficient in these accommodations than our rich sister had been +about eighty years before. Fielding, in his Tom Jones, and Farquhar, in a +little farce called the Stage-Coach, have ridiculed the slowness of these +vehicles of public accommodation. According to the latter authority, the +highest bribe could only induce the coachman to promise to anticipate by +half-an-hour the usual time of his arrival at the Bull and Mouth. + +But in both countries these ancient, slow, and sure modes of conveyance +are now alike unknown; mail-coach races against mail-coach, and +high-flyer against high-flyer, through the most remote districts of +Britain. And in our village alone, three post-coaches, and four coaches +with men armed, and in scarlet cassocks, thunder through the streets each +day, and rival in brilliancy and noise the invention of the celebrated +tyrant:-- + + Demens, qui nimbos et non imitabile fulmen, + AEre et cornipedum pulsu, simularat, equorum. + +Now and then, to complete the resemblance, and to correct the presumption +of the venturous charioteers, it does happen that the career of these +dashing rivals of Salmoneus meets with as undesirable and violent a +termination as that of their prototype. It is on such occasions that the +Insides and Outsides, to use the appropriate vehicular phrases, have +reason to rue the exchange of the slow and safe motion of the ancient +Fly-coaches, which, compared with the chariots of Mr. Palmer, so ill +deserve the name. The ancient vehicle used to settle quietly down, like a +ship scuttled and left to sink by the gradual influx of the waters, while +the modern is smashed to pieces with the velocity of the same vessel +hurled against breakers, or rather with the fury of a bomb bursting at +the conclusion of its career through the air. The late ingenious Mr. +Pennant, whose humour it was to set his face in stern opposition to these +speedy conveyances, had collected, I have heard, a formidable list of +such casualties, which, joined to the imposition of innkeepers, whose +charges the passengers had no time to dispute, the sauciness of the +coachman, and the uncontrolled and despotic authority of the tyrant +called the guard, held forth a picture of horror, to which murder, theft, +fraud, and peculation, lent all their dark colouring. But that which +gratifies the impatience of the human disposition will be practised in +the teeth of danger, and in defiance of admonition; and, in despite of +the Cambrian antiquary, mail-coaches not only roll their thunders round +the base of Penman-Maur and Cader-Idris, but + + Frighted Skiddaw hears afar + The rattling of the unscythed car. + +And perhaps the echoes of Ben Nevis may soon be awakened by the bugle, +not of a warlike chieftain, but of the guard of a mail-coach. + +It was a fine summer day, and our little school had obtained a +half-holiday, by the intercession of a good-humoured visitor.* + +* His honour Gilbert Goslinn of Gandercleugh; for I love to be precise in +matters of importance.--J. C. + +I expected by the coach a new number of an interesting periodical +publication, and walked forward on the highway to meet it, with the +impatience which Cowper has described as actuating the resident in the +country when longing for intelligence from the mart of news.-- + + The grand debate, + The popular harangue,--the tart reply,-- + The logic, and the wisdom, and the wit, + And the loud laugh,--I long to know them all;-- + I burn to set the imprisoned wranglers free, + And give them voice and utterance again. + +It was with such feelings that I eyed the approach of the new coach, +lately established on our road, and known by the name of the Somerset, +which, to say truth, possesses some interest for me, even when it conveys +no such important information. The distant tremulous sound of its wheels +was heard just as I gained the summit of the gentle ascent, called the +Goslin-brae, from which you command an extensive view down the valley of +the river Gander. The public road, which comes up the side of that +stream, and crosses it at a bridge about a quarter of a mile from the +place where I was standing, runs partly through enclosures and +plantations, and partly through open pasture land. It is a childish +amusement perhaps,--but my life has been spent with children, and why +should not my pleasures be like theirs?--childish as it is then, I must +own I have had great pleasure in watching the approach of the carriage, +where the openings of the road permit it to be seen. The gay glancing of +the equipage, its diminished and toy-like appearance at a distance, +contrasted with the rapidity of its motion, its appearance and +disappearance at intervals, and the progressively increasing sounds that +announce its nearer approach, have all to the idle and listless +spectator, who has nothing more important to attend to, something of +awakening interest. The ridicule may attach to me, which is flung upon +many an honest citizen, who watches from the window of his villa the +passage of the stage-coach; but it is a very natural source of amusement +notwithstanding, and many of those who join in the laugh are perhaps not +unused to resort to it in secret. + +On the present occasion, however, fate had decreed that I should not +enjoy the consummation of the amusement by seeing the coach rattle past +me as I sat on the turf, and hearing the hoarse grating voice of the +guard as he skimmed forth for my grasp the expected packet, without the +carriage checking its course for an instant. I had seen the vehicle +thunder down the hill that leads to the bridge with more than its usual +impetuosity, glittering all the while by flashes from a cloudy tabernacle +of the dust which it had raised, and leaving a train behind it on the +road resembling a wreath of summer mist. But it did not appear on the top +of the nearer bank within the usual space of three minutes, which +frequent observation had enabled me to ascertain was the medium time for +crossing the bridge and mounting the ascent. When double that space had +elapsed, I became alarmed, and walked hastily forward. As I came in sight +of the bridge, the cause of delay was too manifest, for the Somerset had +made a summerset in good earnest, and overturned so completely, that it +was literally resting upon the ground, with the roof undermost, and the +four wheels in the air. The "exertions of the guard and coachman," both +of whom were gratefully commemorated in the newspapers, having succeeded +in disentangling the horses by cutting the harness, were now proceeding +to extricate the insides by a sort of summary and Caesarean process of +delivery, forcing the hinges from one of the doors which they could not +open otherwise. In this manner were two disconsolate damsels set at +liberty from the womb of the leathern conveniency. As they immediately +began to settle their clothes, which were a little deranged, as may be +presumed, I concluded they had received no injury, and did not venture to +obtrude my services at their toilette, for which, I understand, I have +since been reflected upon by the fair sufferers. The /outsides,/ who must +have been discharged from their elevated situation by a shock resembling +the springing of a mine, escaped, nevertheless, with the usual allowance +of scratches and bruises, excepting three, who, having been pitched into +the river Gander, were dimly seen contending with the tide like the +relics of AEneas's shipwreck,-- + + Rari apparent mantes in gurgite vasto. + +I applied my poor exertions where they seemed to be most needed, and with +the assistance of one or two of the company who had escaped unhurt, +easily succeeded in fishing out two of the unfortunate passengers, who +were stout active young fellows; and, but for the preposterous length of +their greatcoats, and the equally fashionable latitude and longitude of +their Wellington trousers, would have required little assistance from any +one. The third was sickly and elderly, and might have perished but for +the efforts used to preserve him. + +When the two greatcoated gentlemen had extricated themselves from the +river, and shaken their ears like huge water-dogs, a violent altercation +ensued betwixt them and the coachman and guard, concerning the cause of +their overthrow. In the course of the squabble, I observed that both my +new acquaintances belonged to the law, and that their professional +sharpness was likely to prove an overmatch for the surly and official +tone of the guardians of the vehicle. The dispute ended in the guard +assuring the passengers that they should have seats in a heavy coach +which would pass that spot in less than half-an-hour, provided it were +not full. Chance seemed to favour this arrangement, for when the expected +vehicle, arrived, there were only two places occupied in a carriage which +professed to carry six. The two ladies who had been disinterred out of +the fallen vehicle were readily admitted, but positive objections were +stated by those previously in possession to the admittance of the two +lawyers, whose wetted garments being much of the nature of well-soaked +sponges, there was every reason to believe they would refund a +considerable part of the water they had collected, to the inconvenience +of their fellow-passengers. On the other hand, the lawyers rejected a +seat on the roof, alleging that they had only taken that station for +pleasure for one stage, but were entitled in all respects to free egress +and regress from the interior, to which their contract positively +referred. After some altercation, in which something was said upon the +edict /Nautae caupones stabularii,/ the coach went off, leaving the +learned gentlemen to abide by their action of damages. + +They immediately applied to me to guide them to the next village and the +best inn; and from the account I gave them of the Wallace Head, declared +they were much better pleased to stop there than to go forward upon the +terms of that impudent scoundrel the guard of the Somerset. All that they +now wanted was a lad to carry their travelling bags, who was easily +procured from an adjoining cottage; and they prepared to walk forward, +when they found there was another passenger in the same deserted +situation with themselves. This was the elderly and sickly-looking +person, who had been precipitated into the river along with the two young +lawyers. He, it seems, had been too modest to push his own plea against +the coachman when he saw that of his betters rejected, and now remained +behind with a look of timid anxiety, plainly intimating that he was +deficient in those means of recommendation which are necessary passports +to the hospitality of an inn. + +I ventured to call the attention of the two dashing young blades, for +such they seemed, to the desolate condition of their fellow-traveller. +They took the hint with ready good-nature. + +"O, true, Mr. Dunover," said one of the youngsters, "you must not remain +on the pave' here; you must go and have some dinner with us--Halkit and I +must have a post-chaise to go on, at all events, and we will set you down +wherever suits you best." + +The poor man, for such his dress, as well as his diffidence, bespoke him, +made the sort of acknowledging bow by which says a Scotsman, "It's too +much honour for the like of me;" and followed humbly behind his gay +patrons, all three besprinkling the dusty road as they walked along with +the moisture of their drenched garments, and exhibiting the singular and +somewhat ridiculous appearance of three persons suffering from the +opposite extreme of humidity, while the summer sun was at its height, and +everything else around them had the expression of heat and drought. The +ridicule did not escape the young gentlemen themselves, and they had made +what might be received as one or two tolerable jests on the subject +before they had advanced far on their peregrination. + +"We cannot complain, like Cowley," said one of them, "that Gideon's +fleece remains dry, while all around is moist; this is the reverse of the +miracle." + +"We ought to be received with gratitude in this good town; we bring a +supply of what they seem to need most," said Halkit. + +"And distribute it with unparalleled generosity," replied his companion; +"performing the part of three water-carts for the benefit of their dusty +roads." + +"We come before them, too," said Halkit, "in full professional force-- +counsel and agent"-- + +"And client," said the young advocate, looking behind him; and then +added, lowering his voice, "that looks as if he had kept such dangerous +company too long." + +It was, indeed, too true, that the humble follower of the gay young men +had the threadbare appearance of a worn-out litigant, and I could not but +smile at the conceit, though anxious to conceal my mirth from the object +of it. + +When we arrived at the Wallace Inn, the elder of the Edinburgh gentlemen, +and whom I understood to be a barrister, insisted that I should remain +and take part of their dinner; and their inquiries and demands speedily +put my landlord and his whole family in motion to produce the best cheer +which the larder and cellar afforded, and proceed to cook it to the best +advantage, a science in which our entertainers seemed to be admirably +skilled. In other respects they were lively young men, in the hey-day of +youth and good spirits, playing the part which is common to the higher +classes of the law at Edinburgh, and which nearly resembles that of the +young Templars in the days of Steele and Addison. An air of giddy gaiety +mingled with the good sense, taste, and information which their +conversation exhibited; and it seemed to be their object to unite the +character of men of fashion and lovers of the polite arts. A fine +gentleman, bred up in the thorough idleness and inanity of pursuit, which +I understand is absolutely necessary to the character in perfection, +might in all probability have traced a tinge of professional pedantry +which marked the barrister in spite of his efforts, and something of +active bustle in his companion, and would certainly have detected more +than a fashionable mixture of information and animated interest in the +language of both. But to me, who had no pretensions to be so critical, my +companions seemed to form a very happy mixture of good-breeding and +liberal information, with a disposition to lively rattle, pun, and jest, +amusing to a grave man, because it is what he himself can least easily +command. + +The thin pale-faced man, whom their good-nature had brought into their +society, looked out of place as well as out of spirits; sate on the edge +of his seat, and kept the chair at two feet distance from the table; thus +incommoding himself considerably in conveying the victuals to his mouth, +as if by way of penance for partaking of them in the company of his +superiors. A short time after dinner, declining all entreaty to partake +of the wine, which circulated freely round, he informed himself of the +hour when the chaise had been ordered to attend; and saying he would be +in readiness, modestly withdrew from the apartment. + +"Jack," said the barrister to his companion, "I remember that poor +fellow's face; you spoke more truly than you were aware of; he really is +one of my clients, poor man." + +"Poor man!" echoed Halkit--"I suppose you mean he is your one and only +client?" + +"That's not my fault, Jack," replied the other, whose name I discovered +was Hardie. "You are to give me all your business, you know; and if you +have none, the learned gentleman here knows nothing can come of nothing." + +"You seem to have brought something to nothing though, in the case of +that honest man. He looks as if he were just about to honour with his +residence the Heart of Mid-Lothian." + +"You are mistaken--he is just delivered from it.--Our friend here looks +for an explanation. Pray, Mr. Pattieson, have you been in Edinburgh?" + +I answered in the affirmative. + +"Then you must have passed, occasionally at least, though probably not so +faithfully as I am doomed to do, through a narrow intricate passage, +leading out of the north-west corner of the Parliament Square, and +passing by a high and antique building with turrets and iron grates, + + Making good the saying odd, + 'Near the church and far from God'"-- + +Mr. Halkit broke in upon his learned counsel, to contribute his moiety to +the riddle--"Having at the door the sign of the Red man"-- + +"And being on the whole," resumed the counsellor interrupting his friend +in his turn, "a sort of place where misfortune is happily confounded with +guilt, where all who are in wish to get out"-- + +"And where none who have the good luck to be out, wish to get in," added +his companion. + +"I conceive you, gentlemen," replied I; "you mean the prison." + +"The prison," added the young lawyer--"You have hit it--the very reverend +Tolbooth itself; and let me tell you, you are obliged to us for +describing it with so much modesty and brevity; for with whatever +amplifications we might have chosen to decorate the subject, you lay +entirely at our mercy, since the Fathers Conscript of our city have +decreed that the venerable edifice itself shall not remain in existence +to confirm or to confute its." + +"Then the Tolbooth of Edinburgh is called the Heart of Mid-Lothian?" said +I. + +"So termed and reputed, I assure you." + +"I think," said I, with the bashful diffidence with which a man lets slip +a pun in presence of his superiors, "the metropolitan county may, in that +case, be said to have a sad heart." + +"Right as my glove, Mr. Pattieson," added Mr. Hardie; "and a close heart, +and a hard heart--Keep it up, Jack." + +"And a wicked heart, and a poor heart," answered Halkit, doing his best. + +"And yet it may be called in some sort a strong heart, and a high heart," +rejoined the advocate. "You see I can put you both out of heart." + +"I have played all my hearts," said the younger gentleman. + +"Then we'll have another lead," answered his companion.--"And as to the +old and condemned Tolbooth, what pity the same honour cannot be done to +it as has been done to many of its inmates. Why should not the Tolbooth +have its 'Last Speech, Confession, and Dying Words?' The old stones would +be just as conscious of the honour as many a poor devil who has dangled +like a tassel at the west end of it, while the hawkers were shouting a +confession the culprit had never heard of." + +"I am afraid," said I, "if I might presume to give my opinion, it would +be a tale of unvaried sorrow and guilt." + +"Not entirely, my friend," said Hardie; "a prison is a world within +itself, and has its own business, griefs, and joys, peculiar to its +circle. Its inmates are sometimes short-lived, but so are soldiers on +service; they are poor relatively to the world without, but there are +degrees of wealth and poverty among them, and so some are relatively rich +also. They cannot stir abroad, but neither can the garrison of a besieged +fort, or the crew of a ship at sea; and they are not under a dispensation +quite so desperate as either, for they may have as much food as they have +money to buy, and are not obliged to work, whether they have food or +not." + +"But what variety of incident," said I (not without a secret view to my +present task), "could possibly be derived from such a work as you are +pleased to talk of?" + +"Infinite," replied the young advocate. "Whatever of guilt, crime, +imposture, folly, unheard-of misfortunes, and unlooked-for change of +fortune, can be found to chequer life, my Last Speech of the Tolbooth +should illustrate with examples sufficient to gorge even the public's +all-devouring appetite for the wonderful and horrible. The inventor of +fictitious narratives has to rack his brains for means to diversify his +tale, and after all can hardly hit upon characters or incidents which +have not been used again and again, until they are familiar to the eye of +the reader, so that the development, /enle'vement,/ the desperate wound +of which the hero never dies, the burning fever from which the heroine is +sure to recover, become a mere matter of course. I join with my honest +friend Crabbe, and have an unlucky propensity to hope, when hope is lost, +and to rely upon the cork-jacket, which carries the heroes of romance +safe through all the billows of affliction." He then declaimed the +following passage, rather with too much than too little emphasis:-- + + + Much have I feared, but am no more afraid, + When some chaste beauty by some wretch betrayed, + Is drawn away with such distracted speed, + That she anticipates a dreadful deed. + Not so do I--Let solid walls impound + The captive fair, and dig a moat around; + Let there be brazen locks and bars of steel, + And keepers cruel, such as never feel; + With not a single note the purse supply, + And when she begs, let men and maids deny; + Be windows there from which she dare not fall, + And help so distant, 'tis in vain to call; + Still means of freedom will some Power devise, + And from the baffled ruffian snatch his prize. + +"The end of uncertainty," he concluded, "is the death of interest; and +hence it happens that no one now reads novels." + +"Hear him, ye gods!" returned his companion. "I assure you, Mr. +Pattieson, you will hardly visit this learned gentleman, but you are +likely to find the new novel most in repute lying on his table,--snugly +intrenched, however, beneath Stair's Institutes, or an open volume of +Morrison's Decisions." + +"Do I deny it?" said the hopeful jurisconsult, "or wherefore should I, +since it is well known these Delilahs seduce my wisers and my betters? +May they not be found lurking amidst the multiplied memorials of our most +distinguished counsel, and even peeping from under the cushion of a +judge's arm-chair? Our seniors at the bar, within the bar, and even on +the bench, read novels; and, if not belied, some of them have written +novels into the bargain. I only say, that I read from habit and from +indolence, not from real interest; that, like ancient Pistol devouring +his leek, I read and swear till I get to the end of the narrative. But +not so in the real records of human vagaries--not so in the State Trials, +or in the Books of Adjournal, where every now and then you read new pages +of the human heart, and turns of fortune far beyond what the boldest +novelist ever attempted to produce from the coinage of his brain." + +"And for such narratives," I asked, "you suppose the History of the +Prison of Edinburgh might afford appropriate materials?" + +"In a degree unusually ample, my dear sir," said Hardie--"Fill your +glass, however, in the meanwhile. Was it not for many years the place in +which the Scottish parliament met? Was it not James's place of refuge, +when the mob, inflamed by a seditious preacher, broke, forth, on him with +the cries of 'The sword of the Lord and of Gideon--bring forth the wicked +Haman?' Since that time how many hearts have throbbed within these walls, +as the tolling of the neighbouring bell announced to them how fast the +sands of their life were ebbing; how many must have sunk at the sound-- +how many were supported by stubborn pride and dogged resolution--how many +by the consolations of religion? Have there not been some, who, looking +back on the motives of their crimes, were scarce able to understand how +they should have had such temptation as to seduce them from virtue; and +have there not, perhaps, been others, who, sensible of their innocence, +were divided between indignation at the undeserved doom which they were +to undergo, consciousness that they had not deserved it, and racking +anxiety to discover some way in which they might yet vindicate +themselves? Do you suppose any of these deep, powerful, and agitating +feelings, can be recorded and perused without exciting a corresponding +depth of deep, powerful, and agitating interest?--Oh! do but wait till I +publish the /Causes Ce'le'bres/ of Caledonia, and you will find no want +of a novel or a tragedy for some time to come. The true thing will +triumph over the brightest inventions of the most ardent imagination. +/Magna est veritas, et praevalebit./" + +"I have understood," said I, encouraged by the affability of my rattling +entertainer, "that less of this interest must attach to Scottish +jurisprudence than to that of any other country. The general morality of +our people, their sober and prudent habits"---- + +"Secure them," said the barrister, "against any great increase of +professional thieves and depredators, but not against wild and wayward +starts of fancy and passion, producing crimes of an extraordinary +description, which are precisely those to the detail of which we listen +with thrilling interest. England has been much longer a highly civilised +country; her subjects have been very strictly amenable to laws +administered without fear or favour, a complete division of labour has +taken place among her subjects, and the very thieves and robbers form a +distinct class in society, subdivided among themselves according to the +subject of the depredations, and the mode in which they carry them on, +acting upon regular habits and principles, which can be calculated and +anticipated at Bow Street, Hatton Garden, or the Old Bailey. Our sister +kingdom is like a cultivated field,--the farmer expects that, in spite of +all his care, a certain number of weeds will rise with the corn, and can +tell you beforehand their names and appearance. But Scotland is like one +of her own Highland glens, and the moralist who reads the records of her +criminal jurisprudence, will find as many curious anomalous facts in the +history of mind, as the botanist will detect rare specimens among her +dingles and cliffs." + +"And that's all the good you have obtained from three perusals of the +Commentaries on Scottish Criminal Jurisprudence?" said his companion. "I +suppose the learned author very little thinks that the facts which his +erudition and acuteness have accumulated for the illustration of legal +doctrines, might be so arranged as to form a sort of appendix to the +half-bound and slip-shod volumes of the circulating library." + +"I'll bet you a pint of claret," said the elder lawyer, "that he will not +feel sore at the comparison. But as we say at the bar, 'I beg I may not +be interrupted;' I have much more to say, upon my Scottish collection of +/Causes Ce'le'bres./ You will please recollect the scope and motive given +for the contrivance and execution of many extraordinary and daring +crimes, by the long civil dissensions of Scotland--by the hereditary +jurisdictions, which, until 1748, rested the investigation of crises in +judges, ignorant, partial, or interested--by the habits of the gentry, +shut up in their distant and solitary mansion-houses, nursing their +revengeful Passions just to keep their blood from stagnating--not to +mention that amiable national qualification, called the /perfervidum +ingenium Scotorum,/ which our lawyers join in alleging as a reason for +the severity of some of our enactments. When I come to treat of matters +so mysterious, deep, and dangerous, as these circumstances have given +rise to, the blood of each reader shall be curdled, and his epidermis +crisped into goose skin.--But, hist!--here comes the landlord, with +tidings, I suppose, that the chaise is ready." + +It was no such thing--the tidings bore, that no chaise could be had that +evening, for Sir Peter Plyem had carried forward my landlord's two pairs +of horses that morning to the ancient royal borough of Bubbleburgh, to +look after his interest there. But as Bubbleburgh is only one of a set of +five boroughs which club their shares for a member of parliament, Sir +Peter's adversary had judiciously watched his departure, in order to +commence a canvass in the no less royal borough of Bitem, which, as all +the world knows, lies at the very termination of Sir Peter's avenue, and +has been held in leading-strings by him and his ancestors for time +immemorial. Now Sir Peter was thus placed in the situation of an +ambitious monarch, who, after having commenced a daring inroad into his +enemy's territories, is suddenly recalled by an invasion of his own +hereditary dominions. He was obliged in consequence to return from the +half-won borough of Bubbleburgh, to look after the half-lost borough of +Bitem, and the two pairs of horses which had carried him that morning to +Bubbleburgh were now forcibly detained to transport him, his agent, his +valet, his jester, and his hard-drinker, across the country to Bitem. The +cause of this detention, which to me was of as little consequence as it +may be to the reader, was important enough to my companions to reconcile +them to the delay. Like eagles, they smelled the battle afar off, ordered +a magnum of claret and beds at the Wallace, and entered at full career +into the Bubbleburgh and Bitem politics, with all the probable "Petitions +and complaints" to which they were likely to give rise. + +In the midst of an anxious, animated, and, to me, most unintelligible +discussion, concerning provosts, bailies, deacons, sets of boroughs, +leets, town-clerks, burgesses resident and non-resident, all of a sudden +the lawyer recollected himself. "Poor Dunover, we must not forget him;" +and the landlord was despatched in quest of the /pauvre honteux,/ with an +earnestly civil invitation to him for the rest of the evening. I could +not help asking the young gentlemen if they knew the history of this poor +man; and the counsellor applied himself to his pocket to recover the +memorial or brief from which he had stated his cause. + +"He has been a candidate for our /remedium miserabile,/" said Mr. Hardie, +"commonly called a /cessio bonorum./ As there are divines who have +doubted the eternity of future punishments, so the Scotch lawyers seem to +have thought that the crime of poverty might be atoned for by something +short of perpetual imprisonment. After a month's confinement, you must +know, a prisoner for debt is entitled, on a sufficient statement to our +Supreme Court, setting forth the amount of his funds, and the nature of +his misfortunes, and surrendering all his effects to his creditors, to +claim to be discharged from prison." + +"I had heard," I replied, "of such a humane regulation." + +"Yes," said Halkit, "and the beauty of it is, as the foreign fellow said, +you may get the /cessio,/ when the /bonorums/ are all spent--But what, +are you puzzling in your pockets to seek your only memorial among old +play-bills, letters requesting a meeting of the Faculty, rules of the +Speculative Society,* syllabus' of lectures--all the miscellaneous +contents of a young advocate's pocket, which contains everything but +briefs and bank-notes? + +* [A well-known debating club in Edinburgh.] + +Can you not state a case of /cessio/ without your memorial? Why, it is +done every Saturday. The events follow each other as regularly as +clock-work, and one form of condescendence might suit every one of them." + +"This is very unlike the variety of distress which this gentleman stated +to fall under the consideration of your judges," said I. + +"True," replied Halkit; "but Hardie spoke of criminal jurisprudence, and +this business is purely civil. I could plead a /cessio/ myself without +the inspiring honours of a gown and three-tailed periwig--Listen.--My +client was bred a journeyman weaver--made some little money--took a farm +--(for conducting a farm, like driving a gig, comes by nature)--late +severe times--induced to sign bills with a friend, for which he received +no value--landlord sequestrates--creditors accept a composition--pursuer +sets up a public-house--fails a second time--is incarcerated for a debt +of ten pounds seven shillings and sixpence--his debts amount to blank-- +his losses to blank--his funds to blank--leaving a balance of blank in +his favour. There is no opposition; your lordships will please grant +commission to take his oath." + +Hardie now renounced this ineffectual search, in which there was perhaps +a little affectation, and told us the tale of poor Dunover's distresses, +with a tone in which a degree of feeling, which he seemed ashamed of as +unprofessional, mingled with his attempts at wit, and did him more +honour. It was one of those tales which seem to argue a sort of ill-luck +or fatality attached to the hero. A well-informed, industrious, and +blameless, but poor and bashful man, had in vain essayed all the usual +means by which others acquire independence, yet had never succeeded +beyond the attainment of bare subsistence. During a brief gleam of hope, +rather than of actual prosperity, he had added a wife and family to his +cares, but the dawn was speedily overcast. Everything retrograded with +him towards the verge of the miry Slough of Despond, which yawns for +insolvent debtors; and after catching at each twig, and experiencing the +protracted agony of feeling them one by one elude his grasp, he actually +sunk into the miry pit whence he had been extricated by the professional +exertions of Hardie. + +"And, I suppose, now you have dragged this poor devil ashore, you will +leave him half naked on the beach to provide for himself?" said Halkit. +"Hark ye,"--and he whispered something in his ear, of which the +penetrating and insinuating words, "Interest with my Lord," alone reached +mine. + +"It is /pessimi exempli,/" said Hardie, laughing, "to provide for a +ruined client; but I was thinking of what you mention, provided it can be +managed--But hush! here he comes." + +The recent relation of the poor man's misfortunes had given him, I was +pleased to observe, a claim to the attention and respect of the young +men, who treated him with great civility, and gradually engaged him in a +conversation, which, much to my satisfaction, again turned upon the +/Causes Ce'le'bres/ of Scotland. Imboldened by the kindness with which he +was treated, Mr. Dunover began to contribute his share to the amusement +of the evening. Jails, like other places, have their ancient traditions, +known only to the inhabitants, and handed down from one set of the +melancholy lodgers to the next who occupy their cells. Some of these, +which Dunover mentioned, were interesting, and served to illustrate the +narratives of remarkable trials, which Hardie had at his finger-ends, and +which his companion was also well skilled in. This sort of conversation +passed away the evening till the early hour when Mr. Dunover chose to +retire to rest, and I also retreated to take down memorandums of what I +had learned, in order to add another narrative to those which it had been +my chief amusement to collect, and to write out in detail. The two young +men ordered a broiled bone, Madeira negus, and a pack of cards, and +commenced a game at picquet. + +Next morning the travellers left Gandercleugh. I afterwards learned from +the papers that both have been since engaged in the great political cause +of Bubbleburgh and Bitem, a summary case, and entitled to particular +despatch; but which, it is thought, nevertheless, may outlast the +duration of the parliament to which the contest refers. Mr. Halkit, as +the newspapers informed me, acts as agent or solicitor; and Mr. Hardie +opened for Sir Peter Plyem with singular ability, and to such good +purpose, that I understand he has since had fewer play-bills and more +briefs in his pocket. And both the young gentlemen deserve their good +fortune; for I learned from Dunover, who called on me some weeks +afterwards, and communicated the intelligence with tears in his eyes, +that their interest had availed to obtain him a small office for the +decent maintenance of his family; and that, after a train of constant and +uninterrupted misfortune, he could trace a dawn of prosperity to his +having the good fortune to be flung from the top of a mail-coach into the +river Gander, in company with an advocate and a writer to the Signet. The +reader will not perhaps deem himself equally obliged to the accident, +since it brings upon him the following narrative, founded upon the +conversation of the evening. + + + + THE HEART OF MIDLOTHIAN + + + + CHAPTER FIRST. + + + Whoe'er's been at Paris must needs know the Gre've, + The fatal retreat of the unfortunate brave, + Where honour and justice most oddly contribute, + To ease heroes' pains by an halter and gibbet. + + There death breaks the shackles which force had put on, + And the hangman completes what the judge but began; + There the squire of the poet, and knight of the post, + Find their pains no more baulked, and their hopes no more + crossed. + Prior. + +In former times, England had her Tyburn, to which the devoted victims of +justice were conducted in solemn procession up what is now called Oxford +Street. In Edinburgh, a large open street, or rather oblong square, +surrounded by high houses, called the Grassmarket, was used for the same +melancholy purpose. It was not ill chosen for such a scene, being of +considerable extent, and therefore fit to accommodate a great number of +spectators, such as are usually assembled by this melancholy spectacle. +On the other hand, few of the houses which surround it were, even in +early times, inhabited by persons of fashion; so that those likely to be +offended or over deeply affected by such unpleasant exhibitions were not +in the way of having their quiet disturbed by them. The houses in the +Grassmarket are, generally speaking, of a mean description; yet the place +is not without some features of grandeur, being overhung by the southern +side of the huge rock on which the Castle stands, and by the moss-grown +battlements and turreted walls of that ancient fortress. + +It was the custom, until within these thirty years or thereabouts, to use +this esplanade for the scene of public executions. The fatal day was +announced to the public by the appearance of a huge black gallows-tree +towards the eastern end of the Grassmarket. This ill-omened apparition +was of great height, with a scaffold surrounding it, and a double ladder +placed against it, for the ascent of the unhappy criminal and +executioner. As this apparatus was always arranged before dawn, it seemed +as if the gallows had grown out of the earth in the course of one night, +like the production of some foul demon; and I well remember the fright +with which the schoolboys, when I was one of their number, used to regard +these ominous signs of deadly preparation. On the night after the +execution the gallows again disappeared, and was conveyed in silence and +darkness to the place where it was usually deposited, which was one of +the vaults under the Parliament House, or courts of justice. This mode of +execution is now exchanged for one similar to that in front of Newgate,-- +with what beneficial effect is uncertain. The mental sufferings of the +convict are indeed shortened. He no longer stalks between the attendant +clergymen, dressed in his grave-clothes, through a considerable part of +the city, looking like a moving and walking corpse, while yet an +inhabitant of this world; but, as the ultimate purpose of punishment has +in view the prevention of crimes, it may at least be doubted, whether, in +abridging the melancholy ceremony, we have not in part diminished that +appalling effect upon the spectators which is the useful end of all such +inflictions, and in consideration of which alone, unless in very +particular cases, capital sentences can be altogether justified. + +On the 7th day of September 1736, these ominous preparations for +execution were descried in the place we have described, and at an early +hour the space around began to be occupied by several groups, who gazed +on the scaffold and gibbet with a stern and vindictive show of +satisfaction very seldom testified by the populace, whose good nature, in +most cases, forgets the crime of the condemned person, and dwells only on +his misery. But the act of which the expected culprit had been convicted +was of a description calculated nearly and closely to awaken and irritate +the resentful feelings of the multitude. The tale is well known; yet it +is necessary to recapitulate its leading circumstances, for the better +understanding what is to follow; and the narrative may prove long, but I +trust not uninteresting even to those who have heard its general issue. +At any rate, some detail is necessary, in order to render intelligible +the subsequent events of our narrative. + +Contraband trade, though it strikes at the root of legitimate government, +by encroaching on its revenues,--though it injures the fair trader, and +debauches the mind of those engaged in it,--is not usually looked upon, +either by the vulgar or by their betters, in a very heinous point of +view. On the contrary, in those countries where it prevails, the +cleverest, boldest, and most intelligent of the peasantry, are uniformly +engaged in illicit transactions, and very often with the sanction of the +farmers and inferior gentry. Smuggling was almost universal in Scotland +in the reigns of George I. and II.; for the people, unaccustomed to +imposts, and regarding them as an unjust aggression upon their ancient +liberties, made no scruple to elude them whenever it was possible to do +so. + +The county of Fife, bounded by two firths on the south and north, and by +the sea on the east, and having a number of small seaports, was long +famed for maintaining successfully a contraband trade; and, as there were +many seafaring men residing there, who had been pirates and buccaneers in +their youth, there were not wanting a sufficient number of daring men to +carry it on. Among these, a fellow called Andrew Wilson, originally a +baker in the village of Pathhead, was particularly obnoxious to the +revenue officers. He was possessed of great personal strength, courage, +and cunning,--was perfectly acquainted with the coast, and capable of +conducting the most desperate enterprises. On several occasions he +succeeded in baffling the pursuit and researches of the king's officers; +but he became so much the object of their suspicions and watchful +attention, that at length he was totally ruined by repeated seizures. The +man became desperate. He considered himself as robbed and plundered; and +took it into his head that he had a right to make reprisals, as he could +find opportunity. Where the heart is prepared for evil, opportunity is +seldom long wanting. This Wilson learned that the Collector of the +Customs at Kirkcaldy had come to Pittenweem, in the course of his +official round of duty, with a considerable sum of public money in his +custody. As the amount was greatly within the value of the goods which +had been seized from him, Wilson felt no scruple of conscience in +resolving to reimburse himself for his losses, at the expense of the +Collector and the revenue. He associated with himself one Robertson, and +two other idle young men, whom, having been concerned in the same illicit +trade, he persuaded to view the transaction in the same justifiable light +in which he himself considered it. They watched the motions of the +Collector; they broke forcibly into the house where he lodged,--Wilson, +with two of his associates, entering the Collector's apartment, while +Robertson, the fourth, kept watch at the door with a drawn cutlass in his +hand. The officer of the customs, conceiving his life in danger, escaped +out of his bedroom window, and fled in his shirt, so that the plunderers, +with much ease, possessed themselves of about two hundred pounds of +public money. The robbery was committed in a very audacious manner, for +several persons were passing in the street at the time. But Robertson, +representing the noise they heard as a dispute or fray betwixt the +Collector and the people of the house, the worthy citizens of Pittenweem +felt themselves no way called on to interfere in behalf of the obnoxious +revenue officer; so, satisfying themselves with this very superficial +account of the matter, like the Levite in the parable, they passed on the +opposite side of the way. An alarm was at length given, military were +called in, the depredators were pursued, the booty recovered, and Wilson +and Robertson tried and condemned to death, chiefly on the evidence of an +accomplice. + +Many thought that, in consideration of the men's erroneous opinion of the +nature of the action they had committed, justice might have been +satisfied with a less forfeiture than that of two lives. On the other +hand, from the audacity of the fact, a severe example was judged +necessary; and such was the opinion of the Government. When it became +apparent that the sentence of death was to be executed, files, and other +implements necessary for their escape, were transmitted secretly to the +culprits by a friend from without. By these means they sawed a bar out of +one of the prison-windows, and might have made their escape, but for the +obstinacy of Wilson, who, as he was daringly resolute, was doggedly +pertinacious of his opinion. His comrade, Robertson, a young and slender +man, proposed to make the experiment of passing the foremost through the +gap they had made, and enlarging it from the outside, if necessary, to +allow Wilson free passage. Wilson, however, insisted on making the first +experiment, and being a robust and lusty man, he not only found it +impossible to get through betwixt the bars, but, by his struggles, he +jammed himself so fast, that he was unable to draw his body back again. +In these circumstances discovery became unavoidable, and sufficient +precautions were taken by the jailor to prevent any repetition of the +same attempt. Robertson uttered not a word of reflection on his companion +for the consequences of his obstinacy; but it appeared from the sequel, +that Wilson's mind was deeply impressed with the recollection that, but +for him, his comrade, over whose mind he exercised considerable +influence, would not have engaged in the criminal enterprise which had +terminated thus fatally; and that now he had become his destroyer a +second time, since, but for his obstinacy, Robertson might have effected +his escape. Minds like Wilson's, even when exercised in evil practices, +sometimes retain the power of thinking and resolving with enthusiastic +generosity. His whole thoughts were now bent on the possibility of saving +Robertson's life, without the least respect to his own. The resolution +which he adopted, and the manner in which he carried it into effect, were +striking and unusual. + +Adjacent to the tolbooth or city jail of Edinburgh, is one of three +churches into which the cathedral of St. Giles is now divided, called, +from its vicinity, the Tolbooth Church. It was the custom that criminals +under sentence of death were brought to this church, with a sufficient +guard, to hear and join in public worship on the Sabbath before +execution. It was supposed that the hearts of these unfortunate persons, +however hardened before against feelings of devotion, could not but be +accessible to them upon uniting their thoughts and voices, for the last +time, along with their fellow-mortals, in addressing their Creator. And +to the rest of the congregation, it was thought it could not but be +impressive and affecting, to find their devotions mingling with those, +who, sent by the doom of an earthly tribunal to appear where the whole +earth is judged, might be considered as beings trembling on the verge of +eternity. The practice, however edifying, has been discontinued, in +consequence of the incident we are about to detail. + +The clergyman, whose duty it was to officiate in the Tolbooth Church, had +concluded an affecting discourse, part of which was particularly directed +to the unfortunate men, Wilson and Robertson, who were in the pew set +apart for the persons in their unhappy situation, each secured betwixt +two soldiers of the city guard. The clergyman had reminded them, that the +next congregation they must join would be that of the just, or of the +unjust; that the psalms they now heard must be exchanged, in the space of +two brief days, for eternal hallelujahs, or eternal lamentations; and +that this fearful alternative must depend upon the state to which they +might be able to bring their minds before the moment of awful +preparation: that they should not despair on account of the suddenness of +the summons, but rather to feel this comfort in their misery, that, +though all who now lifted the voice, or bent the knee in conjunction with +them, lay under the same sentence of certain death, /they/ only had the +advantage of knowing the precise moment at which it should be executed +upon them. "Therefore," urged the good man, his voice trembling with +emotion, "redeem the time, my unhappy brethren, which is yet left; and +remember, that, with the grace of Him to whom space and time are but as +nothing, salvation may yet be assured, even in the pittance of delay +which the laws of your country afford you." + +Robertson was observed to weep at these words; but Wilson seemed as one +whose brain had not entirely received their meaning, or whose thoughts +were deeply impressed with some different subject;--an expression so +natural to a person in his situation, that it excited neither suspicion +nor surprise. + +The benediction was pronounced as usual, and the congregation was +dismissed, many lingering to indulge their curiosity with a more fixed +look at the two criminals, who now, as well as their guards, rose up, as +if to depart when the crowd should permit them. A murmur of compassion +was heard to pervade the spectators, the more general, perhaps, on +account of the alleviating circumstances of the case; when all at once, +Wilson, who, as we have already noticed, was a very strong man, seized +two of the soldiers, one with each hand, and calling at the same time to +his companion, "Run, Geordie, run!" threw himself on a third, and +fastened his teeth on the collar of his coat. Robertson stood for a +second as if thunderstruck, and unable to avail himself of the +opportunity of escape; but the cry of "Run, run!" being echoed from many +around, whose feelings surprised them into a very natural interest in his +behalf, he shook off the grasp of the remaining soldier, threw himself +over the pew, mixed with the dispersing congregation, none of whom felt +inclined to stop a poor wretch taking his last chance for his life, +gained the door of the church, and was lost to all pursuit. + +The generous intrepidity which Wilson had displayed on this occasion +augmented the feeling of compassion which attended his fate. The public, +where their own prejudices are not concerned, are easily engaged on the +side of disinterestedness and humanity, admired Wilson's behaviour, and +rejoiced in Robertson's escape. This general feeling was so great, that +it excited a vague report that Wilson would be rescued at the place of +execution, either by the mob or by some of his old associates, or by some +second extraordinary and unexpected exertion of strength and courage on +his own part. The magistrates thought it their duty to provide against +the possibility of disturbance. They ordered out, for protection of the +execution of the sentence, the greater part of their own City Guard, +under the command of Captain Porteous, a man whose name became too +memorable from the melancholy circumstances of the day, and subsequent +events. It may be necessary to say a word about this person, and the +corps which he commanded. But the subject is of importance sufficient to +deserve another chapter. + + + + + CHAPTER SECOND. + + + And thou, great god of aquavitae! + Wha sways the empire of this city + (When fou we're sometimes capernoity), + + Be thou prepared, + To save us frae that black banditti, + + The City Guard! + Fergusson's /Daft Days./ + +Captain John Porteous, a name memorable in the traditions of Edinburgh, +as well as in the records of criminal jurisprudence, was the son of a +citizen of Edinburgh, who endeavoured to breed him up to his own +mechanical trade of a tailor. The youth, however, had a wild and +irreclaimable propensity to dissipation, which finally sent him to serve +in the corps long maintained in the service of the States of Holland, and +called the Scotch Dutch. Here he learned military discipline; and, +returning afterwards, in the course of an idle and wandering life, to his +native city, his services were required by the magistrates of Edinburgh +in the disturbed year 1715, for disciplining their City Guard, in which +he shortly afterwards received a captain's commission. It was only by his +military skill and an alert and resolute character as an officer of +police, that he merited this promotion, for he is said to have been a man +of profligate habits, an unnatural son, and a brutal husband. He was, +however, useful in his station, and his harsh and fierce habits rendered +him formidable to rioters or disturbers of the public peace. + +The corps in which he held his command is, or perhaps we should rather +say /was,/ a body of about one hundred and twenty soldiers divided into +three companies, and regularly armed, clothed, and embodied. They were +chiefly veterans who enlisted in this cogs, having the benefit of working +at their trades when they were off duty. These men had the charge of +preserving public order, repressing riots and street robberies, acting, +in short, as an armed police, and attending on all public occasions where +confusion or popular disturbance might be expected.* + +* The Lord Provost was ex-officio commander and colonel of the corps, +which might be increased to three hundred men when the times required it. +No other drum but theirs was allowed to sound on the High Street between +the Luckenbooths and the Netherbow. + +Poor Fergusson, whose irregularities sometimes led him into unpleasant +rencontres with these military conservators of public order, and who +mentions them so often that he may be termed their poet laureate,* thus +admonishes his readers, warned doubtless by his own experience:-- + +* [Robert Fergusson, the Scottish Poet, born 1750, died 1774.] + + "Gude folk, as ye come frae the fair, + Bide yont frae this black squad: + There's nae sic savages elsewhere + Allowed to wear cockad." + +In fact, the soldiers of the City Guard, being, as we have said, in +general discharged veterans, who had strength enough remaining for this +municipal duty, and being, moreover, for the greater part, Highlanders, +were neither by birth, education, nor former habits, trained to endure +with much patience the insults of the rabble, or the provoking petulance +of truant schoolboys, and idle debauchees of all descriptions, with whom +their occupation brought them into contact. On the contrary, the tempers +of the poor old fellows were soured by the indignities with which the mob +distinguished them on many occasions, and frequently might have required +the soothing strains of the poet we have just quoted-- + + "O soldiers! for your ain dear sakes, + For Scotland's love, the Land o' Cakes, + Gie not her bairns sic deadly paiks, + Nor be sae rude, + Wi' firelock or Lochaber-axe, + As spill their bluid!" + +On all occasions when a holiday licensed some riot and irregularity, a +skirmish with these veterans was a favourite recreation with the rabble +of Edinburgh. These pages may perhaps see the light when many have in +fresh recollection such onsets as we allude to. But the venerable corps, +with whom the contention was held, may now be considered as totally +extinct. Of late the gradual diminution of these civic soldiers reminds +one of the abatement of King Lear's hundred knights. The edicts of each +succeeding set of magistrates have, like those of Goneril and Regan, +diminished this venerable band with the similar question, "What need we +five-and-twenty?--ten?--or five?" And it is now nearly come to, "What +need one?" A spectre may indeed here and there still be seen, of an old +grey-headed and grey-bearded Highlander, with war-worn features, but bent +double by age; dressed in an old fashioned cocked-hat, bound with white +tape instead of silver lace; and in coat, waistcoat, and breeches, of a +muddy-coloured red, bearing in his withered hand an ancient weapon, +called a Lochaber-axe; a long pole, namely, with an axe at the extremity, +and a hook at the back of the hatchet.* + +* This hook was to enable the bearer of the Lochaber-axe to scale a +gateway, by grappling the top of the door, and swinging himself up by the +staff of his weapon. + +Such a phantom of former days still creeps, I have been informed, round +the statue of Charles the Second, in the Parliament Square, as if the +image of a Stuart were the last refuge for any memorial of our ancient +manners; and one or two others are supposed to glide around the door of +the guardhouse assigned to them in the Luckenbooths, when their ancient +refuge in the High Street was laid low.* + +* This ancient corps is now entirely disbanded. Their last march to do +duty at Hallowfair had something in it affecting. Their drums and fifes +had been wont on better days to play, on this joyous occasion, the lively +tune of "Jockey to the fair;" but on his final occasion the afflicted +veterans moved slowly to the dirge of + +"The last time I came ower the muir." + +But the fate of manuscripts bequeathed to friends and executors is so +uncertain, that the narrative containing these frail memorials of the old +Town Guard of Edinburgh, who, with their grim and valiant corporal, John +Dhu (the fiercest-looking fellow I ever saw), were, in my boyhood, the +alternate terror and derision of the petulant brood of the High School, +may, perhaps, only come to light when all memory of the institution has +faded away, and then serve as an illustration of Kay's caricatures, who +has preserved the features of some of their heroes. In the preceding +generation, when there was a perpetual alarm for the plots and activity +of the Jacobites, some pains were taken by the magistrates of Edinburgh +to keep this corps, though composed always of such materials as we have +noticed, in a more effective state than was afterwards judged necessary, +when their most dangerous service was to skirmish with the rabble on the +king's birthday. They were, therefore, more the objects of hatred, and +less that of scorn, than they were afterwards accounted. + +To Captain John Porteous, the honour of his command and of his corps +seems to have been a matter of high interest and importance. He was +exceedingly incensed against Wilson for the affront which he construed +him to have put upon his soldiers, in the effort he made for the +liberation of his companion, and expressed himself most ardently on the +subject. He was no less indignant at the report, that there was an +intention to rescue Wilson himself from the gallows, and uttered many +threats and imprecations upon that subject, which were afterwards +remembered to his disadvantage. In fact, if a good deal of determination +and promptitude rendered Porteous, in one respect, fit to command guards +designed to suppress popular commotion, he seems, on the other, to have +been disqualified for a charge so delicate, by a hot and surly temper, +always too ready to come to blows and violence; a character void of +principle; and a disposition to regard the rabble, who seldom failed to +regale him and his soldiers with some marks of their displeasure, as +declared enemies, upon whom it was natural and justifiable that he should +seek opportunities of vengeance. Being, however, the most active and +trustworthy among the captains of the City Guard, he was the person to +whom the magistrates confided the command of the soldiers appointed to +keep the peace at the time of Wilson's execution. He was ordered to guard +the gallows and scaffold, with about eighty men, all the disposable force +that could be spare for that duty. + +But the magistrates took farther precautions, which affected Porteous's +pride very deeply. They requested the assistance of part of a regular +infantry regiment, not to attend upon the execution, but to remain drawn +up on the principal street of the city, during the time that it went +forward, in order to intimidate the multitude, in case they should be +disposed to be unruly, with a display of force which could not be +resisted without desperation. It may sound ridiculous in our ears, +considering the fallen state of this ancient civic corps, that its +officer should have felt punctiliously jealous of its honour. Yet so it +was. Captain Porteous resented, as an indignity, the introducing the +Welsh Fusileers within the city, and drawing them up in the street where +no drums but his own were allowed to be sounded without the special +command or permission of the magistrates. As he could not show his +ill-humour to his patrons the magistrates, it increased his indignation +and his desire to be revenged on the unfortunate criminal Wilson, and all +who favoured him. These internal emotions of jealousy and rage wrought a +change on the man's mien and bearing, visible to all who saw him on the +fatal morning when Wilson was appointed to suffer. Porteous's ordinary +appearance was rather favourable. He was about the middle size, stout, +and well made, having a military air, and yet rather a gentle and mild +countenance. His complexion was brown, his face somewhat fretted with the +sears of the smallpox, his eyes rather languid than keen or fierce. On +the present occasion, however, it seemed to those who saw him as if he +were agitated by some evil demon. His step was irregular, his voice +hollow and broken, his countenance pale, his eyes staring and wild, his +speech imperfect and confused, and his whole appearance so disordered, +that many remarked he seemed to be /fey,/ a Scottish expression, meaning +the state of those who are driven on to their impending fate by the +strong impulse of some irresistible necessity. + +One part of his conduct was truly diabolical, if indeed it has not been +exaggerated by the general prejudice entertained against his memory. When +Wilson, the unhappy criminal, was delivered to him by the keeper of the +prison, in order that he might be conducted to the place of execution, +Porteous, not satisfied with the usual precautions to prevent escape, +ordered him to be manacled. This might be justifiable from the character +and bodily strength of the malefactor, as well as from the apprehensions +so generally entertained of an expected rescue. But the handcuffs which +were produced being found too small for the wrists of a man so big-boned +as Wilson, Porteous proceeded with his own hands, and by great exertion +of strength, to force them till they clasped together, to the exquisite +torture of the unhappy criminal. Wilson remonstrated against such +barbarous usage, declaring that the pain distracted his thoughts from the +subjects of meditation proper to his unhappy condition. + +"It signifies little," replied Captain Porteous; "your pain will soon be +at an end." + +"Your cruelty is great," answered the sufferer. "You know not how soon +you yourself may have occasion to ask the mercy which you are now +refusing to a fellow-creature. May God forgive you!" + +These words, long afterwards quoted and remembered, were all that passed +between Porteous and his prisoner; but as they took air, and became known +to the people, they greatly increased the popular compassion for Wilson, +and excited a proportionate degree of indignation against Porteous; +against whom, as strict, and even violent in the discharge of his +unpopular office, the common people had some real, and many imaginary +causes of complaint. + +When the painful procession was completed, and Wilson, with the escort, +had arrived at the scaffold in the Grassmarket, there appeared no signs +of that attempt to rescue him which had occasioned such precautions. The +multitude, in general, looked on with deeper interest than at ordinary +executions; and there might be seen, on the countenances of many, a stern +and indignant expression, like that with which the ancient Cameronians +might be supposed to witness the execution of their brethren, who +glorified the Covenant on the same occasion, and at the same spot. But +there was no attempt at violence. Wilson himself seemed disposed to +hasten over the space that divided time from eternity. The devotions +proper and usual on such occasions were no sooner finished than he +submitted to his fate, and the sentence of the law was fulfilled. + +He had been suspended on the gibbet so long as to be totally deprived of +life, when at once, as if occasioned by some newly received impulse, +there arose a tumult among the multitude. Many stones were thrown at +Porteous and his guards; some mischief was done; and the mob continued to +press forward with whoops, shrieks, howls, and exclamations. A young +fellow, with a sailor's cap slouched over his face, sprung on the +scaffold, and cut the rope by which the criminal was suspended. Others +approached to carry off the body, either to secure for it a decent grave, +or to try, perhaps, some means of resuscitation. Captain Porteous was +wrought, by this appearance of insurrection against his authority, into a +rage so headlong as made him forget, that, the sentence having been fully +executed, it was his duty not to engage in hostilities with the misguided +multitude, but to draw off his men as fast as possible. He sprung from +the scaffold, snatched a musket from one of his soldiers, commanded the +party to give fire, and, as several eye-witnesses concurred in swearing, +set them the example, by discharging his piece, and shooting a man dead +on the spot. Several soldiers obeyed his command or followed his example; +six or seven persons were slain, and a great many were hurt and wounded. + +After this act of violence, the Captain proceeded to withdraw his men +towards their guard-house in the High Street. The mob were not so much +intimidated as incensed by what had been done. They pursued the soldiers +with execrations, accompanied by volleys of stones. As they pressed on +them, the rearmost soldiers turned, and again fired with fatal aim and +execution. It is not accurately known whether Porteous commanded this +second act of violence; but of course the odium of the whole transactions +of the fatal day attached to him, and to him alone. He arrived at the +guard-house, dismissed his soldiers, and went to make his report to the +magistrates concerning the unfortunate events of the day. + +Apparently by this time Captain Porteous had began to doubt the propriety +of his own conduct, and the reception he met with from the magistrates +was such as to make him still more anxious to gloss it over. He denied +that he had given orders to fire; he denied he had fired with his own +hand; he even produced the fusee which he carried as an officer for +examination; it was found still loaded. Of three cartridges which he was +seen to put in his pouch that morning, two were still there; a white +handkerchief was thrust into the muzzle of the piece, and re-turned +unsoiled or blackened. To the defence founded on these circumstances it +was answered, that Porteous had not used his own piece, but had been seen +to take one from a soldier. Among the many who had been killed and +wounded by the unhappy fire, there were several of better rank; for even +the humanity of such soldiers as fired over the heads of the mere rabble +around the scaffold, proved in some instances fatal to persons who were +stationed in windows, or observed the melancholy scene from a distance. +The voice of public indignation was loud and general; and, ere men's +tempers had time to cool, the trial of Captain Porteous took place before +the High Court of Justiciary. After a long and patient hearing, the jury +had the difficult duty of balancing the positive evidence of many +persons, and those of respectability, who deposed positively to the +prisoner's commanding his soldiers to fire, and himself firing his piece, +of which some swore that they saw the smoke and flash, and beheld a man +drop at whom it was pointed, with the negative testimony of others, who, +though well stationed for seeing what had passed, neither heard Porteous +give orders to fire, nor saw him fire himself; but, on the contrary, +averred that the first shot was fired by a soldier who stood close by +him. A great part of his defence was also founded on the turbulence of +the mob, which witnesses, according to their feelings, their +predilections, and their opportunities of observation, represented +differently; some describing as a formidable riot, what others +represented as a trifling disturbance such as always used to take place +on the like occasions, when the executioner of the law, and the men +commissioned to protect him in his task, were generally exposed to some +indignities. The verdict of the jury sufficiently shows how the evidence +preponderated in their minds. It declared that John Porteous fired a gun +among the people assembled at the execution; that he gave orders to his +soldiers to fire, by which many persons were killed and wounded; but, at +the same time, that the prisoner and his guard had been wounded and +beaten, by stones thrown at them by the multitude. Upon this verdict, the +Lords of Justiciary passed sentence of death against Captain John +Porteous, adjudging him, in the common form, to be hanged on a gibbet at +the common place of execution, on Wednesday, 8th September 1736, and all +his movable property to be forfeited to the king's use, according to the +Scottish law in cases of wilful murder.* + +* The signatures affixed to the death-warrant of Captain Porteous were-- +Andrew Fletcher of Milton, Lord Justice-Clerk. +Sir James Mackenzie, Lord Royston. +David Erskine, Lord Dun. +Sir Walter Pringle, Lord Newhall. +Sir Gilbert Elliot, Lord Minto. + + + + + + CHAPTER THIRD. + + + "The hour's come, but not the man."* + +* There is a tradition, that while a little stream was swollen into a +torrent by recent showers, the discontented voice of the Water Spirit was +heard to pronounce these words. At the some moment a man, urged on by his +fate, or, in Scottish language, /fey,/ arrived at a gallop, and prepared +to cross the water. No remonstrance from the bystanders was of power to +stop him--he plunged into the stream, and perished. + + +Kelpie. + +On the day when the unhappy Porteous was expected to suffer the sentence +of the law, the place of execution, extensive as it is, was crowded +almost to suffocation. There was not a window in all the lofty tenements +around it, or in the steep and crooked street called the Bow, by which +the fatal procession was to descend from the High Street, that was not +absolutely filled with spectators. The uncommon height and antique +appearance of these houses, some of which were formerly the property of +the Knights Templars, and the Knights of St. John, and still exhibit on +their fronts and gables the iron cross of these orders, gave additional +effect to a scene in itself so striking. The area of the Grassmarket +resembled a huge dark lake or sea of human heads, in the centre of which +arose the fatal tree, tall, black, and ominous, from which dangled the +deadly halter. Every object takes interest from its uses and +associations, and the erect beam and empty noose, things so simple in +themselves, became, on such an occasion, objects of terror and of solemn +interest. + +Amid so numerous an assembly there was scarcely a word spoken, save in +whispers. The thirst of vengeance was in some degree allayed by its +supposed certainty; and even the populace, with deeper feeling than they +are wont to entertain, suppressed all clamorous exultation, and prepared +to enjoy the scene of retaliation in triumph, silent and decent, though +stern and relentless. It seemed as if the depth of their hatred to the +unfortunate criminal scorned to display itself in anything resembling the +more noisy current of their ordinary feelings. Had a stranger consulted +only the evidence of his ears, he might have supposed that so vast a +multitude were assembled for some purpose which affected them with the +deepest sorrow, and stilled those noises which, on all ordinary +occasions, arise from such a concourse; but if he had gazed upon their +faces, he would have been instantly undeceived. The compressed lip, the +bent brow, the stern and flashing eye of almost everyone on whom he +looked, conveyed the expression of men come to glut their sight with +triumphant revenge. It is probable that the appearance of the criminal +might have somewhat changed the temper of the populace in his favour, and +that they might in the moment of death have forgiven the man against whom +their resentment had been so fiercely heated. It had, however, been +destined, that the mutability of their sentiments was not to be exposed +to this trial. + +The usual hour for producing the criminal had been past for many minutes, +yet the spectators observed no symptom of his appearance. "Would they +venture to defraud public justice?" was the question which men began +anxiously to ask at each other. The first answer in every case was bold +and positive,--"They dare not." But when the point was further canvassed, +other opinions were entertained, and various causes of doubt were +suggested. Porteous had been a favourite officer of the magistracy of the +city, which, being a numerous and fluctuating body, requires for its +support a degree of energy in its functionaries, which the individuals +who compose it cannot at all times alike be supposed to possess in their +own persons. It was remembered, that in the Information for Porteous (the +paper, namely, in which his case was stated to the Judges of the criminal +court), he had been described by his counsel as the person on whom the +magistrates chiefly relied in all emergencies of uncommon difficulty. It +was argued, too, that his conduct, on the unhappy occasion of Wilson's +execution, was capable of being attributed to an imprudent excess of zeal +in the execution of his duty, a motive for which those under whose +authority he acted might be supposed to have great sympathy. And as these +considerations might move the magistrates to make a favourable +representation of Porteous's case, there were not wanting others in the +higher departments of Government, which would make such suggestions +favourably listened to. + +The mob of Edinburgh, when thoroughly excited, had been at all times one +of the fiercest which could be found in Europe; and of late years they +had risen repeatedly against the Government, and sometimes not without +temporary success. They were conscious, therefore, that they were no +favourites with the rulers of the period, and that, if Captain Porteous's +violence was not altogether regarded as good service, it might certainly +be thought, that to visit it with a capital punishment would render it +both delicate and dangerous for future officers, in the same +circumstances, to act with effect in repressing tumults. There is also a +natural feeling, on the part of all members of Government, for the +general maintenance of authority; and it seemed not unlikely, that what +to the relatives of the sufferers appeared a wanton and unprovoked +massacre, should be otherwise viewed in the cabinet of St. James's. It +might be there supposed, that upon the whole matter, Captain Porteous was +in the exercise of a trust delegated to him by the lawful civil +authority; that he had been assaulted by the populace, and several of his +men hurt; and that, in finally repelling force by force, his conduct +could be fairly imputed to no other motive than self-defence in the +discharge of his duty. + +These considerations, of themselves very powerful, induced the spectators +to apprehend the possibility of a reprieve; and to the various causes +which might interest the rulers in his favour, the lower part of the +rabble added one which was peculiarly well adapted to their +comprehension. It was averred, in order to increase the odium against +Porteous, that while he repressed with the utmost severity the slightest +excesses of the poor, he not only overlooked the license of the young +nobles and gentry, but was very willing to lend them the countenance of +his official authority, in execution of such loose pranks as it was +chiefly his duty to have restrained. This suspicion, which was perhaps +much exaggerated, made a deep impression on the minds of the populace; +and when several of the higher rank joined in a petition, recommending +Porteous to the mercy of the Crown, it was generally supposed he owed +their favour not to any conviction of the hardship of his case, but to +the fear of losing a convenient accomplice in their debaucheries. It is +scarcely necessary to say how much this suspicion augmented the people's +detestation of this obnoxious criminal, as well as their fear of his +escaping the sentence pronounced against him. + +While these arguments were stated and replied to, and canvassed and +supported, the hitherto silent expectation of the people became changed +into that deep and agitating murmur, which is sent forth by the ocean +before the tempest begins to howl. The crowded populace, as if their +motions had corresponded with the unsettled state of their minds, +fluctuated to and fro without any visible cause of impulse, like the +agitation of the waters, called by sailors the ground-swell. The news, +which the magistrates had almost hesitated to communicate to them, were +at length announced, and spread among the spectators with a rapidity like +lightning. A reprieve from the Secretary of State's office, under the +hand of his Grace the Duke of Newcastle, had arrived, intimating the +pleasure of Queen Caroline (regent of the kingdom during the absence of +George II. on the Continent), that the execution of the sentence of death +pronounced against John Porteous, late Captain-Lieutenant of the City +Guard of Edinburgh, present prisoner in the Tolbooth of that city, be +respited for six weeks from the time appointed for his execution. + +The assembled spectators of almost all degrees, whose minds had been +wound up to the pitch which we have described, uttered a groan, or rather +a roar of indignation and disappointed revenge, similar to that of a +tiger from whom his meal has been rent by his keeper when he was just +about to devour it. This fierce exclamation seemed to forbode some +immediate explosion of popular resentment, and, in fact, such had been +expected by the magistrates, and the necessary measures had been taken to +repress it. But the shout was not repeated, nor did any sudden tumult +ensue, such as it appeared to announce. The populace seemed to be ashamed +of having expressed their disappointment in a vain clamour, and the sound +changed, not into the silence which had preceded the arrival of these +stunning news, but into stifled mutterings, which each group maintained +among themselves, and which were blended into one deep and hoarse murmur +which floated above the assembly. + +Yet still, though all expectation of the execution was over, the mob +remained assembled, stationary, as it were, through very resentment, +gazing on the preparations for death, which had now been made in vain, +and stimulating their feelings, by recalling the various claims which +Wilson might have had on royal mercy, from the mistaken motives on which +he acted, as well as from the generosity he had displayed towards his +accomplice. "This man," they said,--"the brave, the resolute, the +generous, was executed to death without mercy for stealing a purse of +gold, which in some sense he might consider as a fair reprisal; while the +profligate satellite, who took advantage of a trifling tumult, +inseparable from such occasions, to shed the blood of twenty of his +fellow-citizens, is deemed a fitting object for the exercise of the royal +prerogative of mercy. Is this to be borne?--would our fathers have borne +it? Are not we, like them, Scotsmen and burghers of Edinburgh?" + +The officers of justice began now to remove the scaffold, and other +preparations which had been made for the execution, in hopes, by doing +so, to accelerate the dispersion of the multitude. The measure had the +desired effect; for no sooner had the fatal tree been unfixed from the +large stone pedestal or socket in which it was secured, and sunk slowly +down upon the wain intended to remove it to the place where it was +usually deposited, than the populace, after giving vent to their feelings +in a second shout of rage and mortification, began slowly to disperse to +their usual abodes and occupations. + +The windows were in like manner gradually deserted, and groups of the +more decent class of citizens formed themselves, as if waiting to return +homewards when the streets should be cleared of the rabble. Contrary to +what is frequently the case, this description of persons agreed in +general with the sentiments of their inferiors, and considered the cause +as common to all ranks. Indeed, as we have already noticed, it was by no +means amongst the lowest class of the spectators, or those most likely to +be engaged in the riot at Wilson's execution, that the fatal fire of +Porteous's soldiers had taken effect. Several persons were killed who +were looking out at windows at the scene, who could not of course belong +to the rioters, and were persons of decent rank and condition. The +burghers, therefore, resenting the loss which had fallen on their own +body, and proud and tenacious of their rights, as the citizens of +Edinburgh have at all times been, were greatly exasperated at the +unexpected respite of Captain Porteous. + +It was noticed at the time, and afterwards more particularly remembered, +that, while the mob were in the act of dispersing, several individuals +were seen busily passing from one place and one group of people to +another, remaining long with none, but whispering for a little time with +those who appeared to be declaiming most violently against the conduct of +Government. These active agents had the appearance of men from the +country, and were generally supposed to be old friends and confederates +of Wilson, whose minds were of course highly excited against Porteous. + +If, however, it was the intention of these men to stir the multitude to +any sudden act of mutiny, it seemed for the time to be fruitless. The +rabble, as well as the more decent part of the assembly, dispersed, and +went home peaceably; and it was only by observing the moody discontent on +their brows, or catching the tenor of the conversation they held with +each other, that a stranger could estimate the state of their minds. We +will give the reader this advantage, by associating ourselves with one of +the numerous groups who were painfully ascending the steep declivity of +the West Bow, to return to their dwellings in the Lawnmarket. + +"An unco thing this, Mrs. Howden," said old Peter Plumdamas to his +neighbour the rouping-wife, or saleswoman, as he offered her his arm to +assist her in the toilsome ascent, "to see the grit folk at Lunnon set +their face against law and gospel, and let loose sic a reprobate as +Porteous upon a peaceable town!" + +"And to think o' the weary walk they hae gien us," answered Mrs. Howden, +with a groan; "and sic a comfortable window as I had gotten, too, just +within a penny-stane-cast of the scaffold--I could hae heard every word +the minister said--and to pay twalpennies for my stand, and a' for +naething!" + +"I am judging," said Mr. Plumdamas, "that this reprieve wadna stand gude +in the auld Scots law, when the kingdom was a kingdom." + +"I dinna ken muckle about the law," answered Mrs. Howden; "but I ken, +when we had a king, and a chancellor, and parliament men o' our ain, we +could aye peeble them wi' stanes when they werena gude bairns--But +naebody's nails can reach the length o' Lunnon." + +"Weary on Lunnon, and a' that e'er came out o't!" said Miss Grizel +Damahoy, an ancient seamstress; "they hae taen away our parliament, and +they hae oppressed our trade. Our gentles will hardly allow that a Scots +needle can sew ruffles on a sark, or lace on an owerlay." + +"Ye may say that--Miss Damahoy, and I ken o' them that hae gotten raisins +frae Lunnon by forpits at ance," responded Plumdamas; "and then sic an +host of idle English gaugers and excisemen as hae come down to vex and +torment us, that an honest man canna fetch sae muckle as a bit anker o' +brandy frae Leith to the Lawnmarket, but he's like to be rubbit o' the +very gudes he's bought and paid for.--Weel, I winna justify Andrew Wilson +for pitting hands on what wasna his; but if he took nae mair than his +ain, there's an awfu' difference between that and the fact this man +stands for." + +"If ye speak about the law," said Mrs. Howden, "here comes Mr. +Saddletree, that can settle it as weel as ony on the bench." + +The party she mentioned, a grave elderly person, with a superb periwig, +dressed in a decent suit of sad-coloured clothes, came up as she spoke, +and courteously gave his arm to Miss Grizel Damahoy. + +It may be necessary to mention, that Mr. Bartoline Saddletree kept an +excellent and highly-esteemed shop for harness, saddles, &c. &c., at the +sign of the Golden Nag, at the head of Bess Wynd.* + +* [Maitland calls it Best's Wynd, and later writers Beth's Wynd. As the +name implies, it was an open thoroughfare or alley leading from the +Lawnmarket, and extended in a direct line between the old Tolbooth to +near the head of the Cowgate. It was partly destroyed by fire in 1786, +and was totally removed in 1809, preparatory to the building of the new +libraries of the Faculty of Advocates and writers to the Signet.] + +His genius, however (as he himself and most of his neighbours conceived), +lay towards the weightier matters of the law, and he failed not to give +frequent attendance upon the pleadings and arguments of the lawyers and +judges in the neighbouring square, where, to say the truth, he was +oftener to be found than would have consisted with his own emolument; but +that his wife, an active painstaking person, could, in his absence, make +an admirable shift to please the customers and scold the journeymen. This +good lady was in the habit of letting her husband take his way, and go on +improving his stock of legal knowledge without interruption; but, as if +in requital, she insisted upon having her own will in the domestic and +commercial departments which he abandoned to her. Now, as Bartoline +Saddletree had a considerable gift of words, which he mistook for +eloquence, and conferred more liberally upon the society in which he +lived than was at all times gracious and acceptable, there went forth a +saying, with which wags used sometimes to interrupt his rhetoric, that, +as he had a golden nag at his door, so he had a grey mare in his shop. +This reproach induced Mr. Saddletree, on all occasions, to assume rather +a haughty and stately tone towards his good woman, a circumstance by +which she seemed very little affected, unless he attempted to exercise +any real authority, when she never failed to fly into open rebellion. But +such extremes Bartoline seldom provoked; for, like the gentle King Jamie, +he was fonder of talking of authority than really exercising it. This +turn of mind was, on the whole, lucky for him; since his substance was +increased without any trouble on his part, or any interruption of his +favourite studies. + +This word in explanation has been thrown in to the reader, while +Saddletree was laying down, with great precision, the law upon Porteous's +case, by which he arrived at this conclusion, that, if Porteous had fired +five minutes sooner, before Wilson was cut down, he would have been +/versans in licito;/ engaged, that is, in a lawful act, and only liable +to be punished /propter excessum,/ or for lack of discretion, which might +have mitigated the punishment to /poena ordinaria./ + +"Discretion!" echoed Mrs. Howden, on whom, it may well be supposed, the +fineness of this distinction was entirely thrown away,--"whan had Jock +Porteous either grace, discretion, or gude manners?--I mind when his +father" + +"But, Mrs. Howden," said Saddletree-- + +"And I," said Miss Damahoy, "mind when his mother" + +"Miss Damahoy," entreated the interrupted orator + +"And I," said Plumdamas, "mind when his wife" + +"Mr. Plumdamas--Mrs. Howden--Miss Damahoy," again implored the orator,-- +"Mind the distinction, as Counsellor Crossmyloof says--'I,' says he, +'take a distinction.' Now, the body of the criminal being cut down, and +the execution ended, Porteous was no longer official; the act which he +came to protect and guard, being done and ended, he was no better than +/cuivis ex populo./" + +"/Quivis--quivis,/ Mr. Saddletree, craving your pardon," said (with a +prolonged emphasis on the first syllable) Mr. Butler, the +deputy-schoolmaster of a parish near Edinburgh, who at that moment came +up behind them as the false Latin was uttered. + +"What signifies interrupting me, Mr. Butler?--but I am glad to see ye +notwithstanding--I speak after Counsellor Crossmyloof, and he said +/cuivis./" + +"If Counsellor Crossmyloof used the dative for the nominative, I would +have crossed his loof with a tight leathern strap, Mr. Saddletree; there +is not a boy on the booby form but should have been scourged for such a +solecism in grammar." + +"I speak Latin like a lawyer, Mr. Butler, and not like a schoolmaster," +retorted Saddletree. + +"Scarce like a schoolboy, I think," rejoined Butler. + +"It matters little," said Bartoline; "all I mean to say is, that Porteous +has become liable to the /poena extra ordinem,/ or capital punishment-- +which is to say, in plain Scotch, the gallows--simply because he did not +fire when he was in office, but waited till the body was cut down, the +execution whilk he had in charge to guard implemented, and he himself +exonered of the public trust imposed on him." + +"But, Mr. Saddletree," said Plumdamas, "do ye really think John +Porteous's case wad hae been better if he had begun firing before ony +stanes were flung at a'?" + +"Indeed do I, neighbour Plumdamas," replied Bartoline, confidently, "he +being then in point of trust and in point of power, the execution being +but inchoat, or, at least, not implemented, or finally ended; but after +Wilson was cut down it was a' ower--he was clean exauctorate, and had nae +mair ado but to get awa wi' his guard up this West Bow as fast as if +there had been a caption after him--And this is law, for I heard it laid +down by Lord Vincovincentem." + +"Vincovincentem?--Is he a lord of state, or a lord of seat?" inquired +Mrs. Howden.* + +* A nobleman was called a Lord of State. The Senators of the College * of +Justice were termed Lords of Seat, or of the Session. + +"A lord of seat--a lord of session.--I fash mysell little wi' lords o' +state; they vex me wi' a wheen idle questions about their saddles, and +curpels, and holsters and horse-furniture, and what they'll cost, and +whan they'll be ready--a wheen galloping geese--my wife may serve the +like o' them." + +"And so might she, in her day, hae served the best lord in the land, for +as little as ye think o' her, Mr. Saddletree," said Mrs. Howden, somewhat +indignant at the contemptuous way in which her gossip was mentioned; +"when she and I were twa gilpies, we little thought to hae sitten doun +wi' the like o' my auld Davie Howden, or you either, Mr. Saddletree." + +While Saddletree, who was not bright at a reply, was cudgelling his +brains for an answer to this homethrust, Miss Damahoy broke in on him. + +"And as for the lords of state," said Miss Damahoy, "ye suld mind the +riding o' the parliament, Mr. Saddletree, in the gude auld time before +the Union,--a year's rent o' mony a gude estate gaed for horse-graith and +harnessing, forby broidered robes and foot-mantles, that wad hae stude by +their lane wi' gold brocade, and that were muckle in my ain line." + +"Ay, and then the lusty banqueting, with sweetmeats and comfits wet and +dry, and dried fruits of divers sorts," said Plumdamas. "But Scotland was +Scotland in these days." + +"I'll tell ye what it is, neighbours," said Mrs. Howden, "I'll ne'er +believe Scotland is Scotland ony mair, if our kindly Scots sit doun with +the affront they hae gien us this day. It's not only the blude that /is/ +shed, but the blude that might hae been shed, that's required at our +hands; there was my daughter's wean, little Eppie Daidle--my oe, ye ken, +Miss Grizel--had played the truant frae the school, as bairns will do, ye +ken, Mr. Butler" + +"And for which," interjected Mr. Butler, "they should be soundly scourged +by their well-wishers." + +"And had just cruppen to the gallows' foot to see the hanging, as was +natural for a wean; and what for mightna she hae been shot as weel as the +rest o' them, and where wad we a' hae been then? I wonder how Queen +Carline (if her name be Carline) wad hae liked to hae had ane o' her ain +bairns in sic a venture?" + +"Report says," answered Butler, "that such a circumstance would not have +distressed her majesty beyond endurance." + +"Aweel," said Mrs. Howden, "the sum o' the matter is, that, were I a man, +I wad hae amends o' Jock Porteous, be the upshot what like o't, if a' the +carles and carlines in England had sworn to the nay-say." + +"I would claw down the Tolbooth door wi' my nails," said Miss Grizel, +"but I wad be at him." + +"Ye may be very right, ladies," said Butler, "but I would not advise you +to speak so loud." + +"Speak!" exclaimed both the ladies together, "there will be naething else +spoken about frae the Weigh-house to the Water-gate, till this is either +ended or mended." + +The females now departed to their respective places of abode. Plumdamas +joined the other two gentlemen in drinking their /meridian/ (a +bumper-dram of brandy), as they passed the well-known low-browed shop in +the Lawnmarket, where they were wont to take that refreshment. Mr. +Plumdamas then departed towards his shop, and Mr. Butler, who happened to +have some particular occasion for the rein of an old bridle (the truants +of that busy day could have anticipated its application), walked down the +Lawnmarket with Mr. Saddletree, each talking as he could get a word +thrust in, the one on the laws of Scotland, the other on those of syntax, +and neither listening to a word which his companion uttered. + + + + + CHAPTER FOURTH. + + + Elswhair he colde right weel lay down the law, + But in his house was meek as is a daw. + Davie Lindsay. + +"There has been Jock Driver the carrier here, speering about his new +graith," said Mrs. Saddletree to her husband, as he crossed his +threshold, not with the purpose, by any means, of consulting him upon his +own affairs, but merely to intimate, by a gentle recapitulation, how much +duty she had gone through in his absence. + +"Weel," replied Bartoline, and deigned not a word more. + +"And the laird of Girdingburst has had his running footman here, and ca'd +himsell (he's a civil pleasant young gentleman), to see when the +broidered saddle-cloth for his sorrel horse will be ready, for he wants +it agane the Kelso races." + +"Weel, aweel," replied Bartoline, as laconically as before. + +"And his lordship, the Earl of Blazonbury, Lord Flash and Flame, is like +to be clean daft, that the harness for the six Flanders mears, wi' the +crests, coronets, housings, and mountings conform, are no sent hame +according to promise gien." + +"Weel, weel, weel--weel, weel, gudewife," said Saddletree, "if he gangs +daft, we'll hae him cognosced--it's a' very weel." + +"It's weel that ye think sae, Mr. Saddletree," answered his helpmate, +rather nettled at the indifference with which her report was received; +"there's mony ane wad hae thought themselves affronted, if sae mony +customers had ca'd and naebody to answer them but women-folk; for a' the +lads were aff, as soon as your back was turned, to see Porteous hanged, +that might be counted upon; and sae, you no being at hame" + +"Houts, Mrs. Saddletree," said Bartoline, with an air of consequence, +"dinna deave me wi' your nonsense; I was under the necessity of being +elsewhere--/non omnia/--as Mr. Crossmyloof said, when he was called by +two macers at once--/non omnia possumus--pessimus--possimis/--I ken our +law-latin offends Mr. Butler's ears, but it means, Naebody, an it were +the Lord President himsell, can do twa turns at ance." + +"Very right, Mr. Saddletree," answered his careful helpmate, with a +sarcastic smile; "and nae doubt it's a decent thing to leave your wife to +look after young gentlemen's saddles and bridles, when ye gang to see a +man, that never did ye nae ill, raxing a halter." + +"Woman," said Saddletree, assuming an elevated tone, to which the +/meridian/ had somewhat contributed, "desist,--I say forbear, from +intromitting with affairs thou canst not understand. D'ye think I was +born to sit here brogging an elshin through bend-leather, when sic men as +Duncan Forbes, and that other Arniston chield there, without muckle +greater parts, if the close-head speak true, than mysell maun be +presidents and king's advocates, nae doubt, and wha but they? Whereas, +were favour equally distribute, as in the days of the wight Wallace" + +"I ken naething we wad hae gotten by the wight Wallace," said Mrs. +Saddletree, "unless, as I hae heard the auld folk tell, they fought in +thae days wi' bend-leather guns, and then it's a chance but what, if he +had bought them, he might have forgot to pay for them. And as for the +greatness of your parts, Bartley, the folk in the close-head* maun ken +mair about them than I do, if they make sic a report of them." + +* [/Close-head,/ the entrance of a blind alley.] + +"I tell ye, woman," said Saddletree, in high dudgeon, "that ye ken +naething about these matters. In Sir William Wallace's days there was nae +man pinned down to sic a slavish wark as a saddler's, for they got ony +leather graith that they had use for ready-made out of Holland." + +"Well," said Butler, who was, like many of his profession, something of a +humorist and dry joker, "if that be the case, Mr. Saddletree, I think we +have changed for the better; since we make our own harness, and only +import our lawyers from Holland." + +"It's ower true, Mr. Butler," answered Bartoline, with a sigh; "if I had +had the luck--or rather, if my father had had the sense to send me to +Leyden and Utrecht to learn the Substitutes and Pandex" + +"You mean the Institutes--Justinian's Institutes, Mr. Saddletree?" said +Butler. + +"Institutes and substitutes are synonymous words, Mr. Butler, and used +indifferently as such in deeds of tailzie, as you may see in Balfour's +Practiques, or Dallas of St. Martin's Styles. I understand these things +pretty weel, I thank God but I own I should have studied in Holland." + +"To comfort you, you might not have been farther forward than you are +now, Mr. Saddletree," replied Mr. Butler; "for our Scottish advocates are +an aristocratic race. Their brass is of the right Corinthian quality, and +/Non cuivis contigit adire Corinthum/--Aha, Mr. Saddletree?" + +"And aha, Mr. Butler," rejoined Bartoline, upon whom, as may be well +supposed, the jest was lost, and all but the sound of the words, "ye said +a gliff syne it was /quivis,/ and now I heard ye say /cuivis/ with my ain +ears, as plain as ever I heard a word at the fore-bar." + +"Give me your patience, Mr. Saddletree, and I'll explain the discrepancy +in three words," said Butler, as pedantic in his own department, though +with infinitely more judgment and learning, as Bartoline was in his +self-assumed profession of the law--"Give me your patience for a moment +--You'll grant that the nominative case is that by which a person or +thing is nominated or designed, and which may be called the primary case, +all others being formed from it by alterations of the termination in the +learned languages, and by prepositions in our modern Babylonian jargons-- +You'll grant me that, I suppose, Mr. Saddletree?" + +"I dinna ken whether I will or no--/ad avisandum,/ ye ken--naebody should +be in a hurry to make admissions, either in point of law, or in point of +fact," said Saddletree, looking, or endeavouring to look, as if he +understood what was said. + +"And the dative case," continued Butler + +"I ken what a tutor dative is," said Saddletree, "readily enough." + +"The dative case," resumed the grammarian, "is that in which anything is +given or assigned as properly belonging to a person or thing--You cannot +deny that, I am sure." + +"I am sure I'll no grant it, though," said Saddletree. + +"Then, what the /deevil/ d'ye take the nominative and the dative cases to +be?" said Butler, hastily, and surprised at once out of his decency of +expression and accuracy of pronunciation. + +"I'll tell you that at leisure, Mr. Butler," said Saddletree, with a very +knowing look; "I'll take a day to see and answer every article of your +condescendence, and then I'll hold you to confess or deny as accords." + +"Come, come, Mr. Saddletree," said his wife, "we'll hae nae confessions +and condescendences here; let them deal in thae sort o' wares that are +paid for them--they suit the like o' us as all as a demipique saddle +would suit a draught ox." + +"Aha!" said Mr. Butler, "/Optat ephippia bos piger,/ nothing new under +the sun--But it was a fair hit of Mrs. Saddletree, however." + +"And it wad far better become ye, Mr. Saddletree," continued his +helpmate, "since ye say ye hae skeel o' the law, to try if ye can do +onything for Effie Deans, puir thing, that's lying up in the tolbooth +yonder, cauld, and hungry, and comfortless--A servant lass of ours, Mr. +Butler, and as innocent a lass, to my thinking, and as usefu' in the +shop--When Mr. Saddletree gangs out,--and ye're aware he's seldom at hame +when there's ony o' the plea-houses open,--poor Effie used to help me to +tumble the bundles o' barkened leather up and down, and range out the +gudes, and suit a' body's humours--And troth, she could aye please the +customers wi' her answers, for she was aye civil, and a bonnier lass +wasna in Auld Reekie. And when folk were hasty and unreasonable, she +could serve them better than me, that am no sae young as I hae been, Mr. +Butler, and a wee bit short in the temper into the bargain. For when +there's ower mony folks crying on me at anes, and nane but ae tongue to +answer them, folk maun speak hastily, or they'll ne'er get through their +wark--Sae I miss Effie daily." + +"/De die in diem,/" added Saddletree. + +"I think," said Butler, after a good deal of hesitation, "I have seen the +girl in the shop--a modest-looking, fair-haired girl?" + +"Ay, ay, that's just puir Effie," said her mistress. "How she was +abandoned to hersell, or whether she was sackless o' the sinful deed, God +in Heaven knows; but if she's been guilty, she's been sair tempted, and I +wad amaist take my Bible-aith she hasna been hersell at the time." + +Butler had by this time become much agitated; he fidgeted up and down the +shop, and showed the greatest agitation that a person of such strict +decorum could be supposed to give way to. "Was not this girl," he said, +"the daughter of David Deans, that had the parks at St. Leonard's taken? +and has she not a sister?" + +"In troth has she,--puir Jeanie Deans, ten years aulder than hersell; she +was here greeting a wee while syne about her tittie. And what could I say +to her, but that she behoved to come and speak to Mr. Saddletree when he +was at hame? It wasna that I thought Mr. Saddletree could do her or ony +ither body muckle good or ill, but it wad aye serve to keep the puir +thing's heart up for a wee while; and let sorrow come when sorrow maun." + +"Ye're mistaen though, gudewife," said Saddletree scornfully, "for I +could hae gien her great satisfaction; I could hae proved to her that her +sister was indicted upon the statute saxteen hundred and ninety, chapter +one--For the mair ready prevention of child-murder--for concealing her +pregnancy, and giving no account of the child which she had borne." + +"I hope," said Butler,--"I trust in a gracious God, that she can clear +herself." + +"And sae do I, Mr. Butler," replied Mrs. Saddletree. "I am sure I wad hae +answered for her as my ain daughter; but wae's my heart, I had been +tender a' the simmer, and scarce ower the door o' my room for twal weeks. +And as for Mr. Saddletree, he might be in a lying-in hospital, and ne'er +find out what the women cam there for. Sae I could see little or naething +o' her, or I wad hae had the truth o' her situation out o' her, I'se +warrant ye--But we a' think her sister maun be able to speak something to +clear her." + +"The haill Parliament House," said Saddletree, "was speaking o' naething +else, till this job o' Porteous's put it out o' head--It's a beautiful +point of presumptive murder, and there's been nane like it in the +Justiciar Court since the case of Luckie Smith the howdie, that suffered +in the year saxteen hundred and seventy-nine." + +"But what's the matter wi' you, Mr. Butler?" said the good woman; "ye are +looking as white as a sheet; will ye tak a dram?" + +"By no means," said Butler, compelling himself to speak. "I walked in +from Dumfries yesterday, and this is a warm day." + +"Sit down," said Mrs. Saddletree, laying hands on him kindly, "and rest +ye--yell kill yoursell, man, at that rate.--And are we to wish you joy o' +getting the scule, Mr. Butler?" + +"Yes--no--I do not know," answered the young man vaguely. But Mrs. +Saddletree kept him to point, partly out of real interest, partly from +curiosity. + +"Ye dinna ken whether ye are to get the free scule o' Dumfries or no, +after hinging on and teaching it a' the simmer?" + +"No, Mrs. Saddletree--I am not to have it," replied Butler, more +collectedly. "The Laird of Black-at-the-Bane had a natural son bred to +the kirk, that the Presbytery could not be prevailed upon to license; and +so" + +"Ay, ye need say nae mair about it; if there was a laird that had a puir +kinsman or a bastard that it wad suit, there's enough said.--And ye're +e'en come back to Liberton to wait for dead men's shoon?--and for as +frail as Mr. Whackbairn is, he may live as lang as you, that are his +assistant and successor." + +"Very like," replied Butler, with a sigh; "I do not know if I should wish +it otherwise." + +"Nae doubt, it's a very vexing thing," continued the good lady, "to be in +that dependent station; and you that hae right and title to sae muckle +better, I wonder how ye bear these crosses." + +"/Quos diligit castigat,/" answered Butler; "even the pagan Seneca could +see an advantage in affliction, The Heathens had their philosophy, and +the Jews their revelation, Mrs. Saddletree, and they endured their +distresses in their day. Christians have a better dispensation than +either--but doubtless" + +He stopped and sighed. + +"I ken what ye mean," said Mrs. Saddletree, looking toward her husband; +"there's whiles we lose patience in spite of baith book and Bible--But ye +are no gaun awa, and looking sae poorly--ye'll stay and take some kale +wi' us?" + +Mr. Saddletree laid aside Balfour's Practiques (his favourite study, and +much good may it do him), to join in his wife's hospitable importunity. +But the teacher declined all entreaty, and took his leave upon the spot. + +"There's something in a' this," said Mrs. Saddletree, looking after him +as he walked up the street; "I wonder what makes Mr. Butler sae +distressed about Effie's misfortune--there was nae acquaintance atween +them that ever I saw or heard of; but they were neighbours when David +Deans was on the Laird o' Dumbiedikes' land. Mr. Butler wad ken her +father, or some o' her folk.--Get up, Mr. Saddletree--ye have set +yoursell down on the very brecham that wants stitching--and here's little +Willie, the prentice.--Ye little rin-there-out deil that ye are, what +takes you raking through the gutters to see folk hangit?--how wad ye like +when it comes to be your ain chance, as I winna ensure ye, if ye dinna +mend your manners?--And what are ye maundering and greeting for, as if a +word were breaking your banes?--Gang in by, and be a better bairn another +time, and tell Peggy to gie ye a bicker o' broth, for ye'll be as gleg as +a gled, I'se warrant ye.--It's a fatherless bairn, Mr. Saddletree, and +motherless, whilk in some cases may be waur, and ane would take care o' +him if they could--it's a Christian duty." + +"Very true, gudewife," said Saddletree in reply, "we are /in loco +parentis/ to him during his years of pupillarity, and I hae had thoughts +of applying to the Court for a commission as factor /loco tutoris,/ +seeing there is nae tutor nominate, and the tutor-at-law declines to act; +but only I fear the expense of the procedure wad not be /in rem versam,/ +for I am not aware if Willie has ony effects whereof to assume the +administration." + +He concluded this sentence with a self-important cough, as one who has +laid down the law in an indisputable manner. + +"Effects!" said Mrs. Saddletree, "what effects has the puir wean?--he was +in rags when his mother died; and the blue polonie that Effie made for +him out of an auld mantle of my ain, was the first decent dress the bairn +ever had on. Poor Effie! can ye tell me now really, wi' a' your law, will +her life be in danger, Mr. Saddletree, when they arena able to prove that +ever there was a bairn ava?" + +"Whoy," said Mr. Saddletree, delighted at having for once in his life +seen his wife's attention arrested by a topic of legal discussion--"Whoy, +there are two sorts of /murdrum/ or /murdragium,/ or what you +/populariter et vulgariser/ call murther. I mean there are many sorts; +for there's your /murthrum per vigilias et insidias,/ and your /murthrum/ +under trust." + +"I am sure," replied his moiety, "that murther by trust is the way that +the gentry murther us merchants, and whiles make us shut the booth up-- +but that has naething to do wi' Effie's misfortune." + +"The case of Effie (or Euphemia) Deans," resumed Saddletree, "is one of +those cases of murder presumptive, that is, a murder of the law's +inferring or construction, being derived from certain /indicia/ or +grounds of suspicion." + +"So that," said the good woman, "unless poor Effie has communicated her +situation, she'll be hanged by the neck, if the bairn was still-born, or +if it be alive at this moment?" + +"Assuredly," said Saddletree, "it being a statute made by our Sovereign +Lord and Lady, to prevent the horrid delict of bringing forth children in +secret--The crime is rather a favourite of the law, this species of +murther being one of its ain creation." + +"Then, if the law makes murders," said Mrs. Saddletree, "the law should +be hanged for them; or if they wad hang a lawyer instead, the country wad +find nae faut." + +A summons to their frugal dinner interrupted the farther progress of the +conversation, which was otherwise like to take a turn much less +favourable to the science of jurisprudence and its professors, than Mr. +Bartoline Saddletree, the fond admirer of both, had at its opening +anticipated. + + + + + CHAPTER FIFTH. + + + But up then raise all Edinburgh. + They all rose up by thousands three. + Johnnie Armstrang's /Goodnight./ + +Butler, on his departure from the sign of the Golden Nag, went in quest +of a friend of his connected with the law, of whom he wished to make +particular inquiries concerning the circumstances in which the +unfortunate young woman mentioned in the last chapter was placed, having, +as the reader has probably already conjectured, reasons much deeper than +those dictated by mere humanity for interesting himself in her fate. He +found the person he sought absent from home, and was equally unfortunate +in one or two other calls which he made upon acquaintances whom he hoped +to interest in her story. But everybody was, for the moment, stark-mad on +the subject of Porteous, and engaged busily in attacking or defending the +measures of Government in reprieving him; and the ardour of dispute had +excited such universal thirst, that half the young lawyers and writers, +together with their very clerks, the class whom Butler was looking after, +had adjourned the debate to some favourite tavern. It was computed by an +experienced arithmetician, that there was as much twopenny ale consumed +on the discussion as would have floated a first-rate man-of-war. + +Butler wandered about until it was dusk, resolving to take that +opportunity of visiting the unfortunate young woman, when his doing so +might be least observed; for he had his own reasons for avoiding the +remarks of Mrs. Saddletree, whose shop-door opened at no great distance +from that of the jail, though on the opposite or south side of the +street, and a little higher up. He passed, therefore, through the narrow +and partly covered passage leading from the north-west end of the +Parliament Square. + +He stood now before the Gothic entrance of the ancient prison, which, as +is well known to all men, rears its ancient front in the very middle of +the High Street, forming, as it were, the termination to a huge pile of +buildings called the Luckenbooths, which, for some inconceivable reason, +our ancestors had jammed into the midst of the principal street of the +town, leaving for passage a narrow street on the north; and on the south, +into which the prison opens, a narrow crooked lane, winding betwixt the +high and sombre walls of the Tolbooth and the adjacent houses on the one +side, and the butresses and projections of the old Cathedral upon the +other. To give some gaiety to this sombre passage (well known by the name +of the Krames), a number of little booths, or shops, after the fashion of +cobblers' stalls, are plastered, as it were, against the Gothic +projections and abutments, so that it seemed as if the traders had +occupied with nests, bearing the same proportion to the building, every +buttress and coign of vantage, as the martlett did in Macbeth's Castle. +Of later years these booths have degenerated into mere toy-shops, where +the little loiterers chiefly interested in such wares are tempted to +linger, enchanted by the rich display of hobby-horses, babies, and Dutch +toys, arranged in artful and gay confusion; yet half-scared by the cross +looks of the withered pantaloon, or spectacled old lady, by whom these +tempting stores are watched and superintended. But, in the times we write +of, the hosiers, the glovers, the hatters, the mercers, the milliners, +and all who dealt in the miscellaneous wares now termed haberdasher's +goods, were to be found in this narrow alley. + +To return from our digression. Butler found the outer turnkey, a tall +thin old man, with long silver hair, in the act of locking the outward +door of the jail. He addressed himself to this person, and asked +admittance to Effie Deans, confined upon accusation of child-murder. The +turnkey looked at him earnestly, and, civilly touching his hat out of +respect to Butler's black coat and clerical appearance, replied, "It was +impossible any one could be admitted at present." + +"You shut up earlier than usual, probably on account of Captain +Porteous's affair?" said Butler. + +The turnkey, with the true mystery of a person in office, gave two grave +nods, and withdrawing from the wards a ponderous key of about two feet in +length, he proceeded to shut a strong plate of steel, which folded down +above the keyhole, and was secured by a steel spring and catch. Butler +stood still instinctively while the door was made fast, and then looking +at his watch, walked briskly up the street, muttering to himself, almost +unconsciously-- + + Porta adversa, ingens, solidoque adamante columnae; + Vis ut nulla virum, non ipsi exscindere ferro + Coelicolae valeant--Stat ferrea turris ad auras--etc.* + Dryden's /Virgil,/ Book vi. + +* Wide is the fronting gate, and, raised on high, With adamantine columns +threats the sky; Vain is the force of man, and Heaven's as vain, To crush +the pillars which the pile sustain: Sublime on these a tower of steel is +reard. + +Having wasted half-an-hour more in a second fruitless attempt to find his +legal friend and adviser, he thought it time to leave the city and return +to his place of residence, in a small village about two miles and a half +to the southward of Edinburgh. The metropolis was at this time surrounded +by a high wall, with battlements and flanking projections at some +intervals, and the access was through gates, called in the Scottish +language /ports,/ which were regularly shut at night. A small fee to the +keepers would indeed procure egress and ingress at any time, through a +wicket left for that purpose in the large gate; but it was of some +importance, to a man so poor as Butler, to avoid even this slight +pecuniary mulct; and fearing the hour of shutting the gates might be +near, he made for that to which he found himself nearest, although, by +doing so, he somewhat lengthened his walk homewards. Bristo Port was that +by which his direct road lay, but the West Port, which leads out of the +Grassmarket, was the nearest of the city gates to the place where he +found himself, and to that, therefore, he directed his course. He reached +the port in ample time to pass the circuit of the walls, and entered a +suburb called Portsburgh, chiefly inhabited by the lower order of +citizens and mechanics. Here he was unexpectedly interrupted. + +He had not gone far from the gate before he heard the sound of a drum, +and, to his great surprise, met a number of persons, sufficient to occupy +the whole front of the street, and form a considerable mass behind, +moving with great speed towards the gate he had just come from, and +having in front of them a drum beating to arms. While he considered how +he should escape a party, assembled, as it might be presumed, for no +lawful purpose, they came full on him and stopped him. + +"Are you a clergyman?" one questioned him. + +Butler replied that "he was in orders, but was not a placed minister." + +"It's Mr. Butler from Liberton," said a voice from behind, "he'll +discharge the duty as weel as ony man." + +"You must turn back with us, sir," said the first speaker, in a tone +civil but peremptory. + +"For what purpose, gentlemen?" said Mr. Butler. "I live at some distance +from town--the roads are unsafe by night--you will do me a serious injury +by stopping me." + +"You shall be sent safely home--no man shall touch a hair of your head-- +but you must and shall come along with us." + +"But to what purpose or end, gentlemen?" said Butler. "I hope you will be +so civil as to explain that to me." + +"You shall know that in good time. Come along--for come you must, by +force or fair means; and I warn you to look neither to the right hand nor +the left, and to take no notice of any man's face, but consider all that +is passing before you as a dream." + +"I would it were a dream I could awaken from," said Butler to himself; +but having no means to oppose the violence with which he was threatened, +he was compelled to turn round and march in front of the rioters, two men +partly supporting and partly holding him. During this parley the +insurgents had made themselves masters of the West Port, rushing upon the +Waiters (so the people were called who had the charge of the gates), and +possessing themselves of the keys. They bolted and barred the folding +doors, and commanded the person, whose duty it usually was, to secure the +wicket, of which they did not understand the fastenings. The man, +terrified at an incident so totally unexpected, was unable to perform his +usual office, and gave the matter up, after several attempts. The +rioters, who seemed to have come prepared for every emergency, called for +torches, by the light of which they nailed up the wicket with long nails, +which, it seemed probable, they had provided on purpose. + +While this was going on, Butler could not, even if he had been willing, +avoid making remarks on the individuals who seemed to lead this singular +mob. The torch-light, while it fell on their forms and left him in the +shade, gave him an opportunity to do so without their observing him. +Several of those who seemed most active were dressed in sailors' jackets, +trousers, and sea-caps; others in large loose-bodied greatcoats, and +slouched hats; and there were several who, judging from their dress, +should have been called women, whose rough deep voices, uncommon size, +and masculine, deportment and mode of walking, forbade them being so +interpreted. They moved as if by some well-concerted plan of arrangement. +They had signals by which they knew, and nicknames by which they +distinguished each other. Butler remarked, that the name of Wildfire was +used among them, to which one stout Amazon seemed to reply. + +The rioters left a small party to observe the West Port, and directed the +Waiters, as they valued their lives, to remain within their lodge, and +make no attempt for that night to repossess themselves of the gate. They +then moved with rapidity along the low street called the Cowgate, the mob +of the city everywhere rising at the sound of their drum, and joining +them. When the multitude arrived at the Cowgate Port, they secured it +with as little opposition as the former, made it fast, and left a small +party to observe it. It was afterwards remarked, as a striking instance +of prudence and precaution, singularly combined with audacity, that the +parties left to guard those gates did not remain stationary on their +posts, but flitted to and fro, keeping so near the gates as to see that +no efforts were made to open them, yet not remaining so long as to have +their persons closely observed. The mob, at first only about one hundred +strong, now amounted to thousands, and were increasing every moment. They +divided themselves so as to ascend with more speed the various narrow +lanes which lead up from the Cowgate to the High Street; and still +beating to arms as they went, an calling on all true Scotsmen to join +them, they now filled the principal street of the city. + +The Netherbow Port might be called the Temple Bar of Edinburgh, as, +intersecting the High Street at its termination, it divided Edinburgh, +properly so called, from the suburb named the Canongate, as Temple Bar +separates London from Westminster. It was of the utmost importance to the +rioters to possess themselves of this pass, because there was quartered +in the Canongate at that time a regiment of infantry, commanded by +Colonel Moyle, which might have occupied the city by advancing through +this gate, and would possess the power of totally defeating their +purpose. The leaders therefore hastened to the Netherbow Port, which they +secured in the same manner, and with as little trouble, as the other +gates, leaving a party to watch it, strong in proportion to the +importance of the post. + +The next object of these hardy insurgents was at once to disarm the City +Guard, and to procure arms for themselves; for scarce any weapons but +staves and bludgeons had been yet seen among them. The Guard-house was a +long, low, ugly building (removed in 1787), which to a fanciful +imagination might have suggested the idea of a long black snail crawling +up the middle of the High Street, and deforming its beautiful esplanade. +This formidable insurrection had been so unexpected, that there were no +more than the ordinary sergeant's guard of the city-corps upon duty; even +these were without any supply of powder and ball; and sensible enough +what had raised the storm, and which way it was rolling, could hardly be +supposed very desirous to expose themselves by a valiant defence to the +animosity of so numerous and desperate a mob, to whom they were on the +present occasion much more than usually obnoxious. + +There was a sentinel upon guard, who (that one town-guard soldier might +do his duty on that eventful evening) presented his piece, and desired +the foremost of the rioters to stand off. The young Amazon, whom Butler +had observed particularly active, sprung upon the soldier, seized his +musket, and after a struggle succeeded in wrenching it from him, and +throwing him down on the causeway. One or two soldiers, who endeavoured +to turn out to the support of their sentinel, were in the same manner +seized and disarmed, and the mob without difficulty possessed themselves +of the Guard-house, disarming and turning out of doors the rest of the +men on duty. It was remarked, that, notwithstanding the city soldiers had +been the instruments of the slaughter which this riot was designed to +revenge, no ill usage or even insult was offered to them. It seemed as if +the vengeance of the people disdained to stoop at any head meaner than +that which they considered as the source and origin of their injuries. + +On possessing themselves of the guard, the first act of the multitude was +to destroy the drums, by which they supposed an alarm might be conveyed +to the garrison in the castle; for the same reason they now silenced +their own, which was beaten by a young fellow, son to the drummer of +Portsburgh, whom they had forced upon that service. Their next business +was to distribute among the boldest of the rioters the guns, bayonets, +partisans, halberts, and battle or Lochaber axes. Until this period the +principal rioters had preserved silence on the ultimate object of their +rising, as being that which all knew, but none expressed. Now, however, +having accomplished all the preliminary parts of their design, they +raised a tremendous shout of "Porteous! Porteous! To the Tolbooth! To the +Tolbooth!" + +They proceeded with the same prudence when the object seemed to be nearly +in their grasp, as they had done hitherto when success was more dubious. +A strong party of the rioters, drawn up in front of the Luckenbooths, and +facing down the street, prevented all access from the eastward, and the +west end of the defile formed by the Luckenbooths was secured in the same +manner; so that the Tolbooth was completely surrounded, and those who +undertook the task of breaking it open effectually secured against the +risk of interruption. + +The magistrates, in the meanwhile, had taken the alarm, and assembled in +a tavern, with the purpose of raising some strength to subdue the +rioters. The deacons, or presidents of the trades, were applied to, but +declared there was little chance of their authority being respected by +the craftsmen, where it was the object to save a man so obnoxious. Mr. +Lindsay, member of parliament for the city, volunteered the perilous task +of carrying a verbal message, from the Lord Provost to Colonel Moyle, the +commander of the regiment lying in the Canongate, requesting him to force +the Netherbow Port, and enter the city to put down the tumult. But Mr. +Lindsay declined to charge himself with any written order, which, if +found on his person by an enraged mob, might have cost him his life; and +the issue, of the application was, that Colonel Moyle having no written +requisition from the civil authorities, and having the fate of Porteous +before his eyes as an example of the severe construction put by a jury on +the proceedings of military men acting on their own responsibility, +declined to encounter the risk to which the Provost's verbal +communication invited him. + +More than one messenger was despatched by different ways to the Castle, +to require the commanding officer to march down his troops, to fire a few +cannon-shot, or even to throw a shell among the mob, for the purpose of +clearing the streets. But so strict and watchful were the various patrols +whom the rioters had established in different parts of the streets, that +none of the emissaries of the magistrates could reach the gate of the +Castle. They were, however, turned back without either injury or insult, +and with nothing more of menace than was necessary to deter them from +again attempting to accomplish their errand. + +The same vigilance was used to prevent everybody of the higher, and those +which, in this case, might be deemed the more suspicious orders of +society, from appearing in the street, and observing the movements, or +distinguishing the persons, of the rioters. Every person in the garb of a +gentleman was stopped by small parties of two or three of the mob, who +partly exhorted, partly required of them, that they should return to the +place from whence they came. Many a quadrille table was spoilt that +memorable evening; for the sedan chairs of ladies; even of the highest +rank, were interrupted in their passage from one point to another, in +spite of the laced footmen and blazing flambeaux. This was uniformly done +with a deference and attention to the feelings of the terrified females, +which could hardly have been expected from the videttes of a mob so +desperate. Those who stopped the chair usually made the excuse, that +there was much disturbance on the streets, and that it was absolutely +necessary for the lady's safety that the chair should turn back. They +offered themselves to escort the vehicles which they had thus interrupted +in their progress, from the apprehension, probably, that some of those +who had casually united themselves to the riot might disgrace their +systematic and determined plan of vengeance, by those acts of general +insult and license which are common on similar occasions. + +Persons are yet living who remember to have heard from the mouths of +ladies thus interrupted on their journey in the manner we have described, +that they were escorted to their lodgings by the young men who stopped +them, and even handed out of their chairs, with a polite attention far +beyond what was consistent with their dress, which was apparently that of +journeymen mechanics.* + +* A near relation of the author's used to tell of having been stopped by +the rioters, and escorted home in the manner described. On reaching her +own home one of her attendants, in the appearance a /baxter/, a baker's +lad, handed her out of her chair, and took leave with a bow, which, in +the lady's opinion, argued breeding that could hardly be learned at the +oven's mouth. + +It seemed as if the conspirators, like those who assassinated Cardinal +Beatoun in former days, had entertained the opinion, that the work about +which they went was a judgment of Heaven, which, though unsanctioned by +the usual authorities, ought to be proceeded in with order and gravity. + +While their outposts continued thus vigilant, and suffered themselves +neither from fear nor curiosity to neglect that part of the duty assigned +to them, and while the main guards to the east and west secured them +against interruption, a select body of the rioters thundered at the door +of the jail, and demanded instant admission. No one answered, for the +outer keeper had prudently made his escape with the keys at the +commencement of the riot, and was nowhere to be found. The door was +instantly assailed with sledge-hammers, iron crows, and the coulters of +ploughs, ready provided for the purpose, with which they prized, heaved, +and battered for some time with little effect; for the door, besides +being of double oak planks, clenched, both endlong and athwart, with +broad-headed nails, was so hung and secured as to yield to no means of +forcing, without the expenditure of much time. The rioters, however, +appeared determined to gain admittance. Gang after gang relieved each +other at the exercise, for, of course, only a few could work at once; but +gang after gang retired, exhausted with their violent exertions, without +making much progress in forcing the prison door. Butler had been led up +near to this the principal scene of action; so near, indeed, that he was +almost deafened by the unceasing clang of the heavy fore-hammers against +the iron-bound portal of the prison. He began to entertain hopes, as the +task seemed protracted, that the populace might give it over in despair, +or that some rescue might arrive to disperse them. There was a moment at +which the latter seemed probable. + +The magistrates, having assembled their officers, and some of the +citizens who were willing to hazard themselves for the public +tranquillity, now sallied forth from the tavern where they held their +sitting, and approached the point of danger. Their officers went before +them with links and torches, with a herald to read the riot-act, if +necessary. They easily drove before them the outposts and videttes of the +rioters; but when they approached the line of guard which the mob, or +rather, we should say, the conspirators, had drawn across the street in +the front of the Luckenbooths, they were received with an unintermitted +volley of stones, and, on their nearer approach, the pikes, bayonets, and +Lochaber-axes, of which the populace had possessed themselves, were +presented against them. One of their ordinary officers, a strong resolute +fellow, went forward, seized a rioter, and took from him a musket; but, +being unsupported, he was instantly thrown on his back in the street, and +disarmed in his turn. The officer was too happy to be permitted to rise +and run away without receiving any farther injury; which afforded another +remarkable instance of the mode in which these men had united a sort of +moderation towards all others, with the most inflexible inveteracy +against the object of their resentment. The magistrates, after vain +attempts to make themselves heard and obeyed, possessing no means of +enforcing their authority, were constrained to abandon the field to the +rioters, and retreat in all speed from the showers of missiles that +whistled around their ears. + +The passive resistance of the Tolbooth gate promised to do more to baffle +the purpose of the mob than the active interference of the magistrates. +The heavy sledge-hammers continued to din against it without +intermission, and with a noise which, echoed from the lofty buildings +around the spot, seemed enough to have alarmed the garrison in the +Castle. It was circulated among the rioters, that the troops would march +down to disperse them, unless they could execute their purpose without +loss of time; or that, even without quitting the fortress, the garrison +might obtain the same end by throwing a bomb or two upon the street. + +Urged by such motives for apprehension, they eagerly relieved each other +at the labour of assailing the Tolbooth door: yet such was its strength, +that it still defied their efforts. At length, a voice was heard to +pronounce the words, "Try it with fire." The rioters, with an unanimous +shout, called for combustibles, and as all their wishes seemed to be +instantly supplied, they were soon in possession of two or three empty +tar-barrels. A huge red glaring bonfire speedily arose close to the door +of the prison, sending up a tall column of smoke and flame against its +antique turrets and strongly-grated windows, and illuminating the +ferocious and wild gestures of the rioters, who surrounded the place, as +well as the pale and anxious groups of those, who, from windows in the +vicinage, watched the progress of this alarming scene. The mob fed the +fire with whatever they could find fit for the purpose. The flames roared +and crackled among the heaps of nourishment piled on the fire, and a +terrible shout soon announced that the door had kindled, and was in the +act of being destroyed. The fire was suffered to decay, but, long ere it +was quite extinguished, the most forward of the rioters rushed, in their +impatience, one after another, over its yet smouldering remains. Thick +showers of sparkles rose high in the air, as man after man bounded over +the glowing embers, and disturbed them in their passage. It was now +obvious to Butler, and all others who were present, that the rioters +would be instantly in possession of their victim, and have it in their +power to work their pleasure upon him, whatever that might be.* + +* Note C. The Old Tolbooth. + + + + + CHAPTER SIXTH. + + + The evil you teach us, + We will execute; and it shall go hard, but we will + Better the instruction. + Merchant of Venice. + +The unhappy object of this remarkable disturbance had been that day +delivered from the apprehension of public execution, and his joy was the +greater, as he had some reason to question whether Government would have +run the risk of unpopularity by interfering in his favour, after he had +been legally convicted by the verdict of a jury, of a crime so very +obnoxious. Relieved from this doubtful state of mind, his heart was merry +within him, and he thought, in the emphatic words of Scripture on a +similar occasion, that surely the bitterness of death was past. Some of +his friends, however, who had watched the manner and behaviour of the +crowd when they were made acquainted with the reprieve, were of a +different opinion. They augured, from the unusual sternness and silence +with which they bore their disappointment, that the populace nourished +some scheme of sudden and desperate vengeance; and they advised Porteous +to lose no time in petitioning the proper authorities, that he might be +conveyed to the Castle under a sufficient guard, to remain there in +security until his ultimate fate should be determined. Habituated, +however, by his office, to overawe the rabble of the city, Porteous could +not suspect them of an attempt so audacious as to storm a strong and +defensible prison; and, despising the advice by which he might have been +saved, he spent the afternoon of the eventful day in giving an +entertainment to some friends who visited him in jail, several of whom, +by the indulgence of the Captain of the Tolbooth, with whom he had an old +intimacy, arising from their official connection, were even permitted to +remain to supper with him, though contrary to the rules of the jail. + +It was, therefore, in the hour of unalloyed mirth, when this unfortunate +wretch was "full of bread," hot with wine, and high in mistimed and +ill-grounded confidence, and alas! with all his sins full blown, when the +first distant' shouts of the rioters mingled with the song of merriment +and intemperance. The hurried call of the jailor to the guests, requiring +them instantly to depart, and his yet more hasty intimation that a +dreadful and determined mob had possessed themselves of the city gates +and guard-house, were the first explanation of these fearful clamours. + +Porteous might, however, have eluded the fury from which the force of +authority could not protect him, had he thought of slipping on some +disguise, and leaving the prison along with his guests. It is probable +that the jailor might have connived at his escape, or even that in the +hurry of this alarming contingency, he might not have observed it. But +Porteous and his friends alike wanted presence of mind to suggest or +execute such a plan of escape. The former hastily fled from a place where +their own safety seemed compromised, and the latter, in a state +resembling stupefaction, awaited in his apartment the termination of the +enterprise of the rioters. The cessation of the clang of the instruments +with which they had at first attempted to force the door, gave him +momentary relief. The flattering hopes, that the military had marched +into the city, either from the Castle or from the suburbs, and that the +rioters were intimidated, and dispersing, were soon destroyed by the +broad and glaring light of the flames, which, illuminating through the +grated window every corner of his apartment, plainly showed that the mob, +determined on their fatal purpose, had adopted a means of forcing +entrance equally desperate and certain. + +The sudden glare of light suggested to the stupified and astonished +object of popular hatred the possibility of concealment or escape. To +rush to the chimney, to ascend it at the risk of suffocation, were the +only means which seemed to have occurred to him; but his progress was +speedily stopped by one of those iron gratings, which are, for the sake +of security, usually placed across the vents of buildings designed for +imprisonment. The bars, however, which impeded his farther progress, +served to support him in the situation which he had gained, and he seized +them with the tenacious grasp of one who esteemed himself clinging to his +last hope of existence. The lurid light which had filled the apartment, +lowered and died away; the sound of shouts was heard within the walls, +and on the narrow and winding stair, which, eased within one of the +turrets, gave access to the upper apartments of the prison. The huzza of +the rioters was answered by a shout wild and desperate as their own, the +cry, namely, of the imprisoned felons, who, expecting to be liberated in +the general confusion, welcomed the mob as their deliverers. By some of +these the apartment of Porteous was pointed out to his enemies. The +obstacle of the lock and bolts was soon overcome, and from his hiding +place the unfortunate man heard his enemies search every corner of the +apartment, with oaths and maledictions, which would but shock the reader +if we recorded them, but which served to prove, could it have admitted of +doubt, the settled purpose of soul with which they sought his +destruction. + +A place of concealment so obvious to suspicion and scrutiny as that which +Porteous had chosen, could not long screen him from detection. He was +dragged from his lurking-place, with a violence which seemed to argue an +intention to put him to death on the spot. More than one weapon was +directed towards him, when one of the rioters, the same whose female +disguise had been particularly noticed by Butler, interfered in an +authoritative tone. "Are ye mad?" he said, "or would ye execute an act of +justice as if it were a crime and a cruelty? This sacrifice will lose +half its savour if we do not offer it at the very horns of the altar. We +will have him die where a murderer should die, on the common gibbet--We +will have him die where he spilled the blood of so many innocents!" + +A loud shout of applause followed the proposal, and the cry, "To the +gallows with the murderer!--to the Grassmarket with him!" echoed on all +hands. + +"Let no man hurt him," continued the speaker; "let him make his peace +with God, if he can; we will not kill both his soul and body." + +"What time did he give better folk for preparing their account?" answered +several voices. "Let us mete to him with the same measure he measured to +them." + +But the opinion of the spokesman better suited the temper of those he +addressed, a temper rather stubborn than impetuous, sedate though +ferocious, and desirous of colouring their cruel and revengeful action +with a show of justice and moderation. + +For an instant this man quitted the prisoner, whom he consigned to a +selected guard, with instructions to permit him to give his money and +property to whomsoever he pleased. A person confined in the jail for debt +received this last deposit from the trembling hand of the victim, who was +at the same time permitted to make some other brief arrangements to meet +his approaching fate. The felons, and all others who, wished to leave the +jail, were now at full liberty to do so; not that their liberation made +any part of the settled purpose of the rioters, but it followed as almost +a necessary consequence of forcing the jail doors. With wild cries of +jubilee they joined the mob, or disappeared among the narrow lanes to +seek out the hidden receptacles of vice and infamy, where they were +accustomed to lurk and conceal themselves from justice. + +Two persons, a man about fifty years old and a girl about eighteen, were +all who continued within the fatal walls, excepting two or three debtors, +who probably saw no advantage in attempting their escape. The persons we +have mentioned remained in the strong room of the prison, now deserted by +all others. One of their late companions in misfortune called out to the +man to make his escape, in the tone of an acquaintance. "Rin for it, +Ratcliffe--the road's clear." + +"It may be sae, Willie," answered Ratcliffe, composedly, "but I have taen +a fancy to leave aff trade, and set up for an honest man." + +"Stay there, and be hanged, then, for a donnard auld deevil!" said the +other, and ran down the prison stair. + +The person in female attire whom we have distinguished as one of the most +active rioters, was about the same time at the ear of the young woman. +"Flee, Effie, flee!" was all he had time to whisper. She turned towards +him an eye of mingled fear, affection, and upbraiding, all contending +with a sort of stupified surprise. He again repeated, "Flee, Effie, flee! +for the sake of all that's good and dear to you!" Again she gazed on him, +but was unable to answer. A loud noise was now heard, and the name of +Madge Wildfire was repeatedly called from the bottom of the staircase. + +"I am coming,--I am coming," said the person who answered to that +appellative; and then reiterating hastily, "For God's sake--for your own +sake--for my sake, flee, or they'll take your life!" he left the strong +room. + +The girl gazed after him for a moment, and then, faintly muttering, +"Better tyne life, since tint is gude fame," she sunk her head upon her +hand, and remained, seemingly, unconscious as a statue of the noise and +tumult which passed around her. + +That tumult was now transferred from the inside to the outside of the +Tolbooth. The mob had brought their destined victim forth, and were about +to conduct him to the common place of execution, which they had fixed as +the scene of his death. The leader, whom they distinguished by the name +of Madge Wildfire, had been summoned to assist at the procession by the +impatient shouts of his confederates. + +"I will insure you five hundred pounds," said the unhappy man, grasping +Wildfire's hand,--"five hundred pounds for to save my life." + +The other answered in the same undertone, and returning his grasp with +one equally convulsive, "Five hundredweight of coined gold should not +save you.--Remember Wilson!" + +A deep pause of a minute ensued, when Wildfire added, in a more composed +tone, "Make your peace with Heaven.--Where is the clergyman?" + +Butler, who in great terror and anxiety, had been detained within a few +yards of the Tolbooth door, to wait the event of the search after +Porteous, was now brought forward, and commanded to walk by the +prisoner's side, and to prepare him for immediate death. His answer was a +supplication that the rioters would consider what they did. "You are +neither judges nor jury," said he. "You cannot have, by the laws of God +or man, power to take away the life of a human creature, however +deserving he may be of death. If it is murder even in a lawful magistrate +to execute an offender otherwise than in the place, time, and manner +which the judges' sentence prescribes, what must it be in you, who have +no warrant for interference but your own wills? In the name of Him who is +all mercy, show mercy to this unhappy man, and do not dip your hands in +his blood, nor rush into the very crime which you are desirous of +avenging!" + +"Cut your sermon short--you are not in your pulpit," answered one of the +rioters. + +"If we hear more of your clavers," said another, "we are like to hang you +up beside him." + +"Peace--hush!" said Wildfire. "Do the good man no harm--he discharges his +conscience, and I like him the better." + +He then addressed Butler. "Now, sir, we have patiently heard you, and we +just wish you to understand, in the way of answer, that you may as well +argue to the ashlar-work and iron stanchels of the Tolbooth as think to +change our purpose--Blood must have blood. We have sworn to each other by +the deepest oaths ever were pledged, that Porteous shall die the death he +deserves so richly; therefore, speak no more to us, but prepare him for +death as well as the briefness of his change will permit." + +They had suffered the unfortunate Porteous to put on his night-gown and +slippers, as he had thrown off his coat and shoes, in order to facilitate +his attempted escape up the chimney. In this garb he was now mounted on +the hands of two of the rioters, clasped together, so as to form what is +called in Scotland, "The King's Cushion." Butler was placed close to his +side, and repeatedly urged to perform a duty always the most painful +which can be imposed on a clergyman deserving of the name, and now +rendered more so by the peculiar and horrid circumstances of the +criminal's case. Porteous at first uttered some supplications for mercy, +but when he found that there was no chance that these would be attended +to, his military education, and the natural stubbornness of his +disposition, combined to support his spirits. + +"Are you prepared for this dreadful end?" said Butler, in a faltering +voice. "O turn to Him, in whose eyes time and space have no existence, +and to whom a few minutes are as a lifetime, and a lifetime as a minute." + +"I believe I know what you would say," answered Porteous sullenly. "I was +bred a soldier; if they will murder me without time, let my sins as well +as my blood lie at their door." + +"Who was it," said the stern voice of Wildfire, "that said to Wilson at +this very spot, when he could not pray, owing to the galling agony of his +fetters, that his pains would soon be over?--I say to you to take your +own tale home; and if you cannot profit by the good man's lessons, blame +not them that are still more merciful to you than you were to others." + +The procession now moved forward with a slow and determined pace. It was +enlightened by many blazing, links and torches; for the actors of this +work were so far from affecting any secrecy on the occasion, that they +seemed even to court observation. Their principal leaders kept close to +the person of the prisoner, whose pallid yet stubborn features were seen +distinctly by the torch-light, as his person was raised considerably +above the concourse which thronged around him. Those who bore swords, +muskets, and battle-axes, marched on each side, as if forming a regular +guard to the procession. The windows, as they went along, were filled +with the inhabitants, whose slumbers had been broken by this unusual +disturbance. Some of the spectators muttered accents of encouragement; +but in general they were so much appalled by a sight so strange and +audacious, that they looked on with a sort of stupified astonishment. No +one offered, by act or word, the slightest interruption. + +The rioters, on their part, continued to act with the same air of +deliberate confidence and security which had marked all their +proceedings. When the object of their resentment dropped one of his +slippers, they stopped, sought for it, and replaced it upon his foot with +great deliberation.* + +* This little incident, characteristic of the extreme composure of this +extraordinary mob, was witnessed by a lady, who, disturbed like others +from her slumbers, had gone to the window. It was told to the Author by +the lady's daughter. + +As they descended the Bow towards the fatal spot where they designed to +complete their purpose, it was suggested that there should be a rope kept +in readiness. For this purpose the booth of a man who dealt in cordage +was forced open, a coil of rope fit for their purpose was selected to +serve as a halter, and the dealer next morning found that a guinea had +been left on his counter in exchange; so anxious were the perpetrators of +this daring action to show that they meditated not the slightest wrong or +infraction of law, excepting so far as Porteous was himself concerned. + +Leading, or carrying along with them, in this determined and regular +manner, the object of their vengeance, they at length reached the place +of common execution, the scene of his crime, and destined spot of his +sufferings. Several of the rioters (if they should not rather be +described as conspirators) endeavoured to remove the stone which filled +up the socket in which the end of the fatal tree was sunk when it was +erected for its fatal purpose; others sought for the means of +constructing a temporary gibbet, the place in which the gallows itself +was deposited being reported too secure to be forced, without much loss +of time. Butler endeavoured to avail himself of the delay afforded by +these circumstances, to turn the people from their desperate design. "For +God's sake," he exclaimed, "remember it is the image of your Creator +which you are about to deface in the person of this unfortunate man! +Wretched as he is, and wicked as he may be, he has a share in every +promise of Scripture, and you cannot destroy him in impenitence without +blotting his name from the Book of Life--Do not destroy soul and body; +give time for preparation." + +"What time had they," returned a stern voice, "whom he murdered on this +very spot?--The laws both of God and man call for his death." + +"But what, my friends," insisted Butler, with a generous disregard to his +own safety--"what hath constituted you his judges?" + +"We are not his judges," replied the same person; "he has been already +judged and condemned by lawful authority. We are those whom Heaven, and +our righteous anger, have stirred up to execute judgment, when a corrupt +Government would have protected a murderer." + +"I am none," said the unfortunate Porteous; "that which you charge upon +me fell out in self-defence, in the lawful exercise of my duty." + +"Away with him--away with him!" was the general cry. + +"Why do you trifle away time in making a gallows?--that dyester's pole is +good enough for the homicide." + +The unhappy man was forced to his fate with remorseless rapidity. Butler, +separated from him by the press, escaped the last horrors of his +struggles. Unnoticed by those who had hitherto detained him as a +prisoner,--he fled from the fatal spot, without much caring in what +direction his course lay. A loud shout proclaimed the stern delight with +which the agents of this deed regarded its completion. Butler, then, at +the opening into the low street called the Cowgate, cast back a terrified +glance, and, by the red and dusky light of the torches, he could discern +a figure wavering and struggling as it hung suspended above the heads of +the multitude, and could even observe men striking at it with their +Lochaber-axes and partisans. The sight was of a nature to double his +horror, and to add wings to his flight. + +The street down which the fugitive ran opens to one of the eastern ports +or gates of the city. Butler did not stop till he reached it, but found +it still shut. He waited nearly an hour, walking up and down in +inexpressible perturbation of mind. At length he ventured to call out, +and rouse the attention of the terrified keepers of the gate, who now +found themselves at liberty to resume their office without interruption. +Butler requested them to open the gate. They hesitated. He told them his +name and occupation. + +"He is a preacher," said one; "I have heard him preach in Haddo's-hole." + +"A fine preaching has he been at the night," said another "but maybe +least said is sunest mended." + +Opening then the wicket of the main gate, the keepers suffered Butler to +depart, who hastened to carry his horror and fear beyond the walls of +Edinburgh. His first purpose was instantly to take the road homeward; but +other fears and cares, connected with the news he had learned in that +remarkable day, induced him to linger in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh +until daybreak. More than one group of persons passed him as he was +whiling away the hours of darkness that yet remained, whom, from the +stifled tones of their discourse, the unwonted hour when they travelled, +and the hasty pace at which they walked, he conjectured to have been +engaged in the late fatal transaction. + +Certain it was, that the sudden and total dispersion of the rioters, when +their vindictive purpose was accomplished, seemed not the least +remarkable feature of this singular affair. In general, whatever may be +the impelling motive by which a mob is at first raised, the attainment of +their object has usually been only found to lead the way to farther +excesses. But not so in the present case. They seemed completely satiated +with the vengeance they had prosecuted with such stanch and sagacious +activity. When they were fully satisfied that life had abandoned their +victim, they dispersed in every direction, throwing down the weapons +which they had only assumed to enable them to carry through their +purpose. At daybreak there remained not the least token of the events of +the night, excepting the corpse of Porteous, which still hung suspended +in the place where he had suffered, and the arms of various kinds which +the rioters had taken from the city guard-house, which were found +scattered about the streets as they had thrown them from their hands when +the purpose for which they had seized them was accomplished. + +The ordinary magistrates of the city resumed their power, not without +trembling at the late experience of the fragility of its tenure. To march +troops into the city, and commence a severe inquiry into the transactions +of the preceding night, were the first marks of returning energy which +they displayed. But these events had been conducted on so secure and +well-calculated a plan of safety and secrecy, that there was little or +nothing learned to throw light upon the authors or principal actors in a +scheme so audacious. An express was despatched to London with the +tidings, where they excited great indignation and surprise in the council +of regency, and particularly in the bosom of Queen Caroline, who +considered her own authority as exposed to contempt by the success of +this singular conspiracy. Nothing was spoke of for some time save the +measure of vengeance which should be taken, not only on the actors of +this tragedy, so soon as they should be discovered, but upon the +magistrates who had suffered it to take place, and upon the city which +had been the scene where it was exhibited. On this occasion, it is still +recorded in popular tradition, that her Majesty, in the height of her +displeasure, told the celebrated John Duke of Argyle, that, sooner than +submit to such an insult, she would make Scotland a hunting-field. "In +that case, Madam," answered that high-spirited nobleman, with a profound +bow, "I will take leave of your Majesty, and go down to my own country to +get my hounds ready." + +The import of the reply had more than met the ear; and as most of the +Scottish nobility and gentry seemed actuated by the same national spirit, +the royal displeasure was necessarily checked in mid-volley, and milder +courses were recommended and adopted, to some of which we may hereafter +have occasion to advert.* + +* Note D. Memorial concerning the murder of Captain Porteous. + + + + + CHAPTER SEVENTH + + + Arthur's Seat shall be my bed, + The sheets shall ne'er be pressed by me, + St. Anton's well shall be my drink, + Sin' my true-love's forsaken me. + Old Song. + +If I were to choose a spot from which the rising or setting sun could be +seen to the greatest possible advantage, it would be that wild path +winding around the foot of the high belt of semicircular rocks, called +Salisbury Crags, and marking the verge of the steep descent which slopes +down into the glen on the south-eastern side of the city of Edinburgh. +The prospect, in its general outline, commands a close-built, high-piled +city, stretching itself out beneath in a form, which, to a romantic +imagination, may be supposed to represent that of a dragon; now, a noble +arm of the sea, with its rocks, isles, distant shores, and boundary of +mountains; and now, a fair and fertile champaign country, varied with +hill, dale, and rock, and skirted by the picturesque ridge of the +Pentland mountains. But as the path gently circles around the base of the +cliffs, the prospect, composed as it is of these enchanting and sublime +objects, changes at every step, and presents them blended with, or +divided from, each other, in every possible variety which can gratify the +eye and the imagination. When a piece of scenery so beautiful, yet so +varied,--so exciting by its intricacy, and yet so sublime,--is lighted up +by the tints of morning or of evening, and displays all that variety of +shadowy depth, exchanged with partial brilliancy, which gives character +even to the tamest of landscapes, the effect approaches near to +enchantment. This path used to be my favourite evening and morning +resort, when engaged with a favourite author, or new subject of study. It +is, I am informed, now become totally impassable; a circumstance which, +if true, reflects little credit on the taste of the Good Town or its +leaders.