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diff --git a/old/11032.txt b/old/11032.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..edb8660 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/11032.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7806 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of +Scotland, Vol. XXIII., by Various + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland, Vol. XXIII. + +Author: Various + +Release Date: February 11, 2004 [EBook #11032] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TALES OF SCOTLAND *** + + + + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, John Hagerson, Terry Gilliland and PG +Distributed Proofreaders + + + + + +Wilson's + +TALES OF THE BORDERS + +AND OF SCOTLAND. + + HISTORICAL, TRADITIONARY, & IMAGINATIVE. + + + REVISED BY + ALEXANDER LEIGHTON, + _One of the Original Editors and Contributors_. + +VOL. XXIII. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + THE LAWYER'S TALES (_Alexander Leighton_)--LORD KAMES'S PUZZLE. + + THE ORPHAN (_John Mackay Wilson_). + + THE BURGHER'S TALES (_Alexander Leighton_)--THE + BROWNIE OF THE WEST BOW. + + GLEANINGS OF THE COVENANT (_Professor Thomas + Gillespie_)--THE LAST SCRAP. + + THE STORY OF MARY BROWN (_Alexander Leighton_). + + TIBBY FOWLER (_John Mackay Wilson_). + + THE CRADLE OF LOGIE (_Alexander Leighton_). + + THE DEATH OF THE CHEVALIER DE LA BEAUTE (_John Mackay Wilson_). + + THE STORY OF THE PELICAN (_Alexander Leighton_). + + THE WIDOW'S AE SON (_John Mackay Wilson_). + + THE LAWYER'S TALES (_Alexander Leighton_)--THE + STORY OF MYSIE CRAIG. + + THE TWIN BROTHERS (_John Mackay Wilson_). + + THE GIRL FORGER (_Alexander Leighton_). + + THE TWO RED SLIPPERS (_Alexander Leighton_). + + THE FAITHFUL WIFE (_Alexander Leighton_). + + + WILSON'S + TALES OF THE BORDERS, + AND OF SCOTLAND. + + * * * * * + + + + +THE LAWYER'S TALES. + +LORD KAMES'S PUZZLE. + + +On looking over some Session papers which had belonged to Lord Kames, +with the object, I confess, of getting hold of some facts--those +entities called by Quintilian the bones of truth, the more by token, I +fancy, that they so often stick in the throat--which might contribute to +my legends, I came to some sheets whereon his lordship had written some +hasty remarks, to the effect that the case Napier _versus_ Napier was +the most curious puzzle that ever he had witnessed since he had taken +his seat on the bench. The papers were fragmentary, consisting of parts +of a Reclaiming Petition and some portion of a Proof that had been led +in support of a brieve of service; but I got enough to enable me to give +the story, which I shall do in such a connected manner as to take the +reader along with me, I hope pleasantly, and without any inclination to +choke upon the foresaid bones. + +Without being very particular about the year, which really I do not know +with further precision than that it was within the first five years of +Lord Kames's senator-ship, I request the reader to fancy himself in a +small domicile in Toddrick's Wynd, in the old city of Edinburgh; and I +request this the more readily that, as we all know, Nature does not +exclude very humble places from the regions of romance, neither does she +deny to very humble personages the characters of heroes and heroines. +Not that I have much to say in the first instance either of the place or +the persons; the former being no more than a solitary room and a +bed-closet, where yet the throb of life was as strong and quick as in +the mansions of the great, and the latter composed of two persons--one, +a decent, hard-working woman called Mrs. Hislop, whose duty in this +world was to keep her employers clean in their clothes, wherein she +stood next to the minister, insomuch as cleanliness is next to +godliness--in other words, she was a washerwoman; the other being a +young girl, verging upon sixteen, called Henrietta, whose qualities, +both of mind and body, might be comprised in the homely eulogy, "as +blithe as bonnie." So it may be, that if you are alarmed at the humility +of the occupation of the one--even with your remembrance that Sir Isaac +Newton experimented upon soap-bubbles--as being so intractable in the +plastic-work of romance, you may be appeased by the qualities of the +other; for has it not been our delight to sing for a thousand years, +yea, in a thousand songs, too, the praises of young damsels, whether +under the names of Jenny or Peggy, or those of Clarinda or Florabella, +or whether engaged in herding flocks by Logan Waters, or dispensing +knights' favours under the peacock? But we cannot afford to dispose of +our young heroine in this curt way, for her looks formed parts of the +lines of a strange history; and so we must be permitted the privilege of +narrating that, while Mrs. Hislop's _protegee_ did not come within that +charmed circle which contains, according to the poets, so many angels +without wings, she was probably as fair every whit as Dowsabell. Yet, +after all, we are not here concerned with beauty, which, as a specialty +in one to one, and as a universality in all to all, is beyond the power +of written description. We have here to do simply with some traits +which, being hereditary, not derived from Mrs. Hislop, have a bearing +upon our strange legend: the very slightest cast in the eyes, which in +its piquancy belied a fine genial nature in the said Henney; and a +classic nose, which, partaking of the old Roman type, and indicating +pride, was equally untrue to a generosity of feeling which made friends +of all who saw her--_except one_. A strange exception this _one_; for +who, even in this bad world, could be an enemy to a creature who +conciliated sympathy as a love, and defied antipathy as an +impossibility? Who could _he_ be? or rather, who could _she_ be? for man +seems to be excluded by the very instincts of his nature. The question +may be answered by the evolution of facts; than which what other have we +even amidst the dark gropings into the mystery of our wonderful being? + +Mrs. Hislop's head was over the skeil, wherein lay one of the linen +sheets of Mr. Dallas, the writer to the signet, which, with her broad +hands, she was busy twisting into the form of a serpent; and no doubt +there were indications of her efforts in the drops of perspiration which +stood upon her good-humoured, gaucy face, so suggestive of dewdrops +('bating the poetry) on the leaves of a big blush peony. In this work +she was interrupted by the entrance of Henney, who came rushing in as if +under the influence of some emotion which had taken her young heart by +surprise. + +"What think ye, minny?" she cried, as she held up her hands. + +"The deil has risen again from the grave where he was buried in +Kirkcaldy," was the reply, with a laugh. + +"No, that's no it," continued the girl. + +"Then what is it?" was the question. + +"He's dead," replied Henney. + +"Who is dead?" again asked Mrs. Hislop. + +"The strange man," replied the girl. + +And a reply, too, which brought the busy worker to a pause in her work, +for she understood who the _he_ was, and the information went direct +through the ear to the heart; but Henney, supposing that she was not +understood, added-- + +"The man who used to look at me with yon terrible eyes." + +"Yes, yes, dear, I understand you," said the woman, as she let the coil +fall, and sat down upon a chair, under the influence of strong emotion. +"But who told you?" + +"Jean Graham," replied the girl. + +An answer which seemed, for certain reasons known to herself, to satisfy +the woman, for the never another word she said, any more than if her +tongue had been paralyzed by the increased action of her heart; but as +we usually find that when that organ in woman is quiet more useful +powers come into action, so the sensible dame began to exercise her +judgment. A few minutes sufficed for forming a resolution; nor was it +sooner formed than that it was begun to be put into action, yet not +before the excited girl was away, no doubt to tell some of her +companions of her relief from the bugbear of the man with the terrible +eyes. The formation of a purpose might have been observed in her +puckered lips and the speculation in her grey eyes. The spirit of +romance had visited the small house in Toddrick's Wynd, where for +fifteen years the domestic _lares_ had sat quietly surveying the economy +of poverty. She rose composedly from the chair into which the effect of +Henney's exclamation had thrown her, went to the blue chest which +contained her holiday suit, took out, one after another, the chintz +gown, the mankie petticoat, the curch, the red plaid; and, after washing +from her face the perspiration drops, she began to put on her humble +finery--all the operation having been gone through with that quiet +action which belongs to strong minds where resolution has settled the +quivering chords of doubt. + +Following the dressed dame up the High Street, we next find her in the +writing-booth of Mr. James Dallas, writer to his Majesty's Signet. The +gentleman was, after the manner of his tribe, minutely scanning some +papers--that is, he was looking into them so sharply that you would have +inferred that he was engaged in hunting for "flaws;" a species of game +that is both a prey and a reward--_et praeda et premium_, as an old +proverb says. Nor shall we say he was altogether pleased when he found +his inquiry, whatever it might be, interrupted by the entrance of Mrs. +Margaret Hislop of Toddrick's Wynd; notwithstanding that to this +personage he and Mrs. Dallas, and all the Dallases, were indebted for +the whiteness of their linen. No doubt she would be wanting payment of +her account; yet why apply to him, and not to Mrs. Dallas? And, besides, +it needed only one glance of the writer's eye to show that his visitor +had something more of the look of a client than a cleaner of linen; a +conclusion which was destined to be confirmed, when the woman, taking up +one of the high-backed chairs in the room, placed it right opposite to +the man of law, and, hitching her round body into something like stiff +dignity, seated herself. Nor was this change from her usual deportment +the only one she underwent; for, as soon appeared, her style of speech +was to pass from broad Scotch, not altogether into the "Inglis" of the +upper ranks, but into a mixture of the two tongues; a feat which she +performed very well, and for which she had been qualified by having +lived in the service of the great. + +"And so Mr. Napier of Eastleys is dead?" she began. + +"Yes," answered the writer, perhaps with a portion of cheerfulness, +seeing he was that gentleman's agent, or "doer," as it was then called; +a word far more expressive, as many clients can testify, at least after +they are "done;" and seeing also that a dead client is not finally +"done" until his affairs are wound up and consigned to the green box. + +"And wha is his heir, think ye?" continued his questioner. + +"Why, Charles Napier, his nephew," answered the writer, somewhat +carelessly. + +"I'm no just a'thegither sure of that, Mr. Dallas," said she, with +another effort at dignity, which was unfortunately qualified by a +knowing wink. + +"The deil's in the woman," was the sharp retort, as the writer opened +his eyes wider than he had done since he laid down his parchments. + +"The deil's in me or no in me," said she; "but this I'm sure of, that +Henrietta Hislop--that's our Henney, ye ken--the brawest and bonniest +lass in Toddrick's Wynd (and that's no saying little), is the lawful +heiress of Mr. John Napier of Eastleys, and was called Henrietta after +her mother." + +"The honest woman's red wud," said the writer, laughing. "Why, Mrs. +Hislop, I always took you for a shrewd, sensible woman. Do you really +think that, because you bore a child to Mr. John Napier, therefore +Henney Hislop is the heiress of her reputed father?" + +"_Me_ bear a bairn to Mr. Napier!" cried the offended client. "Wha ever +said I was the mother of Henney Hislop?" + +"Everybody," replied he. "We never doubted it, though I admit she has +none of your features." + +"Everybody is a leear, then," rejoined the woman tartly. "There's no a +drap of blood in the lassie's body can claim kindred with me or mine; +though, if it were so, it would be no dishonour, for the Hislops were +lairds of Highslaps in Ayrshire at the time of Malcolm Mucklehead." + +"And whose daughter, by the mother's side, is she, then?" asked he, as +his curiosity began to wax stronger. + +"Ay, you have now your hand on the cocked egg," replied she, with a look +of mystery. "The other was a wind ane, and you've just to sit a little +and you'll see the chick." + +The writer settled himself into attention, and the good dame thought it +proper, like some preachers who pause two or three minutes (the best +part of their discourse) after they have given out the text, to raise a +wonder how long they intend to hold their tongue, and thereby produce +attention, to retain her speech until she had attained the due +solemnity. + +"It is now," she began, in a low mysterious voice, "just sixteen years +come June,--and if ye want the day, it will be the 15th,--and if ye want +the hour, we may say eleven o'clock at night, when I was making ready +for my bed,--I heard a knock at my door, and the words of a woman, 'Oh, +Mrs. Hislop, Mrs. Hislop!' So I ran and opened the door; and wha think +ye I saw but Jean Graham, Mr. Napier's cook, with een like twa candles, +and her mouth as wide as if she had been to swallow the biggest sup of +porridge that ever crossed ploughman's craig?" + +"'What's ado, woman?' said I, for I thought something fearful had +happened. + +"'Oh,' cried she, 'my lady's lighter, and ye're to come to Meggat's +Land, even noo, this minute, and bide nae man's hindrance.' + +"'And so I will,' said I, as I threw my red plaid ower my head; then I +blew out my cruse, and out we came, jolting each other in the dark +passage through sheer hurry and confusion--down the Canongate, t'll we +came to Meggat's Land, in at the kitchen door, ben a dark passage, up a +stair, then ben another passage, till we came to a back room, the door +of which was opened by somebody inside. I was bewildered--the light in +the room made my een reel; but I soon came to myself, when I saw a man +and Mrs. Kemp the howdie busy rowing something in flannel. + +"'Get along,' said the man to Jean; 'you're not wanted here.' + +"And as Jean made off, Mrs. Kemp turned to me-- + +"'Come here, Mrs. Hislop,' said she. + +"So I slipt forward; but the never a word more was said for ten minutes, +they were so intent on getting the bairn all right--for ye ken, sir, it +was a new-born babe they were busy with: they were as silent as the +grave; and indeed everything was so still, that I heard their breathing +like a rushing of wind, though they breathed just as they were wont to +do. And when they had finished-- + +"'Mrs. Hislop,' said the man, as he turned to me, 'you're to take this +child and bring it up as your own, or anybody else's you like, except +Mr. Napier's, and you're never to say when or how you got it, for it's a +banned creature, with the curse upon it of a malison for the sins of him +who begot it and of her who bore it. Swear to it;' and he held up his +hand. + +"And I swore; but I thought I would just take the advice of the Lord how +far my words would bind me to do evil, or leave me to do gude, when the +time came. So I took the bairn into my arms. + +"'And wha will pay for the wet-nurse?' said I; 'for ye ken I am as dry +as a yeld crummie. But there is a woman in Toddrick's Wynd wha lost her +bairn yestreen: she is threatened wi' a milk-fever, and by my troth this +little stranger will cure her; but, besides the nourice-fee, there is my +trouble.' + +"'I was coming to that,' said he, 'if your supple tongue had left you +power to hear mine. In this leathern purse there are twenty gowden +guineas--a goodly sum; but whether goodly or no, you must be content; +yea, the never a penny more you may expect, for all connection between +this child and this house or its master is to be from this moment +finished for ever.' + +"And a gude quittance it was, I thought, with a bonny bairn and twenty +guineas on my side, and nothing on the other but maybe a father's anger +and salt tears, besides the wrath of God against those who forsake their +children. So with thankfulness enough I carried away my bundle; and +ye'll guess that Henney Hislop is now the young woman of fifteen who was +then that child of a day." + +"And is this all the evidence," said the writer, "you have to prove that +Henrietta Hislop is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Napier?" + +"Maybe no," replied she; "if ye weren't so like the English stranger wha +curst the Scotch kail because he did not see on the table the beef that +was coming from the kitchen, besides the haggis and the bread-pudding. +You've only as yet got the broth, and, for the rest, I will give you Mrs. +Kemp, wha told me, as a secret, that the child was brought into the +world by her own hands from the living body of Mrs. Napier. Will that +satisfy you?" + +"No," replied Mr. Dallas, who had got deeper and deeper into a study. +"Mr. Napier, I know, was at home that evening when his wife bore a +child: that child never could have been given away without his consent; +and as for the consent itself, it is a still greater improbability, +seeing that he was always anxious for an heir to Eastleys." + +"And so maybe he was," replied she; "but I see you are only at the beef +yet, and you may be better pleased when you have got the haggis, let +alone the pudding. Yea, it is even likely Mr. Napier wanted an heir, +and, what is more, he got one, at least an heiress; but sometimes God +gives and the devil misgives. And so it was here; for Mr. Napier took it +into his head that the child was not his, and, in place of being pleased +with an heir, he thought himself cursed with a bastard, begotten on his +wife by no other than Captain Preston, his lady's cousin. And where did +the devil find that poison growing but in the heart of Isabel Napier, +the sister of that very Charles who is now thinking he will heir +Eastleys by pushing aside poor Henney? And then the poison, like the old +apple, was so fair and tempting; for Mr. Napier had been married ten +years, and enjoyed the love that is so bonnie a 'little while when it is +new,' and yet had no children, till this one came so exactly nine months +after the captain's visit to Scotland, that Satan had little more to do +than hold up the temptation. You see, sir, how things come round; but +still, according to the old fashion, after a long, weary, dreary turn. +Mrs. Napier died next day after the birth; Mr. Napier lived a miserable +man; Henney was brought up in poverty, and sometimes distress, but now I +hope she has come to her kingdom." + +Here Mrs. Hislop stopped; and as there could be no better winding-up of +a romance than by bringing her heroine to her kingdom at last, she felt +so well pleased with her conclusion, that she could afford to wait +longer for her expected applause than the fair story-tellers in the +_brigata_ under Queen Pampinea; and it was as well that she was thus +fortified, for the writer, in place of declaring his satisfaction, with +her proofs, seemed, as he lay back in his chair in a deep reverie, to be +occupied once more in hunting for flaws. At length, raising himself on +his chair, and fixing his eyes upon her with that look of scepticism +which a writer assumes when he addresses a would-be new client who wants +to push out an old one with a better right-- + +"Mrs. Hislop," said he, "if it had not been that I have always taken you +for an honest woman, I would say that you are art and part in +fabricating a story without a particle of foundation. There may possibly +be some mystery about the birth and parentage of the young girl. You may +have got her out of the house of Meggat's Land in the Canongate from a +man--not Mr. Napier, you admit--who may have been the father of it by +some mother residing in the house; and Mrs. Kemp may have been actuated, +by some unknown means, to remove the paternity from the right to the +wrong person. All this is possible; but that the child could be that one +which Mrs. Napier bore is impossible, for this reason--and I beg of you +to listen to it--that Mrs. Napier's child _was dead-born, and was, +according to good evidence, buried in the same coffin with the mother_." + +A statement this, which, delivered in the solemn manner of an attorney +who was really honest, and who knew much of this history, appeared to +Mrs. Hislop so strange that her tongue was paralyzed; an effect which +had never before been produced by any one of all the five causes of the +metaphysicians. Even her eyes seemed to have lost their power of +movement; and as for her wits, they had, like those of the renowned +Astolpho, surely left, and taken refuge in the moon. + +"If you are not satisfied with my words," continued the writer (no doubt +ironically, for where could he have found better evidence of the effect +of his statement?), "I will give you writing for the truth of what I +have said to you." + +And rising and going towards a green tin box, he opened the same, and +taking therefrom a piece of paper, he resumed his seat. + +"Now listen," said he, as he unfolded an old yellow-coloured sheet of +paper, and then he read these words: "'Your presence is requested at the +funeral of Henrietta Preston, my wife, and of a child still-born, from +my house, Meggat's Land, Canongate, to the burying-ground at St. +Cuthberts, on Friday the 19th of this month June, at one o'clock;' and +the name at this letter," continued Mr. Dallas, "is that of 'John Napier +of Eastleys.' Will that satisfy you?" + +And the "doer" for Mr. Charles Napier, conceiving that he had at last +effectually "done" his client's opponent, seemed well pleased to sit and +witness the further effect of his evidence on the bewildered woman; but +we are to remember that a second stroke sometimes only takes away the +pain of the former, and a repetition of blows will quicken the reaction +which slumbered under the first. Whether this was so or not in our +present instance, or whether Mrs. Hislop had recovered her wits by a +process far shorter than that followed by the foresaid Astolpho, we know +not; but certain it is, that she recovered the powers of both her eyes +and her tongue in much less time than the writer expected, and in a +manner, too, very different from that for which he was probably +prepared. + +"Weel," replied she, smiling, "it would just seem that even the haggis +has not pleased you, Mr. Dallas;" and, putting her hand into a big +side-pocket, that might have served a gaberlunzie for a wallet, she +extracted a small piece of paper. She continued: "But ye see a guid, +honest Scotchwoman's no to be suspected of being shabby at her own +table; so read ye that, which you may take for the bread-pudding." + +And the writer, having taken the paper, and held it before his face for +so long a time that it might have suggested the suspicion that the words +therein written stuck in his eyes, and would not submit to that strange +process whereby, unknown to ourselves, we transfer written vocables to +the ear before we can understand them, turned a look upon the woman of +dark suspicion-- + +"Where, in God's name, got you this?" he said. + +"Just read it out first," replied she. "Ye read yer ain paper, and why +no mine?" + +And the writer read, perhaps more easily than he could understand, the +strange words: + +"This child, born of my wife, and yet neither of my blood nor my +lineage, I repudiate, and, unable to push it back into the dark world of +nothing from which it came, I leave it with a scowl to the mercy which +countervaileth the terrible decree whereby the sins of the parent shall +be visited on the child. This I do on the 15th of June 17--. JOHN NAPIER +of Eastleys, in the county of Mid-Lothian." + +After reading this extraordinary denunciation, Mr. Dallas sat and +considered, as if at a loss what to say; but whether it was that +scepticism was at the root of his thoughts, or that he assumed it as a +mask to conceal misgivings to which he did not like to confess, he put a +question: + +"Where got you this notable piece of evidence?" + +"Ay," replied Mrs. Hislop, "you are getting reasonable on the last dish. +That bit of paper, which to me and my dear Henney is werth the haill +estate of Eastleys, was found by me carefully pinned to the flannel in +which the child was wrapt." + +"Wonderful enough surely," repeated he, "_if true_"--the latter words +being pronounced with emphasis which made the rough liquid letter sound +like a hurling stone; "but," he continued, "the whole document, in its +terms of crimination and exposure, and not less the wild manner of its +application, is so unlike the act of a man not absolutely frantic, that +I cannot believe it to be genuine." + +"But you know, Mr. Dallas," replied she, "that Mr. John Napier was a man +who, if he threw a stone, cared little whether it struck the kirk window +or the mill door." + +"That is so far true; but, passionate and unforgiving as he was, he was +not so reckless as to be regardless whether the stone did not come back +on his own head." + +"And it's no genuine!" she resumed, as, disregarding his latter words, +she relapsed into her more familiar dialect. "The Lord help ye! canna ye +look at first the ae paper and then the ither? and if they're no alike, +mustna the ither be the forgery?" + +An example of the conditional syllogism which might have amused even a +writer to the signet, if he had not been at the very moment busy in the +examination of the handwriting of the funeral letter and that of the +paper of repudiation and malison--the resemblance, or rather the +identity of which was so striking, as to reduce all his theories to +confusion. + +"By all that's good in heaven, the same," he muttered to himself; and +then addressing his visitor, "I confess, Mrs. Hislop," said he, "that +this paper has driven me somewhat off my point of confidence; but I +suppose you will see that, if the child was actually, as the letter +indicates, buried with its mother, Henrietta's rights are at an end. It +is just possible, however, I fairly admit, that Mr. Napier, who was a +very eccentric man, may have so worded the letter as to induce the world +to believe that the so-considered illegitimate child had been dead-born, +while he gratified--privately he might verily think--his vengeance by +writing this terrible curse. Still I think you are wrong; but as this +wonderful paper gives you a plausible plea, I would recommend you to Mr. +White, in Mill's Court, who will see to the young woman's rights. He +will be the flint, and I the steel; and between our friendly opposition +we will produce a spark which will light up the candle of truth." + +"Ay," replied she; "only as the spark of fire comes from the steel, +we'll just suppose you are the flint--and by my troth you're hard +enough; but, come as it may, it will light the lantern that will show +Henney Napier to the bonnie haughs of Eastleys." + +Mrs. Hislop having got back her paper from Mr. Dallas, left the writer's +chambers, and directed her steps to Mill's Court, where she found Mr. +White, even as she had Mr. Dallas, busy poring over law papers. She was, +as we have seen, one of those people who can make their own introduction +acceptable, and, moreover, one of those women, few as they are, who can +tell a story with the continuity and fitting emphasis necessary to +secure the attention of a busy listener. So Mr. White heard her +narrative, not only with interest, but even a touch of the pervading +sympathy of the spirit of romance. And so he might; for who doesn't see +that the charm of mystery can be enhanced by the hope of turning it to +account of money? Then he was so much of a practical man as to know that +while every string has two ends, the true way to get hold of both is to +make sure in the first place of one. Wherefore he began to interrogate +his client as to who could speak to the doings in the house in Meggat's +Land on that eventful night when the child was born; and having taken +notes of the answers to his questions, he paused a little, as if to +consider what was the first step he ought to take into the region of +doubt, and perhaps of intrigue, where at least there must be lies +floating about like films in the clear atmosphere of truth. Nor had he +meditated many minutes till he rose, and taking up his square hat and +his gold-headed cane, he said-- + +"Come, we will try what we can discover in a quarter where an end of the +ravelled string ought to be found, whether complicated into a knot by +the twisting power of self-interest or no." + +And leading the way, he proceeded with his client down the High Street, +where, along under the glimmering lamps, were the usual crowds of +loungers, composed of canny Saxon and fiery Celt, which have always made +this picturesque thoroughfare so remarkable. Not one of all these had +any interest for our two searchers; but it was otherwise when they came +toward the Canongate Tolbooth, where, out from a dark entry sprang a +young woman, and bounding forward, seized our good dame round the neck. +This was no other than Henney Hislop herself, who, having been alarmed +at the long absence of her "mother," as she called her, and of course +believed her to be, was so delighted to find her, that she sobbed out +her joy in such an artless way, that even the writer owned it was +interesting to behold. Nor was the picture without other traits +calculated to engage attention; for the girl whose fortunes had been so +strange, and were perhaps destined to be still more strange, was dressed +in the humblest garb--the short gown and the skirt peculiar to the time; +but then every tint was so bright with pure cleanliness, the earrings +set off so fine a skin, the indispensable strip of purple round the head +imparted so much of the grace of the old classic wreath; and beyond all +this, which might be said to be extraneous, her features--if you abated +the foresaid cast or slight squint in the eyes, which imparted a +piquancy--were so regular, if not handsome, that you could not have +denied that she deserved to be a Napier, if she was not a very Napier in +reality. A few words whispered in Mrs. Hislop's ear, and the girl was +off, leaving our couple to proceed on their way. Even this incident had +its use; for Mr. White, who had known Mr. Napier, and had faith (as who +has not?) in the hereditary descent of bodily aspects, could not +restrain himself from the remark, however much it might inflame the +hopes of his client--"The curse has left no blight there," said he. +"That is the very face of Mr. Napier--the high nose especially; and as +for the eyes, with that unmistakeable cast, why, I have seen their +foretypes in the head of John Napier a hundred times." + +An observation so congenial to Mrs. Hislop, that she could not help +being a little humorous, even in the depth of an anxiety which had kept +her silent for the full space of ten minutes. + +"Nose, sir! there wasn't a man frae the castle yett to Holyrood wha +could have produced that nose except John Napier." + +And without further interruption than her own laugh, they proceeded till +they came to the entry called Big Lochend Close, up which they went some +forty or fifty steps till they came to an outer door, which led by a +short dark passage to two or three inner doors in succession, all +leading to separate rooms occupied by separate people. No sooner had +they turned into this passage than they encountered a woman in a plaid +and with a lantern in her hand, who had just left the third or innermost +room, and whose face, as it peered through the thick folds of her +head-covering, was illuminated by a gleam from the light she carried. +She gave them little opportunity for examination, having hurried away as +if she had been afraid of being searched for stolen property. + +"Isbel Napier," whispered Mrs. Hislop; "she wha first brought evil into +the house of the Napiers, with all its woe." + +"And who bodes us small hope here," said he, "if she has been with the +nurse." + +And entering the room from which the ill-omening woman had issued, they +found another, even her of whom they were in search, sitting by the +fire, torpid and corpulent, to a degree which indicated that as it had +been her trade to nurse others, she had not forgotten herself in her +ministrations. + +"Mrs. Temple," said Mr. White, who saw the policy of speaking fair the +woman who had been so recently in the company of an evil genius; "I am +glad to find you so stout and hearty." + +"Neither o' the twa, sir," replied she; "for I am rather weak and +heartless. Many a ane I hae nursed into health and strength, but a' +nursing comes hame in the end." + +"And some, no doubt, have died under your care," continued the writer, +with a view to introduce his subject; "and therefore you should be +grateful for the life that is still spared to you. You could not save +the life of Mrs. Napier." + +"That's an auld story, and a waefu' ane," she replied, with a side-look +at Mrs. Hislop; "and I hae nae heart to mind it. Some said the lady +wasna innocent; and doubtless Mr. Napier thought sae, for he took high +dealings wi' her, and looked at her wi' a scorn that would have scathed +whinstanes. Sae it was better she was ta'en awa--ay, and her baby wi' +her; for if it had lived, it would have dree'd the revenge o' that stern +man." + +"The child!" said Mr. White, "did it die too?" + +"Dee! ye may rather ask if it ever lived; for it never drew breath, in +this world at least." + +A statement so strange, that it brought the eyes of the two visitors to +each other; and no doubt both of them recurred in memory to the +statement in the funeral letter, which, whatever may have been the case +with the assertion now made by the nurse, never could have been dictated +by her they had met in the passage; and no doubt, also, they both +remembered the statement made by Mr. Dallas, to the effect that both the +mother and child were buried together. + +"Never drew breath, you say, nurse!" resumed Mr. White, with an air of +astonishment; "why, I have been given to understand, not only that the +child was born alive, but that it is actually living now." + +"Weel," replied the nurse, "maybe St. Cuthbert has wrought a miracle, +and brought the child out o' the grave by the West Church; but he has +wrought nae miracle on me, to mak' me forget what my een saw, and my +hands did, that day when I helped to place the dead body o' the innocent +on the breast o' its dead mother; ay, and bent her stiff arms sae as to +bring them ower her bairn, just as if she had been faulding it to her +bosom. And sae in this fashion were they buried." + +"And you would swear to that, Mrs. Temple?" said the writer. + +"Ay, upon fifty Bibles, ane after anither," was the reply, in something +like a tone of triumph. + +Nor could the woman be induced to swerve from these assertions, +notwithstanding repeated interrogations; and the writer was left to the +conclusion--which he preferred, rather than place any confidence in the +funeral letter--that the nurse's statement was in some mysterious way +connected with the visit of Isabel Napier; and yet, not so very +mysterious, after all, when we are to consider that her brother was +preparing to claim Eastleys, as well as the valuable furniture of the +house in Meggat's Land, as the nearest lawful heir of his deceased +uncle. The salvo was at least comfortable to both Mr. White and his +client, and no doubt it helped to lighten their steps, as, bidding adieu +to the "hard witness," they left her to the nursing which comes "aye +hame in the end." + +But their inquiries were not finished; and retracing their steps up the +Canongate, they landed in the Fountain Close, where, under the leading +of Mrs. Hislop, the writer was procured another witness, with a name +already familiar to him through the communication of his client; and +this was no other than that same Jean Graham, who was sent to Toddrick's +Wynd on that eventful night, fifteen years before, to bring Mrs. Hislop +to the house in Meggat's Land;--one of those simple souls--we wish there +were more of them in the world--who look upon a lie as rather an operose +affair, and who seem to be truthful from sheer laziness. There was, +accordingly, no difficulty here; for the woman rolled off her story just +as if it had been coiled up in her mind for all that length of time. + +"There was a terrible stir in the house that night," she began. "The +nurse, wha is yet living in Lochend Close, and Mrs. Kemp the howdie, wha +is dead, were wi' my lady; and John Cowie, the butler, was busy +attending our master, who had been the haill day in ane o' his dark +fits, for we heard him calling for Cowie in a fierce voice ever and +again; and his step sounded ower our heads upon the floor as he walked +back and fore in his wrath. Then I was sent for you, and brought you, +and you'll mind how Cowie bade me go along; but I had mair sense, for I +listened at the door, and heard what the butler said to ye when he gied +ye the bairn; and think ye I didna see ye carry it along the passage as +ye left? Sae far I could understand; but when I heard nurse say the +bairn was dead, Mrs. Kemp say the bairn was still-born, and Cowie +declare it was better it was dead and awa, I couldna comprehend this +ava; nor do I weel yet; but we just thought that as there was something +wrang between master and my lady, he wanted us to believe that the bairn +was dead, for very shame o' being thought the father, when maybe he +wasna. And then he was so guid to me and my neighbour Anne Dickson,--ye +mind o' her--puir soul, she's dead too,--that we couldna, for the very +heart o' us, say a word o' what we knew. But now when Mr. Napier is +dead, and the brother o' that wicked Jezebel, Isbel Napier, may try to +take the property frae Henney, wha I aye kenned as a Napier, with the +very nose and een o' the father, I have spoken out; and may the Lord gie +the right to whom the right is due!" + +"It's all right," said the writer, after he had jotted with a pencil the +evidence of Jean, as well as that of the nurse; "and if we could find +this John Cowie, we might so fortify the orphan's rights, as to defy +Miss Napier and her brother, and Mr. Dallas, and all the witnesses they +can bring." + +"Ay," continued the woman, "but I doubt if you'll catch him. He left Mr. +Napier's service about ten years ago, and I never heard mair o' him." + +"Nor I either," said Mrs. Hislop. + +"Well, we must search for him," added Mr. White; "for that man alone, so +far as I can see, is he who will unravel this strange business." + +And thus the day's work finished. The writer parted for Mill's Court, +and Mrs. Hislop, filled with doubts, hopes, and anxieties, sought her +humble dwelling in Toddrick's Wynd, where Henney waited for her with all +the solicitude of a daughter; but a word did not escape her lips that +might carry to the girl's mind a suspicion that the golden cord of their +supposed relationship ran a risk of being severed, even with the +eventual condition that one, if not both of the divisions, would be +transmuted into a string of diamonds. + +Meanwhile the agent was in his own house, revolving all the points of a +puzzle more curious than any that had yet come within the scope of his +experience. Sometimes he felt confidence, and at other times despair; +and of course he had the consolation, which belongs to all litigants, +that the opposite party was undergoing the same process of oscillation. +It was clear enough that Cowie was the required Oedipus; and if it +should turn out that he was dead, or could not be found, the advantage +was, with a slight declination, on the part of Charles Napier; insomuch +as, while he was indisputably the nephew of the deceased, the orphan, +Henrietta, was under the necessity of proving her birth and pedigree. +And so, as it appeared, Mr. Dallas was of that opinion, for the very +next day he applied to Chancery for a brieve to get Charles Napier +served nearest and lawful heir to his uncle; and as in legal warfare, +where the judges are cognisant only of patent claims, there is small +room for retiring tactics, Mr. White felt himself obliged, however +anxious he was to gain time, to follow his opponent's example by taking +out a competing brieve in favour of Henrietta. + +The parties were now face to face in court, and the battle behoved to be +fought out; but as in all legal cases, where the circumstances are +strange or peculiar, the story soon gets wind, so here the Meggat's Land +romance was by-and-by all over the city. Nor did it take less fantastic +forms than usual, where sympathies and antipathies are strong in +proportion to the paucity of the facts on which they are fed. It was a +favourite opinion of some, that the case could only be cleared by +supposing that a dead stranger child had been surreptitiously passed +off, and even coffined, as the true one; while others, equally skilled +in the art of divining, maintained that the child given to Mrs. Hislop +by Cowie was a bastard of his own, by the terrible woman Isabel Napier, +who was thus, according to the ordinary working of public prejudice, +raised to a height of crime sufficient to justify the hatred of the +people: on which presumption, it behoved to be assumed that the paper +containing the curse was a forgery by Cowie and his associate in crime, +and that the money paid to Mrs. Hislop was furnished by the lady; all +which suppositions, and others not less incredible, were greedily +accepted, for the very reason that it required something prodigious to +explain an enigma which exhausted the ordinary sources of man's +ingenuity; just as we find in many religions, where miracles--the more +absurd, the more acceptable--are resorted to to explain the mystery of +man's relation to God, a secret which no natural light can illuminate. + +But all these suppositions were destined to undergo refractions through +the medium of a new fact. The case, by technical processes, came before +the Court of Session, where the diversity of opinion was, proportionably +to the number of judges, as great as among the quidnuncs outside. The +only clear idea in the heads of the robed and wigged wiseacres was, that +the case, Napier _versus_ Napier, was a puzzle which no man could read +or solve. It seemed fated to be as famous as the old Sphinx, the +insoluble Moenander, or the tortuous labyrinth, or the intricate key of +Hercules--_ne Apollo quidem intelligat_; and if it had not happened that +Lord Kames suggested the possibility of getting an additional piece of +evidence through the examination of the coffin wherein Mrs. Napier was +buried, the court might have been sitting over the famous case even in +this year of the nineteenth century. The notion was worthy of his +lordship's ingenuity; and accordingly a commission was issued to one of +the Faculty to proceed to the West Church burying-ground, and there +cause to be laid open and examined the coffin of the said Mrs. Henrietta +Preston or Napier, with the view to ascertain whether or not the body of +a child had been placed therein along with the corpse of the mother. + +This commission was accordingly executed, and the report bore, that "he, +the commissioner, had proceeded to the burying-ground of the parish of +St. Cuthberts, and there caused David Scott, the sexton, to lay open the +grave of the said Henrietta Preston or Napier, and to open the coffin +therein contained; which having accordingly been done by the said David +Scott and his assistants, the commissioner, upon a faithful examination, +aided by the experience of the said David Scott, did find the skeletons +of two bodies in the said coffin identified as that of the said lady, +one whereof was that of a woman apparently of middle age, and the other +that of a babe, which lay upon the chest of the larger skeleton in such +a way or manner as to be retained or held in that position by the arms +of the same being laid across it; that having satisfied himself of these +facts, the commissioner caused the coffin to be again closed and the +grave covered with all decency and care. And he accordingly made this +report to their lordships." + +The fact thus ascertained, in opposition to the expectation of those who +favoured the orphan, was viewed by the court as depriving, to a great +extent, the case of that aspect of a riddle by which it had been so +unfortunately distinguished; and as the case had been hung up even +beyond the time generally occupied by cases at that period, when, as it +was sometimes remarked, law-suits were as often settled by the old rule, +_Romanus sedendo vincit_--by the death of one or other of the +parties--as by a judgment, the case was again put to the Roll for a +hearing on the effect of the new evidence. It was contended for the +nephew by Mr. Wight, that the question was now virtually settled, +insomuch that the court was not bound to solve riddles, but to find to +whom pertained a certain right of inheritance. The birth of the child +had been sworn to by the nurse, as well as its death, and the final +placing of it in the coffin; and now the court had, as it were, ocular +demonstration of these facts by the body having been seen by their own +commissioner, placed on the breast of the mother in that very peculiar +way described by Mrs. Temple. All claim on the part of the girl was thus +virtually excluded, for the proceedings which took place that evening in +another room, under circumstances of suspicion, were sworn to only by +Mrs. Hislop herself, an interested witness, and were only partially +confirmed by an eavesdropper, who, as eavesdroppers generally do (except +when their own characters are concerned), perhaps heard according as +foregone prejudices induced her to wish. These suspicious proceedings +might be explained by as many hypotheses as had been devised by the wise +judges of the taverns, among which was the theory of the living child +being Cowie's own by Isabel Napier, and palmed off as Mrs. Napier's to +hide the shame of the true mother,--all unlikely enough, no doubt, but +not so impossible as that the coffined child should now be alive and +awaiting the issue of this case, in the expectation of being Lady of +Eastleys. + +On the other side, Mr. Andrews, counsel for Henrietta, maintained that +while his learned brother assumed the one half of the case as proved, +and repudiated the other as a lie or a myth, he had a right to embrace +the other half, and pronounce the first a stratagem or trick. The +proceedings in the back-room into which Jean Graham introduced Mrs. +Hislop were more completely substantiated than those in the bedroom +where Mrs. Napier lay; for while the one were sworn to by Mrs. Hislop +herself, a soothfast witness, and confirmed in all points by the woman +Graham, the other were attempted to be proven by the solitary testimony +of the nurse Temple. The paper containing the curse was as indisputably +in the handwriting of Mr. Napier as was the funeral letter. The money +paid was proved by the fact that the orphan had been kept and educated +for fifteen years. The name Henrietta was not likely to have been a mere +coincidence, and it was still more unlikely that a respectable woman +such as Mrs. Hislop would invent a story of affiliation so strangely in +harmony with the secrets of the house in Meggat's Land, and fortify it +by a forged document. Then Mrs. Hislop was unable to write, and no +attempt had been made on the other side to prove that Henrietta had a +father other than he who was pointed out by the paper of the curse. So +he (the counsel) might follow the example of his brother, and hold the +other half of the case to be unexplainable by hypotheses, however +ridiculous. The child having been disposed of to Mrs. Hislop,--a fact +thus proved,--what was to prevent him (the counsel) from going also to +the haunts of the _tabernian_ Solons, or anywhere else in the regions of +fancy, for the theory that Mr. Napier, or some plotter for him in the +shape of Mrs. Kemp or John Cowie, substituted the dead child of a +stranger for the living one of his wife, and bribed the nurse Temple to +tell the tale she had told? to which she would be the more ready by the +golden promptings of the woman Isabel Napier, the niece, whose brother +would, in the event of the stratagem being concealed, succeed to the +estate of Eastleys. + +At the conclusion of these pleadings, the judges were inclined to be +even more humorous than they had been previous to the issuing of the +commission, for they had thought they saw their way to a judgment +against the orphan. The president (Braxfield), it is said, indulged in a +joke, to the effect that he had read _somewhere_--it was not for so +religious a man to say where--of a child having been claimed by two +mothers; he would like to see two fathers at that work, at least he +would not be one; but here the claim was set up by Death on the one +side, and Life (if a personification could be allowed) on the other, and +they could not follow the old precedent, because he suspected none of +their lordships would like to see the grim claimant at the bar to +receive his half. And so they chuckled, as judges sometimes do, at their +own jokes--generally very bad--altogether oblivious of the fable of the +frogs who could see no fun in a game which was death to them; for, as we +have indicated, the opinion of a great majority was against the claim of +the young woman: nor would the decision have been suspended that day, +had not Mr. Andrews risen and made a statement--perhaps _as_ fictitious +as a counsel's conscience would permit--to the effect that the agent +(Mr. White) had procured some trace of the butler Cowie, who could throw +more light on the case than Death had done, and that if some time were +accorded to complete the inquiry, something might turn up which would +alter the complexion even of this Protean mystery. The request was +granted. + +But, in truth, Mr. Andrews' suggestion was simply a bit of ingenuity, +intended to ward off an unfavourable judgment, and allow a development +of the chapter of accidents;--a wise policy; for as the womb of Time is +never empty, so Fate writes in the morning a chapter of every man's life +of a day, at which in the evening he is sometimes a little surprised. No +trace had yet been got of Cowie; it was not even known whether he was +alive. But if we throw some fourteen days into the wallet-bag of Saturn, +we may come to a day whereupon a certain person, in an inn far down in a +valley of Westmoreland, and in the little town called Kirby Lonsdale, +was busy reading the _Caledonian Mercury_--for it was not more easy to +say where the winged _Mercury_ of that time would not go, than it is to +tell where a certain insect without wings, "which aye travels south," +might not be found in England as an immigrant. It was at least no wonder +that the paper should contain an account of the romance wrapped up in +the case Napier _versus_ Napier; and certainty, if we could have judged +from the face of the individual, we would have set him down as one given +to the reading of riddles; for, after he had perused the paragraph, he +looked as if he knew more about that case than all the fifteen, with the +macers to boot. Nor was he contented with an indication of a mere look +of wisdom: he actually burst out into a laugh--an expression wondrously +unsuited to the gravity of the subject. You who read this will no doubt +suspect that we are merely shading this man for the sake of effect: and +this is true; but you are to remember that, while we are chroniclers of +things mysterious, we work for the advantage to you of putting into your +power to venture a shrewd guess; in making which, you are only working +in the destined vocation of man, for the world is only guesswork all +over, and you yourself are only guesswork as a part of it. The reader of +the _Mercury_ was verily Mr. John Cowie, whilom butler to Mr. John +Napier, and now waiter in the Lonsdale Arms of the obscure Kirby--a +place like Peebles, where, if you wanted to deposit a secret, you could +do so by crying it out at the market-cross; and, moreover, he was verily +in possession of the key to the Napier mystery. + +Accordingly, Mr. White of Mill's Court in two days afterwards received a +letter, informing him that John Cowie was the writer of the same, and +that, if a reasonable consideration were held out to him, he would +proceed to the northern metropolis, and there settle for ever a case +which apparently had kept the newsmongers of Edinburgh in aliment for a +length of time much exceeding the normal nine days. Opportune and +happily come in the very nick of time as the latter was--for the delay +allowed by the court had all but expired--Mr. White saw the danger of +promising anything which could be construed into a reward; but he could +use other means of decoying the shy bird into his meshes; and these he +used in his answer with such effect, that the man who could solve the +mystery was in Edinburgh at the end of a week. Nor was Mr. White +unprepared to receive him, for he had previously got a commission to +examine him and take his deposition: but then an agent likes to know +what a witness will say before he cites him; and the canny Scotchman, of +all men in the world, is the most uncanny if brought to swear without +some hope of being benefited by his oath. There was, therefore, need of +tact as well as delicacy; and Mr. White contrived in the first place to +get his man to take up his quarters in the house in Mill's Court. A good +supper and chambers formed the first demulcent--we do not say bribe, +because, by a legal fiction, all eating and drinking is set down to the +score of hospitality. A Scotch breakfast followed in the morning, at +which were present Mrs. White and Mrs. Hislop, and our favourite +Henney--the last of whom, spite of all the efforts of her putative +mother to keep from her the secret of her birth and prospects, had +caught the infection of the general topic of the city, and wondered at +her strange fortune, much as the paladin in the "Orlando" did when he +got into the moon. No man can precognosce like a woman, and here were +three; but perhaps they might have all failed, had it not been for the +natural art of Henney, who, out of pure goodness and gratitude, was so +delighted with the man who had rolled her in a blanket and sent her to +her beloved mother, as she still called her, that she promised to make +him butler at Eastleys, and keep him comfortable all his days. + +"Now," said the cautious agent, "this promise of Henney's is not made in +consideration of your giving evidence for her before the commissioner." + +"I'm thinking of nothing but her face," said John. "I could swear to it +out of a thousand; and Heaven bless her! for I think I am again in the +once happy house in Meggat's Land." + +And John pretended he was wiping a morsel of egg from his mouth, while +the handkerchief was extended as far as the eye. + +"A terrible night that was," he continued. "Mrs. Napier had been in +labour all day; and when Mrs. Kemp told me to tell my master that my +lady had been delivered of TWINS--" + +"_Twins_!" cried they all, as if moved by some sympathetic chord which +ran from heart to heart. + +"Ay, twins," he repeated; "one dead, and another living--even you +yourself, Henney, who are as like your father as if there never had been +a Captain Preston in the world." + +And thus was John Cowie precognosced. We need not say that he was that +very day examined before the commissioner. He gave an account of all the +proceedings of the house in Meggat's Land on the eventful night to which +we have referred. The case was no longer a puzzle; and accordingly a +decision was given in favour of Henrietta, whereby we have one other +example of truth and right emerging from darkness into light. Some time +afterwards, the heiress, with Mrs. Hislop alongside, and John Cowie on +the driver's box, proceeded to Eastleys and took possession; where +Henrietta acted the part of a generous lady, Mrs. Hislop that of a kind +of a dowager, and John was once more butler in the house of the Napiers. +We stop here. Those who feel interest enough in the fortunes of Henney +to inquire when and whom she married, and what were the subsequent +fortunes of a life so strangely begun, will do well to go to Eastleys. + + + + +THE ORPHAN. + + +About forty years ago, a post-chaise was a sight more novel in the +little hamlet of Thorndean, than silk gowns in country churches during +the maidenhood of our great-grandmothers; and, as one drew up at the +only public-house in the village, the inhabitants, old and young, +startled by the unusual and merry sound of its wheels, hurried to the +street. The landlady, on the first notice of its approach, had hastily +bestowed upon her goodly person the additional recommendation of a clean +cap and apron; and, still tying the apron-strings, ran bustling to the +door, smiling, colouring, and courtesying, and courtesying and colouring +again, to the yet unopened chaise. Poor soul! she knew not well how to +behave--it was an epoch in her annals of innkeeping. At length the +coachman, opening the door, handed out a lady in widow's weeds. A +beautiful, golden-haired child, apparently not exceeding five years of +age, sprang to the ground without assistance, and grasped her extended +hand. "What an image o' beauty!" exclaimed some half-dozen bystanders, +as the fair child lifted her lovely face of smiles to the eyes of her +mother. The lady stepped feebly towards the inn, and though the +landlady's heart continued to practise a sort of fluttering motion, +which communicated a portion of its agitation to her hands, she waited +upon her unexpected and unusual guests with a kindliness and humility +that fully recompensed for the expertness of a practised waiter. About +half an hour after the arrival of her visitors, she was seen bustling +from the door, her face, as the villagers said, bursting with +importance. They were still in groups about their doors, and in the +middle of the little street, discussing the mysterious arrival; and, as +she hastened on her mission, she was assailed with a dozen such +questions as these--"Wat ye wha she is?" "Is she ony great body?" "Hae +ye ony guess what brought her here?" and, "Is yon bonny creature her ain +bairn?" But to these and sundry other interrogatories, the important +hostess gave for answer, "Hoot, I hae nae time to haver the noo." She +stopped at a small, but certainly the most genteel house in the village, +occupied by a Mrs. Douglas, who, in the country phrase, was a very +douce, decent sort of an old body, and the widow of a Cameronian +minister. In the summer season Mrs. Douglas let out her little parlour +to lodgers, who visited the village to seek health, or for a few weeks' +retirement. She was compelled to do this from the narrowness of her +circumstances; for, though she was a "clever-handed woman," as her +neighbours said, "she had a sair fecht to keep up an appearance onyway +like the thing ava." In a few minutes Mrs. Douglas, in a clean cap, a +muslin kerchief round her neck, a quilted black bombazine gown, and +snow-white apron, followed the landlady up to the inn. In a short time +she returned, the stranger lady leaning upon her arm, and the lovely +child leaping like a young lamb before them. Days and weeks passed away, +and the good people of Thorndean, notwithstanding all their surmises and +inquiries, were no wiser regarding their new visitor; all they could +learn was, that she was the widow of a young officer, who was one of the +first that fell when Britain interfered with the French Revolution; and +the mother and her child became known in the village by the designation +of "Mrs. Douglas's twa pictures!"--an appellation bestowed on them in +reference to their beauty. + +The beautiful destroyer, however, lay in the mother's heart, now paling +her cheeks like the early lily, and again scattering over them the rose +and the rainbow. Still dreaming of recovery, about eight months after +her arrival in Thorndean, death stole over her like a sweet sleep. It +was only a few moments before the angel hurled the fatal shaft, that the +truth fell upon her soul. She was stretching forth her hand to her +work-basket, her lovely child was prattling by her knee, and Mrs. +Douglas smiling like a parent upon both, striving to conceal a tear +while she smiled, when the breathing of her fair guest became difficult, +and the rose, which a moment before bloomed upon her countenance, +vanished in a fitful streak. She flung her feeble arms around the neck +of her child, who now wept upon her bosom, and exclaimed, "Oh! my +Elizabeth, who will protect you now, my poor, poor orphan?" Mrs. Douglas +sprang to her assistance. She said she had much to tell, and endeavoured +to speak; but a gurgling sound only was heard in her throat; she panted +for breath; the rosy streaks, deepening into blue, came and went upon +her cheeks like the midnight dances of the northern lights; her eyes +flashed with a momentary brightness more than mortal, and the spirit +fled. The fair orphan still clung to the neck, and kissed the yet warm +lips of her dead mother. + +As yet she was too young to see all the dreariness of the desolation +around her; but she was indeed an orphan in the most cruel meaning of +the word. Her mother had preserved a mystery over her sorrows and the +circumstances of her life, which Mrs. Douglas had never endeavoured to +penetrate. And now she was left to be as a mother to the helpless child, +for she knew not if she had another friend; and all that she had heard +of the mother's history was recorded on the humble stone which she +placed over her grave: "_Here resteth the body of Isabella Morton, widow +of Captain Morton; she died amongst us a stranger, but beloved_." The +whole property to which the fair orphan became heir by the death of her +mother did not amount to fifty pounds, and amongst the property no +document was found which could throw any light upon who were her +relatives, or if she had any. But the heart of Mrs. Douglas had already +adopted her as a daughter; and, circumscribed as her circumstances were, +she trusted that He who provided food for the very birds of heaven, +would provide the orphan's morsel. + +Years rolled on, and Elizabeth Morton grew in stature and in beauty, the +pride of her protector, and the joy of her age. But the infirmities of +years grew upon her foster-mother, and, disabling her from following her +habits of industry, stern want entered her happy cottage. Still +Elizabeth appeared only as a thing of joy, contentment, and gratitude; +and often did her evening song beguile her aged friend's sigh into a +smile. And to better their hard lot, she hired herself to watch a few +sheep upon the neighbouring hills, to the steward of a gentleman named +Sommerville, who, about the time of her mother's death, had purchased +the estate of Thorndean. He was but little beloved, for he was a hard +master, and a bad husband; and more than once he had been seen at the +hour of midnight, in the silent churchyard, standing over the grave of +Mrs. Morton. This gave rise to not a few whisperings respecting the +birth of poor Elizabeth. He had no children; and a nephew, who resided +in his house, was understood to be his heir. William Sommerville was +about a year older than our fair orphan; and ever, as he could escape +the eye of his uncle, he would fly to the village to seek out Elizabeth +as a playmate. And now, while she tended the few sheep, he would steal +round the hills, and placing himself by her side, teach her the lessons +he had that day been taught, while his arm in innocence rested on her +neck, their glowing cheeks touched each other, and her golden curls +played around them. Often were their peaceful lessons broken by the +harsh voice and the blows of his uncle. But still William stole to the +presence of his playmate and pupil, until he had completed his +fourteenth year; when he was to leave Thorndean, preparatory to entering +the army. He was permitted to take a hasty farewell of the villagers, +for they all loved the boy; but he went only to the cottage of Mrs. +Douglas. As he entered, Elizabeth wept, and he also burst into tears. +Their aged friend beheld the yearnings of a young passion that might +terminate in sorrow; and taking his hand, she prayed God to prosper him, +and bade him farewell. She was leading him to the door, when Elizabeth +raised her tearful eyes; he beheld them, and read their meaning, and, +leaping forward, threw his arms round her neck, and printed the first +kiss on her forehead! "Do not forget me, Elizabeth," he cried, and +hurried from the house. + +Seven years from this period passed away. The lovely girl was now +transformed into the elegant woman, in the summer majesty of her beauty. +For four years Elizabeth had kept a school in the village, to which her +gentleness and winning manners drew prosperity; and her grey-haired +benefactress enjoyed the reward of her benevolence. Preparations were +making at Thorndean Hall for the reception of William, who was now +returning as Lieutenant Sommerville. A post-chaise in the village had +then become a sight less rare; but several cottagers were assembled +before the inn to welcome the young laird. He arrived, and with him a +gentleman between forty and fifty years of age. They had merely become +acquainted as travelling companions; and the stranger being on his way +northward, had accepted his invitation to rest at his uncle's for a few +days. The footpath to the Hall lay through the churchyard, about a +quarter of a mile from the village. It was a secluded path, and +Elizabeth was wont to retire to it between school hours, and frequently +to spend a few moments in silent meditation over her mother's grave. She +was gazing upon it, when a voice arrested her attention, saying, +"Elizabeth--Miss Morton!" The speaker was Lieutenant Sommerville, +accompanied by his friend. To the meeting of the young lovers we shall +add nothing. But the elder stranger gazed on her face and trembled, and +looked on her mother's grave and wept. "Morton!" he repeated, and read +the inscription on the humble stone, and again gazed on her face, and +again wept. "Lady!" he exclaimed, "pardon a miserable man--what was the +name of your mother?--who the family of your father? Answer me, I +implore you!" "Alas! I know neither," said the wondering and now unhappy +Elizabeth. "My name is Morton," cried the stranger; "I had a wife; I had +a daughter once, and my Isabella's face was thy face!" While he yet +spoke, the elder Sommerville drew near to meet his nephew. His eyes and +the stranger's met. "Sommerville!" exclaimed the stranger, starting. +"The same," replied the other, his brow blackening like thunder, while a +trembling passed over his body. He rudely grasped the arm of his nephew, +and dragged him away. The interesting stranger accompanied Elizabeth to +the house of Mrs. Douglas. Painful were his inquiries; for, while they +kindled hope and assurance, they left all in cruel uncertainty. "Oh, +sir!" said Mrs. Douglas, "if ye be the faither o' my blessed bairn, I +dinna wonder at auld Sommerville growing black in the face when he saw +ye; for, when want came hard upon our heels, and my dear motherless and +faitherless bairn was driven to herd his sheep by the brae-sides--there +wad the poor, dear, delicate bairn (for she was as delicate then as she +is bonnie now) been lying--the sheep a' feeding round about her, and her +readin' at her Bible, just like a little angel, her lee lane, when the +brute wad come sleekin' down ahint her, an' giein' her a drive wi' his +foot, cursed her for a little lazy something I'm no gaun to name, an' +rugged her bonnie yellow hair, till he had the half o' it torn out o' +her head; or the monster wad riven the blessed book out o' her hand, an' +thrown it wi' an oath as far as he could drive. But the nephew was aye a +bit fine callant; only, ye ken, wi' my bairn's prospects, it wasna my +part to encourage onything." + +Eagerly did the stranger, who gave his name as Colonel Morton, hang over +the fair being who had conjured up the sunshine of his youth. One by +one, he was weeping and tracing every remembered feature of his wife +upon her face, when doubt again entered his mind, and he exclaimed in +bitterness, "Merciful Heaven! convince me! Oh, convince me that I have +found my child!" The few trinkets that belonged to Mrs. Morton had been +parted with in the depth of her poverty. At that moment Lieutenant +Sommerville hastily entered the cottage. He stated that his uncle had +left the Hall, and delivered a letter from him to Colonel Morton. It was +of few words, and as follows: + +"Morton,--We were rivals for Isabella's love; you were made happy, and I +miserable. But I have not been unrevenged. It was I who betrayed you +into the hands of the enemy. It was I who reported you dead--who caused +the tidings to be hastened to your widowed wife, and followed them to +England. It was I who poisoned the ear of her friends, until they cast +her off; I dogged her to her obscurity, that I might enjoy my triumph; +but death thwarted me as you had done. Yet I will do one act of +mercy--she sleeps beneath the grave where we met yesterday; and the lady +before whom you wept--is your own daughter." + +He cast down the letter, and exclaimed, "My child! my long lost child!" +And, in speechless joy, the father and the daughter rushed to each +other's arms. Shall we add more? The elder Sommerville left his native +land, which he never again disgraced with his presence. William and +Elizabeth wandered by the hill-side in bliss, catching love and +recollections from the scene. In a few months her father bestowed on him +her hand, and Mrs. Douglas, in joy and in pride, bestowed upon both her +blessing. + + + + +THE BURGHER'S TALES. + +THE BROWNIE OF THE WEST BOW. + + +I cannot say so much for the authenticity of the legend I am now to +relate, as I have been able to do for some of the others in this +collection; but that is no reason, I hope, for its failing to interest +the reader, who makes it a necessary condition of his acceptance, that a +legend shall keep within the bounds of human nature: not that any one of +us can say what these bounds are, for every day of our experience is +extending them in both the inner and outer worlds; and we never can be +very sure whether the things which rise upon the distant horizon of our +nocturnal visions are less unstable and uncertain than those that exist +under our noses. True it is, at any rate, that the legend was narrated +to me in a meagre form by a lady, sufficiently ancient to be supposed to +be a lover of strange stories, and not imaginative or wicked enough to +concoct them. + +That part of Edinburgh called the West Bow was, at the date of our +legend, the tinsmiths' quarter; a fact which no one who chanced to walk +down that way could have doubted, unless indeed he was deaf. Among the +fraternity there was one destined to live in annals even with more +posthumous notoriety than he of the same place and craft, who long got +the credit of being the author of the "Land o' the Leal." His name was +Thomas, or, according to the Scottish way of pronouncing it, Tammas +Dodds; who, with a wife going under the domestic euphuism of Jenny, +occupied as a dwelling-house a small flat of three rooms, in the near +neighbourhood of his workshop. This couple had lived together five +years, without having any children procreated of their bodies, or any +quarrel born of their spirits; and thus they might have lived to the end +of their lives, if a malign influence, born of the devil, had not got +possession of the husband's heart. + +This influence, which we may be permitted by good Calvinists to call +diabolical, was, as a consequence, not only in its origin, but also in +its medium, altogether extraneous to our couple. For so far as regards +Mrs. Jenny Dodds, she was, as much as a good wife could be, free from +any great defects of conduct; and as for the tinsmith himself, he had +hitherto lived so sober and douce a life, that we cannot avoid the +notion, that if he had not been subject to "aiblins a great temptation," +he would not have become the victim of the arch-enemy. Thus much we say +of the dispositions of the two parties; and were it not that certain +peculiarities belonged to Jenny, which, as reappearing in an after-part +of our story, it is necessary to know, we would not have gone further +into mere character--an element which has little to do generally with +legends, except in so far as it either produces the incidents, or may be +developed through them. The first of these peculiarities was a settled +conviction that she had as good a right to rule Tammas Dodds, as being +her property, as if she had drunk of the waters of St. Kevin. Nor was +this conviction merely natural to her; for she could lay her finger on +that particular part of Sacred Writ which is the foundation of the +generally-received maxim, "One may do what one likes with one's own." No +doubt, she knew another passage in the same volume with a very different +meaning; but then Mrs. Dodds did not _wish_ to remember that, or to obey +it when she did remember it; and we are to consider, without going back +to that crazy school of which a certain Aristippus was the dominie, that +wishing or not wishing has a considerable influence upon the aspects of +moral truth, if it does not exercise over them a kind of legerdemain of +which we are unconscious, whereby it changes one of these aspects into +another, even when these are respectively to each other as white is to +black. This "claim of right" does not generally look peaceful. No more +it should; for it is clearly enough against nature; and one seldom kicks +at her without getting sore toes. True enough, there do appear cases +where it seems to work pretty well; but when they are inquired into, it +is generally found either that the husband is a simpleton, submitting by +mere inanity, or a man who has resisted to the uttermost, and is at last +crumpled up by pure "Caudlish" iteration and perseverance. How Tammas +took it may yet appear. + +Proceeding with the peculiarities: another of these was, that Mrs. +Dodds, like her of Auchtermuchty, or Mrs. Grumlie, carried domesticity +to devotion, scarcely anything in the world having any interest to her +soul save what was contained in the house--from Tammas, the chief +article of furniture, down, through the mahogany table, to the +porridge-pot; clouting, mending, darning, cleaning, scouring, washing, +scraping, wringing, drying, roasting, boiling, stewing, being all of +them done with such duty, love, and intensity of purpose, that they were +veritable sacrifices to the _lares_. This was doubtless a virtue; and as +doubtless it was a vice, insomuch as, if we believe another old Greek +pedagogue of the name of Aristotle, "all virtues are medial vices, and +all vices extreme virtues." How Tammas viewed this question may also +appear. But we may proceed to state, that Mrs. Janet Dodds was not +content with doing all those things with such severity of love or duty. +She was always telling herself what she intended to do, either at the +moment or afterwards. "This pan needs to be scoured." "Thae stockings +maun be darned." "This sark is as black as the lum, and maun be +plotted." "The floor needs scrubbing." "Tammas's coat is crying, 'A +steek in time saves nine,' and by my faith it says true;" and so on. Nor +did it signify much whether Thomas or any other person was in the house +at the time--the words were not intended for anybody but herself; and to +herself she persisted in telling them with a stedfastness which only the +ears of a whitesmith could tolerate; even with the consideration that he +was not, as so many are, deaved with scandal--a delectation which Janet +despised, if she did not care as little for what was going on +domestically within the house on the top of the same stair, as she did +for the in-door affairs of Japan or Tobolsk. We may mention, also, that +she persevered in reading the same chapter of the Bible, and in singing +the same psalm, every Sunday morning. In addition to these +characteristics, Janet made it a point never to change the form or +colour of her dress; so that if all the women in Edinburgh had been of +her taste and mode of thinking, all the colours by which they are +diversified and made interesting would have been reduced to the dead +level of hodden-grey; the occupation of the imp Fashion would have been +gone; nay, the angels, for fear of offending mortals, would have +eschewed the nymph Iris, from whom the poets say they steal tints, and +dipt their wings in a grey cloud before appearing in the presence of the +douce daughters of men. + +With all these imperfections--and how many husbands would term some of +them perfections!--the married life of Thomas and Janet Dodds might have +gone on for another five years, and five to that, if it had not been +that Thomas, in a weary hour, cast a glance with a scarlet ray in it on +a certain Mary Blyth, who lived in the Grassmarket--a woman of whom our +legend says no more than that she was a widow, besides being fair to the +eye, and pleasant to the ear. We could wish that we had it not to say; +but as truth is more valuable than gold, yea, refined gold, we are under +the necessity of admitting that that red ray betokened love, if an +affection of that kind could be called by a name so hallowed by the +benedictions of poets and the songs of angels. You must take it in your +own way, and with your own construction; but however that may be, we +must all mourn for the fearful capabilities within us, and the not less +awful potentialities in the powers without--the one hidden from us up to +the moment when the others appear, and all wrestling with the enemy +prevented by what is often nothing less than a fatal charm. From that +moment, Thomas Dodds was changed after the manner of action of moral +poisons; for we are to remember that while the physical kill, the other +only transmute, and the transmutation _may be_ from any good below grace +to any evil above the devil. + +This change in the mind of the husband included his manner of viewing +those peculiarities in the mental constitution of Janet to which we have +alluded. Her desire to rule him was now rebellion; her devotion to +"hussyskep" was nothing better than mercenary grubbing; her adhesion to +her hodden-grey was vulgar affectation; and as to her monologues, they +were evidence of insanity. Such changes in reference to other objects +happen to every one of us every day in the year, only we don't look at +and examine them; nor, if we did, could we reconcile them to any theory +of the mind--all that we can say being, that if we love a certain +object, we hate any other which comes between us and our gratification; +and thus, just as Mr. Thomas Dodds loved Mrs. Mary Blyth, so in an equal +ratio he hated his good helpmate Jenny. And then began that other +wonderful process called reconciliation, whereby the wish gradually +overcomes scruples through the cunning mean of falsifying their aspects. +Whereunto, again, the new mistress contributed in the adroit way of all +such wretches--instilling into his ear the moral poison which deadened +the apperception of these scruples at the same time that it brought out +the advantages of disregarding them. The result of all which was, that +Jenny's husband, of whom she had made a slave, for his own good and +benefit, as she thought, and not without reason, arrived, by small +degrees, and by relays of new motives, one after another, at the +conclusion of actually removing her from this big world, and of course +also from that little one to her so dear, even that of her household +empire. + +A resolution this, which, terrible and revolting as it may appear to +those who are happily beyond the influence of "the wish," was far more +easily formed than executed; for Nature--although improvident herself of +her children, swallowing them up in thousands by earthquakes, tearing +them by machinery, and drowning them in the sea by shiploads--is very +careful to defend one of them against another. Every scheme the husband +could think of was surrounded with difficulties, and one by one was laid +aside, till he came to that of precipitating his faithful Jenny, as if +by accident, into a deep pool in the North Loch, that sheet of water +which contained as many secrets in its bosom as that more romantic one +in Italy, not far removed from a certain pious nunnery. Even here there +was the difficulty of getting Jenny out at night, and down Cranstoun's +Close, and to west of the foot thereof, where the said deep pool was, +for no other ostensible purpose in the world than to see the moon +shedding her beams on the surface of the water--an object not half so +beautiful to her as the clear tin pan made by her own Tammas, and in +which she made her porridge every morning. But the adage about the will +and the way is of such wondrous universality, that one successful effort +seems as nothing in the diversity of man's inventions; and so it turned +out to be comparatively easy to get Janet out one evening for the reason +that her husband did not feel very well, and would like his supper the +better for a walk along the edge of the loch, in which, if it was her +pleasure, she would not refuse to accompany him. So pleasant a way of +putting the thing harmonized with Janet's love of rule, and she agreed +upon the condition she made with herself, by means of the eternal +soliloquy, that she would put on the stew to be progressing towards +unctuousness and tenderness before they went. Was that to be Janet's +last act of her darling hussyskep? It would not be consistent with our +art were we to tell you; but this much is certain, that Janet Dodds went +down Cranstoun's Close along with her beloved Tammas, that shortly after +she was plunged by him into the said deep hole of the loch, and cruelly +left there to sink or swim, while he hastened back to tell his new love, +Mrs. Blyth, how desperately he had done her bidding. But sometimes +running away has a bad look; and it happened that as Thomas was hurrying +up the dark close, he met a neighbour brother of the craft, who cried to +him, "What, ho! Tammas Dodds; whaur frae and whaur tae, man?" To which, +seeing how the act of running away would look in the Justiciary Court, +he replied with wonderful invention for the moment, that Janet had +fallen into the deep pool of the loch, and that though he had +endeavoured to get her out, he had failed, by reason of his not being +able to swim, and that he was running to get some one to help to save +her, whereupon he entreated his brother craftsman to go with him to the +spot, and help him to rescue his beloved wife, if she weren't yet dead. +So away they went, in a great hurry, but to no purpose; for when they +came to the said pool, no vestige of a creature being therein they could +see, except some air-bubbles reflecting the moonbeams, and containing, +no doubt, the living breath of the drowned woman. + +Nor when the terrible news was spread through the city, and a boat and +drags were made to do their uttermost, under the most willing hands, +could the body be found. It was known that the bank there was pretty +steep in declivity, and the presumption was, that the body had rolled +down into the middle of the loch, where, in consequence of the muddiness +of the waters, it would be difficult to find it. The efforts were +continued next morning, and day by day, for a week, with no better +success, till at last it was resolved to wait for "the bursting of the +gall-bladder," when, no doubt, Mrs. Janet Dodds's body would rise and +swim on the top of the waters. An event this which did not occur till +about three weeks had passed; at the end of which time a crowd of people +appeared at Mr. Dodds's door, bearing a corpse in a white sheet. It was +received by the disconsolate Thomas with becoming resignation, and laid +on the bed, even the marriage-bed, realizing that strange meeting of two +ends which equalizes pain and pleasure, and reduces the product to +_nil_. Nor were many hours allowed to pass when, decayed and defaced as +it was, it was consigned to a coffin without Mr. Dodds being able to +bring his resolution to the sticking point of trying to recognise in the +confused mass of muscle and bone, forming what was once a face, the +lineaments of her who had been once his pride, and now, by his own act, +had become his shame and condemnation in the sight of Heaven. Next day +she was consigned to the tomb, in so solemn a manner, that if man were +not man, one would have had a difficulty in recognising in that gentle +hand that held the head-cord, and dropped it so softly on the coffin, +the same member which drove the innocent victim into the deep waters. + +There is a continuous progress in all things; a fact which we know only +after we get hold of the clue. And so, when Mrs. Mary Blyth appeared as +Mrs. Mary Dodds, in room of the domesticated Jenny, it was in perfect +accordance with the law of cause and effect. No doubt they did their +best to be happy, as all creatures do, even the devil's children, only +in a wrong shaft; but they had made that fearful miscalculation, which +is the wages of sin, when they counted upon conscience as a pimp to +their pleasures, in place of a king's-evidence against them, that king +being the Lord of heaven and earth. And so it turned out in the course +of several years, that, as their love lost its fervour, their respective +monitors acquired greater power in pleading the cause of her who was +dead, and convincing them, against their will (for the all-powerful wish +has no virtue here), that they had done a cruel thing, for which they +were amenable to an avenging guardian of the everlasting element of good +in nature's dualism. Yet, strange enough, each of the two kept his and +her own secret. Their hearts burned, even as the fire which consumes the +wicked, under the smother of a forced silence--itself a torment and an +agony; yea, neither of the two would mention the name of Jenny Dodds for +the entire world. And there was more than a mutual fear that one should +know what the other thought. Each was under a process of exculpation and +inculpation--a mutual blaming of each other in their hearts, without +ever yet a word said to indicate their thoughts. It was the quarrel of +devils, who make the lesser crime a foil to show the greater, and call +it a virtue for the reason that they would rather be the counterfeits of +good than the base metal of evil; yet with no advantage, for hypocrisy +is only the glow which conceals the worm in its retreat within it. The +plea of the wife was, that she was courted by the man, and that although +she might have wished Jenny out of the way, and hinted as much, she +never meant actual murder; while his, again, was the old Barnwell +charge, that his better nature had been corrupted by the woman, and that +he did it at her suggestion, and under the influence of her siren power. +They thus got gradually into that state of feeling by which the runaway +convicts from a penal settlement were actuated, when, toiling away +through endless brakes and swamps where neither meat nor drink could be +procured, they were so maddened by hunger, that each, with a concealed +knife under his sleeve, watched his neighbour for an opportunity to +strike; nor could one dare to fall behind, without the suspicion being +raised in the minds of his companions, that he was to execute his +purpose when they were off their guard. So like, in other respects too; +for these men, afraid to speak their thoughts of each other, journeyed +on in deep silence, and each was ready to immolate his friend at the +altar of selfishness, changed into a bloodthirsty Dagon by the fiends +Hunger and Thirst. + +The years were now to be counted as seven since Janet Dodds was plunged +into the deep pool of the North Loch, and the state of mind of the +married criminals, which we have tried to describe, had been growing and +growing, for two of these years, as if it threatened to get stronger the +older they grew, and the nearer the period of judgment. One morning when +they were in bed--for even yet, while they concealed their thoughts from +each other, and the name of Jenny Dodds was a condemned word in their +vocabulary, even as the sacred name among the Romans, they had evinced +no spoken enmity to each other--they heard a tirl at the door. The hour +was early, and the douce genius of the grey dawn was deliberating with +herself whether it was time to give place to her advancing sister, the +morning. Mrs. Mary Dodds rose to answer the knock, and Thomas listened +with natural curiosity to know who the early visitor was, and what was +wanted. He heard a suppressed scream of fear from his wife, and the next +moment she came rushing into the room; yet the never a word she uttered, +and her lips were so white and dry that you might have supposed that her +silence was the result of organic inability. Nor even when she got into +bed again, and tried to hide her head with the bed-clothes, did her +terror diminish, or her lips become more obedient to the feeling within; +so that Thomas knew not what to think, except it was that she had seen a +ghost--not an unnatural supposition at a time when occult causes and +spiritual appearances were as undoubted as the phenomena of the electric +telegraph are in our day. But he was not destined to be left many +minutes more in ignorance of the cause of Mrs. Mary Dodds's terror, for, +upon listening, he heard some one come into the kitchen, and bolt the +door on the inside--so much for his ears; then he turned his eyes to the +kitchen, into which he could, as well as the light of the grey dawn +would permit, see from where he lay; and what did he see? + + "How comes it? whence this mimic shape? + In look and lineament so like our kind. + You might accost the spectral thing, and say, + 'Good e'en t'ye.'" + +No other than the figure of Mrs. Janet Dodds herself. Yes, there she was +in her old grey dress, busy taking off that plaid which Thomas knew so +well, and hanging the same upon the peg, where she had hung it so often +for five long years. Thomas was now as completely deprived of the power +of speech as she who lay, equally criminal as himself, alongside of him; +but able at least to look, or rather, unable to shut their eyes, they +watched the doings of the strange morning visitor. They saw that she was +moving about as if she were intent upon domestic work; and, by-and-by, +there she was busy with coals and sticks brought from their respective +places, putting on the fire, which she lighted with the indispensable +spunk applied to the spark in the tinder-box. Next she undertook the +sweeping of the floor, saying to herself--and they heard the words--"It +looks as if it hadna been swept for seven years." Next she washed the +dishes, which had been left on the table, indulging in the appropriate +monologue implying the necessity of the work. Thereafter it appeared as +if she was dissatisfied with the progress of the fire, for she was +presently engaged in using the bellows, every blast of which was heard +by the quaking couple in bed, and between the blasts the words came, +"Ower late for Tammas's breakfast." So the blowing continued, till it +was apparent enough, from the reflection of the flame on the wall, that +she was succeeding in her efforts. Then, having made herself sure of the +fire, she went to the proper place for the porridge goblet, took the +same and put a sufficient quantity of water therein, placed it on the +fire, and began to blow again with the same assiduity as before, with +still interjected sentences expressive of her confidence that she would +overcome the obstinacy of the coals. And overcome it she did, as +appeared from the entire lighting up of the kitchen. Was ever Border +Brownie so industrious! Some time now elapsed, as if she were sitting +with due patience till the water should boil. Thereafter she rose, and +they saw her cross the kitchen to the lobby, where the meal was kept, +then return with a bowl containing what she no doubt considered a +sufficient quantity. The stirring utensil called a "theedle" had also +got into its proper place, and by-and-by they heard the sound of the +same as it beat upon the bottom and sides, guided by an experienced +hand, and, every now and then, the sweltering and totling of the pot. +This process was now interrupted by the getting of the grey basin into +which the porridge behoved to be poured; and poured it was, the process +being followed by the sound of "the clauting o' the laggan," so familiar +to Scotch ears. "Now it's ready for him," said the figure, as it moved +across the kitchen again, to get the spoon and the bowl of milk, both of +which they saw her place beside the basin. + +All things being thus completed according to the intention of the +industrious worker, a period of silence intervened, as if she had been +taking a rest in the chair which stood by the fire. A most ominous +interlude, for every moment the couple in bed expected that she would +enter the bedroom, were it for nothing else than to "intimate +breakfast;" an intimation which, if one could have judged by their erect +hair and the sweat that stood in big drops on their brows, they were by +no means prepared for. They were not to be subjected to this fearful +trial, for the figure (so we must persist in calling it) was seen again +to cross the kitchen, take down the plaid, and adjust it over the head +according to the manner of the times. They then heard her draw the bolt, +open the door, and shut the same again after her as she departed. She +was gone. + +Mr. Thomas Dodds and his wife now began to be able to breathe more +freely. The hair resumed its flexibility, and the sweat disappeared; +but, strange as it may seem, they never exchanged a word with each other +as to who the visitor was, nor as to the morning's work she had so +industriously and silently (with the exception of her monologues) +executed. Too certain in their convictions as to the identity, whether +in spirit or body, of the figure with that of her they had so cruelly +put out of the way, they seemed to think it needless to question each +other; and, independently of this, the old terror of the conscience was +sufficient to seal their lips now, as it had done for a period before. +Each of them supposed that the visitor was sent for the special purpose +of some particular avengement of the crime upon the other; the +appearance in so peaceful a way, in the meantime, being merely a +premonition to show them that their consciences were not working in +vain; and if Thomas was the greater sinner, which he no doubt suspected, +in spite of himself, he might place against that conviction the fact +that the inscrutable visitor had shown him the kindness at least of +preparing his breakfast, and entirely overlooking the morning +requirements of his spouse. Under these thoughts they rose and repaired +with faltering step and fearful eyes to the kitchen. There everything +was in the order they had anticipated from what they had seen and heard. +Each looked with a shudder at the basin of porridge as if it had been +invested with some terrible charm--nay, might it not have been +poisoned?--a thought which rushed instantaneously into the head of +Thomas, and entirely put to flight the prior hypothesis that he had been +favoured by this special gift of cookery. The basin was accordingly laid +aside by hands that trembled to touch it, and fear was a sufficient +breakfast for both of them on that most eventful morning. + +This occurrence, as may readily be supposed, was kept a profound secret. +They both saw that it might be the forerunner of divine means to bring +their evil deeds to light; and, under this apprehension, their +taciturnity and mutual discontent, if not growing hatred, continued, +broken only by occasional growls and curses, and the ejaculations forced +out by the inevitable circumstances of their connection. The effect of +the morning visit was meanwhile most apparent upon the man who committed +the terrible act. He could not remain in the house, which, even in their +happiest condition, was slovenly kept, showing everywhere the want of +the skilled hands of that queen of housewives, Mrs. Janet Dodds--so +ill-requited for her devotion to her husband. Nay, he felt all this as a +reproof to him, and sorely and bitterly lamented the fatal act whereby +he had deprived of life the best of wives, and the most honest and +peaceful of womankind. Then the awe of divine vengeance deepened these +shadows of the soul till he became moody and melancholy, walking hither +and thither without an object, and in secluded places, looking fearfully +around him as if he expected every moment the spectre visitor of the +morning to appear before him. Nor was he less miserable at home, where +the growing hatred made matters worse and worse every hour, and where, +when the grey dawn came, he expected another visit and another scene of +the same description as the last. + +Nearly a week had thus passed, and it was Sabbath morning. The +tinsmiths' hammers were silent, the noisy games of the urchins were +hushed, the street of the Bow resounded only occasionally to the sound +of a foot--all Edinburgh was, in short, under the solemnity enjoined by +the Calvinism so much beloved by the people; and surely the day might +have been supposed to be held in such veneration by ministering spirits, +sent down to earth to execute the purposes of Heaven, that no visit of +the feared shadow would disturb even the broken rest of the wicked. So +perhaps thought our couple; but their thoughts belied them, for just +again, as the dawn broke over the tops of the high houses, the +well-known tirl was heard at the door. Who was to open it? For days the +mind of the wife had been made up. She would not face that figure again; +no, if all the powers of the world were there to compel her; and as for +Thomas, conscience had reduced the firmness of a man who once upon a +time could kill to a condition of fear and trembling. Yet terrified as +he was, he considered that he was here under the obligation to obey +powers even higher than his conscience, and disobedience might bring +upon him some evil greater than that under which he groaned. So up he +got, trembling in every limb, and proceeding to the door, opened the +same. What he saw may be surmised, but what he felt no one ever knew, +for the one reason that he had never the courage to tell it, and for the +other that no man or woman was ever placed in circumstances from which +they could draw any conclusion which could impart even a distant +analogy. This much, however, was known: Thomas retreated instantly to +bed, and the visitor, in the same suit of hodden-grey, again entered, +passed the bolt, took off her plaid, hung it up, and began the duties +which she thought were suited to the day and the hour. So much being +thus alike, the couple in the bedroom no doubt augured a repetition of +the old process. They were right, and they were wrong. Their eyes were +fixed upon her, and watched her movements; but the watch was that of the +charmed eye, which is said to be without motive. They saw her once more +go deliberately and tentily through the old process of putting on the +fire, and they heard again the application of the bellows, every blast +succeeding another with the regularity of a clock, until the kitchen was +illuminated by the rising flame. This was all that could be called a +repetition; for in place of going for the porridge goblet, she went +direct for the tea-kettle, into which she poured a sufficient quantity +of water, saying the while to herself, "Tammas maun hae his tea +breakfast on Sabbath morning"--words which Thomas, as he now lay quaking +in bed, knew very well he had heard before many a time and oft. Nor were +the subsequent acts less in accordance with the old custom of the +dwelling. There was no sweeping of the floor or scouring of pans on the +sacred morning; in place of all which she had something else to do, for +surely we must suppose that this gentle visitor was a good Calvinist, +and would perform only the acts of necessity and mercy. These she had +done in so far as regarded necessity, and now they saw her go to the +shelf on which the Bible was deposited--a book which, alas! for seven +years had not been opened by either of the guilty pair. Having got what +she wanted, she sat down by the table, opened the volume at a place well +thumbed, and began to read aloud a chapter in the Corinthians, which +Thomas Dodds, the more by reason that he had heard it read two hundred +and fifty times, knew by heart. This being finished, she turned up a +psalm, yea, that very psalm which Janet Dodds had sung every Sunday +morning, and, presently, the kitchen was resonant with the rising notes +of the Bangor, as they came from a throat trembling with devotion-- + + "I waited on the Lord my God, + And patiently did bear; + At length to me He did incline + My voice and cry to hear. + + "He took me from a fearful pit, + And from the miry clay, + And on a rock He set my feet, + Establishing my way." + +The service finished, they saw her replace the book where she had found +it; and by this time the kettle was spewing from the mouth thereof a +volume of steam, as if it were calling to its old mistress to relieve it +from the heat of the fire; nor was she long in paying due obedience. The +tea-pot was got where she seemed to know it would be found, so also the +tea-canister. The quantity to be put in was a foregone conclusion, and +steadily measured with the spoon. The water was poured in, and the +utensil placed on the cheek of the chimney in order to the indispensable +infusion. Next the cup and saucer were placed on the table, then +followed the bread and butter, and the sugar and the milk; all being +finished by the words to herself, "There's nae egg in the house." Having +thus finished her work, she took down her plaid, adjusted it carefully, +opened the door, and departed. + +The effect produced by this second spectral appearance could scarcely be +exaggerated, yet we suspect you will not find it of that kind which is +most in harmony with human nature, except in the case of Mrs. Dodds the +second, who lay, as on the former occasion, sweating and trembling. It +was now different with the husband, on whom apparently had fallen some +of the seeds of the word, as they were scattered by the lips of the +strange visitor, and conscience had prepared the soil. The +constitutional strength of character which had enabled him to perpetrate +a terrible deed of evil, was ready as a power to achieve his +emancipation, and work in the direction of good. So, without saying a +word of all that had been acted that morning, he rose and dressed +himself, and, going into the kitchen, he sat down without the fear of +poison, and partook of the breakfast which had been so strangely +prepared for him, nor was he satisfied till he read the chapter and +psalm with which he had been so long familiar. He then returned to the +bedroom, and addressing his wife-- + +"You now see," said he, "that Heaven has found us out. That visitor is +nae ither than Mrs. Janet Dodds returned frae the grave, and sure it is +that nane are permitted to leave that place o' rest except for a +purpose. No, it's no for naething that Janet Dodds comes back to her +auld hame. What the purpose may be, the Lord only knows; but this seems +to me to be clear enough--that you and I maun pairt. You see that nae +breakfast has been laid for you. I have taen mine, and nae harm has come +o't; a clear sign that though we are baith great criminals, you are +considered to be the warst o' the twa. It was you wha put poison into my +ear and cast glamour ower my een; it was you wha egged me on, for 'the +lips of a strange woman drop as a honeycomb, and her words are smoother +than oil; but her feet take hold of hell.' That I am guilty, I know; and +'though hand join in hand, the wicked shall not go unpunished.' I will +dree my doom whatever it may be, and so maun you yours; but there may be +a difference, and so far as mortal can yet see, yours will be waur to +bear than mine. But, however a' that may be, the time is come when you +maun leave this house. 