* + +* A beautiful and solid pathway has, within a few years, been formed +around these romantic rocks; and the Author has the pleasure to think, +that the passage in the text gave rise to the undertaking. + + It was from this fascinating path--the scene to me of so much delicious +musing, when life was young and promised to be happy, that I have been +unable to pass it over without an episodical description--it was, I say, +from this romantic path that Butler saw the morning arise the day after +the murder of Porteous. It was possible for him with ease to have found a +much shorter road to the house to which he was directing his course, and, +in fact, that which he chose was extremely circuitous. But to compose his +own spirits, as well as to while away the time, until a proper hour for +visiting the family without surprise or disturbance, he was induced to +extend his circuit by the foot of the rocks, and to linger upon his way +until the morning should be considerably advanced. While, now standing +with his arms across, and waiting the slow progress of the sun above the +horizon, now sitting upon one of the numerous fragments which storms had +detached from the rocks above him, he is meditating, alternately upon the +horrible catastrophe which he had witnessed, and upon the melancholy, and +to him most interesting, news which he had learned at Saddletree's, we +will give the reader to understand who Butler was, and how his fate was +connected with that of Effie Deans, the unfortunate handmaiden of the +careful Mrs. Saddletree. + +Reuben Butler was of English extraction, though born in Scotland. His +grandfather was a trooper in Monk's army, and one of the party of +dismounted dragoons which formed the forlorn hope at the storming of +Dundee in 1651. Stephen Butler (called from his talents in reading and +expounding, Scripture Stephen, and Bible Butler) was a stanch +Independent, and received in its fullest comprehension the promise that +the saints should inherit the earth. As hard knocks were what had chiefly +fallen to his share hitherto in the division of this common property, he +lost not the opportunity which the storm and plunder of a commercial +place afforded him, to appropriate as large a share of the better things +of this world as he could possibly compass. It would seem that he had +succeeded indifferently well, for his exterior circumstances appeared, in +consequence of this event, to have been much mended. + +The troop to which he belonged was quartered at the village of Dalkeith, +as forming the bodyguard of Monk, who, in the capacity of general for the +Commonwealth, resided in the neighbouring castle. When, on the eve of the +Restoration, the general commenced his march from Scotland, a measure +pregnant with such important consequences, he new-modelled his troops, +and more especially those immediately about his person, in order that +they might consist entirely of individuals devoted to himself. On this +occasion Scripture Stephen was weighed in the balance, and found wanting. +It was supposed he felt no call to any expedition which might endanger +the reign of the military sainthood, and that he did not consider himself +as free in conscience to join with any party which might be likely +ultimately to acknowledge the interest of Charles Stuart, the son of "the +last man," as Charles I. was familiarly and irreverently termed by them +in their common discourse, as well as in their more elaborate +predications and harangues. As the time did not admit of cashiering such +dissidents, Stephen Butler was only advised in a friendly way to give up +his horse and accoutrements to one of Middleton's old troopers who +possessed an accommodating conscience of a military stamp, and which +squared itself chiefly upon those of the colonel and paymaster. As this +hint came recommended by a certain sum of arrears presently payable, +Stephen had carnal wisdom enough to embrace the proposal, and with great +indifference saw his old corps depart for Coldstream, on their route for +the south, to establish the tottering Government of England on a new +basis. + +The /zone/ of the ex-trooper, to use Horace's phrase, was weighty enough +to purchase a cottage and two or three fields (still known by the name of +Beersheba), within about a Scottish mile of Dalkeith; and there did +Stephen establish himself with a youthful helpmate, chosen out of the +said village, whose disposition to a comfortable settlement on this side +of the grave reconciled her to the gruff manners, serious temper, and +weather-beaten features of the martial enthusiast. Stephen did not long +survive the falling on "evil days and evil tongues," of which Milton, in +the same predicament, so mournfully complains. At his death his consort +remained an early widow, with a male child of three years old, which, in +the sobriety wherewith it demeaned itself, in the old-fashioned and even +grim cast of its features, and in its sententious mode of expressing +itself, would sufficiently have vindicated the honour of the widow of +Beersheba, had any one thought proper to challenge the babe's descent +from Bible Butler. + +Butler's principles had not descended to his family, or extended +themselves among his neighbours. The air of Scotland was alien to the +growth of independency, however favourable to fanaticism under other +colours. But, nevertheless, they were not forgotten; and a certain +neighbouring Laird, who piqued himself upon the loyalty of his principles +"in the worst of times" (though I never heard they exposed him to more +peril than that of a broken head, or a night's lodging in the main guard, +when wine and cavalierism predominated in his upper storey), had found it +a convenient thing to rake up all matter of accusation against the +deceased Stephen. In this enumeration his religious principles made no +small figure, as, indeed, they must have seemed of the most exaggerated +enormity to one whose own were so small and so faintly traced, as to be +well nigh imperceptible. In these circumstances, poor widow Butler was +supplied with her full proportion of fines for nonconformity, and all the +other oppressions of the time, until Beersheba was fairly wrenched out of +her hands, and became the property of the Laird who had so wantonly, as +it had hitherto appeared, persecuted this poor forlorn woman. When his +purpose was fairly achieved, he showed some remorse or moderation, of +whatever the reader may please to term it, in permitting her to occupy +her husband's cottage, and cultivate, on no very heavy terms, a croft of +land adjacent. Her son, Benjamin, in the meanwhile, grew up to mass +estate, and, moved by that impulse which makes men seek marriage, even +when its end can only be the perpetuation of misery, he wedded and +brought a wife, and, eventually, a son, Reuben, to share the poverty of +Beersheba. + +The Laird of Dumbiedikes* had hitherto been moderate in his exactions, +perhaps because he was ashamed to tax too highly the miserable means of +support which remained to the widow Butler. + +* Dumbiedikes, selected as descriptive of the taciturn character of the +imaginary owner, is really the name of a house bordering on the King's +Park, so called because the late Mr. Braidwood, an instructor of the deaf +and dumb, resided there with his pupils. The situation of the real house +is different from that assigned to the ideal mansion. + +But when a stout active young fellow appeared as the labourer of the +croft in question, Dumbiedikes began to think so broad a pair of +shoulders might bear an additional burden. He regulated, indeed, his +management of his dependants (who fortunately were but few in number) +much upon the principle of the carters whom he observed loading their +carts at a neighbouring coal-hill, and who never failed to clap an +additional brace of hundredweights on their burden, so soon as by any +means they had compassed a new horse of somewhat superior strength to +that which had broken down the day before. However reasonable this +practice appeared to the Laird of Dumbiedikes, he ought to have observed, +that it may be overdone, and that it infers, as a matter of course, the +destruction and loss of both horse, and cart, and loading. Even so it +befell when the additional "prestations" came to be demanded of Benjamin +Butler. A man of few words, and few ideas, but attached to Beersheba with +a feeling like that which a vegetable entertains to the spot in which it +chances to be planted, he neither remonstrated with the Laird, nor +endeavoured to escape from him, but, toiling night and day to accomplish +the terms of his taskmaster, fell into a burning fever and died. His wife +did not long survive him; and, as if it had been the fate of this family +to be left orphans, our Reuben Butler was, about the year 1704-5, left in +the same circumstances in which his father had been placed, and under the +same guardianship, being that of his grandmother, the widow of Monk's old +trooper. + +The same prospect of misery hung over the head of another tenant of this +hardhearted lord of the soil. This was a tough true-blue Presbyterian, +called Deans, who, though most obnoxious to the Laird on account of +principles in church and state, contrived to maintain his ground upon the +estate by regular payment of mail-duties, kain, arriage, carriage, dry +multure, lock, gowpen, and knaveship, and all the various exactions now +commuted for money, and summed up in the emphatic word rent. But the +years 1700 and 1701, long remembered in Scotland for dearth and general +distress, subdued the stout heart of the agricultural whig. Citations by +the ground-officer, decreets of the Baron Court, sequestrations, +poindings of outside and inside plenishing, flew about his ears as fast +as the tory bullets whistled around those of the Covenanters at Pentland, +Bothwell Brigg, or Airsmoss. Struggle as he might, and he struggled +gallantly, "Douce David Deans" was routed horse and foot, and lay at the +mercy of his grasping landlord just at the time that Benjamin Butler +died. The fate of each family was anticipated; but they who prophesied +their expulsion to beggary and ruin were disappointed by an accidental +circumstance. + +On the very term-day when their ejection should have taken place, when +all their neighbours were prepared to pity, and not one to assist them, +the minister of the parish, as well as a doctor from Edinburgh, received +a hasty summons to attend the Laird of Dumbiedikes. Both were surprised, +for his contempt for both faculties had been pretty commonly his theme +over an extra bottle, that is to say, at least once every day. The leech +for the soul, and he for the body, alighted in the court of the little +old manor-house at almost the same time; and when they had gazed a moment +at each other with some surprise, they in the same breath expressed their +conviction that Dumbiedikes must needs be very ill indeed, since he +summoned them both to his presence at once. Ere the servant could usher +them to his apartment, the party was augmented by a man of law, Nichil +Novit, writing himself procurator before the sheriff-court, for in those +days there were no solicitors. This latter personage was first summoned +to the apartment of the Laird, where, after some short space, the +soul-curer and the body-curer were invited to join him. + +Dumbiedikes had been by this time transported into the best bedroom, used +only upon occasions of death and marriage, and called, from the former of +these occupations, the Dead-Room. There were in this apartment, besides +the sick person himself and Mr. Novit, the son and heir of the patient, a +tall gawky silly-looking boy of fourteen or fifteen, and a housekeeper, a +good buxom figure of a woman, betwixt forty and fifty, who had kept the +keys and managed matters at Dumbiedikes since the lady's death. It was to +these attendants that Dumbiedikes addressed himself pretty nearly in the +following words; temporal and spiritual matters, the care of his health +and his affairs, being strangely jumbled in a head which was never one of +the clearest. + +"These are sair times wi' me, gentlemen and neighbours! amaist as ill as +at the aughty-nine, when I was rabbled by the collegeaners.* + +* Immediately previous to the Revolution, the students at the Edinburgh +College were violent anti-catholics. They were strongly suspected of +burning the house of Prestonfield, belonging to Sir James Dick, the Lord +Provost; and certainly were guilty of creating considerable riots in +1688-9. + +--They mistook me muckle--they ca'd me a papist, but there was never a +papist bit about me, minister.--Jock, ye'll take warning--it's a debt we +maun a' pay, and there stands Nichil Novit that will tell ye I was never +gude at paying debts in my life.--Mr. Novit, ye'll no forget to draw the +annual rent that's due on the yerl's band--if I pay debt to other folk, I +think they suld pay it to me--that equals aquals.--Jock, when ye hae +naething else to do, ye may be aye sticking in a tree; it will be +growing, Jock, when ye're sleeping.* + +* The Author has been flattered by the assurance, that this /naive/ mode +of recommending arboriculture (which was actually delivered in these very +words by a Highland laird, while on his death-bed, to his son) had so +much weight with a Scottish earl as to lead to his planting a large tract +of country. + +"My father tauld me sae forty years sin', but I ne'er fand time to mind +him--Jock, ne'er drink brandy in the morning, it files the stamach sair; +gin ye take a morning's draught, let it be aqua mirabilis; Jenny there +makes it weel--Doctor, my breath is growing as scant as a broken-winded +piper's, when he has played for four-and-twenty hours at a penny wedding +--Jenny, pit the cod aneath my head--but it's a' needless!--Mass John, +could ye think o' rattling ower some bit short prayer, it wad do me gude +maybe, and keep some queer thoughts out o' my head, Say something, man." + +"I cannot use a prayer like a rat-rhyme," answered the honest clergyman; +"and if you would have your soul redeemed like a prey from the fowler, +Laird, you must needs show me your state of mind." + +"And shouldna ye ken that without my telling you?" answered the patient. +"What have I been paying stipend and teind, parsonage and vicarage, for, +ever sin' the aughty-nine, and I canna get a spell of a prayer for't, the +only time I ever asked for ane in my life?--Gang awa wi' your whiggery, +if that's a' ye can do; auld Curate Kilstoup wad hae read half the +prayer-book to me by this time--Awa wi' ye!--Doctor, let's see if ye can +do onything better for me." + +The doctor, who had obtained some information in the meanwhile from the +housekeeper on the state of his complaints, assured him the medical art +could not prolong his life many hours. + +"Then damn Mass John and you baith!" cried the furious and intractable +patient. "Did ye come here for naething but to tell me that ye canna help +me at the pinch? Out wi' them, Jenny--out o' the house! and, Jock, my +curse, and the curse of Cromwell, go wi' ye, if ye gie them either fee or +bountith, or sae muckle as a black pair o' cheverons!"* + +*/Cheverons/--gloves. + +The clergyman and doctor made a speedy retreat out of the apartment, +while Dumbiedikes fell into one of those transports of violent and +profane language, which had procured him the surname of Damn-me-dikes. +"Bring me the brandy bottle, Jenny, ye b--," he cried, with a voice in +which passion contended with pain. "I can die as I have lived, without +fashing ony o' them. But there's ae thing," he said, sinking his voice-- +"there's ae fearful thing hings about my heart, and an anker of brandy +winna wash it away.--The Deanses at Woodend!--I sequestrated them in the +dear years, and now they are to flit, they'll starve--and that Beersheba, +and that auld trooper's wife and her oe, they'll starve--they'll starve! +--Look out, Jock; what kind o' night is't?" + +"On-ding o' snaw, father," answered Jock, after having opened the window, +and looked out with great composure. + +"They'll perish in the drifts!" said the expiring sinner--"they'll perish +wi' cauld!--but I'll be het eneugh, gin a' tales be true." + +This last observation was made under breath, and in a tone which made the +very attorney shudder. He tried his hand at ghostly advice, probably for +the first time in his life, and recommended as an opiate for the agonised +conscience of the Laird, reparation of the injuries he had done to these +distressed families, which, he observed by the way, the civil law called +/restitutio in integrum./ But Mammon was struggling with Remorse for +retaining his place in a bosom he had so long possessed; and he partly +succeeded, as an old tyrant proves often too strong for his insurgent +rebels. + +"I canna do't," he answered, with a voice of despair. "It would kill me +to do't--how can ye bid me pay back siller, when ye ken how I want it? or +dispone Beersheba, when it lies sae weel into my ain plaid-nuik? Nature +made Dumbiedikes and Beersheba to be ae man's land--She did, by Nichil, +it wad kill me to part them." + +"But ye maun die whether or no, Laird," said Mr. Novit; "and maybe ye wad +die easier--it's but trying. I'll scroll the disposition in nae time." + +"Dinna speak o't, sir," replied Dumbiedikes, "or I'll fling the stoup at +your head.--But, Jock, lad, ye see how the warld warstles wi' me on my +deathbed--be kind to the puir creatures, the Deanses and the Butlers--be +kind to them, Jock. Dinna let the warld get a grip o' ye, Jock--but keep +the gear thegither! and whate'er ye do, dispone Beersheba at no rate. Let +the creatures stay at a moderate mailing, and hae bite and soup; it will +maybe be the better wi' your father whare he's gaun, lad." + +After these contradictory instructions, the Laird felt his mind so much +at ease, that he drank three bumpers of brandy continuously, and "soughed +awa," as Jenny expressed it, in an attempt to sing "Deil stick the +Minister." + +His death made a revolution in favour of the distressed families. John +Dumbie, now of Dumbiedikes, in his own right, seemed to be close and +selfish enough, but wanted the grasping spirit and active mind of his +father; and his guardian happened to agree with him in opinion, that his +father's dying recommendation should be attended to. The tenants, +therefore, were not actually turned out of doors among the snow-wreaths, +and were allowed wherewith to procure butter-milk and peas-bannocks, +which they ate under the full force of the original malediction. The +cottage of Deans, called Woodend, was not very distant from that at +Beersheba. Formerly there had been but little intercourse between the +families. Deans was a sturdy Scotsman, with all sort of prejudices +against the southern, and the spawn of the southern. Moreover, Deans was, +as we have said, a stanch Presbyterian, of the most rigid and unbending +adherence to what he conceived to be the only possible straight line, as +he was wont to express himself, between right-hand heats and extremes and +left-hand defections; and, therefore, he held in high dread and horror +all Independents, and whomsoever he supposed allied to them. + +But, notwithstanding these national prejudices and religious professions, +Deans and the widow Butler were placed in such a situation, as naturally +and at length created some intimacy between the families. They had shared +a common danger and a mutual deliverance. They needed each other's +assistance, like a company, who, crossing a mountain stream, are +compelled to cling close together, lest the current should be too +powerful for any who are not thus supported. + +On nearer acquaintance, too, Deans abated some of his prejudices. He +found old Mrs. Butler, though not thoroughly grounded in the extent and +bearing of the real testimony against the defections of the times, had no +opinions in favour of the Independent party; neither was she an +Englishwoman. Therefore, it was to be hoped, that, though she was the +widow of an enthusiastic corporal of Cromwell's dragoons, her grandson +might be neither schismatic nor anti-national, two qualities concerning +which Goodman Deans had as wholesome a terror as against papists and +malignants, Above all (for Douce Davie Deans had his weak side), he +perceived that widow Butler looked up to him with reverence, listened to +his advice, and compounded for an occasional fling at the doctrines of +her deceased husbands to which, as we have seen, she was by no means +warmly attached, in consideration of the valuable counsels which the +Presbyterian afforded her for the management of her little farm. These +usually concluded with "they may do otherwise in England, neighbour +Butler, for aught I ken;" or, "it may be different in foreign parts;" or, +"they wha think differently on the great foundation of our covenanted +reformation, overturning and mishguggling the government and discipline +of the kirk, and breaking down the carved work of our Zion, might be for +sawing the craft wi' aits; but I say peace, peace." And as his advice was +shrewd and sensible, though conceitedly given, it was received with +gratitude, and followed with respect. + +The intercourse which took place betwixt the families at Beersheba and +Woodend became strict and intimate, at a very early period, betwixt +Reuben Butler, with whom the reader is already in some degree acquainted, +and Jeanie Deans, the only child of Douce Davie Deans by his first wife, +"that singular Christian woman," as he was wont to express himself, +"whose name was savoury to all that knew her for a desirable professor, +Christian Menzies in Hochmagirdle." The manner of which intimacy, and the +consequences thereof, we now proceed to relate. + + + + + CHAPTER EIGHTH. + + + Reuben and Rachel, though as fond as doves, + Were yet discreet and cautious in their loves, + Nor would attend to Cupid's wild commands, + Till cool reflection bade them join their hands; + When both were poor, they thought it argued ill + Of hasty love to make them poorer still. + Crabbe's /Parish Register./ + +While widow Butler and widower Deans struggled with poverty, and the hard +and sterile soil of "those parts and portions" of the lands of +Dumbiedikes which it was their lot to occupy, it became gradually +apparent that Deans was to gain the strife, and his ally in the conflict +was to lose it. The former was a Man, and not much past the prime of +life--Mrs. Butler a woman, and declined into the vale of years, This, +indeed, ought in time to have been balanced by the circumstance, that +Reuben was growing up to assist his grandmothers labours, and that Jeanie +Deans, as a girl, could be only supposed to add to her father's burdens. +But Douce Davie Deans know better things, and so schooled and trained the +young minion, as he called her, that from the time she could walk, +upwards, she was daily employed in some task or other, suitable to her +age and capacity; a circumstance which, added to her father's daily +instructions and lectures, tended to give her mind, even when a child, a +grave, serious, firm, and reflecting cast. An uncommonly strong and +healthy temperament, free from all nervous affection and every other +irregularity, which, attacking the body in its more noble functions, so +often influences the mind, tended greatly to establish this fortitude, +simplicity, and decision of character. + +On the other hand, Reuben was weak in constitution, and, though not timid +in temper might be safely pronounced anxious, doubtful, and apprehensive. +He partook of the temperament of his mother, who had died of a +consumption in early age. He was a pale, thin, feeble, sickly boy, and +somewhat lame, from an accident in early youth. He was, besides, the +child of a doting grandmother, whose too solicitous attention to him soon +taught him a sort of diffidence in himself, with a disposition to +overrate his own importance, which is one of the very worst consequences +that children deduce from over-indulgence. + +Still, however, the two children clung to each other's society, not more +from habit than from taste. They herded together the handful of sheep, +with the two or three cows, which their parents turned out rather to seek +food than actually to feed upon the unenclosed common of Dumbiedikes. It +was there that the two urchins might be seen seated beneath a blooming +bush of whin, their little faces laid close together under the shadow of +the same plaid drawn over both their heads, while the landscape around +was embrowned by an overshadowing cloud, big with the shower which had +driven the children to shelter. On other occasions they went together to +school, the boy receiving that encouragement and example from his +companion, in crossing the little brooks which intersected their path, +and encountering cattle, dogs, and other perils, upon their journey, +which the male sex in such cases usually consider it as their prerogative +to extend to the weaker. But when, seated on the benches of the +school-house, they began to con their lessons together, Reuben, who was +as much superior to Jeanie Deans in acuteness of intellect, as inferior +to her in firmness of constitution, and in that insensibility to fatigue +and danger which depends on the conformation of the nerves, was able +fully to requite the kindness and countenance with which, in other +circumstances, she used to regard him. He was decidedly the best scholar +at the little parish school; and so gentle was his temper and +disposition, that he was rather admired than envied by the little mob who +occupied the noisy mansion, although he was the declared favourite of the +master. Several girls, in particular (for in Scotland they are taught +with the boys), longed to be kind to and comfort the sickly lad, who was +so much cleverer than his companions. The character of Reuben Butler was +so calculated as to offer scope both for their sympathy and their +admiration, the feelings, perhaps, through which the female sex (the more +deserving part of them at least) is more easily attached. + +But Reuben, naturally reserved and distant, improved none of these +advantages; and only became more attached to Jeanie Deans, as the +enthusiastic approbation of his master assured him of fair prospects in +future life, and awakened his ambition. In the meantime, every advance +that Reuben made in learning (and, considering his opportunities, they +were uncommonly great) rendered him less capable of attending to the +domestic duties of his grandmother's farm. While studying the /pons +asinorum/ in Euclid, he suffered every /cuddie/ upon the common to +trespass upon a large field of peas belonging to the Laird, and nothing +but the active exertions of Jeanie Deans, with her little dog Dustiefoot, +could have saved great loss and consequent punishment. Similar +miscarriages marked his progress in his classical studies. He read +Virgil's Georgics till he did not know bere from barley; and had nearly +destroyed the crofts of Beersheba while attempting to cultivate them +according to the practice of Columella and Cato the Censor. + +These blunders occasioned grief to his grand-dame, and disconcerted the +good opinion which her neighbour, Davie Deans, had for some time +entertained of Reuben. + +"I see naething ye can make of that silly callant, neighbour Butler," +said he to the old lady, "unless ye train him to the wark o' the +ministry. And ne'er was there mair need of poorfu' preachers than e'en +now in these cauld Gallio days, when men's hearts are hardened like the +nether mill-stone, till they come to regard none of these things. It's +evident this puir callant of yours will never be able to do an usefu' +day's wark, unless it be as an ambassador from our Master; and I will +make it my business to procure a license when he is fit for the same, +trusting he will be a shaft cleanly polished, and meet to be used in the +body of the kirk; and that he shall not turn again, like the sow, to +wallow in the mire of heretical extremes and defections, but shall have +the wings of a dove, though he hath lain among the pots." + +The poor widow gulped down the affront to her husband's principles, +implied in this caution, and hastened to take Butler from the High +School, and encourage him in the pursuit of mathematics and divinity, the +only physics and ethics that chanced to be in fashion at the time. + +Jeanie Deans was now compelled to part from the companion of her labour, +her study, and her pastime, and it was with more than childish feeling +that both children regarded the separation. But they were young, and hope +was high, and they separated like those who hope to meet again at a more +auspicious hour. While Reuben Butler was acquiring at the University of +St. Andrews the knowledge necessary for a clergyman, and macerating his +body with the privations which were necessary in seeking food for his +mind, his grand-dame became daily less able to struggle with her little +farm, and was at length obliged to throw it up to the new Laird of +Dumbiedikes. That great personage was no absolute Jew, and did not cheat +her in making the bargain more than was tolerable. He even gave her +permission to tenant the house in which she had lived with her husband, +as long as it should be "tenantable;" only he protested against paying +for a farthing of repairs, any benevolence which he possessed being of +the passive, but by no means of the active mood. + +In the meanwhile, from superior shrewdness, skill, and other +circumstances, some of them purely accidental, Davie Deans gained a +footing in the world, the possession of some wealth, the reputation of +more, and a growing disposition to preserve and increase his store; for +which, when he thought upon it seriously, he was inclined to blame +himself. From his knowledge in agriculture, as it was then practised, he +became a sort of favourite with the Laird, who had no great pleasure +either in active sports or in society, and was wont to end his daily +saunter by calling at the cottage of Woodend. + +Being himself a man of slow ideas and confused utterance, Dumbiedikes +used to sit or stand for half-an-hour with an old laced hat of his +father's upon his head, and an empty tobacco-pipe in his mouth, with his +eyes following Jeanie Deans, or "the lassie" as he called her, through +the course of her daily domestic labour; while her father, after +exhausting the subject of bestial, of ploughs, and of harrows, often took +an opportunity of going full-sail into controversial subjects, to which +discussions the dignitary listened with much seeming patience, but +without making any reply, or, indeed, as most people thought, without +understanding a single word of what the orator was saying. Deans, indeed, +denied this stoutly, as an insult at once to his own talents for +expounding hidden truths, of which he was a little vain, and to the +Laird's capacity of understanding them. He said, "Dumbiedikes was nane of +these flashy gentles, wi' lace on their skirts and swords at their tails, +that were rather for riding on horseback to hell than gauging barefooted +to heaven. He wasna like his father--nae profane company-keeper--nae +swearer--nae drinker--nae frequenter of play-house, or music-house, or +dancing-house--nae Sabbath-breaker--nae imposer of aiths, or bonds, or +denier of liberty to the flock.--He clave to the warld, and the warld's +gear, a wee ower muckle, but then there was some breathing of a gale upon +his spirit," etc. etc. All this honest Davie said and believed. + +It is not to be supposed, that, by a father and a man of sense and +observation, the constant direction of the Laird's eyes towards Jeanie +was altogether unnoticed. This circumstance, however, made a much greater +impression upon another member of his family, a second helpmate, to wit, +whom he had chosen to take to his bosom ten years after the death of his +first. Some people were of opinion, that Douce Davie had been rather +surprised into this step, for, in general, he was no friend to marriages +or giving in marriage, and seemed rather to regard that state of society +as a necessary evil,--a thing lawful, and to be tolerated in the +imperfect state of our nature, but which clipped the wings with which we +ought to soar upwards, and tethered the soul to its mansion of clay, and +the creature-comforts of wife and bairns. His own practice, however, had +in this material point varied from his principles, since, as we have +seen, he twice knitted for himself this dangerous and ensnaring +entanglement. + +Rebecca, his spouse, had by no means the same horror of matrimony, and as +she made marriages in imagination for every neighbour round, she failed +not to indicate a match betwixt Dumbiedikes and her step-daughter Jeanie. +The goodman used regularly to frown and pshaw whenever this topic was +touched upon, but usually ended by taking his bonnet and walking out of +the house, to conceal a certain gleam of satisfaction, which, at such a +suggestion, involuntarily diffused itself over his austere features. + +The more youthful part of my readers may naturally ask, whether Jeanie +Deans was deserving of this mute attention of the Laird of Dumbiedikes; +and the historian, with due regard to veracity, is compelled to answer, +that her personal attractions were of no uncommon description. She was +short, and rather too stoutly made for her size, had grey eyes, light +coloured hair, a round good-humoured face, much tanned with the sun, and +her only peculiar charm was an air of inexpressible serenity, which a +good conscience, kind feelings, contented temper, and the regular +discharge of all her duties, spread over her features. There was nothing, +it may be supposed, very appalling in the form or manners of this rustic +heroine; yet, whether from sheepish bashfulness, or from want of decision +and imperfect knowledge of his own mind on the subject, the Laird of +Dumbiedikes, with his old laced hat and empty tobacco-pipe, came and +enjoyed the beatific vision of Jeanie Deans day after day, week after +week, year after year, without proposing to accomplish any of the +prophecies of the stepmother. + +This good lady began to grow doubly impatient on the subject, when, after +having been some years married, she herself presented Douce Davie with +another daughter, who was named Euphemia, by corruption, Effie. It was +then that Rebecca began to turn impatient with the slow pace at which the +Laird's wooing proceeded, judiciously arguing, that, as Lady Dumbiedikes +would have but little occasion for tocher, the principal part of her +gudeman's substance would naturally descend to the child by the second +marriage. Other step-dames have tried less laudable means for clearing +the way to the succession of their own children; but Rebecca, to do her +justice, only sought little Effie's advantage through the promotion, or +which must have generally been accounted such, of her elder sister. She +therefore tried every female art within the compass of her simple skill, +to bring the Laird to a point; but had the mortification to perceive that +her efforts, like those of an unskilful angler, only scared the trout she +meant to catch. Upon one occasion, in particular, when she joked with the +Laird on the propriety of giving a mistress to the house of Dumbiedikes, +he was so effectually startled, that neither laced hat, tobacco-pipe, nor +the intelligent proprietor of these movables, visited Woodend for a +fortnight. Rebecca was therefore compelled to leave the Laird to proceed +at his own snail's pace, convinced, by experience, of the grave-digger's +aphorism, that your dull ass will not mend his pace for beating. + +Reuben, in the meantime, pursued his studies at the university, supplying +his wants by teaching the younger lads the knowledge he himself acquired, +and thus at once gaining the means of maintaining himself at the seat of +learning, and fixing in his mind the elements of what he had already +obtained. In this manner, as is usual among the poorer students of +divinity at Scottish universities, he contrived not only to maintain +himself according to his simple wants, but even to send considerable +assistance to his sole remaining parent, a sacred duty, of which the +Scotch are seldom negligent. His progress in knowledge of a general kind, +as well as in the studies proper to his profession, was very +considerable, but was little remarked, owing to the retired modesty of +his disposition, which in no respect qualified him to set off his +learning to the best advantage. And thus, had Butler been a man given to +make complaints, he had his tale to tell, like others, of unjust +preferences, bad luck, and hard usage. On these subjects, however, he was +habitually silent, perhaps from modesty, perhaps from a touch of pride, +or perhaps from a conjunction of both. + +He obtained his license as a preacher of the gospel, with some +compliments from the Presbytery by whom it was bestowed; but this did not +lead to any preferment, and he found it necessary to make the cottage at +Beersheba his residence for some months, with no other income than was +afforded by the precarious occupation of teaching in one or other of the +neighbouring families. After having greeted his aged grandmother, his +first visit was to Woodend, where he was received by Jeanie with warm +cordiality, arising from recollections which had never been dismissed +from her mind, by Rebecca with good-humoured hospitality, and by old +Deans in a mode peculiar to himself. + +Highly as Douce Davie honoured the clergy, it was not upon each +individual of the cloth that he bestowed his approbation; and, a little +jealous, perhaps, at seeing his youthful acquaintance erected into the +dignity of a teacher and preacher, he instantly attacked him upon various +points of controversy, in order to discover whether he might not have +fallen into some of the snares, defections, and desertions of the time. +Butler was not only a man of stanch Presbyterian principles, but was also +willing to avoid giving pain to his old friend by disputing upon points +of little importance; and therefore he might have hoped to have come like +fine gold out of the furnace of Davie's interrogatories. But the result +on the mind of that strict investigator was not altogether so favourable +as might have been hoped and anticipated. Old Judith Butler, who had +hobbled that evening as far as Woodend, in order to enjoy the +congratulations of her neighbours upon Reuben's return, and upon his high +attainments, of which she was herself not a little proud, was somewhat +mortified to find that her old friend Deans did not enter into the +subject with the warmth she expected. At first, in he seemed rather +silent than dissatisfied; and it was not till Judith had essayed the +subject more than once that it led to the following dialogue. + +"Aweel, neibor Deans, I thought ye wad hae been glad to see Reuben amang +us again, poor fellow." + +"I /am/ glad, Mrs. Butler," was the neighbour's concise answer. + +"Since he has lost his grandfather and his father (praised be Him that +giveth and taketh!), I ken nae friend he has in the world that's been sae +like a father to him as the sell o'ye, neibor Deans." + +"God is the only father of the fatherless," said Deans, touching his +bonnet and looking upwards. "Give honour where it is due, gudewife, and +not to an unworthy instrument." + +"Aweel, that's your way o' turning it, and nae doubt ye ken best; but I +hae ken'd ye, Davie, send a forpit o' meal to Beersheba when there wasna +a bow left in the meal-ark at Woodend; ay, and I hae ken'd ye" + +"Gudewife," said Davie, interrupting her, "these are but idle tales to +tell me; fit for naething but to puff up our inward man wi' our ain vain +acts. I stude beside blessed Alexander Peden, when I heard him call the +death and testimony of our happy martyrs but draps of blude and scarts of +ink in respect of fitting discharge of our duty; and what suld I think of +ony thing the like of me can do?" + +"Weel, neibor Deans, ye ken best; but I maun say that, I am sure you are +glad to see my bairn again--the halt's gane now, unless he has to walk +ower mony miles at a stretch; and he has a wee bit colour in his cheek, +that glads my auld een to see it; and he has as decent a black coat as +the minister; and" + +"I am very heartily glad he is weel and thriving," said Mr. Deans, with a +gravity that seemed intended to cut short the subject; but a woman who is +bent upon a point is not easily pushed aside from it. + +"And," continued Mrs. Butler, "he can wag his head in a pulpit now, +neibor Deans, think but of that--my ain oe--and a'body maun sit still and +listen to him, as if he were the Paip of Rome." + +"The what?--the who?--woman!" said Deans, with a sternness far beyond his +usual gravity, as soon as these offensive words had struck upon the +tympanum of his ear. + +"Eh, guide us!" said the poor woman; "I had forgot what an ill will ye +had aye at the Paip, and sae had my puir gudeman, Stephen Butler. Mony an +afternoon he wad sit and take up his testimony again the Paip, and again +baptizing of bairns, and the like." + +"Woman!" reiterated Deans, "either speak about what ye ken something o', +or be silent; I say that independency is a foul heresy, and anabaptism a +damnable and deceiving error, whilk suld be rooted out of the land wi' +the fire o' the spiritual, and the sword o' the civil magistrate." + +"Weel, weel, neibor, I'll no say that ye mayna be right," answered the +submissive Judith. "I am sure ye are right about the sawing and the +mawing, the shearing and the leading, and what for suld ye no be right +about kirkwark, too?--But concerning my oe, Reuben Butler" + +"Reuben Butler, gudewife," said David, with solemnity, "is a lad I wish +heartily weel to, even as if he were mine ain son--but I doubt there will +be outs and ins in the track of his walk. I muckle fear his gifts will +get the heels of his grace. He has ower muckle human wit and learning, +and thinks as muckle about the form of the bicker as he does about the +healsomeness of the food--he maun broider the marriage-garment with lace +and passments, or it's no gude eneugh for him. And it's like he's +something proud o' his human gifts and learning, whilk enables him to +dress up his doctrine in that fine airy dress. But," added he, at seeing +the old woman's uneasiness at his discourse, "affliction may gie him a +jagg, and let the wind out o' him, as out o' a cow that's eaten wet +clover, and the lad may do weel, and be a burning and a shining light; +and I trust it will be yours to see, and his to feel it, and that soon." + +Widow Butler was obliged to retire, unable to make anything more of her +neighbour, whose discourse, though she did not comprehend it, filled her +with undefined apprehensions on her grandson's account, and greatly +depressed the joy with which she had welcomed him on his return. And it +must not be concealed, in justice to Mr. Deans's discernment, that +Butler, in their conference, had made a greater display of his learning +than the occasion called for, or than was likely to be acceptable to the +old man, who, accustomed to consider himself as a person preeminently +entitled to dictate upon theological subjects of controversy, felt rather +humbled and mortified when learned authorities were placed in array +against him. In fact, Butler had not escaped the tinge of pedantry which +naturally flowed from his education, and was apt, on many occasions, to +make parade of his knowledge, when there was no need of such vanity. + +Jeanie Deans, however, found no fault with this display of learning, but, +on the contrary, admired it; perhaps on the same score that her sex are +said to admire men of courage, on account of their own deficiency in that +qualification. The circumstances of their families threw the young people +constantly together; their old intimacy was renewed, though upon a +footing better adapted to their age; and it became at length understood +betwixt them, that their union should be deferred no longer than until +Butler should obtain some steady means of support, however humble. This, +however, was not a matter speedily to be accomplished. Plan after plan +was formed, and plan after plan failed. The good-humoured cheek of Jeanie +lost the first flush of juvenile freshness; Reuben's brow assumed the +gravity of manhood, yet the means of obtaining a settlement seemed remote +as ever. Fortunately for the lovers, their passion was of no ardent or +enthusiastic cast; and a sense of duty on both sides induced them to +bear, with patient fortitude, the protracted interval which divided them +from each other. + +In the meanwhile, time did not roll on without effecting his usual +changes. The widow of Stephen Butler, so long the prop of the family of +Beersheba, was gathered to her fathers; and Rebecca, the careful spouse +of our friend Davie Deans, wa's also summoned from her plans of +matrimonial and domestic economy. The morning after her death, Reuben +Butler went to offer his mite of consolation to his old friend and +benefactor. He witnessed, on this occasion, a remarkable struggle betwixt +the force of natural affection and the religious stoicism which the +sufferer thought it was incumbent upon him to maintain under each earthly +dispensation, whether of weal or woe. + +On his arrival at the cottage, Jeanie, with her eyes overflowing with +tears, pointed to the little orchard, "in which," she whispered with +broken accents, "my poor father has been since his misfortune." Somewhat +alarmed at this account, Butler entered the orchard, and advanced slowly +towards his old friend, who, seated in a small rude arbour, appeared to +be sunk in the extremity of his affliction. He lifted his eyes somewhat +sternly as Butler approached, as if offended at the interruption; but as +the young man hesitated whether he ought to retreat or advance, he arose, +and came forward to meet him with a self-possessed, and even dignified +air. + +"Young man," said the sufferer, "lay it not to heart, though the +righteous perish, and the merciful are removed, seeing, it may well be +said, that they are taken away from the evils to come. Woe to me were I +to shed a tear for the wife of my bosom, when I might weep rivers of +water for this afflicted Church, cursed as it is with carnal seekers, and +with the dead of heart." + +"I am happy," said Butler, "that you can forget your private affliction +in your regard for public duty." + +"Forget, Reuben?" said poor Deans, putting his handkerchief to his eyes-- +"She's not to be forgotten on this side of time; but He that gives the +wound can send the ointment. I declare there have been times during this +night when my meditation hae been so rapt, that I knew not of my heavy +loss. It has been with me as with the worthy John Semple, called +Carspharn John,* upon a like trial--I have been this night on the banks +of Ulai, plucking an apple here and there!" + +* Note E. Carspharn John. + +Notwithstanding the assumed fortitude of Deans, which he conceived to be +the discharge of a great Christian duty, he had too good a heart not to +suffer deeply under this heavy loss. Woodend became altogether +distasteful to him; and as he had obtained both substance and experience +by his management of that little farm, he resolved to employ them as a +dairy-farmer, or cowfeeder, as they are called in Scotland. The situation +he chose for his new settlement was at a place called Saint Leonard's +Crags, lying betwixt Edinburgh and the mountain called Arthur's Seat, and +adjoining to the extensive sheep pasture still named the King's Park, +from its having been formerly dedicated to the preservation of the royal +game. Here he rented a small lonely house, about half-a-mile distant from +the nearest point of the city, but the site of which, with all the +adjacent ground, is now occupied by the buildings which form the +southeastern suburb. An extensive pasture-ground adjoining, which Deans +rented from the keeper of the Royal Park, enabled him to feed his +milk-cows; and the unceasing industry and activity of Jeanie, his oldest +daughter, were exerted in making the most of their produce. + +She had now less frequent opportunities of seeing Reuben, who had been +obliged, after various disappointments, to accept the subordinate +situation of assistant in a parochial school of some eminence, at three +or four miles' distance from the city. Here he distinguished himself, and +became acquainted with several respectable burgesses, who, on account of +health, or other reasons, chose that their children should commence their +education in this little village. His prospects were thus gradually +brightening, and upon each visit which he paid at Saint Leonard's he had +an opportunity of gliding a hint to this purpose into Jeanie's ear. These +visits were necessarily very rare, on account of the demands which the +duties of the school made upon Butler's time. Nor did he dare to make +them even altogether so frequent as these avocations would permit. Deans +received him with civility indeed, and even with kindness; but Reuben, as +is usual in such cases, imagined that he read his purpose in his eyes, +and was afraid too premature an explanation on the subject would draw +down his positive disapproval. Upon the whole, therefore, he judged it +prudent to call at Saint Leonard's just so frequently as old acquaintance +and neighbourhood seemed to authorise, and no oftener. There was another +person who was more regular in his visits. + +When Davie Deans intimated to the Laird of Dumbiedikes his purpose of +"quitting wi' the land and house at Woodend," the Laird stared and said +nothing. He made his usual visits at the usual hour without remark, until +the day before the term, when, observing the bustle of moving furniture +already commenced, the great east-country /awmrie/ dragged out of its +nook, and standing with its shoulder to the company, like an awkward +booby about to leave the room, the Laird again stared mightily, and was +heard to ejaculate,--"Hegh, sirs!" Even after the day of departure was +past and gone, the Laird of Dumbiedikes, at his usual hour, which was +that at which David Deans was wont to "loose the pleugh," presented +himself before the closed door of the cottage at Woodend, and seemed as +much astonished at finding it shut against his approach as if it was not +exactly what he had to expect. On this occasion he was heard to +ejaculate, "Gude guide us!" which, by those who knew him, was considered +as a very unusual mark of emotion. From that moment forward Dumbiedikes +became an altered man, and the regularity of his movements, hitherto so +exemplary, was as totally disconcerted as those of a boy's watch when he +has broken the main-spring. Like the index of the said watch did +Dumbiedikes spin round the whole bounds of his little property, which may +be likened unto the dial of the timepiece, with unwonted velocity. There +was not a cottage into which he did not enter, nor scarce a maiden on +whom he did not stare. But so it was, that although there were better +farm-houses on the land than Woodend, and certainly much prettier girls +than Jeanie Deans, yet it did somehow befall that the blank in the +Laird's time was not so pleasantly filled up as it had been. There was no +seat accommodated him so well as the "bunker" at Woodend, and no face he +loved so much to gaze on as Jeanie Deans's. So, after spinning round and +round his little orbit, and then remaining stationary for a week, it +seems to have occurred to him that he was not pinned down to circulate on +a pivot, like the hands of the watch, but possessed the power of shifting +his central point, and extending his circle if he thought proper. To +realise which privilege of change of place, he bought a pony from a +Highland drover, and with its assistance and company stepped, or rather +stumbled, as far as Saint Leonard's Crags. + +Jeanie Deans, though so much accustomed to the Laird's staring that she +was sometimes scarce conscious of his presence, had nevertheless some +occasional fears lest he should call in the organ of speech to back those +expressions of admiration which he bestowed on her through his eyes. +Should this happen, farewell, she thought, to all chance of a union with +Butler. For her father, however stouthearted and independent in civil and +religious principles, was not without that respect for the laird of the +land, so deeply imprinted on the Scottish tenantry of the period. +Moreover, if he did not positively dislike Butler, yet his fund of carnal +learning was often the object of sarcasms on David's part, which were +perhaps founded in jealousy, and which certainly indicated no partiality +for the party against whom they were launched. And lastly, the match with +Dumbiedikes would have presented irresistible charms to one who used to +complain that he felt himself apt to take "ower grit an armfu' o' the +warld." So that, upon the whole, the Laird's diurnal visits were +disagreeable to Jeanie from apprehension of future consequences, and it +served much to console her, upon removing from the spot where she was +bred and born, that she had seen the last of Dumbiedikes, his laced hat, +and tobacco-pipe. The poor girl no more expected he could muster courage +to follow her to Saint Leonard's Crags than that any of her apple-trees +or cabbages which she had left rooted in the "yard" at Woodend, would +spontaneously, and unaided, have undertaken the same journey. It was +therefore with much more surprise than pleasure that, on the sixth day +after their removal to Saint Leonard's, she beheld Dumbiedikes arrive, +laced hat, tobacco-pipe, and all, and, with the self-same greeting of +"How's a' wi' ye, Jeanie?--Whare's the gudeman?" assume as nearly as he +could the same position in the cottage at Saint Leonard's which he had so +long and so regularly occupied at Woodend. He was no sooner, however, +seated, than with an unusual exertion of his powers of conversation, he +added, "Jeanie--I say, Jeanie, woman"--here he extended his hand towards +her shoulder with all the fingers spread out as if to clutch it, but in +so bashful and awkward a manner, that when she whisked herself beyond its +reach, the paw remained suspended in the air with the palm open, like the +claw of a heraldic griffin--"Jeanie," continued the swain in this moment +of inspiration--"I say, Jeanie, it's a braw day out-by, and the roads are +no that ill for boot-hose." + +"The deil's in the daidling body," muttered Jeanie between her teeth; +"wha wad hae thought o' his daikering out this length?" And she +afterwards confessed that she threw a little of this ungracious sentiment +into her accent and manner; for her father being abroad, and the "body," +as she irreverently termed the landed proprietor, "looking unco gleg and +canty, she didna ken what he might be coming out wi' next." + +Her frowns, however, acted as a complete sedative, and the Laird relapsed +from that day into his former taciturn habits, visiting the cowfeeder's +cottage three or four times every week, when the weather permitted, with +apparently no other purpose than to stare at Jeanie Deans, while Douce +Davie poured forth his eloquence upon the controversies and testimonies +of the day. + + + + + + CHAPTER NINTH. + + + Her air, her manners, all who saw admired, + Courteous, though coy, and gentle, though retired; + The joy of youth and health her eyes displayed; + And ease of heart her every look conveyed. + Crabbe. + +The visits of the Laird thus again sunk into matters of ordinary course, +from which nothing was to be expected or apprehended. If a lover could +have gained a fair one as a snake is said to fascinate a bird, by +pertinaciously gazing on her with great stupid greenish eyes, which began +now to be occasionally aided by spectacles, unquestionably Dumbiedikes +would have been the person to perform the feat. But the art of +fascination seems among the /artes perditae,/ and I cannot learn that +this most pertinacious of starers produced any effect by his attentions +beyond an occasional yawn. + +In the meanwhile, the object of his gaze was gradually attaining the +verge of youth, and approaching to what is called in females the middle +age, which is impolitely held to begin a few years earlier with their +more fragile sex than with men. Many people would have been of opinion, +that the Laird would have done better to have transferred his glances to +an object possessed of far superior charms to Jeanie's, even when +Jeanie's were in their bloom, who began now to be distinguished by all +who visited the cottage at St. Leonard's Crags. + +Effie Deans, under the tender and affectionate care of her sister, had +now shot up into a beautiful and blooming girl. Her Grecian shaped head +was profusely rich in waving ringlets of brown hair, which, confined by a +blue snood of silk, and shading a laughing Hebe countenance, seemed the +picture of health, pleasure, and contentment. Her brown russet short-gown +set off a shape, which time, perhaps, might be expected to render too +robust, the frequent objection to Scottish beauty, but which, in her +present early age, was slender and taper, with that graceful and easy +sweep of outline which at once indicates health and beautiful proportion +of parts. + +These growing charms, in all their juvenile profusion, had no power to +shake the steadfast mind, or divert the fixed gaze of the constant Laird +of Dumbiedikes. But there was scarce another eye that could behold this +living picture of health and beauty, without pausing on it with pleasure. +The traveller stopped his weary horse on the eve of entering the city +which was the end of his journey, to gaze at the sylph-like form that +tripped by him, with her milk-pail poised on her head, bearing herself so +erect, and stepping so light and free under her burden, that it seemed +rather an ornament than an encumbrance. The lads of the neighbouring +suburb, who held their evening rendezvous for putting the stone, casting +the hammer, playing at long bowls, and other athletic exercises, watched +the motions of Effie Deans, and contended with each other which should +have the good fortune to attract her attention. Even the rigid +Presbyterians of her father's persuasion, who held each indulgence of the +eye and sense to be a snare at least if not a crime, were surprised into +a moment's delight while gazing on a creature so exquisite,--instantly +checked by a sigh, reproaching at once their own weakness, and mourning +that a creature so fair should share in the common and hereditary guilt +and imperfection of our nature, which she deserved as much by her +guileless purity of thought, speech, and action, as by her uncommon +loveliness of face and person. + +Yet there were points in Effie's character which gave rise not only to +strange doubt and anxiety on the part of Douce David Deans, whose ideas +were rigid, as may easily be supposed, upon the subject of youthful +amusements, but even of serious apprehension to her more indulgent +sister. The children of the Scotch of the inferior classes are usually +spoiled by the early indulgence of their parents; how, wherefore, and to +what degree, the lively and instructive narrative of the amiable and +accomplished authoress of "Glenburnie"* has saved me and all future +scribblers the trouble of recording. + +* [The late Mrs. Elizabeth Hamilton.] + +Effie had had a double share of this inconsiderate and misjudged +kindness. Even the strictness of her father's principles could not +condemn the sports of infancy and childhood; and to the good old man, his +younger daughter, the child of his old age, seemed a child for some years +after she attained the years of womanhood, was still called the "bit +lassie," and "little Effie," and was permitted to run up and down +uncontrolled, unless upon the Sabbath, or at the times of family worship. +Her sister, with all the love and care of a mother, could not be supposed +to possess the same authoritative influence; and that which she had +hitherto exercised became gradually limited and diminished as Effie's +advancing years entitled her, in her own conceit at least, to the right +of independence and free agency. With all the innocence and goodness of +disposition, therefore, which we have described, the Lily of St. +Leonard's possessed a little fund of self-conceit and obstinacy, and some +warmth and irritability of temper, partly natural perhaps, but certainly +much increased by the unrestrained freedom of her childhood. Her +character will be best illustrated by a cottage evening scene. + +The careful father was absent in his well-stocked byre, foddering those +useful and patient animals on whose produce his living depended, and the +summer evening was beginning to close in, when Jeanie Deans began to be +very anxious for the appearance of her sister, and to fear that she would +not reach home before her father returned from the labour of the evening, +when it was his custom to have "family exercise," and when she knew that +Effie's absence would give him the most serious displeasure. These +apprehensions hung heavier upon her mind, because, for several preceding +evenings, Effie had disappeared about the same time, and her stay, at +first so brief as scarce to be noticed, had been gradually protracted to +half-an-hour, and an hour, and on the present occasion had considerably +exceeded even this last limit. And now, Jeanie stood at the door, with +her hand before her eyes to avoid the rays of the level sun, and looked +alternately along the various tracks which led towards their dwelling, to +see if she could descry the nymph-like form of her sister. There was a +wall and a stile which separated the royal domain, or King's Park, as it +is called, from the public road; to this pass she frequently directed her +attention, when she saw two persons appear there somewhat suddenly, as if +they had walked close by the side of the wall to screen themselves from +observation. One of them, a man, drew back hastily; the other, a female, +crossed the stile, and advanced towards her--It was Effie. She met her +sister with that affected liveliness of manner, which, in her rank, and +sometimes in those above it, females occasionally assume to hide surprise +or confusion; and she carolled as she came-- + + "The elfin knight sate on the brae, + The broom grows bonny, the broom grows fair; + And by there came lilting a lady so gay, + And we daurna gang down to the broom nae mair." + +"Whisht, Effie," said her sister; "our father's coming out o' the byre." +--The damsel stinted in her song.--"Whare hae ye been sae late at e'en?" + +"It's no late, lass," answered Effie. + +"It's chappit eight on every clock o' the town, and the sun's gaun down +ahint the Corstorphine hills--Whare can ye hae been sae late?" + +"Nae gate," answered Effie. + +"And wha was that parted wi' you at the stile?" + +"Naebody," replied Effie once more. + +"Nae gate?--Naebody?--I wish it may be a right gate, and a right body, +that keeps folk out sae late at e'en, Effie." + +"What needs ye be aye speering then at folk?" retorted Effie. "I'm sure, +if ye'll ask nae questions, I'll tell ye nae lees. I never ask what +brings the Laird of Dumbiedikes glowering here like a wull-cat (only his +een's greener, and no sae gleg), day after day, till we are a' like to +gaunt our charts aft." + +"Because ye ken very weel he comes to see our father," said Jeanie, in +answer to this pert remark. + +"And Dominie Butler--Does he come to see our father, that's sae taen wi' +his Latin words?" said Effie, delighted to find that by carrying the war +into the enemy's country, she could divert the threatened attack upon +herself, and with the petulance of youth she pursued her triumph over her +prudent elder sister. She looked at her with a sly air, in which there +was something like irony, as she chanted, in a low but marked tone, a +scrap of an old Scotch song-- + + "Through the kirkyard + I met wi' the Laird, + The silly puir body he said me nae harm; + But just ere 'twas dark, + I met wi' the clerk" + +Here the songstress stopped, looked full at her sister, and, observing +the tears gather in her eyes, she suddenly flung her arms round her neck, +and kissed them away. Jeanie, though hurt and displeased, was unable to +resist the caresses of this untaught child of nature, whose good and evil +seemed to flow rather from impulse than from reflection. But as she +returned the sisterly kiss, in token of perfect reconciliation, she could +not suppress the gentle reproof--"Effie, if ye will learn fule sangs, ye +might make a kinder use of them." + +"And so I might, Jeanie," continued the girl, clinging to her sister's +neck; "and I wish I had never learned ane o' them--and I wish we had +never come here--and I wish my tongue had been blistered or I had vexed +ye." + +"Never mind that, Effie," replied the affectionate sister; "I canna be +muckle vexed wi' ony thing ye say to me--but O, dinna vex our father!" + +"I will not--I will not," replied Effie; "and if there were as mony +dances the morn's night as there are merry dancers in the north firmament +on a frosty e'en, I winna budge an inch to gang near ane o' them." + +"Dance!" echoed Jeanie Deans in astonishment. "O Effie, what could take +ye to a dance?" + +It is very possible, that, in the communicative mood into which the Lily +of St. Leonard's was now surprised, she might have given her sister her +unreserved confidence, and saved me the pain of telling a melancholy +tale; but at the moment the word dance was uttered, it reached the ear of +old David Deans, who had turned the corner of the house, and came upon +his daughters ere they were aware of his presence. The word /prelate,/ or +even the word /pope,/ could hardly have produced so appalling an effect +upon David's ear; for, of all exercises, that of dancing, which he termed +a voluntary and regular fit of distraction, he deemed most destructive of +serious thoughts, and the readiest inlet to all sorts of licentiousness; +and he accounted the encouraging, and even permitting, assemblies or +meetings, whether among those of high or low degree, for this fantastic +and absurd purpose, or for that of dramatic representations, as one of +the most flagrant proofs of defection and causes of wrath. The +pronouncing of the word /dance/ by his own daughters, and at his own +door, now drove him beyond the verge of patience. "Dance!" he exclaimed. +"Dance!--dance, said ye? I daur ye, limmers that ye are, to name sic a +word at my door-cheek! It's a dissolute profane pastime, practised by the +Israelites only at their base and brutal worship of the Golden Calf at +Bethel, and by the unhappy lass wha danced aff the head of John the +Baptist, upon whilk chapter I will exercise this night for your farther +instruction, since ye need it sae muckle, nothing doubting that she has +cause to rue the day, lang or this time, that e'er she suld hae shook a +limb on sic an errand. Better for her to hae been born a cripple, and +carried frae door to door, like auld Bessie Bowie, begging bawbees, than +to be a king's daughter, fiddling and flinging the gate she did. I hae +often wondered that ony ane that ever bent a knee for the right purpose, +should ever daur to crook a hough to fyke and fling at piper's wind and +fiddler's squealing. And I bless God (with that singular worthy, Peter +Walker the packman at Bristo-Port),* that ordered my lot in my dancing +days, so that fear of my head and throat, dread of bloody rope and swift +bullet, and trenchant swords and pain of boots and thumkins, cauld and +hunger, wetness and weariness, stopped the lightness of my head, and the +wantonness of my feet. + +* Note F. Peter Walker. + +And now, if I hear ye, quean lassies, sae muckle as name dancing, or +think there's sic a thing in this warld as flinging to fiddler's sounds, +and piper's springs, as sure as my father's spirit is with the just, ye +shall be no more either charge or concern of mine! Gang in, then--gang +in, then, hinnies," he added, in a softer tone, for the tears of both +daughters, but especially those of Effie, began to flow very fast,--"Gang +in, dears, and we'll seek grace to preserve us frae all, manner of +profane folly, whilk causeth to sin, and promoteth the kingdom of +darkness, warring with the kingdom of light." + +The objurgation of David Deans, however well meant, was unhappily timed. +It created a division of feelings in Effie's bosom, and deterred her from +her intended confidence in her sister. "She wad hand me nae better than +the dirt below her feet," said Effie to herself, "were I to confess I hae +danced wi' him four times on the green down by, and ance at Maggie +Macqueens's; and she'll maybe hing it ower my head that she'll tell my +father, and then she wad be mistress and mair. But I'll no gang back +there again. I'm resolved I'll no gang back. I'll lay in a leaf of my +Bible,* and that's very near as if I had made an aith, that I winna gang +back." + +* This custom of making a mark by folding a leaf in the party's Bible, +when a solemn resolution is formed, is still held to be, in some sense, +an appeal to Heaven for his or her sincerity. + +And she kept her vow for a week, during which she was unusually cross and +fretful, blemishes which had never before been observed in her temper, +except during a moment of contradiction. + +There was something in all this so mysterious as considerably to alarm +the prudent and affectionate Jeanie, the more so as she judged it unkind +to her sister to mention to their father grounds of anxiety which might +arise from her own imagination. Besides, her respect for the good old man +did not prevent her from being aware that he was both hot-tempered and +positive, and she sometimes suspected that he carried his dislike to +youthful amusements beyond the verge that religion and reason demanded. +Jeanie had sense enough to see that a sudden and severe curb upon her +sister's hitherto unrestrained freedom might be rather productive of harm +than good, and that Effie, in the headstrong wilfulness of youth, was +likely to make what might be overstrained in her father's precepts an +excuse to herself for neglecting them altogether. In the higher classes, +a damsel, however giddy, is still under the dominion of etiquette, and +subject to the surveillance of mammas and chaperons; but the country +girl, who snatches her moment of gaiety during the intervals of labour, +is under no such guardianship or restraint, and her amusement becomes so +much the more hazardous. Jeanie saw all this with much distress of mind, +when a circumstance occurred which appeared calculated to relieve her +anxiety. + +Mrs. Saddletree, with whom our readers have already been made acquainted, +chanced to be a distant relation of Douce David Deans, and as she was a +woman orderly in her life and conversation, and, moreover, of good +substance, a sort of acquaintance was formally kept up between the +families. Now, this careful dame, about a year and a half before our +story commences, chanced to need, in the line of her profession, a better +sort of servant, or rather shop-woman. "Mr. Saddletree," she said, "was +never in the shop when he could get his nose within the Parliament House, +and it was an awkward thing for a woman-body to be standing among bundles +o' barkened leather her lane, selling saddles and bridles; and she had +cast her eyes upon her far-awa cousin Effie Deans, as just the very sort +of lassie she would want to keep her in countenance on such occasions." + +In this proposal there was much that pleased old David,--there was bed, +board, and bountith--it was a decent situation--the lassie would be under +Mrs. Saddletree's eye, who had an upright walk, and lived close by the +Tolbooth Kirk, in which might still be heard the comforting doctrines of +one of those few ministers of the Kirk of Scotland who had not bent the +knee unto Baal, according to David's expression, or become accessory to +the course of national defections,--union, toleration, patronages, and a +bundle of prelatical Erastian oaths which had been imposed on the church +since the Revolution, and particularly in the reign of "the late woman" +(as he called Queen Anne), the last of that unhappy race of Stuarts. In +the good man's security concerning the soundness of the theological +doctrine which his daughter was to hear, he was nothing disturbed on +account of the snares of a different kind, to which a creature so +beautiful, young, and wilful, might be exposed in the centre of a +populous and corrupted city. The fact is, that he thought with so much +horror on all approaches to irregularities of the nature most to be +dreaded in such cases, that he would as soon have suspected and guarded +against Effie's being induced to become guilty of the crime of murder. He +only regretted that she should live under the same roof with such a +worldly-wise man as Bartoline Saddletree, whom David never suspected of +being an ass as he was, but considered as one really endowed with all the +legal knowledge to which he made pretension, and only liked him the worse +for possessing it. The lawyers, especially those amongst them who sate as +ruling elders in the General Assembly of the Kirk, had been forward in +promoting the measures of patronage, of the abjuration oath, and others, +which, in the opinion of David Deans, were a breaking down of the carved +work of the sanctuary, and an intrusion upon the liberties of the kirk. +Upon the dangers of listening to the doctrines of a legalised formalist, +such as Saddletree, David gave his daughter many lectures; so much so, +that he had time to touch but slightly on the dangers of chambering, +company-keeping, and promiscuous dancing, to which, at her time of life, +most people would have thought Effie more exposed, than to the risk of +theoretical error in her religious faith. + +Jeanie parted from her sister with a mixed feeling of regret, and +apprehension, and hope. She could not be so confident concerning Effie's +prudence as her father, for she had observed her more narrowly, had more +sympathy with her feelings, and could better estimate the temptations to +which she was exposed. On the other hand, Mrs. Saddletree was an +observing, shrewd, notable woman, entitled to exercise over Effie the +full authority of a mistress, and likely to do so strictly, yet with +kindness. Her removal to Saddletree's, it was most probable, would also +serve to break off some idle acquaintances, which Jeanie suspected her +sister to have formed in the neighbouring suburb. Upon the whole, then, +she viewed her departure from Saint Leonard's with pleasure, and it was +not until the very moment of their parting for the first time in their +lives, that she felt the full force of sisterly sorrow. While they +repeatedly kissed each other's cheeks, and wrung each other's hands, +Jeanie took that moment of affectionate sympathy, to press upon her +sister the necessity of the utmost caution in her conduct while residing +in Edinburgh. Effie listened, without once raising her large dark +eyelashes, from which the drops fell so fast as almost to resemble a +fountain. At the conclusion she sobbed again, kissed her sister, promised +to recollect all the good counsel she had given her, and they parted. + +During the first weeks, Effie was all that her kinswoman expected, and +even more. But with time there came a relaxation of that early zeal which +she manifested in Mrs. Saddletree's service. To borrow once again from +the poet, who so correctly and beautifully describes living manners:-- + + + Something there was,--what, none presumed to say,-- + Clouds lightly passing on a summer's day; + Whispers and hints, which went from ear to ear, + And mixed reports no judge on earth could clear. + +During this interval, Mrs. Saddletree was sometimes displeased by Effie's +lingering when she was sent upon errands about the shop business, and +sometimes by a little degree of impatience which she manifested at being +rebuked on such occasions. But she good-naturedly allowed, that the first +was very natural to a girl to whom everything in Edinburgh was new and +the other was only the petulance of a spoiled child, when subjected to +the yoke of domestic discipline for the first time. Attention and +submission could not be learned at once--Holyrood was not built in a day +--use would make perfect. + +It seemed as if the considerate old lady had presaged truly. Ere many +months had passed, Effie became almost wedded to her duties, though she +no longer discharged them with the laughing cheek and light step, which +had at first attracted every customer. Her mistress sometimes observed +her in tears, but they were signs of secret sorrow, which she concealed +as often as she saw them attract notice. Time wore on, her cheek grew +pale, and her step heavy. The cause of these changes could not have +escaped the matronly eye of Mrs. Saddletree, but she was chiefly confined +by indisposition to her bedroom for a considerable time during the latter +part of Effie's service. This interval was marked by symptoms of anguish +almost amounting to despair. The utmost efforts of the poor girl to +command her fits of hysterical agony were, often totally unavailing, and +the mistakes which she made in the shop the while, were so numerous and +so provoking that Bartoline Saddletree, who, during his wife's illness, +was obliged to take closer charge of the business than consisted with his +study of the weightier matters of the law, lost all patience with the +girl, who, in his law Latin, and without much respect to gender, he +declared ought to be cognosced by inquest of a jury, as /fatuus, +furiosus,/ and /naturaliter idiota./ Neighbours, also, and +fellow-servants, remarked with malicious curiosity or degrading pity, the +disfigured shape, loose dress, and pale cheeks, of the once beautiful and +still interesting girl. But to no one would she grant her confidence, +answering all taunts with bitter sarcasm, and all serious expostulation +with sullen denial, or with floods of tears. + +At length, when Mrs. Saddletree's recovery was likely to permit her +wonted attention to the regulation of her household, Effie Deans, as if +unwilling to face an investigation made by the authority of her mistress, +asked permission of Bartoline to go home for a week or two, assigning +indisposition, and the wish of trying the benefit of repose and the +change of air, as the motives of her request. Sharp-eyed as a lynx (or +conceiving himself to be so) in the nice sharp quillits of legal +discussion, Bartoline was as dull at drawing inferences from the +occurrences of common life as any Dutch professor of mathematics. He +suffered Effie to depart without much suspicion, and without any inquiry. + +It was afterwards found that a period of a week intervened betwixt her +leaving her master's house and arriving at St. Leonard's. She made her +appearance before her sister in a state rather resembling the spectre +than the living substance of the gay and beautiful girl, who had left her +father's cottage for the first time scarce seventeen months before. The +lingering illness of her mistress had, for the last few months, given her +a plea for confining herself entirely to the dusky precincts of the shop +in the Lawnmarket, and Jeanie was so much occupied, during the same +period, with the concerns of her father's household, that she had rarely +found leisure for a walk in the city, and a brief and hurried visit to +her sister. The young women, therefore, had scarcely seen each other for +several months, nor had a single scandalous surmise reached the ears of +the secluded inhabitants of the cottage at St. Leonard's. Jeanie, +therefore, terrified to death at her sister's appearance, at first +overwhelmed her with inquiries, to which the unfortunate young woman +returned for a time incoherent and rambling answers, and finally fell +into a hysterical fit. Rendered too certain of her sister's misfortune, +Jeanie had now the dreadful alternative of communicating her ruin to her +father, or of endeavouring to conceal it from him. To all questions +concerning the name or rank of her seducer, and the fate of the being to +whom her fall had given birth, Effie remained as mute as the grave, to +which she seemed hastening; and indeed the least allusion to either +seemed to drive her to distraction. Her sister, in distress and in +despair, was about to repair to Mrs. Saddletree to consult her +experience, and at the same time to obtain what lights she could upon +this most unhappy affair, when she was saved that trouble by a new stroke +of fate, which seemed to carry misfortune to the uttermost. + +David Deans had been alarmed at the state of health in which his daughter +had returned to her paternal residence; but Jeanie had contrived to +divert him from particular and specific inquiry. It was therefore like a +clap of thunder to the poor old man, when, just as the hour of noon had +brought the visit of the Laird of Dumbiedikes as usual, other and +sterner, as well as most unexpected guests, arrived at the cottage of St. +Leonard's. These were the officers of justice, with a warrant of +justiciary to search for and apprehend Euphemia, or Effie Deans, accused +of the crime of child-murder. The stunning weight of a blow so totally +unexpected bore down the old man, who had in his early youth resisted the +brow of military and civil tyranny, though backed with swords and guns, +tortures and gibbets. He fell extended and senseless upon his own hearth; +and the men, happy to escape from the scene of his awakening, raised, +with rude humanity, the object of their warrant from her bed, and placed +her in a coach, which they had brought with them. The hasty remedies +which Jeanie had applied to bring back her father's senses were scarce +begun to operate, when the noise of the wheels in motion recalled her +attention to her miserable sister. To ran shrieking after the carriage +was the first vain effort of her distraction, but she was stopped by one +or two female neighbours, assembled by the extraordinary appearance of a +coach in that sequestered place, who almost forced her back to her +father's house. The deep and sympathetic affliction of these poor people, +by whom the little family at St. Leonard's were held in high regard, +filled the house with lamentation. Even Dumbiedikes was moved from his +wonted apathy, and, groping for his purse as he spoke, ejaculated, +"Jeanie, woman!--Jeanie, woman! dinna greet--it's sad wark, but siller +will help it;" and he drew out his purse as he spoke. + +The old man had now raised himself from the ground, and, looking about +him as if he missed something, seemed gradually to recover the sense of +his wretchedness. "Where," he said, with a voice that made the roof ring, +"where is the vile harlot, that has disgraced the blood of an honest +man?--Where is she, that has no place among us, but has come foul with +her sins, like the Evil One, among the children of God?--Where is she, +Jeanie?--Bring her before me, that I may kill her with a word and a +look!" + +All hastened around him with their appropriate sources of consolation-- +the Laird with his purse, Jeanie with burnt feathers and strong waters, +and the women with their exhortations. "O neighbour--O Mr. Deans, it's a +sair trial, doubtless--but think of the Rock of Ages, neighbour--think of +the promise!" + +"And I do think of it, neighbours--and I bless God that I can think of +it, even in the wrack and ruin of a' that's nearest and dearest to me-- +But to be the father of a castaway--a profligate--a bloody Zipporah--a +mere murderess!--O, how will the wicked exult in the high places of their +wickedness!--the prelatists, and the latitudinarians, and the hand-waled +murderers, whose hands are hard as horn wi' handing the slaughter- +weapons--they will push out the lip, and say that we are even such as +themselves. Sair, sair I am grieved, neighbours, for the poor castaway-- +for the child of mine old age--but sairer for the stumbling-block and +scandal it will be to all tender and honest souls!" + +"Davie--winna siller do't?" insinuated the laird, still proffering his +green purse, which was full of guineas. + +"I tell ye, Dumbiedikes," said Deans, "that if telling down my haill +substance could hae saved her frae this black snare, I wad hae walked out +wi' naething but my bonnet and my staff to beg an awmous for God's sake, +and ca'd mysell an happy man--But if a dollar, or a plack, or the +nineteenth part of a boddle, wad save her open guilt and open shame frae +open punishment, that purchase wad David Deans never make!--Na, na; an +eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, life for life, blood for blood--it's +the law of man, and it's the law of God.--Leave me, sirs--leave me--I +maun warstle wi' this trial in privacy and on my knees." + +Jeanie, now in some degree restored to the power of thought, joined in +the same request. The next day found the father and daughter still in the +depth of affliction, but the father sternly supporting his load of ill +through a proud sense of religious duty, and the daughter anxiously +suppressing her own feelings to avoid again awakening his. Thus was it +with the afflicted family until the morning after Porteous's death, a +period at which we are now arrived. + + + + + CHAPTER TENTH. + + + Is all the counsel that we two have shared, + The sisters' vows, the hours that we have spent + When we have chid the hasty-footed time + For parting us--Oh!--and is all forgot? + Midsummer Night's Dream. + +We have been a long while in conducting Butler to the door of the cottage +at St. Leonard's; yet the space which we have occupied in the preceding +narrative does not exceed in length that which he actually spent on +Salisbury Crags on the morning which succeeded the execution done upon +Porteous by the rioters. For this delay he had his own motives. He wished +to collect his thoughts, strangely agitated as they were, first by the +melancholy news of Effie Deans's situation, and afterwards by the +frightful scene which he had witnessed. In the situation also in which he +stood with respect to Jeanie and her father, some ceremony, at least some +choice of fitting time and season, was necessary to wait upon them. Eight +in the morning was then the ordinary hour for breakfast, and he resolved +that it should arrive before he made his appearance in their cottage. + +Never did hours pass so heavily. Butler shifted his place and enlarged +his circle to while away the time, and heard the huge bell of St. Giles's +toll each successive hour in swelling tones, which were instantly +attested by those of the other steeples in succession. He had heard seven +struck in this manner, when he began to think he might venture to +approach nearer to St. Leonard's, from which he was still a mile distant. +Accordingly he descended from his lofty station as low as the bottom of +the valley, which divides Salisbury Crags from those small rocks which +take their name from Saint Leonard. It is, as many of my readers may +know, a deep, wild, grassy valley, scattered with huge rocks and +fragments which have descended from the cliffs and steep ascent to the +east. + +This sequestered dell, as well as other places of the open pasturage of +the King's Park, was, about this time, often the resort of the gallants +of the time who had affairs of honour to discuss with the sword. Duels +were then very common in Scotland, for the gentry were at once idle, +haughty, fierce, divided by faction, and addicted to intemperance, so +that there lacked neither provocation, nor inclination to resent it when +given; and the sword, which was part of every gentleman's dress, was the +only weapon used for the decision of such differences. When, therefore, +Butler observed a young man, skulking, apparently to avoid observation, +among the scattered rocks at some distance from the footpath, he was +naturally led to suppose that he had sought this lonely spot upon that +evil errand. He was so strongly impressed with this, that, +notwithstanding his own distress of mind, he could not, according to his +sense of duty as a clergyman, pass this person without speaking to him. +There are times, thought he to himself, when the slightest interference +may avert a great calamity--when a word spoken in season may do more for +prevention than the eloquence of Tully could do for remedying evil--And +for my own griefs, be they as they may, I shall feel them the lighter, if +they divert me not from the prosecution of my duty. + +Thus thinking and feeling, he quitted the ordinary path, and advanced +nearer the object he had noticed. The man at first directed his course +towards the hill, in order, as it appeared, to avoid him; but when he saw +that Butler seemed disposed to follow him, he adjusted his hat fiercely, +turned round, and came forward, as if to meet and defy scrutiny. + +Butler had an opportunity of accurately studying his features as they +advanced slowly to meet each other. The stranger seemed about twenty-five +years old. His dress was of a kind which could hardly be said to indicate +his rank with certainty, for it was such as young gentlemen sometimes +wore while on active exercise in the morning, and which, therefore, was +imitated by those of the inferior ranks, as young clerks and tradesmen, +because its cheapness rendered it attainable, while it approached more +nearly to the apparel of youths of fashion than any other which the +manners of the times permitted them to wear. If his air and manner could +be trusted, however, this person seemed rather to be dressed under than +above his rank; for his carriage was bold and somewhat supercilious, his +step easy and free, his manner daring and unconstrained. His stature was +of the middle size, or rather above it, his limbs well-proportioned, yet +not so strong as to infer the reproach of clumsiness. His features were +uncommonly handsome, and all about him would have been interesting and +prepossessing but for that indescribable expression which habitual +dissipation gives to the countenance, joined with a certain audacity in +look and manner, of that kind which is often assumed as a mask for +confusion and apprehension. + +Butler and the stranger met--surveyed each other--when, as the latter, +slightly touching his hat, was about to pass by him, Butler, while he +returned the salutation, observed, "A fine morning, sir--You are on the +hill early." + +"I have business here," said the young man, in a tone meant to repress +farther inquiry. + +"I do not doubt it, sir," said Butler. "I trust you will forgive my +hoping that it is of a lawful kind?" + +"Sir," said the other, with marked surprise, "I never forgive +impertinence, nor can I conceive what title you have to hope anything +about what no way concerns you." + +"I am a soldier, sir," said Butler, "and have a charge to arrest +evil-doers in the name of my Master." + +"A soldier!" said the young man, stepping back, and fiercely laying his +hand on his sword--"A soldier, and arrest me! Did you reckon what your +life was worth, before you took the commission upon you?" + +"You mistake me, sir," said Butler, gravely; "neither my warfare nor my +warrant are of this world. I am a preacher of the gospel, and have power, +in my Master's name, to command the peace upon earth and good-will +towards men, which was proclaimed with the gospel." + +"A minister!" said the stranger, carelessly, and with an expression +approaching to scorn. "I know the gentlemen of your cloth in Scotland +claim a strange right of intermeddling with men's private affairs. But I +have been abroad, and know better than to be priest-ridden." + +"Sir, if it be true that any of my cloth, or, it might be more decently +said, of my calling, interfere with men's private affairs, for the +gratification either of idle curiosity, or for worse motives, you cannot +have learned a better lesson abroad than to contemn such practices. But +in my Master's work, I am called to be busy in season and out of season; +and, conscious as I am of a pure motive, it were better for me to incur +your contempt for speaking, than the correction of my own conscience for +being silent." + +"In the name of the devil!" said the young man impatiently, "say what you +have to say, then; though whom you take me for, or what earthly concern +you have with me, a stranger to you, or with my actions and motives, of +which you can know nothing, I cannot conjecture for an instant." + +"You are about," said Butler, "to violate one of your country's wisest +laws--you are about, which is much more dreadful, to violate a law, which +God himself has implanted within our nature, and written as it were, in +the table of our hearts, to which every thrill of our nerves is +responsive." + +"And what is the law you speak of?" said the stranger, in a hollow and +somewhat disturbed accent. + +"Thou shalt do no murder," said Butler, with a deep and solemn voice. + +The young man visibly started, and looked considerably appalled. Butler +perceived he had made a favourable impression, and resolved to follow it +up. "Think," he said, "young man," laying his hand kindly upon the +stranger's shoulder, "what an awful alternative you voluntarily choose +for yourself, to kill or be killed. Think what it is to rush uncalled +into the presence of an offended Deity, your heart fermenting with evil +passions, your hand hot from the steel you had been urging, with your +best skill and malice, against the breast of a fellow-creature. Or, +suppose yourself the scarce less wretched survivor, with the guilt of +Cain, the first murderer, in your heart, with the stamp upon your brow-- +that stamp which struck all who gazed on him with unutterable horror, and +by which the murderer is made manifest to all who look upon him. Think" + +The stranger gradually withdrew himself from under the hand of his +monitor; and, pulling his hat over his brows, thus interrupted him. "Your +meaning, sir, I dare say, is excellent, but you are throwing your advice +away. I am not in this place with violent intentions against any one. I +may be bad enough--you priests say all men are so--but I am here for the +purpose of saving life, not of taking it away. If you wish to spend your +time rather in doing a good action than in talking about you know not +what, I will give you an opportunity. Do you see yonder crag to the +right, over which appears the chimney of a lone house? Go thither, +inquire for one Jeanie Deans, the daughter of the goodman; let her know +that he she wots of remained here from daybreak till this hour, expecting +to see her, and that he can abide no longer. Tell her, she /must/ meet me +at the Hunter's Bog to-night, as the moon rises behind St. Anthony's +Hill, or that she will make a desperate man of me." + +"Who or what are you," replied Butler, exceedingly and most unpleasantly +surprised, "who charge me with such an errand?" + +"I am the devil!"--answered the young man hastily. + +Butler stepped instinctively back, and commanded himself internally to +Heaven; for, though a wise and strong-minded man, he was neither wiser +nor more strong-minded than those of his age and education, with whom, to +disbelieve witchcraft or spectres, was held an undeniable proof of +atheism. + +The stranger went on without observing his emotion. "Yes! call me +Apollyon, Abaddon, whatever name you shall choose, as a clergyman +acquainted with the upper and lower circles of spiritual denomination, to +call me by, you shall not find an appellation more odious to him that +bears it, than is mine own." + +This sentence was spoken with the bitterness of self-upbraiding, and a +contortion of visage absolutely demoniacal. Butler, though a man brave by +principle, if not by constitution, was overawed; for intensity of mental +distress has in it a sort of sublimity which repels and overawes all men, +but especially those of kind and sympathetic dispositions. The stranger +turned abruptly from Butler as he spoke, but instantly returned, and, +coming up to him closely and boldly, said, in a fierce, determined tone, +"I have told you who and what I am--who and what are you? What is your +name?" + +"Butler," answered the person to whom this abrupt question was addressed, +surprised into answering it by the sudden and fierce manner of the +querist--"Reuben Butler, a preacher of the gospel." + +At this answer, the stranger again plucked more deep over his brows the +hat which he had thrown back in his former agitation. "Butler!" he +repeated--"the assistant of the schoolmaster at Liberton?" + +"The same," answered Butler composedly. + +The stranger covered his face with his hand, as if on sudden reflection, +and then turned away, but stopped when he had walked a few paces; and +seeing Butler follow him with his eyes, called out in a stern yet +suppressed tone, just as if he had exactly calculated that his accents +should not be heard a yard beyond the spot on which Butler stood. "Go +your way, and do mine errand. Do not look after me. I will neither +descend through the bowels of these rocks, nor vanish in a flash of fire; +and yet the eye that seeks to trace my motions shall have reason to curse +it was ever shrouded by eyelid or eyelash. Begone, and look not behind +you. Tell Jeanie Deans, that when the moon rises I shall expect to meet +her at Nicol Muschat's Cairn, beneath Saint Anthony's Chapel." + +As he uttered these words, he turned and took the road against the hill, +with a haste that seemed as peremptory as his tone of authority. + +Dreading he knew not what of additional misery to a lot which seemed +little capable of receiving augmentation, and desperate at the idea that +any living man should dare to send so extraordinary a request, couched in +terms so imperious, to the half-betrothed object of his early and only +affection, Butler strode hastily towards the cottage, in order to +ascertain how far this daring and rude gallant was actually entitled to +press on Jeanie Deans a request, which no prudent, and scarce any modest +young woman, was likely to comply with. + +Butler was by nature neither jealous nor superstitious; yet the feelings +which lead to those moods of the mind were rooted in his heart, as a +portion derived from the common stock of humanity. It was maddening to +think that a profligate gallant, such as the manner and tone of the +stranger evinced him to be, should have it in his power to command forth +his future bride and plighted true love, at a place so improper, and an +hour so unseasonable. Yet the tone in which the stranger spoke had +nothing of the soft half-breathed voice proper to the seducer who +solicits an assignation; it was bold, fierce, and imperative, and had +less of love in it than of menace and intimidation. + +The suggestions of superstition seemed more plausible, had Butler's mind +been very accessible to them. Was this indeed the Roaring Lion, who goeth +about seeking whom he may devour? This was a question which pressed +itself on Butler's mind with an earnestness that cannot be conceived by +those who live in the present day. The fiery eye, the abrupt demeanour, +the occasionally harsh, yet studiously subdued tone of voice,--the +features, handsome, but now clouded with pride, now disturbed by +suspicion, now inflamed with passion--those dark hazel eyes which he +sometimes shaded with his cap, as if he were averse to have them seen +while they were occupied with keenly observing the motions and bearing of +others--those eyes that were now turbid with melancholy, now gleaming +with scorn, and now sparkling with fury--was it the passions of a mere +mortal they expressed, or the emotions of a fiend, who seeks, and seeks +in vain, to conceal his fiendish designs under the borrowed mask of manly +beauty? The whole partook of the mien, language, and port of the ruined +archangel; and, imperfectly as we have been able to describe it, the +effect of the interview upon Butler's nerves, shaken as they were at the +time by the horrors of the preceding night, were greater than his +understanding warranted, or his pride cared to submit to. The very place +where he had met this singular person was desecrated, as it were, and +unhallowed, owing to many violent deaths, both in duels and by suicide, +which had in former times taken place there; and the place which he had +named as a rendezvous at so late an hour, was held in general to be +accursed, from a frightful and cruel murder which had been there +committed by the wretch from whom the place took its name, upon the +person of his own wife.* + +* Note G. Muschat's Cairn. + +It was in such places, according to the belief of that period (when the +laws against witchcraft were still in fresh observance, and had even +lately been acted upon), that evil spirits had power to make themselves +visible to human eyes, and to practise upon the feelings and senses of +mankind. Suspicions, founded on such circumstances, rushed on Butler's +mind, unprepared as it was by any previous course of reasoning, to deny +that which all of his time, country, and profession believed; but common +sense rejected these vain ideas as inconsistent, if not with possibility, +at least with the general rules by which the universe is governed,--a +deviation from which, as Butler well argued with himself, ought not to be +admitted as probable, upon any but the plainest and most incontrovertible +evidence. An earthly lover, however, or a young man, who, from whatever +cause, had the right of exercising such summary and unceremonious +authority over the object of his long-settled, and apparently sincerely +returned affection, was an object scarce less appalling to his mind, than +those which superstition suggested. + +His limbs exhausted with fatigue, his mind harassed with anxiety, and +with painful doubts and recollections, Butler dragged himself up the +ascent from the valley to St. Leonard's Crags, and presented himself at +the door of Deans's habitation, with feelings much akin to the miserable +reflections and fears of its inhabitants. + + + + + CHAPTER ELEVENTH. + + + Then she stretched out her lily hand, + And for to do her best; + "Hae back thy faith and troth, Willie, + God gie thy soul good rest!" + Old Ballad. + +"Come in," answered the low and sweet-toned voice he loved best to hear, +as Butler tapped at the door of the cottage. He lifted the latch, and +found himself under the roof of affliction. Jeanie was unable to trust +herself with more than one glance towards her lover, whom she now met +under circumstances so agonising to her feelings, and at the same time so +humbling to her honest pride. It is well known, that much, both of what +is good and bad in the Scottish national character, arises out of the +intimacy of their family connections. "To be come of honest folk," that +is, of people who have borne a fair and unstained reputation, is an +advantage as highly prized among the lower Scotch, as the emphatic +counterpart, "to be of a good family," is valued among their gentry. The +worth and respectability of one member of a peasant's family is always +accounted by themselves and others, not only a matter of honest pride, +but a guarantee for the good conduct of the whole. On the contrary, such +a melancholy stain as was now flung on one of the children of Deans, +extended its disgrace to all connected with him, and Jeanie felt herself +lowered at once, in her own eyes, and in those of her lover. It was in +vain that she repressed this feeling, as far subordinate and too selfish +to be mingled with her sorrow for her sister's calamity. Nature +prevailed; and while she shed tears for her sister's distress and danger, +there mingled with them bitter drops of grief for her own degradation. + +As Butler entered, the old man was seated by the fire with his well-worn +pocket Bible in his hands, the companion of the wanderings and dangers of +his youth, and bequeathed to him on the scaffold by one of those, who, in +the year 1686, sealed their enthusiastic principles with their blood. The +sun sent its rays through a small window at the old man's back, and, +"shining motty through the reek," to use the expression of a bard of that +time and country, illumined the grey hairs of the old man, and the sacred +page which he studied. His features, far from handsome, and rather harsh +and severe, had yet from their expression of habitual gravity, and +contempt for earthly things, an expression of stoical dignity amidst +their sternness. He boasted, in no small degree, the attributes which +Southey ascribes to the ancient Scandinavians, whom he terms "firm to +inflict, and stubborn to endure." The whole formed a picture, of which +the lights might have been given by Rembrandt, but the outline would have +required the force and vigour of Michael Angelo. + +Deans lifted his eye as Butler entered, and instantly withdrew it, as +from an object which gave him at once surprise and sudden pain. He had +assumed such high ground with this carnal-witted scholar, as he had in +his pride termed Butler, that to meet him, of all men, under feelings of +humiliation, aggravated his misfortune, and was a consummation like that +of the dying chief in the old ballad--"Earl Percy sees my fall!" + +Deans raised the Bible with his left hand, so as partly to screen his +face, and putting back his right as far as he could, held it towards +Butler in that position, at the same time turning his body from, him, as +if to prevent his seeing the working of his countenance. Butler clasped +the extended hand which had supported his orphan infancy, wept over it, +and in vain endeavoured to say more than the words--"God comfort you--God +comfort you!" + +"He will--he doth, my friend," said Deans, assuming firmness as he +discovered the agitation of his guest; "he doth now, and he will yet more +in his own gude time. I have been ower proud of my sufferings in a gude +cause, Reuben, and now I am to be tried with those whilk will turn my +pride and glory into a reproach and a hissing. How muckle better I hae +thought mysell than them that lay saft, fed sweet, and drank deep, when I +was in the moss-haggs and moors, wi' precious Donald Cameron, and worthy +Mr. Blackadder, called Guess-again; and how proud I was o' being made a +spectacle to men and angels, having stood on their pillory at the +Canongate afore I was fifteen years old, for the cause of a National +Covenant! To think, Reuben, that I, wha hae been sae honoured and exalted +in my youth, nay, when I was but a hafflins callant, and that hae borne +testimony again the defections o' the times yearly, monthly, daily, +hourly, minutely, striving and testifying with uplifted hand and voice, +crying aloud, and sparing not, against all great national snares, as the +nation-wasting and church-sinking abomination of union, toleration, and +patronage, imposed by the last woman of that unhappy race of Stuarts; +also against the infringements and invasions of the just powers of +eldership, whereanent, I uttered my paper, called a 'Cry of an Howl in +the Desert,' printed at the Bow-head, and sold by all flying stationers +in town and country--and /now/" + +Here he paused. It may well be supposed that Butler, though not +absolutely coinciding in all the good old man's ideas about church +government, had too much consideration and humanity to interrupt him, +while he reckoned up with conscious pride his sufferings, and the +constancy of his testimony. On the contrary, when he paused under the +influence of the bitter recollections of the moment, Butler instantly +threw in his mite of encouragement. + +"You have been well known, my old and revered friend, a true and tried +follower of the Cross; one who, as Saint Jerome hath it, '/per infamiam +et bonam famam grassari ad immortalitatem,/' which may be freely +rendered, 'who rusheth on to immortal life, through bad report and good +report.' You have been one of those to whom the tender and fearful souls +cry during the midnight solitude--'Watchman, what of the night?-- +Watchman, what of the night?'--And, assuredly, this heavy dispensation, +as it comes not without divine permission, so it comes not without its +special commission and use." + +"I do receive it as such," said poor Deans, returning the grasp of +Butler's hand; "and if I have not been taught to read the Scripture in +any other tongue but my native Scottish" (even in his distress Butler's +Latin quotation had not escaped his notice), "I have nevertheless so +learned them, that I trust to bear even this crook in my lot with +submission. But, oh! Reuben Butler, the kirk, of whilk, though unworthy, +I have yet been thought a polished shaft, and meet to be a pillar, +holding, from my youth upward, the place of ruling elder--what will the +lightsome and profane think of the guide that cannot keep his own family +from stumbling? How will they take up their song and their reproach, when +they see that the children of professors are liable to as foul +backsliding as the offspring of Belial! But I will bear my cross with the +comfort, that whatever showed like goodness in me or mine, was but like +the light that shines frae creeping insects, on the brae-side, in a dark +night--it kythes bright to the ee, because all is dark around it; but +when the morn comes on the mountains, it is, but a puir crawling +kail-worm after a'. And sae it shows, wi' ony rag of human righteousness, +or formal law-work, that we may pit round us to cover our shame." + +As he pronounced these words, the door again opened, and Mr. Bartoline +Saddletree entered, his three-pointed hat set far back on his head, with +a silk handkerchief beneath it to keep it in that cool position, his +gold-headed cane in his hand, and his whole deportment that of a wealthy +burgher, who might one day look to have a share in the magistracy, if not +actually to hold the curule chair itself. + +Rochefoucault, who has torn the veil from so many foul gangrenes of the +human heart, says, we find something not altogether unpleasant to us in +the misfortunes of our best friends. Mr. Saddletree would have been very +angry had any one told him that he felt pleasure in the disaster of poor +Effie Deans, and the disgrace of her family; and yet there is great +question whether the gratification of playing the person of importance, +inquiring, investigating, and laying down the law on the whole affair, +did not offer, to say the least, full consolation for the pain which pure +sympathy gave him on account of his wife's kinswoman. He had now got a +piece of real judicial business by the end, instead of being obliged, as +was his common case, to intrude his opinion where it was neither wished +nor wanted; and felt as happy in the exchange as a boy when he gets his +first new watch, which actually goes when wound up, and has real hands +and a true dial-plate. But besides this subject for legal disquisition, +Bartoline's brains were also overloaded with the affair of Porteous, his +violent death, and all its probable consequences to the city and +community. It was what the French call /l'embarras des richesses,/ the +confusion arising from too much mental wealth. He walked in with a +consciousness of double importance, full fraught with the superiority of +one who possesses more information than the company into which he enters, +and who feels a right to discharge his learning on them without mercy. +"Good morning, Mr. Deans,--good-morrow to you, Mr. Butler,--I was not +aware that you were acquainted with Mr. Deans." + +Butler made some slight answer; his reasons may be readily imagined for +not making his connection with the family, which, in his eyes, had +something of tender mystery, a frequent subject of conversation with +indifferent persons, such as Saddletree. + +The worthy burgher, in the plenitude of self-importance, now sate down +upon a chair, wiped his brow, collected his breath, and made the first +experiment of the resolved pith of his lungs, in a deep and dignified +sigh, resembling a groan in sound and intonation--"Awfu' times these, +neighbour Deans, awfu' times!" + +"Sinfu', shamefu', heaven-daring times!" answered Deans, in a lower and +more subdued tone. + +"For my part," continued Saddletree, swelling with importance, "what +between the distress of my friends, and my poor auld country, ony wit +that ever I had may be said to have abandoned me, sae that I sometimes +think myself as ignorant as if I were /inter rusticos./ Here when I arise +in the morning, wi' my mind just arranged touching what's to be done in +puir Effie's misfortune, and hae gotten the haill statute at my +finger-ends, the mob maun get up and string Jock Porteous to a dyester's +beam, and ding a' thing out of my head again." + +Deeply as he was distressed with his own domestic calamity, Deans could +not help expressing some interest in the news. Saddletree immediately +entered on details of the insurrection and its consequences, while Butler +took the occasion to seek some private conversation with Jeanie Deans. +She gave him the opportunity he sought, by leaving the room, as if in +prosecution of some part of her morning labour. Butler followed her in a +few minutes, leaving Deans so closely engaged by his busy visitor, that +there was little chance of his observing their absence. + +The scene of their interview was an outer apartment, where Jeanie was +used to busy herself in arranging the productions of her dairy. When +Butler found an opportunity of stealing after her into this place, he +found her silent, dejected, and ready to burst into tears. Instead of the +active industry with which she had been accustomed, even while in the act +of speaking, to employ her hands in some useful branch of household +business, she was seated listless in a corner, sinking apparently under +the weight of her own thoughts. Yet the instant he entered, she dried her +eyes, and, with the simplicity and openness of her character, immediately +entered on conversation. + +"I am glad you have come in, Mr. Butler," said she, "for--for--for I +wished to tell ye, that all maun be ended between you and me--it's best +for baith our sakes." + +"Ended!" said Butler, in surprise; "and for what should it be ended?--I +grant this is a heavy dispensation, but it lies neither at your door nor +mine--it's an evil of God's sending, and it must be borne; but it cannot +break plighted troth, Jeanie, while they that plighted their word wish to +keep it." + +"But, Reuben," said the young woman, looking at him affectionately, "I +ken weel that ye think mair of me than yourself; and, Reuben, I can only +in requital think mair of your weal than of my ain. Ye are a man of +spotless name, bred to God's ministry, and a' men say that ye will some +day rise high in the kirk, though poverty keep ye doun e'en now. Poverty +is a bad back-friend, Reuben, and that ye ken ower weel; but ill-fame is +a waur ane, and that is a truth ye sall never learn through my means." + +"What do you mean?" said Butler, eagerly and impatiently; "or how do you +connect your sister's guilt, if guilt there be, which, I trust in God, +may yet be disproved, with our engagement?--how can that affect you or +me?" + +"How can you ask me that, Mr. Butler? Will this stain, d'ye think, ever +be forgotten, as lang as our heads are abune the grund? Will it not stick +to us, and to our bairns, and to their very bairns' bairns? To hae been +the child of an honest man, might hae been saying something for me and +mine; but to be the sister of aO my God!"--With this exclamation her +resolution failed, and she burst into a passionate fit of tears. + +The lover used every effort to induce her to compose herself, and at +length succeeded; but she only resumed her composure to express herself +with the same positiveness as before. "No, Reuben, I'll bring disgrace +hame to nae man's hearth; my ain distresses I can bear, and I maun bear, +but there is nae occasion for buckling them on other folk's shouthers. I +will bear my load alone--the back is made for the burden." + +A lover is by charter wayward and suspicious; and Jeanie's readiness to +renounce their engagement, under pretence of zeal for his peace of mind +and respectability of character, seemed to poor Butler to form a +portentous combination with the commission of the stranger he had met +with that morning. His voice faltered as he asked, "whether nothing but a +sense of her sister's present distress occasioned her to talk in that +manner?" + +"And what else can do sae?" she replied with simplicity. "Is it not ten +long years since we spoke together in this way?" + +"Ten years!" said Butler. "It's a long time--sufficient perhaps for a +woman to weary" + +"To weary of her auld gown," said Jeanie, "and to wish for a new ane if +she likes to be brave, but not long enough to weary of a friend--The eye +may wish change, but the heart never." + +"Never!" said Reuben,--"that's a bold promise." + +"But not more bauld than true," said Jeanie, with the same quiet +simplicity which attended her manner in joy and grief in ordinary +affairs, and in those which most interested her feelings. + +Butler paused, and looking at her fixedly--"I am charged," he said, "with +a message to you, Jeanie." + +"Indeed! From whom? Or what can ony ane have to say to me?" + +"It is from a stranger," said Butler, affecting to speak with an +indifference which his voice belied--"A young man whom I met this morning +in the Park." + +"Mercy!" said Jeanie, eagerly; "and what did he say?" + +"That he did not see you at the hour he expected, but required you should +meet him alone at Muschat's Cairn this night, so soon as the moon rises." + +"Tell him," said Jeanie, hastily, "I shall certainly come." + +"May I ask," said Butler, his suspicions increasing at the ready alacrity +of the answer, "who this man is to whom you are so willing to give the +meeting at a place and hour so uncommon?" + +"Folk maun do muckle they have little will to do, in this world," replied +Jeanie. + +"Granted," said her lover; "but what compels you to this?--who is this +person? What I saw of him was not very favourable--who, or what is he?" + +"I do not know," replied Jeanie, composedly. + +"You do not know!" said Butler, stepping impatiently through the +apartment--"You purpose to meet a young man whom you do not know, at such +a time, and in a place so lonely--you say you are compelled to do this-- +and yet you say you do not know the person who exercises such an +influence over you!--Jeanie, what am I to think of this?" + +"Think only, Reuben, that I speak truth, as if I were to answer at the +last day.--I do not ken this man--I do not even ken that I ever saw him; +and yet I must give him the meeting he asks--there's life and death upon +it." + +"Will you not tell your father, or take him with you?" said Butler. + +"I cannot," said Jeanie; "I have no permission." + +"Will you let /me/ go with you? I will wait in the Park till nightfall, +and join you when you set out." + +"It is impossible," said Jeanie; "there maunna be mortal creature within +hearing of our conference." + +"Have you considered well the nature of what you are going to do?--the +time--the place--an unknown and suspicious character?--Why, if he had +asked to see you in this house, your father sitting in the next room, and +within call, at such an hour, you should have refused to see him." + +"My weird maun be fulfilled, Mr. Butler; my life and my safety are in +God's hands, but I'll not spare to risk either of them on the errand I am +gaun to do." + +"Then, Jeanie," said Butler, much displeased, "we must indeed break short +off, and bid farewell. When there can be no confidence betwixt a man and +his plighted wife on such a momentous topic, it is a sign that she has no +longer the regard for him that makes their engagement safe and suitable." + +Jeanie looked at him and sighed. "I thought," she said, "that I had +brought myself to bear this parting--but--but--I did not ken that we were +to part in unkindness. But I am a woman and you are a man--it may be +different wi' you--if your mind is made easier by thinking sae hardly of +me, I would not ask you to think otherwise." + +"You are," said Butler, "what you have always been--wiser, better, and +less selfish in your native feelings, than I can be, with all the helps +philosophy can give to a Christian--But why--why will you persevere in an +undertaking so desperate? Why will you not let me be your assistant--your +protector, or at least your adviser?" + +"Just because I cannot, and I dare not," answered Jeanie.--"But hark, +what's that? Surely my father is no weel?" + +In fact, the voices in the next room became obstreperously loud of a +sudden, the cause of which vociferation it is necessary to explain before +we go farther. + +When Jeanie and Butler retired, Mr. Saddletree entered upon the business +which chiefly interested the family. In the commencement of their +conversation he found old Deans, who in his usual state of mind, was no +granter of propositions, so much subdued by a deep sense of his +daughter's danger and disgrace, that he heard without replying to, or +perhaps without understanding, one or two learned disquisitions on the +nature of the crime imputed to her charge, and on the steps which ought +to be taken in consequence. His only answer at each pause was, "I am no +misdoubting that you wuss us weel--your wife's our far-awa cousin." + +Encouraged by these symptoms of acquiescence, Saddletree, who, as an +amateur of the law, had a supreme deference for all constituted +authorities, again recurred to his other topic of interest, the murder, +namely, of Porteous, and pronounced a severe censure on the parties +concerned. + +"These are kittle times--kittle times, Mr. Deans, when the people take +the power of life and death out of the hands of the rightful magistrate +into their ain rough grip. I am of opinion, and so I believe will Mr. +Crossmyloof and the Privy Council, that this rising in effeir of war, to +take away the life of a reprieved man, will prove little better than +perduellion." + +"If I hadna that on my mind whilk is ill to bear, Mr. Saddletree," said +Deans, "I wad make bold to dispute that point wi' you." + +"How could you dispute what's plain law, man?" said Saddletree, somewhat +contemptuously; "there's no a callant that e'er carried a pock wi' a +process in't, but will tell you that perduellion is the warst and maist +virulent kind of treason, being an open convocating of the king's lieges +against his authority (mair especially in arms, and by touk of drum, to +baith whilk accessories my een and lugs bore witness), and muckle worse +than lese-majesty, or the concealment of a treasonable purpose--It winna +bear a dispute, neighbour." + +"But it will, though," retorted Douce Davie Deans; "I tell ye it will +bear a disputer never like your cauld, legal, formal doctrines, neighbour +Saddletree. I haud unco little by the Parliament House, since the awfu' +downfall of the hopes of honest folk that followed the Revolution." + +"But what wad ye hae had, Mr. Deans?" said Saddletree, impatiently; +"didna ye get baith liberty and conscience made fast, and settled by +tailzie on you and your heirs for ever?" + +"Mr. Saddletree," retorted Deans, "I ken ye are one of those that are +wise after the manner of this world, and that ye hand your part, and cast +in your portion, wi' the lang heads and lang gowns, and keep with the +smart witty-pated lawyers of this our land--Weary on the dark and dolefu' +cast that they hae gien this unhappy kingdom, when their black hands of +defection were clasped in the red hands of our sworn murtherers: when +those who had numbered the towers of our Zion, and marked the bulwarks of +Reformation, saw their hope turn into a snare, and their rejoicing into +weeping." + +"I canna understand this, neighbour," answered Saddletree. "I am an +honest Presbyterian of the Kirk of Scotland, and stand by her and the +General Assembly, and the due administration of justice by the fifteen +Lords o' Session and the five Lords o' Justiciary." + +"Out upon ye, Mr. Saddletree!" exclaimed David, who, in an opportunity of +giving his testimony on the offences and backslidings of the land, forgot +for a moment his own domestic calamity--"out upon your General Assembly, +and the back of my hand to your Court o' Session!--What is the tane but a +waefu' bunch o' cauldrife professors and ministers, that sate bien and +warm when the persecuted remnant were warstling wi' hunger, and cauld, +and fear of death, and danger of fire and sword upon wet brae-sides, +peat-haggs, and flow-mosses, and that now creep out of their holes, like +bluebottle flees in a blink of sunshine, to take the pu'pits and places +of better folk--of them that witnessed, and testified, and fought, and +endured pit, prison-house, and transportation beyond seas?--A bonny bike +there's o' them!--And for your Court o' Session" + +"Ye may say what ye will o' the General Assembly," said Saddletree, +interrupting him, "and let them clear them that kens them; but as for the +Lords o' Session, forby that they are my next-door neighbours, I would +have ye ken, for your ain regulation, that to raise scandal anent them, +whilk is termed to /murmur/ again them, is a crime /sui generis,/--/sui +generis,/ Mr. Deans--ken ye what that amounts to?" + +"I ken little o' the language of Antichrist," said Deans; "and I care +less than little what carnal courts may call the speeches of honest men. +And as to murmur again them, it's what a' the folk that loses their +pleas, and nine-tenths o' them that win them, will be gey sure to be +guilty in. Sae I wad hae ye ken that I hand a' your gleg-tongued +advocates, that sell their knowledge for pieces of silver--and your +worldly-wise judges, that will gie three days of hearing in presence to a +debate about the peeling of an ingan, and no ae half-hour to the gospel +testimony--as legalists and formalists, countenancing by sentences, and +quirks, and cunning terms of law, the late begun courses of national +defections--union, toleration, patronages, and Yerastian prelatic oaths. +As for the soul and body-killing Court o' Justiciary" + +The habit of considering his life as dedicated to bear testimony in +behalf of what he deemed the suffering and deserted cause of true +religion, had swept honest David along with it thus far; but with the +mention of the criminal court, the recollection of the disastrous +condition of his daughter rushed at once on his mind; he stopped short in +the midst of his triumphant declamation, pressed his hands against his +forehead, and remained silent. + +Saddletree was somewhat moved, but apparently not so much so as to induce +him to relinquish the privilege of prosing in his turn afforded him by +David's sudden silence. "Nae doubt, neighbour," he said, "it's a sair +thing to hae to do wi' courts of law, unless it be to improve ane's +knowledge and practique, by waiting on as a hearer; and touching this +unhappy affair of Effie--ye'll hae seen the dittay, doubtless? He dragged +out of his pocket a bundle of papers, and began to turn them over. "This +is no it--this is the information of Mungo Marsport, of that ilk, against +Captain Lackland, for coming on his lands of Marsport with hawks, hounds, +lying-dogs, nets, guns, cross-bows, hagbuts of found, or other engines +more or less for destruction of game, sic as red-deer, fallow-deer, +cappercailzies, grey-fowl, moor-fowl, paitricks, herons, and sic like; +he, the said defender not being ane qualified person, in terms of the +statute sixteen hundred and twenty-ane; that is, not having ane +plough-gate of land. Now, the defences proponed say, that /non constat/ +at this present what is a plough-gate of land, whilk uncertainty is +sufficient to elide the conclusions of the libel. But then the answers to +the defences (they are signed by Mr. Crossmyloof, but Mr. Younglad drew +them), they propone, that it signifies naething, /in hoc statu,/ what or +how muckle a plough-gate of land may be, in respect the defender has nae +lands whatsoever, less or mair. 'Sae grant a plough-gate'" (here +Saddletree read from the paper in his hand) "'to be less than the +nineteenth part of a guse's grass'--(I trow Mr. Crossmyloof put in that-- +I ken his style),--'of a guse's grass, what the better will the defender +be, seeing he hasna a divot-cast of land in Scotland?--/Advocatus/ for +Lackland duplies, that /nihil interest de possessione,/ the pursuer must +put his case under the statute'--(now, this is worth your notice, +neighbour),--'and must show, /formaliter et specialiter,/ as well as +/generaliter,/ what is the qualification that defender Lackland does +/not/ possess--let him tell me what a plough-gate of land is, and I'll +tell him if I have one or no. Surely the pursuer is bound to understand +his own libel, and his own statute that he founds upon. /Titius/ pursues +/Maevius/ for recovery of ane /black/ horse lent to Maevius--surely he +shall have judgment; but if Titius pursue Maevius for ane /scarlet/ or +/crimson/ horse, doubtless he shall be bound to show that there is sic +ane animal /in rerum natura./ No man can be bound to plead to nonsense-- +that is to say, to a charge which cannot be explained or understood'-- +(he's wrang there--the better the pleadings the fewer understand them),-- +'and so the reference unto this undefined and unintelligible measure of +land is, as if a penalty was inflicted by statute for any man who suld +hunt or hawk, or use lying-dogs, and wearing a sky-blue pair of breeches, +without having'But I am wearying you, Mr. Deans,--we'll pass to your ain +business,--though this cue of Marsport against Lackland has made an unco +din in the Outer House. Weel, here's the dittay against puir Effie: +'Whereas it is humbly meant and shown to us,' etc. (they are words of +mere style), 'that whereas, by the laws of this and every other +well-regulated realm, the murder of any one, more especially of an infant +child, is a crime of ane high nature, and severely punishable: And +whereas, without prejudice to the foresaid generality, it was, by ane act +made in the second session of the First Parliament of our most High and +Dread Sovereigns William and Mary, especially enacted, that ane woman who +shall have concealed her condition, and shall not be able to show that +she hath called for help at the birth in case that the child shall be +found dead or amissing, shall be deemed and held guilty of the murder +thereof; and the said facts of concealment and pregnancy being found +proven or confessed, shall sustain the pains of law accordingly; yet, +nevertheless, you, Effie, or Euphemia Deans'" + +"Read no farther!" said Deans, raising his head up; "I would rather ye +thrust a sword into my heart than read a word farther!" + +"Weel, neighbour," said Saddletree, "I thought it wad hae comforted ye to +ken the best and the warst o't. But the question is, what's to be dune?" + +"Nothing," answered Deans firmly, "but to abide the dispensation that the +Lord sees meet to send us. Oh, if it had been His will to take the grey +head to rest before this awful visitation on my house and name! But His +will be done. I can say that yet, though I can say little mair." + +"But, neighbour," said Saddletree, "ye'll retain advocates for the puir +lassie? it's a thing maun needs be thought of." + +"If there was ae man of them," answered Deans, "that held fast his +integrity--but I ken them weel, they are a' carnal, crafty, and +warld-hunting self-seekers, Yerastians, and Arminians, every ane o' +them." + +"Hout tout, neighbour, ye mauna take the warld at its word," said +Saddletree; "the very deil is no sae ill as he's ca'd; and I ken mair +than ae advocate that may be said to hae some integrity as weel as their +neighbours; that is, after a sort o' fashion' o' their ain." + +"It is indeed but a fashion of integrity that ye will find amang them," +replied David Deans, "and a fashion of wisdom, and fashion of carnal +learning--gazing, glancing-glasses they are, fit only to fling the glaiks +in folk's een, wi' their pawky policy, and earthly ingine, their flights +and refinements, and periods of eloquence, frae heathen emperors and +popish canons. They canna, in that daft trash ye were reading to me, sae +muckle as ca' men that are sae ill-starred as to be amang their hands, by +ony name o' the dispensation o' grace, but maun new baptize them by the +names of the accursed Titus, wha was made the instrument of burning the +holy Temple, and other sic like heathens!" + +"It's Tishius," interrupted Saddletree, "and no Titus. Mr. Crossmyloof +cares as little about Titus or the Latin as ye do.--But it's a case of +necessity--she maun hae counsel. Now, I could speak to Mr. Crossmyloof-- +he's weel ken'd for a round-spun Presbyterian, and a ruling elder to +boot." + +"He's a rank Yerastian," replied Deans; "one of the public and +polititious warldly-wise men that stude up to prevent ane general owning +of the cause in the day of power!" + +"What say ye to the auld Laird of Cuffabout?" said Saddletree; "he whiles +thumps the dust out of a case gey and well." + +"He? the fause loon!" answered Deans--"he was in his bandaliers to hae +joined the ungracious Highlanders in 1715, an they had ever had the luck +to cross the Firth." + +"Weel, Arniston? there's a clever chield for ye!" said Bartoline, +triumphantly. + +"Ay, to bring popish medals in till their very library from that +schismatic woman in the north, the Duchess of Gordon."* + +* [James Dundas younger of Arniston was tried in the year 1711 upon +charge of leasing-making, in having presented, from the Duchess of +Gordon, medal of the Pretender, for the purpose, it was said, of +affronting Queen Anne.] + + "Weel, weel, but somebody ye maun hae--What think ye o' Kittlepunt?" + +"He's an Arminian." + +"Woodsetter?" + +"He's, I doubt, a Cocceian." + +"Auld Whilliewhaw?" + +"He's ony thing ye like." + +"Young Naemmo?" + +"He's naething at a'." + +"Ye're ill to please, neighbour," said Saddletree: "I hae run ower the +pick o' them for you, ye maun e'en choose for yoursell; but bethink ye +that in the multitude of counsellors there's safety--What say ye to try +young Mackenyie? he has a' his uncle's Practiques at the tongue's end." + +"What, sir, wad ye speak to me," exclaimed the sturdy Presbyterian in +excessive wrath, "about a man that has the blood of the saints at his +fingers' ends? Did na his eme [Uncle] die and gang to his place wi' the +name of the Bluidy Mackenyie? and winna he be kend by that name sae lang +as there's a Scots tongue to speak the word? If the life of the dear +bairn that's under a suffering dispensation, and Jeanie's, and my ain, +and a' mankind's, depended on my asking sic a slave o' Satan to speak a +word for me or them, they should a' gae doun the water thegither for +Davie Deans!" + +It was the exalted tone in which he spoke this last sentence that broke +up the conversation between Butler and Jeanie, and brought them both "ben +the house," to use the language of the country. Here they found the poor +old man half frantic between grief and zealous ire against Saddletree's +proposed measures, his cheek inflamed, his hand clenched, and his voice +raised, while the tear in his eye, and the occasional quiver of his +accents, showed that his utmost efforts were inadequate to shaking off +the consciousness of his misery. Butler, apprehensive of the consequences +of his agitation to an aged and feeble frame, ventured to utter to him a +recommendation to patience. + +"I /am/ patient," returned the old man sternly,--"more patient than any +one who is alive to the woeful backslidings of a miserable time can be +patient; and in so much, that I need neither sectarians, nor sons nor +grandsons of sectarians, to instruct my grey hairs how to bear my cross." + +"But, sir," continued Butler, taking no offence at the slur cast on his +grandfather's faith, "we must use human means. When you call in a +physician, you would not, I suppose, question him on the nature of his +religious principles!" + +"Wad I /no?/" answered David--"but I wad, though; and if he didna satisfy +me that he had a right sense of the right hand and left hand defections +of the day, not a goutte of his physic should gang through my father's +son." + +It is a dangerous thing to trust to an illustration. Butler had done so +and miscarried; but, like a gallant soldier when his musket misses fire, +he stood his ground, and charged with the bayonet.--"This is too rigid an +interpretation of your duty, sir. The sun shines, and the rain descends, +on the just and unjust, and they are placed together in life in +circumstances which frequently render intercourse between them +indispensable, perhaps that the evil may have an opportunity of being +converted by the good, and perhaps, also, that the righteous might, among +other trials, be subjected to that of occasional converse with the +profane." + +"Ye're a silly callant, Reuben," answered Deans, "with your bits of +argument. Can a man touch pitch and not be defiled? Or what think ye of +the brave and worthy champions of the Covenant, that wadna sae muckle as +hear a minister speak, be his gifts and graces as they would, that hadna +witnessed against the enormities of the day? Nae lawyer shall ever speak +for me and mine that hasna concurred in the testimony of the scattered, +yet lovely remnant, which abode in the clifts of the rocks." + +So saying, and as if fatigued, both with the arguments and presence of +his guests, the old man arose, and seeming to bid them adieu with a +motion of his head and hand, went to shut himself up in his sleeping +apartment. + +"It's thrawing his daughter's life awa," said Saddletree to Butler, "to +hear him speak in that daft gate. Where will he ever get a Cameronian +advocate? Or wha ever heard of a lawyer's suffering either for ae +religion or another? The lassie's life is clean flung awa." + +During the latter part of this debate, Dumbiedikes had arrived at the +door, dismounted, hung the pony's bridle on the usual hook, and sunk down +on his ordinary settle. His eyes, with more than their usual animation, +followed first one speaker then another, till he caught the melancholy +sense of the whole from Saddletree's last words. He rose from his seat, +stumped slowly across the room, and, coming close up to Saddletree's ear, +said in a tremulous anxious voice, "Will--will siller do naething for +them, Mr. Saddletree?" + +"Umph!" said Saddletree, looking grave,--"siller will certainly do it in +the Parliament House, if ony thing /can/ do it; but where's the siller to +come frae? Mr. Deans, ye see, will do naething; and though Mrs. +Saddletree's their far-awa friend, and right good weel-wisher, and is +weel disposed to assist, yet she wadna like to stand to be bound /singuli +in solidum/ to such an expensive wark. An ilka friend wad bear a share o' +the burden, something might be dune--ilka ane to be liable for their ain +input--I wadna like to see the case fa' through without being pled--it +wadna be creditable, for a' that daft whig body says." + +"I'll--I will--yes" (assuming fortitude), "I will be answerable," said +Dumbiedikes, "for a score of punds sterling."--And he was silent, staring +in astonishment at finding himself capable of such unwonted resolution +and excessive generosity. + +"God Almighty bless ye, Laird!" said Jeanie, in a transport of gratitude. + +"Ye may ca' the twenty punds thretty," said Dumbiedikes, looking +bashfully away from her, and towards Saddletree. + +"That will do bravely," said Saddletree, rubbing his hands; and ye sall +hae a' my skill and knowledge to gar the siller gang far--I'll tape it +out weel--I ken how to gar the birkies tak short fees, and be glad o' +them too--it's only garring them trow ye hae twa or three cases of +importance coming on, and they'll work cheap to get custom. Let me alane +for whilly-whaing an advocate:--it's nae sin to get as muckle flue them +for our siller as we can--after a', it's but the wind o' their mouth--it +costs them naething; whereas, in my wretched occupation of a saddler, +horse milliner, and harness maker, we are out unconscionable sums just +for barkened hides and leather." + +"Can I be of no use?" said Butler. "My means, alas! are only worth the +black coat I wear; but I am young--I owe much to the family--Can I do +nothing?" + +"Ye can help to collect evidence, sir," said Saddletree; "if we could but +find ony ane to say she had gien the least hint o' her condition, she wad +be brought aft wi' a wat finger--Mr. Crossmyloof tell'd me sae. The +crown, says he, canna be craved to prove a positive--was't a positive or +a negative they couldna be ca'd to prove?--it was the tane or the tither +o' them, I am sure, and it maksna muckle matter whilk. Wherefore, says +he, the libel maun be redargued by the panel proving her defences. And it +canna be done otherwise." + +"But the fact, sir," argued Butler, "the fact that this poor girl has +borne a child; surely the crown lawyers must prove that?" said Butler. + +Saddletree paused a moment, while the visage of Dumbiedikes, which +traversed, as if it had been placed on a pivot, from the one spokesman to +the other, assumed a more blithe expression. + +"Ye--ye--ye--es," said Saddletree, after some grave hesitation; +"unquestionably that is a thing to be proved, as the court will more +fully declare by an interlocutor of relevancy in common form; but I fancy +that job's done already, for she has confessed her guilt." + +"Confessed the murder?" exclaimed Jeanie, with a scream that made them +all start. + +"No, I didna say that," replied Bartoline. "But she confessed bearing the +babe." + +"And what became of it, then?" said Jeanie, "for not a word could I get +from her but bitter sighs and tears." + +"She says it was taken away from her by the woman in whose house it was +born, and who assisted her at the time." + +"And who was that woman?" said Butler. "Surely by her means the truth +might be discovered.--Who was she? I will fly to her directly." + +"I wish," said Dumbiedikes, "I were as young and as supple as you, and +had the gift of the gab as weel." + +"Who is she?" again reiterated Butler impatiently.--"Who could that woman +be?" + +"Ay, wha kens that but herself?" said Saddletree; "she deponed farther, +and declined to answer that interrogatory." + +"Then to herself will I instantly go," said Butler; "farewell, Jeanie;" +then coming close up to her--"Take no /rash steps/ till you hear from me. +Farewell!" and he immediately left the cottage. + +"I wad gang too," said the landed proprietor, in an anxious, jealous, and +repining tone, "but my powny winna for the life o' me gang ony other road +than just frae Dumbiedikes to this house-end, and sae straight back +again." + +"Yell do better for them," said Saddletree, as they left the house +together, "by sending me the thretty punds." + +"Thretty punds!" hesitated Dumbiedikes, who was now out of the reach of +those eyes which had inflamed his generosity; "I only said /twenty/ +punds." + +"Ay; but," said Saddletree, "that was under protestation to add and eik; +and so ye craved leave to amend your libel, and made it thretty." + +"Did I? I dinna mind that I did," answered Dumbiedikes. "But whatever I +said I'll stand to." Then bestriding his steed with some difficulty, he +added, "Dinna ye think poor Jeanie's een wi' the tears in them glanced +like lamour beads, Mr. Saddletree?" + +"I kenna muckle about women's een, Laird," replied the insensible +Bartoline; "and I care just as little. I wuss I were as weel free o' +their tongues; though few wives," he added, recollecting the necessity of +keeping up his character for domestic rule, "are under better command +than mine, Laird. I allow neither perduellion nor lese-majesty against my +sovereign authority." + +The Laird saw nothing so important in this observation as to call for a +rejoinder, and when they had exchanged a mute salutation, they parted in +peace upon their different errands. + + + + + CHAPTER TWELFTH. + + + I'll warrant that fellow from drowning, + were the ship no stronger than a nut-shell. + + The Tempest. + +Butler felt neither fatigue nor want of refreshment, although, from the +mode in which he had spent the night, he might well have been overcome +with either. But in the earnestness with which he hastened to the +assistance of the sister of Jeanie Deans, he forgot both. + +In his first progress he walked with so rapid a pace as almost approached +to running, when he was surprised to hear behind him a call upon his +name, contending with an asthmatic cough, and half-drowned amid the +resounding trot of a Highland pony. He looked behind, and saw the Laird +of Dumbiedikes making after him with what speed he might, for it +happened, fortunately for the Laird's purpose of conversing with Butler, +that his own road homeward was for about two hundred yards the same with +that which led by the nearest way to the city. Butler stopped when he +heard himself thus summoned, internally wishing no good to the panting +equestrian who thus retarded his journey. + +"Uh! uh! uh!" ejaculated Dumbiedikes, as he checked the hobbling pace of +the pony by our friend Butler. "Uh! uh! it's a hard-set willyard beast +this o' mine." He had in fact just overtaken the object of his chase at +the very point beyond which it would have been absolutely impossible for +him to have continued the pursuit, since there Butler's road parted from +that leading to Dumbiedikes, and no means of influence or compulsion +which the rider could possibly have used towards his Bucephalus could +have induced the Celtic obstinacy of Rory Bean (such was the pony's name) +to have diverged a yard from the path that conducted him to his own +paddock. + +Even when he had recovered from the shortness of breath occasioned by a +trot much more rapid than Rory or he were accustomed to, the high purpose +of Dumbiedikes seemed to stick as it were in his throat, and impede his +utterance, so that Butler stood for nearly three minutes ere he could +utter a syllable; and when he did find voice, it was only to say, after +one or two efforts, "Uh! uh! uhm! I say, Mr.--Mr. Butler, it's a braw day +for the har'st." + +"Fine day, indeed," said Butler. "I wish you good morning, sir." + +"Stay--stay a bit," rejoined Dumbiedikes; "that was no what I had gotten +to say." + +"Then, pray be quick, and let me have your commands," rejoined Butler; "I +crave your pardon, but I am in haste, and /Tempus nemini/--you know the +proverb." + +Dumbiedikes did not know the proverb, nor did he even take the trouble to +endeavour to look as if he did, as others in his place might have done. +He was concentrating all his intellects for one grand proposition, and +could not afford any detachment to defend outposts. "I say, Mr. Butler," +said he, "ken ye if Mr. Saddletree's a great lawyer?" + +"I have no person's word for it but his own," answered Butler, drily; +"but undoubtedly he best understands his own qualities." + +"Umph!" replied the taciturn Dumbiedikes, in a tone which seemed to say, +"Mr. Butler, I take your meaning." "In that case," he pursued, "I'll +employ my ain man o' business, Nichil Novit (auld Nichil's son, and +amaist as gleg as his father), to agent Effie's plea." + +And having thus displayed more sagacity than Butler expected from him, he +courteously touched his gold-laced cocked hat, and by a punch on the +ribs, conveyed to Rory Bean, it was his rider's pleasure that he should +forthwith proceed homewards; a hint which the quadruped obeyed with that +degree of alacrity with which men and animals interpret and obey +suggestions that entirely correspond with their own inclinations. + +Butler resumed his pace, not without a momentary revival of that jealousy +which the honest Laird's attention to the family of Deans had at +different times excited in his bosom. But he was too generous long to +nurse any feeling which was allied to selfishness. "He is," said Butler +to himself, "rich in what I want; why should I feel vexed that he has the +heart to dedicate some of his pelf to render them services, which I can +only form the empty wish of executing? In God's name, let us each do what +we can. May she be but happy!--saved from the misery and disgrace that +seems impending--Let me but find the means of preventing the fearful +experiment of this evening, and farewell to other thoughts, though my +heart-strings break in parting with them!" + +He redoubled his pace, and soon stood before the door of the Tolbooth, or +rather before the entrance where the door had formerly been placed. His +interview with the mysterious stranger, the message to Jeanie, his +agitating conversation with her on the subject of breaking off their +mutual engagements, and the interesting scene with old Deans, had so +entirely occupied his mind as to drown even recollection of the tragical +event which he had witnessed the preceding evening. His attention was not +recalled to it by the groups who stood scattered on the street in +conversation, which they hushed when strangers approached, or by the +bustling search of the agents of the city police, supported by small +parties of the military, or by the appearance of the Guard-House, before +which were treble sentinels, or, finally, by the subdued and intimidated +looks of the lower orders of society, who, conscious that they were +liable to suspicion, if they were not guilty of accession to a riot +likely to be strictly inquired into, glided about with an humble and +dismayed aspect, like men whose spirits being exhausted in the revel and +the dangers of a desperate debauch over-night, are nerve-shaken, +timorous, and unenterprising on the succeeding day. + +None of these symptoms of alarm and trepidation struck Butler, whose mind +was occupied with a different, and to him still more interesting subject, +until he stood before the entrance to the prison, and saw it defended by +a double file of grenadiers, instead of bolts and bars. Their "Stand, +stand!" the blackened appearance of the doorless gateway, and the winding +staircase and apartments of the Tolbooth, now open to the public eye, +recalled the whole proceedings of the eventful night. Upon his requesting +to speak with Effie Deans, the same tall, thin, silver-haired turnkey, +whom he had seen on the preceding evening, made his appearance, + +"I think," he replied to Butler's request of admission, with true +Scottish indirectness, "ye will be the same lad that was for in to see +her yestreen?" + +Butler admitted he was the same person. + +"And I am thinking," pursued the turnkey, "that ye speered at me when we +locked up, and if we locked up earlier on account of Porteous?" + +"Very likely I might make some such observation," said Butler; "but the +question now is, can I see Effie Deans?" + +"I dinna ken--gang in by, and up the turnpike stair, and turn till the +ward on the left hand." + +The old man followed close behind him, with his keys in his hand, not +forgetting even that huge one which had once opened and shut the outward +gate of his dominions, though at present it was but an idle and useless +burden. No sooner had Butler entered the room to which he was directed, +than the experienced hand of the warder selected the proper key, and +locked it on Rthe outside. At first Butler conceived this manoeuvre was +only an effect of the man's habitual and official caution and jealousy. +But when he heard the hoarse command, "Turn out the guard!" and +immediately afterwards heard the clash of a sentinel's arms, as he was +posted at the door of his apartment, he again called out to the turnkey, +"My good friend, I have business of some consequence with Effie Deans, +and I beg to see her as soon as possible." No answer was returned. "If it +be against your rules to admit me," repeated Butler, in a still louder +tone, "to see the prisoner, I beg you will tell me so, and let me go +about my business.--/Fugit irrevocabile tempus!/" muttered he to himself. + +"If ye had business to do, ye suld hae dune it before ye cam here," +replied the man of keys from the outside; "yell find it's easier wunnin +in than wunnin out here--there's sma' likelihood o' another Porteous mob +coming to rabble us again--the law will haud her ain now, neighbour, and +that yell find to your cost." + +"What do you mean by that, sir?" retorted Butler. "You must mistake me +for some other person. My name is Reuben Butler, preacher of the gospel." + +"I ken that weel eneugh," said the turnkey. + +"Well, then, if you know me, I have a right to know from you in return, +what warrant you have for detaining me; that, I know, is the right of +every British subject." + +"Warrant!" said the jailor,--"the warrant's awa to Libberton wi' twa +sheriff officers seeking ye. If ye had staid at hame, as honest men +should do, ye wad hae seen the warrant; but if ye come to be incarcerated +of your ain accord, wha can help it, my jo?" + +"'So I cannot see Effie Deans, then," said Butler; "and you are +determined not to let me out?" + +"Troth will I no, neighbour," answered the old man, doggedly; "as for +Effie Deans, ye'll hae eneuch ado to mind your ain business, and let her +mind hers; and for letting you out, that maun be as the magistrate will +determine. And fare ye weel for a bit, for I maun see Deacon Sawyers put +on ane or twa o' the doors that your quiet folk broke down yesternight, +Mr. Butler." + +There was something in this exquisitely provoking, but there was also +something darkly alarming. To be imprisoned, even on a false accusation, +has something in it disagreeable and menacing even to men of more +constitutional courage than Butler had to boast; for although he had much +of that resolution which arises from a sense of duty and an honourable +desire to discharge it, yet, as his imagination was lively, and his frame +of body delicate, he was far from possessing that cool insensibility to +danger which is the happy portion of men of stronger health, more firm +nerves, and less acute sensibility. An indistinct idea of peril, which he +could neither understand nor ward off, seemed to float before his eyes. +He tried to think over the events of the preceding night, in hopes of +discovering some means of explaining or vindicating his conduct for +appearing among the mob, since it immediately occurred to him that his +detention must be founded on that circumstance. And it was with anxiety +that he found he could not recollect to have been under the observation +of any disinterested witness in the attempts that he made from time to +time to expostulate with the rioters, and to prevail on them to release +him. The distress of Deans's family, the dangerous rendezvous which +Jeanie had formed, and which he could not now hope to interrupt, had also +their share in his unpleasant reflections. Yet, impatient as he was to +receive an /e'claircissement/ upon the cause of his confinement, and if +possible to obtain his liberty, he was affected with a trepidation which +seemed no good omen; when, after remaining an hour in this solitary +apartment, he received a summons to attend the sitting magistrate. He was +conducted from prison strongly guarded by a party of soldiers, with a +parade of precaution, that, however ill-timed and unnecessary, is +generally displayed /after/ an event, which such precaution, if used in +time, might have prevented. + +He was introduced into the Council Chamber, as the place is called where +the magistrates hold their sittings, and which was then at a little +distance from the prison. One or two of the senators of the city were +present, and seemed about to engage in the examination of an individual +who was brought forward to the foot of the long green-covered table round +which the council usually assembled. "Is that the preacher?" said one of +the magistrates, as the city officer in attendance introduced Butler. The +man answered in the affirmative. "Let him sit down there for an instant; +we will finish this man's business very briefly." + +"Shall we remove Mr. Butler?" queried the assistant. + +"It is not necessary--Let him remain where he is." + +Butler accordingly sate down on a bench at the bottom of the apartment, +attended by one of his keepers. + +It was a large room, partially and imperfectly lighted; but by chance, or +the skill of the architect, who might happen to remember the advantage +which might occasionally be derived from such an arrangement, one window +was so placed as to throw a strong light at the foot of the table at +which prisoners were usually posted for examination, while the upper end, +where the examinants sate, was thrown into shadow. Butler's eyes were +instantly fixed on the person whose examination was at present +proceeding, in the idea that he might recognise some one of the +conspirators of the former night. But though the features of this man +were sufficiently marked and striking, he could not recollect that he had +ever seen them before. + +The complexion of this person was dark, and his age somewhat advanced. He +wore his own hair, combed smooth down, and cut very short. It was jet +black, slightly curled by nature, and already mottled with grey. The +man's face expressed rather knavery than vice, and a disposition to +sharpness, cunning, and roguery, more than the traces of stormy and +indulged passions. His sharp quick black eyes, acute features, ready +sardonic smile, promptitude and effrontery, gave him altogether what is +called among the vulgar a /knowing/ look, which generally implies a +tendency to knavery. At a fair or market, you could not for a moment have +doubted that he was a horse-jockey, intimate with all the tricks of his +trade; yet, had you met him on a moor, you would not have apprehended any +violence from him. His dress was also that of a horse-dealer--a +close-buttoned jockey-coat, or wrap-rascal, as it was then termed, with +huge metal buttons, coarse blue upper stockings, called boot-hose because +supplying the place of boots, and a slouched hat. He only wanted a loaded +whip under his arm and a spur upon one heel, to complete the dress of the +character he seemed to represent. + +"Your name is James Ratcliffe?" said the magistrate. + +"Ay--always wi' your honour's leave." + +"That is to say, you could find me another name if I did not like that +one?" + +"Twenty to pick and choose upon, always with your honour's leave," +resumed the respondent. + +"But James Ratcliffe is your present name?--what is your trade?" + +"I canna just say, distinctly, that I have what ye wad ca' preceesely a +trade." + +"But," repeated the magistrate, "what are your means of living--your +occupation?" + +"Hout tout--your honour, wi' your leave, kens that as weel as I do," +replied the examined. + +"No matter, I want to hear you describe it," said the examinant. + +"Me describe!--and to your honour!--far be it from Jemmie Ratcliffe," +responded the prisoner. + +"Come, sir, no trifling--I insist on an answer." + +"Weel, sir," replied the declarant, "I maun make a clean breast, for ye +see, wi' your leave, I am looking for favour--Describe my occupation, +quo' ye?--troth it will be ill to do that, in a feasible way, in a place +like this--but what is't again that the aught command says?" + +"Thou shalt not steal," answered the magistrate. + +"Are you sure o' that?" replied the accused.--"Troth, then, my +occupation, and that command, are sair at odds, for I read it, thou +/shalt/ steal; and that makes an unco difference, though there's but a +wee bit word left out." + +"To cut the matter short, Ratcliffe, you have been a most notorious +thief," said the examinant. + +"I believe Highlands and Lowlands ken that, sir, forby England and +Holland," replied Ratcliffe, with the greatest composure and effrontery. + +"And what d'ye think the end of your calling will be?" said the +magistrate. + +"I could have gien a braw guess yesterday--but I dinna ken sae weel the +day," answered the prisoner. + +"And what would you have said would have been your end, had you been +asked the question yesterday?" + +"Just the gallows," replied Ratcliffe, with the same composure. + +"You are a daring rascal, sir," said the magistrate; "and how dare you +hope times are mended with you to-day?" + +"Dear, your honour," answered Ratcliffe, "there's muckle difference +between lying in prison under sentence of death, and staying there of +ane's ain proper accord, when it would have cost a man naething to get up +and rin awa--what was to hinder me from stepping out quietly, when the +rabble walked awa wi' Jock Porteous yestreen?--and does your honour +really think I staid on purpose to be hanged?" + +"I do not know what you may have proposed to yourself; but I know," said +the magistrate, "what the law proposes for you, and that is, to hang you +next Wednesday eight days." + +"Na, na, your honour," said Ratcliffe firmly, "craving your honour's +pardon, I'll ne'er believe that till I see it. I have kend the law this +mony a year, and mony a thrawart job I hae had wi' her first and last; +but the auld jaud is no sae ill as that comes to--I aye fand her bark +waur than her bite." + +"And if you do not expect the gallows, to which you are condemned (for +the fourth time to my knowledge), may I beg the favour to know," said the +magistrate, "what it is you /do/ expect, in consideration of your not +having taken your flight with the rest of the jail-birds, which I will +admit was a line of conduct little to have been expected?" + +"I would never have thought for a moment of staying in that auld gousty +toom house," answered Ratcliffe, "but that use and wont had just gien me +a fancy to the place, and I'm just expecting a bit post in't." + +"A post!" exclaimed the magistrate; "a whipping-post, I suppose, you +mean?" + +"Na, na, sir, I had nae thoughts o' a whuppin-post. After having been +four times doomed to hang by the neck till I was dead, I think I am far +beyond being whuppit." + +"Then, in Heaven's name, what /did/ you expect?" + +"Just the post of under-turnkey, for I understand there's a vacancy," +said the prisoner; "I wadna think of asking the lockman's* place ower his +head; it wadna suit me sae weel as ither folk, for I never could put a +beast out o' the way, much less deal wi' a man." + +* Note H. Hangman, or Lockman. + +"That's something in your favour," said the magistrate, making exactly +the inference to which Ratcliffe was desirous to lead him, though he +mantled his art with an affectation of oddity. + +"But," continued the magistrate, "how do you think you can be trusted +with a charge in the prison, when you have broken at your own hand half +the jails in Scotland?" + +"Wi' your honour's leave," said Ratcliffe, "if I kend sae weel how to wun +out mysell, it's like I wad be a' the better a hand to keep other folk +in. I think they wad ken their business weel that held me in when I +wanted to be out, or wan out when I wanted to hand them in." + +The remark seemed to strike the magistrate, but he made no further +immediate observation, only desired Ratcliffe to be removed. + +When this daring and yet sly freebooter was out of hearing, the +magistrate asked the city clerk, "what he thought of the fellow's +assurance?" + +"It's no for me to say, sir," replied the clerk; "but if James Ratcliffe +be inclined to turn to good, there is not a man e'er came within the +ports of the burgh could be of sae muckle use to the Good Town in the +thief and lock-up line of business. I'll speak to Mr. Sharpitlaw about +him." + +Upon Ratcliffe's retreat, Butler was placed at the table for examination. +The magistrate conducted his inquiry civilly, but yet in a manner which +gave him to understand that he laboured under strong suspicion. With a +frankness which at once became his calling and character, Butler avowed +his involuntary presence at the murder of Porteous, and, at the request +of the magistrate, entered into a minute detail of the circumstances +which attended that unhappy affair. All the particulars, such as we have +narrated, were taken minutely down by the clerk from Butler's dictation. + +When the narrative was concluded, the cross-examination commenced, which +it is a painful task even for the most candid witness to undergo, since a +story, especially if connected with agitating and alarming incidents, can +scarce be so clearly and distinctly told, but that some ambiguity and +doubt may be thrown upon it by a string of successive and minute +interrogatories. + +The magistrate commenced by observing, that Butler had said his object +was to return to the village of Libberton, but that he was interrupted by +the mob at the West Port. "Is the West Port your usual way of leaving +town when you go to Libberton?" said the magistrate, with a sneer. + +"No, certainly," answered Butler, with the haste of a man anxious to +vindicate the accuracy of his evidence; "but I chanced to be nearer that +port than any other, and the hour of shutting the gates was on the point +of striking." + +"That was unlucky," said the magistrate, drily. "Pray, being, as you say, +under coercion and fear of the lawless multitude, and compelled to +accompany them through scenes disagreeable to all men of humanity, and +more especially irreconcilable to the profession of a minister, did you +not attempt to struggle, resist, or escape from their violence?" + +Butler replied, "that their numbers prevented him from attempting +resistance, and their vigilance from effecting his escape." + +"That was unlucky," again repeated the magistrate, in the same dry +inacquiescent tone of voice and manner. He proceeded with decency and +politeness, but with a stiffness which argued his continued suspicion, to +ask many questions concerning the behaviour of the mob, the manners and +dress of the ringleaders; and when he conceived that the caution of +Butler, if he was deceiving him, must be lulled asleep, the magistrate +suddenly and artfully returned to former parts of his declaration, and +required a new recapitulation of the circumstances, to the minutest and +most trivial point, which attended each part of the melancholy scene. No +confusion or contradiction, however, occurred, that could countenance the +suspicion which he seemed to have adopted against Butler. At length the +train of his interrogatories reached Madge Wildfire, at whose name the +magistrate and town-clerk exchanged significant glances. If the fate of +the Good Town had depended on her careful magistrate's knowing the +features and dress of this personage, his inquiries could not have been +more particular. But Butler could say almost nothing of this person's +features, which were disguised apparently with red paint and soot, like +an Indian going to battle, besides the projecting shade of a curch, or +coif, which muffled the hair of the supposed female. He declared that he +thought he could not know this Madge Wildfire, if placed before him in a +different dress, but that he believed he might recognise her voice. + +The magistrate requested him again to state by what gate he left the +city. + +"By the Cowgate Port," replied Butler. + +"Was that the nearest road to Libberton?" + +"No," answered Butler, with embarrassment; "but it was the nearest way to +extricate myself from the mob." + +The clerk and magistrate again exchanged glances. + +"Is the Cowgate Port a nearer way to Libberton from the Grassmarket than +Bristo Port?" + +"No," replied Butler; "but I had to visit a friend." + +"Indeed!" said the interrogator--"You were in a hurry to tell the sight +you had witnessed, I suppose?" + +"Indeed I was not," replied Butler; "nor did I speak on the subject the +whole time I was at St. Leonard's Crags." + +"Which road did you take to St. Leonard's Crags?" + +"By the foot of Salisbury Crags," was the reply. + +"Indeed? you seem partial to circuitous routes," again said the +magistrate. "Whom did you see after you left the city?" + +One by one he obtained a description of every one of the groups who had +passed Butler, as already noticed, their number, demeanour, and +appearance; and, at length, came to the circumstance of the mysterious +stranger in the King's Park. On this subject Butler would fain have +remained silent, But the magistrate had no sooner got a slight hint +concerning the incident, than he seemed bent to possess himself of the +most minute particulars. + +"Look ye, Mr. Butler," said he, "you are a young man, and bear an +excellent character; so much I will myself testify in your favour. But we +are aware there has been, at times, a sort of bastard and fiery zeal in +some of your order, and those, men irreproachable in other points, which +has led them into doing and countenancing great irregularities, by which +the peace of the country is liable to be shaken.--I will deal plainly +with you. I am not at all satisfied with this story, of your setting out +again and again to seek your dwelling by two several roads, which were +both circuitous. And, to be frank, no one whom we have examined on this +unhappy affair could trace in your appearance any thing like your acting +under compulsion. Moreover, the waiters at the Cowgate Port observed +something like the trepidation of guilt in your conduct, and declare that +you were the first to command them to open the gate, in a tone of +authority, as if still presiding over the guards and out-posts of the +rabble, who had besieged them the whole night." + +"God forgive them!" said Butler; "I only asked free passage for myself; +they must have much misunderstood, if they did not wilfully misrepresent +me." + +"Well, Mr. Butler," resumed the magistrate, "I am inclined to judge the +best and hope the best, as I am sure I wish the best; but you must be +frank with me, if you wish to secure my good opinion, and lessen the risk +of inconvenience to yourself. You have allowed you saw another individual +in your passage through the King's Park to Saint Leonard's Crags--I must +know every word which passed betwixt you." + +Thus closely pressed, Butler, who had no reason for concealing what +passed at that meeting, unless because Jeanie Deans was concerned in it, +thought it best to tell the whole truth from beginning to end. + +"Do you suppose," said the magistrate, pausing, "that the young woman +will accept an invitation so mysterious?" + +"I fear she will," replied Butler. + +"Why do you use the word /fear/ it?" said the magistrate. + +"Because I am apprehensive for her safety, in meeting at such a time and +place, one who had something of the manner of a desperado, and whose +message was of a character so inexplicable." + +"Her safety shall be cared for," said the magistrate. "Mr. Butler, I am +concerned I cannot immediately discharge you from confinement, but I hope +you will not be long detained.--Remove Mr. Butler, and let him be +provided with decent accommodation in all respects." + +He was conducted back to the prison accordingly; but, in the food offered +to him, as well as in the apartment in which he was lodged, the +recommendation of the magistrate was strictly attended to. + + + + + + CHAPTER THIRTEENTH. + + + Dark and eerie was the night, + And lonely was the way, + As Janet, wi' her green mantell, + To Miles' Cross she did gae. + Old Ballad. + +Leaving Butler to all the uncomfortable thoughts attached to his new +situation, among which the most predominant was his feeling that he was, +by his confinement, deprived of all possibility of assisting the family +at St. Leonard's in their greatest need, we return to Jeanie Deans, who +had seen him depart, without an opportunity of farther explanation, in +all that agony of mind with which the female heart bids adieu to the +complicated sensations so well described by Coleridge,-- + + + Hopes, and fears that kindle hope, + An undistinguishable throng; + And gentle wishes long subdued-- + Subdued and cherished long. + +It is not the firmest heart (and Jeanie, under her russet rokelay, had +one that would not have disgraced Cato's daughter) that can most easily +bid adieu to these soft and mingled emotions. She wept for a few minutes +bitterly, and without attempting to refrain from this indulgence of +passion. But a moment's recollection induced her to check herself for a +grief selfish and proper to her own affections, while her father and +sister were plunged into such deep and irretrievable affliction. She drew +from her pocket the letter which had been that morning flung into her +apartment through an open window, and the contents of which were as +singular as the expression was violent and energetic. "If she would save +a human being from the most damning guilt, and all its desperate +consequences,--if she desired the life an honour of her sister to be +saved from the bloody fangs of an unjust law,--if she desired not to +forfeit peace of mind here, and happiness hereafter," such was the +frantic style of the conjuration, "she was entreated to give a sure, +secret, and solitary meeting to the writer. She alone could rescue him," +so ran the letter, "and he only could rescue her." He was in such +circumstances, the billet farther informed her, that an attempt to bring +any witness of their conference, or even to mention to her father, or any +other person whatsoever, the letter which requested it, would inevitably +prevent its taking place, and ensure the destruction of her sister. The +letter concluded with incoherent but violent protestations, that in +obeying this summons she had nothing to fear personally. + +The message delivered to her by Butler from the stranger in the Park +tallied exactly with the contents of the letter, but assigned a later +hour and a different place of meeting. Apparently the writer of the +letter had been compelled to let Butler so far into his confidence, for +the sake of announcing this change to Jeanie. She was more than once on +the point of producing the billet, in vindication of herself from her +lover's half-hinted suspicions. But there is something in stooping to +justification which the pride of innocence does not at all times +willingly submit to; besides that the threats contained in the letter, in +case of her betraying the secret, hung heavy on her heart. It is +probable, however, that had they remained longer together, she might have +taken the resolution to submit the whole matter to Butler, and be guided +by him as to the line of conduct which she should adopt. And when, by the +sudden interruption of their conference, she lost the opportunity of +doing so, she felt as if she had been unjust to a friend, whose advice +might have been highly useful, and whose attachment deserved her full and +unreserved confidence. + +To have recourse to her father upon this occasion, she considered as +highly imprudent. There was no possibility of conjecturing in what light +the matter might strike old David, whose manner of acting and thinking in +extraordinary circumstances depended upon feelings and principles +peculiar to himself, the operation of which could not be calculated upon +even by those best acquainted with him. To have requested some female +friend to have accompanied her to the place of rendezvous, would perhaps +have been the most eligible expedient; but the threats of the writer, +that betraying his secret would prevent their meeting (on which her +sister's safety was said to depend) from taking place at all, would have +deterred her from making such a confidence, even had she known a person +in whom she thought it could with safety have been reposed. But she knew +none such. Their acquaintance with the cottagers in the vicinity had been +very slight, and limited to trifling acts of good neighbourhood. Jeanie +knew little of them, and what she knew did not greatly incline her to +trust any of them. They were of the order of loquacious good-humoured +gossips usually found in their situation of life; and their conversation +had at all times few charms for a young woman, to whom nature and the +circumstance of a solitary life had given a depth of thought and force of +character superior to the frivolous part of her sex, whether in high or +low degree. + +Left alone and separated from all earthly counsel, she had recourse to a +friend and adviser, whose ear is open to the cry of the poorest and most +afflicted of his people. She knelt, and prayed with fervent sincerity, +that God would please to direct her what course to follow in her arduous +and distressing situation. It was the belief of the time and sect to +which she belonged, that special answers to prayer, differing little in +their character from divine inspiration, were, as they expressed it, +"borne in upon their minds" in answer to their earnest petitions in a +crisis of difficulty. Without entering into an abstruse point of +divinity, one thing is plain;--namely, that the person who lays open his +doubts and distresses in prayer, with feeling and sincerity, must +necessarily, in the act of doing so, purify his mind from the dross of +worldly passions and interests, and bring it into that state, when the +resolutions adopted are likely to be selected rather from a sense of +duty, than from any inferior motive. Jeanie arose from her devotions, +with her heart fortified to endure affliction, and encouraged to face +difficulties. + +"I will meet this unhappy man," she said to herself--"unhappy he must be, +since I doubt he has been the cause of poor Effie's misfortune--but I +will meet him, be it for good or ill. My mind shall never cast up to me, +that, for fear of what might be said or done to myself, I left that +undone that might even yet be the rescue of her." + +With a mind greatly composed since the adoption of this resolution, she +went to attend her father. The old man, firm in the principles of his +youth, did not, in outward appearance at least, permit a thought of hit +family distress to interfere with the stoical reserve of his countenance +and manners. He even chid his daughter for having neglected, in the +distress of the morning, some trifling domestic duties which fell under +her department. + +"Why, what meaneth this, Jeanie?" said the old man--"The brown +four-year-auld's milk is not seiled yet, nor the bowies put up on the +bink. If ye neglect your warldly duties in the day of affliction, what +confidence have I that ye mind the greater matters that concern +salvation? God knows, our bowies, and our pipkins, and our draps o' milk, +and our bits o' bread, are nearer and dearer to us than the bread of +life!" + +Jeanie, not unpleased to hear her father's thoughts thus expand +themselves beyond the sphere of his immediate distress, obeyed him, and +proceeded to put her household matters in order; while old David moved +from place to place about his ordinary employments, scarce showing, +unless by a nervous impatience at remaining long stationary, an +occasional convulsive sigh, or twinkle of the eyelid, that he was +labouring under the yoke of such bitter affliction. + +The hour of noon came on, and the father and child sat down to their +homely repast. In his petition for a blessing on the meal, the poor old +man added to his supplication, a prayer that the bread eaten in sadness +of heart, and the bitter waters of Marah, might be made as nourishing as +those which had been poured forth from a full cup and a plentiful basket +and store; and having concluded his benediction, and resumed the bonnet +which he had laid "reverently aside," he proceeded to exhort his daughter +to eat, not by example indeed, but at least by precept. + +"The man after God's own heart," he said, "washed and anointed himself, +and did eat bread, in order to express his submission under a +dispensation of suffering, and it did not become a Christian man or woman +so to cling to creature-comforts of wife or bairns"--(here the words +became too great, as it were, for his utterance),--"as to forget the fist +duty,--submission to the Divine will." + +To add force to his precept, he took a morsel on his plate, but nature +proved too strong even for the powerful feelings with which he +endeavoured to bridle it. Ashamed of his weakness, he started up, and ran +out of the house, with haste very unlike the deliberation of his usual +movements. In less than five minutes he returned, having successfully +struggled to recover his ordinary composure of mind and countenance, and +affected to colour over his late retreat, by muttering that he thought he +heard the "young staig loose in the byre." + +He did not again trust himself with the subject of his former +conversation, and his daughter was glad to see that he seemed to avoid +farther discourse on that agitating topic. The hours glided on, as on +they must and do pass, whether winged with joy or laden with affliction. +The sun set beyond the dusky eminence of the Castle and the screen of +western hills, and the close of evening summoned David Deans and his +daughter to the family duty of the night. It came bitterly upon Jeanie's +recollection, how often, when the hour of worship approached, she used to +watch the lengthening shadows, and look out from the door of the house, +to see if she could spy her sister's return homeward. Alas! this idle and +thoughtless waste of time, to what evils had it not finally led? and was +she altogether guiltless, who, noticing Effie's turn to idle and light +society, had not called in her father's authority to restrain her?--But I +acted for the best, she again reflected, and who could have expected such +a growth of evil, from one grain of human leaven, in a disposition so +kind, and candid, and generous? + +As they sate down to the "exercise," as it is called, a chair happened +accidentally to stand in the place which Effie usually occupied. David +Deans saw his daughter's eyes swim in tears as they were directed towards +this object, and pushed it aside, with a gesture of some impatience, as +if desirous to destroy every memorial of earthly interest when about to +address the Deity. The portion of Scripture was read, the psalm was sung, +the prayer was made; and it was remarkable that, in discharging these +duties, the old man avoided all passages and expressions, of which +Scripture affords so many, that might be considered as applicable to his +own domestic misfortune. In doing so it was perhaps his intention to +spare the feelings of his daughter, as well as to maintain, in outward +show at least, that stoical appearance of patient endurance of all the +evil which earth could bring, which was in his opinion essential to the +character of one who rated all earthly things at their just estimate of +nothingness. When he had finished the duty of the evening, he came up to +his daughter, wished her good-night, and, having done so, continued to +hold her by the hands for half-a-minute; then drawing her towards him, +kissed her forehead, and ejaculated, "The God of Israel bless you, even +with the blessings of the promise, my dear bairn!" + +It was not either in the nature or habits of David Deans to seem a fond +father; nor was he often observed to experience, or at least to evince, +that fulness of the heart which seeks to expand itself in tender +expressions or caresses even to those who were dearest to him. On the +contrary, he used to censure this as a degree of weakness in several of +his neighbours, and particularly in poor widow Butler. It followed, +however, from the rarity of such emotions in this self-denied and +reserved man, that his children attached to occasional marks of his +affection and approbation a degree of high interest and solemnity; well +considering them as evidences of feelings which were only expressed when +they became too intense for suppression or concealment. + +With deep emotion, therefore, did he bestow, and his daughter receive, +this benediction and paternal caress. "And you, my dear father," +exclaimed Jeanie, when the door had closed upon the venerable old man, +"may you have purchased and promised blessings multiplied upon you--upon +/you,/ who walk in this world as though you were not of the world, and +hold all that it can give or take away but as the /midges/ that the +sun-blink brings out, and the evening wind sweeps away!" + +She now made preparation for her night-walk. Her father slept in another +part of the dwelling, and, regular in all his habits, seldom or never +left his apartment when he had betaken himself to it for the evening. It +was therefore easy for her to leave the house unobserved, so soon as the +time approached at which she was to keep her appointment. But the step +she was about to take had difficulties and terrors in her own eyes, +though she had no reason to apprehend her father's interference. Her life +had been spent in the quiet, uniform, and regular seclusion of their +peaceful and monotonous household. The very hour which some damsels of +the present day, as well of her own as of higher degree, would consider +as the natural period of commencing an evening of pleasure, brought, in +her opinion, awe and solemnity in it; and the resolution she had taken +had a strange, daring, and adventurous character, to which she could +hardly reconcile herself when the moment approached for putting it into +execution. Her hands trembled as she snooded her fair hair beneath the +riband, then the only ornament or cover which young unmarried women wore +on their head, and as she adjusted the scarlet tartan screen or muffler +made of plaid, which the Scottish women wore, much in the fashion of the +black silk veils still a part of female dress in the Netherlands. A sense +of impropriety as well as of danger pressed upon her, as she lifted the +latch of her paternal mansion to leave it on so wild an expedition, and +at so late an hour, unprotected, and without the knowledge of her natural +guardian. + +When she found herself abroad and in the open fields, additional subjects +of apprehension crowded upon her. The dim cliffs and scattered rocks, +interspersed with greensward, through which she had to pass to the place +of appointment, as they glimmered before her in a clear autumn night, +recalled to her memory many a deed of violence, which, according to +tradition, had been done and suffered among them. In earlier days they +had been the haunt of robbers and assassins, the memory of whose crimes +is preserved in the various edicts which the council of the city, and +even the parliament of Scotland, had passed for dispersing their bands, +and ensuring safety to the lieges, so near the precincts of the city. The +names of these criminals, and, of their atrocities, were still remembered +in traditions of the scattered cottages and the neighbouring suburb. In +latter times, as we have already noticed, the sequestered and broken +character of the ground rendered it a fit theatre for duels and +rencontres among the fiery youth of the period. Two or three of these +incidents, all sanguinary, and one of them fatal in its termination, had +happened since Deans came to live at St. Leonard's. His daughter's +recollections, therefore, were of blood and horror as she pursued the +small scarce-tracked solitary path, every step of which conveyed het to a +greater distance from help, and deeper into the ominous seclusion of +these unhallowed precincts. + +As the moon began to peer forth on the scene with a doubtful, flitting, +and solemn light, Jeanie's apprehensions took another turn, too peculiar +to her rank and country to remain unnoticed. But to trace its origin will +require another chapter. + + + + + + CHAPTER FOURTEENTH. + + + The spirit I have seen + May be the devil. And the devil has power + To assume a pleasing shape. + Hamlet. + +Withcraft and demonology, as we have already had occasion to remark, were +at this period believed in by almost all ranks, but more especially among +the stricter classes of Presbyterians, whose government, when their party +were at the head of the state, had been much sullied by their eagerness +to inquire into and persecute these imaginary crimes. Now, in this point +of view, also, Saint Leonard's Crags and the adjacent Chase were a +dreaded and ill-reputed district. Not only had witches held their +meetings there, but even of very late years the enthusiast or impostor, +mentioned in the /Pandaemonium/ of Richard Bovet, Gentleman,* had, among +the recesses of these romantic cliffs, found his way into the hidden +retreats where the fairies revel in the bowels of the earth. + +* Note I. The Fairy Boy of Leith. + +With all these legends Jeanie Deans was too well acquainted to escape +that strong impression which they usually make on the imagination. +Indeed, relations of this ghostly kind had been familiar to her from her +infancy, for they were the only relief which her father's conversation +afforded from controversial argument, or the gloomy history of the +strivings and testimonies, escapes, captures, tortures, and executions of +those martyrs of the Covenant, with whom it was his chiefest boast to say +he had been acquainted. In the recesses of mountains, in caverns, and in +morasses, to which these persecuted enthusiasts were so ruthlessly +pursued, they conceived they had often to contend with the visible +assaults of the Enemy of mankind, as in the cities, and in the cultivated +fields, they were exposed to those of the tyrannical government and their +soldiery. Such were the terrors which made one of their gifted seers +exclaim, when his companion returned to him, after having left him alone +in a haunted cavern in Sorn in Galloway, "It is hard living in this +world-incarnate devils above the earth, and devils under the earth! Satan +has been here since ye went away, but I have dismissed him by resistance; +we will be no more troubled with him this night." David Deans believed +this, and many other such ghostly encounters and victories, on the faith +of the Ansars, or auxiliaries of the banished prophets. This event was +beyond David's remembrance. But he used to tell with great awe, yet not +without a feeling of proud superiority to his auditors, how he himself +had been present at a field-meeting at Crochmade, when the duty of the +day was interrupted by the apparition of a tall black man, who, in the +act of crossing a ford to join the congregation, lost ground, and was +carried down apparently by the force of the stream. All were instantly at +work to assist him, but with so little success, that ten or twelve stout +men, who had hold of the rope which they had cast in to his aid, were +rather in danger to be dragged into the stream, and lose their own lives, +than likely to save that of the supposed perishing man. "But famous John +Semple of Carspharn," David Deans used to say with exultation, "saw the +whaup in the rape.--'Quit the rope,' he cried to us (for I that was but a +callant had a hand o' the rape mysell), 'it is the Great Enemy! he will +burn, but not drown; his design is to disturb the good wark, by raising +wonder and confusion in your minds; to put off from your spirits all that +ye hae heard and felt.'--Sae we let go the rape," said David, "and he +went adown the water screeching and bullering like a Bull of Bashan, as +he's ca'd in Scripture."* + +* Note J. Intercourse of the Covenanters with the invisible world. + +Trained in these and similar legends, it was no wonder that Jeanie began +to feel an ill-defined apprehension, not merely of the phantoms which +might beset her way, but of the quality, nature, and purpose of the being +who had thus appointed her a meeting, at a place and hour of horror, and +at a time when her mind must be necessarily full of those tempting and +ensnaring thoughts of grief and despair, which were supposed to lay +sufferers particularly open to the temptations of the Evil One. If such +an idea had crossed even Butler's well-informed mind, it was calculated +to make a much stronger impression upon hers. Yet firmly believing the +possibility of an encounter so terrible to flesh and blood, Jeanie, with +a degree of resolution of which we cannot sufficiently estimate the +merit, because the incredulity of the age has rendered us strangers to +the nature and extent of her feelings, persevered in her determination +not to omit an opportunity of doing something towards saving her sister, +although, in the attempt to avail herself of it, she might be exposed to +dangers so dreadful to her imagination. So, like Christiana in the +Pilgrim's Progress, when traversing with a timid yet resolved step the +terrors of the Valley of the Shadow of Death, she glided on by rock and +stone, "now in glimmer and now in gloom," as her path lay through +moonlight or shadow, and endeavoured to overpower the suggestions of +fear, sometimes by fixing her mind upon the distressed condition of her +sister, and the duty she lay under to afford her aid, should that be in +her power; and more frequently by recurring in mental prayer to the +protection of that Being to whom night is as noon-day. + +Thus drowning at one time her fears by fixing her mind on a subject of +overpowering interest, and arguing them down at others by referring +herself to the protection of the Deity, she at length approached the +place assigned for this mysterious conference. + +It was situated in the depth of the valley behind Salisbury Crags, which +has for a background the north-western shoulder of the mountain called +Arthur's Seat, on whose descent still remain the ruins of what was once a +chapel, or hermitage, dedicated to St. Anthony the Eremite. A better site +for such a building could hardly have been selected; for the chapel, +situated among the rude and pathless cliffs, lies in a desert, even in +the immediate vicinity of a rich, populous, and tumultuous capital: and +the hum of the city might mingle with the orisons of the recluses, +conveying as little of worldly interest as if it had been the roar of the +distant ocean. Beneath the steep ascent on which these ruins are still +visible, was, and perhaps is still pointed out, the place where the +wretch Nichol Muschat, who has been already mentioned in these pages, had +closed a long scene of cruelty towards his unfortunate wife, by murdering +her, with circumstances of uncommon barbarity.* + +* See Note G. Muschat's Cairn. + +The execration in which the man's crime was held extended itself to the +place where it was perpetrated, which was marked by a small /cairn,/ or +heap of stones, composed of those which each chance passenger had thrown +there in testimony of abhorrence, and on the principle, it would seem, of +the ancient British malediction, "May you have a cairn for your +burial-place!" + +As our heroine approached this ominous and unhallowed spot, she paused +and looked to the moon, now rising broad in the north-west, and shedding +a more distinct light than it had afforded during her walk thither. +Eyeing the planet for a moment, she then slowly and fearfully turned her +head towards the cairn, from which it was at first averted. She was at +first disappointed. Nothing was visible beside the little pile of stones, +which shone grey in the moonlight. A multitude of confused suggestions +rushed on her mind. Had her correspondent deceived her, and broken his +appointment?--was he too tardy at the appointment he had made?--or had +some strange turn of fate prevented him from appearing as he proposed?-- +or, if he were an unearthly being, as her secret apprehensions suggested, +was it his object merely to delude her with false hopes, and put her to +unnecessary toil and terror, according to the nature, as she had heard, +of those wandering demons?--or did he purpose to blast her with the +sudden horrors of his presence when she had come close to the place of +rendezvous? These anxious reflections did not prevent her approaching to +the cairn with a pace that, though slow, was determined. + +When she was within two yards of the heap of stones, a figure rose +suddenly up from behind it, and Jeanie scarce forbore to scream aloud at +what seemed the realisation of the most frightful of her anticipations. +She constrained herself to silence, however, and, making a dead pause, +suffered the figure to open the conversation, which he did, by asking, in +a voice which agitation rendered tremulous and hollow, "Are you the +sister of that ill-fated young woman?" + +"I am--I am the sister of Effie Deans!" exclaimed Jeanie. "And as ever +you hope God will hear you at your need, tell me, if you can tell, what +can be done to save her!" + +"I do /not/ hope God will hear me at my need," was the singular answer. +"I do not deserve--I do not expect he will." This desperate language he +uttered in a tone calmer than that with which he had at first spoken, +probably because the shook of first addressing her was what he felt most +difficult to overcome. Jeanie remained mute with horror to hear language +expressed so utterly foreign to all which she had ever been acquainted +with, that it sounded in her ears rather like that of a fiend than of a +human being. The stranger pursued his address to her, without seeming to +notice her surprise. "You see before you a wretch, predestined to evil +here and hereafter." + +"For the sake of Heaven, that hears and sees us," said Jeanie, "dinna +speak in this desperate fashion! The gospel is sent to the chief of +sinners--to the most miserable among the miserable." + +"Then should I have my own share therein," said the stranger, "if you +call it sinful to have been the destruction of the mother that bore me-- +of the friend that loved me--of the woman that trusted me--of the +innocent child that was born to me. If to have done all this is to be a +sinner, and survive it is to be miserable, then am I most guilty and most +miserable indeed." + +"Then you are the wicked cause of my sister's ruin?" said Jeanie, with a +natural touch of indignation expressed in her tone of voice. + +"Curse me for it, if you will," said the stranger; "I have well deserved +it at your hand." + +"It is fitter for me," said Jeanie, "to pray to God to forgive you." + +"Do as you will, how you will, or what you will," he replied, with +vehemence; "only promise to obey my directions, and save your sister's +life." + +"I must first know," said Jeanie, "the means you would have me use in her +behalf." + +"No!--you must first swear--solemnly swear, that you will employ them +when I make them known to you." + +"Surely, it is needless to swear that I will do all that is lawful to a +Christian to save the life of my sister?" + +"I will have no reservation!" thundered the stranger; "lawful or +unlawful, Christian or heathen, you shall swear to do my hest, and act by +my counsel, or--you little know whose wrath you provoke!" + +"I will think on what you have said," said Jeanie, who began to get much +alarmed at the frantic vehemence of his manner, and disputed in her own +mind, whether she spoke to a maniac, or an apostate spirit incarnate--"I +will think on what you say, and let you ken to-morrow." + +"To-morrow!" exclaimed the man with a laugh of scorn--"And where will I +be to-morrow?--or, where will you be to-night, unless you swear to walk +by my counsel?--there was one accursed deed done at this spot before now; +and there shall be another to match it, unless you yield up to my +guidance body and soul." + +As he spoke, he offered a pistol at the unfortunate young woman. She +neither fled nor fainted, but sunk on her knees, and asked him to spare +her life. + +"Is that all you have to say?" said the unmoved ruffian. + +"Do not dip your hands in the blood of a defenceless creature that has +trusted to you," said Jeanie, still on her knees. + +"Is that all you can say for your life?--Have you no promise to give?-- +Will you destroy your sister, and compel me to shed more blood?" + +"I can promise nothing," said Jeanie, "which is unlawful for a +Christian." + +He cocked the weapon, and held it towards her. + +"May God forgive you!" she said, pressing her hands forcibly against her +eyes. + +"D--n!" muttered the man; and, turning aside from her, he uncocked the +pistol, and replaced it in his pocket--"I am a villain," he said, +"steeped in guilt and wretchedness, but not wicked enough to do you any +harm! I only wished to terrify you into my measures--She hears me not-- +she is gone!--Great God! what a wretch am I become!" + +As he spoke, she recovered herself from an agony which partook of the +bitterness of death; and, in a minute or two, through the strong exertion +of her natural sense and courage, collected herself sufficiently to +understand he intended her no personal injury. + +"No!" he repeated; "I would not add to the murder of your sister, and of +her child, that of any one belonging to her!--Mad, frantic, as I am, and +unrestrained by either fear or mercy, given up to the possession of an +evil being, and forsaken by all that is good, I would not hurt you, were +the world offered me for a bribe! But, for the sake of all that is dear +to you, swear you will follow my counsel. Take this weapon, shoot me +through the head, and with your own hand revenge your sister's wrong, +only follow the course--the only course, by which her life can be saved." + +"Alas! is she innocent or guilty?" + +"She is guiltless--guiltless of every thing, but of having trusted a +villain!--Yet, had it not been for those that were worse than I am--yes, +worse than I am, though I am bad indeed--this misery had not befallen." + +"And my sister's child--does it live?" said Jeanie. + +"No; it was murdered--the new-born infant was barbarously murdered," he +uttered in a low, yet stern and sustained voice.--"but," he added +hastily, "not by her knowledge or consent." + +"Then, why cannot the guilty be brought to justice, and the innocent +freed?" + +"Torment me not with questions which can serve no purpose," he sternly +replied--"The deed was done by those who are far enough from pursuit, and +safe enough from discovery!--No one can save Effie but yourself." + +"Woe's me! how is it in my power?" asked Jeanie, in despondency. + +"Hearken to me!--You have sense--you can apprehend my meaning--I will +trust you. Your sister is innocent of the crime charged against her" + +"Thank God for that!" said Jeanie. + +"Be still and hearken!--The person who assisted her in her illness +murdered the child; but it was without the mother's knowledge or consent +--She is therefore guiltless, as guiltless as the unhappy innocent, that +but gasped a few minutes in this unhappy world--the better was its hap, +to be so soon at rest. She is innocent as that infant, and yet she must +die--it is impossible to clear her of the law!" + +"Cannot the wretches be discovered, and given up to punishment?" said +Jeanie. + +"Do you think you will persuade those who are hardened in guilt to die to +save another?--Is that the reed you would lean to?" + +"But you said there was a remedy," again gasped out the terrified young +woman. + +"There is," answered the stranger, "and it is in your own hands. The blow +which the law aims cannot be broken by directly encountering it, but it +may be turned aside. You saw your sister during the period preceding the +birth of her child--what is so natural as that she should have mentioned +her condition to you? The doing so would, as their cant goes, take the +case from under the statute, for it removes the quality of concealment. I +know their jargon, and have had sad cause to know it; and the quality of +concealment is essential to this statutory offence.* + +* Note K. Child Murder. + +Nothing is so natural as that Effie should have mentioned her condition +to you--think--reflect--I am positive that she did." + +"Woe's me!" said Jeanie, "she never spoke to me on the subject, but grat +sorely when I spoke to her about her altered looks, and the change on her +spirits." + +"You asked her questions on the subject?" he said eagerly. "You /must/ +remember her answer was, a confession that she had been ruined by a +villain--yes, lay a strong emphasis on that--a cruel false villain call +it--any other name is unnecessary; and that she bore under her bosom the +consequences of his guilt and her folly; and that he had assured her he +would provide safely for her approaching illness.--Well he kept his +word!" These last words he spoke as if it were to himself, and with a +violent gesture of self-accusation, and then calmly proceeded, "You will +remember all this?--That is all that is necessary to be said." + +"But I cannot remember," answered Jeanie, with simplicity, "that which +Effie never told me." + +"Are you so dull--so very dull of apprehension?" he exclaimed, suddenly +grasping her arm, and holding it firm in his hand. "I tell you" (speaking +between his teeth, and under his breath, but with great energy), "you +/must/ remember that she told you all this, whether she ever said a +syllable of it or no. You must repeat this tale, in which there is no +falsehood, except in so far as it was not told to you, before these +Justices--Justiciary--whatever they call their bloodthirsty court, and +save your sister from being murdered, and them from becoming murderers. +Do not hesitate--I pledge life and salvation, that in saying what I have +said, you will only speak thesimple truth." + +"But," replied Jeanie, whose judgment was too accurate not to see the +sophistry of this argument, "I shall be man-sworn in the very thing in +which my testimony is wanted, for it is the concealment for which poor +Effie is blamed, and you would make me tell a falsehood anent it." + +"I see," he said, "my first suspicions of you were right, and that you +will let your sister, innocent, fair, and guiltless, except in trusting a +villain, die the death of a murderess, rather than bestow the breath of +your mouth and the sound of your voice to save her." + +"I wad ware the best blood in my body to keep her skaithless," said +Jeanie, weeping in bitter agony, "but I canna change right into wrang, or +make that true which is false." + +"Foolish, hardhearted girl," said the stranger, "are you afraid of what +they may do to you? I tell you, even the retainers of the law, who course +life as greyhounds do hares, will rejoice at the escape of a creature so +young--so beautiful, that they will not suspect your tale; that, if they +did suspect it, they would consider you as deserving, not only of +forgiveness, but of praise for your natural affection." + +"It is not man I fear," said Jeanie, looking upward; "the God, whose name +I must call on to witness the truth of what I say, he will know the +falsehood." + +"And he will know the motive," said the stranger, eagerly; "he will know +that you are doing this--not for lucre of gain, but to save the life of +the innocent, and prevent the commission of a worse crime than that which +the law seeks to avenge." + +"He has given us a law," said Jeanie, "for the lamp of our path; if we +stray from it we err against knowledge--I may not do evil, even that good +may come out of it. But you--you that ken all this to be true, which I +must take on your word--you that, if I understood what you said e'en now, +promised her shelter and protection in her travail, why do not /you/ step +forward, and bear leal and soothfast evidence in her behalf, as ye may +with a clear conscience?" + +"To whom do you talk of a clear conscience, woman?" said he, with a +sudden fierceness which renewed her terrors,--"to /me?/--I have not known +one for many a year. Bear witness in her behalf?--a proper witness, that +even to speak these few words to a woman of so little consequence as +yourself, must choose such an hour and such a place as this. When you see +owls and bats fly abroad, like larks, in the sunshine, you may expect to +see such as I am in the assemblies of men.--Hush--listen to that." + +A voice was heard to sing one of those wild and monotonous strains so +common in Scotland, and to which the natives of that country chant their +old ballads. The sound ceased--then came nearer, and was renewed; the +stranger listened attentively, still holding Jeanie by the arm (as she +stood by him in motionless terror), as if to prevent her interrupting the +strain by speaking or stirring. When the sounds were renewed, the words +were distinctly audible: + + + "When the glede's in the blue cloud, + The lavrock lies still; + When the hound's in' the green-wood, + The hind keeps the hill." + +The person who sung kept a strained and powerful voice at its highest +pitch, so that it could be heard at a very considerable distance. As the +song ceased, they might hear a stifled sound, as of steps and whispers of +persons approaching them. The song was again raised, but the tune was +changed: + + + "O sleep ye sound, Sir James, she said, + When ye suld rise and ride; + There's twenty men, wi' bow and blade, + Are seeking where ye hide." + +"I dare stay no longer," said the stranger; "return home, or remain till +they come up--you have nothing to fear--but do not tell you saw me--your +sister's fate is in your hands." So saying, he turned from her, and with +a swift, yet cautiously noiseless step, plunged into the darkness on the +side most remote from the sounds which they heard approaching, and was +soon lost to her sight. Jeanie remained by the cairn terrified beyond +expression, and uncertain whether she ought to fly homeward with all the +speed she could exert, or wait the approach of those who were advancing +towards her. This uncertainty detained her so long, that she now +distinctly saw two or three figures already so near to her, that a +precipitate flight would have been equally fruitless and impolitic. + + + + + + CHAPTER FIFTEENTH. + + + + She speaks things in doubt, + That carry but half sense: her speech is nothing, + Yet the unshaped use of it doth move + The hearers to collection; they aim at it, + And botch the words up to fit their own thoughts. + Hamlet. + +Like the digressive poet Ariosto, I find myself under the necessity of +connecting the branches of my story, by taking up the adventures of +another of the characters, and bringing them down to the point at which +we have left those of Jeanie Deans. It is not, perhaps, the most +artificial way of telling a story, but it has the advantage of sparing +the necessity of resuming what a knitter (if stocking-looms have left +such a person in the land) might call our "dropped stitches;" a labour in +which the author generally toils much, without getting credit for his +pains. + +"I could risk a sma' wad," said the clerk to the magistrate, "that this +rascal Ratcliffe, if he were insured of his neck's safety, could do more +than ony ten of our police-people and constables to help us to get out of +this scrape of Porteous's. He is weel acquent wi' a' the smugglers, +thieves, and banditti about Edinburgh; and, indeed, he may be called the +father of a' the misdoers in Scotland, for he has passed amang them for +these twenty years by the name of Daddie Rat." + +"A bonny sort of a scoundrel," replied the magistrate, "to expect a place +under the city!" + +"Begging your honour's pardon," said the city's procurator-fiscal, upon +whom the duties of superintendent of police devolved, "Mr. Fairscrieve is +perfectly in the right. It is just sic as Ratcliffe that the town needs +in my department; an' if sae be that he's disposed to turn his knowledge +to the city service, yell no find a better man.--Ye'll get nae saints to +be searchers for uncustomed goods, or for thieves and sic like;--and your +decent sort of men, religious professors, and broken tradesmen, that are +put into the like o' sic trust, can do nae gude ava. They are feared for +this, and they are scrupulous about that, and they arena free to tell a +lie, though it may be for the benefit of the city; and they dinna like to +be out at irregular hours, and in a dark cauld night, and they like a +clout ower the crown far waur; and sae between the fear o' God, and the +fear o' man, and the fear o' getting a sair throat, or sair banes, +there's a dozen o' our city-folk, baith waiters, and officers, and +constables, that can find out naething but a wee bit skulduddery for the +benefit of the Kirk treasurer. Jock Porteous, that's stiff and stark, +puir fallow, was worth a dozen o' them; for he never had ony fears, or +scruples, or doubts, or conscience, about onything your honours bade +him." + +"He was a gude servant o' the town," said the Bailie, "though he was an +ower free-living man. But if you really think this rascal Ratcliffe could +do us ony service in discovering these malefactors, I would insure him +life, reward, and promotion. It's an awsome thing this mischance for the +city, Mr. Fairscrieve. It will be very ill taen wi' abune stairs. Queen +Caroline, God bless her! is a woman--at least I judge sae, and it's nae +treason to speak my mind sae far--and ye maybe ken as weel as I do, for +ye hae a housekeeper, though ye arena a married man, that women are +wilfu', and downa bide a slight. And it will sound ill in her ears, that +sic a confused mistake suld come to pass, and naebody sae muckle as to be +put into the Tolbooth about it." + +"If ye thought that, sir," said the procurator-fiscal, "we could easily +clap into the prison a few blackguards upon suspicion. It will have a +gude active look, and I hae aye plenty on my list, that wadna be a hair +the waur of a week or twa's imprisonment; and if ye thought it no +strictly just, ye could be just the easier wi' them the neist time they +did onything to deserve it; they arena the sort to be lang o' gieing ye +an opportunity to clear scores wi' them on that account." + +"I doubt that will hardly do in this case, Mr. Sharpitlaw," returned the +town-clerk; "they'll run their letters,* and be adrift again, before ye +ken where ye are." + +* A Scottish form of procedure, answering, in some respects, to the +English Habeas Corpus. + +"I will speak to the Lord Provost," said the magistrate, "about +Ratcliffe's business. Mr. Sharpitlaw, you will go with me, and receive +instructions--something may be made too out of this story of Butler's and +his unknown gentleman--I know no business any man has to swagger about in +the King's Park, and call himself the devil, to the terror of honest +folks, who dinna care to hear mair about the devil than is said from the +pulpit on the Sabbath. I cannot think the preacher himsell wad be heading +the mob, though the time has been, they hae been as forward in a bruilzie +as their neighbours." + +"But these times are lang by," said Mr. Sharpitlaw. "In my father's time, +there was mair search for silenced ministers about the Bow-head and the +Covenant Close, and all the tents of Kedar, as they ca'd the dwellings o' +the godly in those days, than there's now for thieves and vagabonds in +the Laigh Calton and the back o' the Canongate. But that time's weel by, +an it bide. And if the Bailie will get me directions and authority from +the Provost, I'll speak wi' Daddie Rat mysell; for I'm thinking I'll make +mair out o' him than ye'll do." + +Mr. Sharpitlaw, being necessarily a man of high trust, was accordingly +empowered, in the course of the day, to make such arrangements as might +seem in the emergency most advantageous for the Good Town. He went to the +jail accordingly, and saw Ratcliffe in private. + +The relative positions of a police-officer and a professed thief bear a +different complexion, according to circumstances. The most obvious simile +of a hawk pouncing upon his prey is often least applicable. Sometimes the +guardian of justice has the air of a cat watching a mouse, and, while he +suspends his purpose of springing upon the pilferer, takes care so to +calculate his motions that he shall not get beyond his power. Sometimes, +more passive still, he uses the art of fascination ascribed to the +rattlesnake, and contents himself with glaring on the victim, through all +his devious flutterings; certain that his terror, confusion, and disorder +of ideas, will bring him into his jaws at last. The interview between +Ratcliffe and Sharpitlaw had an aspect different from all these. They sat +for five minutes silent, on opposite sides of a small table, and looked +fixedly at each other, with a sharp, knowing, and alert cast of +countenance, not unmingled with an inclination to laugh, and resembled +more than anything else, two dogs, who, preparing for a game at romps, +are seen to couch down, and remain in that posture for a little time, +watching each other's movements, and waiting which shall begin the game. + +"So, Mr. Ratcliffe," said the officer, conceiving it suited his dignity +to speak first, "you give up business, I find?" + +"Yes, sir," replied Ratcliffe; "I shall be on that lay nae mair--and I +think that will save your folk some trouble, Mr. Sharpitlaw?" + +"Which Jock DaIgleish" (then finisher of the law* in the Scottish +metropolis) "wad save them as easily," returned the procurator-fiscal. + +* [Among the flying leaves of the period, there is one called +"Sutherland's Lament for the loss of his post,--with his advice, to John +Daglees his successor." He was whipped and banished 25th July 1722. There +is another, called the Speech and dying words of John Dalgleish, lockman +/alias/ hangman of Edinburgh, containing these lines:-- + + Death, I've a Favour for to beg, + That ye wad only gie a Fleg, + And spare my Life; + As I did to ill-hanged Megg, + The Webster's Wife."] + +"Ay; if I waited in the Tolbooth here to have him fit my cravat--but +that's an idle way o' speaking, Mr. Sharpitlaw." + +"Why, I suppose you know you are under sentence of death, Mr. Ratcliffe?" +replied Mr. Sharpitlaw. + +"Aye, so are a', as that worthy minister said in the Tolbooth Kirk the +day Robertson wan off; but naebody kens when it will be executed. Gude +faith, he had better reason to say sae than he dreamed off, before the +play was played out that morning!" + +"This Robertson," said Sharpitlaw, in a lower and something like a +confidential tone, "d'ye ken, Rat--that is, can ye gie us ony inkling +where he is to be heard tell o'?" + +"Troth, Mr. Sharpitlaw, I'll be frank wi' ye; Robertson is rather a cut +abune me--a wild deevil he was, and mony a daft prank he played; but +except the Collector's job that Wilson led him into, and some tuilzies +about run goods wi' the gaugers and the waiters, he never did onything +that came near our line o' business." + +"Umph! that's singular, considering the company he kept." + +"Fact, upon my honour and credit," said Ratcliffe, gravely. "He keepit +out o' our little bits of affairs, and that's mair than Wilson did; I hae +dune business wi' Wilson afore now. But the lad will come on in time; +there's nae fear o' him; naebody will live the life he has led, but what +he'll come to sooner or later." + +"Who or what is he, Ratcliffe? you know, I suppose?" said Sharpitlaw. + +"He's better born, I judge, than he cares to let on; he's been a soldier, +and he has been a play-actor, and I watna what he has been or hasna been, +for as young as he is, sae that it had daffing and nonsense about it." + +"Pretty pranks he has played in his time, I suppose?" + +"Ye may say that," said Ratcliffe, with a sardonic smile; "and" (touching +his nose) "a deevil amang the lasses." + +"Like enough," said Sharpitlaw. "Weel, Ratcliffe, I'll no stand niffering +wi' ye; ye ken the way that favour's gotten in my office; ye maun be +usefu'." + +"Certainly, sir, to the best of my power--naething for naething--I ken +the rule of the office," said the ex-depredator. + +"Now the principal thing in hand e'en now," said the official person, "is +the job of Porteous's; an ye can gie us a lift--why, the inner turnkey's +office to begin wi', and the captainship in time--ye understand my +meaning?" + +"Ay, troth do I, sir; a wink's as gude as a nod to a blind horse; but +Jock Porteous's job--Lord help ye!--I was under sentence the haill time. +God! but I couldna help laughing when I heard Jock skirting for mercy in +the lads' hands. Mony a het skin ye hae gien me, neighbour, thought I, +tak ye what's gaun: time about's fair play; ye'll ken now what hanging's +gude for." + +"Come, come, this is all nonsense, Rat," said the procurator. "Ye canna +creep out at that hole, lad; you must speak to the point--you understand +me--if you want favour; gif-gaf makes gude friends, ye ken." + +"But how can I speak to the point, as your honour ca's it," said +Ratcliffe, demurely, and with an air of great simplicity, "when ye ken I +was under sentence and in the strong room a' the while the job was going +on?" + +"And how can we turn ye loose on the public again, Daddie Rat, unless ye +do or say something to deserve it?" + +"Well, then, d--n it!" answered the criminal, "since it maun be sae, I +saw Geordie Robertson among the boys that brake the jail; I suppose that +will do me some gude?" + +"That's speaking to the purpose, indeed," said the office-bearer; "and +now, Rat, where think ye we'll find him?" + +"Deil haet o' me kens," said Ratcliffe; "he'll no likely gang back to ony +o' his auld howffs; he'll be off the country by this time. He has gude +friends some gate or other, for a' the life he's led; he's been weel +educate." + +"He'll grace the gallows the better," said Mr. Sharpitlaw; "a desperate +dog, to murder an officer of the city for doing his duty! Wha kens wha's +turn it might be next?--But you saw him plainly?" + +"As plainly as I see you." + +"How was he dressed?" said Sharpitlaw. + +"I couldna weel see; something of a woman's bit mutch on his head; but ye +never saw sic a ca'-throw. Ane couldna hae een to a' thing." + +"But did he speak to no one?" said Sharpitlaw. + +"They were a' speaking and gabbling through other," said Ratcliffe, who +was obviously unwilling to carry his evidence farther than he could +possibly help. + +"This will not do, Ratcliffe," said the procurator; "you must speak /out +--out--out,/" tapping the table emphatically, as he repeated that +impressive monosyllable. + +"It's very hard, sir," said the prisoner; "and but for the +under-turnkey's place" + +"And the reversion of the captaincy--the captaincy of the Tolbooth, man-- +that is, in case of gude behaviour." + +"Ay, ay," said Ratcliffe, "gude behaviour!--there's the deevil. And then +it's waiting for dead folk's shoon into the bargain." + +"But Robertson's head will weigh something," said Sharpitlaw; "something +gey and heavy, Rat; the town maun show cause--that's right and reason-- +and then ye'll hae freedom to enjoy your gear honestly." + +"I dinna ken," said Ratcliffe; "it's a queer way of beginning the trade +of honesty--but deil ma care. Weel, then, I heard and saw him speak to +the wench Effie Deans, that's up there for child-murder." + +"The deil ye did? Rat, this is finding a mare's nest wi' a witness.--And +the man that spoke to Butler in the Park, and that was to meet wi' Jeanie +Deans at Muschat's Cairn--whew! lay that and that together? As sure as I +live he's been the father of the lassie's wean." + +"There hae been waur guesses than that, I'm thinking," observed +Ratcliffe, turning his quid of tobacco in his cheek, and squirting out +the juice. "I heard something a while syne about his drawing up wi' a +bonny quean about the Pleasaunts, and that it was a' Wilson could do to +keep him frae marrying her." + +Here a city officer entered, and told Sharpitlaw that they had the woman +in custody whom he had directed them to bring before him. + +"It's little matter now," said he, "the thing is taking another turn; +however, George, ye may bring her in." + +The officer retired, and introduced, upon his return, a tall, strapping +wench of eighteen or twenty, dressed, fantastically, in a sort of blue +riding-jacket, with tarnished lace, her hair clubbed like that of a man, +a Highland bonnet, and a bunch of broken feathers, a riding-skirt (or +petticoat) of scarlet camlet, embroidered with tarnished flowers. Her +features were coarse and masculine, yet at a little distance, by dint of +very bright wild-looking black eyes, an aquiline nose, and a commanding +profile, appeared rather handsome. She flourished the switch she held in +her hand, dropped a courtesy as low as a lady at a birth-night +introduction, recovered herself seemingly according to Touchstone's +directions to Audrey, and opened the conversation without waiting till +any questions were asked. + +"God gie your honour gude-e'en, and mony o' them, bonny Mr. Sharpitlaw!-- +Gude-e'en to ye, Daddie Ratton--they tauld me ye were hanged, man; or did +ye get out o' John Dalgleish's hands like half-hangit Maggie Dickson?" + +"Whisht, ye daft jaud," said Ratcliffe, "and hear what's said to ye." + +"Wi' a' my heart, Ratton. Great preferment for poor Madge to be brought +up the street wi' a grand man, wi' a coat a' passemented wi' worset-lace, +to speak wi' provosts, and bailies, and town-clerks, and prokitors, at +this time o' day--and the haill town looking at me too--This is honour on +earth for ance!" + +"Ay, Madge," said Mr. Sharpitlaw, in a coaxing tone; "and ye're dressed +out in your braws, I see; these are not your every-days' claiths ye have +on." + +"Deil be in my fingers, then!" said Madge--"Eh, sirs!" (observing Butler +come into the apartment), "there's a minister in the Tolbooth--wha will +ca' it a graceless place now?--I'se warrant he's in for the gude auld +cause--but it's be nae cause o' mine," and off she went into a song-- + + +"Hey for cavaliers, ho for cavaliers, +Dub a dub, dub a dub, +Have at old Beelzebub,-- +Oliver's squeaking for fear." + +"Did you ever see that mad woman before?" said Sharpitlaw to Butler. + +"Not to my knowledge, sir," replied Butler. + +"I thought as much," said the procurator-fiscal, looking towards +Ratcliffe, who answered his glance with a nod of acquiescence and +intelligence.-- + +"But that is Madge Wildfire, as she calls herself," said the man of law +to Butler. + +"Ay, that I am," said Madge, "and that I have been ever since I was +something better--Heigh ho"--(and something like melancholy dwelt on her +features for a minute)--"But I canna mind when that was--it was lang +syne, at ony rate, and I'll ne'er fash my thumb about it.-- + + I glance like the wildfire through country and town; + I'm seen on the causeway--I'm seen on the down; + The lightning that flashes so bright and so free, + Is scarcely so blithe or so bonny as me." + +"Hand your tongue, ye skirling limmer!" said the officer who had acted as +master of the ceremonies to this extraordinary performer, and who was +rather scandalised at the freedom of her demeanour before a person of Mr. +Sharpitlaw's importance--"haud your tongue, or I'se gie ye something to +skirl for!" + +"Let her alone, George," said Sharpitlaw, "dinna put her out o' tune; I +hae some questions to ask her--But first, Mr. Butler, take another look +of her." + +"Do sae, minister--do sae," cried Madge; "I am as weel worth looking at +as ony book in your aught.--And I can say the single carritch, and the +double carritch, and justification, and effectual calling, and the +assembly of divines at Westminster, that is" (she added in a low tone), +"I could say them ance--but it's lang syne--and ane forgets, ye ken." And +poor Madge heaved another deep sigh. + +"Weel, sir," said Mr. Sharpitlaw to Butler, "what think ye now?" + +"As I did before," said Butler; "that I never saw the poor demented +creature in my life before." + +"Then she is not the person whom you said the rioters last night +described as Madge Wildfire?" + +"Certainly not," said Butler. "They may be near the same height, for they +are both tall, but I see little other resemblance." + +"Their dress, then, is not alike?" said Sharpitlaw. + +"Not in the least," said Butler. + +"Madge, my bonny woman," said Sharpitlaw, in the same coaxing manner, +"what did ye do wi' your ilka-day's claise yesterday?" + +"I dinna mind," said Madge. + +"Where was ye yesterday at e'en, Madge?" + +"I dinna mind ony thing about yesterday," answered Madge; "ae day is +eneugh for ony body to wun ower wi' at a time, and ower muckle +sometimes." + +"But maybe, Madge, ye wad mind something about it, if I was to gie ye +this half-crown?" said Sharpitlaw, taking out the piece of money. + +"That might gar me laugh, but it couldna gar me mind." + +"But, Madge," continued Sharpitlaw, "were I to send you to the workhouse +in Leith Wynd, and gar Jock Dalgleish lay the tawse on your back" + +"That wad gar me greet," said Madge, sobbing, "but it couldna gar me +mind, ye ken." + +"She is ower far past reasonable folks' motives, sir," said Ratcliffe, +"to mind siller, or John Dalgleish, or the cat-and-nine-tails either; but +I think I could gar her tell us something." + +"Try her, then, Ratcliffe," said Sharpitlaw, "for I am tired of her crazy +pate, and be d--d to her." + +"Madge," said Ratcliffe, "hae ye ony joes now?" + +"An ony body ask ye, say ye dinna ken.--Set him to be speaking of my +joes, auld Daddie Ratton!" + +"I dare say, ye hae deil ane?" + +"See if I haena then," said Madge, with the toss of the head of affronted +beauty--"there's Rob the Ranter, and Will Fleming, and then there's +Geordie Robertson, lad--that's Gentleman Geordie--what think ye o' that?" + +Ratcliffe laughed, and, winking to the procurator-fiscal, pursued the +inquiry in his own way. "But, Madge, the lads only like ye when ye hae on +your braws--they wadna touch you wi' a pair o' tangs when you are in your +auld ilka-day rags." + +"Ye're a leeing auld sorrow then," replied the fair one; "for Gentle +Geordie Robertson put my ilka-day's claise on his ain bonny sell +yestreen, and gaed a' through the town wi' them; and gawsie and grand he +lookit, like ony queen in the land." + +"I dinna believe a word o't," said Ratcliffe, with another wink to the +procurator. "Thae duds were a' o' the colour o' moonshine in the water, +I'm thinking, Madge--The gown wad be a sky-blue scarlet, I'se warrant +ye?" + +"It was nae sic thing," said Madge, whose unretentive memory let out, in +the eagerness of contradiction, all that she would have most wished to +keep concealed, had her judgment been equal to her inclination. "It was +neither scarlet nor sky-blue, but my ain auld brown threshie-coat of a +short-gown, and my mother's auld mutch, and my red rokelay--and he gied +me a croun and a kiss for the use o' them, blessing on his bonny face-- +though it's been a dear ane to me." + +"And where did he change his clothes again, hinnie?" said Sharpitlaw, in +his most conciliatory manner. + +"The procurator's spoiled a'," observed Ratcliffe, drily. And it was even +so; for the question, put in so direct a shape, immediately awakened +Madge to the propriety of being reserved upon those very topics on which +Ratcliffe had indirectly seduced her to become communicative. + +"What was't ye were speering at us, sir?" she resumed, with an appearance +of stolidity so speedily assumed, as showed there was a good deal of +knavery mixed with her folly. + +"I asked you," said the procurator, "at what hour, and to what place, +Robertson brought back your clothes." + +"Robertson?--Lord hand a care o' us! what Robertson?" + +"Why, the fellow we were speaking of, Gentle Geordie, as you call him." + +"Geordie Gentle!" answered Madge, with well-feigned amazement--"I dinna +ken naebody they ca' Geordie Gentle." + +"Come, my jo," said Sharpitlaw, "this will not do; you must tell us what +you did with these clothes of yours." + +Madge Wildfire made no answer, unless the question may seem connected +with the snatch of a song with which she indulged the embarrassed +investigator:-- + + "What did ye wi' the bridal ring--bridal ring--bridal ring? + What did ye wi' your wedding ring, ye little cutty quean, O? + I gied it till a sodger, a sodger, a sodger, + I gied it till a sodger, an auld true love o' mine, O." + +Of all the madwomen who have sung and said, since the days of Hamlet the +Dane, if Ophelia be the most affecting, Madge Wildfire was the most +provoking. + +The procurator-fiscal was in despair. "I'll take some measures with this +d--d Bess of Bedlam," said he, "that shall make her find her tongue." + +"Wi' your favour, sir," said Ratcliffe, "better let her mind settle a +little--Ye have aye made out something." + +"True," said the official person; "a brown short-gown, mutch, red +rokelay--that agrees with your Madge Wildfire, Mr. Butler?" Butler agreed +that it did so. "Yes, there was a sufficient motive for taking this crazy +creature's dress and name, while he was about such a job." + +"And I am free to say /now,/" said Ratcliffe + +"When you see it has come out without you," interrupted Sharpitlaw. + +"Just sae, sir," reiterated Ratcliffe. "I am free to say now, since it's +come out otherwise, that these were the clothes I saw Robertson wearing +last night in the jail, when he was at the head of the rioters." + +"That's direct evidence," said Sharpitlaw; "stick to that, Rat--I will +report favourably of you to the provost, for I have business for you +to-night. It wears late; I must home and get a snack, and I'll be back in +the evening. Keep Madge with you, Ratcliffe, and try to get her into a +good tune again." So saying he left the prison. + + + + + CHAPTER SIXTEENTH. + + + And some they whistled--and some they sang, + And some did loudly say, + Whenever Lord Barnard's horn it blew, + "Away, Musgrave away!" + Ballad of Little Musgrave. + +When the man of office returned to the Heart of Mid-Lothian, he resumed +his conference with Ratcliffe, of whose experience and assistance he now +held himself secure. "You must speak with this wench, Rat--this Effie +Deans--you must sift her a wee bit; for as sure as a tether she will ken +Robertson's haunts--till her, Rat--till her without delay." + +"Craving your pardon, Mr. Sharpitlaw," said the turnkey elect, "that's +what I am not free to do." + +"Free to do, man? what the deil ails ye now?--I thought we had settled a' +that?" + +"I dinna ken, sir," said Ratcliffe; "I hae spoken to this Effie--she's +strange to this place and to its ways, and to a' our ways, Mr. +Sharpitlaw; and she greets, the silly tawpie, and she's breaking her +heart already about this wild chield; and were she the mean's o' taking +him, she wad break it outright." + +"She wunna hae time, lad," said Sharpitlaw; "the woodie will hae it's ain +o' her before that--a woman's heart takes a lang time o' breaking." + +"That's according to the stuff they are made o' sir," replied Ratcliffe-- +"But to make a lang tale short, I canna undertake the job. It gangs +against my conscience." + +"/Your/ conscience, Rat?" said Sharpitlaw, with a sneer, which the reader +will probably think very natural upon the occasion. + +"Ou ay, sir," answered Ratcliffe, calmly, "just my conscience; a'body has +a conscience, though it may be ill wunnin at it. I think mine's as weel +out o' the gate as maist folk's are; and yet it's just like the noop of +my elbow, it whiles gets a bit dirl on a corner." + +"Weel, Rat," replied Sharpitlaw, "since ye are nice, I'll speak to the +hussy mysell." + +Sharpitlaw, accordingly, caused himself to be introduced into the little +dark apartment tenanted by the unfortunate Effie Deans. The poor girl was +seated on her little flock-bed, plunged in a deep reverie. Some food +stood on the table, of a quality better than is usually supplied to +prisoners, but it was untouched. The person under whose care she was more +particularly placed, said, "that sometimes she tasted naething from the +tae end of the four-and-twenty hours to the t'other, except a drink of +water." + +Sharpitlaw took a chair, and, commanding the turnkey to retire, he opened +the conversation, endeavouring to throw into his tone and countenance as +much commiseration as they were capable of expressing, for the one was +sharp and harsh, the other sly, acute, and selfish. + +"How's a' wi' ye, Effie?--How d'ye find yoursell, hinny?" + +A deep sigh was the only answer. + +"Are the folk civil to ye, Effie?--it's my duty to inquire." + +"Very civil, sir," said Effie, compelling herself to answer, yet hardly +knowing what she said. + +"And your victuals," continued Sharpitlaw, in the same condoling tone,-- +"do you get what you like?--or is there onything you would particularly +fancy, as your health seems but silly?" + +"It's a' very weel, sir, I thank ye," said the poor prisoner, in a tone +how different from the sportive vivacity of those of the Lily of St. +Leonard's!--"it's a' very gude--ower gude for me." + +"He must have been a great villain, Effie, who brought you to this pass," +said Sharpitlaw. + +The remark was dictated partly by a natural feeling, of which even he +could not divest himself, though accustomed to practise on the passions +of others, and keep a most heedful guard over his own, and partly by his +wish to introduce the sort of conversation which might, best serve his +immediate purpose. Indeed, upon the present occasion, these mixed motives +of feeling and cunning harmonised together wonderfully; for, said +Sharpitlaw to himself, the greater rogue Robertson is, the more will be +the merit of bringing him to justice. "He must have been a great villain, +indeed," he again reiterated; "and I wish I had the skelping o' him." + +"I may blame mysell mair than him," said Effie; "I was bred up to ken +better; but he, poor fellow,"--(she stopped). + +"Was a thorough blackguard a' his life, I dare say," said Sharpitlaw. "A +stranger he was in this country, and a companion of that lawless +vagabond, Wilson, I think, Effie?" + +"It wad hae been dearly telling him that he had ne'er seen Wilson's +face." + +"That's very true that you are saying, Effie," said Sharpitlaw. "Where +was't that Robertson and you were used to howff thegither? Somegate about +the Laigh Calton, I am thinking." + +The simple and dispirited girl had thus far followed Mr. Sharpitlaw's +lead, because he had artfully adjusted his observations to the thoughts +he was pretty certain must be passing through her own mind, so that her +answers became a kind of thinking aloud, a mood into which those who are +either constitutionally absent in mind, or are rendered so by the +temporary pressure of misfortune, may be easily led by a skilful train of +suggestions. But the last observation of the procurator-fiscal was too +much of the nature of a direct interrogatory, and it broke the charm +accordingly. + +"What was it that I was saying?" said Effie, starting up from her +reclining posture, seating herself upright, and hastily shading her +dishevelled hair back from her wasted but still beautiful countenance. +She fixed her eyes boldly and keenly upon Sharpitlaw--"You are too much +of a gentleman, sir,--too much of an honest man, to take any notice of +what a poor creature like me says, that can hardly ca' my senses my ain-- +God help me!" + +"Advantage!--I would be of some advantage to you if I could," said +Sharpitlaw, in a soothing tone; "and I ken naething sae likely to serve +ye, Effie, as gripping this rascal, Robertson." + +"O dinna misca' him, sir, that never misca'd you!--Robertson?--I am sure +I had naething to say against ony man o' the name, and naething will I +say." + +"But if you do not heed your own misfortune, Effie, you should mind what +distress he has brought on your family," said the man of law. + +"O, Heaven help me!" exclaimed poor Effie--"My poor father--my dear +Jeanie--O, that's sairest to bide of a'! O, sir, if you hae ony kindness +--if ye hae ony touch of compassion--for a' the folk I see here are as +hard as the wa'-stanes--If ye wad but bid them let my sister Jeanie in +the next time she ca's! for when I hear them put her awa frae the door, +and canna climb up to that high window to see sae muckle as her +gown-tail, it's like to pit me out o' my judgment." And she looked on him +with a face of entreaty, so earnest, yet so humble, that she fairly shook +the steadfast purpose of his mind. + +"You shall see your sister," he began, "if you'll tell me,"--then +interrupting himself, he added, in a more hurried tone,--"no, d--n it, +you shall see your sister whether you tell me anything or no." So saying, +he rose up and left the apartment. + +When he had rejoined Ratcliffe, he observed, "You are right, Ratton; +there's no making much of that lassie. But ae thing I have cleared--that +is, that Robertson has been the father of the bairn, and so I will wager +a boddle it will be he that's to meet wi' Jeanie Deans this night at +Muschat's Cairn, and there we'll nail him, Rat, or my name is not Gideon +Sharpitlaw." + +"But," said Ratcliffe, perhaps because he was in no hurry to see anything +which was like to be connected with the discovery and apprehension of +Robertson, "an that were the case, Mr. Butler wad hae kend the man in the +King's Park to be the same person wi' him in Madge Wildfire's claise, +that headed the mob." + +"That makes nae difference, man," replied Sharpitlaw--"the dress, the +light, the confusion, and maybe a touch o' a blackit cork, or a slake o' +paint-hout, Ratton, I have seen ye dress your ainsell, that the deevil ye +belang to durstna hae made oath t'ye." + +"And that's true, too," said Ratcliffe. + +"And besides, ye donnard carle," continued Sharpitlaw, triumphantly, "the +minister /did/ say that he thought he knew something of the features of +the birkie that spoke to him in the Park, though he could not charge his +memory where or when he had seen them." + +"It's evident, then, your honour will be right," said Ratcliffe. + +"Then, Rat, you and I will go with the party oursells this night, and see +him in grips or we are done wi' him." + +"I seena muckle use I can be o' to your honour," said Ratcliffe, +reluctantly. + +"Use?" answered Sharpitlaw--"You can guide the party--you ken the ground. +Besides, I do not intend to quit sight o' you, my good friend, till I +have him in hand." + +"Weel, sir," said Ratcliffe, but in no joyful tone of acquiescence; "Ye +maun hae it your ain way--but mind he's a desperate man." + +"We shall have that with us," answered Sharpitlaw, "that will settle him, +if it is necessary." + +"But, sir," answered Ratcliffe, "I am sure I couldna undertake to guide +you to Muschat's Cairn in the night-time; I ken the place as mony does, +in fair day-light, but how to find it by moonshine, amang sae mony crags +and stanes, as like to each other as the collier to the deil, is mair +than I can tell. I might as soon seek moonshine in water." + +"What's the meaning o' this, Ratcliffe?" said Sharpitlaw, while he fixed +his eye on the recusant, with a fatal and ominous expression,--"Have you +forgotten that you are still under sentence of death?" + +"No, sir," said Ratcliffe, "that's a thing no easily put out o' memory; +and if my presence be judged necessary, nae doubt I maun gang wi' your +honour. But I was gaun to tell your honour of ane that has mair skeel o' +the gate than me, and that's e'en Madge Wildfire." + +"The devil she has!--Do you think me as mad as she, is, to trust to her +guidance on such an occasion?" + +"Your honour is the best judge," answered Ratcliffe; "but I ken I can +keep her in tune, and garr her haud the straight path--she often sleeps +out, or rambles about amang thae hills the haill simmer night, the daft +limmer." + +"Weel, Ratcliffe," replied the procurator-fiscal, "if you think she can +guide us the right way--but take heed to what you are about--your life +depends on your behaviour." + +"It's a sair judgment on a man," said Ratcliffe, "when he has ance gane +sae far wrang as I hae done, that deil a bit he can be honest, try't +whilk way he will." + +Such was the reflection of Ratcliffe, when he was left for a few minutes +to himself, while the retainer of justice went to procure a proper +warrant, and give the necessary directions. + +The rising moon saw the whole party free from the walls of the city, and +entering upon the open ground. Arthur's Seat, like a couchant lion of +immense size--Salisbury Crags, like a huge belt or girdle of granite, +were dimly visible. Holding their path along the southern side of the +Canongate, they gained the Abbey of Holyrood House, and from thence found +their way by step and stile into the King's Park. They were at first four +in number--an officer of justice and Sharpitlaw, who were well armed with +pistols and cutlasses; Ratcliffe, who was not trusted with weapons, lest, +he might, peradventure, have used them on the wrong side; and the female. +But at the last stile, when they entered the Chase, they were joined by +other two officers, whom Sharpitlaw, desirous to secure sufficient force +for his purpose, and at the same time to avoid observation, had directed +to wait for him at this place. Ratcliffe saw this accession of strength +with some disquietude, for he had hitherto thought it likely that +Robertson, who was a bold, stout, and active young fellow, might have +made his escape from Sharpitlaw and the single officer, by force or +agility, without his being implicated in the matter. But the present +strength of the followers of justice was overpowering, and the only mode +of saving Robertson (which the old sinner was well disposed to do, +providing always he could accomplish his purpose without compromising his +own safety), must be by contriving that he should have some signal of +their approach. It was probably with this view that Ratcliffe had +requested the addition of Madge to the party, having considerable +confidence in her propensity to exert her lungs. Indeed, she had already +given them so many specimens of her clamorous loquacity, that Sharpitlaw +half determined to send her back with one of the officers, rather than +carry forward in his company a person so extremely ill qualified to be a +guide in a secret expedition. It seemed, too, as if the open air, the +approach to the hills, and the ascent of the moon, supposed to be so +portentous over those whose brain is infirm, made her spirits rise in a +degree tenfold more loquacious than she had hitherto exhibited. To +silence her by fair means seemed impossible; authoritative commands and +coaxing entreaties she set alike at defiance, and threats only made her +sulky and altogether intractable. + +"Is there no one of you," said Sharpitlaw, impatiently, "that knows the +way to this accursed place--this Nichol Muschat's Cairn--excepting this +mad clavering idiot?" + +"Deil ane o' them kens it except mysell," exclaimed Madge; "how suld +they, the puir fule cowards! But I hae sat on the grave frae batfleeing +time till cook-crow, and had mony a fine crack wi' Muschat and Ailie +Muschat, that are lying sleeping below." + +"The devil take your crazy brain," said Sharpitlaw; "will you not allow +the men to answer a question?" + +The officers obtaining a moment's audience while Ratcliffe diverted +Madge's attention, declared that, though they had a general knowledge of +the spot, they could not undertake to guide the party to it by the +uncertain light of the moon, with such accuracy as to insure success to +their expedition. + +"What shall we do, Ratcliffe?" said Sharpitlaw, "if he sees us before we +see him,--and that's what he is certain to do, if we go strolling about, +without keeping the straight road,--we may bid gude day to the job, and I +would rather lose one hundred pounds, baith for the credit of the police, +and because the provost says somebody maun be hanged for this job o' +Porteous, come o't what likes." + +"I think," said Ratcliffe, "we maun just try Madge; and I'll see if I can +get her keepit in ony better order. And at ony rate, if he suld hear her +skirting her auld ends o' sangs, he's no to ken for that that there's +onybody wi' her." + +"That's true," said Sharpitlaw; "and if he thinks her alone, he's as like +to come towards her as to rin frae her. So set forward--we hae lost ower +muckle time already--see to get her to keep the right road." + +"And what sort o' house does Nichol Muschat and his wife keep now?" said +Ratcliffe to the mad woman, by way of humouring her vein of folly; "they +were but thrawn folk lang syne, an a' tales be true." + +"Ou, ay, ay, ay--but a's forgotten now," replied Madge, in the +confidential tone of a gossip giving the history of her next-door +neighbour--"Ye see, I spoke to them mysell, and tauld them byganes suld +be byganes--her throat's sair misguggled and mashackered though; she +wears her corpse-sheet drawn weel up to hide it, but that canna hinder +the bluid seiping through, ye ken. I wussed her to wash it in St. +Anthony's Well, and that will cleanse if onything can--But they say bluid +never bleaches out o' linen claith--Deacon Sanders's new cleansing draps +winna do't--I tried them mysell on a bit rag we hae at hame that was +mailed wi' the bluid of a bit skirting wean that was hurt some gate, but +out it winna come--Weel, yell say that's queer; but I will bring it out +to St. Anthony's blessed Well some braw night just like this, and I'll +cry up Ailie Muschat, and she and I will hae a grand bouking-washing, and +bleach our claes in the beams of the bonny Lady Moon, that's far +pleasanter to me than the sun--the sun's ower het, and ken ye, cummers, +my brains are het eneugh already. But the moon, and the dew, and the +night-wind, they are just like a caller kail-blade laid on my brow; and +whiles I think the moon just shines on purpose to pleasure me, when +naebody sees her but mysell." + +This raving discourse she continued with prodigious volubility, walking +on at a great pace, and dragging Ratcliffe along with her, while he +endeavoured, in appearance at least, if not in reality, to induce her to +moderate her voice. + +All at once she stopped short upon the top of a little hillock, gazed +upward fixedly, and said not one word for the space of five minutes. +"What the devil is the matter with her now?" said Sharpitlaw to +Ratcliffe--"Can you not get her forward?" + +"Ye maun just take a grain o' patience wi' her, sir," said Ratcliffe. +"She'll no gae a foot faster than she likes herself." + +"D--n her," said Sharpitlaw, "I'll take care she has her time in Bedlam +or Bridewell, or both, for she's both mad and mischievous." + +In the meanwhile, Madge, who had looked very pensive when she first +stopped, suddenly burst into a vehement fit of laughter, then paused and +sighed bitterly,--then was seized with a second fit of laughter--then, +fixing her eyes on the moon, lifted up her voice and sung,-- + + "Good even, good fair moon, good even to thee; + I prithee, dear moon, now show to me + The form and the features, the speech and degree, + Of the man that true lover of mine shall be. + +But I need not ask that of the bonny Lady Moon--I ken that weel eneugh +mysell--/true/-love though he wasna--But naebody shall sae that I ever +tauld a word about the matter--But whiles I wish the bairn had lived-- +Weel, God guide us, there's a heaven aboon us a',"--(here she sighed +bitterly), "and a bonny moon, and sterns in it forby" (and here she +laughed once more). + +"Are we to stand, here all night!" said Sharpitlaw, very impatiently. +"Drag her forward." + +"Ay, sir," said Ratcliffe, "if we kend whilk way to drag her, that would +settle it at ance.--Come, Madge, hinny," addressing her, "we'll no be in +time to see Nichol and his wife, unless ye show us the road." + +"In troth and that I will, Ratton," said she, seizing him by the arm, and +resuming her route with huge strides, considering it was a female who +took them. "And I'll tell ye, Ratton, blithe will Nichol Muschat be to +see ye, for he says he kens weel there isna sic a villain out o' hell as +ye are, and he wad be ravished to hae a crack wi' you--like to like ye +ken--it's a proverb never fails--and ye are baith a pair o' the deevil's +peats I trow--hard to ken whilk deserves the hettest corner o' his +ingle-side." + +Ratcliffe was conscience-struck, and could not forbear making an +involuntary protest against this classification. "I never shed blood," he +replied. + +"But ye hae sauld it, Ratton--ye hae sauld blood mony a time. Folk kill +wi' the tongue as weel as wi' the hand--wi' the word as weel as wi' the +gulley!-- + + It is the 'bonny butcher lad, + That wears the sleeves of blue, + He sells the flesh on Saturday, + On Friday that he slew." + +"And what is that I ain doing now?" thought Ratcliffe. "But I'll hae nae +wyte of Robertson's young bluid, if I can help it;" then speaking apart +to Madge, he asked her, "Whether she did not remember ony o' her auld +Sangs?" + +"Mony a dainty ane," said Madge; "and blithely can I sing them, for +lightsome sangs make merry gate." And she sang,-- + + + "When the glede's in the blue cloud, + The lavrock lies still; + When the hound's in the greenwood. + The hind keeps the hill." + +"Silence her cursed noise, if you should throttle her," said Sharpitlaw; +"I see somebody yonder.--Keep close, my boys, and creep round the +shoulder of the height. George Poinder, stay you with Ratcliffe and tha +mad yelling bitch; and you other two, come with me round under the shadow +of the brae." + +And he crept forward with the stealthy pace of an Indian savage, who +leads his band to surprise an unsuspecting party of some hostile tribe. +Ratcliffe saw them glide of, avoiding the moonlight, and keeping as much +in: the shade as possible. + +"Robertson's done up," said he to himself; "thae young lads are aye sae +thoughtless. What deevil could he hae to say to Jeanie Deans, or to ony +woman on earth, that he suld gang awa and get his neck raxed for her? And +this mad quean, after cracking like a pen-gun, and skirling like a +pea-hen for the haill night, behoves just to hae hadden her tongue when +her clavers might have dune some gude! But it's aye the way wi' women; if +they ever hand their tongues ava', ye may swear it's for mischief. I wish +I could set her on again without this blood-sucker kenning what I am +doing. But he's as gleg as MacKeachan's elshin,* that ran through sax +plies of bendleather and half-an-inch into the king's heel." + +* [/Elshin,/ a shoemaker's awl.] + +He then began to hum, but in a very low and suppressed tone, the first +stanza of a favourite ballad of Wildfire's, the words of which bore some +distant analogy with the situation of Robertson, trusting that the power +of association would not fail to bring the rest to her mind:-- + + "There's a bloodhound ranging Tinwald wood, + There's harness glancing sheen: + There's a maiden sits on Tinwald brae, + And she sings loud between." + +Madge had no sooner received the catch-word, than she vindicated +Ratcliffe's sagacity by setting off at score with the song:-- + + "O sleep ye sound, Sir James, she said, + When ye suld rise and ride? + There's twenty men, wi' bow and blade, + Are seeking where ye hide." + +Though Ratcliffe was at a considerable distance from the spot called +Muschat's Cairn, yet his eyes, practised like those of a cat to penetrate +darkness, could mark that Robertson had caught the alarm. George Poinder, +less keen of sight, or less attentive, was not aware of his flight any +more than Sharpitlaw and his assistants, whose view, though they were +considerably nearer to the cairn, was intercepted by the broken nature of +the ground under which they were screening themselves. At length, +however, after the interval of five or six minutes, they also perceived +that Robertson had fled, and rushed hastily towards the place, while +Sharpitlaw called out aloud, in the harshest tones of a voice which +resembled a saw-mill at work, "Chase, lads--chase--haud the brae--I see +him on the edge of the hill!" Then hollowing back to the rear-guard of +his detachment, he issued his farther orders: "Ratcliffe, come here, and +detain the woman--George, run and kepp the stile at the Duke's Walk-- +Ratcliffe, come here directly--but first knock out that mad bitch's +brains!" + +"Ye had better rin for it, Madge," said Ratcliffe, "for it's ill dealing +wi' an angry man." + +Madge Wildfire was not so absolutely void of common sense as not to +understand this innuendo; and while Ratcliffe, in seemingly anxious haste +of obedience, hastened to the spot where Sharpitlaw waited to deliver up +Jeanie Deans to his custody, she fled with all the despatch she could +exert in an opposite direction. Thus the whole party were separated, and +in rapid motion of flight or pursuit, excepting Ratcliffe and Jeanie, +whom, although making no attempt to escape, he held fast by the cloak, +and who remained standing by Muschat's Cairn. + + + + + CHAPTER SEVENTEENTH. + + + You have paid the heavens your function, + and the prisoner the very debt of your calling. + Measure for Measure. + +Jeanie Deans,--for here our story unites itself with that part of the +narrative which broke off at the end of the fourteenth chapter,--while +she waited, in terror and amazement, the hasty advance of three or four +men towards her, was yet more startled at their suddenly breaking +asunder, and giving chase in different directions to the late object of +her terror, who became at that moment, though she could not well assign a +reasonable cause, rather the cause of her interest. One of the party (it +was Sharpitlaw) came straight up to her, and saying, "Your name is Jeanie +Deans, and you are my prisoner," immediately added, "But if you will tell +me which way he ran I will let you go." + +"I dinna ken, sir," was all the poor girl could utter; and, indeed, it is +the phrase which rises most readily to the lips of any person in her +rank, as the readiest reply to any embarrassing question. + +"But," said Sharpitlaw, "ye /ken/ wha it was ye were speaking wi', my +leddy, on the hill side, and midnight sae near; ye surely ken /that,/ my +bonny woman?" + +"I dinna ken, sir," again iterated Jeanie, who really did not comprehend +in her terror the nature of the questions which were so hastily put to +her in this moment of surprise. + +"We will try to mend your memory by and by, hinny," said Sharpitlaw, and +shouted, as we have already told the reader, to Ratcliffe, to come up and +take charge of her, while he himself directed the chase after Robertson, +which he still hoped might be successful. As Ratcliffe approached, +Sharpitlaw pushed the young woman towards him with some rudeness, and +betaking himself to the more important object of his quest, began to +scale crags and scramble up steep banks, with an agility of which his +profession and his general gravity of demeanour would previously have +argued him incapable. In a few minutes there was no one within sight, and +only a distant halloo from one of the pursuers to the other, faintly +heard on the side of the hill, argued that there was any one within +hearing. Jeanie Deans was left in the clear moonlight, standing under the +guard of a person of whom she knew nothing, and, what was worse, +concerning whom, as the reader is well aware, she could have learned +nothing that would not have increased her terror. + +When all in the distance was silent, Ratcliffe for the first time +addressed her, and it was in that cold sarcastic indifferent tone +familiar to habitual depravity, whose crimes are instigated by custom +rather than by passion. "This is a braw night for ye, dearie," he said, +attempting to pass his arm across her shoulder, "to be on the green hill +wi' your jo." Jeanie extricated herself from his grasp, but did not make +any reply. + +"I think lads and lasses," continued the ruffian, "dinna meet at +Muschat's Cairn at midnight to crack nuts," and he again attempted to +take hold of her. + +"If ye are an officer of justice, sir," said Jeanie, again eluding his +attempt to seize her, "ye deserve to have your coat stripped from your +back." + +"Very true, hinny," said he, succeeding forcibly in his attempt to get +hold of her, "but suppose I should strip your cloak off first?" + +"Ye are more a man, I am sure, than to hurt me, sir," said Jeanie; "for +God's sake have pity on a half-distracted creature!" + +"Come, come," said Ratcliffe, "you're a good-looking wench, and should +not be cross-grained. I was going to be an honest man--but the devil has +this very day flung first a lawyer, and then a woman, in my gate. I'll +tell you what, Jeanie, they are out on the hill-side--if you'll be guided +by me, I'll carry you to a wee bit corner in the Pleasance, that I ken o' +in an auld wife's, that a' the prokitors o' Scotland wot naething o', and +we'll send Robertson word to meet us in Yorkshire, for there is a set o' +braw lads about the midland counties, that I hae dune business wi' before +now, and sae we'll leave Mr. Sharpitlaw to whistle on his thumb." + +It was fortunate for Jeanie, in an emergency like the present, that she +possessed presence of mind and courage, so soon as the first hurry of +surprise had enabled her to rally her recollection. She saw the risk she +was in from a ruffian, who not only was such by profession, but had that +evening been stupifying, by means of strong liquors, the internal +aversion which he felt at the business on which Sharpitlaw had resolved +to employ him. + +"Dinna speak sae loud," said she, in a low voice; "he's up yonder." + +"Who?--Robertson?" said Ratcliffe, eagerly. + +"Ay," replied Jeanie; "up yonder;" and she pointed to the ruins of the +hermitage and chapel. + +"By G--d, then," said Ratcliffe, "I'll make my ain of him, either one way +or other--wait for me here." + +But no sooner had he set off as fast as he could run, towards the chapel, +than Jeanie started in an opposite direction, over high and low, on the +nearest path homeward. Her juvenile exercise as a herdswoman had put +"life and mettle" in her heels, and never had she followed Dustiefoot, +when the cows were in the corn, with half so much speed as she now +cleared the distance betwixt Muschat's Cairn and her father's cottage at +St. Leonard's. To lift the latch--to enter--to shut, bolt, and double +bolt the door--to draw against it a heavy article of furniture (which she +could not have moved in a moment of less energy), so as to make yet +farther provision against violence, was almost the work of a moment, yet +done with such silence as equalled the celerity. + +Her next anxiety was upon her father's account, and she drew silently to +the door of his apartment, in order to satisfy herself whether he had +been disturbed by her return. He was awake,--probably had slept but +little; but the constant presence of his own sorrows, the distance of his +apartment from the outer door of the house, and the precautions which +Jeanie had taken to conceal her departure and return, had prevented him +from being sensible of either. He was engaged in his devotions, and +Jeanie could distinctly hear him use these words:--"And for the other +child thou hast given me to be a comfort and stay to my old age, may her +days be long in the land, according to the promise thou hast given to +those who shall honour father and mother; may all her purchased and +promised blessings be multiplied upon her; keep her in the watches of the +night, and in the uprising of the morning, that all in this land may know +that thou hast not utterly hid thy face from those that seek thee in +truth and in sincerity." He was silent, but probably continued his +petition in the strong fervency of mental devotion. + +His daughter retired to her apartment, comforted, that while she was +exposed to danger, her head had been covered by the prayers of the just +as by an helmet, and under the strong confidence, that while she walked +worthy of the protection of Heaven, she would experience its countenance. +It was in that moment that a vague idea first darted across her mind, +that something might yet be achieved for her sister's safety, conscious +as she now was of her innocence of the unnatural murder with which she +stood charged. It came, as she described it, on her mind, like a +sun-blink on a stormy sea; and although it instantly vanished, yet she +felt a degree of composure which she had not experienced for many days, +and could not help being strongly persuaded that, by some means or other, +she would be called upon, and directed, to work out her sister's +deliverance. She went to bed, not forgetting her usual devotions, the +more fervently made on account of her late deliverance, and she slept +soundly in spite of her agitation. + +We must return to Ratcliffe, who had started, like a greyhound from the +slips when the sportsman cries halloo, as soon as Jeanie had pointed to +the ruins. Whether he meant to aid Robertson's escape, or to assist his +pursuers, may be very doubtful; perhaps he did not himself know but had +resolved to be guided by circumstances. He had no opportunity, however, +of doing either; for he had no sooner surmounted the steep ascent, and +entered under the broken arches of the rains, than a pistol was presented +at his head, and a harsh voice commanded him, in the king's name, to +surrender himself prisoner. "Mr. Sharpitlaw!" said Ratcliffe, surprised, +"is this your honour?" + +"Is it only you, and be d--d to you?" answered the fiscal, still more +disappointed--"what made you leave the woman?" + +"She told me she saw Robertson go into the ruins, so I made what haste I +could to cleek the callant." + +"It's all over now," said Sharpitlaw; "we shall see no more of him +to-night; but he shall hide himself in a bean-hool, if he remains on +Scottish ground without my finding him. Call back the people, Ratcliffe." + +Ratcliffe hollowed to the dispersed officers, who willingly obeyed the +signal; for probably there was no individual among them who would have +been much desirous of a rencontre, hand to hand, and at a distance from +his comrades, with such an active and desperate fellow as Robertson. + +"And where are the two women?" said Sharpitlaw. + +"Both made their heels serve them, I suspect," replied Ratcliffe, and he +hummed the end of the old song-- + + "Then hey play up the rin-awa bride, + For she has taen the gee." + +"One woman," said Sharpitlaw,--for, like all rogues, he was a great +calumniator of the fair sex,*--"one woman is enough to dark the fairest +ploy that was ever planned; and how could I be such an ass as to expect +to carry through a job that had two in it? + +* Note L. Calumniator of the Fair Sex. + +But we know how to come by them both, if they are wanted, that's one good +thing." + +Accordingly, like a defeated general, sad and sulky, he led back his +discomfited forces to the metropolis, and dismissed them for the night. + +The next morning early, he was under the necessity of making his report +to the sitting magistrate of the day. The gentleman who occupied the +chair of office on this occasion (for the bailies, /Anglice',/ aldermen, +take it by rotation) chanced to be the same by whom Butler was committed, +a person very generally respected among his fellow-citizens. Something he +was of a humorist, and rather deficient in general education; but acute, +patient, and upright, possessed of a fortune acquired by honest industry +which made him perfectly independent; and, in short, very happily +qualified to support the respectability of the office, which he held. + +Mr. Middleburgh had just taken his seat, and was debating in an animated +manner, with one of his colleagues, the doubtful chances of a game at +golf which they had played the day before, when a letter was delivered to +him, addressed "For Bailie Middleburgh; These: to be forwarded with +speed." It contained these words:-- + +"Sir,--I know you to be a sensible and a considerate magistrate, and one +who, as such, will be content to worship God, though the devil bid you. I +therefore expect that, notwithstanding the signature of this letter +acknowledges my share in an action, which, in a proper time and place, I +would not fear either to avow or to justify, you will not on that account +reject what evidence I place before you. The clergyman, Butler, is +innocent of all but involuntary presence at an action which he wanted +spirit to approve of, and from which he endeavoured, with his best set +phrases, to dissuade us. But it was not for him that it is my hint to +speak. There is a woman in your jail, fallen under the edge of a law so +cruel, that it has hung by the wall like unsecured armour, for twenty +years, and is now brought down and whetted to spill the blood of the most +beautiful and most innocent creature whom the walls of a prison ever +girdled in. Her sister knows of her innocence, as she communicated to her +that she was betrayed by a villain.--O that high Heaven + + Would put in every honest hand a whip, + To scourge me such a villain through the world! + +"I write distractedly--But this girl--this Jeanie Deans, is a peevish +puritan, superstitious and scrupulous after the manner of her sect; and I +pray your honour, for so my phrase must go, to press upon her, that her +sister's life depends upon her testimony. But though she should remain +silent, do not dare to think that the young woman is guilty--far less to +permit her execution. Remember the death of Wilson was fearfully avenged; +and those yet live who can compel you to drink the dregs of your poisoned +chalice.--I say, remember Porteous, and say that you had good counsel +from + "One of his Slayers." + +The magistrate read over this extraordinary letter twice or thrice. At +first he was tempted to throw it aside as the production of a madman, so +little did "the scraps from play-books," as he termed the poetical +quotation, resemble the correspondence of a rational being. On a +re-perusal, however, he thought that, amid its incoherence, he could +discover something like a tone of awakened passion, though expressed in a +manner quaint and unusual. + +"It is a cruelly severe statute," said the magistrate to his assistant, +"and I wish the girl could be taken from under the letter of it. A child +may have been born, and it may have been conveyed away while the mother +was insensible, or it may have perished for want of that relief which the +poor creature herself--helpless, terrified, distracted, despairing, and +exhausted--may have been unable to afford to it. And yet it is certain, +if the woman is found guilty under the statute, execution will follow. +The crime has been too common, and examples are necessary." + +"But if this other wench," said the city-clerk, "can speak to her sister +communicating her situation, it will take the case from under the +statute." + +"Very true," replied the Bailie; "and I will walk out one of these days +to St. Leonard's, and examine the girl myself. I know something of their +father Deans--an old true-blue Cameronian, who would see house and family +go to wreck ere he would disgrace his testimony by a sinful complying +with the defections of the times; and such he will probably uphold the +taking an oath before a civil magistrate. If they are to go on and +flourish with their bull-headed obstinacy, the legislature must pass an +act to take their affirmations, as in the case of Quakers. But surely +neither a father nor a sister will scruple in a case of this kind. As I +said before, I will go speak with them myself, when the hurry of this +Porteous investigation is somewhat over; their pride and spirit of +contradiction will be far less alarmed, than if they were called into a +court of justice at once." + +"And I suppose Butler is to remain incarcerated?" said the city-clerk. + +"For the present, certainly," said the magistrate. "But I hope soon to +set him at liberty upon bail." + +"Do you rest upon the testimony of that light-headed letter?" asked the +clerk. + +"Not very much," answered the Bailie; "and yet there is something +striking about it too--it seems the letter of a man beside himself, +either from great agitation, or some great sense of guilt." + +"Yes," said the town-clerk, "it is very like the letter of a mad +strolling play-actor, who deserves to be hanged with all the rest of his +gang, as your honour justly observes." + +"I was not quite so bloodthirsty," continued the magistrate. "But to the +point, Butler's private character is excellent; and I am given to +understand, by some inquiries I have been making this morning, that he +did actually arrive in town only the day before yesterday, so that it was +impossible he could have been concerned in any previous machinations of +these unhappy rioters, and it is not likely that he should have joined +them on a suddenty." + +"There's no saying anent that--zeal catches fire at a slight spark as +fast as a brunstane match," observed the secretary. "I hae kend a +minister wad be fair gude-day and fair gude-e'en wi' ilka man in the +parochine, and hing just as quiet as a rocket on a stick, till ye +mentioned the word abjuration-oath, or patronage, or siclike, and then, +whiz, he was off, and up in the air an hundred miles beyond common +manners, common sense, and common comprehension." + +"I do not understand," answered the burgher-magistrate, "that the young +man Butler's zeal is of so inflammable a character. But I will make +farther investigation. What other business is there before us?" + +And they proceeded to minute investigations concerning the affair of +Porteous's death, and other affairs through which this history has no +occasion to trace them. + +In the course of their business they were interrupted by an old woman of +the lower rank, extremely haggard in look, and wretched in her +appearance, who thrust herself into the council room. + +"What do you want, gudewife?--Who are you?" said Bailie Middleburgh. + +"What do I want!" replied she, in a sulky tone--"I want my bairn, or I +want naething frae nane o' ye, for as grand's ye are." And she went on +muttering to herself with the wayward spitefulness of age--"They maun hae +lordships and honours, nae doubt--set them up, the gutter-bloods! and +deil a gentleman amang them."--Then again addressing the sitting +magistrate, "Will /your honour/ gie me back my puir crazy bairn?--/His/ +honour!--I hae kend the day when less wad ser'd him, the oe of a Campvere +skipper." + +"Good woman," said the magistrate to this shrewish supplicant--"tell us +what it is you want, and do not interrupt the court." + +"That's as muckle as till say, Bark, Bawtie, and be dune wi't!--I tell +ye," raising her termagant voice, "I want my bairn! is na that braid +Scots?" + +"Who /are/ you?--who is your bairn?" demanded the magistrate. + +"Wha am I?--wha suld I be, but Meg Murdockson, and wha suld my bairn be +but Magdalen Murdockson?--Your guard soldiers, and your constables, and +your officers, ken us weel eneugh when they rive the bits o' duds aff our +backs, and take what penny o' siller we hae, and harle us to the +Correctionhouse in Leith Wynd, and pettle us up wi' bread and water and +siclike sunkets." + +"Who is she?" said the magistrate, looking round to some of his people. + +"Other than a gude ane, sir," said one of the city officers, shrugging +his shoulders and smiling. + +"Will ye say sae?" said the termagant, her eye gleaming with impotent +fury; "an I had ye amang the Figgat-Whins,* wadna I set my ten talents in +your wuzzent face for that very word?" and she suited the word to the +action, by spreading out a set of claws resembling those of St. George's +dragon on a country sign-post. + +* [This was a name given to a tract of sand hillocks extending along the +sea-shore from Leith to Portobello, and which at this time were covered +with /whin/-bushes or furze.] + +"What does she want here?" said the impatient magistrate--"Can she not +tell her business, or go away?" + +"It's my bairn!--it's Magdalen Murdockson I'm wantin'," answered the +beldam, screaming at the highest pitch of her cracked and mistuned voice +--"havena I been telling ye sae this half-hour? And if ye are deaf, what +needs ye sit cockit up there, and keep folk scraughin' t'ye this gate?" + +"She wants her daughter, sir," said the same officer whose interference +had given the hag such offence before--"her daughter, who was taken up +last night--Madge Wildfire, as they ca' her." + +"Madge Hellfire, as they ca' her!" echoed the beldam "and what business +has a blackguard like you to ca' an honest woman's bairn out o' her ain +name?" + +"An /honest/ woman's bairn, Maggie?" answered the peace-officer, smiling +and shaking his head with an ironical emphasis on the adjective, and a +calmness calculated to provoke to madness the furious old shrew. + +"If I am no honest now, I was honest ance," she replied; "and that's mair +than ye can say, ye born and bred thief, that never kend ither folks' +gear frae your ain since the day ye was cleckit. Honest, say ye?--ye +pykit your mother's pouch o' twalpennies Scots when ye were five years +auld, just as she was taking leave o' your father at the fit o' the +gallows." + +"She has you there, George," said the assistants, and there was a general +laugh; for the wit was fitted for the meridian of the place where it was +uttered. This general applause somewhat gratified the passions of the old +hag; the "grim feature" smiled and even laughed--but it was a laugh of +bitter scorn. She condescended, however, as if appeased by the success of +her sally, to explain her business more distinctly, when the magistrate, +commanding silence, again desired her either to speak out her errand, or +to leave the place. + +"Her bairn," she said, "/was/ her bairn, and she came to fetch her out of +ill haft and waur guiding. If she wasna sae wise as ither folk, few ither +folk had suffered as muckle as she had done; forby that she could fend +the waur for hersell within the four wa's of a jail. She could prove by +fifty witnesses, and fifty to that, that her daughter had never seen Jock +Porteous, alive or dead, since he had gien her a laundering wi' his cane, +the neger that he was! for driving a dead cat at the provost's wig on the +Elector of Hanover's birthday." + +Notwithstanding the wretched appearance and violent demeanour of this +woman, the magistrate felt the justice of her argument, that her child +might be as dear to her as to a more fortunate and more amiable mother. +He proceeded to investigate the circumstances which had led to Madge +Murdockson's (or Wildfire's) arrest, and as it was clearly shown that she +had not been engaged in the riot, he contented himself with directing +that an eye should be kept upon her by the police, but that for the +present she should be allowed to return home with her mother. During the +interval of fetching Madge from the jail, the magistrate endeavoured to +discover whether her mother had been privy to the change of dress betwixt +that young woman and Robertson. But on this point he could obtain no +light. She persisted in declaring, that she had never seen Robertson +since his remarkable escape during service-time; and that, if her +daughter had changed clothes with him, it must have been during her +absence at a hamlet about two miles out of town, called Duddingstone, +where she could prove that she passed that eventful night. And, in fact, +one of the town-officers, who had been searching for stolen linen at the +cottage of a washer-woman in that village, gave his evidence, that he had +seen Maggie Murdockson there, whose presence had considerably increased +his suspicion of the house in which she was a visitor, in respect that he +considered her as a person of no good reputation. + +"I tauld ye sae," said the hag; "see now what it is to hae a character, +gude or bad!--Now, maybe, after a', I could tell ye something about +Porteous that you council-chamber bodies never could find out, for as +muckle stir as ye mak." + +All eyes were turned towards her--all ears were alert. "Speak out!" said +the magistrate. + +"It will be for your ain gude," insinuated the town-clerk. + +"Dinna keep the Bailie waiting," urged the assistants. + +She remained doggedly silent for two or three minutes, casting around a +malignant and sulky glance, that seemed to enjoy the anxious suspense +with which they waited her answer. And then she broke forth at once,--"A' +that I ken about him is, that he was neither soldier nor gentleman, but +just a thief and a blackguard, like maist o' yoursells, dears--What will +ye gie me for that news, now?--He wad hae served the gude town lang or +provost or bailie wad hae fund that out, my jo!" + +While these matters were in discussion, Madge Wildfire entered, and her +first exclamation was, "Eh! see if there isna our auld ne'er-do-weel +deevil's-buckie o' a mither--Hegh, sirs! but we are a hopeful family, to +be twa o' us in the Guard at ance--But there were better days wi' us +ance--were there na, mither?" + +Old Maggie's eyes had glistened with something like an expression of +pleasure when she saw her daughter set at liberty. But either her natural +affection, like that of the tigress, could not be displayed without a +strain of ferocity, or there was something in the ideas which Madge's +speech awakened, that again stirred her cross and savage temper. "What +signifies what we, were, ye street-raking limmer!" she exclaimed, pushing +her daughter before her to the door, with no gentle degree of violence. +"I'se tell thee what thou is now--thou's a crazed hellicat Bess o' +Bedlam, that sall taste naething but bread and water for a fortnight, to +serve ye for the plague ye hae gien me--and ower gude for ye, ye idle +taupie!" + +Madge, however, escaped from her mother at the door, ran back to the foot +of the table, dropped a very low and fantastic courtesy to the judge, and +said, with a giggling laugh,--"Our minnie's sair mis-set, after her +ordinar, sir--She'll hae had some quarrel wi' her auld gudeman--that's +Satan, ye ken, sirs." This explanatory note she gave in a low +confidential tone, and the spectators of that credulous generation did +not hear it without an involuntary shudder. "The gudeman and her disna +aye gree weel, and then I maun pay the piper; but my back's broad eneugh +to bear't a'--an' if she hae nae havings, that's nae reason why wiser +folk shouldna hae some." Here another deep courtesy, when the ungracious +voice of her mother was heard. + +"Madge, ye limmer! If I come to fetch ye!" + +"Hear till her," said Madge. "But I'll wun out a gliff the night for a' +that, to dance in the moonlight, when her and the gudeman will be +whirrying through the blue lift on a broom-shank, to see Jean Jap, that +they hae putten intill the Kirkcaldy Tolbooth--ay, they will hae a merry +sail ower Inchkeith, and ower a' the bits o' bonny waves that are +poppling and plashing against the rocks in the gowden glimmer o' the +moon, ye ken.--I'm coming, mother--I'm coming," she concluded, on hearing +a scuffle at the door betwixt the beldam and the officers, who were +endeavouring to prevent her re-entrance. Madge then waved her hand wildly +towards the ceiling, and sung, at the topmost pitch of her voice, + + "Up in the air, + On my bonny grey mare, + And I see, and I see, and I see her yet;" + +and with a hop, skip, and jump, sprung out of the room, as the witches of +Macbeth used, in less refined days, to seem to fly upwards from the +stage. + +Some weeks intervened before Mr. Middleburgh, agreeably to his benevolent +resolution, found an opportunity of taking a walk towards St. Leonard's, +in order to discover whether it might be possible to obtain the evidence +hinted at in the anonymous letter respecting Effie Deans. + +In fact, the anxious perquisitions made to discover the murderers of +Porteous occupied the attention of all concerned with the administration +of justice. + +In the course of these inquiries, two circumstances happened material to +our story. Butler, after a close investigation of his conduct, was +declared innocent of accession to the death of Porteous; but, as having +been present during the whole transaction, was obliged to find bail not +to quit his usual residence at Liberton, that he might appear as a +witness when called upon. The other incident regarded the disappearance +of Madge Wildfire and her mother from Edinburgh. When they were sought, +with the purpose of subjecting them to some farther interrogatories, it +was discovered by Mr. Sharpitlaw that they had eluded the observation of +the police, and left the city so soon as dismissed from the +council-chamber. No efforts could trace the place of their retreat. + +In the meanwhile the excessive indignation of the Council of Regency, at +the slight put upon their authority by the murder of Porteous, had +dictated measures, in which their own extreme desire of detecting the +actors in that conspiracy were consulted in preference to the temper of +the people and the character of their churchmen. An act of Parliament was +hastily passed, offering two hundred pounds reward to those who should +inform against any person concerned in the deed, and the penalty of +death, by a very unusual and severe enactment, was denounced against +those who should harbour the guilty. But what was chiefly accounted +exceptionable, was a clause, appointing the act to be read in churches by +the officiating clergyman, on the first Sunday of every month, for a +certain period, immediately before the sermon. The ministers who should +refuse to comply with this injunction were declared, for the first +offence, incapable of sitting or voting in any church judicature, and for +the second, incapable of holding any ecclesiastical preferment in +Scotland. + +This last order united in a common cause those who might privately +rejoice in Porteous's death, though they dared not vindicate the manner +of it, with the more scrupulous Presbyterians, who held that even the +pronouncing the name of the "Lords Spiritual" in a Scottish pulpit was, +/quodammodo,/ an acknowledgment of prelacy, and that the injunction of +the legislature was an interference of the civil government with the /jus +divinum/ of Presbytery, since to the General Assembly alone, as +representing the invisible head of the kirk, belonged the sole and +exclusive right of regulating whatever pertained to public worship. Very +many also, of different political or religious sentiments, and therefore +not much moved by these considerations, thought they saw, in so violent +an act of parliament, a more vindictive spirit than became the +legislature of a great country, and something like an attempt to trample +upon the rights and independence of Scotland. The various steps adopted +for punishing the city of Edinburgh, by taking away her charter and +liberties, for what a violent and overmastering mob had done within her +walls, were resented by many, who thought a pretext was too hastily taken +for degrading the ancient metropolis of Scotland. In short, there was +much heart-burning, discontent, and disaffection, occasioned by these +ill-considered measures.* + +* The magistrates were closely interrogated before the House of Peers, +concerning the particulars of the Porteous Mob, and the /patois/ in which +these functionaries made their answers, sounded strange in the ears of +the Southern nobles. The Duke of Newcastle having demanded to know with +what kind of shot the guard which Porteous commanded had loaded their +muskets, was answered, naively, "Ow, just sic as ane shoots /dukes and +fools/ with." This reply was considered as a contempt of the House of +Lords, and the Provost would have suffered accordingly, but that the Duke +of Argyle explained, that the expression, properly rendered into English, +meant /ducks and waterfowls./ + + Amidst these heats and dissensions, the trial of Effie Deans, after she +had been many weeks imprisoned, was at length about to be brought +forward, and Mr. Middleburgh found leisure to inquire into the evidence +concerning her. For this purpose, he chose a fine day for his walk +towards her father's house. + +The excursion into the country was somewhat distant, in the opinion of a +burgess of those days, although many of the present inhabit suburban +villas considerably beyond the spot to which we allude. Three-quarters of +an hour's walk, however, even at a pace of magisterial gravity, conducted +our benevolent office-bearer to the Crags of St. Leonard's, and the +humble mansion of David Deans. + +The old man was seated on the deas, or turf-seat, at the end of his +cottage, busied in mending his cart-harness with his own hands; for in +those days any sort of labour which required a little more skill than +usual fell to the share of the goodman himself, and that even when he was +well to pass in the world. With stern and austere gravity he persevered +in his task, afterhaving just raised his head to notice the advance of +the stranger. It would have been impossible to have discovered, from his +countenance and manner, the internal feelings of agony with which he +contended. Mr. Middleburgh waited an instant, expecting Deans would in +some measure acknowledge his presence, and lead into conversation; but, +as he seemed determined to remain silent, he was himself obliged to speak +first. + +"My name is Middleburgh--Mr. James Middleburgh, one of the present +magistrates of the city of Edinburgh." + +"It may be sae," answered Deans laconically, and without interrupting his +labour. + +"You must understand," he continued, "that the duty of a magistrate is +sometimes an unpleasant one." + +"It may be sae," replied David; "I hae naething to say in the contrair;" +and he was again doggedly silent. + +"You must be aware," pursued the magistrate, "that persons in my +situation are often obliged to make painful and disagreeable inquiries of +individuals, merely because it is their bounden duty." + +"It may be sae," again replied Deans; "I hae naething to say anent it, +either the tae way or the t'other. But I do ken there was ance in a day a +just and God-fearing magistracy in yon town o' Edinburgh, that did not +bear the sword in vain, but were a terror to evil-doers, and a praise to +such as kept the path. In the glorious days of auld worthy faithfu' +Provost Dick,* when there was a true and faithfu' General Assembly of + +* Note M. Sir William Dick of Braid. + +the Kirk, walking hand in hand with the real noble Scottish-hearted +barons, and with the magistrates of this and other towns, gentles, +burgesses, and commons of all ranks, seeing with one eye, hearing with +one ear, and upholding the ark with their united strength--And then folk +might see men deliver up their silver to the state's use, as if it had +been as muckle sclate stanes. My father saw them toom the sacks of +dollars out o' Provost Dick's window intill the carts that carried them +to the army at Dunse Law; and if ye winna believe his testimony, there is +the window itsell still standing in the Luckenbooths--I think it's a +claith-merchant's booth the day*--at the airn stanchells, five doors +abune Gossford's Close. + +* I think so too--But if the reader be curious, he may consult Mr. +Chambers's Traditions of Edinburgh. + +--But now we haena sic spirit amang us; we think mair about the warst +wallydraigle in our ain byre, than about the blessing which the angel of +the covenant gave to the Patriarch even at Peniel and Mahanaim, or the +binding obligation of our national vows; and we wad rather gie a pund +Scots to buy an unguent to clear out auld rannell-trees and our beds o' +the English bugs as they ca' them, than we wad gie a plack to rid the +land of the swarm of Arminian caterpillars, Socinian pismires, and +deistical Miss Katies, that have ascended out of the bottomless pit, to +plague this perverse, insidious, and lukewarm generation." + +It happened to Davie Deans on this occasion, as it has done to many other +habitual orators; when once he became embarked on his favourite subject, +the stream of his own enthusiasm carried him forward in spite of his +mental distress, while his well-exercised memory supplied him amply with +all the types and tropes of rhetoric peculiar to his sect and cause. + +Mr. Middleburgh contented himself with answering--"All this may be very +true, my friend; but, as you said just now, I have nothing to say to it +at present, either one way or other.--You have two daughters, I think, +Mr. Deans?" + +The old man winced, as one whose smarting sore is suddenly galled; but +instantly composed himself, resumed the work which, in the heat of his +declamation, he had laid down, and answered with sullen resolution, "Ae +daughter, sir--only /ane./" + +"I understand you," said Mr. Middleburgh; "you have only one daughter +here at home with you--but this unfortunate girl who is a prisoner--she +is, I think, your youngest daughter?" + +The Presbyterian sternly raised his eyes. "After the world, and according +to the flesh, she /is/ my daughter; but when she became a child of +Belial, and a company-keeper, and a trader in guilt and iniquity, she +ceased to be a bairn of mine." + +"Alas, Mr. Deans," said Middleburgh, sitting down by him, and +endeavouring to take his hand, which the old man proudly withdrew, "we +are ourselves all sinners; and the errors of our offspring, as they ought +not to surprise us, being the portion which they derive of a common +portion of corruption inherited through us, so they do not entitle us to +cast them off because they have lost themselves." + +"Sir," said Deans impatiently, "I ken a' that as weel as--I mean to say," +he resumed, checking the irritation he felt at being schooled--a +discipline of the mind which those most ready to bestow it on others do +themselves most reluctantly submit to receive--"I mean to say, that what +ye o serve may be just and reasonable--But I hae nae freedom to enter +into my ain private affairs wi' strangers--And now, in this great +national emergency, When there's the Porteous' Act has come doun frae +London, that is a deeper blow to this poor sinfu' kingdom and suffering +kirk than ony that has been heard of since the foul and fatal Test--at a +time like this" + +"But, goodman," interrupted Mr. Middleburgh, "you must think of your own +household first, or else you are worse even than the infidels." + +"I tell ye, Bailie Middleburgh," retorted David Deans, "if ye be a +bailie, as there is little honour in being ane in these evil days--I tell +ye, I heard the gracious Saunders Peden--I wotna whan it was; but it was +in killing time, when the plowers were drawing alang their furrows on the +back of the Kirk of Scotland--I heard him tell his hearers, gude and +waled Christians they were too, that some o' them wad greet mair for a +bit drowned calf or stirk than for a' the defections and oppressions of +the day; and that they were some o' them thinking o' ae thing, some o' +anither, and there was Lady Hundleslope thinking o' greeting Jock at the +fireside! And the lady confessed in my hearing that a drow of anxiety had +come ower her for her son that she had left at hame weak of a decay*--And +what wad he hae said of me if I had ceased to think of the gude cause for +a castaway--a--It kills me to think of what she is!" + +* See /Life of Peden,/ p. 14. + +"But the life of your child, goodman--think of that--if her life could be +saved," said Middleburgh. + +"Her life!" exclaimed David--"I wadna gie ane o' my grey hairs for her +life, if her gude name be gane--And yet," said he, relenting and +retracting as he spoke, "I wad make the niffer, Mr. Middleburgh--I wad +gie a' these grey hairs that she has brought to shame and sorrow--I wad +gie the auld head they grow on for her life, and that she might hae time +to amend and return, for what hae the wicked beyond the breath of their +nosthrils?--but I'll never see her mair--No!--that--that I am determined +in--I'll never see her mair!" His lips continued to move for a minute +after his voice ceased to be heard, as if he were repeating the same vow +internally. + +"Well, sir," said Mr. Middleburgh, "I speak to you as a man of sense; if +you would save your daughter's life, you must use human means." + +"I understand what you mean; but Mr. Novit, who is the procurator and +doer of an honourable person, the Laird of Dumbiedikes, is to do what +carnal wisdom can do for her in the circumstances. Mysell am not clear to +trinquet and traffic wi' courts o' justice as they are now constituted; I +have a tenderness and scruple in my mind anent them." + +"That is to say," said Middleburgh, "that you are a Cameronian, and do +not acknowledge the authority of our courts of judicature, or present +government?" + +"Sir, under your favour," replied David, who was too proud of his own +polemical knowledge to call himself the follower of any one, "ye take me +up before I fall down. I canna see why I suld be termed a Cameronian, +especially now that ye hae given the name of that famous and savoury +sufferer, not only until a regimental band of souldiers, [H. M. 26th +Foot] whereof I am told many can now curse, swear, and use profane +language, as fast as ever Richard Cameron could preach or pray, but also +because ye have, in as far as it is in your power, rendered that martyr's +name vain and contemptible, by pipes, drums, and fifes, playing the vain +carnal spring called the Cameronian Rant, which too many professors of +religion dance to--a practice maist unbecoming a professor to dance to +any tune whatsoever, more especially promiscuously, that is, with the +female sex.* A brutish fashion it is, whilk is the beginning of defection +with many, as I may hae as muckle cause as maist folk to testify." + +* See Note F. Peter Walker. + +"Well, but, Mr. Deans," replied Mr. Middleburgh, "I only meant to say +that you were a Cameronian, or MacMillanite, one of the society people, +in short, who think it inconsistent to take oaths under a government +where the Covenant is not ratified." + +"Sir," replied the controversialist, who forgot even his present distress +in such discussions as these, "you cannot fickle me sae easily as you do +opine. I am /not/ a MacMillanite, or a Russelite, or a Hamiltonian, or a +Harleyite, or a Howdenite*--I will be led by the nose by none--I take my +name as a Christian from no vessel of clay. I have my own principles and +practice to answer for, and am an humble pleader for the gude auld cause +in a legal way." + +* All various species of the great genus Cameronian. + +"That is to say, Mr. Deans," said Middleburgh, "that you are a /Deanite,/ +and have opinions peculiar to yourself." + +"It may please you to say sae," said David Deans; "but I have maintained +my testimony before as great folk, and in sharper times; and though I +will neither exalt myself nor pull down others, I wish every man and +woman in this land had kept the true testimony, and the middle and +straight path, as it were, on the ridge of a hill, where wind and water +shears, avoiding right-hand snares and extremes, and left-hand +way-slidings, as weel as Johnny Dodds of Farthing's Acre, and ae man mair +that shall be nameless." + +"I suppose," replied the magistrate, "that is as much as to say, that +Johnny Dodds of Farthing's Acre, and David Deans of St. Leonard's, +constitute the only members of the true, real, unsophisticated Kirk of +Scotland?" + +"God forbid that I suld make sic a vain-glorious speech, when there are +sae mony professing Christians!" answered David; "but this I maun say, +that all men act according to their gifts and their grace, 'sae that it +is nae marvel that" + +"This is all very fine," interrupted Mr. Middleburgh; "but I have no time +to spend in hearing it. The matter in hand is this--I have directed a +citation to be lodged in your daughter's hands--If she appears on the day +of trial and gives evidence, there is reason to hope she may save her +sister's life--if, from any constrained scruples about the legality of +her performing the office of an affectionate sister and a good subject, +by appearing in a court held under the authority of the law and +government, you become the means of deterring her from the discharge of +this duty, I must say, though the truth may sound harsh in your ears, +that you, who gave life to this unhappy girl, will become the means of +her losing it by a premature and violent death." + +So saying, Mr. Middleburgh turned to leave him. + +"Bide awee--bide awee, Mr. Middleburgh," said Deans, in great perplexity +and distress of mind; but the Bailie, who was probably sensible that +protracted discussion might diminish the effect of his best and most +forcible argument, took a hasty leave, and declined entering farther into +the controversy. + +Deans sunk down upon his seat, stunned with a variety of conflicting +emotions. It had been a great source of controversy among those holding +his opinions in religious matters how far the government which succeeded +the Revolution could be, without sin, acknowledged by true Presbyterians, +seeing that it did not recognise the great national testimony of the +Solemn League and Covenant? And latterly, those agreeing in this general +doctrine, and assuming the sounding title of "The anti-Popish, +anti-Prelatic, anti-Erastian, anti-Sectarian, true Presbyterian remnant," +were divided into many petty sects among themselves, even as to the +extent of submission to the existing laws and rulers, which constituted +such an acknowledgment as amounted to sin. + +At a very stormy and tumultuous meeting, held in 1682, to discuss these +important and delicate points, the testimonies of the faithful few were +found utterly inconsistent with each other.* + +* This remarkable convocation took place upon 15th June 1682, and an +account of its confused and divisive proceedings may be found in Michael +Shield's /Faithful Contendings Displayed/ (first printed at Glasgow, +1780, p. 21). It affords a singular and melancholy example how much a +metaphysical and polemical spirit had crept in amongst these unhappy +sufferers, since amid so many real injuries which they had to sustain, +they were disposed to add disagreement and disunion concerning the +character and extent of such as were only imaginary. + +The place where this conference took place was remarkably well adapted +for such an assembly. It was a wild and very sequestered dell in +Tweeddale, surrounded by high hills, and far remote from human +habitation. A small river, or rather a mountain torrent, called the +Talla, breaks down the glen with great fury, dashing successively over a +number of small cascades, which has procured the spot the name of Talla +Linns. Here the leaders among the scattered adherents to the Covenant, +men who, in their banishment from human society, and in the recollection +of the seventies to which they had been exposed, had become at once +sullen in their tempers, and fantastic in their religious opinions, met +with arms in their hands, and by the side of the torrent discussed, with +a turbulence which the noise of the stream could not drown, points of +controversy as empty and unsubstantial as its foam. + +It was the fixed judgment of most of the meeting, that all payment of +cess or tribute to the existing government was utterly unlawful, and a +sacrificing to idols. About other impositions and degrees of submission +there were various opinions; and perhaps it is the best illustration of +the spirit of those military fathers of the church to say, that while all +allowed it was impious to pay the cess employed for maintaining the +standing army and militia, there was a fierce controversy on the +lawfulness of paying the duties levied at ports and bridges, for +maintaining roads and other necessary purposes; that there were some who, +repugnant to these imposts for turnpikes and pontages, were nevertheless +free in conscience to make payment of the usual freight at public +ferries, and that a person of exceeding and punctilious zeal, James +Russel, one of the slayers of the Archbishop of St. Andrews, had given +his testimony with great warmth even against this last faint shade of +subjection to constituted authority. This ardent and enlightened person +and his followers had also great scruples about the lawfulness of +bestowing the ordinary names upon the days of the week and the months of +the year, which savoured in their nostrils so strongly of paganism, that +at length they arrived at the conclusion that they who owned such names +as Monday, Tuesday, January, February, and so forth, "served themselves +heirs to the same, if not greater punishment, than had been denounced +against the idolaters of old." + +David Deans had been present on this memorable occasion, although too +young to be a speaker among the polemical combatants. His brain, however, +had been thoroughly heated by the noise, clamour, and metaphysical +ingenuity of the discussion, and it was a controversy to which his mind +had often returned; and though he carefully disguised his vacillation +from others, and, perhaps from himself, he had never been able to come to +any precise line of decision on the subject. In fact, his natural sense +had acted as a counterpoise to his controversial zeal. He was by no means +pleased with the quiet and indifferent manner in which King William's +government slurred over the errors of the times, when, far from restoring +the Presbyterian kirk to its former supremacy, they passed an act of +oblivion even to those who had been its persecutors, and bestowed on many +of them titles, favours, and employments. When, in the first General +Assembly which succeeded the Revolution, an overture was made for the +revival of the League and Covenant, it was with horror that Douce David +heard the proposal eluded by the men of carnal wit and policy, as he +called them, as being inapplicable to the present times, and not falling +under the modern model of the church. The reign of Queen Anne had +increased his conviction, that the Revolution government was not one of +the true Presbyterian complexion. But then, more sensible than the bigots +of his sect, he did not confound the moderation and tolerance of these +two reigns with the active tyranny and oppression exercised in those of +Charles II. and James II. The Presbyterian form of religion, though +deprived of the weight formerly attached to its sentences of +excommunication, and compelled to tolerate the coexistence of Episcopacy, +and of sects of various descriptions, was still the National Church; and +though the glory of the second temple was far inferior to that which had +flourished from 1639 till the battle of Dunbar, still it was a structure +that, wanting the strength and the terrors, retained at least the form +and symmetry, of the original model. Then came the insurrection in 1715, +and David Deans's horror for the revival of the Popish and prelatical +faction reconciled him greatly to the government of King George, although +he grieved that that monarch might be suspected of a leaning unto +Erastianism. In short, moved by so many different considerations, he had +shifted his ground at different times concerning the degree of freedom +which he felt in adopting any act of immediate acknowledgment or +submission to the present government, which, however mild and paternal, +was still uncovenanted, and now he felt himself called upon, by the most +powerful motive conceivable, to authorise his daughter's giving testimony +in a court of justice, which all who have been since called Cameronians +accounted a step of lamentable and direct defection. The voice of nature, +however, exclaimed loud in his bosom against the dictates of fanaticism; +and his imagination, fertile in the solution of polemical difficulties, +devised an expedient for extricating himself from the fearful dilemma, in +which he saw, on the one side, a falling off from principle, and, on the +other, a scene from which a father's thoughts could not but turn in +shuddering horror. + +"I have been constant and unchanged in my testimony," said David Deans; +"but then who has said it of me, that I have judged my neighbour over +closely, because he hath had more freedom in his walk than I have found +in mine? I never was a separatist, nor for quarrelling with tender souls +about mint, cummin, or other the lesser tithes. My daughter Jean may have +a light in this subject that is hid frae my auld een--it is laid on her +conscience, and not on mine--If she hath freedom to gang before this +judicatory, and hold up her hand for this poor castaway, surely I will +not say she steppeth over her bounds; and if not"--He paused in his +mental argument, while a pang of unutterable anguish convulsed his +features, yet, shaking it off, he firmly resumed the strain of his +reasoning--"And if not--God forbid that she should go into defection at +bidding of mine! I wunna fret the tender conscience of one bairn--no, not +to save the life of the other." + +A Roman would have devoted his daughter to death from different feelings +and motives, but not upon a more heroic principle of duty. + + + + + + CHAPTER EIGHTEENTH. + + + To man, in this his trial state, + The privilege is given, + When tost by tides of human fate, + To anchor fast on heaven. + Watts's /Hymns./ + +It was with a firm step that Deans sought his daughter's apartment, +determined to leave her to the light of her own conscience in the dubious +point of casuistry in which he supposed her to be placed. + +The little room had been the sleeping apartment of both sisters, and +there still stood there a small occasional bed which had been made for +Effie's accommodation, when, complaining of illness, she had declined to +share, as in happier times, her sister's pillow. The eyes of Deans rested +involuntarily, on entering the room, upon this little couch, with its +dark-green coarse curtains, and the ideas connected with it rose so thick +upon his soul as almost to incapacitate him from opening his errand to +his daughter. Her occupation broke the ice. He found her gazing on a slip +of paper, which contained a citation to her to appear as a witness upon +her sister's trial in behalf of the accused. For the worthy magistrate, +determined to omit no chance of doing Effie justice, and to leave her +sister no apology for not giving the evidence which she was supposed to +possess, had caused the ordinary citation, or /subpoena,/ of the Scottish +criminal court, to be served upon her by an officer during his conference +with David. + +This precaution was so far favourable to Deans, that it saved him the +pain of entering upon a formal explanation with his daughter; he only +said, with a hollow and tremulous voice, "I perceive ye are aware of the +matter." + +"O father, we are cruelly sted between God's laws and man's laws--What +shall we do?--What can we do?" + +Jeanie, it must be observed, had no hesitation whatever about the mere +act of appearing in a court of justice. She might have heard the point +discussed by her father more than once; but we have already noticed that +she was accustomed to listen with reverence to much which she was +incapable of understanding, and that subtle argunents of casuistry found +her a patient, but unedified hearer. Upon receiving the citation, +therefore, her thoughts did not turn upon the chimerical scruples which +alarmed her father's mind, but to the language which had been held to her +by the stranger at Muschat's Cairn. In a word, she never doubted but she +was to be dragged forward into the court of justice, in order to place +her in the cruel position of either sacrificing her sister by telling the +truth, or committing perjury in order to save her life. And so strongly +did her thoughts run in this channel, that she applied her father's +words, "Ye are aware of the matter," to his acquaintance with the advice +that had been so fearfully enforced upon her. She looked up with anxious +surprise, not unmingled with a cast of horror, which his next words, as +she interpreted and applied them, were not qualified to remove. + +"Daughter," said David, "it has ever been my mind, that in things of ane +doubtful and controversial nature, ilk Christian's conscience suld be his +ain guide--Wherefore descend into yourself, try your ain mind with +sufficiency of soul exercise, and as you sall finally find yourself clear +to do in this matter--even so be it." + +"But, father," said Jeanie, whose mind revolted at the construction which +she naturally put upon his language, "can this-this be a doubtful or +controversial matter?--Mind, father, the ninth command--'Thou shalt not +bear false witness against thy neighbour.'" + +David Deans paused; for, still applying her speech to his preconceived +difficulties, it seemed to him as if /she,/ a woman, and a sister, was +scarce entitled to be scrupulous upon this occasion, where he, a man, +exercised in the testimonies of that testifying period, had given +indirect countenance to her following what must have been the natural +dictates of her own feelings. But he kept firm his purpose, until his +eyes involuntarily rested upon the little settle-bed, and recalled the +form of the child of his old age, as she sate upon it, pale, emaciated, +and broken-hearted. His mind, as the picture arose before him, +involuntarily conceived, and his tongue involuntarily uttered--but in a +tone how different from his usual dogmatical precision!--arguments for +the course of conduct likely to ensure his child's safety. + +"Daughter," he said, "I did not say that your path was free from +stumbling--and, questionless, this act may be in the opinion of some a +transgression, since he who beareth witness unlawfully, and against his +conscience, doth in some sort bear false witness against his neighbour. +Yet in matters of compliance, the guilt lieth not in the compliance sae +muckle, as in the mind and conscience of him that doth comply; and, +therefore, although my testimony hath not been spared upon public +defections, I haena felt freedom to separate mysell from the communion of +many who have been clear to hear those ministers who have taken the fatal +indulgence because they might get good of them, though I could not." + +When David had proceeded thus far, his conscience reproved him, that he +might be indirectly undermining the purity of his daughter's faith, and +smoothing the way for her falling off from strictness of principle. He, +therefore, suddenly stopped, and changed his tone:--"Jeanie, I perceive +that our vile affections,--so I call them in respect of doing the will of +our Father,--cling too heavily to me in this hour of trying sorrow, to +permit me to keep sight of my ain duty, or to airt you to yours. I will +speak nae mair anent this overtrying matter--Jeanie, if ye can, wi' God +and gude conscience, speak in favour of this puir unhappy"--(here his +voice faltered)--"She is your sister in the flesh--worthless and castaway +as she is, she is the daughter of a saint in heaven, that was a mother to +you, Jeanie, in place of your ain--but if ye arena free in conscience to +speak for her in the court of judicature, follow your conscience, Jeanie, +and let God's will be done." After this adjuration he left the apartment, +and his daughter remained in a state of great distress and perplexity. + +It would have been no small addition to the sorrows of David Deans, even +in this extremity of suffering, had he known that his daughter was +applying the casuistical arguments which he had been using, not in the +sense of a permission to follow her own opinion on a dubious and disputed +point of controversy, but rather as an encouragement to transgress one of +those divine commandments which Christians of all sects and denominations +unite in holding most sacred. + +"Can this be?" said Jeanie, as the door closed on her father--"Can these +be his words that I have heard, or has the Enemy taken his voice and +features to give weight unto the counsel which causeth to perish?--a +sister's life, and a father pointing out how to save it!--O God, deliver +me!--this is a fearfu' temptation." + +Roaming from thought to thought, she at one time imagined her father +understood the ninth commandment literally, as prohibiting false witness +/against/ our neighbour, without extending the denunciation against +falsehood uttered /in favour/ of the criminal. But her clear and +unsophisticated power of discriminating between good and evil, instantly +rejected an interpretation so limited, and so unworthy of the Author of +the law. She remained in a state of the most agitating terror and +uncertainty--afraid to communicate her thoughts freely to her father, +lest she should draw forth an opinion with which she could not comply,-- +wrung with distress on her sister's account, rendered the more acute by +reflecting that the means of saving her were in her power, but were such +as her conscience prohibited her from using,--tossed, in short, like a +vessel in an open roadstead during a storm, and, like that vessel, +resting on one only sure cable and anchor,--faith in Providence, and a +resolution to discharge her duty. + +Butler's affection and strong sense of religion would have been her +principal support in these distressing circumstances, but he was still +under restraint, which did not permit him to come to St. Leonard's Crags; +and her distresses were of a nature, which, with her indifferent habits +of scholarship, she found it impossible to express in writing. She was +therefore compelled to trust for guidance to her own unassisted sense of +what was right or wrong. It was not the least of Jeanie's distresses, +that, although she hoped and believed her sister to be innocent, she had +not the means of receiving that assurance from her own mouth. + +The double-dealing of Ratcliffe in the matter of Robertson had not +prevented his being rewarded, as double-dealers frequently have been, +with favour and preferment. Sharpitlaw, who found in him something of a +kindred genius, had been intercessor in his behalf with the magistrates, +and the circumstance of his having voluntarily remained in the prison, +when the doors were forced by the mob, would have made it a hard measure +to take the life which he had such easy means of saving. He received a +full pardon; and soon afterwards, James Ratcliffe, the greatest thief and +housebreaker in Scotland, was, upon the faith, perhaps, of an ancient +proverb, selected as a person to be entrusted with the custody of other +delinquents. + +When Ratcliffe was thus placed in a confidential situation, he was +repeatedly applied to by the sapient Saddletree and others, who took some +interest in the Deans family, to procure an interview between the +sisters; but the magistrates, who were extremely anxious for the +apprehension of Robertson, had given strict orders to the contrary, +hoping that, by keeping them separate, they might, from the one or the +other, extract some information respecting that fugitive. On this subject +Jeanie had nothing to tell them. She informed Mr. Middleburgh, that she +knew nothing of Robertson, except having met him that night by +appointment to give her some advice respecting her sister's concern, the +purport of which, she said, was betwixt God and her conscience. Of his +motions, purposes, or plans, past, present, or future, she knew nothing, +and so had nothing to communicate. + +Effie was equally silent, though from a different cause. It was in vain +that they offered a commutation and alleviation of her punishment, and +even a free pardon, if she would confess what she knew of her lover. She +answered only with tears; unless, when at times driven into pettish +sulkiness by the persecution of the interrogators, she made them abrupt +and disrespectful answers. + +At length, after her trial had been delayed for many weeks, in hopes she +might be induced to speak out on a subject infinitely more interesting to +the magistracy than her own guilt or innocence, their patience was worn +out, and even Mr. Middleburgh finding no ear lent to farther intercession +in her behalf, the day was fixed for the trial to proceed. + +It was now, and not sooner, that Sharpitlaw, recollecting his promise to +Effie Deans, or rather being dinned into compliance by the unceasing +remonstrances of Mrs. Saddletree, who was his next-door neighbour, and +who declared it was heathen cruelty to keep the twa brokenhearted +creatures separate, issued the important mandate, permitting them to see +each other. + +On the evening which preceded the eventful day of trial, Jeanie was +permitted to see her sister--an awful interview, and occurring at a most +distressing crisis. This, however, formed a part of the bitter cup which +she was doomed to drink, to atone for crimes and follies to which she had +no accession; and at twelve o'clock noon, being the time appointed for +admission to the jail, she went to meet, for the first time for several +months, her guilty, erring, and most miserable sister, in that abode of +guilt, error, and utter misery. + + + + + CHAPTER NINETEENTH. + + + Sweet sister, let me live! + What sin you do to save a brother's life, + Nature dispenses with the deed so far, + That it becomes a virtue. + Measure for Measure. + +Jeanie Deans was admitted into the jail by Ratcliffe. This fellow, as +void of shame as of honesty, as he opened the now trebly secured door, +asked her, with a leer which made her shudder, "whether she remembered +him?" + +A half-pronounced and timid "No," was her answer. + +"What! not remember moonlight, and Muschat's Cairn, and Rob and Rat?" +said he, with the same sneer;--"Your memory needs redding up, my jo." + +If Jeanie's distresses had admitted of aggravation, it must have been to +find her sister under the charge of such a profligate as this man. He was +not, indeed, without something of good to balance so much that was evil +in his character and habits. In his misdemeanours he had never been +bloodthirsty or cruel; and in his present occupation, he had shown +himself, in a certain degree, accessible to touches of humanity. But +these good qualities were unknown to Jeanie, who, remembering the scene +at Muschat's Cairn, could scarce find voice to acquaint him, that she had +an order from Bailie Middleburgh, permitting her to see her sister. + +"I ken that fa' weel, my bonny doo; mair by token, I have a special +charge to stay in the ward with you a' the time ye are thegither." + +"Must that be sae?" asked Jeanie, with an imploring voice. + +"Hout, ay, hinny," replied the turnkey; "and what the waur will you and +your tittie be of Jim Ratcliffe hearing what ye hae to say to ilk other? +--Deil a word ye'll say that will gar him ken your kittle sex better than +he kens them already; and another thing is, that if ye dinna speak o' +breaking the Tolbooth, deil a word will I tell ower, either to do ye good +or ill." + +Thus saying, Ratcliffe marshalled her the way to the apartment where +Effie was confined. + +Shame, fear, and grief, had contended for mastery in the poor prisoner's +bosom during the whole morning, while she had looked forward to this +meeting; but when the door opened, all gave way to a confused and strange +feeling that had a tinge of joy in it, as, throwing herself on her +sister's neck, she ejaculated, "My dear Jeanie!--my dear Jeanie! it's +lang since I hae seen ye." Jeanie returned the embrace with an +earnestness that partook almost of rapture, but it was only a flitting +emotion, like a sunbeam unexpectedly penetrating betwixt the clouds of a +tempest, and obscured almost as soon as visible. The sisters walked +together to the side of the pallet bed, and sate down side by side, took +hold of each other's hands, and looked each other in the face, but +without speaking a word. In this posture they remained for a minute, +while the gleam of joy gradually faded from their features, and gave way +to the most intense expression, first of melancholy, and then of agony, +till, throwing themselves again into each other's arms, they, to use the +language of Scripture, lifted up their voices, and wept bitterly. + +Even the hardhearted turnkey, who had spent his life in scenes calculated +to stifle both conscience and feeling, could not witness this scene +without a touch of human sympathy. It was shown in a trifling action, but +which had more delicacy in it than seemed to belong to Ratcliffe's +character and station. The unglazed window of the miserable chamber was +open, and the beams of a bright sun fell right upon the bed where the +sufferers were seated. With a gentleness that had something of reverence +in it, Ratcliffe partly closed the shutter, and seemed thus to throw a +veil over a scene so sorrowful. + +"Ye are ill, Effie," were the first words Jeanie could utter; "ye are +very ill." + +"O, what wad I gie to be ten times waur, Jeanie!" was the reply--"what +wad I gie to be cauld dead afore the ten o'clock bell the morn! And our +father--but I am his bairn nae langer now--O, I hae nae friend left in +the warld!--O, that I were lying dead at my mother's side, in Newbattle +kirkyard!" + +"Hout, lassie," said Ratcliffe, willing to show the interest which he +absolutely felt, "dinna be sae dooms doon-hearted as a' that; there's +mony a tod hunted that's no killed. Advocate Langtale has brought folk +through waur snappers than a' this, and there's no a cleverer agent than +Nichil Novit e'er drew a bill of suspension. Hanged or unhanged, they are +weel aff has sic an agent and counsel; ane's sure o' fair play. Ye are a +bonny lass, too, an ye wad busk up your cockernony a bit; and a bonny +lass will find favour wi' judge and jury, when they would strap up a +grewsome carle like me for the fifteenth part of a flea's hide and +tallow, d--n them." + +To this homely strain of consolation the mourners returned no answer; +indeed, they were so much lost in their own sorrows as to have become +insensible of Ratcliffe's presence. "O Effie," said her elder sister, +"how could you conceal your situation from me? O woman, had I deserved +this at your hand?--had ye spoke but ae word--sorry we might hae been, +and shamed we might hae been, but this awfu' dispensation had never come +ower us." + +"And what gude wad that hae dune?" answered the prisoner. "Na, na, +Jeanie, a' was ower when ance I forgot what I promised when I faulded +down the leaf of my Bible. See," she said, producing the sacred volume, +"the book opens aye at the place o' itsell. O see, Jeanie, what a fearfu' +Scripture!" + +Jeanie took her sister's Bible, and found that the fatal mark was made at +this impressive text in the book of Job: "He hath stripped me of my +glory, and taken the crown from my head. He hath destroyed me on every +side, and I am gone. And mine hope hath he removed like a tree." + +"Isna that ower true a doctrine?" said the prisoner "Isna my crown, my +honour, removed? And what am I but a poor, wasted, wan-thriven tree, dug +up by the roots, and flung out to waste in the highway, that man and +beast may tread it under foot? I thought o' the bonny bit them that our +father rooted out o' the yard last May, when it had a' the flush o' +blossoms on it; and then it lay in the court till the beasts had trod +them a' to pieces wi' their feet. I little thought, when I was wae for +the bit silly green bush and its flowers, that I was to gang the same +gate mysell." + +"O, if ye had spoken ae word," again sobbed Jeanie,--"if I were free to +swear that ye had said but ae word of how it stude wi' ye, they couldna +hae touched your life this day." + +"Could they na?" said Effie, with something like awakened interest--for +life is dear even to those who feel it is a burden--"Wha tauld ye that, +Jeanie?" + +"It was ane that kend what he was saying weel eneugh," replied Jeanie, +who had a natural reluctance at mentioning even the name of her sister's +seducer. + +"Wha was it?--I conjure you to tell me," said Effie, seating herself +upright.--"Wha could tak interest in sic a cast-by as I am now?--Was it-- +was it /him?/" + +"Hout," said Ratcliffe, "what signifies keeping the poor lassie in a +swither? I'se uphaud it's been Robertson that learned ye that doctrine +when ye saw him at Muschat's Cairn." + +"Was it him?" said Effie, catching eagerly at his words--"was it him, +Jeanie, indeed?--O, I see it was him--poor lad, and I was thinking his +heart was as hard as the nether millstane--and him in sic danger on his +ain part--poor George!" + +Somewhat indignant at this burst of tender feeling towards the author of +her misery, Jeanie could not help exclaiming--"O Effie, how can ye speak +that gate of sic a man as that?" + +"We maun forgie our enemies, ye ken," said poor Effie, with a timid look +and a subdued voice; for her conscience told her what a different +character the feelings with which she regarded her seducer bore, compared +with the Christian charity under which she attempted to veil it. + +"And ye hae suffered a' this for him, and ye can think of loving him +still?" said her sister, in a voice betwixt pity and blame. + +"Love him!" answered Effie--"If I hadna loved as woman seldom loves, I +hadna been within these wa's this day; and trow ye, that love sic as mine +is lightly forgotten?--Na, na--ye may hew down the tree, but ye canna +change its bend--And, O Jeanie, if ye wad do good to me at this moment, +tell me every word that he said, and whether he was sorry for poor Effie +or no!" + +"What needs I tell ye onything about it?" said Jeanie. "Ye may be sure he +had ower muckle to do to save himsell, to speak lang or muckle about ony +body beside." + +"That's no true, Jeanie, though a saunt had said it," replied Effie, with +a sparkle of her former lively and irritable temper. "But ye dinna ken, +though I do, how far he pat his life in venture to save mine." And +looking at Ratcliffe, she checked herself and was silent. + +"I fancy," said Ratcliffe, with one of his familiar sneers, "the lassie +thinks that naebody has een but hersell--Didna I see when Gentle Geordie +was seeking to get other folk out of the Tolbooth forby Jock Porteous?-- +but ye are of my mind, hinny--better sit and rue, than flit and rue--ye +needna look in my face sae amazed. I ken mair things than that, maybe." + +"O my God! my God!" said Effie, springing up and throwing herself down on +her knees before him--"D'ye ken where they hae putten my bairn?--O my +bairn! my bairn! the poor sackless innocent new-born wee ane--bone of my +bone, and flesh of my flesh!--O man, if ye wad e'er deserve a portion in +Heaven, or a brokenhearted creature's blessing upon earth, tell me where +they hae put my bairn--the sign of my shame, and the partner of my +suffering! tell me wha has taen't away, or what they hae dune wi't?" + +"Hout tout," said the turnkey, endeavouring to extricate himself from the +firm grasp with which she held him, "that's taking me at my word wi' a +witness--Bairn, quo' she? How the deil suld I ken onything of your bairn, +huzzy? Ye maun ask that of auld Meg Murdockson, if ye dinna ken ower +muckle about it yoursell." + +As his answer destroyed the wild and vague hope which had suddenly +gleamed upon her, the unhappy prisoner let go her hold of his coat, and +fell with her face on the pavement of the apartment in a strong +convulsion fit. + +Jeanie Deans possessed, with her excellently clear understanding, the +concomitant advantage of promptitude of spirit, even in the extremity of +distress. + +She did not suffer herself to be overcome by her own feelings of +exquisite sorrow, but instantly applied herself to her sister's relief, +with the readiest remedies which circumstances afforded; and which, to do +Ratcliffe justice, he showed himself anxious to suggest, and alert in +procuring. He had even the delicacy to withdraw to the farthest corner of +the room, so as to render his official attendance upon them as little +intrusive as possible, when Effie was composed enough again to resume her +conference with her sister. + +The prisoner once more, in the most earnest and broken tones, conjured +Jeanie to tell her the particulars of the conference with Robertson, and +Jeanie felt it was impossible to refuse her this gratification. + +"Do ye mind," she said, "Effie, when ye were in the fever before we left +Woodend, and how angry your mother, that's now in a better place, was wi' +me for gieing ye milk and water to drink, because ye grat for it? Ye were +a bairn then, and ye are a woman now, and should ken better than ask what +canna but hurt you--But come weal or woe, I canna refuse ye onything that +ye ask me wi' the tear in your ee." + +Again Effie threw herself into her arms, and kissed her cheek and +forehead, murmuring, "O, if ye kend how lang it is since I heard his name +mentioned?--if ye but kend how muckle good it does me but to ken onything +o' him, that's like goodness or kindness, ye wadna wonder that I wish to +hear o' him!" + +Jeanie sighed, and commenced her narrative of all that had passed betwixt +Robertson and her, making it as brief as possible. Effie listened in +breathless anxiety, holding her sister's hand in hers, and keeping her +eye fixed upon her face, as if devouring every word she uttered. The +interjections of "Poor fellow,"--"Poor George," which escaped in +whispers, and betwixt sighs, were the only sounds with which she +interrupted the story. When it was finished she made a long pause. + +"And this was his advice?" were the first words she uttered. + +"Just sic as I hae tell'd ye," replied her sister. + +"And he wanted you to say something to yon folks, that wad save my young +life?" + +"He wanted," answered Jeanie, "that I suld be man-sworn." + +"And you tauld him," said Effie, "that ye wadna hear o' coming between me +and the death that I am to die, and me no aughten year auld yet?" + +"I told him," replied Jeanie, who now trembled at the turn which her +sister's reflection seemed about to take, "that I daured na swear to an +untruth." + +"And what d'ye ca' an untruth?" said Effie, again showing a touch of her +former spirit--"Ye are muckle to blame, lass, if ye think a mother would, +or could, murder her ain bairn--Murder!--I wad hae laid down my life just +to see a blink o' its ee!" + +"I do believe," said Jeanie, "that ye are as innocent of sic a purpose as +the new-born babe itsell." + +"I am glad ye do me that justice," said Effie, haughtily; "ifs whiles the +faut of very good folk like you, Jeanie, that, they think a' the rest of +the warld are as bad as the warst temptations can make them." + +"I didna deserve this frae ye, Effie," said her sister, sobbing, and +feeling at once the injustice of the reproach, and compassion for the +state of mind which dictated it. + +"Maybe no, sister," said Effie. "But ye are angry because I love +Robertson--How can I help loving him, that loves me better than body and +soul baith?--Here he put his life in a niffer, to break the prison to let +me out; and sure am I, had it stude wi' him as it stands wi' you"--Here +she paused and was silent. + +"O, if it stude wi' me to save ye wi' risk of my life!" said Jeanie. + +"Ay, lass," said her sister, "that's lightly said, but no sae lightly +credited, frae ane that winna ware a word for me; and if it be a wrang +word, ye'll hae time eneugh to repent o't." + +"But that word is a grievous sin, and it's a deeper offence when it's a +sin wilfully and presumptuously committed." + +"Weel, weel, Jeanie," said Effie, "I mind a' about the sins o' +presumption in the questions--we'll speak nae mair about this matter, and +ye may save your breath to say your carritch and for me, I'll soon hae +nae breath to waste on onybody." + +"I must needs say," interposed Ratcliffe, "that it's d--d hard, when +three words of your mouth would give the girl the chance to nick Moll +Blood,* that you make such scrupling about rapping** to them. D--n me, if +they would take me, if I would not rap to all what d'ye callums--Hyssop's +Fables, for her life--I am us'd to't, b--t me, for less matters. Why, I +have smacked calf-skin*** fifty times in England for a keg of brandy." + +* The gallows. +** Swearing. +*** Kissed the book. + +"Never speak mair o't," said the prisoner. "It's just as weel as it is-- +and gude-day, sister; ye keep Mr. Ratcliffe waiting on--Ye'll come back +and see me, I reckon, before"--here she stopped and became deadly pale. + +"And are we to part in this way," said Jeanie, "and you in sic deadly +peril? O Effie, look but up, and say what ye wad hae me to do, and I +could find in my heart amaist to say that I wad do't." + +"No, Jeanie," replied her sister after an effort, "I am better minded +now. At my best, I was never half sae gude as ye were, and what for suld +you begin to mak yoursell waur to save me, now that I am no worth saving? +God knows, that in my sober mind, I wadna wuss ony living creature to do +a wrang thing to save my life. I might have fled frae this Tolbooth on +that awfu' night wi' ane wad hae carried me through the warld, and +friended me, and fended for me. But I said to them, let life gang when +gude fame is gane before it. But this lang imprisonment has broken my +spirit, and I am whiles sair left to mysell, and then I wad gie the +Indian mines of gold and diamonds, just for life and breath--for I think, +Jeanie, I have such roving fits as I used to hae in the fever; but, +instead of the fiery een and wolves, and Widow Butler's bullseg, that I +used to see spieling upon my bed, I am thinking now about a high, black +gibbet, and me standing up, and such seas of faces all looking up at poor +Effie Deans, and asking if it be her that George Robertson used to call +the Lily of St. Leonard's. And then they stretch out their faces, and +make mouths, and girn at me, and whichever way I look, I see a face +laughing like Meg Murdockson, when she tauld me I had seen the last of my +wean. God preserve us, Jeanie, that carline has a fearsome face!" + +She clapped her hands before her eyes as she uttered this exclamation, as +if to secure herself against seeing the fearful object she had alluded +to. + +Jeanie Deans remained with her sister for two hours, during which she +endeavoured, if possible, to extract something from her that might be +serviceable in her exculpation. But she had nothing to say beyond what +she had declared on her first examination, with the purport of which the +reader will be made acquainted in proper time and place. "They wadna +believe her," she said, "and she had naething mair to tell them." + +At length, Ratcliffe, though reluctantly, informed the sisters that there +was a necessity that they should part. "Mr. Novit," he said, "was to see +the prisoner, and maybe Mr. Langtale too. Langtale likes to look at a +bonny lass, whether in prison or out o' prison." + +Reluctantly, therefore, and slowly, after many a tear, and many an +embrace, Jeanie retired from the apartment, and heard its jarring bolts +turned upon the dear being from whom she was separated. Somewhat +familiarised now even with her rude conductor, she offered him a small +present in money, with a request he would do what he could for her +sister's accommodation. To her surprise, Ratcliffe declined the fee. "I +wasna bloody when I was on the pad," he said, "and I winna be greedy-- +that is, beyond what's right and reasonable--now that I am in the lock.