'Cast out the strange woman, and contention shall +go out; yea, strife and reproach shall cease;' but 'go not forth hastily +to strive, lest thou know not what to do in the end, when thy neighbour +hath put thee to shame.' Keep your secret frae a' save the Lord; and may +He hae mercy on your soul!" + +With which words, savouring as they did of the objurgations of the black +pot to the kettle, Mr. Thomas Dodds left his house, no doubt in the +expectation that Mrs. Dodds _secunda_ would move her camp, and betake +herself once more to her old place of residence in the Grassmarket. +Where he went that day no man ever knew, further than that he was seen +in the afternoon in St. Giles's Church, where, no doubt, he did his best +to make a cheap purchase of immunity to his soul and body, in +consideration of a repentance brought on by pure fear, produced by a +spectre; and who knows but that that was a final cause of the spectre's +appearance? We have seen that it was a kindly spirit, preparing porridge +and tea for him at the same time that it made his hair stand on end, and +big drops of sweat settle upon his brow or roll down therefrom--a +conjunction this of the tawse and the jelly-pot, whereby kind and loving +parents try to redeem naughty boys. Nor let it be said that this kindly +dealing with a murderer is contrary to the ways of Heaven; for, amidst a +thousand other examples, did not Joshua, after the wall of Jericho lay +flat at the blast of a trumpet, save that vile woman Rahab at the same +time that he slew the young and the old, nay, the very infants, with the +edge of the sword? All which, though we are not, by token of our sins, +able to see the reason thereof, is doubtless consonant to a higher +justice--altogether unlike our goddess, who is represented as blind, +merely because she is supposed not to see a bribe when offered to her by +a litigant. So the penitence of Mr. Thomas Dodds might be a very dear +affair after all, in so much as terror is a condition of the soul which, +of all we are doomed to experience, is the most difficult to bear, +especially if it is a terror of divine wrath. On his return to his house +in the evening, he found that Mrs. Mary had taken him at his word and +decamped, but not without providing herself with as good a share of the +"goods in communion" as she could, perhaps, at two or three returns, +carry off. So was she like Zebulun in all save her righteousness, for +she "rejoiced in her going out;" nay, she had some reason, for she had +discovered that in a secret drawer of an old cabinet there was a pose of +gold collected by the industrious hands of Mrs. Janet, and unknown to +her husband, every piece of which she carried off in spite of all fear +of the spectre, which, if a sensible one, might have been supposed to be +more irritated at this heedless spoliation than at all the Jezebel had +yet done, with the exception of the counselling her death in the deep +hole of the North Loch. On seeing all this robbery, Mr. Dodds became +more and more aware of the bad exchange he had made by killing his good +spouse to enable him to take another, who had merely found more favour +in his eyes by reason of her good looks; and we may augur how much +deeper his feeling of regret would have been, had he known the secret +pose, so frugally and prudently laid up, perhaps for his sake, at least +for the sake of both, when disease or old age might overtake them, in a +world where good and evil, pleasure and pain, appear to be fixed +quantities, only shoved from one to another by wisdom and prudence, yet +sometimes refusing to be moved even by these means. + +After satisfying himself of the full extent of the robbery, which, after +all, he had brought upon himself, and very richly deserved, he sat down +upon a chair and began to moralize, after the manner of those late +penitents who have found themselves out to be either rogues or +fools--the number of whom comprehends, perhaps, all mankind. He had +certainly good reason to be contrite. The angel in the house had become +a spectre, and she who was no angel, either in the house or out of it, +had carried off almost everything of any value he possessed. Nor did he +stop at mere unspoken contrition, he bewailed in solemn tones his +destiny, and then began to cast up all the perfections of good Janet, +the more perfect and beautiful these seeming in proportion as he felt +the fear of her reappearance, perhaps next time, in place of making his +breakfast, to run away with him to the dire place of four letters. All +her peculiarities were now virtues--nay, the very things which had +appeared to him the most indefensible took on the aspect of angelic +endowments. While her careful housewifery was all intended for his +bodily health and comfort, her perseverance in adhering to the one +chapter and the one psalm was due to that love of iteration which +inspires those who are never weary of well-doing. And what was more +extraordinary, one verse of the psalm--that which we have quoted--had +special reference to the manner of her death, and her deliverance from +condemnation in the world to come. No doubt the man who meditates upon +his own crime or folly at the very moment when he is suffering from its +sharp recalcitrations, is just about as miserable a wretch as the +reformatory of the world can present; but when, to the effects upon +himself, he is compelled to think of the cruelty he has exercised +towards others--and those perhaps found out to be his best friends--we +doubt if there are any words beyond the vocabulary of the condemned that +are sufficient to express his anguish. Even this did not comprehend all +the suffering of Mr. Dodds, for, was he not under doom without knowing +what form it was to assume, whether the spectre (whose cookery might be +a sham) would choke him, burn him, or run away with him? + +Deeply steeped in this remorseful contemplation, during which the figure +of his ill-used wife flitted before the eye of his fancy with scarcely +less of substantial reality than she had shown in her spectral form, he +found that he had lost all regard to time. The night was fast setting +in, the shadows of the tall houses were falling deeper and deeper on the +room, and the Sabbath stillness was a solemn contrast to the +perturbations inside the chamber of his soul, where "the serpents and +the cockatrices would not be charmed." Still, everything within and +without was dreary, and the spoliation of his means did not tend to +enliven the outer scene, or impart a charm to the owner. While in this +state of depression, Tammas heard a knock at the door. It was not, as on +the former occasions, what is called a tirl. It might be a neighbour, or +it might be an old crony, and he stood in need of some one to raise his +spirits, so he went to the door and opened it. But what was his horror +when he saw enter a female figure, in all respects so like his feared +visitor that he concluded in the instant that she was the same! nor +could all his penitence afford him resolution enough to make a proper +examination; besides, it was grey dark, and even a pair of better eyes +than he could boast of, might, under the circumstances soon to appear, +have been deceived. Retreating into the kitchen, he was followed by this +dubious, and yet not dubious visitor, who, as he threw himself upon a +chair, took a seat right opposite to him. + +"Ye'll no ken me, Tammas Dodds?" said she. + +Whereupon Tammas looked and looked again, and still the likeness he +dreaded was so impressive, that, in place of moving his tongue, he +moved, that is, he shuddered, all over. + +"What--eh?" at length he stuttered; "ken ye? wha in God's name are ye? +No surely Mrs. Janet Dodds in the likeness of the flesh!" + +"No, but her sister, Mrs. Paterson," replied the other. "And is it +possible ye can hae forgotten the only woman who was present at your +first marriage?" + +"Ay, ay," replied Tammas, as he began to come to a proper condition of +perceiving and thinking; "and it was you, then, wha was here this +morning?" + +"No, no," replied she; "I have not been here for seven long years, even +since that terrible night when you pushed Janet into the North Loch." + +"And may Heaven and its angels hae mercy upon me!" ejaculated he. + +"Aiblins they may," said she, "for your purpose was defeated; yea, even +by that Heaven and thae angels." + +"What mean you, woman?" cried the astonished man. "What, in the name o' +a' that's gude on earth and holy in heaven, do ye mean?" + +"Just that Janet Dodds is at this hour a leevin' woman," was the reply. + +"The Lord be thanked!" cried Tammas again, "for 'He preserveth all them +that love Him.'" + +"'But all the wicked He will destroy,'" returned she; "and surely it was +wicked to try to drown sae faithful a wife and sae gude a Christian." + +"Wicked!" rejoined he, in rising agony. "'Let the righteous smite me, it +shall be a kindness; and let them reprove me, it shall,' as Solomon +says, 'be an excellent oil.'" + +"I am glad," continued the woman, "to find you with a turned heart; but +whaur is the Jezebel ye took in her place?" + +"Awa this day," replied he. "I have found her out, and never mair is she +wife o' mine." + +"Sae far weel and better," said she. + +"Ay, but speak to me o' Janet," cried he, earnestly. "Come, tell me how +she escaped, whaur she is, and how she is; for now I think there is +light breaking through the fearfu' cloud." + +"Light indeed," continued Mrs. Paterson; "and now, listen to a strange +tale, mair wonderfu' than man's brain ever conceived. When ye thought ye +had drowned her, and cared naething doubtless--for ye see I maun speak +plain--whether her spirit went to the ae place or the ither, ay, and ran +awa to add to murder a lee, she struggled out o' the deep, yea-- + + 'He took her from the fearfu' pit, + And from the miry clay.' + +And when she got to the bank she ran as for the little life was in her, +until she came to the foot of Halkerstone's Wynd, where she crossed to +the other side of the loch. When she thought hersel' safe, she took the +road to Glasgow, where I was then living wi' my husband, wha is since +dead. The night was dark, but self-preservation maks nae gobs at +dangers; so on she went, till in the grey morning she made up to the +Glasgow carrier, wha agreed to gie her a cast even to the end o' his +journey. It was the next night when she arrived at my door, cold and +hungry, and, what was waur, sair and sick at heart. She told me the hail +story as weel as she could for sobs and greeting; for the thought aye +rugged at her heart that the man she had liked sae weel, and had toiled +for night and day, should hae turned out to be the murderer o' his ain +wife." + +"And weel it might hae rugged and rugged," ejaculated Tammas. + +"I got aff her wet clothes," continued she, "and gave her some strong +drink to warm her, and then we considered what was to be dune. My +husband was for off to Edinburgh to inform on ye, even if there should +hae been a drawing o' the neck on't; but Janet cried, and entreated +baith him and me to keep the thing quiet. She said she couldna gae back +to you; and as for getting you punished, she couldna bear the thought +o't. And then we a' thought what a disgrace it would be to our family if +it were thought that my sister had been attempted to be murdered by her +husband. We knew weel enough ye would say she had fallen in by accident; +and when afterwards we heard that ye had buried a body that had been +found in the loch, we made up our minds as to what we would do. We just +agreed to keep Janet under her maiden name. Nane in Glasgow had ever +seen her before, and her ain sorrows kept her within doors, so that the +secret wasna ill to keep. Years afterwards, my husband was ta'en from +me, and Janet and I came, about twa months syne, to live at Juniper +Green, wi' John Paterson, my husband's brother, wha had offered us a +hame." + +"And is Janet there now?" cried Tammas, impatiently. + +"Ay," continued Mrs. Paterson; "but, alas! she's no what she was. She +gets at times out o' her reason, and will be that way for days +thegether. The doctor has a name for it ower lang for my tongue, but it +tells naething but what we ken ower weel. When in thae fits she thinks +she is here in the Bow, and living with you, and working and moiling in +the house just as she used to do langsyne. Mairower, and that troubles +us maist ava, she will be out when the reason's no in, so that we are +obliged to watch her. Five days syne she was aff in the morning before +daylight, and even so late as this morning she played us the same trick; +whaur she gaed we couldna tell, but I had some suspicion she was here." + +"Ay," replied Mr. Dodds, as he opened his eyes very wide; "she was here +wi' a vengeance." + +Thus Mrs. Paterson's story was finished; and our legend of the Brownie, +more veritable, we opine, than that of Bodsbeck, is also drawing to a +conclusion. Tammas, after a period of meditation, more like one of +Janet's hallucinations than a fit of rational thinking, asked his +sister-in-law whether she thought that Janet, in the event of her +getting quit of her day-dreams, would consent to live with him again. To +which question she answered that she was not certain; for that Janet, +when in her usual state of mind, was still wroth against him for the +attempt to take away her life; but she added that she had no objection, +seeing he was penitent, to give him an opportunity to plead for himself. +She even went further, and agreed to use her influence to bring about a +reconciliation. It was therefore agreed between them that the sister +should call again when Janet had got quit of her temporary derangement, +and Thomas might follow up this intimation with a visit. About four days +thereafter, accordingly, Mrs. Paterson kept her word, and next day Mr. +Dodds repaired to Juniper Green. At first Janet refused to see him; but +upon Mrs. Paterson's representations of his penitence and suffering, she +became reconciled to an interview. We may venture to say, without +attempting a description of a meeting unparalleled in history, that if +Janet Dodds had not been a veritable Calvinist, no good could have come +of all Mr. Dodds's professions; but she knew that the Master cast out +the dumb spirit which tore the possessed, and that that spirit attempted +murder not less than Tammas. Wherefore might not _his_ dumb spirit be +cast out as well by that grace which aboundeth in the bosom of the +Saviour? We do not say that a return of her old love helped this +deduction, because we do not wish to mix up profane with sacred things. +Enough if we can certify that a very happy conclusion was the result. +The doctor did his duty, and Janet having been declared _compos mentis_, +returned to her old home. Her first duty was to look for "the pose." It +was gone in the manner we have set forth; but Janet could collect +another, and no doubt in due time did; nor did she fail of any of her +old peculiarities, all of which became endeared to Thomas by reason of +their being veritable sacrifices to his domestic comfort. + + + + +GLEANINGS OF THE COVENANT. + +THE LAST SCRAP. + + +It is a fact well known to Dr. Lee, and to many besides, that +notwithstanding the extensive researches of Wodrow and others, there +have died away in the silent lapse of time, or are still hovering over +our cleuchs and glens, in the aspect of a dim and misty tradition, many +instances of extreme cruelty and wanton oppression, exercised (during +the reign of Charles II.) over the poor Covenanters, or rather +Nonconformists, of the south and west counties of Scotland. In +particular, although the whole district suffered, it was in the vale of +the Nith, and in the hilly portion of the parish of Closeburn, that the +fury of Grierson, Dalzell, and Johnstone--not to mention an occasional +simoom, felt on the withering approach of Clavers _with his lambs_--was +felt to the full amount of merciless persecution and relentless cruelty. +The following anecdote I had from a sister of my grandmother, who lived +till a great age, and who was lineally descended from one of the +parties. I have never seen any notice whatever taken of the +circumstances; but am as much convinced of its truth, in all its leading +features, as I am of that of any other similar statements which are made +in Wodrow, "Naphtali," or the "Cloud of Witnesses." + +The family of Harkness has been upwards of four hundred years tenants on +the farm of Queensberry, occupying the farm-house and steading situated +upon the banks of the Caple, and known by the name of Mitchelslacks. The +district is wild and mountainous, and, at the period to which I refer, +in particular, almost inaccessible through any regularly constructed +road. The hearts, however, of these mountain residents were deeply +attuned to religious and civil liberty, and revolted with loathing from +the cold doctrines and compulsory ministrations of the curate of +Closeburn. They were, therefore, marked birds for the myrmidons of +oppression, led on by Claverhouse, and "Red Rob," the scarlet-cloaked +leader of his band. + +It was about five o'clock of the afternoon, in the month of August, that +a troop of horse was seen crossing the Glassrig--a flat and heathy +muir--and bearing down with great speed upon Mitchelslacks. Mrs. +Harkness had been very recently delivered of a child, and still occupied +her bed, in what was denominated the chamber, or cha'mer--an apartment +separated from the rest of the house, and set apart for more particular +occasions. Her husband, the object of pursuit, having had previous +intimation, by the singing or whistling of a bird (as was generally +reported on such occasions), had betaken himself, some hours before, to +the mountain and the cave--his wonted retreat on similar visits. From +this position, on the brow of a precipice, inaccessible by any save a +practised foot, he could see his own dwelling, and mark the movements +which were going on outside. The troop, having immediately surrounded +the houses, and set a guard upon every door and window, as well as an +outpost, or spy, upon an adjoining eminence, immediately proceeded with +the search--a search conducted with the most brutal incivility, and even +indelicacy; subjecting every child and servant to apprehensions of the +most horrid and revolting character. It would be every way improper to +mention even a tithe of the oaths and blasphemy which were not only +permitted, but sanctioned and encouraged, by their impious and +regardless leader. Suffice it to say, that after every other corner and +crevice was searched in vain, the cha'mer was invaded, and the privacy +of a female, in very interesting and delicate circumstances, rudely and +suddenly entered. + +"The old fox is here," said Clavers, passing his sword up to the hilt +betwixt the mother and her infant, sleeping unconsciously on her arm, +and thrusting it home with such violence that the point perforated the +bed, and even penetrated the floor beneath. + +"Toss out the whelp," vociferated Red Rob--always forward on such +occasions; "and the b--ch will follow." And, suiting the action to the +word, he rolled the sleeping, and happily well-wrapped, infant on the +floor. + +"The Lord preserve my puir bairn!" was the instantaneous and instinctive +exclamation of the agonized and now demented mother, springing at the +same time from her couch, and catching up her child with a look of the +most despairing alarm. A cloud of darkened feeling seemed to pass over +the face and features of the infant,[*] and a cry of helpless suffering +succeeded, at once to comfort and to madden the mother. "A murderous and +monstrous herd are ye all," said she, again resuming her position, and +pressing the affrighted, rather than injured child to her breast. "Limbs +of Satan and enemies of God, begone! He whom ye seek is not here; nor +will the God _he_ serves and _you_ defy, ever suffer him, I fervently +hope and trust, to fall into your merciless and unhallowed hands." + + [note *: "In the light of heaven its face + Grew dark as they were speaking."] + +At this instant a boy about twelve years of age was dragged into the +room, and questioned respecting the place of his father's retreat, +sometimes in a coaxing, and at others in a threatening manner. The boy +presented, to every inquiry, the aspect of dogged resistance and +determined silence. + +"Have the bear's cub to the croft," said Clavers, "and shoot him on the +spot." + +The boy was immediately removed; and the distracted mother left, happily +for herself, in a state of complete insensibility. There grew, and there +still grows, a rowan-tree in the corner of the garden or kailyard of +Mitchelslacks; to this tree or bush the poor boy was fastened with +cords, having his eyes bandaged, and being made to understand, that, if +he did not reveal his father's retreat, a ball would immediately pass +through his brain. The boy shivered, attempted to speak, then seemed to +recover strength and resolution, and continued silent. + +"Do you wish to smell gunpowder?" ejaculated Rob, firing a pistol +immediately under his nose, whilst the ball perforated the earth a few +paces off. + +The boy uttered a loud and unearthly scream, and his head sunk upon his +breast. At this instant, the aroused and horrified mother was seen on +her bended knees, with clasped hands, and eyes in which distraction +rioted, at the feet of the destroyers. But nature, which had given her +strength for the effort, now deserted her, and she fell lifeless at the +feet of her apparently murdered son. Even the heart of Clavers was +somewhat moved at this scene; and he was in the act of giving orders for +an immediate retreat, when there rushed into the circle, in all the +frantic wildness of a maniac, at once the father and the husband. He had +observed from his retreat the doings of that fearful hour: and, having +every reason to conclude that he was purchasing his own safety at the +expense of the lives of his whole family, he had issued from the cave, +and hurled himself from the steep, and was now in the presence of those +whom he deemed the murderers of his family. + +"Fiends--bloody, brutal, heartless fiends--are ye all! And is this your +work, ye sons of the wicked and the accursed one? What! could not _one_ +content ye? Was not the boy enough to sacrifice on your accursed temple +to Moloch, but ye must imbrue your hands in the blood of a weak, an +infirm, a helpless woman! Oh, may the God of the Covenant," added he, +bending reverently down upon his knees, and looking towards heaven, "may +the God of Jacob forgive me for cursing ye! And, thou man of blood" +(addressing Clavers personally), "think ye not that the blood of Brown, +and of my darling child, and my beloved wife--think ye not, wot ye not, +that their blood, and the blood of the thousand saints which ye have +shed, will yet be required, ay, fearfully required, even to the last +drop, by an avenging God, at your hands?" + +Having uttered these words with great and awful energy, he was on the +point of drawing his sword, concealed under the flap of his coat, and of +selling his life as dearly as possible, when Mrs. Harkness, who had now +recovered her senses, rushed into his arms, exclaiming-- + +"Oh Thomas, Thomas, what is this ye hae done? Oh, beware, beware!--I am +yet alive and unskaithed. God has shut the mouths of the lions; they +have not been permitted to hurt _me_. And our puir boy, too, moves his +head, and gives token of life. But you, you, my dear, dear, infatuated +husband--oh, into what hands have ye fallen, and to what a death are ye +now reserved!" + +"Unloose the band," vociferated Clavers; "make fast your prisoner's +hands, and, in the devil's name, let us have done with this drivelling!" + +There was a small public-house at this time at Closeburn mill, and into +this Clavers and his party went for refreshment; whilst an adjoining +barn, upon which a guard was set, served to secure the prisoner. No +sooner was Mr. Harkness left alone, and in the dark--for it was now +nightfall--than he began to think of some means or other of effecting +his escape. The barn was happily known to him; and he recollected that, +though the greater proportion of the gable was built of stone and lime, +yet that a small part towards the top, as was sometimes the case in +these days, was constructed of turf, and that, should he effect an +opening through the soft material, he might drop with safety upon the +top of a peat-stack, and thus effect his escape to Creechope Linn, with +every pass and cave of which he was intimately acquainted. In a word, +his escape was effected in this manner; and though the alarm was +immediately given, and large stones rolled over the precipices of the +adjoining linn, he was safely ensconced in darkness, and under the +covert of a projecting rock; and ultimately (for, in the course of a few +days, King William and liberty were the order of the day) he returned to +his wife and his family, there to enjoy for many years that happiness +which the possession of a conscience void of offence towards God and +towards man is sure to impart. The brother, however, of this more +favoured individual was not so fortunate, as may be gathered from +Wodrow, and the "Cloud of Witnesses;" for he was executed ere the day of +deliverance, at the Gallowlee, and his most pathetic and eloquent +address is still extant. + +Let us rejoice with trembling that we live in an age and under a +government so widely different from those now referred to; and whilst on +our knees we pour forth the tribute of thankfulness to God, let us teach +our children to prize the precious inheritance so dearly purchased by +our forefathers. + + * * * * * + + + + +THE STORY OF MARY BROWN. + + +If the reader of what I am going to relate for his or her edification, +or for perhaps a greater luxury, viz. wonder, should be so unreasonable +as to ask for my authority, I shall be tempted, because a little piqued, +to say that no one should be too particular about the source of +pleasure, inasmuch as, if you will enjoy nothing but what you can prove +to be a reality, you will, under good philosophical leadership, have no +great faith in the sun--a thing which you never saw, the existence of +which you are only assured of by a round figure of light on the back of +your eye, and which may be likened to tradition; so all you have to do +is to believe like a good Catholic, and be contented, even though I +begin so poorly as to try to interest you in two very humble beings who +have been dead for many years, and whose lives were like a steeple +without a bell in it, the intention of which you cannot understand till +your eye reaches the weathercock upon the top, and then you wonder at so +great an erection for so small an object. The one bore the name of +William Halket, a young man, who, eight or nine years before he became +of much interest either to himself or any other body, was what in our +day is called an Arab of the City--a poor street boy, who didn't know +who his father was, though, as for his mother, he knew her by a pretty +sharp experience, insomuch as she took from him every penny he made by +holding horses, and gave him more cuffs than cakes in return. But Bill +got out of this bondage by the mere chance of having been taken a fancy +to by Mr. Peter Ramsay, innkeeper and stabler, in St. Mary's Wynd (an +ancestor, we suspect, of the Ramsays of Barnton), who thought he saw in +the City Arab that love of horse-flesh which belongs to the Bedouin, and +who accordingly elevated him to the position of a stable-boy, with board +and as many shillings a week as there are days in that subdivision of +time. + +Nor did William Halket--to whom for his merits we accord the full +Christian name--do any discredit to the perspicacity of his master, if +it was not that he rather exceeded the hopes of his benefactor, for he +was attentive to the horses, civil to the farmers, and handy at anything +that came in his way. Then, to render the connection reciprocal, William +was gratefully alive to the conviction that if he had not been, as it +were, taken from the street, the street might have been taken from him, +by his being locked up some day in the Heart of Midlothian. So things +went on in St. Mary's Wynd for five or six years, and might have gone on +for twice that period, had it not been that at a certain hour of a +certain day William fell in love with a certain Mary Brown, who had come +on that very day to be an under-housemaid in the inn; and strange +enough, it was a case of "love at first sight," the more by token that +it took effect the moment that Mary entered the stable with a glass of +whisky in her hand sent to him by Mrs. Ramsay. No doubt it is seldom +that a fine blooming young girl, with very pretty brown hair and very +blue eyes, appears to a young man with such a recommendation in her +hand; but we are free to say that the whisky had nothing to do with an +effect which is well known to be the pure result of the physical +attributes of the individual. Nay, our statement might have been proved +by the counterpart effect produced upon Mary herself, for she was struck +by William at the same moment when she handed him the glass; and we are +not to assume that the giving of a pleasant boon is always attended with +the same effect as the receiving of it. + +But, as our story requires, it is the love itself between these two +young persons, whose fates were so remarkable, we have to do with--not +the causes, which are a mystery in all cases. Sure it is, humble in +position as they were, they could love as strongly, as fervently, +perhaps as ecstatically, as great people--nay, probably more so, for +education has a greater chance of moderating the passion than increasing +it; and so, notwithstanding of what Plutarch says of the awfully +consuming love between Phrygius and Picrea, and also what Shakespeare +has sung or said about a certain Romeo and a lady called Juliet, we are +certain that the affection between these grand personages was not _more_ +genuine, tender, and true, than that which bound the simple and +unsophisticated hearts of Will Halket and Mary Brown. But at best we +merely play on the surface of a deep subject when we try with a pen to +describe feelings, and especially the feelings of love. We doubt, if +even the said pen were plucked from Cupid's wing, whether it would help +us much. We are at best only left to a choice of expressions, and +perhaps the strongest we could use are those which have already been +used a thousand times--the two were all the world to each other, the +world outside nothing at all to them; so that they could have been as +happy on the top of Mount Ararat, or on the island of Juan Fernandez, +provided they should be always in each other's company, as they were in +St. Mary's Wynd. And as for whispered protestations and chaste kisses-- +for really their love had a touch of romance about it you could hardly +have expected, but which yet kept it pure, if not in some degree +elevated above the loves of common people--these were repeated so often +about the quiet parts of Arthur's Seat and the King's Park, and the +fields about the Dumbiedykes and Duddingstone Loch, that they were the +very moral aliments on which they lived. In short, to Mary Brown the +great Duke of Buccleuch was as nothing compared to Willie Halket, and to +Willie Halket the beautiful Duchess of Grammont would have been as +nothing compared to simple Mary Brown. All which is very amiable and +very necessary; for if it had been so ordained that people should feel +the exquisite sensations of love in proportion as they were beautiful, +or rich, or endowed with talent (according to a standard), our world +would have been even more queer than that kingdom described by Gulliver, +where the ugliest individual is made king or queen. + +Things continued in this very comfortable state at the old inn in St. +Mary's Wynd for about a year, and it had come to enter into the +contemplation of Will that upon getting an increase of his wages he +would marry Mary, and send her to live with her mother, a poor, +hard-working washerwoman, in Big Lochend Close; whereunto Mary was so +much inclined, that she looked forward to the day as the one that +promised to be the happiest that she had yet seen, or would ever see. +But, as an ancient saying runs, the good hour is in no man's choice; and +about this time it so happened that Mr. Peter Ramsay, having had a +commission from an old city man, a Mr. Dreghorn, located as a planter in +Virginia, to send him out a number of Scottish horses, suggested to +William that he would do well to act as supercargo and groom. Mr. +Dreghorn had offered to pay a good sum to the man who should bring them +out safe, besides paying his passage over and home. And Mr. Ramsay would +be ready to receive Will into his old place again on his return. As for +Mary, with regard to whom the master knew his man's intentions, she +would remain where she was, safe from all temptation, and true to the +choice of her heart. This offer pleased William, because he saw that he +could make some money out of the adventure, whereby he would be the +better able to marry, and make a home for the object of his affections; +but he was by no means sure that Mary would consent; for women, by some +natural divining of the heart, look upon delays in affairs of love as +ominous and dangerous. And so it turned out that one Sabbath evening, +when they were seated beneath a tree in the King's Park, and William had +cautiously introduced the subject to her, she was like other women. + +"The bird that gets into the bush," she said, as the tears fell upon her +cheeks, "sometimes forgets to come back to the cage again. I would +rather hae the lean lintie in the hand, than the fat finch on the wand." + +"But you forget, Mary, love," was the answer of Will, "that you can feed +the lean bird, but you can't feed me. It is I who must support you. It +is to enable me to do that which induces me to go. I will come with +guineas in my pocket where there are now only pennies and placks; and +you know, Mary, the Scotch saying, 'A heavy purse makes a light heart.'" + +"And an unsteady one," rejoined Mary. "And you may bring something else +wi' you besides the guineas; maybe a wife." + +"One of Mr. Dreghorn's black beauties," said Will, laughing. "No, no, +Mary, I am too fond of the flaxen ringlets, the rosy cheeks, and the +blue eyes; and you know, Mary, you have all these, so you have me in +your power. But to calm your fears, and stop your tears, I'll tell you +what I'll do." + +"Stay at hame, Will, and we'll live and dee thegither." + +"No," replied Will; "but, like the genteel lover I have read of, I will +swear on your Bible that I will return to you within the year, and marry +you at the Tron Kirk, and throw my guineas into the lap of your +marriage-gown, and live with you until I die." + +For all which and some more we may draw upon our fancy; but certain it +is, as the strange story goes, that Will did actually then and +there--for Mary had been at the Tron Kirk, and had her Bible in her +pocket (an article, the want of which is not well supplied by the +scent-bottle of our modern Maries)--swear to do all he had said, +whereupon Mary was so far satisfied that she gave up murmuring--perhaps +no more than that. Certain also it is, that before the month was done, +Will, with his living, kicking charges, and after more of these said +tears from Mary than either of them had arithmetic enough to enable them +to count, embarked at Leith for Richmond, at which place the +sugar-planter had undertaken to meet him. + +We need say nothing of the voyage across the Atlantic, somewhat arduous +at that period, nor need we pick up Will again till we find him in +Richmond, with his horses all safe, and as fat and sleek as if they had +been fed by Neptune's wife, and had drawn her across in place of her own +steeds. There he found directions waiting from Mr. Dreghorn, to the +effect that he was to proceed with the horses to Peach Grove, his +plantation, a place far into the heart of the country. But Will was +content; for had he not time and to spare within the year, and he would +see some more of the new world, which, so far as his experience yet +went, seemed to him to be a good place for a freeman to live in? So off +he went, putting up at inns by the way, as well supplied with food and +fodder as Mr. Peter Ramsay's, in St. Mary's Wynd, and showing off his +nags to the planters, who wondered at their bone and muscle, the more by +reason they had never seen Scotch horses before. As he progressed, the +country seemed to Will more and more beautiful, and by the time he +reached Peach Grove he had come to the unpatriotic conclusion that all +it needed was Mary Brown, with her roses, and ringlets, and eyes, +passing like an angel--lovers will be poets--among these ebon beauties, +to make it the finest country in the world. + +Nor when the Scotsman reached Peach Grove did the rosy side of matters +recede into the shady; for he was received in a great house by Mr. +Dreghorn with so much kindness, that, if the horses rejoiced in maize +and oats, Will found himself, as the saying goes, in five-bladed clover. +But more awaited him, even thus much more, that the planter, and his +fine lady of a wife as well, urged him to remain on the plantation, +where he would be well paid and well fed; and when Will pleaded his +engagement to return to Scotland within the year, the answer was ready, +that he might spend eight months in Virginia at least, which would +enable him to take home more money,--an answer that seemed so very +reasonable, if not prudent, that "Sawny" saw the advantage thereof and +agreed. But we need hardly say that this was conceded upon the condition +made with himself, that he would write to Mary all the particulars, and +also upon the condition, acceded to by Mr. Dreghorn, that he would take +the charge of getting the letter sent to Scotland. + +All which having been arranged, Mr. Halket--for we cannot now continue +to take the liberty of calling him Will--was forthwith elevated to the +position of driving negroes in place of horses, an occupation which he +did not much relish, insomuch that he was expected to use the lash, an +instrument of which he had been very chary in his treatment of +four-legged chattels, and which he could not bring himself to apply with +anything but a sham force in reference to the two-legged species. But +this objection he thought to get over by using the sharp crack of his +Jehu-voice as a substitute for that of the whip; and in this he +persevered, in spite of the jeers of the other drivers, who told him the +thing had been tried often, but that the self-conceit of the negro met +the stimulant and choked it at the very entrance to the ear; and this he +soon found to be true. So he began to do as others did; and he was the +sooner reconciled to the strange life into which he had been +precipitated by the happy condition of the slaves themselves, who, when +their work was over, and at all holiday hours, dressed themselves in the +brightest colours of red and blue and white, danced, sang, ate +corn-cakes and bacon, and drank coffee with a zest which would have done +a Scotch mechanic, with his liberty to produce a lock-out, much good to +see. True, indeed, the white element of the population was at a discount +at Peach Grove. But in addition to the above source of reconciliation, +Halket became day by day more captivated by the beauty of the country, +with its undulating surface, its wooded clumps, its magnolias, +tulip-trees, camellias, laurels, passion-flowers, and palms, its +bright-coloured birds, and all the rest of the beauties for which it is +famous all over the world. But nature might charm as it might--Mary +Brown was three thousand miles away. + +Meanwhile the time passed pleasantly, for he was accumulating money; +Mary's letter would be on the way, and the hope of seeing her within the +appointed time was dominant over all the fascinations which charmed the +senses. But when the month came in which he ought to have received a +letter, no letter came--not much this to be thought of, though Mr. +Dreghorn tried to impress him with the idea that there must be some +change of sentiment in the person from whom he expected the much-desired +answer. So Halket wrote again, giving the letter, as before, to his +master, who assured him it was sent carefully away; and while it was +crossing the Atlantic he was busy in improving his penmanship and +arithmetic, under the hope held out to him by his master that he would, +if he remained, be raised to a book-keeper's desk; for the planter had +seen early that he had got hold of a long-headed, honest, sagacious +"Sawny," who would be of use to him. On with still lighter wing the +intermediate time sped again, but with no better result in the shape of +an answer from her who was still the object of his day fancies and his +midnight dreams. Nor did all this kill his hope. A third letter was +despatched, but the returning period was equally a blank. We have been +counting by months, which, as they sped, soon brought round the +termination of his year, and with growing changes too in himself; for as +the notion began to worm itself into his mind that his beloved Mary was +either dead or faithless, another power was quietly assailing him from +within,--no other than ambition in the most captivating of all +shapes--Mammon. We all know the manner in which the golden deity +acquires his authority; nor do we need to have recourse to the conceit +of the old writer who tells us that the reason why gold has such an +influence upon man, lies in the fact that it is of the colour of the +sun, which is the fountain of light, and life, and joy. Certain it is, +at least, that Halket having been taken into the counting-house on a +raised salary, began "to lay by," as the Scotch call it; and by-and-by, +with the help of a little money lent to him by his master, he began by +purchasing produce from the neighbouring plantations, and selling it +where he might,--all which he did with advantage, yet with the ordinary +result to a Scotsman, that while he turned to so good account the king's +head, the king's head began to turn his own. + +And now in place of months we must begin to count by lustrums; and the +first five years, even with all the thoughts of his dead, or, at least, +lost Mary, proved in Halket's case the truth of the book written by a +Frenchman, to prove that man is a plant; for he had already thrown out +from his head or heart so many roots in the Virginian soil that he was +bidding fair to be as firmly fixed in his new sphere as a magnolia, and +if that bore golden blossoms, so did he; yet, true to his first love, +there was not among all these flowers one so fair as the fair-haired +Mary. Nay, with all hope not yet extinguished, he had even at the end of +the period resolved upon a visit to Scotland, when, strangely enough, +and sadly too, he was told by Mr. Dreghorn, that having had occasion to +hear from Mr. Peter Ramsay on the subject of some more horse-dealings, +that person had reported to him that Mary Brown, the lover of his old +stable-boy, was dead. A communication this which, if it had been made at +an earlier period, would have prostrated Halket altogether, but it was +softened by his long foreign anticipations, and he was thereby the more +easily inclined to resign his saddened soul to the further dominion of +the said god, Mammon; for, as to the notion of putting any of those +beautiful half-castes he sometimes saw about the planter's house at +Peach Grove, in the place of her of the golden ringlets, it was nothing +better than the desecration of a holy temple. Then the power of the god +increased with the offerings, one of which was his large salary as +manager, a station to which he was elevated shortly after he had +received the doleful tidings of Mary's death. Another lustrum is added, +and we arrive at ten years; and yet another, and we come to fifteen; at +the end of which time Mr. Dreghorn died, leaving Halket as one of his +trustees, for behoof of his wife, in whom the great plantation vested. +If we add yet another lustrum, we find the Scot--fortunate, save for one +misfortune that made him a joyless worshipper of gold--purchasing from +the widow, who wished to return to England, the entire plantation under +the condition of an annuity. + +And Halket was now rich, even beyond what he had ever wished; but the +chariot-wheels of Time would not go any slower--nay, they moved faster, +and every year more silently, as if the old Father had intended to cheat +the votary of Mammon into a belief that he would live for ever. The +lustrums still passed: another five, another, and another, till there +was scope for all the world being changed, and a new generation taking +the place of that with which William Halket and Mary Brown began. And he +was changed too, for he began to take on those signs of age which make +the old man a painted character; but in one thing he was not changed, +and that was the worshipful stedfastness, the sacred fidelity, with +which he still treasured in his mind the form and face, the words and +the smiles, the nice and refined peculiarities that feed love as with +nectared sweets, which once belonged to Mary Brown, the first creature +that had moved his affections, and the last to hold them, as the object +of a cherished memory for ever. Nor with time, so deceptive, need we be +so sparing in dealing out those periods of five years, but say at once +that at last William Halket could count twelve of them since first he +set his foot on Virginian soil; yea, he had been there for sixty +summers, and he had now been a denizen of the world for seventy-eight +years. In all which our narrative has been strange, but we have still +the stranger fact to set forth, that at this late period he was seized +with that moral disease (becoming physical in time) which the French +call _mal du pays_, the love of the country where one was born, and +first enjoyed the fresh springs that gush from the young heart. Nor was +it the mere love of country, as such, for he was seized with a +particular wish to be where Mary lay in the churchyard of the Canongate, +to erect a tombstone over her, to seek out her relations and enrich +them, to make a worship out of a disappointed love, to dedicate the last +of his thoughts to the small souvenirs of her humble life. Within a +month this old man was on his way to Scotland, having sold the +plantation, and taken bills with him to an amount of little less than a +hundred thousand pounds. + +In the course of five weeks William Halket put his foot on the old pier +of Leith, on which some very old men were standing, who had been urchins +when he went away. The look of the old harbour revived the image which +had been imprinted on his mind when he sailed, and the running of the +one image into the other produced the ordinary illusion of all that long +interval appearing as a day; but there was no illusion in the change, +that Mary Brown was there when he departed, and there was no Mary Brown +there now. Having called a coach, he told the driver to proceed up Leith +Walk, and take him to Peter Ramsay's inn, in St. Mary's Wynd; but the +man told him there was no inn there, nor had been in his memory. The man +added that he would take him to the White Horse in the Canongate, and +thither accordingly he drove him. On arriving at the inn, he required +the assistance of the waiter to enable him to get out of the coach; nor +probably did the latter think this any marvel, after looking into a face +so furrowed with years, so pale with the weakness of a languid +circulation, so saddened with care. The rich man had only an inn for a +home, nor in all his native country was there one friend whom he hoped +to find alive. Neither would a search help him, as he found on the +succeeding day, when, by the help of his staff, he essayed an infirm +walk in the great thoroughfare of the old city. The houses were not much +altered, but the signboards had got new names and figures; and as for +the faces, they were to him even as those in Crete to the Cretan, after +he awoke from a sleep of forty-seven years--a similitude only true in +this change, for Epimenidas was still as young when he awoke as when he +went to sleep, but William Halket was old among the young and the grown, +who were unknown to him, as he was indeed strange to them. True, too, as +the coachman said, Peter Ramsay's inn, where he had heard Mary singing +at her work, and the stable where he had whistled blithely among his +favourite horses, were no longer to be seen--_etiam cineres +perierunt_--their very sites were occupied by modern dwellings. What of +that small half-sunk lodging in Big Lochend Close, where Mary's mother +lived, and where Mary had been brought up, where perhaps Mary had died? +Would it not be a kind of pilgrimage to hobble down the Canongate to +that little lodging, and might there not be for him a sad pleasure even +to enter and sit down by the same fireplace where he had seen the +dearly-beloved face, and listened to her voice, to him more musical than +the melody of angels? + +And so, after he had walked about till he was wearied, and his steps +became more unsteady and slow, and as yet without having seen a face +which he knew, he proceeded in the direction of the Big Close. There +was, as regards stone and lime, little change here; he soon recognised +the half-sunk window where, on the Sunday evenings, he had sometimes +tapped as a humorous sign that he was about to enter, which had often +been responded to by Mary's finger on the glass, as a token that he +would be welcome. It was sixty years since then. A small corb would now +hold all that remained of both mother and daughter. He turned away his +head as if sick, and was about to retrace his steps. Yet the wish to +enter that house rose again like a yearning; and what more in the world +than some souvenir of the only being on earth he ever loved was there +for him to yearn for? All his hundred thousand pounds were now, dear as +money had been to him, nothing in comparison of the gratification of +seeing the room where she was born--yea, where probably she had died. In +as short a time as his trembling limbs would carry him down the stair, +which in the ardour of his young blood he had often taken at a bound, he +was at the foot of it. There was there the old familiar dark passage, +with doors on either side, but it was the farthest door that was of any +interest to him. Arrived at it, he stood in doubt. He would knock, and +he would not; the mystery of an undefined fear was over him; and yet, +what had he to fear? For half a century the inmates had been changed, no +doubt, over and over again, and he would be as unknowing as unknown. At +length the trembling finger achieves the furtive tap, and the door was +opened by a woman, whose figure could only be seen by him in coming +between him and the obscure light that came in by the half-sunk window +in front; nor could she, even if she had had the power of vision, see +more of him, for the lobby was still darker. + +"Who may live here?" said he, in the expectation of hearing some name +unknown to him. + +The answer, in a broken, cracked voice, was not slow-- + +"Mary Brown; and what may you want of her?" + +"Mary Brown!" but not a word more could he say, and he stood as still as +a post; not a movement of any kind did he show for so long a time that +the woman might have been justified in her fear of a very spirit. + +"And can ye say nae mair, sir?" rejoined she. "Is my name a bogle to +terrify human beings?" + +But still he was silent, for the reason that he could not think, far +less speak, nor even for some minutes could he achieve more than the +repetition of the words, "Mary Brown." + +"But hadna ye better come in, good sir?" said she. "Ye may ken our auld +saying, 'They that speak in the dark may miss their mark;' for words +carry nae light in their een ony mair than me, for, to say the truth, I +am old and blind." + +And, moving more as an automaton than as one under a will, Halket was +seated on a chair, with this said old and blind woman by his side, who +sat silent and with blank eyes waiting for the stranger to explain what +he wanted. Nor was the opportunity lost by Halket, who, unable to +understand how she should have called herself Mary Brown, began, in the +obscure light of the room, to scrutinize her form and features; and in +doing this, he went upon the presumption that this second Mary Brown +only carried the name of the first; but as he looked he began to detect +features which riveted his eyes; where the reagent was so sharp and +penetrating, the analysis was rapid--it was also hopeful--it was also +fearful. Yes, it was true that that woman was _his_ Mary Brown. The +light-brown ringlets were reduced to a white stratum of thin hair; the +blue eyes were grey, without