-- +Keep the siller; and for civility, your sister sall hae sic as I can +bestow; but I hope you'll think better on it, and rap an oath for her-- +deil a hair ill there is in it, if ye are rapping again the crown. I kend +a worthy minister, as gude a man, bating the deed they deposed him for, +as ever ye heard claver in a pu'pit, that rapped to a hogshead of pigtail +tobacco, just for as muckle as filled his spleuchan.* + +* Tobacco-pouch. + +But maybe ye are keeping your ain counsel--weel, weel, there's nae harm +in that. As for your sister, I'se see that she gets her meat clean and +warm, and I'll try to gar her lie down and take a sleep after dinner, for +deil a ee she'll close the night. I hae gude experience of these matters. +The first night is aye the warst o't. I hae never heard o' ane that +sleepit the night afore trial, but of mony a ane that sleepit as sound as +a tap the night before their necks were straughted. And it's nae wonder-- +the warst may be tholed when it's kend--Better a finger aff as aye +wagging." + + + + CHAPTER TWENTIETH. + + + Yet though thou mayst be dragg'd in scorn + To yonder ignominious tree, + Thou shalt not want one faithful friend + To share the cruel fates' decree. + Jemmy Dawson. + +After spending the greater part of the morning in his devotions (for his +benevolent neighbours had kindly insisted upon discharging his task of +ordinary labour), David Deans entered the apartment when the breakfast +meal was prepared. His eyes were involuntarily cast down, for he was +afraid to look at Jeanie, uncertain as he was whether she might feel +herself at liberty, with a good conscience, to attend the Court of +Justiciary that day, to give the evidence which he understood that she +possessed, in order to her sister's exculpation. At length, after a +minute of apprehensive hesitation, he looked at her dress to discover +whether it seemed to be in her contemplation to go abroad that morning. +Her apparel was neat and plain, but such as conveyed no exact intimation +of her intentions to go abroad. She had exchanged her usual garb for +morning labour, for one something inferior to that with which, as her +best, she was wont to dress herself for church, or any more rare occasion +of going into society. Her sense taught her, that it was respectful to be +decent in her apparel on such an occasion, while her feelings induced her +to lay aside the use of the very few and simple personal ornaments, +which, on other occasions, she permitted herself to wear. So that there +occurred nothing in her external appearance which could mark out to her +father, with anything like certainty, her intentions on this occasion. + +The preparations for their humble meal were that morning made in vain. +The father and daughter sat, each assuming the appearance of eating, when +the other's eyes were turned to them, and desisting from the effort with +disgust, when the affectionate imposture seemed no longer necessary. + +At length these moments of constraint were removed. The sound of St. +Giles's heavy toll announced the hour previous to the commencement of the +trial; Jeanie arose, and with a degree of composure for which she herself +could not account, assumed her plaid, and made her other preparations for +a distant walking. It was a strange contrast between the firmness of her +demeanour, and the vacillation and cruel uncertainty of purpose indicated +in all her father's motions; and one unacquainted with both could +scarcely have supposed that the former was, in her ordinary habits of +life, a docile, quiet, gentle, and even timid country maiden, while her +father, with a mind naturally proud and strong, and supported by +religious opinions of a stern, stoical, and unyielding character, had in +his time undergone and withstood the most severe hardships, and the most +imminent peril, without depression of spirit, or subjugation of his +constancy. The secret of this difference was, that Jeanie's mind had +already anticipated the line of conduct which she must adopt, with all +its natural and necessary consequences; while her father, ignorant of +every other circumstance, tormented himself with imagining what the one +sister might say or swear, or what effect her testimony might have upon +the awful event of the trial. + +He watched his daughter, with a faltering and indecisive look, until she +looked back upon him, with a look of unutterable anguish, as she was +about to leave the apartment. + +"My dear lassie," said he, "I will." His action, hastily and confusedly +searching for his worsted mittans* and staff, showed his purpose of +accompanying her, though his tongue failed distinctly to announce it. + +* A kind of worsted gloves, used by the lower orders. + +"Father," said Jeanie, replying rather to his action than his words, "ye +had better not." + +"In the strength of my God," answered Deans, assuming firmness, "I will +go forth." + +And, taking his daughter's arm under his, he began to walk from the door +with a step so hasty, that she was almost unable to keep up with him. A +trifling circumstance, but which marked the perturbed state of his mind, +checked his course. + +"Your bonnet, father?" said Jeanie, who observed he had come out with his +grey hairs uncovered. He turned back with a slight blush on his cheek, +being ashamed to have been detected in an omission which indicated so +much mental confusion, assumed his large blue Scottish bonnet, and with a +step slower, but more composed, as if the circumstance, had obliged him +to summon up his resolution, and collect his scattered ideas, again +placed his daughter's arm under his, and resumed the way to Edinburgh. + +The courts of justice were then, and are still, held in what is called +the Parliament Close, or, according to modern phrase, Parliament Square, +and occupied the buildings intended for the accommodation of the Scottish +Estates. This edifice, though in an imperfect and corrupted style of +architecture, had then a grave, decent, and, as it were, a judicial +aspect, which was at least entitled to respect from its antiquity. For +which venerable front, I observed, on my last occasional visit to the +metropolis, that modern taste had substituted, at great apparent expense, +a pile so utterly inconsistent with every monument of antiquity around, +and in itself so clumsy at the same time and fantastic, that it may be +likened to the decorations of Tom Errand the porter, in the /Trip to the +Jubilee,/ when he appears bedizened with the tawdry finery of Beau +Clincher. /Sed transeat cum caeteris erroribus./ + +The small quadrangle, or Close, if we may presume still to give it that +appropriate, though antiquated title, which at Lichfield, Salisbury, and +elsewhere, is properly applied to designate the enclosure adjacent to a +cathedral, already evinced tokens of the fatal scene which was that day +to be acted. The soldiers of the City Guard were on their posts, now +enduring, and now rudely repelling with the butts of their muskets, the +motley crew who thrust each other forward, to catch a glance at the +unfortunate object of trial, as she should pass from the adjacent prison +to the Court in which her fate was to be determined. All must have +occasionally observed, with disgust, the apathy with which the vulgar +gaze on scenes of this nature, and how seldom, unless when their +sympathies are called forth by some striking and extraordinary +circumstance, the crowd evince any interest deeper than that of callous, +unthinking bustle, and brutal curiosity. They laugh, jest, quarrel, and +push each other to and fro, with the same unfeeling indifference as if +they were assembled for some holiday sport, or to see an idle procession. +Occasionally, however, this demeanour, so natural to the degraded +populace of a large town, is exchanged for a temporary touch of human +affections; and so it chanced on the present occasion. + +When Deans and his daughter presented themselves in the Close, and +endeavoured to make their way forward to the door of the Court-house, +they became involved in the mob, and subject, of course, to their +insolence. As Deans repelled with some force the rude pushes which he +received on all sides, his figure and antiquated dress caught the +attention of the rabble, who often show an intuitive sharpness in +ascribing the proper character from external appearance,-- + + "Ye're welcome, whigs, + Frae Bothwell briggs," + +sung one fellow (for the mob of Edinburgh were at that time jacobitically +disposed, probably because that was the line of sentiment most +diametrically opposite to existing authority). + + "Mess David Williamson, + Chosen of twenty, + Ran up the pu'pit stair, + And sang Killiecrankie," + +chanted a siren, whose profession might be guessed by her appearance. A +tattered caidie, or errand-porter, whom David Deans had jostled in his +attempt to extricate himself from the vicinity of these scorners, +exclaimed in a strong north-country tone, "Ta deil ding out her +Cameronian een--what gies her titles to dunch gentlemans about?" + +"Make room for the ruling elder," said yet another; "he comes to see a +precious sister glorify God in the Grassmarket!" + +"Whisht; shame's in ye, sirs," said the voice of a man very loudly, +which, as quickly sinking, said in a low but distinct tone, "It's her +father and sister." + +All fell back to make way for the sufferers; and all, even the very +rudest and most profligate, were struck with shame and silence. In the +space thus abandoned to them by the mob, Deans stood, holding his +daughter by the hand, and said to her, with a countenance strongly and +sternly expressive of his internal emotion, "Ye hear with your ears, and +ye see with your eyes, where and to whom the backslidings and defections +of professors are ascribed by the scoffers. Not to themselves alone, but +to the kirk of which they are members, and to its blessed and invisible +Head. Then, weel may we take wi' patience our share and portion of this +outspreading reproach." + +The man who had spoken, no other than our old friend, Dumbiedikes, whose +mouth, like that of the prophet's ass, had been opened by the emergency +of the case, now joined them, and, with his usual taciturnity, escorted +them into the Court-house. No opposition was offered to their entrance +either by the guards or doorkeepers; and it is even said that one of the +latter refused a shilling of civility-money tendered him by the Laird of +Dumbiedikes, who was of opinion that "siller wad make a' easy." But this +last incident wants confirmation. + +Admitted within the precincts of the Court-house, they found the usual +number of busy office-bearers, and idle loiterers, who attend on these +scenes by choice, or from duty. Burghers gaped and stared; young lawyers +sauntered, sneered, and laughed, as in the pit of the theatre; while +others apart sat on a bench retired, and reasoned highly, /inter apices +juris,/ on the doctrines of constructive crime, and the true import of +the statute. The bench was prepared for the arrival of the judges. The +jurors were in attendance. The crown-counsel, employed in looking over +their briefs and notes of evidence, looked grave, and whispered with each +other. They occupied one side of a large table placed beneath the bench; +on the other sat the advocates, whom the humanity of the Scottish law (in +this particular more liberal than that of the sister-country) not only +permits, but enjoins, to appear and assist with their advice and skill +all persons under trial. Mr. Nichil Novit was seen actively instructing +the counsel for the panel (so the prisoner is called in Scottish +law-phraseology), busy, bustling, and important. When they entered the +Court-room, Deans asked the Laird, in a tremulous whisper, "Where will +/she/ sit?" + +Dumbiedikes whispered Novit, who pointed to a vacant space at the bar, +fronting the judges, and was about to conduct Deans towards it. + +"No!" he said; "I cannot sit by her--I cannot own her--not as yet, at +least--I will keep out of her sight, and turn mine own eyes elsewhere-- +better for us baith." + +Saddletree, whose repeated interference with the counsel had procured him +one or two rebuffs, and a special request that he would concern himself +with his own matters, now saw with pleasure an opportunity of playing the +person of importance. He bustled up to the poor old man, and proceeded to +exhibit his consequence, by securing, through his interest with the +bar-keepers and macers, a seat for Deans, in a situation where he was +hidden from the general eye by the projecting corner of the bench. + +"It's gude to have a friend at court," he said, continuing his heartless +harangues to the passive auditor, who neither heard nor replied to them; +"few folk but mysell could hae sorted ye out a seat like this--the Lords +will be here incontinent, and proceed /instanter/ to trial. They wunna +fence the Court as they do at the Circuit--the High Court of Justiciary +is aye fenced.--But, Lord's sake, what's this o't--Jeanie, ye are a cited +witness--Macer, this lass is a witness--she maun be enclosed--she maun on +nae account be at large.--Mr. Novit, suldna Jeanie Deans be enclosed?" + +Novit answered in the affirmative, and offered to conduct Jeanie to the +apartment, where, according to the scrupulous practice of the Scottish +Court, the witnesses remain in readiness to be called into Court to give +evidence; and separated, at the same time, from all who might influence +their testimony, or give them information concerning that which was +passing upon the trial. + +"Is this necessary?" said Jeanie, still reluctant to quit her father's +hand. + +"A matter of absolute needcessity," said Saddletree, "wha ever heard of +witnesses no being enclosed?" + +"It is really a matter of necessity," said the younger counsellor, +retained for her sister; and Jeanie reluctantly followed the macer of the +Court to the place appointed. + +"This, Mr. Deans," said Saddletree, "is ca'd sequestering a witness; but +it's clean different (whilk maybe ye wadna fund out o' yoursell) frae +sequestering ane's estate or effects, as in cases of bankruptcy. I hae +aften been sequestered as a witness, for the Sheriff is in the use whiles +to cry me in to witness the declarations at precognitions, and so is Mr. +Sharpitlaw; but I was ne'er like to be sequestered o' land and gudes but +ance, and that was lang syne, afore I was married. But whisht, whisht! +here's the Court coming." + +As he spoke, the five Lords of Justiciary, in their long robes of +scarlet, faced with white, and preceded by their mace-bearer, entered +with the usual formalities, and took their places upon the bench of +judgment. + +The audience rose to receive them; and the bustle occasioned by their +entrance was hardly composed, when a great noise and confusion of persons +struggling, and forcibly endeavouring to enter at the doors of the +Court-room, and of the galleries, announced that the prisoner was about +to be placed at the bar. This tumult takes place when the doors, at first +only opened to those either having right to be present, or to the better +and more qualified ranks, are at length laid open to all whose curiosity +induces them to be present on the occasion. With inflamed countenances +and dishevelled dresses, struggling with, and sometimes tumbling over +each other, in rushed the rude multitude, while a few soldiers, forming, +as it were, the centre of the tide, could scarce, with all their efforts, +clear a passage for the prisoner to the place which she was to occupy. By +the authority of the Court, and the exertions of its officers, the tumult +among the spectators was at length appeased, and the unhappy girl brought +forward, and placed betwixt two sentinels with drawn bayonets, as a +prisoner at the bar, where she was to abide her deliverance for good or +evil, according to the issue of her trial. + + + + + + CHAPTER TWENTY-FIRST. + + + We have strict statutes, and most biting laws-- + The needful bits and curbs for headstrong steeds-- + Which, for these fourteen years, we have let sleep, + Like to an o'ergrown lion in a cave, + That goes not out to prey. + Measure for Measure. + +"Euphemia Deans," said the presiding Judge, in an accent in which pity +was blended with dignity, "stand up and listen to the criminal indictment +now to be preferred against you." + +The unhappy girl, who had been stupified by the confusion through which +the guards had forced a passage, cast a bewildered look on the multitude +of faces around her, which seemed to tapestry, as it were, the walls, in +one broad slope from the ceiling to the floor, with human countenances, +and instinctively obeyed a command, which rung in her ears like the +trumpet of the judgment-day. + +"Put back your hair, Effie," said one of the macers. For her beautiful +and abundant tresses of long fair hair, which, according to the costume +of the country, unmarried women were not allowed to cover with any sort +of cap, and which, alas! Effie dared no longer confine with the snood or +riband, which implied purity of maiden-fame, now hung unbound and +dishevelled over her face, and almost concealed her features. On +receiving this hint from the attendant, the unfortunate young woman, with +a hasty, trembling, and apparently mechanical compliance, shaded back +from her face her luxuriant locks, and showed to the whole court, +excepting one individual, a countenance, which, though pale and +emaciated, was so lovely amid its agony, that it called forth a universal +murmur of compassion and sympathy. Apparently the expressive sound of +human feeling recalled the poor girl from the stupor of fear, which +predominated at first over every other sensation, and awakened her to the +no less painful sense of shame and exposure attached to her present +situation. Her eye, which had at first glanced wildly around, was turned +on the ground; her cheek, at first so deadly pale, began gradually to be +overspread with a faint blush, which increased so fast, that, when in +agony of shame she strove to conceal her face, her temples, her brow, her +neck, and all that her slender fingers and small palms could not cover, +became of the deepest crimson. + +All marked and were moved by these changes, excepting one. It was old +Deans, who, motionless in his seat, and concealed, as we have said, by +the corner of the bench, from seeing or being seen, did nevertheless keep +his eyes firmly fixed on the ground, as if determined that, by no +possibility whatever, would he be an ocular witness of the shame of his +house. + +"Ichabod!" he said to himself--"Ichabod! my glory is departed!" + +While these reflections were passing through his mind, the indictment, +which set forth in technical form the crime of which the panel stood +accused, was read as usual, and the prisoner was asked if she was Guilty, +or Not Guilty. + +"Not guilty of my poor bairn's death," said Effie Deans, in an accent +corresponding in plaintive softness of tone to the beauty of her +features, and which was not heard by the audience without emotion. + +The presiding Judge next directed the counsel to plead to the relevancy; +that is, to state on either part the arguments in point of law, and +evidence in point of fact, against and in favour of the criminal; after +which it is the form of the Court to pronounce a preliminary judgment, +sending the cause to the cognisance of the jury, or assize. + +The counsel for the crown briefly stated the frequency of the crime of +infanticide, which had given rise to the special statute under which the +panel stood indicted. He mentioned the various instances, many of them +marked with circumstances of atrocity, which had at length induced the +King's Advocate, though with great reluctance, to make the experiment, +whether, by strictly enforcing the Act of Parliament which had been made +to prevent such enormities, their occurrence might be prevented. "He +expected," he said, "to be able to establish by witnesses, as well as by +the declaration of the panel herself, that she was in the state described +by the statute. According to his information, the panel had communicated +her pregnancy to no one, nor did she allege in her own declaration that +she had done so. This secrecy was the first requisite in support of the +indictment. The same declaration admitted, that she had borne a male +child, in circumstances which gave but too much reason to believe it had +died by the hands, or at least with the knowledge or consent, of the +unhappy mother. It was not, however, necessary for him to bring positive +proof that the panel was accessory to the murder, nay, nor even to prove, +that the child was murdered at all. It was sufficient to support the +indictment, that it could not be found. According to the stern, but +necessary severity of this statute, she who should conceal her pregnancy, +who should omit to call that assistance which is most necessary on such +occasions, was held already to have meditated the death of her offspring, +as an event most likely to be the consequence of her culpable and cruel +concealment. And if, under such circumstances, she could not +alternatively show by proof that the infant had died a natural death, or +produce it still in life, she must, under the construction of the law, be +held to have murdered it, and suffer death accordingly." + +The counsel for the prisoner, Mr. Fairbrother, a man of considerable fame +in his profession, did not pretend directly to combat the arguments of +the King's Advocate. He began by lamenting that his senior at the bar, +Mr. Langtale, had been suddenly called to the county of which he was +sheriff, and that he had been applied to, on short warning, to give the +panel his assistance in this interesting case. He had had little time, he +said, to make up for his inferiority to his learned brother by long and +minute research; and he was afraid he might give a specimen of his +incapacity, by being compelled to admit the accuracy of the indictment +under the statute. "It was enough for their Lordships," he observed, "to +know that such was the law, and he admitted the advocate had a right to +call for the usual interlocutor of relevancy." But he stated, "that when +he came to establish his case by proof, he trusted to make out +circumstances which would satisfactorily elide the charge in the libel. +His client's story was a short, but most melancholy one. She was bred up +in the strictest tenets of religion and virtue, the daughter of a worthy +and conscientious person, who, in evil times, had established a character +for courage and religion, by becoming a sufferer for conscience' sake." + +David Deans gave a convulsive start at hearing himself thus mentioned, +and then resumed the situation, in which, with his face stooped against +his hands, and both resting against the corner of the elevated bench on +which the Judges sate, he had hitherto listened to the procedure in the +trial. The Whig lawyers seemed to be interested; the Tories put up their +lip. + +"Whatever may be our difference of opinion," resumed the lawyer, whose +business it was to carry his whole audience with him if possible, +"concerning the peculiar tenets of these people" (here Deans groaned +deeply), "it is impossible to deny them the praise of sound, and even +rigid morals, or the merit of training up their children in the fear of +God; and yet it was the daughter of such a person whom a jury would +shortly be called upon, in the absence of evidence, and upon mere +presumptions, to convict of a crime more properly belonging to a heathen, +or a savage, than to a Christian and civilised country. It was true," he +admitted, "that the excellent nurture and early instruction which the +poor girl had received, had not been sufficient to preserve her from +guilt and error. She had fallen a sacrifice to an inconsiderate affection +for a young man of prepossessing manners, as he had been informed, but of +a very dangerous and desperate character. She was seduced under promise +of marriage--a promise, which the fellow might have, perhaps, done her +justice by keeping, had he not at that time been called upon by the law +to atone for a crime, violent and desperate in itself, but which became +the preface to another eventful history, every step of which was marked +by blood and guilt, and the final termination of which had not even yet +arrived. He believed that no one would hear him without surprise, when he +stated that the father of this infant now amissing, and said by the +learned Advocate to have been murdered, was no other than the notorious +George Robertson, the accomplice of Wilson, the hero of the memorable +escape from the Tolbooth Church, and as no one knew better than his +learned friend the Advocate, the principal actor in the Porteous +conspiracy" + +"I am sorry to interrupt a counsel in such a case as the present," said, +the presiding Judge; "but I must remind the learned gentleman that he is +travelling out of the case before us." + +The counsel bowed and resumed. "He only judged it necessary," he said, +"to mention the name and situation of Robertson, because the circumstance +in which that character was placed, went a great way in accounting for +the silence on which his Majesty's counsel had laid so much weight, as +affording proof that his client proposed to allow no fair play for its +life to the helpless being whom she was about to bring into the world. +She had not announced to her friends that she had been seduced from the +path of honour--and why had she not done so?--Because she expected daily +to be restored to character, by her seducer doing her that justice which +she knew to be in his power, and believed to be in his inclination. Was +it natural--was it reasonable--was it fair, to expect that she should in +the interim, become /felo de se/ of her own character, and proclaim her +frailty to the world, when she had every reason to expect, that, by +concealing it for a season, it might be veiled for ever? Was it not, on +the contrary, pardonable, that, in such an emergency, a young woman, in +such a situation, should be found far from disposed to make a confidant +of every prying gossip, who, with sharp eyes, and eager ears, pressed +upon her for an explanation of suspicious circumstances, which females in +the lower--he might say which females of all ranks, are so alert in +noticing, that they sometimes discover them where they do not exist? Was +it strange or was it criminal, that she should have repelled their +inquisitive impertinence with petulant denials? The sense and feeling of +all who heard him would answer directly in the negative. But although his +client had thus remained silent towards those to whom she was not called +upon to communicate her situation,--to whom," said the learned gentleman, +"I will add, it would have been unadvised and improper in her to have +done so; yet, I trust, I shall remove this case most triumphantly from +under the statute, and obtain the unfortunate young woman an honourable +dismission from your Lordships' bar, by showing that she did, in due time +and place, and to a person most fit for such confidence, mention the +calamitous circumstances in which she found herself. This occurred after +Robertson's conviction, and when he was lying in prison in expectation of +the fate which his comrade Wilson afterwards suffered, and from which he +himself so strangely escaped. It was then, when all hopes of having her +honour repaired by wedlock vanished from her eyes,--when an union with +one in Robertson's situation, if still practicable, might, perhaps, have +been regarded rather as an addition to her disgrace,--it was /then,/ that +I trust to be able to prove that the prisoner communicated and consulted +with her sister, a young woman several years older than herself, the +daughter of her father, if I mistake not, by a former marriage, upon the +perils and distress of her unhappy situation." + +"If, indeed, you are able to instruct /that/ point, Mr. Fairbrother," +said the presiding Judge. + +"If I am indeed able to instruct that point, my Lord," resumed Mr. +Fairbrother, "I trust not only to serve my client, but to relieve your +Lordships from that which I know you feel the most painful duty of your +high office; and to give all who now hear me the exquisite pleasure of +beholding a creature, so young, so ingenuous, and so beautiful, as she +that is now at the bar of your Lordships' Court, dismissed from thence in +safety and in honour." + +This address seemed to affect many of the audience, and was followed by a +slight murmur of applause. Deans, as he heard his daughter's beauty and +innocent appearance appealed to, was involuntarily about to turn his eyes +towards her; but, recollecting himself, he bent them again on the ground +with stubborn resolution. + +"Will not my learned brother, on the other side of the bar," continued +the advocate, after a short pause, "share in this general joy, since, I +know, while he discharges his duty in bringing an accused person here, no +one rejoices more in their being freely and honourably sent hence? My +learned brother shakes his head doubtfully, and lays his hand on the +panel's declaration. I understand him perfectly--he would insinuate that +the facts now stated to your Lordships are inconsistent with the +confession of Euphemia Deans herself. I need not remind your Lordships, +that her present defence is no whit to be narrowed within the bounds of +her former confession; and that it is not by any account which she may +formerly have given of herself, but by what is now to be proved for or +against her, that she must ultimately stand or fall. I am not under the +necessity of accounting for her choosing to drop out of her declaration +the circumstances of her confession to her sister. She might not be aware +of its importance; she might be afraid of implicating her sister; she +might even have forgotten the circumstance entirely, in the terror and +distress of mind incidental to the arrest of so young a creature on a +charge so heinous. Any of these reasons are sufficient to account for her +having suppressed the truth in this instance, at whatever risk to +herself; and I incline most to her erroneous fear of criminating her +sister, because I observe she has had a similar tenderness towards her +lover (however undeserved on his part), and has never once mentioned +Robertson's name from beginning to end of her declaration. + +"But, my Lords," continued Fairbrother, "I am aware the King's Advocate +will expect me to show, that the proof I offer is consistent with other +circumstances of the, case, which I do not and cannot deny. He will +demand of me how Effie Deans's confession to her sister, previous to her +delivery, is reconcilable with the mystery of the birth,--with the +disappearance, perhaps the murder (for I will not deny a possibility +which I cannot disprove) of the infant. My Lords, the explanation of this +is to be found in the placability, perchance, I may say, in the facility +and pliability, of the female sex. The /dulcis Amaryllidis irae,/ as your +Lordships well know, are easily appeased; nor is it possible to conceive +a woman so atrociously offended by the man whom she has loved, but that +she will retain a fund of forgiveness, upon which his penitence, whether +real or affected, may draw largely, with a certainty that his bills will +be answered. We can prove, by a letter produced in evidence, that this +villain Robertson, from the bottom of the dungeon whence he already +probably meditated the escape, which he afterwards accomplished by the +assistance of his comrade, contrived to exercise authority over the mind, +and to direct the motions, of this unhappy girl. It was in compliance +with his injunctions, expressed in that letter, that the panel was +prevailed upon to alter the line of conduct which her own better thoughts +had suggested; and, instead of resorting, when her time of travail +approached, to the protection of her own family, was induced to confide +herself to the charge of some vile agent of this nefarious seducer, and +by her conducted to one of those solitary and secret purlieus of villany, +which, to the shame of our police, still are suffered to exist in the +suburbs of this city, where, with the assistance, and under the charge, +of a person of her own sex, she bore a male child, under circumstances +which added treble bitterness to the woe denounced against our original +mother. What purpose Robertson had in all this, it is hard to tell, or +even to guess. He may have meant to marry the girl, for her father is a +man of substance. But, for the termination of the story, and the conduct +of the woman whom he had placed about the person of Euphemia Deans, it is +still more difficult to account. The unfortunate young woman was visited +by the fever incidental to her situation. In this fever she appears to +have been deceived by the person that waited on her, and, on recovering +her senses, she found that she was childless in that abode of misery. Her +infant had been carried off, perhaps for the worst purposes, by the +wretch that waited on her. It may have been murdered, for what I can +tell." + +He was here interrupted by a piercing shriek, uttered by the unfortunate +prisoner. She was with difficulty brought to compose herself. Her counsel +availed himself of the tragical interruption, to close his pleading with +effect. + +"My Lords," said he, "in that piteous cry you heard the eloquence of +maternal affection, far surpassing the force of my poor words--Rachel +weeping for her children! Nature herself bears testimony in favour of the +tenderness and acuteness of the prisoner's parental feelings. I will not +dishonour her plea by adding a word more." + +"Heard ye ever the like o' that, Laird?" said Saddletree to Dumbiedikes, +when the counsel had ended his speech. "There's a chield can spin a +muckle pirn out of a wee tait of tow! Deil haet he kens mair about it +than what's in the declaration, and a surmise that Jeanie Deans suld hae +been able to say something about her sister's situation, whilk surmise, +Mr. Crossmyloof says, rests on sma' authority. And he's cleckit this +great muckle bird out o' this wee egg! He could wile the very flounders +out o' the Firth.--What garr'd my father no send me to Utrecht?--But +whisht, the Court is gaun to pronounce the interlocutor of relevancy." + +And accordingly the Judges, after a few words, recorded their judgment, +which bore, that the indictment, if proved, was relevant to infer the +pains of law: And that the defence, that the panel had communicated her +situation to her sister, was a relevant defence: And, finally, appointed +the said indictment and defence to be submitted to the judgment of an +assize. + + + + + CHAPTER TWENTY-SECOND. + + + Most righteous judge! a sentence.--Come, prepare. + Merchant of Venice. + +It is by no means my intention to describe minutely the forms of a +Scottish criminal trial, nor am I sure that I could draw up an account so +intelligible and accurate as to abide the criticism of the gentlemen of +the long robe. It is enough to say that the jury was impanelled, and the +case proceeded. The prisoner was again required to plead to the charge, +and she again replied, "Not Guilty," in the same heart-thrilling tone as +before. + +The crown counsel then called two or three female witnesses, by whose +testimony it was established, that Effie's situation had been remarked by +them, that they had taxed her with the fact, and that her answers had +amounted to an angry and petulant denial of what they charged her with. +But, as very frequently happens, the declaration of the panel or accused +party herself was the evidence which bore hardest upon her case. + +In the event of these tales ever finding their way across the Border, it +may be proper to apprise the southern reader that it is the practice in +Scotland, on apprehending a suspected person, to subject him to a +judicial examination before a magistrate. He is not compelled to answer +any of the questions asked of him, but may remain silent if he sees it +his interest to do so. But whatever answers he chooses to give are +formally written down, and being subscribed by himself and the +magistrate, are produced against the accused in case of his being brought +to trial. It is true, that these declarations are not produced as being +in themselves evidence properly so called, but only as adminicles of +testimony, tending to corroborate what is considered as legal and proper +evidence. Notwithstanding this nice distinction, however, introduced by +lawyers to reconcile this procedure to their own general rule, that a man +cannot be required to bear witness against himself, it nevertheless +usually happens that these declarations become the means of condemning +the accused, as it were, out of their own mouths. The prisoner, upon +these previous examinations, has indeed the privilege of remaining silent +if he pleases; but every man necessarily feels that a refusal to answer +natural and pertinent interrogatories, put by judicial authority, is in +itself a strong proof of guilt, and will certainly lead to his being +committed to prison; and few can renounce the hope of obtaining liberty +by giving some specious account of themselves, and showing apparent +frankness in explaining their motives and accounting for their conduct. +It, therefore, seldom happens that the prisoner refuses to give a +judicial declaration, in which, nevertheless, either by letting out too +much of the truth, or by endeavouring to substitute a fictitious story, +he almost always exposes himself to suspicion and to contradictions, +which weigh heavily in the minds of the jury. + +The declaration of Effie Deans was uttered on other principles, and the +following is a sketch of its contents, given in the judicial form, in +which they may still be found in the Books of Adjournal. + +The declarant admitted a criminal intrigue with an individual whose name +she desired to conceal. "Being interrogated, what her reason was for +secrecy on this point? She declared, that she had no right to blame that +person's conduct more than she did her own, and that she was willing to +confess her own faults, but not to say anything which might criminate the +absent. Interrogated, if she confessed her situation to any one, or made +any preparation for her confinement? Declares, she did not. And being +interrogated, why she forbore to take steps which her situation so +peremptorily required? Declares, she was ashamed to tell her friends, and +she trusted the person she has mentioned would provide for her and the +infant. Interrogated if he did so? Declares, that he did not do so +personally; but that it was not his fault, for that the declarant is +convinced he would have laid down his life sooner than the bairn or she +had come to harm. Interrogated, what prevented him from keeping his +promise? Declares, that it was impossible for him to do so, he being +under trouble at the time, and declines farther answer to this question. +Interrogated, where she was from the period she left her master, Mr. +Saddletree's family, until her appearance at her father's, at St. +Leonard's, the day before she was apprehended? Declares, she does not +remember. And, on the interrogatory being repeated, declares, she does +not mind muckle about it, for she was very ill. On the question being +again repeated, she declares, she will tell the truth, if it should be +the undoing of her, so long as she is not asked to tell on other folk; +and admits, that she passed that interval of time in the lodging of a +woman, an acquaintance of that person who had wished her to that place to +be delivered, and that she was there delivered accordingly of a male +child. Interrogated, what was the name of that person? Declares and +refuses to answer this question. Interrogated, where she lives? Declares, +she has no certainty, for that she was taken to the lodging aforesaid +under cloud of night. Interrogated, if the lodging was in the city or +suburbs? Declares and refuses to answer that question. Interrogated, +whether, when she left the house of Mr. Saddletree, she went up or down +the street? Declares and refuses to answer the question. Interrogated, +whether she had ever seen the woman before she was wished to her, as she +termed it, by the person whose name she refuses to answer? Declares and +replies, not to her knowledge. Interrogated, whether this woman was +introduced to her by the said person verbally, or by word of mouth? +Declares, she has no freedom to answer this question. Interrogated, if +the child was alive when it was born? Declares, that--God help her and +it!--it certainly was alive. Interrogated, if it died a natural death +after birth? Declares, not to her knowledge. Interrogated, where it now +is? Declares, she would give her right hand to ken, but that she never +hopes to see mair than the banes of it. And being interrogated, why she +supposes it is now dead? the declarant wept bitterly and made no answer. +Interrogated, if the woman, in whose lodging she was, seemed to be a fit +person to be with her in that situation? Declares, she might be fit +enough for skill, but that she was an hard-hearted bad woman. +Interrogated, if there was any other person in the lodging excepting +themselves two? Declares, that she thinks there was another woman; but +her head was so carried with pain of body and trouble of mind, that she +minded her very little. Interrogated, when the child was taken away from +her? Declared that she fell in a fever, and was light-headed, and when +she came to her own mind, the woman told her the bairn was dead; and that +the declarant answered, if it was dead it had had foul play. That, +thereupon, the woman was very sair on her, and gave her much ill +language; and that the deponent was frightened, and crawled out of the +house when her back was turned, and went home to Saint Leonard's Crags, +as well as a woman in her condition dought.* + +* i.e. Was able to do. + +Interrogated, why she did not tell her story to her sister and father, +and get force to search the house for her child, dead or alive? Declares, +it was her purpose to do so, but she had not time. Interrogated, why she +now conceals the name of the woman, and the place of her abode? The +declarant remained silent for a time, and then said, that to do so could +not repair the skaith that was done, but might be the occasion of more. +Interrogated, whether she had herself, at any time, had any purpose of +putting away the child by violence? Declares, never; so might God be +merciful to her--and then again declares, never, when she was in her +perfect senses; but what bad thoughts the Enemy might put into her brain +when she was out of herself, she cannot answer. And again solemnly +interrogated, declares, that she would have been drawn with wild horses, +rather than have touched the bairn with an unmotherly hand. Interrogated, +declares, that among the ill-language the woman gave her, she did say +sure enough that the declarant had hurt the bairn when she was in the +brain fever; but that the declarant does not believe that she said this +from any other cause than to frighten her, and make her be silent. +Interrogated, what else the woman said to her? Declares, that when the +declarant cried loud for her bairn, and was like to raise the neighbours, +the woman threatened her, that they that could stop the wean's skirling +would stop hers, if she did not keep a' the founder.* + +* i.e. The quieter. + +And that this threat, with the manner of the woman, made the declarant +conclude, that the bairn's life was gone, and her own in danger, for that +the woman was a desperate bad woman, as the declarant judged from the +language she used. Interrogated, declares, that the fever and delirium +were brought on her by hearing bad news, suddenly told to her, but +refuses to say what the said news related to. Interrogated, why she does +not now communicate these particulars, which might, perhaps, enable the +magistrate to ascertain whether the child is living or dead; and +requested to observe, that her refusing to do so, exposes her own life, +and leaves the child in bad hands; as also that her present refusal to +answer on such points is inconsistent with her alleged intention to make +a clean breast to her sister? Declares, that she kens the bairn is now +dead, or, if living, there is one that will look after it; that for her +own living or dying, she is in God's hands, who knows her innocence of +harming her bairn with her will or knowledge; and that she has altered +her resolution of speaking out, which she entertained when she left the +woman's lodging, on account of a matter which she has since learned. And +declares, in general, that she is wearied, and will answer no more +questions at this time." + +Upon a subsequent examination, Euphemia Deans adhered to the declaration +she had formerly made, with this addition, that a paper found in her +trunk being shown to her, she admitted that it contained the credentials, +in consequence of which she resigned herself to the conduct of the woman +at whose lodgings she was delivered of the child. Its tenor ran thus:-- + +"Dearest Effie,--I have gotten the means to send to you by a woman who is +well qualified to assist you in your approaching streight; she is not +what I could wish her, but I cannot do better for you in my present +condition. I am obliged to trust to her in this present calamity, for +myself and you too. I hope for the best, though I am now in a sore pinch; +yet thought is free--I think Handie Dandie and I may queer the stifler* +for all that is come and gone. + +* Avoid the gallows. + +You will be angry for me writing this to my little Cameronian Lily; but +if I can but live to be a comfort to you, and a father to your babie, you +will have plenty of time to scold.--Once more, let none knew your +counsel--my life depends on this hag, d--n her--she is both deep and +dangerous, but she has more wiles and wit than ever were in a beldam's +head, and has cause to be true to me. Farewell, my Lily--Do not droop on +my account--in a week I will be yours or no more my own." + +Then followed a postscript. "If they must truss me, I will repent of +nothing so much, even at the last hard pinch, as of the injury I have +done my Lily." + +Effie refused to say from whom she had received this letter, but enough +of the story was now known, to ascertain that it came from Robertson; and +from the date, it appeared to have been written about the time when +Andrew Wilson (called for a nickname Handie Dandie) and he were +meditating their first abortive attempt to escape, which miscarried in +the manner mentioned in the beginning of this history. + +The evidence of the Crown being concluded, the counsel for the prisoner +began to lead a proof in her defence. The first witnesses were examined +upon the girl's character. All gave her an excellent one, but none with +more feeling than worthy Mrs. Saddletree, who, with the tears on her +cheeks, declared, that she could not have had a higher opinion of Effie +Deans, nor a more sincere regard for her, if she had been her own +daughter. All present gave the honest woman credit for her goodness of +heart, excepting her husband, who whispered to Dumbiedikes, "That Nichil +Novit of yours is but a raw hand at leading evidence, I'm thinking. What +signified his bringing a woman here to snotter and snivel, and bather +their Lordships? He should hae ceeted me, sir, and I should hae gien them +sic a screed o' testimony, they shauldna hae touched a hair o' her head." + +"Hadna ye better get up and tryt yet?" said the Laird. "I'll mak a sign +to Novit." + +"Na, na," said Saddletree, "thank ye for naething, neighbour--that would +be ultroneous evidence, and I ken what belangs to that; but Nichil Novit +suld hae had me ceeted /debito tempore./" And wiping his mouth with his +silk handkerchief with great importance, he resumed the port and manner +of an edified and intelligent auditor. + +Mr. Fairbrother now premised, in a few words, "that he meant to bring +forward his most important witness, upon whose evidence the cause must in +a great measure depend. What his client was, they had learned from the +preceding witnesses; and so far as general character, given in the most +forcible terms, and even with tears, could interest every one in her +fate, she had already gained that advantage. It was necessary, he +admitted, that he should produce more positive testimony of her innocence +than what arose out of general character, and this he undertook to do by +the mouth of the person to whom she had communicated her situation--by +the mouth of her natural counsellor and guardian--her sister.--Macer, +call into court, Jean, or Jeanie Deans, daughter of David Deans, +cowfeeder, at Saint Leonard's Crags!" + +When he uttered these words, the poor prisoner instantly started up, and +stretched herself half-way over the bar, towards the side at which her +sister was to enter. And when, slowly following the officer, the witness +advanced to the foot of the table, Effie, with the whole expression of +her countenance altered, from that of confused shame and dismay, to an +eager, imploring, and almost ecstatic earnestness of entreaty, with +outstretched hands, hair streaming back, eyes raised eagerly to her +sister's face, and glistening through tears, exclaimed in a tone which +went through the heart of all who heard her,--"O Jeanie, Jeanie, save me, +save me!" + +With a different feeling, yet equally appropriated to his proud and +self-dependent character, old Deans drew himself back still farther under +the cover of the bench; so that when Jeanie, as she entered the court, +cast a timid glance towards the place at which she had left him seated, +his venerable figure was no longer visible. He sate down on the other +side of Dumbiedikes, wrung his hand hard, and whispered, "Ah, Laird, this +is warst of a'--if I can but win ower this part--I feel my head unco +dizzy; but my Master is strong in his servant's weakness." After a +moment's mental prayer, he again started up, as if impatient of +continuing in any one posture, and gradually edged himself forward +towards the place he had just quitted. + +Jeanie in the meantime had advanced to the bottom of the table, when, +unable to resist the impulse of affections she suddenly extended her hand +to her sister. Effie was just within the distance that she could seize it +with both hers, press it to her mouth, cover it with kisses, and bathe it +in tears, with the fond devotion that a Catholic would pay to a guardian +saint descended for his safety; while Jeanie, hiding her own face with +her other hand, wept bitterly. The sight would have moved a heart of +stone, much more of flesh and blood. Many of the spectators shed tears, +and it was some time before the presiding Judge himself could so far +subdue his emotion as to request the witness to compose herself, and the +prisoner to forbear those marks of eager affection, which, however +natural, could not be permitted at that time, and in that presence. + +The solemn oath,--"the truth to tell, and no truth to conceal, as far as +she knew or should be asked," was then administered by the Judge "in the +name of God, and as the witness should answer to God at the great day of +judgment;" an awful adjuration, which seldom fails to make impression +even on the most hardened characters, and to strike with fear even the +most upright. Jeanie, educated in deep and devout reverence for the name +and attributes of the Deity, was, by the solemnity of a direct appeal to +hisperson and justice, awed, but at the same time elevated above all +considerations, save those which she could, with a clear conscience, call +Him to witness. She repeated the form in a low and reverent, but distinct +tone of voice, after the Judge, to whom, and not to any inferior officer +of the Court, the task is assigned in Scotland of directing the witness +in that solemn appeal which is the sanction of his testimony. + +When the Judge had finished the established form, he added in a feeling, +but yet a monitory tone, an advice, which the circumstances appeared to +him to call for. + +"Young woman," these were his words, "you come before this Court in +circumstances, which it would be worse than cruel not to pity and to +sympathise with. Yet it is my duty to tell you, that the truth, whatever +its consequences may be, the truth is what you owe to your country, and +to that God whose word is truth, and whose name you have now invoked. Use +your own time in answering the questions that gentleman" (pointing to the +counsel) "shall put to you.--But remember, that what you may be tempted +to say beyond what is the actual truth, you must answer both here and +hereafter." + +The usual questions were then put to her:--Whether any one had instructed +her what evidence she had to deliver? Whether any one had given or +promised her any good deed, hire, or reward, for her testimony? Whether +she had any malice or ill-will at his Majesty's Advocate, being the party +against whom she was cited as a witness? To which questions she +successively answered by a quiet negative. But their tenor gave great +scandal and offence to her father, who was not aware that they are put to +every witness as a matter of form. + +"Na, na," he exclaimed, loud enough to be heard, "my bairn is no like the +Widow of Tekoah--nae man has putten words into her mouth." + +One of the judges, better acquainted, perhaps, with the Books of +Adjournal than with the Book of Samuel, was disposed to make some instant +inquiry after this Widow of Tekoah, who, as he construed the matter, had +been tampering with the evidence. But the presiding Judge, better versed +in Scripture history, whispered to his learned brother the necessary +explanation; and the pause occasioned by this mistake had the good effect +of giving Jeanie Deans time to collect her spirits for the painful task +she had to perform. + +Fairbrother, whose practice and intelligence were considerable, saw the +necessity of letting the witness compose herself. In his heart he +suspected that she came to bear false witness in her sister's cause. + +"But that is her own affair," thought Fairbrother; "and it is my business +to see that she has plenty of time to regain composure, and to deliver +her evidence, be it true, or be it false--/valeat quantum./" + +Accordingly, he commenced his interrogatories with uninteresting +questions, which admitted of instant reply. + +"You are, I think, the sister of the prisoner?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"Not the full sister, however?" + +"No, sir--we are by different mothers." + +"True; and you are, I think, several years older than your sister?" + +"Yes, sir," etc. + +After the advocate had conceived that, by these preliminary and +unimportant questions, he had familiarised the witness with the situation +in which she stood, he asked, "whether she had not remarked her sister's +state of health to be altered, during the latter part of the term when +she had lived with Mrs. Saddletree?" + +Jeanie answered in the affirmative. + +"And she told you the cause of it, my dear, I suppose?" said Fairbrother, +in an easy, and, as one may say, an inductive sort of tone. + +"I am sorry to interrupt my brother," said the Crown Counsel, rising; +"but I am in your Lordships' judgment, whether this be not a leading +question?" + +"If this point is to be debated," said the presiding Judge, "the witness +must be removed." + +For the Scottish lawyers regard with a sacred and scrupulous horror every +question so shaped by the counsel examining, as to convey to a witness +the least intimation of the nature of the answer which is desired from +him. These scruples, though founded on an excellent principle, are +sometimes carried to an absurd pitch of nicety, especially as it is +generally easy for a lawyer who has his wits about him to elude the +objection. Fairbrother did so in the present case. + +"It is not necessary to waste the time of the Court, my Lord since the +King's Counsel thinks it worth while to object to the form of my +question, I will shape it otherwise.--Pray, young woman, did you ask your +sister any question when you observed her looking unwell?--take courage-- +speak out." + +"I asked her," replied Jeanie, "what ailed her." + +"Very well--take your own time--and what was the answer she made?" +continued Mr. Fairbrother. + +Jeanie was silent, and looked deadly pale. It was not that she at any one +instant entertained an idea of the possibility of prevarication--it was +the natural hesitation to extinguish the last spark of hope that remained +for her sister. + +"Take courage, young woman," said Fairbrother.--"I asked what your sister +said ailed her when you inquired?" + +"Nothing," answered Jeanie, with a faint voice, which was yet heard +distinctly in the most distant corner of the Court-room,--such an awful +and profound silence had been preserved during the anxious interval, +which had interposed betwixt the lawyer's question and the answer of the +witness. + +Fairbrother's countenance fell; but with that ready presence of mind, +which is as useful in civil as in military emergencies, he immediately +rallied.--"Nothing? True; you mean nothing at /first/--but when you asked +her again, did she not tell you what ailed her?" + +The question was put in a tone meant to make her comprehend the +importance of her answer, had she not been already aware of it. The ice +was broken, however, and with less pause than at first, she now replied, +--"Alack! alack! she never breathed word to me about it." + +A deep groan passed through the Court. It was echoed by one deeper and +more agonised from the unfortunate father. The hope to which +unconsciously, and in spite of himself, he had still secretly clung, had +now dissolved, and the venerable old man fell forward senseless on the +floor of the Court-house, with his head at the foot of his terrified +daughter. The unfortunate prisoner, with impotent passion, strove with +the guards betwixt whom she was placed. "Let me gang to my father!--I +/will/ gang to him--I /will/ gang to him--he is dead--he is killed--I hae +killed him!"--she repeated, in frenzied tones of grief, which those who +heard them did not speedily forget. + +Even in this moment of agony and general confusion, Jeanie did not lose +that superiority, which a deep and firm mind assures to its possessor +under the most trying circumstances. + +"He is my father--he is our father," she mildly repeated to those who +endeavoured to separate them, as she stooped,--shaded aside his grey +hairs, and began assiduously to chafe his temples. + +The Judge, after repeatedly wiping his eyes, gave directions that they +should be conducted into a neighbouring apartment, and carefully +attended. The prisoner, as her father was borne from the Court, and her +sister slowly followed, pursued them with her eyes so earnestly fixed, as +if they would have started from their sockets. But when they were no +longer visible, she seemed to find, in her despairing and deserted state, +a courage which she had not yet exhibited. + +"The bitterness of it is now past," she said, and then boldly, addressed +the Court. "My Lords, if it is your pleasure to gang on wi' this matter, +the weariest day will hae its end at last." + +The Judge, who, much to his honour, had shared deeply in the general +sympathy, was surprised at being recalled to his duty by the prisoner. He +collected himself, and requested to know if the panel's counsel had more +evidence to produce. Fairbrother replied, with an air of dejection, that +his proof was concluded. + +The King's Counsel addressed the jury for the crown. He said in a few +words, that no one could be more concerned than he was for the +distressing scene which they had just witnessed. But it was the necessary +consequence of great crimes to bring distress and ruin upon all connected +with the perpetrators. He briefly reviewed the proof, in which he showed +that all the circumstances of the case concurred with those required by +the act under which the unfortunate prisoner was tried: That the counsel +for the panel had totally failed in proving, that Euphemia Deans had +communicated her situation to her sister: That, respecting her previous +good character, he was sorry to observe, that it was females who +possessed the world's good report, and to whom it was justly valuable, +who were most strongly tempted, by shame and fear of the world's censure, +to the crime of infanticide: That the child was murdered, he professed to +entertain no doubt. The vacillating and inconsistent declaration of the +prisoner herself, marked as it was by numerous refusals to speak the +truth on subjects, when, according to her own story, it would have been +natural, as well as advantageous, to have been candid; even this +imperfect declaration left no doubt in his mind as to the fate of the +unhappy infant. Neither could he doubt that the panel was a partner in +this guilt. Who else had an interest in a deed so inhuman? Surely neither +Robertson, nor Robertson's agent, in whose house she was delivered, +hadthe least temptation to commit such a crime, unless upon her account, +with her connivance, and for the sake of saying her reputation. But it +was not required of him, by the law, that he should bring precise proof +of the murder, or of the prisoner's accession to it. It was the very +purpose of the statute to substitute a certain chain of presumptive +evidence in place of a probation, which, in such cases, it was peculiarly +difficult to obtain. The jury might peruse the statute itself, and they +had also the libel and interlocutor of relevancy to direct them in point +of law. He put it to the conscience of the jury, that under both he was +entitled to a verdict of Guilty. + +The charge of Fairbrother was much cramped by his having failed in the +proof which he expected to lead. But he fought his losing cause with +courage and constancy. He ventured to arraign the severity of the statute +under which the young woman was tried. "In all other cases," he said, +"the first thing required of the criminal prosecutor was to prove +unequivocally that the crime libelled had actually been committed, which +lawyers called proving the /corpus delicti./ But this statute, made +doubtless with the best intentions, and under the impulse of a just +horror for the unnatural crime of infanticide, ran the risk of itself +occasioning the worst of murders, the death of an innocent person, to +atone for a supposed crime which may never have been committed by anyone. +He was so far from acknowledging the alleged probability of the child's +violent death, that he could not even allow that there was evidence of +its having ever lived." + +The King's Counsel pointed to the woman's declaration; to which the +counsel replied--"A production concocted in a moment of terror and agony, +and which approached to insanity," he said, "his learned brother well +knew was no sound evidence against the party who emitted it. It was true, +that a judicial confession, in presence of the Justices themselves, was +the strongest of all proof, insomuch that it is said in law, that '/in +confitentem nullae sunt partes judicis./' But this was true of judicial +confession only, by which law meant that which is made in presence of the +justices, and the sworn inquest. Of extrajudicial confession, all +authorities held with the illustrious Farinaceus and Matthaeus, +'/confessio extrajudicialis in se nulla est; et quod nullum est, non +potest adminiculari./' It was totally inept, and void of all strength and +effect from the beginning; incapable, therefore, of being bolstered up or +supported, or, according to the law phrase, adminiculated, by other +presumptive circumstances. In the present case, therefore, letting the +extrajudicial confession go, as it ought to go, for nothing," he +contended, "the prosecutor had not made out the second quality of the +statute, that a live child had been born; and /that,/ at least, ought to +be established before presumptions were received that it had been +murdered. If any of the assize," he said, "should be of opinion that this +was dealing rather narrowly with the statute, they ought to consider that +it was in its nature highly penal, and therefore entitled to no +favourable construction." + +He concluded a learned speech, with an eloquent peroration on the scene +they had just witnessed, during which Saddletree fell fast asleep. + +It was now the presiding Judge's turn to address the jury. He did so +briefly and distinctly. + +"It was for the jury," he said, "to consider whether the prosecutor had +made out his plea. For himself, he sincerely grieved to say, that a +shadow of doubt remained not upon his mind concerning the verdict which +the inquest had to bring in. He would not follow the prisoner's counsel +through the impeachment which he had brought against the statute of King +William and Queen Mary. He and the jury were sworn to judge according to +the laws as they stood, not to criticise, or evade, or even to justify +them. In no civil case would a counsel have been permitted to plead his +client's case in the teeth of the law; but in the hard situation in which +counsel were often placed in the Criminal Court, as well as out of favour +to all presumptions of innocence, he had not inclined to interrupt the +learned gentleman, or narrow his plea. The present law, as it now stood, +had been instituted by the wisdom of their fathers, to check the alarming +progress of a dreadful crime; when it was found too severe for its +purpose it would doubtless be altered by the wisdom of the Legislature; +at present it was the law of the land, the rule of the Court, and, +according to the oath which they had taken, it must be that of the jury. +This unhappy girl's situation could not be doubted; that she had borne a +child, and that the child had disappeared, were certain facts. The +learned counsel had failed to show that she had communicated her +situation. All the requisites of the case required by the statute were +therefore before the jury. The learned gentleman had, indeed, desired +them to throw out of consideration the panel's own confession, which was +the plea usually urged, in penury of all others, by counsel in his +situation, who usually felt that the declarations of their clients bore +hard on them. But that the Scottish law designed that a certain weight +should be laid on these declarations, which, he admitted, were +/quodammodo/ extrajudicial, was evident from the universal practice by +which they were always produced and read, as part of the prosecutor's +probation. In the present case, no person who had heard the witnesses +describe the appearance of the young woman before she left Saddletree's +house, and contrasted it with that of her state and condition at her +return to her father's, could have any doubt that the fact of delivery +had taken place, as set forth in her own declaration, which was, +therefore, not a solitary piece of testimony, but adminiculated and +supported by the strongest circumstantial proof. + +"He did not," he said, "state the impression upon his own mind with the +purpose of biassing theirs. He had felt no less than they had done from +the scene of domestic misery which had been exhibited before them; and if +they, having God and a good conscience, the sanctity of their oath, and +the regard due to the law of the country, before their eyes, could come +to a conclusion favourable to this unhappy prisoner, he should rejoice as +much as anyone in Court; for never had he found his duty more distressing +than in discharging it that day, and glad he would be to be relieved from +the still more painful task which would otherwise remain for him." + +The jury, having heard the Judge's address, bowed and retired, preceded +by a macer of Court, to the apartment destined for their deliberation. + + + + CHAPTER TWENTY-THIRD. + + + Law, take thy victim--May she find the mercy + In yon mild heaven, which this hard world denies her! + +It was an hour ere the jurors returned, and as they traversed the crowd +with slow steps, as men about to discharge themselves of a heavy and +painful responsibility, the audience was hushed into profound, earnest, +and awful silence. + +"Have you agreed on your chancellor, gentlemen?" was the first question +of the Judge. + +The foreman, called in Scotland the chancellor of the jury, usually the +man of best rank and estimation among the assizers, stepped forward, and +with a low reverence, delivered to the Court a sealed paper, containing +the verdict, which, until of late years, that verbal returns are in some +instances permitted, was always couched in writing. The jury remained +standing while the Judge broke the seals, and having perused the paper, +handed it with an air of mournful gravity down to the clerk of Court, who +proceeded to engross in the record the yet unknown verdict, of which, +however, all omened the tragical contents. A form still remained, +trifling and unimportant in itself, but to which imagination adds a sort +of solemnity, from the awful occasion upon which it is used. A lighted +candle was placed on the table, the original paper containing the verdict +was enclosed in a sheet of paper, and, sealed with the Judge's own +signet, was transmitted to the Crown Office, to be preserved among other +records of the same kind. As all this is transacted in profound silence, +the producing and extinguishing the candle seems a type of the human +spark which is shortly afterwards doomed to be quenched, and excites in +the spectators something of the same effect which in England is obtained +by the Judge assuming the fatal cap of judgment. When these preliminary +forms had been gone through, the Judge required Euphemia Deans to attend +to the verdict to be read. + +After the usual words of style, the verdict set forth, that the Jury +having made choice of John Kirk, Esq., to be their chancellor, and Thomas +Moore, merchant, to be their clerk, did, by a plurality of voices, find +the said Euphemia Deans Guilty of the crime libelled; but, in +consideration of her extreme youth, and the cruel circumstances of her +case, did earnestly entreat that the Judge would recommend her to the +mercy of the Crown. + +"Gentlemen," said the Judge, "you have done your duty--and a painful one +it must have been to men of humanity like you. I will undoubtedly +transmit your recommendation to the throne. But it is my duty to tell all +who now hear me, but especially to inform that unhappy young woman, in +order that her mind may be settled accordingly, that I have not the least +hope of a pardon being granted in the present case. You know the crime +has been increasing in this land, and I know farther, that this has been +ascribed to the lenity in which the laws have been exercised, and that +there is therefore no hope whatever of obtaining a remission for this +offence." The jury bowed again, and, released from their painful office, +dispersed themselves among the mass of bystanders. + +The Court then asked Mr. Fairbrother whether he had anything to say, why +judgment should not follow on the verdict? The counsel had spent some +time in persuing and reperusing the verdict, counting the letters in each +juror's name, and weighing every phrase, nay, every syllable, in the +nicest scales of legal criticism. But the clerk of the jury had +understood his business too well. No flaw was to be found, and +Fairbrother mournfully intimated, that he had nothing to say in arrest of +judgment. + +The presiding Judge then addressed the unhappy prisoner:--"Euphemia +Deans, attend to the sentence of the Court now to be pronounced against +you." + +She rose from her seat, and with a composure far greater than could have +been augured from her demeanour during some parts of the trial, abode the +conclusion of the awful scene. So nearly does the mental portion of our +feelings resemble those which are corporeal, that the first severe blows +which we receive bring with them a stunning apathy, which renders us +indifferent to those that follow them. Thus said Mandrin, when he was +undergoing the punishment of the wheel; and so have all felt, upon whom +successive inflictions have descended with continuous and reiterated +violence.* + +* [The notorious Mandrin was known as the Captain-General of French & +smugglers. See a Tract on his exploits, printed 1753.] + +"Young woman," said the Judge, "it is my painful duty to tell you, that +your life is forfeited under a law, which, if it may seem in some degree +severe, is yet wisely so, to render those of your unhappy situation aware +what risk they run, by concealing, out of pride or false shame, their +lapse from virtue, and making no preparation to save the lives of the +unfortunate infants whom they are to bring into the world. When you +concealed your situation from your mistress, your sister, and other +worthy and compassionate persons of your own sex, in whose favour your +former conduct had given you a fair place, you seem to me to have had in +your contemplation, at least, the death of the helpless creature, for +whose life you neglected to provide. How the child was disposed of-- +whether it was dealt upon by another, or by yourself--whether the +extraordinary story you have told is partly false, or altogether so, is +between God and your own conscience. I will not aggravate your distress +by pressing on that topic, but I do most solemnly adjure you to employ +the remaining space of your time in making your peace with God, for which +purpose such reverend clergymen, as you yourself may name, shall have +access to you. Notwithstanding the humane recommendation of the jury, I +cannot afford to you, in the present circumstances of the country, the +slightest hope that your life will be prolonged beyond the period +assigned for the execution of your sentence. Forsaking, therefore, the +thoughts of this world, let your mind be prepared by repentance for those +of more awful moments--for death, judgment, and eternity.--Doomster, read +the sentence."* + +* Note N. Doomster, or Dempster, of Court. + +When the Doomster showed himself, a tall haggard figure, arrayed in a +fantastic garment of black and grey, passmented with silver lace, all +fell back with a sort of instinctive horror, and made wide way for him to +approach the foot of the table. As this office was held by the common +executioner, men shouldered each other backward to avoid even the touch +of his garment, and some were seen to brush their own clothes, which had +accidentally become subject to such contamination. A sound went through +the Court, produced by each person drawing in their breath hard, as men +do when they expect or witness what is frightful, and at the same time +affecting. The caitiff villain yet seemed, amid his hardened brutality, +to have some sense of his being the object of public detestation, which +made him impatient of being in public, as birds of evil omen are anxious +to escape from daylight, and from pure air. + +Repeating after the Clerk of Court, he gabbled over the words of the +sentence, which condemned Euphemia Deans to be conducted back to the +Tolbooth of Edinburgh, and detained there until Wednesday the day of ---; +and upon that day, betwixt the hours of two and four o'clock afternoon, +to be conveyed to the common place of execution, and there hanged by the +neck upon a gibbet. "And this," said the Doomster, aggravating his harsh +voice, "I pronounce for /doom./" + +He vanished when he had spoken the last emphatic word, like a foul fiend +after the purpose of his visitation had been accomplished; but the +impression of horror excited by his presence and his errand, remained +upon the crowd of spectators. + +The unfortunate criminal,--for so she must now be termed,--with more +susceptibility, and more irritable feelings than her father and sister, +was found, in this emergence, to possess a considerable share of their +courage. She had remained standing motionless at the bar while the +sentence was pronounced, and was observed to shut her eyes when the +Doomster appeared. But she was the first to break silence when that evil +form had left his place. + +"God forgive ye, my Lords," she said, "and dinna be angry wi' me for +wishing it--we a' need forgiveness.--As for myself, I canna blame ye, for +ye act up to your lights; and if I havena killed my poor infant, ye may +witness a' that hae seen it this day, that I hae been the means of +killing my greyheaded father--I deserve the warst frae man, and frae God +too--But God is mair mercifu' to us than we are to each other." + +With these words the trial concluded. The crowd rushed, bearing forward +and shouldering each other, out of the Court, in the same tumultuary mode +in which they had entered; and, in excitation of animal motion and animal +spirits, soon forgot whatever they had felt as impressive in the scene +which they had witnessed. The professional spectators, whom habit and +theory had rendered as callous to the distress of the scene as medical +men are to those of a surgical operation, walked homeward in groups, +discussing the general principle of the statute under which the young +woman was condemned, the nature of the evidence, and the arguments of the +counsel, without considering even that of the Judge as exempt from their +criticism. + +The female spectators, more compassionate, were loud in exclamation +against that part of the Judge's speech which seemed to cut off the hope +of pardon. + +"Set him up, indeed," said Mrs. Howden, "to tell us that the poor lassie +behoved to die, when Mr. John Kirk, as civil a gentleman as is within the +ports of the town, took the pains to prigg for her himsell." + +"Ay, but, neighbour," said Miss Damahoy, drawing up her thin maidenly +form to its full height of prim dignity--"I really think this unnatural +business of having bastard-bairns should be putten a stop to.--There isna +a hussy now on this side of thirty that you can bring within your doors, +but there will be chields--writer-lads, prentice-lads, and what not-- +coming traiking after them for their destruction, and discrediting ane's +honest house into the bargain--I hae nae patience wi' them." + +"Hout, neighbour," said Mrs. Howden, "we suld live and let live--we hae +been young oursells, and we are no aye to judge the warst when lads and +lasses forgather." + +"Young oursells! and judge the warst!" said Miss Damahoy. "I am no sae +auld as that comes to, Mrs. Howden; and as for what ye ca' the warst, I +ken neither good nor bad about the matter, I thank my stars!" + +"Ye are thankfu' for sma' mercies, then," said Mrs. Howden with a toss of +her head; "and as for you and young--I trow ye were doing for yoursell at +the last riding of the Scots Parliament, and that was in the gracious +year seven, sae ye can be nae sic chicken at ony rate." + +Plumdamas, who acted as squire of the body to the two contending dames, +instantly saw the hazard of entering into such delicate points of +chronology, and being a lover of peace and good neighbourhood, lost no +time in bringing back the conversation to its original subject. + +"The Judge didna tell us a' he could hae tell'd us, if he had liked, +about the application for pardon, neighbours," said he "there is aye a +wimple in a lawyer's clew; but it's a wee bit of a secret." + +"And what is't--what is't, neighbour Plumdamas?" said Mrs. Howden and +Miss Damahoy at once, the acid fermentation of their dispute being at +once neutralised by the powerful alkali implied in the word secret. + +"Here's Mr. Saddletree can tell ye that better than me, for it was him +that tauld me," said Plumdamas as Saddletree came up, with his wife +hanging on his arm, and looking very disconsolate. + +When the question was put to Saddletree, he looked very scornful. "They +speak about stopping the frequency of child-murder," said he, in a +contemptuous tone; "do ye think our auld enemies of England, as Glendook +aye ca's them in his printed Statute-book, care a boddle whether we didna +kill ane anither, skin and birn, horse and foot, man, woman, and bairns, +all and sindry, /omnes et singulos,/ as Mr. Crossmyloof says? Na, na, +it's no /that/ hinders them frae pardoning the bit lassie. But here is +the pinch of the plea. The king and queen are sae ill pleased wi' that +mistak about Porteous, that deil a kindly Scot will they pardon again, +either by reprieve or remission, if the haill town o' Edinburgh should be +a' hanged on ae tow." + +"Deil that they were back at their German kale-yard then, as my neighbour +MacCroskie ca's it," said Mrs. Howden, "an that's the way they're gaun to +guide us!" + +"They say for certain," said Miss Damahoy, "that King George flang his +periwig in the fire when he heard o' the Porteous mob." + +"He has done that, they say," replied Saddletree, "for less thing." + +"Aweel," said Miss Damahoy, "he might keep mair wit in his anger--but +it's a' the better for his wigmaker, I'se warrant." + +"The queen tore her biggonets for perfect anger,--ye'll hae heard o' that +too?" said Plumdamas. "And the king, they say, kickit Sir Robert Walpole +for no keeping down the mob of Edinburgh; but I dinna believe he wad +behave sae ungenteel." + +"It's dooms truth, though," said Saddletree; "and he was for kickin' the +Duke of Argyle* too." + +* Note O. John Duke of Argyle and Greenwich. + +"Kickin' the Duke of Argyle!" exclaimed the hearers at once, in all the +various combined keys of utter astonishment. + +"Ay, but MacCallummore's blood wadna sit down wi' that; there was risk of +Andro Ferrara coming in thirdsman." + +"The duke is a real Scotsman--a true friend to the country," answered +Saddletree's hearers. + +"Ay, troth is he, to king and country baith, as ye sall hear," continued +the orator, "if ye will come in bye to our house, for it's safest +speaking of sic things /inter parietes./" + +When they entered his shop, he thrust his prentice boy out of it, and, +unlocking his desk, took out, with an air of grave and complacent +importance, a dirty and crumpled piece of printed paper; he observed, +"This is new corn--it's no every body could show you the like o' this. +It's the duke's speech about the Porteous mob, just promulgated by the +hawkers. Ye shall hear what Ian Roy Cean* says for himsell. + +* Red John the warrior, a name personal and proper in the Highlands to +John Duke of Argyle and Greenwich, as MacCummin was that of his race or +dignity. + +My correspondent bought it in the Palace-yard, that's like just under the +king's nose--I think he claws up their mittans!--It came in a letter +about a foolish bill of exchange that the man wanted me to renew for him. +I wish ye wad see about it, Mrs. Saddletree." + +Honest Mrs. Saddletree had hitherto been so sincerely distressed about +the situation of her unfortunate prote'ge'e, that she had suffered her +husband to proceed in his own way, without attending to what he was +saying. The words bills and renew had, however, an awakening sound in +them; and she snatched the letter which her husband held towards her, and +wiping her eyes, and putting on her spectacles, endeavoured, as fast as +the dew which collected on her glasses would permit, to get at the +meaning of the needful part of the epistle; while her husband, with +pompous elevation, read an extract from the speech. + +"I am no minister, I never was a minister, and I never will be one" + +"I didna ken his Grace was ever designed for the ministry," interrupted +Mrs. Howden. + +"He disna mean a minister of the gospel, Mrs. Howden, but a minister of +state," said Saddletree, with condescending goodness, and then proceeded: +"The time was when I might have been a piece of a minister, but I was too +sensible of my own incapacity to engage in any state affair. And I thank +God that I had always too great a value for those few abilities which +Nature has given me, to employ them in doing any drudgery, or any job of +what kind soever. I have, ever since I set out in the world (and I +believe few have set out more early), served my prince with my tongue; I +have served him with any little interest I had, and I have served him +with my sword, and in my profession of arms. I have held employments +which I have lost, and were I to be to-morrow deprived of those which +still remain to me, and which I have endeavoured honestly to deserve, I +would still serve him to the last acre of my inheritance, and to the last +drop of my blood" + +Mrs. Saddletree here broke in upon the orator:--"Mr. Saddletree, what +/is/ the meaning of a' this? Here are ye clavering about the Duke of +Argyle, and this man Martingale gaun to break on our hands, and lose us +gude sixty pounds--I wonder what duke will pay that, quotha--I wish the +Duke of Argyle would pay his ain accounts--He is in a thousand punds +Scots on thae very books when he was last at Roystoun--I'm no saying but +he's a just nobleman, and that it's gude siller--but it wad drive ane +daft to be confused wi' deukes and drakes, and thae distressed folk +up-stairs, that's Jeanie Deans and her father. And then, putting the very +callant that was sewing the curpel out o' the shop, to play wi' +blackguards in the close--Sit still, neighbours, it's no that I mean to +disturb /you;/ but what between courts o' law and courts o' state, and +upper and under parliaments, and parliament houses, here and in London, +the gudeman's gane clean gyte, I think." + +The gossips understood civility, and the rule of doing as they would be +done by, too well, to tarry upon the slight invitation implied in the +conclusion of this speech, and therefore made their farewells and +departure as fast as possible, Saddletree whispering to Plundamas that he +would "meet him at MacCroskie's" (the low-browed shop in the +Luckenbooths, already mentioned), "in the hour of cause, and put +MacCallummore's speech in his pocket, for a' the gudewife's din." + +When Mrs. Saddletree saw the house freed of her importunate visitors, and +the little boy reclaimed from the pastimes of the wynd to the exercise of +the awl, she went to visit her unhappy relative, David Deans, and his +elder daughter, who had found in her house the nearest place of friendly +refuge. + + + + + + + VOLUME TWO. + + + THE HEART OF MID-LOTHIAN + + By Walter Scott + + TALES OF MY LANDLORD + + COLLECTED AND ARRANGED + + BY JEDEDIAH CLEISHBOTHAM, + + SCHOOLMASTER AND PARISH CLERK OF GANDERCLEUGH. + + + + SECOND SERIES. + + THE HEART OF MID-LOTHIAN. + + + + + CHAPTER FIRST. + + Isab.--Alas! what poor ability's in me + To do him good? + Lucio.--Assay the power you have. + Measure for Measure. + +When Mrs. Saddletree entered the apartment in which her guests had +shrouded their misery, she found the window darkened. The feebleness +which followed his long swoon had rendered it necessary to lay the old +man in bed. The curtains were drawn around him, and Jeanie sate +motionless by the side of the bed. Mrs. Saddletree was a woman of +kindness, nay, of feeling, but not of delicacy. She opened the half-shut +window, drew aside the curtain, and, taking her kinsman by the hand, +exhorted him to sit up, and bear his sorrow like a good man, and a +Christian man, as he was. But when she quitted his hand, it fell +powerless by his side, nor did he attempt the least reply. + +"Is all over?" asked Jeanie, with lips and cheeks as pale as ashes,--"and +is there nae hope for her?" + +"Nane, or next to nane," said Mrs. Saddletree; "I heard the Judge-carle +say it with my ain ears--It was a burning shame to see sae mony o' them +set up yonder in their red gowns and black gowns, and to take the life o' +a bit senseless lassie. I had never muckle broo o' my gudeman's gossips, +and now I like them waur than ever. The only wiselike thing I heard +onybody say, was decent Mr. John Kirk of Kirk-knowe, and he wussed them +just to get the king's mercy, and nae mair about it. But he spake to +unreasonable folk--he might just hae keepit his breath to hae blawn on +his porridge." + +"But /can/ the king gie her mercy?" said Jeanie, earnestly. "Some folk +tell me he canna gie mercy in cases of mur in cases like hers." + +"/Can/ he gie mercy, hinny?--I weel I wot he can, when he likes. There +was young Singlesword, that stickit the Laird of Ballencleuch, and +Captain Hackum, the Englishman, that killed Lady Colgrain's gudeman, and +the Master of Saint Clair, that shot the twa Shaws,* and mony mair in my +time--to be sure they were gentle blood, and had their, kin to speak for +them--And there was Jock Porteous the other day--I'se warrant there's +mercy, an folk could win at it." + +* [In 1828, the Author presented to the Roxburgh Club a curious volume +containing the "Proceedings in the Court-Martial held upon John, Master +of Sinclair, for the murder of Ensign Schaw, and Captain Schaw, 17th +October 1708."] + +"Porteous?" said Jeanie; "very true--I forget a' that I suld maist mind. +--Fare ye weel, Mrs. Saddletree; and may ye never want a friend in the +hour of distress!" + +"Will ye no stay wi' your father, Jeanie, bairn?--Ye had better," said +Mrs. Saddletree. + +"I will be wanted ower yonder," indicating the Tolbooth with her hand, +"and I maun leave him now, or I will never be able to leave him. I fearna +for his life--I ken how strong-hearted he is--I ken it," she said, laying +her hand on her bosom, "by my ain heart at this minute." + +"Weel, hinny, if ye think it's for the best, better he stay here and rest +him, than gang back to St. Leonard's." + +"Muckle better--muckle better--God bless you!--God bless you!--At no rate +let him gang till ye hear frae me," said Jeanie. + +"But ye'll be back belive?" said Mrs. Saddletree, detaining her; "they +winna let ye stay yonder, hinny." + +"But I maun gang to St. Leonard's--there's muckle to be dune, and little +time to do it in--And I have friends to speak to--God bless you--take +care of my father." + +She had reached the door of the apartment, when, suddenly turning, she +came back, and knelt down by the bedside.--"O father, gie me your +blessing--I dare not go till ye bless me. Say but 'God bless ye, and +prosper ye, Jeanie'--try but to say that!" + +Instinctively, rather than by an exertion of intellect, the old man +murmured a prayer, that "purchased and promised blessings might be +multiplied upon her." + +"He has blessed mine errand," said his daughter, rising from her knees, +"and it is borne in upon my mind that I shall prosper." + +So saying, she left the room. + +Mrs. Saddletree looked after her, and shook her head. "I wish she binna +roving, poor thing--There's something queer about a' thae Deanses. I +dinna like folk to be sae muckle better than other folk--seldom comes +gude o't. But if she's gaun to look after the kye at St. Leonard's, +that's another story; to be sure they maun be sorted.--Grizzie, come up +here, and tak tent to the honest auld man, and see he wants naething.--Ye +silly tawpie" (addressing the maid-servant as she entered), "what garr'd +ye busk up your cockemony that gate?--I think there's been enough the day +to gie an awfa' warning about your cockups and your fallal duds--see what +they a' come to," etc. etc. etc. + +Leaving the good lady to her lecture upon worldly vanities, we must +transport our reader to the cell in which the unfortunate Effie Deans was +now immured, being restricted of several liberties which she had enjoyed +before the sentence was pronounced. + +When she had remained about an hour in the state of stupified horror so +natural in her situation, she was disturbed by the opening of the jarring +bolts of her place of confinement, and Ratcliffe showed himself. "It's +your sister," he said, "wants to speak t'ye, Effie." + +"I canna see naebody," said Effie, with the hasty irritability which +misery had rendered more acute--"I canna see naebody, and least of a' +her--Bid her take care o' the auld man--I am naething to ony o' them now, +nor them to me." + +"She says she maun see ye, though," said Ratcliffe; and Jeanie, rushing +into the apartment, threw her arms round her sister's neck, who writhed +to extricate herself from her embrace. + +"What signifies coming to greet ower me," said poor Effie, "when you have +killed me?--killed me, when a word of your mouth would have saved me-- +killed me, when I am an innocent creature--innocent of that guilt at +least--and me that wad hae wared body and soul to save your finger from +being hurt?" + +"You shall not die," said Jeanie, with enthusiastic firmness; "say what +you like o' me--think what you like o' me--only promise--for I doubt your +proud heart--that ye wunna harm yourself, and you shall not die this +shameful death." + +"A /shameful/ death I will not die, Jeanie, lass. I have that in my +heart--though it has been ower kind a ane--that wunna bide shame. Gae +hame to our father, and think nae mair on me--I have eat my last earthly +meal." + +"Oh, this was what I feared!" said Jeanie. + +"Hout, tout, hinny," said Ratcliffe; "it's but little ye ken o' thae +things. Ane aye thinks at the first dinnle o' the sentence, they hae +heart eneugh to die rather than bide out the sax weeks; but they aye bide +the sax weeks out for a' that. I ken the gate o't weel; I hae fronted the +doomster three times, and here I stand, Jim Ratcliffe, for a' that. Had I +tied my napkin strait the first time, as I had a great mind till't--and +it was a' about a bit grey cowt, wasna worth ten punds sterling--where +would I have been now?" + +"And how /did/ you escape?" said Jeanie, the fates of this man, at first +so odious to her, having acquired a sudden interest in her eyes from +their correspondence with those of her sister. + +"/How/ did I escape?" said Ratcliffe, with a knowing wink,--"I tell ye I +'scapit in a way that naebody will escape from this Tolbooth while I keep +the keys." + +"My sister shall come out in the face of the sun," said Jeanie; "I will +go to London, and beg her pardon from the king and queen. If they +pardoned Porteous, they may pardon her; if a sister asks a sister's life +on her bended knees, they will pardon her--they /shall/ pardon her--and +they will win a thousand hearts by it." + +Effie listened in bewildered astonishment, and so earnest was her +sister's enthusiastic assurance, that she almost involuntarily caught a +gleam of hope; but it instantly faded away. + +"Ah, Jeanie! the king and queen live in London, a thousand miles from +this--far ayont the saut sea; I'll be gane before ye win there." + +"You are mistaen," said Jeanie; "it is no sae far, and they go to it by +land; I learned something about thae things from Reuben Butler." + +"Ah, Jeanie! ye never learned onything but what was gude frae the folk ye +keepit company wi'; but!--but!"--she wrung her hands and wept bitterly. + +"Dinna think on that now," said Jeanie; "there will be time for that if +the present space be redeemed. Fare ye weel. Unless I die by the road, I +will see the king's face that gies grace--O, sir" (to Ratcliffe), "be +kind to her--She ne'er ken'd what it was to need a stranger's kindness +till now.--Fareweel--fareweel, Effie!--Dinna speak to me--I maunna greet +now--my head's ower dizzy already!" + +She tore herself from her sister's arms, and left the cell. Ratcliffe +followed her, and beckoned her into a small room. She obeyed his signal, +but not without trembling. + +"What's the fule thing shaking for?" said he; "I mean nothing but +civility to you. D--n me, I respect you, and I can't help it. You have so +much spunk, that d--n me, but I think there's some chance of your +carrying the day. But you must not go to the king till you have made some +friend; try the duke--try MacCallummore; he's Scotland's friend--I ken +that the great folks dinna muckle like him--but they fear him, and that +will serve your purpose as weel. D'ye ken naebody wad gie ye a letter to +him?" + +"Duke of Argyle!" said Jeanie, recollecting herself suddenly, "what was +he to that Argyle that suffered in my father's time--in the persecution?" + +"His son or grandson, I'm thinking," said Ratcliffe, "but what o' that?" + +"Thank God!" said Jeanie, devoutly clasping her hands. + +"You whigs are aye thanking God for something," said the ruffian. "But +hark ye, hinny, I'll tell ye a secret. Ye may meet wi' rough customers on +the Border, or in the Midland, afore ye get to Lunnon. Now, deil ane o' +them will touch an acquaintance o' Daddie Ratton's; for though I am +retired frae public practice, yet they ken I can do a gude or an ill turn +yet--and deil a gude fellow that has been but a twelvemonth on the lay, +be he ruffler or padder, but he knows my gybe* as well as the jark** of +e'er a queer cuffin*** in England--and there's rogue's Latin for you." + +* Pass. +** Seal. +*** Justice of Peace. + +It was indeed totally unintelligible to Jeanie Deans, who was only +impatient to escape from him. He hastily scrawled a line or two on a +dirty piece of paper, and said to her, as she drew back when he offered +it, "Hey!--what the deil--it wunna bite you, my lass--if it does nae +gude, it can do nae ill. But I wish you to show it, if you have ony +fasherie wi' ony o' St. Nicholas's clerks." + +"Alas!" said she, "I do not understand what you mean." + +"I mean, if ye fall among thieves, my precious,--that is a Scripture +phrase, if ye will hae ane--the bauldest of them will ken a scart o' my +guse feather. And now awa wi' ye--and stick to Argyle; if onybody can do +the job, it maun be him." + +After casting an anxious look at the grated windows and blackened walls +of the old Tolbooth, and another scarce less anxious at the hospitable +lodging of Mrs. Saddletree, Jeanie turned her back on that quarter, and +soon after on the city itself. She reached St. Leonard's Crags without +meeting any one whom she knew, which, in the state of her mind, she +considered as a great blessing. "I must do naething," she thought, as she +went along, "that can soften or weaken my heart--it's ower weak already +for what I hae to do. I will think and act as firmly as I can, and speak +as little." + +There was an ancient servant, or rather cottar, of her father's, who had +lived under him for many years, and whose fidelity was worthy of full +confidence. She sent for this woman, and explaining to her that the +circumstances of her family required that she should undertake a journey, +which would detain her for some weeks from home, she gave her full +instructions concerning the management of the domestic concerns in her +absence. With a precision, which, upon reflection, she herself could not +help wondering at, she described and detailed the most minute steps which +were to be taken, and especially such as were necessary for her father's +comfort. "It was probable," she said, "that he would return to St. +Leonard's to-morrow! certain that he would return very soon--all must be +in order for him. He had eneugh to distress him, without being fashed +about warldly matters." + +In the meanwhile she toiled busily, along with May Hettly, to leave +nothing unarranged. + +It was deep in the night when all these matters were settled; and when +they had partaken of some food, the first which Jeanie had tasted on that +eventful day, May Hettly, whose usual residence was a cottage at a little +distance from Deans's house, asked her young mistress, whether she would +not permit her to remain in the house all night? "Ye hae had an awfu' +day," she said, "and sorrow and fear are but bad companions in the +watches of the night, as I hae heard the gudeman say himself." + +"They are ill companions indeed," said Jeanie; "but I maun learn to abide +their presence, and better begin in the house than in the field." + +She dismissed her aged assistant accordingly,--for so slight was the +gradation in their rank of life, that we can hardly term May a servant,-- +and proceeded to make a few preparations for her journey. + +The simplicity of her education and country made these preparations very +brief and easy. Her tartan screen served all the purposes of a +riding-habit and of an umbrella; a small bundle contained such changes of +linen as were absolutely necessary. Barefooted, as Sancho says, she had +come into the world, and barefooted she proposed to perform her +pilgrimage; and her clean shoes and change of snow-white thread stockings +were to be reserved for special occasions of ceremony. She was not aware, +that the English habits of comfort attach an idea of abject misery to the +idea of a barefooted traveller; and if the objection of cleanliness had +been made to the practice, she would have been apt to vindicate herself +upon the very frequent ablutions to which, with Mahometan scrupulosity, a +Scottish damsel of some condition usually subjects herself. Thus far, +therefore, all was well. + +From an oaken press, or cabinet, in which her father kept a few old +books, and two or three bundles of papers, besides his ordinary accounts +and receipts, she sought out and extracted from a parcel of notes of +sermons, calculations of interest, records of dying speeches of the +martyrs, and the like, one or two documents which she thought might be of +some use to her upon her mission. But the most important difficulty +remained behind, and it had not occurred to her until that very evening. +It was the want of money; without which it was impossible she could +undertake so distant a journey as she now meditated. + +David Deans, as we have said, was easy, and even opulent in his +circumstances. But his wealth, like that of the patriarchs of old, +consisted in his kine and herds, and in two or three sums lent out at +interest to neighbours or relatives, who, far from being in circumstances +to pay anything to account of the principal sums, thought they did all +that was incumbent on them when, with considerable difficulty, they +discharged the "annual rent." To these debtors it would be in vain, +therefore, to apply, even with her father's concurrence; nor could she +hope to obtain such concurrence, or assistance in any mode, without such +a series of explanations and debates as she felt might deprive her +totally of the power of taking the step, which, however daring and +hazardous, she felt was absolutely necessary for trying the last chance +in favour of her sister. Without departing from filial reverence, Jeanie +had an inward conviction that the feelings of her father, however just, +and upright, and honourable, were too little in unison with the spirit of +the time to admit of his being a good judge of the measures to be adopted +in this crisis. Herself more flexible in manner, though no less upright +in principle, she felt that to ask his consent to her pilgrimage would be +to encounter the risk of drawing down his positive prohibition, and under +that she believed her journey could not be blessed in its progress and +event. Accordingly, she had determined upon the means by which she might +communicate to him her undertaking and its purpose, shortly after her +actual departure. But it was impossible to apply to him for money without +altering this arrangement, and discussing fully the propriety of her +journey; pecuniary assistance from that quarter, therefore, was laid out +of the question. + +It now occurred to Jeanie that she should have consulted with Mrs. +Saddletree on this subject. But, besides the time that must now +necessarily be lost in recurring to her assistance Jeanie internally +revolted from it. Her heart acknowledged the goodness of Mrs. +Saddletree's general character, and the kind interest she took in their +family misfortunes; but still she felt that Mrs. Saddletree was a woman +of an ordinary and worldly way of thinking, incapable, from habit and +temperament, of taking a keen or enthusiastic view of such a resolution +as she had formed; and to debate the point with her, and to rely upon her +conviction of its propriety, for the means of carrying it into execution, +would have been gall and wormwood. + +Butler, whose assistance she might have been assured of, was greatly +poorer than herself. In these circumstances, she formed a singular +resolution for the purpose of surmounting this difficulty, the execution +of which will form the subject of the next chapter. + + + + + CHAPTER SECOND + + + 'Tis the voice of the sluggard, I've heard him complain, + "You have waked me too soon, I must slumber again;" + As the door on its hinges, so he on his bed, + Turns his side, and his shoulders, and his heavy head. + Dr. Watts. + +The mansion-house of Dumbiedikes, to which we are now to introduce our +readers, lay three or four miles--no matter for the exact topography--to +the southward of St. Leonard's. It had once borne the appearance of some +little celebrity; for the "auld laird," whose humours and pranks were +often mentioned in the ale-houses for about a mile round it, wore a +sword, kept a good horse, and a brace of greyhounds; brawled, swore, and +betted at cock-fights and horse-matches; followed Somerville of Drum's +hawks, and the Lord Ross's hounds, and called himself /point devise/ a +gentleman. But the line had been veiled of its splendour in the present +proprietor, who cared for no rustic amusements, and was as saying, timid, +and retired, as his father had been at once grasping and selfishly +extravagant--daring, wild, and intrusive. + +Dumbiedikes was what is called in Scotland a single house; that is, +having only one room occupying its whole depth from back to front, each +of which single apartments was illuminated by six or eight cross lights, +whose diminutive panes and heavy frames permitted scarce so much light to +enter as shines through one well-constructed modern window. This +inartificial edifice, exactly such as a child would build with cards, had +a steep roof flagged with coarse grey stones instead of slates; a +half-circular turret, battlemented, or, to use the appropriate phrase, +bartizan'd on the top, served as a case for a narrow turnpike stair, by +which an ascent was gained from storey to storey; and at the bottom of +the said turret was a door studded with large-headed nails. There was no +lobby at the bottom of the tower, and scarce a landing-place opposite to +the doors which gave access to the apartments. One or two low and +dilapidated outhouses, connected by a courtyard wall equally ruinous, +surrounded the mansion. The court had been paved, but the flags being +partly displaced and partly renewed, a gallant crop of docks and thistles +sprung up between them, and the small garden, which opened by a postern +through the wall, seemed not to be in a much more orderly condition. Over +the low-arched gateway which led into the yard there was a carved stone, +exhibiting some attempt at armorial bearings; and above the inner +entrance hung, and had hung, for many years, the mouldering hatchment, +which announced that umquhile Laurence Dumbie of Dumbiedikes had been +gathered to his fathers in Newbattle kirkyard. The approach to this +palace of pleasure was by a road formed by the rude fragments of stone +gathered from the fields, and it was surrounded by ploughed, but +unenclosed land. Upon a baulk, that is, an unploughed ridge of land +interposed among the corn, the Laird's trusty palfrey was tethered by the +head, and picking a meal of grass. The whole argued neglect and +discomfort; the consequence, however, of idleness and indifference, not +of poverty. + +In this inner court, not without a sense of bashfulness and timidity, +stood Jeanie Deans, at an early hour in a fine spring morning. She was no +heroine of romance, and therefore looked with some curiosity and interest +on the mansion-house and domains, of which, it might at that moment occur +to her, a little encouragement, such as women of all ranks know by +instinct how to apply, might have made her mistress. Moreover, she was no +person of taste beyond her time, rank, and country, and certainly thought +the house of Dumbiedikes, though inferior to Holyrood House, or the +palace at Dalkeith, was still a stately structure in its way, and the +land a "very bonny bit, if it were better seen to and done to." But +Jeanie Deans was a plain, true-hearted, honest girl, who, while she +acknowledged all the splendour of her old admirer's habitation, and the +value of his property, never for a moment harboured a thought of doing +the Laird, Butler, or herself, the injustice, which many ladies of higher +rank would not have hesitated to do to all three on much less temptation. + +Her present errand being with the Laird, she looked round the offices to +see if she could find any domestic to announce that she wished to see +him. As all was silence, she ventured to open one door--it was the old +Laird's dog-kennel, now deserted, unless when occupied, as one or two +tubs seemed to testify, as a washing-house. She tried another--it was the +rootless shed where the hawks had been once kept, as appeared from a +perch or two not yet completely rotten, and a lure and jesses which were +mouldering on the wall. A third door led to the coal-house, which was +well stocked. To keep a very good fire was one of the few points of +domestic management in which Dumbiedikes was positively active; in all +other matters of domestic economy he was completely passive, and at the +mercy of his housekeeper--the same buxom dame whom his father had long +since bequeathed to his charge, and who, if fame did her no injustice, +had feathered her nest pretty well at his expense. + +Jeanie went on opening doors, like the second Calender wanting an eye, in +the castle of the hundred obliging damsels, until, like the said prince +errant, she came to a stable. The Highland Pegasus, Rory Bean, to which +belonged the single entire stall, was her old acquaintance, whom she had +seen grazing on the baulk, as she failed not to recognise by the +well-known ancient riding furniture and demi-pique saddle, which half +hung on the walls, half trailed on the litter. Beyond the "treviss," +which formed one side of the stall, stood a cow, who turned her head and +lowed when Jeanie came into the stable, an appeal which her habitual +occupations enabled her perfectly to understand, and with which she could +not refuse complying, by shaking down some fodder to the animal, which +had been neglected like most things else in the castle of the sluggard. + +While she was accommodating "the milky mother" with the food which she +should have received two hours sooner, a slipshod wench peeped into the +stable, and perceiving that a stranger was employed in discharging the +task which she, at length, and reluctantly, had quitted her slumbers to +perform, ejaculated, + +"Eh, sirs! the Brownie! the Brownie!" and fled, yelling as if she had +seen the devil. + +To explain her terror it may be necessary to notice that the old house of +Dumbiedikes had, according to report, been long haunted by a Brownie, one +of those familiar spirits who were believed in ancient times to supply +the deficiencies of the ordinary labourer-- + + +Whirl the long mop, and ply the airy flail. + +Certes, the convenience of such a supernatural assistance could have been +nowhere more sensibly felt than in a family where the domestics were so +little disposed to personal activity; yet this serving maiden was so far +from rejoicing in seeing a supposed aerial substitute discharging a task +which she should have long since performed herself, that she proceeded to +raise the family by her screams of horror, uttered as thick as if the +Brownie had been flaying her. Jeanie, who had immediately resigned her +temporary occupation, and followed the yelling damsel into the courtyard, +in order to undeceive and appease her, was there met by Mrs. Janet +Balchristie, the favourite sultana of the last Laird, as scandal went-- +the housekeeper of the present. The good-looking buxom woman, betwixt +forty and fifty (for such we described her at the death of the last +Laird), was now a fat, red-faced, old dame of seventy, or thereabouts, +fond of her place, and jealous of her authority. Conscious that her +administration did not rest on so sure a basis as in the time of the old +proprietor, this considerate lady had introduced into the family the +screamer aforesaid, who added good features and bright eyes to the powers +of her lungs. She made no conquest of the Laird, however, who seemed to +live as if there was not another woman in the world but Jeanie Deans, and +to bear no very ardent or overbearing affection even to her. Mrs. Janet +Balchristie, notwithstanding, had her own uneasy thoughts upon the almost +daily visits to St. Leonard's Crags, and often, when the Laird looked at +her wistfully and paused, according to his custom before utterance, she +expected him to say, "Jenny, I am gaun to change my condition;" but she +was relieved by, "Jenny, I am gaun to change my shoon." + +Still, however, Mrs. Balchristie regarded Jeanie Deans with no small +portion of malevolence, the customary feeling of such persons towards +anyone who they think has the means of doing them an injury. But she had +also a general aversion to any female tolerably young, and decently +well-looking, who showed a wish to approach the house of Dumbiedikes and +the proprietor thereof. And as she had raised her mass of mortality out +of bed two hours earlier than usual, to come to the rescue of her +clamorous niece, she was in such extreme bad humour against all and +sundry, that Saddletree would have pronounced that she harboured +/inimicitiam contra omnes mortales./ + +"Wha the deil are ye?" said the fat dame to poor Jeanie, whom she did not +immediately recognise, "scouping about a decent house at sic an hour in +the morning?" + +"It was ane wanting to speak to the Laird," said Jeanie, who felt +something of the intuitive terror which she had formerly entertained for +this termagant, when she was occasionally at Dumbiedikes on business of +her father's. + +"Ane!--And what sort of ane are ye!--hae ye nae name?--D'ye think his +honour has naething else to do than to speak wi' ilka idle tramper that +comes about the town, and him in his bed yet, honest man?" + +"Dear Mrs. Balchristie," replied Jeanie, in a submissive tone, "d'ye no +mind me?--d'ye no mind Jeanie Deans?" + +"Jeanie Deans!" said the termagant, in accents affecting the utmost +astonishment; then, taking two strides nearer to her, she peered into her +face with a stare of curiosity, equally scornful and malignant--"I say +Jeanie Deans indeed--Jeanie Deevil, they had better hae ca'ed ye!--A +bonny spot o' wark your tittie and you hae made out, murdering ae puir +wean, and your light limmer of a sister's to be hanged for't, as weel she +deserves!--And the like o' you to come to ony honest man's house, and +want to be into a decent bachelor gentleman's room at this time in the +morning, and him in his bed!--Gae wa', gae wa'!" + +Jeanie was struck mute with shame at the unfeeling brutality of this +accusation, and could not even find words to justify herself from the +vile construction put upon her visit. When Mrs. Balchristie, seeing her +advantage, continued in the same tone, "Come, come, bundle up your pipes +and tramp awa wi' ye!--ye may be seeking a father to another wean for ony +thing I ken. If it warna that your father, auld David Deans, had been a +tenant on our land, I would cry up the men-folk, and hae ye dookit in the +burn for your impudence." + +Jeanie had already turned her back, and was walking towards the door of +the court-yard, so that Mrs. Balchristie, to make her last threat +impressively audible to her, had raised her stentorian voice to its +utmost pitch. But, like many a general, she lost the engagement by +pressing her advantage too far. + +The Laird had been disturbed in his morning slumbers by the tones of Mrs. +Balchristie's objurgation, sounds in themselves by no means uncommon, but +very remarkable, in respect to the early hour at which they were now +heard. He turned himself on the other side, however, in hopes the squall +would blow by, when, in the course of Mrs. Balchristie's second explosion +of wrath, the name of Deans distinctly struck the tympanum of his ear. As +he was, in some degree, aware of the small portion of benevolence with +which his housekeeper regarded the family at St. Leonard's, he instantly +conceived that some message from thence was the cause of this untimely +ire, and getting out of his bed, he slipt as speedily as possible into an +old brocaded night-gown, and some other necessary garments, clapped on +his head his father's gold-laced hat (for though he was seldom seen +without it, yet it is proper to contradict the popular report that he +slept in it, as Don Quixote did in his helmet), and opening the window of +his bedroom, beheld, to his great astonishment, the well-known figure of +Jeanie Deans herself retreating from his gate; while his housekeeper, +with arms a-kimbo, fist clenched and extended, body erect, and head +shaking with rage, sent after her a volley of Billingsgate oaths. His +choler rose in proportion to the surprise, and, perhaps, to the +disturbance of his repose. "Hark ye," he exclaimed from the window, "ye +auld limb of Satan--wha the deil gies you commission to guide an honest +man's daughter that gate?" + +Mrs. Balchristie was completely caught in the manner. She was aware, from +the unusual warmth with which the Laird expressed himself, that he was +quite serious in this matter, and she knew, that with all his indolence +of nature, there were points on which he might be provoked, and that, +being provoked, he had in him something dangerous, which her wisdom +taught her to fear accordingly. She began, therefore, to retract her +false step as fast as she could. "She was but speaking for the house's +credit, and she couldna think of disturbing his honour in the morning sae +early, when the young woman might as weel wait or call again; and to be +sure, she might make a mistake between the twa sisters, for ane o' them +wasna sae creditable an acquaintance." + +"Haud your peace, ye auld jade," said Dumbiedikes; "the warst quean e'er +stude in their shoon may ca' you cousin, an a' be true that I have +heard.--Jeanie, my woman, gang into the parlour--but stay, that winna be +redd up yet--wait there a minute till I come down to let ye in--Dinna +mind what Jenny says to ye." + +"Na, na," said Jenny, with a laugh of affected heartiness, "never mind +me, lass--a' the warld kens my bark's waur than my bite--if ye had had an +appointment wi' the Laird, ye might hae tauld me--I am nae uncivil +person--gang your ways in by, hinny," and she opened the door of the +house with a master-key. + +"But I had no appointment wi' the Laird," said Jeanie, drawing back; "I +want just to speak twa words to him, and I wad rather do it standing +here, Mrs. Balchristie." + +"In the open court-yard!--Na, na, that wad never do, lass; we mauna guide +ye that gate neither--And how's that douce honest man, your father?" + +Jeanie was saved the pain of answering this hypocritical question by the +appearance of the Laird himself. + +"Gang in and get breakfast ready," said he to his housekeeper--"and, d'ye +hear, breakfast wi' us yoursell--ye ken how to manage thae porringers of +tea-water--and, hear ye, see abune a' that there's a gude fire.--Weel, +Jeanie, my woman, gang in by--gang in by, and rest ye." + +"Na, Laird," Jeanie replied, endeavouring as much as she could to express +herself with composure, notwithstanding she still trembled, "I canna gang +in--I have a lang day's darg afore me--I maun be twenty mile o' gate the +night yet, if feet will carry me." + +"Guide and deliver us!--twenty mile--twenty mile on your feet!" +ejaculated Dumbiedikes, whose walks were of a very circumscribed +diameter,--"Ye maun never think o' that--come in by." + +"I canna do that, Laird," replied Jeanie; "the twa words I have to say to +ye I can say here; forby that Mrs. Balchristie" + +"The deil flee awa wi' Mrs. Balchristie," said Dumbiedikes, "and he'll +hae a heavy lading o' her! I tell ye, Jeanie Deans, I am a man of few +words, but I am laird at hame, as well as in the field; deil a brute or +body about my house but I can manage when I like, except Rory Bean, my +powny; but I can seldom be at the plague, an it binna when my bluid's +up." + +"I was wanting to say to ye, Laird," said Jeanie, who felt the necessity +of entering upon her business, "that I was gaun a lang journey, outby of +my father's knowledge." + +"Outby his knowledge, Jeanie!--Is that right? Ye maun think ot again-- +it's no right," said Dumbiedikes, with a countenance of great concern. + +"If I were ance at Lunnon," said Jeanie, in exculpation, "I am amaist +sure I could get means to speak to the queen about my sister's life." + +"Lunnon--and the queen--and her sister's life!" said Dumbiedikes, +whistling for very amazement--"the lassie's demented." + +"I am no out o' my mind," said she, "and sink or swim, I am determined to +gang to Lunnon, if I suld beg my way frae door to door--and so I maun, +unless ye wad lend me a small sum to pay my expenses--little thing will +do it; and ye ken my father's a man of substance, and wad see nae man, +far less you, Laird, come to loss by me." + +Dumbiedikes, on comprehending the nature of this application, could +scarce trust his ears--he made no answer whatever, but stood with his +eyes rivetted on the ground. + +"I see ye are no for assisting me, Laird," said Jeanie, "sae fare ye +weel--and gang and see my poor father as aften as ye can--he will be +lonely eneugh now." + +"Where is the silly bairn gaun?" said Dumbiedikes; and, laying hold of +her hand, he led her into the house. "It's no that I didna think o't +before," he said, "but it stack in my throat." + +Thus speaking to himself, he led her into an old-fashioned parlour, shut +the door behind them, and fastened it with a bolt. While Jeanie, +surprised at this manoeuvre, remained as near the door as possible, the +Laird quitted her hand, and pressed upon a spring lock fixed in an oak +panel in the wainscot, which instantly slipped aside. An iron strong-box +was discovered in a recess of the wall; he opened this also, and pulling +out two or three drawers, showed that they were filled with leathern bags +full of gold and silver coin. + +"This is my bank, Jeanie lass," he said, looking first at her and then at +the treasure, with an air of great complacency,--"nane o' your +goldsmith's bills for me,--they bring folk to ruin." + +Then, suddenly changing his tone, he resolutely said,--"Jeanie, I will +make ye Lady Dumbiedikes afore the sun sets and ye may ride to Lunnon in +your ain coach, if ye like." + +"Na, Laird," said Jeanie, "that can never be--my father's grief--my +sister's situation--the discredit to you" + +"That's /my/ business," said Dumbiedikes; "ye wad say naething about that +if ye werena a fule--and yet I like ye the better for't--ae wise body's +eneugh in the married state. But if your heart's ower fu', take what +siller will serve ye, and let it be when ye come back again--as gude syne +as sune." + +"But, Laird," said Jeanie, who felt the necessity of being explicit with +so extraordinary a lover, "I like another man better than you, and I +canna marry ye." + +"Another man better than me, Jeanie!" said Dumbiedikes; "how is that +possible? It's no possible, woman--ye hae ken'd me sae lang." + +"Ay but, Laird," said Jeanie, with persevering simplicity, "I hae ken'd +him langer." + +"Langer! It's no possible!" exclaimed the poor Laird. "It canna be; ye +were born on the land. O Jeanie woman, ye haena lookit--ye haena seen the +half o' the gear." He drew out another drawer--"A' gowd, Jeanie, and +there's bands for siller lent--And the rental book, Jeanie--clear three +hunder sterling--deil a wadset, heritable band, or burden--Ye haena +lookit at them, woman--And then my mother's wardrobe, and my +grandmother's forby--silk gowns wad stand on their ends, their +pearline-lace as fine as spiders' webs, and rings and ear-rings to the +boot of a' that--they are a' in the chamber of deas--Oh, Jeanie, gang up +the stair and look at them!" + +But Jeanie held fast her integrity, though beset with temptations, which +perhaps the Laird of Dumbiedikes did not greatly err in supposing were +those most affecting to her sex. + +"It canna be, Laird--I have said it--and I canna break my word till him, +if ye wad gie me the haill barony of Dalkeith, and Lugton into the +bargain." + +"Your word to /him,/" said the Laird, somewhat pettishly; "but wha is he, +Jeanie?--wha is he?--I haena heard his name yet--Come now, Jeanie, ye are +but queering us--I am no trowing that there is sic a ane in the warld--ye +are but making fashion--What is he?--wha is he?" + +"Just Reuben Butler, that's schulemaster at Liberton," said Jeanie. + +"Reuben Butler! Reuben Butler!" echoed the Laird of Dumbiedikes, pacing +the apartment in high disdain,--"Reuben Butler, the dominie at Liberton-- +and a dominie depute too!--Reuben, the son of my cottar!--Very weel, +Jeanie lass, wilfu' woman will hae her way--Reuben Butler! he hasna in +his pouch the value o' the auld black coat he wears--But it disna +signify." And as he spoke, he shut successively and with vehemence the +drawers of his treasury. "A fair offer, Jeanie, is nae cause of feud--Ae +man may bring a horse to the water, but twenty winna gar him drink--And +as for wasting my substance on other folk's joes" + +There was something in the last hint that nettled Jeanie's honest pride. +--"I was begging nane frae your honour," she said; "least of a' on sic a +score as ye pit it on.--Gude morning to ye, sir; ye hae been kind to my +father, and it isna in my heart to think otherwise than kindly of you." + +So saying, she left the room without listening to a faint "But, Jeanie-- +Jeanie--stay, woman!" and traversing the courtyard with a quick step, she +set out on her forward journey, her bosom glowing with that natural +indignation and shame, which an honest mind feels at having subjected +itself to ask a favour, which had been unexpectedly refused. When out of +the Laird's ground, and once more upon the public road, her pace +slackened, her anger cooled, and anxious anticipations of the consequence +of this unexpected disappointment began to influence her with other +feelings. Must she then actually beg her way to London? for such seemed +the alternative; or must she turn back, and solicit her father for money? +and by doing so lose time, which was precious, besides the risk of +encountering his positive prohibition respecting the journey! Yet she saw +no medium between these alternatives; and, while she walked slowly on, +was still meditating whether it were not better to return. + +While she was thus in an uncertainty, she heard the clatter of a horse's +hoofs, and a well-known voice calling her name. She looked round, and saw +advancing towards her on a pony, whose bare back and halter assorted ill +with the nightgown, slippers, and laced cocked-hat of the rider, a +cavalier of no less importance than Dumbiedikes himself. In the energy of +his pursuit, he had overcome even the Highland obstinacy of Rory Bean, +and compelled that self-willed palfrey to canter the way his rider chose; +which Rory, however, performed with all the symptoms of reluctance, +turning his head, and accompanying every bound he made in advance with a +sidelong motion, which indicated his extreme wish to turn round,--a +manoeuvre which nothing but the constant exercise of the Laird's heels +and cudgel could possibly have counteracted. + +When the Laird came up with Jeanie, the first words he uttered were,-- +"Jeanie, they say ane shouldna aye take a woman at her first word?" + +"Ay, but ye maun take me at mine, Laird," said Jeanie, looking on the +ground, and walking on without a pause.--"I hae but ae word to bestow on +ony body, and that's aye a true ane." + +"Then," said Dumbiedikes, "at least ye suldna aye take a man at /his/ +first word. Ye maunna gang this wilfu' gate sillerless, come o't what +like."--He put a purse into her hand. "I wad gie you Rory too, but he's +as wilfu' as yoursell, and he's ower weel used to a gate that maybe he +and I hae gaen ower aften, and he'll gang nae road else." + +"But, Laird," said Jeanie, "though I ken my father will satisfy every +penny of this siller, whatever there's o't, yet I wadna like to borrow it +frae ane that maybe thinks of something mair than the paying o't back +again." + +"There's just twenty-five guineas o't," said Dumbiedikes, with a gentle +sigh, "and whether your father pays or disna pay, I make ye free till't +without another word. Gang where ye like--do what ye like--and marry a' +the Butlers in the country gin ye like--And sae, gude morning to you, +Jeanie." + +"And God bless you, Laird, wi' mony a gude morning!" said Jeanie, her +heart more softened by the unwonted generosity of this uncouth character, +than perhaps Butler might have approved, had he known her feelings at +that moment; "and comfort, and the Lord's peace, and the peace of the +world, be with you, if we suld never meet again!" + +Dumbiedikes turned and waved his hand; and his pony, much more willing to +return than he had been to set out, hurried him homeward so fast, that, +wanting the aid of a regular bridle, as well as of saddle and stirrups, +he was too much puzzled to keep his seat to permit of his looking behind, +even to give the parting glance of a forlorn swain. I am ashamed to say, +that the sight of a lover, ran away with in nightgown and slippers and a +laced hat, by a bare-backed Highland pony, had something in it of a +sedative, even to a grateful and deserved burst of affectionate esteem. +The figure of Dumbiedikes was too ludicrous not to confirm Jeanie in the +original sentiments she entertained towards him. + +"He's a gude creature," said she, "and a kind--it's a pity he has sae +willyard a powny." And she immediately turned her thoughts to the +important journey which she had commenced, reflecting with pleasure, +that, according to her habits of life and of undergoing fatigue, she was +now amply or even superfluously provided with the means of encountering +the expenses of the road, up and down from London, and all other expenses +whatever. + + + + + + CHAPTER THIRD + + What strange and wayward thoughts will slide + Into a lover's head; + "O mercy!" to myself I cried, + "If Lucy should be dead!" + Wordsworth. + +In pursuing her solitary journey, our heroine, soon after passing the +house of Dumbiedikes, gained a little eminence, from which, on looking to +the eastward down a prattling brook, whose meanders were shaded with +straggling widows and alder trees, she could see the cottages of Woodend +and Beersheba, the haunts and habitation of her early life, and could +distinguish the common on which she had so often herded sheep, and the +recesses of the rivulet where she had pulled rushes with Butler, to plait +crowns and sceptres for her sister Effie, then a beautiful but spoiled +child, of about three years old. The recollections which the scene +brought with them were so bitter, that, had she indulged them, she would +have sate down and relieved her heart with tears. + +"But I ken'd," said Jeanie, when she gave an account of her pilgrimage, +"that greeting would do but little good, and that it was mair beseeming +to thank the Lord, that had showed me kindness and countenance by means +of a man, that mony ca'd a Nabal, and churl, but wha was free of his +gudes to me, as ever the fountain was free of the stream. And I minded +the Scripture about the sin of Israel at Meribah, when the people +murmured, although Moses had brought water from the dry rock that the +congregation might drink and live. Sae, I wad not trust mysell with +another look at puir Woodend, for the very blue reek that came out of the +lum-head pat me in mind of the change of market days with us." + +In this resigned and Christian temper she pursued her journey until she +was beyond this place of melancholy recollections, and not distant from +the village where Butler dwelt, which, with its old-fashioned church and +steeple, rises among a tuft of trees, occupying the ridge of an eminence +to the south of Edinburgh. At a quarter of a mile's distance is a clumsy +square tower, the residence of the Laird of Liberton, who, in former +times, with the habits of the predatory chivalry of Germany, is said +frequently to have annoyed the city of Edinburgh, by intercepting the +supplies and merchandise which came to the town from the southward. + +This village, its tower, and its church, did not lie precisely in +Jeanie's road towards England; but they were not much aside from it, and +the village was the abode of Butler. She had resolved to see him in the +beginning of her journey, because she conceived him the most proper +person to write to her father concerning her resolution and her hopes. +There was probably another reason latent in her affectionate bosom. She +wished once more to see the object of so early and so sincere an +attachment, before commencing a pilgrimage, the perils of which she did +not disguise from herself, although she did not allow them so to press +upon her mind as to diminish the strength and energy of her resolution. A +visit to a lover from a young person in a higher rank of life than +Jeanie's, would have had something forward and improper in its character. +But the simplicity of her rural habits was unacquainted with these +punctilious ideas of decorum, and no notion, therefore, of impropriety +crossed her imagination, as, setting out upon a long journey, she went to +bid adieu to an early friend. + +There was still another motive that pressed upon her mind with additional +force as she approached the village. She had looked anxiously for Butler +in the courthouse, and had expected that, certainly, in some part of that +eventful day, he would have appeared to bring such countenance and +support as he could give to his old friend, and the protector of his +youth, even if her own claims were laid aside. + +She know, indeed, that he was under a certain degree of restraint; but +she still had hoped that he would have found means to emancipate himself +from it, at least for one day. In short, the wild and wayward thoughts +which Wordsworth has described as rising in an absent lover's +imagination, suggested, as the only explanation of his absence, that +Butler must be very ill. And so much had this wrought on her imagination, +that when she approached the cottage where her lover occupied a small +apartment, and which had been pointed out to her by a maiden with a +milk-pail on her head, she trembled at anticipating the answer she might +receive on inquiring for him. + +Her fears in this case had, indeed, only hit upon the truth. Butler, +whose constitution was naturally feeble, did not soon recover the fatigue +of body and distress of mind which he had suffered, in consequence of the +tragical events with which our narrative commenced. The painful idea that +his character was breathed on by suspicion, was an aggravation to his +distress. + +But the most cruel addition was the absolute prohibition laid by the +magistrates on his holding any communication with Deans or his family. It +had unfortunately appeared likely to them, that some intercourse might be +again attempted with that family by Robertson, through the medium of +Butler, and this they were anxious to intercept, or prevent if possible. +The measure was not meant as a harsh or injurious severity on the part of +the magistrates; but, in Butler's circumstances, it pressed cruelly hard. +He felt he must be suffering under the bad opinion of the person who was +dearest to him, from an imputation of unkind desertion, the most alien to +his nature. + +This painful thought, pressing on a frame already injured, brought on a +succession of slow and lingering feverish attacks, which greatly impaired +his health, and at length rendered him incapable even of the sedentary +duties of the school, on which his bread depended. Fortunately, old Mr. +Whackbairn, who was the principal teacher of the little parochial +establishment, was sincerely attached to Butler. Besides that he was +sensible of his merits and value as an assistant, which had greatly +raised the credit of his little school, the ancient pedagogue, who had +himself been tolerably educated, retained some taste for classical lore, +and would gladly relax, after the drudgery of the school was over, by +conning over a few pages of Horace or Juvenal with his usher. A +similarity of taste begot kindness, and accordingly he saw Butler's +increasing debility with great compassion, roused up his own energies to +teaching the school in the morning hours, insisted upon his assistant's +reposing himself at that period, and, besides, supplied him with such +comforts as the patient's situation required, and his own means were +inadequate to compass. + +Such was Butler's situation, scarce able to drag himself to the place +where his daily drudgery must gain his daily bread, and racked with a +thousand fearful anticipations concerning the fate of those who were +dearest to him in the world, when the trial and condemnation of Effie +Deans put the copestone upon his mental misery. + +He had a particular account of these events, from a fellow-student who +resided in the same village, and who, having been present on the +melancholy occasion, was able to place it in all its agony of horrors +before his excruciated imagination. That sleep should have visited his +eyes after such a curfew-note, was impossible. A thousand dreadful +visions haunted his imagination all night, and in the morning he was +awaked from a feverish slumber, by the only circumstance which could have +added to his distress,--the visit of an intrusive ass. + +This unwelcome visitant was no other than Bartoline Saddletree. The +worthy and sapient burgher had kept his appointment at MacCroskie's with +Plumdamas and some other neighbours, to discuss the Duke of Argyle's +speech, the justice of Effie Deans's condemnation, and the improbability +of her obtaining a reprieve. This sage conclave disputed high and drank +deep, and on the next morning Bartoline felt, as he expressed it, as if +his head was like a "confused progress of writs." + +To bring his reflective powers to their usual serenity, Saddle-tree +resolved to take a morning's ride upon a certain hackney, which he, +Plumdamas, and another honest shopkeeper, combined to maintain by joint +subscription, for occasional jaunts for the purpose of business or +exercise. As Saddletree had two children boarded with Whackbairn, and +was, as we have seen, rather fond of Butler's society, he turned his +palfrey's head towards Liberton, and came, as we have already said, to +give the unfortunate usher that additional vexation, of which Imogene +complains so feelingly, when she says,-- + + "I'm sprighted with a fool-- + Sprighted and anger'd worse." + +If anything could have added gall to bitterness, it was the choice which +Saddletree made of a subject for his prosing harangues, being the trial +of Effie Deans, and the probability of her being executed. Every word +fell on Butler's ear like the knell of a death-bell, or the note of a +screech-owl. + +Jeanie paused at the door of her lover's humble abode upon hearing the +loud and pompous tones of Saddletree sounding from the inner apartment, +"Credit me, it will be sae, Mr. Butler. Brandy cannot save her. She maun +gang down the Bow wi' the lad in the pioted coat* at her heels.-- + +* The executioner, in livery of black or dark grey and silver, likened by +low wit to a magpie. + +I am sorry for the lassie, but the law, sir, maun hae its course-- + + Vivat Rex, + Currat Lex, + +as the poet has it, in whilk of Horace's odes I know not." + +Here Butler groaned, in utter impatience of the brutality and ignorance +which Bartoline had contrived to amalgamate into one sentence. But +Saddletree, like other prosers, was blessed with a happy obtuseness of +perception concerning the unfavourable impression which he sometimes made +on his auditors. He proceeded to deal forth his scraps of legal knowledge +without mercy, and concluded by asking Butler, with great +self-complacency, "Was it na a pity my father didna send me to Utrecht? +Havena I missed the chance to turn out as /clarissimus/ an /ictus,/ as +auld Grunwiggin himself?--Whatfor dinna ye speak, Mr. Butler? Wad I no +hae been a /clarissimus ictus?/--Eh, man?" + +"I really do not understand you, Mr. Saddletree," said Butler, thus +pushed hard for an answer. His faint and exhausted tone of voice was +instantly drowned in the sonorous bray of Bartoline. + +"No understand me, man? /Ictus/ is Latin for a lawyer, is it not?" + +"Not that ever I heard of," answered Butler in the same dejected tone. + +"The deil ye didna!--See, man, I got the word but this morning out of a +memorial of Mr. Crossmyloof's--see, there it is, /ictus clarissimus et +perti--peritissimus/--it's a' Latin, for it's printed in the Italian +types." + +"O, you mean /juris-consultus--Ictus/ is an abbreviation for +/juris-consultus./" + +"Dinna tell me, man," persevered Saddletree, "there's nae abbreviates +except in adjudications; and this is a' about a servitude of water-drap-- +that is to say, /tillicidian/* (maybe ye'll say that's no Latin neither), +in Mary King's Close in the High Street." + +* He meant, probably, /stillicidium./ + +"Very likely," said poor Butler, overwhelmed by the noisy perseverance of +his visitor. "Iam not able to dispute with you." + +"Few folk are--few folk are, Mr. Butler, though I say it that shouldna +say it," returned Bartoline with great delight. "Now, it will be twa +hours yet or ye're wanted in the schule, and as ye are no weel, I'll sit +wi' you to divert ye, and explain t'ye the nature of a /tillicidian./ Ye +maun ken, the petitioner, Mrs. Crombie, a very decent woman, is a friend +of mine, and I hae stude her friend in this case, and brought her wi' +credit into the court, and I doubtna that in due time she will win out +o't wi' credit, win she or lose she. Ye see, being an inferior tenement +or laigh house, we grant ourselves to be burdened wi' the /tillicide,/ +that is, that we are obligated to receive the natural water-drap of the +superior tenement, sae far as the same fa's frae the heavens, or the roof +of our neighbour's house, and from thence by the gutters or eaves upon +our laigh tenement. But the other night comes a Highland quean of a lass, +and she flashes, God kens what, out at the eastmost window of Mrs. +MacPhail's house, that's the superior tenement. I believe the auld women +wad hae agreed, for Luckie MacPhail sent down the lass to tell my friend +Mrs. Crombie that she had made the gardyloo out of the wrang window, out +of respect for twa Highlandmen that were speaking Gaelic in the close +below the right ane. But luckily for Mrs. Crombie, I just chanced to come +in in time to break aff the communing, for it's a pity the point suldna +be tried. We had Mrs. MacPhail into the Ten-Mark Court--The Hieland +limmer of a lass wanted to swear herself free--but haud ye there, +says I." + +The detailed account of this important suit might have lasted until poor +Butler's hour of rest was completely exhausted, had not Saddletree been +interrupted by the noise of voices at the door. The woman of the house +where Butler lodged, on returning with her pitcher from the well, whence +she had been fetching water for the family, found our heroine Jeanie +Deans standing at the door, impatient of the prolix harangue of +Saddletree, yet unwilling to enter until he should have taken his leave. + +The good woman abridged the period of hesitation by inquiring, "Was ye +wanting the gudeman or me, lass?" + +"I wanted to speak with Mr. Butler, if he's at leisure," replied Jeanie. + +"Gang in by then, my woman," answered the goodwife; and opening the door +of a room, she announced the additional visitor with, "Mr. Butler, here's +a lass wants to speak t'ye." + +The surprise of Butler was extreme, when Jeanie, who seldom stirred +half-a-mile from home, entered his apartment upon this annunciation. + +"Good God!" he said, starting from his chair, while alarm restored to his +cheek the colour of which sickness had deprived it; "some new misfortune +must have happened!" + +"None, Mr. Reuben, but what you must hae heard of--but oh, ye are looking +ill yoursell!"--for the "hectic of a moment" had not concealed from her +affectionate eyes the ravages which lingering disease and anxiety of mind +had made in her lover's person. + +"No: I am well--quite well," said Butler with eagerness; "if I can do +anything to assist you, Jeanie--or your father." + +"Ay, to be sure," said Saddletree; "the family may be considered as +limited to them twa now, just as if Effie had never been in the tailzie, +puir thing. But, Jeanie lass, what brings you out to Liberton sae air in +the morning, and your father lying ill in the Luckenbooths?" + +"I had a message frae my father to Mr. Butler," said Jeanie with +embarrassment; but instantly feeling ashamed of the fiction to which she +had resorted, for her love of and veneration for truth was almost +Quaker-like, she corrected herself--"That is to say, I wanted to speak +with Mr. Butler about some business of my father's and puir Effie's." + +"Is it law business?" said Bartoline; "because if it be, ye had better +take my opinion on the subject than his." + +"It is not just law business," said Jeanie, who saw considerable +inconvenience might arise from letting Mr. Saddletree into the secret +purpose of her journey; "but I want Mr. Butler to write a letter for me." + +"Very right," said Mr. Saddletree; "and if ye'll tell me what it is +about, I'll dictate to Mr. Butler as Mr. Crossmyloof does to his clerk.-- +Get your pen and ink in initialibus, Mr. Butler." + +Jeanie looked at Butler, and wrung her hands with vexation and +impatience. + +"I believe, Mr. Saddletree," said Butler, who saw the necessity of +getting rid of him at all events, "that Mr. Whackbairn will be somewhat +affronted if you do not hear your boys called up to their lessons." + +"Indeed, Mr. Butler, and that's as true; and I promised to ask a half +play-day to the schule, so that the bairns might gang and see the +hanging, which canna but have a pleasing effect on their young minds, +seeing there is no knowing what they may come to themselves.--Odd so, I +didna mind ye were here, Jeanie Deans; but ye maun use yoursell to hear +the matter spoken o'.--Keep Jeanie here till I come back, Mr. Butler; I +winna bide ten minutes." + +And with this unwelcome assurance of an immediate return, he relieved +them of the embarrassment of his presence. + +"Reuben," said Jeanie, who saw the necessity of using the interval of his +absence in discussing what had brought her there, "I am bound on a lang +journey--I am gaun to Lunnon to ask Effie's life of the king and of the +queen." + +"Jeanie! you are surely not yourself," answered Butler, in the utmost +surprise;--"/you/ go to London--/you/ address the king and queen!" + +"And what for no, Reuben?" said Jeanie, with all the composed simplicity +of her character; "it's but speaking to a mortal man and woman when a' is +done. And their hearts maun be made o' flesh and blood like other folk's, +and Effie's story wad melt them were they stane. Forby, I hae heard that +they are no sic bad folk as what the Jacobites ca' them." + +"Yes, Jeanie," said Butler; "but their magnificence--their retinue--the +difficulty of getting audience?" + +"I have thought of a' that, Reuben, and it shall not break my spirit. Nae +doubt their claiths will be very grand, wi' their crowns on their heads, +and their sceptres in their hands, like the great King Ahasuerus when he +sate upon his royal throne fornent the gate of his house, as we are told +in Scripture. But I have that within me that will keep my heart from +failing, and I am amaist sure that I will be strengthened to speak the +errand I came for." + +"Alas! alas!" said Butler, "the kings now-a-days do not sit in the gate +to administer justice, as in patriarchal times. I know as little of +courts as you do, Jeanie, by experience; but by reading and report I +know, that the King of Britain does everything by means of his +ministers." + +"And if they be upright, God-fearing ministers," said Jeanie, "it's sae +muckle the better chance for Effie and me." + +"But you do not even understand the most ordinary words relating to a +court," said Butler; "by the ministry is meant not clergymen, but the +king's official servants." + +"Nae doubt," returned Jeanie, "he maun hae a great number mair, I daur to +say, than the duchess has at Dalkeith, and great folk's servants are aye +mair saucy than themselves. But I'll be decently put on, and I'll offer +them a trifle o' siller, as if I came to see the palace. Or, if they +scruple that, I'll tell them I'm come on a business of life and death, +and then they will surely bring me to speech of the king and queen?" + +Butler shook his head. "O Jeanie, this is entirely a wild dream. You can +never see them but through some great lord's intercession, and I think it +is scarce possible even then." + +"Weel, but maybe I can get that too," said Jeanie, "with a little helping +from you." + +"From me, Jeanie! this is the wildest imagination of all." + +"Ay, but it is not, Reuben. Havena I heard you say, that your grandfather +(that my father never likes to hear about) did some gude langsyne to the +forbear of this MacCallummore, when he was Lord of Lorn?" + +"He did so," said Butler, eagerly, "and I can prove it.--I will write to +the Duke of Argyle--report speaks him a good kindly man, as he is known +for a brave soldier and true patriot--I will conjure him to stand between +your sister and this cruel fate. There is but a poor chance of success, +but we will try all means." + +"We /must/ try all means," replied Jeanie; "but writing winna do it--a +letter canna look, and pray, and beg, and beseech, as the human voice can +do to the human heart. A letter's like the music that the ladies have for +their spinets--naething but black scores, compared to the same tune +played or sung. It's word of mouth maun do it, or naething, Reuben." + +"You are right," said Reuben, recollecting his firmness, "and I will hope +that Heaven has suggested to your kind heart and firm courage the only +possible means of saving the life of this unfortunate girl. But, Jeanie, +you must not take this most perilous journey alone; I have an interest in +you, and I will not agree that my Jeanie throws herself away. You must +even, in the present circumstances, give me a husband's right to protect +you, and I will go with you myself on this journey, and assist you to do +your duty by your family." + +"Alas, Reuben!" said Jeanie in her turn, "this must not be; a pardon will +not gie my sister her fair fame again, or make me a bride fitting for an +honest man and an usefu' minister. Wha wad mind what he said in the +pu'pit, that had to wife the sister of a woman that was condemned for sic +wickedness?" + +"But, Jeanie," pleaded her lover, "I do not believe, and I cannot +believe, that Effie has done this deed." + +"Heaven bless ye for saying sae, Reuben," answered Jeanie; "but she maun +bear the blame o't after all." + +"But the blame, were it even justly laid on her, does not fall on you." + +"Ah, Reuben, Reuben," replied the young woman, "ye ken it is a blot that +spreads to kith and kin.--Ichabod--as my poor father says--the glory is +departed from our house; for the poorest man's house has a glory, where +there are true hands, a divine heart, and an honest fame--And the last +has gane frae us a." + +"But, Jeanie, consider your word and plighted faith to me; and would you +undertake such a journey without a man to protect you?--and who should +that protector be but your husband?" + +"You are kind and good, Reuben, and wad take me wi' a' my shame, I +doubtna. But ye canna but own that this is no time to marry or be given +in marriage. Na, if that suld ever be, it maun be in another and a better +season.--And, dear Reuben, ye speak of protecting me on my journey--Alas! +who will protect and take care of you?--your very limbs tremble with +standing for ten minutes on the floor; how could you undertake a journey +as far as Lunnon?" + +"But I am strong--I am well," continued Butler, sinking in his seat +totally exhausted, "at least I shall be quite well to-morrow." + +"Ye see, and ye ken, ye maun just let me depart," said Jeanie, after a +pause; and then taking his extended hand, and gazing kindly in his face, +she added, "It's e'en a grief the mair to me to see you in this way. But +ye maun keep up your heart for Jeanie's sake, for if she isna your wife, +she will never be the wife of living man. And now gie me the paper for +MacCallummore, and bid God speed me on my way." + +There was something of romance in Jeanie's venturous resolution; yet, on +consideration, as it seemed impossible to alter it by persuasion, or to +give her assistance but by advice, Butler, after some farther debate, put +into her hands the paper she desired, which, with the muster-roll in +which it was folded up, were the sole memorials of the stout and +enthusiastic Bible Butler, his grandfather. While Butler sought this +document, Jeanie had time to take up his pocket Bible. "I have marked a +scripture," she said, as she again laid it down, "with your kylevine pen, +that will be useful to us baith. And ye maun tak the trouble, Reuben, to +write a' this to my father, for, God help me, I have neither head nor +hand for lang letters at ony time, forby now; and I trust him entirely to +you, and I trust you will soon be permitted to see him. And, Reuben, when +ye do win to the speech o' him, mind a' the auld man's bits o' ways, for +Jeanie's sake; and dinna speak o' Latin or English terms to him, for he's +o' the auld warld, and downa bide to be fashed wi' them, though I daresay +he may be wrang. And dinna ye say muckle to him, but set him on speaking +himself, for he'll bring himsell mair comfort that way. And O, Reuben, +the poor lassie in yon dungeon!--but I needna bid your kind heart--gie +her what comfort ye can as soon as they will let ye see her--tell her-- +But I maunna speak mair about her, for I maunna take leave o' ye wi' the +tear in my ee, for that wouldna be canny.--God bless ye, Reuben!" + +To avoid so ill an omen she left the room hastily, while her features yet +retained the mournful and affectionate smile which she had compelled them +to wear, in order to support Butler's spirits. + +It seemed as if the power of sight, of speech, and of reflection, had +left him as she disappeared from the room, which she had entered and +retired from so like an apparition. Saddletree, who entered immediately +afterwards, overwhelmed him with questions, which he answered without +understanding them, and with legal disquisitions, which conveyed to him +no iota of meaning. At length the learned burgess recollected that there +was a Baron Court to be, held at Loanhead that day, and though it was +hardly worth while, "he might as weel go to see if there was onything +doing, as he was acquainted with the baron bailie, who was a decent man, +and would be glad of a word of legal advice." + +So soon as he departed, Butler flew to the Bible, the last book which +Jeanie had touched. To his extreme surprise, a paper, containing two or +three pieces of gold, dropped from the book. With a black-lead pencil, +she had marked the sixteenth and twenty-fifth verses of the +thirty-seventh Psalm,--"A little that a righteous man hath, is better +than the riches of the wicked."--"I have been young and am now old, yet +have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging their +bread." + +Deeply impressed with the affectionate delicacy which shrouded its own +generosity under the cover of a providential supply to his wants, he +pressed the gold to his lips with more ardour than ever the metal was +greeted with by a miser. To emulate her devout firmness and confidence +seemed now the pitch of his ambition, and his first task was to write an +account to David Deans of his daughter's resolution and journey +southward. He studied every sentiment, and even every phrase, which he +thought could reconcile the old man to her extraordinary resolution. The +effect which this epistle produced will be hereafter adverted to. Butler +committed it to the charge of an honest clown, who had frequent dealings +with Deans in the sale of his dairy produce, and who readily undertook a +journey to Edinburgh to put the letter into his own hands.* + +* By dint of assiduous research I am enabled to certiorate the reader, +that the name of this person was Saunders Broadfoot, and that he dealt in +the wholesome commodity called kirn-milk (/Anglice',/ butter-milk).-- +J. C. + + + + + CHAPTER FOURTH. + + + + "My native land, good night." + Lord Byron. + +In the present day, a journey from Edinburgh to London is a matter at +once safe, brief, and simple, however inexperienced or unprotected the +traveller. Numerous coaches of different rates of charge, and as many +packets, are perpetually passing and repassing betwixt the capital of +Britain and her northern sister, so that the most timid or indolent may +execute such a journey upon a few hours' notice. But it was different in +1737. So slight and infrequent was the intercourse betwixt London and +Edinburgh, that men still alive remember that upon one occasion the mail +from the former city arrived at the General Post-Office in Scotland with +only one letter in it.* + +* The fact is certain. The single epistle was addressed to the principal +director of the British Linen Company. + +The usual mode of travelling was by means of post-horses, the traveller +occupying one, and his guide another, in which manner, by relays of +horses from stage to stage, the journey might be accomplished in a +wonderfully short time by those who could endure fatigue. To have the +bones shaken to pieces by a constant change of those hacks was a luxury +for the rich--the poor were under the necessity of using the mode of +conveyance with which nature had provided them. + +With a strong heart, and a frame patient of fatigue, Jeanie Deans, +travelling at the rate of twenty miles a-day, and sometimes farther, +traversed the southern part of Scotland, and advanced as far as Durham. + +Hitherto she had been either among her own country-folk, or those to whom +her bare feet and tartan screen were objects too familiar to attract much +attention. But as she advanced, she perceived that both circumstances +exposed her to sarcasm and taunts, which she might otherwise have +escaped; and although in her heart she thought it unkind, and +inhospitable, to sneer at a passing stranger on account of the fashion of +her attire, yet she had the good sense to alter those parts of her dress +which attracted ill-natured observation. Her chequed screen was deposited +carefully in her bundle, and she conformed to the national extravagance +of wearing shoes and stockings for the whole day. She confessed +afterwards, that, "besides the wastrife, it was lang or she could walk +sae comfortably with the shoes as without them; but there was often a bit +saft heather by the road-side, and that helped her weel on." The want of +the screen, which was drawn over the head like a veil, she supplied by a +/bon-grace,/ as she called it; a large straw bonnet like those worn by +the English maidens when labouring in the fields. "But I thought unco +shame o' mysell," she said, "the first time I put on a married woman's +/bon-grace,/ and me a single maiden." + +With these changes she had little, as she said, to make "her kenspeckle +when she didna speak," but her accent and language drew down on her so +many jests and gibes, couched in a worse /patois/ by far than her own, +that she soon found it was her interest to talk as little and as seldom +as possible. She answered, therefore, civil salutations of chance +passengers with a civil courtesy, and chose, with anxious circumspection, +such places of repose as looked at once most decent and sequestered. She +found the common people of England, although inferior in courtesy to +strangers, such as was then practised in her own more unfrequented +country, yet, upon the whole, by no means deficient in the real duties of +hospitality. She readily obtained food, and shelter, and protection at a +very moderate rate, which sometimes the generosity of mine host +altogether declined, with a blunt apology,--"Thee hast a long way afore +thee, lass; and I'se ne'er take penny out o' a single woman's purse; it's +the best friend thou can have on the road." + +It often happened, too, that mine hostess was struck with "the tidy, nice +Scotch body," and procured her an escort, or a cast in a waggon, for some +part of the way, or gave her a useful advice and recommendation +respecting her resting-places. + +At York our pilgrim stopped for the best part of a day, partly to recruit +her strength,--partly because she had the good luck to obtain a lodging +in an inn kept by a countrywoman,--partly to indite two letters to her +father and Reuben Butler; an operation of some little difficulty, her +habits being by no means those of literary composition. That to her +father was in the following words.-- + +"Dearest Father,--I make my present pilgrimage more heavy and burdensome, +through the sad occasion to reflect that it is without your knowledge, +which, God knows, was far contrary to my heart; for Scripture says, that +'the vow of the daughter should not be binding without the consent of the +father,' wherein it may be I have been guilty to tak this wearie journey +without your consent. Nevertheless, it was borne in upon my mind that I +should be an instrument to help my poor sister in this extremity of +needcessity, otherwise I wad not, for wealth or for world's gear, or for +the haill lands of Da'keith and Lugton, have done the like o' this, +without your free will and knowledge. Oh, dear father, as ye wad desire a +blessing on my journey, and upon your household, speak a word or write a +line of comfort to yon poor prisoner. If she has sinned, she has sorrowed +and suffered, and ye ken better than me, that we maun forgie others, as +we pray to be forgien. Dear father, forgive my saying this muckle, for it +doth not become a young head to instruct grey hairs; but I am sae far +frae ye, that my heart yearns to ye a', and fain wad I hear that ye had +forgien her trespass, and sae I nae doubt say mair than may become me. +The folk here are civil, and, like the barbarians unto the holy apostle, +hae shown me much kindness; and there are a sort of chosen people in the +land, for they hae some kirks without organs that are like ours, and are +called meeting-houses, where the minister preaches without a gown. But +most of the country are prelatists, whilk is awfu' to think; and I saw +twa men that were ministers following hunds, as bauld as Roslin or +Driden, the young Laird of Loup-the-dike, or ony wild gallant in Lothian. +A sorrowfa' sight to behold! Oh, dear father, may a blessing be with your +down-lying and up-rising, and remember in your prayers your affectionate +daughter to command, + "Jean Deans." + +A postscript bore, "I learned from a decent woman, a grazier's widow, +that they hae a cure for the muir-ill in Cumberland, whilk is ane pint, +as they ca't, of yill, whilk is a dribble in comparison of our gawsie +Scots pint, and hardly a mutchkin, boiled wi' sope and hartshorn draps, +and toomed doun the creature's throat wi' ane whorn. Ye might try it on +the bauson-faced year-auld quey; an it does nae gude, it can do nae ill. +--She was a kind woman, and seemed skeely about horned beasts. When I +reach Lunnon, I intend to gang to our cousin Mrs. Glass, the tobacconist, +at the sign o' the Thistle, wha is so ceevil as to send you down your +spleuchan-fu' anes a year; and as she must be well kend in Lunnon, I +doubt not easily to find out where she lives." + +Being seduced into betraying our heroine's confidence thus far, we will +stretch our communication a step beyond, and impart to the reader her +letter to her lover. + +"Mr. Reuben Butler,--Hoping this will find you better, this comes to say, +that I have reached this great town safe, and am not wearied with +walking, but the better for it. And I have seen many things which I trust +to tell you one day, also the muckle kirk of this place; and all around +the city are mills, whilk havena muckle wheels nor mill-dams, but gang by +the wind--strange to behold. Ane miller asked me to gang in and see it +work, but I wad not, for I am not come to the south to make acquaintance +with strangers. I keep the straight road, and just beck if onybody speaks +to me ceevilly, and answers naebody with the tong but women of my ain +sect. I wish, Mr. Butler, I kend onything that wad mak ye weel, for they +hae mair medicines in this town of York than wad cure a' Scotland, and +surely some of them wad be gude for your complaints. If ye had a kindly +motherly body to nurse ye, and no to let ye waste yoursell wi' reading-- +whilk ye read mair than eneugh wi' the bairns in the schule--and to gie +ye warm milk in the morning, I wad be mair easy for ye. Dear Mr. Butler, +keep a good heart, for we are in the hands of Ane that kens better what +is gude for us than we ken what is for oursells. I hae nae doubt to do +that for which I am come--I canna doubt it--I winna think to doubt it-- +because, if I haena full assurance, how shall I bear myself with earnest +entreaties in the great folk's presence? But to ken that ane's purpose is +right, and to make their heart strong, is the way to get through the +warst day's darg. The bairns' rime says, the warst blast of the borrowing +days* couldna kill the three silly poor hog-lams. + +* The last three days of March, old style, are called the Borrowing Days; +for, as they are remarked to be unusually stormy, it is feigned that +March had borrowed them from April, to extend the sphere of his rougher +sway. The rhyme on the subject is quoted in the glossary to Leyden's +edition of the "Complaynt of Scotland"-- + + [March said to Aperill, + I see three hogs upon a hill, + A young sheep before it has lost its first fleece. + But when the borrowed days were gane + The three silly hogs came hirplin hame.] + +"And if it be God's pleasure, we that are sindered in sorrow may meet +again in joy, even on this hither side of Jordan. I dinna bid ye mind +what I said at our partin' anent my poor father, and that misfortunate +lassie, for I ken you will do sae for the sake of Christian charity, +whilk is mair than the entreaties of her that is your servant to command, + + "Jeanie Deans." + +This letter also had a postscript. "Dear Reuben, If ye think that it wad +hae been right for me to have said mair and kinder things to ye, just +think that I hae written sae, since I am sure that I wish a' that is kind +and right to ye and by ye. Ye will think I am turned waster, for I wear +clean hose and shoon every day; but it's the fashion here for decent +bodies and ilka land has it's ain landlaw. Ower and aboon a', if laughing +days were e'er to come back again till us, ye wad laugh weel to see my +round face at the far end of a strae /bon-grace,/ that looks as muckle +and round as the middell aisle in Libberton Kirk. But it sheds the sun +weel aff, and keeps uncivil folk frae staring as if ane were a worrycow. +I sall tell ye by writ how I come on wi' the Duke of Argyle, when I won +up to Lunnon. Direct a line, to say how ye are, to me, to the charge of +Mrs. Margaret Glass, tobacconist, at the sign of the Thistle, Lunnon, +whilk, if it assures me of your health, will make my mind sae muckle +easier. Excuse bad spelling and writing, as I have ane ill pen." + +The orthography of these epistles may seem to the southron to require a +better apology than the letter expresses, though a bad pen was the excuse +of a certain Galwegian laird for bad spelling; but, on behalf of the +heroine, I would have them to know, that, thanks to the care of Butler, +Jeanie Deans wrote and spelled fifty times better than half the women of +rank in Scotland at that period, whose strange orthography and singular +diction form the strongest contrast to the good sense which their +correspondence usually intimates. + +For the rest, in the tenor of these epistles, Jeanie expressed, perhaps, +more hopes, a firmer courage, and better spirits, than she actually felt. +But this was with the amiable idea of relieving her father and lover from +apprehensions on her account, which she was sensible must greatly add to +their other troubles. "If they think me weel, and like to do weel," said +the poor pilgrim to herself, "my father will be kinder to Effie, and +Butler will be kinder to himself. For I ken weel that they will think +mair o' me than I do o' mysell." + +Accordingly, she sealed her letters carefully, and put them into the +post-office with her own hand, after many inquiries concerning the time +in which they were likely to reach Edinburgh. When this duty was +performed, she readily accepted her landlady's pressing invitation to +dine with her, and remain till the next morning. The hostess, as we have +said, was her countrywoman, and the eagerness with which Scottish people +meet, communicate, and, to the extent of their power, assist each other, +although it is often objected to us as a prejudice and narrowness of +sentiment, seems, on the contrary, to arise from a most justifiable and +honourable feeling of patriotism, combined with a conviction, which, if +undeserved, would long since have been confuted by experience, that the +habits and principles of the nation are a sort of guarantee for the +character of the individual. At any rate, if the extensive influence of +this national partiality be considered as an additional tie, binding man +to man, and calling forth the good offices of such as can render them to +the countryman who happens to need them, we think it must be found to +exceed, as an active and efficient motive, to generosity, that more +impartial and wider principle of general benevolence, which we have +sometimes seen pleaded as an excuse for assisting no individual whatever. + +Mrs. Bickerton, lady of the ascendant of the Seven Stars, in the +Castle-gate, York, was deeply infected with the unfortunate prejudices of +her country. Indeed, she displayed so much kindness to Jeanie Deans +(because she herself, being a Merse woman, /marched/ with Mid-Lothian, in +which Jeanie was born), showed such motherly regard to her, and such +anxiety for her farther progress, that Jeanie thought herself safe, +though by temper sufficiently cautious, in communicating her whole story +to her. + +Mrs. Bickerton raised her hands and eyes at the recital, and exhibited +much wonder and pity. But she also gave some effectual good advice. + +She required to know the strength of Jeanie's purse, reduced by her +deposit at Liberton, and the necessary expense of her journey, to about +fifteen pounds. "This," she said, "would do very well, providing she +would carry it a' safe to London." + +"Safe!" answered Jeanie; "I'se warrant my carrying it safe, bating the +needful expenses." + +"Ay, but highwaymen, lassie," said Mrs. Bickerton; "for ye are come into +a more civilised, that is to say, a more roguish country than the north, +and how ye are to get forward, I do not profess to know. If ye could wait +here eight days, our waggons would go up, and I would recommend you to +Joe Broadwheel, who would see you safe to the Swan and two Necks. And +dinna sneeze at Joe, if he should be for drawing up wi' you" (continued +Mrs. Bickerton, her acquired English mingling with her national or +original dialect), "he's a handy boy, and a wanter, and no lad better +thought o' on the road; and the English make good husbands enough, +witness my poor man, Moses Bickerton, as is i' the kirkyard." + +Jeanie hastened to say, that she could not possibly wait for the setting +forth of Joe Broadwheel; being internally by no means gratified with the +idea of becoming the object of his attention during the journey, + +"Aweel, lass," answered the good landlady, "then thou must pickle in +thine ain poke-nook, and buckle thy girdle thine ain gate. But take my +advice, and hide thy gold in thy stays, and keep a piece or two and some +silver, in case thou be'st spoke withal; for there's as wud lads haunt +within a day's walk from hence, as on the braes of Doune in Perthshire. +And, lass, thou maunna gang staring through Lunnon, asking wha kens Mrs. +Glass at the sign o' the Thistle; marry, they would laugh thee to scorn. +But gang thou to this honest man," and she put a direction into Jeanie's +hand, "he kens maist part of the sponsible Scottish folk in the city, and +he will find out your friend for thee." + +Jeanie took the little introductory letter with sincere thanks; but, +something alarmed on the subject of the highway robbers, her mind +recurred to what Ratcliffe had mentioned to her, and briefly relating the +circumstances which placed a document so extraordinary in her hands, she +put the paper he had given her into the hand of Mrs. Bickerton. + +The Lady of the Seven Stars did not indeed ring a bell, because such was +not the fashion of the time, but she whistled on a silver call, which was +hung by her side, and a tight serving-maid entered the room. + +"Tell Dick Ostler to come here," said Mrs. Bickerton. + +Dick Ostler accordingly made his appearance;--a queer, knowing, shambling +animal, with a hatchet-face, a squint, a game-arm, and a limp. + +"Dick Ostler," said Mrs. Bickerton, in a tone of authority that showed +she was (at least by adoption) Yorkshire too, "thou knowest most people +and most things o' the road." + +"Eye, eye, God help me, mistress," said Dick, shrugging his shoulders +betwixt a repentant and a knowing expression--"Eye! I ha' know'd a thing +or twa i' ma day, mistress." He looked sharp and laughed--looked grave +and sighed, as one who was prepared to take the matter either way. + +"Kenst thou this wee bit paper amang the rest, man?" said Mrs. Bickerton, +handing him the protection which Ratcliffe had given Jeanie Deans. + +When Dick had looked at the paper, he winked with one eye, extended his +grotesque mouth from ear to ear, like a navigable canal, scratched his +head powerfully, and then said, "Ken!--ay--maybe we ken summat, an it +werena for harm to him, mistress!" + +"None in the world," said Mrs. Bickerton; "only a dram of Hollands to +thyself, man, an thou wilt speak." + +"Why, then," said Dick, giving the head-band of his breeches a knowing +hoist with one hand, and kicking out one foot behind him to accommodate +the adjustment of that important habiliment, "I dares to say the pass +will be kend weel eneugh on the road, an that be all." + +"But what sort of a lad was he?" said Mrs. Bickerton, winking to Jeanie, +as proud of her knowing Ostler. + +"Why, what ken I?--Jim the Rat--why he was Cock o' the North within this +twelmonth--he and Scotch Wilson, Handle Dandie, as they called him--but +he's been out o' this country a while, as I rackon; but ony gentleman, as +keeps the road o' this side Stamford, will respect Jim's pass." + +Without asking farther questions, the landlady filled Dick Ostler a +bumper of Hollands. He ducked with his head and shoulders, scraped with +his more advanced hoof, bolted the alcohol, to use the learned phrase, +and withdrew to his own domains. + +"I would advise thee, Jeanie," said Mrs. Bickerton, "an thou meetest with +ugly customers o' the road, to show them this bit paper, for it will +serve thee, assure thyself." + +A neat little supper concluded the evening. The exported Scotswoman, Mrs. +Bickerton by name, ate heartily of one or two seasoned dishes, drank some +sound old ale, and a glass of stiff negus; while she gave Jeanie a +history of her gout, admiring how it was possible that she, whose fathers +and mothers for many generations had been farmers in Lammermuir, could +have come by a disorder so totally unknown to them. Jeanie did not choose +to offend her friendly landlady, by speaking her mind on the probable +origin of this complaint; but she thought on the flesh-pots of Egypt, +and, in spite of all entreaties to better fare, made her evening meal +upon vegetables, with a glass of fair water. + +Mrs. Bickerton assured her, that the acceptance of any reckoning was +entirely out of the question, furnished her with credentials to her +correspondent in London, and to several inns upon the road where she had +some influence or interest, reminded her of the precautions she should +adopt for concealing her money, and as she was to depart early in the +morning, took leave of her very affectionately, taking her word that she +would visit her on her return to Scotland, and tell her how she had +managed, and that summum bonum for a gossip, "all how and about it." This +Jeanie faithfully promised. + + + + CHAPTER FIFTH. + + And Need and Misery, Vice and Danger, bind, + In sad alliance, each degraded mind. + +As our traveller set out early on the ensuing morning to prosecute her +journey, and was in the act of leaving the innyard, Dick Ostler, who +either had risen early or neglected to go to bed, either circumstance +being equally incident to his calling, hollowed out after her,--"The top +of the morning to you, Moggie. Have a care o' Gunderby Hill, young one. +Robin Hood's dead and gwone, but there be takers yet in the vale of +Bever. Jeanie looked at him as if to request a farther explanation, but, +with a leer, a shuffle, and a shrug, inimitable (unless by Emery*), Dick +turned again to the raw-boned steed which he was currying, and sung as he +employed the comb and brush,-- + + "Robin Hood was a yeoman right good, + And his bow was of trusty yew; + And if Robin said stand on the king's lea-land, + Pray, why should not we say so too?" + +* [John Emery, an eminent comedian, played successfully at Covent Garden +Theatre between 1798 and 1820. Among his characters, were those of Dandie +Dinmont in /Guy Mannering,/ Dougal in /Rob Roy,/ and Ratcliffe in the +Heart of /Mid-Lothian./] + +Jeanie pursued her journey without farther inquiry, for there was nothing +in Dick's manner that inclined her to prolong their conference. A painful +day's journey brought her to Ferrybridge, the best inn, then and since, +upon the great northern road; and an introduction from Mrs. Bickerton, +added to her own simple and quiet manners, so propitiated the landlady of +the Swan in her favour, that the good dame procured her the convenient +accommodation of a pillion and post-horse then returning to Tuxford, so +that she accomplished, upon the second day after leaving York, the +longest journey she had yet made. She was a good deal fatigued by a mode +of travelling to which she was less accustomed than to walking, and it +was considerably later than usual on the ensuing morning that she felt +herself able to resume her pilgrimage. At noon the hundred-armed Trent, +and the blackened ruins of Newark Castle, demolished in the great civil +war, lay before her. It may easily be supposed, that Jeanie had no +curiosity to make antiquarian researches, but, entering the town, went +straight to the inn to which she had been directed at Ferrybridge. While +she procured some refreshment, she observed the girl who brought it to +her, looked at her several times with fixed and peculiar interest, and at +last, to her infinite surprise, inquired if her name was not Deans, and +if she was not a Scotchwoman, going to London upon justice business. +Jeanie, with all her simplicity of character, had some of the caution of +her country, and, according to Scottish universal custom, she answered +the question by another, requesting the girl would tell her why she asked +these questions? + +The Maritornes of the Saracen's Head, Newark, replied, "Two women had +passed that morning, who had made inquiries after one Jeanie Deans, +travelling to London on such an errand, and could scarce be persuaded +that she had not passed on." + +Much surprised and somewhat alarmed (for what is inexplicable is usually +alarming), Jeanie questioned the wench about the particular appearance of +these two women, but could only learn that the one was aged, and the +other young; that the latter was the taller, and that the former spoke +most, and seemed to maintain an authority over her companion, and that +both spoke with the Scottish accent. + +This conveyed no information whatever, and with an indescribable +presentiment of evil designed towards her, Jeanie adopted the resolution +of taking post-horses for the next stage. In this, however, she could not +be gratified; some accidental circumstances had occasioned what is called +a run upon the road, and the landlord could not accommodate her with a +guide and horses. After waiting some time, in hopes that a pair of horses +that had gone southward would return in time for her use, she at length, +feeling ashamed at her own pusillanimity, resolved to prosecute her +journey in her usual manner. + +"It was all plain road," she was assured, "except a high mountain called +Gunnerby Hill, about three miles from Grantham, which was her stage for +the night. + +"I'm glad to hear there's a hill," said Jeanie, "for baith my sight and +my very feet are weary o' sic tracts o' level ground--it looks a' the way +between this and York as if a' the land had been trenched and levelled, +whilk is very wearisome to my Scotch een. When I lost sight of a muckle +blue hill they ca' Ingleboro', I thought I hadna a friend left in this +strange land." + +"As for the matter of that, young woman," said mine host, "an you be so +fond o' hill, I carena an thou couldst carry Gunnerby away with thee in +thy lap, for it's a murder to post-horses. But here's to thy journey, and +mayst thou win well through it, for thou is a bold and a canny lass." + +So saying, he took a powerful pull at a solemn tankard of home-brewed +ale. + +"I hope there is nae bad company on the road, sir?" said Jeanie. + +"Why, when it's clean without them I'll thatch Groby pool wi' pancakes. +But there arena sae mony now; and since they hae lost Jim the Rat, they +hold together no better than the men of Marsham when they lost their +common. Take a drop ere thou goest," he concluded, offering her the +tankard; "thou wilt get naething at night save Grantham gruel, nine grots +and a gallon of water." + +Jeanie courteously declined the tankard, and inquired what was her +"lawing?" + +"Thy lawing! Heaven help thee, wench! what ca'st thou that?" + +"It is--I was wanting to ken what was to pay," replied Jeanie. + +"Pay? Lord help thee!--why nought, woman--we hae drawn no liquor but a +gill o' beer, and the Saracen's Head can spare a mouthful o' meat to a +stranger like o' thee, that cannot speak Christian language. So here's to +thee once more. The same again, quoth Mark of Bellgrave," and he took +another profound pull at the tankard. + +The travellers who have visited Newark more lately, will not fail to +remember the remarkably civil and gentlemanly manners of the person who +now keeps the principal inn there, and may find some amusement in +contrasting them with those of his more rough predecessor. But we believe +it will he found that the polish has worn off none of the real worth of +the metal. + +Taking leave of her Lincolnshire Gaius, Jeanie resumed her solitary walk, +and was somewhat alarmed when evening and twilight overtook her in the +open ground which extends to the foot of Gunnerby Hill, and is +intersected with patches of copse and with swampy spots. The extensive +commons on the north road, most of which are now enclosed, and in general +a relaxed state of police, exposed the traveller to a highway robbery in +a degree which is now unknown, except in the immediate vicinity of the +metropolis. Aware of this circumstance, Jeanie mended her pace when she +heard the trampling of a horse behind, and instinctively drew to one side +of the road, as if to allow as much room for the rider to pass as might +be possible. When the animal came up, she found that it was bearing two +women, the one placed on a side-saddle, the other on a pillion behind +her, as may still occasionally be seen in England. + +"A braw good-night to ye, Jeanie Deans," said the foremost female as the +horse passed our heroine; "What think ye o' yon bonny hill yonder, +lifting its brow to the moon? Trow ye yon's the gate to heaven, that ye +are sae fain of?--maybe we will win there the night yet, God sain us, +though our minny here's rather dreigh in the upgang." + +The speaker kept changing her seat in the saddle, and half stopping the +horse as she brought her body round, while the woman that sate behind her +on the pillion seemed to urge her on, in words which Jeanie heard but +imperfectly. + +"Hand your tongue, ye moon-raised b----! what is your business with ----, +or with heaven or hell either?" + +"Troth, mither, no muckle wi' heaven, I doubt, considering wha I carry +ahint me--and as for hell, it will fight its ain battle at its ain time, +I'se be bound.--Come, naggie, trot awa, man, an as thou wert a +broomstick, for a witch rides thee-- + + With my curtch on my foot, and my shoe on my hand, + I glance like the wildfire through brugh and through land." + +The tramp of the horse, and the increasing distance, drowned the rest of +her song, but Jeanie heard for some time the inarticulate sounds ring +along the waste. + +Our pilgrim remained stupified with undefined apprehensions. The being +named by her name in so wild a manner, and in a strange country, without +farther explanation or communing, by a person who thus strangely flitted +forward and disappeared before her, came near to the supernatural sounds +in Comus:-- + + The airy tongues, which syllable men's names + On sands, and shores, and desert wildernesses. + +And although widely different in features, deportment, and rank, from the +Lady of that enchanting masque, the continuation of the passage may be +happily applied to Jeanie Deans upon this singular alarm:-- + + These thoughts may startle well, but not astound + The virtuous mind, that ever walks attended + By a strong siding champion--Conscience. + +In fact, it was, with the recollection of the affectionate and dutiful +errand on which she was engaged, her right, if such a word could be +applicable, to expect protection in a task so meritorious. She had not +advanced much farther, with a mind calmed by these reflections, when she +was disturbed by a new and more instant subject of terror. Two men, who +had been lurking among some copse, started up as she advanced, and met +her on the road in a menacing manner. "Stand and deliver," said one of +them, a short stout fellow, in a smock-frock, such as are worn by +waggoners. + +"The woman," said the other, a tall thin figure, "does not understand the +words of action.--Your money, my precious, or your life." + +"I have but very little money, gentlemen," said poor Jeanie, tendering +that portion which she had separated from her principal stock, and kept +apart for such an emergency; "but if you are resolved to have it, to be +sure you must have it." + +"This won't do, my girl. D--n me, if it shall pass!" said the shorter +ruffian; "do ye think gentlemen are to hazard their lives on the road to +be cheated in this way? We'll have every farthing you have got, or we +will strip you to the skin, curse me." + +His companion, who seemed to have something like compassion for the +horror which Jeanie's countenance now expressed, said, "No, no, Tom, this +is one of the precious sisters, and we'll take her word, for once, +without putting her to the stripping proof--Hark ye, my lass, if ye look +up to heaven, and say, this is the last penny you have about ye, why, +hang it, we'll let you pass." + +"I am not free," answered Jeanie, "to say what I have about me, +gentlemen, for there's life and death depends on my journey; but if you +leave me as much as finds me bread and water, I'll be satisfied, and +thank you, and pray for you." + +"D--n your prayers!" said the shorter fellow, "that's a coin that won't +pass with us;" and at the same time made a motion to seize her. + +"Stay, gentlemen," Ratcliffe's pass suddenly occurring to her; "perhaps +you know this paper." + +"What the devil is she after now, Frank?" said the more savage ruffian-- +"Do you look at it, for, d--n me if I could read it if it were for the +benefit of my clergy." + +"This is a jark from Jim Ratcliffe," said the taller, having looked at +the bit of paper. "The wench must pass by our cutter's law." + +"I say no," answered his companion; "Rat has left the lay, and turned +bloodhound, they say." + +"We may need a good turn from him all the same," said the taller ruffian +again. + +"But what are we to do then?" said the shorter man--"We promised, you +know, to strip the wench, and send her begging back to her own beggarly +country, and now you are for letting her go on." + +"I did not say that," said the other fellow, and whispered to his +companion, who replied, "Be alive about it then, and don't keep +chattering till some travellers come up to nab us." + +"You must follow us off the road, young woman," said the taller. + +"For the love of God!" exclaimed Jeanie, "as you were born of woman, +dinna ask me to leave the road! rather take all I have in the world." + +"What the devil is the wench afraid of?" said the other fellow. "I tell +you you shall come to no harm; but if you will not leave the road and +come with us, d--n me, but I'll beat your brains out where you stand." + +"Thou art a rough bear, Tom," said his companion.--"An ye touch her, I'll +give ye a shake by the collar shall make the Leicester beans rattle in +thy guts.--Never mind him, girl; I will not allow him to lay a finger on +you, if you walk quietly on with us; but if you keep jabbering there, +d--n me, but I'll leave him to settle it with you." + +This threat conveyed all that is terrible to the imagination of poor +Jeanie, who saw in him that "was of milder mood" her only protection from +the most brutal treatment. She, therefore, not only followed him, but +even held him by the sleeve, lest he should escape from her; and the +fellow, hardened as he was, seemed something touched by these marks of +confidence, and repeatedly assured her, that he would suffer her to +receive no harm. + +They conducted their prisoner in a direction leading more and more from +the public road, but she observed that they kept a sort of track or +by-path, which relieved her from part of her apprehensions, which would +have been greatly increased had they not seemed to follow a determined +and ascertained route. After about half-an-hour's walking, all three in +profound silence, they approached an old barn, which stood on the edge of +some cultivated ground, but remote from everything like a habitation. It +was itself, however, tenanted, for there was light in the windows. + +One of the footpads scratched at the door, which was opened by a female, +and they entered with their unhappy prisoner. An old woman, who was +preparing food by the assistance of a stifling fire of lighted charcoal, +asked them, in the name of the devil, what they brought the wench there +for, and why they did not strip her and turn her abroad on the common? + +"Come, come, Mother Blood," said the tall man, "we'll do what's right to +oblige you, and we'll do no more; we are bad enough, but not such as you +would make us,--devils incarnate." + +"She has got a jark from Jim Ratcliffe," said the short fellow, "and +Frank here won't hear of our putting her through the mill." + +"No, that I will not, by G--d!" answered Frank; "but if old Mother Blood +could keep her here for a little while, or send her back to Scotland, +without hurting her, why, I see no harm in that--not I." + +"I'll tell you what, Frank Levitt," said the old woman, "if you call me +Mother Blood again, I'll paint this gully" (and she held a knife up as if +about to make good her threat) "in the best blood in your body, my bonny +boy." + +"The price of ointment must be up in the north," said Frank, "that puts +Mother Blood so much out of humour." + +Without a moment's hesitation the fury darted her knife at him with the +vengeful dexterity of a wild Indian. As he was on his guard, he avoided +the missile by a sudden motion of his head, but it whistled past his ear, +and stuck deep in the clay wall of a partition behind. + +"Come, come, mother," said the robber, seizing her by both wrists, "I +shall teach you who's master;" and so saying, he forced the hag backwards +by main force, who strove vehemently until she sunk on a bunch of straw, +and then, letting go her hands, he held up his finger towards her in the +menacing posture by which a maniac is intimidated by his keeper. It +appeared to produce the desired effect; for she did not attempt to rise +from the seat on which he had placed her, or to resume any measures of +actual violence, but wrung her withered hands with impotent rage, and +brayed and howled like a demoniac. + +"I will keep my promise with you, you old devil," said Frank; "the wench +shall not go forward on the London road, but I will not have you touch a +hair of her head, if it were but for your insolence." + +This intimation seemed to compose in some degree the vehement passion of +the old hag; and while her exclamations and howls sunk into a low, +maundering, growling tone of voice, another personage was added to this +singular party. + +"Eh, Frank Levitt," said this new-comer, who entered with a hop, step, +and jump, which at once conveyed her from the door into the centre of the +party, "were ye killing our mother? or were ye cutting the grunter's +weasand that Tam brought in this morning? or have ye been reading your +prayers backward, to bring up my auld acquaintance the deil amang ye?" + +The tone of the speaker was so particular, that Jeanie immediately +recognised the woman who had rode foremost of the pair which passed her +just before she met the robbers; a circumstance which greatly increased +her terror, as it served to show that the mischief designed against her +was premeditated, though by whom, or for what cause, she was totally at a +loss to conjecture. From the style of her conversation, the reader also +may probably acknowledge in this female an old acquaintance in the +earlier part of our narrative. + +"Out, ye mad devil!" said Tom, whom she had disturbed in the middle of a +draught of some liquor with which he had found means of accommodating +himself; "betwixt your Bess of Bedlam pranks, and your dam's frenzies, a +man might live quieter in the devil's ken than here."--And he again +resumed the broken jug out of which he had been drinking. + +"And wha's this o't?" said the mad woman, dancing up to Jeanie Deans, +who, although in great terror, yet watched the scene with a resolution to +let nothing pass unnoticed which might be serviceable in assisting her to +escape, or informing her as to the true nature of her situation, and the +danger attending it,--"Wha's this o't?" again exclaimed Madge Wildfire. + +"Douce Davie Deans, the auld doited whig body's daughter, in a gipsy's +barn, and the night setting in? This is a sight for sair een!--Eh, sirs, +the falling off o' the godly!--and the t'other sister's in the Tolbooth +of Edinburgh; I am very sorry for her, for my share--it's my mother +wusses ill to her, and no me--though maybe I hae as muckle cause." + +"Hark ye, Madge," said the taller ruffian, "you have not such a touch of +the devil's blood as the hag your mother, who may be his dam for what I +know--take this young woman to your kennel, and do not let the devil +enter, though he should ask in God's name." + +"Ou ay; that I will, Frank," said Madge, taking hold of Jeanie by the +arm, and pulling her along; "for it's no for decent Christian young +leddies, like her and me, to be keeping the like o' you and Tyburn Tam +company at this time o' night. Sae gude-e'en t'ye, sirs, and mony o' +them; and may ye a' sleep till the hangman wauken ye, and then it will be +weel for the country." + +She then, as her wild fancy seemed suddenly to prompt her, walked +demurely towards her mother, who, seated by the charcoal fire, with the +reflection of the red light on her withered and distorted features marked +by every evil passion, seemed the very picture of Hecate at her infernal +rites; and, suddenly dropping on her knees, said, with the manner of a +six years' old child, "Mammie, hear me say my prayers before I go to bed, +and say God bless my bonny face, as ye used to do lang syne." + +"The deil flay the hide o' it to sole his brogues wi'!" said the old +lady, aiming a buffet at the supplicant, in answer to her duteous +request. + +The blow missed Madge, who, being probably acquainted by experience with +the mode in which her mother was wont to confer her maternal +benedictions, slipt out of arm's length with great dexterity and +quickness. The hag then started up, and, seizing a pair of old +fire-tongs, would have amended her motion, by beating out the brains +either of her daughter or Jeanie (she did not seem greatly to care +which), when her hand was once more arrested by the man whom they called +Frank Levitt, who, seizing her by the shoulder, flung her from him with +great violence, exclaiming, "What, Mother Damnable--again, and in my +sovereign presence!--Hark ye, Madge of Bedlam! get to your hole with your +playfellow, or we shall have the devil to pay here, and nothing to pay +him with." + +Madge took Levitt's advice, retreating as fast as she could, and dragging +Jeanie along with her into a sort of recess, partitioned off from the +rest of the barn, and filled with straw, from which it appeared that it +was intended for the purpose of slumber. The moonlight shone, through an +open hole, upon a pillion, a pack-saddle, and one or two wallets, the +travelling furniture of Madge and her amiable mother.--"Now, saw ye e'er +in your life," said Madge, "sae dainty a chamber of deas? see as the moon +shines down sae caller on the fresh strae! There's no a pleasanter cell +in Bedlam, for as braw a place as it is on the outside.--Were ye ever in +Bedlam?" + +"No," answered Jeanie faintly, appalled by the question, and the way in +which it was put, yet willing to soothe her insane companion, being in +circumstances so unhappily precarious, that even the society of this +gibbering madwoman seemed a species of protection. + +"Never in Bedlam?" said Madge, as if with some surprise.--"But ye'll hae +been in the cells at Edinburgh!" + +"Never," repeated Jeanie. + +"Weel, I think thae daft carles the magistrates send naebody to Bedlam +but me--thae maun hae an unco respect for me, for whenever I am brought +to them, thae aye hae me back to Bedlam. But troth, Jeanie" (she said +this in a very confidential tone), "to tell ye my private mind about it, +I think ye are at nae great loss; for the keeper's a cross-patch, and he +maun hae it a' his ain gate, to be sure, or he makes the place waur than +hell. I often tell him he's the daftest in a' the house.--But what are +they making sic a skirling for?--Deil ane o' them's get in here--it wadna +be mensfu'! I will sit wi' my back again the door; it winna be that easy +stirring me." + +"Madge!"--"Madge!"--"Madge Wildfire!"--"Madge devil! what have ye done +with the horse?" was repeatedly asked by the men without. + +"He's e'en at his supper, puir thing," answered Madge; "deil an ye were +at yours, too, an it were scauding brimstone, and then we wad hae less o' +your din." + +"His supper!" answered the more sulky ruffian--"What d'ye mean by that!-- +Tell me where he is, or I will knock your Bedlam brains out!" + +"He's in Gaffer Gablewood's wheat-close, an ye maun ken." + +"His wheat-close, you crazed jilt!" answered the other, with an accent of +great indignation. + +"O, dear Tyburn Tam, man, what ill will the blades of the young wheat do +to the puir nag?" + +"That is not the question," said the other robber; "but what the country +will say to us to-morrow, when they see him in such quarters?--Go, Tom, +and bring him in; and avoid the soft ground, my lad; leave no hoof-track +behind you." + +"I think you give me always the fag of it, whatever is to be done," +grumbled his companion. + +"Leap, Laurence, you're long enough," said the other; and the fellow left +the barn accordingly, without farther remonstrance. + +In the meanwhile, Madge had arranged herself for repose on the straw; but +still in a half-sitting posture, with her back resting against the door +of the hovel, which, as it opened inwards, was in this manner kept shut +by the weight of the person. + +"There's mair shifts by stealing, Jeanie," said Madge Wildfire; "though +whiles I can hardly get our mother to think sae. Wha wad hae thought but +mysell of making a bolt of my ain back-bane? But it's no sae strong as +thae that I hae seen in the Tolbooth at Edinburgh. The hammermen of +Edinburgh are to my mind afore the warld for making stancheons, +ring-bolts, fetter-bolts, bars, and locks. And they arena that bad at +girdles for carcakes neither, though the Cu'ross hammermen have the gree +for that. My mother had ance a bonny Cu'ross girdle, and I thought to +have baked carcakes on it for my puir wean that's dead and gane nae fair +way--But we maun a' dee, ye ken, Jeanie--You Cameronian bodies ken that +brawlies; and ye're for making a hell upon earth that ye may be less +unwillin' to part wi' it. But as touching Bedlam that ye were speaking +about, I'se ne'er recommend it muckle the tae gate or the other, be it +right--be it wrang. But ye ken what the sang says." And, pursuing the +unconnected and floating wanderings of her mind, she sung aloud-- + + "In the bonny cells of Bedlam, + Ere I was ane-and-twenty, + I had hempen bracelets strong, + And merry whips, ding-dong, + And prayer and fasting plenty. + +"Weel, Jeanie, I am something herse the night, and I canna sing muckle +mair; and troth, I think, I am gaun to sleep." + +She drooped her head on her breast, a posture from which Jeanie, who +would have given the world for an opportunity of quiet to consider the +means and the probability of her escape, was very careful not to disturb +her. After nodding, however, for a minute'or two, with her eyes +half-closed, the unquiet and restless spirit of her malady again assailed +Madge. She raised her head, and spoke, but with a lowered tone, which was +again gradually overcome by drowsiness, to which the fatigue of a day's +journey on horseback had probably given unwonted occasion,--"I dinna ken +what makes me sae sleepy--I amaist never sleep till my bonny Lady Moon +gangs till her bed--mair by token, when she's at the full, ye ken, rowing +aboon us yonder in her grand silver coach--I have danced to her my lane +sometimes for very joy--and whiles dead folk came and danced wi' me--the +like o' Jock Porteous, or ony body I had ken'd when I was living--for ye +maun ken I was ance dead mysell." Here the poor maniac sung, in a low and +wild tone, + + "My banes are buried in yon kirkyard + Sae far ayont the sea, + And it is but my blithesome ghaist + That's speaking now to thee. + +"But after a', Jeanie, my woman, naebody kens weel wha's living and wha's +dead--or wha's gone to Fairyland--there's another question. Whiles I +think my puir bairn's dead--ye ken very weel it's buried--but that +signifies naething. I have had it on my knee a hundred times, and a +hundred till that, since it was buried--and how could that be were it +dead, ye ken?--it's merely impossible."--And here, some conviction +half-overcoming the reveries of her imagination, she burst into a fit of +crying and ejaculation, "Wae's me! wae's me! wae's me!" till at length +she moaned and sobbed herself into a deep sleep, which was soon intimated +by her breathing hard, leaving Jeanie to her own melancholy reflections +and observations. + + + + + CHAPTER SIXTH. + + + Bind her quickly; or, by this steel, + I'll tell, although I truss for company. + Fletcher. + +The imperfect light which shone into the window enabled Jeanie to see +that there was scarcely any chance of making her escape in that +direction; for the aperture was high in the wall, and so narrow, that, +could she have climbed up to it, she might well doubt whether it would +have permitted her to pass her body through it. An unsuccessful attempt +to escape would be sure to draw down worse treatment than she now +received, and she, therefore, resolved to watch her opportunity carefully +ere making such a perilous effort. For this purpose she applied herself +to the ruinous clay partition, which divided the hovel in which she now +was from the rest of the waste barn. It was decayed and full of cracks +and chinks, one of which she enlarged with her fingers, cautiously and +without noise, until she could obtain a plain view of the old hag and the +taller ruffian, whom they called Levitt, seated together beside the +decayed fire of charcoal, and apparently engaged in close conference. She +was at first terrified by the sight; for the features of the old woman +had a hideous cast of hardened and inveterate malice and ill-humour, and +those of the man, though naturally less unfavourable, were such as +corresponded well with licentious habits, and a lawless profession. + +"But I remembered," said Jeanie, "my worthy fathers tales of a winter +evening, how he was confined with the blessed martyr, Mr. James Renwick, +who lifted up the fallen standard of the true reformed Kirk of Scotland, +after the worthy and renowned Daniel Cameron, our last blessed +banner-man, had fallen among the swords of the wicked at Airsmoss, and +how the very hearts of the wicked malefactors and murderers, whom they +were confined withal, were melted like wax at the sound of their +doctrine: and I bethought mysell, that the same help that was wi' them in +their strait, wad be wi' me in mine, an I could but watch the Lord's time +and opportunity for delivering my feet from their snare; and I minded the +Scripture of the blessed Psalmist, whilk he insisteth on, as weel in the +forty-second as in the forty-third psalm--'Why art thou cast down, O my +soul, and why art thou disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet +praise Him, who is the health of my countenance, and my God.'" + +Strengthened in a mind naturally calm, sedate, and firm, by the influence +of religious confidence, this poor captive was enabled to attend to, and +comprehend, a great part of an interesting conversation which passed +betwixt those into whose hands she had fallen, notwithstanding that their +meaning was partly disguised by the occasional use of cant terms, of +which Jeanie knew not the import, by the low tone in which they spoke, +and by their mode of supplying their broken phrases by shrugs and signs, +as is usual amongst those of their disorderly profession. + +The man opened the conversation by saying, "Now, dame, you see I am true +to my friend. I have not forgot that you /planked a chury,/* which helped +me through the bars of the Castle of York, and I came to do your work +without asking questions; for one good turn deserves another. + +* Concealed a knife. + +But now that Madge, who is as loud as Tom of Lincoln, is somewhat still, +and this same Tyburn Neddie is shaking his heels after the old nag, why, +you must tell me what all this is about, and what's to be done--for d--n +me if I touch the girl, or let her be touched, and she with Jim Rat's +pass, too." + +"Thou art an honest lad, Frank," answered the old woman, "but e'en too +good for thy trade; thy tender heart will get thee into trouble. I will +see ye gang up Holborn Hill backward, and a' on the word of some silly +loon that could never hae rapped to ye had ye drawn your knife across his +weasand." + +"You may be balked there, old one," answered the robber; "I have known +many a pretty lad cut short in his first summer upon the road, because he +was something hasty with his flats and sharps. Besides, a man would fain +live out his two years with a good conscience. So, tell me what all this +is about, and what's to be done for you that one can do decently?" + +"Why, you must know, Frank--but first taste a snap of right Hollands." +She drew a flask from her pocket, and filled the fellow a large bumper, +which he pronounced to be the right thing.--"You must know, then, Frank-- +wunna ye mend your hand?" again offering the flask. + +"No, no,--when a woman wants mischief from you, she always begins by +filling you drunk. D--n all Dutch courage. What I do I will do soberly-- +I'll last the longer for that too." + +"Well, then, you must know," resumed the old woman, without any further +attempts at propitiation, "that this girl is going to London." + +Here Jeanie could only distinguish the word sister. + +The robber answered in a louder tone, "Fair enough that; and what the +devil is your business with it?" + +"Business enough, I think. If the b--queers the noose, that silly cull +will marry her." + +"And who cares if he does?" said the man. + +"Who cares, ye donnard Neddie! I care; and I will strangle her with my +own hands, rather than she should come to Madge's preferment." + +"Madge's preferment! Does your old blind eyes see no farther than that? +If he is as you say, dye think he'll ever marry a moon-calf like Madge? +Ecod, that's a good one--Marry Madge Wildfire!--Ha! ha! ha!" + +"Hark ye, ye crack-rope padder, born beggar, and bred thief!" replied the +hag, "suppose he never marries the wench, is that a reason he should +marry another, and that other to hold my daughter's place, and she +crazed, and I a beggar, and all along of him? But I know that of him will +hang him--I know that of him will hang him, if he had a thousand lives--I +know that of him will hang--hang--hang him!" + +She grinned as she repeated and dwelt upon the fatal monosyllable, with +the emphasis of a vindictive fiend. + +"Then why don't you hang--hang--hang him?" said Frank, repeating her +words contemptuously. "There would be more sense in that, than in +wreaking yourself here upon two wenches that have done you and your +daughter no ill." + +"No ill?" answered the old woman--"and he to marry this jail-bird, if +ever she gets her foot loose!" + +"But as there is no chance of his marrying a bird of your brood, I +cannot, for my soul, see what you have to do with all this," again +replied the robber, shrugging his shoulders. "Where there is aught to be +got, I'll go as far as my neighbours, but I hate mischief for mischiefs +sake." + +"And would you go nae length for revenge?" said the hag--"for revenge-- +the sweetest morsel to the mouth that over was cooked in hell!" + +"The devil may keep it for his own eating, then," said the robber; "for +hang me if I like the sauce he dresses it with." + +"Revenge!" continued the old woman; "why, it is the best reward the devil +gives us for our time here and hereafter. I have wrought hard for it--I +have suffered for it--and I have sinned for it--and I will have it,--or +there is neither justice in heaven or in hell!" + +Levitt had by this time lighted a pipe, and was listening with great +composure to the frantic and vindictive ravings of the old hag. He was +too much, hardened by his course of life to be shocked with them--too +indifferent, and probably too stupid, to catch any part of their +animation or energy. "But, mother," he said, after a pause, "still I say, +that if revenge is your wish, you should take it on the young fellow +himself." + +"I wish I could," she said, drawing in her breath, with the eagerness of +a thirsty person while mimicking the action of drinking--"I wish I could +--but no--I cannot--I cannot." + +"And why not?--You would think little of peaching and hanging him for +this Scotch affair.--Rat me, one might have milled the Bank of England, +and less noise about it." + +"I have nursed him at this withered breast," answered the old woman, +folding her hands on her bosom, as if pressing an infant to it, "and, +though he has proved an adder to me--though he has been the destruction +of me and mine--though he has made me company for the devil, if there be +a devil, and food for hell, if there be such a place, yet I cannot take +his life.--No, I cannot," she continued, with an appearance of rage +against herself; "I have thought of it--I have tried it--but, Francis +Levitt, I canna gang through wi't--Na, na--he was the first bairn I ever +nurst--ill I had been--and man can never ken what woman feels for the +bairn she has held first to her bosom!" + +"To be sure," said Levitt, "we have no experience; but, mother, they say +you ha'n't been so kind to other bairns, as you call them, that have come +in your way.--Nay, d--n me, never lay your hand on the whittle, for I am +captain and leader here, and I will have no rebellion." + +The hag, whose first motion had been, upon hearing the question, to grasp +the haft of a large knife, now unclosed her hand, stole it away from the +weapon, and suffered it to fall by her side, while she proceeded with a +sort of smile--"Bairns! ye are joking, lad--wha wad touch bairns? Madge, +puir thing, had a misfortune wi' ane--and the t'other"--Here her voice +sunk so much, that Jeanie, though anxiously upon the watch, could not +catch a word she said, until she raised her tone at the conclusion of the +sentence--"So Madge, in her daffin', threw it into the Nor'-lock, I +trow." + +Madge, whose slumbers, like those of most who labour under mental malady, +had been short, and were easily broken, now made herself heard from her +place of repose. + +"Indeed, mother, that's a great lie, for I did nae sic thing." + +"Hush, thou hellicat devil," said her mother--"By Heaven! the other wench +will be waking too." + +"That may be dangerous," said Frank; and he rose, and followed Meg +Murdockson across the floor. + +"Rise," said the hag to her daughter, "or I sall drive the knife between +the planks into the Bedlam back of thee!" + +Apparently she at the same time seconded her threat by pricking her with +the point of a knife, for Madge, with a faint scream, changed her place, +and the door opened. + +The old woman held a candle in one hand, and a knife in the other. Levitt +appeared behind her, whether with a view of preventing, or assisting her +in any violence she might meditate, could not be well guessed. Jeanie's +presence of mind stood her friend in this dreadful crisis. She had +resolution enough to maintain the attitude and manner of one who sleeps +profoundly, and to regulate even her breathing, notwithstanding the +agitation of instant terror, so as to correspond with her attitude. + +The old woman passed the light across her eyes; and although Jeanie's +fears were so powerfully awakened by this movement, that she often +declared afterwards, that she thought she saw the figures of her destined +murderers through her closed eyelids, she had still the resolution to +maintain the feint, on which her safety perhaps depended. + +Levitt looked at her with fixed attention; he then turned the old woman +out of the place, and followed her himself. Having regained the outward +apartment, and seated themselves, Jeanie heard the highwayman say, to her +no small relief, "She's as fast as if she were in Bedfordshire.--Now, old +Meg, d--n me if I can understand a glim of this story of yours, or what +good it will do you to hang the one wench and torment the other; but, rat +me, I will be true to my friend, and serve ye the way ye like it. I see +it will be a bad job; but I do think I could get her down to Surfleet on +the Wash, and so on board Tom Moonshine's neat lugger, and keep her out +of the way three or four weeks, if that will please ye--But d--n me if +any one shall harm her, unless they have a mind to choke on a brace of +blue plums.--It's a cruel, bad job, and I wish you and it, Meg, were both +at the devil." + +"Never mind, hinny Levitt," said the old woman; "you are a ruffler, and +will have a' your ain gate--She shanna gang to heaven an hour sooner for +me; I carena whether she live or die--it's her sister--ay, her sister!" + +"Well, we'll say no more about it; I hear Tom coming in. We'll couch a +hogshead,* and so better had you." + +* Lay ourselves down to sleep. + +They retired to repose accordingly, and all was silent in this asylum of +iniquity. + +Jeanie lay for a long time awake. At break of day she heard the two +ruffians leave the barn, after whispering to the old woman for some time. +The sense that she was now guarded by persons of her own sex gave her +some confidence, and irresistible lassitude at length threw her into +slumber. + +When the captive awakened, the sun was high in heaven, and the morning +considerably advanced. Madge Wildfire was still in the hovel which had +served them for the night, and immediately bid her good-morning, with her +usual air of insane glee. "And dye ken, lass," said Madge, "there's queer +things chanced since ye hae been in the land of Nod. The constables hae +been here, woman, and they met wi' my minnie at the door, and they +whirl'd her awa to the Justice's about the man's wheat.--Dear! thae +English churls think as muckle about a blade of wheat or grass, as a +Scotch laird does about his maukins and his muir-poots. Now, lass, if ye +like, we'll play them a fine jink; we will awa out and take a walk--they +will mak unco wark when they miss us, but we can easily be back by dinner +time, or before dark night at ony rate, and it will be some frolic and +fresh air.--But maybe ye wad like to take some breakfast, and then lie +down again? I ken by mysell, there's whiles I can sit wi' my head in my +hand the haill day, and havena a word to cast at a dog--and other whiles, +that I canna sit still a moment. That's when the folk think me warst, but +I am aye canny eneugh--ye needna be feared to walk wi' me." + +Had Madge Wildfire been the most raging lunatic, instead of possessing a +doubtful, uncertain, and twilight sort of rationality, varying, probably, +from the influence of the most trivial causes, Jeanie would hardly have +objected to leave a place of captivity, where she had so much to +apprehend. She eagerly assured Madge that she had no occasion for further +sleep, no desire whatever for eating; and, hoping internally that she was +not guilty of sin in doing so, she flattered her keeper's crazy humour +for walking in the woods. + +"It's no a'thegither for that neither," said poor Madge; "but I am +judging ye will wun the better out o' thae folk's hands; no that they are +a'thegither bad folk neither, but they have queer ways wi' them, and I +whiles dinna think it has ever been weel wi' my mother and me since we +kept sic-like company." + +With the haste, the joy, the fear, and the hope of a liberated captive, +Jeanie snatched up her little bundle, followed Madge into the free air, +and eagerly looked round her for a human habitation; but none was to be +seen. The ground was partly cultivated, and partly left in its natural +state, according as the fancy of the slovenly agriculturists had decided. +In its natural state it was waste, in some places covered with dwarf +trees and bushes, in others swamp, and elsewhere firm and dry downs or +pasture grounds. + +Jeanie's active mind next led her to conjecture which way the high-road +lay, whence she had been forced. If she regained that public road, she +imagined she must soon meet some person, or arrive at some house, where +she might tell her story, and request protection. But, after a glance +around her, she saw with regret that she had no means whatever of +directing her course with any degree of certainty, and that she was still +in dependence upon her crazy companion. "Shall we not walk upon the +high-road?" said she to Madge, in such a tone as a nurse uses to coax a +child. "It's brawer walking on the road than amang thae wild bushes and +whins." + +Madge, who was walking very fast, stopped at this question, and looked at +Jeanie with a sudden and scrutinising glance, that seemed to indicate +complete acquaintance with her purpose. "Aha, lass!" she exclaimed, "are +ye gaun to guide us that gate?--Ye'll be for making your heels save your +head, I am judging." + +Jeanie hesitated for a moment, on hearing her companion thus express +herself, whether she had not better take the hint, and try to outstrip +and get rid of her. But she knew not in which direction to fly; she was +by no means sure that she would prove the swiftest, and perfectly +conscious that in the event of her being pursued and overtaken, she would +be inferior to the madwoman in strength. She therefore gave up thoughts +for the present of attempting to escape in that manner, and, saying a few +words to allay Madge's suspicions, she followed in anxious apprehension +the wayward path by which her guide thought proper to lead her. Madge, +infirm of purpose, and easily reconciled to the present scene, whatever +it was, began soon to talk with her usual diffuseness of ideas. + +"It's a dainty thing to be in the woods on a fine morning like this! I +like it far better than the town, for there isna a wheen duddie bairns to +be crying after ane, as if ane were a warld's wonder, just because ane +maybe is a thought bonnier and better put-on than their neighbours-- +though, Jeanie, ye suld never be proud o' braw claiths, or beauty +neither--wae's me! they're but a snare--I ance thought better o' them, +and what came o't?" + +"Are ye sure ye ken the way ye are taking us?" said Jeanie, who began to +imagine that she was getting deeper into the woods and more remote from +the high-road. + +"Do I ken the road?--Wasna I mony a day living here, and what for +shouldna I ken the road? I might hae forgotten, too, for it was afore my +accident; but there are some things ane can never forget, let them try it +as muckle as they like." + +By this time they had gained the deepest part of a patch of woodland. The +trees were a little separated from each other, and at the foot of one of +them, a beautiful poplar, was a hillock of moss, such as the poet of +Grasmere has described. So soon as she arrived at this spot, Madge +Wildfire, joining her hands above her head with a loud scream that +resembled laughter, flung herself all at once upon the spot, and remained +lying there motionless. + +Jeanie's first idea was to take the opportunity of flight; but her desire +to escape yielded for a moment to apprehension for the poor insane being, +who, she thought, might perish for want of relief. With an effort, which +in her circumstances, might be termed heroic, she stooped down, spoke in +a soothing tone, and endeavoured to raise up the forlorn creature. She +effected this with difficulty, and as she placed her against the tree in +a sitting posture, she observed with surprise, that her complexion, +usually florid, was now deadly pale, and that her face was bathed in +tears. Notwithstanding her own extreme danger, Jeanie was affected by the +situation of her companion; and the rather, that, through the whole train +of her wavering and inconsistent state of mind and line of conduct, she +discerned a general colour of kindness towards herself, for which she +felt gratitude. + +"Let me alane!--let me alane!" said the poor young woman, as her paroxysm +of sorrow began to abate--"Let me alane--it does me good to weep. I canna +shed tears but maybe ance or twice a year, and I aye come to wet this +turf with them, that the flowers may grow fair, and the grass may be +green." + +"But what is the matter with you?" said Jeanie--"Why do you weep so +bitterly?" + +"There's matter enow," replied the lunatic,--"mair than ae puir mind can +bear, I trow. Stay a bit, and I'll tell you a' about it; for I like ye, +Jeanie Deans--a'body spoke weel about ye when we lived in the Pleasaunts +--And I mind aye the drink o' milk ye gae me yon day, when I had been on +Arthur's Seat for four-and-twenty hours, looking for the ship that +somebody was sailing in." + +These words recalled to Jeanie's recollection, that, in fact, she had +been one morning much frightened by meeting a crazy young woman near her +father's house at an early hour, and that, as she appeared to be +harmless, her apprehension had been changed into pity, and she had +relieved the unhappy wanderer with some food, which she devoured with the +haste of a famished person. The incident, trifling in itself, was at +present of great importance, if it should be found to have made a +favourable and permanent impression in her favour on the mind of the +object of her charity. + +"Yes," said Madge, "I'll tell ye a' about it, for ye are a decent man's +daughter--Douce Davie Deans, ye ken--and maybe ye'll can teach me to find +out the narrow way, and the straight path, for I have been burning bricks +in Egypt, and walking through the weary wilderness of Sinai, for lang and +mony a day. But whenever I think about mine errors, I am like to cover my +lips for shame."--Here she looked up and smiled.--"It's a strange thing +now--I hae spoke mair gude words to you in ten minutes, than I wad speak +to my mother in as mony years--it's no that I dinna think on them--and +whiles they are just at my tongue's end, but then comes the devil, and +brushes my lips with his black wing, and lays his broad black loof on my +mouth--for a black loof it is, Jeanie--and sweeps away a' my gude +thoughts, and dits up my gude words, and pits a wheen fule sangs and idle +vanities in their place." + +"Try, Madge," said Jeanie,--"try to settle your mind and make your breast +clean, and you'll find your heart easier.--Just resist the devil, and he +will flee from you--and mind that, as my worthy father tells me, there is +nae devil sae deceitfu' as our ain wandering thoughts." + +"And that's true too, lass," said Madge, starting up; "and I'll gang a +gate where the devil daurna follow me; and it's a gate that you will like +dearly to gang--but I'll keep a fast haud o' your arm, for fear Apollyon +should stride across the path, as he did in the Pilgrim's Progress." + +Accordingly she got up, and, taking Jeanie by the arm, began to walk +forward at a great pace; and soon, to her companion's no small joy, came +into a marked path, with the meanders of which she seemed perfectly +acquainted. Jeanie endeavoured to bring her back to the confessional, but +the fancy was gone by. In fact, the mind of this deranged being resembled +nothing so much as a quantity of dry leaves, which may for a few minutes +remain still, but are instantly discomposed and put in motion by the +first casual breath of air. She had now got John Bunyan's parable into +her head, to the exclusion of everything else, and on she went with great +volubility. + +"Did ye never read the Pilgrim's Progress? And you shall be the woman, +Christiana, and I will be the maiden, Mercy--for ye ken Mercy was of the +fairer countenance, and the more alluring than her companion--and if I +had my little messan dog here, it would be Great-heart, their guide, ye +ken, for he was e'en as bauld, that he wad bark at ony thing twenty times +his size; and that was e'en the death of him, for he bit Corporal +MacAlpine's heels ae morning when they were hauling me to the +guard-house, and Corporal MacAlpine killed the bit faithfu' thing wi' his +Lochaber axe--deil pike the Highland banes o' him." + +"O fie! Madge," said Jeanie, "ye should not speak such words." + +"It's very true," said Madge, shaking her head; "but then I maunna think +o' my puir bit doggie, Snap, when I saw it lying dying in the gutter. But +it's just as weel, for it suffered baith cauld and hunger when it was +living, and in the grave there is rest for a' things--rest for the +doggie, and my puir bairn, and me." + +"Your bairn?" said Jeanie, conceiving that by speaking on such a topic, +supposing it to be a real one, she could not fail to bring her companion +to a more composed temper. + +She was mistaken, however, for Madge coloured, and replied with some +anger, "/My/ bairn? ay, to be sure, my bairn. Whatfor shouldna I hae a +bairn and lose a bairn too, as weel as your bonnie tittie, the Lily of +St. Leonard's?" + +The answer struck Jeanie with some alarm, and she was anxious to soothe +the irritation she had unwittingly given occasion to. "I am very sorry +for your misfortune" + +"Sorry! what wad ye be sorry for?" answered Madge. "The bairn was a +blessing--that is, Jeanie, it wad hae been a blessing if it hadna been +for my mother; but my mother's a queer woman.--Ye see, there was an auld +carle wi' a bit land, and a gude clat o' siller besides, just the very +picture of old Mr. Feeblemind or Mr. Ready-to-halt, that Great-heart +delivered from Slaygood the giant, when he was rifling him and about to +pick his bones, for Slaygood was of the nature of the flesh-eaters--and +Great-heart killed Giant Despair too--but I am doubting Giant Despair's +come alive again, for a' the story book--I find him busy at my heart +whiles." + +"Weel, and so the auld carle," said Jeanie, for she was painfully +interested in getting to the truth of Madge's history, which she could +not but suspect was in some extraordinary way linked and entwined with +the fate of her sister. She was also desirous, if possible, to engage her +companion in some narrative which might be carried on in a lower tone of +voice, for she was in great apprehension lest the elevated notes of +Madge's conversation should direct her mother or the robbers in search of +them. + +"And so the auld carle," said Madge, repeating her words--"I wish ye had +seen him stoiting about, aff ae leg on to the other, wi' a kind o' +dot-and-go-one sort o' motion, as if ilk ane o' his twa legs had belanged +to sindry folk--but Gentle George could take him aff brawly--Eh, as I +used to laugh to see George gang hip-hop like him!--I dinna ken, I think +I laughed heartier then than what I do now, though maybe no just sae +muckle." + +"And who was Gentle George?" said Jeanie, endeavouring to bring her back +to her story. + +"O, he was Geordie Robertson, ye ken, when he was in Edinburgh; but +that's no his right name neither--His name is--But what is your business +wi' his name?" said she, as if upon sudden recollection, "What have ye to +do asking for folk's names?--Have ye a mind I should scour my knife +between your ribs, as my mother says?" + +As this was spoken with a menacing tone and gesture, Jeanie hastened to +protest her total innocence of purpose in the accidental question which +she had asked, and Madge Wildfire went on somewhat pacified. + +"Never ask folk's names, Jeanie--it's no civil--I hae seen half-a-dozen +o' folk in my mother's at ance, and ne'er ane a' them ca'd the ither by +his name; and Daddie Ratton says, it is the most uncivil thing may be, +because the bailie bodies are aye asking fashions questions, when ye saw +sic a man, or sic a man; and if ye dinna ken their names, ye ken there +can be nae mair speerd about it." + +"In what strange school," thought Jeanie to herself, "has this poor +creature been bred up, where such remote precautions are taken against +the pursuits of justice? What would my father or Reuben Butler think if I +were to tell them there are sic folk in the world? And to abuse the +simplicity of this demented creature! Oh, that I were but safe at hame +amang mine ain leal and true people! and I'll bless God, while I have +breath, that placed me amongst those who live in His fear, and under the +shadow of His wing." + +She was interrupted by the insane laugh of Madge Wildfire, as she saw a +magpie hop across the path. + +"See there!--that was the gate my auld joe used to cross the country, but +no just sae lightly--he hadna wings to help his auld legs, I trow; but I +behoved to have married him for a' that, Jeanie, or my mother wad hae +been the dead o' me. But then came in the story of my poor bairn, and my +mother thought he wad be deaved wi' it's skirling, and she pat it away in +below the bit bourock of turf yonder, just to be out o' the gate; and I +think she buried my best wits with it, for I have never been just mysell +since. And only think, Jeanie, after my mother had been at a' these +pains, the auld doited body Johnny Drottle turned up his nose, and wadna +hae aught to say to me! But it's little I care for him, for I have led a +merry life ever since, and ne'er a braw gentleman looks at me but ye wad +think he was gaun to drop off his horse for mere love of me. I have ken'd +some o' them put their hand in their pocket, and gie me as muckle as +sixpence at a time, just for my weel-faured face." + +This speech gave Jeanie a dark insight into Madge's history. She had been +courted by a wealthy suitor, whose addresses her mother had favoured, +notwithstanding the objection of old age and deformity. She had been +seduced by some profligate, and, to conceal her shame and promote the +advantageous match she had planned, her mother had not hesitated to +destroy the offspring of their intrigue. That the consequence should be +the total derangement of amind which was constitutionally unsettled by +giddiness and vanity, was extremely natural; and such was, in fact, the +history of Madge Wildfire's insanity. + + + + CHAPTER SEVENTH. + + + So free from danger, free from fear + They crossed the court--right glad they were. + Christabel. + +Pursuing the path which Madge had chosen, Jeanie Deans observed, to her +no small delight, that marks of more cultivation appeared, and the +thatched roofs of houses, with their blue smoke arising in little +columns, were seen embosomed in a tuft of trees at some distance. The +track led in that direction, and Jeanie, therefore, resolved, while Madge +continued to pursue it, that she would ask her no questions; having had +the penetration to observe, that by doing so she ran the risk of +irritating her guide, or awakening suspicions, to the impressions of +which, persons in Madge's unsettled state of mind are particularly +liable. + +Madge, therefore, uninterrupted, went on with the wild disjointed chat +which her rambling imagination suggested; a mood in which she was much +more communicative respecting her own history, and that of others, than +when there was any attempt made, by direct queries, or cross- +examinations, to extract information on these subjects. + +"It's a queer thing," she said, "but whiles I can speak about the bit +bairn and the rest of it, just as if it had been another body's, and no +my ain; and whiles I am like to break my heart about it--Had you ever a +bairn, Jeanie?" + +Jeanie replied in the negative. + +"Ay; but your sister had, though--and I ken what came o't too." + +"In the name of heavenly mercy," said Jeanie, forgetting the line of +conduct which she had hitherto adopted, "tell me but what became of that +unfortunate babe, and" + +Madge stopped, looked at her gravely and fixedly, and then broke into a +great fit of laughing--"Aha, lass,--catch me if you can--I think it's +easy to gar you trow ony thing.--How suld I ken onything o' your sister's +wean? Lasses suld hae naething to do wi' weans till they are married--and +then a' the gossips and cummers come in and feast as if it were the +blithest day in the warld.--They say maidens' bairns are weel guided. I +wot that wasna true of your tittie's and mine; but these are sad tales to +tell.--I maun just sing a bit to keep up my heart--It's a sang that +Gentle George made on me lang syne, when I went with him to Lockington +wake, to see him act upon a stage, in fine clothes, with the player folk. +He might hae dune waur than married me that night as he promised--better +wed over the mixen* as over the moor, as they say in Yorkshire-- + +* A homely proverb, signifying better wed a neighbour than one fetched +from a distance.--Mixen signifies dunghill. + +he may gang farther and fare waur--but that's a' ane to the sang, + + + 'I'm Madge of the country, I'm Madge of the town, + And I'm Madge of the lad I am blithest to own-- + The Lady of Beeve in diamonds may shine, + But has not a heart half so lightsome as mine. + + + 'I am Queen of the Wake, and I'm Lady of May, + And I lead the blithe ring round the May-pole to-day; + The wildfire that flashes so fair and so free, + Was never so bright, or so bonny, as me.' + +"I like that the best o' a' my sangs," continued the maniac, "because he +made it. I am often singing it, and that's maybe the reason folk ca' me +Madge Wildfire. I aye answer to the name, though it's no my ain, for +what's the use of making a fash?" + +"But ye shouldna sing upon the Sabbath at least," said Jeanie, who, amid +all her distress and anxiety, could not help being scandalised at the +deportment of her companion, especially as they now approached near to +the little village. + +"Ay! is this Sunday?" said Madge. "My mother leads sic a life, wi' +turning night into day, that ane loses a' count o' the days o' the week, +and disna ken Sunday frae Saturday. Besides, it's a' your whiggery--in +England, folk sings when they like--And then, ye ken, you are Christiana +and I am Mercy--and ye ken, as they went on their way, they sang."--And +she immediately raised one of John Bunyan's ditties:-- + + "He that is down need fear no fall, + He that is low no pride, + He that is humble ever shall + Have God to be his guide. + + + "Fulness to such a burthen is + That go on pilgrimage; + Here little, and hereafter bliss, + Is best from age to age." + +"And do ye ken, Jeanie, I think there's much truth in that book, the +Pilgrim's Progress. The boy that sings that song was feeding his father's +sheep in the Valley of Humiliation, and Mr. Great-heart says, that he +lived a merrier life, and had more of the herb called heart's-ease in his +bosom, than they that wear silk and velvet like me, and are as bonny as I +am." + +Jeanie Deans had never read the fanciful and delightful parable to which +Madge alluded. Bunyan was, indeed, a rigid Calvinist, but then he was +also a member of a Baptist congregation, so that his works had no place +on David Deans's shelf of divinity. Madge, however, at some time of her +life, had been well acquainted, as it appeared, with the most popular of +his performances, which, indeed, rarely fails to make a deep impression +upon children, and people of the lower rank. + +"I am sure," she continued, "I may weel say I am come out of the city of +Destruction, for my mother is Mrs. Bat's-eyes, that dwells at Deadman's +corner; and Frank Levitt, and Tyburn Tam, they may be likened to Mistrust +and Guilt, that came galloping up, and struck the poor pilgrim to the +ground with a great club, and stole a bag of silver, which was most of +his spending money, and so have they done to many, and will do to more. +But now we will gang to the Interpreter's house, for I ken a man that +will play the Interpreter right weel; for he has eyes lifted up to +Heaven, the best of books in his hand, the law of truth written on his +lips, and he stands as if he pleaded wi' men--Oh, if I had minded what he +had said to me, I had never been the cutaway creature that I am!--But it +is all over now.--But we'll knock at the gate, and then the keeper will +admit Christiana, but Mercy will be left out--and then I'll stand at the +door, trembling and crying, and then Christiana--that's you, Jeanie--will +intercede for me; and then Mercy--that's me, ye ken, will faint; and then +the Interpreter--yes, the Interpreter, that's Mr. Staunton himself, will +come out and take me--that's poor, lost, demented me--by the hand, and +give me a pomegranate, and a piece of honeycomb, and a small bottle of +spirits, to stay my fainting--and then the good times will come back +again, and we'll be the happiest folk you ever saw." + +In the midst of the confused assemblage of ideas indicated in this +speech, Jeanie thought she saw a serious purpose on the part of Madge, to +endeavour to obtain the pardon and countenance of some one whom she had +offended; an attempt the most likely of all others to bring them once +more into contact with law and legal protection. She, therefore, resolved +to be guided by her while she was in so hopeful a disposition, and act +for her own safety according to circumstances. + +They were now close by the village, one of those beautiful scenes which +are so often found in merry England, where the cottages, instead of being +built in two direct lines on each side of a dusty high-road, stand in +detached groups, interspersed not only with large oaks and elms, but with +fruit-trees, so many of which were at this time in flourish, that the +grove seemed enamelled with their crimson and white blossoms. In the +centre of the hamlet stood the parish church, and its little Gothic +tower, from which at present was heard the Sunday chime of bells. + +"We will wait here until the folk are a' in the church--they ca' the kirk +a church in England, Jeanie, be sure you mind that--for if I was gaun +forward amang them, a' the gaitts o' boys and lasses wad be crying at +Madge Wildfire's tail, the little hell-rakers! and the beadle would be as +hard upon us as if it was our fault. I like their skirting as ill as he +does, I can tell him; I'm sure I often wish there was a het peat doun +their throats when they set them up that gate." + +Conscious of the disorderly appearance of her own dress after the +adventure of the preceding night, and of the grotesque habit and +demeanour of her guide, and sensible how important it was to secure an +attentive and impatient audience to her strange story from some one who +might have the means to protect her, Jeanie readily acquiesced in Madge's +proposal to rest under the trees, by which they were still somewhat +screened, until the commencement of service should give them an +opportunity of entering the hamlet without attracting a crowd around +them. She made the less opposition, that Madge had intimated that this +was not the village where her mother was in custody, and that the two +squires of the pad were absent in a different direction. + +She sate herself down, therefore, at the foot of an oak, and by the +assistance of a placid fountain, which had been dammed up for the use of +the villagers, and which served her as a natural mirror, she began--no +uncommon thing with a Scottish maiden of her rank--to arrange her +toilette in the open air, and bring her dress, soiled and disordered as +it was, into such order as the place and circumstances admitted. + +She soon perceived reason, however, to regret that she had set about this +task, however decent and necessary, in the present time and society. +Madge Wildfire, who, among other indications of insanity, had a most +overweening opinion of those charms, to which, in fact, she had owed her +misery, and whose mind, like a raft upon a lake, was agitated and driven +about at random by each fresh impulse, no sooner beheld Jeanie begin to +arrange her hair, place her bonnet in order, rub the dust from her shoes +and clothes, adjust her neck-handkerchief and mittans, and so forth, than +with imitative zeal she began to bedizen and trick herself out with +shreds and remnants of beggarly finery, which she took out of a little +bundle, and which, when disposed around her person, made her appearance +ten times more fantastic and apish than it had been before. + +Jeanie groaned in spirit, but dared not interfere in a matter so +delicate. Across the man's cap or riding hat which she wore, Madge placed +a broken and soiled white feather, intersected with one which had been +shed from the train of a peacock. To her dress, which was a kind of +riding-habit, she stitched, pinned, and otherwise secured, a large +furbelow of artificial flowers, all crushed, wrinkled and dirty, which +had at first bedecked a lady of quality, then descended to her Abigail, +and dazzled the inmates of the servants' hall. A tawdry scarf of yellow +silk, trimmed with tinsel and spangles, which had seen as hard service, +and boasted as honourable a transmission, was next flung over one +shoulder, and fell across her person in the manner of a shoulder-belt, or +baldrick. Madge then stripped off the coarse ordinary shoes, which she +wore, and replaced them by a pair of dirty satin ones, spangled and +embroidered to match the scarf, and furnished with very high heels. She +had cut a willow switch in her morning's walk, almost as long as a boy's +fishing-rod. This she set herself seriously to peel, and when it was +transformed into such a wand as the Treasurer or High Steward bears on +public occasions, she told Jeanie that she thought they now looked +decent, as young women should do upon the Sunday morning, and that, as +the bells had done ringing, she was willing to conduct her to the +Interpreter's house. + +Jeanie sighed heavily, to think it should be her lot on the Lord's day, +and during kirk time too, to parade the street of an inhabited village +with so very grotesque a comrade; but necessity had no law, since, +without a positive quarrel with the madwoman, which, in the +circumstances, would have been very unadvisable, she could see no means +of shaking herself free of her society. + +As for poor Madge, she was completely elated with personal vanity, and +the most perfect satisfaction concerning her own dazzling dress, and +superior appearance. They entered the hamlet without being observed, +except by one old woman, who, being nearly "high-gravel blind," was only +conscious that something very fine and glittering was passing by, and +dropped as deep a reverence to Madge as she would have done to a +countess. This filled up the measure of Madge's self-approbation. She +minced, she ambled, she smiled, she simpered, and waved Jeanie Deans +forward with the condescension of a noble /chaperone,/ who has undertaken +the charge of a country miss on her first journey to the capital. + +Jeanie followed in patience, and with her eyes fixed on the ground, that +she might save herself the mortification of seeing her companion's +absurdities; but she started when, ascending two or three steps, she +found herself in the churchyard, and saw that Madge was making straight +for the door of the church. As Jeanie had no mind to enter the +congregation in such company, she walked aside from the pathway, and said +in a decided tone, "Madge, I will wait here till the church comes out-- +you may go in by yourself if you have a mind." + +As she spoke these words, she was about to seat herself upon one of the +grave-stones. + +Madge was a little before Jeanie when she turned aside; but, suddenly +changing her course, she followed her with long strides, and, with every +feature inflamed with passion, overtook and seized her by the arm. "Do ye +think, ye ungratefu' wretch, that I am gaun to let you sit doun upon my +father's grave? The deil settle ye doun, if ye dinna rise and come into +the Interpreter's house, that's the house of God, wi' me, but I'll rive +every dud aft your back!" + +She adapted the action to the phrase; for with one clutch she stripped +Jeanie of her straw bonnet and a handful of her hair to boot, and threw +it up into an old yew-tree, where it stuck fast. Jeanie's first impulse +was to scream, but conceiving she might receive deadly harm before she +could obtain the assistance of anyone, notwithstanding the vicinity of +the church, she thought it wiser to follow the madwoman into the +congregation, where she might find some means of escape from her, or at +least be secured against her violence. But when she meekly intimated her +consent to follow Madge, her guide's uncertain brain had caught another +train of ideas. She held Jeanie fast with one hand, and with the other +pointed to the inscription on the grave-stone, and commanded her to read +it. Jeanie obeyed, and read these words:-- + + + "This Monument was erected to the Memory of Donald + Murdockson of the King's xxvi., or Cameronian + Regiment, a sincere Christian, a brave Soldier, and + a faithful Servant, by his grateful and sorrowing + master, Robert Staunton." + +"It's very weel read, Jeanie; it's just the very words," said Madge, +whose ire had now faded into deep melancholy, and with a step which, to +Jeanie's great joy, was uncommonly quiet and mournful, she led her +companion towards the door of the church. + +It was one of those old-fashioned Gothic parish churches which are +frequent in England, the most cleanly, decent, and reverential places of +worship that are, perhaps, anywhere to be found in the Christian world. +Yet, notwithstanding the decent solemnity of its exterior, Jeanie was too +faithful to the directory of the Presbyterian kirk to have entered a +prelatic place of worship, and would, upon any other occasion, have +thought that she beheld in the porch the venerable figure of her father +waving her back from the entrance, and pronouncing in a solemn tone, +"Cease, my child, to hear the instruction which causeth to err from the +words of knowledge." But in her present agitating and alarming situation, +she looked for safety to this forbidden place of assembly, as the hunted +animal will sometimes seek shelter from imminent danger in the human +habitation, or in other places of refuge most alien to its nature and +habits. Not even the sound of the organ, and of one or two flutes which +accompanied the psalmody, prevented her from following her guide into the +chancel of the church. + +No sooner had Madge put her foot upon the pavement, and become sensible +that she was the object of attention to the spectators, than she resumed +all the fantastic extravagance of deportment which some transient touch +of melancholy had banished for an instant. She swam rather than walked up +the centre aisle, dragging Jeanie after her, whom she held fast by the +hand. She would, indeed, have fain slipped aside into the pew nearest to +the door, and left Madge to ascend in her own manner and alone to the +high places of the synagogue; but this was impossible, without a degree +of violent resistance, which seemed to her inconsistent with the time and +place, and she was accordingly led in captivity up the whole length of +the church by her grotesque conductress, who, with half-shut eyes, a prim +smile upon her lips, and a mincing motion with her hands, which +corresponded with the delicate and affected pace at which she was pleased +to move, seemed to take the general stare of the congregation, which such +an exhibition necessarily excited, as a high compliment, and which she +returned by nods and half-courtesies to individuals amongst the audience, +whom she seemed to distinguish as acquaintances. Her absurdity was +enhanced in the eyes of the spectators by the strange contrast which she +formed to her companion, who, with dishevelled hair, downcast eyes, and a +face glowing with shame, was dragged, as it were in triumph after her. + +Madge's airs were at length fortunately cut short by her encountering in +her progress the looks of the clergyman, who fixed upon her a glance, at +once steady, compassionate, and admonitory. She hastily opened an empty +pew which happened to be near her, and entered, dragging in Jeanie after +her. Kicking Jeanie on the shins, by way of hint that she should follow +her example, she sunk her head upon her hand for the space of a minute. +Jeanie, to whom this posture of mental devotion was entirely new, did not +attempt to do the like, but looked round her with a bewildered stare, +which her neighbours, judging from the company in which they saw her, +very naturally ascribed to insanity. Every person in their immediate +vicinity drew back from this extraordinary couple as far as the limits of +their pew permitted; but one old man could not get beyond Madge's reach, +ere, she had snatched the prayer-book from his hand, and ascertained the +lesson of the day. She then turned up the ritual, and with the most +overstrained enthusiasm of gesture and manner, showed Jeanie the passages +as they were read in the service, making, at the same time, her own +responses so loud as to be heard above those of every other person. + +Notwithstanding the shame and vexation which Jeanie felt in being thus +exposed in a place of worship, she could not and durst not omit rallying +her spirits so as to look around her, and consider to whom she ought to +appeal for protection so soon as the service should be concluded. Her +first ideas naturally fixed upon the clergyman, and she was confirmed in +the resolution by observing that he was an aged gentleman, of a dignified +appearance and deportment, who read the service with an undisturbed and +decent gravity, which brought back to becoming attention those younger +members of the congregation who had been disturbed by the extravagant +behaviour of Madge Wildfire. To the clergyman, therefore, Jeanie resolved +to make her appeal when the service was over. + +It is true she felt disposed to be shocked at his surplice, of which she +had heard so much, but which she had never seen upon the person of a +preacher of the word. Then she was confused by the change of posture +adopted in different parts of the ritual, the more so as Madge Wildfire, +to whom they seemed familiar, took the opportunity to exercise authority +over her, pulling her up and pushing her down with a bustling assiduity, +which Jeanie felt must make them both the objects of painful attention. +But, notwithstanding these prejudices, it was her prudent resolution, in +this dilemma, to imitate as nearly as she could what was done around her. +The prophet, she thought, permitted Naaman the Syrian to bow even in the +house of Rimmon. Surely if I, in this streight, worship the God of my +fathers in mine own language, although the manner thereof be strange to +me, the Lord will pardon me in this thing. + +In this resolution she became so much confirmed, that, withdrawing +herself from Madge as far as the pew permitted, she endeavoured to evince +by serious and composed attention to what was passing, that her mind was +composed to devotion. Her tormentor would not long have permitted her to +remain quiet, but fatigue overpowered her, and she fell fast asleep in +the other corner of the pew. + +Jeanie, though her mind in her own despite sometimes reverted to her +situation, compelled herself to give attention to a sensible, energetic, +and well-composed discourse, upon the practical doctrines of +Christianity, which she could not help approving, although it was every +word written down and read by the preacher, and although it was delivered +in a tone and gesture very different from those of Boanerges Stormheaven, +who was her father's favourite preacher. The serious and placid attention +with which Jeanie listened, did not escape the clergyman. Madge +Wildfire's entrance had rendered him apprehensive of some disturbance, to +provide against which, as far as possible, he often turned his eyes to +the part of the church where Jeanie and she were placed, and became soon +aware that, although the loss of her head-gear, and the awkwardness of +her situation, had given an uncommon and anxious air to the features of +the former, yet she was in a state of mind very different from that of +her companion. When he dismissed the congregation, he observed her look +around with a wild and terrified look, as if uncertain what course she +ought to adopt, and noticed that she approached one or two of the most +decent of the congregation, as if to address them, and then shrunk back +timidly, on observing that they seemed to shun and to avoid her. The +clergyman was satisfied there must be something extraordinary in all +this, and as a benevolent man, as well as a good Christian pastor, he +resolved to inquire into the matter more minutely. + + + + CHAPTER EIGHTH. + + + There governed in that year + A stern, stout churl--an angry overseer. + Crabbe. + +While Mr. Staunton, for such was this worthy clergyman's name, was laying +aside his gown in the vestry, Jeanie was in the act of coming to an open +rupture with Madge. + +"We must return to Mummer's barn directly," said Madge; "we'll be ower +late, and my mother will be angry." + +"I am not going back with you, Madge," said Jeanie, taking out a guinea, +and offering it to her; "I am much obliged to you, but I maun gang my ain +road." + +"And me coming a' this way out o' my gate to pleasure you, ye ungratefu' +cutty," answered Madge; "and me to be brained by my mother when I gang +hame, and a' for your sake!--But I will gar ye as good" + +"For God's sake," said Jeanie to a man who stood beside them, "keep her +off!--she is mad." + +"Ey, ey," answered the boor; "I hae some guess of that, and I trow thou +be'st a bird of the same feather.--Howsomever, Madge, I redd thee keep +hand off her, or I'se lend thee a whisterpoop." + +Several of the lower class of the parishioners now gathered round the +strangers, and the cry arose among the boys that "there was a-going to be +a fite between mad Madge Murdockson and another Bess of Bedlam." But +while the fry assembled with the humane hope of seeing as much of the fun +as possible, the laced cocked-hat of the beadle was discerned among the +multitude, and all made way for that person of awful authority. His first +address was to Madge. + +"What's brought thee back again, thou silly donnot, to plague this +parish? Hast thou brought ony more bastards wi' thee to lay to honest +men's doors? or does thou think to burden us with this goose, that's as +hare-brained as thysell, as if rates were no up enow? Away wi' thee to +thy thief of a mother; she's fast in the stocks at Barkston town-end-- +Away wi' ye out o' the parish, or I'se be at ye with the ratan." + +Madge stood sulky for a minute; but she had been too often taught +submission to the beadle's authority by ungentle means to feel courage +enough to dispute it. + +"And my mother--my puir auld mother, is in the stocks at Barkston!--This +is a' your wyte, Miss Jeanie Deans; but I'll be upsides wi' you, as sure +as my name's Madge Wildfire--I mean Murdockson--God help me, I forget my +very name in this confused waste!" + +So saying, she turned upon her heel, and went off, followed by all the +mischievous imps of the village, some crying, "Madge, canst thou tell thy +name yet?" some pulling the skirts of her dress, and all, to the best of +their strength and ingenuity, exercising some new device or other to +exasperate her into frenzy. + +Jeanie saw her departure with infinite delight, though she wished that, +in some way or other, she could have requited the service Madge had +conferred upon her. + +In the meantime, she applied to the beadle to know whether "there was any +house in the village where she could be civilly entertained for her +money, and whether she could be permitted to speak to the clergyman?" + +"Ay, ay, we'se ha' reverend care on thee; and I think," answered the man +of constituted authority, "that, unless thou answer the Rector all the +better, we'se spare thy money, and gie thee lodging at the parish charge, +young woman." + +"Where am I to go then?" said Jeanie, in some alarm. + +"Why, I am to take thee to his Reverence, in the first place, to gie an +account o' thysell, and to see thou comena to be a burden upon the +parish." + +"I do not wish to burden anyone," replied Jeanie; "I have enough for my +own wants, and only wish to get on my journey safely." + +"Why, that's another matter," replied the beadle, "and if it be true--and +I think thou dost not look so polrumptious as thy playfellow yonder--Thou +wouldst be a mettle lass enow, an thou wert snog and snod a bid better. +Come thou away, then--the Rector is a good man." + +"Is that the minister," said Jeanie, "who preached" + +"The minister? Lord help thee! What kind o' Presbyterian art thou?--Why, +'tis the Rector--the Rector's sell, woman, and there isna the like o' him +in the county, nor the four next to it. Come away--away with thee--we +maunna bide here." + +"I am sure I am very willing to go to see the minister," said Jeanie; +"for though he read his discourse, and wore that surplice, as they call +it here, I canna but think he must be a very worthy God-fearing man, to +preach the root of the matter in the way he did." + +The disappointed rabble, finding that there was like to be no farther +sport, had by this time dispersed, and Jeanie, with her usual patience, +followed her consequential and surly, but not brutal, conductor towards +the rectory. + +This clerical mansion was large and commodious, for the living was an +excellent one, and the advowson belonged to a very wealthy family in the +neighbourhood, who had usually bred up a son or nephew to the church for +the sake of inducting him, as opportunity offered, into this very +comfortable provision. In this manner the rectory of Willingham had +always been considered as a direct and immediate appanage of Willingham +Hall; and as the rich baronets to whom the latter belonged had usually a +son, or brother, or nephew, settled in the living, the utmost care had +been taken to render their habitation not merely respectable and +commodious, but even dignified and imposing. + +It was situated about four hundred yards from the village, and on a +rising ground which sloped gently upward, covered with small enclosures, +or closes, laid out irregularly, so that the old oaks and elms, which +were planted in hedge-rows, fell into perspective, and were blended +together in beautiful irregularity. When they approached nearer to the +house, a handsome gateway admitted them into a lawn, of narrow dimensions +indeed, but which was interspersed with large sweet chestnut trees and +beeches, and kept in handsome order. The front of the house was +irregular. Part of it seemed very old, and had, in fact, been the +residence of the incumbent in Romish times. Successive occupants had made +considerable additions and improvements, each in the taste of his own +age, and without much regard to symmetry. But these incongruities of +architecture were so graduated and happily mingled, that the eye, far +from being displeased with the combinations of various styles, saw +nothing but what was interesting in the varied and intricate pile which +they displayed. Fruit-trees displayed on the southern wall, outer +staircases, various places of entrance, a combination of roofs and +chimneys of different ages, united to render the front, not indeed +beautiful or grand, but intricate, perplexed, or, to use Mr. Price's +appropriate phrase, picturesque. The most considerable addition was that +of the present Rector, who, "being a bookish man," as the beadle was at +the pains to inform Jeanie, to augment, perhaps, her reverence for the +person before whom she was to appear, had built a handsome library and +parlour, and no less than two additional bedrooms. + +"Mony men would hae scrupled such expense," continued the parochial +officer, "seeing as the living mun go as it pleases Sir Edmund to will +it; but his Reverence has a canny bit land of his own, and need not look +on two sides of a penny." + +Jeanie could not help comparing the irregular yet extensive and +commodious pile of building before her to the "Manses" in her own +country, where a set of penurious heritors, professing all the while the +devotion of their lives and fortunes to the Presbyterian establishment, +strain their inventions to discover what may be nipped, and clipped, and +pared from a building which forms but a poor accommodation even for the +present incumbent, and, despite the superior advantage of stone-masonry, +must, in the course of forty or fifty years, again burden their +descendants with an expense, which, once liberally and handsomely +employed, ought to have freed their estates from a recurrence of it for +more than a century at least. + +Behind the Rector's house the ground sloped down to a small river, which, +without possessing the romantic vivacity and rapidity of a northern +stream, was, nevertheless, by its occasional appearance through the +ranges of willows and poplars that crowned its banks, a very pleasing +accompaniment to the landscape. "It was the best trouting stream," said +the beadle, whom the patience of Jeanie, and especially the assurance +that she was not about to become a burden to the parish, had rendered +rather communicative, "the best trouting stream in all Lincolnshire; for +when you got lower, there was nought to be done wi' fly-fishing." + +Turning aside from the principal entrance, he conducted Jeanie towards a +sort of portal connected with the older part of the building, which was +chiefly occupied by servants, and knocking at the door, it was opened by +a servant in grave purple livery, such as befitted a wealthy and +dignified clergyman. + +"How dost do, Tummas?" said the beadle--"and how's young Measter +Staunton?" + +"Why, but poorly--but poorly, Measter Stubbs.--Are you wanting to see his +Reverence?" + +"Ay, ay, Tummas; please to say I ha' brought up the young woman as came +to service to-day with mad Madge Murdockson seems to be a decentish koind +o' body; but I ha' asked her never a question. Only I can tell his +Reverence that she is a Scotchwoman, I judge, and as flat as the fens of +Holland." + +Tummas honoured Jeanie Deans with such a stare, as the pampered domestics +of the rich, whether spiritual or temporal, usually esteem it part of +their privilege to bestow upon the poor, and then desired Mr. Stubbs and +his charge to step in till he informed his master of their presence. + +The room into which he showed them was a sort of steward's parlour, hung +with a county map or two, and three or four prints of eminent persons +connected with the county, as Sir William Monson, James York the +blacksmith of Lincoln,* and the famous Peregrine, Lord Willoughby, in +complete armour, looking as when he said in the words of the legend below +the engraving,-- + +* [Author of the /Union of Honour,/ a treatise on English Heraldry. +London, 1641.] + + "Stand to it, noble pikemen, + And face ye well about; + And shoot ye sharp, bold bowmen, + And we will keep them out. + + "Ye musquet and calliver-men, + Do you prove true to me, + I'll be the foremost man in fight, + Said brave Lord Willoughbee." + +When they had entered this apartment, Tummas as a matter of course +offered, and as a matter of course Mr. Stubbs accepted, a "summat" to eat +and drink, being the respectable relies of a gammon of bacon, and a +/whole whiskin,/ or black pot of sufficient double ale. To these eatables +Mr. Beadle seriously inclined himself, and (for we must do him justice) +not without an invitation to Jeanie, in which Tummas joined, that his +prisoner or charge would follow his good example. But although she might +have stood in need of refreshment, considering she had tasted no food +that day, the anxiety of the moment, her own sparing and abstemious +habits, and a bashful aversion to eat in company of the two strangers, +induced her to decline their courtesy. So she sate in a chair apart, +while Mr. Stubbs and Mr. Tummas, who had chosen to join his friend in +consideration that dinner was to be put back till after the afternoon +service, made a hearty luncheon, which lasted for half-an-hour, and might +not then have concluded, had not his Reverence rung his bell, so that +Tummas was obliged to attend his master. Then, and no sooner, to save +himself the labour of a second journey to the other end of the house, he +announced to his master the arrival of Mr. Stubbs, with the other +madwoman, as he chose to designate Jeanie, as an event which had just +taken place. He returned with an order that Mr. Stubbs and the young +woman should be instantly ushered up to the library. The beadle bolted in +haste his last mouthful of fat bacon, washed down the greasy morsel with +the last rinsings of the pot of ale, and immediately marshalled Jeanie +through one or two intricate passages which led from the ancient to the +more modern buildings, into a handsome little hall, or anteroom, +adjoining to the library, and out of which a glass door opened to the +lawn. + +"Stay here," said Stubbs, "till I tell his Reverence you are come." + +So saying, he opened a door and entered the library. Without wishing to +hear their conversation, Jeanie, as she was circumstanced, could not +avoid it; for as Stubbs stood by the door, and his Reverence was at the +upper end of a large room, their conversation was necessarily audible in +the anteroom. + +"So you have brought the young woman here at last, Mr. Stubbs. I expected +you some time since. You know I do not wish such persons to remain in +custody a moment without some inquiry into their situation." + +"Very true, your Reverence," replied the beadle; "but the young woman had +eat nought to-day, and so Measter Tummas did set down a drap of drink and +a morsel, to be sure." + +"Thomas was very right, Mr. Stubbs; and what has, become of the other +most unfortunate being?" + +"Why," replied Mr. Stubbs, "I did think the sight on her would but vex +your Reverence, and soa I did let her go her ways back to her mother, who +is in trouble in the next parish." + +"In trouble!--that signifies in prison, I suppose?" said Mr. Staunton. + +"Ay, truly; something like it, an it like your Reverence." + +"Wretched, unhappy, incorrigible woman!" said the clergyman. "And what +sort of person is this companion of hers?" + +"Why, decent enow, an it like your Reverence," said Stubbs; "for aught I +sees of her, there's no harm of her, and she says she has cash enow to +carry her out of the county." + +"Cash! that is always what you think of, Stubbs--But, has she sense?--has +she her wits?--has she the capacity of taking care of herself?" + +"Why, your Reverence," replied Stubbs, "I cannot just say--I will be +sworn she was not born at Witt-ham;* for Gaffer Gibbs looked at her all +the time of service, and he says, she could not turn up a single lesson +like a Christian, even though she had Madge Murdockson to help her--but +then, as to fending for herself, why, she's a bit of a Scotchwoman, your +Reverence, and they say the worst donnot of them can look out for their +own turn--and she is decently put on enow, and not bechounched like +t'other." + +* A proverbial and punning expression in that county, to intimate that a +person is not very clever. + +"Send her in here, then, and do you remain below, Mr. Stubbs." + +This colloquy had engaged Jeanie's attention so deeply, that it was not +until it was over that she observed that the sashed door, which, we have +said, led from the anteroom into the garden, was opened, and that there +entered, or rather was borne in by two assistants, a young man, of a very +pale and sickly appearance, whom they lifted to the nearest couch, and +placed there, as if to recover from the fatigue of an unusual exertion. +Just as they were making this arrangement, Stubbs came out of the +library, and summoned Jeanie to enter it. She obeyed him, not without +tremor; for, besides the novelty of the situation, to a girl of her +secluded habits, she felt also as if the successful prosecution of her +journey was to depend upon the impression she should be able to make on +Mr. Staunton. + +It is true, it was difficult to suppose on what pretext a person +travelling on her own business, and at her own charge, could be +interrupted upon her route. But the violent detention she had already +undergone, was sufficient to show that there existed persons at no great +distance who had the interest, the inclination, and the audacity, +forcibly to stop her journey, and she felt the necessity of having some +countenance and protection, at least till she should get beyond their +reach. While these things passed through her mind, much faster than our +pen and ink can record, or even the reader's eye collect the meaning of +its traces, Jeanie found herself in a handsome library, and in presence +of the Rector of Willingham. The well-furnished presses and shelves which +surrounded the large and handsome apartment, contained more books than +Jeanie imagined existed in the world, being accustomed to consider as an +extensive collection two fir shelves, each about three feet long, which +contained her father's treasured volumes, the whole pith and marrow, as +he used sometimes to boast, of modern divinity. An orrery, globes, a +telescope, and some other scientific implements, conveyed to Jeanie an +impression of admiration and wonder, not unmixed with fear; for, in her +ignorant apprehension, they seemed rather adapted for magical purposes +than any other; and a few stuffed animals (as the Rector was fond of +natural history) added to the impressive character of the apartment. + +Mr. Staunton spoke to her with great mildness. He observed, that, +although her appearance at church had been uncommon, and in strange, and +he must add, discreditable society, and calculated, upon the whole, to +disturb the congregation during divine worship, he wished, nevertheless, +to hear her own account of herself before taking any steps which his duty +might seem to demand. He was a justice of peace, he informed her, as well +as a clergyman. + +"His Honour" (for she would not say his Reverence) "was very civil and +kind," was all that poor Jeanie could at first bring out. + +"Who are you, young woman?" said the clergyman, more peremptorily--"and +what do you do in this country, and in such company?--We allow no +strollers or vagrants here." + +"I am not a vagrant or a stroller, sir," said Jeanie, a little roused by +the supposition. "I am a decent Scots lass, travelling through the land +on my own business and my own expenses and I was so unhappy as to fall in +with bad company, and was stopped a' night on my journey. And this puir +creature, who is something light-headed, let me out in the morning." + +"Bad company!" said the clergyman. "I am afraid, young woman, you have +not been sufficiently anxious to avoid them." + +"Indeed, sir," returned Jeanie, "I have been brought up to shun evil +communication. But these wicked people were thieves, and stopped me by +violence and mastery." + +"Thieves!" said Mr. Staunton; "then you charge them with robbery, I +suppose?" + +"No, sir; they did not take so much as a boddle from me," answered +Jeanie; "nor did they use me ill, otherwise than by confining me." + +The clergyman inquired into the particulars of her adventure, which she +told him from point to point. + +"This is an extraordinary, and not a very probable tale, young woman," +resumed Mr. Staunton. "Here has been, according to your account, a great +violence committed without any adequate motive. Are you aware of the law +of this country--that if you lodge this charge, you will be bound over to +prosecute this gang?" + +Jeanie did not understand him, and he explained, that the English law, in +addition to the inconvenience sustained by persons who have been robbed +or injured, has the goodness to intrust to them the care and the expense +of appearing as prosecutors. + +Jeanie said, "that her business at London was express; all she wanted +was, that any gentleman would, out of Christian charity, protect her to +some town where she could hire horses and a guide; and finally," she +thought, "it would be her father's mind that she was not free to give +testimony in an English court of justice, as the land was not under a +direct gospel dispensation." + +Mr. Staunton stared a little, and asked if her father was a Quaker. + +"God forbid, sir," said Jeanie--"He is nae schismatic nor sectary, nor +ever treated for sic black commodities as theirs, and that's weel kend o' +him." + +"And what is his name, pray?" said Mr. Staunton. + +"David Deans, sir, the cowfeeder at Saint Leonard's Crags, near +Edinburgh." + +A deep groan from the anteroom prevented the Rector from replying, and, +exclaiming, "Good God! that unhappy boy!" he left Jeanie alone, and +hastened into the outer apartment. + +Some noise and bustle was heard, but no one entered the library for the +best part of an hour. + + + + + CHAPTER NINTH. + + + Fantastic passions' maddening brawl! + And shame and terror over all! + Deeds to be hid which were not hid, + Which, all confused, I could not know + Whether I suffer'd or I did, + For all seem'd guilt, remorse, or woe; + My own, or others, still the same + Life-stifling fear, soul-stifling shame. + Coleridge. + +During the interval while she was thus left alone, Jeanie anxiously +revolved in her mind what course was best for her to pursue. She was +impatient to continue her journey, yet she feared she could not safely +adventure to do so while the old hag and her assistants were in the +neighbourhood, without risking a repetition of their violence. She +thought she could collect from the conversation which she had partly +overheard, and also from the wild confessions of Madge Wildfire, that her +mother had a deep and revengeful motive for obstructing her journey if +possible. And from whom could she hope for assistance if not from Mr. +Staunton? His whole appearance and demeanour seemed to encourage her +hopes. His features were handsome, though marked with a deep cast of +melancholy; his tone and language were gentle and encouraging; and, as he +had served in the army for several years during his youth, his air +retained that easy frankness which is peculiar to the profession of arms. +He was, besides, a minister of the gospel; and, although a worshipper, +according to Jeanie's notions, in the court of the Gentiles, and so +benighted as to wear a surplice; although he read the Common Prayer, and +wrote down every word of his sermon before delivering it; and although he +was, moreover, in strength of lungs, as well as pith and marrow of +doctrine, vastly inferior to Boanerges Stormheaven, Jeanie still thought +he must be a very different person from Curate Kilstoup, and other +prelatical divines of her father's earlier days, who used to get drunk in +their canonical dress, and hound out the dragoons against the wandering +Cameronians. The house seemed to be in some disturbance, but as she could +not suppose she was altogether forgotten, she thought it better to remain +quiet in the apartment where she had been left, till some one should take +notice of her. + +The first who entered was, to her no small delight, one of her own sex, a +motherly-looking aged person of a housekeeper. To her Jeanie explained +her situation in a few words, and begged her assistance. + +The dignity of a housekeeper did not encourage too much familiarity with +a person who was at the Rectory on justice-business, and whose character +might seem in her eyes somewhat precarious; but she was civil, although +distant. + +"Her young master," she said, "had had a bad accident by a fall from his +horse, which made him liable to fainting fits; he had been taken very ill +just now, and it was impossible his Reverence could see Jeanie for some +time; but that she need not fear his doing all that was just and proper +in her behalf the instant he could get her business attended to."--She +concluded by offering to show Jeanie a room, where she might remain till +his Reverence was at leisure. + +Our heroine took the opportunity to request the means of adjusting and +changing her dress. + +The housekeeper, in whose estimation order and cleanliness ranked high +among personal virtues, gladly complied with a request so reasonable; and +the change of dress which Jeanie's bundle furnished made so important an +improvement in her appearance, that the old lady hardly knew the soiled +and disordered traveller, whose attire showed the violence she had +sustained, in the neat, clean, quiet-looking little Scotch-woman, who now +stood before her. Encouraged by such a favourable alteration in her +appearance, Mrs. Dalton ventured to invite Jeanie to partake of her +dinner, and was equally pleased with the decent propriety of her conduct +during the meal. + +"Thou canst read this book, canst thou, young woman?" said the old lady, +when their meal was concluded, laying her hand upon a large Bible. + +"I hope sae, madam," said Jeanie, surprised at the question "my father +wad hae wanted mony a thing ere I had wanted /that/ schuling." + +"The better sign of him, young woman. There are men here, well to pass in +the world, would not want their share of a Leicester plover, and that's a +bag-pudding, if fasting for three hours would make all their poor +children read the Bible from end to end. Take thou the book, then, for my +eyes are something dazed, and read where thou listest--it's the only book +thou canst not happen wrong in." + +Jeanie was at first tempted to turn up the parable of the good Samaritan, +but her conscience checked her, as if it were a use of Scripture, not for +her own edification, but to work upon the mind of others for the relief +of her worldly afflictions; and under this scrupulous sense of duty, she +selected, in preference, a chapter of the prophet Isaiah, and read it, +notwithstanding her northern' accent and tone, with a devout propriety, +which greatly edified Mrs. Dalton. + +"Ah," she said, "an all Scotchwomen were sic as thou but it was our luck +to get born devils of thy country, I think--every one worse than t'other. +If thou knowest of any tidy lass like thysell that wanted a place, and +could bring a good character, and would not go laiking about to wakes and +fairs, and wore shoes and stockings all the day round--why, I'll not say +but we might find room for her at the Rectory. Hast no cousin or sister, +lass, that such an offer would suit?" + +This was touching upon a sore point, but Jeanie was spared the pain of +replying by the entrance of the same man-servant she had seen before. + +"Measter wishes to see the young woman from Scotland," was Tummas's +address. + +"Go to his Reverence, my dear, as fast as you can, and tell him all your +story--his Reverence is a kind man," said Mrs. Dalton. "I will fold down +the leaf, and wake you a cup of tea, with some nice muffin, against you +come down, and that's what you seldom see in Scotland, girl." + +"Measter's waiting for the young woman," said Tummas impatiently. + +"Well, Mr. Jack-Sauce, and what is your business to put in your oar?--And +how often must I tell you to call Mr. Staunton his Reverence, seeing as +he is a dignified clergyman, and not be meastering, meastering him, as if +he were a little petty squire?" + +As Jeanie was now at the door, and ready to accompany Tummas, the footman +said nothing till he got into the passage, when he muttered, "There are +moe masters than one in this house, and I think we shall have a mistress +too, an Dame Dalton carries it thus." + +Tummas led the way through a more intricate range of passages than Jeanie +had yet threaded, and ushered her into an apartment which was darkened by +the closing of most of the window-shutters, and in which was a bed with +the curtains partly drawn. + +"Here is the young woman, sir," said Tummas. + +"Very well," said a voice from the bed, but not that of his Reverence; +"be ready to answer the bell, and leave the room." + +"There is some mistake," said Jeanie, confounded at finding herself in +the apartment of an invalid; "the servant told me that the minister" + +"Don't trouble yourself," said the invalid, "there is no mistake. I know +more of your affairs than my father, and I can manage them better.--Leave +the room, Tom." The servant obeyed.--"We must not," said the invalid, +"lose time, when we have little to lose. Open the shutters of that +window." + +She did so, and as he drew aside the curtain of his bed, the light fell +on his pale countenance, as, turban'd with bandages, and dressed in a +night-gown, he lay, seemingly exhausted, upon the bed. + +"Look at me," he said, "Jeanie Deans; can you not recollect me?" + +"No, sir," said she, full of surprise. "I was never in this country +before." + +"But I may have been in yours. Think--recollect. I should faint did I +name the name you are most dearly bound to loathe and to detest. Think-- +remember!" + +A terrible recollection flashed on Jeanie, which every tone of the +speaker confirmed, and which his next words rendered certainty. + +"Be composed--remember Muschat's Cairn, and the moonlight night!" + +Jeanie sunk down on a chair with clasped hands, and gasped in agony. + +"Yes, here I lie," he said, "like a crushed snake, writhing with +impatience at my incapacity of motion--here I lie, when I ought to have +been in Edinburgh, trying every means to save a life that is dearer to me +than my own.--How is your sister?--how fares it with her?--condemned to +death, I know it, by this time! O, the horse that carried me safely on a +thousand errands of folly and wickedness, that he should have broke down +with me on the only good mission I have undertaken for years! But I must +rein in my passion--my frame cannot endure it, and I have much to say. +Give me some of the cordial which stands on that table.--Why do you +tremble? But you have too good cause.--Let it stand--I need it not." + +Jeanie, however reluctant, approached him with the cup into which she had +poured the draught, and could not forbear saying, "There is a cordial for +the mind, sir, if the wicked will turn from their transgressions, and +seek to the Physician of souls." + +"Silence!" he said sternly--"and yet I thank you. But tell me, and lose +no time in doing so, what you are doing in this country? Remember, though +I have been your sister's worst enemy, yet I will serve her with the best +of my blood, and I will serve you for her sake; and no one can serve you +to such purpose, for no one can know the circumstances so well--so speak +without fear." + +"I am not afraid, sir," said Jeanie, collecting her spirits. "I trust in +God; and if it pleases Him to redeem my sister's captivity, it is all I +seek, whosoever be the instrument. But, sir, to be plain with you, I dare +not use your counsel, unless I were enabled to see that it accords with +the law which I must rely upon." + +"The devil take the Puritan!" cried George Staunton, for so we must now +call him--"I beg your pardon; but I am naturally impatient, and you drive +me mad! What harm can it possibly do to tell me in what situation your +sister stands, and your own expectations of being able to assist her? It +is time enough to refuse my advice when I offer any which you may think +improper. I speak calmly to you, though 'tis against my nature; but don't +urge me to impatience--it will only render me incapable of serving +Effie." + +There was in the looks and words of this unhappy young man a sort of +restrained eagerness and impetuosity which seemed to prey upon itself, as +the impatience of a fiery steed fatigues itself with churning upon the +bit. After a moment's consideration, it occurred to Jeanie that she was +not entitled to withhold from him, whether on her sister's account or her +own, the fatal account of the consequences of the crime which he had +committed, nor to reject such advice, being in itself lawful and +innocent, as he might be able to suggest in the way of remedy. +Accordingly, in as few words as she could express it, she told the +history of her sister's trial and condemnation, and of her own journey as +far as Newark. He appeared to listen in the utmost agony of mind, yet +repressed every violent symptom of emotion, whether by gesture or sound, +which might have interrupted the speaker, and, stretched on his couch +like the Mexican monarch on his bed of live coals, only the contortions +of his cheek, and the quivering of his limbs, gave indication of his +sufferings. To much of what she said he listened with stifled groans, as +if he were only hearing those miseries confirmed, whose fatal reality he +had known before; but when she pursued her tale through the circumstances +which had interrupted her journey, extreme surprise and earnest attention +appeared to succeed to the symptoms of remorse which he had before +exhibited. He questioned Jeanie closely concerning the appearance of the +two men, and the conversation which she had overheard between the taller +of them and the woman. + +When Jeanie mentioned the old woman having alluded to her foster-son--"It +is too true," he said; "and the source from which I derived food, when an +infant, must have communicated to me the wretched--the fated--propensity +to vices that were strangers in my own family.--But go on." + +Jeanie passed slightly over her journey in company with Madge, having no +inclination to repeat what might be the effect of mere raving on the part +of her companion, and therefore her tale was now closed. + +Young Staunton lay for a moment in profound meditation and at length +spoke with more composure than he had yet displayed during their +interview.--"You are a sensible, as well as a good young woman, Jeanie +Deans, and I will tell you more of my story than I have told to any one. +--Story did I call it?--it is a tissue of folly, guilt, and misery.--But +take notice--I do it because I desire your confidence in return--that is, +that you will act in this dismal matter by my advice and direction. +Therefore do I speak." + +"I will do what is fitting for a sister, and a daughter, and a Christian +woman to do," said Jeanie; "but do not tell me any of your secrets.--It +is not good that I should come into your counsel, or listen to the +doctrine which causeth to err." + +"Simple fool!" said the young man. "Look at me. My head is not horned, my +foot is not cloven, my hands are not garnished with talons; and, since I +am not the very devil himself, what interest can any one else have in +destroying the hopes with which you comfort or fool yourself? Listen to +me patiently, and you will find that, when you have heard my counsel, you +may go to the seventh heaven with it in your pocket, if you have a mind, +and not feel yourself an ounce heavier in the ascent." + +At the risk of being somewhat heavy, as explanations usually prove, we +must here endeavour to combine into a distinct narrative, information +which the invalid communicated in a manner at once too circumstantial, +and too much broken by passion, to admit of our giving his precise words. +Part of it indeed he read from a manuscript, which he had perhaps drawn +up for the information of his relations after his decease. + +"To make my tale short--this wretched hag--this Margaret Murdockson, was +the wife of a favourite servant of my father--she had been my nurse--her +husband was dead--she resided in a cottage near this place--she had a +daughter who grew up, and was then a beautiful but very giddy girl; her +mother endeavoured to promote her marriage with an old and wealthy churl +in the neighbourhood--the girl saw me frequently--She was familiar with +me, as our connection seemed to permit--and I--in a word, I wronged her +cruelly--It was not so bad as your sister's business, but it was +sufficiently villanous--her folly should have been her protection. Soon +after this I was sent abroad--To do my father justice, if I have turned +out a fiend it is not his fault--he used the best means. When I returned, +I found the wretched mother and daughter had fallen into disgrace, and +were chased from this country.--My deep share in their shame and misery +was discovered--my father used very harsh language--we quarrelled. I left +his house, and led a life of strange adventure, resolving never again to +see my father or my father's home. + +"And now comes the story!--Jeanie, I put my life into your hands, and not +only my own life, which, God knows, is not worth saving, but the +happiness of a respectable old man, and the honour of a family of +consideration. My love of low society, as such propensities as I was +cursed with are usually termed, was, I think of an uncommon kind, and +indicated a nature, which, if not depraved by early debauchery, would +have been fit for better things. I did not so much delight in the wild +revel, the low humour, the unconfined liberty of those with whom I +associated as in the spirit of adventure, presence of mind in peril, and +sharpness of intellect which they displayed in prosecuting their +maraudings upon the revenue, or similar adventures.--Have you looked +round this rectory?--is it not a sweet and pleasant retreat?" + +Jeanie, alarmed at this sudden change of subject, replied in the +affirmative. + +"Well! I wish it had been ten thousand fathoms under ground, with its +church-lands, and tithes, and all that belongs to it. Had it not been for +this cursed rectory, I should have been permitted to follow the bent of +my own inclinations and the profession of arms, and half the courage and +address that I have displayed among smugglers and deer-stealers would +have secured me an honourable rank among my contemporaries. Why did I not +go abroad when I left this house!--Why did I leave it at all!--why--But +it came to that point with me that it is madness to look back, and misery +to look forward!" + +He paused, and then proceeded with more composure. + +"The chances of a wandering life brought me unhappily to Scotland, to +embroil myself in worse and more criminal actions than I had yet been +concerned in. It was now I became acquainted with Wilson, a remarkable +man in his station of life; quiet, composed, and resolute, firm in mind, +and uncommonly strong in person, gifted with a sort of rough eloquence +which raised him above his companions. Hitherto I had been + + As dissolute as desperate, yet through both + Were seen some sparkles of a better hope. + +"But it was this man's misfortune, as well as mine, that, notwithstanding +the difference of our rank and education, he acquired an extraordinary +and fascinating influence over me, which I can only account for by the +calm determination of his character being superior to the less sustained +impetuosity of mine. Where he led I felt myself bound to follow; and +strange was the courage and address which he displayed in his pursuits. +While I was engaged in desperate adventures, under so strange and +dangerous a preceptor, I became acquainted with your unfortunate sister +at some sports of the young people in the suburbs, which she frequented +by stealth--and her ruin proved an interlude to the tragic scenes in +which I was now deeply engaged. Yet this let me say--the villany was not +premeditated, and I was firmly resolved to do her all the justice which +marriage could do, so soon as I should be able to extricate myself from +my unhappy course of life, and embrace some one more suited to my birth. +I had wild visions--visions of conducting her as if to some poor retreat, +and introducing her at once to rank and fortune she never dreamt of. A +friend, at my request, attempted a negotiation with my father, which was +protracted for some time, and renewed at different intervals. At length, +and just when I expected my father's pardon, he learned by some means or +other my infamy, painted in even exaggerated colours, which was, God +knows, unnecessary. He wrote me a letter--how it found me out I know not +--enclosing me a sum of money, and disowning me for ever. I became +desperate--I became frantic--I readily joined Wilson in a perilous +smuggling adventure in which we miscarried, and was willingly blinded by +his logic to consider the robbery of the officer of the customs in Fife +as a fair and honourable reprisal. Hitherto I had observed a certain line +in my criminality, and stood free of assaults upon personal property, but +now I felt a wild pleasure in disgracing myself as much as possible. + +"The plunder was no object to me. I abandoned that to my comrades, and +only asked the post of danger. I remember well that when I stood with my +drawn sword guarding the door while they committed the felony, I had not +a thought of my own safety. I was only meditating on my sense of supposed +wrong from my family, my impotent thirst of vengeance, and how it would +sound in the haughty cars of the family of Willingham, that one of their +descendants, and the heir apparent of their honours, should perish by the +hands of the hangman for robbing a Scottish gauger of a sum not equal to +one-fifth part of the money I had in my pocket-book. We were taken--I +expected no less. We were condemned--that also I looked for. But death, +as he approached nearer, looked grimly; and the recollection of your +sister's destitute condition determined me on an effort to save my life. +--I forgot to tell you, that in Edinburgh I again met the woman +Murdockson and her daughter. She had followed the camp when young, and +had now, under pretence of a trifling traffic, resumed predatory habits, +with which she had already been too familiar. Our first meeting was +stormy; but I was liberal of what money I had, and she forgot, or seemed +to forget, the injury her daughter had received. The unfortunate girl +herself seemed hardly even to know her seducer, far less to retain any +sense of the injury she had received. Her mind is totally alienated, +which, according to her mother's account, is sometimes the consequence of +an unfavourable confinement. But it was /my doing./ Here was another +stone knitted round my neck to sink me into the pit of perdition. Every +look--every word of this poor creature--her false spirits--her imperfect +recollections--her allusions to things which she had forgotten, but which +were recorded in my conscience, were stabs of a poniard--stabs did I +say?--they were tearing with hot pincers, and scalding the raw wound with +burning sulphur--they were to be endured however, and they were endured. +--I return to my prison thoughts. + +"It was not the least miserable of them that your sister's time +approached. I knew her dread of you and of her father. She often said she +would die a thousand deaths ere you should know her shame--yet her +confinement must be provided for. I knew this woman Murdockson was an +infernal hag, but I thought she loved me, and that money would make her +true. She had procured a file for Wilson, and a spring-saw for me; and +she undertook readily to take charge of Effie during her illness, in +which she had skill enough to give the necessary assistance. I gave her +the money which my father had sent me. It was settled that she should +receive Effie into her house in the meantime, and wait for farther +directions from me, when I should effect my escape. I communicated this +purpose, and recommended the old hag to poor Effie by a letter, in which +I recollect that I endeavoured to support the character of Macheath under +condemnation-a fine, gay, bold-faced ruffian, who is game to the last. +Such, and so wretchedly poor, was my ambition! Yet I had resolved to +forsake the courses I had been engaged in, should I be so fortunate as to +escape the gibbet. My design was to marry your sister, and go over to the +West Indies. I had still a considerable sum of money left, and I trusted +to be able, in one way or other, to provide for myself and my wife. + +"We made the attempt to escape, and by the obstinacy of Wilson, who +insisted upon going first, it totally miscarried. The undaunted and +self-denied manner in which he sacrificed himself to redeem his error, +and accomplish my escape from the Tolbooth Church, you must have heard +of--all Scotland rang with it. It was a gallant and extraordinary deed-- +All men spoke of it--all men, even those who most condemned the habits +and crimes of this self-devoted man, praised the heroism of his +friendship. I have many vices, but cowardice or want of gratitude, are +none of the number. I resolved to requite his generosity, and even your +sister's safety became a secondary consideration with me for the time. To +effect Wilson's liberation was my principal object, and I doubted not to +find the means. + +"Yet I did not forget Effie neither. The bloodhounds of the law were so +close after me, that I dared not trust myself near any of my old haunts, +but old Murdockson met me by appointment, and informed me that your +sister had happily been delivered of a boy. I charged the hag to keep her +patient's mind easy, and let her want for nothing that money could +purchase, and I retreated to Fife, where, among my old associates of +Wilson's gang, I hid myself in those places of concealment where the men +engaged in that desperate trade are used to find security for themselves +and their uncustomed goods. Men who are disobedient both to human and +divine laws are not always insensible to the claims of courage and +generosity. We were assured that the mob of Edinburgh, strongly moved +with the hardship of Wilson's situation, and the gallantry of his +conduct, would back any bold attempt that might be made to rescue him +even from the foot of the gibbet. Desperate as the attempt seemed, upon +my declaring myself ready to lead the onset on the guard, I found no want +of followers who engaged to stand by me, and returned to Lothian, soon +followed by some steady associates, prepared to act whenever the occasion +might require. + +"I have no doubt I should have rescued him from the very noose that +dangled over his head," he continued with animation, which seemed a flash +of the interest which he had taken in such exploits; "but amongst other +precautions, the magistrates had taken one, suggested, as we afterwards +learned, by the unhappy wretch Porteous, which effectually disconcerted +my measures. They anticipated, by half-an-hour, the ordinary period for +execution; and, as it had been resolved amongst us, that, for fear of +observation from the officers of justice, we should not show ourselves +upon the street until the time of action approached, it followed, that +all was over before our attempt at a rescue commenced. It did commence, +however, and I gained the scaffold and cut the rope with my own hand. It +was too late! The bold, stouthearted, generous criminal was no more--and +vengeance was all that remained to us--a vengeance, as I then thought, +doubly due from my hand, to whom Wilson had given life and liberty when +he could as easily have secured his own." + +"O sir," said Jeanie, "did the Scripture never come into your mind, +'Vengeance is mine, and I will repay it?'" + +"Scripture! Why, I had not opened a Bible for five years," answered +Staunton. + +"Wae's me, sirs," said Jeanie--"and a minister's son too!" + +"It is natural for you to say so; yet do not interrupt me, but let me +finish my most accursed history. The beast, Porteous, who kept firing on +the people long after it had ceased to be necessary, became the object of +their hatred for having overdone his duty, and of mine for having done it +too well. We that is, I and the other determined friends of Wilson, +resolved to be avenged--but caution was necessary. I thought I had been +marked by one of the officers, and therefore continued to lurk about the +vicinity of Edinburgh, but without daring to venture within the walls. At +length I visited, at the hazard of my life, the place where I hoped to +find my future wife and my son--they were both gone. Dame Murdockson +informed me, that so soon as Effie heard of the miscarriage of the +attempt to rescue Wilson, and the hot pursuit after me, she fell into a +brain fever; and that being one day obliged to go out on some necessary +business and leave her alone, she had taken that opportunity to escape, +and she had not seen her since. I loaded her with reproaches, to which +she listened with the most provoking and callous composure; for it is one +of her attributes, that, violent and fierce as she is upon most +occasions, there are some in which she shows the most imperturbable +calmness. I threatened her with justice; she said I had more reason to +fear justice than she had. I felt she was right, and was silenced. I +threatened her with vengeance; she replied in nearly the same words, +that, to judge by injuries received, I had more reason to fear her +vengeance, than she to dread mine. She was again right, and I was left +without an answer. I flung myself from her in indignation, and employed a +comrade to make inquiry in the neighbourhood of Saint Leonard's +concerning your sister; but ere I received his answer, the opening quest +of a well-scented terrier of the law drove me from the vicinity of +Edinburgh, to a more distant and secluded place of concealment. A secret +and trusty emissary at length brought me the account of Porteous's +condemnation, and of your sister's imprisonment on a criminal charge; +thus astounding one of mine ears, while he gratified the other. + +"I again ventured to the Pleasance--again charged Murdockson with +treachery to the unfortunate Effie and her child, though I could conceive +no reason, save that of appropriating the whole of the money I had lodged +with her. Your narrative throws light on this, and shows another motive, +not less powerful because less evident--the desire of wreaking vengeance +on the seducer of her daughter,--the destroyer at once of her reason and +reputation. Great God! how I wish that, instead of the revenge she made +choice of, she had delivered me up to the cord!" + +"But what account did the wretched woman give of Effie and the bairn?" +said Jeanie, who, during this long and agitating narrative, had firmness +and discernment enough to keep her eye on such points as might throw +light on her sister's misfortunes. + +"She would give none," said Staunton; "she said the mother made a +moonlight flitting from her house, with the infant in her arms--that she +had never seen either of them since--that the lass might have thrown the +child into the North Loch or the Quarry Holes for what she knew, and it +was like enough she had done so." + +"And how came you to believe that she did not speak the fatal truth?" +said Jeanie, trembling. + +"Because, on this second occasion, I saw her daughter, and I understood +from her, that, in fact, the child had been removed or destroyed during +the illness of the mother. But all knowledge to be got from her is so +uncertain and indirect, that I could not collect any farther +circumstances. Only the diabolical character of old Murdockson makes me +augur the worst." + +"The last account agrees with that given by my poor sister," said Jeanie; +"but gang on wi' your ain tale, sir." + +"Of this I am certain," said Staunton, "that Effie, in her senses, and +with her knowledge, never injured living creature.--But what could I do +in her exculpation?--Nothing--and, therefore, my whole thoughts were +turned toward her safety. I was under the cursed necessity of suppressing +my feelings towards Murdockson; my life was in the hag's hand--that I +cared not for; but on my life hung that of your sister. I spoke the +wretch fair; I appeared to confide in her; and to me, so far as I was +personally concerned, she gave proofs of extraordinary fidelity. I was at +first uncertain what measures I ought to adopt for your sister's +liberation, when the general rage excited among the citizens of Edinburgh +on account of the reprieve, of Porteous, suggested to me the daring idea +of forcing the jail, and at once carrying off your sister from the +clutches of the law, and bringing to condign punishment a miscreant, who +had tormented the unfortunate Wilson, even in the hour of death as if he +had been a wild Indian taken captive by a hostile tribe. I flung myself +among the multitude in the moment of fermentation--so did others among +Wilson's mates, who had, like me, been disappointed in the hope of +glutting their eyes with Porteous's execution. All was organised, and I +was chosen for the captain. I felt not--I do not now feel, compunction +for what was to be done, and has since been executed." + +"O, God forgive ye, sir, and bring ye to a better sense of your ways!" +exclaimed Jeanie, in horror at the avowal of such violent sentiments. + +"Amen," replied Staunton, "if my sentiments are wrong. But I repeat, +that, although willing to aid the deed, I could have wished them to have +chosen another leader; because I foresaw that the great and general duty +of the night would interfere with the assistance which I proposed to +render Effie. I gave a commission however, to a trusty friend to protect +her to a place of safety, so soon as the fatal procession had left the +jail. But for no persuasions which I could use in the hurry of the +moment, or which my comrade employed at more length, after the mob had +taken a different direction, could the unfortunate girl be prevailed upon +to leave the prison. His arguments were all wasted upon the infatuated +victim, and he was obliged to leave her in order to attend to his own +safety. Such was his account; but, perhaps, he persevered less steadily +in his attempts to persuade her than I would have done." + +"Effie was right to remain," said Jeanie; "and I love her the better for +it." + +"Why will you say so?" said Staunton. + +"You cannot understand my reasons, sir, if I should render them," +answered Jeanie composedly; "they that thirst for the blood of their +enemies have no taste for the well-spring of life." + +"My hopes," said Staunton, "were thus a second time disappointed. My next +efforts were to bring her through her trial by means of yourself. How I +urged it, and where, you cannot have forgotten. I do not blame you for +your refusal; it was founded, I am convinced, on principle, and not on +indifference to your sister's fate. For me, judge of me as a man frantic; +I knew not what hand to turn to, and all my efforts were unavailing. In +this condition, and close beset on all sides, I thought of what might be +done by means of my family, and their influence. I fled from Scotland--I +reached this place--my miserably wasted and unhappy appearance procured +me from my father that pardon, which a parent finds it so hard to refuse, +even to the most undeserving son. And here I have awaited in anguish of +mind, which the condemned criminal might envy, the event of your sister's +trial." + +"Without taking any steps for her relief?" said Jeanie. + +"To the last I hoped her ease might terminate more favourably; and it is +only two days since that the fatal tidings reached me. My resolution was +instantly taken. I mounted my best horse with the purpose of making the +utmost haste to London and there compounding with Sir Robert Walpole for +your sister's safety, by surrendering to him, in the person of the heir +of the family of Willingham, the notorious George Robertson, the +accomplice of Wilson, the breaker of the Tolbooth prison, and the +well-known leader of the Porteous mob." + +"But would that save my sister?" said Jeanie, in astonishment. + +"It would, as I should drive my bargain," said Staunton. "Queens love +revenge as well as their subjects--Little as you seem to esteem it, it is +a poison which pleases all palates, from the prince to the peasant. Prime +ministers love no less the power of gratifying sovereigns by gratifying +their passions.--The life of an obscure village girl! Why, I might ask +the best of the crown-jewels for laying the head of such an insolent +conspiracy at the foot of her majesty, with a certainty of being +gratified. All my other plans have failed, but this could not--Heaven is +just, however, and would not honour me with making this voluntary +atonement for the injury I have done your sister. I had not rode ten +miles, when my horse, the best and most sure-footed animal in this +country, fell with me on a level piece of road, as if he had been struck +by a cannon-shot. I was greatly hurt, and was brought back here in the +condition in which you now see me." + +As young Staunton had come to the conclusion, the servant opened the +door, and, with a voice which seemed intended rather for a signal, than +merely the announcing of a visit, said, "His Reverence, sir, is coming up +stairs to wait upon you." + +"For God's sake, hide yourself, Jeanie," exclaimed Staunton, "in that +dressing closet!" + +"No, sir," said Jeanie; "as I am here for nae ill, I canna take the shame +of hiding mysell frae the master of the house." + +"But, good Heavens!" exclaimed George Staunton, "do but consider--" + +Ere he could complete the sentence, his father entered the apartment. + + + + + CHAPTER TENTH. + + + And now, will pardon, comfort, kindness, draw + The youth from vice? will honour, duty, law? + Crabbe. + +Jeanie arose from her seat, and made her quiet reverence, when the elder +Mr. Staunton entered the apartment. His astonishment was extreme at +finding his son in such company. + +"I perceive, madam, I have made a mistake respecting you, and ought to +have left the task of interrogating you, and of righting your wrongs, to +this young man, with whom, doubtless, you have been formerly acquainted." + +"It's unwitting on my part that I am here;" said Jeanie; "the servant +told me his master wished to speak with me." + +"There goes the purple coat over my ears," murmured Tummas. "D--n her, +why must she needs speak the truth, when she could have as well said +anything else she had a mind?" + +"George," said Mr. Staunton, "if you are still, as you have ever been,-- +lost to all self-respect, you might at least have spared your father and +your father's house, such a disgraceful scene as this." + +"Upon my life--upon my soul, sir!" said George, throwing his feet over +the side of the bed, and starting from his recumbent posture. + +"Your life, sir?" interrupted his father, with melancholy sternness,-- +"What sort of life has it been?--Your soul! alas! what regard have you +ever paid to it? Take care to reform both ere offering either as pledges +of your sincerity." + +"On my honour, sir, you do me wrong," answered George Staunton; "I have +been all that you can call me that's bad, but in the present instance you +do me injustice. By my honour you do!" + +"Your honour!" said his father, and turned from him, with a look of the +most upbraiding contempt, to Jeanie. "From you, young woman, I neither +ask nor expect any explanation; but as a father alike and as a clergyman, +I request your departure from this house. If your romantic story has been +other than a pretext to find admission into it (which, from the society +in which you first appeared, I may be permitted to doubt), you will find +a justice of peace within two miles, with whom, more properly than with +me, you may lodge your complaint." + +"This shall not be," said George Staunton, starting up to his feet. +"Sir, you are naturally kind and humane--you shall not become cruel +and inhospitable on my account. Turn out that eaves-dropping rascal," +pointing to Thomas, "and get what hartshorn drops, or what better receipt +you have against fainting, and I will explain to you in two words the +connection betwixt this young woman and me. She shall not lose her fair +character through me. I have done too much mischief to her family +already, and I know too well what belongs to the loss of fame." + +"Leave the room, sir," said the Rector to the servant; and when the man +had obeyed, he carefully shut the door behind him. Then, addressing his +son, he said sternly, "Now, sir, what new proof of your infamy have you +to impart to me?" + +Young Staunton was about to speak, but it was one of those moments when +those, who, like Jeanie Deans, possess the advantage of a steady courage +and unruffled temper, can assume the superiority over more ardent but +less determined spirits. + +"Sir," she said to the elder Staunton, "ye have an undoubted right to ask +your ain son to render a reason of his conduct. But respecting me, I am +but a wayfaring traveller, no ways obligated or indebted to you, unless +it be for the meal of meat which, in my ain country, is willingly gien by +rich or poor, according to their ability, to those who need it; and for +which, forby that, I am willing to make payment, if I didna think it +would be an affront to offer siller in a house like this--only I dinna +ken the fashions of the country." + +"This is all very well, young woman," said the Rector, a good deal +surprised, and unable to conjecture whether to impute Jeanie's language +to simplicity or impertinence; "this may be all very well--but let me +bring it to a point. Why do you stop this young man's mouth, and prevent +his communicating to his father and his best friend, an explanation +(since he says he has one) of circumstances which seem in themselves not +a little suspicious?" + +"He may tell of his ain affairs what he likes," answered Jeanie; "but my +family and friends have nae right to hae ony stories told anent them +without their express desire; and, as they canna be here to speak for +themselves, I entreat ye wadna ask Mr. George Rob--I mean Staunton, or +whatever his name is, ony questions anent me or my folk; for I maun be +free to tell you, that he will neither have the bearing of a Christian or +a gentleman, if he answers you against my express desire." + +"This is the most extraordinary thing I ever met with," said the Rector, +as, after fixing his eyes keenly on the placid, yet modest countenance of +Jeanie, he turned them suddenly upon his son. "What have you to say, +sir?" + +"That I feel I have been too hasty in my promise, sir," answered George +Staunton; "I have no title to make any communications respecting the +affairs of this young person's family without her assent." + +The elder Mr. Staunton turned his eyes from one to the other with marks +of surprise. + +"This is more, and worse, I fear," he said, addressing his son, "than one +of your frequent and disgraceful connections--I insist upon knowing the +mystery." + +"I have already said, sir," replied his son, rather sullenly, "that I +have no title to mention the affairs of this young woman's family without +her consent." + +"And I hae nae mysteries to explain, sir," said Jeanie, "but only to pray +you, as a preacher of the gospel and a gentleman, to permit me to go safe +to the next public-house on the Lunnon road." + +"I shall take care of your safety," said young Staunton "you need ask +that favour from no one." + +"Do you say so before my face?" said the justly-incensed father. +"Perhaps, sir, you intend to fill up the cup of disobedience and +profligacy by forming a low and disgraceful marriage? But let me bid you +beware." + +"If you were feared for sic a thing happening wi' me, sir," said Jeanie, +"I can only say, that not for all the land that lies between the twa ends +of the rainbow wad I be the woman that should wed your son." + +"There is something very singular in all this," said the elder Staunton; +"follow me into the next room, young woman." + +"Hear me speak first," said the young man. "I have but one word to say. I +confide entirely in your prudence; tell my father as much or as little of +these matters as you will, he shall know neither more nor less from me." + +His father darted at him a glance of indignation, which softened into +sorrow as he saw him sink down on the couch, exhausted with the scene he +had undergone. He left the apartment, and Jeanie followed him, George +Staunton raising himself as she passed the door-way, and pronouncing the +word, "Remember!" in a tone as monitory as it was uttered by Charles I. +upon the scaffold. The elder Staunton led the way into a small parlour, +and shut the door. + +"Young woman," said he, "there is something in your face and appearance +that marks both sense and simplicity, and, if I am not deceived, +innocence also--Should it be otherwise, I can only say, you are the most +accomplished hypocrite I have ever seen.--I ask to know no secret that +you have unwillingness to divulge, least of all those which concern my +son. His conduct has given me too much unhappiness to permit me to hope +comfort or satisfaction from him. If you are such as I suppose you, +believe me, that whatever unhappy circumstances may have connected you +with George Staunton, the sooner you break them through the better." + +"I think I understand your meaning, sir," replied Jeanie; "and as ye are +sae frank as to speak o' the young gentleman in sic a way, I must needs +say that it is but the second time of my speaking wi' him in our lives, +and what I hae heard frae him on these twa occasions has been such that I +never wish to hear the like again." + +"Then it is your real intention to leave this part of the country, and +proceed to London?" said the Rector. + +"Certainly, sir; for I may say, in one sense, that the avenger of blood +is behind me; and if I were but assured against mischief by the way" + +"I have made inquiry," said the clergyman, "after the suspicious +characters you described. They have left their place of rendezvous; but +as they may be lurking in the neighbourhood, and as you say you have +special reason to apprehend violence from them, I will put you under the +charge of a steady person, who will protect you as far as Stamford, and +see you into a light coach, which goes from thence to London." + +"A coach is not for the like of me, sir," said Jeanie, to whom the idea +of a stage-coach was unknown, as, indeed, they were then only used in the +neighbourhood of London. + +Mr. Staunton briefly explained that she would find that mode of +conveyance more commodious, cheaper, and more safe, than travelling on +horseback. She expressed her gratitude with so much singleness of heart, +that he was induced to ask her whether she wanted the pecuniary means of +prosecuting her journey. She thanked him, but said she had enough for her +purpose; and, indeed, she had husbanded her stock with great care. This +reply served also to remove some doubts, which naturally enough still +floated in Mr. Staunton's mind, respecting her character and real +purpose, and satisfied him, at least, that money did not enter into her +scheme of deception, if an impostor she should prove. He next requested +to know what part of the city she wished to go to. + +"To a very decent merchant, a cousin o' my ain, a Mrs. Glass, sir, that +sells snuff and tobacco, at the sign o' the Thistle, somegate in the +town." + +Jeanie communicated this intelligence with a feeling that a connection so +respectable ought to give her consequence in the eyes of Mr. Staunton; +and she was a good deal surprised when he answered-- + +"And is this woman your only acquaintance in London, my poor girl? and +have you really no better knowledge where she is to be found?" + +"I was gaun to see the Duke of Argyle, forby Mrs. Glass," said Jeanie; +"and if your honour thinks it would be best to go there first, and get +some of his Grace's folk to show me my cousin's shop" + +"Are you acquainted with any of the Duke of Argyle's people?" said the +Rector. + +"No, sir." + +"Her brain must be something touched after all, or it would be impossible +for her to rely on such introductions.--Well," said he aloud, "I must not +inquire into the cause of your journey, and so I cannot be fit to give +you advice how to manage it. But the landlady of the house where the +coach stops is a very decent person; and as I use her house sometimes, I +will give you a recommendation to her." + +Jeanie thanked him for his kindness with her best courtesy, and said, +"That with his honour's line, and ane from worthy Mrs. Bickerton, that +keeps the Seven Stars at York, she did not doubt to be well taken out in +Lunnon." + +"And now," said he, "I presume you will be desirous to set out +immediately." + +"If I had been in an inn, sir, or any suitable resting-place," answered +Jeanie, "I wad not have presumed to use the Lord's day for travelling but +as I am on a journey of mercy, I trust my doing so will not be imputed." + +"You may, if you choose, remain with Mrs. Dalton for the evening; but I +desire you will have no farther correspondence with my son, who is not a +proper counsellor for a person of your age, whatever your difficulties +may be." + +"Your honour speaks ower truly in that," said Jeanie; "it was not with my +will that I spoke wi' him just now, and--not to wish the gentleman +onything but gude--I never wish to see him between the een again." + +"If you please," added the Rector, "as you seem to be a seriously +disposed young woman, you may attend family worship in the hall this +evening." + +"I thank your honour," said Jeanie; "but I am doubtful if my attendance +would be to edification." + +"How!" said the Rector; "so young, and already unfortunate enough to have +doubts upon the duties of religion!" + +"God forbid, sir," replied Jeanie; "it is not for that; but I have been +bred in the faith of the suffering remnant of the Presbyterian doctrine +in Scotland, and I am doubtful if I can lawfully attend upon your fashion +of worship, seeing it has been testified against by many precious souls +of our kirk, and specially by my worthy father." + +"Well, my good girl," said the Rector, with a good-humoured smile, "far +be it from me to put any force upon your conscience; and yet you ought to +recollect that the same divine grace dispenses its streams to other +kingdoms as well as to Scotland. As it is as essential to our spiritual, +as water to our earthly wants, its springs, various in character, yet +alike efficacious in virtue, are to be found in abundance throughout the +Christian world." + +"Ah, but," said Jeanie, "though the waters may be alike, yet, with your +worship's leave, the blessing upon them may not be equal. It would have +been in vain for Naaman the Syrian leper to have bathed in Pharpar and +Abana, rivers of Damascus, when it was only the waters of Jordon that +were sanctified for the cure." + +"Well," said the Rector, "we will not enter upon the great debate betwixt +our national churches at present. We must endeavour to satisfy you, that, +at least, amongst our errors, we preserve Christian charity, and a desire +to assist our brethren." + +He then ordered Mrs. Dalton into his presence, and consigned Jeanie to +her particular charge, with directions to be kind to her, and with +assurances, that, early in the morning, a trusty guide and a good horse +should be ready to conduct her to Stamford. He then took a serious and +dignified, yet kind leave of her, wishing her full success in the objects +of her journey, which he said he doubted not were laudable, from the +soundness of thinking which she had displayed in conversation. + +Jeanie was again conducted by the housekeeper to her own apartment. But +the evening was not destined to pass over without farther torment from +young Staunton. A paper was slipped into her hand by the faithful Tummas, +which intimated his young master's desire, or rather demand, to see her +instantly, and assured her he had provided against interruption. + +"Tell your young master," said Jeanie, openly, and regardless of all the +winks and signs by which Tummas strove to make her comprehend that Mrs. +Dalton was not to be admitted into the secret of the correspondence, +"that I promised faithfully to his worthy father that I would not see him +again." + +"Tummas," said Mrs. Dalton, "I think you might be much more creditably +employed, considering the coat you wear, and the house you live in, than +to be carrying messages between your young master and girls that chance +to be in this house." + +"Why, Mrs. Dalton, as to that, I was hired to carry messages, and not to +ask any questions about them; and it's not for the like of me to refuse +the young gentleman's bidding, if he were a little wildish or so. If +there was harm meant, there's no harm done, you see." + +"However," said Mrs. Dalton, "I gie you fair warning, Tummas Ditton, that +an I catch thee at this work again, his Reverence shall make a clear +house of you." + +Thomas retired, abashed and in dismay. The rest of the evening passed +away without anything worthy of notice. + +Jeanie enjoyed the comforts of a good bed and a sound sleep with grateful +satisfaction, after the perils and hardships of the preceding day; and +such was her fatigue, that she slept soundly until six o'clock, when she +was awakened by Mrs. Dalton, who acquainted her that her guide and horse +were ready, and in attendance. She hastily rose, and, after her morning +devotions, was soon ready to resume her travels. The motherly care of the +housekeeper had provided an early breakfast, and, after she had partaken +of this refreshment, she found herself safe seated on a pillion behind a +stout Lincolnshire peasant, who was, besides, armed with pistols, to +protect her against any violence which might be offered. + +They trudged along in silence for a mile or two along a country road, +which conducted them, by hedge and gate-way, into the principal highway, +a little beyond Grantham. At length her master of the horse asked her +whether her name was not Jean, or Jane, Deans. She answered in the +affirmative, with some surprise. "Then here's a bit of a note as concerns +you," said the man, handing it over his left shoulder. "It's from young +master, as I judge, and every man about Willingham is fain to pleasure +him either for love or fear; for he'll come to be landlord at last, let +them say what they like." + +Jeanie broke the seal of the note, which was addressed to her, and read +as follows:-- + +"You refuse to see me. I suppose you are shocked at my character: but, in +painting myself such as I am, you should give me credit for my sincerity. +I am, at least, no hypocrite. You refuse, however, to see me, and your +conduct may be natural--but is it wise? I have expressed my anxiety to +repair your sister's misfortunes at the expense of my honour,--my +family's honour--my own life, and you think me too debased to be admitted +even to sacrifice what I have remaining of honour, fame, and life, in her +cause. Well, if the offerer be despised, the victim is still equally at +hand; and perhaps there may be justice in the decree of Heaven, that I +shall not have the melancholy credit of appearing to make this sacrifice +out of my own free good-will. You, as you have declined my concurrence, +must take the whole upon yourself. Go, then, to the Duke of Argyle, and, +when other arguments fail you, tell him you have it in your power to +bring to condign punishment the most active conspirator in the Porteous +mob. He will hear you on this topic, should he be deaf to every other. +Make your own terms, for they will be at your own making. You know where +I am to be found; and you may be assured I will not give you the dark +side of the hill, as at Muschat's Cairn; I have no thoughts of stirring +from the house I was born in; like the hare, I shall be worried in the +seat I started from. I repeat it--make your own terms. I need not remind +you to ask your sister's life, for that you will do of course; but make +terms of advantage for yourself--ask wealth and reward--office and income +for Butler--ask anything--you will get anything--and all for delivering +to the hands of the executioner a man most deserving of his office;--one +who, though young in years, is old in wickedness, and whose most earnest +desire is, after the storms of an unquiet life, to sleep and be at rest." + +This extraordinary letter was subscribed with the initials G. S. + +Jeanie read it over once or twice with great attention, which the slow +pace of the horse, as he stalked through a deep lane, enabled her to do +with facility. + +When she had perused this billet, her first employment was to tear it +into as small pieces as possible, and disperse these pieces in the air by +a few at a time, so that a document containing so perilous a secret might +not fall into any other person's hand. + +The question how far, in point of extremity, she was entitled to save her +sister's life by sacrificing that of a person who, though guilty towards +the state, had done her no injury, formed the next earnest and most +painful subject of consideration. In one sense, indeed, it seemed as if +denouncing the guilt of Staunton, the cause of her sister's errors and +misfortunes, would have been an act of just, and even providential +retribution. But Jeanie, in the strict and severe tone of morality in +which she was educated, had to consider not only the general aspect of a +proposed action, but its justness and fitness in relation to the actor, +before she could be, according to her own phrase, free to enter upon it. +What right had she to make a barter between the lives of Staunton and of +Effie, and to sacrifice the one for the safety of the other? His guilt-- +that guilt for which he was amenable to the laws--was a crime against the +public indeed, but it was not against her. + +Neither did it seem to her that his share in the death of Porteous, +though her mind revolted at the idea of using violence to any one, was in +the relation of a common murder, against the perpetrator of which every +one is called to aid the public magistrate. That violent action was +blended with many circumstances, which, in the eyes of those in Jeanie's +rank of life, if they did not altogether deprive it of the character of +guilt, softened, at least, its most atrocious features. The anxiety of +the government to obtain conviction of some of the offenders, had but +served to increase the public feeling which connected the action, though +violent and irregular, with the idea of ancient national independence. +The rigorous measures adopted or proposed against the city of Edinburgh, +the ancient metropolis of Scotland--the extremely unpopular and +injudicious measure of compelling the Scottish clergy, contrary to their +principles and sense of duty, to promulgate from the pulpit the reward +offered for the discovery of the perpetrators of this slaughter, had +produced on the public mind the opposite consequences from what were +intended; and Jeanie felt conscious, that whoever should lodge +information concerning that event, and for whatsoever purpose it might be +done, it would be considered as an act of treason against the +independence of Scotland. With the fanaticism of the Scottish +Presbyterians, there was always mingled a glow of national feeling, and +Jeanie, trembled at the idea of her name being handed down to posterity +with that of the "fause Monteath," and one or two others, who, having +deserted and betrayed the cause of their country, are damned to perpetual +remembrance and execration among its peasantry. Yet, to part with Effie's +life once more, when a word spoken might save it, pressed severely on the +mind of her affectionate sister. + +"The Lord support and direct me!" said Jeanie, "for it seems to be His +will to try me with difficulties far beyond my ain strength." + +While this thought passed through Jeanie's mind, her guard, tired of +silence, began to show some inclination to be communicative. He seemed a +sensible, steady peasant, but not having more delicacy or prudence than +is common to those in his situation, he, of course, chose the Willingham +family as the subject of his conversation. From this man Jeanie learned +some particulars of which she had hitherto been ignorant, and which we +will briefly recapitulate for the information of the reader. + +The father of George Staunton had been bred a soldier, and during service +in the West Indies, had married the heiress of a wealthy planter. By this +lady he had an only child, George Staunton, the unhappy young, man who +has been so often mentioned in this narrative. He passed the first part +of his early youth under the charge of a doting mother, and in the +society of negro slaves, whose study it was to gratify his every caprice. +His father was a man of worth and sense; but as he alone retained +tolerable health among the officers of the regiment he belonged to, he +was much engaged with his duty. Besides, Mrs. Staunton was beautiful and +wilful, and enjoyed but delicate health; so that it was difficult for a +man of affection, humanity, and a quiet disposition, to struggle with her +on the point of her over-indulgence to an only child. Indeed, what Mr. +Staunton did do towards counteracting the baneful effects of his wife's +system, only tended to render it more pernicious; for every restraint +imposed on the boy in his father's presence, was compensated by treble +license during his absence. So that George Staunton acquired, even in +childhood, the habit of regarding his father as a rigid censor, from +whose severity he was desirous of emancipating himself as soon and +absolutely as possible. + +When he was about ten years old, and when his mind had received all the +seeds of those evil weeds which afterwards grew apace, his mother died, +and his father, half heart-broken, returned to England. To sum up her +imprudence and unjustifiable indulgence, she had contrived to place a +considerable part of her fortune at her son's exclusive control or +disposal, in consequence of which management, George Staunton had not +been long in England till he learned his independence, and how to abuse +it. His father had endeavoured to rectify the defects of his education by +placing him in a well-regulated seminary. But although he showed some +capacity for learning, his riotous conduct soon became intolerable to his +teachers. He found means (too easily afforded to all youths who have +certain expectations) of procuring such a command of money as enabled him +to anticipate in boyhood the frolics and follies of a more mature age, +and, with these accomplishments, he was returned on his father's hands as +a profligate boy, whose example might ruin a hundred. + +The elder Mr. Staunton, whose mind, since his wife's death, had been +tinged with a melancholy, which certainly his son's conduct did not tend +to dispel, had taken orders, and was inducted by his brother Sir William +Staunton into the family living of Willingham. The revenue was a matter +of consequence to him, for he derived little advantage from the estate of +his late wife; and his own fortune was that of a younger brother. + +He took his son to reside with him at the rectory, but he soon found that +his disorders rendered him an intolerable inmate. And as the young men of +his own rank would not endure the purse-proud insolence of the Creole, he +fell into that taste for low society, which is worse than "pressing to +death, whipping, or hanging." His father sent him abroad, but he only +returned wilder and more desperate than before. It is true, this unhappy +youth was not without his good qualities. He had lively wit, good temper, +reckless generosity, and manners, which, while he was under restraint, +might pass well in society. But all these availed him nothing. He was so +well acquainted with the turf, the gaming-table, the cock-pit, and every +worse rendezvous of folly and dissipation, that his mother's fortune was +spent before he was twenty-one, and he was soon in debt and in distress. +His early history may be concluded in the words of our British Juvenal, +when describing a similar character:-- + + Headstrong, determined in his own career, + He thought reproof unjust, and truth severe. + The soul's disease was to its crisis come, + He first abused, and then abjured, his home; + And when he chose a vagabond to be, + He made his shame his glory, "I'll be free!"