light and without speculation; the roses on +the cheeks were replaced by a pallor, the forerunner of the colour of +death; the lithe and sprightly form was a thin spectral body, where the +sinews appeared as strong cords, and the skin seemed only to cover a +skeleton. Yet, withal, he saw in her that identical Mary Brown. That +wreck was dear to him; it was a relic of the idol he had worshipped +through life; it was the only remnant in the world which had any +interest for him; and he could on the instant have clasped her to his +breast, and covered her pale face with his tears. But how was he to act? +A sudden announcement might startle and distress her. + +"There was once a Mary Brown," said he, "who was once a housemaid in Mr. +Peter Ramsay's inn in St. Mary's Wynd." + +"And who can it be that can recollect that?" was the answer, as she +turned the sightless orbs on the speaker. "Ye maun be full o' years. +Yes, that was my happy time, even the only happy time I ever had in this +world." + +"And there was one William Halket there at that time also," he +continued. + +Words which, as they fell upon the ear, seemed to be a stimulant so +powerful as to produce a jerk in the organ; the dulness of the eyes +seemed penetrated with something like light, and a tremor passed over +her entire frame. + +"That name is no to be mentioned, sir," she said nervously, "except +aince and nae mair; he was my ruin; for he pledged his troth to me, and +promised to come back and marry me, but he never came." + +"Nor wrote you?" said Halket. + +"No, never," replied she; "I would hae gien the world for a scrape o' +the pen o' Will Halket; but it's a' past now, and I fancy he is dead and +gone to whaur there is neither plighted troth, nor marriage, nor giving +in marriage; and my time, too, will be short." + +A light broke in upon the mind of Halket, carrying the suspicion that +Mr. Dreghorn had, for the sake of keeping him at Peach Grove, never +forwarded the letters, whereto many circumstances tended. + +"And what did you do when you found Will had proved false?" inquired +Halket. "Why should that have been your ruin?" + +"Because my puir heart was bound up in him," said she, "and I never +could look upon another man. Then what could a puir woman do? My mother +died, and I came here to work as she wrought--ay, fifty years ago, and +my reward has been the puir boon o' the parish bread; ay, and waur than +a' the rest, blindness." + +"Mary!" said Halket, as he took her emaciated hand into his, scarcely +less emaciated, and divested of the genial warmth. + +The words carried the old sound, and she started and shook. + +"Mary," he continued, "Will Halket still lives. He was betrayed, as you +have been betrayed. He wrote three letters to you, all of which were +kept back by his master, for fear of losing one who he saw would be +useful to him; and, to complete the conspiracy, he reported you dead +upon the authority of Peter Ramsay. Whereupon Will betook himself to the +making of money; but he never forgot his Mary, whose name has been heard +as often as the song of the birds in the groves of Virginia." + +"Ah, you are Will himself!" cried she. "I ken now the sound o' your +voice in the word 'Mary,' even as you used to whisper it in my ear in +the fields at St. Leonard's. Let me put my hand upon your head, and move +my fingers ower your face. Yes, yes. Oh, mercy, merciful God, how can my +poor worn heart bear a' this!" + +"Mary, my dear Mary!" ejaculated the moved man, "come to my bosom and +let me press you to my heart; for this is the only blissful moment I +have enjoyed for sixty years." + +Nor was Mary deaf to his entreaties, for she resigned herself as in a +swoon to an embrace, which an excess of emotion, working on the +shrivelled heart and the wasted form, probably prevented her from +feeling. + +"But, oh, Willie!" she cried, "a life's love lost; a lost life on both +our sides." + +"Not altogether," rejoined he, in the midst of their mutual sobs. "It +may be--nay, it is--that our sands are nearly run. Yea, a rude shake +would empty the glass, so weak and wasted are both of us; but still +there are a few grains to pass, and they shall be made golden. You are +the only living creature in all this world I have any care for. More +thousands of pounds than you ever dreamt of are mine, and will be yours. +We will be married even yet, not as the young marry, but as those marry +who may look to their knowing each other as husband and wife in heaven, +where there are no cruel, interested men to keep them asunder; and for +the short time we are here you shall ride in your carriage as a lady, +and be attended by servants; nor shall a rude breath of wind blow upon +you which it is in the power of man to save you from." + +"Ower late, Willie, ower late," sighed the exhausted woman, as she still +lay in his arms. "But if all this should please my Will--I canna use +another name, though you are now a gentleman--I will do even as you +list, and that which has been by a cruel fate denied us here we may +share in heaven." + +"And who shall witness this strange marriage?" said he. "There is no one +in Edinburgh now that I know or knows me. Has any one ever been kind to +you?" + +"Few, few indeed," answered she. "I can count only three." + +"I must know these wonderful exceptions," said he, as he made an attempt +at a grim smile; "for those who have done a service to Mary Brown have +done a double service to me. I will make every shilling they have given +you a hundred pounds. Tell me their names." + +"There is John Gilmour, my landlord," continued she, "who, though he +needed a' his rents for a big family, passed me many a term, and forbye +brought me often, when I was ill and couldna work, many a bottle o' +wine; there is Mrs. Paterson o' the Watergate, too, who aince, when I +gaed to her in sair need, gave me a shilling out o' three that she +needed for her bairns; and Mrs. Galloway, o' Little Lochend, slipt in to +me a peck o' meal ae morning when I had naething for breakfast." + +"And these shall be at our marriage, Mary," said he. "They shall be +dressed to make their eyes doubtful if they are themselves. John Gilmour +will wonder how these pounds of his rent he passed you from have grown +to hundreds; Mrs. Paterson's shilling will have grown as the widow's +mite never grew, even in heaven; and Mrs. Galloway's peck of meal will +be made like the widow's cruse of oil--it will never be finished while +she is on earth." + +Whereupon Mary raised her head. The blank eyes were turned upon him, and +something like a smile played over the thin and wasted face. At the same +moment a fair-haired girl of twelve years came jumping into the room, +and only stopped when she saw a stranger. + +"That is Helen Kemp," said Mary, who knew her movements. "I forgot +Helen; she lights my fire, and when I was able to gae out used to lead +me to the Park." + +"And she shall be one of the favoured ones of the earth," said he, as he +took by the hand the girl, whom the few words from Mary had made sacred +to him, adding, "Helen, dear, you are to be kinder to Mary than you have +ever been;" and, slipping into the girl's hand a guinea, he whispered, +"You shall have as many of these as will be a bigger tocher to you than +you ever dreamed of, for what you have done for Mary Brown." + +And thus progressed to a termination a scene, perhaps more extraordinary +than ever entered into the head of a writer of natural things and events +not beyond the sphere of the probable. Nor did what afterwards took +place fall short of the intentions of a man whose intense yearnings to +make up for what had been lost led him into the extravagance of a vain +fancy. He next day took a great house, and forthwith furnished it in +proportion to his wealth. He hired servants in accordance, and made all +the necessary arrangements for the marriage. Time, which had been so +cruel to him and his sacred Mary, was put under the obligation of +retribution. John Gilmour, Mrs. Paterson, Mrs. Galloway, and Helen Kemp +were those, and those alone, privileged to witness the ceremony. We +would not like to describe how they were decked out, nor shall we try to +describe the ceremony itself. But vain are the aspirations of man when +he tries to cope with the Fates! The changed fortune was too much for +the frail and wasted bride to bear. She swooned at the conclusion of the +ceremony, and was put into a silk-curtained bed. Even the first glimpse +of grandeur was too much for the spirit whose sigh was "vanity, all is +vanity," and, with the words on her lips, "A life's love lost," she +died. + + + + +TIBBY FOWLER. + + + "Tibby Fowler o' the glen, + A' the lads are wooin' at her."--_Old Song_. + +All our readers have heard and sung of "Tibby Fowler o' the glen;" but +they may not all be aware that the glen referred to lies within about +four miles of Berwick. No one has seen and not admired the romantic +amphitheatre below Edrington Castle, through which the Whitadder coils +like a beautiful serpent glittering in the sun, and sports in fantastic +curves beneath the pasture-clad hills, the grey ruin, the mossy and +precipitous crag, and the pyramid of woods, whose branches, meeting from +either side, bend down and kiss the glittering river, till its waters +seem lost in their leafy bosom. Now, gentle reader, if you have looked +upon the scene we have described, we shall make plain to you the +situation of Tibby Fowler's cottage, by a homely map, which is generally +_at hand_. You have only to bend your arm, and suppose your shoulder to +represent Edrington Castle, your hand Clarabad, and near the elbow you +will have the spot where "ten cam' rowing owre the water;" a little +nearer to Clarabad is the "lang dyke side," and immediately at the foot +of it is the site of Tibby's cottage, which stood upon the Edrington +side of the river; and a little to the west of the cottage, you will +find a shadowy row of palm-trees, planted, as tradition testifieth, by +the hands of Tibby's father, old Ned Fowler, of whom many speak until +this day. The locality of the song was known to many; and if any should +be inclined to inquire how we became acquainted with the other +particulars of our story, we have only to reply, that that belongs to a +class of questions to which we do not return an answer. There is no +necessity for a writer of tales taking for his motto--_vitam impendere +vero_. Tibby's parents had the character of being "bien bodies;" and, +together with their own savings, and a legacy that had been left them by +a relative, they were enabled at their death to leave their daughter in +possession of five hundred pounds. This was esteemed a fortune in those +days, and would afford a very respectable foundation for the rearing of +one yet. Tibby, however, was left an orphan, as well as the sole +mistress of five hundred pounds, and the proprietor of a neat and +well-furnished cottage, with a piece of land adjoining, before she had +completed her nineteenth year; and when we add that she had hair like +the raven's wings when the sun glances upon them, cheeks where the lily +and the rose seemed to have lent their most delicate hues, and eyes like +twin dew-drops glistening beneath a summer moonbeam, with a waist and an +arm rounded like a model for a sculptor, it is not to be wondered at +that "a' the lads cam' wooin' at her." But she had a woman's heart as +well as woman's beauty and the portion of an heiress. She found her +cottage surrounded, and her path beset, by a herd of grovelling +pounds-shillings-and-pence hunters, whom her very soul loathed. The +sneaking wretches, who profaned the name of lovers, seemed to have +_money_ written on their very eyeballs, and the sighs they professed to +heave in her presence sounded to her like stifled groans of--_your +gold_--_your gold_! She did not hate them, but she despised their +meanness; and as they one by one gave up persecuting her with their +addresses, they consoled themselves with retorting upon her the words of +the adage, that "her _pride_ would have a fall!" But it was not from +pride that she rejected them, but because her heart was capable of love +--of love, pure, devoted, unchangeable, springing from being beloved, +and because her feelings were sensitive as the quivering aspen, which +trembles at the rustling of an insect's wing. Amongst her suitors there +might have been some who were disinterested; but the meanness and sordid +objects of many caused her to regard all with suspicion, and there was +none among the number to whose voice her bosom responded as the needle +turns to the magnet, and frequently from a cause as inexplicable. She +had resolved that the man to whom she gave her hand should wed her for +herself--and for herself only. Her parents had died in the same month; +and about a year after their death she sold the cottage and the piece of +ground, and took her journey towards Edinburgh, where the report of her +being a "great fortune," as her neighbours term her, might be unknown. +But Tibby, although a sensitive girl, was also, in many respects, a +prudent one. Frequently she had heard her mother, when she had to take +but a shilling from the legacy, quote the proverb, that it was + + "Like a cow in a clout, + That soon wears out." + +Proverbs we know are in bad taste, but we quote it, because by its +repetition the mother produced a deeper impression on her daughter's +mind than could have been effected by a volume of sentiment. Bearing +therefore in her memory the maxim of her frugal parent, Tibby deposited +her money in the only bank, we believe, that was at that period in the +Scottish capital, and hired herself as a child's maid in the family of a +gentleman who occupied a house in the neighbourhood of Restalrig. Here +the story of her fortune was unknown, and Tibby was distinguished only +for a kind heart and a lovely countenance. It was during the summer +months, and Leith Links became her daily resort; and there she was wont +to walk with a child in her arms and another leading by the hand, for +there she could wander by the side of the sounding sea; and her heart +still glowed for her father's cottage and its fairy glen, where she had +often heard the voice of its deep waters, and she felt the sensation +which we believe may have been experienced by many who have been born +within hearing of old Ocean's roar, that wherever they may be, they hear +the murmur of its billows as the voice of a youthful friend, and she +almost fancied, as she approached the sea, that she drew nearer the home +which sheltered her infancy. She had been but a few weeks in the family +we have alluded to, when, returning from her accustomed walk, her eyes +met those of a young man habited as a seaman. He appeared to be about +five-and-twenty, and his features were rather manly than handsome. There +was a dash of boldness and confidence in his countenance; but as the +eyes of the maiden met his, he turned aside as if abashed and passed on. +Tibby blushed at her foolishness, but she could not help it, she felt +interested in the stranger. There was an expression, a language, an +inquiry in his gaze, she had never witnessed before. She would have +turned round to cast a look after him, but she blushed deeper at the +thought, and modesty forbade it. She walked on for a few minutes, +upbraiding herself for entertaining the silly wish, when the child who +walked by her side fell a few yards behind. She turned round to call him +by his name--Tibby was certain that she had no motive but to call the +child, and though she did steal a sidelong glance towards the spot where +she had passed the stranger, it was a mere accident, it could not be +avoided--at least so the maiden wished to persuade her conscience +against her conviction; but that glance revealed to her the young +sailor, not pursuing the path on which she had met him, but following +her within the distance of a few yards, and until she reached her +master's door, she heard the sound of his footsteps behind her. She +experienced an emotion between being pleased and offended at his +conduct, though we suspect the former eventually predominated, for the +next day she was upon the Links as usual, and there also was the young +seaman, and again he followed her to within sight of her master's house. +How long this sort of dumb love-making, or the pleasures of diffidence +continued, we cannot tell. Certain it is that at length he spoke, wooed, +and conquered; and about a twelvemonth after their first meeting, Tibby +Fowler became the wife of William Gordon, the mate of a foreign trader. +On the second week after their marriage William was to sail upon a long, +long voyage, and might not be expected to return for more than twelve +months. This was a severe trial for poor Tibby, and she felt as if she +would not be able to stand up against it. As yet her husband knew +nothing of her dowry, and for this hour she had reserved its discovery. +A few days before their marriage she had lifted her money from the bank +and deposited it in her chest. + +"No, Willie, my ain Willie," she cried, "ye maunna, ye winna leave me +already: I have neither faither, mother, brother, nor kindred; naebody +but you, Willie; only you in the wide world; and I am a stranger here, +and ye winna leave your Tibby. Say that ye winna, Willie." And she wrung +his hand, gazed in his face, and wept. + +"I maun gang, dearest; I maun gang," said Willie, and pressed her to his +breast; "but the thocht o' my ain wifie will mak the months chase ane +anither like the moon driving shadows owre the sea. There's nae danger +in the voyage, hinny, no a grain o' danger; sae dinna greet; but come, +kiss me, Tibby, and when I come hame I'll mak ye leddy o' them a'." + +"Oh no, no, Willie!" she replied; "I want to be nae leddy; I want +naething but my Willie. Only say that ye'll no gang, and here's +something here, something for ye to look at." And she hurried to her +chest, and took from it a large leathern pocket-book that had been her +father's, and which contained her treasure, now amounting to somewhat +more than six hundred pounds. In a moment she returned to her husband; +she threw her arms around his neck; she thrust the pocket-book into his +bosom. "There, Willie, there," she exclaimed; "that is yours--my faither +placed it in my hand wi' a blessing, and wi' the same blessing I +transfer it to you--but dinna, dinna leave me." Thus saying, she hurried +out of the room. We will not attempt to describe the astonishment, we +may say the joy, of the fond husband, on opening the pocket-book and +finding the unlooked-for dowry. However intensely a man may love a +woman, there is little chance that her putting an unexpected portion of +six hundred pounds into his hands will diminish his attachment; nor did +it diminish that of William Gordon. He relinquished his intention of +proceeding on the foreign voyage, and purchased a small coasting vessel, +of which he was both owner and commander. Five years of unclouded +prosperity passed over them, and Tibby had become the mother of three +fair children. William sold his small vessel and purchased a larger one, +and in fitting it up all the gains of his five successful years were +swallowed up. But trade was good. She was a beautiful brig, and he had +her called the _Tibby Fowler_. He now took a fond farewell of his wife +and little ones upon a foreign voyage which was not calculated to exceed +four months, and which held out high promise of advantage. But four, +eight, twelve months passed away, and there were no tidings of the +_Tibby Fowler_. Britain was then at war; there were enemies' ships and +pirates upon the sea, and there had been fierce storms and hurricanes +since her husband left; and Tibby thought of all these things and wept; +and her lisping children asked her when their father would return, for +he had promised presents to all, and she answered, to-morrow, and +to-morrow, and turned from them and wept again. She began to be in want, +and at first she received assistance from some of the friends of their +prosperity; but all hope of her husband's return was now abandoned; the +ship was not insured, and the mother and her family were reduced to +beggary. In order to support them, she sold one article of furniture +after another, until what remained was seized by the landlord in +security for his rent. It was then that Tibby and her children, with +scarce a blanket to cover them, were cast friendless upon the streets, +to die or to beg. To the last resource she could not yet stoop, and from +the remnants of former friendship she was furnished with a basket and a +few trifling wares, with which, with her children by her side, she set +out, with a broken and a sorrowful heart, wandering from village to +village. She had travelled in this manner for some months, when she drew +near her native glen, and the cottage that had been her father's, that +had been her own, stood before her. She had travelled all the day and +sold nothing. Her children were pulling by her tattered gown, weeping +and crying, "Bread, mother, give us bread!" and her own heart was sick +with hunger. + +"Oh, wheesht, my darlings, wheesht!" she exclaimed, and she fell upon +her knees and threw her arms round the necks of all the three, "you will +get bread soon; the Almighty will not permit my bairns to perish; no, +no; ye shall have bread." + +In despair she hurried to the cottage of her birth. The door was opened +by one who had been a rejected suitor. He gazed upon her intently for a +few seconds; and she was still young, being scarce more than +six-and-twenty, and in the midst of her wretchedness, yet lovely. + +"Gude gracious, Tibby Fowler!" he exclaimed, "is that you? Poor +creature! are ye seeking charity? Weel, I think ye'll mind what I said +to you now, that your pride would have a fa'!" + +While the heartless owner of the cottage yet spoke, a voice behind her +was heard exclaiming, "It is her! it is her! my ain Tibby and her +bairns!" + +At the well-known voice, Tibby uttered a wild scream of joy, and fell +senseless on the earth; but the next moment her husband, William Gordon, +raised her to his breast. Three weeks before he had returned to Britain, +and traced her from village to village, till he found her in the midst +of their children, on the threshold of the place of her nativity. His +story we need not here tell. He had fallen into the hands of the enemy; +he had been retained for months on board of their vessel; and when a +storm had arisen, and hope was gone, he had saved her from being lost +and her crew from perishing. In reward for his services, his own vessel +had been restored to him, and he was returned to his country, after an +absence of eighteen months, richer than when he left, and laden with +honours. The rest is soon told. After Tibby and her husband had wept +upon each other's neck, and he had kissed his children, and again their +mother, with his youngest child on one arm, and his wife resting on the +other, he hastened from the spot that had been the scene of such +bitterness and transport. In a few years more, William Gordon having +obtained a competency, they re-purchased the cottage in the glen, where +Tibby Fowler lived to see her children's children, and died at a good +old age in the house in which she had been born--the remains of which, +we have only to add, for the edification of the curious, may be seen +until this day. + + + + +THE CRADLE OF LOGIE. + + +It is not very easy, when we consider the great desire manifested by +authors and editors to serve up piquant dishes of fiction on the broad +table of literature, to account for the fact that the undoubtedly true +story of the Cradle of Logie and the Indian Princess, as she is often +called, should never have appeared in print. It has apparently escaped +the sharpest eyes of our chroniclers. Sir Walter Scott did not appear to +have much fancy for Angus; but it would seem that the facts of this +strange occurrence in a civilised country, and not very far back, had +never reached him. Even the histories of Forfarshire are silent; and the +pictures of Scotland for tourists, which generally seize on any romantic +trait connected with a locality or an old ruin, have also overlooked +them. Yet the principal personage in the drama was one whose name was +for years in the mouths of the people, not only for peculiarities of +character, but retribution of fate; and this local fame has died away +only within a comparatively recent period. It was in my very early years +that I saw the Cradle, and heard, imperfectly, its tale from my mother; +but her account was comparatively meagre. I sought long for details; nor +was I by any means successful till I fell in with a man named Aminadab +Fairweather, a resident at the Scouring Burn, in Dundee, who was in the +habit of frequenting Logie House, and who, though very old, remembered +many of the circumstances. + +The truth is, there were rich flesh-pots in Logie House--richer than +those which supplied the muscles of the Theban mummies, so enduring +through long ages, no doubt, from being so well fed; for Mr. Fletcher of +Lindertes,[*] who was proprietor of the mansion, was the greatest +epicurean and glossogaster that ever lived since Leontine +times. Then a woman called Jenny McPherson, who had in early +life, like "a good Scotch louse," who "aye travels south," found her way +from Lochaber to London, where she had got into George's kitchen, and +learned something better than to make sour kraut, was the individual who +administered to her master's epicureanism, if not gulosity. Nay, it was +said she had a hand in the tragedy of the Cradle; but, however that may +be, it is certain she was deep in the confidences of Fletcher. But then +Mrs. McPherson, as she chose to call herself--though the never a +McPherson was connected with her except by the ties of blood, which, +like those of all Celts, had their loose terminations dangling into +infinity at the beginning of the world's history--was given to +administering the contents of her savoury flesh-pots to others than the +family of Logie; yea, like a true Highlander, she delighted in having +henchmen--or haunchmen truly, in this instance--who gave her love in +return for her edible luxuries. It happened that our said Aminadab was +one of those favoured individuals; and it is lucky for this generation +that he was, for if he had not been, there would assuredly have been no +records of the Cradle and the black lady. + + [note *: Mr. Fletcher had also the property of Balinsloe as well + as Logie. They've all passed into other hands.] + +It was in a little parlour off the big kitchen that Janet received her +henchmen. And was there ever man so happy as our good Aminadab?--and +that for several human reasons, whereof the first was certainly the +Logie flesh-pots; the second, the stories about the romantic place +wherewith she contrived to garnish and spice these savoury mouthfuls; +and last, Janet herself, who was always under the feminine delusion that +she was the corporate representative of the first of these reasons, if, +indeed, the others were not mere _adjecta_, not to be taken into +account; whereas there were doubts if she was for herself ever counted +at all, except as the mere "old-pot" which contained the realities. And +their happiness would certainly have been complete if it had not +been--at least in the case of Aminadab--that it could be enjoyed only by +passing through that grim medium, a churchyard. But then, is not all +celestial bliss burdened by this condition; nay, is not even our earthly +bliss, which is a foretaste of heaven, only a flower raised upon the +rottenness of other flowers--a type of the soul as it issues from +corruption? Yes, Aminadab could not get to the holy of holies except by +passing through Logie kirkyard, a small and most romantic Golgotha, on +the left of the road leading to Lochee, whose inhabitants it contained, +and which was so limited and crowded, that one might prefigure it as one +of those holes or dungeons in Michael Angelo's pictures, belching forth +spirits in the shape of inverted tadpoles, the tail uppermost, and yet +representing ascending sparks. The wickets that surrounded Logie +House--lying as it does upon the south side of Balgay Hill, and flanked +on the east by a deep gully, wherethrough runs a small stream, which, so +far as I know, has no name--were locked at night. The terrors of this +place, at the late hours when these said henchmen behoved to seek their +savoury rewards, were the only drawback to Aminadab's supreme bliss. + +And if the time of these symposial meetings had been somewhat later in +the century, how much more formidable would have been a passage through +this contracted valley of tumuli and bones! No churchyard, except those +of Judea, was ever invested with such terrors--not the mystical fears of +a divine fate seen in the descending cloud, with Justice gleaming with +fiery eyes on Sin, and holding those scales, the decision of which would +destine to eternal bliss or eternal woe, and that Justice personified in +Him "whose glory is a burning like the burning of a fire,"--no, but the +revolting fears produced by the profanity of that poor worm of very +common mud, which has been since the beginning of time acting the God. +Ay, the aurelia-born image of grace sees a difference when it looks from +the sun to the epigenetic thing which He raises out of corruption. There +was, in that small place of skulls, a rehearsal of the great day. We +hear little of these freaks now-a-days; but it was different then, when +men made themselves demons by drink. One night William Maule of Panmure, +then in his days of graceless frolic; Fletcher Read, the nephew of the +laird, and subsequently the laird himself, of Logie; Rob Thornton, the +merchant, Dudhope, and other kindred spirits, who used to sing in the +inn of Sandy Morren, the hotel-keeper, "Death begone, here's none but +souls," sallied drunk from the inn. The story goes that the night was +dark, and there stood at the door a hearse, which had that day conveyed +to the "howf," now about to be shut up because of its offence against +the nostrils of men who are not destined to need a grave, the wife of an +inconsolable husband and the mother of children; and thereupon came from +Maule's mouth--for wickedness will seek its playful function in a +pun--the proposition that the bacchanals should have a rehearsal in the +kirkyard of Logie. Well, it signified, of course, nothing that the Black +Princess had been buried there, so far away from the land of "the balmy +East," + + "Where the roses blow and the oranges grow, + And all is divine but man below." + +Fletcher Read might have recollected this, but what though? Was not the +pun a good one--worthy of Hood? They all mounted the hearse, Panmure +being driver; nor could Sandy Morren give to these white-robed spirits, +who were so soon to rise in glory from the envious earth, more than a +sour-milk horn and half a dozen of snow-white table-cloths for the +theatrical property of the great players. So it has been since the time +when the shepherd who killed the son of Aebolus, for that he gave them +wine which they thought was poison, because they found their heads out +of order--wine still generates on folly the afflatus of madness. The +story goes on. The night was as dark as those places they were to +illumine with their white robes, alas! not of innocence. But the +darkness was not of the moon's absence in another hemisphere; only that +darkness which is cloud-born, and must cede in twinkling yet glorious +intervening moments to the moon, when she will salute the graves and the +marriage-guests; and the hearse, as it slowly wended its way up the road +to Lochee, every now and then pouring forth from its dark inside peals +of laughter. The travellers on the road look with wide eyes at the grim +apparition, and flee. They arrive at the rough five-bar stile; it is +thrown back, and the hearse is driven into the place of the dead. The +story goes on. There is silence everywhere, and appropriately there, +where the four brick corners of the smoke-coloured Cradle rise from the +hollow of Balgay Hill. They waited till the moon shone out again in her +calm, breathless repose; and then resounded from the clanging black +boards of the hearse a terrible din resembling thunder, and already each +man, with his table-cover rolled round him, was snug behind the solemn +head-stones, storied with domestic loves severed by the dark angel. + +Now was the time for the trumpet-call, which behoved to be sounded by +the cycloborean lungs of the broad-chested Panmure. The story has no +reason to flag where the stake of the _grimelinage_ is the upraising of +white-robed spirits. The sour-milk horn is sounded as it never was +sounded before on the earth which had passed away; every spirit comes +forth from below the head-stones; and there rose a wail of misery which +nothing but wine could have produced. + +"Mercy on our poor souls!" + +"Justice," cried Maule. "Stand out there, Bob Thornton, and answer for +the sins done in the body." The story goes on, and it intercalates "fie, +fie, on man." Thornton stands forth shrieking for the said mercy. + +"Was not you, sir, last night, of the time of the past world, in the inn +kept by Sandy Morren, in the town called Bonnie Dundee--bonnie in all +save its sin, and its magistracy gone a-begging, and its +hemp-spinners,[*] and the effect of Sandy Riddoch's reign--drinking and +swearing?" + + [note *: There is some prevision here which I cannot explain.] + +"I was." + +"Then down with you to the pit which has no bottom whatsomever." + +And Thornton disappears in the hollow not far from where the brick +Cradle stands. + +"Stand forth, Fletcher Read." + +"Weren't you, sir, art and part in confining in yonder dungeon the poor +unfortunate black lady, whereby she was murdered by that villain of an +uncle of yours, Fletcher of Lindertes?" + +"I was." + +"Down with you to the pit and the lake of brimstone." + +And down he went into the same valley. + +"Stand forth, Dudhope." + +"Were not you, sir, seen, on the 21st of December of the late dynasty of +time, in the company of one of these denizens of Rougedom in the +Overgate, that disgrace of the last world, for which it has very +properly been burnt up like a scroll of Sandy Riddoch's peculations?" + +"I was." + +"Then down to the pit." + +And Dudhope--even he the representative of Graham of opprobrious +memory--disappeared. + +"You're all (cried Maule) like the Lady of Luss's kain eggs, every one +of which fell through the ring into the tub, and didn't count." + +And so on with the rest, till there were no more to go down. Yet the +horn sounded again, for Maule was not so drunk that he did not remember +there were any more to come; but then, had he not been singing in Sandy +Morren's, "Death begone, here's none but souls?" The story goes on. The +horn having sounded, there stood forth a figure that did not belong to +this crowd of sinners. It was a woman dressed in dark clothes, with a +black bonnet, and an umbrella in her hand. How the great God can show +his power over the little god, man! The woman was no other than a Mrs. +Geddes of Lochee, who, having got a little too much at the Scouring +Burn, had, on her way home, slipped into the resting-place of her +husband, who had been buried only a week before, and having got drowsy, +had fallen asleep on the flat stone which covered him. In a half dreamy +state she had seen all this terrible mummery--no mummery to her; for she +thought it real: and as every one stood forward by name, she often said +to herself, "When will it be Johnnie's turn, poor man? for he was an +awfu' sinner; I fear the pit's owre guid for him." But Johnnie was not +called. And then she expected her own summons--fell agony of a moment of +the expectation of scorching flames to envelope her body, the flesh of +which, as she pinched herself, had feeling and sensibility. Then if +these great men, whose names she had often heard of, and who, as having +white robes, and riches, and honours, might have expected to get to +heaven, and yet didn't, what was to become of her, who had only dark +garments, and who had been drinking that night at the Scouring Burn? +There was no great wonder that Mrs. Geddes was distressed, yea +miserable; and when she heard the horn sounded and no one went +forward--Johnnie was of course afraid, and was concealing himself--she +stood up with her umbrella in her hand. And Maule, now getting terrified +through the haze of his drunkenness, cried out, "Who are you?" + +"Mrs. Geddes, Johnnie Geddes's wife, o' the village o' Lochee, just twa +miles frae that sink o' sin, Bonnie Dundee. I hae been a great sinner. I +kept company wi' Sandy Simpson when Johnnie was living, and came here to +greet owre his grave." + +"A woman!" cried Maule; "then to heaven as fast as your wings will carry +you." + +And this man, who braved God, shook with terror before a weak woman; and +so did all these brave bacchanals, who, on hearing the horn when no more +remained to be condemned, thought their false God had called them, and +had returned to witness the object of their new-born fear. Hurrying into +the hearse, the party were in a few minutes posting to Dundee in solemn +silence, where they arrived about two o'clock, not to resume their +orgies, but to separate each for his home, with the elements in him of a +sense of retribution, not forgotten for many a day. At the long run the +story finishes, and the chronicler, lifting up his hands to heaven, +cries, "Is there no end, Lord, is there no end to the profanity of man? +Lord, why stayeth the hand of vengeance?" + +If guidman Aminadab had known these things--which he couldn't do, +because, like Sir James Colquhoun's last day (of the session), which he +wanted the judges to abolish, this last day (of the world) happened +after the said Aminadab was in the habit of seeking Mrs. M'Pherson's +parlour--he would have had greater deductions from his pleasure; for +Aminadab read his Bible, and belonged to the first Secession. And so it +was better he didn't, especially on that night when Mrs. M'Pherson had +been so extraordinarily condescending to her henchman as to set before +him a fine piece of pork, in recognition of his adherence to the +resolution of leaving the flesh-pots of Egypt--the old Church. It was a +dark night in January. There was a cheerful fire in the neat parlour, +and Janet was communicative, if not chatty, in good English, got in +George's kitchen at Kew. + +"I would like all this better," said Aminadab, "if I had not that +churchyard to come through; and then there's that fearful-looking Cradle +in the hollow, with four lums like the stumpt posts of a child's +rocking-bed. What is it, Janet?--it's not a cow-house, nor a henhouse, +but a pure dungeon, fearful to free men, who might shudder to be +confined in it." + +"What more?" said Janet. "Do you know anything more, Aminadab?" + +"Yes; but I am eating Logie's pork, and don't like to say much." + +"Never mind the pork, man; speak out. Do the folks down in the town say +anything, or shake their heads, or point their fingers?" + +"Well, they say there's a human being confined in it," replied Aminadab. +"And so they may, for sounds have been heard coming from the dark +hole--ay, and I have heard them myself--deep moans and weeping. I would +like to know if there's a secret." + +"Hush, hush, Aminadab. There is a secret, and you're the only man I +would speak of it to." + +And Mrs. McPherson rose solemnly and locked the door upon herself and +her henchman. + +"You know, Aminadab, that my master came from Bombay some years ago, and +brought home with him a black wife. Dear, good soul--so kind, so timid, +so cheerful too; but, Heaven help me, what could I do?--for you know Mr. +Fletcher is a terrible man. He does not fear the face of clay; and the +scowl upon his face when he is in his moods is terrible. I am bound to +obey." + +"But what of her?" said Aminadab. "It's no surely she who is in the +horrid hole?" + +"Never you mind that, but eat your bacon, you fool for stopping me. When +I'm stopped, I seldom begin again for a day and night at least." + +"Something like your master, Janet." + +"No, Aminadab; I have _a heart_, lad." + +"That I know, Janet," said Aminadab, with a lump of pork in his mouth; +"and--and--it--is--fat--lass." + +"And the easier swallowed," said she + +"I meant your heart, Mrs. McPherson. + +"And I must swallow that too, as it seems to come up my throat and choke +me, even as the pork seems to do you. Take time, Aminadab. There's no +hurry, man. Ah well, then, we have it all among the servants how Mr. +Fletcher got my lady. He was a great man in Bombay--governor, I think, +or something near that--and my lady was the only daughter of the Nawab +or Nabob of some kingdom near Bombay--I forget the strange Indian name. +She was the very petted child of her father; and when Mr. Fletcher saw +her, she was running about the palace like a wild, playful creature--I +may say, our bonny little roes of the Highland hills, or maybe another +creature she used to speak about, I think they call it gazelle, with +such wonderful eyes for shining, that you cannot look into them no more +you could at the sun. For, oh, Aminadab! they have strange things in +these places, which are much nearer the sun than we are here in this old +country. But the mighty Nabob was unwilling to give her to the +white-faced lover, even though he was the governor of Bombay, forbye +having Balinsloe and Lindertes in Scotland too. Maybe he thought a +Scotsman could not like a black Indian princess, though she was with her +grand shawls about her, and her jewelled turban, and diamonds and +pearls, and all that; and maybe, Aminadab, he thought"--and here Janet +lowered her husky voice--"that it was just for these fine things he +wanted her, rich though he was himself. Yet, strange enough too, the +Nabob had promised the man who should marry his daughter the weight of +herself in fine Indian gold, weighed in a balance, as her tocher. Heard +ye ever the like of a tocher, man?" + +"That would depend upon her size and weight, Janet, lass. Now, had you a +tocher like that, it would be a gey business, I think,--fourteen +potato-stones at the very least, I would say, eh?"--and he must get quit +of the mouthful before he could finish--"Eh, Janet?" + +"And if you go on at that rate with my pork, you will not, by-and-by, be +much behind me. But, guid faith, Aminadab, I'm not ashamed, lad, of my +size. A poor, smoke-dried, shrivelled cook shames her guid savoury +dishes, intended to fatten mankind and make them jolly. But you are +right about the offer of the Nabob. The creature was small, and light, +and lithe, and could not weigh much. But then, think of the jewels! +These did not depend upon her weight, but upon their own light. Oh, what +diamonds, and rubies, and pearls as big as marbles! I have looked at +them till my eyes reeled with the light of them; and no wonder, when I +have heard them valued at a hundred thousand guineas--and to think of +all that being held in a little box! There is one necklace worth fifteen +thousand itself." + +"And yet a small neck, too, maybe?--'And thou shalt make a necklace to +fit her neck,' said the Lord. It would not be half the girth of yours, +Mrs. M'Pherson?" + +"Ay, Aminadab; not a half, nor anything like it. But don't stop me +again, lad, or I'll stop the pork. (A pause.) Ah, well, I fear it was +the shining jewels, and not the black face, did the business on my +master's side. And, of course, he would be all smiles at the Nabob's +court; for, Aminadab, my lad, there never was on the face of God's earth +a man who could so soon change the horrid dark scowl into the very light +of sunshine as Mr. Fletcher. I have seen him, when in company with +Kincaldrum, and Dudhope, and Gleneagles, and the rest, laughing till his +face was as red as the sun, then, all of a sudden, when some of his +moods came over him, turn just like a fiend new come out of--oh, I'll +just say it out, Aminadab, though ye be of the Seceders--just hell, +lad." + +"But, good mother Janet--" + +"Mother your own mother, man, till you be a father, Aminadab. Have I not +told you to let me go on? There's no honour in a mother: that sow you +are eating was the mother six times of thirteen at each litter; and I +think that's about seventy-eight. Mother, forsooth! Ay, and yet you'll +see a beggar wretch, clad in tanterwallops--rags is owre guid a +word--coming to Logie door, and looking as if she had the right to +demand meal from me, merely because she has two at her feet and one in +her arms. Such honourable gaberlunzies get no meal from me. My master +was keen for the match; but the Nabob was shy of the white face. And +here's a curious thing--I got it from my lady herself. She said the +Nabob, her papa, as she called him--for, just like us here, they have +kindly words and real human feelings--made a bargain with my master, +that if he took her away out of India to where the big woman they call +the Company lives, he would be kind to her, and '_treat her as he would +do a child which is rocked in a cradle_.'" + +"Better than Naomi's wish," said Aminadab; "'And the Lord grant ye find +rest in the house of thy husband.'" + +"That bargain they made him sign with blood drawn just right over his +heart; and the Nabob signed, too, for the weight of gold and the jewels. +Then came the marriage. Such a day had not been witnessed in Bombay for +years, if ever, when a great son of the big woman was to be married to +the daughter of a Nawab. All the great men of Bombay, and the rich +Parsees, she called them, were at the king's court, and the little +princes round about for hundreds of miles, and all the ministers of +Indian state,--for you must know that the marriage was in the English +fashion, as the Nawab thought he could bind the bridegroom best in that +way. Then the grand feast, and such dancing, and deray, and firing of +cannons, and waving of flags, was never seen!" + +"'And all Israel shouted with a great shout, so that the earth rang +again.'" + +"Just so, guid auld Burgher lad," rejoined Mrs. M'Pherson. + +"They had only been a few months married, when Mr. Fletcher's health +having failed him,--and surely his liver is rotten to this day, if not +his heart too,--he came home with his wife, and bought this bonnie +place. She brought with her a squalling half-and-half thing,--there he's +at the door this moment." By-and-by, "My little prince (she cried), go +to Aditi--Ady, we call her--that's the black ayah my lady brought home +with her." + +"That will be another wife, I fancy," said Aminadab. "They have all two +or three wives in the East, haven't they? Guid faith, ane's mair than +eneugh here, if the Nawab's daughter's in her cradle." + +"No, no, no, ye fool." + +"'And I shall cut off the multitude of No,' Ezekiel thirtieth, fifteen." + +"An ayah is a servant; and Ady's a good black soul as ever foolishly +washed her face when there's no occasion for the trouble. And yet these +black creatures are for ever washing themselves. They wash before +breakfast and after breakfast, before dinner and after dinner, before +supper and after supper, but the never a bit whiter they are that ever I +could see." + +"Yea, they might save themselves a great deal of trouble," said +Aminadab. + +"But they won't," rejoined Janet. "We have been tortured with their +washings. Sometimes, when angry, I say to Ady, Can't you go down to the +_Scouring Burn_?" + +"'And wash thyself in the brook Cherith, which is before Jordan.'" + +"But she says it's Brahma that bids her--that's their biggest god; and +this Brahma is a trouble to us too. It seems he is everywhere; and Ady +seeks him on Balgay Hill and in the churchyard o' nights, when the +moon's out; thereafter coming in with those eyes of hers like flaming +coals, darting them on us, who don't believe in Brahma, as if we were +the real heathens, and not she and her mistress." + +"'And thou shalt not erect a temple to Dagon, but cut him down to the +stumps,'" said Amimadab. + +"Hush, hush, man. Our servants are all in terror. They say that Ady is +right, for that they have seen him in about the skirts of Balgay woods, +and down in the hollow of the ravine, moving about like a spirit of +darkness, with something white round his head, and a wide cloak wrapped +about him." + +Aminadab had just taken up a large tankard of ale, wherewith he intended +to make a clean sweep of his hearty supper down his throat; but he +paused, laid down the tankard, turned pale, shook, and looked wistfully +into the face of his chieftainess. Nor did he speak a word, because some +idea had probably magnetized his tongue at the wrong end, and the other +would not move. + +"Ady says, and so do the servants, that he has no shadow; and we should +think he shouldn't, because our ghosts hereaway have none that ever I +heard of. But that's a lie of their foolish religion; for I could swear +I one night saw his shadow flit like that of a sun-dial, when the sun's +in a hurry to get the curtains round his head, away past the east end of +the house, and disappear in a moment. But I'll tell you what, Aminadab, +he may, like our spirits, be a shadow himself. I could hardly speak for +fear, though five minutes before I had as good a tankard of that +Logie-brewed as you have before you; but I got my tongue through the ale +at the other end o't, and cried out with Zechariah, wherein I was +something like you, Aminadab, 'Ho, ho, come forth, and flee from the +land of the north.'" + +"That would stump his Dagonship," said Aminadab, with an effort to be +cheerful in spite of the foresaid idea, whatever it was. "Ay," he +continued, after drinking off the tankard, and getting courage and wit +at same time, "a line from the Bible is just like a rifle-shot in the +hinder-end of these false gods. They can't stand it nohow." + +"And you've stumpt me," replied the cook, "with the chopping-knife of +your folly, so that I don't know where to find my legs again. It was a +year after he came to Logie before another half-and-half was born--a boy +too; and then there came a change over Mr. Fletcher's mind. There's +something strange about those English that live long in India. I've +noticed it when I was in London, in George's house; but it's all from +the liver," continued the cook. "First grilled upon the ribs, then +cooled with champagne, then healed up with curry, chiles, and ginger. No +wonder the devil gets into the kitchen, where a dish like that is +waiting him. Then they're so proud and selfish, and fond of themselves +and their worthless lives." + +"'Skin for skin, yea, all that they have, will they give for their +lives.' So the devil said of him of Uz." + +"But you see it's all in the liver," continued the cook. "Aditi came to +me one day, and said, 'De 'Gyptians in India tink body divided into +sixteen parts, with God to each part! he! he! Janette!' and the black +creature laughed. Then I say, the liver of an Englishman, after he comes +from India, is the devil's part; and so it was with Mr. Fletcher. He +began first to interfere with Kalee's religion. 'Oh, terrible, Janette!' +cried Ady, on another day; 'master cut off head of Kartekeya's peacock, +and smashed de tail of Garoora.' On another day, 'Right eye of elephant +head of Ganeso knocked into de skull.' Another day, this time in tears, +weeping awfully, 'Oh, Janette! tail of holy cow clean snapt over de +rump!'" + +"All right," said Aminadab of the first Secession. "'And I will cause +their images to cease out of Noph.'" + +"Ay, but I am 'wide,'" continued the cook. + +"Three feet and a half across the bosom," said Aminadab, who was still +in his reverie, with the secret idea still exercising a power over him, +even after the tankard of ale. + +"Wide in my mind and charities, ye fool, man," continued she, not +disinclined this time to laugh; for she was proud of being jolly in the +person. "I felt for poor Kalee. She wept incessantly at the loss of the +cow's tail, and asked me if I had seen it, nay, implored me like a +worshipper to try to recover it for her. I said, God forgive me, that I +had seen it in the dung-pit, and that George had carted it away. 'And +didn't know de value!' cried Ady. 