* + [Crabbe's /Borough,/ Letter xii.] + +"And yet 'tis pity on Measter George, too," continued the honest boor, +"for he has an open hand, and winna let a poor body want an he has it." + +The virtue of profuse generosity, by which, indeed, they themselves are +most directly advantaged, is readily admitted by the vulgar as a cloak +for many sins. + +At Stamford our heroine was deposited in safety by her communicative +guide. She obtained a place in the coach, which, although termed a light +one, and accommodated with no fewer than six horses, only reached London +on the afternoon of the second day. The recommendation of the elder Mr. +Staunton procured Jeanie a civil reception at the inn where the carriage +stopped, and, by the aid of Mrs. Bickerton's correspondent, she found out +her friend and relative Mrs. Glass, by whom she was kindly received and +hospitably entertained. + + + + + + CHAPTER ELEVENTH. + + My name is Argyle, you may well think it strange, + To live at the court and never to change. + Ballad. + +Few names deserve more honourable mention in the history of Scotland, +during this period, than that of John, Duke of Argyle and Greenwich. His +talents as a statesman and a soldier were generally admitted; he was not +without ambition, but "without the illness that attends it"--without that +irregularity of thought and aim, which often excites great men, in his +peculiar situation, (for it was a very peculiar one), to grasp the means +of raising themselves to power, at the risk of throwing a kingdom into +confusion. Pope has distinguished him as + + Argyle, the state's whole thunder born to wield, + And shake alike the senate and the field. + +He was alike free from the ordinary vices of statesmen, falsehood, +namely, and dissimulation; and from those of warriors, inordinate and +violent thirst after self-aggrandisement. + +Scotland, his native country, stood at this time in a very precarious and +doubtful situation. She was indeed united to England, but the cement had +not had time to acquire consistence. The irritation of ancient wrongs +still subsisted, and betwixt the fretful jealousy of the Scottish, and +the supercilious disdain of the English, quarrels repeatedly occurred, in +the course of which the national league, so important to the safety of +both, was in the utmost danger of being dissolved. Scotland had, besides, +the disadvantage of being divided into intestine factions, which hated +each other bitterly, and waited but a signal to break forth into action. + +In such circumstances, another man, with the talents and rank of Argyle, +but without a mind so happily regulated, would have sought to rise from +the earth in the whirlwind, and direct its fury. He chose a course more +safe and more honourable. Soaring above the petty distinctions of +faction, his voice was raised, whether in office or opposition, for those +measures which were at once just and lenient. His high military talents +enabled him, during the memorable year 1715, to render such services to +the House of Hanover, as, perhaps, were too great to be either +acknowledged or repaid. He had employed, too, his utmost influence in +softening the consequences of that insurrection to the unfortunate +gentlemen whom a mistaken sense of loyalty had engaged in the affair, and +was rewarded by the esteem and affection of his country in an uncommon +degree. This popularity, with a discontented and warlike people, was +supposed to be a subject of jealousy at court, where the power to become +dangerous is sometimes of itself obnoxious, though the inclination is not +united with it. Besides, the Duke of Argyle's independent and somewhat +haughty mode of expressing himself in Parliament, and acting in public, +were ill calculated to attract royal favour. He was, therefore, always +respected, and often employed; but he was not a favourite of George the +Second, his consort, or his ministers. At several different periods in +his life, the Duke might be considered as in absolute disgrace at court, +although he could hardly be said to be a declared member of opposition. +This rendered him the dearer to Scotland, because it was usually in her +cause that he incurred the displeasure of his sovereign; and upon this +very occasion of the Porteous mob, the animated and eloquent opposition +which he had offered to the severe measures which were about to be +adopted towards the city of Edinburgh, was the more gratefully received +in that metropolis, as it was understood that the Duke's interposition +had given personal offence to Queen Caroline. + +His conduct upon this occasion, as, indeed, that of all the Scottish +members of the legislature, with one or two unworthy exceptions, had been +in the highest degree spirited. The popular tradition, concerning his +reply to Queen Caroline, has been given already, and some fragments of +his speech against the Porteous Bill are still remembered. He retorted +upon the Chancellor, Lord Hardwicke, the insinuation that he had stated +himself in this case rather as a party than as a judge:--"I appeal," said +Argyle, "to the House--to the nation, if I can be justly branded with the +infamy of being a jobber or a partisan. Have I been a briber of votes?--a +buyer of boroughs?--the agent of corruption for any purpose, or on behalf +of any party?--Consider my life; examine my actions in the field and in +the cabinet, and see where there lies a blot that can attach to my +honour. I have shown myself the friend of my country--the loyal subject +of my king. I am ready to do so again, without an instant's regard to the +frowns or smiles of a court. I have experienced both, and am prepared +with indifference for either. I have given my reasons for opposing this +bill, and have made it appear that it is repugnant to the international +treaty of union, to the liberty of Scotland, and, reflectively, to that +of England, to common justice, to common sense, and to the public +interest. Shall the metropolis of Scotland, the capital of an independent +nation, the residence of a long line of monarchs, by whom that noble city +was graced and dignified--shall such a city, for the fault of an obscure +and unknown body of rioters, be deprived of its honours and its +privileges--its gates and its guards?--and shall a native Scotsman tamely +behold the havoc? I glory, my Lords, in opposing such unjust rigour, and +reckon it my dearest pride and honour to stand up in defence of my native +country while thus laid open to undeserved shame, and unjust spoliation." + +Other statesmen and orators, both Scottish and English, used the same +arguments, the bill was gradually stripped of its most oppressive and +obnoxious clauses, and at length ended in a fine upon the city of +Edinburgh in favour of Porteous's widow. So that, as somebody observed at +the time, the whole of these fierce debates ended in making the fortune +of an old cook-maid, such having been the good woman's original capacity. + +The court, however, did not forget the baffle they had received in this +affair, and the Duke of Argyle, who had contributed so much to it, was +thereafter considered as a person in disgrace. It is necessary to place +these circumstances under the reader's observation, both because they are +connected with the preceding and subsequent part of our narrative. + +The Duke was alone in his study, when one of his gentlemen acquainted +him, that a country-girl, from Scotland, was desirous of speaking with +his Grace. + +"A country-girl, and from Scotland!" said the Duke; "what can have +brought the silly fool to London?--Some lover pressed and sent to sea, or +some stock sank in the South-Sea funds, or some such hopeful concern, I +suppose, and then nobody to manage the matter but MacCallummore,--Well, +this same popularity has its inconveniences.--However, show our +countrywoman up, Archibald--it is ill manners to keep her in attendance." + +A young woman of rather low stature, and whose countenance might be +termed very modest and pleasing in expression, though sun-burnt, somewhat +freckled, and not possessing regular features, was ushered into the +splendid library. She wore the tartan plaid of her country, adjusted so +as partly to cover her head, and partly to fall back over her shoulders. +A quantity of fair hair, disposed with great simplicity and neatness, +appeared in front of her round and good-humoured face, to which the +solemnity of her errand, and her sense of the Duke's rank and importance, +gave an appearance of deep awe, but not of slavish fear, or fluttered +bashfulness. The rest of Jeanie's dress was in the style of Scottish +maidens of her own class; but arranged with that scrupulous attention to +neatness and cleanliness, which we often find united with that purity of +mind, of which it is a natural emblem. + +She stopped near the entrance of the room, made her deepest reverence, +and crossed her hands upon her bosom, without uttering a syllable. The +Duke of Argyle advanced towards her; and, if she admired his graceful +deportment and rich dress, decorated with the orders which had been +deservedly bestowed on him, his courteous manner, and quick and +intelligent cast of countenance, he on his part was not less, or less +deservedly, struck with the quiet simplicity and modesty expressed in the +dress, manners, and countenance of his humble countrywoman. + +"Did you wish to speak with me, my bonny lass?" said the Duke, using the +encouraging epithet which at once acknowledged the connection betwixt +them as country-folk; "or did you wish to see the Duchess?" + +"My business is with your honour, my Lord--I mean your Lordship's Grace." + +"And what is it, my good girl?" said the Duke, in the same mild and +encouraging tone of voice. Jeanie looked at the attendant. "Leave us, +Archibald," said the Duke, "and wait in the anteroom." The domestic +retired. "And now sit down, my good lass," said the Duke; "take your +breath--take your time, and tell me what you have got to say. I guess by +your dress, you are just come up from poor Scotland--Did you come through +the streets in your tartan plaid?" + +"No, sir," said Jeanie; "a friend brought me in ane o' their street +coaches--a very decent woman," she added, her courage increasing as she +became familiar with the sound of her own voice in such a presence; "your +Lordship's Grace kens her--it's Mrs. Glass, at the sign o' the Thistle." + +"O, my worthy snuff-merchant--I have always a chat with Mrs. Glass when I +purchase my Scots high-dried. Well, but your business, my bonny woman-- +time and tide, you know, wait for no one." + +"Your honour--I beg your Lordship's pardon--I mean your Grace,"--for it +must be noticed, that this matter of addressing the Duke by his +appropriate title had been anxiously inculcated upon Jeanie by her friend +Mrs. Glass, in whose eyes it was a matter of such importance, that her +last words, as Jeanie left the coach, were, "Mind to say your Grace;" and +Jeanie, who had scarce ever in her life spoke to a person of higher +quality than the Laird of Dumbiedikes, found great difficulty in +arranging her language according to the rules of ceremony. + +The Duke, who saw her embarrassment, said, with his usual affability, +"Never mind my grace, lassie; just speak out a plain tale, and show you +have a Scots tongue in your head." + +"Sir, I am muckle obliged--Sir, I am the sister of that poor unfortunate +criminal, Effie Deans, who is ordered for execution at Edinburgh."' + +"Ah!" said the Duke, "I have heard of that unhappy story, I think--a case +of child-murder, under a special act of parliament--Duncan Forbes +mentioned it at dinner the other day." + +"And I was come up frae the north, sir, to see what could be done for her +in the way of getting a reprieve or pardon, sir, or the like of that." + +"Alas! my poor girl," said the Duke; "you have made a long and a sad +journey to very little purpose--Your sister is ordered for execution." + +"But I am given to understand that there is law for reprieving her, if it +is in the king's pleasure," said Jeanie. + +"Certainly, there is," said the Duke; "but that is purely in the king's +breast. The crime has been but too common--the Scots crown-lawyers think +it is right there should be an example. Then the late disorders in +Edinburgh have excited a prejudice in government against the nation at +large, which they think can only be managed by measures of intimidation +and severity. What argument have you, my poor girl, except the warmth of +your sisterly affection, to offer against all this?--What is your +interest?--What friends have you at court?" + +"None, excepting God and your Grace," said Jeanie, still keeping her +ground resolutely, however. + +"Alas!" said the Duke, "I could almost say with old Ormond, that there +could not be any, whose influence was smaller with kings and ministers. +It is a cruel part of our situation, young woman--I mean of the situation +of men in my circumstances, that the public ascribe to them influence +which they do not possess; and that individuals are led to expect from +them assistance which we have no means of rendering. But candour and +plain dealing is in the power of every one, and I must not let you +imagine you have resources in my influence, which do not exist, to make +your distress the heavier--I have no means of averting your sister's +fate--She must die." + +"We must a' die, sir," said Jeanie; "it is our common doom for our +father's transgression; but we shouldna hasten ilk other out o' the +world, that's what your honour kens better than me." + +"My good young woman," said the Duke, mildly, "we are all apt to blame +the law under which we immediately suffer; but you seem to have been well +educated in your line of life, and you must know that it is alike the law +of God and man, that the murderer shall surely die." + +"But, sir, Effie--that is, my poor sister, sir--canna be proved to be a +murderer; and if she be not, and the law take her life notwithstanding, +wha is it that is the murderer then?" + +"I am no lawyer," said the Duke; "and I own I think the statute a very +severe one." + +"You are a law-maker, sir, with your leave; and, therefore, ye have power +over the law," answered Jeanie. + +"Not in my individual capacity," said the Duke; "though, as one of a +large body, I have a voice in the legislation. But that cannot serve you +--nor have I at present, I care not who knows it, so much personal +influence with the sovereign, as would entitle me to ask from him the +most insignificant favour. What could tempt you, young woman, to address +yourself to me?" + +"It was yourself, sir." + +"Myself?" he replied--"I am sure you have never seen me before." + +"No, sir; but a' the world kens that the Duke of Argyle is his country's +friend; and that ye fight for the right, and speak for the right, and +that there's nane like you in our present Israel, and so they that think +themselves wranged draw to refuge under your shadow; and if ye wunna stir +to save the blood of an innocent countrywoman of your ain, what should we +expect frae southerns and strangers? And maybe I had another reason for +troubling your honour." + +"And what is that?" asked the Duke. + +"I hae understood from my father, that your honour's house, and +especially your gudesire and his father, laid down their lives on the +scaffold in the persecuting time. And my father was honoured to gie his +testimony baith in the cage and in the pillory, as is specially mentioned +in the books of Peter Walker the packman, that your honour, I dare say, +kens, for he uses maist partly the westland of Scotland. And, sir, +there's ane that takes concern in me, that wished me to gang to your +Grace's presence, for his gudesire had done your gracious gudesire some +good turn, as ye will see frae these papers." + +With these words, she delivered to the Duke the little parcel which she +had received from Butler. He opened it, and, in the envelope, read with +some surprise, "'Musterroll of the men serving in the troop of that godly +gentleman, Captain Salathiel Bangtext.--Obadiah Muggleton, Sin-Despise +Double-knock, Stand-fast-in-faith Gipps, Turn-to-the-right Thwack-away'-- +What the deuce is this? A list of Praise-God Barebone's Parliament I +think, or of old Noll's evangelical army--that last fellow should +understand his wheelings, to judge by his name.--But what does all this +mean, my girl?" + +"It was the other paper, sir," said Jeanie, somewhat abashed at the +mistake. + +"O, this is my unfortunate grandfather's hand sure enough--'To all who +may have friendship for the house of Argyle, these are to certify, that +Benjamin Butler, of Monk's regiment of dragoons, having been, under God, +the means of saving my life from four English troopers who were about, to +slay me, I, having no other present means of recompense in my power, do +give him this acknowledgment, hoping that it may be useful to him or his +during these troublesome times; and do conjure my friends, tenants, +kinsmen, and whoever will do aught for me, either in the Highlands or +Lowlands, to protect and assist the said Benjamin Butler, and his friends +or family, on their lawful occasions, giving them such countenance, +maintenance, and supply, as may correspond with the benefit he hath +bestowed on me; witness my hand--Lorne.' + +"This is a strong injunction--This Benjamin Butler was your grandfather, +I suppose?--You seem too young to have been his daughter." + +"He was nae akin to me, sir--he was grandfather to ane--to a neighbour's +son--to a sincere weel-wisher of mine, sir," dropping her little courtesy +as she spoke. + +"O, I understand," said the Duke--"a true-love affair. He was the +grandsire of one you are engaged to?" + +"One I /was/ engaged to, sir," said Jeanie, sighing; "but this unhappy +business of my poor sister" + +"What!" said the Duke, hastily--"he has not deserted you on that account, +has he?" + +"No, sir; he wad be the last to leave a friend in difficulties," said +Jeanie; "but I maun think for him as weel as for mysell. He is a +clergyman, sir, and it would not beseem him to marry the like of me, wi' +this disgrace on my kindred." + +"You are a singular young woman," said the Duke. "You seem to me to think +of every one before yourself. And have you really come up from Edinburgh +on foot, to attempt this hopeless solicitation for your sister's life?" + +"It was not a'thegither on foot, sir," answered Jeanie; "for I sometimes +got a cast in a waggon, and I had a horse from Ferrybridge, and then the +coach" + +"Well, never mind all that," interrupted the Duke--"What reason have you +for thinking your sister innocent?" + +"Because she has not been proved guilty, as will appear from looking at +these papers." + +She put into his hand a note of the evidence, and copies of her sister's +declaration. These papers Butler had procured after her departure, and +Saddletree had them forwarded to London, to Mrs. Glass's care, so that +Jeanie found the documents, so necessary for supporting her suit, lying +in readiness at her arrival. + +"Sit down in that chair, my good girl," said the Duke,--"until I glance +over the papers." + +She obeyed, and watched with the utmost anxiety each change in his +countenance as he cast his eye through the papers briefly, yet with +attention, and making memoranda as he went along. After reading them +hastily over, he looked up, and seemed about to speak, yet changed his +purpose, as if afraid of committing himself by giving too hasty an +opinion, and read over again several passages which he had marked as +being most important. All this he did in shorter time than can be +supposed by men of ordinary talents; for his mind was of that acute and +penetrating character which discovers, with the glance of intuition, what +facts bear on the particular point that chances to be subjected to +consideration. At length he rose, after a few minutes' deep reflection.-- +"Young woman," said he, "your sister's case must certainly be termed a +hard one." + +"God bless you, sir, for that very word!" said Jeanie. + +"It seems contrary to the genius of British law," continued the Duke, "to +take that for granted which is not proved, or to punish with death for a +crime, which, for aught the prosecutor has been able to show, may not +have been committed at all." + +"God bless you, sir!" again said Jeanie, who had risen from her seat, +and, with clasped hands, eyes glittering through tears, and features +which trembled with anxiety, drank in every word which the Duke uttered. + +"But, alas! my poor girl," he continued, "what good will my opinion do +you, unless I could impress it upon those in whose hands your sister's +life is placed by the law? Besides, I am no lawyer; and I must speak with +some of our Scottish gentlemen of the gown about the matter." + +"O, but, sir, what seems reasonable to your honour, will certainly be the +same to them," answered Jeanie. + +"I do not know that," replied the Duke; "ilka man buckles his belt his +ain gate--you know our old Scots proverb?--But you shall not have placed +this reliance on me altogether in vain. Leave these papers with me, and +you shall hear from me to-morrow or next day. Take care to be at home at +Mrs. Glass's, and ready to come to me at a moment's warning. It will be +unnecessary for you to give Mrs. Glass the trouble to attend you;--and by +the by, you will please to be dressed just as you are at present." + +"I wad hae putten on a cap, sir," said Jeanie, "but your honour kens it +isna the fashion of my country for single women; and I judged that, being +sae mony hundred miles frae hame, your Grace's heart wad warm to the +tartan," looking at the corner of her plaid. + +"You judged quite right," said the Duke. "I know the full value of the +snood; and MacCallummore's heart will be as cold as death can make it, +when it does /not/ warm to the tartan. Now, go away, and don't be out of +the way when I send." + +Jeanie replied,--"There is little fear of that, sir, for I have little +heart to go to see sights amang this wilderness of black houses. But if I +might say to your gracious honour, that if ye ever condescend to speak to +ony ane that is of greater degree than yoursell, though maybe it isna +civil in me to say sae, just if you would think there can be nae sic odds +between you and them, as between poor Jeanie Deans from St. Leonard's and +the Duke of Argyle; and so dinna be chappit back or cast down wi' the +first rough answer." + +"I am not apt," said the Duke, laughing, "to mind rough answers much--Do +not you hope too much from what I have promised. I will do my best, but +God has the hearts of Kings in his own hand." + +Jeanie courtesied reverently and withdrew, attended by the Duke's +gentleman, to her hackney-coach, with a respect which her appearance did +not demand, but which was perhaps paid to the length of the interview +with which his master had honoured her. + + + + + CHAPTER TWELFTH. + + Ascend + While radiant summer opens all its pride, + Thy hill, delightful Shene! Here let us sweep + The boundless landscape. + Thomson. + +From her kind and officious, but somewhat gossiping friend, Mrs. Glass, +Jeanie underwent a very close catechism on their road to the Strand, +where the Thistle of the good lady flourished in full glory, and, with +its legend of /Nemo me impune,/ distinguished a shop then well known to +all Scottish folk of high and low degree. + +"And were you sure aye to /say your/ Grace to him?" said the good old +lady; "for ane should make a distinction between MacCallummore and the +bits o' southern bodies that they ca' lords here--there are as mony o' +them, Jeanie, as would gar ane think they maun cost but little fash in +the making--some of them I wadna trust wi' six pennies-worth of +black-rappee--some of them I wadna gie mysell the trouble to put up a +hapnyworth in brown paper for--But I hope you showed your breeding to the +Duke of Argyle, for what sort of folk would he think your friends in +London, if you had been lording him, and him a Duke?" + +"He didna seem muckle to mind," said Jeanie; "he kend that I was landward +bred." + +"Weel, weel," answered the good lady. "His Grace kens me weel; so I am +the less anxious about it. I never fill his snug-box but he says, 'How +d'ye do, good Mrs. Glass?--How are all our friends in the North?' or it +may be--'Have ye heard from the North lately?' And you may be sure, I +make my best courtesy, and answer, 'My Lord Duke, I hope your Grace's +noble Duchess, and your Grace's young ladies, are well; and I hope the +snuff continues to give your Grace satisfaction.' And then ye will see +the people in the shop begin to look about them; and if there's a +Scotsman, as there may be three or half-a-dozen, aff go the hats, and +mony a look after him, and 'There goes the Prince of Scotland, God bless +him!' But ye have not told me yet the very words he said t'ye." + +Jeanie had no intention to be quite so communicative. She had, as the +reader may have observed, some of the caution and shrewdness, as well as +of the simplicity of her country. She answered generally, that the Duke +had received her very compassionately, and had promised to interest +himself in her sister's affair, and to let her hear from him in the +course of the next day, or the day after. She did not choose to make any +mention of his having desired her to be in readiness to attend him, far +less of his hint, that she should not bring her landlady. So that honest +Mrs. Glass was obliged to remain satisfied with the general intelligence +above mentioned, after having done all she could to extract more. + +It may easily be conceived, that, on the next day, Jeanie declined all +invitations and inducements, whether of exercise or curiosity, to walk +abroad, and continued to inhale the close, and somewhat professional +atmosphere of Mrs. Glass's small parlour. The latter flavour it owed to a +certain cupboard, containing, among other articles, a few canisters of +real Havannah, which, whether from respect to the manufacture, or out of +a reverend fear of the exciseman, Mrs. Glass did not care to trust in the +open shop below, and which communicated to the room a scent, that, +however fragrant to the nostrils of the connoisseur, was not very +agreeable to those of Jeanie. + +"Dear sirs," she said to herself, "I wonder how my cousin's silk manty, +and her gowd watch, or ony thing in the world, can be worth sitting +sneezing all her life in this little stilling room, and might walk on +green braes if she liked." + +Mrs. Glass was equally surprised at her cousin's reluctance to stir +abroad, and her indifference to the fine sights of London. "It would +always help to pass away the time," she said, "to have something to look +at, though ane was in distress." But Jeanie was unpersuadable. + +The day after her interview with the Duke was spent in that "hope +delayed, which maketh the heart sick." Minutes glided after minutes-- +hours fled after hours--it became too late to have any reasonable +expectation of hearing from the Duke that day; yet the hope which she +disowned, she could not altogether relinquish, and her heart throbbed, +and her ears tingled, with every casual sound in the shop below. It was +in vain. The day wore away in the anxiety of protracted and fruitless +expectation. + +The next morning commenced in the same manner. But before noon, a +well-dressed gentleman entered Mrs. Glass's shop, and requested to see a +young woman from Scotland. + +"That will be my cousin Jeanie Deans, Mr. Archibald," said Mrs. Glass, +with a courtesy of recognisance. "Have you any message for her from his +Grace the Duke of Argyle, Mr. Archibald? I will carry it to her in a +moment." + +"I believe I must give her the trouble of stepping down, Mrs. Glass." + +"Jeanie--Jeanie Deans!" said Mrs. Glass, screaming at the bottom of the +little staircase, which ascended from the corner of the shop to the +higher regions. "Jeanie--Jeanie Deans, I say! come down stairs instantly; +here is the Duke of Argyle's groom of the chambers desires to see you +directly." This was announced in a voice so loud, as to make all who +chanced to be within hearing aware of the important communication. + +It may easily be supposed, that Jeanie did not tarry long in adjusting +herself to attend the summons, yet her feet almost failed her as she came +down stairs. + +"I must ask the favour of your company a little way," said Archibald, +with civility. + +"I am quite ready, sir," said Jeanie. + +"Is my cousin going out, Mr. Archibald? then I will hae to go wi' her, no +doubt.--James Rasper--Look to the shop, James.--Mr. Archibald," pushing a +jar towards him, "you take his Grace's mixture, I think. Please to fill +your box, for old acquaintance' sake, while I get on my things." + +Mr. Archibald transferred a modest parcel of snuff from the jar to his +own mull, but said he was obliged to decline the pleasure of Mrs. Glass's +company, as his message was particularly to the young person. + +"Particularly to the young person?" said Mrs. Glass; "is not that +uncommon, Mr. Archibald? But his Grace is the best judge; and you are a +steady person, Mr. Archibald. It is not every one that comes from a great +man's house I would trust my cousin with.--But, Jeanie, you must not go +through the streets with Mr. Archibald with your tartan what-d'ye-call-it +there upon your shoulders, as if you had come up with a drove of Highland +cattle. Wait till I bring down my silk cloak. Why, we'll have the mob +after you!" + +"I have a hackney-coach in waiting, madam," said Mr. Archibald, +interrupting the officious old lady, from whom Jeanie might otherwise +have found it difficult to escape; "and, I believe, I must not allow her +time for any change of dress." + +So saying, he hurried Jeanie into the coach, while she internally praised +and wondered at the easy manner in which he shifted off Mrs. Glass's +officious offers and inquiries, without mentioning his master's orders, +or entering into any explanation, + +On entering the coach, Mr. Archibald seated himself in the front seat +opposite to our heroine, and they drove on in silence. After they had +driven nearly half-an-hour, without a word on either side, it occurred to +Jeanie, that the distance and time did not correspond with that which had +been occupied by her journey on the former occasion, to and from the +residence of the Duke of Argyle. At length she could not help asking her +taciturn companion, "Whilk way they were going?" + +"My Lord Duke will inform you himself, madam," answered Archibald, with +the same solemn courtesy which marked his whole demeanour. Almost as he +spoke, the hackney-coach drew up, and the coachman dismounted and opened +the door. Archibald got out, and assisted Jeanie to get down. She found +herself in a large turnpike road, without the bounds of London, upon the +other side of which road was drawn up a plain chariot and four horses, +the panels without arms, and the servants without liveries. + +"You have been punctual, I see, Jeanie," said the Duke of Argyle, as +Archibald opened the carriage-door. "You must be my companion for the +rest of the way. Archibald will remain here with the hackney-coach till +your return." + +Ere Jeanie could make answer, she found herself, to her no small +astonishment, seated by the side of a duke, in a carriage which rolled +forward at a rapid yet smooth rate, very different in both particulars +from the lumbering, jolting vehicle which she had just left; and which, +lumbering and jolting as it was, conveyed to one who had seldom been in a +coach before a certain feeling of dignity and importance. + +"Young woman," said the Duke, "after thinking as attentively on your +sister's case as is in my power, I continue to be impressed with the +belief that great injustice may be done by the execution of her sentence. +So are one or two liberal and intelligent lawyers of both countries whom +I have spoken with.--Nay, pray hear me out before you thank me.--I have +already told you my personal conviction is of little consequence, unless +I could impress the same upon others. Now I have done for you what I +would certainly not have done to serve any purpose of my own--I have +asked an audience of a lady whose interest with the king is deservedly +very high. It has been allowed me, and I am desirous that you should see +her and speak for yourself. You have no occasion to be abashed; tell your +story simply, as you did to me." + +"I am much obliged to your Grace," said Jeanie, remembering Mrs. Glass's +charge, "and I am sure, since I have had the courage to speak to your +Grace in poor Effie's cause, I have less reason to be shame-faced in +speaking to a leddy. But, sir, I would like to ken what to ca' her, +whether your grace or your honour, or your leddyship, as we say to lairds +and leddies in Scotland, and I will take care to mind it; for I ken +leddies are full mair particular than gentlemen about their titles of +honour." + +"You have no occasion to call her anything but Madam. Just say what you +think is likely to make the best impression--look at me from time to +time--and if I put my hand to my cravat so--(showing her the motion)--you +will stop; but I shall only do this when you say anything that is not +likely to please." + +"But, sir, your Grace," said Jeanie, "if it wasna ower muckle trouble, +wad it no be better to tell me what I should say, and I could get it by +heart?" + +"No, Jeanie, that would not have the same effect--that would be like +reading a sermon, you know, which we good Presbyterians think has less +unction than when spoken without book," replied the Duke. "Just speak as +plainly and boldly to this lady, as you did to me the day before +yesterday, and if you can gain her consent, I'll wad ye a plack, as we +say in the north, that you get the pardon from the king." + +As he spoke, he took a pamphlet from his pocket, and began to read. +Jeanie had good sense and tact, which constitute betwixt them that which +is called natural good breeding. She interpreted the Duke's manoeuvre as +a hint that she was to ask no more questions, and she remained silent +accordingly. + +The carriage rolled rapidly onwards through fertile meadows, ornamented +with splendid old oaks, and catching occasionally a glance of the +majestic mirror of a broad and placid river. After passing through a +pleasant village, the equipage stopped on a commanding eminence, where +the beauty of English landscape was displayed in its utmost luxuriance. +Here the Duke alighted, and desired Jeanie to follow him. They paused for +a moment on the brow of a hill, to gaze on the unrivalled landscape which +it presented. A huge sea of verdure, with crossing and intersecting +promontories of massive and tufted groves, was tenanted by numberless +flocks and herds, which seemed to wander unrestrained and unbounded +through the rich pastures. The Thames, here turreted with villas, and +there garlanded with forests, moved on slowly and placidly, like the +mighty monarch of the scene, to whom all its other beauties were but +accessories, and bore on its bosom an hundred barks and skiffs, whose +white sails and gaily fluttering pennons gave life to the whole. + +The Duke of Argyle was, of course, familiar with this scene; but to a man +of taste it must be always new. Yet, as he paused and looked on this +inimitable landscape, with the feeling of delight which it must give to +the bosom of every admirer of nature, his thoughts naturally reverted to +his own more grand, and scarce less beautiful, domains of Inverary.-- +"This is a fine scene," he said to his companion, curious, perhaps, to +draw out her sentiments; "we have nothing like it in Scotland." + +"It's braw rich feeding for the cows, and they have a fine breed o' +cattle here," replied Jeanie; "but I like just as weel to look at the +craigs of Arthur's Seat, and the sea coming in ayont them as at a' thae +muckle trees." + +The Duke smiled at a reply equally professional and national, and made a +signal for the carriage to remain where it was. Then adopting an +unfrequented footpath, he conducted Jeanie through several complicated +mazes to a postern-door in a high brick wall. + +It was shut; but as the Duke tapped slightly at it, a person in waiting +within, after reconnoitring through a small iron grate, contrived for the +purpose, unlocked the door and admitted them. They entered, and it was +immediately closed and fastened behind them. This was all done quickly, +the door so instantly closing, and the person who opened it so suddenly +disappearing, that Jeanie could not even catch a glimpse of his exterior. + +They found themselves at the extremity of a deep and narrow alley, +carpeted with the most verdant and close-shaven turf, which felt like +velvet under their feet, and screened from the sun by the branches of the +lofty elms which united over the path, and caused it to resemble, in the +solemn obscurity of the light which they admitted, as well as from the +range of columnar stems, and intricate union of their arched branches, +one of the narrow side aisles in an ancient Gothic cathedral. + + + + + + CHAPTER THIRTEETH + + I beseech you-- + These tears beseech you, and these chaste hands woo you + That never yet were heaved but to things holy-- + Things like yourself--You are a God above us; + Be as a God, then, full of saving mercy! + The Bloody Brother. + +Encouraged as she was by the courteous manners of her noble countryman, +it was not without a feeling of something like terror that Jeanie felt +herself in a place apparently so lonely with a man of such high rank. +That she should have been permitted to wait on the Duke in his own house, +and have been there received to a private interview, was in itself an +uncommon and distinguished event in the annals of a life so simple as +hers; but to find herself his travelling companion in a journey, and then +suddenly to be left alone with him in so secluded a situation, had +something in it of awful mystery. A romantic heroine might have suspected +and dreaded the power of her own charms; but Jeanie was too wise to let +such a silly thought intrude on her mind. Still, however, she had a most +eager desire to know where she now was, and to whom she was to be +presented. + +She remarked that the Duke's dress, though still such as indicated rank +and fashion (for it was not the custom of men of quality at that time to +dress themselves like their own coachmen or grooms), was nevertheless +plainer than that in which she had seen him upon a former occasion, and +was divested, in particular, of all those badges of external decoration +which intimated superior consequence. In short, he was attired as plainly +as any gentleman of fashion could appear in the streets of London in a +morning; and this circumstance helped to shake an opinion which Jeanie +began to entertain, that, perhaps, he intended she should plead her cause +in the presence of royalty itself. "But surely," said she to, herself, +"he wad hae putten on his braw star and garter, an he had thought o' +coming before the face of majesty--and after a', this is mair like a +gentleman's policy than a royal palace." + +There was some sense in Jeanie's reasoning; yet she was not sufficiently +mistress either of the circumstances of etiquette, or the particular +relations which existed betwixt the government and the Duke of Argyle, to +form an accurate judgment. The Duke, as we have said, was at this time in +open opposition to the administration of Sir Robert Walpole, and was +understood to be out of favour with the royal family, to whom he had +rendered such important services. But it was a maxim of Queen Caroline to +bear herself towards her political friends with such caution, as if there +was a possibility of their one day being her enemies, and towards +political opponents with the same degree of circumspection, as if they +might again become friendly to her measures, Since Margaret of Anjou, no +queen-consort had exercised such weight in the political affairs of +England, and the personal address which she displayed on many occasions, +had no small share in reclaiming from their political heresy many of +those determined Tories, who, after the reign of the Stuarts had been +extinguished in the person of Queen Anne, were disposed rather to +transfer their allegiance to her brother the Chevalier de St. George, +than to acquiesce in the settlement of the crown on the Hanover family. +Her husband, whose most shining quality was courage in the field of +battle, and who endured the office of King of England, without ever being +able to acquire English habits, or any familiarity with English +dispositions, found the utmost assistance from the address of his +partner, and while he jealously affected to do everything according to +his own will and pleasure, was in secret prudent enough to take and +follow the advice of his more adroit consort. He intrusted to her the +delicate office of determining the various degrees of favour necessary to +attach the wavering, or to confirm such as were already friendly, or to +regain those whose good-will had been lost. + +With all the winning address of an elegant, and, according to the times, +an accomplished woman, Queen Caroline possessed the masculine soul of the +other sex. She was proud by nature, and even her policy could not always +temper her expressions of displeasure, although few were more ready at +repairing any false step of this kind, when her prudence came up to the +aid of her passions. She loved the real possession of power rather than +the show of it, and whatever she did herself that was either wise or +popular, she always desired that the King should have the full credit as +well as the advantage of the measure, conscious that, by adding to his +respectability, she was most likely to maintain her own. And so desirous +was she to comply with all his tastes, that, when threatened with the +gout, she had repeatedly had recourse to checking the fit, by the use of +the cold bath, thereby endangering her life, that she might be able to +attend the king in his walks. + +It was a very consistent part of Queen Caroline's character, to keep up +many private correspondences with those to whom in public she seemed +unfavourable, or who, for various reasons, stood ill with the court. By +this means she kept in her hands the thread of many a political intrigue, +and, without pledging herself to anything, could often prevent discontent +from becoming hatred, and opposition from exaggerating itself into +rebellion. If by any accident her correspondence with such persons +chanced to be observed or discovered, which she took all possible pains +to prevent, it was represented as a mere intercourse of society, having +no reference to politics; an answer with which even the prime minister, +Sir Robert Walpole, was compelled to remain satisfied, when he discovered +that the Queen had given a private audience to Pulteney, afterwards Earl +of Bath, his most formidable and most inveterate enemy. + +In thus maintaining occasional intercourse with several persons who +seemed most alienated from the crown, it may readily be supposed that +Queen Caroline had taken care not to break entirely with the Duke of +Argyle. His high birth, his great talents, the estimation in which he was +held in his own country, the great services which he had rendered the +house of Brunswick in 1715, placed him high in that rank of persons who +were not to be rashly neglected. He had, almost by his single and +unassisted talents, stopped the irruption of the banded force of all the +Highland chiefs; there was little doubt, that, with the slightest +encouragement, he could put them all in motion, and renew the civil war; +and it was well known that the most flattering overtures had been +transmitted to the Duke from the court of St. Germains. The character and +temper of Scotland was still little known, and it was considered as a +volcano, which might, indeed, slumber for a series of years, but was +still liable, at a moment the least expected, to break out into a +wasteful irruption. It was, therefore, of the highest importance to +retain come hold over so important a personage as the Duke of Argyle, and +Caroline preserved the power of doing so by means of a lady, with whom, +as wife of George II., she might have been supposed to be on less +intimate terms. + +It was not the least instance of the Queen's address, that she had +contrived that one of her principal attendants, Lady Suffolk, should +unite in her own person the two apparently inconsistent characters, of +her husband's mistress, and her own very obsequious and complaisant +confidant. By this dexterous management the Queen secured her power +against the danger which might most have threatened it--the thwarting +influence of an ambitious rival; and if she submitted to the +mortification of being obliged to connive at her husband's infidelity, +she was at least guarded against what she might think its most dangerous +effects, and was besides at liberty, now and then, to bestow a few civil +insults upon "her good Howard," whom, however, in general, she treated +with great decorum.* + +* See Horace Walpole's Reminiscences. + +Lady Suffolk lay under strong obligations to the Duke of Argyle, for +reasons which may be collected from Horace Walpole's Reminiscences of +that reign, and through her means the Duke had some occasional +correspondence with Queen Caroline, much interrupted, however, since the +part he had taken in the debate concerning the Porteous mob, an affair +which the Queen, though somewhat unreasonably, was disposed to resent, +rather as an intended and premeditated insolence to her own person and +authority, than as a sudden ebullition of popular vengeance. Still, +however, the communication remained open betwixt them, though it had been +of late disused on both sides. These remarks will be found necessary to +understand the scene which is about to be presented to the reader. + +From the narrow alley which they had traversed, the Duke turned into one +of the same character, but broader and still longer. Here, for the first +time since they had entered these gardens, Jeanie saw persons approaching +them. + +They were two ladies; one of whom walked a little behind the other, yet +not so much as to prevent her from hearing and replying to whatever +observation was addressed to her by the lady who walked foremost, and +that without her having the trouble to turn her person. As they advanced +very slowly, Jeanie had time to study their features and appearance. The +Duke also slackened his pace, as if to give her time to collect herself, +and repeatedly desired her not to be afraid. The lady who seemed the +principal person had remarkably good features, though somewhat injured by +the small-pox, that venomous scourge which each village Esculapius +(thanks to Jenner) can now tame as easily as their tutelary deity subdued +the Python. The lady's eyes were brilliant, her teeth good, and her +countenance formed to express at will either majesty or courtesy. Her +form, though rather /embonpoint,/ was nevertheless graceful; and the +elasticity and firmness of her step gave no room to suspect, what was +actually the case, that she suffered occasionally from a disorder the +most unfavourable to pedestrian exercise. Her dress was rather rich than +gay, and her manner commanding and noble. + +Her companion was of lower stature, with light brown hair and expressive +blue eyes. Her features, without being absolutely regular, were perhaps +more pleasing than if they had been critically handsome. A melancholy, or +at least a pensive expression, for which her lot gave too much cause, +predominated when she was silent, but gave way to a pleasing and +good-humoured smile when she spoke to any one. + +When they were within twelve or fifteen yards of these ladies, the Duke +made a sign that Jeanie should stand still, and stepping forward himself, +with the grace which was natural to him, made a profound obeisance, which +was formally, yet in a dignified manner, returned by the personage whom +he approached. + +"I hope," she said, with an affable and condescending smile, "that I see +so great a stranger at court, as the Duke of Argyle has been of late, in +as good health as his friends there and elsewhere could wish him to +enjoy." + +The Duke replied, "That he had been perfectly well;" and added, "that the +necessity of attending to the public business before the House, as well +as the time occupied by a late journey to Scotland, had rendered him less +assiduous in paying his duty at the levee and drawing-room than he could +have desired." + +"When your Grace /can/ find time for a duty so frivolous," replied the +Queen, "you are aware of your title to be well received. I hope my +readiness to comply with the wish which you expressed yesterday to Lady +Suffolk, is, a sufficient proof that one of the royal family, at least, +has not forgotten ancient and important services, in resenting something +which resembles recent neglect." This was said apparently with great good +humour, and in a tone which expressed a desire of conciliation. + +The Duke replied, "That he would account himself the most unfortunate of +men, if he could be supposed capable of neglecting his duty, in modes and +circumstances when it was expected, and would have been agreeable. He was +deeply gratified by the honour which her Majesty was now doing to him +personally; and he trusted she would soon perceive that it was in a +matter essential to his Majesty's interest that he had the boldness to +give her this trouble." + +"You cannot oblige me more, my Lord Duke," replied the Queen, "than by +giving me the advantage of your lights and experience on any point of the +King's service. Your Grace is aware, that I can only be the medium +through which the matter is subjected to his Majesty's superior wisdom; +but if it is a suit which respects your Grace personally, it shall lose +no support by being preferred through me." + +"It is no suit of mine, madam," replied the Duke; "nor have I any to +prefer for myself personally, although I feel in full force my obligation +to your Majesty. It is a business which concerns his Majesty, as a lover +of justice and of mercy, and which, I am convinced, may be highly useful +in conciliating the unfortunate irritation which at present subsists +among his Majesty's good subjects in Scotland." + +There were two parts of this speech disagreeable to Caroline. In the +first place, it removed the flattering notion she had adopted, that +Argyle designed to use her personal intercession in making his peace with +the administration, and recovering the employments of which he had been +deprived; and next, she was displeased that he should talk of the +discontents in Scotland as irritations to be conciliated, rather than +suppressed. + +Under the influence of these feelings, she answered hastily, "That his +Majesty has good subjects in England, my Lord Duke, he is bound to thank +God and the laws--that he has subjects in Scotland, I think he may thank +God and his sword." + +The Duke, though a courtier, coloured slightly, and the Queen, instantly +sensible of her error, added, without displaying the least change of +countenance, and as if the words had been an original branch of the +sentence--"And the swords of those real Scotchmen who are friends to the +House of Brunswick, particularly that of his Grace of Argyle." + +"My sword, madam," replied the Duke, "like that of my fathers, has been +always at the command of my lawful king, and of my native country--I +trust it is impossible to separate their real rights and interests. But +the present is a matter of more private concern, and respects the person +of an obscure individual." + +"What is the affair, my Lord?" said the Queen. "Let us find out what we +are talking about, lest we should misconstrue and misunderstand each +other." + +"The matter, madam," answered the Duke of Argyle, "regards the fate of an +unfortunate young woman in Scotland, now lying under sentence of death, +for a crime of which I think it highly probable that she is innocent. And +my humble petition to your Majesty is, to obtain your powerful +intercession with the King for a pardon." + +It was now the Queen's turn to colour, and she did so over cheek and +brow, neck and bosom. She paused a moment as if unwilling to trust her +voice with the first expression of her displeasure; and on assuming the +air of dignity and an austere regard of control, she at length replied, +"My Lord Duke, I will not ask your motives for addressing to me a +request, which circumstances have rendered such an extraordinary one. +Your road to the King's closet, as a peer and a privy-councillor, +entitled to request an audience, was open, without giving me the pain of +this discussion. /I,/ at least, have had enough of Scotch pardons." + +The Duke was prepared for this burst of indignation, and he was not +shaken by it. He did not attempt a reply while the Queen was in the first +heat of displeasure, but remained in the same firm, yet respectful +posture, which he had assumed during the interview. The Queen, trained +from her situation to self-command, instantly perceived the advantage she +might give against herself by yielding to passion; and added, in the same +condescending and affable tone in which she had opened the interview, +"You must allow me some of the privileges of the sex, my Lord; and do not +judge uncharitably of me, though I am a little moved at the recollection +of the gross insult and outrage done in your capital city to the royal +authority, at the very time when it was vested in my unworthy person. +Your Grace cannot be surprised that I should both have felt it at the +time, and recollected it now." + +"It is certainly a matter not speedily to be forgotten," answered the +Duke. "My own poor thoughts of it have been long before your Majesty, and +I must have expressed myself very ill if I did not convey my detestation +of the murder which was committed under such extraordinary circumstances. +I might, indeed, be so unfortunate as to differ with his Majesty's +advisers on the degree in which it was either just or politic to punish +the innocent instead of the guilty. But I trust your Majesty will permit +me to be silent on a topic in which my sentiments have not the good +fortune to coincide with those of more able men." + +"We will not prosecute a topic on which we may probably differ," said the +Queen. "One word, however, I may say in private--you know our good Lady +Suffolk is a little deaf--the Duke of Argyle, when disposed to renew his +acquaintance with his master and mistress, will hardly find many topics +on which we should disagree." + +"Let me hope," said the Duke, bowing profoundly to so flattering an +intimation, "that I shall not be so unfortunate as to have found one on +the present occasion." + +"I must first impose on your Grace the duty of confession," said the +Queen, "before I grant you absolution. What is your particular interest +in this young woman? She does not seem" (and she scanned Jeanie, as she +said this, with the eye of a connoisseur) "much qualified to alarm my +friend the Duchess's jealousy." + +"I think your Majesty," replied the Duke, smiling in his turn, "will +allow my taste may be a pledge for me on that score." + +"Then, though she has not much the air /d'une grande dame,/ I suppose she +is some thirtieth cousin in the terrible chapter of Scottish genealogy?" + +"No, madam," said the Duke; "but I wish some of my nearer relations had +half her worth, honesty, and affection." + +"Her name must be Campbell, at least?" said Queen Caroline. + +"No, madam; her name is not quite so distinguished, if I may be permitted +to say so," answered the Duke. + +"Ah! but she comes from Inverary or Argyleshire?" said the Sovereign. + +"She has never been farther north in her life than Edinburgh, madam." + +"Then my conjectures are all ended," said the Queen, "and your Grace must +yourself take the trouble to explain the affair of your prote'ge'e." + +With that precision and easy brevity which is only acquired by habitually +conversing in the higher ranks of society, and which is the diametrical +opposite of that protracted style of disquisition, + + Which squires call potter, and which men call prose, + +the Duke explained the singular law under which Effie Deans had received +sentence of death, and detailed the affectionate exertions which Jeanie +had made in behalf of a sister, for whose sake she was willing to +sacrifice all but truth and conscience. + +Queen Caroline listened with attention; she was rather fond, it must be +remembered, of an argument, and soon found matter in what the Duke told +her for raising difficulties to his request. + +"It appears to me, my Lord," she replied, "that this is a severe law. But +still it is adopted upon good grounds, I am bound to suppose, as the law +of the country, and the girl has been convicted under it. The very +presumptions which the law construes into a positive proof of guilt exist +in her case; and all that your Grace has said concerning the possibility +of her innocence may be a very good argument for annulling the Act of +Parliament, but cannot, while it stands good, be admitted in favour of +any individual convicted upon the statute." + +The Duke saw and avoided the snare, for he was conscious, that, by +replying to the argument, he must have been inevitably led to a +discussion, in the course of which the Queen was likely to be hardened +in her own opinion, until she became obliged, out of mere respect to +consistency, to let the criminal suffer. + +"If your Majesty," he said, "would condescend to hear my poor +countrywoman herself, perhaps she may find an advocate in your own heart, +more able than I am, to combat the doubts suggested by your +understanding." + +The Queen seemed to acquiesce, and the Duke made a signal for Jeanie to +advance from the spot where she had hitherto remained watching +countenances, which were too long accustomed to suppress all apparent +signs of emotion, to convey to her any interesting intelligence. Her +Majesty could not help smiling at the awe-struck manner in which the +quiet demure figure of the little Scotchwoman advanced towards her, and +yet more at the first sound of her broad northern accent. But Jeanie had +a voice low and sweetly toned, an admirable thing in woman, and eke +besought "her Leddyship to have pity on a poor misguided young creature," +in tones so affecting, that, like the notes of some of her native songs, +provincial vulgarity was lost in pathos. + +"Stand up, young woman," said the Queen, but in a kind tone, "and tell me +what sort of a barbarous people your country-folk are, where child-murder +is become so common as to require the restraint of laws like yours?" + +"If your Leddyship pleases," answered Jeanie, "there are mony places +besides Scotland where mothers are unkind to their ain flesh and blood." + +It must be observed, that the disputes between George the Second and +Frederick Prince of Wales were then at the highest, and that the +good-natured part of the public laid the blame on the Queen. She coloured +highly, and darted a glance of a most penetrating character first at +Jeanie, and then at the Duke. Both sustained it unmoved; Jeanie from +total unconsciousness of the offence she had given, and the Duke from his +habitual composure. But in his heart he thought, My unlucky /protegee/ +has with this luckless answer shot dead, by a kind of chance-medley, her +only hope of success. + +Lady Suffolk, good-humouredly and skilfully, interposed in this awkward +crisis. "You should tell this lady," she said to Jeanie, "the particular +causes which render this crime common in your country." + +"Some thinks it's the Kirk-session--that is--it's the--it's the +cutty-stool, if your Leddyship pleases," said Jeanie, looking down and +courtesying. + +"The what?" said Lady Suffolk, to whom the phrase was new, and who +besides was rather deaf. + +"That's the stool of repentance, madam, if it please your Leddyship," +answered Jeanie, "for light life and conversation, and for breaking the +seventh command." Here she raised her eyes to the Duke, saw his hand at +his chin, and, totally unconscious of what she had said out of joint, +gave double effect to the innuendo, by stopping short and looking +embarrassed. + +As for Lady Suffolk, she retired like a covering party, which, having +interposed betwixt their retreating friends and the enemy, have suddenly +drawn on themselves a fire unexpectedly severe. + +The deuce take the lass, thought the Duke of Argyle to himself; there +goes another shot--and she has hit with both barrels right and left! + +Indeed the Duke had himself his share of the confusion, for, having acted +as master of ceremonies to this innocent offender, he felt much in the +circumstances of a country squire, who, having introduced his spaniel +into a well-appointed drawing-room, is doomed to witness the disorder and +damage which arises to china and to dress-gowns, in consequence of its +untimely frolics. Jeanie's last chance-hit, however, obliterated the ill +impression which had arisen from the first; for her Majesty had not so +lost the feelings of a wife in those of a Queen, but that she could enjoy +a jest at the expense of "her good Suffolk." She turned towards the Duke +of Argyle with a smile, which marked that she enjoyed the triumph, and +observed, "The Scotch are a rigidly moral people." Then, again applying +herself to Jeanie, she asked how she travelled up from Scotland. + +"Upon my foot mostly, madam," was the reply. + +"What, all that immense way upon foot?--How far can you walk in a day." + +"Five-and-twenty miles and a bittock." + +"And a what?" said the Queen, looking towards the Duke of Argyle. + +"And about five miles more," replied the Duke. + +"I thought I was a good walker," said the Queen, "but this shames me +sadly." + +"May your Leddyship never hae sae weary a heart, that ye canna be +sensible of the weariness of the limbs," said Jeanie. That came better +off, thought the Duke; it's the first thing she has said to the purpose. + +"And I didna just a'thegither walk the haill way neither, for I had +whiles the cast of a cart; and I had the cast of a horse from +Ferrybridge--and divers other easements," said Jeanie, cutting short her +story, for she observed the Duke made the sign he had fixed upon. + +"With all these accommodations," answered the Queen, "you must have had a +very fatiguing journey, and, I fear, to little purpose; since, if the +King were to pardon your sister, in all probability it would do her +little good, for I suppose your people of Edinburgh would hang her out of +spite." + +She will sink herself now outright, thought the Duke. + +But he was wrong. The shoals on which Jeanie had touched in this delicate +conversation lay under ground, and were unknown to her; this rock was +above water, and she avoided it. + +"She was confident," she said, "that baith town and country wad rejoice +to see his Majesty taking compassion on a poor unfriended creature." + +"His Majesty has not found it so in a late instance," said the Queen; +"but I suppose my Lord Duke would advise him to be guided by the votes of +the rabble themselves, who should be hanged and who spared?" + +"No, madam," said the Duke; "but I would advise his Majesty to be guided +by his own feelings, and those of his royal consort; and then I am sure +punishment will only attach itself to guilt, and even then with cautious +reluctance." + +"Well, my Lord," said her Majesty, "all these fine speeches do not +convince me of the propriety of so soon showing any mark of favour to +your--I suppose I must not say rebellious?--but, at least, your very +disaffected and intractable metropolis. Why, the whole nation is in a +league to screen the savage and abominable murderers of that unhappy man; +otherwise, how is it possible but that, of so many perpetrators, and +engaged in so public an action for such a length of time, one at least +must have been recognised? Even this wench, for aught I can tell, may be +a depositary of the secret.--Hark you, young woman, had you any friends +engaged in the Porteous mob?" + +"No, madam," answered Jeanie, happy that the question was so framed that +she could, with a good conscience, answer it in the negative. + +"But I suppose," continued the Queen, "if you were possessed of such a +secret, you would hold it a matter of conscience to keep it to yourself?" + +"I would pray to be directed and guided what was the line of duty, +madam," answered Jeanie. + +"Yes, and take that which suited your own inclinations," replied her +Majesty. + +"If it like you, madam," said Jeanie, "I would hae gaen to the end of the +earth to save the life of John Porteous, or any other unhappy man in his +condition; but I might lawfully doubt how far I am called upon to be the +avenger of his blood, though it may become the civil magistrate to do so. +He is dead and gane to his place, and they that have slain him must +answer for their ain act. But my sister, my puir sister, Effie, still +lives, though her days and hours are numbered! She still lives, and a +word of the King's mouth might restore her to a brokenhearted auld man, +that never in his daily and nightly exercise, forgot to pray that his +Majesty might be blessed with a long and a prosperous reign, and that his +throne, and the throne of his posterity, might be established in +righteousness. O madam, if ever ye kend what it was to sorrow for and +with a sinning and a suffering creature, whose mind is sae tossed that +she can be neither ca'd fit to live or die, have some compassion on our +misery!--Save an honest house from dishonour, and an unhappy girl, not +eighteen years of age, from an early and dreadful death! Alas! it is not +when we sleep soft and wake merrily ourselves that we think on other +people's sufferings. Our hearts are waxed light within us then, and we +are for righting our ain wrangs and fighting our ain battles. But when +the hour of trouble comes to the mind or to the body--and seldom may it +visit your Leddyship--and when the hour of death comes, that comes to +high and low--lang and late may it be yours!--Oh, my Leddy, then it isna +what we hae dune for oursells, but what we hae dune for others, that we +think on maist pleasantly. And the thoughts that ye hae intervened to +spare the puir thing's life will be sweeter in that hour, come when it +may, than if a word of your mouth could hang the haill Porteous mob at +the tail of ae tow." + +Tear followed tear down Jeanie's cheeks, as, her features glowing and +quivering with emotion, she pleaded her sister's cause with a pathos +which was at once simple and solemn. + +"This is eloquence," said her Majesty to the Duke of Argyle. "Young +woman," she continued, addressing herself to Jeanie, "/I/ cannot grant a +pardon to your sister--but you shall not want my warm intercession with +his Majesty. Take this house-wife case," she continued, putting a small +embroidered needle-case into Jeanie's hands; "do not open it now, but at +your leisure--you will find something in it which will remind you that +you have had an interview with Queen Caroline." + +Jeanie, having her suspicions thus confirmed, dropped on her knees, and +would have expanded herself in gratitude; but the Duke who was upon +thorns lest she should say more or less than just enough, touched his +chin once more. + +"Our business is, I think, ended for the present, my Lord Duke," said the +Queen, "and, I trust, to your satisfaction. Hereafter I hope to see your +Grace more frequently, both at Richmond and St. James's.--Come Lady +Suffolk, we must wish his Grace good-morning." + +They exchanged their parting reverences, and the Duke, so soon as the +ladies had turned their backs, assisted Jeanie to rise from the ground, +and conducted her back through the avenue, which she trode with the +feeling of one who walks in her sleep. + + + + + CHAPTER FOURTEENTH. + + + So soon as I can win the offended king, + I will be known your advocate. + Cymbeline. + +The Duke of Argyle led the way in silence to the small postern by which +they had been admitted into Richmond Park, so long the favourite +residence of Queen Caroline. It was opened by the same half-seen janitor, +and they found themselves beyond the precincts of the royal demesne. +Still not a word was spoken on either side. The Duke probably wished to +allow his rustic prote'ge'e time to recruit her faculties, dazzled and +sunk with colloquy sublime; and betwixt what she had guessed, had heard, +and had seen, Jeanie Deans's mind was too much agitated to permit her to +ask any questions. + +They found the carriage of the Duke in the place where they had left it; +and when they resumed their places, soon began to advance rapidly on +their return to town. + +"I think, Jeanie," said the Duke, breaking silence, "you have every +reason to congratulate yourself on the issue of your interview with her +Majesty." + +"And that leddy was the Queen herself?" said Jeanie; "I misdoubted it +when I saw that your honour didna put on your hat--And yet I can hardly +believe it, even when I heard her speak it herself." + +"It was certainly Queen Caroline," replied the Duke. "Have you no +curiosity to see what is in the little pocket-book?" + +"Do you think the pardon will be in it, sir?" said Jeanie, with the eager +animation of hope. + +"Why, no," replied the Duke; "that is unlikely. They seldom carry these +things about them, unless they were likely to be wanted; and, besides, +her Majesty told you it was the King, not she, who was to grant it." + +"That is true, too," said Jeanie; "but I am so confused in my mind--But +does your honour think there is a certainty of Effie's pardon then?" +continued she, still holding in her hand the unopened pocket-book. + +"Why, kings are kittle cattle to shoe behind, as we say in the north," +replied the Duke; "but his wife knows his trim, and I have not the least +doubt that the matter is quite certain." + +"Oh, God be praised! God be praised!" ejaculated Jeanie; "and may the +gude leddy never want the heart's ease she has gien me at this moment!-- +And God bless you too, my Lord!--without your help I wad ne'er hae won +near her." + +The Duke let her dwell upon this subject for a considerable time, +curious, perhaps, to see how long the feelings of gratitude would +continue to supersede those of curiosity. But so feeble was the latter +feeling in Jeanie's mind, that his Grace, with whom, perhaps, it was for +the time a little stronger, was obliged once more to bring forward the +subject of the Queen's present. It was opened accordingly. In the inside +of the case was the usual assortment of silk and needles, with scissors, +tweezers, etc.; and in the pocket was a bank-bill for fifty pounds. + +The Duke had no sooner informed Jeanie of the value of this last +document, for she was unaccustomed to see notes for such sums, than she +expressed her regret at the mistake which had taken place. "For the hussy +itsell," she said, "was a very valuable thing for a keepsake, with the +Queen's name written in the inside with her ain hand doubtless-- +/Caroline/--as plain as could be, and a crown drawn aboon it." + +She therefore tendered the bill to the Duke, requesting him to find some +mode of returning it to the royal owner. + +"No, no, Jeanie," said the Duke, "there is no mistake in the case. Her +Majesty knows you have been put to great expense, and she wishes to make +it up to you." + +"I am sure she is even ower gude," said Jeanie, "and it glads me muckle +that I can pay back Dumbiedikes his siller, without distressing my +father, honest man." + +"Dumbiedikes! What, a freeholder of Mid-Lothian, is he not?" said his +Grace, whose occasional residence in that county made him acquainted with +most of the heritors, as landed persons are termed in Scotland.--"He has +a house not far from Dalkeith, wears a black wig and a laced hat?" + +"Yes sir," answered Jeanie, who had her reasons for being brief in her +answers upon this topic. + +"Ah, my old friend Dumbie!" said the Duke; "I have thrice seen him fou, +and only once heard the sound of his voice--Is he a cousin of yours, +Jeanie?" + +"No, sir,--my Lord." + +"Then he must be a well-wisher, I suspect?" + +"Ye--yes,--my Lord, sir," answered Jeanie, blushing, and with hesitation. + +"Aha! then, if the Laird starts, I suppose my friend Butler must be in +some danger?" + +"O no, sir," answered Jeanie, much more readily, but at the same time +blushing much more deeply. + +"Well, Jeanie," said the Duke, "you are a girl may be safely trusted with +your own matters, and I shall inquire no farther about them. But as to +this same pardon, I must see to get it passed through the proper forms; +and I have a friend in office who will for auld lang syne, do me so much +favour. And then, Jeanie, as I shall have occasion to send an express +down to Scotland, who will travel with it safer and more swiftly than you +can do, I will take care to have it put into the proper channel; +meanwhile you may write to your friends by post of your good success." + +"And does your Honour think," said Jeanie, "that will do as weel as if I +were to take my tap in my lap, and slip my ways hame again on my ain +errand?" + +"Much better, certainly," said the Duke. "You know the roads are not very +safe for a single woman to travel." + +Jeanie internally acquiesced in this observation. + +"And I have a plan for you besides. One of the Duchess's attendants, and +one of mine--your acquaintance Archibald--are going down to Inverary in a +light calash, with four horses I have bought, and there is room enough in +the carriage for you to go with them as far as Glasgow, where Archibald +will find means of sending you safely to Edinburgh.--And in the way I beg +you will teach the woman as much as you can of the mystery of +cheese-making, for she is to have a charge in the dairy, and I dare swear +you are as tidy about your milk-pail as about your dress." + +"Does your Honour like cheese?" said Jeanie, with a gleam of conscious +delight as she asked the question. + +"Like it?" said the Duke, whose good-nature anticipated what was to +follow,--"cakes and cheese are a dinner for an emperor, let alone a +Highlandman." + +"Because," said Jeanie, with modest confidence, and great and evident +self-gratulation, "we have been thought so particular in making cheese, +that some folk think it as gude as the real Dunlop; and if your honour's +Grace wad but accept a stane or twa, blithe, and fain, and proud it wad +make us? But maybe ye may like the ewe-milk, that is, the Buckholmside* +cheese + +* The hilly pastures of Buckholm, which the Author now surveys,--"Not in +the frenzy of a dreamer's eye,"--are famed for producing the best +ewe-milk cheese in the south of Scotland. + +better; or maybe the gait-milk, as ye come frae the Highlands--and I +canna pretend just to the same skeel o' them; but my cousin Jean, that +lives at Lockermachus in Lammermuir, I could speak to her, and--" + +"Quite unnecessary," said the Duke; "the Dunlop is the very cheese of +which I am so fond, and I will take it as the greatest favour you can do +me to send one to Caroline Park. But remember, be on honour with it, +Jeanie, and make it all yourself, for I am a real good judge." + +"I am not feared," said Jeanie, confidently, "that I may please your +Honour; for I am sure you look as if you could hardly find fault wi' +onybody that did their best; and weel is it my part, I trow, to do mine." + +This discourse introduced a topic upon which the two travellers, though +so different in rank and education, found each a good deal to say. The +Duke, besides his other patriotic qualities, was a distinguished +agriculturist, and proud of his knowledge in that department. He +entertained Jeanie with his observations on the different breeds of +cattle in Scotland, and their capacity for the dairy, and received so +much information from her practical experience in return, that he +promised her a couple of Devonshire cows in reward for the lesson. In +short his mind was so transported back to his rural employments and +amusements, that he sighed when his carriage stopped opposite to the old +hackney-coach, which Archibald had kept in attendance at the place where +they had left it. While the coachman again bridled his lean cattle, which +had been indulged with a bite of musty hay, the Duke cautioned Jeanie not +to be too communicative to her landlady concerning what had passed. +"There is," he said, "no use of speaking of matters till they are +actually settled; and you may refer the good lady to Archibald, if she +presses you hard with questions. She is his old acquaintance, and he +knows how to manage with her." + +He then took a cordial farewell of Jeanie, and told her to be ready in +the ensuing week to return to Scotland--saw her safely established in her +hackney-coach, and rolled of in his own carriage, humming a stanza of the +ballad which he is said to have composed:-- + + "At the sight of Dumbarton once again, + I'll cock up my bonnet and march amain, + With my claymore hanging down to my heel, + To whang at the bannocks of barley meal." + +Perhaps one ought to be actually a Scotsman to conceive how ardently, +under all distinctions of rank and situation, they feel their mutual +connection with each other as natives of the same country. There are, I +believe, more associations common to the inhabitants of a rude and wild, +than of a well-cultivated and fertile country; their ancestors have more +seldom changed their place of residence; their mutual recollection of +remarkable objects is more accurate; the high and the low are more +interested in each other's welfare; the feelings of kindred and +relationship are more widely extended, and in a word, the bonds of +patriotic affection, always honourable even when a little too exclusively +strained, have more influence on men's feelings and actions. + +The rumbling hackney-coach, which tumbled over the (then) execrable +London pavement, at a rate very different from that which had conveyed +the ducal carriage to Richmond, at length deposited Jeanie Deans and her +attendant at the national sign of the Thistle. Mrs. Glass, who had been +in long and anxious expectation, now rushed, full of eager curiosity and +open-mouthed interrogation, upon our heroine, who was positively unable +to sustain the overwhelming cataract of her questions, which burst forth +with the sublimity of a grand gardyloo:-- + +"Had she seen the Duke, God bless him--the Duchess--the young ladies?-- +Had she seen the King, God bless him--the Queen--the Prince of Wales--the +Princess--or any of the rest of the royal family?--Had she got her +sister's pardon?--Was it out and out--or was it only a commutation of +punishment?--How far had she gone--where had she driven to--whom had she +seen--what had been said--what had kept her so long?" + +Such were the various questions huddled upon each other by a curiosity so +eager, that it could hardly wait for its own gratification. Jeanie would +have been more than sufficiently embarrassed by this overbearing tide of +interrogations, had not Archibald, who had probably received from his +master a hint to that purpose, advanced to her rescue. "Mrs. Glass," said +Archibald, "his Grace desired me particularly to say, that he would take +it as a great favour if you would ask the young woman no questions, as he +wishes to explain to you more distinctly than she can do how her affairs +stand, and consult you on some matters which she cannot altogether so +well explain. The Duke will call at the Thistle to-morrow or next day for +that purpose." + +"His Grace is very condescending," said Mrs. Glass, her zeal for inquiry +slaked for the present by the dexterous administration of this sugar +plum--"his Grace is sensible that I am in a manner accountable for the +conduct of my young kinswoman, and no doubt his Grace is the best judge +how far he should intrust her or me with the management of her affairs." + +"His Grace is quite sensible of that," answered Archibald, with national +gravity, "and will certainly trust what he has to say to the most +discreet of the two; and therefore, Mrs. Glass, his Grace relies you will +speak nothing to Mrs. Jean Deans, either of her own affairs or her +sister's, until he sees you himself. He desired me to assure you, in the +meanwhile, that all was going on as well as your kindness could wish, +Mrs. Glass." + +"His Grace is very kind--very considerate, certainly, Mr. Archibald--his +Grace's commands shall be obeyed, and--But you have had a far drive, Mr. +Archibald, as I guess by the time of your absence, and I guess" (with an +engaging smile) "you winna be the waur o' a glass of the right Rosa +Solis." + +"I thank you, Mrs. Glass," said the great man's great man, "but I am +under the necessity of returning to my Lord directly." And, making his +adieus civilly to both cousins, he left the shop of the Lady of the +Thistle. + +"I am glad your affairs have prospered so well, Jeanie, my love," said +Mrs. Glass; "though, indeed, there was little fear of them so soon as the +Duke of Argyle was so condescending as to take them into hand. I will ask +you no questions about them, because his Grace, who is most considerate +and prudent in such matters, intends to tell me all that you ken +yourself, dear, and doubtless a great deal more; so that anything that +may lie heavily on your mind may be imparted to me in the meantime, as +you see it is his Grace's pleasure that I should be made acquainted with +the whole matter forthwith, and whether you or he tells it, will make no +difference in the world, ye ken. If I ken what he is going to say +beforehand, I will be much more ready to give my advice, and whether you +or he tell me about it, cannot much signify after all, my dear. So you +may just say whatever you like, only mind I ask you no questions about +it." + +Jeanie was a little embarrassed. She thought that the communication she +had to make was perhaps the only means she might have in her power to +gratify her friendly and hospitable kinswoman. But her prudence instantly +suggested that her secret interview with Queen Caroline, which seemed to +pass under a certain sort of mystery, was not a proper subject for the +gossip of a woman like Mrs. Glass, of whose heart she had a much better +opinion than of her prudence. She, therefore, answered in general, that +the Duke had had the extraordinary kindness to make very particular +inquiries into her sister's bad affair, and that he thought he had found +the means of putting it a' straight again, but that he proposed to tell +all that he thought about the matter to Mrs. Glass herself. + +This did not quite satisfy the penetrating mistress of the Thistle. +Searching as her own small rappee, she, in spite of her promise, urged +Jeanie with still farther questions. "Had she been a' that time at Argyle +House? Was the Duke with her the whole time? and had she seen the +Duchess? and had she seen the young ladies--and specially Lady Caroline +Campbell?"--To these questions Jeanie gave the general reply, that she +knew so little of the town that she could not tell exactly where she had +been; that she had not seen the Duchess to her knowledge; that she had +seen two ladies, one of whom, she understood, bore the name of Caroline; +and more, she said, she could not tell about the matter. + +"It would be the Duke's eldest daughter, Lady Caroline Campbell, there is +no doubt of that," said Mrs. Glass; "but doubtless, I shall know more +particularly through his Grace.--And so, as the cloth is laid in the +little parlour above stairs, and it is past three o'clock, for I have +been waiting this hour for you, and I have had a snack myself; and, as +they used to say in Scotland in my time--I do not ken if the word be used +now--there is ill talking between a full body and a fasting." + + + + + CHAPTER FIFTEENTH. + + + Heaven first taught letters for some wretch's aid,-- + Some banished lover or some captive maid. + Pope. + +By dint of unwonted labour with the pen, Jeanie Deans contrived to +indite, and give to the charge of the postman on the ensuing day, no less +than three letters, an exertion altogether strange to her habits; +insomuch so, that, if milk had been plenty, she would rather have made +thrice as many Dunlop cheeses. The first of them was very brief. It was +addressed to George Staunton, Esq., at the Rectory, Willingham, by +Grantham; the address being part of the information she had extracted +from the communicative peasant who rode before her to Stamford. It was in +these words:-- + +"Sir,--To prevent farder mischieves, whereof there hath been enough, +comes these: Sir, I have my sister's pardon from the Queen's Majesty, +whereof I do not doubt you will be glad, having had to say naut of +matters whereof you know the purport. So, Sir, I pray for your better +welfare in bodie and soul, and that it will please the fisycian to visit +you in His good time. Alwaies, sir, I pray you will never come again to +see my sister, whereof there has been too much. And so, wishing you no +evil, but even your best good, that you may be turned from your iniquity +(for why suld ye die?) I rest your humble servant to command, + "/Ye ken wha./" + +The next letter was to her father. It is too long altogether for +insertion, so we only give a few extracts. It commenced-- + +"Dearest and truly honoured father,--This comes with my duty to inform +you, that it has pleased God to redeem that captivitie of my poor sister, +in respect the Queen's blessed Majesty, for whom we are ever bound to +pray, hath redeemed her soul from the slayer, granting the ransom of her, +whilk is ane pardon or reprieve. And I spoke with the Queen face to face +and yet live; for she is not muckle differing from other grand leddies, +saying that she has a stately presence, and een like a blue huntin' +hawk's, whilk gaed throu' and throu' me like a Highland durk--And all +this good was, alway under the Great Giver, to whom all are but +instruments, wrought forth for us by the Duk of Argile, wha is ane native +true-hearted Scotsman, and not pridefu', like other folk we ken of--and +likewise skeely enow in bestial, whereof he has promised to gie me twa +Devonshire kye, of which he is enamoured, although I do still haud by the +real hawlit Airshire breed--and I have promised him a cheese; and I wad +wuss ye, if Gowans, the brockit cow, has a quey, that she suld suck her +fill of milk, as I am given to understand he has none of that breed, and +is not scornfu' but will take a thing frae a puir body, that it may +lighten their heart of the loading of debt that they awe him. Also his +honour the Duke will accept ane of our Dunlop cheeses, and it sall be my +faut if a better was ever yearned in Lowden."--[Here follow some +observations respecting the breed of cattle, and the produce of the +dairy, which it is our intention to forward to the Board of +Agriculture.]--"Nevertheless, these are but matters of the after-harvest, +in respect of the great good which Providence hath gifted us with--and, +in especial, poor Effie's life. And oh, my dear father, since it hath +pleased God to be merciful to her, let her not want your free pardon, +whilk will make her meet to be ane vessel of grace, and also a comfort to +your ain graie hairs. Dear Father, will ye let the Laird ken that we have +had friends strangely raised up to us, and that the talent whilk he lent +me will be thankfully repaid. I hae some of it to the fore; and the rest +of it is not knotted up in ane purse or napkin, but in ane wee bit paper, +as is the fashion heir, whilk I am assured is gude for the siller. And, +dear father, through Mr. Butler's means I hae gude friendship with the +Duke, for their had been kindness between their forbears in the auld +troublesome time bye-past. And Mrs. Glass has been kind like my very +mother. She has a braw house here, and lives bien and warm, wi' twa +servant lasses, and a man and a callant in the shop. And she is to send +you doun a pound of her hie-dried, and some other tobaka, and we maun +think of some propine for her, since her kindness hath been great. And +the Duk is to send the pardun doun by an express messenger, in respect +that I canna travel sae fast; and I am to come doun wi' twa of his +Honour's servants--that is, John Archibald, a decent elderly gentleman, +that says he has seen you lang syne, when ye were buying beasts in the +west frae the Laird of Aughtermuggitie--but maybe ye winna mind him--ony +way, he's a civil man--and Mrs. Dolly Dutton, that is to be dairy-maid at +Inverara; and they bring me on as far as Glasgo, whilk will make it nae +pinch to win hame, whilk I desire of all things. May the Giver of all +good things keep ye in your outgauns and incomings, whereof devoutly +prayeth your loving dauter, + "Jean Deans." + +The third letter was to Butler, and its tenor as follows:-- + +"Master Butler.--Sir,--It will be pleasure to you to ken, that all I came +for is, thanks be to God, weel dune and to the gude end, and that your +forbear's letter was right welcome to the Duke of Argile, and that he +wrote your name down with a kylevine pen in a leathern book, whereby it +seems like he will do for you either wi' a scule or a kirk; he has enow +of baith, as I am assured. And I have seen the queen, which gave me a +hussy-case out of her own hand. She had not her crown and skeptre, but +they are laid by for her, like the bairns' best claise, to be worn when +she needs them. And they are keepit in a tour, whilk is not like the tour +of Libberton, nor yet Craigmillar, but mair like to the castell of +Edinburgh, if the buildings were taen and set down in the midst of the +Nor'-Loch. Also the Queen was very bounteous, giving me a paper worth +fiftie pounds, as I am assured, to pay my expenses here and back agen. +Sae, Master Butler, as we were aye neebours' bairns, forby onything else +that may hae been spoken between us, I trust you winna skrimp yoursell +for what is needfu' for your health, since it signifies not muckle whilk +o' us has the siller, if the other wants it. And mind this is no meant to +haud ye to onything whilk ye wad rather forget, if ye suld get a charge +of a kirk or a scule, as above said. Only I hope it will be a scule, and +not a kirk, because of these difficulties anent aiths and patronages, +whilk might gang ill down wi' my honest father. Only if ye could compass +a harmonious call frae the parish of Skreegh-me-dead, as ye anes had hope +of, I trow it wad please him weel; since I hae heard him say, that the +root of the matter was mair deeply hafted in that wild muirland parish +than in the Canongate of Edinburgh. I wish I had whaten books ye wanted, +Mr. Butler, for they hae haill houses of them here, and they are obliged +to set sum out in the street, whilk are sald cheap, doubtless, to get +them out of the weather. It is a muckle place, and I hae seen sae muckle +of it, that my poor head turns round. And ye ken langsyne, I am nae great +pen-woman, and it is near eleven o'clock o' the night. I am cumming down +in good company, and safe--and I had troubles in gaun up whilk makes me +blither of travelling wi' kend folk. My cousin, Mrs. Glass, has a braw +house here, but a' thing is sae poisoned wi' snuff, that I am like to be +scomfished whiles. But what signifies these things, in comparison of the +great deliverance whilk has been vouchsafed to my father's house, in +whilk you, as our auld and dear well-wisher, will, I dout not, rejoice +and be exceedingly glad. And I am, dear Mr. Butler, your sincere +well-wisher in temporal and eternal things, + "J. D." + +After these labours of an unwonted kind, Jeanie retired to her bed, yet +scarce could sleep a few minutes together, so often was she awakened by +the heart-stirring consciousness of her sister's safety, and so +powerfully urged to deposit her burden of joy, where she had before laid +her doubts and sorrows, in the warm and sincere exercises of devotion. + +All the next, and all the succeeding day, Mrs. Glass fidgeted about her +shop in the agony of expectation, like a pea (to use a vulgar simile +which her profession renders appropriate) upon one of her own tobacco +pipes. With the third morning came the expected coach, with four servants +clustered behind on the footboard, in dark brown and yellow liveries; the +Duke in person, with laced coat, gold-headed cane, star and garter, all, +as the story-book says, very grand. + +He inquired for his little countrywoman of Mrs. Glass, but without +requesting to see her, probably because he was unwilling to give an +appearance of personal intercourse betwixt them, which scandal might have +misinterpreted. "The Queen," he said to Mrs. Glass, "had taken the case +of her kinswoman into her gracious consideration, and being specially +moved by the affectionate and resolute character of the elder sister, had +condescended to use her powerful intercession with his Majesty, in +consequence of which a pardon had been despatched to Scotland to Effie +Deans, on condition of her banishing herself forth of Scotland for +fourteen years. The King's Advocate had insisted," he said, "upon this +qualification of the pardon, having pointed out to his Majesty's +ministers, that, within the course of only seven years, twenty-one +instances of child-murder had occurred in Scotland. + +"Weary on him!" said Mrs. Glass, "what for needed he to have telled that +of his ain country, and to the English folk abune a'? I used aye to think +the Advocate a douce decent man, but it is an ill bird*--begging your +Grace's pardon for speaking of such a coorse by-word. + +* [It's an ill bird that fouls its own pest.] + +And then what is the poor lassie to do in a foreign land?--Why, wae's me, +it's just sending her to play the same pranks ower again, out of sight or +guidance of her friends." + +"Pooh! pooh!" said the Duke, "that need not be anticipated. Why, she may +come up to London, or she may go over to America, and marry well for all +that is come and gone." + +"In troth, and so she may, as your Grace is pleased to intimate," replied +Mrs. Glass; "and now I think upon it, there is my old correspondent in +Virginia, Ephraim Buckskin, that has supplied the Thistle this forty +years with tobacco, and it is not a little that serves our turn, and he +has been writing to me this ten years to send him out a wife. The carle +is not above sixty, and hale and hearty, and well to pass in the world, +and a line from my hand would settle the matter, and Effie Deans's +misfortune (forby that there is no special occasion to speak about it) +would be thought little of there." + +"Is she a pretty girl?" said the Duke; "her sister does not get beyond a +good comely sonsy lass." + +"Oh, far prettier is Effie than Jeanie," said Mrs. Glass; "though it is +long since I saw her mysell, but I hear of the Deanses by all my Lowden +friends when they come--your Grace kens we Scots are clannish bodies." + +"So much the better for us," said the Duke, "and the worse for those who +meddle with us, as your good old-fashioned sign says, Mrs. Glass. And now +I hope you will approve of the measures I have taken for restoring your +kinswoman to her friends." These he detailed at length, and Mrs. Glass +gave her unqualified approbation, with a smile and a courtesy at every +sentence. "And now, Mrs. Glass, you must tell Jeanie, I hope, she will +not forget my cheese when she gets down to Scotland. Archibald has my +orders to arrange all her expenses." + +"Begging your Grace's humble pardon," said Mrs. Glass, "it is a pity to +trouble yourself about them; the Deanses are wealthy people in their way, +and the lass has money in her pocket." + +"That's all very true," said the Duke; "but you know, where MacCallummore +travels he pays all; it is our Highland privilege to take from all what +/we/ want, and to give to all what /they/ want." + +"Your Grace is better at giving than taking," said Mrs. Glass. + +"To show you the contrary," said the Duke, "I will fill my box out of +this canister without paying you a bawbee;" and again desiring to be +remembered to Jeanie, with his good wishes for her safe journey, he +departed, leaving Mrs. Glass uplifted in heart and in countenance, the +proudest and happiest of tobacco and snuff dealers. + +Reflectively, his Grace's good humour and affability had a favourable +effect upon Jeanie's situation.--Her kinswoman, though civil and kind to +her, had acquired too much of London breeding to be perfectly satisfied +with her cousin's rustic and national dress, and was, besides, something +scandalised at the cause of her journey to London. Mrs. Glass might, +therefore, have been less sedulous in her attentions towards Jeanie, but +for the interest which the foremost of the Scottish nobles (for such, in +all men's estimation, was the Duke of Argyle) seemed to take in her fate. +Now, however, as a kinswoman whose virtues and domestic affections had +attracted the notice and approbation of royalty itself, Jeanie stood to +her relative in a light very different and much more favourable, and was +not only treated with kindness, but with actual observance and respect. + +It depended on herself alone to have made as many visits, and seen as +many sights, as lay within Mrs. Glass's power to compass. But, excepting +that she dined abroad with one or two "far away kinsfolk," and that she +paid the same respect, on Mrs. Glass's strong urgency, to Mrs. Deputy +Dabby, wife of the Worshipful Mr. Deputy Dabby, of Farringdon Without, +she did not avail herself of the opportunity. As Mrs. Dabby was the +second lady of great rank whom Jeanie had seen in London, she used +sometimes afterwards to draw a parallel betwixt her and the Queen, in +which she observed, "that Mrs. Dabby was dressed twice as grand, and was +twice as big, and spoke twice as loud, and twice as muckle, as the Queen +did, but she hadna the same goss-hawk glance that makes the skin creep, +and the knee bend; and though she had very kindly gifted her with a loaf +of sugar and twa punds of tea, yet she hadna a'thegither the sweet look +that the Queen had when she put the needle-book into her hand." + +Jeanie might have enjoyed the sights and novelties of this great city +more, had it not been for the qualification added to her sister's pardon, +which greatly grieved her affectionate disposition. On this subject, +however, her mind was somewhat relieved by a letter which she received in +return of post, in answer to that which she had written to her father. +With his affectionate blessing, it brought his full approbation of the +step which she had taken, as one inspired by the immediate dictates of +Heaven, and which she had been thrust upon in order that she might become +the means of safety to a perishing household. + +"If ever a deliverance was dear and precious, this," said the letter, "is +a dear and precious deliverance--and if life saved can be made more sweet +and savoury, it is when it cometh by the hands of those whom we hold in +the ties of affection. And do not let your heart be disquieted within +you, that this victim, who is rescued from the horns of the altar, +whereuntil she was fast bound by the chains of human law, is now to be +driven beyond the bounds of our land. Scotland is a blessed land to those +who love the ordinances of Christianity, and it is a faer land to look +upon, and dear to them who have dwelt in it a' their days; and weel said +that judicious Christian, worthy John Livingstone, a sailor in +Borrowstouness, as the famous Patrick Walker reporteth his words, that +howbeit he thought Scotland was a Gehennah of wickedness when he was at +home, yet when he was abroad, he accounted it ane paradise; for the evils +of Scotland he found everywhere, and the good of Scotland he found +nowhere. But we are to hold in remembrance that Scotland, though it be +our native land, and the land of our fathers, is not like Goshen, in +Egypt, on whilk the sun of the heavens and of the gospel shineth +allenarly, and leaveth the rest of the world in utter darkness. +Therefore, and also because this increase of profit at Saint Leonard's +Crags may be a cauld waff of wind blawing from the frozen land of earthly +self, where never plant of grace took root or grew, and because my +concerns make me take something ower muckle a grip of the gear of the +warld in mine arms, I receive this dispensation anent Effie as a call to +depart out of Haran, as righteous Abraham of old, and leave my father's +kindred and my mother's house, and the ashes and mould of them who have +gone to sleep before me, and which wait to be mingled with these auld +crazed bones of mine own. And my heart is lightened to do this, when I +call to mind the decay of active and earnest religion in this land, and +survey the height and the depth, the length and the breadth, of national +defections, and how the love of many is waxing lukewarm and cold; and I +am strengthened in this resolution to change my domicile likewise, as I +hear that store-farms are to be set at an easy mail in Northumberland, +where there are many precious souls that are of our true though suffering +persuasion. And sic part of the kye or stock as I judge it fit to keep, +may be driven thither without incommodity--say about Wooler, or that +gate, keeping aye a shouther to the hills,--and the rest may be sauld to +gude profit and advantage, if we had grace weel to use and guide these +gifts of the warld. The Laird has been a true friend on our unhappy +occasions, and I have paid him back the siller for Effie's misfortune, +whereof Mr. Nichil Novit returned him no balance, as the Laird and I did +expect he wad hae done. But law licks up a', as the common folk say. I +have had the siller to borrow out of sax purses. Mr. Saddletree advised +to give the Laird of Lounsbeck a charge on his hand for a thousand merks. +But I hae nae broo' of charges, since that awfu' morning that a tout of a +horn, at the Cross of Edinburgh, blew half the faithfu' ministers of +Scotland out of their pulpits. However, I sall raise an adjudication, +whilk Mr. Saddletree says comes instead of the auld apprisings, and will +not lose weel-won gear with the like of him, if it may be helped. As for +the Queen, and the credit that she hath done to a poor man's daughter, +and the mercy and the grace ye found with her, I can only pray for her +weel-being here and hereafter, for the establishment of her house now and +for ever, upon the throne of these kingdoms. I doubt not but what you +told her Majesty, that I was the same David Deans of whom there was a +sport at the Revolution, when I noited thegither the heads of twa false +prophets, these ungracious Graces the prelates, as they stood on the Hie +Street, after being expelled from the Convention-parliament.* + +* Note P. Expulsion of the Scotch Bishops. + +The Duke of Argyle is a noble and true-hearted nobleman, who pleads the +cause of the poor, and those who have none to help them; verily his +reward shall not be lacking unto him.--I have, been writing of many +things, but not of that whilk lies nearest mine heart. I have seen the +misguided thing, she will be at freedom the morn, on enacted caution that +she shall leave Scotland in four weeks. Her mind is in an evil frame,-- +casting her eye backward on Egypt, I doubt, as if the bitter waters of +the wilderness were harder to endure than the brick furnaces, by the side +of which there were savoury flesh-pots. I need not bid you make haste +down, for you are, excepting always my Great Master, my only comfort in +these straits. I charge you to withdraw your feet from the delusion of +that Vanity-fair in whilk ye are a sojourner, and not to go to their +worship, whilk is an ill-mumbled mass, as it was weel termed by James the +Sext, though he afterwards, with his unhappy son, strove to bring it ower +back and belly into his native kingdom, wherethrough their race have been +cut off as foam upon the water, and shall be as wanderers among the +nations-see the prophecies of Hosea, ninth and seventeenth, and the same, +tenth and seventh. But us and our house, let us say with the same +prophet, 'Let us return to the Lord, for he hath torn, and he will heal +us--He hath smitten, and he will bind us up.'" + +He proceeded to say, that he approved of her proposed mode of returning +by Glasgow, and entered into sundry minute particulars not necessary to +be quoted. A single line in the letter, but not the least frequently read +by the party to whom it was addressed, intimated, that "Reuben Butler had +been as a son to him in his sorrows." As David Deans scarce ever +mentioned Butler before, without some gibe, more or less direct, either +at his carnal gifts and learning, or at his grandfather's heresy, Jeanie +drew a good omen from no such qualifying clause being added to this +sentence respecting him. + +A lover's hope resembles the bean in the nursery tale,--let it once take +root, and it will grow so rapidly, that in the course of a few hours the +giant Imagination builds a castle on the top, and by and by comes +Disappointment with the "curtal axe," and hews down both the plant and +the superstructure. Jeanie's fancy, though not the most powerful of her +faculties, was lively enough to transport her to a wild farm in +Northumberland, well stocked with milk-cows, yeald beasts, and sheep; a +meeting-house, hard by, frequented by serious Presbyterians, who had +united in a harmonious call to Reuben Butler to be their spiritual guide +--Effie restored, not to gaiety, but to cheerfulness at least--their +father, with his grey hairs smoothed down, and spectacles on his nose-- +herself, with the maiden snood exchanged for a matron's curch--all +arranged in a pew in the said meeting-house, listening to words of +devotion, rendered sweeter and more powerful by the affectionate ties +which combined them with the preacher. She cherished such visions from +day to day, until her residence in London began to become insupportable +and tedious to her; and it was with no ordinary satisfaction that she +received a summons from Argyle House, requiring her in two days to be +prepared to join their northward party. + + + + + CHAPTER SIXTEENTH. + + One was a female, who had grievous ill + Wrought in revenge, and she enjoy'd it still; + Sullen she was, and threatening; in her eye + Glared the stern triumph that she dared to die. + Crabbe. + +The summons of preparation arrived after Jeanie Deans had resided in the +metropolis about three weeks. + +On the morning appointed she took a grateful farewell of Mrs. Glass, as +that good woman's attention to her particularly required, placed herself +and her movable goods, which purchases and presents had greatly +increased, in a hackney-coach, and joined her travelling companions in +the housekeeper's apartment at Argyle House. While the carriage was +getting ready, she was informed that the Duke wished to speak with her; +and being ushered into a splendid saloon, she was surprised to find that +he wished to present her to his lady and daughters. + +"I bring you my little countrywoman, Duchess," these were the words of +the introduction. "With an army of young fellows, as gallant and steady +as she is, and, a good cause, I would not fear two to one." + +"Ah, papa!" said a lively young lady, about twelve years old, "remember +you were full one to two at Sheriffmuir, and yet" (singing the well-known +ballad)-- + + +"Some say that we wan, and some say that they wan, +And some say that nane wan at a', man +But of ae thing I'm sure, that on Sheriff-muir +A battle there was that I saw, man." + +"What, little Mary turned Tory on my hands?--This will be fine news for +our countrywoman to carry down to Scotland!" + +"We may all turn Tories for the thanks we have got for remaining Whigs," +said the second young lady. + +"Well, hold your peace, you discontented monkeys, and go dress your +babies; and as for the Bob of Dunblane, + + 'If it wasna weel bobbit, weel bobbit, weel bobbit, + If it wasna weel bobbit, we'll bob it again.'" + +"Papa's wit is running low," said Lady Mary: "the poor gentleman is +repeating himself--he sang that on the field of battle, when he was told +the Highlanders had cut his left wing to pieces with their claymores." + +A pull by the hair was the repartee to this sally. + +"Ah! brave Highlanders and bright claymores," said the Duke, "well do I +wish them, 'for a' the ill they've done me yet,' as the song goes.--But +come, madcaps, say a civil word to your countrywoman--I wish ye had half +her canny hamely sense; I think you may be as leal and true-hearted." + +The Duchess advanced, and, in a few words, in which there was as much +kindness as civility, assured Jeanie of the respect which she had for a +character so affectionate, and yet so firm, and added, "When you get +home, you will perhaps hear from me." + +"And from me." "And from me." "And from me, Jeanie," added the young +ladies one after the other, "for you are a credit to the land we love so +well." + +Jeanie, overpowered by these unexpected compliments, and not aware that +the Duke's investigation had made him acquainted with her behaviour on +her sister's trial, could only answer by blushing, and courtesying round +and round, and uttering at intervals, "Mony thanks! mony thanks!" + +"Jeanie," said the Duke, "you must have /doch an' dorroch,/ or you will +be unable to travel." + +There was a salver with cake and wine on the table. He took up a glass, +drank "to all true hearts that lo'ed Scotland," and offered a glass to +his guest. + +Jeanie, however, declined it, saying, "that she had never tasted wine in +her life." + +"How comes that, Jeanie?" said the Duke,--"wine maketh glad the heart, +you know." + +"Ay, sir, but my father is like Jonadab the son of Rechab, who charged +his children that they should drink no wine." + +"I thought your father would have had more sense," said the Duke, "unless +indeed he prefers brandy. But, however, Jeanie, if you will not drink, +you must eat, to save the character of my house." + +He thrust upon her a large piece of cake, nor would he permit her to +break off a fragment, and lay the rest on a salver. + +"Put it in your pouch, Jeanie," said he; "you will be glad of it before +you see St. Giles's steeple. I wish to Heaven I were to see it as soon as +you! and so my best service to all my friends at and about Auld Reekie, +and a blithe journey to you." + +And, mixing the frankness of a soldier with his natural affability, he +shook hands with his prote'ge'e, and committed her to the charge of +Archibald, satisfied that he had provided sufficiently for her being +attended to by his domestics, from the unusual attention with which he +had himself treated her. + +Accordingly, in the course of her journey, she found both her companions +disposed to pay her every possible civility, so that her return, in point +of comfort and safety, formed a strong contrast to her journey to London. + +Her heart also was disburdened of the weight of grief, shame, +apprehension, and fear, which had loaded her before her interview with +the Queen at Richmond. But the human mind is so strangely capricious, +that, when freed from the pressure of real misery, it becomes open and +sensitive to the apprehension of ideal calamities. She was now much +disturbed in mind, that she had heard nothing from Reuben Butler, to whom +the operation of writing was so much more familiar than it was to +herself. + +"It would have cost him sae little fash," she said to herself; "for I hae +seen his pen gan as fast ower the paper, as ever it did ower the water +when it was in the grey goose's wing. Wae's me! maybe he may be badly-- +but then my father wad likely hae said somethin about it--Or maybe he may +hae taen the rue, and kensna how to let me wot of his change of mind. He +needna be at muckle fash about it,"--she went on, drawing herself up, +though the tear of honest pride and injured affection gathered in her +eye, as she entertained the suspicion,--"Jeanie Deans is no the lass to +pu' him by the sleeve, or put him in mind of what he wishes to forget. I +shall wish him weel and happy a' the same; and if he has the luck to get +a kirk in our country, I sall gang and hear him just the very same, to +show that I bear nae malice." And as she imagined the scene, the tear +stole over her eye. + +In these melancholy reveries, Jeanie had full time to indulge herself; +for her travelling companions, servants in a distinguished and +fashionable family, had, of course, many topics of conversation, in which +it was absolutely impossible she could have either pleasure or portion. +She had, therefore, abundant leisure for reflection, and even for +self-tormenting, during the several days which, indulging the young +horses the Duke was sending down to the North with sufficient ease and +short stages, they occupied in reaching the neighbourhood of Carlisle. + +In approaching the vicinity of that ancient city, they discerned a +considerable crowd upon an eminence at a little distance from the high +road, and learned from some passengers who were gathering towards that +busy scene from the southward, that the cause of the concourse was, the +laudable public desire "to see a doomed Scotch witch and thief get half +of her due upo' Haribeebroo' yonder, for she was only to be hanged; she +should hae been boorned aloive, an' cheap on't." + +"Dear Mr. Archibald," said the dame of the dairy elect, "I never seed a +woman hanged in a' my life, and only four men, as made a goodly +spectacle." + +Mr. Archibald, however, was a Scotchman, and promised himself no +exuberant pleasure in seeing his countrywoman undergo "the terrible +behests of law." Moreover, he was a man of sense and delicacy in his way, +and the late circumstances of Jeanie's family, with the cause of her +expedition to London, were not unknown to him; so that he answered drily, +it was impossible to stop, as he must be early at Carlisle on some +business of the Duke's, and he accordingly bid the postilions get on. + +The road at that time passed at about a quarter of a mile's distance from +the eminence, called Haribee or Harabee-brow, which, though it is very +moderate in size and height, is nevertheless seen from a great distance +around, owing to the flatness of the country through which the Eden +flows. Here many an outlaw, and border-rider of both kingdoms, had +wavered in the wind during the wars, and scarce less hostile truces, +between the two countries. Upon Harabee, in latter days, other executions +had taken place with as little ceremony as compassion; for these frontier +provinces remained long unsettled, and, even at the time of which we +write, were ruder than those in the centre of England. + +The postilions drove on, wheeling as the Penrith road led them, round the +verge of the rising ground. Yet still the eyes of Mrs. Dolly Dutton, +which, with the head and substantial person to which they belonged, were +all turned towards the scene of action, could discern plainly the outline +of the gallows-tree, relieved against the clear sky, the dark shade +formed by the persons of the executioner and the criminal upon the light +rounds of the tall aerial ladder, until one of the objects, launched into +the air, gave unequivocal signs of mortal agony, though appearing in the +distance not larger than a spider dependent at the extremity of his +invisible thread, while the remaining form descended from its elevated +situation, and regained with all speed an undistinguished place among the +crowd. This termination of the tragic scene drew forth of course a squall +from Mrs. Dutton, and Jeanie, with instinctive curiosity, turned her head +in the same direction. + +The sight of a female culprit in the act of undergoing the fatal +punishment from which her beloved sister had been so recently rescued, +was too much, not perhaps for her nerves, but for her mind and feelings. +She turned her head to the other side of the carriage, with a sensation +of sickness, of loathing, and of fainting. Her female companion +overwhelmed her with questions, with proffers of assistance, with +requests that the carriage might be stopped--that a doctor might be +fetched--that drops might be gotten--that burnt feathers and asafoetida, +fair water, and hartshorn, might be procured, all at once, and without +one instant's delay. Archibald, more calm and considerate, only desired +the carriage to push forward; and it was not till they had got beyond +sight of the fatal spectacle, that, seeing the deadly paleness of +Jeanie's countenance, he stopped the carriage, and jumping out himself, +went in search of the most obvious and most easily procured of Mrs. +Dutton's pharmacopoeia--a draught, namely, of fair water. + +While Archibald was absent on this good-natured piece of service, damning +the ditches which produced nothing but mud, and thinking upon the +thousand bubbling springlets of his own mountains, the attendants on the +execution began to pass the stationary vehicle in their way back to +Carlisle. + +From their half-heard and half-understood words, Jeanie, whose attention +was involuntarily rivetted by them, as that of children is by ghost +stories, though they know the pain with which they will afterwards +remember them, Jeanie, I say, could discern that the present victim of +the law had died game, as it is termed by those unfortunates; that is, +sullen, reckless, and impenitent, neither fearing God nor regarding man. + +"A sture woife, and a dour," said one Cumbrian peasant, as he clattered +by in his wooden brogues, with a noise like the trampling of a +dray-horse. + +"She has gone to ho master, with ho's name in her mouth," said another; +"Shame the country should be harried wi' Scotch witches and Scotch +bitches this gate--but I say hang and drown." + +"Ay, ay, Gaffer Tramp, take awa yealdon, take awa low--hang the witch, +and there will be less scathe amang us; mine owsen hae been reckan this +towmont." + +"And mine bairns hae been crining too, mon," replied his neighbour. + +"Silence wi' your fule tongues, ye churls," said an old woman, who +hobbled past them, as they stood talking near the carriage; "this was nae +witch, but a bluidy-fingered thief and murderess." + +"Ay? was it e'en sae, Dame Hinchup?" said one in a civil tone, and +stepping out of his place to let the old woman pass along the footpath-- +"Nay, you know best, sure--but at ony rate, we hae but tint a Scot of +her, and that's a thing better lost than found." + +The old woman passed on without making any answer. + +"Ay, ay, neighbour," said Gaffer Tramp, "seest thou how one witch will +speak for t'other--Scots or English, the same to them." + +His companion shook his head, and replied in the same subdued tone, "Ay, +ay, when a Sark-foot wife gets on her broomstick, the dames of Allonby +are ready to mount, just as sure as the by-word gangs o' the hills,-- + + If Skiddaw hath a cap, + Criffel, wots full weel of that." + +"But," continued Gager Tramp, "thinkest thou the daughter o' yon hangit +body isna as rank a witch as ho?" + +"I kenna clearly," returned the fellow, "but the folk are speaking o' +swimming her i' the Eden." And they passed on their several roads, after +wishing each other good-morning. + +Just as the clowns left the place, and as Mr. Archibald returned with +some fair water, a crowd of boys and girls, and some of the lower rabble +of more mature age, came up from the place of execution, grouping +themselves with many a yell of delight around a tall female fantastically +dressed, who was dancing, leaping, and bounding in the midst of them. A +horrible recollection pressed on Jeanie as she looked on this unfortunate +creature; and the reminiscence was mutual, for by a sudden exertion of +great strength and agility, Madge Wildfire broke out of the noisy circle +of tormentors who surrounded her, and clinging fast to the door of the +calash, uttered, in a sound betwixt laughter and screaming, "Eh, d'ye +ken, Jeanie Deans, they hae hangit our mother?" Then suddenly changing +her tone to that of the most piteous entreaty, she added, "O gar them let +me gang to cut her down!--let me but cut her down!--she is my mother, if +she was waur than the deil, and she'll be nae mair kenspeckle than +half-hangit Maggie Dickson,* that cried saut mony a day after she had +been hangit; her voice was roupit and hoarse, and her neck was a wee +agee, or ye wad hae kend nae odds on her frae ony other saut-wife." + +* Note Q. Half-hanged Maggie Dickson. + +Mr. Archibald, embarrassed by the madwoman's clinging to the carriage, +and detaining around them her noisy and mischievous attendants, was all +this while looking out for a constable or beadle, to whom he might commit +the unfortunate creature. But seeing no such person of authority, he +endeavoured to loosen her hold from the carriage, that they might escape +from her by driving on. This, however, could hardly be achieved without +some degree of violence; Madge held fast, and renewed her frantic +entreaties to be permitted to cut down her mother. "It was but a tenpenny +tow lost," she said, "and what was that to a woman's life?" There came +up, however, a parcel of savage-looking fellows, butchers and graziers +chiefly, among whose cattle there had been of late a very general and +fatal distemper, which their wisdom imputed to witchcraft. They laid +violent hands on Madge, and tore her from the carriage, exclaiming-- +"What, doest stop folk o' king's high-way? Hast no done mischief enow +already, wi' thy murders and thy witcherings?" + +"Oh, Jeanie Deans--Jeanie Deans!" exclaimed the poor maniac, "save my +mother, and I will take ye to the Interpreter's house again,--and I will +teach ye a' my bonny sangs,--and I will tell ye what came o' the." The +rest of her entreaties were drowned in the shouts of the rabble. + +"Save her, for God's sake!--save her from those people!" exclaimed Jeanie +to Archibald. + +"She is mad, but quite innocent; she is mad, gentlemen," said Archibald; +"do not use her ill, take her before the Mayor." + +"Ay, ay, we'se hae care enow on her," answered one of the fellows; "gang +thou thy gate, man, and mind thine own matters." + +"He's a Scot by his tongue," said another; "and an he will come out o' +his whirligig there, I'se gie him his tartan plaid fu' o' broken banes." + +It was clear nothing could be done to rescue Madge; and Archibald, who +was a man of humanity, could only bid the postilions hurry on to +Carlisle, that he might obtain some assistance to the unfortunate woman. +As they drove off, they heard the hoarse roar with which the mob preface +acts of riot or cruelty, yet even above that deep and dire note, they +could discern the screams of the unfortunate victim. They were soon out +of hearing of the cries, but had no sooner entered the streets of +Carlisle, than Archibald, at Jeanie's earnest and urgent entreaty, went +to a magistrate, to state the cruelty which was likely to be exercised on +this unhappy creature. + +In about an hour and a half he returned, and reported to Jeanie, that the +magistrate had very readily gone in person, with some assistance, to the +rescue of the unfortunate woman, and that he had himself accompanied him; +that when they came to the muddy pool, in which the mob were ducking her, +according to their favourite mode of punishment, the magistrate succeeded +in rescuing her from their hands, but in a state of insensibility, owing +to the cruel treatment which she had received. He added, that he had seen +her carried to the workhouse, and understood that she had been brought to +herself, and was expected to do well. + +This last averment was a slight alteration in point of fact, for Madge +Wildfire was not expected to survive the treatment she had received; but +Jeanie seemed so much agitated, that Mr. Archibald did not think it +prudent to tell her the worst at once. Indeed, she appeared so fluttered +and disordered by this alarming accident, that, although it had been +their intention to proceed to Longtown that evening, her companions +judged it most advisable to pass the night at Carlisle. + +This was particularly agreeable to Jeanie, who resolved, if possible, to +procure an interview with Madge Wildfire. Connecting some of her wild +flights with the narrative of George Staunton, she was unwilling to omit +the opportunity of extracting from her, if possible, some information +concerning the fate of that unfortunate infant which had cost her sister +so dear. Her acquaintance with the disordered state of poor Madge's mind +did not permit her to cherish much hope that she could acquire from her +any useful intelligence; but then, since Madge's mother had suffered her +deserts, and was silent for ever, it was her only chance of obtaining any +kind of information, and she was loath to lose the opportunity. + +She coloured her wish to Mr. Archibald by saying that she had seen Madge +formerly, and wished to know, as a matter of humanity, how she was +attended to under her present misfortunes. That complaisant person +immediately went to the workhouse, or hospital, in which he had seen the +sufferer lodged, and brought back for reply, that the medical attendants +positively forbade her seeing any one. When the application for +admittance was repeated next day, Mr. Archibald was informed that she had +been very quiet and composed, insomuch that the clergyman who acted as +chaplain to the establishment thought it expedient to read prayers beside +her bed, but that her wandering fit of mind had returned soon after his +departure; however, her countrywoman might see her if she chose it. She +was not expected to live above an hour or two. + +Jeanie had no sooner received this information than she hastened to the +hospital, her companions attending her. They found the dying person in a +large ward, where there were ten beds, of which the patient's was the +only one occupied. + +Madge was singing when they entered--singing her own wild snatches of +songs and obsolete airs, with a voice no longer overstrained by false +spirits, but softened, saddened, and subdued by bodily exhaustion. She +was still insane, but was no longer able to express her wandering ideas +in the wild notes of her former state of exalted imagination. There was +death in the plaintive tones of her voice, which yet, in this moderated +and melancholy mood, had something of the lulling sound with which a +mother sings her infant asleep. As Jeanie entered she heard first the +air, and then a part of the chorus and words, of what had been, perhaps, +the song of a jolly harvest-home. + + "Our work is over--over now, + The goodman wipes his weary brow, + The last long wain wends slow away, + And we are free to sport and play. + + "The night comes on when sets the sun, + And labour ends when day is done. + When Autumn's gone and Winter's come, + We hold our jovial harvest-home." + +Jeanie advanced to the bedside when the strain was finished, and +addressed Madge by her name. But it produced no symptoms of recollection. +On the contrary, the patient, like one provoked by interruption, changed +her posture, and called out with an impatient tone, "Nurse--nurse, turn +my face to the wa', that I may never answer to that name ony mair, and +never see mair of a wicked world." + +The attendant on the hospital arranged her in her bed as she desired, +with her face to the wall and her back to the light. So soon as she was +quiet in this new position, she began again to sing in the same low and +modulated strains, as if she was recovering the state of abstraction +which the interruption of her visitants had disturbed. The strain, +however, was different, and rather resembled the music of the Methodist +hymns, though the measure of the song was similar to that of the former: + + "When the fight of grace is fought-- + When the marriage vest is wrought-- + When Faith hath chased cold Doubt away, + And Hope but sickens at delay-- + + "When Charity, imprisoned here, + Longs for a more expanded sphere, + Doff thy robes of sin and clay; + Christian, rise, and come away." + +The strain was solemn and affecting, sustained as it was by the pathetic +warble of a voice which had naturally been a fine one, and which +weakness, if it diminished its power, had improved in softness. +Archibald, though a follower of the court, and a pococurante by +profession, was confused, if not affected; the dairy-maid blubbered; and +Jeanie felt the tears rise spontaneously to her eyes. Even the nurse, +accustomed to all modes in which the spirit can pass, seemed considerably +moved. + +The patient was evidently growing weaker, as was intimated by an apparent +difficulty of breathing, which seized her from time to time, and by the +utterance of low listless moans, intimating that nature was succumbing in +the last conflict. But the spirit of melody, which must originally have +so strongly possessed this unfortunate young woman, seemed, at every +interval of ease, to triumph over her pain and weakness. And it was +remarkable that there could always be traced in her songs something +appropriate, though perhaps only obliquely or collaterally so, to her +present situation. Her next seemed the fragment of some old ballad: + + "Cauld is my bed, Lord Archibald, + And sad my sleep of sorrow; + But thine sall be as sad and cauld, + My fause true-love! to-morrow. + + "And weep ye not, my maidens free, + Though death your mistress borrow; + For he for whom I die to-day + Shall die for me to-morrow." + +Again she changed the tune to one wilder, less monotonous, and less +regular. But of the words, only a fragment or two could be collected by +those who listened to this singular scene + + "Proud Maisie is in the wood, + Walking so early; + Sweet Robin sits on the bush, + Singing so rarely. + + "'Tell me, thou bonny bird. + When shall I marry me?' + 'When six braw gentlemen + Kirkward shall carry ye.' + + "'Who makes the bridal bed, + Birdie, say truly?'-- + 'The grey-headed sexton, + That delves the grave duly. + + "The glow-worm o'er grave and stone + Shall light thee steady; + The owl from the steeple sing, + 'Welcome, proud lady.'" + +Her voice died away with the last notes, and she fell into a slumber, +from which the experienced attendant assured them that she never would +awake at all, or only in the death agony. + +The nurse's prophecy proved true. The poor maniac parted with existence, +without again uttering a sound of any kind. But our travellers did not +witness this catastrophe. They left the hospital as soon as Jeanie had +satisfied herself that no elucidation of her sister's misfortunes was to +be hoped from the dying person.* + +* Note R. Madge Wildfire. + + + + + CHAPTER SEVENTEENTH. + + Wilt thou go on with me? + The moon is bright, the sea is calm, + And I know well the ocean paths . . . + Thou wilt go on with me! + Thalaba. + +The fatigue and agitation of these various scenes had agitated Jeanie so +much, notwithstanding her robust strength of constitution, that Archibald +judged it necessary that she should have a day's repose at the village of +Longtown. It was in vain that Jeanie protested against any delay. The +Duke of Argyle's man of confidence was of course consequential; and as he +had been bred to the medical profession in his youth (at least he used +this expression to describe his having, thirty years before, pounded for +six months in the mortar of old Mungo Mangleman, the surgeon at +Greenock), he was obstinate whenever a matter of health was in question. + +In this case he discovered febrile symptoms, and having once made a happy +application of that learned phrase to Jeanie's case, all farther +resistance became in vain; and she was glad to acquiesce, and even to go +to bed, and drink water-gruel, in order that she might possess her soul +in quiet and without interruption. + +Mr. Archibald was equally attentive in another particular. He observed +that the execution of the old woman, and the miserable fate of her +daughter, seemed to have had a more powerful effect upon Jeanie's mind, +than the usual feelings of humanity might naturally have been expected to +occasion. Yet she was obviously a strong-minded, sensible young woman, +and in no respect subject to nervous affections; and therefore Archibald, +being ignorant of any special connection between his master's prote'ge'e +and these unfortunate persons, excepting that she had seen Madge formerly +in Scotland, naturally imputed the strong impression these events had +made upon her, to her associating them with the unhappy circumstances in +which her sister had so lately stood. He became anxious, therefore, to +prevent anything occurring which might recall these associations to +Jeanie's mind. + +Archibald had speedily an opportunity of exercising this precaution. A +pedlar brought to Longtown that evening, amongst other wares, a large +broad-side sheet, giving an account of the "Last Speech and Execution of +Margaret Murdockson, and of the barbarous Murder of her Daughter, +Magdalene or Madge Murdockson, called Madge Wildfire; and of her pious +conversation with his Reverence Archdeacon Fleming;" which authentic +publication had apparently taken place on the day they left Carlisle, and +being an article of a nature peculiarly acceptable to such country-folk +as were within hearing of the transaction, the itinerant bibliopolist had +forthwith added them to his stock in trade. He found a merchant sooner +than he expected; for Archibald, much applauding his own prudence, +purchased the whole lot for two shillings and ninepence; and the pedlar, +delighted with the profit of such a wholesale transaction, instantly +returned to Carlisle to supply himself with more. + +The considerate Mr. Archibald was about to commit his whole purchase to +the flames, but it was rescued by the yet more considerate dairy-damsel, +who said, very prudently, it was a pity to waste so much paper, which +might crepe hair, pin up bonnets, and serve many other useful purposes; +and who promised to put the parcel into her own trunk, and keep it +carefully out of the sight of Mrs. Jeanie Deans: "Though, by-the-bye, she +had no great notion of folk being so very nice. Mrs. Deans might have had +enough to think about the gallows all this time to endure a sight of it, +without all this to-do about it." + +Archibald reminded the dame of the dairy of the Duke's particular charge, +that they should be attentive and civil to Jeanie as also that they were +to part company soon, and consequently would not be doomed to observing +any one's health or temper during the rest of the journey. With which +answer Mrs. Dolly Dutton was obliged to hold herself satisfied. On the +morning they resumed their journey, and prosecuted it successfully, +travelling through Dumfriesshire and part of Lanarkshire, until they +arrived at the small town of Rutherglen, within about four miles of +Glasgow. Here an express brought letters to Archibald from the principal +agent of the Duke of Argyle in Edinburgh. + +He said nothing of their contents that evening; but when they were seated +in the carriage the next day, the faithful squire informed Jeanie, that +he had received directions from the Duke's factor, to whom his Grace had +recommended him to carry her, if she had no objection, for a stage or two +beyond Glasgow. Some temporary causes of discontent had occasioned +tumults in that city and the neighbourhood, which would render it +unadvisable for Mrs. Jeanie Deans to travel alone and unprotected betwixt +that city and Edinburgh; whereas, by going forward a little farther, they +would meet one of his Grace's subfactors, who was coming down from the +Highlands to Edinburgh with his wife, and under whose charge she might +journey with comfort and in safety. + +Jeanie remonstrated against this arrangement. "She had been lang," she +said, "frae hame--her father and her sister behoved to be very anxious to +see her--there were other friends she had that werena weel in health. She +was willing to pay for man and horse at Glasgow, and surely naebody wad +meddle wi' sae harmless and feckless a creature as she was.--She was +muckle obliged by the offer; but never hunted deer langed for its +resting-place as I do to find myself at Saint Leonard's." + +The groom of the chambers exchanged a look with his female companion, +which seemed so full of meaning, that Jeanie screamed aloud--"O Mr. +Archibald--Mrs. Dutton, if ye ken of onything that has happened at Saint +Leonard's, for God's sake--for pity's sake, tell me, and dinna keep me in +suspense!" + +"I really know nothing, Mrs. Deans," said the groom of the chambers. + +"And I--I--I am sure, I knows as little," said the dame of the dairy, +while some communication seemed to tremble on her lips, which, at a +glance of Archibald's eye, she appeared to swallow down, and compressed +her lips thereafter into a state of extreme and vigilant firmness, as if +she had been afraid of its bolting out before she was aware. + +Jeanie saw there was to be something concealed from her, and it was only +the repeated assurances of Archibald that her father--her sister--all her +friends were, as far as he knew, well and happy, that at all pacified her +alarm. From such respectable people as those with whom she travelled she +could apprehend no harm, and yet her distress was so obvious, that +Archibald, as a last resource, pulled out, and put into her hand, a slip +of paper, on which these words were written:-- + +"Jeanie Deans--You will do me a favour by going with Archibald and my +female domestic a day's journey beyond Glasgow, and asking them no +questions, which will greatly oblige your friend, 'Argyle & Greenwich.'" + +Although this laconic epistle, from a nobleman to whom she was bound by +such inestimable obligations, silenced all Jeanie's objections to the +proposed route, it rather added to than diminished the eagerness of her +curiosity. The proceeding to Glasgow seemed now no longer to be an object +with her fellow-travellers. On the contrary, they kept the left-hand side +of the river Clyde, and travelled through a thousand beautiful and +changing views down the side of that noble stream, till, ceasing to hold +its inland character, it began to assume that of a navigable river. + +"You are not for gaun intill Glasgow then?" said Jeanie, as she observed +that the drivers made no motion for inclining their horses' heads towards +the ancient bridge, which was then the only mode of access to St. Mungo's +capital. + +"No," replied Archibald; "there is some popular commotion, and as our +Duke is in opposition to the court, perhaps we might be too well +received; or they might take it in their heads to remember that the +Captain of Carrick came down upon them with his Highlandmen in the time +of Shawfield's mob in 1725, and then we would be too ill received.* And, +at any rate, it is best for us, and for me in particular, who may be +supposed to possess his Grace's mind upon many particulars, to leave the +good people of the Gorbals to act according to their own imaginations, +without either provoking or encouraging them by my presence." + +* In 1725, there was a great riot in Glasgow on account of the malt-tax. +Among the troops brought in to restore order, was one of the independent +companies of Highlanders levied in Argyleshire, and distinguished, in a +lampoon of the period, as "Campbell of Carrick and his Highland thieves." +It was called Shawfield's Mob, because much of the popular violence was +directed against Daniel Campbell, Esq. of Shawfield, M. P., Provost of +the town. + +To reasoning of such tone and consequence Jeanie had nothing to reply, +although it seemed to her to contain fully as much self-importance as +truth. + +The carriage meantime rolled on; the river expanded itself, and gradually +assumed the dignity of an estuary or arm of the sea. The influence of the +advancing and retiring tides became more and more evident, and in the +beautiful words of him of the laurel wreath, the river waxed-- + + A broader and yet broader stream. + The cormorant stands upon its shoals, + His black and dripping wings + Half open'd to the wind. + [From Southey's /Thalaba,/ Book xi. stanza 36.] + +"Which way lies Inverary?" said Jeanie, gazing on the dusky ocean of +Highland hills, which now, piled above each other, and intersected by +many a lake, stretched away on the opposite side of the river to the +northward. "Is yon high castle the Duke's hoose?" + +"That, Mrs. Deans?--Lud help thee," replied Archibald, "that's the old +castle of Dumbarton, the strongest place in Europe, be the other what it +may. Sir William Wallace was governor of it in the old war with the +English, and his Grace is governor just now. It is always entrusted to +the best man in Scotland." + +"And does the Duke live on that high rock, then?" demanded Jeanie. + +"No, no, he has his deputy-governor, who commands in his absence; he +lives in the white house you see at the bottom of the rock--His Grace +does not reside there himself." + +"I think not, indeed," said the dairy-woman, upon whose mind the road, +since they had left Dumfries, had made no very favourable impression, +"for if he did, he might go whistle for a dairy-woman, an he were the +only duke in England. I did not leave my place and my friends to come +down to see cows starve to death upon hills as they be at that pig-stye +of Elfinfoot, as you call it, Mr. Archibald, or to be perched upon the +top of a rock, like a squirrel in his cage, hung out of a three pair of +stairs' window." + +Inwardly chuckling that these symptoms of recalcitration had not taken +place until the fair malcontent was, as he mentally termed it, under his +thumb, Archibald coolly replied, "That the hills were none of his making, +nor did he know how to mend them; but as to lodging, they would soon be +in a house of the Duke's in a very pleasant island called Roseneath, +where they went to wait for shipping to take them to Inverary, and would +meet the company with whom Jeanie was to return to Edinburgh." + +"An island?" said Jeanie, who, in the course of her various and +adventurous travels, had never quitted terra firma, "then I am doubting +we maun gang in ane of these boats; they look unco sma', and the waves +are something rough, and" + +"Mr. Archibald," said Mrs. Dutton, "I will not consent to it; I was never +engaed to leave the country, and I desire you will bid the boys drive +round the other way to the Duke's house." + +"There is a safe pinnace belonging to his Grace, ma'am, close by," +replied Archibald, "and you need be under no apprehensions whatsoever." + +"But I am under apprehensions," said the damsel; "and I insist upon going +round by land, Mr. Archibald, were it ten miles about." + +"I am sorry I cannot oblige you, madam, as Roseneath happens to be an +island." + +"If it were ten islands," said the incensed dame, "that's no reason why I +should be drowned in going over the seas to it." + +"No reason why you should be drowned certainly, ma'am," answered the +unmoved groom of the chambers, "but an admirable good one why you cannot +proceed to it by land." And, fixed his master's mandates to perform, he +pointed with his hand, and the drivers, turning off the high-road, +proceeded towards a small hamlet of fishing huts, where a shallop, +somewhat more gaily decorated than any which they had yet seen, having a +flag which displayed a boar's head, crested with a ducal coronet, waited +with two or three seamen, and as many Highlanders. + +The carriage stopped, and the men began to unyoke their horses, while Mr. +Archibald gravely superintended the removal of the baggage from the +carriage to the little vessel. "Has the Caroline been long arrived?" said +Archibald to one of the seamen. + +"She has been here in five days from Liverpool, and she's lying down at +Greenock," answered the fellow. + +"Let the horses and carriage go down to Greenock then," said Archibald, +"and be embarked there for Inverary when I send notice--they may stand in +my cousin's, Duncan Archibald the stabler's.--Ladies," he added, "I hope +you will get yourselves ready; we must not lose the tide." + +"Mrs. Deans," said the Cowslip of Inverary, "you may do as you please-- +but I will sit here all night, rather than go into that there painted +egg-shell.--Fellow--fellow!" (this was addressed to a Highlander who was +lifting a travelling trunk), "that trunk is /mine,/ and that there +band-box, and that pillion mail, and those seven bundles, and the +paper-bag; and if you venture to touch one of them, it shall be at your +peril." + +The Celt kept his eye fixed on the speaker, then turned his head towards +Archibald, and receiving no countervailing signal, he shouldered the +portmanteau, and without farther notice of the distressed damsel, or +paying any attention to remonstrances, which probably he did not +understand, and would certainly have equally disregarded whether he +understood them or not, moved off with Mrs. Dutton's wearables, and +deposited the trunk containing them safely in the boat. + +The baggage being stowed in safety, Mr. Archibald handed Jeanie out of +the carriage, and, not without some tremor on her part, she was +transported through the surf and placed in the boat. He then offered the +same civility to his fellow-servant, but she was resolute in her refusal +to quit the carriage, in which she now remained in solitary state, +threatening all concerned or unconcerned with actions for wages and +board-wages, damages and expenses, and numbering on her fingers the gowns +and other habiliments, from which she seemed in the act of being +separated for ever. Mr. Archibald did not give himself the trouble of +making many remonstrances, which, indeed, seemed only to aggravate the +damsel's indignation, but spoke two or three words to the Highlanders in +Gaelic; and the wily mountaineers, approaching the carriage cautiously, +and without giving the slightest intimation of their intention, at once +seized the recusant so effectually fast that she could neither resist nor +struggle, and hoisting her on their shoulders in nearly a horizontal +posture, rushed down with her to the beach, and through the surf, and +with no other inconvenience than ruffling her garments a little, +deposited her in the boat; but in a state of surprise, mortification, and +terror, at her sudden transportation, which rendered her absolutely mute +for two or three minutes. The men jumped in themselves; one tall fellow +remained till he had pushed off the boat, and then tumbled in upon his +companions. They took their oars and began to pull from the shore, then +spread their sail, and drove merrily across the firth. + +"You Scotch villain!" said the infuriated damsel to Archibald, "how dare +you use a person like me in this way?" + +"Madam," said Archibald, with infinite composure, "it's high time you +should know you are in the Duke's country, and that there is not one of +these fellows but would throw you out of the boat as readily as into it, +if such were his Grace's pleasure." + +"Then the Lord have mercy on me!" said Mrs. Dutton. "If I had had any on +myself, I would never have engaged with you." + +"It's something of the latest to think of that now, Mrs. Dutton," said +Archibald; "but I assure you, you will find the Highlands have their +pleasures. You will have a dozen of cow-milkers under your own authority +at Inverary, and you may throw any of them into the lake, if you have a +mind, for the Duke's head people are almost as great as himself." + +"This is a strange business, to be sure, Mr. Archibald," said the lady; +"but I suppose I must make the best on't.--Are you sure the boat will not +sink? it leans terribly to one side, in my poor mind." + +"Fear nothing," said Mr. Archibald, taking a most important pinch of +snuff; "this same ferry on Clyde knows us very well, or we know it, which +is all the same; no fear of any of our people meeting with any accident. +We should have crossed from the opposite shore, but for the disturbances +at Glasgow, which made it improper for his Grace's people to pass through +the city." + +"Are you not afeard, Mrs. Deans," said the dairy-vestal, addressing +Jeanie, who sat, not in the most comfortable state of mind, by the side +of Archibald, who himself managed the helm.--"are you not afeard of these +wild men with their naked knees, and of this nut-shell of a thing, that +seems bobbing up and down like a skimming-dish in a milk-pail?" + +"No--no--madam," answered Jeanie with some hesitation, "I am not feared; +for I hae seen Hielandmen before, though never was sae near them; and for +the danger of the deep waters, I trust there is a Providence by sea as +well as by land." + +"Well," said Mrs. Dutton, "it is a beautiful thing to have learned to +write and read, for one can always say such fine words whatever should +befall them." + +Archibald, rejoicing in the impression which his vigorous measures had +made upon the intractable dairymaid, now applied himself, as a sensible +and good-natured man, to secure by fair means the ascendency which he had +obtained by some wholesome violence; and he succeeded so well in +representing to her the idle nature of her fears, and the impossibility +of leaving her upon the beach enthroned in an empty carriage, that the +good understanding of the party was completely revived ere they landed at +Roseneath. + + + + + CHAPTER EIGHTEENTH. + + Did Fortune guide, + Or rather Destiny, our bark, to which + We could appoint no port, to this best place? + Fletcher. + +The islands in the Firth of Clyde, which the daily passage of so many +smoke-pennoned steamboats now renders so easily accessible, were in our +fathers' times secluded spots, frequented by no travellers, and few +visitants of any kind. They are of exquisite, yet varied beauty. Arran, a +mountainous region, or Alpine island, abounds with the grandest and most +romantic scenery. Bute is of a softer and more woodland character. The +Cumbrays, as if to exhibit a contrast to both, are green, level, and +bare, forming the links of a sort of natural bar which is drawn along the +mouth of the firth, leaving large intervals, however, of ocean. +Roseneath, a smaller isle, lies much higher up the firth, and towards its +western shore, near the opening of the lake called the Gare Loch, and not +far from Loch Long and Loch Scant, or the Holy Loch, which wind from the +mountains of the Western Highlands to join the estuary of the Clyde. + +In these isles the severe frost winds which tyrannise over the vegetable +creation during a Scottish spring, are comparatively little felt; nor, +excepting the gigantic strength of Arran, are they much exposed to the +Atlantic storms, lying landlocked and protected to the westward by the +shores of Ayrshire. Accordingly, the weeping-willow, the weeping-birch, +and other trees of early and pendulous shoots, flourish in these favoured +recesses in a degree unknown in our eastern districts; and the air is +also said to possess that mildness which is favourable to consumptive +cases. + +The picturesque beauty of the island of Roseneath, in particular, had +such recommendations, that the Earls and Dukes of Argyle, from an early +period, made it their occasional residence, and had their temporary +accommodation in a fishing or hunting-lodge, which succeeding +improvements have since transformed into a palace. It was in its original +simplicity when the little bark which we left traversing the firth at the +end of last chapter approached the shores of the isle. + +When they touched the landing-place, which was partly shrouded by some +old low but wide-spreading oak-trees, intermixed with hazel-bushes, two +or three figures were seen as if awaiting their arrival. To these Jeanie +paid little attention, so that it was with a shock of surprise almost +electrical, that, upon being carried by the rowers out of the boat to the +shore, she was received in the arms of her father! + +It was too wonderful to be believed--too much like a happy dream to have +the stable feeling of reality--She extricated herself from his close and +affectionate embrace, and held him at arm's length, to satisfy her mind +that it was no illusion. But the form was indisputable--Douce David Deans +himself, in his best light-blue Sunday's coat, with broad metal buttons, +and waistcoat and breeches of the same, his strong gramashes or leggins +of thick grey cloth--the very copper buckles--the broad Lowland blue +bonnet, thrown back as he lifted his eyes to Heaven in speechless +gratitude--the grey locks that straggled from beneath it down his +weather-beaten "haffets"--the bald and furrowed forehead--the clear blue +eye, that, undimmed by years, gleamed bright and pale from under its +shaggy grey pent-house--the features, usually so stern and stoical, now +melted into the unwonted expression of rapturous joy, affection, and +gratitude--were all those of David Deans; and so happily did they assort +together, that, should I ever again see my friends Wilkie or Allan, I +will try to borrow or steal from them a sketch of this very scene. + +"Jeanie--my ain Jeanie--my best--my maist dutiful bairn--the Lord of +Israel be thy father, for I am hardly worthy of thee! Thou hast redeemed +our captivity--brought back the honour of our house--Bless thee, my +bairn, with mercies promised and purchased! But He /has/ blessed thee, in +the good of which He has made thee the instrument." + +These words broke from him not without tears, though David was of no +melting mood. Archibald had, with delicate attention, withdrawn the +spectators from the interview, so that the wood and setting sun alone +were witnesses of the expansion of their feelings. + +"And Effie?--and Effie, dear father?" was an eager interjectional +question which Jeanie repeatedly threw in among her expressions of joyful +thankfulness. + +"Ye will hear--Ye will hear," said David hastily, and over and anon +renewed his grateful acknowledgments to Heaven for sending Jeanie safe +down from the land of prelatic deadness and schismatic heresy; and had +delivered her from the dangers of the way, and the lions that were in the +path. + +"And Effie?" repeated her affectionate sister again and again. "And--and" +(fain would she have said Butler, but she modified the direct inquiry)-- +"and Mr. and Mrs. Saddletree--and Dumbiedikes--and a' friends?" + +"A' weel--a' weel, praise to His name!" + +"And--Mr. Butler--he wasna weel when I gaed awa?" + +"He is quite mended--quite weel," replied her father. + +"Thank God--but O, dear father, Effie?--Effie?" + +"You will never see her mair, my bairn," answered Deans in a solemn tone +--"You are the ae and only leaf left now on the auld tree--hale be your +portion!" + +"She is dead!--She is slain!--It has come ower late!" exclaimed Jeanie, +wringing her hands. + +"No, Jeanie," returned Deans, in the same grave melancholy tone. "She +lives in the flesh, and is at freedom from earthly restraint, if she were +as much alive in faith, and as free from the bonds of Satan." + +"The Lord protect us!" said Jeanie.--"Can the unhappy bairn hae left you +for that villain?" + +"It is ower truly spoken," said Deans--"She has left her auld father, +that has wept and prayed for her--She has left her sister, that travailed +and toiled for her like a mother--She has left the bones of her mother, +and the land of her people, and she is ower the march wi' that son of +Belial--She has made a moonlight flitting of it." He paused, for a +feeling betwixt sorrow and strong resentment choked his utterance. + +"And wi' that man?--that fearfu' man?" said Jeanie. "And she has left us +to gang aff wi' him?