'Worth de necklace of diamonds;' and +both she and Kalee broke out into such a yell as made the house ring. +Yet with all this, Kalee still loved the gloomy man. She would throw her +jewelled arms about his neck, and hang upon him, with her feet off the +ground, so little, light, and lithe. She was so like a sapling, you +could have bent her any way. And when the love was in her heart, and it +was never absent, she was really bonny. Our eyes hereaway are mere +cinders to these glowing churley bits of flaming sulphur; and then that +strange look of the shining face, just as if she yearned to enter into +his very soul,--ay, as the souls of these black creatures go up and form +a part of Brahma's spirit, that's all over the earth." + +"All art," cried Aminadab, getting impatient of Janet's +eloquence--eloquence, I say; for Janet was a superior woman, and, though +a cook, a natural genius. "All art. 'And he made her to use +enchantments, and deal with familiar spirits and wizards,'" + +"No, no, man, it was all real nature. But it wasna real nature made him +throw the poor black soul away, whose gold and jewels he had bartered +his white, I should say yellow, rotten-livered body for. Ay, if she had +been a man, I would have liked her better than him; for, as I hate the +skin of an old hen when the fat becomes rancid and golden, so do I hate +a yellow-faced man, with the devil sitting gnawing at his liver." + +"The reason the devil's so bitter," said Aminadab. + +"Ay, if you were to try a beef-steak off his rump or spare-rib, ye'll +find it more like the absynth I use in the kitchen than the flesh of a +capon or three-year old stot." + +"Yea, I would be like unto him who was made to 'suck honey out of the +living rock.'" + +"The cruel man threw her away from him, just as if her tocher had been +the weight of herself in copper, instead of gold. And oh! it was so +easily done; for the creature was not only, as I have said, light, but +she had such a touchiness when her glancing eye saw that her love was +not returned by him she loved beyond all the earth, that you would have +thought she shrunk all up into a tiny child, couring in the corner of +the big drawing-room, so like a wounded bird." + +"Yaw-aw-aw," yawned the Seceder, half asleep. "'And he gave up the ghost +in the room, while he sought his meat to relieve his soul.'" + +"Asleep and dreaming," cried Mrs. M'Pherson, who had got into the very +spirit of description. "Away to the Scouring Burn, and never show your +face here again." + +But Aminadab soon pacified the wide-souled and wide-bodied cook, who, +being of his own persuasion, really loved the man. Yes, she was a +Seceder from the old faith; and such a Seceder! No wonder there was a +blank among the congregation of mere bodies. + +It was now well on to twelve, and Aminadab had that Cradle to pass, and +the kirkyard to get through; all, too, with that idea in his head to +which we have alluded, and which, we may as well tell, was no other than +a vivid recollection of having seen this Brahma on a prior night. He had +discharged the notion at the time as an illusion, though in general he +had little power over his supernatural fears, which were to him not +indeed supernatural, but very natural; so much so, as we have said, that +a mere inanimate and dead, very dead burying-place, had been more than +once the means of cutting him out of a savoury piece of pork, and a good +Logie-brewed tankard. It was the allusion made by Janet that recalled +the suspicion that he had seen "something." Ah, "something!" what a +pregnant vocable--so mysterious, so provocative of curiosity--an +"it!"--of all the words in our language, the most suggestive of a +difference from the real being of flesh and blood, carrying a name got +at the baptismal font, whereby it shall be known and pass current like a +counter. And is it not at best only a counter, yea, a counterfeit? We +are only to each other as signs of things which are not seen; and yet we +laugh when we hear the "it," as if it might not be the very thing of +which we are one of the signs! Is it not thus that we are all humbugged +in this world of ours? For we take the sign for the thing; yea, talk to +the sign, and love it, or hate it, or worship it--all the while being as +ignorant as mules, "ne pictum quidem vidit;" the very sign may be as far +from the reality, as in philosophy we see it every day. And thus, all +wandering and groping in the dark, the blind leading the blind, we +screech like owls at a spark of light from the real fountain beyond +Aldebaran. + +And the owls were more busy than pleasant that night in the deep woods +of Balgay Hill. It was a sign that the moon was not kindly to their +heavy eyes. The scene, as Aminadab issued from the postern, might have +been felt as beautiful, from the very awe which it inspired. But +Aminadab was no lover of Nature, especially if he saw in her recesses +any hiding-places for such beings as Brahma, more mysterious to him from +knowing nothing at all about him, except that he was some Ashtoreth, or +Chemosh, or Milcom, in a new form, let loose from hell, to disturb the +pure souls of Seceders destined for heaven. The full moon fell on the +hollow in the hills, surmounted by the dark woods of Balgay right aface +of him, the house of Logie behind, and the declinations on either side, +in one of which lay the little Golgotha. There, in the midst of the +hollow, stood, grim and desolate, the dark brick-built Cradle, casting +its shadow to the south; the four-corner prominences shooting out like +horns, and so unlike the habitation of a human being, yea, unlike any +composition of brick and lime ever reared by the hand of a genius for +house-making. The shadow lay on the grass like those ghastly +sun-pictures so called, yet more like moon-born things; and then the +solemn silence, only relieved to be deepened by the occasional to-hoo! +was oppressive to him, as if a medium for some footsteps to startle him +into superstition. Yet he was drawn towards the horrid dungeon in spite +of his very self. Janet's story would come at last, he thought, to a +termination which would justify his own suspicions. And even there +before him was evidence in the same direction; for having thrown +himself, as if by an effort, into the shade of the dungeon, he could see +beyond its verge, and by, as it were, looking round the corner, the body +of the dark-faced Aditi. She had, no doubt, come stealthily from the +house, and was postured in an attitude far deeper in humiliation and +adjuration than we practise in our land. Her face was covered by her +hands; for, in truth, she could see nothing through these mere +light-permitting slips of a brick's width, wherewith this horrible hole +was supplied, as if by a relaxation of severity in its last stage of +perfect inhumanity. No, nothing could be seen, but something might be +heard; yea, the most piteous moans that ever burst from an oppressed +heart, and yet so soft, so uncomplaining, as if the sufferer found no +fault with aught in the world but herself. Then Aditi's sounds were +something like responses, rising as the internal sounds rose, and as +they died away--a jabbering wail of an Eastern tongue. Aminadab, blunt +though he was, and fonder of pork than poetry, and of scriptural +quotations--which he had always at his tongue's end for conclaves of +weavers--than impassioned sentiments, rising at the inspiring touch of +this strange world's endless and ever-occurring occasions, was +impressed. He looked over the dark abode, up at the moon, then at the +prostrate Ady, and thought of the distance between that prisoner and the +gay palace where she was brought up, with its paradise of flowers, and +aromas, and singing birds of gold and azure--far away, far away. And +then that blood-written oath--oh, so literally fulfilled and obeyed! But +the thought was evanescent from very fear. Nor was his nervousness +unjustified; for, even as he turned his head, he saw a figure wrapped up +in a dark cloak, and surmounted by a white coil of pure linen, as he +thought, emerging from the clump of thick trees that stood on the north +end of the burying-ground. The figure, having run as it were in fear so +far forward, no sooner saw the projecting head of Aminadab, than it +turned and retreated. At the same instant Ady rose, as if disturbed, and +ran to the house. Yet the moaning did not cease. It seemed interminable; +or, if to be terminated by the absence of Ady, the sufferer did not know +she was gone. And oh, these wails!--Aminadab fled and took them along +with him, nor did they ever leave him. + +Even when he went to bed they were fresh upon his ear, claiming +precedence to the vision of his eye; though that, too, asserted its +authority as something miraculous--whether the Eastern mystery itself, +or some tutelary genius brought from heaven by the shriek of man's +cruelty. Nor could he rest for the thought that, humble as he was, he +was surely taken there that he might go to the powers of earth to ask +them to aid the powers of heaven. Why, that Cradle had been built within +the limits of civilisation. Even the mason was known: the bricks were +not Egyptian bricks, nor the mortar foreign, nor the wood a tree from +the heart of Africa; and yet, why was it there--nay, why was the use of +it not inquired into? If Jeshurun had waxed fat and kicked against the +Lord of heaven, was there no lord of earth that could tame this +yellow-livered worshipper of Baal, who yet was received among the chiefs +of Israel to drink the pure juice of the grape, and make a god of his +belly, and to sing obscene songs? Even in that house there was riot and +debauchery upon the spoils of that woman, encaged like a beast, and at +the world's end from her natural protectors. + +Yea, our good soul Aminadab became bold. He was privileged, if not +called. But then that Brahma--that incarnation of a power confessed by +millions on millions of people possessed of souls, and therefore +something in God's reckonings! It was no illusion. Twice he had seen the +mysterious being. How did he come hither to the Ultima Thule, as it +were, of the known world? Why did he come just at a juncture when the +daughter of a king of his own favoured people was immured in a dungeon, +and calling for his help? Because he must have known that a spark of the +spirit that belonged to him, and would go back to him, was threatened to +be extinguished by power in a land owing no obedience to him. But didn't +that same moon shine on the children of Brahma as well as on the +children of Christ? and were there no powers in heaven but what we +confessed? How philosophical all this in a Scouring Burn weaver in +hysterics! Yet there are greater men than Aminadab who could not explain +such things. Ah, well; to the honour of poor Aminadab, it was for once +not pork he sought at Logie House. Next night at ten he was in the +parlour; but how did he get there, and Brahma in these very woods? +Aminadab very probably could not have told himself; yet there he was. + +"Come again so soon, Aminadab?" + +"Ay," replied he. "'Though a man may fall, he may be raised up again.' I +stumbled in front of my friend, but she will not kick me; yea, she will +lift me up." + +"Be silent," she said. "You were seen last night near the Cradle, where +no one dare approach. None of the servants go there save me; and even +Ady, if she goes, it is by stealth. Ah, you know something now; but +there's one thing you don't know, and that is, that rich men can pay +watchers to discover those who search into their iniquities." + +"Whatever I know," said Aminadab, "I am ignorant of this: why that +dungeon, containing a human being, can keep its place at the distance of +a mile from a town with 30,000 inhabitants." + +"But they don't know it, lad. Be you quiet, and pick that leg of a +chicken; that is better than the knowledge that kills. There is not one +of the magistrates would dare to touch a hair on Mr. Fletcher's head, +no, for all that lies in the power of Brahma." + +"But why do you keep the secret? 'The steps of a good woman are ordered +by the Lord;' but does He order you to step to the Cradle?" + +"I do it for good," said she, "because I can soften griefs that are +unbearable; and cooks have something in their power. But if I were to +say a word to Fletcher, I would be turned away, and another might treat +the prisoner worse." + +"But why would not the powers interfere?" + +"Because bailies love a dinner and fine wines; and it is easier to wink +than think, and easier to think than get themselves out of trouble by +acting on their thoughts. Will that satisfy you? It is a strange +business; but the world's a strange place, and strange men and women +live therein. Meat and drink and honour are better than wisdom. Look to +your plate, Aminadab. Oh! I wish I knew less; but I saw what was coming +when I saw George Cameron begin to build what he said was to be like a +cradle. Did I not recollect what Kalee told me about the blood-bond? Did +we not all witness the growing gloom gathering day by day over his face? +Then separate beds. Then no more companionship, out or in. The gloom for +ever, and the tears of Kalee for ever and ever, and the terror and +anguish of poor soul Aditi! Ah! yes; but he never struck her, never +upbraided her; and at length she shrunk from him as if from a serpent. +And this he could not bear: it made his dun-yellow black, Aminadab! +Then, when the Cradle was finished, and a truckle and a table and a +chair were put in, he called me to him, and said, with a horrid smile on +his face, 'M'Pherson, you are a Highlander, and staunch to your master. +I am true to my word. Yes, I signed a bond, when I married Kalee, that I +would treat her as a father would a child whom he rocked in a cradle. I +have obeyed. Kalee goes into the Cradle to-night. You are to give her +child's food; but you cannot rock the Cradle. Let the winds which drive +in past Balgay woods do that if they can. My honour is pure. Swear to +obey me.' + +"I could not say no, and look on that face. Kalee has been in that +dungeon, fed by me, and has never seen her children for a whole year." + +"The vengeance of the Lord hangeth over the wicked by a burnt thread," +said Aminadab. + +"Yes, who was to know that her own protector, even the great spirit of +her land, was to come here to help her? He was seen last night again! He +wanders about and about--flits hither and thither. He needs no rest--no +food. He is independent of rain, and wind, and thunder, and storms." + +"But he does not help her," said Aminadab. + +"His time is coming. Kalee is dying." + +"Dying!" + +"Ay, dying. Then Brahma will claim that which is a part of himself, and +then will be the time of his return to his chosen people." + +"Horrible!" ejaculated Aminadab. The chicken stood untasted. "Does Mr. +Fletcher know this?" + +"Why, to be sure, haven't I told him? But may not a child die in its own +cradle, and the father continue feasting with the lords and the lairds, +drinking and swearing, and debauching, when he knows that his honour is +discharged,--ay, and the blood-bond paid?" + +"And the body, when she dies--" + +"Will be in Logie burying-ground; ay, and strange people from the East, +a long way beyond where our sun rises, with black faces and bleeding +hearts, will come and bend over the little grave, and weep for the +daughter of their prince. Ah! Aminadab, grief makes a learned woman of +me, a poor servant; but I cannot save Kalee, none can save her now. +Consumption has set in; and bad air, and a rejected love, and a mother's +yearning will do the work. I was with her now with my cruse--all alone +with her; for no one dare approach. She knows she's dying. She asked for +the children-- + +"'Will you not let me see my boys?' + +"I shook my head. + +"'And will Fletcher not see me before I die, to receive my last kiss?' + +"I shook my head. + +"'And Aditi, who will return to my father's palace, is she to be kept +from me to the end?' + +"I shook my head." + +"And will no one watch?" said Aminadab. + +"Yes, I will watch all night; but it will be unknown to Fletcher. No one +can speak to him now. He goes hither and thither. He has no rest yet; +the gloom is deeper than ever." + +"Horrible mystery!" again ejaculated Aminadab. "But 'the wicked shall +perish; they shall consume into smoke, they shall consume away.'" + +Occasions make heroes of very ordinary men; and Aminadab felt that he +could be one of these worthies that night. He soon left after these +words of Janet; but he was now more upon his guard against watchers. +Perhaps Janet had mentioned them to induce him to avoid too minute an +examination where there was danger of another kind; and this rather +encouraged him. The only fault of his heroism was the strange feelings +which arose in his mind when he thought of the Indian spirit. Somehow +this vision could not be got rid of, or analyzed by the small philosophy +he had. As for Fletcher, he viewed him merely as a human monster,--no +uncommon phenomenon at a time when, although there might not be any +greater evil than now, men were more reckless of consequences, more dead +to shame, less under the control of public opinion, probably not less +under the fear of God. He cleared the wicket. It was again a bright +moonlight night. He passed again the Cradle, and was bold enough to +listen again. Alas! the wail was weaker, the bright lamp of these eyes +was fast losing its oil. So he thought; for he could hear only now and +then a very inaudible sob, and occasionally a very weak wail, shrill and +yet low. He could not stay, for Janet would be coming stealthily with +her cruse,--yes, her cruse; for, so far as he could see by the narrow +slips, all was darkness around the dying stranger, in a proud land of +liberty and humanity--the proudest seen on the face of the earth, or +perhaps ever will be seen; yet by-and-by to have more reason to be +proud--by-and-by, when Kalee would be asleep in the bosom of Brahma, her +body only the monument of the shams of that proud land of liberty and +humanity, and the true religion of God's covenant from the beginning. + +Retreating quickly, he proceeded over the green hollow, and got into the +skirt of Balgay wood. There he stood patiently, still fearful, but with +the new-born zeal of curiosity and sympathy. By-and-by he saw Janet come +out with her cruse, and walk as lightly as her huge body would permit. +She looked round and round, as if in great fear of Fletcher, probably of +the Indian spirit; for it was clear she had a conviction of the truth of +the real presence of Brahma. All is still; no Fletcher seen, nor watch. +But in about half an hour the dark Aditi came trotting out, clothed in +pure white, looking also fearfully about her; but it was more clear that +she expected some one. Stranger still, she made for the very spot where +Aminadab was watching. He studied her direction to the breadth of a +line, and stepped aside. There was plenty of foliage and some thick +bushes. He threw himself down on the ground, and heard the sighing of +Ady as if almost close to him. By-and-by she was joined by the +mystery--yes, that being who had so long been the terror of Logie House +to all but the master, who knew nothing of him. He was there; but +Aminadab could not see more of him than his head, which was, as usual, +enveloped in the same white cloth. He heard their conversation, of which +not a word could he understand. But oh, that natural language of the +heart, which is the same in all lands, and will be the same in +heaven--those quick utterances, deep sighs, shakings of the frame as if +the beings were convulsed! It seemed to be the last meeting; it was so +eloquent of heart loves, so mysterious in religious aspirations. But +here occurred a strange incident. Even at the distance where they were, +a loud, shrill scream was heard, as if the last of expiring human +nature. How it shook these two, till the very leaves rustled, and the +night-hawks and owls screamed their terrible discord! All was still +again. The male ran, as if moved by the frenzy of a dervish, forward +towards the Cradle; then, as he saw the door half open, retreated. +Aminadab could make nothing of the figure, beyond the conviction that it +was the same he had seen by fitful glimpses before. It was altogether +indescribable, unlike anything he had ever seen or read of. On his +return, Ady met him and caught him in her arms, as if to lead him back +to the wood. Yet he was fitful, anxious, and flighty, as if he knew not +where to go, or what to do. Again the rapid whisperings, so sharp and +intense as sometimes to appear like hissing of strange foreign +creatures. It seemed as if his soul was on fire, and urged him he knew +not whither. At that instant the door of the Cradle opened altogether, +and Janet came out with the light. Ady darted forward like a moonbeam in +the midst of another moonbeam, and seen by its superior whiteness. An +instant served for some communication between her and Janet. Then a +shrill scream from Ady, a running hither and thither on the part of the +male figure, and at length, darting into the wood, he disappeared. +Aminadab now saw Janet go into the house. Was all over? Aminadab could +not tell. Ady still hung round the Cradle. She even circled it like a +hovering ghost. At length she neared the door. The key had been left, +and she entered. + +Now was Aminadab's time. He rushed forward, opened the door, and entered +the dungeon. A terrible sight met his eyes--sight! yes; even in the +comparative darkness, there was enough in the small glimmer of moonlight +entering by one of the holes to carry objects to eyes that would have +pierced the deepest gloom. There is said to be no darkness in the world +sufficient to conceal objects entirely; but here there was, in addition +to the attenuated beam, the white dress of Ady, and the bed where Kalee +lay. Janet had described it, and the table and the chair: what more than +the bare walls was there to describe? Nothing. On that bed, covered by a +thin white cloth, lay this Indian princess dead, with Ady hanging over +her, and pulling at her, and offering to her blank eyes, once like +diamonds, a small figure of an Indian god. Then the groans and +suppressed shrieks of the faithful soul, as she still pulled and shook +the corpse, as if she could get from it one last look directed to the +wooden figure. Too late! Kalee had died, not only away from her people, +but away from the gods of her people. All of a sudden the ayah ceased +her endeavours, and directed her eagle eye, suffused with tears, up to +the roof. Quick words followed the look. Aminadab could not understand +them, but the motions and aspirations convinced him that she cried, +"There, there, Brahma; there she goes, to be of thy eternal and infinite +soul, from which she came, and to which she flies." + +Then, suddenly, she rushed out of the dungeon. Aminadab looked after +her. She did not go to Logie House, but in the direction of the wood, +whither the indescribable figure had gone. Aminadab heard no more, +scarcely saw more, if it was not the corpse lying before him. He was +afraid of Janet, more of Fletcher, who might now at length come to pass +his eyes over the body in the Cradle, where he was to cherish her as a +father cherisheth his child; yet he would look, and look again. How +shrivelled that face of darkness, yet how calm and loving-like; as if, +even in the midst of the agony of the last hour, it smiled love to her +destroyer! + +By-and-by a light again approached. It was Janet with a white sheet. + +"You here! Good heavens! Away, away! Fletcher is to look at her; yes, he +is to look at her in the cradle he promised her. Away! no more." + +"I saw Brahma," said Aminadab; "yes, true Brahma, Brahma!" + +"Fool, fool! Man, I only told you it was Brahma to keep you from the +Cradle for your own safety." + +"Then who was the strange being?" + +"I dare not tell you that; but I fear Ady's away with him, without hat, +or cloak, or box, or supper." + +"To where?" + +"Nor that, lad. But I fear you will hear more of this Scotch tragedy +some day. Get you gone; there is Fletcher." + +Aminadab obeyed. + +And Fletcher did see her. Some time after the departure of Aminadab he +crossed the green. It seemed that night he had refrained from company, +not through penitence, or any motive that man could divine in the nature +of the man. Strangely-formed beings do things which do not seem to +belong to their natures or to human nature, and it is this that makes +them strange. Before he entered this, not, alas! Domdaniel, he called +Janet to the door. He wanted to be alone. She gave him the cruse; and +with the old gloom upon his face, perhaps he wanted to test his courage. +It could not be that he wanted to look once more on the face of the +mother of his children; nor that he felt now that there had been one in +the world who really did love him, as few women have ever loved. Then +man measures woman's love by his own; but when was man's heart stirred +by nature's strongest passion like that of devoted woman? while now the +world did not contain one heart that was moved to him by anything +stronger than dithyrambic delirium. Who knows? But there was Fletcher +looking on the corpse of his wife, and waving over her face the light of +the small cruse he held in his hand! Was he moved, as he saw the still, +death-bound features, that once could not contain the expression which +the leaping heart, with that burning fire in it of that land of the sun, +tried in vain to force into it; the eye, too, that flashed and leapt as +never is seen in our country of humid fogs, stifling the inborn heat and +blearing the vision; and those arms that entwined him so as the vine +holds the olive in its grasp, as if it would give the juice which fires +and inebriates, for the oil that calms, and fattens, and sustains? All +over that lithe body which enabled her, when he saw her first in the +land of her fathers, to bound and flee as if she had wings, and these +beautiful as the monaul's, ay, and enabled her, too, to play round him +in that Eastern gaiety which had charmed him, if he ever loved her, and +even for a time made his home like Fairydom! Who shall say there was no +movement in his stern features, no moisture in his eye, no trembling of +the lip, no tremor of the body, as he might have read the last effort of +nature in the expression of calm forgiveness or continued affection? Who +could read _him_? + +At midnight, two days after, Kalee slept in Logie kirkyard. There is no +stone to point out the grave of the Indian princess, who lies--as +becomes, too, in our boasted land of liberty, entitled to her boast in +an equality at length, which even pride cannot deny--among the humble +artisans and cottars of Lochee. Did Fletcher Read, on that after day, +when Panmure blew the white iron trump, not expect to see Kalee rise up +and seek judgment on the house of Logie? The blood was hereditary, and +the heart that is fed by the blood, and which impels it. + +If it had not been that Aminadab married the portly Janet, we might have +heard no more of the fortunes of this man. But how true Aminadab's +quotation, that God's vengeance never sleeps! Where, in all the scathed +corpses of heaven's lightning, was there ever one that told its tale +like that of Fletcher of Balinsloe, Lindertes, and Logie? He was +recalled to India again. + +"Ay, Aminadab, he was forced to go by the Government; but maybe the +Government was only like a thing that is moved by the storm, and cuts in +twain, where its own silly power could do nothing. Before he went, he +married a beautiful little woman,[*] perhaps the most spirited in the +shire, white as Kalee was black, and come, too, of gentle blood. Why did +she marry this man? Had she not heard of the fate of Kalee? Had she not +seen the Cradle (still standing in the hollow of the hill)? No doubt; +but woman will go through worse storms than man's passion to get to the +goal of wealth and honour. Then there is a frenzy in woman, Aminadab. +She is like the boys, who seek danger for its own sake, and will skim on +skates the rim of the black pool that descends from the film of ice down +to the bubbling well of death below. Women have an ambition to tame wild +men; ay, even wild men have a charm for them, which the tame sons of +prudence and industry cannot inspire. So it was: they were married, and +he took her to India." + + [note *: Afterwards, as I have heard, the wife of Milne of + Milneford. She lived till nearly a hundred.] + +"'So the Lord did lead him; and there was no strange god with them.'" + +"Ay, but there was a God _before_ him, lad." + +"What mean you, Janet?" + +"Do you not recollect of Brahma?" + +"Do not mention that strange figure, Janet. My blood runs cold." + +Janet laughed. + +"Runs cold, lad, at what? Brahma was just one of the Nawab's great men, +whom he sent over here to watch the fate of his daughter. Why, man, he +lodged next door to you, with Mrs. Lyon at the Scouring Burn." + +"The black man the boys used to run after?" + +"The very same. He returned with Ady, and was at the court of the Nawab +and told all, ay, and more than we knew--that Fletcher would be obliged +to visit Bombay again ere long after. He had got this from some of the +authorities in England. For many a day did the prince weep for his +Kalee; for many a day did he watch for the murderer's arrival, ay, as a +tiger of his jungles watches in the night with fiery eyes for a beast +even more cruel than himself. He had even all the coast of Coromandel, I +think they call it, to give intelligence of the vessel. The very name of +the vessel was known; the very paint of its sides, and the flag it +bore--so well had he kept up his knowledge of what was going on in +England." + +"Wonderful!" cried Aminadab. "'And the fowler that did slay, falleth +into his own net.'" + +"And a terrible net, with meshes of sharp steel to hold and cut." + +"Ah!" cried Aminadab, as he rubbed his hands, and chuckled like a big +boy who sees the porridge boiling. + +"You may well be anxious, lad; but you'll have more than you want." + +"No, unless he is put into a fiery pit and burnt to a cinder, or into a +den of tigers, or a nest of hooded snakes, or--" + +"Peace, lad; better than all. But surely we are forgetting that we are +Christians, that we have seen the new light of grace, Aminadab." + +"Ay, true. Mercy pertaineth to the Lord. We belong to the furnace which +trieth gold; not to the refining-pot of the Old Church, which is for +silver." + +"Ah, well! God's judgment was soon executed. The ship was recognised and +hailed long before she arrived at Bombay. A crowd of black devils +boarded her, seized Fletcher, and dragged him on shore. Not an instant +was lost. Trial was a laughter. They danced round in joy, making the +very Brahma hear their orgies. Four horses, ropes, victim between two +and two, whip, yell, and Fletcher is in four quarters. + +"Nor did they end here. They had forgotten the white wife. She +too--justice demanded it. They did not ask why; but the sailors had +suspected what was going on; and when they saw the devils coming back, +they put Mrs. Fletcher into a big basket, and hoisted her to the +top-mast. The poor woman could see from that height the mangled remains +of her husband; but she was an extraordinary woman. She kept her place +composedly as she heard the yells of the demons. They could not find +her, and went away like wild animals deprived of their bloody prey. The +ship went on. Mrs. Fletcher returned safe to Scotland, where she was +known as the heroine who had gone through so much for the love of a +villain." + +The story of Fletcher has died away in Angus; but at one time it was in +every mouth, and many a head was shaken as the Sunday loiterers from +Dundee and Lochee passed by the Cradle in their walks on Balgay Hill. I +have heard that it was demolished as a disgrace to Scotland somewhere +about 1810 or 1812. The hollow where the ruins stood is quite visible +yet, and the old circumambulating ghost, which, by-the-bye, has +unfortunately a white face, is not yet laid. + + + + +THE DEATH OF THE CHEVALIER DE LA BEAUTE. + + +It was near midnight, on the 12th of October 1516, when a horseman, +spurring his jaded steed, rode furiously down the path leading to the +strong tower of Wedderburn. He alighted at the gate, and knocked loudly +for admission. + +"What would ye?" inquired the warder from the turret. + +"Conduct me to your chief," was the laconic reply of the breathless +messenger. + +"Is your message so urgent that ye must deliver it to-night?" continued +the warder, who feared to kindle the fiery temper of his master, by +disturbing him with a trifling errand. + +"Urgent, babbler!" replied the other, impatiently; "to-day the best +blood of the Homes has been lapped by dogs upon the street; and I have +seen it." + +The warder aroused the domestics in the tower, and the stranger entered. +He was conducted into a long, gloomy apartment, dimly lighted by a +solitary lamp. Around him hung rude portraits of the chiefs of +Wedderburn, and on the walls were suspended their arms and the spoils of +their victories. The solitary apartment seemed like the tomb of war. +Every weapon around him had been rusted with the blood of Scotland's +enemies. It was a fitting theatre for the recital of a tale of death. He +had gazed around for a few minutes, when heavy footsteps were heard +treading along the dreary passages, and the next moment Sir David Home +entered, armed as for the field. + +"Your errand, stranger?" said the young chief of Wedderburn, fixing a +searching glance upon him as he spoke. + +The stranger bowed, and replied, "The Regent"------ + +"Ay!" interrupted Home, "the enemy of our house, the creature of our +hands, whom we lifted from exile to sovereignty, and who now with his +minions tracks our path like a bloodhound! What of this gracious Regent? +Are ye, too, one of his myrmidons, and seek ye to strike the lion in his +den?" + +"Nay," answered the other; "but from childhood the faithful retainer of +your murdered kinsman." + +"My murdered kinsman!" exclaimed Wedderburn, grasping the arm of the +other. "What! more blood! more! What mean ye, stranger?" + +"That, to gratify the revenge of the Regent Albany," replied the other, +"my lord Home and your kinsman William have been betrayed and murdered. +Calumny has blasted their honour. Twelve hours ago I beheld their heads +tossed like footballs by the foot of the common executioner, and +afterwards fixed over the porch of the Nether Bow, for the execration +and indignities of the slaves of Albany. All day the blood of the Homes +has dropped upon the pavement, where the mechanic and the clown pass +over and tread on it." + +"Hold!" cried Home, and the dreary hall echoed with his voice. "No +more!" he continued; and he paced hurriedly for a few minutes across the +apartment, casting a rapid glance upon the portraits of his ancestors. +"By heavens! they chide me," he exclaimed, "that my sword sleeps in the +scabbard, while the enemies of the house of Home triumph." He drew his +sword, and approaching the picture of his father, he pressed the weapon +to his lips, and continued, "By the soul of my ancestors, I swear upon +this blade, that the proud Albany and his creatures shall feel that one +Home still lives!" He dashed the weapon back into its sheath, and +approaching the stranger, drew him towards the lamp, and said, "Ye are +Trotter, who was my cousin's henchman, are ye not?" + +"The same," replied the messenger. + +"And ye come to rouse me to revenge?" added Sir David. "Ye shall have +it, man--revenge that shall make the Regent weep--revenge that the four +corners of the earth shall hear of, and history record. Ye come to +remind me that my father and my brother fell on the field of Flodden, in +defence of a foolish king, and that I, too, bled there--that there also +lie the bones of my kinsman, Cuthbert of Fastcastle, of my brother +Cockburn and his son, and the father and brother of my Alison. Ye come +to remind me of this; and that, as a reward for the shedding of our +blood, the head of the chief of our house has been fixed upon the gate +of Edinburgh as food for the carrion crow and the night owl! Go, get +thee refreshment, Trotter; then go to rest, and dream of other heads +exalted, as your late master's is, and I will be the interpreter of your +visions." + +Trotter bowed and withdrew, and Lady Alison entered the apartment. + +"Ye are agitated, husband," said the gentle lady, laying her hand upon +his; "hath the man brought evil tidings?" + +"Can good tidings come to a Home," answered Sir David, "while the tyrant +Albany rides rough-shod over the nobility of Scotland, and, like a +viper, stings the bosom that nursed him? Away to thy chamber, Alison; +leave me, it is no tale for woman's ears." + +"Nay, if you love me, tell me," she replied, laying her hand upon his +brow, "for since your return from the field of Flodden, I have not seen +you look thus." + +"This is no time to talk of love, Aley," added he. "But come, leave me, +silly one, it concerns not thee; no evil hath overtaken the house of +Blackadder, but the Homes have become a mark for the arrows of +desolation, and their necks a footstool for tyrants. Away, Alison; +to-night I can think of but one word, and that is--vengeance!" + +Lady Alison wept, and withdrew in silence; and Wedderburn paced the +floor of the gloomy hall, meditating in what manner he should most +effectually resent the death of his kinsman. + +It was only a few weeks after the execution of the Earl of Home and his +brother, that the Regent Albany offered an additional insult to his +family by appointing Sir Anthony D'Arcy warden of the east marches, an +office which the Homes had held for ages. D'Arcy was a Frenchman, and +the favourite of the Regent; and, on account of the comeliness of his +person, obtained the appellation of the _Sieur de la Beaute_. The +indignation of Wedderburn had not slumbered, and the conferring the +honours and the power that had hitherto been held by his family upon a +foreigner, incensed him to almost madness. For a time, however, no +opportunity offered of causing his resentment to be felt; for D'Arcy was +as much admired for the discretion and justice of his government as for +the beauty of his person. To his care the Regent had committed young +Cockburn, the heir of Langton, who was the nephew of Wedderburn. This +the Homes felt as a new indignity, and, together with the Cockburns, +they forcibly ejected from Langton Castle the tutors whom D'Arcy had +placed over their kinsman. The tidings of this event were brought to the +Chevalier while he was holding a court at Kelso; and immediately +summoning together his French retainers and a body of yeomen, he +proceeded with a gay and a gallant company by way of Fogo to Langton. +His troop drew up in front of the castle, and their gay plumes and +burnished trappings glittered in the sun. The proud steed of the +Frenchman was covered with a panoply of gold and silver, and he himself +was decorated as for a bridal. He rode haughtily to the gate, and +demanded the inmates of the castle to surrender. + +"Surrender! boasting Gaul!" replied William Cockburn, the uncle of the +young laird; "that is a word the men of Merse have yet to learn. But +yonder comes my brother Wedderburn; speak it to him." + +D'Arcy turned round, and beheld Sir David Home and a party of horsemen +bearing down upon them at full speed. The Chevalier drew back, and +waiting their approach, placed himself at the head of his company. + +"By the mass! Sir Warden," said Sir David, riding up to D'Arcy, "and ye +have brought a goodly company to visit my nephew. Come ye in peace, or +what may be your errand?" + +"I wish peace," replied the Chevalier, "and come to enforce the +establishment of my rights; why do you interfere between me and my +ward?" + +"Does a Frenchman talk of his rights upon the lands of Home?" returned +Sir David; "or by whose authority is my nephew your ward?" + +"By the authority of the Regent, rebel Scot!" retorted D'Arcy. + +"By the authority of the Regent!" interrupted Wedderburn; "dare ye, +foreign minion, speak of the authority of the murderer of the Earl of +Home, while within the reach of the sword of his kinsman?" + +"Ay! and in his teeth dare tell him," replied the Chevalier, "that the +Home now before me is not less a traitor than he who proved false to his +sovereign on the field of Flodden, who conspired against the Regent, and +whose head now adorns the port of Edinburgh." + +"Wretch!" exclaimed the henchman Trotter, dashing forward, and raising +his sword, "said ye that my master proved false at Flodden?" + +"Hold!" exclaimed Wedderburn, grasping his arm. "Gramercy, ye +uncivilised dog! for the sake of your master's head would ye lift your +hand against that face which ladies die to look upon? Pardon me, most +beautiful Chevalier! the salutation of my servant may be too rough for +your French palate, but you and your master treated my kinsman somewhat +more roughly. What say ye, Sir Warden? do ye depart in peace, or wish ye +that we should try the temper of our Border steel upon your French +bucklers?" + +"Depart ye in peace, vain boaster," replied D'Arcy, "lest a worse thing +befall you." + +"Then on, my merry men!" cried Wedderburn, "and to-day the head of the +Regent's favourite, the Chevalier of Beauty, for the head of the Earl of +Home!" + +"The house of Home and revenge!" shouted his followers, and rushed upon +the armed band of D'Arcy. At first the numbers were nearly equal, and +the contest was terrible. Each man fought hand to hand, and the ground +was contested inch by inch. The gilded ornaments of the French horses +were covered with blood, and their movements were encumbered by their +weight. The sword of Wedderburn had already smitten three of the +Chevalier's followers to the ground, and the two chiefs now contended in +single combat. D'Arcy fought with the fury of despair, but Home +continued to bear upon him as a tiger that has been robbed of its cubs. +Every moment the force of the Chevalier was thinned, and every instant +the number of his enemies increased, as the neighbouring peasantry +rallied round the standard of their chief. Finding the most faithful of +his followers stretched upon the earth, D'Arcy sought safety in flight. +Dashing his silver spurs into the sides of his noble steed, he turned +his back upon his desperate enemy, and rushed along in the direction of +Pouterleiny, and through Dunse, with the hope of gaining the road to +Dunbar, of which town he was governor. Fiercely Wedderburn followed at +his heels, with his naked sword uplifted, and ready to strike; +immediately behind him rode Trotter, the henchman of the late earl, and +another of Home's followers named Dickson. It was a fearful sight as +they rushed through Dunse, their horses striking fire from their heels +in the light of the very sunbeams, and the sword of the pursuer within a +few feet of the fugitive. Still the Chevalier rode furiously, urging on +the gallant animal that bore him, which seemed conscious that the life +of its rider depended upon its speed. His flaxen locks waived behind him +in the wind, and the voice of his pursuers ever and anon fell upon his +ear, like a dagger of death thrust into his bosom. The horse upon which +Wedderburn rode had been wounded in the conflict, and, as they drew near +Broomhouse, its speed slackened, and his followers, Trotter and Dickson, +took the lead in the pursuit. The Chevalier had reached a spot on the +right bank of the Whitadder, which is now in a field of the farm of +Swallowdean, when his noble steed, becoming entangled with its cumbrous +trappings, stumbled, and hurled its rider to the earth. The next moment +the swords of Trotter and Dickson were through the body of the +unfortunate Chevalier. + +"Off with his head!" exclaimed Wedderburn, who at the same instant +reached the spot. The bloody mandate was readily obeyed; and Home, +taking the bleeding head in his hand, cut off the flaxen tresses, and +tied them as a trophy to his saddle-bow. The body of the _Chevalier de +la Beaute_ was rudely buried on the spot where he fell. A humble stone +marks out the scene of the tragedy, and the people in the neighbourhood +yet call it "_Bawty's Grave_." The head of the Chevalier was carried to +Dunse, where it was fixed upon a spear at the cross, and Wedderburn +exclaimed, "Thus be exalted the enemies of the house of Home!" + +The bloody relic was then borne in triumph to Home Castle, and placed +upon the battlements. "There," said Sir David, "let the Regent climb +when he returns from France for the head of his favourite; it is thus +that Home of Wedderburn revenges the murder of his kindred." + + + + +THE STORY OF THE PELICAN. + + +Though not so much a tradition as a memory still fresh probably in the +minds of some of the good old Edinburgh folks, we here offer, chiefly +for the benefit of our young female readers who are fond of a story +wherein little heroines figure, as in Beranger's _Sylphide_, an account +of a very famous adventure of a certain little Jeannie Deans in our +city--the more like the elder Jeannie, inasmuch as they both were +concerned in a loving effort to save the life of a sister. Whereunto, as +a very necessary introduction, it behoves us to set forth that there +was, some sixty years ago, more or less, a certain Mr. William Maconie, +who was a merchant on the South Bridge of Edinburgh, but who, for the +sake of exercise and fresh air--a commodity this last he need not have +gone so far from the Calton Hill to seek--resided at Juniper Green, a +little village three or four miles from St. Giles's. Nor did this +distance incommode him much, seeing that he had the attraction to +quicken his steps homewards of a pretty young wife and two little twin +daughters, Mary and Annie, as like each other as two rosebuds partially +opened, and as like their mother, too, as the objects of our simile are +to themselves when full blown. + +Peculiar in this respect of having twins at the outset, and sisters +too--a good beginning of a contract to perpetuate the species--Mr. +Maconie was destined to be even more so, inasmuch as there came no more +of these pleasant _deliciae domi_, at least up to the time of our curious +story--a circumstance the more to be regretted by the father, in +consequence of a strange fancy (never told to his wife) that possessed +him of wishing to insure the lives of his children as they came into the +world, or at least after they had got through the rather uninsurable +period of mere infant life. And in execution of this fancy--a very fair +and reasonable one, and not uncommon at that time, whatever it may be +now, when people are not so provident--he had got an insurance to the +extent of five hundred pounds effected in the Pelican Office--perhaps +the most famous at that time--on the lives of the said twins, Mary and +Annie, who were, no doubt, altogether unconscious of the importance they +were thus made to hold in the world. + +Yet, unfortunately for the far-seeing and provident father, this scheme +threatened to fructify sooner than he wished, if indeed it could ever +have fructified to his satisfaction; for the grisly spectre of typhus +laid his relentless hand upon Mary when she--and of a consequence +Annie--was somewhere about eight years old. And surely, being as we are +very hopeful optimists in the cause of human nature, we need not say +that the father, as he and his wife watched the suffering invalid on +through the weary days and nights of the progress towards the crisis of +that dangerous ailment, never once thought of the Pelican, except as a +bird that feeds its young with the warm blood of its breast. But, +sorrowful as they were, their grief was nothing in comparison with the +distress of little Annie, who slipped about listening and making all +manner of anxious inquiries about her sick sister, whom she was +prohibited from seeing for fear of her being touched by the said +spectre; nor was her heart the less troubled with fears for her life, +that all things seemed so quiet and mysterious about the house--the +doctor coming and going, and the father and mother whispering to each +other, but never to her, and their faces so sad-like and mournful, in +place of being, as was their wont, so cheerful and happy. + +And surely all this solicitude on the part of Annie Maconie need not +excite our wonder, when we consider that, from the time of their birth, +the twin sisters had never been separated, but that, from the moment +they had made their entrance on this world's stage, they had been always +each where the other was, and had run each where the other ran, wished +each what the other wished, and wept and laughed each when the other +wept or laughed. Nature indeed, before it came into her fickle head to +make two of them, had in all probability intended these little +sisters--"little cherries on one stalk"--to be but one; and they could +only be said not to be _one_, because of their bodies being two--a +circumstance of no great importance, for, in spite of the duality of +body, the spirit that animated them was a unity, and as we know from an +old philosopher called Plato, the spirit is really the human creature, +the flesh and bones constituting the body being nothing more than a mere +husk intended at the end to feed worms. And then the mother helped this +sameness by dressing them so like each other, as if she wanted to make a +_Comedy of Errors_ out of the two little female Dromios. + +But in the middle of this mystery and solicitude, it happened that Annie +was to get some light; for, at breakfast one morning--not yet that of +the expected crisis--when her father and mother were talking earnestly +in an undertone to each other, all unaware that the child, as she was +moving about, was watching their words and looks, much as an older +victim of credulity may be supposed to hang on the cabbalistic movements +and incantations of a sibyl, the attentive little listener eagerly drank +in every word of the following conversation:-- + +"The doctor is so doubtful," said the anxious mother, with a tear in her +eye, "that I have scarcely any hope; and if she is taken away, the very +look of Annie, left alone 'bleating for her sister lamb,' will break my +heart altogether." + +"Yes," rejoined Mr. Maconie, "it would be hard to bear; but"--and it was +the first time since Mary's illness he had ever remembered the +insurance--"it was wise that I insured poor Mary's life in the Pelican." + +"Insured her life in the Pelican!" echoed the wife in a higher tone. +"That was at least lucky; but, oh! I hope we will not need to have our +grief solaced by that comfort in affliction for many a day." + +And this colloquy had scarcely been finished when the doctor entered, +having gone previously into the invalid's room, with a very mournful +expression upon his face; nor did his words make that expression any +more bearable, as he said-- + +"I am sorry to say I do not like Mary's appearance so well to-day. I +fear it is to be one of those cases where we cannot discover anything +like a crisis at all; indeed I have doubts about this old theory being +applicable to this kind of fever, where the virus goes on gradually +working to the end." + +"The end!" echoed Mrs. Maconie; "then, doctor, I fear you see what that +will be." + +"I would not like to say," added he; "but I fear you must make up your +mind for the worst." + +Now, all this was overheard by Annie, who, we may here seize the +opportunity of saying, was, in addition to being a sensitive creature, +one of those precocious little philosophers thinly spread in the female +world, and made what they are often by delicate health, which reduces +them to a habit of thinking much before their time. Not that she wanted +the vivacity of her age, but that it was tempered by periods of serious +musing, when all kinds of what the Scotch call "auld farrant" (far yont) +thoughts come to be where they should not be, the consequence being a +weird-like kind of wisdom, very like that of the aged; so the effect on +a creature so constituted was just equal to the cause. Annie ran out of +the room with her face concealed in her hands, and got into a small +bedroom darkened by the window-blind, and there, in an obscurity and +solitude suited to her mind and feelings, she resigned herself to the +grief of the young heart. It was now clear to her that her dear Mary was +to be taken from her; had not the doctor said as much? And then she had +never seen death, of which she had read and heard and thought so much, +that she looked upon it as a thing altogether mysterious and terrible. +But had she not overheard her father say that he had insured poor dear +Mary's life with the Pelican? and had she not heard of the pelican--yea, +the pelican of the wilderness--as a creature of a most mythical kind, +though she knew not aught of its nature, whether bird or beast, or man +or woman, or angel? But whatever it might be, certain it was that her +father would never have got this wonderful creature to insure Mary's +life if it was not possessed of the power to bring about so great a +result. So she cogitated and mused and philosophized in her small way, +till she came to the conclusion that the pelican not only had the +destiny of Mary in its hands, but was under an obligation to save her +from that death which was so terrible to her. Nor had she done yet with +the all-important subject; for all at once it came into her head as a +faint memory, that one day, when her father was taking her along with +her mother through the city, he pointed to a gilded sign, with a large +bird represented thereon, tearing its breast with its long beak, and +letting out the blood to its young, who were holding their mouths open +to drink it in. "There," said he, "is the Pelican;" words she remembered +even to that hour, for they were imprinted upon her mind by the +formidable appearance of the wonderful-looking creature feeding its +young with the very blood of its bosom. But withal she had sense enough +to know--being, as we have said, a small philosopher--that a mere bird, +however endowed with the power of sustaining the lives of its offspring, +could not save that of her sister, and therefore it behoved to be only +the symbol of some power within the office over the door of which the +said sign was suspended. Nor in all this was Annie Maconie more +extravagant than are nineteen-twentieths of the thousand millions in the +world who still cling to occult causes. + +And with those there came other equally strange thoughts; but beyond all +she could not for the very life of her comprehend that most inexcusable +apathy of her father, who, though he had heard with his own ears, from +good authority, that her beloved Mary was lying in the next bedroom +dying, never seemed to think of hurrying away to town--even to that very +Pelican who had so generously undertaken to insure Mary's life. It was +an apathy unbecoming a father; and the blood of her little heart warmed +with indignation at the very time that the said heart was down in sorrow +as far as its loose strings would enable it to go. But was there no +remedy? To be sure there was, and Annie knew, moreover, what it was; but +then it was to be got only by a sacrifice, and that sacrifice she also +knew, though it must of necessity be kept in the meantime as secret as +the wonderful doings in the death-chamber of the palace of a certain +Bluebeard. + +Great thoughts these for so little a woman as Annie Maconie; and no +doubt the greatness and the weight of them were the cause why, for all +that day--every hour of which her father was allowing to pass--she was +more melancholy and thoughtful than she had ever been since Mary began +to be ill. But, somehow, there was a peculiar change which even her +mother could observe in her; for while she had been in the habit of +weeping for her sister, yea, and sobbing very piteously, she was all +this day apparently in a reverie. Nor even up to the time of her going +to bed was she less thoughtful and abstracted, even as if she had been +engaged in solving some problem great to her, however small it might +seem to grown-up infants. As for sleeping under the weight of so much +responsibility, it might seem to be out of the question; and so, verily, +it was; for her little body, acted on by the big thoughts, was moved +from one side to another all night, so that she never slept a wink, +still thinking and thinking, in her unutterable grief, of poor Mary, her +father's criminal passiveness, and that most occult remedy which so +completely engrossed her mind. + +But certainly it was the light of morning for which sister Annie sighed; +and when it came glinting in at the small window, she was up and +beginning to dress, all the while listening lest the servant or any +other one in the house should know she was up at that hour. Having +completed her toilet, she slipped down stairs, and having got to the +lobby, she was provident enough to lay hold of an umbrella, for she +suspected the elements as being in league against her. Thus equipped, +she crept out by the back door, and having got thus free, she hurried +along, never looking behind her till she came to the main road to +Edinburgh, when she mounted the umbrella--one used by her father, and so +large that it was more like a main-sheet than a covering suitable to so +small a personage; so it behoved, that if she met any other "travellers +on purpose bent," the moving body must have appeared to be some small +tent on its way to a fair, carried by the proprietor thereof, of whom no +more could be seen but the two short toddling legs, and the hem of the +black riding-hood. But what cared Annie? She toiled along; the miles +were long in comparison of the short legs, but then there was a large +purpose in that little body, in the view of which miles were of small +account, however long a time it might take those steps to go over them. +Nor was it any drawback to all this energy, concentrated in so small a +bulk, that she had had no breakfast. Was the dying sister Mary able to +take any breakfast? and why should Annie eat when Mary, who did all she +did--and she always did everything that sister Mary did--could not? The +argument was enough for our little logician. + +By the time she reached, by those short steps of hers, the great city, +it was half-past eleven, and she had before her still a great deal to +accomplish. She made out, after considerable wanderings, the street +signalized above all streets by that wonderful bird; but after she got +into it, the greater difficulty remained of finding the figure itself, +whereto there was this untoward obstacle, that it was still drizzling in +the thick Scotch way of concrete drops of mist, and the umbrella which +she held over her head was so large that no turning it aside would +enable her to see under the rim at such an angle as would permit her +scanning so elevated a position, and so there was nothing for it but to +draw it down. But even this was a task--heavy as the mainsheet was with +rain, and rattling in a considerable wind--almost beyond her strength; +and if it hadn't been that a kindly personage who saw the little maid's +difficulty gave her assistance, she might not have been able to +accomplish it. And now, with the heavy article in her hand, she peered +about for another half-hour, till at length her gladdened eye fell upon +the mystic symbol. + +And no sooner had she made sure of the object than she found her way +into the office, asking the porter as well as a clerk where the pelican +was to be found,--questions that produced a smile; but smile here or +smile there, Annie was not to be beat; nor did she stop in her progress +until at last she was shown into a room where she saw, perched on a high +stool, with three (of course) long legs, a strange-looking personage +with a curled wig and a pair of green spectacles, who no doubt must be +the pelican himself. As she appeared in the room with the umbrella, not +much shorter or less in circumference than herself, the gentleman looked +curiously at her, wondering no doubt what the errand of so strange a +little customer could be. + +"Well, my little lady," said he, "what may be your pleasure?" + +"I want the pelican," said Annie. + +The gentleman was still more astonished, even to the extent that he laid +down his pen and looked at her again. + +"The pelican, dear?" + +"Ay, just the pelican," answered she deliberately, and even a little +indignantly. "Are you the pelican?" + +"Why, yes, dear; all that is for it below the figure," said he, smiling, +and wondering what the next question would be. + +"I am so glad I have found you," said she; "because sister Mary is +dying." + +"And who is sister Mary?" + +"My sister, Mary Maconie, at Juniper Green." + +Whereupon the gentleman began to remember that the name of William +Maconie was in his books as holder of a policy. + +"And what more?" + +"My father says the pelican insured Mary's life; and I want you to come +direct and do it, because I couldn't live if Mary were to die; and +there's no time to be lost." + +"Oh! I see, dear. And who sent you?" + +"Nobody," answered Annie. "My father wouldn't come to you; and I have +come from Juniper Green myself without telling my father or mother." + +"Oh yes, dear! I understand you." + +"But you must do it quick," continued she, "because the doctor says +she's in great danger; so you must come with me and save her +immediately." + +"I am sorry, my dear little lady," rejoined he, "that I cannot go with +you; but I will set about it immediately, and I have no doubt, being +able to go faster than you, that I will get there before you, so that +all will be right before you arrive." + +"See that you do it, then," said she; "because I can't live if Mary +dies. Are you quite sure you will do it?" + +"Perfectly sure, my little dear," added he. "Go away home, and all will +be right; the pelican will do his duty." + +And Annie being thus satisfied, went away, dragging the main-sheet after +her, and having upon her face a look of contentment, if not absolute +happiness, in place of the sorrow which had occupied it during all the +time of her toilsome journey. The same road is to be retraced; and if +she had an object before which nerved her little limbs, she had now the +delightful consciousness of that object having been effected--a feeling +of inspiration which enabled her, hungry as she was, to overcome all the +toil of the return. Another two hours, with that heavy umbrella over +head as well as body, brought her at length home, where she found that +people had been sent out in various directions to find the missing +Annie. The mother was in tears, and the father in great anxiety; and no +sooner had she entered and laid down her burden, than she was clasped to +the bosom, first of one parent, and then of the other. + +"But where is the pelican?" said the anxious little maid. + +"The pelican, my darling!" cried the mother; "what do you mean?" + +"Oh! I have been to him at his own office at Edinburgh to get him to +come and save Mary's life, and he said he would be here before me." + +"And what in the world put it in your head to go there?" again asked the +mother. + +"Because I heard my father say yesterday that the pelican had insured +dear sister Mary's life, and I went to tell him to come and do it +immediately; because if Mary were to die, I couldn't live, you know. +That's the reason, dear mother." + +"Yes, yes," said the father, scarcely able to repress a smile which rose +in spite of his grief. "I see it all. You did a very right thing, my +love. The pelican has been here, and Mary is better." + +"Oh! I am so glad," rejoined Annie; "for I wasn't sure whether he had +come or not; because, though I looked for him on the road, I couldn't +see him." + +At the same moment the doctor came in, with a blithe face. + +"Mary is safe now," said he. "There has been a crisis, after all. The +sweat has broken out upon her dry skin, and she will be well in a very +short time." + +"And there's no thanks to you," said Annie, "because it was I who went +for the pelican." + +Whereupon the doctor looked to the father, who, taking him aside, +narrated to him the story, at which the doctor was so pleased that he +laughed right out. + +"You're the noblest little heroine I ever heard of," said he. + +"But have you had anything to eat, dear, in this long journey?" said the +mother. + +"No, I didn't want," was the answer; "all I wanted was to save Mary's +life, and I am glad I have done it." + +And glad would we be if, by the laws of historical truth, our stranger +story could have ended here; but, alas! we are obliged to pain the good +reader's heart by saying that the demon who had left the troubled little +breast of Mary Maconie took possession of Annie's. The very next day she +lay extended on the bed, panting under the fell embrace of the +relentless foe. As Mary got better, Annie grew worse; and her case was +so far unlike Mary's, that there was more a tendency to a fevered state +of the brain. The little sufferer watched with curious eyes the anxious +faces of her parents, and seemed conscious that she was in a dangerous +condition. Nor did it fail to occur to her as a great mystery as well as +wonder, why they did not send for the wonderful being who had so +promptly saved the life of her sister. The thought haunted her, yet she +was afraid to mention it to her mother, because it implied a sense of +danger--a fear which one evening she overcame. Fixing her eyes, now +every moment waxing less clear, on the face of her mother-- + +"Oh mother, dear," she whispered, "why do you not send for the pelican?" + +In other circumstances the mother would have smiled; but, alas, no smile +could be seen on that pale face. Whether the pelican was sent for we +know not, but certain it is, that he had no power to save poor Annie, +and she died within the week. But she did not die in vain, for the large +sum insured upon her life eventually came to Mary, whom she loved so +dearly. + + + + +THE WIDOW'S AE SON. + + +We will not name the village where the actors in the following incidents +resided; and it is sufficient for our purpose to say that it lay in the +county of Berwick, and within the jurisdiction of the Presbytery of +Dunse. Eternity has gathered forty winters into its bosom since the +principal events took place. Janet Jeffrey was left a widow before her +only child had completed his tenth year. While her husband lay upon his +deathbed, he called her to his bedside, and, taking her hand within his, +he groaned, gazed on her face, and said, "Now, Janet, I'm gaun a lang +and a dark journey; but ye winna forget, Janet--ye winna forget--for ye +ken it has aye been uppermost in my thoughts and first in my desires, to +mak Thamas a minister; promise me that ae thing, Janet, that, if it be +HIS will, ye will see it performed, an' I will die in peace." In sorrow +the pledge was given, and in joy performed. Her life became wrapt up in +her son's life; and it was her morning and her evening prayer that she +might live to see her "dear Thamas a shining light in the kirk." Often +she declared that he was an "auld farrant bairn, and could ask a +blessing like ony minister." Our wishes and affections, however, often +blind our judgment. Nobody but the mother thought the son fitted for the +kirk, nor the kirk fitted for him. There was always something original, +almost poetical about him; but still Thomas was "no orator as Brutus +was." His mother had few means beyond the labour of her hands for their +support. She had kept him at the parish school until he was fifteen, and +he had learned all that his master knew; and in three years more, by +rising early and sitting late at her daily toils, and the savings of his +field labour and occasional teaching, she was enabled to make +preparation for sending him to Edinburgh. Never did her wheel spin so +blithely since her husband was taken from her side, as when she put the +first lint upon the rock for his college sarks. Proudly did she show to +her neighbours her double spinel yarn--observing, "It's nae finer than +he deserves, poor fallow, for he'll pay me back some day." The web was +bleached and the shirts made by her own hands; and the day of his +departure arrived. It was a day of joy mingled with anguish. He attended +the classes regularly and faithfully; and truly as St. Giles's marked +the hour, the long, lean figure of Thomas Jeffrey, in a suit of shabby +black, and half a dozen volumes under his arm, was seen issuing from his +garret in the West Bow, darting down the frail stair with the velocity +of a shadow, measuring the Lawnmarket and High Street with gigantic +strides, gliding like a ghost up the South Bridge, and sailing through +the Gothic archway of the College, till the punctual student was lost in +its inner chambers. Years rolled by, and at length the great, the awful +day arrived-- + +"Big with the fate of Thomas and his mother." + +He was to preach his trial sermon; and where? In his own parish--in his +native village! It was summer, but his mother rose by daybreak. Her son, +however, was at his studies before her; and when she entered his bedroom +with a swimming heart and swimming eyes, Thomas was stalking across the +floor, swinging his arms, stamping his feet, and shouting his sermon to +the trembling curtains of a four-post bed, which she had purchased in +honour of him alone. "Oh, my bairn! my matchless bairn!" cried she, +"what a day o' joy is this for your poor mother! But oh, hinny, hae ye +it weel aff? I hope there's nae fears o' ye stickin' or using notes!" +"Dinna fret, mother--dinna fret," replied the young divine; "stickin' +and notes are out o' the question. I hae every word o' it as clink as +the A B C." The appointed hour arrived. She was first at the kirk. Her +heart felt too big for her bosom. She could not sit--she walked again to +the air--she trembled back--she gazed restless on the pulpit. The parish +minister gave out the psalm--the book shook while she held it. The +minister prayed, again gave out a psalm, and left the pulpit. The book +fell from Mrs. Jeffrey's hand. A tall figure paced along the passage. He +reached the pulpit stairs--took two steps at once. It was a bad omen; +but arose from the length of his limbs--not levity. He opened the +door--his knees smote upon one another. He sat down--he was paler than +death. He rose--his bones were paralytic. The Bible was opened--his +mouth opened at the same time, and remained open, but said nothing. His +large eyes stared wildly around. At length his teeth chattered, and the +text was announced, though half the congregation disputed it. "My +brethren!" said he once, and the whiteness of his countenance increased; +but he said no more. "My bre--thren!" responded he a second time; his +teeth chattered louder; his cheeks became clammy and death-like. "My +brethren!" stammered he a third time emphatically, and his knees fell +together. A deep groan echoed from his mother's pew. His wildness +increased. "My mother!" exclaimed the preacher. They were the last words +he ever uttered in a pulpit. The shaking and the agony began in his +heart, and his body caught the contagion. He covered his face with his +hands, fell back, and wept. His mother screamed aloud, and fell back +also; and thus perished her toils, her husband's prayer, her fond +anticipations, and the pulpit oratory of her son. A few neighbours +crowded round her to console her and render her assistance. They led her +to the door. She gazed upon them with a look of vacancy--thrice +sorrowfully waved her hand, in token that they should leave her; for +their words fell upon her heart like dew upon a furnace. Silently she +arose and left them, and reaching her cottage, threw herself upon her +bed in bitterness. She shed no tears; neither did she groan, but her +bosom heaved with burning agony. Sickness smote Thomas to his very +heart; yea, even unto blindness he was sick. His tongue was like heated +iron in his mouth, and his throat like a parched land. He was led from +the pulpit. But he escaped not the persecution of the unfeeling titter, +and the expressions of shallow pity. He would have rejoiced to have +dwelt in darkness for ever, but there was no escape from the eyes of his +tormentors. The congregation stood in groups in the kirkyard, "just," as +they said, "to hae anither look at the orator;" and he must pass through +the midst of them. With his very soul steeped in shame, and his cheeks +covered with confusion, he stepped from the kirk door. A humming noise +issued through the crowd, and every one turned their faces towards him. +His misery was greater than he could bear. "Yon was oratory for ye!" +said one. "Poor deevil!" added another, "I'm sorry for him; but it was +as guid as a play." "Was it tragedy or comedy?" inquired a third, +laughing as he spoke. The remarks fell upon his ear--he grated his teeth +in madness, but he could endure no more; and, covering his face with his +hands, he bounded off like a wounded deer to his mother's cottage. In +despair he entered the house, scarce knowing what he did. He beheld her +where she had fallen upon the bed, dead to all but misery. "Oh mother, +mother!" he cried, "dinna ye be angry--dinna ye add to the afflictions +of your son! Will ye no, mother?--will ye no?" A low groan was the only +answer. He hurried to and fro across the room, wringing his hands. +"Mother," he again exclaimed, "will ye no speak ae word? Oh, woman! ye +wadna be angry if ye kenned what an awfu' thing it is to see a thousan' +een below ye, and aboon ye, and round about ye, a' staring upon ye like +condemning judges, an' looking into your very soul--ye hae nae idea o' +it, mother; I tell ye, ye hae nae idea o't, or ye wadna be angry. The +very pulpit floor gaed down wi' me, the kirk wa's gaed round about, and +I thought the very crown o' my head wad pitch on the top o' the +precentor. The very een o' the multitude soomed round me like +fishes!--an' oh, woman! are ye dumb? will ye torment me mair? can ye no +speak, mother?" But he spoke to one who never spoke again. Her reason +departed, and her speech failed, but grief remained. She had lived upon +one hope, and that hope was destroyed. Her round ruddy cheeks and portly +form wasted away, and within a few weeks the neighbours, who performed +the last office of humanity, declared that a thinner corpse was never +wrapt in a winding sheet than Mrs. Jeffrey. Time soothed, but did not +heal the sorrows, the shame, and the disappointment of the son. He sank +into a village teacher, and often, in the midst of his little school, he +would quote his first, his only text--imagine the children to be his +congregation--attempt to proceed--gaze wildly round for a moment, and +sit down and weep. Through these aberrations his school dwindled into +nothingness, and poverty increased his delirium. Once, in the midst of +the remaining few, he gave forth the fatal text. "My brethren!" he +exclaimed, and smiting his hand upon his forehead, cried, "Speak, +mother!--speak now!" and fell with his face upon the floor. The children +rushed screaming from the school, and when the villagers entered, the +troubled spirit had fled for ever. + + + + +THE LAWYER'S TALES. + +THE STORY OF MYSIE CRAIG. + + +In detailing the curious circumstances of the following story, I am +again only reporting a real law case to be found in the Court of Session +Records, the turning-point of which was as invisible to the judges as to +the parties themselves--that is, until the end came; a circumstance +again which made the case a kind of developed romance. But as an end +implies a beginning, and the one is certainly as necessary as the other, +we request you to accompany us--taking care of your feet--up the narrow +spiral staircase of a tenement called Corbet's Land, in the same old +town where so many wonderful things in the complicated drama--or dream, +if you are a Marphurius--of human life have occurred. Up which spiral +stair having got by the help of our hands, almost as indispensable as +that of the feet, we find ourselves in a little human dovecot of two +small rooms, occupied by two persons not unlike, in many respects, two +doves--Widow Craig and her daughter, called May, euphuized by the Scotch +into Mysie. The chief respects in which they might be likened, without +much stress, to the harmless creatures we have mentioned, were their +love for each other, together with their total inoffensiveness as +regarded the outside world; and we are delighted to say this, for we see +so many of the multitudinous sides of human nature dark and depraved, +that we are apt to think there is no bright side at all. Nor shall we +let slip the opportunity of saying, at the risk of being considered very +simple, that of all the gifts of felicity bestowed, as the Pagan Homer +tells, upon mankind by the gods, no one is so perfect and beautiful as +the love that exists between a good mother and a good daughter. + +For so much we may be safe by having recourse to instinct, which is +deeper than any secondary causes we poor mortals can see. But beyond +this, there were special reasons tending to this same result of mutual +affection, which come more within the scope of our observation. In +explanation of which, we may say that the mother, having something in +her power during her husband's life, had foreseen the advantages of +using it in the instruction of her quick and intelligent daughter in an +art of far more importance then than now--that of artistic, needlework. +Nay, of so much importance was this beautiful art, and to such +perfection was it brought at a time when a lady's petticoat, embroidered +by the hand, with its profuse imitations of natural objects, flowers, +and birds, and strange devices, would often cost twenty pounds Scots, +that a sight of one of those operose achievements of genius would make +us blush for our time and the labours of our women. Nor was the +perfection in this ornamental industry a new thing, for the daughters of +the Pictish kings confined in the castle were adepts in it; neither was +it left altogether to paid sempstresses, for great ladies spent their +time in it, and emulation quickened both the genius and the diligence. +So we need hardly say it became to the mother a thing to be proud of, +that her daughter Mysie proved herself so apt a scholar that she became +an adept, and was soon known as one of the finest embroideresses in the +great city. So, too, as a consequence, it came to pass that great ladies +employed her; and often the narrow spiral staircase of Corbet's Land was +brushed on either side by the huge masses of quilted and emblazoned silk +that, enveloping the belles of the day, were with difficulty forced up +to and down from the small room of the industrious Mysie. + +But we are now speaking of art, while we should have more to say (for it +concerns us more) of the character of the young woman who was destined +to figure in a stranger way than in making beautiful figures on silk. +Mysie was one of a class: few in number they are indeed, but on that +account more to be prized. Her taste and fine manipulations were but +counterparts of qualities of the heart--an organ to which the pale face, +with its delicate lines and the clear liquid eyes, was a suitable index. +The refinement which enabled her to make her imitation of beautiful +objects on the delicate material of her work was only another form of a +sensibility which pervaded her whole nature--that gift which is only +conceded to peculiar organizations, and is such a doubtful one, too, if +we go, as we cannot help doing, with the poet, when he sings that +"chords that vibrate sweetest pleasures," often also "thrill the deepest +notes of woe." Nay, we might say that the creatures themselves seem to +fear the gift, for they shrink from the touch of the rough world, and +retire within themselves as if to avoid it, while they are only courting +its effects in the play of an imagination much too ardent for the duties +of life; and, as a consequence, how they seek secretly the support of +stronger natures, clinging to them as do those strange plants called +parasites, which, with their tender arms and something so like fingers, +cling to the nearest stem of a stouter neighbour, and embracing it, even +though hollow and rotten, cover it, and choke it with a flood of +flowers. So true is it that woman, like the generous vine, lives by +being supported and held up; yet equally true that the strength she +gains is from the embrace she gives; and so it is also that goodness, as +our Scottish poet Home says, often wounds itself, and affection proves +the spring of sorrow. + +All which might truly be applied to Mysie Craig; but as yet the stronger +stem to which she clung was her mother, and it was not likely, nor was +it in reality, that that affection would prove to her anything but the +spring of happiness, for it was ripened by love; and the earnings of the +nimble fingers, moving often into the still hours of the night, not only +kept the wolf from the door, but let in the lambs of domestic harmony +and peace. Would that these things had so continued! But there are other +wolves than those of poverty, and the "ae lamb o' the fauld" cannot be +always under the protection of the ewe; and it so happened on a certain +night, not particularized in the calendar, that our Mysie, having +finished one of these floral petticoats on which she had been engaged +for many weeks, went forth with her precious burden to deliver the same +to its impatient owner, no other than the then famous Anabella Gilroy, +who resided in Advocate's Close--of which fine lady, by the way, we may +say, that of all the gay creatures who paraded between "the twa Bows," +no one displayed such ample folds of brocaded silk, nodded her pon-pons +more jauntily, or napped with a sharper crack her high-heeled shoes, all +to approve herself to "the bucks" of the time, with their square coats +brocaded with lace, their three-cornered hats on the top of their +bob-wigs, their knee-buckles and shoe-buckles. And certainly not the +least important of those, both in his own estimation and that of the +sprightly Anabella, was George Balgarnie, a young man who had only a +year before succeeded to the property of Balgruddery, somewhere in the +north, and of whom we might say that, in forming him, Nature had taken +so much pains with the building up of the body, that she had forgotten +the mind, so that he had no more spiritual matter in him than sufficed +to keep his blood hot, and enable his sensual organs to work out their +own selfish gratifications; or, to perpetrate a metaphor, he was all the +polished mahogany of a piano, without any more musical springs than +might respond to one keynote of selfishness. And surely Anabella had +approved herself to the fop to some purpose; for when our sempstress +with her bundle had got into the parlour of the fine lady, she +encountered no other than Balgarnie--a circumstance apparently of very +small importance; but we know that a moment of time is sometimes like a +small seed, which contains the nucleus of a great tree--perhaps a +poisonous one. And so it turned out that, while Anabella was gloating +over the beautiful work of the timid embroideress, Balgarnie was busy +admiring the artist, but not merely--perhaps not at all--as an artist, +only as an object over whom he wished to exercise power. + +This circumstance was not unobserved by the little embroideress, but it +was only observed to be shrunk from in her own timid way; and probably +it would soon have passed from her mind, if it had not been followed up +by something more direct and dangerous. And it was; for no sooner had +Mysie got to the foot of the stairs than she encountered Balgarnie, who +had gone out before her; and now began one of those romances in daily +life of which the world is full, and of which the world is sick. +Balgarnie, in short, commenced that kind of suit which is nearly as old +as the serpent, and therefore not to be wondered at; neither are we to +wonder that Mysie listened to it, because we have heard so much about +"lovely woman stooping to folly," that we are content to put it to the +large account of natural miracles. And not very miraculous either, when +we remember that if the low-breathed accents of tenderness awaken the +germ of love, they awaken at the same time faith and trust. And such was +the beginning of the romance which was to go through the normal +stages,--the appointment to meet again, the meeting itself, the others +that followed, the extension of the moonlight walks, sometimes to the +Hunter's Bog between Arthur's Seat and Salisbury Crags, and sometimes to +the song-famed "Wells o' Weary,"--all which were just as sun and shower +to the germ of the plant. The love grew and grew, and the faith grew and +grew also which saw in him that which it felt in itself. Nay, if any of +those moonlight-loving elves that have left their foot-marks in the +fairy rings to be seen near St. Anthony's Well had whispered in Mysie's +ear, "Balgarnie will never make you his wife," she would have believed +the words as readily as if they had impugned the sincerity of her own +heart. In short, we have again the analogue of the parasitic plant. The +very fragility and timidity of Mysie were at once the cause and +consequence of her confidence. She would cling to him and cover him with +the blossoms of her affection; nay, if there were unsoundness in the +stem, these very blossoms would cover the rottenness. + +This change in the life of the little sempstress could not fail to +produce some corresponding change at home. We read smoothly the play we +have acted ourselves; and so the mother read love in the daughter's +eyes, and heard it, too, in her long sighs; nor did she fail to read the +sign that the song which used to lighten her beautiful work was no +longer heard; for love to creatures so formed as Mysie Craig is too +serious an affair for poetical warbling. But she said nothing; for while +she had faith in the good sense and virtue of her daughter, she knew +also that there was forbearance due to one who was her support. Nor, as +yet, had she reason to fear, for Mysie still plied her needle, and the +roses and the lilies sprang up in all their varied colours out of the +ground of the silk or satin as quickly and as beautifully as they were +wont, though the lilies of her checks waxed paler as the days flitted. +And why the latter should have been, we must leave to the reader; for +ourselves only hazarding the supposition that, perhaps, she already +thought that Balgarnie should be setting about to make her his wife--an +issue which behoved to be the result of their intimacy sooner or later; +for that in her simple mind there should be any other issue, was just +about as impossible as that, in the event of the world lasting as long, +the next moon would not, at her proper time, again shine in that green +hollow, between the Lion's Head and Samson's Ribs, which had so often +been the scene of their happiness. Nay, we might say that though a doubt +on the subject had by any means got into her mind, it would not have +remained there longer than it took a shudder to scare the wild thing +away. + +Of course, all this was only a question of time; but certain it is, that +by-and-by the mother could see some connection between Mysie's being +more seldom out on those moonlight nights than formerly, and a greater +paleness in her thin face, as if the one had been the cause of the +other. But still she said nothing, for she daily expected that Mysie +would herself break the subject to her; and so she was left only to +increasing fears that her daughter's heart and affections had been +tampered with, and perhaps she had fears that went farther. Still, so +far as yet had gone, there was no remission in the labours of Mysie's +fingers, as if in the midst of all--whatever that all might be--she +recognised the paramount necessity of bringing in by those fingers the +required and usual amount of the means of their livelihood. Nay, somehow +or other, there was at that very time, when her cheek was at the palest, +and her sighs were at their longest, and her disinclination to speak was +at the strongest, an increase of work upon her; for was not there a +grand tunic to embroider for Miss Anabella, which was wanted on a given +day; and were there not other things for Miss Anabella's friend, Miss +Allardice, which were not to be delayed beyond that same day? And so she +stitched and stitched on and on, till sometimes the little lamp seemed +to go out for want of oil, while the true cause of her diminished light +was really the intrusion of the morning sun, against which it had no +chance. It might be, too, that her very anxiety to get these grand +dresses finished helped to keep out of her mind ideas which could have +done her small good, even if they had got in. + +But at length the eventful hour came when the gentle sempstress withdrew +the shining needle, made clear by long use, from the last touch of the +last rose; and doubtless, if Mysie had not been under the cloud of +sorrow we have mentioned, she would have been happier at the termination +of so long a labour than she had ever been, for the finishing evening +had always been celebrated by a glass of strong Edinburgh ale--a drink +which, as both a liquor and a liqueur, was as famous then as it is at +this day. But of what avail was this work-termination to her now? Was it +not certain that she had not seen Balgarnie for two moons? and though +the impossibility of his not marrying her was just as impossible as +ever, why were these two moons left to shine in the green hollow and on +the rising hill without the privilege of throwing the shadows of Mysie +Craig and George Balgarnie on the grass, where the fairies had left the +traces of their dances? Questions these which she was unable to answer, +if it were not even that she was afraid to put them to herself. Then, +when was it that she felt herself unable to tie up her work in order to +take it home, and that her mother, seeing the reacting effect of the +prior sleepless nights in her languid frame, did this little duty for +her, even as while she was doing it she looked through her tears at her +changed daughter? But Mysie would do so much. While the mother should go +to Miss Allardice, Mysie would proceed to Miss Anabella; and so it was +arranged. They went forth together, parting at the Nether Bow; and +Mysie, in spite of a weakness which threatened to bring her with her +burden to the ground, struggled on to her destination. At the top of +Advocate's Close she saw a man hurry out and increase his step even as +her eye rested on him; and if it had not appeared to her to be among the +ultimate impossibilities of things, natural as well as unnatural, she +would have sworn that that man was George Balgarnie; but then, it just +so happened that Mysie came to the conclusion that such a circumstance +was among these ultimate impossibilities. + +This resolution was an effort which cost her more than the conviction +would have done, though doubtless she did not feel this at the time, and +so with a kind of forced step she mounted the stair; but when she got +into the presence of Miss Gilroy, she could scarcely pronounce the +words-- + +"I have brought you the dress, ma'am." + +"And I am so delighted, Miss Craig, that I could almost take you into my +arms," said the lady; "but what ails ye, dear? You are as white as any +snow I ever saw, whereas you ought to have been as blithe as a +bridesmaid, for don't you know that you have brought me home one of my +marriage dresses? Come now, smile when I tell you that to-morrow is my +wedding-day." + +"Wedding-day," muttered Mysie, as she thought of the aforesaid utter +impossibility of herself not being soon married to George Balgarnie; an +impossibility not rendered less impossible by the resolution she had +formed not to believe that within five minutes he had flown away from +her. + +"Yes, Miss Craig, and surely you must have heard who the gentleman is; +for does not the town ring of it from the castle to the palace, from +Kirk-o'-Field to the Calton?" + +"I have not been out," said Mysie. + +"That accounts for it," continued the lady; "and I am delighted at the +reason, for wouldn't it have been terrible to think that my marriage +with George Balgarnie of Balgruddery was a thing of so small a note as +not to be known everywhere?" + +If Mysie Craig had appeared shortly before to Miss Gilroy paler than any +snow her ladyship had ever seen, she must now have been as pale as some +other kind of snow that nobody ever saw. The dreadful words had indeed +produced the adequate effect, but not in the most common way, for we are +to keep in view that it is not the most shrinking and sensitive natures +that are always the readiest to faint; and there was, besides, the +aforesaid conviction of impossibility which, grasping the mind by a +certain force, deadened the ear to words implying the contrary. Mysie +stood fixed to the spot, as if she were trying to realize some certainty +she dared not think was possible, her lips apart, her eyes riveted on +the face of the lady--mute as that kind of picture which a certain +ancient calls a silent poem, and motionless as a figure of marble. + +An attitude and appearance still more inexplicable to Anabella, perhaps +irritating as an unlucky omen, and therefore not possessing any claim +for sympathy--at least it got none. + +"Are you the Mysie Craig," she cried, as she looked at the girl, "who +used to chat to me about the dresses you brought, and the flowers on +them? Ah, jealous and envious, is that it? But you forget, George +Balgarnie never could have made _you_ his wife--a working needlewoman; +he only fancied you as the plaything of an hour. He told me so himself +when I charged him with having been seen in your company. So, Mysie, you +may as well look cheerful. Your turn will come next with some one in +your own station." + +There are words which stimulate and confirm; there are others that seem +to kill the nerve and take away the sense, nor can we ever tell the +effect till we see it produced; and so we could not have told +beforehand--nay, we would have looked for something quite opposite--that +Mysie, shrinking and irritable as she was by nature, was saved from a +faint (which had for some moments been threatening her) by the cruel +insult which thus had been added to her misfortune. She had even power +to have recourse to that strange device of some natures, that of +"affecting to be not affected;" and casting a glance at the fine lady, +she turned and went away without uttering a single word. But who knows +the pain of the conventional concealment of pain except those who have +experienced the agony of the trial? Even at the moment when she heard +that George Balgarnie was to be married, and that she came to know that +she had been for weeks sewing the marriage dress of his bride, she was +carrying under her heart the living burden which was the fruit of her +love for that man. Yet not the burden of shame and dishonour, as our +story will show, for she was justified by the law of her country--yea, +by certain words once written by an apostle to the Corinthians, all +which may as yet appear a great mystery; but as regards Mysie Craig's +agony, as she staggered down Miss Gilroy's stairs on her way home, there +could be no doubt or mystery whatever. + +Nor, when she got home, was there any comfort there for the daughter who +had been so undutiful as to depart from her mother's precepts, and +conceal from her not only her unfortunate connection with a villain, but +the condition into which that connection had brought her. But she was at +least saved from the pain of a part of the confession, for her mother +had learned enough from Miss Allardice to satisfy her as to the cause of +her daughter's change from the happy creature she once was, singing in +the long nights, as she wrought unremittingly at her beautiful work, and +the poor, sighing, pale, heart-broken thing she had been for months. Nor +did she fail to see, with the quick eye of a mother, that as Mysie +immediately on entering the house laid herself quietly on the bed, and +sobbed in her great agony, she had learned the terrible truth from Miss +Gilroy that the robe she had embroidered was to deck the bride of her +destroyer. Moreover, her discretion enabled her to perceive that this +was not the time for explanation, for the hours of grief are sacred, and +the heart must be left to do its work by opening the issues of Nature's +assuagement, or ceasing to beat. So the night passed, without question +or answer; and the following day, that of the marriage, was one of +silence, even as if death had touched the tongue that used to be the +medium of cheerful words and tender sympathies--a strange contrast to +the joy, if not revelry, in Advocate's Close. + +It was not till after several days had passed that Mysie was able, as +she still lay in bed, to whisper, amidst the recurring sobs, in the ear +of her mother, as the latter bent over her, the real circumstances of +her condition; and still, amidst the trembling words, came the +vindication that she considered herself to be as much the wife of George +Balgarnie as if they had been joined by "Holy Kirk;" a statement which +the mother could not understand, if it was not to her a mystery, +rendered even more mysterious by a reference which Mysie made to the law +of the country, as she had heard the same from her cousin, George +Davidson, a writer's clerk in the Lawnmarket. Much of which, as it came +in broken syllables from the lips of the disconsolate daughter, the +mother put to the account of the fond dreams of a mind put out of joint +by the worst form of misery incident to young women. But what availed +explanations, mysteries or no mysteries, where the fact was patent that +Mysie Craig lay there, the poor heartbroken victim of man's perfidy--her +powers of industry broken and useless--the fine weaving genius of her +fancy, whereby she wrought her embroidered devices to deck and adorn +beauty, only engaged now on portraying all the evils of her future life; +and above all, was she not soon to become a mother? + +Meanwhile, and in the midst of all this misery, the laid-up earnings of +Mysie's industry wore away, where there was no work by those cunning +fingers, now thin and emaciated; and before the days passed, and the +critical day came whereon another burden would be imposed on the +household, there was need for the sympathy of neighbours in that form +which soon wears out--pecuniary help. That critical day at length came. +Mysie Craig gave birth to a boy, and their necessities from that hour +grew in quicker and greater proportion than the generosity of friends. +There behoved something to be done, and that without delay. So when +Mysie lay asleep, with the innocent evidence of her misfortune by her +side, Mrs. Craig put on her red plaid and went forth on a mother's duty, +and was soon in the presence of George Balgarnie and his young wife. She +was under an impulse which made light of delicate conventionalities, and +did not think it necessary to give the lady an opportunity of being +absent: nay, she rather would have her to be present; for was she, who +had been so far privy to the intercourse between her husband and Mysie, +to be exempt from the consequences which she, in a sense, might have +been said to have brought about? + +"Ye have ruined Mysie Craig, sir!" cried at once the roused mother. "Ye +have ta'en awa her honour. Ye have ta'en awa her health. Ye have ta'en +awa her bread. Ay, and ye have reduced three human creatures to want, it +may be starvation; and I have come here in sair sorrow and necessity to +ask when and whaur is to be the remeid?" + +"When and where you may find it, woman!" said the lady, as she cast a +side-glance to her husband, probably by way of appeal for the truth of +what she thought it right to say. "Mr. Balgarnie never injured your +daughter. Let him who did the deed yield the remeid!" + +"And do you stand by this?" said Mrs. Craig. + +But the husband had been already claimed as free from blame by his wife, +who kept her eye fixed upon him; and the obligation to conscience, said +by sceptics to be an offspring of society, is sometimes weaker than what +is due to a wife, in the estimation of whom a man may wish to stand in a +certain degree of elevation. + +"You must seek another father to the child of your daughter," said he +lightly. And not content with the denial, he supplemented it by a laugh +as he added, "When birds go to the greenwood, they must take the chance +of meeting the goshawk." + +"And that is your answer?" said she. + +"It is; and you need never trouble either my wife or me more on this +subject," was the reply. + +"Then may the vengeance o' the God of justice light on the heads o' +baith o' ye!" added Mrs. Craig, as she went hurriedly away. + +Nor was her threat intended as an empty one, for she held on her way +direct to the Lawnmarket, where she found George Davidson, to whom she +related as much as she had been able to get out of Mysie, and also what +had passed at the interview with Balgarnie and his lady. After hearing +which, the young writer shook his head. + +"You will get a trifle of aliment," said he; "perhaps half-a-crown a +week, but no more; and Mysie could have made that in a day by her +beautiful work." + +"And she will never work mair," said the mother, with a sigh. + +"For a hundred years," rejoined he, more to himself than to her, and +probably in congratulation of himself for his perspicacity, "and since +ever there was a College of Justice, there never was a case where a man +pulled up on oath for a promise of marriage admitted the fact. It is a +good Scotch law, only we want a people to obey it. But what," he added +again, "if we were to try it, though it were only as a grim joke and a +revenge in so sad and terrible a case as that of poor Mysie Craig!" + +Words which the mother understood no more than she did law Latin; and so +she was sent away as sorrowful as she had come, for Davidson did not +want to raise hopes which there was no chance of being fulfilled; but he +knew as a Scotchman that a man who trusts himself to a "strae rape" in +the hope of its breaking, may possibly hang himself; and so it happened +that the very next day a summons was served upon George Balgarnie, to +have it found and declared by the Lords of Session that he had promised +to marry Mysie Craig, whereupon a child had been born by her; or, in +fault of that, he was bound to sustain the said child. Thereupon, +without the ordinary law's delay, certain proceedings went on, in the +course of which Mysie herself was examined as the mother to afford what +the lawyers call a _semiplena probatio_, or half proof, to be +supplemented otherwise, and thereafter George Balgarnie stood before the +august fifteen. He denied stoutly all intercourse with Mysie, except an +occasional walk in the Hunter's Bog; and this he would have denied also, +but he knew that he had been seen, and that it would be sworn to by +others. And then came the last question, which Mr. Greerson, Mysie's +advocate, put in utter hopelessness. Nay, so futile did it seem to try +to catch a Scotchman by advising him to put his head in a noose on the +pretence of seeing how it fitted his neck, that he smiled even as the +words came out of his mouth-- + +"Did you ever promise to marry Mysie Craig?" + +Was prudence, the chief of the four cardinal virtues, ever yet +consistent with vice? Balgarnie waxed clever--a dangerous trick in a +witness. He stroked his beard with a smile on his face, and answered-- + +"_Yes, once--when I was drunk_!" + +Words which were immediately followed by the crack of a single word in +the dry mouth of one of the advocates--the word "NICKED." + +And nicked he was; for the presiding judge, addressing the witness, +said-- + +"The drunkenness may be good enough in its own way, sir; but it does not +take away the effect of your promise; nay, it is even an aggravation, +insomuch as having enjoyed the drink, you wanted to enjoy with impunity +what you could make of the promise also." + +If Balgarnie had been a reader, he might have remembered Waller's +verse-- + + "That eagle's fate and mine are one, + Which on the shaft that made him die + Espied a feather of his own, + Wherewith he wont to soar so high." + +So Mysie gained her plea, and the marriage with Anabella, for whom she +had embroidered the marriage gown, was dissolved. How matters progressed +afterwards for a time, we know not; but the Scotch know that there is +wisdom in making the best of a bad bargain, and in this case it was a +good one; for, as the Lady of Balgruddery, Mysie Craig did no dishonour +to George Balgarnie, who, moreover, found her a faithful wife, and a +good mother to the children that came of this strange marriage. + + + + +THE TWIN BROTHERS. + + +William Sim was the son of a feuar in the southern part of +Dumfriesshire, who, by dint of frugality, had hoarded together from +three to four hundred pounds. This sum he was resolved to employ in +setting up his son in business; and, in pursuance of this resolution, at +the age of fourteen William was bound as an apprentice to a wealthy old +grocer in Carlisle; and it was his fortune in a few months to ingratiate +himself into the favour and confidence of his master. The grocer had a +daughter, who, though not remarkable for the beauty of her face or the +elegance of her person, had nevertheless an agreeable countenance, and +ten thousand independent charms to render it more agreeable. She was +some eighteen months older than William; and when he first came to be an +apprentice with her father, and a boarder in his house, she looked upon +him as quite a boy, while she considered herself to be a full-grown +woman. He was, indeed, a mere boy--and a clownish-looking boy too. He +wore a black leathern cap, edged and corded with red, which his mother +called a _bendy_; a coarse grey jacket; a waistcoat of the same; and his +trousers were of a brownish-green cord, termed _thickset_. His shoes +were of the double-soled description, which ought more properly to be +called brogues; and into them, on the evening previous to his departure, +his father had driven tackets and sparables innumerable, until they +became like a plate of iron or a piece of warlike workmanship, +resembling the scaled cuirass of a mailed knight in the olden time; +"for," said he, "the callant will hae runnin' about on the causeway and +plainstanes o' Carlisle sufficient to drive a' the shoon in the world +aff his feet." When, therefore, William Sim made his debut behind the +counter of Mr. Carnaby, the rich grocer of Carlisle, and as he ran on a +message through the streets, with his bendy cap, grey jacket, thickset +trousers, and ironed shoes, striking fire behind him as he ran, and +making a noise like a troop of cavalry, the sprucer youngsters of the +city said he was "new caught." But William Sim had not been two years in +Carlisle when he began to show his shirt collar; his clattering brogues +gave place to silent pumps, his leathern bendy to a fashionable hat, and +his coarse grey jacket to a coat with tails. Moreover, he began to bow +and smile to the ladies when they entered the shop; he also became quite +a connoisseur in teas and confections; he recommended them to them, and +he bowed and smiled again as they left. Such was the work of less than +two years; and before three went round, there was not a smarter or a +better dressed youth in all Carlisle than William Sim. He became a +favourite subject of conversation amongst the young belles; and there +was not one of them who, if disengaged, would have said to him, "Get +thee behind me." Miss Carnaby heard the conversation of her young +companions, and she gradually became conscious that William was not a +boy; in fact, she began to wonder how she had ever thought so, for he, +as she said unto herself, was "certainly a very interesting _young +man_." Within other four years, and before the period of his +apprenticeship had expired, William began to repeat poetry--some said to +write it, but that was not the fact; he only twisted or altered a few +words now and then, to suit the occasion; and almost every line ended +with words of such soft sounds as bliss, kiss--love, dove--joy, cloy, +and others equally sweet, the delightful meanings of which are only to +be met with in the sentimental glossary. He now gave Miss Carnaby his +arm to church; and, on leaving it in the afternoons, they often walked +into the fields together. On such occasions, + + "Talk of various kinds deceived the road;" + +and even when they were silent, their silence had an eloquence of its +own. One day they had wandered farther than their wont, and they stood +on the little bridge where the two kingdoms meet, about half a mile +below Gretna. I know not what soft persuasion he employed, but she +accompanied him up the hill which leadeth through the village of +Springfield, and they went towards the far-famed Green together. In less +than an hour, Miss Carnaby that was, returned towards Carlisle as Mrs. +Sim, leaning affectionately on her husband's arm. + +When the old grocer heard of what had taken place, he was exceedingly +wroth; and although, as has been said, William stood high in his favour, +he thus addressed him-- + +"Ay, ay, sir!