--O Effie, Effie, wha could hae thought it, after sic +a deliverance as you had been gifted wi'!" + +"She went out from us, my bairn, because she was not of us," replied +David. "She is a withered branch will never bear fruit of grace--a +scapegoat gone forth into the wilderness of the world, to carry wi' her, +as I trust, the sins of our little congregation. The peace of the warld +gang wi' her, and a better peace when she has the grace to turn to it! If +she is of His elected, His ain hour will come. What would her mother have +said, that famous and memorable matron, Rebecca MacNaught, whose memory +is like a flower of sweet savour in Newbattle, and a pot of frankincense +in Lugton? But be it sae--let her part--let her gang her gate--let her +bite on her ain bridle--The Lord kens his time--She was the bairn of +prayers, and may not prove an utter castaway. But never, Jeanie, never +more let her name be spoken between you and me--She hath passed from us +like the brook which vanisheth when the summer waxeth warm, as patient +Job saith--let her pass, and be forgotten." + +There was a melancholy pause which followed these expressions. Jeanie +would fain have asked more circumstances relating to her sister's +departure, but the tone of her father's prohibition was positive. She was +about to mention her interview with Staunton at his father's rectory; +but, on hastily running over the particulars in her memory, she thought +that, on the whole, they were more likely to aggravate than diminish his +distress of mind. She turned, therefore, the discourse from this painful +subject, resolving to suspend farther inquiry until she should see +Butler, from whom she expected to learn the particulars of her sister's +elopement. + +But when was she to see Butler? was a question she could not forbear +asking herself, especially while her father, as if eager to escape from +the subject of his youngest daughter, pointed to the opposite shore of +Dumbartonshire, and asking Jeanie "if it werena a pleasant abode?" +declared to her his intention of removing his earthly tabernacle to that +country, "in respect he was solicited by his Grace the Duke of Argyle, as +one well skilled in country labour, and a' that appertained to flocks and +herds, to superintend a store-farm, whilk his Grace had taen into his ain +hand for the improvement of stock." + +Jeanie's heart sunk within her at this declaration. "She allowed it was a +goodly and pleasant land, and sloped bonnily to the western sun; and she +doubtedna that the pasture might be very gude, for the grass looked +green, for as drouthy as the weather had been. But it was far frae hame, +and she thought she wad be often thinking on the bonny spots of turf, sae +fu' of gowans and yellow king-cups, amang the Crags at St. Leonard's." + +"Dinna speak on't, Jeanie," said her father; "I wish never to hear it +named mair--that is, after the rouping is ower, and the bills paid. But I +brought a' the beasts owerby that I thought ye wad like best. There is +Gowans, and there's your ain brockit cow, and the wee hawkit ane, that ye +ca'd--I needna tell ye how ye ca'd it--but I couldna bid them sell the +petted creature, though the sight o' it may sometimes gie us a sair +heart--it's no the poor dumb creature's fault--And ane or twa beasts mair +I hae reserved, and I caused them to be driven before the other beasts, +that men might say, as when the son of Jesse returned from battle, 'This +is David's spoil.'" + +Upon more particular inquiry, Jeanie found new occasion to admire the +active beneficence of her friend the Duke of Argyle. While establishing a +sort of experimental farm on the skirts of his immense Highland estates, +he had been somewhat at a loss to find a proper person in whom to vest +the charge of it. The conversation his Grace had upon country matters +with Jeanie Deans during their return from Richmond, had impressed him +with a belief that the father, whose experience and success she so +frequently quoted, must be exactly the sort of person whom he wanted. +When the condition annexed to Effie's pardon rendered it highly probable +that David Deans would choose to change his place of residence, this idea +again occurred to the Duke more strongly, and as he was an enthusiast +equally in agriculture and in benevolence, he imagined he was serving the +purposes of both, when he wrote to the gentleman in Edinburgh entrusted +with his affairs, to inquire into the character of David Deans, +cowfeeder, and so forth, at St. Leonard's Crags; and if he found him such +as he had been represented, to engage him without delay, and on the most +liberal terms, to superintend his fancy-farm in Dumbartonshire. + +The proposal was made to old David by the gentleman so commissioned, on +the second day after his daughter's pardon had reached Edinburgh. His +resolution to leave St. Leonard's had been already formed; the honour of +an express invitation from the Duke of Argyle to superintend a department +where so much skill and diligence was required, was in itself extremely +flattering; and the more so, because honest David, who was not without an +exeellent opinion of his own talents, persuaded himself that, by +accepting this charge, he would in some sort repay the great favour he +had received at the hands of the Argyle family. The appointments, +including the right of sufficient grazing for a small stock of his own, +were amply liberal; and David's keen eye saw that the situation was +convenient for trafficking to advantage in Highland cattle. There was +risk of "her'ship"* from the neighbouring mountains, indeed, but the +awful name of the Duke of Argyle would be a great security, and a trifle +of /black-mail/ would, David was aware, assure his safety. + +* Her'ship, a Scottish word which may be said to be now obsolete; +because, fortunately, the practice of "plundering by armed force," which +is its meaning, does not require to be commonly spoken of. + +Still however, there were two points on which he haggled. The first was +the character of the clergyman with whose worship he was to join; and on +this delicate point he received, as we will presently show the reader, +perfect satisfaction. The next obstacle was the condition of his youngest +daughter, obliged as she was to leave Scotland for so many years. + +The gentleman of the law smiled, and said, "There was no occasion to +interpret that clause very strictly--that if the young woman left +Scotland for a few months, or even weeks, and came to her father's new +residence by sea from the western side of England, nobody would know of +her arrival, or at least nobody who had either the right or inclination +to give her disturbance. The extensive heritable jurisdictions of his +Grace excluded the interference of other magistrates with those living on +his estates, and they who were in immediate dependence on him would +receive orders to give the young woman no disturbance. Living on the +verge of the Highlands, she might, indeed, be said to be out of Scotland, +that is, beyond the bounds of ordinary law and civilisation." + +Old Deans was not quite satisfied with this reasoning; but the elopement +of Effie, which took place on the third night after her liberation, +rendered his residence at St. Leonard's so detestable to him, that he +closed at once with the proposal which had been made him, and entered +with pleasure into the idea of surprising Jeanie, as had been proposed by +the Duke, to render the change of residence more striking to her. The +Duke had apprised Archibald of these circumstances, with orders to act +according to the instructions he should receive from Edinburgh, and by +which accordingly he was directed to bring Jeanie to Roseneath. + +The father and daughter communicated these matters to each other, now +stopping, now walking slowly towards the Lodge, which showed itself among +the trees, at about half-a-mile's distance from the little bay in which +they had landed. As they approached the house, David Deans informed his +daughter, with somewhat like a grim smile, which was the utmost advance +he ever made towards a mirthful expression of visage, that "there was +baith a worshipful gentleman, and ane reverend gentleman, residing +therein. The worshipful gentleman was his honour the Laird of +Knocktarlitie, who was bailie of the lordship under the Duke of Argyle, +ane Highland gentleman, tarr'd wi' the same stick," David doubted, "as +mony of them, namely, a hasty and choleric temper, and a neglect of the +higher things that belong to salvation, and also a gripping unto the +things of this world, without muckle distinction of property; but, +however, ane gude hospitable gentleman, with whom it would be a part of +wisdom to live on a gude understanding (for Hielandmen were hasty, ower +hasty). As for the reverend person of whom he had spoken, he was +candidate by favour of the Duke of Argyle (for David would not for the +universe have called him presentee) for the kirk of the parish in which +their farm was situated, and he was likely to be highly acceptable unto +the Christian souls of the parish, who were hungering for spiritual +manna, having been fed but upon sour Hieland sowens by Mr. Duncan +MacDonought, the last minister, who began the morning duly, Sunday and +Saturday, with a mutchkin of usquebaugh. But I need say the less about +the present lad," said David, again grimly grimacing, "as I think ye may +hae seen him afore; and here he is come to meet us." + +She had indeed seen him before, for it was no other than Reuben Butler +himself. + + + + + CHAPTER NINETEENTH. + + No more shalt thou behold thy sister's face; + Thou hast already had her last embrace. + Elegy on Mrs. Anne Killigrew. + +This second surprise had been accomplished for Jeanie Deans by the rod of +the same benevolent enchanter, whose power had transplanted her father +from the Crags of St. Leonard's to the banks of the Gare Loch. The Duke +of Argyle was not a person to forget the hereditary debt of gratitude, +which had been bequeathed to him by his grandfather, in favour of the +grandson of old Bible Butler. He had internally resolved to provide for +Reuben Butler in this kirk of Knocktarlitie, of which the incumbent had +just departed this life. Accordingly, his agent received the necessary +instructions for that purpose, under the qualifying condition always, +that the learning and character of Mr. Butler should be found proper for +the charge. Upon inquiry, these were found as highly satisfactory as had +been reported in the case of David Deans himself. + +By this preferment, the Duke of Argyle more essentially benefited his +friend and /protegee/, Jeanie, than he himself was aware of, since he +contributed to remove objections in her father's mind to the match, which +he had no idea had been in existence. + +We have already noticed that Deans had something of a prejudice against +Butler, which was, perhaps, in some degree owing to his possessing a sort +of consciousness that the poor usher looked with eyes of affection upon +his eldest daughter. This, in David's eyes, was a sin of presumption, +even although it should not be followed by any overt act, or actual +proposal. But the lively interest which Butler had displayed in his +distresses, since Jeanie set forth on her London expedition, and which, +therefore, he ascribed to personal respect for himself individually, had +greatly softened the feelings of irritability with which David had +sometimes regarded him. And, while he was in this good disposition +towards Butler, another incident took place which had great influence on +the old man's mind. So soon as the shock of Effie's second elopement was +over, it was Deans's early care to collect and refund to the Laird of +Dumbiedikes the money which he had lent for Effie's trial, and for +Jeanie's travelling expenses. The Laird, the pony, the cocked hat, and +the tabacco-pipe, had not been seen at St. Leonard's Crags for many a +day; so that, in order to pay this debt, David was under the necessity of +repairing in person to the mansion of Dumbiedikes. + +He found it in a state of unexpected bustle. There were workmen pulling +down some of the old hangings, and replacing them with others, altering, +repairing, scrubbing, painting, and white-washing. There was no knowing +the old house, which had been so long the mansion of sloth and silence. +The Laird himself seemed in some confusion, and his reception, though +kind, lacked something of the reverential cordiality, with which he used +to greet David Deans. There was a change also, David did not very well +know of what nature, about the exterior of this landed proprietor--an +improvement in the shape of his garments, a spruceness in the air with +which they were put on, that were both novelties. Even the old hat looked +smarter; the cock had been newly pointed, the lace had been refreshed, +and instead of slouching backward or forward on the Laird's head, as it +happened to be thrown on, it was adjusted with a knowing inclination over +one eye. + +David Deans opened his business, and told down the cash. Dumbiedikes +steadily inclined his ear to the one, and counted the other with great +accuracy, interrupting David, while he was talking of the redemption of +the captivity of Judah, to ask him whether he did not think one or two of +the guineas looked rather light. When he was satisfied on this point, had +pocketed his money, and had signed a receipt, he addressed David with +some little hesitation,--"Jeanie wad be writing ye something, gudeman?" + +"About the siller?" replied David--"Nae doubt, she did." + +"And did she say nae mair about me?" asked the Laird. + +"Nae mair but kind and Christian wishes--what suld she hae said?" replied +David, fully expecting that the Laird's long courtship (if his dangling +after Jeanie deserves so active a name) was now coming to a point. And so +indeed it was, but not to that point which he wished or expected. + +"Aweel, she kens her ain mind best, gudeman. I hae made a clean house o' +Jenny Balchristie, and her niece. They were a bad pack--steal'd meat and +mault, and loot the carters magg the coals--I'm to be married the morn, +and kirkit on Sunday." + +Whatever David felt, he was too proud and too steady-minded to show any +unpleasant surprise in his countenance and manner. + +"I wuss ye happy, sir, through Him that gies happiness--marriage is an +honourable state." + +"And I am wedding into an honourable house, David--the Laird of +Lickpelf's youngest daughter--she sits next us in the kirk, and that's +the way I came to think on't." + +There was no more to be said but again to wish the Laird joy, to taste a +cup of his liquor, and to walk back again to St. Leonard's, musing on the +mutability of human affairs and human resolutions. The expectation that +one day or other Jeanie would be Lady Dumbiedikes, had, in spite of +himself, kept a more absolute possession of David's mind than he himself +was aware of. At least, it had hitherto seemed a union at all times +within his daughter's reach, whenever she might choose to give her silent +lover any degree of encouragement, and now it was vanished for ever. +David returned, therefore, in no very gracious humour for so good a man. +He was angry with Jeanie for not having encouraged the Laird--he was +angry with the Laird for requiring encouragement--and he was angry with +himself for being angry at all on the occasion. + +On his return he found the gentleman who managed the Duke of Argyle's +affairs was desirous of seeing him, with a view to completing the +arrangement between them. Thus, after a brief repose, he was obliged to +set off anew for Edinburgh, so that old May Hettly declared, "That a' +this was to end with the master just walking himself aff his feet." + +When the business respecting the farm had been talked over and arranged, +the professional gentleman acquainted David Deans, in answer to his +inquiries concerning the state of public worship, that it was the +pleasure of the Duke to put an excellent young clergyman, called Reuben +Butler, into the parish, which was to be his future residence. + +"Reuben Butler!" exclaimed David--"Reuben Butler, the usher at Liberton?" + +"The very same," said the Duke's commissioner; "his Grace has heard an +excellent character of him, and has some hereditary obligations to him +besides--few ministers will be so comfortable as I am directed to make +Mr. Butler." + +"Obligations?--The Duke?--Obligations to Reuben Butler--Reuben Butler a +placed minister of the Kirk of Scotland?" exclaimed David, in +interminable astonishment, for somehow he had been led by the bad success +which Butler had hitherto met with in all his undertakings, to consider +him as one of those step-sons of Fortune, whom she treats with unceasing +rigour, and ends with disinheriting altogether. + +There is, perhaps, no time at which we are disposed to think so highly of +a friend, as when we find him standing higher than we expected in the +esteem of others. When assured of the reality of Butler's change of +prospects, David expressed his great satisfaction at his success in life, +which, he observed, was entirely owing to himself (David). "I advised his +puir grand-mother, who was but a silly woman, to breed him up to the +ministry; and I prophesied that, with a blessing on his endeavours, he +would become a polished shaft in the temple. He may be something ower +proud o' his carnal learning, but a gude lad, and has the root of the +matter--as ministers gang now, where yell find ane better, ye'll find ten +waur, than Reuben Butler." + +He took leave of the man of business, and walked homeward, forgetting his +weariness in the various speculations to which this wonderful piece of +intelligence gave rise. Honest David had now, like other great men, to go +to work to reconcile his speculative principles with existing +circumstances; and, like other great men, when they set seriously about +that task, he was tolerably successful. + +Ought Reuben Butler in conscience to accept of this preferment in the +Kirk of Scotland, subject as David at present thought that establishment +was to the Erastian encroachments of the civil power? This was the +leading question, and he considered it carefully. "The Kirk of Scotland +was shorn of its beams, and deprived of its full artillery and banners of +authority; but still it contained zealous and fructifying pastors, +attentive congregations, and, with all her spots and blemishes, the like +of this Kirk was nowhere else to be seen upon earth." + +David's doubts had been too many and too critical to permit him ever +unequivocally to unite himself with any of the dissenters, who upon +various accounts absolutely seceded from the national church. He had +often joined in communion with such of the established clergy as +approached nearest to the old Presbyterian model and principles of 1640. +And although there were many things to be amended in that system, yet he +remembered that he, David Deans, had himself ever been an humble pleader +for the good old cause in a legal way, but without rushing into +right-hand excesses, divisions and separations. But, as an enemy to +separation, he might join the right-hand of fellowship with a minister of +the Kirk of Scotland in its present model. /Ergo,/ Reuben Butler might +take possession of the parish of Knocktarlitie, without forfeiting his +friendship or favour--Q. E. D. But, secondly, came the trying point of +lay-patronage, which David Deans had ever maintained to be a coming in by +the window, and over the wall, a cheating and starving the souls of a +whole parish, for the purpose of clothing the back and filling the belly +of the incumbent. + +This presentation, therefore, from the Duke of Argyle, whatever was the +worth and high character of that nobleman, was a limb of the brazen +image, a portion of the evil thing, and with no kind of consistency could +David bend his mind to favour such a transaction. But if the parishioners +themselves joined in a general call to Reuben Butler to be their pastor, +it did not seem quite so evident that the existence of this unhappy +presentation was a reason for his refusing them the comforts of his +doctrine. If the Presbytery admitted him to the kirk, in virtue rather of +that act of patronage than of the general call of the congregation, that +might be their error, and David allowed it was a heavy one. But if Reuben +Butler accepted of the cure as tendered to him by those whom he was +called to teach, and who had expressed themselves desirous to learn, +David, after considering and reconsidering the matter, came, through the +great virtue of if, to be of opinion that he might safely so act in that +matter. + +There remained a third stumbling-block--the oaths to Government exacted +from the established clergymen, in which they acknowledge an Erastian +king and parliament, and homologate the incorporating Union between +England and Scotland, through which the latter kingdom had become part +and portion of the former, wherein Prelacy, the sister of Popery, had +made fast her throne, and elevated the horns of her mitre. These were +symptoms of defection which had often made David cry out, "My bowels--my +bowels!--I am pained at the very heart!" And he remembered that a godly +Bow-head matron had been carried out of the Tolbooth church in a swoon, +beyond the reach of brandy and burnt feathers, merely on hearing these +fearful words, "It is enacted by the Lords /spiritual/ and temporal," +pronounced from a Scottish pulpit, in the proem to the Porteous +Proclamation. These oaths were, therefore, a deep compliance and dire +abomination--a sin and a snare, and a danger and a defection. But this +shibboleth was not always exacted. Ministers had respect to their own +tender consciences, and those of their brethren; and it was not till a +later period that the reins of discipline were taken up tight by the +General Assemblies and Presbyteries. The peacemaking particle came again +to David's assistance. /If/ an incumbent was not called upon to make such +compliances, and /if/ he got a right entry into the church without +intrusion, and by orderly appointment, why, upon the whole, David Deans +came to be of opinion, that the said incumbent might lawfully enjoy the +spirituality and temporality of the cure of souls at Knocktarlitie, with +stipend, manse, glebe, and all thereunto appertaining. + +The best and most upright-minded men are so strongly influenced by +existing circumstances, that it would be somewhat cruel to inquire too +nearly what weight parental affection gave to these ingenious trains of +reasoning. Let David Deans's situation be considered. He was just +deprived of one daughter, and his eldest, to whom he owed so much, was +cut off, by the sudden resolution of Dumbiedikes, from the high hope +which David had entertained, that she might one day be mistress of that +fair lordship. Just while this disappointment was bearing heavy on his +spirits, Butler comes before his imagination--no longer the half-starved +threadbare usher, but fat and sleek and fair, the beneficed minister of +Knocktarlitie, beloved by his congregation--exemplary in his life-- +powerful in his doctrine--doing the duty of the kirk as never Highland +minister did before--turning sinners as a colley dog turns sheep--a +favourite of the Duke of Argyle, and drawing a stipend of eight hundred +punds Scots, and four chalders of victual. Here was a match, making up in +David's mind, in a tenfold degree, the disappointment in the case of +Dumbiedikes, in so far as the goodman of St. Leonard's held a powerful +minister in much greater admiration than a mere landed proprietor. It did +not occur to him, as an additional reason in favour of the match, that +Jeanie might herself have some choice in the matter; for the idea of +consulting her feelings never once entered into the honest man's head, +any more than the possibility that her inclination might perhaps differ +from his own. + +The result of his meditations was, that he was called upon to take the +management of the whole affair into his own hand, and give, if it should +be found possible without sinful compliance, or backsliding, or defection +of any kind, a worthy pastor to the kirk of Knocktarlitie. Accordingly, +by the intervention of the honest dealer in butter-milk who dwelt in +Liberton, David summoned to his presence Reuben Butler. Even from this +worthy messenger he was unable to conceal certain swelling emotions of +dignity, insomuch, that, when the carter had communicated his message to +the usher, he added, that "Certainly the Gudeman of St. Leonard's had +some grand news to tell him, for he was as uplifted as a midden-cock upon +pattens." + +Butler, it may readily be conceived, immediately obeyed the summons. He +was a plain character, in which worth and good sense and simplicity were +the principal ingredients; but love, on this occasion, gave him a certain +degree of address. He had received an intimation of the favour designed +him by the Duke of Argyle, with what feelings those only can conceive who +have experienced a sudden prospect of being raised to independence and +respect from penury and toil. He resolved, however, that the old man +should retain all the consequence of being, in his own opinion, the first +to communicate the important intelligence. At the same time, he also +determined that in the expected conference he would permit David Deans to +expatiate at length upon the proposal, in all its bearings, without +irritating him either by interruption or contradiction. This last was the +most prudent plan he could have adopted; because, although there were +many doubts which David Deans could himself clear up to his own +satisfaction, yet he might have been by no means disposed to accept the +solution of any other person; and to engage him in an argument would have +been certain to confirm him at once and for ever in the opinion which +Butler chanced to impugn. + +He received his friend with an appearance of important gravity, which +real misfortune had long compelled him to lay aside, and which belonged +to those days of awful authority in which he predominated over Widow +Butler, and dictated the mode of cultivating the crofts of Beersheba. He +made known to Reuben, with great prolixity, the prospect of his changing +his present residence for the charge of the Duke of Argyle's stock-farm +in Dumbartonshire, and enumerated the various advantages of the situation +with obvious self-congratulation; but assured the patient hearer, that +nothing had so much moved him to acceptance, as the sense that, by his +skill in bestial, he could render the most important services to his +Grace the Duke of Argyle, to whom, "in the late unhappy circumstance" +(here a tear dimmed the sparkle of pride in the old man's eye), "he had +been sae muckle obliged." + +"To put a rude Hielandman into sic a charge," he continued, "what could +be expected but that he suld be sic a chiefest herdsman, as wicked Doeg +the Edomite? whereas, while this grey head is to the fore, not a clute o' +them but sall be as weel cared for as if they were the fatted kine of +Pharaoh.--And now, Reuben, lad, seeing we maun remove our tent to a +strange country, ye will be casting a dolefu' look after us, and thinking +with whom ye are to hold counsel anent your government in thae slippery +and backsliding times; and nae doubt remembering, that the auld man, +David Deans, was made the instrument to bring you out of the mire of +schism and heresy, wherein your father's house delighted to wallow; aften +also, nae doubt, when ye are pressed wi' ensnaring trials and tentations +and heart-plagues, you, that are like a recruit that is marching for the +first time to the touk of drum, will miss the auld, bauld, and +experienced veteran soldier that has felt the brunt of mony a foul day, +and heard the bullets whistle as aften as he has hairs left on his auld +pow." + +It is very possible that Butler might internally be of opinion, that the +reflection on his ancestor's peculiar tenets might have been spared, or +that he might be presumptuous enough even to think, that, at his years, +and with his own lights, he might be able to hold his course without the +pilotage of honest David. But he only replied, by expressing his regret, +that anything should separate him from an ancient, tried, and +affectionate friend. + +"But how can it be helped, man?" said David, twisting his features into a +sort of smile--"How can we help it?--I trow, ye canna tell me that--Ye +maun leave that to ither folk--to the Duke of Argyle and me, Reuben. It's +a gude thing to hae friends in this warld--how muckle better to hae an +interest beyond it!" + +And David, whose piety, though not always quite rational, was as sincere +as it was habitual and fervent, looked reverentially upward and paused. +Mr. Butler intimated the pleasure with which he would receive his +friend's advice on a subject so important, and David resumed. + +"What think ye now, Reuben, of a kirk--a regular kirk under the present +establishment?--Were sic offered to ye, wad ye be free to accept it, and +under whilk provisions?--I am speaking but by way of query." + +Butler replied, "That if such a prospect were held out to him, he would +probably first consult whether he was likely to be useful to the parish +he should be called to; and if there appeared a fair prospect of his +proving so, his friend must be aware, that in every other point of view, +it would be highly advantageous for him." + +"Right, Reuben, very right, lad," answered the monitor, "your ain +conscience is the first thing to be satisfied--for how sall he teach +others that has himself sae ill learned the Scriptures, as to grip for +the lucre of foul earthly preferment, sic as gear and manse, money and +victual, that which is not his in a spiritual sense--or wha makes his +kirk a stalking-horse, from behind which he may tak aim at his stipend? +But I look for better things of you--and specially ye maun be minded not +to act altogether on your ain judgment, for therethrough comes sair +mistakes, backslidings and defections, on the left and on the right. If +there were sic a day of trial put to you, Reuben. you, who are a young +lad, although it may be ye are gifted wi' the carnal tongues, and those +whilk were spoken at Rome, whilk is now the seat of the scarlet +abomination, and by the Greeks, to whom the Gospel was as foolishness, +yet nae-the-less ye may be entreated by your weel-wisher to take the +counsel of those prudent and resolved and weather-withstanding +professors, wha hae kend what it was to lurk on banks and in mosses, in +bogs and in caverns, and to risk the peril of the head rather than +renounce the honesty of the heart." + +Butler replied, "That certainly, possessing such a friend as he hoped and +trusted he had in the goodman himself, who had seen so many changes in +the preceding century, he should be much to blame if he did not avail +himself of his experience and friendly counsel." + +"Eneugh said--eneugh said, Reuben," said David Deans, with internal +exultation; "and say that ye were in the predicament whereof I hae +spoken, of a surety I would deem it my duty to gang to the root o' the +matter, and lay bare to you the ulcers and imposthumes, and the sores and +the leprosies, of this our time, crying aloud and sparing not." + +David Deans was now in his element. He commenced his examination of the +doctrines and belief of the Christian Church with the very Culdees, from +whom he passed to John Knox,--from John Knox to the recusants in James +the Sixth's time--Bruce, Black, Blair, Livingstone,--from them to the +brief, and at length triumphant period of the Presbyterian Church's +splendour, until it was overrun by the English Independents. Then +followed the dismal times of prelacy, the indulgences, seven in number, +with all their shades and bearings, until he arrived at the reign of King +James the Second, in which he himself had been, in his own mind, neither +an obscure actor nor an obscure sufferer. Then was Butler doomed to hear +the most detailed and annotated edition of what he had so often heard +before,--David Deans's confinement, namely, in the iron cage in the +Canongate Tolbooth, and the cause thereof. + +We should be very unjust to our friend David Deans, if we should +"pretermit"--to use his own expression--a narrative which he held +essential to his fame. A drunken trooper of the Royal Guards, Francis +Gordon by name, had chased five or six of the skulking Whigs, among whom +was our friend David; and after he had compelled them to stand, and was +in the act of brawling with them, one of their number fired a +pocket-pistol, and shot him dead. David used to sneer and shake his head +when any one asked him whether /he/ had been the instrument of removing +this wicked persecutor from the face of the earth. In fact the merit of +the deed lay between him and his friend, Patrick Walker, the pedlar, +whose words he was so fond of quoting. Neither of them cared directly to +claim the merit of silencing Mr. Francis Gordon of the Life-Guards, there +being some wild cousins of his about Edinburgh, who might have been even +yet addicted to revenge, but yet neither of them chose to disown or yield +to the other the merit of this active defence of their religious rights. +David said, that if he had fired a pistol then, it was what he never did +after or before. And as for Mr. Patrick Walker, he has left it upon +record, that his great surprise was, that so small a pistol could kill so +big a man. These are the words of that venerable biographer, whose trade +had not taught him by experience, that an inch was as good as an ell. +"He," (Francis Gordon) "got a shot in his head out of a pocket-pistol, +rather fit for diverting a boy than killing such a furious, mad, brisk +man, which notwithstanding killed him dead!"* + +* Note S. Death of Francis Gordon. + + Upon the extensive foundation which the history of the kirk afforded, +during its short-lived triumph and long tribulation, David, with length +of breath and of narrative, which would have astounded any one but a +lover of his daughter, proceeded to lay down his own rules for guiding +the conscience of his friend, as an aspirant to serve in the ministry. +Upon this subject, the good man went through such a variety of nice and +casuistical problems, supposed so many extreme cases, made the +distinctions so critical and nice betwixt the right hand and the left +hand--betwixt compliance and defection--holding back and stepping aside-- +slipping and stumbling--snares and errors--that at length, after having +limited the path of truth to a mathematical line, he was brought to the +broad admission, that each man's conscience, after he had gained a +certain view of the difficult navigation which he was to encounter, would +be the best guide for his pilotage. He stated the examples and arguments +for and against the acceptance of a kirk on the present revolution model, +with much more impartiality to Butler than he had been able to place them +before his own view. And he concluded, that his young friend ought to +think upon these things, and be guided by the voice of his own +conscience, whether he could take such an awful trust as the charge of +souls without doing injury to his own internal conviction of what is +right or wrong. + +When David had finished his very long harangue, which was only +interrupted by monosyllables, or little more, on the part of Butler, the +orator himself was greatly astonished to find that the conclusion, at +which he very naturally wished to arrive, seemed much less decisively +attained than when he had argued the case in his own mind. + +In this particular, David's current of thinking and speaking only +illustrated the very important and general proposition, concerning the +excellence of the publicity of debate. For, under the influence of any +partial feeling, it is certain, that most men can more easily reconcile +themselves to any favourite measure, when agitating it in their own mind, +than when obliged to expose its merits to a third party, when the +necessity of seeming impartial procures for the opposite arguments a much +more fair statement than that which he affords it in tacit meditation. +Having finished what he had to say, David thought himself obliged to be +more explicit in point of fact, and to explain that this was no +hypothetical case, but one on which (by his own influence and that of the +Duke of Argyle) Reuben Butler would soon be called to decide. + +It was even with something like apprehension that David Deans heard +Butler announce, in return to this communication, that he would take that +night to consider on what he had said with such kind intentions, and +return him an answer the next morning. The feelings of the father +mastered David on this occasion. He pressed Butler to spend the evening +with him--He produced, most unusual at his meals, one, nay, two bottles +of aged strong ale.--He spoke of his daughter--of her merits--her +housewifery--her thrift--her affection. He led Butler so decidedly up to +a declaration of his feelings towards Jeanie, that, before nightfall, it +was distinctly understood she was to be the bride of Reuben Butler; and +if they thought it indelicate to abridge the period of deliberation which +Reuben had stipulated, it seemed to be sufficiently understood betwixt +them, that there was a strong probability of his becoming minister of +Knocktarlitie, providing the congregation were as willing to accept of +him, as the Duke to grant him the presentation. The matter of the oaths, +they agreed, it was time enough to dispute about, whenever the shibboleth +should be tendered. + +Many arrangements were adopted that evening, which were afterwards +ripened by correspondence with the Duke of Argyle's man of business, who +intrusted Deans and Butler with the benevolent wish of his principal, +that they should all meet with Jeanie, on her return from England, at the +Duke's hunting-lodge in Roseneath. + +This retrospect, so far as the placid loves of Jeanie Deans and Reuben +Butler are concerned, forms a full explanation of the preceding narrative +up to their meeting on the island, as already mentioned. + + + + + CHAPTER TWENTIETH. + + "I come," he said, "my love, my life, + And--nature's dearest name--my wife: + Thy father's house and friends resign, + My home, my friends, my sire, are thine." + Logan. + +The meeting of Jeanie and Butler, under circumstances promising to crown +an affection so long delayed, was rather affecting, from its simple +sincerity than from its uncommon vehemence of feeling. David Deans, whose +practice was sometimes a little different from his theory, appalled them +at first, by giving them the opinion of sundry of the suffering preachers +and champions of his younger days, that marriage, though honourable by +the laws of Scripture, was yet a state over-rashly coveted by professors, +and specially by young ministers, whose desire, he said, was at whiles +too inordinate for kirks, stipends, and wives, which had frequently +occasioned over-ready compliance with the general defections of the +times. He endeavoured to make them aware also, that hasty wedlock had +been the bane of many a savoury professor--that the unbelieving wife had +too often reversed the text and perverted the believing husband--that +when the famous Donald Cargill, being then hiding in Lee-Wood, in +Lanarkshire, it being killing-time, did, upon importunity, marry Robert +Marshal of Starry Shaw, he had thus expressed himself: "What hath induced +Robert to marry this woman? her ill will overcome his good--he will not +keep the way long--his thriving days are done." To the sad accomplishment +of which prophecy David said he was himself a living witness, for Robert +Marshal, having fallen into foul compliances with the enemy, went home, +and heard the curates, declined into other steps of defection, and became +lightly esteemed. Indeed, he observed, that the great upholders of the +standard, Cargill, Peden, Cameron, and Renwick, had less delight in tying +the bonds of matrimony than in any other piece of their ministerial work; +and although they would neither dissuade the parties, nor refuse their +office, they considered the being called to it as an evidence of +indifference, on the part of those between whom it was solemnised, to the +many grievous things of the day. Notwithstanding, however, that marriage +was a snare unto many, David was of opinion (as, indeed, he had showed in +his practice) that it was in itself honourable, especially if times were +such that honest men could be secure against being shot, hanged, or +banished, and had ane competent livelihood to maintain themselves, and +those that might come after them. "And, therefore," as he concluded +something abruptly, addressing Jeanie and Butler, who, with faces as +high-coloured as crimson, had been listening to his lengthened argument +for and against the holy state of matrimony, "I will leave you to your +ain cracks." + +As their private conversation, however interesting to themselves, might +probably be very little so to the reader, so far as it respected their +present feelings and future prospects, we shall pass it over, and only +mention the information which Jeanie received from Butler concerning her +sister's elopement, which contained many particulars that she had been +unable to extract from her father. + +Jeanie learned, therefore, that, for three days after her pardon had +arrived, Effie had been the inmate of her father's house at St. +Leonard's--that the interviews betwixt David and his erring child, which +had taken place before she was liberated from prison, had been touching +in the extreme; but Butler could not suppress his opinion, that, when he +was freed from the apprehension of losing her in a manner so horrible, +her father had tightened the bands of discipline, so as, in some degree, +to gall the feelings, and aggravate the irritability of a spirit +naturally impatient and petulant, and now doubly so from the sense of +merited disgrace. + +On the third night, Effie disappeared from St. Leonard's, leaving no +intimation whatever of the route she had taken. Butler, however, set out +in pursuit of her, and with much trouble traced her towards a little +landing-place, formed by a small brook which enters the sea betwixt +Musselburgh and Edinburgh. This place, which has been since made into a +small harbour, surrounded by many villas and lodging-houses, is now +termed Portobello. At this time it was surrounded by a waste common, +covered with furze, and unfrequented, save by fishing-boats, and now and +then a smuggling lugger. A vessel of this description had been hovering +in the firth at the time of Effie's elopement, and, as Butler +ascertained, a boat had come ashore in the evening on which the fugitive +had disappeared, and had carried on board a female. As the vessel made +sail immediately, and landed no part of their cargo, there seemed little +doubt that they were accomplices of the notorious Robertson, and that the +vessel had only come into the firth to carry off his paramour. + +This was made clear by a letter which Butler himself soon afterwards +received by post, signed E. D., but without bearing any date of place or +time. It was miserably ill written and spelt; sea-sickness having +apparently aided the derangement of Effie's very irregular orthography +and mode of expression. In this epistle, however, as in all that +unfortunate girl said or did, there was something to praise as well as to +blame. She said in her letter, "That she could not endure that her father +and her sister should go into banishment, or be partakers of her shame,-- +that if her burden was a heavy one, it was of her own binding, and she +had the more right to bear it alone,--that in future they could not be a +comfort to her, or she to them, since every look and word of her father +put her in mind of her transgression, and was like to drive her mad,-- +that she had nearly lost her judgment during the three days she was at +St. Leonard's--her father meant weel by her, and all men, but he did not +know the dreadful pain he gave her in casting up her sins. If Jeanie had +been at hame, it might hae dune better--Jeanie was ane, like the angels +in heaven, that rather weep for sinners, than reckon their +transgressions. But she should never see Jeanie ony mair, and that was +the thought that gave her the sairest heart of a' that had come and gane +yet. On her bended knees would she pray for Jeanie night and day, baith +for what she had done, and what she had scorned to do, in her behalf; for +what a thought would it have been to her at that moment o' time, if that +upright creature had made a fault to save her! She desired her father +would give Jeanie a' the gear--her ain (/i.e./ Effie's) mother's and a'-- +She had made a deed, giving up her right, and it was in Mr. Novit's hand +--Warld's gear was henceforward the least of her care, nor was it likely +to be muckle her mister--She hoped this would make it easy for her sister +to settle;" and immediately after this expression, she wished Butler +himself all good things, in return for his kindness to her. "For +herself," she said, "she kend her lot would be a waesome ane, but it was +of her own framing, sae she desired the less pity. But, for her friends' +satisfaction, she wished them to know that she was gaun nae ill gate-- +that they who had done her maist wrong were now willing to do her what +justice was in their power; and she would, in some warldly respects, be +far better off than she deserved. But she desired her family to remain +satisfied with this assurance, and give themselves no trouble in making +farther inquiries after her." + +To David Deans and to Butler this letter gave very little comfort; for +what was to be expected from this unfortunate girl's uniting her fate to +that of a character so notorious as Robertson, who they readily guessed +was alluded to in the last sentence, excepting that she should become the +partner and victim of his future crimes? Jeanie, who knew George +Staunton's character and real rank, saw her sister's situation under a +ray of better hope. She augured well of the haste he had shown to reclaim +his interest in Effie, and she trusted he had made her his wife. If so, +it seemed improbable that, with his expected fortune, and high +connections, he should again resume the life of criminal adventure which +he had led, especially since, as matters stood, his life depended upon +his keeping his own secret, which could only be done by an entire change +of his habits, and particularly by avoiding all those who had known the +heir of Willingham under the character of the audacious, criminal, and +condemned Robertson. + +She thought it most likely that the couple would go abroad for a few +years, and not return to England until the affair of Porteous was totally +forgotten. Jeanie, therefore, saw more hopes for her sister than Butler +or her father had been able to perceive; but she was not at liberty to +impart the comfort which she felt in believing that she would be secure +from the pressure of poverty, and in little risk of being seduced into +the paths of guilt. She could not have explained this without making +public what it was essentially necessary for Effie's chance of comfort to +conceal, the identity, namely, of George Staunton and George Robertson. +After all, it was dreadful to think that Effie had united herself to a +man condemned for felony, and liable to trial for murder, whatever might +be his rank in life, and the degree of his repentance. Besides, it was +melancholy to reflect, that, she herself being in possession of the whole +dreadful secret, it was most probable he would, out of regard to his own +feelings, and fear for his safety, never again permit her to see poor +Effie. After perusing and re-perusing her sister's valedictory letter, +she gave ease to her feelings in a flood of tears, which Butler in vain +endeavoured to check by every soothing attention in his power. She was +obliged, however, at length to look up and wipe her eyes, for her father, +thinking he had allowed the lovers time enough for conference, was now +advancing towards them from the Lodge, accompanied by the Captain of +Knockdunder, or, as his friends called him for brevity's sake, Duncan +Knock, a title which some youthful exploits had rendered peculiarly +appropriate. + +This Duncan of Knockdunder was a person of first-rate importance in the +island of Roseneath,* and the continental parishes of Knocktarlitie, +Kilmun, and so forth; nay, his influence extended as far as Cowal, where, +however, it was obscured by that of another factor. + +* [This is, more correctly speaking, a peninsula.] + +The Tower of Knockdunder still occupies, with its remains, a cliff +overhanging the Holy Loch. Duncan swore it had been a royal castle; if +so, it was one of the smallest, the space within only forming a square of +sixteen feet, and bearing therefore a ridiculous proportion to the +thickness of the walls, which was ten feet at least. Such as it was, +however, it had long given the title of Captain, equivalent to that of +Chatellain, to the ancestors of Duncan, who were retainers of the house +of Argyle, and held a hereditary jurisdiction under them, of little +extent indeed, but which had great consequence in their own eyes, and was +usually administered with a vigour somewhat beyond the law. + +The present representative of that ancient family was a stout short man +about fifty, whose pleasure it was to unite in his own person the dress +of the Highlands and Lowlands, wearing on his head a black tie-wig, +surmounted by a fierce cocked-hat, deeply guarded with gold lace, while +the rest of his dress consisted of the plaid and philabeg. Duncan +superintended a district which was partly Highland, partly Lowland, and +therefore might be supposed to combine their national habits, in order to +show his impartiality to Trojan or Tyrian. The incongruity, however, had +a whimsical and ludicrous effect, as it made his head and body look as if +belonging to different individuals; or, as some one said who had seen the +executions of the insurgent prisoners in 1715, it seemed as if some +Jacobite enchanter, having recalled the sufferers to life, had clapped, +in his haste, an Englishman's head on a Highlander's body. To finish the +portrait, the bearing of the gracious Duncan was brief, bluff, and +consequential, and the upward turn of his short copper-coloured nose +indicated that he was somewhat addicted to wrath and usquebaugh. + +When this dignitary had advanced up to Butler and to Jeanie, "I take the +freedom, Mr. Deans," he said in a very consequential manner, "to salute +your daughter, whilk I presume this young lass to be--I kiss every pretty +girl that comes to Roseneath, in virtue of my office." Having made this +gallant speech, he took out his quid, saluted Jeanie with a hearty smack, +and bade her welcome to Argyle's country. Then addressing Butler, he +said, "Ye maun gang ower and meet the carle ministers yonder the Morn, +for they will want to do your job, and synd it down with usquebaugh +doubtless--they seldom make dry wark in this kintra." + +"And the Laird"--said David Deans, addressing Butler in farther +explanation-- + +"The Captain, man," interrupted Duncan; "folk winna ken wha ye are +speaking aboot, unless ye gie shentlemens their proper title." + +"The Captain, then," said David, "assures me that the call is unanimous +on the part of the parishioners--a real harmonious call, Reuben." + +"I pelieve," said Duncan, "it was as harmonious as could pe expected, +when the tae half o' the bodies were clavering Sassenach, and the t'other +skirting Gaelic, like sea-maws and clackgeese before a storm. Ane wad hae +needed the gift of tongues to ken preceesely what they said--but I +pelieve the best end of it was, 'Long live MacCallummore and +Knockdunder!'--And as to its being an unanimous call, I wad be glad to +ken fat business the carles have to call ony thing or ony body but what +the Duke and mysell likes!" + +"Nevertheless," said Mr. Butler, "if any of the parishioners have any +scruples, which sometimes happen in the mind of sincere professors, I +should be happy of an opportunity of trying to remove" + +"Never fash your peard about it, man," interrupted Duncan Knock--"Leave +it a' to me.--Scruple! deil ane o' them has been bred up to scruple +onything that they're bidden to do. And if sic a thing suld happen as ye +speak o', ye sall see the sincere professor, as ye ca' him, towed at the +stern of my boat for a few furlongs. I'll try if the water of the Haly +Loch winna wash off scruples as weel as fleas--Cot tam!" + +The rest of Duncan's threat was lost in a growling gargling sort of +sound, which he made in his throat, and which menaced recusants with no +gentle means of conversion. David Deans would certainly have given battle +in defence of the right of the Christian congregation to be consulted in +the choice of their own pastor, which, in his estimation, was one of the +choicest and most inalienable of their privileges; but he had again +engaged in close conversation with Jeanie, and, with more interest than +he was in use to take in affairs foreign alike to his occupation and to +his religious tenets, was inquiring into the particulars of her London +journey. This was, perhaps, fortunate for the newformed friendship +betwixt him and the Captain of Knockdunder, which rested, in David's +estimation, upon the proofs he had given of his skill in managing stock; +but, in reality, upon the special charge transmitted to Duncan from the +Duke and his agent, to behave with the utmost attention to Deans and his +family. + +"And now, sirs," said Duncan, in a commanding tone, "I am to pray ye a' +to come in to your supper, for yonder is Mr. Archibald half famished, and +a Saxon woman, that looks as if her een were fleeing out o' her head wi' +fear and wonder, as if she had never seen a shentleman in a philabeg +pefore." + +"And Reuben Butler," said David, "will doubtless desire instantly to +retire, that he may prepare his mind for the exercise of to-morrow, that +his work may suit the day, and be an offering of a sweet savour in the +nostrils of the reverend Presbytery!" + +"Hout tout, man, it's but little ye ken about them," interrupted the +Captain. "Teil a ane o' them wad gie the savour of the hot venison pasty +which I smell" (turning his squab nose up in the air) "a' the way frae +the Lodge, for a' that Mr. Putler, or you either, can say to them." + +David groaned; but judging he had to do with a Gallio, as he said, did +not think it worth his while to give battle. They followed the Captain to +the house, and arranged themselves with great ceremony round a +well-loaded supper-table. The only other circumstance of the evening +worthy to be recorded is, that Butler pronounced the blessing; that +Knockdunder found it too long, and David Deans censured it as too short, +from which the charitable reader may conclude it was exactly the proper +length. + + + + + CHAPTER TWENTY-FIRST. + + Now turn the Psalms of David ower, + And lilt wi' holy clangor; + Of double verse come gie us four, + And skirl up the Bangor. + Burns. + +The next was the important day, when, according to the forms and ritual +of the Scottish Kirk, Reuben Butler was to be ordained minister of +Knocktarlitie, by the Presbytery of ------. And so eager were the whole +party, that all, excepting Mrs. Dutton, the destined Cowslip of Inverary, +were stirring at an early hour. + +Their host, whose appetite was as quick and keen as his temper, was not +long in summoning them to a substantial breakfast, where there were at +least a dozen of different preparations of milk, plenty of cold meat, +scores boiled and roasted eggs, a huge cag of butter, half-a-firkin +herrings boiled and broiled, fresh and salt, and tea and coffee for them +that liked it, which, as their landlord assured them, with a nod and a +wink, pointing, at the same time, to a little cutter which seemed dodging +under the lee of the island, cost them little beside the fetching ashore. + +"Is the contraband trade permitted here so openly?" said Butler. "I +should think it very unfavourable to the people's morals." + +"The Duke, Mr. Putler, has gien nae orders concerning the putting of it +down," said the magistrate, and seemed to think that he had said all that +was necessary to justify his connivance. Butler was a man of prudence, +and aware that real good can only be obtained by remonstrance when +remonstrance is well-timed; so for the present he said nothing more on +the subject. + +When breakfast was half over, in flounced Mrs. Dolly, as fine as a blue +sacque and cherry-coloured ribands could make her. + +"Good morrow to you, madam," said the master of ceremonies; "I trust your +early rising will not skaith ye." + +The dame apologised to Captain Knockunder, as she was pleased to term +their entertainer; "but, as we say in Cheshire," she added, "I was like +the Mayor of Altringham, who lies in bed while his breeches are mending, +for the girl did not bring up the right bundle to my room, till she had +brought up all the others by mistake one after t'other--Well, I suppose +we are all for church to-day, as I understand--Pray may I be so bold as +to ask, if it is the fashion for your North country gentlemen to go to +church in your petticoats, Captain Knockunder?" + +"Captain of Knockdunder, madam, if you please, for I knock under to no +man; and in respect of my garb, I shall go to church as I am, at your +service, madam; for if I were to lie in bed like your Major +What-d'ye-callum, till my preeches were mended, I might be there all my +life, seeing I never had a pair of them on my person but twice in my +life, which I am pound to remember, it peing when the Duke brought his +Duchess here, when her Grace pehoved to be pleasured; so I e'en porrowed +the minister's trews for the twa days his Grace was pleased to stay--but +I will put myself under sic confinement again for no man on earth, or +woman either, but her Grace being always excepted, as in duty pound." + +The mistress of the milking-pail stared but, making no answer to this +round declaration, immediately proceeded to show, that the alarm of the +preceding evening had in no degree injured her appetite. + +When the meal was finished, the Captain proposed to them to take boat, in +order that Mrs. Jeanie might see her new place of residence, and that he +himself might inquire whether the necessary preparations had been made +there, and at the Manse, for receiving the future inmates of these +mansions. + +The morning was delightful, and the huge mountain-shadows slept upon the +mirrored wave of the firth, almost as little disturbed as if it had been +an inland lake. Even Mrs. Dutton's fears no longer annoyed her. She had +been informed by Archibald, that there was to be some sort of junketting +after the sermon, and that was what she loved dearly; and as for the +water, it was so still that it would look quite like a pleasuring on the +Thames. + +The whole party being embarked, therefore, in a large boat, which the +captain called his coach and six, and attended by a smaller one termed +his gig, the gallant Duncan steered straight upon the little tower of the +old-fashioned church of Knocktarlitie, and the exertions of six stout +rowers sped them rapidly on their voyage. As they neared the land, the +hills appeared to recede from them, and a little valley, formed by the +descent of a small river from the mountains, evolved itself as it were +upon their approach. The style of the country on each side was simply +pastoral, and resembled, in appearance and character, the description of +a forgotten Scottish poet, which runs nearly thus:-- + + The water gently down a level slid, + With little din, but couthy what it made; + On ilka side the trees grew thick and lang, + And wi' the wild birds' notes were a' in sang; + On either side, a full bow-shot and mair, + The green was even, gowany, and fair; + With easy slope on every hand the braes + To the hills' feet with scatter'd bushes raise; + With goats and sheep aboon, and kye below, + The bonny banks all in a swarm did go.* + +* Ross's /Fortunate Shepherdess./ Edit. 1778, p. 23. + +They landed in this Highland Arcadia, at the mouth of the small stream +which watered the delightful and peaceable valley. Inhabitants of several +descriptions came to pay their respects to the Captain of Knockdunder, a +homage which he was very peremptory in exacting, and to see the new +settlers. Some of these were men after David Deans's own heart, elders of +the kirk-session, zealous professors, from the Lennox, Lanarkshire, and +Ayrshire, to whom the preceding Duke of Argyle had given /rooms/ in this +corner of his estate, because they had suffered for joining his father, +the unfortunate Earl, during his ill-fated attempt in 1686. These were +cakes of the right leaven for David regaling himself with; and, had it +not been for this circumstance, he has been heard to say, "that the +Captain of Knockdunder would have swore him out of the country in +twenty-four hours, sae awsome it was to ony thinking soul to hear his +imprecations, upon the slightest temptation that crossed his humour." + +Besides these, there were a wilder set of parishioners, mountaineers from +the upper glen and adjacent hill, who spoke Gaelic, went about armed, and +wore the Highland dress. But the strict commands of the Duke had +established such good order in this part of his territories, that the +Gael and Saxons lived upon the best possible terms of good neighbourhood. +They first visited the Manse, as the parsonage is termed in Scotland. It +was old, but in good repair, and stood snugly embosomed in a grove of +sycamore, with a well-stocked garden in front, bounded by the small +river, which was partly visible from the windows, partly concealed by the +bushes, trees, and bounding hedge. Within, the house looked less +comfortable than it might have been, for it had been neglected by the +late incumbent; but workmen had been labouring, under the directions of +the Captain of Knockdunder, and at the expense of the Duke of Argyle, to +put it into some order. The old "plenishing" had been removed, and neat, +but plain household furniture had been sent down by the Duke in a brig of +his own called the Caroline, and was now ready to be placed in order in +the apartments. + +The gracious Duncan, finding matters were at a stand among the workmen, +summoned before him the delinquents, and impressed all who heard him with +a sense of his authority, by the penalties with which he threatened them +for their delay. Mulcting them in half their charge, he assured them, +would be the least of it; for, if they were to neglect his pleasure and +the Duke's, "he would be tamn'd if he paid them the t'other half either, +and they might seek law for it where they could get it." The work-people +humbled themselves before the offended dignitary, and spake him soft and +fair; and at length, upon Mr. Butler recalling to his mind that it was +the ordination-day, and that the workmen were probably thinking of going +to church, Knockdunder agreed to forgive them, out of respect to their +new minister. + +"But an I catch them neglecking my duty again, Mr. Putler, the teil pe in +me if the kirk shall be an excuse; for what has the like o' them +rapparees to do at the kirk ony day put Sundays, or then either, if the +Duke and I has the necessitous uses for them?" + +It may be guessed with what feelings of quiet satisfaction and delight +Butler looked forward to spending his days, honoured and useful as he +trusted to be, in this sequestered valley, and how often an intelligent +glance was exchanged betwixt him and Jeanie, whose good-humoured face +looked positively handsome, from the expression of modesty, and, at the +same time, of satisfaction, which she wore when visiting the apartments +of which she was soon to call herself mistress. She was left at liberty +to give more open indulgence to her feelings of delight and admiration, +when, leaving the Manse, the company proceeded to examine the destined +habitation of David Deans. + +Jeanie found with pleasure that it was not above a musket-shot from the +Manse; for it had been a bar to her happiness to think she might be +obliged to reside at a distance from her father, and she was aware that +there were strong objections to his actually living in the same house +with Butler. But this brief distance was the very thing which she could +have wished. + +The farmhouse was on the plan of an improved cottage, and contrived with +great regard to convenience; an excellent little garden, an orchard, and +a set of offices complete, according to the best ideas of the time, +combined to render it a most desirable habitation for the practical +farmer, and far superior to the hovel at Woodend, and the small house at +Saint Leonard's Crags. The situation was considerably higher than that of +the Manse, and fronted to the west. The windows commanded an enchanting +view of the little vale over which the mansion seemed to preside, the +windings of the stream, and the firth, with its associated lakes and +romantic islands. The hills of Dumbartonshire, once possessed by the +fierce clan of MacFarlanes, formed a crescent behind the valley, and far +to the right were seen the dusky and more gigantic mountains of +Argyleshire, with a seaward view of the shattered and thunder-splitten +peaks of Arran. + +But to Jeanie, whose taste for the picturesque, if she had any by nature, +had never been awakened or cultivated, the sight of the faithful old May +Hettly, as she opened the door to receive them in her clean toy, Sunday's +russet-gown, and blue apron, nicely smoothed down before her, was worth +the whole varied landscape. The raptures of the faithful old creature at +seeing Jeanie were equal to her own, as she hastened to assure her, "that +baith the gudeman and the beasts had been as weel seen after as she +possibly could contrive." Separating her from the rest of the company, +May then hurried her young mistress to the offices, that she might +receive the compliments she expected for her care of the cows. Jeanie +rejoiced, in the simplicity of her heart, to see her charge once more; +and the mute favourites of our heroine, Gowans, and the others, +acknowledged her presence by lowing, turning round their broad and decent +brows when they heard her well-known "Pruh, my leddy--pruh, my woman," +and, by various indications, known only to those who have studied the +habits of the milky mothers, showing sensible pleasure as she approached +to caress them in their turn. + +"The very brute beasts are glad to see ye again," said May; "but nae +wonder, Jeanie, for ye were aye kind to beast and body. And I maun learn +to ca' ye /mistress/ now, Jeanie, since ye hae been up to Lunnon, and +seen the Duke, and the King, and a' the braw folk. But wha kens," added +the old dame slily, "what I'll hae to ca' ye forby mistress, for I am +thinking it wunna lang be Deans." + +"Ca' me your ain Jeanie, May, and then ye can never gang wrang." + +In the cow-house which they examined, there was one animal which Jeanie +looked at till the tears gushed from her eyes. May, who had watched her +with a sympathising expression, immediately observed, in an under-tone, +"The gudeman aye sorts that beast himself, and is kinder to it than ony +beast in the byre; and I noticed he was that way e'en when he was +angriest, and had maist cause to be angry.--Eh, sirs! a parent's heart's +a queer thing!--Mony a warsle he has had for that puir lassie--I am +thinking he petitions mair for her than for yoursell, hinny; for what can +he plead for you but just to wish you the blessing ye deserve? And when I +sleepit ayont the hallan, when we came first here, he was often earnest +a' night, and I could hear him come ower and ower again wi', 'Effie--puir +blinded misguided thing!' it was aye 'Effie! Effie!'--If that puir +wandering lamb comena into the sheepfauld in the Shepherd's ain time, it +will be an unco wonder, for I wot she has been a child of prayers. Oh, if +the puir prodigal wad return, sae blithely as the goodman wad kill the +fatted calf!--though Brockie's calf will no be fit for killing this three +weeks yet." + +And then, with the discursive talent of persons of her description, she +got once more afloat in her account of domestic affairs, and left this +delicate and affecting topic. + +Having looked at every thing in the offices and the dairy, and expressed +her satisfaction with the manner in which matters had been managed in her +absence, Jeanie rejoined the rest of the party, who were surveying the +interior of the house, all excepting David Deans and Butler, who had gone +down to the church to meet the kirk-session and the clergymen of the +Presbytery, and arrange matters for the duty of the day. + +In the interior of the cottage all was clean, neat, and suitable to the +exterior. It had been originally built and furnished by the Duke, as a +retreat for a favourite domestic of the higher class, who did not long +enjoy it, and had been dead only a few months, so that every thing was in +excellent taste and good order. But in Jeanie's bedroom was a neat trunk, +which had greatly excited Mrs. Dutton's curiosity, for she was sure that +the direction, "For Mrs. Jean Deans, at Auchingower, parish of +Knocktarlitie," was the writing of Mrs. Semple, the Duchess's own woman. +May Hettly produced the key in a sealed parcel, which bore the same +address, and attached to the key was a label, intimating that the trunk +and its contents were "a token of remembrance to Jeanie Deans, from her +friends the Duchess of Argyle and the young ladies." The trunk, hastily +opened, as the reader will not doubt, was found to be full of wearing +apparel of the best quality, suited to Jeanie's rank in life; and to most +of the articles the names of the particular donors were attached, as if +to make Jeanie sensible not only of the general, but of the individual +interest she had excited in the noble family. To name the various +articles by their appropriate names, would be to attempt things +unattempted yet in prose or rhyme; besides that the old-fashioned terms +of manteaus, sacques, kissing-strings, and so forth, would convey but +little information even to the milliners of the present day. I shall +deposit, however, an accurate inventory of the contents of the trunk with +my kind friend, Miss Martha Buskbody, who has promised, should the public +curiosity seem interested in the subject, to supply me with a +professional glossary and commentary. Suffice it to say, that the gift +was such as became the donors, and was suited to the situation of the +receiver; that every thing was handsome and appropriate, and nothing +forgotten which belonged to the wardrobe of a young person in Jeanie's +situation in life, the destined bride of a respectable clergyman. + +Article after article was displayed, commented upon, and admired, to the +wonder of May, who declared, "she didna think the queen had mair or +better claise," and somewhat to the envy of the northern Cowslip. This +unamiable, but not very unnatural, disposition of mind, broke forth in +sundry unfounded criticisms to the disparagement of the articles, as they +were severally exhibited. But it assumed a more direct character, when, +at the bottom of all, was found a dress of white silk, very plainly made, +but still of white silk, and French silk to boot, with a paper pinned to +it, bearing that it was a present from the Duke of Argyle to his +travelling companion, to be worn on the day when she should change her +name. + +Mrs. Dutton could forbear no longer, but whispered into Mr. Archibald's +ear, that it was a clever thing to be a Scotchwoman: "She supposed all +/her/ sisters, and she had half-a-dozen, might have been hanged, without +any one sending her a present of a pocket handkerchief." + +"Or without your making any exertion to save them, Mrs. Dolly," answered +Archibald drily.--"But I am surprised we do not hear the bell yet," said +he, looking at his watch. + +"Fat ta deil, Mr. Archibald," answered the Captain of Knockdunder, "wad +ye hae them ring the bell before I am ready to gang to kirk?--I wad gar +the bedral eat the bell-rope, if he took ony sic freedom. But if ye want +to hear the bell, I will just show mysell on the knowe-head, and it will +begin jowing forthwith." + +Accordingly, so soon as they sallied out, and that the gold-laced hat of +the Captain was seen rising like Hesper above the dewy verge of the +rising ground, the clash (for it was rather a clash than a clang) of the +bell was heard from the old moss-grown tower, and the clapper continued +to thump its cracked sides all the while they advanced towards the kirk, +Duncan exhorting them to take their own time, "for teil ony sport wad be +till he came."* + +* Note T. Tolling to service in Scotland. + + Accordingly, the bell only changed to the final and impatient chime when +they crossed the stile; and "rang in," that is, concluded its mistuned +summons, when they had entered the Duke's seat, in the little kirk, where +the whole party arranged themselves, with Duncan at their head, excepting +David Deans, who already occupied a seat among the elders. + +The business of the day, with a particular detail of which it is +unnecessary to trouble the reader, was gone through according to the +established form, and the sermon pronounced upon the occasion had the +good fortune to please even the critical David Deans, though it was only +an hour and a quarter long, which David termed a short allowance of +spiritual provender. + +The preacher, who was a divine that held many of David's opinions, +privately apologised for his brevity by saying, "That he observed the +Captain was gaunting grievously, and that if he had detained him longer, +there was no knowing how long he might be in paying the next term's +victual stipend." + +David groaned to find that such carnal motives could have influence upon +the mind of a powerful preacher. He had, indeed, been scandalised by +another circumstance during the service. + +So soon as the congregation were seated after prayers, and the clergyman +had read his text, the gracious Duncan, after rummaging the leathern +purse which hung in front of his petticoat, produced a short tobacco-pipe +made of iron, and observed, almost aloud, "I hae forgotten my spleuchan-- +Lachlan, gang down to the clachan, and bring me up a pennyworth of +twist." Six arms, the nearest within reach, presented, with an obedient +start, as many tobacco-pouches to the man of office. He made choice of +one with an nod of acknowledgment, filled his pipe, lighted it with the +assistance of his pistol-flint, and smoked with infinite composure during +the whole time of the sermon. When the discourse was finished, he knocked +the ashes out of his pipe, replaced it in his sporran, returned the +tobacco-pouch or spleuchan to its owner, and joined in the prayer with +decency and attention. + +At the end of the service, when Butler had been admitted minister of the +kirk of Knocktarlitie, with all its spiritual immunities and privileges, +David, who had frowned, groaned, and murmured at Knockdunder's irreverent +demeanour, communicated his plain thoughts of the matter to Isaac +Meiklehose, one of the elders, with whom a reverential aspect and huge +grizzle wig had especially disposed him to seek fraternisation. "It didna +become a wild Indian," David said, "much less a Christian, and a +gentleman, to sit in the kirk puffing tobacco-reek, as if he were in a +change-house." + +Meiklehose shook his head, and allowed it was "far frae beseeming--But +what will ye say? The Captain's a queer hand, and to speak to him about +that or onything else that crosses the maggot, wad be to set the kiln +a-low. He keeps a high hand ower the country, and we couldna deal wi' the +Hielandmen without his protection, sin' a' the keys o' the kintray hings +at his belt; and he's no an ill body in the main, and maistry, ye ken, +maws the meadows doun." + +"That may be very true, neighbour," said David; "but Reuben Butler isna +the man I take him to be, if he disna learn the Captain to fuff his pipe +some other gate than in God's house, or the quarter be ower." + +"Fair and softly gangs far," said Meiklehose; "and if a fule may gie a +wise man a counsel, I wad hae him think twice or he mells with +Knockdunder--He auld hae a lang-shankit spune that wad sup kail wi' the +deil. But they are a' away to their dinner to the change-house, and if we +dinna mend our pace, we'll come short at meal-time." + +David accompanied his friend without answer; but began to feel from +experience, that the glen of Knocktarlitie, like the rest of the world, +was haunted by its own special subjects of regret and discontent. His +mind was, so much occupied by considering the best means of converting +Duncan of Knock to a sense of reverend decency during public worship, +that he altogether forgot to inquire whether Butler was called upon to +subscribe the oaths to Government. + +Some have insinuated, that his neglect on this head was, in some degree, +intentional; but I think this explanation inconsistent with the +simplicity of my friend David's character. Neither have I ever been able, +by the most minute inquiries, to know whether the /formula,/ at which he +so much scrupled, had been exacted from Butler, ay or no. The books of +the kirk-session might have thrown some light on this matter; but +unfortunately they were destroyed in the year 1746, by one Donacha Dhu na +Dunaigh, at the instance, it was said, or at least by the connivance, of +the gracious Duncan of Knock, who had a desire to obliterate the recorded +foibles of a certain Kate Finlayson. + + + + + CHAPTER TWENTY-SECOND. + + Now butt and ben the change-house fills + Wi' yill-caup commentators, + Here's crying out for bakes and gills, + And there the pint-stoup clatters. + Wi' thick and thrang, and loud and lang,-- + Wi' logic and wi' scripture, + They raise a din that in the end + Is like to breed a rupture, + O' wrath that day. + Burns. + +A plentiful entertainment, at the Duke of Argyle's cost, regaled the +reverend gentlemen who had assisted at the ordination of Reuben Butler, +and almost all the respectable part of the parish. The feast was, indeed, +such as the country itself furnished; for plenty of all the requisites +for "a rough and round dinner" were always at Duncan of Knock's command. +There was the beef and mutton on the braes, the fresh and salt-water fish +in the lochs, the brooks, and firth; game of every kind, from the deer to +the leveret, were to be had for the killing, in the Duke's forests, +moors, heaths, and mosses; and for liquor, home-brewed ale flowed as +freely as water; brandy and usquebaugh both were had in those happy times +without duty; even white wine and claret were got for nothing, since the +Duke's extensive rights of admiralty gave him a title to all the wine in +cask which is drifted ashore on the western coast and isles of Scotland, +when shipping have suffered by severe weather. In short, as Duncan +boasted, the entertainment did not cost MacCallummore a plack out of his +sporran, and was nevertheless not only liberal, but overflowing. + +The Duke's health was solemnised in a /bona fide/ bumper, and David Deans +himself added perhaps the first huzza that his lungs had ever uttered, to +swell the shout with which the pledge was received. Nay, so exalted in +heart was he upon this memorable occasion, and so much disposed to be +indulgent, that, he expressed no dissatisfaction when three bagpipers +struck up, "The Campbells are coming." The health of the reverend +minister of Knocktarlitie was received with similar honours; and there +was a roar of laughter, when one of his brethren slily subjoined the +addition of, "A good wife to our brother, to keep the Manse in order." On +this occasion David Deans was delivered of his first-born joke; and +apparently the parturition was accompanied with many throes, for sorely +did he twist about his physiognomy, and much did he stumble in his +speech, before he could express his idea, "That the lad being now wedded +to his spiritual bride, it was hard to threaten him with ane temporal +spouse in the same day." He then laughed a hoarse and brief laugh, and +was suddenly grave and silent, as if abashed at his own vivacious effort. + +After another toast or two, Jeanie, Mrs. Dolly, and such of the female +natives as had honoured the feast with their presence, retired to David's +new dwelling at Auchingower, and left the gentlemen to their potations. + +The feast proceeded with great glee. The conversation, where Duncan had +it under his direction, was not indeed always strictly canonical, but +David Deans escaped any risk of being scandalised, by engaging with one +of his neighbours in a recapitulation of the sufferings of Ayrshire and +Lanarkshire, during what was called the invasion of the Highland Host; +the prudent Mr. Meiklehose cautioning them from time to time to lower +their voices, "for that Duncan Knock's father had been at that onslaught, +and brought back muckle gude plenishing, and that Duncan was no unlikely +to hae been there himself, for what he kend." + +Meanwhile, as the mirth grew fast and furious, the graver members of the +party began to escape as well as they could. David Deans accomplished his +retreat, and Butler anxiously watched an opportunity to follow him. +Knockdunder, however, desirous, he said, of knowing what stuff was in the +new minister, had no intention to part with him so easily, but kept him +pinned to his side, watching him sedulously, and with obliging violence +filling his glass to the brim, as often as he could seize an opportunity +of doing so. At length, as the evening was wearing late, a venerable +brother chanced to ask Mr. Archibald when they might hope to see the +Duke, /tam carum caput,/ as he would venture to term him, at the Lodge of +Roseneath. Duncan of Knock, whose ideas were somewhat conglomerated, and +who, it may be believed, was no great scholar, catching up some imperfect +sound of the words, conceived the speaker was drawing a parallel between +the Duke and Sir Donald Gorme of Sleat; and being of opinion that such +comparison was odious, snorted thrice, and prepared himself to be in a +passion. + +To the explanation of the venerable divine the Captain answered, "I heard +the word Gorme myself, sir, with my ain ears. D'ye think I do not know +Gaelic from Latin?" + +"Apparently not, sir;"--so the clergyman, offended in his turn, and +taking a pinch of snuff, answered with great coolness. + +The copper nose of the gracious Duncan now became heated like the Bull of +Phalaris, and while Mr. Archibald mediated betwixt the offended parties, +and the attention of the company was engaged by their dispute, Butler +took an opportunity to effect his retreat. + +He found the females at Auchingower very anxious for the breaking up of +the convivial party; for it was a part of the arrangement, that although +David Deans was to remain at Auchingower, and Butler was that night to +take possession of the Manse, yet Jeanie, for whom complete +accommodations were not yet provided in her father's house, was to return +for a day or two to the Lodge at Roseneath, and the boats had been held +in readiness accordingly. They waited, therefore, for Knockdunder's +return, but twilight came, and they still waited in vain. At length Mr. +Archibald, who was a man of decorum, had taken care not to exceed in his +conviviality, made his appearance, and advised the females strongly to +return to the island under his escort; observing, that, from the humour +in which he had left the Captain, it was a great chance whether he budged +out of the public-house that night, and it was absolutely certain that he +would not be very fit company for ladies. The gig was at their disposal, +he said, and there was still pleasant twilight for a party on the water. + +Jeanie, who had considerable confidence in Archibald's prudence, +immediately acquiesced in this proposal; but Mrs. Dolly positively +objected to the small boat. If the big boat could be gotten, she agreed +to set out, otherwise she would sleep on the floor, rather than stir a +step. Reasoning with Dolly was out of the question, and Archibald did not +think the difficulty so pressing as to require compulsion. He observed, +it was not using the Captain very politely to deprive him of his coach +and six; "but as it was in the ladies' service," he gallantly said, "he +would use so much freedom--besides the gig would serve the Captain's +purpose better, as it could come off at any hour of the tide; the large +boat should, therefore, be at Mrs. Dolly's service." + +They walked to the beach accordingly, accompanied by Butler. It was some +time before the boatmen could be assembled, and ere they were well +embarked, and ready to depart, the pale moon was come over the hill, and +flinging a trembling reflection on the broad and glittering waves. But so +soft and pleasant was the night, that Butler, in bidding farewell to +Jeanie, had no apprehension for her safety; and what is yet more +extraordinary, Mrs. Dolly felt no alarm for her own. The air was soft, +and came over the cooling wave with something of summer fragrance. The +beautiful scene of headlands, and capes, and bays, around them, with the +broad blue chain of mountains, were dimly visible in the moonlight; while +every dash of the oars made the waters glance and sparkle with the +brilliant phenomenon called the sea fire. + +This last circumstance filled Jeanie with wonder, and served to amuse the +mind of her companion, until they approached the little bay, which seemed +to stretch its dark and wooded arms into the sea as if to welcome them. + +The usual landing-place was at a quarter of a mile's distance from the +Lodge, and although the tide did not admit of the large boat coming quite +close to the jetty of loose stones which served as a pier, Jeanie, who +was both bold and active, easily sprung ashore; but Mrs., Dolly +positively refusing to commit herself to the same risk, the complaisant +Mr. Archibald ordered the boat round to a more regular landing-place, at +a considerable distance along the shore. He then prepared to land +himself, that he might, in the meanwhile, accompany Jeanie to the Lodge. +But as there was no mistaking the woodland lane, which led from thence to +the shore, and as the moonlight showed her one of the white chimneys +rising out of the wood which embosomed the building, Jeanie declined this +favour with thanks, and requested him to proceed with Mrs. Dolly, who, +being "in a country where the ways were so strange to her, had mair need +of countenance." + +This, indeed, was a fortunate circumstance, and might even be said to +save poor Cowslip's life, if it was true, as she herself used solemnly to +aver, that she must positively have expired for fear, if she had been +left alone in the boat with six wild Highlanders in kilts. + +The night was so exquisitely beautiful, that Jeanie, instead of +immediately directing her course towards the Lodge, stood looking after +the boat as it again put off from the side, and rowed into the little +bay, the dark figures of her companions growing less and less distinct as +they diminished in the distance, and the jorram, or melancholy boat-song +of the rowers, coming on the ear with softened and sweeter sound, until +the boat rounded the headland, and was lost to her observation. + +Still Jeanie remained in the same posture, looking out upon the sea. It +would, she was aware, be some time ere her companions could reach the +Lodge, as the distance by the more convenient landing-place was +considerably greater than from the point where she stood, and she was not +sorry to have an opportunity to spend the interval by herself. + +The wonderful change which a few weeks had wrought in her situation, from +shame and grief, and almost despair, to honour, joy, and a fair prospect +of future happiness, passed before her eyes with a sensation which +brought the tears into them. Yet they flowed at the same time from +another source. As human happiness is never perfect, and as +well-constructed minds are never more sensible of the distresses of those +whom they love, than when their own situation forms a contrast with them, +Jeanie's affectionate regrets turned to the fate of her poor sister--the +child of so many hopes--the fondled nursling of so many years--now an +exile, and, what was worse, dependent on the will of a man, of whose +habits she had every reason to entertain the worst opinion, and who, even +in his strongest paroxysms of remorse, had appeared too much a stranger +to the feelings of real penitence. + +While her thoughts were occupied with these melancholy reflections, a +shadowy figure seemed to detach itself from the copsewood on her right +hand. Jeanie started, and the stories of apparitions and wraiths, seen by +solitary travellers in wild situations, at such times, and in such an +hour, suddenly came full upon her imagination. The figure glided on, and +as it came betwixt her and the moon, she was aware that it had the +appearance of a woman. A soft voice twice repeated, "Jeanie--Jeanie!"-- +Was it indeed--could it be the voice of her sister?--Was she still among +the living, or had the grave given uly its tenant?--Ere she could state +these questions to her own mind, Effie, alive, and in the body, had +clasped her in her arms and was straining her to her bosom, and devouring +her with kisses. "I have wandered here," she said, "like a ghaist, to see +you, and nae wonder you take me for ane--I thought but to see you gang +by, or to hear the sound of your voice; but to speak to yoursell again, +Jeanie, was mair than I deserved, and mair than I durst pray for." + +"O Effie! how came ye here alone, and at this hour, and on the wild +seabeach?--Are you sure it's your ain living sell?" There was something +of Effie's former humour in her practically answering the question by a +gentle pinch, more beseeming the fingers of a fairy than of a ghost. And +again the sisters embraced, and laughed, and wept by turns. + +"But ye maun gang up wi' me to the Lodge, Effie," said Jeanie, "and tell +me a' your story--I hae gude folk there that will make ye welcome for my +sake." + +"Na, na, Jeanie," replied her sister sorrowfully,--"ye hae forgotten what +I am--a banished outlawed creature, scarce escaped the gallows by your +being the bauldest and the best sister that ever lived--I'll gae near +nane o' your grand friends, even if there was nae danger to me." + +"There is nae danger--there shall be nae danger," said Jeanie eagerly. "O +Effie, dinna be wilfu'--be guided for ance--we will be sae happy a' +thegither!" + +"I have a' the happiness I deserve on this side of the grave, now that I +hae seen you," answered Effie; "and whether there were danger to mysell +or no, naebody shall ever say that I come with my cheat-the-gallows face +to shame my sister among her grand friends." + +"I hae nae grand friends," said Jeanie; "nae friends but what are friends +of yours--Reuben Butler and my father.--O unhappy lassie, dinna be dour, +and turn your back on your happiness again! We wunna see another +acquaintance--Come hame to us, your ain dearest friends--it's better +sheltering under an auld hedge than under a new-planted wood." + +"It's in vain speaking, Jeanie,--I maun drink as I hae brewed--I am +married, and I maun follow my husband for better for worse." + +"Married, Effie!" exclaimed Jeanie--"Misfortunate creature! and to that +awfu'" + +"Hush, hush," said Effie, clapping one hand on her mouth, and pointing to +the thicket with the other, "he is yonder." She said this in a tone which +showed that her husband had found means to inspire her with awe, as well +as affection. At this moment a man issued from the wood. + +It was young Staunton. Even by the imperfect light of the moon, Jeanie +could observe that he was handsomely dressed, and had the air of a person +of rank. + +"Effie," he said, "our time is well-nigh spent--the skiff will be aground +in the creek, and I dare not stay longer.--I hope your sister will allow +me to salute her?" But Jeanie shrunk back from him with a feeling of +internal abhorrence. "Well," he said, "it does not much signify; if you +keep up the feeling of ill-will, at least you do not act upon it, and I +thank you for your respect to my secret, when a word (which in your place +I would have spoken at once) would have cost me my life. People say, you +should keep from the wife of your bosom the secret that concerns your +neck--my wife and her sister both know mine, and I shall not sleep a wink +the less sound." + +"But are you really married to my sister, sir?" asked Jeanie, in great +doubt and anxiety; for the haughty, careless tone in which he spoke +seemed to justify her worst apprehensions. + +"I really am legally married, and by my own name," replied Staunton, more +gravely. + +"And your father--and your friends?" + +"And my father and my friends must just reconcile themselves to that +which is done and cannot be undone," replied Staunton. "However, it is my +intention, in order to break off dangerous connections, and to let my +friends come to their temper, to conceal my marriage for the present, and +stay abroad for some years. So that you will not hear of us for some +time, if ever you hear of us again at all. It would be dangerous, you +must be aware, to keep up the correspondence; for all would guess that +the husband of Effie was the--what shall I call myself?--the slayer of +Porteous." + +Hard-hearted light man! thought Jeanie--to what a character she has +intrusted her happiness!--She has sown the wind, and maun reap the +whirlwind. + +"Dinna think ill o' him," said Effie, breaking away from her husband, and +leading Jeanie a step or two out of hearing--"dinna think very ill o' +him--he's gude to me, Jeanie--as gude as I deserve--And he is determined +to gie up his bad courses--Sae, after a', dinna greet for Effie; she is +better off than she has wrought for.--But you--oh, you!--how can you be +happy eneugh! never till ye get to heaven, where a'body is as gude as +yoursell.--Jeanie, if I live and thrive, ye shall hear of me--if not, +just forget that sic a creature ever lived to vex ye--fare ye weel--fare +--fare ye weel!" + +She tore herself from her sister's arms--rejoined her husband--they +plunged into the copsewood, and she saw them no more. The whole scene had +the effect of a vision, and she could almost have believed it such, but +that very soon after they quitted her, she heard the sound of oars, and a +skiff was seen on the firth, pulling swiftly towards the small smuggling +sloop which lay in the offing. It was on board of such a vessel that +Effie had embarked at Portobello, and Jeanie had no doubt that the same +conveyance was destined, as Staunton had hinted, to transport them to a +foreign country. + +Although it was impossible to determine whether this interview, while it +was passing, gave more pain or pleasure to Jeanie Deans, yet the ultimate +impression which remained on her mind was decidedly favourable. Effie was +married--made, according to the common phrase, an honest woman--that was +one main point; it seemed also as if her husband were about to abandon +the path of gross vice in which he had run so long and so desperately-- +that was another. For his final and effectual conversion he did not want +understanding, and God knew his own hour. + +Such were the thoughts with which Jeanie endeavoured to console her +anxiety respecting her sister's future fortune. On her arrival at the +lodge, she found Archibald in some anxiety at her stay, and about to walk +out in quest of her. A headache served as an apology for retiring to +rest, in order to conceal her visible agitation of mind from her +companions. + +By this secession also she escaped a scene of a different sort. For, as +if there were danger in all gigs, whether by sea or land, that of +Knockdunder had been run down by another boat, an accident owing chiefly +to the drunkenness of the Captain, his crew, and passengers. Knockdunder, +and two or three guests, whom he was bringing along with him to finish +the conviviality of the evening at the Lodge, got a sound ducking; but, +being rescued by the crew of the boat which endangered them, there was no +ultimate loss, excepting that of the Captain's laced hat, which, greatly +to the satisfaction of the Highland part of the district, as well as to +the improvement of the conformity of his own personal appearance, he +replaced by a smart Highland bonnet next day. Many were the vehement +threats of vengeance which, on the succeeding morning, the gracious +Duncan threw out against the boat which had upset him; but as neither +she, nor the small smuggling vessel to which she belonged, was any longer +to be seen in the firth, he was compelled to sit down with the affront. +This was the more hard, he said, as he was assured the mischief was done +on purpose, these scoundrels having lurked about after they had landed +every drop of brandy, and every bag of tea they had on board; and he +understood the coxswain had been on shore, making particular inquiries +concerning the time when his boat was to cross over, and to return, and +so forth. + +"Put the neist time they meet me on the firth," said Duncan, with great +majesty, "I will teach the moonlight rapscallions and vagabonds to keep +their ain side of the road, and pe tamn'd to them!" + + + + + CHAPTER TWENTY-THIRD. + + Lord! who would live turmoiled in a court, + And may enjoy such quiet walks as these? + Shakespeare. + +Within a reasonable time after Butler was safely and comfortably settled +in his living, and Jeanie had taken up her abode at Auchingower with her +father,--the precise extent of which interval we request each reader to +settle according to his own sense of what is decent and proper upon the +occasion,--and after due proclamation of banns, and all other +formalities, the long wooing of this worthy pair was ended by their union +in the holy bands of matrimony. On this occasion, David Deans stoutly +withstood the iniquities of pipes, fiddles, and promiscuous dancing, to +the great wrath of the Captain of Knockdunder, who said, if he "had +guessed it was to be sic a tamn'd Quakers' meeting, he wad hae seen them +peyont the cairn before he wad hae darkened their doors." + +And so much rancour remained on the spirits of the gracious Duncan upon +this occasion, that various "picqueerings," as David called them, took +place upon the same and similar topics and it was only in consequence of +an accidental visit of the Duke to his Lodge at Roseneath, that they were +put a stop to. But upon that occasion his Grace showed such particular +respect to Mr. and Mrs. Butler, and such favour even to old David, that +Knockdunder held it prudent to change his course towards the latter. He, +in future, used to express himself among friends, concerning the minister +and his wife, as "very worthy decent folk, just a little over strict in +their notions; put it was pest for thae plack cattle to err on the safe +side." And respecting David, he allowed that "he was an excellent judge +of nowte and sheep, and a sensible eneugh carle, an it werena for his +tamn'd Cameronian nonsense, whilk it is not worth while of a shentleman +to knock out of an auld silly head, either by force of reason or +otherwise." So that, by avoiding topics of dispute, the personages of our +tale lived in great good habits with the gracious Duncan, only that he +still grieved David's soul, and set a perilous example to the +congregation, by sometimes bringing his pipe to the church during a cold +winter day, and almost always sleeping during sermon in the summer time. + +Mrs. Butler, whom we must no longer, if we can help it, term by the +familiar name of Jeanie, brought into the married state the same firm +mind and affectionate disposition--the same natural and homely good +sense, and spirit of useful exertion--in a word, all the domestic good +qualities of which she had given proof during her maiden life. She did +not indeed rival Butler in learning; but then no woman more devoutly +venerated the extent of her husband's erudition. She did not pretend to +understand his expositions of divinity; but no minister of the Presbytery +had his humble dinner so well arranged, his clothes and linen in equal +good order, his fireside so neatly swept, his parlour so clean, and his +books so well dusted. + +If he talked to Jeanie of what she did not understand--and (for the man +was mortal, and had been a schoolmaster) he sometimes did harangue more +scholarly and wisely than was necessary--she listened in placid silence; +and whenever the point referred to common life, and was such as came +under the grasp of a strong natural understanding, her views were more +forcible, and her observations more acute, than his own. In acquired +politeness of manners, when it happened that she mingled a little in +society, Mrs. Butler was, of course, judged deficient. But then she had +that obvious wish to oblige, and that real and natural good-breeding +depending on, good sense and good humour, which, joined to a considerable +degree of archness and liveliness of manner, rendered her behaviour +acceptable to all with whom she was called upon to associate. +Notwithstanding her strict attention to all domestic affairs, she always +appeared the clean well-dressed mistress of the house, never the sordid +household drudge. When complimented on this occasion by Duncan Knock, who +swore "that he thought the fairies must help her, since her house was +always clean, and nobody ever saw anybody sweeping it," she modestly +replied, "That much might be dune by timing ane's turns." + +Duncan replied, "He heartily wished she could teach that art to the +huzzies at the Lodge, for he could never discover that the house was +washed at a', except now and then by breaking his shins over the pail-- +Cot tamn the jauds!" + +Of lesser matters there is not occasion to speak much. It may easily be +believed that the Duke's cheese was carefully made, and so graciously +accepted, that the offering became annual. Remembrances and +acknowledgments of past favours were sent to Mrs. Bickerton and Mrs. +Glass, and an amicable intercourse maintained from time to time with +these two respectable and benevolent persons. + +It is especially necessary to mention that, in the course of five years, +Mrs. Butler had three children, two boys and a girl, all stout healthy +babes of grace, fair-haired, blue-eyed, and strong-limbed. The boys were +named David and Reuben, an order of nomenclature which was much to the +satisfaction of the old hero of the Covenant, and the girl, by her +mother's special desire, was christened Euphemia, rather contrary to the +wish both of her father and husband, who nevertheless loved Mrs. Butler +too well, and were too much indebted to her for their hours of happiness, +to withstand any request which she made with earnestness, and as a +gratification to herself. But from some feeling, I know not of what kind, +the child was never distinguished by the name of Effie, but by the +abbreviation of Femie, which in Scotland is equally commonly applied to +persons called Euphemia. + +In this state of quiet and unostentatious enjoyment, there were, besides +the ordinary rubs and ruffles which disturb even the most uniform life, +two things which particularly chequered Mrs. Butler's happiness. "Without +these," she said to our informer, "her life would have been but too +happy; and perhaps," she added, "she had need of some crosses in this +world to remind her that there was a better to come behind it." + +The first of these related to certain polemical skirmishes betwixt her +father and her husband, which, notwithstanding the mutual respect and +affection they entertained for each other, and their great love for her-- +notwithstanding, also, their general agreement in strictness, and even +severity, of Presbyterian principle--often threatened unpleasant weather +between them. David Deans, as our readers must be aware, was sufficiently +opinionative and intractable, and having prevailed on himself to become a +member of a kirk-session under the Established Church, he felt doubly +obliged to evince that, in so doing, he had not compromised any whit of +his former professions, either in practice or principle. Now Mr. Butler, +doing all credit to his father-in-law's motives, was frequently of +opinion that it were better to drop out of memory points of division and +separation, and to act in the manner most likely to attract and unite all +parties who were serious in religion. Moreover, he was not pleased, as a +man and a scholar, to be always dictated to by his unlettered +father-in-law; and as a clergyman, he did not think it fit to seem for +ever under the thumb of an elder of his own kirk-session. A proud but +honest thought carried his opposition now and then a little farther than +it would otherwise have gone. "My brethren," he said, "will suppose I am +flattering and conciliating the old man for the sake of his succession, +if I defer and give way to him on every occasion; and, besides, there are +many on which I neither can nor will conscientiously yield to his +notions. I cannot be persecuting old women for witches, or ferreting out +matter of scandal among the young ones, which might otherwise have +remained concealed." + +From this difference of opinion it happened that, in many cases of +nicety, such as in owning certain defections, and failing to testify +against certain backslidings of the time, in not always severely tracing +forth little matters of scandal and /fama clamosa,/ which David called a +loosening of the reins of discipline, and in failing to demand clear +testimonies in other points of controversy which had, as it were, drifted +to leeward with the change of times, Butler incurred the censure of his +father-in-law; and sometimes the disputes betwixt them became eager and +almost unfriendly. In all such cases Mrs Butler was a mediating spirit, +who endeavoured, by the alkaline smoothness of her own disposition, to +neutralise the acidity of theological controversy. To the complaints of +both she lent an unprejudiced and attentive ear, and sought always rather +to excuse than absolutely to defend the other party. + +She reminded her father that Butler had not "his experience of the auld +and wrastling times, when folk were gifted wi' a far look into eternity, +to make up for the oppressions whilk they suffered here below in time. +She freely allowed that many devout ministers and professors in times +past had enjoyed downright revelation, like the blessed Peden, and +Lundie, and Cameron, and Renwick, and John Caird the tinkler, wha entered +into the secrets, and Elizabeth Melvil, Lady Culross, wha prayed in her +bed, surrounded by a great many Christians in a large room, in whilk it +was placed on purpose, and that for three hours' time, with wonderful +assistance; and Lady Robertland, whilk got six sure outgates of grace, +and mony other in times past; and of a specially, Mr. John Scrimgeour, +minister of Kinghorn, who, having a beloved child sick to death of the +crewels, was free to expostulate with his Maker with such impatience of +displeasure, and complaining so bitterly, that at length it was said unto +him, that he was heard for this time, but that he was requested to use no +such boldness in time coming; so that when he returned he found the child +sitting up in the bed hale and fair, with all its wounds closed, and +supping its parritch, whilk babe he had left at the time of death. But +though these things might be true in these needful times, she contended +that those ministers who had not seen such vouchsafed and especial +mercies, were to seek their rule in the records of ancient times; and +therefore Reuben was carefu' both to search the Scriptures and the books +written by wise and good men of old; and sometimes in this way it wad +happen that twa precious saints might pu' sundry wise, like twa cows +riving at the same hayband." + +To this David used to reply, with a sigh, "Ah, hinny, thou kenn'st little +o't; but that saam John Scrimgeour, that blew open the gates of heaven as +an it had been wi' a sax-pund cannonball, used devoutly to wish that most +part of books were burnt, except the Bible. Reuben's a gude lad and a +kind--I have aye allowed that; but as to his not allowing inquiry anent +the scandal of Marjory Kittlesides and Rory MacRand, under pretence that +they have southered sin wi' marriage, it's clear agane the Christian +discipline o' the kirk. And then there's Aily MacClure of Deepheugh, that +practises her abominations, spacing folks' fortunes wi' egg-shells, and +mutton-banes, and dreams and divinations, whilk is a scandal to ony +Christian land to suffer sic a wretch to live; and I'll uphaud that, in +a' judicatures, civil or ecclesiastical." + +"I daresay ye are very right, father," was the general style of Jeanie's +answer; "but ye maun come down to the Manse to your dinner the day. The +bits o' bairns, puir things, are wearying to see their luckie dad; and +Reuben never sleeps weel, nor I neither, when you and he hae had ony bit +outcast." + +"Nae outcast, Jeanie; God forbid I suld cast out wi' thee, or aught that +is dear to thee!" And he put on his Sundays coat, and came to the Manse +accordingly. + +With her husband, Mrs. Butler had a more direct conciliatory process. +Reuben had the utmost respect for the old man's motives, and affection +for his person, as well as gratitude for his early friendship. So that, +upon any such occasion of accidental irritation, it was only necessary to +remind him with delicacy of his father-in-law's age, of his scanty +education, strong prejudices, and family distresses. The least of these +considerations always inclined Butler to measures of conciliation, in so +far as he could accede to them without compromising principle; and thus +our simple and unpretending heroine had the merit of those peacemakers, +to whom it is pronounced as a benediction, that they shall inherit the +earth. + +The second crook in Mrs. Butler's lot, to use the language of her father, +was the distressing circumstance, that she had never heard of her +sister's safety, or of the circumstances in which she found herself, +though betwixt four and five years had elapsed since they had parted on +the beach of the island of Roseneath. Frequent intercourse was not to be +expected--not to be desired, perhaps, in their relative situations; but +Effie had promised, that, if she lived and prospered, her sister should +hear from her. She must then be no more, or sunk into some abyss of +misery, since she had never redeemed her pledge. Her silence seemed +strange and portentous, and wrung from Jeanie, who could never forget the +early years of their intimacy, the most painful anticipation concerning +her fate. At length, however, the veil was drawn aside. + +One day, as the Captain of Knockdunder had called in at the Manse, on his +return from some business in the Highland part of the parish, and had +been accommodated, according to his special request, with a mixture of +milk, brandy, honey, and water, which he said Mrs. Butler compounded +"potter than ever a woman in Scotland,"--for, in all innocent matters, +she studied the taste of every one around her,--he said to Butler, "Py +the py, minister, I have a letter here either for your canny pody of a +wife or you, which I got when I was last at Glasco; the postage comes to +fourpence, which you may either pay me forthwith, or give me tooble or +quits in a hit at packcammon." + +The playing at backgammon and draughts had been a frequent amusement of +Mr. Whackbairn, Butler's principal, when at Liberton school. The +minister, therefore, still piqued himself on his skill at both games, and +occasionally practised them, as strictly canonical, although David Deans, +whose notions of every kind were more rigorous, used to shake his head, +and groan grievously, when he espied the tables lying in the parlour, or +the children playing with the dice boxes or backgammon men. Indeed, Mrs. +Butler was sometimes chidden for removing these implements of pastime +into some closet or corner out of sight. "Let them be where they are, +Jeanie," would Butler say upon such occasions; "I am not conscious of +following this, or any other trifling relaxation, to the interruption of +my more serious studies, and still more serious duties. I will not, +therefore, have it supposed that I am indulging by stealth, and against +my conscience, in an amusement which, using it so little as I do, I may +well practise openly, and without any check of mind--/Nil conscire sibi,/ +Jeanie, that is my motto; which signifies, my love, the honest and open +confidence which a man ought to entertain when he is acting openly, and +without any sense of doing wrong." + +Such being Butler's humour, he accepted the Captain's defiance to a +twopenny hit at backgammon, and handed the letter to his wife, observing +the post-mark was York, but, if it came from her friend Mrs. Bickerton, +she had considerably improved her handwriting, which was uncommon at her +years. + +Leaving the gentlemen to their game, Mrs. Butler went to order something +for supper, for Captain Duncan had proposed kindly to stay the night with +them, and then carelessly broke open her letter. It was not from Mrs. +Bickerton; and, after glancing over the first few lines, she soon found +it necessary to retire to her own bedroom, to read the document at +leisure. + + + + + CHAPTER TWENTY-FOURTH. + + Happy thou art! then happy be, + Nor envy me my lot; + Thy happy state I envy thee, + And peaceful cot. + Lady Charlotte Campbell. + +The letter, which Mrs. Butler, when retired into her own apartment, +perused with anxious wonder, was certainly from Effie, although it had no +other signature than the letter E.; and although the orthography, style, +and penmanship, were very far superior not only to anything which Effie +could produce, who, though a lively girl, had been a remarkably careless +scholar, but even to her more considerate sister's own powers of +composition and expression. The manuscript was a fair Italian hand, +though something stiff and constrained--the spelling and the diction that +of a person who had been accustomed to read good composition, and mix in +good society. + +The tenor of the letter was as follows:-- + +"My Dearest Sister,--At many risks I venture to write to you, to inform +you that I am still alive, and, as to worldly situation, that I rank +higher than I could expect or merit. If wealth, and distinction, and an +honourable rank, could make a woman happy, I have them all; but you, +Jeanie, whom the world might think placed far beneath me in all these +respects, are far happier than I am. I have had means of hearing of your +welfare, my dearest Jeanie, from time to time--I think I should have +broken my heart otherwise. I have learned with great pleasure of your +increasing family. We have not been worthy of such a blessing; two +infants have been successively removed, and we are now childless--God's +will be done! But, if we had a child, it would perhaps divert him from +the gloomy thoughts which make him terrible to himself and others. Yet do +not let me frighten you, Jeanie; he continues to be kind, and I am far +better off than I deserve. You will wonder at my better scholarship; but +when I was abroad, I had the best teachers, and I worked hard, because my +progress pleased him. He is kind, Jeanie, only he has much to distress +him, especially when he looks backward. When I look backward myself, I +have always a ray of comfort: it is in the generous conduct of a sister, +who forsook me not when I was forsaken by every one. You have had your +reward. You live happy in the esteem and love of all who know you, and I +drag on the life of a miserable impostor, indebted for the marks of +regard I receive to a tissue of deceit and lies, which the slightest +accident may unravel. He has produced me to his friends, since the estate +opened to him, as a daughter of a Scotchman of rank, banished on account +of the Viscount of Dundee's wars--that is, our Fr's old friend Clavers, +you know--and he says I was educated in a Scotch convent; indeed, I lived +in such a place long enough to enable me to support the character. But +when a countryman approaches me, and begins to talk, as they all do, of +the various families engaged in Dundee's affair, and to make inquiries +into my connections, and when I see his eye bent on mine with such an +expression of agony, my terror brings me to the very risk of detection. +Good-nature and politeness have hitherto saved me, as they prevented +people from pressing on me with distressing questions. But how long--O +how long, will this be the case!--And if I bring this disgrace on him, he +will hate me--he will kill me, for as much as he loves me; he is as +jealous of his family honour now, as ever he was careless about it. I +have been in England four months, and have often thought of writing to +you; and yet, such are the dangers that might arise from an intercepted +letter, that I have hitherto forborne. But now I am obliged to run the +risk. Last week I saw your great friend, the D. of A. He came to my box, +and sate by me; and something in the play put him in mind of you-- +Gracious Heaven! he told over your whole London journey to all who were +in the box, but particularly to the wretched creature who was the +occasion of it all. If he had known--if he could have conceived, beside +whom he was sitting, and to whom the story was told!--I suffered with +courage, like an Indian at the stake, while they are rending his fibres +and boring his eyes, and while he smiles applause at each well-imagined +contrivance of his torturers. It was too much for me at last, Jeanie--I +fainted; and my agony was imputed partly to the heat of the place, and +partly to my extreme sensibility; and, hypocrite all over, I encouraged +both opinions--anything but discovery! Luckily, /he/ was not there. But +the incident has more alarms. I am obliged to meet your great man often; +and he seldom sees me without talking of E. D. and J. D., and R. B. and +D. D., as persons in whom my amiable sensibility is interested. My +amiable sensibility!!!--And then the cruel tone of light indifference +with which persons in the fashionable world speak together on the most +affecting subjects! To hear my guilt, my folly, my agony, the foibles and +weaknesses of my friends--even your heroic exertions, Jeanie, spoken of +in the drolling style which is the present tone in fashionable life-- +Scarce all that I formerly endured is equal to this state of irritation-- +then it was blows and stabs--now it is pricking to death with needles and +pins.--He--I mean the D.--goes down next month to spend the +shooting-season in Scotland--he says, he makes a point of always dining +one day at the Manse--be on your guard, and do not betray yourself, +should he mention me--Yourself, alas! /you/ have nothing to betray-- +nothing to fear; you, the pure, the virtuous, the heroine of unstained +faith, unblemished purity, what can you have to fear from the world or +its proudest minions? It is E. whose life is once more in your hands--it +is E. whom you are to save from being plucked of her borrowed plumes, +discovered, branded, and trodden down, first by him, perhaps, who has +raised her to this dizzy pinnacle!--The enclosure will reach you twice +a-year--do not refuse it--it is out of my own allowance, and may be twice +as much when you want it. With you it may do good--with me it never can. + +"Write to me soon, Jeanie, or I shall remain in the agonising +apprehension that this has fallen into wrong hands--Address simply to L. +S., under cover, to the Reverend George Whiterose, in the Minster-Close, +York. He thinks I correspond with some of my noble Jacobite relations who +are in Scotland. How high-church and jacobitical zeal would burn in his +checks, if he knew he was the agent, not of Euphemia Setoun, of the +honourable house of Winton, but of E. D., daughter of a Cameronian +cowfeeder!--Jeanie, I can laugh yet sometimes--but God protect you from +such mirth.--My father--I mean your father, would say it was like the +idle crackling of thorns; but the thorns keep their poignancy, they +remain unconsumed. Farewell, my dearest Jeanie--Do not show this even to +Mr. Butler, much less to any one else. I have every respect for him, but +his principles are over strict, and my case will not endure severe +handling.--I rest your affectionate sister, E." + +In this long letter there was much to surprise as well as to distress +Mrs. Butler. That Effie--her sister Effie, should be mingling freely in +society, and apparently on not unequal terms, with the Duke of Argyle, +sounded like something so extraordinary, that she even doubted if she +read truly. Not was it less marvellous, that, in the space of four years, +her education should have made such progress. Jeanie's humility readily +allowed that Effie had always, when she chose it, been smarter at her +book than she herself was, but then she was very idle, and, upon the +whole, had made much less proficiency. Love, or fear, or necessity, +however, had proved an able school-mistress, and completely supplied all +her deficiencies. + +What Jeanie least liked in the tone of the letter, was a smothered degree +of egotism. "We should have heard little about her," said Jeanie to +herself, "but that she was feared the Duke might come to learn wha she +was, and a' about her puir friends here; but Effie, puir thing, aye looks +her ain way, and folk that do that think mair o' themselves than of their +neighbours.--I am no clear about keeping her siller," she added, taking +up a L50 note which had fallen out of the paper to the floor. "We hae +eneugh, and it looks unco like theftboot, or hushmoney, as they ca' it; +she might hae been sure that I wad say naething wad harm her, for a' the +gowd in Lunnon. And I maun tell the minister about it. I dinna see that +she suld be sae feared for her ain bonny bargain o' a gudeman, and that I +shouldna reverence Mr. Butler just as much; and sae I'll e'en tell him, +when that tippling body the Captain has ta'en boat in the morning.--But I +wonder at my ain state of mind," she added, turning back, after she had +made a step or two to the door to join the gentlemen; "surely I am no sic +a fule as to be angry that Effie's a braw lady, while I am only a +minister's wife?--and yet I am as petted as a bairn, when I should bless +God, that has redeemed her from shame, and poverty, and guilt, as ower +likely she might hae been plunged into." + +Sitting down upon a stool at the foot of the bed, she folded her arms +upon her bosom, saying within herself, "From this place will I not rise +till I am in a better frame of mind;" and so placed, by dint of tearing +the veil from the motives of her little temporary spleen against her +sister, she compelled herself to be ashamed of them, and to view as +blessings the advantages of her sister's lot, while its embarrassments +were the necessary consequences of errors long since committed. And thus +she fairly vanquished the feeling of pique which she naturally enough +entertained, at seeing Effie, so long the object of her care and her +pity, soar suddenly so high above her in life, as to reckon amongst the +chief objects of her apprehension the risk of their relationship being +discovered. + +When this unwonted burst of /amour propre/ was thoroughly subdued, she +walked down to the little parlour where the gentlemen were finishing +their game, and heard from the Captain a confirmation of the news +intimated in her letter, that the Duke of Argyle was shortly expected at +Roseneath. + +"He'll find plenty of moor-fowls and plack-cock on the moors of +Auchingower, and he'll pe nae doubt for taking a late dinner, and a ped +at the Manse, as he has done pefore now." + +"He has a gude right, Captain," said Jeanie. + +"Teil ane potter to ony ped in the kintra," answered the Captain. "And ye +had potter tell your father, puir body, to get his beasts a' in order, +and put his tamn'd Cameronian nonsense out o' his head for twa or three +days, if he can pe so opliging; for fan I speak to him apout prute +pestil, he answers me out o' the Pible, whilk is not using a shentleman +weel, unless it be a person of your cloth, Mr. Putler." + +No one understood better than Jeanie the merit of the soft answer, which +turneth away wrath; and she only smiled, and hoped that his Grace would +find everything that was under her father's care to his entire +satisfaction. + +But the Captain, who had lost the whole postage of the letter at +backgammon, was in the pouting mood not unusual to losers, and which, +says the proverb, must be allowed to them. + +"And, Master Putler, though you know I never meddle with the things of +your kirk-sessions, yet I must pe allowed to say that I will not be +pleased to allow Ailie MacClure of Deepheugh to be poonished as a witch, +in respect she only spaes fortunes, and does not lame, or plind, or +pedevil any persons, or coup cadger's carts, or ony sort of mischief; put +only tells people good fortunes, as anent our poats killing so many seals +and doug-fishes, whilk is very pleasant to hear." + +"The woman," said Butler, "is, I believe, no witch, but a cheat: and it +is only on that head that she is summoned to the kirk-session, to cause +her to desist in future from practising her impostures upon ignorant +persons." + +"I do not know," replied the gracious Duncan, "what her practices or +postures are, but I pelieve that if the poys take hould on her to duck +her in the Clachan purn, it will be a very sorry practice--and I pelieve, +moreover, that if I come in thirdsman among you at the kirk-sessions, you +will be all in a tamn'd pad posture indeed." + +Without noticing this threat, Mr. Butler replied, "That he had not +attended to the risk of ill-usage which the poor woman might undergo at +the hands of the rabble, and that he would give her the necessary +admonition in private, instead of bringing her before the assembled +session." + +"This," Duncan said, "was speaking like a reasonable shentleman;" and so +the evening passed peaceably off. + +Next morning, after the Captain had swallowed his morning draught of +Athole brose, and departed in his coach and six, Mrs. Butler anew +deliberated upon communicating to her husband her sister's letter. But +she was deterred by the recollection, that, in doing so, she would unveil +to him the whole of a dreadful secret, of which, perhaps, his public +character might render him an unfit depositary. Butler already had reason +to believe that Effie had eloped with that same Robertson who had been a +leader in the Porteous mob, and who lay under sentence of death for the +robbery at Kirkcaldy. But he did not know his identity with George +Staunton, a man of birth and fortune, who had now apparently reassumed +his natural rank in society. Jeanie had respected Staunton's own +confession as sacred, and upon reflection she considered the letter of +her sisteras equally so, and resolved to mention the contents to no one. + +On reperusing the letter, she could not help observing the staggering and +unsatisfactory condition of those who have risen to distinction by undue +paths, and the outworks and bulwarks of fiction and falsehood, by which +they are under the necessity of surrounding and defending their +precarious advantages. But she was not called upon, she thought, to +unveil her sister's original history--it would restore no right to any +one, for she was usurping none--it would only destroy her happiness, and +degrade her in the public estimation. Had she been wise, Jeanie thought +she would have chosen seclusion and privacy, in place of public life and +gaiety; but the power of choice might not be hers. The money, she +thought, could not be returned without her seeming haughty and unkind. +She resolved, therefore, upon reconsidering this point, to employ it as +occasion should serve, either in educating her children better than her +own means could compass, or for their future portion. Her sister had +enough, was strongly bound to assist Jeanie by any means in her power, +and the arrangement was so natural and proper, that it ought not to be +declined out of fastidious or romantic delicacy. Jeanie accordingly wrote +to her sister, acknowledging her letter, and requesting to hear from her +as often as she could. In entering into her own little details of news, +chiefly respecting domestic affairs, she experienced a singular +vacillation of ideas; for sometimes she apologised for mentioning things +unworthy the notice of a lady of rank, and then recollected that +everything which concerned her should be interesting to Effie. Her +letter, under the cover of Mr. Whiterose, she committed to the +post-office at Glasgow, by the intervention of a parishioner who had +business at that city. + +The next week brought the Duke to Roseneath, and shortly afterwards he +intimated his intention of sporting in their neighbourhood, and taking +his bed at the Manse; an honour which he had once or twice done to its +inmates on former occasions. + +Effie proved to be perfectly right in her auticipations. The Duke had +hardly set himself down at Mrs. Butler's right hand, and taken upon +himself the task of carving the excellent "barn-door chucky," which had +been selected as the high dishes upon this honourable occasion, before he +began to speak of Lady Staunton of Willingham, in Lincolnshire, and the +great noise which her wit and beauty made in London. For much of this +Jeanie was, in some measure, prepared--but Effie's wit! that would never +have entered into her imagination, being ignorant how exactly raillery in +the higher rank resembles flippancy among their inferiors. + +"She has been the ruling belle--the blazing star--the universal toast of +the winter," said the Duke; "and is really the most beautiful creature +that was seen at court upon the birth-day." + +The birthday! and at court!--Jeanie was annihilated, remembering well her +own presentation, all its extraordinary circumstances, and particularly +the cause of it. + +"I mention this lady particularly to you, Mrs. Butler," said the Duke, +"because she has something in the sound of her voice, and cast of her +countenance, that reminded me of you--not when you look so pale though-- +you have over-fatigued yourself--you must pledge me in a glass of wine." + +She did so, and Butler observed, "It was dangerous flattery in his Grace +to tell a poor minister's wife that she was like a court-beauty." + +"Oho, Mr. Butler," said the Duke, "I find you are growing jealous; but +it's rather too late in the day, for you know how long I have admired +your wife. But seriously, there is betwixt them one of those inexplicable +likenesses which we see in countenances, that do not otherwise resemble +each other." + +"The perilous part of the compliment has flown off," thought Mr. Butler. + +His wife, feeling the awkwardness of silence, forced herself to say, +"That, perhaps, the lady might be her countrywoman, and the language +might have made some resemblance." + +"You are quite right," replied the Duke. "She is a Scotch-woman, and +speaks with a Scotch accent, and now and then a provincial word drops out +so prettily, that it is quite Doric, Mr. Butler." + +"I should have thought," said the clergyman, "that would have sounded +vulgar in the great city." + +"Not at all," replied the Duke; "you must suppose it is not the broad +coarse Scotch that is spoken in the Cowgate of Edinburgh, or in the +Gorbals. This lady has been very little in Scotland, in fact she was +educated in a convent abroad, and speaks that pure court-Scotch, which +was common in my younger days; but it is so generally disused now, that +it sounds like a different dialect, entirely distinct from our modern +/patois./" + +Notwithstanding her anxiety, Jeanie could not help admiring within +herself, how the most correct judges of life and manners can be imposed +on by their own preconceptions, while the Duke proceeded thus: "She is of +the unfortunate house of Winton, I believe; but, being bred abroad, she +had missed the opportunity of learning her own pedigree, and was obliged +to me for informing her, that she must certainly come of the Setons of +Windygoul. I wish you could have seen how prettily she blushed at her own +ignorance. Amidst her noble and elegant manners, there is now and then a +little touch of bashfulness and conventual rusticity, if I may call it +so, that makes her quite enchanting. You see at once the rose that had +bloomed untouched amid the chaste precincts of the cloister, Mr. Butler." + +True to the hint, Mr. Butler failed not to start with his + + "Ut flos in septis secretus nascitur hortis," etc., + +while his wife could hardly persuade herself that all this was spoken of +Effie Deans, and by so competent a judge as the Duke of Argyle; and had +she been acquainted with Catullus, would have thought the fortunes of her +sister had reversed the whole passage. + +She was, however, determined to obtain some indemnification for the +anxious feelings of the moment, by gaining all the intelligence she +could; and therefore ventured to make some inquiry about the husband of +the lady his Grace admired so much. + +"He is very rich," replied the Duke; "of an ancient family, and has good +manners: but he is far from being such a general favourite as his wife. +Some people say he can be very pleasant--I never saw him so; but should +rather judge him reserved, and gloomy, and capricious. He was very wild +in his youth, they say, and has bad health; yet he is a good-looking man +enough--a great friend of your Lord High Commissioner of the Kirk, Mr. +Butler." + +"Then he is the friend of a very worthy and honourable nobleman," said +Butler. + +"Does he admire his lady as much as other people do?" said Jeanie, in a +low voice. + +"Who--Sir George? They say he is very fond of her," said the Duke; "but I +observe she trembles a little when he fixes his eye on her, and that is +no good sign--But it is strange how I am haunted by this resemblance of +yours to Lady Staunton, in look and tone of voice. One would almost swear +you were sisters." + +Jeanie's distress became uncontrollable, and beyond concealment. The Duke +of Argyle was much disturbed, good-naturedly ascribing it to his having +unwittingly recalled, to her remembrance her family misfortunes. He was +too well-bred to attempt to apologise; but hastened to change the +subject, and arrange certain points of dispute which had occurred betwixt +Duncan of Knock and the minister, acknowledging that his worthy +substitute was sometimes a little too obstinate, as well as too +energetic, in his executive measures. + +Mr. Butler admitted his general merits; but said, "He would presume to +apply to the worthy gentleman the words of the poet to Marrucinus +Asinius, + + Manu + Non belle uteris in joco atque vino." + +The discourse being thus turned on parish business, nothing farther +occurred that can interest the reader. + + + + + CHAPTER TWENTY-FIFTH. + + Upon my head they placed a fruitless crown, + And put a barren sceptre in my gripe, + Thence to be wrench'd by an unlineal hand, + No son of mine succeeding. + Macbeth. + +After this period, but under the most strict precautions against +discovery, the sisters corresponded occasionally, exchanging letters +about twice every year. Those of Lady Staunton spoke of her husband's +health and spirits as being deplorably uncertain; her own seemed also to +be sinking, and one of the topics on which she most frequently dwelt was +their want of family. Sir George Staunton, always violent, had taken some +aversion at the next heir, whom he suspected of having irritated his +friends against him during his absence; and he declared, be would +bequeath Willingham and all its lands to an hospital, ere that +fetch-and-carry tell-tale should inherit an acre of it. + +"Had he but a child," said the unfortunate wife, "or had that luckless +infant survived, it would be some motive for living and for exertion. But +Heaven has denied us a blessing which we have not deserved." + +Such complaints, in varied form, but turning frequently on the same +topic, filled the letters which passed from the spacious but melancholy +halls of Willingham, to the quiet and happy parsonage at Knocktarlitie. +Years meanwhile rolled on amid these fruitless repinings. John, Duke of +Argyle and Greenwich, died in the year 1743, universally lamented, but by +none more than by the Butlers, to whom his benevolence had been so +distinguished. He was succeeded by his brother Duke Archibald, with whom +they had not the same intimacy; but who continued the protection which +his brother had extended towards them. This, indeed, became more +necessary than ever; for, after the breaking out and suppression of the +rebellion in 1745, the peace of the country, adjacent to the Highlands, +was considerably disturbed. Marauders, or men that had been driven to +that desperate mode of life, quartered themselves in the fastnesses +nearest to the Lowlands, which were their scene of plunder; and there is +scarce a glen in the romantic and now peaceable Highlands of Perth, +Stirling, and Dumbartonshire, where one or more did not take up their +residence. + +The prime pest of the parish of Knocktarlitie was a certain Donacha dhu +na Dunaigh, or Black Duncan the Mischievous, whom we have already +casually mentioned. This fellow had been originally a tinkler, or +/caird,/ many of whom stroll about these districts; but when all police +was disorganised by the civil war, he threw up his profession, and from +half thief became whole robber; and being generally at the head of three +or four active young fellows, and he himself artful, bold, and well +acquainted with the passes, he plied his new profession with emolument to +himself, and infinite plague to the country. + +All were convinced that Duncan of Knock could have put down his namesake +Donacha any morning he had a mind; for there were in the parish a set of +stout young men, who had joined Argyle's banner in the war under his old +friend, and behaved very well on several occasions. And as for their +leader, as no one doubted his courage, it was generally supposed that +Donacha had found out the mode of conciliating his favour, a thing not +very uncommon in that age and country. This was the more readily +believed, as David Deans's cattle (being the property of the Duke) were +left untouched, when the minister's cows were carried off by the thieves. +Another attempt was made to renew the same act of rapine, and the cattle +were in the act of being driven off, when Butler, laying his profession +aside in a case of such necessity, put himself at the head of some of his +neighbours, and rescued the creagh, an exploit at which Deans attended in +person, notwithstanding his extreme old age, mounted on a Highland pony, +and girded with an old broadsword, likening himself (for he failed not to +arrogate the whole merit of the expedition) to David, the son of Jesse, +when he recovered the spoil of Ziklag from the Amalekites. This spirited +behaviour had so far a good effect, that Donacha dhu na Dunaigh kept his +distance for some time to come; and, though his distant exploits were +frequently spoken of, he did not exercise any depredations in that part +of the country. He continued to flourish, and to be heard of +occasionally, until the year 1751, when, if the fear of the second David +had kept him in check, fate released him from that restraint, for the +venerable patriarch of St. Leonard's was that year gathered to his +fathers. + +David Deans died full of years and of honour. He is believed, for the +exact time of his birth is not known, to have lived upwards of ninety +years; for he used to speak of events as falling under his own knowledge, +which happened about the time of the battle of Bothwell Bridge. It was +said that he even bore arms there; for once, when a drunken Jacobite +laird wished for a Bothwell Brigg whig, that "he might stow the lugs out +of his head," David informed him with a peculiar austerity of +countenance, that, if he liked to try such a prank, there was one at his +elbow; and it required the interference of Butler to preserve the peace. + +He expired in the arms of his beloved daughter, thankful for all the +blessings which Providence had vouchsafed to him while in this valley of +strife and toil--and thankful also for the trials he had been visited +with; having found them, he said, needful to mortify that spiritual pride +and confidence in his own gifts, which was the side on which the wily +Enemy did most sorely beset him. He prayed in the most affecting manner +for Jeanie, her husband, and her family, and that her affectionate duty +to the puir auld man might purchase her length of days here, and +happiness hereafter; then, in a pathetic petition, too well understood by +those who knew his family circumstances, he besought the Shepherd of +souls, while gathering his flock, not to forget the little one that had +strayed from the fold, and even then might be in the hands of the +ravening wolf.--He prayed for the national Jerusalem, that peace might be +in her land, and prosperity in her palaces--for the welfare of the +honourable House of Argyle, and for the conversion of Duncan of +Knockdunder. After this he was silent, being exhausted, nor did he again +utter anything distinctly. He was heard, indeed, to mutter something +about national defections, right-hand extremes, and left-hand failings +off; but, as May Hettly observed, his head was carried at the time; and +it is probable that these expressions occurred to him merely out of +general habit, and that he died in the full spirit of charity with all +men. About an hour afterwards he slept in the Lord. + +Notwithstanding her father's advanced age, his death was a severe shock +to Mrs. Butler. Much of her time had been dedicated to attending to his +health and his wishes, and she felt as if part of her business in the +world was ended, when the good old man was no more. His wealth, which +came nearly to fifteen hundred pounds, in disposable capital, served to +raise the fortunes of the family at the Manse. How to dispose of this sum +for the best advantage of his family, was matter of anxious consideration +to Butler. "If we put it on heritable bond, we shall maybe lose the +interest; for there's that bond over Lounsbeck's land, your father could +neither get principal nor interest for it--If we bring it into the funds, +we shall maybe lose the principal and all, as many did in the South Sea +scheme. The little estate of Craigsture is in the market--it lies within +two miles of the Manse, and Knock says his Grace has no thought to buy +it. But they ask L2500, and they may, for it is worth the money; and were +I to borrow the balance, the creditor might call it up suddenly, or in +case of my death my family might be distressed." + +"And so if we had mair siller, we might buy that bonny pasture-ground, +where the grass comes so early?" asked Jeanie. + +"Certainly, my dear; and Knockdunder, who is a good judge, is strongly +advising me to it. To be sure it is his nephew that is selling it." + +"Aweel, Reuben," said Jeanie, "ye maun just look up a text in Scripture, +as ye did when ye wanted siller before--just look up a text in the +Bible." + +"Ah, Jeanie," said Butler, laughing and pressing her hand at the same +time, "the best people in these times can only work miracles once." + +"We will see," said Jeanie composedly; and going to the closet in which +she kept her honey, her sugar, her pots of jelly, her vials of the more +ordinary medicines, and which served her, in short, as a sort of +store-room, she jangled vials and gallipots, till, from out the darkest +nook, well flanked by a triple row of bottles and jars, which she was +under the necessity of displacing, she brought a cracked brown cann, with +a piece of leather tied over the top. Its contents seemed to be written +papers, thrust in disorder into this uncommon /secre'taire./ But from +among these Jeanie brought an old clasped Bible, which had been David +Deans's companion in his earlier wanderings, and which he had given to +his daughter when the failure of his eyes had compelled him to use one of +a larger print. This she gave to Butler, who had been looking at her +motions with some surprise, and desired him to see what that book could +do for him. He opened the clasps, and to his astonishment a parcel of L50 +bank-notes dropped out from betwixt the leaves, where they had been +separately lodged, and fluttered upon the floor. "I didna think to hae +tauld you o' my wealth, Reuben," said his wife, smiling at his surprise, +"till on my deathbed, or maybe on some family pinch; but it wad be better +laid out on yon bonny grass-holms, than lying useless here in this auld +pigg." + +"How on earth came ye by that siller, Jeanie?--Why, here is more than a +thousand pounds," said Butler, lifting up and counting the notes. + +"If it were ten thousand, it's a' honestly come by," said Jeanie; "and +troth I kenna how muckle there is o't, but it's a' there that ever I +got.--And as for how I came by it, Reuben--it's weel come by, and +honestly, as I said before--And it's mair folk's secret than mine, or ye +wad hae kend about it lang syne; and as for onything else, I am not free +to answer mair questions about it, and ye maun just ask me nane." + +"Answer me but one," said Butler. "Is it all freely and indisputably your +own property, to dispose of it as you think fit?--Is it possible no one +has a claim in so large a sum except you?" + +"It /was/ mine, free to dispose of it as I like," answered Jeanie; "and I +have disposed of it already, for now it is yours, Reuben--You are Bible +Butler now, as well as your forbear, that my puir father had sic an ill +will at. Only, if ye like, I wad wish Femie to get a gude share o't when +we are gane." + +"Certainly, it shall be as you choose--But who on earth ever pitched on +such a hiding-place for temporal treasures?" + +"That is just ane o' my auld-fashioned gates, as you ca' them, Reuben. I +thought if Donacha Dhu was to make an outbreak upon us, the Bible was the +last thing in the house he wad meddle wi'--but an ony mair siller should +drap in, as it is not unlikely, I shall e'en pay it ower to you, and ye +may lay it out your ain way." + +"And I positively must not ask you how you have come by all this money?" +said the clergyman. + +"Indeed, Reuben, you must not; for if you were asking me very sair I wad +maybe tell you, and then I am sure I would do wrong." + +"But tell me," said Butler, "is it anything that distresses your own +mind?" + +"There is baith weal and woe come aye wi' world's gear, Reuben; but ye +maun ask me naething mair--This siller binds me to naething, and can +never be speered back again." + +"Surely," said Mr. Butler, when he had again counted over the money, as +if to assure himself that the notes were real, "there was never man in +the world had a wife like mine--a blessing seems to follow her." + +"Never," said Jeanie, "since the enchanted princess in the bairn's fairy +tale, that kamed gold nobles out o' the tae side of her haffit locks, and +Dutch dollars out o' the tother. But gang away now, minister, and put by +the siller, and dinna keep the notes wampishing in your hand that gate, +or I shall wish them in the brown pigg again, for fear we get a black +cast about them--we're ower near the hills in these times to be thought +to hae siller in the house. And, besides, ye maun gree wi' Knockdunder, +that has the selling o' the lands; and dinna you be simple and let him +ken o' this windfa', but keep him to the very lowest penny, as if ye had +to borrow siller to make the price up." + +In the last admonition, Jeanie showed distinctly, that, although she did +not understand how to secure the money which came into her hands +otherwise than by saving and hoarding it, yet she had some part of her +father David's shrewdness, even upon worldly subjects. And Reuben Butler +was a prudent man, and went and did even as his wife had advised him. The +news quickly went abroad into the parish that the minister had bought +Craigsture; and some wished him joy, and some "were sorry it had gane out +of the auld name." However, his clerical brethren, understanding that he +was under the necessity of going to Edinburgh about the ensuing +Whitsunday, to get together David Deans's cash to make up the +purchase-money of his new acquisition, took the opportunity to name him +their delegate to the General Assembly, or Convocation of the Scottish +Church, which takes place usually in the latter end of the month of May. + + + + + CHAPTER TWENTY-SIXTH. + + But who is this? what thing of sea or land-- + Female of sex it seems-- + That so bedeck'd, ornate, and gay, + Comes this way sailing? + Milton. + +Not long after the incident of the Bible and the bank-notes, Fortune +showed that she could surprise Mrs Butler as well as her husband. The +Minister, in order to accomplish the various pieces of business which his +unwonted visit to Edinburgh rendered necessary, had been under the +necessity of setting out from home in the latter end of the month of +February, concluding justly that he would find the space betwixt his +departure and the term of Whitsunday (24th May) short enough for the +purpose of bringing forward those various debtors of old David Deans, out +of whose purses a considerable part of the price of his new purchase was +to be made good. + +Jeanie was thus in the unwonted situation of inhabiting a lonely house, +and she felt yet more solitary from the death of the good old man who +used to divide her cares with her husband. Her children were her +principal resource, and to them she paid constant attention. + +It happened a day or two after Butler's departure that, while she was +engaged in some domestic duties, she heard a dispute among the young +folk, which, being maintained with obstinacy, appeared to call for her +interference. All came to their natural umpire with their complaints. +Femie, not yet ten years old, charged Davie and Reubie with an attempt to +take away her book by force; and David and Reuben replied, the elder, +"That it was not a book for Femie to read," and Reuben, "That it was +about a bad woman." + +"Where did you get the book, ye little hempie?" said Mrs. Butler. "How +dare ye touch papa's books when he is away?" But the little lady, holding +fast a sheet of crumpled paper, declared "It was nane o' papa's books, +and May Hettly had taken it off the muckle cheese which came from +Inverara;" for, as was very natural to suppose, a friendly intercourse, +with interchange of mutual civilities, was kept up from time to time +between Mrs. Dolly Dutton, now Mrs. MacCorkindale, and her former +friends. + +Jeanie took the subject of contention out of the child's hand, to satisfy +herself of the propriety of her studies; but how much was she struck when +she read upon the title of the broadside-sheet, "The Last Speech, +Confession, and Dying Words of Margaret MacCraw, or Murdockson, executed +on Harabee Hill, near Carlisle, the day of 1737." It was, indeed, one +of those papers which Archibald had bought at Longtown, when he +monopolised the pedlar's stock, which Dolly had thrust into her trunk out +of sheer economy. One or two copies, it seems, had remained in her +repositories at Inverary, till she chanced to need them in packing a +cheese, which, as a very superior production, was sent, in the way of +civil challenge, to the dairy at Knocktarlitie. + +The title of this paper, so strangely fallen into the very hands from +which, in well-meant respect to her feelings, it had been so long +detained, was of itself sufficiently startling; but the narrative itself +was so interesting, that Jeanie, shaking herself loose from the children, +ran upstairs to her own apartment, and bolted the door, to peruse it +without interruption. + +The narrative, which appeared to have been drawn up, or at least +corrected, by the clergyman who attended this unhappy woman, stated the +crime for which she suffered to have been "her active part in that +atrocious robbery and murder, committed near two years since near +Haltwhistle, for which the notorious Frank Levitt was committed for trial +at Lancaster assizes. It was supposed the evidence of the accomplice +Thomas Tuck, commonly called Tyburn Tom, upon which the woman had been +convicted, would weigh equally heavy against him; although many were +inclined to think it was Tuck himself who had struck the fatal blow, +according to the dying statement of Meg Murdockson." + +After a circumstantial account of the crime for which she suffered, there +was a brief sketch of Margaret's life. It was stated that she was a +Scotchwoman by birth, and married a soldier in the Cameronian regiment-- +that she long followed the camp, and had doubtless acquired in fields of +battle, and similar scenes, that ferocity and love of plunder for which +she had been afterwards distinguished--that her husband, having obtained +his discharge, became servant to a beneficed clergyman of high situation +and character in Lincolnshire, and that she acquired the confidence and +esteem of that honourable family. She had lost this many years after her +husband's death, it was stated, in consequence of conniving at the +irregularities of her daughter with the heir of the family, added to the +suspicious circumstances attending the birth of a child, which was +strongly suspected to have met with foul play, in order to preserve, if +possible, the girl's reputation. After this she had led a wandering life +both in England and Scotland, under colour sometimes of telling fortunes, +sometimes of driving a trade in smuggled wares, but, in fact, receiving +stolen goods, and occasionally actively joining in the exploits by which +they were obtained. Many of her crimes she had boasted of after +conviction, and there was one circumstance for which she seemed to feel a +mixture of joy and occasional compunction. When she was residing in the +suburbs of Edinburgh during the preceding summer, a girl, who had been +seduced by one of her confederates, was intrusted to her charge, and in +her house delivered of a male infant. Her daughter, whose mind was in a +state of derangement ever since she had lost her own child, according to +the criminal's account, carried off the poor girl's infant, taking it for +her own, of the reality of whose death she at times could not be +persuaded. + +Margaret Murdockson stated that she, for some time, believed her daughter +had actually destroyed the infant in her mad fits, and that she gave the +father to understand so, but afterwards learned that a female stroller +had got it from her. She showed some compunction at having separated +mother and child, especially as the mother had nearly suffered death, +being condemned, on the Scotch law, for the supposed murder of her +infant. When it was asked what possible interest she could have had in +exposing the unfortunate girl to suffer for a crime she had not +committed, she asked, if they thought she was going to put her own +daughter into trouble to save another? She did not know what the Scotch +law would have done to her for carrying the child away. This answer was +by no means satisfactory to the clergyman, and he discovered, by close +examination, that she had a deep and revengeful hatred against the young +person whom she had thus injured. But the paper intimated, that, whatever +besides she had communicated upon this subject was confided by her in +private to the worthy and reverend Archdeacon who had bestowed such +particular pains in affording her spiritual assistance. The broadside +went on to intimate, that, after her execution, of which the particulars +were given, her daughter, the insane person mentioned more than once, and +who was generally known by the name of Madge Wildfire, had been very +ill-used by the populace, under the belief that she was a sorceress, and +an accomplice in her mother's crimes, and had been with difficulty +rescued by the prompt interference of the police. + +Such (for we omit moral reflections, and all that may seem unnecessary to +the explanation of our story) was the tenor of the broadside. To Mrs. +Butler it contained intelligence of the highest importance, since it +seemed to afford the most unequivocal proof of her sister's innocence +respecting the crime for which she had so nearly suffered. It is true, +neither she nor her husband, nor even her father, had ever believed her +capable of touching her infant with an unkind hand when in possession of +her reason; but there was a darkness on the subject, and what might have +happened in a moment of insanity was dreadful to think upon. Besides, +whatever was their own conviction, they had no means of establishing +Effie's innocence to the world, which, according to the tenor of this +fugitive publication, was now at length completely manifested by the +dying confession of the person chiefly interested in concealing it. + +After thanking God for a discovery so dear to her feelings, Mrs. Butler +began to consider what use she should make of it. To have shown it to her +husband would have been her first impulse; but, besides that he was +absent from home, and the matter too delicate to be the subject of +correspondence by an indifferent penwoman, Mrs. Butler recollected that +he was not possessed of the information necessary to form a judgment upon +the occasion; and that, adhering to the rule which she had considered as +most advisable, she had best transmit the information immediately to her +sister, and leave her to adjust with her husband the mode in which they +should avail themselves of it. Accordingly, she despatched a special +messenger to Glasgow with a packet, enclosing the Confession of Margaret +Murdockson, addressed, as usual, under cover, to Mr. Whiterose of York. +She expected, with anxiety, an answer, but none arrived in the usual +course of post, and she was left to imagine how many various causes might +account for Lady Staunton's silence. She began to be half sorry that she +had parted with the printed paper, both for fear of its having fallen +into bad hands, and from the desire of regaining the document which might +be essential to establish her sister's innocence. She was even doubting +whether she had not better commit the whole matter to her husband's +consideration, when other incidents occurred to divert her purpose. + +Jeanie (she is a favourite, and we beg her pardon for still using the +familiar title) had walked down to the sea-side with her children one +morning after breakfast, when the boys, whose sight was more +discriminating than hers, exclaimed, that "the Captain's coach and six +was coming right for the shore, with ladies in it." Jeanie instinctively +bent her eyes on the approaching boat, and became soon sensible that +there were two females in the stern, seated beside the gracious Duncan, +who acted as pilot. It was a point of politeness to walk towards the +landing-place, in order to receive them, especially as she saw that the +Captain of Knockdunder was upon honour and ceremony. His piper was in the +bow of the boat, sending forth music, of which one half sounded the +better that the other was drowned by the waves and the breeze. Moreover, +he himself had his brigadier wig newly frizzed, his bonnet (he had +abjured the cocked-hat) decorated with Saint George's red cross, his +uniform mounted as a captain of militia, the Duke's flag with the boar's +head displayed--all intimated parade and gala. + +As Mrs. Butler approached the landing-place, she observed the Captain +hand the ladies ashore with marks of great attention, and the parties +advanced towards her, the Captain a few steps before the two ladies, of +whom the taller and elder leaned on the shoulder of the other, who seemed +to be an attendant or servant. + +As they met, Duncan, in his best, most important, and deepest tone of +Highland civility, "pegged leave to introduce to Mrs. Putler, Lady--eh-- +eh--I hae forgotten your leddyship's name!" + +"Never mind my name, sir," said the lady; "I trust Mrs. Butler will be at +no loss. The Duke's letter"--And, as she observed Mrs. Butler look +confused, she said again to Duncan somethin sharply, "Did you not send +the letter last night, sir?" + +"In troth and I didna, and I crave your leddyship's pardon; but you see, +matam, I thought it would do as weel to-tay, pecause Mrs. Putler is never +taen out o'sorts--never--and the coach was out fishing--and the gig was +gane to Greenock for a cag of prandy--and--Put here's his Grace's +letter." + +"Give it me, sir," said the lady, taking it out of his hand; "since you +have not found it convenient to do me the favour to send it before me, I +will deliver it myself." + +Mrs. Butler looked with great attention, and a certain dubious feeling of +deep interest, on the lady, who thus expressed herself with authority +over the man of authority, and to whose mandates he seemed to submit, +resigning the letter with a "Just as your leddyship is pleased to order +it." + +The lady was rather above the middle size, beautifully made, though +something /embonpoint,/ with a hand and arm exquisitely formed. Her +manner was easy, dignified, and commanding, and seemed to evince high +birth and the habits of elevated society. She wore a travelling dress--a +grey beaver hat, and a veil of Flanders lace. Two footmen, in rich +liveries, who got out of the barge, and lifted out a trunk and +portmanteau, appeared to belong to her suite. + +"As you did not receive the letter, madam, which should have served for +my introduction--for I presume you are Mrs. Butler--I will not present it +to you till you are so good as to admit me into your house without it." + +"To pe sure, matam," said Knockdunder, "ye canna doubt Mrs. Putler will +do that.--Mrs. Putler, this is Lady--Lady--these tamned Southern names +rin out o' my head like a stane trowling down hill--put I believe she is +a Scottish woman porn--the mair our credit--and I presume her leddyship +is of the house of" + +"The Duke of Argyle knows my family very well, sir," said the lady, in a +tone which seemed designed to silence Duncan, or, at any rate, which had +that effect completely. + +There was something about the whole of this stranger's address, and tone, +and manner, which acted upon Jeanie's feelings like the illusions of a +dream, that tease us with a puzzling approach to reality. Something there +was of her sister in the gait and manner of the stranger, as well as in +the sound of her voice, and something also, when, lifting her veil, she +showed features, to which, changed as they were in expression and +complexion, she could not but attach many remembrances. + +The stranger was turned of thirty certainly; but so well were her +personal charms assisted by the power of dress, and arrangement of +ornament, that she might well have passed for one-and-twenty. And her +behaviour was so steady and so composed, that, as often as Mrs. Butler +perceived anew some point of resemblance to her unfortunate sister, so +often the sustained self-command and absolute composure of the stranger +destroyed the ideas which began to arise in her imagination. She led the +way silently towards the Manse, lost in a confusion of reflections, and +trusting the letter with which she was to be there intrusted, would +afford her satisfactory explanation of what was a most puzzling and +embarrassing scene. + +The lady maintained in the meanwhile the manners of a stranger of rank. +She admired the various points of view like one who has studied nature, +and the best representations of art. At length she took notice of the +children. + +"These are two fine young mountaineers--Yours, madam, I presume?" + +Jeanie replied in the affirmative. The stranger sighed, and sighed once +more as they were presented to her by name. + +"Come here, Femie," said Mrs. Butler, "and hold your head up." + +"What is your daughter's name, madam?" said the lady. + +"Euphemia, madam," answered Mrs. Butler. + +"I thought the ordinary Scottish contraction of the name had been Effie;" +replied the stranger, in a tone which went to Jeanie's heart; for in that +single word there was more of her sister--more of /lang syne/ ideas--than +in all the reminiscences which her own heart had anticipated, or the +features and manner of the stranger had suggested. + +When they reached the Manse, the lady gave Mrs. Butler the letter which +she had taken out of the hands of Knockdunder; and as she gave it she +pressed her hand, adding aloud, "Perhaps, madam, you will have the +goodness to get me a little milk!" + +"And me a drap of the grey-peard, if you please, Mrs. Putler," added +Duncan. + +Mrs. Butler withdrew; but, deputing to May Hettly and to David the supply +of the strangers' wants, she hastened into her own room to read the +letter. The envelope was addressed in the Duke of Argyle's hand, and +requested Mrs. Butler's attentions and civility to a lady of rank, a +particular friend of his late brother, Lady Staunton of Willingham, who, +being recommended to drink goats' whey by the physicians, was to honour +the Lodge at Roseneath with her residence, while her husband made a short +tour in Scotland. But within the same cover, which had been given to Lady +Staunton unsealed, was a letter from that lady, intended to prepare her +sister for meeting her, and which, but for the Captain's negligence, she +ought to have received on the preceding evening. It stated that the news +in Jeanie's last letter had been so interesting to her husband, that he +was determined to inquire farther into the confession made at Carlisle, +and the fate of that poor innocent, and that, as he had been in some +degree successful, she had, by the most earnest entreaties, extorted +rather than obtained his permission, under promise of observing the most +strict incognito, to spend a week or two with her sister, or in her +neighbourhood, while he was prosecuting researches, to which (though it +appeared to her very vainly) he seemed to attach some hopes of success. + +There was a postscript, desiring that Jeanie would trust to Lady S. the +management of their intercourse, and be content with assenting to what +she should propose. After reading and again reading the letter, Mrs. +Butler hurried down stairs, divided betwixt the fear of betraying her +secret, and the desire to throw herself upon her sister's neck. Effie +received her with a glance at once affectionate and cautionary, and +immediately proceeded to speak. + +"I have been telling Mr. ------, Captain , this gentleman, Mrs. Butler, +that if you could accommodate me with an apartment in your house, and a +place for Ellis to sleep, and for the two men, it would suit me better +than the Lodge, which his Grace has so kindly placed at my disposal. I am +advised I should reside as near where the goats feed as possible." + +"I have peen assuring my leddy, Mrs. Putler," said Duncan, "that though +it could not discommode you to receive any of his Grace's visitors or +mine, yet she had mooch petter stay at the Lodge; and for the gaits, the +creatures can be fetched there, in respect it is mair fitting they suld +wait upon her Leddyship, than she upon the like o' them." + +"By no means derange the goats for me," said Lady Staunton; "I am certain +the milk must be much better here." And this she said with languid +negligence, as one whose slightest intimation of humour is to bear down +all argument. + +Mrs. Butler hastened to intimate, that her house, such as it was, was +heartily at the disposal of Lady Staunton; but the Captain continued to +remonstrate.. + +"The Duke," he said, "had written" + +"I will settle all that with his Grace" + +"And there were the things had been sent down frae Glasco" + +"Anything necessary might be sent over to the Parsonage--She would beg +the favour of Mrs. Butler to show her an apartment, and of the Captain to +have her trunks, etc., sent over from Roseneath." + +So she courtesied off poor Duncan, who departed, saying in his secret +soul, "Cot tamn her English impudence!--she takes possession of the +minister's house as an it were her ain--and speaks to shentlemens as if +they were pounden servants, and per tamned to her!--And there's the deer +that was shot too--but we will send it ower to the Manse, whilk will pe +put civil, seeing I hae prought worthy Mrs. Putler sic a fliskmahoy."