--fine doings! This comes of your Sunday walking! And I +suppose you say that my daughter is yours--that she is your wife; and +_she_ may be _yours_--but I'll let you know, sir, my _money_ is _mine_; +and I'll cut you both off. You shan't have a sixpence. I'll rather build +a church, sir; I'll give it towards paying off the national debt, you +rascal. You would steal my daughter--eh!" + +Thus spoke Mr. Carnaby in his wrath; but when the effervescence of his +indignation had subsided, he extended to both the hand of forgiveness, +and resigned his business in favour of his son-in-law. + +Mr. William Sim, therefore, began the world under the most favourable +circumstances. He found a fortune prepared to his hands; he had only to +improve it. In a few years the old grocer died; and he bequeathed to +them the gains of half a century. For twenty years Mr. Sim continued in +business, and he had nearly doubled the fortune which he obtained with +his wife. Mrs. Sim was a kind-hearted woman; but by nature, or through +education, she had also a considerable portion of vanity, and she began +to think that it was the duty of her opulent husband to retire from +business, and assume the character of an independent gentleman; or +rather, I ought to say, of a country gentleman--a squire. She professed +to be the more anxious that he should do this on account of the health +of her daughter--the sole survivor of five children--and who was then +entering upon womanhood. Maria Sim (for such was their daughter's name) +was a delicate and accomplished girl of seventeen. The lovely hue that +dwelt upon her cheeks, like the blush of a rainbow, was an emblem of +beauty, not of health. At the solicitations of her mother, her father +gave up his business, and purchased a neat villa, and a few acres that +surrounded it, in the neighbourhood of Windermere. The house lay in the +bosom of poetry; and the winds that shouted like a triumphant army +through the mountain glens, or in gentle zephyrs sighed upon the lake, +and gambolled with the ripples, made music around it. + +The change, the beauty, I had almost said the deliciousness of their +place of abode, had effected a wondrous improvement in the health of +Maria; yet her mother was not happy. She was not treated by her +neighbours with the obsequious reverence which she believed to be due to +persons possessed of twenty thousand pounds. The fashionable ladies in +the neighbourhood, also, called her "a mean person"--"a nobody"--"an +upstart of yesterday." In truth, there were not a few who so spoke, +because they envied the wealth of the Sims, and were resolved to humble +them. + +An opportunity for them to do so soon occurred. A subscription ball or +assembly, patronized by all the fashionables in the district, was to +take place at Keswick. Mrs. Sim, in some measure from a desire of +display, and also, as she said, to bring out Maria, put down her +husband's name, her own, and their daughter's, on the list. Many of the +personages above referred to, on seeing the names of the Sim family on +the subscription paper, turned upon their heel, and exclaimed--"Shocking!" + +But the important evening arrived. Mrs. Sim had ordered a superb dress +from London expressly for the occasion. A duchess might have worn it at +a drawing-room. The dress of Maria was simplicity typified, and +consisted of a frock of the finest and the whitest muslin; while her +slender waist was girdled with a lavender ribbon, her raven hair +descended down her snowy neck in ringlets, and around her head she wore +a wreath of roses. + +When Mr. Sim, with his wife and daughter, entered the room, there was a +stare of wonderment amongst the company. No one spoke to them, no one +bowed to them. The spirit of dumbness seemed to have smitten the +assembly. But a general whispering, like the hissing of a congregation +of adders, succeeded the silence. Then, at the head of the room, the +voices of women rose sharp, angry, and loud. Six or eight, who appeared +as the representatives of the company, were in earnest and excited +conversation with the stewards; and the words--"low people!"--"vulgar!" +--"not to be borne!"--"cheese! faugh!"--"impertinence!"--"must be humbled!" +--became audible throughout the room. One of the stewards, a Mr. Morris of +Morris House, approached Mr. Sim, and said-- + +"You, sir, are Mr. Sim, I believe, late grocer and cheesemonger in +Carlisle?" + +"I suppose, sir," replied the other, "you know that without me telling +you; if you do not, you have some right to know me." + +"Well, sir," continued the steward of the assembly, "I come to inform +you that you have made a mistake. This is not a _social dance_ amongst +_tradesmen_, but an _assembly_ of _ladies_ and _gentlemen_; therefore, +sir, your presence cannot be allowed here." + +Poor Maria became blind, the hundred different head-dresses seemed to +float around her. She clung to her father's arm for support. Her mother +was in an agony of indignation. + +"Sir," said Mr. Sim, "I don't know what you call _gentlemen_; but if it +be not _genteel_ to have sold teas and groceries, it is at least more +_honourable_ than to use them and never pay for them. You will remember, +sir, there is a considerable sum standing against you in my books; and +if the money be not paid to me tonight, you shall have less space to +dance in before morning." + +"Insolent barbarian!" exclaimed Squire Morris, stamping his foot upon +the floor. + +Mrs. Sim screamed; Maria's head fell upon her father's shoulder. A dozen +gentlemen approached to the support of the steward; and one of them, +waving his hand and addressing Mr. Sim, said, "Away, sir!" + +The retired merchant bowed and withdrew, not in confusion, but with a +smile of malignant triumph. He strove to soothe his wife--for his +daughter, when relieved from the presence of the disdainful eyes that +gazed on her, bore the insult that had been offered them meekly--and, +after remaining an hour in Keswick, they returned to their villa in the +same chaise in which they had arrived. + +In the assembly room the dance began, and fairy forms glided through the +floor, lightly, silently, as a falling blossom embraceth the earth. Mr. +Morris was leading down a dance, when a noise was heard at the door. +Some person insisted on being admitted, and the door-keepers resisted +him. But the intruder carried with him a small staff, on the one end of +which was a brass crown, and on its side the letters G. R. It was a +talisman potent as the wand of a magician; the doorkeepers became +powerless before it. The intruder entered the room--he passed through +the mazes of the whirling dance--he approached Mr. Morris--he touched +him on the shoulder--he put a piece of paper in his hand--he whispered +in his ear-- + +"You are my prisoner!--come with me!" + +His lady and his daughters were present, and they felt most bitterly the +indignity which a low tradesman had offered them. Confusion paralyzed +them; they stood still in the middle of the dance, and one of the young +ladies swooned away and fell upon the ground. The time, the place, the +manner of arrest, all bespoke malignant and premeditated insult. + +Mr. Morris gnashed his teeth together, but, without speaking, +accompanied the officer that had arrested him in the room. He remained +in custody in an adjoining inn throughout the night; on the following +day, was released on bail; and, within a week, his solicitor paid the +debt, by augmenting the mortgage on Morris House estate. + +It is hardly necessary to say--for such is human nature--that, after +this incident, the hatred between Mr. Sim and Squire Morris became +inveterate; and the wives of both, and the daughters of the latter, +partook in the relentless animosity. Two years passed, and every day the +mutual hatred and contempt in which they held each other increased. At +that period, a younger son of Squire Morris, who was a lieutenant in the +service of the East India Company, obtained leave to visit England and +his friends. It was early in June; the swallows chased each other in +sport, twittering as they flew over the blue bosom of Windermere; every +bush, every tree--yea, it seemed as if every branch sent forth the music +of singing birds, and the very air was redolent with melody, from the +bold songs of the thrush and the lark to the love-note of the +wood-pigeon; and even the earth rejoiced in the chirp of the +grasshopper, its tiny but pleasant musician. The fields and the leaves +were in the loveliness and freshness of youth, luxuriating in the +sunbeams, in the depth of their summer green; and the butterfly sported, +and the bee pursued its errand from flower to flower. The mighty +mountains circled the scene, and threw their dun shadow on the lake, +where, a hundred fathoms deep, they seemed a bronzed and inverted world. +At this time, Maria Sim was sailing upon the lake in a small boat that +her father had purchased for her, and which was guided by a boy. + +A sudden, but not what could be called a strong, breeze came away. The +boy had little strength and less skill, and, from his awkwardness in +shifting the sail, he caused the boat to upset. Maria was immersed in +the lake. The boy clung to the boat, but terror deprived him of ability +to render her assistance. She struggled with the waters, and her +garments bore her partially up for a time. A boat, in which was a young +gentleman, had been sailing to and fro, and, at the time the accident +occurred, was within three hundred yards of her. On hearing her sudden +cry, and the continued screams of the boy, he drew in his sail, and, +taking the oars, at his utmost strength pulled to her assistance. Almost +at every third stroke he turned round his head to see the progress he +had made, or if he had yet reached her. Twice he beheld her disappear +beneath the water--a third time she rose to the surface--he was within a +few yards of her. He sprang from his boat. She was again sinking. He +dived after her, he raised her beneath his arm, and succeeded in placing +her in his boat. He also rescued the boy, and conveyed them both to +land. + +Maria, though for a time speechless, was speedily, through the exertions +of her deliverer, restored to consciousness. Even before she was capable +of thanking him or of speaking to him--yea, before her eyes had opened +to meet his--he had gazed with admiration on her beautiful features, +which were lovely, though the shadow of death was then over them, almost +its hand upon them. In truth, he had never gazed upon a fairer face, and +when she spoke, he had never listened to a sweeter or a gentler voice. +He had been beneath an Indian sun, where the impulses of the heart are +fervid as the clime, and where, when the sun is gazed upon, its +influence is acknowledged. But, had she been less beautiful than she +was, and her features less lovely to look upon, there was a strong +something in the very manner and accident of their being brought into +each other's society, which appealed more powerfully to the heart than +beauty could. It at least begot an interest in the fate of each other; +and an interest so called is never very widely separated from affection. +The individual who had saved Maria's life was Lieutenant Morris. + +He conveyed her first to a peasant's cottage, and afterwards to her +father's villa. He knew nothing of the feeling of hatred that existed +between their families; and when Mr. Sim heard his name, though for a +moment it caused a glow to pass over his face, every other emotion was +speedily swallowed up in gratitude towards the deliverer of his child; +and when Maria was sufficiently recovered to thank him, though she knew +him to be the son of her father's enemy, it was with tears too deep for +words--tears that told what eloquence would have failed to express. Even +Mrs. Sim, for the time, forgot her hatred of the parents in her +obligations to the son. + +When, however, the young lieutenant returned to Morris House, and made +mention of the adventure in which he had been engaged, and spoke at the +same time, in the ardour of youthful admiration, of the beauty and +gentleness of the fair being he had rescued from untimely death, the +cheeks of his sisters became pale, their eyeballs distended as if with +horror. The word "wretch!" escaped from his mother's lips, and she +seemed struggling with smothered rage. He turned towards his father for +an explanation of the change that had so suddenly come over the +behaviour of his mother and sisters. + +"Son," said the squire, "I had rather thou hadst perished than that a +son of mine should have put forth his hand to assist a dog of the man +whose daughter thou hast saved!" + +On being made acquainted with the cause of the detestation that existed +between the two families, Lieutenant Morris, in some degree, yielded to +the whisperings of wounded pride, and began to regret that he had +entered the house of a man who had offered an indignity to his father +that was not to be forgiven. But he thought also of the beauty of Maria, +of the sweetness of her smile, and of the tears of voiceless gratitude +which he had seen bedimming the lustre of her bright eyes. + +He had promised to call again at her father's on the day after the +accident; and with an ardent kindliness, Mr. Sim had welcomed him to do +so. But he went forth, he wandered by the side of the lake, he +approached within sight of the house, there was a contention of strange +feelings in his breast, and he returned without paying his promised +visit. Nevertheless, thoughts of Maria haunted him, and her image +mingled with all his fancies. She became as a spirit in his memory that +he could not expel, and that he would not if he could. + +Three weeks passed on--it was evening--the sun was sinking behind the +mountains, and Lieutenant Morris was wandering through a wooded vale, +towards Mr. Sim's mansion; for though he entered it not, he nightly drew +towards it, as if instinctively, wandering around it, and gazing on its +windows as he did so, marvelling as he gazed. He was absorbed in one of +those dreamy reveries in which men saunter, speak, and muse +unconsciously, when, in following the windings of a footpath which led +through a thicket, he suddenly found himself in the presence of a young +lady, who was walking slowly across the wood with a book in her hand. +Their eyes met--they startled--the book dropped by her side--it was +Maria. + +I must not, however, dwell longer on this part of the subject; for the +story of the twin brothers is yet to begin. Let it be sufficient to say +that William, or, as I have hitherto called him, Lieutenant Morris, and +Maria whom he saved, became attached to each other. Their dispositions +were similar; they seemed formed for each other. Affection took deep +root in their hearts; and to root up that affection in the breast of +either, was to destroy the heart itself. He made known his attachment +towards Maria to his father; and galled pride and hatred to those who +had injured him being stronger in the breast of the old squire than the +small still voice of affection, he spurned his son from him, and ordered +him to leave his house for ever. + +The parents of Maria, notwithstanding their first feelings of gratitude +towards the saviour of their daughter, were equally averse to a union +between them; but with Maria the impulse of the heart and the lover's +passionate prayer prevailed over her parents' frowns. They were wed, +they became all to each other, and were disowned by those who gave them +birth. + +When Lieutenant Morris left India, he obtained permission to remain in +England for three years; and it was about twelve months after his +arrival that the marriage between him and Maria took place. He had still +two years to spend in his native land, and he hired a secluded and neat +cottage on the banks of the Annan for that period, for the residence of +himself and his young and beautiful wife. + +Twelve months after their marriage, Maria became the mother of +twins--the twin brothers of our tale. But three months had not passed, +nor had her infants raised their first smile towards their mother's +face, when the sterile hand of death touched the bosom that supplied +them with life. The young husband wept by the bed of death, with the +hand of her he loved in his. + +"William!" said the gentle Maria--and they were her dying words, for she +spoke not again--"my eyes will not behold another sun! I must leave you, +love! Oh my husband! I must leave our poor, our helpless infants! It is +hard to die thus! But when I am gone, dearest--when my babes have no +mother--oh, go to _my mother_, and tell her--tell her, William--that it +was the dying request of her Maria, that she would be as a mother to +them. Farewell, love!--farewell! If"-- + +Emotion and the strugglings of death overpowered her--her speech +failed--her eyes became fixed--her soul passed away, and the husband sat +in stupefaction and in agony, holding the hand of his dead wife to his +breast. He became conscious that she stirred not--that she breathed +not--oh! that she was not! and the wail of the distracted widower rang +suddenly and wildly through the cottage, startling his infants from +their slumber, and, as some who stood round the bed said, causing even +the features of the dead to move, as though the departed spirit had +lingered, casting a farewell glance upon the body, and passed over it +again, as the voice it had loved to hear rose loud in agony. + +The father of Maria came and attended her body to its last, long +resting-place. But he did no more; and he left the churchyard without +acknowledging that he perceived his grief-stricken son-in-law. + +In a few months it was necessary for Lieutenant Morris to return to +India, and he could not take his motherless and tender infants thither. +He wrote to the parents of his departed Maria; he told them of her last +request, breathed by her last words; he implored them, as they had once +loved her, during his absence to protect his children. + +But the hatred between Mr. Sim and Squire Morris had in no degree +abated. The former would have listened to his daughter's prayer, and +taken her twins and the nurse into his house; but his wife was less +susceptible to the influence of natural feeling, and even, while at +intervals she wept for poor Maria, she said-- + +"Take both of them, indeed! No, no! I loved our poor, thoughtless, +disobedient Maria, Mr. Sim, as well as you did, but I will not submit to +the Morrises. They have nothing to give the children; we have. But they +have the same, they have a greater right to provide for them than we +have. They shall take one of them, or none of them come into this +house." And again she broke into lamentations over the memory of Maria, +and, in the midst of her mourning, exclaimed--"But the child that we +take shall never be called Morris." + +Mr. Sim wrote an answer to his son-in-law, as cold and formal as if it +had been a note added to an invoice; colder indeed, for it had no +equivalent to the poor, hackneyed phrase in all such, of "_esteemed +favours_." In it he stated that he would "bring up" one of the children, +provided that Squire Morris would undertake the charge of the other. The +unhappy father clasped his hands together on perusing the letter, and +exclaimed-- + +"Must my poor babes be parted?--shall they be brought up to hate each +other? Oh Maria! would that I had died with you, and our children also!" + +To take them to India with him, where a war was threatened, was +impossible, and his heart revolted from the thought of leaving them in +this country with strangers. At times he was seen, with an infant son on +each arm, sitting over the stone upon the grave of their mother which he +had reared to her memory, kissing their cheeks and weeping over them, +while they smiled in his face unconsciously, and offered to him, in +those smiles, affection's first innocent tribute. On such occasions +their nurse stood gazing on the scene, wondering at her master's grief. + +Morris, of Morris House, reluctantly consented to take one of his +grandchildren under his care; but at the same time he refused to see his +son previous to his departure. + +The widowed father wept over his twin sons, and invoking a blessing on +them, saw their little arms sundered, and each conveyed to the houses of +those who had undertaken to be their protectors, while he again +proceeded towards India. The names of the twin sons were George and +Charles: the former was committed to the care of Mr. Morris, the other +to Mr. Sim. Yet it seemed as if these innocent pledges of a family +union, instead of destroying, strengthened the deep-rooted animosity +that existed between them. Not a month passed that they did not, in some +way, manifest their hatred of and their persecution towards each other. + +The squire exhibited a proof of his vindictiveness, in not permitting +the child of his son to remain beneath his roof. He had a small property +in Devonshire, which was rented by an individual who, with his wife, had +been servants under his father. To them George Morris, one of the infant +sons of poor Maria, before he was yet twelve months old, was sent, with +an injunction that he should be brought up as their own son, that he +should be taught to consider himself as such, and bear their name. + +The boy Charles, whose lot it was to be placed under the protection of +his mother's parents, was more fortunate. The love they had borne +towards their Maria they now lavished upon him. They called him by their +own name--they spoke of him as their heir, as their _sole_ heir, and +they inquired not after his brother. That brother became included in the +hatred which Mrs. Sim, at least, bore to his father's family. As he grew +up, his father's name was not mentioned in his presence. He was taught +to call his grandfather--father, and his grandmother--mother; and +withal, his mother so called instilled into his earliest thoughts an +abhorrence of the inmates of Morris House. At times his grandfather +whispered to her on such occasions, "Do not do the like of that, dear; +we know not how it may end." But she regarded not his admonitions, and +she strove that her grandchild should hold the very name of Morris in +hatred. + +The peasants to whose keeping George was confided, occupied, as has been +stated, a small farm under his grandfather, which lay on the banks of +the Dart, a few miles from Totnes. Their name was Prescot: they were +cold-hearted and ignorant people; they had no children of their own, nor +affection for those of others; neither had they received instructions to +show any to him whom they were to adopt as a son; and if they had been +arraigned for not doing so, they were of a character to have said with +Shylock--"It is not in the bond." When he grew up, there was then no +school in that part of Devonshire to which they could have sent him, had +they been inclined; but they were not inclined; though, if they had had +the power to educate him, they could have referred again to their bond, +and said that no injunction to educate him was mentioned there. His +first ideas were a consciousness of cruelty and oppression. At seven +years of age he was sent to herd a few sheep upon Dartmoor; before he +was nine, he was placed as a parish apprentice to the owner of a tin +mine, and buried from the light of heaven. + +Often and anxiously Lieutenant Morris wrote from India, inquiring after +his sons. He sent presents--love-gifts to each; but his letters were +unheeded, his presents disregarded. His children grew up in ignorance of +his existence, or of the existence of each other. + +It was about eighteen years after the death of Maria, and what is called +an annual _Revel_ was held at Ashburton. Prizes were to be awarded to +the best wrestlers, and hundreds were assembled from all parts of +Devonshire to witness the sports of the day. Two companies of soldiers +were stationed in the town at the time, and the officers, at the +suggestion of a young ensign called Charles Sim, agreed to subscribe a +purse of ten guineas towards the encouragement of the games. The young +ensign was from Cumberland, where the science of wrestling is still a +passion; and he, as the reader will have anticipated from the name he +bore, was none other than one of the twin brothers. The games were +skilfully and keenly contested; and a stripling from the neighbourhood +of Totnes, amidst the shouts of the multitude, was declared the victor. +The last he had overcome was a gigantic soldier, a native of Cumberland. +When the young ensign beheld his champion overcome, his blood rose for +the honour of his native county, and he regretted that he had not +sustained it in his own person. + +The purse subscribed by the officers was still to be wrestled for, and +the stripling victor re-entered the ring to compete for it. On his +design being perceived, others who wished to have contended for it drew +back, and he stood in the ring alone, no one daring to come forward to +compete with him. The umpire of the games was proclaiming that, if no +one stood against him, the purse would be awarded to him who had already +been pronounced the victor of the day, when Ensign Sim, who, with his +brother officers, had witnessed the sports from the windows of an +adjacent inn, said-- + +"Well, the lad shall have the purse, though I don't expect he will win +it; for, if no one else will, I shall give him a throw to redeem the +credit of old Cumberland." + +"Bravo, Sim!" cried his brother officers, and they accompanied him +towards the ring. + +The people again shouted when they perceived that there was to be +another game, and the more so when they discovered that the stranger +competitor was a gentleman. The ensign, having cast off his regimentals, +and equipped himself in the strait canvas jacket worn by wrestlers, +entered the ring. But now arose a new subject of wonderment, which in a +moment was perceived by the whole multitude; and the loud huzzas that +had welcomed his approach were hushed in a confused murmur of +astonishment. + +"Zwinge!" exclaimed a hundred voices, as they approached each other; +"they be loik one anoother as two beans!" + +"Whoy, which be which?" inquired others. + +The likeness between the two wrestlers was indeed remarkable; their age, +their stature, the colour of their hair, their features, were alike. +Spectators could not trace a difference between the one and the other. +The ensign had a small and peculiar mark below his chin; he perceived +that his antagonist had the same. They approached each other, extending +their arms for the contest. They stood still, they gazed upon each +other; as they gazed they started; their arms dropped by their sides; +they stood anxiously scrutinizing the countenance of each other, in +which each saw himself as in a glass. Astonishment deprived them of +strength; they forgot the purpose for which they met; they stretched +forth their hands, they grasped them together, and stood eagerly looking +into each other's eyes. + +"Friend," said the ensign, "this is indeed singular; our extraordinary +resemblance to each other fills me with amazement. What is your name? +from whence do you come?" + +"Whoy, master," rejoined the other, "thou art so woundy like myself, +that had I met thee anywhere but in the middle o' these folk, I should +have been afeared that I was agoing to die, and had zeen mysel'. My name +is George Prescot, at your sarvice. I coom from three miles down the +river there; and what may they call thee?" + +"My name," replied the soldier, "is Charles Sim. I am an orphan; my +parents I never saw. And tell me--for this strange resemblance between +us almost overpowers me--do yours live?" + +"Whoy," was the reply, "old Tom Prescot and his woif be alive; and they +zay as how they be my vather and moother, and I zuppose they be; but +zoom cast up to them that they bean't." + +No wrestling match took place between them; but hand in hand they walked +round the ring together, while the spectators gazed upon them in silent +wonder. + +The ensign presented the youth, who might have been styled his +fac-simile, with the purse subscribed by his brother officers and +himself; and in so doing he offered to double its contents. But the +youth, with a spirit above his condition, peremptorily refused the +offer, and said-- + +"No, master--thank you the zame--I will take nothing but what I have +won." + +Charles was anxious to visit "old Tom Prescot and his wife," of whom the +stranger had spoken; but the company to which he belonged was to march +forward to Plymouth on the following day, and there to embark. His +brother officers also dissuaded him from the thought. + +"Why, Sim," said they, "the likeness between you and the conqueror of +the ring was certainly a very pretty coincidence, and your meeting each +other quite a drama. But, my good fellow," added they, laughing, "take +the advice of older heads than your own--don't examine too closely into +your father's faults." + +Three years passed, and Charles, now promoted to the rank of a +lieutenant, accompanied the Duke of York in his more memorable than +brilliant campaign in Holland. A soldier was accused of having been +found sleeping on guard; he was tried, found guilty, and condemned to be +shot. A corporal's guard was accompanying the doomed soldier from the +place where sentence had been pronounced against him to the +prison-house, from whence he was to be brought forth for execution on +the following day. Lieutenant Sim passed near them. A voice exclaimed-- + +"Master! master!--save me! save me!" + +It was the voice of the condemned soldier. The lieutenant turned round, +and in the captive who called to him for assistance he recognised the +Devonshire wrestler--the strange portrait of himself. And even now, if +it were possible, the resemblance between them was more striking than +before; for, in the stranger, the awkwardness of the peasant had given +place to the smartness of the soldier. Charles had felt an interest in +him from the first moment he beheld him; he had wished to meet him +again, and had resolved to seek for him should he return to England; and +now the interest that he had before felt for him was increased tenfold. +The offence and the fate of the doomed one were soon told. The +lieutenant pledged himself that he would leave no effort untried to save +him; and he redeemed his pledge. He discovered, he obtained proof that +the condemned prisoner, George Prescot, had been employed on severe and +dangerous duties, against which it was impossible for nature longer to +stand up, but in all of which he had conducted himself as a good, a +brave, and a faithful soldier; and, more, that it could not be proved +that he was actually found asleep at his post, but that he was stupified +through excess of fatigue. + +He hastened to lay the evidence he had obtained respecting the conduct +and innocence of the prisoner before his Royal Highness, who, whatever +were his faults, was at least the soldier's friend. The Duke glanced +over the documents which the lieutenant laid before him; he listened to +the evidence of the comrades of the prisoner. He took a pen; he wrote a +few lines; he placed them in the hands of Lieutenant Sim. They contained +the free pardon of Private Prescot. Charles rushed with the pardon in +his hand to the prisoner; he exclaimed-- + +"Take this--you are pardoned--you are free!" + +The soldier would have embraced his knees to thank him; but the +lieutenant said-- + +"No! kneel not to me--consider me as a brother. I have merely saved the +life of an innocent and deserving man. But the strange resemblance +between us seems to me more than a strange coincidence. You have doubts +regarding your parentage; I know but little of mine. Nature has written +a mystery on our faces which we need to have explained. When this +campaign is over, we shall inquire concerning it. Farewell for the +present; but we must meet again." + +The feelings of the reprieved and unlettered soldier were too strong for +his words to utter; he shook the hand of his deliverer and wept. + +A few days after this some sharp fighting took place. The loss of the +British was considerable, and they were compelled to continue their +retreat, leaving their dead, and many of their wounded, exposed, as they +fell behind them. When they again arrived at a halting-place, Lieutenant +Sim sought the regiment to which the soldier who might be termed his +second self belonged. But he was not to be found; and all that he could +learn respecting him was, that, three days before, George Prescot had +been seen fighting bravely, but that he fell covered with wounds, and in +their retreat was left upon the field. + +Tears gushed into the eyes of the lieutenant when he heard the tidings. +His singular meeting with the stranger in Devonshire; their mysterious +resemblance to each other; his meeting him again in Holland under +circumstances yet more singular; his saving his life; and the dubious +knowledge which each had respecting their birth and parentage,--all had +sunk deep into his heart, and thoughts of these things chased sleep from +his pillow. + +It was but a short time after this that the regiment of Lieutenant Sim +was ordered to India, and he accompanied it; and it was only a few +months after his arrival, when the Governor-General gave an +entertainment at his palace, at which all the military officers around +were present. At table, opposite to Lieutenant Sim, sat a man of middle +age; and, throughout the evening, his eyes remained fixed upon him, and +occasionally seemed filled with tears. He was a colonel in the Company's +service, and a man who, by the force of merit, had acquired wealth and +reputation. + +"I crave your pardon, sir," said he, addressing the lieutenant; "but if +I be not too bold, a few words with you in private would confer a favour +upon me, and if my conjectures be right, will give us both cause to +rejoice." + +"You may command me, sir," said the youth. + +The colonel rose from the table and left the room, and the lieutenant +rose also and accompanied him. They entered an adjoining apartment. The +elder soldier gazed anxiously on the face of the younger, and again +addressing him, said-- + +"Sir, do not attribute this strange behaviour upon my part to rudeness. +It has been prompted by feelings painfully, deeply, I may add tenderly, +interesting to me. It may be accident, but your features bring memories +before my eyes that have become a part of my soul's existence. Nor is it +your features only, but I have observed that there is the mark of a +rose-bud beneath your chin. I remember twins on whom that mark was +manifest, and the likeness of a countenance is graven upon my heart, the +lineaments of which were as yours are. Forgive me then, sir, in thus +abruptly requesting your name." + +The lieutenant looked surprised at the anxiety and looks of the +stranger, and he answered-- + +"My name is Charles Sim." + +"Yes! yes!" replied the colonel, gasping as he spoke; "I saw it; I felt +it! Your name is Charles, but not Sim; that was your mother's name--your +sainted mother's. You bear it from your grandfather You come from +Cumberland?" + +"I do!" was the reply, in accents of astonishment. + +"My son! my son!--child of my Maria!" were the accents that broke from +the colonel, as he fell upon the neck of the other. + +"My father!" exclaimed Charles, "have I then found a father?" And the +tears streamed down his cheeks. + +Many questions were asked, many answered; and amongst others, the father +inquired-- + +"Where is your brother--my little George? Does he live? You were the +miniatures of your mother; and so strikingly did you resemble each +other, that while you were infants, it was necessary to tie a blue +ribbon round his arm, and a green one round yours, to distinguish you +from each other." + +Charles became pale; his knees shook; his hands trembled. + +"Then I _had_ a brother?" he cried. + +"You had," replied his father; "but wherefore do you say you _had_ a +brother? Is it possible that you do not know him? He has been brought up +with my father--Mr. Morris of Morris House." + +"No, he has not," replied Charles; "the man you speak of, and whom you +say is my grandfather, has brought up no one--none of my age. I have +hated him from childhood, for he has hated me; and but that you have +told me he is my grandfather, I would hate him still. But he has brought +up no one that could be a brother of mine." + +"Then my child has died in infancy," rejoined the colonel. + +"No, no," added Charles; "I knew not that I had a brother--not even that +I had a father; but you say my brother resembled me; that I from my +birth had the mark beneath my chin which I have now, and that he had the +same: then I know him; I have seen my brother!" + +"Where, where? when, when?" breathlessly inquired the anxious parent. +"Speak, my son!--oh speak!" + +"Shortly after I had joined my regiment," continued Charles, "I was +present in Devonshire, at what is called a revel. Our mess gave a purse +towards the games. We put forward a Cumberland man belonging to the +regiment, in the full confidence that he would be the victor of the day; +but a youth, a mere youth, threw not only our champion, but all who +dared to oppose him. I was stung for the honour of Cumberland; I was +loath to see the hero carry his laurels so easily from the field. I +accoutred myself in the wrestler's garb; I entered the ring. The +shouting of the multitude ceased instantaneously. I gazed upon my +antagonist, he gazed upon me. Our hands fell; we both shook; we were the +image of each other. Three years afterwards I was in Holland. A soldier +was unjustly condemned to die; I saved him; I obtained his pardon. He +was my strange counterpart whom I met in Devonshire. He had the mark of +the rose-bud beneath his chin that I have, and which you say my brother +has." + +"And where is he now?" eagerly inquired the colonel. + +"Alas! I know not," answered Charles; "nor do I think he lives. Three +days after I had rescued him from unmerited death, I learned that he had +fallen bravely on the field; and whether he be now a prisoner or with +the dead, I cannot tell." + +"Surely it was thy brother," said the colonel; "yet how he should be in +Devonshire, or a soldier in the ranks, puzzles me to think. No, no, +Charles, it cannot be; it is a coincidence, heightened by imagination. +Your grandfather has not been kind to me, but he is not capable of the +cruelty which the tale you have told would imply he had exercised +towards the child I entrusted to his care. He hates me, but surely he +could not be cruel to my offspring. You know Morris House?" he added. + +"I know it well," replied Charles; "but I never knew in it one who could +be my brother, nor one of my age; neither did I know Mr. Morris to be my +grandfather; nor yet have I heard of him but as one who had injured my +mother while she lived, and who had been the enemy of her parents." + +"Enough, enough, my son," said the colonel; "my soul is filled with +words which I cannot utter. I weep for your angel-mother; I weep for my +son, your brother; and I mourn for the unceasing hatred that exists +between your grandsires. But, Charles, we must return to England; we +must do so instantly. I have now fortune enough for you and for your +brother also, if he yet live, and if we can find him. But we must +inquire after and go in quest of him." + +Within three months Charles Morris, or Lieutenant Sim as he has hitherto +been called, and his father returned to England together. But instead of +following them, I shall return to George Prescot, the prize-wrestler and +the condemned and pardoned soldier. It has been mentioned that he was +wounded and left upon the field by a retreating army. I have to add that +he was made prisoner, and when his wounds were healed, he was, though +not perceptibly, disabled for active service. Amongst his brethren in +captivity was a Captain Paling, who, when an exchange of prisoners took +place, hastened to join his regiment, and gave George, who was deemed +unfit for service, a letter to his mother and sisters who resided in +Dartmouth. The letter was all that the captain could give him, for he +was penniless as George was himself. + +George Prescot feeling himself once more at liberty, took his passage +from Rotterdam in a sloop bound for Dartmouth, and with only the letter +of Captain Paling in his pocket to pay for his conveyance. He perceived +that the skipper frequently cast suspicious glances towards him, as +though he were about to ask, "Where is your money, sir?" But George saw +this, and he bore it down with a high hand. He knew that the certain way +of being treated with the contempt and neglect which poverty always +introduces in its train, was to plead being poor. He was by no means +learned, but he understood something of human nature, and he knew a good +deal of the ways of men--of the shallowness of society, and the depths +of civility. He therefore carried his head high. He called for the best +that the ship could afford, and he fared as the skipper did, though he +partook but sparingly. + +But the vessel arrived in Dartmouth harbour; it entered the mouth of the +romantic river, on the one side of which was the fort, still bearing the +name of Cromwell, and on the other Kingsbridge, which Peter Pindar hath +celebrated; while on both sides, as precipitous banks, rose towering +hills, their summits covered by a stunted furze, and the blooming +orchard meeting it midway. + +Some rather unpleasant sensations visited the disabled soldier as the +vessel sailed up the river towards the town. The beauty of its situation +made no impression upon him, for he had seen it a thousand times; and it +was perhaps as well that it did not; for to look on it from the river, +or from a distant height--like a long line of houses hung on the breast +of romance--and afterwards to enter it and find yourself in the midst of +a narrow, dingy street, where scarce two wheelbarrows could pass, +produceth only disappointment, and that, too, of the bitterest kind. It +seems, indeed, that the Devonians have conceded so much of their +beautiful county to the barrenness of Dartmoor, that they grudge every +inch that is occupied as a street or highway. Ere this time, George +Prescot had in a great measure dropped his Devonshire dialect; and now, +taking the letter of Captain Paling from his pocket, he placed it in the +hands of the commander of the packet, saying, "Send your boy ashore with +this to a widow lady's of the name of Paling; you will know her family, +I suppose. You may tell the boy to say that the letter is from her son, +Captain Paling, and that I shall wait here until I receive her answer +before proceeding up the river." + +The skipper stated that he knew Mrs. Paling well, who was a most +respectable lady, and that he remembered also her son, who was an +officer in the army, and who for some time had been a prisoner of war. + +The boy went on shore with the letter, and within a quarter of an hour +returned, having with him a young gentleman, accompanied by a couple of +pointer dogs. The stranger was the brother of Captain Paling. He +inquired for George Prescot, and on seeing him, invited him to his +mother's house. The skipper, on seeing his passenger in such respectable +company, let fall no hint that the passage-money was not paid; and the +soldier and the brother of Captain Paling went on shore together. + +In his letter the captain dwelt on many kindnesses which he had received +from its bearer, and of the bravery which he had seen him evince on the +field; informing them also that his pockets would be but ill provided +with cash, and regretting his own inability to replenish them. + +The kindness of Mrs. Paling and her family towards him knew no limits. +She asked him a hundred questions respecting her son, her daughters +concerning their brother; and they imagined wants for him, that they +might show him a kindness. Now, however, twelve miles was all that lay +between him and his home. They entreated him to remain until next day; +but he refused, for + + "Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home." + +It is true, he could hardly give the name of home to the house of those +whom he called his parents, for it had ever been to him the habitation +of oppressors; yet it was his home, as the mountain covered with eternal +snow is the home of the Greenlander, and he knew no other. The usual +road to it was by crossing the Dart at a ferry about a hundred yards +above the house of Mrs. Paling. Any other road caused a circuit of many +miles. + +"If you will not remain with us to-night," said the brother of Captain +Paling, who had conducted him from the vessel to his mother's house, "I +shall accompany you to the ferry." + +"No, I thank you--I thank you," said George, confusedly; "there is no +occasion for it--none whatever. I shall not forget your kindness." + +He did not intend to go by the ferry; for though the charge of the +boatman was but a halfpenny, that halfpenny he had not in his +possession; and he wished to conceal his poverty. + +But women have sharp eyes in these matters. They see where men are +blind; and a sister of Captain Paling named Caroline read the meaning of +their guest's confusion, and of his refusing to permit her brother to +accompany him to the shore; and, with a delicacy which spoke to the +heart of him to whom the words were addressed, she said-- + +"Mr. Prescot, you have only now arrived from the Continent, and it is +most likely that you have no small change in your pocket. The ferrymen +are unreasonable people to deal with. If you give them a crown, they +will row away and thank you, forgetting to return the change. The +regular charge is but a halfpenny; therefore you had better take coppers +with you;" and as she spoke, she held a halfpenny in her fingers towards +him. + +"Well, well," stammered out George, with his hand in his pocket, "I +believe I have no coppers;" and he accepted the halfpenny from the hand +of Caroline Paling; and while he did so, he could not conceal the tears +that rose to his eyes. + +But, trifling as the amount of her offer was, it must be understood that +the person to whom it was tendered was one who would not have accepted +more--who was ashamed of his poverty, and strove to conceal it; and +there was a soul, there was a delicacy, in her manner of tendering it +which I can speak of, but not describe. It saved him also from having to +wander weary and solitary miles at midnight. + +No sooner had the disabled soldier crossed the river, and entered the +narrow lanes overshadowed by dark hedges of hazel, than he burst into +tears, and his first words were, "Caroline, I will remember thee!" + +It was near midnight when he approached the house which he called his +home. The inmates were asleep. He tapped at the window, the panes of +which were framed in lead after the form of diamonds. + +"Who be there?" cried an angry voice. + +"Your son! your son!" he replied. "George!" + +"Zon!" repeated the voice; "we have no zon. If it be thee, go to +Coomberland, lad. We have noughts to do with thee. Thy old grandfather, +Zquire Morris, be now dead, and he ha'n't paid us so well for what we +have done as to have oughts to zay to thee again; zo good night, lad." + +"Father! mother!" cried George, striking more passionately on the +window, "what do you mean?" + +"Whoy, ha'n't I told thee?" answered the voice that had spoken to him +before. "Thou art no zon of ours. Thou moost go to Coomberland, man, to +Zquire Morris--to his zeketors,[*] I mean, for he is dead. They may tell +thee who thou art; I can't. We ha'n't been paid for what we have done +for thee already. However, thou may'st coom in for t'night;" and as the +old man who had professed to be his father spoke, he arose and opened +the door. + + [note *: Executors.] + +George entered the house, trembling with agitation. + +"Father," he said--"for thou hast taught me to call thee father; and if +thou art not, tell me who I am." + +"Ha'n't I told thee, lad?" answered the old man. "Go to Coomberland; I +know noughts about thee." + +"To Cumberland!" exclaimed George; and he thought of the young officer +whom he had twice met, who belonged to that county, and whose features +were the picture of his own. "Why should I go to Cumberland?" + +"Whoy, I can't tell thee whoy thou shouldst go," said the old man; "but +thou was zent me from there, and there thou moost go back again, vor a +bad bargain thou hast been to me. Zquire Morris zent thee here, and +forgot to pay for thee; and if thou lodgest here to-night, thou won't +forget to be a-moving, bag and baggage, in the morning." + +George was wearied, and glad to sleep beneath the inhospitable roof of +those whom he had considered as his parents; but on the following +morning he took leave of them, after learning from them all that they +knew of his history. + +But I must again leave him, and return to Colonel Morris, and his son +Charles. + +They came to England together, and hastened towards Morris House; and +there the long disowned son learned that his father was dead, and that +his mother and his sisters knew not where his child was, or what had +become of him. But his kindred had ascertained that he was now rich, and +they repented of their unkindness towards him. + +"Son," said his mother, "I know nothing of thy child. Thy father was a +strange man--he told little to me. If any one can tell thee aught +concerning thy boy, it will be John Bell, the old coachman; but he has +not been in the family for six years, and where he now is I cannot tell, +though I believe he is still somewhere in the neighbourhood." + +With sad and anxious hearts the colonel and his son next visited the +house of Mr. Sim--the dwelling-place in which the infancy, the +childhood, and what may be called the youth, of the latter had been +passed. + +Tears gathered in the eyes of Charles as he approached the door. He knew +that his grandsire and his grandmother had acted wrongly towards him, in +never speaking to him of his father, or making known to him that such a +person lived; but when he again saw the house which had been the scene +of a thousand happy days, round which he had chased the gaudy butterfly +and the busy bee, or sought the nest of the chaffinch, the yellowhammer, +and the hedge-sparrow, the feelings of boyhood rose too strong in his +soul for resentment; and on meeting Mr. Sim (his grandfather) as they +approached the door of the house, Charles ran towards him, and, +stretching out his hand, cried, "Father!" + +The old man recognised him, and exclaimed, "Charles!