-- +And with these kind intentions, he went to the shore to give his orders +accordingly. + +In the meantime, the meeting of the sisters was as affectionate as it was +extraordinary, and each evinced her feelings in the way proper to her +character. Jeanie was so much overcome by wonder, and even by awe, that +her feelings were deep, stunning, and almost overpowering. Effie, on the +other hand, wept, laughed, sobbed, screamed, and clapped her hands for +joy, all in the space of five minutes, giving way at once, and without +reserve, to a natural excessive vivacity of temper, which no one, +however, knew better how to restrain under the rules of artificial +breeding. + +After an hour had passed like a moment in their expressions of mutual +affection, Lady Staunton observed the Captain walking with impatient +steps below the window. "That tiresome Highland fool has returned upon +our hands," she said. "I will pray him to grace us with his absence." + +"Hout no! hout no!" said Mrs. Butler, in a tone of entreaty; "ye maunna +affront the Captain." + +"Affront?" said Lady Staunton; "nobody is ever affronted at what I do or +say, my dear. However, I will endure him, since you think it proper." + +The Captain was accordingly graciously requested by Lady Staunton to +remain during dinner. During this visit his studious and punctilious +complaisance towards the lady of rank was happily contrasted by the +cavalier air of civil familiarity in which he indulged towards the +minister's wife. + +"I have not been able to persuade Mrs. Butler," said Lady Staunton to the +Captain, during the interval when Jeanie had left the parlour, "to let me +talk of making any recompense for storming her house, and garrisoning it +in the way I have done." + +"Doubtless, matam," said the Captain, "it wad ill pecome Mrs. Putler, wha +is a very decent pody, to make any such sharge to a lady who comes from +my house, or his Grace's, which is the same thing.--And speaking of +garrisons, in the year forty-five, I was poot with a garrison of twenty +of my lads in the house of Inver-Garry, whilk had near been unhappily, +for" + +"I beg your pardon, sir--But I wish I could think of some way of +indemnifying this good lady." + +"O, no need of intemnifying at all--no trouble for her, nothing at all-- +So, peing in the house of Inver-Garry, and the people about it being +uncanny, I doubted the warst, and" + +"Do you happen to know, sir," said Lady Staunton, "if any of these two +lads, these young Butlers, I mean, show any turn for the army?" + +"Could not say, indeed, my leddy," replied Knockdunder--"So, I knowing +the people to pe unchancy, and not to lippen to, and hearing a pibroch in +the wood, I pegan to pid my lads look to their flints, and then" + +"For," said Lady Staunton, with the most ruthless disregard to the +narrative which she mangled by these interruptions, "if that should be +the case, it should cost Sir George but the asking a pair of colours for +one of them at the War-Office, since we have always supported Government, +and never had occasion to trouble ministers." + +"And if you please, my leddy," said Duncan, who began to find some savour +in this proposal, "as I hae a braw weel-grown lad of a nevoy, ca'd Duncan +MacGilligan, that is as pig as paith the Putler pairns putten thegither, +Sir George could ask a pair for him at the same time, and it wad pe put +ae asking for a'." + +Lady Staunton only answered this hint with a well-bred stare, which gave +no sort of encouragement. + +Jeanie, who now returned, was lost in amazement at the wonderful +difference betwixt the helpless and despairing girl, whom she had seen +stretched on a flock-bed in a dungeon, expecting a violent and +disgraceful death, and last as a forlorn exile upon the midnight beach, +with the elegant, well-bred, beautiful woman before her. The features, +now that her sister's veil was laid aside, did not appear so extremely +different, as the whole manner, expression, look, and bearing. In outside +show, Lady Staunton seemed completely a creature too soft and fair for +sorrow to have touched; so much accustomed to have all her whims complied +with by those around her, that she seemed to expect she should even be +saved the trouble of forming them; and so totally unacquainted with +contradiction, that she did not even use the tone of self-will, since to +breathe a wish was to have it fulfilled. She made no ceremony of ridding +herself of Duncan as soon as the evening approached; but complimented him +out of the house under pretext of fatigue, with the utmost /nonchalance./ + +When they were alone, her sister could not help expressing her wonder at +the self-possession with which Lady Staunton sustained her part. + +"I daresay you are surprised at it," said Lady Staunton composedly; "for +you, my dear Jeanie, have been truth itself from your cradle upwards; but +you must remember that I am a liar of fifteen years' standing, and +therefore must by this time be used to my character." + +In fact, during the feverish tumult of feelings excited during the two or +three first days, Mrs. Butler thought her sister's manner was completely +contradictory of the desponding tone which pervaded her correspondence. +She was moved to tears, indeed, by the sight of her father's grave, +marked by a modest stone recording his piety and integrity; but lighter +impressions and associations had also power over her. She amused herself +with visiting the dairy, in which she had so long been assistant, and was +so near discovering herself to May Hettly, by betraying her acquaintance +with the celebrated receipt for Dunlop cheese, that she compared herself +to Bedreddin Hassan, whom the vizier, his father-in-law, discovered by +his superlative skill in composing cream-tarts with pepper in them. But +when the novelty of such avocations ceased to amuse her, she showed to +her sister but too plainly, that the gaudy colouring with which she +veiled her unhappiness afforded as little real comfort, as the gay +uniform of the soldier when it is drawn over his mortal wound. There were +moods and moments, in which her despondence seemed to exceed even that +which she herself had described in her letters, and which too well +convinced Mrs. Butler how little her sister's lot, which in appearance +was so brilliant, was in reality to be envied. + +There was one source, however, from which Lady Staunton derived a pure +degree of pleasure. Gifted in every particular with a higher degree of +imagination than that of her sister, she was an admirer of the beauties +of nature, a taste which compensates many evils to those who happen to +enjoy it. Here her character of a fine lady stopped short, where she +ought to have + + Scream'd at ilk cleugh, and screech'd at ilka how, + As loud as she had seen the worrie-cow. + +On the contrary, with the two boys for her guides, she undertook long and +fatiguing walks among the neighbouring mountains, to visit glens, lakes, +waterfalls, or whatever scenes of natural wonder or beauty lay concealed +among their recesses. It is Wordsworth, I think, who, talking of an old +man under difficulties, remarks, with a singular attention to nature, + + Whether it was care that spurr'd him, + God only knows; but to the very last, + He had the lightest foot in Ennerdale. + +In the same manner, languid, listless, and unhappy, within doors, at +times even indicating something which approached near to contempt of the +homely accommodations of her sister's house, although she instantly +endeavoured, by a thousand kindnesses, to atone for such ebullitions of +spleen, Lady Staunton appeared to feel interest and energy while in the +open air, and traversing the mountain landscapes in society with the two +boys, whose ears she delighted with stories of what she had seen in other +countries, and what she had to show them at Willingham Manor. And they, +on the other hand, exerted themselves in doing the honours of +Dumbartonshire to the lady who seemed so kind, insomuch that there was +scarce a glen in the neighbouring hills to which they did not introduce +her. + +Upon one of these excursions, while Reuben was otherwise employed, David +alone acted as Lady Staunton's guide, and promised to show her a cascade +in the hills, grander and higher than any they had yet visited. It was a +walk of five long miles, and over rough ground, varied, however, and +cheered, by mountain views, and peeps now of the firth and its islands, +now of distant lakes, now of rocks and precipices. The scene itself, too, +when they reached it, amply rewarded the labour of the walk. A single +shoot carried a considerable stream over the face of a black rock, which +contrasted strongly in colour with the white foam of the cascade, and, at +the depth of about twenty feet, another rock intercepted the view of the +bottom of the fall. The water, wheeling out far beneath, swept round the +crag, which thus bounded their view, and tumbled down the rocky glen in a +torrent of foam. Those who love nature always desire to penetrate into +its utmost recesses, and Lady Staunton asked David whether there was not +some mode of gaining a view of the abyss at the foot of the fall. He said +that he knew a station on a shelf on the farther side of the intercepting +rock, from which the whole waterfall was visible, but that the road to it +was steep and slippery and dangerous. Bent, however, on gratifying her +curiosity, she desired him to lead the way; and accordingly he did so +over crag and stone, anxiously pointing out to her the resting-places +where she ought to step, for their mode of advancing soon ceased to be +walking, and became scrambling. + +In this manner, clinging like sea-birds to the face of the rock, they +were enabled at length to turn round it, and came full in front of the +fall, which here had a most tremendous aspect, boiling, roaring, and +thundering with unceasing din, into a black cauldron, a hundred feet at +least below them, which resembled the crater of a volcano. The noise, the +dashing of the waters, which gave an unsteady appearance to all around +them, the trembling even of the huge crag on which they stood, the +precariousness of their footing, for there was scarce room for them to +stand on the shelf of rock which they had thus attained, had so powerful +an effect on the senses and imagination of Lady Staunton, that she called +out to David she was falling, and would in fact have dropped from the +crag had he not caught hold of her. The boy was bold and stout of his +age--still he was but fourteen years old, and as his assistance gave no +confidence to Lady Staunton, she felt her situation become really +perilous. The chance was, that, in the appalling novelty of the +circumstances, he might have caught the infection of her panic, in which +case it is likely that both must have perished. She now screamed with +terror, though without hope of calling any one to her assistance. To her +amazement, the scream was answered by a whistle from above, of a tone so +clear and shrill, that it was heard even amid the noise of the waterfall. + +In this moment of terror and perplexity, a human face, black, and having +grizzled hair hanging down over the forehead and cheeks, and mixing with +mustaches and a beard of the same colour, and as much matted and tangled, +looked down on them from a broken part of the rock above. + +"It is the Enemy!" said the boy, who had very nearly become incapable of +supporting Lady Staunton. + +"No, no," she exclaimed, inaccessible to supernatural terrors, and +restored to the presence of mind of which she had been deprived by the +danger of her situation, "it is a man--For God's sake, my friend, help +us!" + +The face glared at them, but made no answer; in a second or two +afterwards, another, that of a young lad, appeared beside the first, +equally swart and begrimed, but having tangled black hair, descending in +elf-locks, which gave an air of wildness and ferocity to the whole +expression of the countenance. Lady Staunton repeated her entreaties, +clinging to the rock with more energy, as she found that, from the +superstitious terror of her guide, he became incapable of supporting her. +Her words were probably drowned in the roar of the falling stream, for, +though she observed the lips of the young being whom she supplicated move +as he spoke in reply, not a word reached her ear. + +A moment afterwards it appeared he had not mistaken the nature of her +supplication, which, indeed, was easy to be understood from her situation +and gestures. The younger apparition disappeared, and immediately after +lowered a ladder of twisted osiers, about eight feet in length, and made +signs to David to hold it fast while the lady ascended. Despair gives +courage, and finding herself in this fearful predicament, Lady Staunton +did not hesitate to risk the ascent by the precarious means which this +accommodation afforded; and, carefully assisted by the person who had +thus providentially come to her aid, she reached the summit in safety. +She did not, however, even look around her until she saw her nephew +lightly and actively follow her examples although there was now no one to +hold the ladder fast. When she saw him safe she looked round, and could +not help shuddering at the place and company in which she found herself. +They were on a sort of platform of rock, surrounded on every side by +precipices, or overhanging cliffs, and which it would have been scarce +possible for any research to have discovered, as it did not seem to be +commanded by any accessible position. It was partly covered by a huge +fragment of stone, which, having fallen from the cliffs above, had been +intercepted by others in its descent, and jammed so as to serve for a +sloping roof to the farther part of the broad shelf or platform on which +they stood. A quantity of withered moss and leaves, strewed beneath this +rude and wretched shelter, showed the lairs,--they could not be termed +the beds,--of those who dwelt in this eyrie, for it deserved no other +name. Of these, two were before Lady Staunton. One, the same who had +afforded such timely assistance, stood upright before them, a tall, +lathy, young savage; his dress a tattered plaid and philabeg, no shoes, +no stockings, no hat or bonnet, the place of the last being supplied by +his hair, twisted and matted like the /glibbe/ of the ancient wild Irish, +and, like theirs, forming a natural thick-set stout enough to bear off +the cut of a sword. Yet the eyes of the lad were keen and sparkling; his +gesture free and noble, like that of all savages. He took little notice +of David Butler, but gazed with wonder on Lady Staunton, as a being +different probably in dress, and superior in beauty, to anything he had +ever beheld. The old man, whose face they had first seen, remained +recumbent in the same posture as when he had first looked down on them, +only his face was turned towards them as he lay and looked up with a lazy +and listless apathy, which belied the general expression of his dark and +rugged features. He seemed a very tall man, but was scarce better clad +than the younger. He had on a loose Lowland greatcoat, and ragged tartan +trews or pantaloons. All around looked singularly wild and unpropitious. +Beneath the brow of the incumbent rock was a charcoal fire, on which +there was a still working, with bellows, pincers, hammers, a movable +anvil, and other smith's tools; three guns, with two or three sacks and +barrels, were disposed against the wall of rock, under shelter of the +superincumbent crag; a dirk and two swords, and a Lochaber axe, lay +scattered around the fire, of which the red glare cast a ruddy tinge on +the precipitous foam and mist of the cascade. The lad, when he had +satisfied his curiosity with staring at Lady Staunton, fetched an earthen +jar and a horn-cup, into which he poured some spirits, apparently hot +from the still, and offered them successively to the lady and to the boy. +Both declined, and the young savage quaffed off the draught, which could +not amount to less than three ordinary glasses. He then fetched another +ladder from the corner of the cavern, if it could be termed so, adjusted +it against the transverse rock, which served as a roof, and made signs +for the lady to ascend it, while he held it fast below. She did so, and +found herself on the top of a broad rock, near the brink of the chasm +into which the brook precipitates itself. She could see the crest of the +torrent flung loose down the rock, like the mane of a wild horse, but +without having any view of the lower platform from which she had +ascended. + +David was not suffered to mount so easily; the lad, from sport or love of +mischief, shook the ladder a good deal as he ascended, and seemed to +enjoy the terror of young Butler, so that, when they had both come up, +they looked on each other with no friendly eyes. Neither, however, spoke. +The young caird, or tinker, or gipsy, with a good deal of attention, +assisted Lady Staunton up a very perilous ascent which she had still to +encounter, and they were followed by David Butler, until all three stood +clear of the ravine on the side of a mountain, whose sides were covered +with heather and sheets of loose shingle. So narrow was the chasm out of +which they ascended, that, unless when they were on the very verge, the +eye passed to the other side without perceiving the existence of a rent +so fearful, and nothing was seen of the cataract, though its deep hoarse +voice was still heard. + +Lady Staunton, freed from the danger of rock and river, had now a new +subject of anxiety. Her two guides confronted each other with angry +countenances; for David, though younger by two years at least, and much +shorter, was a stout, well-set, and very bold boy. + +"You are the black-coat's son of Knocktarlitie," said the young caird; +"if you come here again, I'll pitch you down the linn like a foot-ball." + +"Ay, lad, ye are very short to be sae lang," retorted young Butler +undauntedly, and measuring his opponent's height with an undismayed eye; +"I am thinking you are a gillie of Black Donacha; if you come down the +glen, we'll shoot you like a wild buck." + +"You may tell your father," said the lad, "that the leaf on the timber is +the last he shall see--we will hae amends for the mischief he has done to +us." + +"I hope he will live to see mony simmers, and do ye muckle mair," +answered David. + +More might have passed, but Lady Staunton stepped between them with her +purse in her hand, and taking out a guinea, of which it contained +several, visible through the net-work, as well as some silver in the +opposite end, offered it to the caird. + +"The white siller, lady--the white siller," said the young savage, to +whom the value of gold was probably unknown. Lady Staunton poured what +silver she had into his hand, and the juvenile savage snatched it +greedily, and made a sort of half inclination of acknowledgment and +adieu. + +"Let us make haste now, Lady Staunton," said David, "for there will be +little peace with them since they hae seen your purse." + +They hurried on as fast as they could; but they had not descended the +hill a hundred yards or two before they heard a halloo behind them, and +looking back, saw both the old man and the young one pursuing them with +great speed, the former with a gun on his shoulder. Very fortunately, at +this moment a sportsman, a gamekeeper of the Duke, who was engaged in +stalking deer, appeared on the face of the hill. The bandits stopped on +seeing him, and Lady Staunton hastened to put herself under his +protection. He readily gave them his escort home, and it required his +athletic form and loaded rifle to restore to the lady her usual +confidence and courage. + +Donald listened with much gravity to the account of their adventure; and +answered with great composure to David's repeated inquiries, whether he +could have suspected that the cairds had been lurking there,--"Inteed, +Master Tavie, I might hae had some guess that they were there, or +thereabout, though maybe I had nane. But I am aften on the hill; and they +are like wasps--they stang only them that fashes them; sae, for my part, +I make a point not to see them, unless I were ordered out on the preceese +errand by MacCallummore or Knockdunder, whilk is a clean different case." + +They reached the Manse late; and Lady Staunton, who had suffered much +both from fright and fatigue, never again permitted her love of the +picturesque to carry her so far among the mountains without a stronger +escort than David, though she acknowledged he had won the stand of +colours by the intrepidity he had displayed, so soon as assured he had to +do with an earthly antagonist. "I couldna maybe hae made muckle o' a +bargain wi' yon lang callant," said David, when thus complimented on his +valour; "but when ye deal wi' thae folk, it's tyne heart tyne a'." + + + + + CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVENTH. + + What see you there, + That hath so cowarded and chased your blood + Out of appearance? + Henry the Fifth. + +We are under the necessity of returning to Edinburgh, where the General +Assembly was now sitting. It is well known, that some Scottish nobleman +is usually deputed as High Commissioner, to represent the person of the +King in this convocation; that he has allowances for the purpose of +maintaining a certain outward show and solemnity, and supporting the +hospitality of the representative of Majesty. Whoever are distinguished +by rank, or office, in or near the capital, usually attend the morning +levees of the Lord Commissioner, and walk with him in procession to the +place where the Assembly meets. + +The nobleman who held this office chanced to be particularly connected +with Sir George Staunton, and it was in his train that he ventured to +tread the High Street of Edinburgh for the first time since the fatal +night of Porteous's execution. Walking at the right hand of the +representative of Sovereignty, covered with lace and embroidery, and with +all the paraphernalia of wealth and rank, the handsome though wasted +figure of the English stranger attracted all eyes. Who could have +recognised in a form so aristocratic the plebeian convict, that, +disguised in the rags of Madge Wildfire, had led the formidable rioters +to their destined revenge? There was no possibility that this could +happen, even if any of his ancient acquaintances, a race of men whose +lives are so brief, had happened to survive the span commonly allotted to +evil-doers. Besides, the whole affair had long fallen asleep, with the +angry passions in which it originated. Nothing is more certain than that +persons known to have had a share in that formidable riot, and to have +fled from Scotland on that account, had made money abroad, returned to +enjoy it in their native country, and lived and died undisturbed by the +law.* + +* See Arnot's /Criminal Trials,/ 4to ed. p. 235. + +The forbearance of the magistrate was, in these instances, wise, +certainly, and just; for what good impression could be made on the public +mind by punishment, when the memory of the offence was obliterated, and +all that was remembered was the recent inoffensive, or perhaps exemplary +conduct of the offender? + +Sir George Staunton might, therefore, tread the scene of his former +audacious exploits, free from the apprehension of the law, or even of +discovery or suspicion. But with what feelings his heart that day +throbbed, must be left to those of the reader to imagine. It was an +object of no common interest which had brought him to encounter so many +painful remembrances. + +In consequence of Jeanie's letter to Lady Staunton, transmitting the +confession, he had visited the town of Carlisle, and had found Archdeacon +Fleming still alive, by whom that confession had been received. This +reverend gentleman, whose character stood deservedly very high, he so far +admitted into his confidence, as to own himself the father of the +unfortunate infant which had been spirited away by Madge Wildfire, +representing the intrigue as a matter of juvenile extravagance on his own +part, for which he was now anxious to atone, by tracing, if possible, +what had become of the child. After some recollection of the +circumstances, the clergyman was able to call to memory, that the unhappy +woman had written a letter to George Staunton, Esq., younger, Rectory, +Willingham, by Grantham; that he had forwarded it to the address +accordingly, and that it had been returned, with a note from the Reverend +Mr. Staunton, Rector of Willingham, saying, he knew no such person as him +to whom the letter was addressed. As this had happened just at the time +when George had, for the last time, absconded from his father's house to +carry off Effie, he was at no loss to account for the cause of the +resentment, under the influence of which his father had disowned him. +This was another instance in which his ungovernable temper had occasioned +his misfortune; had he remained at Willingham but a few days longer, he +would have received Margaret Murdockson's letter, in which were exactly +described the person and haunts of the woman, Annaple Bailzou, to whom +she had parted with the infant. It appeared that Meg Murdockson had been +induced to make this confession, less from any feelings of contrition, +than from the desire of obtaining, through George Staunton or his +father's means, protection and support for her daughter Madge. Her letter +to George Staunton said, "That while the writer lived, her daughter would +have needed nought from any body, and that she would never have meddled +in these affairs, except to pay back the ill that George had done to her +and hers. But she was to die, and her daughter would be destitute, and +without reason to guide her. She had lived in the world long enough to +know that people did nothing for nothing;--so she had told George +Staunton all he could wish to know about his wean, in hopes he would not +see the demented young creature he had ruined perish for want. As for her +motives for not telling them sooner, she had a long account to reckon for +in the next world, and she would reckon for that too." + +The clergyman said that Meg had died in the same desperate state of mind, +occasionally expressing some regret about the child which was lost, but +oftener sorrow that the mother had not been hanged--her mind at once a +chaos of guilt, rage, and apprehension for her daughter's future safety; +that instinctive feeling of parental anxiety which she had in common with +the she-wolf and lioness, being the last shade of kindly affection that +occupied a breast equally savage. + +The melancholy catastrophe of Madge Wildfire was occasioned by her taking +the confusion of her mother's execution, as affording an opportunity of +leaving the workhouse to which the clergyman had sent her, and presenting +herself to the mob in their fury, to perish in the way we have already +seen. When Dr. Fleming found the convict's letter was returned from +Lincolnshire, he wrote to a friend in Edinburgh, to inquire into the fate +of the unfortunate girl whose child had been stolen, and was informed by +his correspondent, that she had been pardoned, and that, with all her +family, she had retired to some distant part of Scotland, or left the +kingdom entirely. And here the matter rested, until, at Sir George +Staunton's application, the clergyman looked out, and produced Margaret +Murdockson's returned letter, and the other memoranda which he had kept +concerning the affair. + +Whatever might be Sir George Staunton's feelings in ripping up this +miserable history, and listening to the tragical fate of the unhappy girl +whom he had ruined, he had so much of his ancient wilfulness of +disposition left, as to shut his eyes on everything, save the prospect +which seemed to open itself of recovering his son. It was true, it would +be difficult to produce him, without telling much more of the history of +his birth, and the misfortunes of his parents, than it was prudent to +make known. But let him once be found, and, being found, let him but +prove worthy of his father's protection, and many ways might be fallen +upon to avoid such risk. Sir George Staunton was at liberty to adopt him +as his heir, if he pleased, without communicating the secret of his +birth; or an Act of Parliament might be obtained, declaring him +legitimate, and allowing him the name and arms of his father. He was +indeed already a legitimate child according to the law of Scotland, by +the subsequent marriage of his parents. Wilful in everything, Sir +George's sole desire now was to see this son, even should his recovery +bring with it a new series of misfortunes, as dreadful as those which +followed on his being lost. + +But where was the youth who might eventually be called to the honours and +estates of this ancient family? On what heath was he wandering, and +shrouded by what mean disguise? Did he gain his precarious bread by some +petty trade, by menial toil, by violence, or by theft? These were +questions on which Sir George's anxious investigations could obtain no +light. Many remembered that Annaple Bailzou wandered through the country +as a beggar and fortune-teller, or spae-wife--some remembered that she +had been seen with an infant in 1737 or 1738,--but for more than ten +years she had not travelled that district; and that she had been heard to +say she was going to a distant part of Scotland, of which country she was +a native. To Scotland, therefore, came Sir George Staunton, having parted +with his lady at Glasgow; and his arrival at Edinburg happening to +coincide with the sitting of the General Assembly of the Kirk, his +acquaintance with the nobleman who held the office of Lord High +Commissioner forced him more into public than suited either his views or +inclinations. + +At the public table of this nobleman, Sir George Staunton was placed next +to a clergyman of respectable appearance, and well-bred, though plain +demeanour, whose name he discovered to be Butler. It had been no part of +Sir George's plan to take his brother-in-law into his confidence, and he +had rejoiced exceedingly in the assurances he received from his wife, +that Mrs. Butler, the very soul of integrity and honour, had never +suffered the account he had given of himself at Willingham Rectory to +transpire, even to her husband. But he was not sorry to have an +opportunity to converse with so near a connection without being known to +him, and to form a judgment of his character and understanding. He saw +much, and heard more, to raise Butler very high in his opinion. He found +he was generally respected by those of his own profession, as well as by +the laity who had seats in the Assembly. He had made several public +appearances in the Assembly, distinguished by good sense, candour, and +ability; and he was followed and admired as a sound, and, at the same +time, an eloquent preacher. + +This was all very satisfactory to Sir George Staunton's pride, which had +revolted at the idea of his wife's sister being obscurely married. He now +began, on the contrary, to think the connection so much better than he +expected, that, if it should be necessary to acknowledge it, in +consequence of the recovery of his son, it would sound well enough that +Lady Staunton had a sister, who, in the decayed state of the family, had +married a Scottish clergyman, high in the opinion of his countrymen, and +a leader in the church. + +It was with these feelings, that, when the Lord High Commissioner's +company broke up, Sir George Staunton, under pretence of prolonging some +inquiries concerning the constitution of the Church of Scotland, +requested Butler to go home to his lodgings in the Lawnmarket, and drink +a cup of coffee. Butler agreed to wait upon him, providing Sir George +would permit him, in passing, to call at a friend's house where he +resided, and make his apology for not coming to partake her tea. They +proceeded up the High Street, entered the Krames, and passed the +begging-box, placed to remind those at liberty of the distresses of the +poor prisoners. Sir George paused there one instant, and next day a L20 +note was found in that receptacle for public charity. + +When he came up to Butler again, he found him with his eyes fixed on the +entrance of the Tolbooth, and apparently in deep thought. + +"That seems a very strong door," said Sir George, by way of saying +something. + +"It is so, sir," said Butler, turning off and beginning to walk forward, +"but it was my misfortune at one time to see it prove greatly too weak." + +At this moment, looking at his companion, he asked him whether he felt +himself ill? and Sir George Staunton admitted, that he had been so +foolish as to eat ice, which sometimes disagreed with him. With kind +officiousness, that would not be gainsaid, and ere he could find out +where he was going, Butler hurried Sir George into the friend's house, +near to the prison, in which he himself had lived since he came to town, +being, indeed, no other than that of our old friend Bartoline Saddletree, +in which Lady Staunton had served a short noviciate as a shop-maid. This +recollection rushed on her husband's mind, and the blush of shame which +it excited overpowered the sensation of fear which had produced his +former paleness. Good Mrs. Saddletree, however, bustled about to receive +the rich English baronet as the friend of Mr. Butler, and requested an +elderly female in a black gown to sit still, in a way which seemed to +imply a wish, that she would clear the way for her betters. In the +meanwhile, understanding the state of the case, she ran to get some +cordial waters, sovereign, of course, in all cases of faintishness +whatsoever. During her absence, her visitor, the female in black, made +some progress out of the room, and might have left it altogether without +particular observation, had she not stumbled at the threshold, so near +Sir George Staunton, that he, in point of civility, raised her and +assisted her to the door. + +"Mrs. Porteous is turned very doited now, puir body," said Mrs. +Saddletree, as she returned with her bottle in her hand--"She is no sae +auld, but she got a sair back-cast wi' the slaughter o' her husband--Ye +had some trouble about that job, Mr. Butler.--I think, sir," to Sir +George, "ye had better drink out the haill glass, for to my een ye look +waur than when ye came in." + +And, indeed, he grew as pale as a corpse, on recollecting who it was that +his arm had so lately supported--the widow whom he had so large a share +in making such. + +"It is a prescribed job that case of Porteous now," said old Saddletree, +who was confined to his chair by the gout--"clean prescribed and out of +date." + +"I am not clear of that, neighbour," said Plumdamas, "for I have heard +them say twenty years should rin, and this is but the fifty-ane-- +Porteous's mob was in thretty-seven." + +"Ye'll no teach me law, I think, neighbour--me that has four gaun pleas, +and might hae had fourteen, an it hadna been the gudewife? I tell ye, if +the foremost of the Porteous mob were standing there where that gentleman +stands, the King's Advocate wadna meddle wi' him--it fa's under the +negative prescription." + +"Haud your din, carles," said Mrs. Saddletree, "and let the gentleman sit +down and get a dish of comfortable tea." + +But Sir George had had quite enough of their conversation; and Butler, at +his request, made an apology to Mrs. Saddletree, and accompanied him to +his lodgings. Here they found another guest waiting Sir George Staunton's +return. This was no other than our reader's old acquaintance, Ratcliffe. + +This man had exercised the office of turnkey with so much vigilance, +acuteness, and fidelity, that he gradually rose to be governor, or +captain of the Tolbooth. And it is yet to be remembered in tradition, +that young men, who rather sought amusing than select society in their +merry-meetings, used sometimes to request Ratcliffe's company, in order +that he might regale them with legends of his extraordinary feats in the +way of robbery and escape.* + +* There seems an anachronism in the history of this person. Ratcliffe, +among other escapes from justice, was released by the Porteous mob when +under sentence of death; and he was again under the same predicament, +when the Highlanders made a similar jail-delivery in 1745. He was too +sincere a whig to embrace liberation at the hands of the Jacobites, and +in reward was made one of the keepers of the Tolbooth. So at least runs +constant tradition. + +But he lived and died without resuming his original vocation, otherwise +than in his narratives over a bottle. + +Under these circumstances, he had been recommended to Sir George Staunton +by a man of the law in Edinburgh, as a person likely to answer any +questions he might have to ask about Annaple Bailzou, who, according to +the colour which Sir George Staunton gave to his cause of inquiry, was +supposed to have stolen a child in the west of England, belonging to a +family in which he was interested. The gentleman had not mentioned his +name, but only his official title; so that Sir George Staunton, when told +that the captain of the Tolbooth was waiting for him in his parlour, had +no idea of meeting his former acquaintance, Jem Ratcliffe. + +This, therefore, was another new and most unpleasant surprise, for he had +no difficulty in recollecting this man's remarkable features. The change, +however, from George Robertson to Sir George Staunton, baffled even the +penetration of Ratcliffe, and he bowed very low to the baronet and his +guest, hoping Mr. Butler would excuse his recollecting that he was an old +acquaintance. + +"And once rendered my wife a piece of great service," said Mr. Butler, +"for which she sent you a token of grateful acknowledgment, which I hope +came safe and was welcome." + +"Deil a doubt on't," said Ratcliffe, with a knowing nod; "but ye are +muckle changed for the better since I saw ye, Maister Butler." + +"So much so, that I wonder you knew me." + +"Aha, then!--Deil a face I see I ever forget," said Ratcliffe while Sir +George Staunton, tied to the stake, and incapable of escaping, internally +cursed the accuracy of his memory. "And yet, sometimes," continued +Ratcliffe, "the sharpest hand will be ta'en in. There is a face in this +very room, if I might presume to be sae bauld, that, if I didna ken the +honourable person it belangs to, I might think it had some cut of an auld +acquaintance." + +"I should not be much flattered," answered the Baronet, sternly, and +roused by the risk in which he saw himself placed, "if it is to me you +mean to apply that compliment." + +"By no manner of means, sir," said Ratcliffe, bowing very low; "I am come +to receive your honour's commands, and no to trouble your honour wi' my +poor observations." + +"Well, sir," said Sir George, "I am told you understand police matters-- +So do I.--To convince you of which, here are ten guineas of retaining +fee--I make them fifty when you can find me certain notice of a person, +living or dead, whom you will find described in that paper. I shall leave +town presently--you may send your written answer to me to the care of Mr. +" (naming his highly respectable agent), "or of his Grace the Lord High +Commissioner." Rateliffe bowed and withdrew. + +"I have angered the proud peat now," he said to himself, "by finding out +a likeness; but if George Robertson's father had lived within a mile of +his mother, d--n me if I should not know what to think, for as high as he +carries his head." + +When he was left alone with Butler, Sir George Staunton ordered tea and +coffee, which were brought by his valet, and then, after considering with +himself for a minute, asked his guest whether he had lately heard from +his wife and family. Butler, with some surprise at the question, replied, +"that he had received no letter for some time; his wife was a poor +penwoman." + +"Then," said Sir George Staunton, "I am the first to inform you there has +been an invasion of your quiet premises since you left home. My wife, +whom the Duke of Argyle had the goodness to permit to use Roseneath +Lodge, while she was spending some weeks in your country, has sallied +across and taken up her quarters in the Manse, as she says, to be nearer +the goats, whose milk she is using; but, I believe, in reality, because +she prefers Mrs. Butler's company to that of the respectable gentleman +who acts as seneschal on the Duke's domains." + +Mr. Butler said, "He had often heard the late Duke and the present speak +with high respect of Lady Staunton, and was happy if his house could +accommodate any friend of theirs--it would be but a very slight +acknowledgment of the many favours he owed them." + +"That does not make Lady Staunton and myself the less obliged to your +hospitality, sir," said Sir George. "May I inquire if you think of +returning home soon?" + +"In the course of two days," Mr. Butler answered, "his duty in the +Assembly would be ended; and the other matters he had in town being all +finished, he was desirous of returning to Dumbartonshire as soon as he +could; but he was under the necessity of transporting a considerable sum +in bills and money with him, and therefore wished to travel in company +with one or two of his brethren of the clergy." + +"My escort will be more safe," said Sir George Staunton, "and I think of +setting off to-morrow or next day. If you will give me the pleasure of +your company, I will undertake to deliver you and your charge safe at the +Manse, provided you will admit me along with you." + +Mr. Butler gratefully accepted of this proposal; the appointment was made +accordingly, and, by despatches with one of Sir George's servants, who +was sent forward for the purpose, the inhabitants of the manse of +Knocktarlitie were made acquainted with the intended journey; and the +news rung through the whole vicinity, "that the minister was coming back +wi' a braw English gentleman and a' the siller that was to pay for the +estate of Craigsture." + +This sudden resolution of going to Knocktarlitie had been adopted by Sir +George Staunton in consequence of the incidents of the evening. In spite +of his present consequence, he felt he had presumed too far in venturing +so near the scene of his former audacious acts of violence, and he knew +too well, from past experience, the acuteness of a man like Ratcliffe, +again to encounter him. The next two days he kept his lodgings, under +pretence of indisposition, and took leave by writing of his noble friend +the High Commissioner, alleging the opportunity of Mr. Butler's company +as a reason for leaving Edinburgh sooner than he had proposed. He had a +long conference with his agent on the subject of Annaple Bailzou; and the +professional gentleman, who was the agent also of the Argyle family, had +directions to collect all the information which Ratcliffe or others might +be able to obtain concerning the fate of that woman and the unfortunate +child, and so soon as anything transpired which had the least appearance +of being important, that he should send an express with it instantly to +Knocktarlitie. These instructions were backed with a deposit of money, +and a request that no expense might be spared; so that Sir George +Staunton had little reason to apprehend negligence on the part of the +persons intrusted with the commission. + +The journey, which the brothers made in company, was attended with more +pleasure, even to Sir George Staunton, than he had ventured to expect. +His heart lightened in spite of himself when they lost sight of +Edinburgh; and the easy, sensible conversation of Butler was well +calculated to withdraw his thoughts from painful reflections. He even +began to think whether there could be much difficulty in removing his +wife's connections to the rectory of Willingham; it was only on his part +procuring some still better preferment for the present incumbent, and on +Butler's, that he should take orders according to the English Church, to +which he could not conceive a possibility of his making objection, and +then he had them residing under his wing. No doubt there was pain in +seeing Mrs. Butler, acquainted, as he knew her to be, with the full truth +of his evil history; but then her silence, though he had no reason to +complain of her indiscretion hitherto, was still more absolutely ensured. +It would keep his lady, also, both in good temper and in more subjection; +for she was sometimes troublesome to him by insisting on remaining in +town when he desired to retire to the country, alleging the total want of +society at Willingham. "Madam, your sister is there," would, he thought, +be a sufficient answer to this ready argument. + +He sounded Butler on this subject, asking what he would think of an +English living of twelve hundred pounds yearly, with the burden of +affording his company now and then to a neighbour, whose health was not +strong or his spirits equal. "He might meet," he said, "occasionally, a +very learned and accomplished gentleman, who was in orders as a Catholic +priest, but he hoped that would be no insurmountable objection to a man +of his liberality of sentiment. What," he said, "would Mr. Butler think +of as an answer, if the offer should be made to him?" + +"Simply that I could not accept of it," said Mr. Butler. "I have no mind +to enter into the various debates between the churches; but I was brought +up in mine own, have received her ordination, am satisfied of the truth +of her doctrines, and will die under the banner I have enlisted to." + +"What may be the value of your preferment?" said Sir George Staunton, +"unless I am asking an indiscreet question." + +"Probably one hundred a-year, one year with another, besides my glebe and +pasture-ground." + +"And you scruple to exchange that for twelve hundred a-year, without +alleging any damning difference of doctrine betwixt the two churches of +England and Scotland?" + +"On that, sir, I have reserved my judgment; there may be much good, and +there are certainly saving means in both; but every man must act +according to his own lights. I hope I have done, and am in the course of +doing, my Master's work in this Highland parish; and it would ill become +me, for the sake of lucre, to leave my sheep in the wilderness. But, even +in the temporal view which you have taken of the matter, Sir George, this +hundred pounds a-year of stipend hath fed and clothed us, and left us +nothing to wish for; my father-in-law's succession, and other +circumstances, have added a small estate of about twice as much more, and +how we are to dispose of it I do not know--So I leave it to you, sir, to +think if I were wise, not having the wish or opportunity of spending +three hundred a-year, to covet the possession of four times that sum." + +"This is philosophy," said Sir George; "I have heard of it, but I never +saw it before." + +"It is common sense," replied Butler, "which accords with philosophy and +religion more frequently than pedants or zealots are apt to admit." + +Sir George turned the subject, and did not again resume it. Although they +travelled in Sir George's chariot, he seemed so much fatigued with the +motion, that it was necessary for him to remain for a day at a small town +called Mid-Calder, which was their first stage from Edinburgh. Glasgow +occupied another day, so slow were their motions. + +They travelled on to Dumbarton, where they had resolved to leave the +equipage and to hire a boat to take them to the shores near the manse, as +the Gare-Loch lay betwixt them and that point, besides the impossibility +of travelling in that district with wheel-carriages. Sir George's valet, +a man of trust, accompanied them, as also a footman; the grooms were left +with the carriage. Just as this arrangement was completed, which was +about four o'clock in the afternoon, an express arrived from Sir George's +agent in Edinburgh, with a packet, which he opened and read with great +attention, appearing much interested and agitated by the contents. The +packet had been despatched very soon after their leaving Edinburgh, but +the messenger had missed the travellers by passing through Mid-Calder in +the night, and overshot his errand by getting to Roseneath before them. +He was now on his return, after having waited more than four-and-twenty +hours. Sir George Staunton instantly wrote back an answer, and rewarding +the messenger liberally, desired him not to sleep till he placed it in +his agent's hands. + +At length they embarked in the boat, which had waited for them some time. +During their voyage, which was slow, for they were obliged to row the +whole way, and often against the tide, Sir George Staunton's inquiries +ran chiefly on the subject of the Highland banditti who had infested that +country since the year 1745. Butler informed him that many of them were +not native Highlanders, but gipsies, tinkers, and other men of desperate +fortunes, who had taken advantage of the confusion introduced by the +civil war, the general discontent of the mountaineers, and the unsettled +state of police, to practise their plundering trade with more audacity. +Sir George next inquired into their lives, their habits, whether the +violences which they committed were not sometimes atoned for by acts of +generosity, and whether they did not possess the virtues as well as the +vices of savage tribes? + +Butler answered, that certainly they did sometimes show sparks of +generosity, of which even the worst class of malefactors are seldom +utterly divested; but that their evil propensities were certain and +regular principles of action, while any occasional burst of virtuous +feeling was only a transient impulse not to be reckoned upon, and excited +probably by some singular and unusual concatenation of circumstances. In +discussing these inquiries, which Sir George pursued with an apparent +eagerness that rather surprised Butler, the latter chanced to mention the +name of Donacha dhu na Dunaigh, with which the reader is already +acquainted. Sir George caught the sound up eagerly, and as if it conveyed +particular interest to his ear. He made the most minute inquiries +concerning the man whom he mentioned, the number of his gang, and even +the appearance of those who belonged to it. Upon these points Butler +could give little answer. The man had a name among the lower class, but +his exploits were considerably exaggerated; he had always one or two +fellows with him, but never aspired to the command of above three or +four. In short, he knew little about him, and the small acquaintance he +had had by no means inclined him to desire more. + +"Nevertheless, I should like to see him some of these days." + +"That would be a dangerous meeting, Sir George, unless you mean we are to +see him receive his deserts from the law, and then it were a melancholy +one." + +"Use every man according to his deserts, Mr. Butler, and who shall escape +whipping? But I am talking riddles to you. I will explain them more fully +to you when I have spoken over the subject with Lady Staunton.--Pull +away, my lads," he added, addressing himself to the rowers; "the clouds +threaten us with a storm." + +In fact, the dead and heavy closeness of the air, the huge piles of +clouds which assembled in the western horizon, and glowed like a furnace +under the influence of the setting sun--that awful stillness in which +nature seems to expect the thunder-burst, as a condemned soldier waits +for the platoon fire which is to stretch him on the earth, all betokened +a speedy storm. Large broad drops fell from time to time, and induced the +gentlemen to assume the boat-cloaks; but the rain again ceased, and the +oppressive heat, so unusual in Scotland in the end of May, inclined them +to throw them aside. "There is something solemn in this delay of the +storm," said Sir George; "it seems as if it suspended its peal till it +solemnised some important event in the world below." + +"Alas!" replied Butler, "what are we that the laws of nature should +correspond in their march with our ephemeral deeds or sufferings! The +clouds will burst when surcharged with the electric fluid, whether a goat +is falling at that instant from the cliffs of Arran, or a hero expiring +on the field of battle he has won." + +"The mind delights to deem it otherwise," said Sir George Staunton; "and +to dwell on the fate of humanity as on that which is the prime central +movement of the mighty machine. We love not to think that we shall mix +with the ages that have gone before us, as these broad black raindrops +mingle with the waste of waters, making a trifling and momentary eddy, +and are then lost for ever." + +"/For ever!/--we are not--we cannot be lost for ever," said Butler, +looking upward; "death is to us change, not consummation; and the +commencement of a new existence, corresponding in character to the deeds +which we have done in the body." + +While they agitated these grave subjects, to which the solemnity of the +approaching storm naturally led them, their voyage threatened to be more +tedious than they expected, for gusts of wind, which rose and fell with +sudden impetuosity, swept the bosom of the firth, and impeded the efforts +of the rowers. They had now only to double a small headland, in order to +get to the proper landing-place in the mouth of the little river; but in +the state of the weather, and the boat being heavy, this was like to be a +work of time, and in the meanwhile they must necessarily be exposed to +the storm. + +"Could we not land on this side of the headland," asked Sir George, "and +so gain some shelter?" + +Butler knew of no landing-place, at least none affording a convenient or +even practicable passage up the rocks which surrounded the shore. + +"Think again," said Sir George Staunton; "the storm will soon be +violent." + +"Hout, ay," said one of the boatmen, "there's the Caird's Cove; but we +dinna tell the minister about it, and I am no sure if I can steer the +boat to it, the bay is sae fa' o' shoals and sunk rocks." + +"Try," said Sir George, "and I will give you half-a-guinea." + +The old fellow took the helm, and observed, "That, if they could get in, +there was a steep path up from the beach, and half-an-hour's walk from +thence to the Manse." + +"Are you sure you know the way?" said Butler to the old man. + +"I maybe kend it a wee better fifteen years syne, when Dandie Wilson was +in the firth wi' his clean-ganging lugger. I mind Dandie had a wild young +Englisher wi' him, that they ca'd" + +"If you chatter so much," said Sir George Staunton, "you will have the +boat on the Grindstone--bring that white rock in a line with the +steeple." + +"By G--," said the veteran, staring, "I think your honour kens the bay as +weel as me.--Your honour's nose has been on the Grindstone ere now, I'm +thinking." + +As they spoke thus, they approached the little cove, which, concealed +behind crags, and defended on every point by shallows and sunken rocks, +could scarce be discovered or approached, except by those intimate with +the navigation. An old shattered boat was already drawn up on the beach +within the cove, close beneath the trees, and with precautions for +concealment. + +Upon observing this vessel, Butler remarked to his companion, "It is +impossible for you to conceive, Sir George, the difficulty I have had +with my poor people, in teaching them the guilt and the danger of this +contraband trade--yet they have perpetually before their eyes all its +dangerous consequences. I do not know anything that more effectually +depraves and ruins their moral and religious principles." + +Sir George forced himself to say something in a low voice about the +spirit of adventure natural to youth, and that unquestionably many would +become wiser as they grew older. + +"Too seldom, sir," replied Butler. "If they have been deeply engaged, and +especially if they, have mingled in the scenes of violence and blood to +which their occupation naturally leads, I have observed, that, sooner or +later, they come to an evil end. Experience, as well as Scripture, +teaches us, Sir George, that mischief shall hunt the violent man, and +that the bloodthirsty man shall not live half his days--But take my arm +to help you ashore." + +Sir George needed assistance, for he was contrasting in his altered +thought the different feelings of mind and frame with which he had +formerly frequented the same place. As they landed, a low growl of +thunder was heard at a distance. + +"That is ominous, Mr. Butler," said Sir George. + +"/Intonuit laevum/--it is ominous of good, then," answered Butler, +smiling. + +The boatmen were ordered to make the best of their way round the headland +to the ordinary landing-place; the two gentlemen, followed by their +servant, sought their way by a blind and tangled path, through a close +copsewood, to the Manse of Knocktarlitie, where their arrival was +anxiously expected. + +The sisters in vain had expected their husbands' return on the preceding +day, which was that appointed by Sir George's letter. The delay of the +travellers at Calder had occasioned this breach of appointment. The +inhabitants of the Manse began even to doubt whether they would arrive on +the present day. Lady Staunton felt this hope of delay as a brief +reprieve, for she dreaded the pangs which her husband's pride must +undergo at meeting with a sister-in-law, to whom the whole of his unhappy +and dishonourable history was too well known. She knew, whatever force or +constraint he might put upon his feelings in public, that she herself +must be doomed to see them display themselves in full vehemence in +secret,--consume his health, destroy his temper, and render him at once +an object of dread and compassion. Again and again she cautioned Jeanie +to display no tokens of recognition, but to receive him as a perfect +stranger,--and again and again Jeanie renewed her promise to comply with +her wishes. + +Jeanie herself could not fail to bestow an anxious thought on the +awkwardness of the approaching meeting; but her conscience was ungalled-- +and then she was cumbered with many household cares of an unusual nature, +which, joined to the anxious wish once more to see Butler, after an +absence of unusual length, made her extremely desirous that the +travellers should arrive as soon as possible. And--why should I disguise +the truth?--ever and anon a thought stole across her mind that her gala +dinner had now been postponed for two days; and how few of the dishes, +after every art of her simple cuisine had been exerted to dress them, +could with any credit or propriety appear again upon the third; and what +was she to do with the rest?--Upon this last subject she was saved the +trouble of farther deliberation, by the sudden appearance of the Captain +at the head of half-a-dozen stout fellows, dressed and armed in the +Highland fashion. + +"Goot-morrow morning to ye, Leddy Staunton, and I hope I hae the pleasure +to see you weel--And goot-morrow to you, goot Mrs. Putler--I do peg you +will order some victuals and ale and prandy for the lads, for we hae peen +out on firth and moor since afore daylight, and a' to no purpose neither +--Cot tam!" + +So saying, he sate down, pushed back his brigadier wig, and wiped his +head with an air of easy importance; totally regardless of the look of +well-bred astonishment by which Lady Staunton endeavoured to make him +comprehend that he was assuming too great a liberty. + +"It is some comfort, when one has had a sair tussel," continued the +Captain, addressing Lady Staunton, with an air of gallantry, "that it is +in a fair leddy's service, or in the service of a gentleman whilk has a +fair leddy, whilk is the same thing, since serving the husband is serving +the wife, as Mrs. Putler does very weel know." + +"Really, sir," said Lady Staunton, "as you seem to intend this compliment +for me, I am at a loss to know what interest Sir George or I can have in +your movements this morning." + +"O, Cot tam!--this is too cruel, my leddy--as if it was not py special +express from his Grace's honourable agent and commissioner at Edinburgh, +with a warrant conform, that I was to seek for and apprehend Donacha dhu +na Dunaigh, and pring him pefore myself and Sir George Staunton, that he +may have his deserts, that is to say, the gallows, whilk he has doubtless +deserved, py peing the means of frightening your leddyship, as weel as +for something of less importance." + +"Frightening me!" said her ladyship; "why, I never wrote to Sir George +about my alarm at the waterfall." + +"Then he must have heard it otherwise; for what else can give him sic an +earnest tesire to see this rapscallion, that I maun ripe the haill mosses +and muirs in the country for him, as if I were to get something for +finding him, when the pest o't might pe a pall through my prains?" + +"Can it be really true, that it is on Sir George's account that you have +been attempting to apprehend this fellow?" + +"Py Cot, it is for no other cause that I know than his honour's pleasure; +for the creature might hae gone on in a decent quiet way for me, sae lang +as he respectit the Duke's pounds--put reason goot he suld be taen, and +hangit to poet, if it may pleasure ony honourable shentleman that is the +Duke's friend--Sae I got the express over night, and I caused warn half a +score of pretty lads, and was up in the morning pefore the sun, and I +garr'd the lads take their kilts and short coats." + +"I wonder you did that, Captain," said Mrs. Butler, "when you know the +act of Parliament against wearing the Highland dress." + +"Hout, tout, ne'er fash your thumb, Mrs. Putler. The law is put twa-three +years auld yet, and is ower young to hae come our length; and pesides, +how is the lads to climb the praes wi' thae tamn'd breekens on them? It +makes me sick to see them. Put ony how, I thought I kend Donacha's haunt +gey and weel, and I was at the place where he had rested yestreen; for I +saw the leaves the limmers had lain on, and the ashes of them; by the +same token, there was a pit greeshoch purning yet. I am thinking they got +some word oat o' the island what was intended--I sought every glen and +clench, as if I had been deer-stalking, but teil a want of his coat-tail +could I see--Cot tam!" + +"He'll be away down the Firth to Cowal," said David; and Reuben, who had +been out early that morning a-nutting, observed, "That he had seen a boat +making for the Caird's Cove;" a place well known to the boys, though +their less adventurous father was ignorant of its existence. + +"Py Cot," said Duncan, "then I will stay here no longer than to trink +this very horn of prandy and water, for it's very possible they will pe +in the wood. Donacha's a clever fellow, and maype thinks it pest to sit +next the chimley when the lum reeks. He thought naebody would look for +him sae near hand! I peg your leddyship will excuse my aprupt departure, +as I will return forthwith, and I will either pring you Donacha in life, +or else his head, whilk I dare to say will be as satisfactory. And I hope +to pass a pleasant evening with your leddyship; and I hope to have mine +revenges on Mr. Putler at backgammon, for the four pennies whilk he won, +for he will pe surely at home soon, or else he will have a wet journey, +seeing it is apout to pe a scud." + +Thus saying, with many scrapes and bows, and apologies for leaving them, +which were very readily received, and reiterated assurances of his speedy +return (of the sincerity whereof Mrs. Butler entertained no doubt, so +long as her best greybeard of brandy was upon duty), Duncan left the +Manse, collected his followers, and began to scour the close and +entangled wood which lay between the little glen and the Caird's Cove. +David, who was a favourite with the Captain, on account of his spirit and +courage, took the opportunity of escaping, to attend the investigations +of that great man. + + + + + CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHTH. + + I did send for thee, + That Talbot's name might be in thee revived, + When sapless age and weak, unable limbs, + Should bring thy father to his drooping chair. + But--O malignant and ill-boding stars!-- + First part of Henry the Sixth. + +Duncan and his party had not proceeded very far in the direction of the +Caird's Cove before they heard a shot, which was quickly followed by one +or two others. "Some tamn'd villains among the roe-deer," said Duncan; +"look sharp out, lads." + +The clash of swords was next heard, and Duncan and his myrmidons, +hastening to the spot, found Butler and Sir George Staunton's servant in +the hands of four ruffians. Sir George himself lay stretched on the +ground, with his drawn sword in his hand. Duncan, who was as brave as a +lion, instantly fired his pistol at the leader of the band, unsheathed +his sword, cried out to his men, /Claymore!/ and run his weapon through +the body of the fellow whom he had previously wounded, who was no other +thau Donacha dhu na Dunaigh himself. The other banditti were speedily +overpowered, excepting one young lad, who made wonderful resistance for +his years, and was at length secured with difficulty. + +Butler, so soon as he was liberated from the ruffians, ran to raise Sir +George Staunton, but life had wholly left him. + +"A creat misfortune," said Duncan; "I think it will pe pest that I go +forward to intimate it to the coot lady.--Tavie, my dear, you hae smelled +pouther for the first time this day--take my sword and hack off Donacha's +head, whilk will pe coot practice for you against the time you may wish +to do the same kindness to a living shentleman--or hould! as your father +does not approve, you may leave it alone, as he will pe a greater object +of satisfaction to Leddy Staunton to see him entire; and I hope she will +do me the credit to pelieve that I can afenge a shentleman's plood fery +speedily and well." + +Such was the observation of a man too much accustomed to the ancient +state of manners in the Highlands, to look upon the issue of such a +skirmish as anything worthy of wonder or emotion. + +We will not attempt to describe the very contrary effect which the +unexpected disaster produced upon Lady Staunton, when the bloody corpse +of her husband was brought to the house, where she expected to meet him +alive and well. All was forgotten, but that he was the lover of her +youth; and whatever were his faults to the world, that he had towards her +exhibited only those that arose from the inequality of spirits and +temper, incident to a situation of unparalleled difficulty. In the +vivacity of her grief she gave way to all the natural irritability of her +temper; shriek followed shriek, and swoon succeeded to swoon. It required +all Jeanie's watchful affection to prevent her from making known, in +these paroxysms of affliction, much which it was of the highest +importance that she should keep secret. + +At length silence and exhaustion succeeded to frenzy, and Jeanie stole +out to take counsel with her husband, and to exhort him to anticipate the +Captain's interference, by taking possession, in Lady Staunton's name, of +the private papers of her deceased husband. To the utter astonishment of +Butler, she now, for the first time, explained the relation betwixt +herself and Lady Staunton, which authorised, nay, demanded, that he +should prevent any stranger from being unnecessarily made acquainted with +her family affairs. It was in such a crisis that Jeanie's active and +undaunted habits of virtuous exertion were most conspicuous. While the +Captain's attention was still engaged by a prolonged refreshment, and a +very tedious examination, in Gaelic and English, of all the prisoners, +and every other witness of the fatal transaction, she had the body of her +brother-in-law undressed and properly disposed. It then appeared, from +the crucifix, the beads, and the shirt of hair which he wore next his +person, that his sense of guilt had induced him to receive the dogmata of +a religion, which pretends, by the maceration of the body, to expiate the +crimes of the soul. In the packet of papers which the express had brought +to Sir George Staunton from Edinburgh, and which Butler, authorised by +his connection with the deceased, did not scruple to examine, he found +new and astonishing intelligence, which gave him reason to thank God he +had taken that measure. + +Ratcliffe, to whom all sorts of misdeeds and misdoers were familiar, +instigated by the promised reward, soon found himself in a condition to +trace the infant of these unhappy parents. The woman to whom Meg +Murdockson had sold that most unfortunate child, had made it the +companion of her wanderings and her beggary, until he was about seven or +eight years old, when, as Ratcliffe learned from a companion of hers, +then in the Correction House of Edinburgh, she sold him in her turn to +Donacha dhu na Dunaigh. This man, to whom no act of mischief was unknown, +was occasionally an agent in a horrible trade then carried on betwixt +Scotland and America, for supplying the plantations with servants, by +means of /kidnapping,/ as it was termed, both men and women, but +especially children under age. Here Ratcliffe lost sight of the boy, but +had no doubt but Donacha Dhu could give an account of him. The gentleman +of the law, so often mentioned, despatched therefore an express, with a +letter to Sir George Staunton, and another covering a warrant for +apprehension of Donacha, with instructions to the Captain of Knockdunder +to exert his utmost energy for that purpose. + +Possessed of this information, and with a mind agitated by the most +gloomy apprehensions, Butler now joined the Captain, and obtained from +him with some difficulty a sight of the examinations. These, with a few +questions to the elder of the prisoners, soon confirmed the most dreadful +of Butler's anticipations. We give the heads of the information, without +descending into minute details. + +Donacha Dhu had indeed purchased Effie's unhappy child, with the purpose +of selling it to the American traders, whom he had been in the habit of +supplying with human flesh. But no opportunity occurred for some time; +and the boy, who was known by the name of "The Whistler," made some +impression on the heart and affections even of this rude savage, perhaps +because he saw in him flashes of a spirit as fierce and vindictive as his +own. When Donacha struck or threatened him--a very common occurrence--he +did not answer with complaints and entreaties like other children, but +with oaths and efforts at revenge--he had all the wild merit, too, by +which Woggarwolfe's arrow-bearing page won the hard heart of his master: + + Like a wild cub, rear'd at the ruffian's feet, + He could say biting jests, bold ditties sing, + And quaff his foaming bumper at the board, + With all the mockery of a little man.* + +* Ethwald. + +In short, as Donacha Dhu said, the Whistler was a born imp of Satan, and +/therefore/ he should never leave him. Accordingly, from his eleventh +year forward, he was one of the band, and often engaged in acts of +violence. The last of these was more immediately occasioned by the +researches which the Whistler's real father made after him whom he had +been taught to consider as such. Donacha Dhu's fears had been for some +time excited by the strength of the means which began now to be employed +against persons of his description. He was sensible he existed only by +the precarious indulgence of his namesake, Duncan of Knockdunder, who was +used to boast that he could put him down or string him up when he had a +mind. He resolved to leave the kingdom by means of one of those sloops +which were engaged in the traffic of his old kidnapping friends, and +which was about to sail for America; but he was desirous first to strike +a bold stroke. + +The ruffian's cupidity was excited by the intelligence, that a wealthy +Englishman was coming to the Manse--he had neither forgotten the +Whistler's report of the gold he had seen in Lady Staunton's purse, nor +his old vow of revenge against the minister; and, to bring the whole to a +point, he conceived the hope of appropriating the money, which, according +to the general report of the country, the minister was to bring from +Edinburgh to pay for his pew purchase. While he was considering how he +might best accomplish his purpose, he received the intelligence from one +quarter, that the vessel in which he proposed to sail was to sail +immediately from Greenock; from another, that the minister and a rich +English lord, with a great many thousand pounds, were expected the next +evening at the Manse; and from a third, that he must consult his safety +by leaving his ordinary haunts as soon as possible, for that the Captain +had ordered out a party to scour the glens for him at break of day. +Donacha laid his plans with promptitude and decision. He embarked with +the Whistler and two others of his band (whom, by the by, he meant to +sell to the kidnappers), and set sail for the Caird's Cove. He intended +to lurk till nightfall in the wood adjoining to this place, which he +thought was too near the habitation of men to excite the suspicion of +Duncan Knock, then break into Butler's peaceful habitation, and flesh at +once his appetite for plunder and revenge. When his villany was +accomplished, his boat was to convey him to the vessel, which, according +to previous agreement with the master, was instantly to set sail. + +This desperate design would probably have succeeded, but for the ruffians +being discovered in their lurking-place by Sir George Staunton and +Butler, in their accidental walk from the Caird's Cove towards the Manse. +Finding himself detected, and at the same time observing that the servant +carried a casket, or strong-box, Donacha conceived that both his prize +and his victims were within his power, and attacked the travellers +without hesitation. Shots were fired and swords drawn on both sides; Sir +George Staunton offered the bravest resistance till he fell, as there was +too much reason to believe, by the hand of a son, so long sought, and now +at length so unhappily met. + +While Butler was half-stunned with this intelligence, the hoarse voice of +Knockdunder added to his consternation. + +"I will take the liperty to take down the pell-ropes, Mr. Putler, as I +must pe taking order to hang these idle people up to-morrow morning, to +teach them more consideration in their doings in future." + +Butler entreated him to remember the act abolishing the heritable +jurisdictions, and that he ought to send them to Glasgow or Inverary, to +be tried by the Circuit. Duncan scorned the proposal. + +"The Jurisdiction Act," he said, "had nothing to do put with the rebels, +and specially not with Argyle's country; and he would hang the men up all +three in one row before coot Leddy Staunton's windows, which would be a +great comfort to her in the morning to see that the coot gentleman, her +husband, had been suitably afenged." + +And the utmost length that Butler's most earnest entreaties could prevail +was, that he would, reserve "the twa pig carles for the Circuit, but as +for him they ca'd the Fustler, he should try how he could fustle in a +swinging tow, for it suldna be said that a shentleman, friend to the +Duke, was killed in his country, and his people didna take at least twa +lives for ane." + +Butler entreated him to spare the victim for his soul's sake. But +Knockdunder answered, "that the soul of such a scum had been long the +tefil's property, and that, Cot tam! he was determined to gif the tefil +his due." + +All persuasion was in vain, and Duncan issued his mandate for execution +on the succeeding morning. The child of guilt and misery was separated +from his companions, strongly pinioned, and committed to a separate room, +of which the Captain kept the key. + +In the silence of the night, however, Mrs. Butler arose, resolved, if +possible, to avert, at least to delay, the fate which hung over her +nephew, especially if, upon conversing with him, she should see any hope +of his being brought to better temper. She had a master-key that opened +every lock in the house; and at midnight, when all was still, she stood +before the eyes of the astonished young savage, as, hard bound with +cords, he lay, like a sheep designed for slaughter, upon a quantity of +the refuse of flax which filled a corner in the apartment. Amid features +sunburnt, tawny, grimed with dirt, and obscured by his shaggy hair of a +rusted black colour, Jeanie tried in vain to trace the likeness of either +of his very handsome parents. Yet how could she refuse compassion to a +creature so young and so wretched,--so much more wretched than even he +himself could be aware of, since the murder he had too probably committed +with his own hand, but in which he had at any rate participated, was in +fact a parricide? She placed food on a table near him, raised him, and +slacked the cords on his arms, so as to permit him to feed himself. He +stretched out his hands, still smeared with blood perhaps that of his +father, and he ate voraciously and in silence. + +"What is your first name?" said Jeanie, by way of opening the +conversation. + +"The Whistler." + +"But your Christian name, by which you were baptized?" + +"I never was baptized that I know of--I have no other name than the +Whistler." + +"Poor unhappy abandoned lad!" said Jeanie. "What would ye do if you could +escape from this place, and the death you are to die to-morrow morning?" + +"Join wi' Rob Roy, or wi' Sergeant More Cameron" (noted freebooters at +that time), "and revenge Donacha's death on all and sundry." + +"O ye unhappy boy," said Jeanie, "do ye ken what will come o' ye when ye +die?" + +"I shall neither feel cauld nor hunger more," said the youth doggedly. + +"To let him be execute in this dreadful state of mind would be to destroy +baith body and soul--and to let him gang I dare not--what will be done?-- +But he is my sister's son--my own nephew--our flesh and blood--and his +hands and feet are yerked as tight as cords can be drawn.--Whistler, do +the cords hurt you?" + +"Very much." + +"But, if I were to slacken them, you would harm me?" + +"No, I would not--you never harmed me or mine." + +There may be good in him yet, thought Jeanie; I will try fair play with +him. + +She cut his bonds--he stood upright, looked round with a laugh of wild +exultation, clapped his hands together, and sprung from the ground, as if +in transport on finding himself at liberty. He looked so wild, that +Jeanie trembled at what she had done. + +"Let me out," said the young savage. + +"I wunna, unless you promise" + +"Then I'll make you glad to let us both out." + +He seized the lighted candle and threw it among the flax, which was +instantly in a flame. Jeanie screamed, and ran out of the room; the +prisoner rushed past her, threw open a window in the passage, jumped into +the garden, sprung over its enclosure, bounded through the woods like a +deer, and gained the seashore. Meantime, the fire was extinguished, but +the prisoner was sought in vain. As Jeanie kept her own secret, the share +she had in his escape was not discovered: but they learned his fate some +time afterwards--it was as wild as his life had hitherto been. + +The anxious inquiries of Butler at length learned, that the youth had +gained the ship in which his master, Donacha, had designed to embark. But +the avaricious shipmaster, inured by his evil trade to every species of +treachery, and disappointed of the rich booty which Donacha had proposed +to bring aboard, secured the person of the fugitive, and having +transported him to America, sold him as a slave, or indented servant, to +a Virginian planter, far up the country. When these tidings reached +Butler, he sent over to America a sufficient sum to redeem the lad from +slavery, with instructions that measures should be taken for improving +his mind, restraining his evil propensities, and encouraging whatever +good might appear in his character. But this aid came too late. The young +man had headed a conspiracy in which his inhuman master was put to death, +and had then fled to the next tribe of wild Indians. He was never more +heard of; and it may therefore be presumed that he lived and died after +the manner of that savage people, with whom his previous habits had well +fitted him to associate. + +All hopes of the young man's reformation being now ended, Mr. and Mrs. +Butler thought it could serve no purpose to explain to Lady Staunton a +history so full of horror. She remained their guest more than a year, +during the greater part of which period her grief was excessive. In the +latter months, it assumed the appearance of listlessness and low spirits, +which the monotony of her sister's quiet establishment afforded no means +of dissipating. Effie, from her earliest youth, was never formed for a +quiet low content. Far different from her sister, she required the +dissipation of society to divert her sorrow, or enhance her joy. She left +the seclusion of Knocktarlitie with tears of sincere affection, and after +heaping its inmates with all she could think of that might be valuable in +their eyes. But she /did/ leave it; and, when the anguish of the parting +was over, her departure was a relief to both sisters. + +The family at the Manse of Knocktarlitie, in their own quiet happiness, +heard of the well-dowered and beautiful Lady Staunton resuming her place +in the fashionable world. They learned it by more substantial proofs, for +David received a commission; and as the military spirit of Bible Butler +seemed to have revived in him, his good behaviour qualified the envy of +five hundred young Highland cadets, "come of good houses," who were +astonished at the rapidity of his promotion. Reuben followed the law, and +rose more slowly, yet surely. Euphemia Butler, whose fortune, augmented +by her aunt's generosity, and added to her own beauty, rendered her no +small prize, married a Highland laird, who never asked the name of her +grand-father, and was loaded on the occasion with presents from Lady +Staunton, which made her the envy of all the beauties in Dumbarton and +Argyle shires. + +After blazing nearly ten years in the fashionable world, and hiding, like +many of her compeers, an aching heart with a gay demeanour--after +declining repeated offers of the most respectable kind for a second +matrimonial engagement, Lady Staunton betrayed the inward wound by +retiring to the Continent, and taking up her abode in the convent where +she had received her education. She never took the veil, but lived and +died in severe seclusion, and in the practice of the Roman Catholic +religion, in all its formal observances, vigils, and austerities. + +Jeanie had so much of her father's spirit as to sorrow bitterly for this +apostasy, and Butler joined in her regret. "Yet any religion, however +imperfect," he said, "was better than cold scepticism, or the hurrying +din of dissipation, which fills the ears of worldlings, until they care +for none of these things." + +Meanwhile, happy in each other, in the prosperity of their family, and +the love and honour of all who knew them, this simple pair lived beloved, +and died lamented. + + + READER, + + THIS TALE WILL NOT BE TOLD IN VAIN, IF IT SHALL BE FOUND TO + ILLUSTRATE THE GREAT TRUTH, THAT GUILT, THOUGH IT MAY ATTAIN + TEMPORAL SPLENDOUR, CAN NEVER CONFER REAL HAPPINESS; THAT THE + EVIL CONSEQUENCES OF OUR CRIMES LONG SURVIVE THEIR COMMISSION, + AND, LIKE THE GHOSTS OF THE MURDERED, FOR EVER HAUNT THE STEPS + OF THE MALEFACTOR; AND THAT THE PATHS OF VIRTUE, THOUGH SELDOM + THOSE OF WORLDLY GREATNESS, ARE ALWAYS THOSE OF PLEASANTNESS + AND PEACE. + + + + + L'ENVOY, + + BY JEDEDIAH CLEISHBOTHAM. + + +Thus concludeth the Tale of "The Heart of Mid-Lothian," which hath filled +more pages than I opined. The Heart of Mid-Lothian is now no more, or +rather it is transferred to the extreme side of the city, even as the +Sieur Jean Baptiste Poquelin hath it, in his pleasant comedy called /Le +Me'decin Malgre' Lui,/ where the simulated doctor wittily replieth to a +charge, that he had placed the heart on the right side, instead of the +left, "/Cela e'tait autrefois ainsi, mais nous avons change' tout cela./" +Of which witty speech if any reader shall demand the purport, I have only +to respond, that I teach the French as well as the Classical tongues, at +the easy rate of five shillings per quarter, as my advertisements are +periodically making known to the public. + + + + + NOTES TO THE HEART OF MID-LOTHIAN. + + + +NOTE A--Author's connection with Quakerism. + +It is an old proverb, that "many a true word is spoken in jest." The +existence of Walter Scott, third son of Sir William Scott of Harden, is +instructed, as it is called, by a charter under the great seal, Domino +Willielmo Scott de Harden Militi, et Waltero Scott suo filio legitimo +tertio genito, terrarum de Roberton.* + +* See Douglas's /Baronage,/ page 215. + +The munificent old gentleman left all his four sons considerable estates. +and settled those of Eilrig and Raeburn, together with valuable +possessions around Lessuden, upon Walter, his third son, who is ancestor +of the Scotts of Raeburn, and of the Author of Waverley. He appears to +have become a convert to the doctrine of the Quakers, or Friends, and a +great assertor of their peculiar tenets. This was probably at the time +when George Fox, the celebrated apostle of the sect, made an expedition +into the south of Scotland about 1657, on which occasion, he boasts, that +"as he first set his horse's feet upon Scottish ground, he felt the seed +of grace to sparkle about him like innumerable sparks of fire." Upon the +same occasion, probably, Sir Gideon Scott of Highchester, second son of +Sir William, immediate elder brother of Walter, and ancestor of the +author's friend and kinsman, the present representative of the family of +Harden, also embraced the tenets of Quakerism. This last convert, Gideon, +entered into a controversy with the Rev. James Kirkton, author of the +/Secret and True History of the Church of Scotland,/ which is noticed by +my ingenious friend Mr. Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, in his valuable and +curious edition of that work, 4to, 1817. Sir William Scott, eldest of the +brothers, remained, amid the defection of his two younger brethren, an +orthodox member of the Presbyterian Church, and used such means for +reclaiming Walter of Raeburn from his heresy, as savoured far more of +persecution than persuasion. In this he was assisted by MacDougal of +Makerston, brother to Isabella MacDougal, the wife of the said Walter, +and who, like her husband, had conformed to the Quaker tenets. + +The interest possessed by Sir William Scott and Makerston was powerful +enough to procure the two following acts of the Privy Council of +Scotland, directed against Walter of Raeburn as an heretic and convert to +Quakerism, appointing him to be imprisoned first in Edinburgh jail, and +then in that of Jedburgh; and his children to be taken by force from the +society and direction of their parents, and educated at a distance from +them, besides the assignment of a sum for their maintenance, sufficient +in those times to be burdensome to a moderate Scottish estate. + +"Apud Edin., vigesimo Junii 1665. + +"The Lords of his Magesty's Privy Council having receaved information +that Scott of Raeburn, and Isobel Mackdougall, his wife, being infected +with the error of Quakerism, doe endeavour to breid and trains up +William, Walter, and Isobel Scotts, their children, in the same +profession, doe therefore give order and command to Sir William Scott of +Harden, the said Raeburn's brother, to seperat and take away the saids +children from the custody and society of the saids parents, and to cause +educat and bring them up in his owne house, or any other convenient +place, and ordaines letters to be direct at the said Sir William's +instance against Raeburn, for a maintenance to the saids children, and +that the said Sir Wm. give ane account of his diligence with all +conveniency." + +"Edinburgh, 5th July 1666. + +"Anent a petition presented be Sir Wm. Scott of Harden, for himself and +in name and behalf of the three children of Walter Scott of Raeburn, his +brother, showing that the Lords of Councill, by ane act of the 22d day of +Junii 1665, did grant power and warrand to the petitioner, to separat and +take away Raeburn's children, from his family and education, and to breed +them in some convenient place, where they might be free from all +infection in their younger years, from the principalls of Quakerism, and, +for maintenance of the saids children, did ordain letters to be direct +against Raeburn; and, seeing the Petitioner, in obedience to the said +order, did take away the saids children, being two sonnes and a daughter, +and after some paines taken upon them in his owne family, hes sent them +to the city of Glasgow, to be bread at schooles, and there to be +principled with the knowledge of the true religion, and that it is +necessary the Councill determine what shall be the maintenance for which +Raeburn's three children may be charged, as likewise that Raeburn +himself, being now in the Tolbooth of Edinburgh, where he dayley +converses with all the Quakers who are prisoners there, and others who +daily resort to them, whereby he is hardened in his pernitious opinions +and principles, without all hope of recovery, unlesse he be separat from +such pernitious company, humbly therefore, desyring that the Councell +might determine upon the soume of money to be payed be Raeburn, for the +education of his children, to the petitioner, who will be countable +therefor; and that, in order to his conversion, the place of his +imprisonment may be changed. The Lords of his Maj. Privy Councell having +at length heard and considered the foresaid petition, doe modifie the +soume of two thousand pounds Scots, to be payed yearly at the terms of +Whitsunday be the said Walter Scott of Raeburn, furth of his estate to +the petitioner, for the entertainment and education of the said children, +beginning the first termes payment therof at Whitsunday last for the half +year preceding, and so furth yearly, at the said terme of Whitsunday in +tym comeing till furder orders; and ordaines the said Walter Scott of +Raeburn to be transported from the tolbooth of Edinburgh to the prison of +Jedburgh, where his friends and others may have occasion to convert him. +And to the effect he may be secured from the practice of other Quakers, +the said Lords doe hereby discharge the magistrates of Jedburgh to suffer +any persons suspect of these principles to have access to him; and in +case any contraveen, that they secure ther persons till they be therfore +puneist; and ordaines letters to be direct heirupon in form, as effeirs." + + Both the sons, thus harshly separated from their father, proved good +scholars. The eldest, William, who carried on the line of Raeburn, was, +like his father, a deep Orientalist; the younger, Walter, became a good +classical scholar, a great friend and correspondent of the celebrated Dr. +Pitcairn, and a Jacobite so distinguished for zeal, that he made a vow +never to shave his beard till the restoration of the exiled family. This +last Walter Scott was the author's great-grandfather. + +There is yet another link betwixt the author and the simple-minded and +excellent Society of Friends, through a proselyte of much more importance +than Walter Scott of Raeburn. The celebrated John Swinton, of Swinton, +nineteenth baron in descent of that ancient and once powerful family, +was, with Sir William Lockhart of Lee, the person whom Cromwell chiefly +trusted in the management of the Scottish affairs during his usurpation. +After the Restoration, Swinton was devoted as a victim to the new order +of things, and was brought down in the same vessel which conveyed the +Marquis of Argyle to Edinburgh, where that nobleman was tried and +executed. Swinton was destined to the same fate. He had assumed the +habit, and entered into the Society of the Quakers, and appeared as one +of their number before the Parliament of Scotland. He renounced all legal +defence, though several pleas were open to him, and answered, in +conformity to the principles of his sect, that at the time these crimes +were imputed to him, he was in the gall of bitterness and bond of +iniquity; but that God Almighty having since called him to the light, he +saw and acknowledged these errors, and did not refuse to pay the forfeit +of them, even though, in the judgment of the Parliament, it should extend +to life itself. + +Respect to fallen greatness, and to the patience and calm resignation +with which a man once in high power expressed himself under such a change +of fortune, found Swinton friends; family connections, and some +interested considerations of Middleton the Commissioner, joined to +procure his safety, and he was dismissed, but after a long imprisonment, +and much dilapidation of his estates. It is said that Swinton's +admonitions, while confined in the Castle of Edinburgh, had a +considerable share in converting to the tenets of the Friends Colonel +David Barclay, then lying there in the garrison. This was the father of +Robert Barclay, author of the celebrated /Apology for the Quakers./ It +may be observed among the inconsistencies of human nature, that Kirkton, +Wodrow, and other Presbyterian authors, who have detailed the sufferings +of their own sect for nonconformity with the established church, censure +the government of the time for not exerting the civil power against the +peaceful enthusiasts we have treated of, and some express particular +chagrin at the escape of Swinton. Whatever might be his motives for +assuming the tenets of the Friends, the old man retained them faithfully +till the close of his life. + +Jean Swinton, grand-daughter of Sir John Swinton, son of Judge Swinton, +as the Quaker was usually termed, was mother of Anne Rutherford, the +author's mother. + +And thus, as in the play of the Anti-Jacobin, the ghost of the author's +grandmother having arisen to speak the Epilogue, it is full time to +conclude, lest the reader should remonstrate that his desire to know the +Author of Waverley never included a wish to be acquainted with his whole +ancestry. + + + + +NOTE B.--TOMBSTONE TO HELEN WALKER. + +On Helen Walker's tombstone in Irongray churchyard, Dumfriesshire, there +is engraved the following epitaph, written by Sir Walter Scott: + + + + THIS STONE WAS ERECTED + BY THE AUTHOR OF WAVERLEY + + TO THE MEMORY + OF + HELEN WALKER, + + WHO DIED IN THE YEAR OF GOD 1791. + + THIS HUMBLE INDIVIDUAL PRACTISED IN REAL LIFE + THE VIRTUES + WITH WHICH FICTION HAS INVESTED + + THE IMAGINARY CHARACTER OF + + JEANIE DEANS; + + REFUSING THE SLIGHTEST DEPARTURE + FROM VERACITY, + EVEN TO SAVE THE LIFE OF A SISTER, + + SHE NEVERTHELESS SHOWED HER + KINDNESS AND FORTITUDE, + IN RESCUING HER FROM THE SEVERITY OF THE LAW + AT THE EXPENSE OF PERSONAL EXERTIONS + WHICH THE TIME RENDERED AS DIFFICULT + AS THE MOTIVE WAS LAUDABLE. + + RESPECT THE GRAVE OF POVERTY + WHEN COMBINED WITH LOVE OF TRUTH + AND DEAR AFFECTION. + + /Erected October 1831./ + + + + +NOTE C.--THE OLD TOLBOOTH. + +The ancient Tolbooth of Edinburgh, Situated as described in this chapter, +was built by the citizens in 1561, and destined for the accommodation of +Parliament, as well as of the High Courts of Justice;* and at the same +time for the confinement of prisoners for debt, or on criminal charges. +Since the year 1640, when the present Parliament House was erected, the +Tolbooth was occupied as a prison only. + +* [This is not so certain. Few persons now living are likely to remember +the interior of the old Tolbooth, with narrow staircase, thick walls, +and small apartments, nor to imagine that it could ever have been used +for these purposes. Robert Chambers, in his /Minor Antiquities/ of +Edinburgh, has preserved ground-plans or sections, which clearly show +this,--the largest hall was on the second floor, and measuring 27 feet +by 20, and 12 feet high. It may have been intended for the meetings of +Town Council, while the Parliament assembled, after 1560, in what was +called the Upper Tolbooth, that is the south-west portion of the +Collegiate Church of St. Giles, until the year 1640, when the present +Parliament House was completed. Being no longer required for such a +purpose, it was set apart by the Town Council on the 24th December 1641 +as a distinct church, with the name of the Tolbooth parish, and +therefore could not have derived the name from its vicinity to the +Tolbooth, as usually stated.] + +Gloomy and dismal as it was, the situation in the centre of the High +Street rendered it so particularly well-aired, that when the plague laid +waste the city in 1645, it affected none within these melancholy +precincts. The Tolbooth was removed, with the mass of buildings in which +it was incorporated, in the autumn of the year 1817. At that time the +kindness of his old schoolfellow and friend, Robert Johnstone, Esquire, +then Dean of Guild of the city, with the liberal acquiescence of the +persons who had contracted for the work, procured for the Author of +Waverley the stones which composed the gateway, together with the door, +and its ponderous fastenings, which he employed in decorating the +entrance of his kitchen-court at Abbotsford. "To such base offices may we +return." The application of these relies of the Heart of Mid-Lothian to +serve as the postern-gate to a court of modern offices, may be justly +ridiculed as whimsical; but yet it is not without interest, that we see +the gateway through which so much of the stormy politics of a rude age, +and the vice and misery of later times, had found their passage, now +occupied in the service of rural economy. Last year, to complete the +change, a tomtit was pleased to build her nest within the lock of the +Tolbooth,--a strong temptation to have committed a sonnet, had the +Author, like Tony Lumpkin, been in a concatenation accordingly. + +It is worth mentioning, that an act of beneficence celebrated the +demolition of the Heart of Mid-Lothian. A subscription, raised and +applied by the worthy Magistrate above mentioned, procured the +manumission of most of the unfortunate debtors confined in the old jail, +so that there were few or none transferred to the new place of +confinement. + +[The figure of a Heart upon the pavement between St. Giles's Church and +the Edinburgh County Hall, now marks the site of the Old Tolbooth.] + + + + +NOTE D--THE PORTEOUS MOB. + +The following interesting and authentic account of the inquiries made by +Crown Counsel into the affair of the Porteous Mob, seems to have been +drawn up by the Solicitor-General. The office was held in 1737 by Charles +Erskine, Esq. + +I owe this curious illustration to the kindness of a professional friend. +It throws, indeed, little light on the origin of the tumult; but shows +how profound the darkness must have been, which so much investigation +could not dispel. + +"Upon the 7th of September last, when the unhappy wicked murder of +Captain Porteus was committed, His Majesty's Advocate and Solicitor were +out of town; the first beyond Inverness, and the other in Annandale, not +far from Carlyle; neither of them knew anything of the reprieve, nor did +they in the least suspect that any disorder was to happen. + +"When the disorder happened, the magistrates and other persons concerned +in the management of the town, seemed to be all struck of a heap; and +whether, from the great terror that had seized all the inhabitants, they +thought ane immediate enquiry would be fruitless, or whether, being a +direct insult upon the prerogative of the crown, they did not care rashly +to intermeddle; but no proceedings was had by them. Only, soon after, ane +express was sent to his Majestie's Solicitor, who came to town as soon as +was possible for him; but, in the meantime, the persons who had been most +guilty, had either ran off, or, at least, kept themselves upon the wing +until they should see what steps were taken by the Government. + +"When the Solicitor arrived, he perceived the whole inhabitants under a +consternation. He had no materials furnished him; nay, the inhabitants +were so much afraid of being reputed informers, that very few people had +so much as the courage to speak with him on the streets. However, having +received her Majestie's orders, by a letter from the Duke of New castle, +he resolved to sett about the matter in earnest, and entered upon ane +enquiry, gropeing in the dark. He had no assistance from the magistrates +worth mentioning, but called witness after witness in the privatest +manner, before himself in his own house, and for six weeks time, from +morning to evening, went on in the enquiry without taking the least +diversion, or turning his thoughts to any other business. + +"He tried at first what he could do by declarations, by engaging secresy, +so that those who told the truth should never be discovered; made use of +no clerk, but wrote all the declarations with his own hand, to encourage +them to speak out. After all, for some time, he could get nothing but +ends of stories which, when pursued, broke off; and those who appeared +and knew anything of the matter, were under the utmost terror, lest it +should take air that they had mentioned any one man as guilty. + +"During the course of the enquiry, the run of the town, which was strong +for the villanous actors, begun to alter a little, and when they saw the +King's servants in earnest to do their best, the generality, who before +had spoke very warmly in defence of the wickedness, began to be silent, +and at that period more of the criminals began to abscond. + +"At length the enquiry began to open a little, and the Sollicitor was +under some difficulty how to proceed. He very well saw that the first +warrand that was issued out would start the whole gang; and as he had not +come at any of the most notorious offenders, he was unwilling, upon the +slight evidence he had, to begin. However, upon notice given him by +Generall Moyle, that one King, a butcher in the Canongate, had boasted, +in presence of Bridget Knell, a soldier's wife, the morning after Captain +Porteus was hanged, that he had a very active hand in the mob, a warrand +was issued out, and King was apprehended, and imprisoned in the Canongate +Tolbooth. + +"This obliged the Sollicitor immediately to take up those against whom he +had any information. By a signed declaration, William Stirling, +apprentice to James Stirling, merchant in Edinburgh, was charged as +haveing been at the Nether-Bow, after the gates were shutt, with a +Lochaber-ax or halbert in his hand, and haveing begun a huzza, marched +upon the head of the mob towards the Guard. + +"James Braidwood, son to a candlemaker in town, was, by a signed +declaration, charged as haveing been at the Tolbooth door, giveing +directions to the mob about setting fire to the door, and that the mob +named him by his name, and asked his advice. + +"By another declaration, one Stoddart, a journeyman smith, was charged of +having boasted publickly, in a smith's shop at Leith, that he had +assisted in breaking open the Tolbooth door. + +"Peter Traill, a journeyman wright, (by one of the declarations) was also +accused of haveing lockt the Nether-Bow Port, when it was shutt by the +mob. + +"His Majestie's Sollicitor having these informations, implored privately +such persons as he could best rely on, and the truth was, there were very +few in whom he could repose confidence. But he was, indeed, faithfully +served by one Webster, a soldier in the Welsh fuzileers, recommended him +by Lieutenant Alshton, who, with very great address, informed himself, +and really run some risque in getting his information, concerning the +places where the persons informed against used to haunt, and how they +might be seized. In consequence of which, a party of the Guard from the +Canongate was agreed on to march up at a certain hour, when a message +should be sent. The Sollicitor wrote a letter and gave it to one of the +town officers, ordered to attend Captain Maitland, one of the town +Captains, promoted to that command since the unhappy accident, who, +indeed, was extremely diligent and active throughout the whole; and +haveing got Stirling and Braidwood apprehended, dispatched the officer +with the letter to the military in the Canongate, who immediately begun +their march, and by the time the Sollicitor had half examined the said +two persons in the Burrow-room, where the Magistrates were present, a +party of fifty men, drums beating, marched into the Parliament close, and +drew up, which was the first thing that struck a terror, and from that +time forward, the insolence was succeeded by fear. + +"Stirling and Braidwood were immediately sent to the Castle and +imprisoned. That same night, Stoddart, the smith, was seized, and he was +committed to the Castle also; as was likewise Traill, the journeyman +wright, who were all severally examined, and denyed the least accession. + +"In the meantime, the enquiry was going on, and it haveing cast up in one +of the declarations, that a hump'd backed creature marched with a gun as +one of the guards to Porteus when he went up to the Lawn Markett, the +person who emitted this declaration was employed to walk the streets to +see if he could find him out; at last he came to the Sollicitor and told +him he had found him, and that he was in a certain house. Whereupon a +warrand was issued out against him, and he was apprehended and sent to +the Castle, and he proved to be one Birnie, a helper to the Countess of +Weemys's coachman. + +"Thereafter, ane information was given in against William M'Lauchlan, +ffootman to the said Countess, he haveing been very active in the mob; +ffor sometime he kept himself out of the way, but at last he was +apprehended and likewise committed to the Castle. + +"And these were all the prisoners who were putt under confinement in that +place. + +"There were other persons imprisoned in the Tolbooth of Edinburgh, and +severalls against whom warrands were issued, but could not be +apprehended, whose names and cases shall afterwards be more particularly +taken notice of. + +"The ffriends of Stirling made an application to the Earl of Islay, Lord +Justice-Generall, setting furth, that he was seized with a bloody fflux; +that his life was in danger; and that upon ane examination of witnesses +whose names were given in, it would appear to conviction, that he had not +the least access to any of the riotous proceedings of that wicked mob. + +"This petition was by his Lordship putt in the hands of his Majestie's +Sollicitor, who examined the witnesses; and by their testimonies it +appeared, that the young man, who was not above eighteen years of age, +was that night in company with about half a dozen companions, in a public +house in Stephen Law's closs, near the back of the Guard, where they all +remained untill the noise came to the house, that the mob had shut the +gates and seized the Guard, upon which the company broke up, and he, and +one of his companions, went towards his master's house; and, in the +course of the after examination, there was a witness who declared, nay, +indeed swore (for the Sollicitor, by this time, saw it necessary to put +those he examined upon oath), that he met him [Stirling] after he entered +into the alley where his master lives, going towards his house; and +another witness, fellow-prentice with Stirling, declares, that after the +mob had seized the Guard, he went home, where he found Stirling before +him; and, that his master lockt the door, and kept them both at home till +after twelve at night: upon weighing of which testimonies, and upon +consideration had, That he was charged by the declaration only of one +person, who really did not appear to be a witness of the greatest weight, +and that his life was in danger from the imprisonment, he was admitted to +baill by the Lord Justice-Generall, by whose warrand he was committed. + +"Braidwood's friends applyed in the same manner; but as he stood charged +by more than one witness, he was not released--tho', indeed, the +witnesses adduced for him say somewhat in his exculpation--that he does +not seem to have been upon any original concert; and one of the witnesses +says he was along with him at the Tolbooth door, and refuses what is said +against him, with regard to his having advised the burning of the +Tolbooth door. But he remains still in prison. + +"As to Traill, the journeyman wright, he is charged by the same witness +who declared against Stirling, and there is none concurrs with him and, +to say the truth concerning him, he seemed to be the most ingenuous of +any of them whom the Solicitor examined, and pointed out a witness by +whom one of the first accomplices was discovered, and who escaped when +the warrand was to be putt in execution against them. He positively denys +his having shutt the gate, and 'tis thought Traill ought to be admitted +to baill. + +"As to Birnie, he is charged only by one witness, who had never seen him +before, nor knew his name; so, tho' I dare say the witness honestly +mentioned him, 'tis possible he may be mistaken; and in the examination +of above 200 witnesses there is no body concurrs with him, and he is ane +insignificant little creature. + +"With regard to M'Lauchlan, the proof is strong against him by one +witness, that he acted as a serjeant, or sort of commander, for some +time, of a Guard, that stood cross between the upper end of the +Luckenbooths and the north side of the street, to stop all but friends +from going towards the Tolbooth; and by other witnesses, that he was at +the Tolbooth door with a link in his hand, while the operation of beating +and burning it was going on; that he went along with the mob with a +halbert in his hand, untill he came to the gallows stone in the +Grassmarket, and that he stuck the halbert into the hole of the gallows +stone: that afterwards he went in amongst the mob when Captain Porteus +was carried to the dyer's tree; so that the proof seems very heavy +against him. + +"To sum up this matter with regard to the prisoners in the Castle, 'tis +believed there is strong proof against M'Lauchlan; there is also proof +against Braidwood. But, as it consists only in emission of words said to +have been had by him while at the Tolbooth door, and that he is ane +insignificant pitifull creature, and will find people to swear heartily +in his favours, 'tis at best doubtfull whether a jury will be got to +condemn him. + +"As to those in the Tolbooth of Edinburgh, John Crawford, who had for +some time been employed to ring the bells in the steeple of the New +Church of Edinburgh, being in company with a soldier accidentally, the +discourse falling in concerning the Captain Porteus and his murder, as he +appears to be a light-headed fellow, he said, that he knew people that +were more guilty than any that were putt in prison. Upon this +information, Crawford was seized, and being examined, it appeared, that +when the mob begun, as he was comeing down from the steeple, the mob took +the keys from him; that he was that night in several corners, and did +indeed delate severall persons whom he saw there, and immediately +warrands were despatched, and it was found they had absconded and fled. +But there was no evidence against him of any kind. Nay, on the contrary, +it appeared, that he had been with the Magistrates in Clerk's, the +vintner's, relating to them what he had seen in the streets. Therefore, +after haveing detained him in prison ffor a very considerable time, his +Majestie's Advocate and Sollicitor signed a warrand for his liberation. + +"There was also one James Wilson incarcerated in the said Tolbooth, upon +the declaration of one witness, who said he saw him on the streets with a +gun; and there he remained for some time, in order to try if a concurring +witness could be found, or that he acted any part in the tragedy and +wickedness. But nothing farther appeared against him; and being seized +with a severe sickness, he is, by a warrand signed by his Majestie's +Advocate and Sollicitor, liberated upon giveing sufficient baill. + +"As to King, enquiry was made, and the ffact comes out beyond all +exception, that he was in the lodge at the Nether-Bow with Lindsay the +waiter, and several other people, not at all concerned in the mob. But +after the affair was over, he went up towards the guard, and having met +with Sandie the Turk and his wife, who escaped out of prison, they +returned to his house at the Abbey, and then 'tis very possible he may +have thought fitt in his beer to boast of villany, in which he could not +possibly have any share for that reason; he was desired to find baill and +he should be set at liberty. But he is a stranger and a fellow of very +indifferent character, and 'tis believed it won't be easy for him to find +baill. Wherefore, it's thought he must be sett at liberty without it. +Because he is a burden upon the Government while kept in confinement, not +being able to maintain himself. + +"What is above is all that relates to persons in custody. But there are +warrands out against a great many other persons who had fled, +particularly against one William White, a journeyman baxter, who, by the +evidence, appears to have been at the beginning of the mob, and to have +gone along with the drum, from the West-Port to the Nether-Bow, and is +said to have been one of those who attacked the guard, and probably was +as deep as any one there. + +"Information was given that he was lurking at Falkirk, where he was born. +Whereupon directions were sent to the Sheriff of the County, and a +warrand from his Excellency Generall Wade, to the commanding officers at +Stirling and Linlithgow, to assist, and all possible endeavours were used +to catch hold of him, and 'tis said he escaped very narrowly, having been +concealed in some outhouse; and the misfortune was, that those who were +employed in the search did not know him personally. Nor, indeed, was it +easy to trust any of the acquaintances of so low, obscure a fellow with +the secret of the warrand to be putt in execution. + +"There was also strong evidence found against Robert Taylor, servant to +William and Charles Thomsons, periwig-makers, that he acted as ane +officer among the mob, and he was traced from the guard to the well at +the head of Forester's Wynd, where he stood and had the appellation of +Captain from the mob, and from that walking down the Bow before Captain +Porteus, with his Lochaber axe; and, by the description given of one who +hawl'd the rope by which Captain Porteus was pulled up, 'tis believed +Taylor was the person; and 'tis farther probable, that the witness who +debated Stirling had mistaken Taylor for him, their stature and age (so +far as can be gathered from the description) being the same. + +"A great deal of pains were taken, and no charge was saved, in order to +have catched hold of this Taylor, and warrands were sent to the country +where he was born; but it appears he had shipt himself off for Holland, +where it is said he now is. + +"There is strong evidence also against Thomas Burns, butcher, that he was +ane active person from the beginning of the mob to the end of it. He +lurkt for some time amongst those of his trade; and artfully enough a +train was laid to catch him, under pretence of a message that had come +from his father in Ireland, so that he came to a blind alehouse in the +Flesh-market close, and, a party being ready, was, by Webster the +soldier, who was upon this exploit, advertised to come down. However, +Burns escaped out at a back-window, and hid himself in some of the houses +which are heaped together upon one another in that place, so that it was +not possible to catch him. 'Tis now said he is gone to Ireland to his +father who lives there. + +"There is evidence also against one Robert Anderson, journeyman and +servant to Colin Alison, wright; and against Thomas Linnen and James +Maxwell, both servants also to the said Colin Alison, who all seem to +have been deeply concerned in the matter. Anderson is one of those who +putt the rope upon Captain Porteus's neck. Linnen seems also to have been +very active; and Maxwell (which is pretty remarkable) is proven to have +come to a shop upon the Friday before, and charged the journeymen and +prentices there to attend in the Parliament close on Tuesday night, to +assist to hang Captain Porteus. These three did early abscond, and, +though warrands had been issued out against them, and all endeavours used +to apprehend them, could not be found. + +"One Waldie, a servant to George Campbell, wright, has also absconded, +and many others, and 'tis informed that numbers of them have shipt +themselves off ffor the Plantations; and upon an information that a ship +was going off ffrom Glasgow, in which severall of the rogues were to +transport themselves beyond seas, proper warrands were obtained, and +persons despatched to search the said ship, and seize any that can be +found. + +"The like warrands had been issued with regard to ships from Leith. But +whether they had been scard, or whether the information had been +groundless, they had no effect. + +"This is a summary of the enquiry, ffrom which it appears there is no +prooff on which one can rely, but against M'Lauchlan. There is a prooff +also against Braidwood, but more exceptionable. His Majestie's Advocate, +since he came to town, has join'd with the Sollicitor, and has done his +utmost to gett at the bottom of this matter, but hitherto it stands as is +above represented. They are resolved to have their eyes and their ears +open, and to do what they can. But they laboured exceedingly against the +stream; and it may truly be said, that nothing was wanting on their part. +Nor have they declined any labour to answer the commands laid upon them +to search the matter to the bottom." + + + +THE PORTEOUS MOB. + +In the preceding chapters (I. to VI.) the circumstances of that +extraordinary riot and conspiracy, called the Porteous Mob, are given +with as much accuracy as the author was able to collect them. The order, +regularity, and determined resolution with which such a violent action +was devised and executed, were only equalled by the secrecy which was +observed concerning the principal actors. + +Although the fact was performed by torch-light, and in presence of a +great multitude, to some of whom, at least, the individual actors must +have been known, yet no discovery was ever made concerning any of the +perpetrators of the slaughter. + +Two men only were brought to trial for an offence which the Government +were so anxious to detect and punish. William M'Lauchlan, footman to the +Countess of Wemyss, who is mentioned in the report of the +Solicitor-General, against whom strong evidence had been obtained, was +brought to trial in March 1737, charged as having been accessory to the +riot, armed with a Lochaber axe. But this man (who was at all times a +silly creature) proved, that he was in a state of mortal intoxication +during the time he was present with the rabble, incapable of giving them +either advice or assistance, or, indeed, of knowing what he or they were +doing. He was also able to prove, that he was forced into the riot, and +upheld while there by two bakers, who put a Lochaber axe into his hand. +The jury, wisely judging this poor creature could be no proper subject of +punishment, found the panel Not Guilty. The same verdict was given in the +case of Thomas Linning, also mentioned in the Solicitor's memorial, who +was tried in 1738. In short, neither then, nor for a long period +afterwards, was anything discovered relating to the organisation of the +Porteous Plot. + +The imagination of the people of Edinburgh was long irritated, and their +curiosity kept awake, by the mystery attending this extraordinary +conspiracy. It was generally reported of such natives of Edinburgh as, +having left the city in youth, returned with a fortune amassed in foreign +countries, that they had originally fled on account of their share in the +Porteous Mob. But little credit can be attached to these surmises, as in +most of the cases they are contradicted by dates, and in none supported +by anything but vague rumours, grounded on the ordinary wish of the +vulgar, to impute the success of prosperous men to some unpleasant +source. The secret history of the Porteous Mob has been till this day +unravelled; and it has always been quoted as a close, daring, and +calculated act of violence, of a nature peculiarly characteristic of the +Scottish people. + +Nevertheless, the author, for a considerable time, nourished hopes to +have found himself enabled to throw some light on this mysterious story. +An old man, who died about twenty years ago, at the advanced age of +ninety-three, was said to have made a communication to the clergyman who +attended upon his death-bed, respecting the origin of the Porteous Mob. +This person followed the trade of a carpenter, and had been employed as +such on the estate of a family of opulence and condition. His character +in his line of life and amongst his neighbours, was excellent, and never +underwent the slightest suspicion. His confession was said to have been +to the following purpose: That he was one of twelve young men belonging +to the village of Pathhead, whose animosity against Porteous, on account +of the execution of Wilson, was so extreme, that they resolved to execute +vengeance on him with their own hands, rather than he should escape +punishment. With this resolution they crossed the Forth at different +ferries, and rendezvoused at the suburb called Portsburgh, where their +appearance in a body soon called numbers around them. The public mind was +in such a state of irritation, that it only wanted a single spark to +create an explosion; and this was afforded by the exertions of the small +and determined band of associates. The appearance of premeditation and +order which distinguished the riot, according to his account, had its +origin, not in any previous plan or conspiracy, but in the character of +those who were engaged in it. The story also serves to show why nothing +of the origin of the riot has ever been discovered, since though in +itself a great conflagration, its source, according to this account, was +from an obscure and apparently inadequate cause. + +I have been disappointed, however, in obtaining the evidence on which +this story rests. The present proprietor of the estate on which the old +man died (a particular friend of the author) undertook to question the +son of the deceased on the subject. This person follows his father's +trade, and holds the employment of carpenter to the same family. He +admits that his father's going abroad at the time of the Porteous Mob was +popularly attributed to his having been concerned in that affair; but +adds that, so far as is known to him, the old man had never made any +confession to that effect; and, on the contrary, had uniformly denied +being present. My kind friend, therefore, had recourse to a person from +whom he had formerly heard the story; but who, either from respect to an +old friend's memory, or from failure of his own, happened to have +forgotten that ever such a communication was made. So my obliging +correspondent (who is a fox-hunter) wrote to me that he was completely +/planted;/ and all that can be said with respect to the tradition is, +that it certainly once existed, and was generally believed. + +[/N.B./--The Rev. Dr. Carlyle, minister of Inveresk, in his +/Autobiography,/ gives some interesting particulars relating to the +Porteous Mob, from personal recollections. He happened to be present in +the Tolbooth Church when Robertson made his escape, and also at the +execution of Wilson in the Grassmarket, when Captain Porteous fired upon +the mob, and several persons were killed. Edinburgh 1860, 8vo, pp. +30-42.] + + + + +NOTE E.--CARSPHARN JOHN. + +John Semple, called Carspharn John, because minister of the parish in +Galloway so called, was a Presbyterian clergyman of singular piety and +great zeal, of whom Patrick Walker records the following passage: "That +night after his wife died, he spent the whole ensuing night in prayer and +meditation in his garden. The next morning, one of his elders coming to +see him, and lamenting his great loss and want of rest, he replied,--'I +declare I have not, all night, had one thought of the death of my wife, I +have been so taken up in meditating on heavenly things. I have been this +night on the banks of Ulai, plucking an apple here and there.' "-- +/Walker's Remarkable Passages of the Life and Death of Mr. John Semple./ + + + + +NOTE F.--PETER WALKER. + +This personage, whom it would be base ingratitude in the author to pass +over without some notice, was by far the most zealous and faithful +collector and recorder of the actions and opinions of the Cameronians. He +resided, while stationary, at the Bristo Port of Edinburgh, but was by +trade an itinerant merchant, or pedlar, which profession he seems to have +exercised in Ireland as well as Britain. He composed biographical notices +of Alexander Peden, John Semple, John Welwood, and Richard Cameron, all +ministers of the Cameronian persuasion, to which the last mentioned +member gave the name. + +It is from such tracts as these, written in the sense, feeling, and +spirit of the sect, and not from the sophisticated narratives of a later +period, that the real character of the persecuted class is to be +gathered. Walker writes with a simplicity which sometimes slides into the +burlesque, and sometimes attains a tone of simple pathos, but always +expressing the most daring confidence in his own correctness of creed and +sentiments, sometimes with narrow-minded and disgusting bigotry. His turn +for the marvellous was that of his time and sect; but there is little +room to doubt his veracity concerning whatever he quotes on his own +knowledge. His small tracts now bring a very high price, especially the +earlier and authentic editions. The tirade against dancing, pronounced by +David Deans, is, as intimated in the text, partly borrowed from Peter +Walker. He notices, as a foul reproach upon the name of Richard Cameron, +that his memory was vituperated, "by pipers and fiddlers playing the +Cameronian march--carnal vain springs, which too many professors of +religion dance to; a practice unbecoming the professors of Christianity +to dance to any spring, but somewhat more to this. Whatever," he +proceeds, "be the many foul blots recorded of the saints in Scripture, +none of them is charged with this regular fit of distraction. We find it +has been practised by the wicked and profane, as the dancing at that +brutish, base action of the calf-making; and it had been good for that +unhappy lass, who danced off the head of John the Baptist, that she had +been born a cripple, and never drawn a limb to her. Historians say, that +her sin was written upon her judgment, who some time thereafter was +dancing upon the ice, and it broke, and snapt the head off her; her head +danced above, and her feet beneath. There is ground to think and +conclude, that when the world's wickedness was great, dancing at their +marriages was practised; but when the heavens above, and the earth +beneath, were let loose upon them with that overflowing flood, their +mirth was soon staid; and when the Lord in holy justice rained fire and +brimstone from heaven upon that wicked people and city Sodom, enjoying +fulness of bread and idleness, their fiddle-strings and hands went all in +a flame; and the whole people in thirty miles of length, and ten of +breadth, as historians say, were all made to fry in their skins and at +the end, whoever are giving in marriages and dancing when all will go in +a flame, they will quickly change their note. + +"I have often wondered thorow my life, how any that ever knew what it was +to bow a knee in earnest to pray, durst crook a hough to fyke and fling +at a piper's and fiddler's springs. I bless the Lord that ordered my lot +so in my dancing days, that made the fear of the bloody rope and bullets +to my neck and head, the pain of boots, thumikens, and irons, cold and +hunger, wetness and weariness, to stop the lightness of my head, and the +wantonness of my feet. What the never-to-be-forgotten Man of God, John +Knox, said to Queen Mary, when she gave him that sharp challenge, which +would strike our mean-spirited, tongue-tacked ministers dumb, for his +giving public faithful warning of the danger of the church and nation, +through her marrying the Dauphine of France, when he left her bubbling +and greeting, and came to an outer court, where her Lady Maries were +fyking and dancing, he said, 'O brave ladies, a brave world, if it would +last, and heaven at the hinder end! But fye upon the knave Death, that +will seize upon those bodies of yours; and where will all your fiddling +and flinging be then?' Dancing being such a common evil, especially +amongst young professors, that all the lovers of the Lord should hate, +has caused me to insist the more upon it, especially that foolish spring +the Cameronian march!"--/Life and Death of Three Famous Worthies,/ etc., +collected and printed for Patrick Walker, Edin. 1727, 12mo, p. 59. + +It may be here observed, that some of the milder class of Cameronians +made a distinction between the two sexes dancing separately, and allowed +of it as a healthy and not unlawful exercise; but when men and women +mingled in sport, it was then called /promiscuous dancing,/ and +considered as a scandalous enormity. + + + + +NOTE G.--MUSCHAT'S CAIRN. + +Nichol Muschat, a debauched and profligate wretch, having conceived a +hatred against his wife, entered into a conspiracy with another brutal +libertine and gambler, named Campbell of Burnbank (repeatedly mentioned +in Pennycuick's satirical poems of the time), by which Campbell undertook +to destroy the woman's character, so as to enable Muschat, on false +pretences to obtain a divorce from her. The brutal devices to which these +worthy accomplices resorted for that purpose having failed, they +endeavoured to destroy her by administering medicine of a dangerous kind, +and in extraordinary quantities. + +This purpose also failing, Nichol Muschat, or Muschet, did finally, on +the 17th October 1720, carry his wife under cloud of night to the King's +Park, adjacent to what is called the Duke's Walk, near Holyrood Palace, +and there took her life by cutting her throat almost quite through, and +inflicting other wounds. He pleaded guilty to the indictment, for which +he suffered death. His associate, Campbell, was sentenced to +transportation, for his share in the previous conspiracy. See +/MacLaurin's Criminal Cases,/pp. 64 and 738. + +In memory, and at the same time execration, of the deed, a /cairn,/ or +pile of stones, long marked the spot. It is now almost totally removed, +in consequence of an alteration on the road in that place. + + + + +NOTE H.--HANGMAN, OR LOCKMAN. + +/Lockman,/ so called from the small quantity of meal (Scottice, /lock/) +which he was entitled to take out of every boll exposed to market in the +city. In Edinburgh, the duty has been very long commuted; but in +Dumfries, the finisher of the law still exercises, or did lately +exercise, his privilege, the quantity taken being regulated by a small +iron ladle, which he uses as the measure of his perquisite. The +expression /lock,/ for a small quantity of any readily divisible dry +substance, as corn, meal, flax, or the like, is still preserved, not only +popularly, but in a legal description, as the /lock/ and /gowpen,/ or +small quantity and handful, payable in thirlage cases, as in town +multure. + + + + +NOTE I.--THE FAIRY BOY OF LEITH, + +This legend was in former editions inaccurately said to exist in Baxter's +"World of Spirits;" but is, in fact, to be found, in "Pandaemonium, or +the Devil's Cloyster; being a further blow to Modern Sadduceism," by +Richard Bovet, Gentleman, 12mo, 1684. The work is inscribed to Dr. Henry +More. The story is entitled, "A remarkable passage of one named the Fairy +Boy of Leith, in Scotland, given me by my worthy friend, Captain George +Burton, and attested under his hand;" and is as follows:-- + +"About fifteen years since, having business that detained me for some +time in Leith, which is near Edenborough, in the kingdom of Scotland, I +often met some of my acquaintance at a certain house there, where we used +to drink a glass of wine for our refection. The woman which kept the +house was of honest reputation amongst the neighbours, which made me +givethe more attention to what she told me one day about a Fairy Boy (as +they called him) who lived about that town. She had given me so strange +an account of him, that I desired her I might see him the first +opportunity, which she promised; and not long after, passing that way, +she told me there was the Fairy Boy but a little before I came by; and +casting her eye into the street, said, 'Look you, sir, yonder he is at +play with those other boys,' and designing him to me. I went, and by +smooth words, and a piece of money, got him to come into the house with +me; where, in the presence of divers people, I demanded of him several +astrological questions, which he answered with great subtility, and +through all his discourse carried it with a cunning much beyond his +years, which seemed not to exceed ten or eleven. He seemed to make a +motion like drumming upon the table with his fingers, upon which I asked +him, whether he could beat a drum, to which he replied, 'Yes, sir, as +well as any man in Scotland; for every Thursday night I beat all points +to a sort of people that use to meet under yon hill" (pointing to the +great hill between Edenborough and Leith). 'How, boy,' quoth I; 'what +company have you there?'--'There are, sir,' said he, 'a great company +both of men and women, and they are entertained with many sorts of music +besides my drum; they have, besides, plenty variety of meats and wine; +and many times we are carried into France or Holland in a night, and +return again; and whilst we are there, we enjoy all the pleasures the +country doth afford.' I demanded of him, how they got under that hill? +To which he replied, 'that there were a great pair of gates that opened +to them, though they were invisible to others, and that within there were +brave large rooms, as well accommodated as most in Scotland.' I then +asked him, how I should know what he said to be true? upon which he told +me he would read my fortune, saying I should have two wives, and that he +saw the forms of them sitting on my shoulders; that both would be very +handsome women. + +"As he was thus speaking, a woman of the neighbourhood, coming into the +room, demanded of him what her fortune should be? He told her that she +had two bastards before she was married; which put her in such a rage, +that she desired not to hear the rest. The woman of the house told me +that all the people in Scotland could not keep him from the rendezvous on +Thursday night; upon which, by promising him some more money, I got a +promise of him to meet me at the same place, in the afternoon of the +Thursday following, and so dismissed him at that time. The boy came again +at the place and time appointed, and I had prevailed with some friends to +continue with me, if possible, to prevent his moving that night; he was +placed between us, and answered many questions, without offering to go +from us, until about eleven of the clock, he was got away unperceived of +the company; but I suddenly missing him, hasted to the door, and took +hold of him, and so returned him into the same room; we all watched him, +and on a sudden he was again out of the doors. I followed him close, and +he made a noise in the street as if he had been set upon; but from that +time I could never see him. + "GEORGE BURTON." + +[A copy of this rare little volume is in the library at Abbotsford.) + + + + +NOTE J.--INTERCOURSE OF THE COVENANTERS WITH THE INVISIBLE WORLD. + +The gloomy, dangerous, and constant wanderings of the persecuted sect of +Cameronians, naturally led to their entertaining with peculiar credulity +the belief that they were sometimes persecuted, not only by the wrath of +men, but by the secret wiles and open terrors of Satan. In fact, a flood +could not happen, a horse cast a shoe, or any other the most ordinary +interruption thwart a minister's wish to perform service at a particular +spot, than the accident was imputed to the immediate agency of fiends. +The encounter of Alexander Peden with the Devil in the cave, and that of +John Sample with the demon in the ford, are given by Peter Walker almost +in the language of the text. + + + + +NOTE K.--CHILD-MURDER. + +The Scottish Statute Book, anno 1690, chapter 21, in consequence of the +great increase of the crime of child-murder, both from the temptations to +commit the offence and the difficulty of discovery enacted a certain set +of presumptions, which, in the absence of direct proof, the jury were +directed to receive as evidence of the crime having actually been +committed. The circumstances selected for this purpose were, that the +woman should have concealed her situation during the whole period of +pregnancy; that she should not have called for help at her delivery; and +that, combined with these grounds of suspicion, the child should be +either found dead or be altogether missing. Many persons suffered death +during the last century under this severe act. But during the author's +memory a more lenient course was followed, and the female accused under +the act, and conscious of no competent defence, usually lodged a petition +to the Court of Justiciary, denying, for form's sake, the tenor of the +indictment, but stating, that as her good name had been destroyed by the +charge, she was willing to submit to sentence of banishment, to which the +crown counsel usually consented. This lenity in practice, and the +comparative infrequency of the crime since the doom of public +ecclesiastical penance has been generally dispensed with, have led to the +abolition of the Statute of William, and Mary, which is now replaced by +another, imposing banishment in those circumstances in which the crime +was formerly capital. This alteration took place in 1803. + + + + +NOTE L.--CALUMNIATOR OF THE FAIR SEX. + +The journal of Graves, a Bow Street officer, despatched to Holland to +obtain the surrender of the unfortunate William Brodie, bears a +reflection on the ladies somewhat like that put in the mouth of the +police-officer Sharpitlaw. It had been found difficult to identify the +unhappy criminal; and when a Scotch gentleman of respectability had +seemed disposed to give evidence on the point required, his son-in-law, a +clergyman in Amsterdam, and his daughter, were suspected by Graves to +have used arguments with the witness to dissuade him from giving his +testimony. On which subject the journal of the Bow Street officer +proceeds thus:-- + +"Saw then a manifest reluctance in Mr. -------, and had no doubt the +daughter and parson would endeavour to persuade him to decline troubling +himself in the matter, but judged he could not go back from what he had +said to Mr. Rich.--Nota Bene. /No mischief but a woman or a priest in +it/--here both." + + + + +NOTE M.--Sir William Dick of Braid. + +This gentleman formed a striking example of the instability of human +prosperity. He was once the wealthiest man of his time in Scotland, a +merchant in an extensive line of commerce, and a farmer of the public +revenue; insomuch that, about 1640, he estimated his fortune at two +hundred thousand pounds sterling. Sir William Dick was a zealous +Covenanter; and in the memorable year 1641, he lent the Scottish +Convention of Estates one hundred thousand merks at once, and thereby +enabled them to support and pay their army, which must otherwise have +broken to pieces. He afterwards advanced L20,000 for the service of King +Charles, during the usurpation; and having, by owning the royal cause, +provoked the displeasure of the ruling party, he was fleeced of more +money, amounting in all to L65,000 sterling. + +Being in this manner reduced to indigence, he went to London to try to +recover some part of the sums which had been lent on Government security. +Instead of receiving any satisfaction, the Scottish Croesus was thrown +into prison, in which he died, 19th December 1655. It is said his death +was hastened by the want of common necessaries. But this statement is +somewhat exaggerated, if it be true, as is commonly said, that though he +was not supplied with bread, he had plenty of pie-crust, thence called +"Sir William Dick's Necessity." + +The changes of fortune are commemorated in a folio pamphlet, entitled, +"The Lamentable Estate and distressed Case of Sir William Dick" [Lond. +1656]. It contains three copper-plates, one representing Sir William on +horseback, and attended with guards as Lord Provost of Edinburgh, +superintending the unloading of one of his rich argosies. A second +exhibiting him as arrested, and in the hands of the bailiffs. A third +presents him dead in prison. The tract is esteemed highly valuable by +collectors of prints. The only copy I ever saw upon sale, was rated at +L30. (In London sales, copies have varied in price from L15 to L52: 10s.) + + + + +NOTE N.--Doomster, or Dempster, of Court. + +The name of this officer is equivalent to the pronouncer of doom or +sentence. In this comprehensive sense, the Judges of the Isle of Man were +called Dempsters. But in Scotland the word was long restricted to the +designation of an official person, whose duty it was to recite the +sentence after it had been pronounced by the Court, and recorded by the +clerk; on which occasion the Dempster legalised it by the words of form, +"/And this I pronounce for doom./" For a length of years, the office, as +mentioned in the text, was held in commendam with that of the +executioner; for when this odious but necessary officer of justice +received his appointment, he petitioned the Court of Justiciary to be +received as their Dempster, which was granted as a matter of course. + +The production of the executioner in open court, and in presence of the +wretched criminal, had something in it hideous and disgusting to the more +refined feelings of later times. But if an old tradition of the +Parliament House of Edinburgh may be trusted, it was the following +anecdote which occasioned the disuse of the Dempster's office. + +It chanced at one time that the office of public executioner was vacant. +There was occasion for some one to act as Dempster, and, considering the +party who generally held the office, it is not wonderful that a locum +tenens was hard to be found. At length, one Hume, who had been sentenced +to transportation, for an attempt to burn his own house, was induced to +consent that he would pronounce the doom on this occasion. But when +brought forth to officiate, instead of repeating the doom to the +criminal, Mr. Hume addressed himself to their lordships in a bitter +complaint of the injustice of his own sentence. It was in vain that he +was interrupted, and reminded of the purpose for which he had come +hither; "I ken what ye want of me weel eneugh," said the fellow, "ye want +me to be your Dempster; but I am come to be none of your Dempster, I am +come to summon you, Lord T, and you, Lord E, to answer at the bar of +another world for the injustice you have done me in this." In short, Hume +had only made a pretext of complying with the proposal, in order to have +an opportunity of reviling the Judges to their faces, or giving them, in +the phrase of his country, "a sloan." He was hurried off amid the +laughter of the audience, but the indecorous scene which had taken place +contributed to the abolition of the office of Dempster. The sentence is +now read over by the clerk of court, and the formality of pronouncing +doom is altogether omitted. + +[The usage of calling the Dempster into court by the ringing of a +hand-bell, to repeat the sentence on a criminal, is said to have been +abrogated in March 1773.] + + + + +NOTE O.--John Duke of Argyle and Greenwich. + +This nobleman was very dear to his countrymen, who were justly proud of +his military and political talents, and grateful for the ready zeal with +which he asserted the rights of his native country. This was never more +conspicuous than in the matter of the Porteous Mob, when the ministers +brought in a violent and vindictive bill, for declaring the Lord Provost +of Edinburgh incapable of bearing any public office in future, for not +foreseeing a disorder which no one foresaw, or interrupting the course of +a riot too formidable to endure opposition. The same bill made provision +for pulling down the city gates, and abolishing the city guard,--rather a +Hibernian mode of enabling their better to keep the peace within burgh in +future. + +The Duke of Argyle opposed this bill as a cruel, unjust, and fanatical +proceeding, and an encroachment upon the privileges of the royal burghs +of Scotland, secured to them by the treaty of Union. "In all the +proceedings of that time," said his Grace, "the nation of Scotland +treated with the English as a free and independent people; and as that +treaty, my Lords, had no other guarantee for the due performance of its +articles, but the faith and honour of a British Parliament, it would be +both unjust and ungenerous, should this House agree to any proceedings +that have a tendency to injure it." + +Lord Hardwicke, in reply to the Duke of Argyle, seemed to insinuate, that +his Grace had taken up the affair in a party point of view, to which the +nobleman replied in the spirited language quoted in the text. Lord +Hardwicke apologised. The bill was much modified, and the clauses +concerning the dismantling the city, and disbanding the guard, were +departed from. A fine of L2000 was imposed on the city for the benefit of +Porteous's widow. She was contented to accept three-fourths of the sum, +the payment of which closed the transaction. It is remarkable, that, in +our day, the Magistrates of Edinburgh have had recourse to both those +measures, hold in such horror by their predecessors, as necessary steps +for the improvement of the city. + +It may be here noticed, in explanation of another circumstance mentioned +in the text, that there is a tradition in Scotland, that George II., +whose irascible temper is said sometimes to have hurried him into +expressing his displeasure /par voie du fait,/ offered to the Duke of +Argyle in angry audience, some menace of this nature, on which he left +the presence in high disdain, and with little ceremony. Sir Robert +Walpole, having met the Duke as he retired, and learning the cause of his +resentment and discomposure, endeavoured to reconcile him to what had +happened by saying, "Such was his Majesty's way, and that he often took +such liberties with himself without meaning any harm." This did not mend +matters in MacCallummore's eyes, who replied, in great disdain, "You will +please to remember, Sir Robert, the infinite distance there is betwixt +you and me." Another frequent expression of passion on the part of the +same monarch, is alluded to in the old Jacobite song-- + + The fire shall get both hat and wig, + As oft-times they've got a' that. + + + + +NOTE P.--Expulsion of the Bishops from the Scottish Convention. + +For some time after the Scottish Convention had commenced its sittings, +the Scottish prelates retained their seats, and said prayers by rotation +to the meeting, until the character of the Convention became, through the +secession of Dundee, decidedly Presbyterian. Occasion was then taken on +the Bishop of Ross mentioning King James in his prayer, as him for whom +they watered their couch with tears. On this the Convention exclaimed, +they had no occasion for spiritual Lords, and commanded the Bishops to +depart and return no more, Montgomery of Skelmorley breaking at the same +time a coarse jest upon the scriptural expression used by the prelate. +Davie Deans's oracle, Patrick Walker, gives this account of their +dismission. + +"When they came out, some of the Convention said they wished the honest +lads knew they were put out, for then they would not get away with haill +(whole) gowns. All the fourteen gathered together with pale faces, and +stood in a cloud in the Parliament Close; James Wilson, Robert Neilson, +Francis Hislop, and myself, were standing close by them; Francis Hislop +with force thrust Robert Neilson upon them, their heads went hard on one +another. But there being so many enemies in the city fretting and +gnashing the teeth, waiting for an occasion to raise a mob, when +undoubtedly blood would have been shed, and having laid down conclusions +amongst ourselves to avoid giving the least occasion to all mobs, kept us +from tearing off their gowns. + +"Their graceless Graces went quickly off, and there was neither bishop +nor curate seen in the street--this was a surprising sudden change not to +be forgotten. Some of us would have rejoiced near them in large sums to +have seen these Bishops sent legally down the Bow that they might have +found the weight of their tails in a tow to dry their tow-soles; that +they might know what hanging was, they having been active for themselves +and the main instigators to all the mischiefs, cruelties, and bloodshed +of that time, wherein the streets of Edinburgh and other places of the +land did run with the innocent precious dear blood of the Lord's +people."--/Life and Death of three famous Worthies/ (Semple, etc.), by +Patrick Walker. Edin. 1727, pp. 72, 73. + + + + +NOTE Q.--Half-hanged Maggie Dickson. + +[In the Statistical Account of the Parish of Inveresk (vol. xvi. p. 34), +Dr. Carlyle says, "No person has been convicted of a capital felony since +the year 1728, when the famous Maggy Dickson was condemned and executed +for child-murder in the Grassmarket of Edinburgh, and was restored to +life in a cart on her way to Musselburgh to be buried . . . . . She kept +an ale-house in a neighbouring parish for many years after she came to +life again, which was much resorted to from curiosity." After the body +was cut down and handed over to her relatives, her revival is attributed +to the jolting of the cart, and according to Robert Chambers,--taking a +retired road to Musselburgh, "they stopped near Peffer-mill to get a +dram; and when they came out from the house to resume their journey, +Maggie was sitting up in the cart." Among the poems of Alexander +Pennecuick (who died in 1730), is one entitled "The Merry Wives of +Musselburgh's Welcome to Meg Dickson;" while another broadside, without +any date or author's name, is called "Margaret Dickson's Penitential +Confession," containing these lines referring to her conviction:-- + + "Who found me guilty of that barbarous crime, + And did, by law, end this wretched life of mine; + But God . . . . did me preserve," etc. + +In another of these ephemeral productions hawked about the streets, +called, "A Ballad by J--n B--s," are the following lines:-- + + "Please peruse the speech + Of ill-hanged Maggy Dickson. + Ere she was strung, the wicked wife + Was sainted by the Flamen (priest), + But now, since she's retum'd to life, + Some say she's the old samen." + +In his reference to Maggie's calling salt after her recovery, the Author +would appear to be alluding to another character who went by the name of +"saut /Maggie,/" and is represented in one or more old etchings about +1790.] + + + + +NOTE R.--Madge Wildfire. + +In taking leave of the poor maniac, the Author may here observe that the +first conception of the character, though afterwards greatly altered, was +taken from that of a person calling herself, and called by others, +Feckless Fannie (weak or feeble Fannie), who always travelled with a +small flock of sheep. The following account, furnished by the persevering +kindness of Mr. Train, contains, probably, all that can now be known of +her history, though many, among whom is the Author, may remember having +heard of Feckless Fannie in the days of their youth. + +"My leisure hours," says Mr. Train, "for some time past have been mostly +spent in searching for particulars relating to the maniac called Feckless +Fannie, who travelled over all Scotland and England, between the years +1767 and 1775, and whose history is altogether so like a romance, that I +have been at all possible pains to collect every particular that can be +found relative to her in Galloway, or in Ayrshire. + +"When Feckless Fannie appeared in Ayrshire, for the first time, in the +summer of 1769, she attracted much notice, from being attended by twelve +or thirteen sheep, who seemed all endued with faculties so much superior +to the ordinary race of animals of the same species, as to excite +universal astonishment. She had for each a different name, to which it +answered when called by its mistress, and would likewise obey in the most +surprising manner any command she thought proper to give. When +travelling, she always walked in front of her flock, and they followed +her closely behind. When she lay down at night in the fields, for she +would never enter into a house, they always disputed who should lie next +to her, by which means she was kept warm, while she lay in the midst of +them; when she attempted to rise from the ground, an old ram, whose name +was Charlie, always claimed the sole right of assisting her; pushing any +that stood in his way aside, until he arrived right before his mistress; +he then bowed his head nearly to the ground that she might lay her hands +on his horns, which were very large; he then lifted her gently from the +ground by raising his head. If she chanced to leave her flock feeding, as +soon as they discovered she was gone, they all began to bleat most +piteously, and would continue to do so till she returned; they would then +testify their joy by rubbing their sides against her petticoat and +frisking about. + +"Feckless Fannie was not, like most other demented creatures, fond of +fine dress; on her head she wore an old slouched hat, over her shoulders +an old plaid, and carried always in her hand a shepherd's crook; with any +of these articles she invariably declared she would not part for any +consideration whatever. When she was interrogated why she set so much +value on things seemingly so insignificant, she would sometimes relate +the history of her misfortune, which was briefly as follows:-- + +"'I am the only daughter of a wealthy squire in the north of England, but +I loved my father's shepherd, and that has been my ruin; for my father, +fearing his family would be disgraced by such an alliance, in a passion +mortally wounded my lover with a shot from a pistol. I arrived just in +time to receive the last blessing of the dying man, and to close his eyes +in death. He bequeathed me his little all, but I only accepted these +sheep, to be my sole companions through life, and this hat, this plaid, +and this crook, all of which I will carry until I descend into the +grave.' + +"This is the substance of a ballad, eighty-four lines of which I copied +down lately from the recitation of an old woman in this place, who says +she has seen it in print, with a plate on the title-page, representing +Fannie with her sheep behind her. As this ballad is said to have been +written by Lowe, the author of /Mary's Dream,/ I am surprised that it has +not been noticed by Cromek in his /Remains of Nithsdale and Galloway +Song;/ but he perhaps thought it unworthy of a place in his collection, +as there is very little merit in the composition; which want of room +prevents me from transcribing at present. But if I thought you had never +seen it, I would take an early opportunity of doing so. + +"After having made the tour of Galloway in 1769, as Fannie was wandering +in the neighbourhood of Moffat, on her way to Edinburgh, where, I am +informed, she was likewise well known, Old Charlie, her favourite ram, +chanced to break into a kale-yard, which the proprietor observing, let +loose a mastiff, that hunted the poor sheep to death. This was a sad +misfortune; it seemed to renew all the pangs which she formerly felt on +the death of her lover. She would not part from the side of her old +friend for several days, and it was with much difficulty she consented to +allow him to be buried; but still wishing to pay a tribute to his memory, +she covered his grave with moss, and fenced it round with osiers, and +annually returned to the same spot, and pulled the weeds from the grave +and repaired the fence. This is altogether like a romance; but I believe +it is really true that she did so. The grave of Charlie is still held +sacred even by the school-boys of the present day in that quarter. It is +now, perhaps, the only instance of the law of Kenneth being attended to, +which says, 'The grave where anie that is slaine lieth buried, leave +untilled for seven years. Repute every grave holie so as thou be well +advised, that in no wise with thy feet thou tread upon it.' + +"Through the storms of winter, as well as in the milder seasons of the +year, she continued her wandering course, nor could she be prevented from +doing so, either by entreaty or promise of reward. The late Dr. Fullarton +of Rosemount, in the neighbourhood of Ayr, being well acquainted with her +father when in England, endeavoured, in a severe season, by every means +in his power, to detain her at Rosemount for a few days until the weather +should become more mild; but when she found herself rested a little, and +saw her sheep fed, she raised her crook, which was the signal she always +gave for the sheep to follow her, and off they all marched together. + +"But the hour of poor Fannie's dissolution was now at hand, and she +seemed anxious to arrive at the spot where she was to terminate her +mortal career. She proceeded to Glasgow, and while passing through that +city a crowd of idle boys, attracted by her singular appearance, together +with the novelty of seeing so many sheep obeying her command, began to +ferment her with their pranks, till she became so irritated that she +pelted them with bricks and stones, which they returned in such a manner, +that she was actually stoned to death between Glasgow and Anderston. + +"To the real history of this singular individual credulity has attached +several superstitious appendages. It is said that the farmer who was the +cause of Charlie's death shortly afterwards drowned himself in a +peat-hag; and that the hand with which a butcher in Kilinarnock struck +one of the other sheep became powerless, and withered to the very bone. +In the summer of 1769, when she was passing by New Cumnock, a young man, +whose name was William Forsyth, son of a farmer in the same parish, +plagued her so much that she wished he might never see the morn; upon +which he went home and hanged himself in his father's barn. And I doubt +not that many such stories may yet be remembered in other parts where she +had been." + +So far Mr. Train. The Author can only add to this narrative that Feckless +Fannie and her little flock were well known in the pastoral districts. In +attempting to introduce such a character into fiction, the Author felt +the risk of encountering a comparison with the Maria of Sterne; and, +besides, the mechanism of the story would have been as much retarded by +Feckless Fannie's flock as the night march of Don Quixote was delayed by +Sancho's tale of the sheep that were ferried over the river. + +The Author has only to add, that notwithstanding the preciseness of his +friend Mr. Train's statement, there may be some hopes that the outrage on +Feckless Fannie and her little flock was not carried to extremity. There +is no mention of any trial on account of it, which, had it occurred in +the manner stated, would have certainly taken place; and the Author has +understood that it was on the Border she was last seen, about the skirts +of the Cheviot hills, but without her little flock. + + + + +NOTE S.--Death of Francis Gordon. + +This exploit seems to have been one in which Patrick Walker prided +himself not a little; and there is reason to fear, that that excellent +person would have highly resented the attempt to associate another with +him in the slaughter of a King's Life-Guardsman. Indeed, he would have +had the more right to be offended at losing any share of the glory, since +the party against Gordon was already three to one, besides having the +advantage of firearms. The manner in which he vindicates his claim to the +exploit, without committing himself by a direct statement of it, is not a +little amusing. It is as follows:-- + +"I shall give a brief and true account of that man's death, which I did +not design to do while I was upon the stage; I resolve, indeed (if it be +the Lord's will), to leave a more full account of that and many other +remarkable steps of the Lord's dispensations towards me through my life. +It was then commonly said, that Francis Gordon was a volunteer out of +wickedness of principles, and could not stay with the troop, but was +still raging and ranging to catch hiding suffering people. Meldrum and +Airly's troops, lying at Lanark upon the first day of March 1682, Mr. +Gordon and another wicked comrade, with their two servants and four +horses, came to Kilcaigow, two miles from Lanark, searching for William +Caigow and others, under hiding. + +"Mr. Gordon, rambling throw the town, offered to abuse the women. At +night, they came a mile further to the Easter-Seat, to Robert Muir's, he +being also under hiding. Gordon's comrade and the two servants went to +bed, but he could sleep none, roaring all night for women. When day came, +he took only his sword in his hand, and came to Moss-platt, and some new +men (who had been in the fields all night) seeing him, they fled, and he +pursued. James Wilson, Thomas Young, and myself, having been in a meeting +all night, were lying down in the morning. We were alarmed, thinking +there were many more than one; he pursued hard, and overtook us. Thomas +Young said, 'Sir, what do ye pursue us for?' He said, 'he was come to +send us to hell.' James Wilson said, 'that shall not be, for we will +defend ourselves.' He said, 'that either he or we should go to it now.' +He run his sword furiously throw James Wilson's coat. James fired upon +him, but missed him. All this time he cried, 'Damn his soul!' He got a +shot in his head out of a pocket-pistol, rather fit for diverting a boy +than killing such a furious, mad, brisk man, which, notwithstanding, +killed him dead. The foresaid William Caigow and Robert Muir came to us. +We searched him for papers, and found a long scroll of sufferers' names, +either to kill or take. I tore it all in pieces. He had also some Popish +books and bonds of money, with one dollar, which a poor man took off the +ground; all which we put in his pocket again. Thus, he was four miles +from Lanark, and near a mile from his comrade, seeking his own death and +got it. And for as much as we have been condemned for this, I could never +see how any one could condemn us that allows of self-defence, which the +laws both of God and nature allow to every creature. For my own part, my +heart never smote me for this. When I saw his blood run, I wished that +all the blood of the Lord's stated and avowed enemies in Scotland had +been in his veins. Having such a clear call and opportunity, I would have +rejoiced to have seen it all gone out with a gush. I have many times +wondered at the greater part of the indulged, lukewarm ministers and +professors in that time, who made more noise of murder, when one of these +enemies had been killed even in our own defence, than of twenty of us +being murdered by them. None of these men present was challenged for this +but myself. Thomas Young thereafter suffered at Mauchline, but was not +challenged for this; Robert Muir was banished; James Wilson outlived the +persecution; Williarn Caigow died in the Canongate Tolbooth, in the +beginning of 1685. Mr. Wodrow is misinformed, who says that he suffered +unto death." + + + + +NOTE T.--Tolling to Service in Scotland. + +In the old days of Scotland, when persons of property (unless they +happened to be non-jurors) were as regular as their inferiors in +attendance on parochial worship, there was a kind of etiquette, in +waiting till the patron or acknowledged great man of the parish should +make his appearance. This ceremonial was so sacred in the eyes of a +parish beadle in the Isle of Bute, that the kirk bell being out of order, +he is said to have mounted the steeple every Sunday, to imitate with his +voice the successive summonses which its mouth of metal used to send +forth. The first part of this imitative harmony was simply the repetition +of the words /Bell bell, bell bell,/ two or three times in a manner as +much resembling the sound as throat of flesh could imitate throat of +iron. /Bellu'm! bellu'm!/ was sounded forth in a more urgent manner; but +he never sent forth the third and conclusive peal, the varied tone of +which is called in Scotland the ringing-in, until the two principal +heritors of the parish approached, when the chime ran thus:-- + + Bellu'm Belle'llum, + Bernera and Knockdow's coming! + Bellu'm Belle'llum, + Bernera and Knockdow's coming! + +Thereby intimating that service was instantly to proceed. + +[Mr. Mackinlay of Borrowstounness, a native of Bute, states that Sir +Walter Scott had this story from Sir Adam Ferguson; but that the gallant +knight had not given the lairds' titles correctly--the bellman's great +men being "Craich, Drumbuie, and Barnernie!"--1842.] + + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HEART OF MID-LOTHIAN, BY SCOTT, *** + +********** This file should be named mid3w10.txt or mid3w10.zip ********** + +Corrected EDITIONS of our eBooks get a new NUMBER, mid3w11.txt +VERSIONS based on separate sources get new LETTER, mid3w10a.txt + +This eBook was produced by David Widger, widger@cecomet.net + +Project Gutenberg eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the US +unless a copyright notice is included. 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