--Charles!--child of +my Maria!" and wept. + +At the mention of her name, the colonel wept also. + +"What gentleman is this with thee, Charles?" inquired Mr. Sim. + +"It is _my father!_" was the reply. + +Mr. Sim, who was now a grey-haired man, reeled back a few paces--he +raised his hands--he exclaimed, "Can I be forgiven?" + +"Forgiven!--ay, doubly forgiven!" answered Colonel Morris, "as the +father of lost, loved Maria, and as having been more than a father to my +boy, who is now by my side. But know you nothing of my other son? My +Maria bore twins." + +"Nothing! nothing!" replied Mr. Sim; "that question has cost me many an +anxious thought. It has troubled also the conscience of my wife; for it +was her fault that he also was not committed to my charge; and I would +have inquired after your child long ago, but that there was no good-will +between your father and me; and I was a plain, retired citizen--he a +magistrate, and a justice of the peace for the county, who could do no +wrong." + +The colonel groaned. + +They proceeded towards the villa together. Mrs. Sim met her grandson +with a flood of tears, and, in her joy at meeting him, she forgot her +dislike to his father and her hatred to that father's family. + +The colonel endeavoured to obtain information from his father-in-law +respecting his other son; and he told him all that his mother had said, +of what she had spoken regarding the coachman, and also of what Charles +had told him, in twice meeting one who so strongly resembled himself. + +"Colonel," said Mr. Sim, "I know the John Bell your mother speaks of; he +now keeps an inn near Langholm. To-morrow we shall go to his house, and +make inquiry concerning all that he knows." + +"Be it so, father," said the colonel. And on the following day they took +a chaise and set out together--the grandfather, the father, and the son. + +They had to cross the Annan, and to pass the churchyard where Maria +slept. As they drew near to it, the colonel desired the driver to stop. + +"Follow me, Charles," he said; and Mr. Sim accompanied them. They +entered the churchyard; the colonel led them to the humble grave-stone +that he had raised to the memory of his Maria. He sat down upon it, he +pressed his lips to it and wept. + +"Charles," said he, "look on your mother's grave. Here, on this stone, +day after day, I was wont to sit with you and your brother upon my knee, +fondling you, breathing your mother's name in your ears; and though +neither of you knew what I said, you smiled as I wept and spoke. Oh +Charles! though you then filled my whole heart (and you do now), I could +only distinguish you from each other by the ribbons on your arms. Would +to Heaven that I may discover my child! and, whatever be his condition, +I shall forgive my father for the injustice he has done me and mine--I +shall be happy. And, oh! should we indeed find your brother--should he +prove to be the youth whom you have twice met--I shall say that Heaven +has remembered me when I forgot myself! But come hither, Charles--come, +kneel upon your mother's grave--kiss the sod where she lies, and angels +will write it in their books, and show it to your mother, where she is +happy. Come, my boy." + +Charles knelt on his mother's grave. He had arisen, and they were about +to depart; for his grandfather had accompanied them, and was a silent +but tearful spectator of the scene. + +They were leaving the churchyard, joined in the arms of each other, when +two strangers entered it. The one was John Bell, the other George +Prescot. + +"Colonel! Colonel! there is John Bell that you spoke of," exclaimed Mr. +Sim. + +"Father! father!" at the same instant cried his son, "he is here--it is +him!--my brother--or--he whom I have told you of, who so strangely +resembles me." + +Charles rushed forward--it was George Prescot--and he took the proffered +hand of the other, and said, "Sir, I rejoice to meet thee again--it +seems I belong to Cumberland as well as thou dost; and this gentleman +(pointing to John Bell), who seems to know more of me than I do myself, +has promised to show me here my mother's grave!" + +"And where is that grave?" cried the colonel earnestly, who had been an +interested spectator of all that passed. + +"Even where the wife of your youth is buried, your honour," answered +John Bell; "you have with you one son--behold his twin brother!" + +The colonel pressed his new-found son to his breast. With his children +he sat down on the stone over Maria's grave, and they wept together. + +Our tale is told. Colonel Morris and his sons had met. His elder +brothers died, and he became the heir of his father's property. Mr. Sim +also stated that, in his will, he should divide his substance equally +between the brothers; and he did so. I have but another word to add. +George forgot not Caroline Paling, who had assisted him when his heart +was full and his pocket empty, and within twelve months he again visited +Dartmouth; but when he returned from it, Caroline accompanied him as his +wife; and when he introduced her to his father and his brother--"Behold," +said he, "what a halfpenny, delicately tendered, may produce." + + + + +THE STORY OF THE GIRL FORGER. + + +It is a common thing for writers of a certain class, when they want to +produce the feeling of wonder in their readers, to introduce some +frantic action, and then to account for it by letting out the secret +that the actor was mad. The trick is not so necessary as it seems, for +the strength of human passions is a potentiality only limited by +experience; and so it is that a sane person may under certain stimulants +do the maddest thing in the world. The passion itself is always true--it +is only the motive that may be false; and therefore it is that in +narrating for your amusement, perhaps I may add instruction, the +following singular story--traces of the main parts of which I got in the +old books of a former procurator-fiscal--I assume that there was no more +insanity in the principal actor, Euphemia, or, as she was called, Effie +Carr, when she brought herself within the arms of the law, than there is +in you, when now you are reading the story of her strange life. She was +the only daughter of John Carr, a grain merchant, who lived in Bristo +Street. It would be easy to ascribe to her all the ordinary and +extraordinary charms that are thought so necessary to embellish +heroines; but as we are not told what these were in her case, we must be +contented with the assurance that nature had been kind enough to her to +give her power over the hearts of men. We shall be nearer our purpose +when we state, what is necessary to explain a peculiar part of our +story, that her father, in consequence of his own insufficient +education, had got her trained to help him in keeping his accounts with +the farmers, and in writing up his books; nay, she enjoyed the privilege +of writing his drafts upon the Bank of Scotland, which the father +contrived to sign, though in his own illiterate way, and with a +peculiarity which it would not have been easy to imitate. + +But our gentle clerk did not consider these duties imposed upon her by +her father as excluding her either from gratifying her love of domestic +habits, by assisting her mother in what at that time was denominated +hussyskep or housekeeping, or from a certain other gratification, which +might without a hint from us be anticipated--no other than the luxury of +falling head and ears, and heart too we fancy, in love with a certain +dashing young student of the name of Robert Stormonth, then attending +the University, more for the sake of polish than of mere study, for he +was the son of the proprietor of Kelton, and required to follow no +profession. How Effie got entangled with this youth we have no means of +knowing, so we must be contented with the Scotch proverb-- + + "Tell me where the flea may bite, + And I will tell where love may light." + +The probability is, that from the difference of their stations and the +retiring nature of our gentle clerk, we shall be safe in assuming that +he had, as the saying goes, been smitten by her charms in some of those +street encounters, where there is more of love's work done than in +"black-footed" tea coteries expressly held for the accommodation of +Cupid. And that the smiting was a genuine feeling we are not left to +doubt; for in addition to the reasons we shall afterwards have too good +occasion to know, he treated Effie not as those wild students who are +great men's sons do "the light o' loves" they meet in their escapades, +for he entrusted his secrets to her, he took such small counsel from her +poor head as a "learned clerk" might be supposed able to give; nay, he +told her of his mother, and how one day he hoped to be able to introduce +her at Kelton as his wife. All which Effie repaid with the devotedness +of that most wonderful affection called the first or virgin love--the +purest, the deepest, the most thorough-going of all the emotions of the +human heart. But as yet he had not conceded to her wish that he should +consent to their love being made known to Effie's father and mother. +Love is only a leveller to itself and its object: the high-born youth, +inured to refined manners, shrank from a family intercourse, which put +him too much in mind of the revolt he had made against the presumed +wishes and intentions of his proud parents. Wherein, after all, he was +only true to the instincts of that institution, apparently so inhumane +as well as unchristian in its exclusiveness, called aristocracy, and yet +with the excuse that its roots are pretty deeply set in human nature. + +But, proud as he was, Bob Stormonth, the younger of Kelton, was amenable +to the obligations of a necessity, forged by his own imprudent hands. He +had, by a fast mode of living, got into debt--a condition from which his +father, a stern man, had relieved him twice before, but with a threat on +the last occasion, that if he persevered in his prodigality, he would +withdraw from him his yearly allowance, and throw him upon his own +resources. The threat proved ineffectual, and this young heir of entail, +with all his pride, was once in the grasp of low-born creditors; nay, +things in this evil direction had gone so far that writs were out +against him, and one in the form of a caption was already in the hands +of a messenger-at-arms. That the debts were comparatively small in +amount, was no amelioration where the purse was all but empty; and he +had exhausted the limited exchequers of his chums, which with college +youths was, and is, not difficult to do. So the gay Bob was driven to +his last shift, and that, as is generally the case, was a mean one; for +necessity, as the mother of inventions, does not think it proper to +limit her births to genteel or noble devices to please her proud +consort. He even had recourse to poor Effie to help him; and, however +ridiculous this may seem, there were reasons that made the application +appear not so desperate as some of his other schemes. It was only the +caption that as yet quickened his fears; and as the sum for which the +writ was issued was only twenty pounds, it was not, after all, so much +beyond the power of a clerk. + +It was during one of their ordinary walks in the Meadows that the +pressing necessity was opened by Stormonth to the vexed and terrified +girl. He told her that, but for the small help he required in the +meantime, he would be ruined. The wrath of his father would be excited +once more, and probably to the exclusion of all reconciliation; and he +himself compelled to flee, but whither he knew not. He had his plan +prepared, and proposed to Effie, who had no means of her own, _to take a +loan_ of the sum out of her father's cash-box--words very properly +chosen according to the euphemistic policy of the devil; but Effie's +genuine spirit was roused and alarmed. + +"Dreadful!" she whispered, as if afraid that the night wind would carry +her words to honest ears. "Besides," she continued, "my father, who is a +hard man, keeps his desk lockit." + +Words which took Stormonth aback, for even he saw there was here a +necessity as strong as his own; yet the power of invention went to work +again. + +"Listen, Effie," said he. "If you cannot help me, it is not likely we +shall meet again. I am desperate, and will go into the army." + +The ear of Effie was chained to a force which was direct upon the heart. +She trembled and looked wistfully into his face, even as if by that look +she could extract from him some other device less fearful, by which she +might have the power of retaining him for so short a period as a day. + +"You draw out your father's drafts on the bank, Effie," he continued. +"Write one out for me, and I will put your father's name to it. You can +draw the money. I will be saved from ruin; and your father will never +know." + +A proposal which again brought a shudder over the girl. + +"Is it Robert Stormonth who asks me to do this thing?" she whispered +again. + +"No," said he; "for I am not myself. Yesterday, and before the messenger +was after me, I would have shrunk from the suggestion. I am not myself, +I say, Effie. Ay or no; keep me or lose me--that is the alternative." + +"Oh, I cannot," was the language of her innocence, and for which he was +prepared; for the stimulant was again applied in the most powerful of +all forms--the word farewell was sounded in her ear. + +"Stop, Robert! let me think." But there was no thought, only the heart +beating wildly. "I will do it; and may the penalty be mine, and mine +only." + +So it was: "even virtue's self turns vice when misapplied." What her +mind shrank from was embraced by the heart as a kind of sacred duty of a +love making a sacrifice for the object of its first worship. It was +arranged; and as the firmness of a purpose is often in proportion to the +prior disinclination, so Effie's determination to save her lover from +ruin was forthwith put in execution; nay, there was even a touch of the +heroine in her, so wonderfully does the heart, acting under its primary +instincts, sanctify the device which favours its affection. That same +evening Effie Carr wrote out the draft for twenty pounds on the Bank of +Scotland, gave it to Stormonth, who, from a signature of the father's, +also furnished by her, perpetrated the forgery--a crime at that time +punishable by death. The draft so signed was returned to Effie. Next +forenoon she went to the bank, as she had often done for her father +before; and the document being in her handwriting, as prior ones of the +same kind had also been, no scrutinizing eye was turned to the +signature. The money was handed over, but _not counted_ by the +recipient, as before had been her careful habit--a circumstance with its +effect to follow in due time. Meanwhile Stormonth was at a place of +appointment out of the reach of the executor of the law, and was soon +found out by Effie, who gave him the money with trembling hands. For +this surely a kiss was due. We do not know; but she returned with the +satisfaction, overcoming all the impulses of fear and remorse, that she +had saved the object of her first and only love from ruin and flight. + +But even then the reaction was on the spring; the rebound was to be +fearful and fatal. The teller at the bank had been struck with Effie's +manner; and the non-counting of the notes had roused a suspicion, which +fought its way even against the improbability of a mere girl +perpetrating a crime from which females are generally free. He examined +the draft, and soon saw that the signature was a bad imitation. +Thereupon a messenger was despatched to Bristo Street for inquiry. John +Carr, taken by surprise, declared that the draft, though written by his +daughter, was forged--the forgery being in his own mind attributed to +George Lindsay, his young salesman. Enough this for the bank, who had in +the first place only to do with the utterer, against whom their evidence +as yet only lay. Within a few hours afterwards Effie Carr was in the +Tolbooth, charged with the crime of forging a cheque on her father's +account-current. + +The news soon spread over Edinburgh--at that time only an overgrown +village, in so far as regarded local facilities for the spread of +wonders. It had begun there, where the mother was in recurring faints, +the father in distraction and not less mystery, George Lindsay in terror +and pity. And here comes in the next strange turn of our story. Lindsay +all of a sudden declared he was the person who imitated the name--a +device of the yearning heart to save the girl of his affection from the +gallows, and clutched at by the mother and father as a means of their +daughter's redemption. One of those thinly-sown beings who are +cold-blooded by nature, who take on love slowly but surely, and seem +fitted to be martyrs, Lindsay defied all consequences, so that it might +be that Effie Carr should escape an ignominious death. Nor did he take +time for further deliberation: in less than half an hour he was in the +procurator-fiscal's office--the willing self-criminator; the man who did +the deed; the man who was ready to die for his young mistress and his +love. His story, too, was as ready as it was truth-seeming. He declared +that he had got Effie to write out the draft as if commissioned by John +Carr; that he took it away, and with his own hands added the name; that +he had returned the check to Effie to go with it to the bank, and had +received the money from her on her return. The consequence was his wish, +and it was inevitable. That same day George Lindsay was lodged also in +the Tolbooth, satisfied that he had made a sacrifice of his life for one +whom he had loved for years, and who yet had never shown him even a +symptom of hope that his love would be returned. + +All which proceedings soon came on the wings of rumour to the ears of +Robert Stormonth, who was not formed to be a martyr even for a love +which was to him as true as his nature would permit. He saw his danger, +because he did not see the character of a faithful girl who would die +rather than compromise her lover. He fled--aided probably by that very +money he had wrung out of the hands of the devoted girl; nor was his +disappearance connected with the tragic transaction; for, as we have +said, the connection between him and Effie had been kept a secret, and +his flight could be sufficiently accounted for by his debt. + +Meanwhile the precognitions or examination of the parties went on, and +with a result as strange as it was puzzling to the officials. Effie was +firm to her declaration, that she not only wrote the body of the cheque, +but attached to it the name of her father, and had appropriated the +money in a way which she declined to state. On the other hand, Lindsay +was equally staunch to his statement made to the procurator-fiscal, that +he had got Effie to write the draft, had forged the name to it, and got +the money from her. The authorities very soon saw that they had got more +than the law bargained for or wanted; nor was the difficulty likely soon +to be solved. The two parties could not both be guilty, according to the +evidence, nor could one of them be guilty to the exclusion of the other; +neither, when the balance was cast, was there much difference in the +weight of the scales, because, while it was in one view more likely that +Lindsay signed the false name, it was beyond doubt that Effie wrote the +body of the document, and she had, moreover, presented it. But was it +for the honour of the law that people should be hanged on a likelihood? +It was a new case without new heads to decide it, and it made no +difference that the body of the people, who soon became inflamed on the +subject, took the part of the girl and declared against the man. It was +easy to be seen that the tracing of the money would go far to solve the +mystery; and accordingly there was a strict search made in Lindsay's +lodgings, as well as in Effie's private repositories at home. We need +not say with what effect, where the money was over the Border and away. +It was thus in all views more a case for Astraea than common heads; but +then she had gone to heaven. The Lord Advocate soon saw that the law was +likely to be caught in its own meshes. The first glimpse was got of the +danger of hanging so versatile, so inconsistent, so unsearchable a +creature as a human being on a mere confession of guilt. That that had +been the law of Scotland in all time, nay, that it had been the law of +the world from the beginning, there was no doubt. Who could know the +murderer or the forger better than the murderer or the forger himself? +and would any one throw away his life on a false plea? The reasoning +does not exhaust the deep subject; there remains the presumption that +the criminal will, in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, deny, and deny +boldly. But our case threw a new light on the old law, and the Lord +Advocate was slow to indict where he saw not only reasons for failure, +but also rising difficulties which might strike at the respect upon +which the law was founded. + +The affair hung loose for a time, and Lindsay's friends, anxious to save +him, got him induced to run his letters--the effect of which is to give +the prosecutor a period wherein to try the culprit, on failure of which +the person charged is free. The same was done by Effie's father; but +quickened as the Lord Advocate was, the difficulty still met him like a +ghost that would not be laid, that if he put Effie at the bar, Lindsay +would appear in the witness-box; and if he put Lindsay on his trial, +Effie would swear he was innocent; and as for two people forging _the +same name_, the thing had never been heard of. And so it came to pass +that the authorities at last, feeling they were in a cleft stick, where +if they relieved one hand the other would be caught, were inclined to +liberate both panels. But the bank was at that time preyed upon by +forgeries, and were determined to make an example now when they had a +culprit, or perhaps two. The consequence was, that the authorities were +forced to give way, vindicating their right of choice as to the party +they should arraign. That party was Effie Carr, and the choice justified +itself by two considerations: that she, by writing and uttering the +cheque, was so far committed by evidence exterior to her +self-inculpation; and secondly, that Lindsay might break down in the +witness-box under a searching examination. Effie was therefore indicted +and placed at the bar. She pleaded guilty, but the prosecutor, +notwithstanding, led evidence, and at length Lindsay appeared as a +witness for the defence. The people who crowded the court had been aware +from report of the condition in which Lindsay stood; but the deep +silence which reigned throughout the hall when he was called to answer, +evinced the doubt whether he would stand true to his self-impeachment. +The doubt was soon solved. With a face on which no trace of fear could +be perceived, with a voice in which there was no quaver, he swore that +it was he who signed the draft and sent Effie for the money. The +oscillation of sympathy, which had for a time been suspended, came round +again to the thin pale girl, who sat there looking wistfully and +wonderingly into the face of the witness, and the murmuring approbation +that broke out, in spite of the shrill "silence" of the crier, expressed +at once admiration of the man--criminal as he swore himself to be--and +pity for the accused. What could the issue be? Effie was acquitted, and +Lindsay sent back to gaol. Was he not to be tried? The officials felt +that the game was dangerous. If Lindsay had stood firm in the box, had +not Effie sat firm at the bar, with the very gallows in her eye, and +would not she, in her turn, be as firm in the box? All which was too +evident, and the consequence in the end came to be, that Lindsay was in +the course of a few days set at liberty. + +And now there occurred proceedings not less strange in the house of John +Carr. Lindsay was turned off, because, though he had made a sacrifice of +himself to save the life of Effie, the sacrifice was only that due to +the justice he had offended. The dismissal was against the protestations +of Effie, who alone knew he was innocent; and she had to bear the +further grief of learning that Stormonth had left the city on the very +day whereon she was apprehended--a discovery this too much for a frame +always weak, and latterly so wasted by her confinement in prison, and +the anguish of mind consequent upon her strange position. And so it came +to pass in a few more days that she took to her bed, a wan, wasted, +heart-broken creature; but stung as she had been by the conduct of the +man she had offered to die to save, she felt even more the sting of +ingratitude in herself for not divulging to her mother as much of her +secret as would have saved Lindsay from dismissal, for she was now more +and more satisfied that it was the strength of his love for her that had +driven him to his great and perilous sacrifice. Nor could her mother, as +she bent over her daughter, understand why her liberation should have +been followed by so much sorrow; nay, loving her as she did, she even +reproached her as being ungrateful to God. + +"Mother," said the girl, "I have a secret that lies like a stane upon my +heart. George Lindsay had nae mair to do with that forgery than you." + +"And who had to do with it then, Effie, dear?" + +"Myself," continued the daughter; "I filled up the cheque at the bidding +o' Robert Stormonth, whom I had lang loved. It was he wha put my +faither's name to it. It was to him I gave the money, to relieve him +from debt, and he has fled." + +"Effie, Effie," cried the mother; "and we have done this thing to George +Lindsay--ta'en from him his basket and his store, yea, the bread o' his +mouth, in recompense for trying to save your life by offering his ain!" + +"Yes, mother," added Effie; "but we must make that wrang richt." + +"And mair, lass," rejoined the mother, as she rose abruptly and +nervously, and hurried to her husband, to whom she told the strange +intelligence. Then John Carr was a just man as well as a loving parent; +and while he forgave his unfortunate daughter, he went and brought back +George Lindsay to his old place that very night; nor did he or Mrs. Carr +know the joy they had poured into the heart of the young man, for the +reason that they did not know the love he bore to their daughter. But if +this was a satisfaction to Effie, in so far as it relieved her heart of +a burden, it brought to her a burden of another kind. The mother soon +saw how matters stood with the heart of Lindsay, and she, moreover, saw +that her or her daughter's gratitude could not be complete so long as he +was denied the boon of being allowed to marry the girl he had saved from +the gallows, and she waited her opportunity of breaking the delicate +subject to Effie. It was not time yet, when Effie was an invalid, and +even so far wasted and worn as to cause apprehensions of her ultimate +fate, even death; nor perhaps would that time ever come when she could +bear to hear the appeal without pain; for though Stormonth had ruined +her character and her peace of mind--nay, had left her in circumstances +almost unprecedented for treachery, baseness, and cruelty--he retained +still the niche where the offerings of a first love had been made: his +image had been indeed burned into the virgin heart, and no other form of +man's face, though representing the possessor of beauty, wealth, and +worldly honours, would ever take away that treasured symbol. It haunted +her even as a shadow of herself, which, disappearing at sundown, comes +again at the rising of the noon; nay, she would have been contented to +make other sacrifices equally great as that which she had made; nor wild +moors, nor streams, nor rugged hills, would have stopped her in an +effort to look upon him once more, and replace that inevitable image by +the real vision, which had first taken captive her young heart. + +But time passed, bringing the usual ameliorations to the miserable. +Effie got so far better in health that she became able to resume, in a +languid way, her former duties, with the exception of those of "the +gentle clerk"--for of these she had had enough; even the very look of a +bank-draft brought a shudder over her; nor would she have entered the +Bank of Scotland again, even with a good cheque for a thousand pounds, +to have been all her own. Meanwhile the patient George had plied a suit +which he could only express by his eyes or the attentions of one who +worships, but he never alluded, even in their conversations, to the old +sacrifice. The mother too, and not less the father, saw the advantages +that might result as well to the health of her mind as that of her body. +They had waited--a vain waiting--for the wearing out of the traces of +the obdurate image; and when they thought they might take placidity as +the sign of what they waited for, they first hinted, and then expressed +in plain terms, the wishes of their hearts. For a time all their efforts +were fruitless; but John Carr getting old and weak, wished to be +succeeded in his business by George; and the wife, when she became a +widow, would require to be maintained--reasons which had more weight +with Effie than any others, excepting always the act of George's +self-immolation at the shrine in which his fancy had placed her. The +importunities at length wore out her resistings, without effacing the +lines of the old and still endeared image, and she gave a cold, we may +say reluctant, consent. The bride's "ay" was a sigh, the rapture a tear +of sadness. But George was pleased even with this: Effie, the +long-cherished Effie, was at length his. + +In her new situation, Effie Carr--now Mrs. Lindsay--performed all the +duties of a good and faithful wife; by an effort of the will no doubt, +though in another sense only a sad obedience to necessity, of which we +are all, as the creatures of motives, the very slaves. But the old image +resisted the appeals of her reason, as well as the blandishments of a +husband's love. She was only true, faithful, and kind, till the birth of +a child lent its reconciling power to the efforts of duty. Some time +afterwards John Carr died--an event which carried in its train the +subsequent death of his wife. There was left to the son-in-law a +dwindling business, and a very small sum of money, for the father had +met with misfortunes in his declining years, which impaired health +prevented him from resisting. Time wore on, and showed that the power of +the martyr-spirit is not always that of the champion of worldly success, +for it was now but a struggle between George Lindsay, with a stained +name, and the stern demon of misfortune. He was at length overtaken by +poverty, which, as affecting Effie, preyed so relentlessly upon his +spirits, that within two years he followed John Carr to the grave. Effie +was now left with two children to the work of her fingers, a poor weapon +wherewith to beat off the wolf of want, and even this was curtailed by +the effects of the old crime, which the public still kept in green +remembrance. + +Throughout, our story has been the sensationalism of angry fate, and +even less likely to be believed than the work of fiction. Nor was the +vulture face of the Nemesis yet smoothed down. The grief of her +bereavement had only partially diverted Effie's mind from the +recollections of him who had ruined her, and yet could not be hated by +her, nay, could not be but loved by her. The sensitized nerve, which had +received the old image, gave it out fresh again to the reviving power of +memory, and this was only a continuation of what had been a corroding +custom of years and years. But, as the saying goes, it is a long road +that does not offer by its side the spreading bough of shade to the +way-worn traveller. One day, when Effie was engaged with her work, of +which she was as weary as of the dreaming which accompanied it, there +appeared before her, without premonition or foreshadowing sign, Robert +Stormonth of Kelton, dressed as a country gentleman, booted, and with a +whip in his hand. + +"Are you Effie Carr?" + +The question was useless to one who was already lying back in her chair +in a state of unconsciousness, from which she recovered only to open her +eyes and avert them, and shut them and open them again, like the victim +of epilepsy. + +"And do you fear me?" said the excited man, as he took her in his strong +arms and stared wildly into her face; "I have more reason to fear you, +whom I ruined," he continued. "Ay, brought within the verge of the +gallows. I know it all, Effie. Open your eyes, dear soul, and smile once +more upon me. Nay, I have known it for years, during which remorse has +scourged me through the world. Look up, dear Effie, while I tell you I +could bear the agony no longer; and now opportunity favours the wretched +penitent, for my father is dead, and I am not only my own master, but +master of Kelton, of which you once heard me speak. Will you not look up +yet, dear Effie? I come to make amends to you, not by wealth merely, but +to offer you again that love I once bore to you, and still bear. Another +such look, dear--it is oil to my parched spirit. You are to consent to +be my wife; the very smallest boon I dare offer." + +During which strange rambling speech Effie was partly insensible; yet +she heard enough to afford her clouded mind a glimpse of her condition, +and of the meaning of what was said to her. For a time she kept staring +into his face as if she had doubts of his real personality; nor could +she find words to express even those more collected thoughts that began +to gather into form. + +"Robert Stormonth," at length she said, calmly, "and have you suffered +too? Oh, this is more wonderful to me than a' the rest o' these +wonderful things." + +"As no man ever suffered, dear Effie," he answered. "I was on the eve of +coming to you, when a friend I retained here wrote me to London of your +marriage with the man who saved you from the fate into which I +precipitated you. How I envied that man who offered to die for you! He +seemed to take from me my only means of reparation; nay, my only chance +of happiness. But he is dead. Heaven give peace to so noble a spirit! +And now you are mine. It is mercy I come to seek in the first instance; +the love--if that, after all that is past, is indeed possible--I will +take my chance of that." + +"Robert," cried the now weeping woman, "if that love had been aince +less, what misery I would have been spared! Ay, and my father, and +mother, and poor George Lindsay, a' helped awa to the grave by my crime, +for it stuck to us to the end." And she buried her head in his bosom, +sobbing piteously. + +"_My_ crime, dear Effie, not yours," said he. "It was you who saved my +life; and if Heaven has a kindlier part than another for those who err +by the fault of others, it will be reserved for one who made a sacrifice +of love. But we have, I hope, something to enjoy before you go there, +and as yet I have not got your forgiveness." + +"It is yours--it is yours, Robert," was the sobbing answer. "Ay, and +with it a' the love I ever had for you." + +"Enough for this time, dear Effie," said he. "My horse waits for me. +Expect me to-morrow at this hour with a better-arranged purpose." And +folding her in his arms, and kissing her fervently, even as his remorse +were thereby assuaged as well as his love gratified, he departed, +leaving Effie to thoughts we should be sorry to think ourselves capable +of putting into words. Nor need we say more than that Stormonth kept his +word. Effie Carr was in a few days Mrs. Stormonth, and in not many more +the presiding female power in the fine residence of Kelton. + + + + +THE BURGHER'S TALES. + +THE TWO RED SLIPPERS. + + +The taking down of the old house of four or five flats called +Gowanlock's Land, in that part of the High Street which used to be +called the Luckenbooths, has given rise to various stories connected +with the building. Out of these I have selected a very strange +legend--so strange indeed, that, if not true, it must have been the +production, _quod est in arte summa_, of a capital inventor; nor need I +say that it is of much importance to talk of the authenticity of these +things, for the most authentic are embellished by invention--and it is +certainly the best embellished that live the longest; for all which we +have very good reasons in human nature. + +Gowanlock's Land, it would seem, merely occupied the site of an older +house, which belonged, at the time of Prince Charlie's occupation of the +city, to an old town councillor of the name of Yellowlees. This older +house was also one of many stories--an old form in Edinburgh, supposed +to have been adopted from the French; but it had, which was not +uncommon, an entry from the street running under an arch, and leading to +the back of the premises to the lower part of the tenement, that part +occupied by the councillor. There was a lower flat, and one above, which +thus constituted an entire house; and which, moreover, rejoiced in the +privilege of having an extensive garden, running down as far as the +sheet of water called the North Loch, that secret "domestic witness," as +the ancients used to say, of many of the dark crimes of the old city. +These gardens were the pride of the rich burghers of the time, decorated +by Dutch-clipped hollies and trim boxwood walks; and in our special +instance of Councillor Yellowlees' retreat, there was, in addition, a +summer-house or rustic bower standing at the bottom, that is, towards +the north, and close upon the loch. I may mention also that, in +consequence of the damp, this little bower was strewed with rushes for +the very special comfort of Miss Annie Yellowlees, the only and much +petted child of the good councillor. + +All which you must take as introductory to the important fact that the +said Miss Annie, who, as a matter of course, was "very bonnie," as well +as passing rich to be, had been, somewhat previous to the prince's entry +to the town, pledged to be married to no less considerable a personage +than Maister John Menelaws, a son of him of the very same name who dealt +in pelts in a shop of the Canongate, and a student of medicine in the +Edinburgh University; but as the councillor had in his secret soul +hankerings after the prince, and the said student, John, was a red-hot +royalist, the marriage was suspended, all to the inexpressible grief of +our "bonnie Annie," who would not have given her John for all the +Charlies and Geordies to be found from Berwick to Lerwick. On the other +hand, while Annie was depressed, and forced to seek relief in solitary +musings in her bower by the loch, it is just as true that "it is an ill +wind that blaws naebody gude;" nay, the truth of the saying was verified +in Richard Templeton, a fellow-student of Menelaws, and a rival, too, in +the affections of Annie; who, being a Charlieite as well as an Annieite, +rejoiced that his companion was in the meantime foiled and disappointed. + +Meanwhile, and, I may say, while the domestic affairs of the +councillor's house were still in this unfortunate position, the prince's +bubble burst in the way which history tells us of, and thereupon out +came proscriptions of terrible import, and, as fate would have it, young +Templeton's name was in the bloody register; the more by reason that he +had been as noisy as Edinburgh students generally are in the +proclamation of his partisanship. He must fly or secrete himself, or +perhaps lose a head in which there was concealed a considerable amount +of Scotch cunning. He at once thought of the councillor's house, with +that secluded back garden and summer-house, all so convenient for +secrecy, and the envied Annie there, too, whom he might by soft wooings +detach from the hated Menelaws, and make his own through the medium of +the pity that is akin to love. And so, to be sure, he straightway, under +the shade of night, repaired to the house of the councillor, who, being +a tender-hearted man, could not see a sympathiser with the glorious +cause in danger of losing his head. Templeton was received--a report set +abroad that he had gone to France--and all proper measures were taken +within the house to prevent any domestic from letting out the secret. + +In this scheme, Annie, we need hardly say, was a favouring party; not +that she had any love for the young man, for her heart was still true to +Menelaws (who, however, for safety's sake, was now excluded from the +house), but that, with a filial obedience to a beloved father, she felt, +with a woman's heart, sympathy for one who was in distress, and a martyr +to the cause which her father loved. Need we wonder at an issue which +may already be looming on the vision of those who know anything of human +nature? The two young folks were thrown together. They were seldom out +of each other's company. Suffering is love's opportunity, and Templeton +had to plead for him not only his misfortune, but a tongue rendered +subtle and winning by love's action in the heart. As the days passed, +Annie saw some new qualities in the martyr prisoner which she had not +seen before; nay, the pretty little domestic attentions had the usual +reflex effect upon the heart which administered them, and all that the +recurring image of Menelaws could do to fight against these rising +predilections was so far unavailing, that that very image waxed dimmer +and dimmer, while the present object was always working through the +magic of sensation. Yes, Annie Yellowlees grew day by day fonder of her +_protege_, until at length she got, as the saying goes, "over head and +ears." Nay, was she not, in the long nights, busy working a pair of red +slippers for the object of her new affections, and were not these so +very suitable to one who, like Hercules, was reduced almost to the +distaff, and who, unlike that woman-tamed hero, did not need them to be +applied anywhere but to the feet? + +In the midst of all this secluded domesticity, there was all that +comfort which is said to come from stolen waters. Then was there not the +prospect of the proscription being taken off, and the two would be made +happy? Even in the meantime they made small escapades into free space. +When the moon was just so far up as not to be a tell-tale, Templeton +would, either with or without Annie, step out into the garden with these +very red slippers on his feet. That bower by the loch, too, was +favourable to the fondlings of a secret love; nor was it sometimes less +to the prisoner a refuge from the eeriness which comes of _ennui_--if it +is not the same thing--under the pressure of which strange feeling he +would creep out at times when Annie could not be with him; nay, +sometimes when the family had gone to bed. + +And now we come to a very wonderful turn in our strange story. One +morning Templeton did not make his appearance in the breakfast parlour, +but of course he would when he got up and got his red slippers on. Yet +he was so punctual; and Annie, who knew that her father had to go to the +council chamber, would see what was the cause of the young man's delay. +She went to his bedroom door. It was open; but where was Templeton? He +was not there. He could not be out in the city; he could not be even in +the garden with the full light of a bright morning sun shining on it. He +was not in the house; he was not in the garden, as they could see from +the windows. He was nowhere to be found; and, what added to the wonder, +he had taken with him his red slippers, wherever he had gone. The +inmates were in wonderment and consternation, and, conduplicated evil! +they could make no inquiry for one who lay under the ban of a bloody +proscription. + +But wonders, as we all know, generally ensconce themselves in some snug +theory, and die by a kind of pleasant euthanasia; and so it was with +this wonder of ours. The councillor came, as the days passed, to the +conclusion that Templeton, wearied out by his long confinement, had +become desperate, and had gone abroad. As good a theory as could be got, +seeing that he had not trusted himself in going near his friends; and +Annie, whose grief was sharp and poignant, came also to settle down with +a belief which still promised her her lover, though perhaps at a long +date. But, somehow or another, Annie could not explain why, even with +all the fondness he had to the work of her hands, he should have elected +to expose himself to damp feet by making the love-token slippers do the +duty of the pair of good shoes he had left in the bedroom. + +Even this latter wonder wore away; and months and months passed on the +revolving wheel which casts months, not less than moments, into that +gulf we call eternity. The rigour of the Government prosecutions was +relaxed, and timid sympathisers began to show their heads out of doors, +but Richard Templeton never returned to claim either immunity or the +woman of his affections. Nor within all this time did John Menelaws +enter the house of the councillor; so that Annie's days were renounced +to sadness, and her nights to reveries. But at last comes the eventful +"one day" of the greatest of all story-tellers, Time, whereon happen his +startling discoveries. Verily one day Annie had wandered disconsolately +into the garden, and seated herself on the wooden form in the +summer-house, where in the moonlight she had often nestled in the arms +of her proscribed lover, who was now gone, it might be, for ever. +Objective thought cast her into a reverie, and the reverie brought up +again the images of these objects, till her heart beat with an affection +renewed through a dream. At length she started up, and, wishing to hurry +from a place which seemed filled with images at once lovable and +terrible, she felt her foot caught by an impediment whereby she +stumbled. On looking down she observed some object of a reddish-brown +colour; and becoming alarmed lest it might be one of the toads with +which the place was sometimes invaded, she started back. Yet curiosity +forced her to a closer inspection. She applied her hand to the object, +and brought away one of those very slippers which she had made for +Templeton. All very strange; but what maybe conceived to have been her +feelings when she saw, sticking up from beneath the rushes, the white +skeleton of a foot which had filled that very slipper! A terrible +suspicion shot through her mind. She flew to her father, and, hurrying +him to the spot, pointed out to him the grim object, and showed him the +slipper which had covered it. Mr. Yellowlees was a shrewd man, and soon +saw that, the foot being there, the rest of the body was not far away. +He saw, too, that his safety might be compromised either as having been +concerned in a murder or the harbourage of a rebel; and so, making +caution the better part of his policy, he repaired to a sympathiser, and +having told him the story, claimed his assistance. Nor was this refused. +That same night, by the light of a lamp, they exhumed the body of +Templeton, much reduced, but enveloped with his clothes; only they +observed that the other red slipper was wanting. On examining the body, +they could trace the evidence of a sword-stab through the heart. All +this they kept to themselves; and that same night they contrived to get +the sexton of the Canongate to inter the body as that of a rebel who had +been killed, and left where it was found. + +This wonder also passed away, and, as time sped, old things began to get +again into their natural order. Menelaws began to come again about the +house; and as an old love, when the impediments are removed, is soon +rekindled again, he and Annie became even all that which they had once +been to each other. The old vows were repeated without the slightest +reference being made by either party to the cause which had interfered +to prevent them from having been fulfilled. It was not for Annie to +proffer a reason, and it did not seem to be the wish of Menelaws to ask +one. In a short time afterwards they were married. + +The new-married couple, apparently happy in the enjoyment of an +affection which had continued so long, and had survived the crossing of +a new love, at least on one side, removed to a separate house farther up +in the Lawnmarket. Menelaws had previously graduated as a doctor, and he +commenced to practise as such, not without an amount of success. +Meanwhile the councillor died, leaving Annie a considerable fortune. In +the course of somewhere about ten years they had five children. They at +length resolved on occupying the old house with the garden, for Annie's +reluctance became weakened by time. It was on the occasion of the +flitting that Annie had to rummage an old trunk which Menelaws, long +after the marriage, had brought from the house of his father, the dealer +in pelts. There at the bottom, covered over by a piece of brown paper, +she found--what? The very slipper which matched the one she still +secretly retained in her possession. _Verbum sapienti_. You may now see +where the strange land lies; nor was Annie blind. She concluded in an +instant, and with a horror that thrilled through her whole body, that +Menelaws had murdered his rival. She had lain for ten years in the arms +of a murderer. She had borne to him five children. Nay, she loved him +with all the force of an ardent temperament. The thought was terrible, +and she recoiled from the very possibility of living with him a moment +longer. She took the fatal memorial and secreted it along with its +neighbour; and having a friend at a little distance from Edinburgh, she +hurried thither, taking with her her children. Her father had left in +her own power a sufficiency for her support, and she afterwards returned +to town. All the requests of her husband for an explanation she +resisted, and indeed they were not long persisted in, for Menelaws no +doubt gauged the reason of her obduracy--a conclusion the more likely +that he subsequently left Scotland. I have reason to believe that some +of the existing Menelaws' are descended from this strange union. + + + + +THE FAITHFUL WIFE + + +There is very prevalent, along the Borders, an opinion that the arms of +the town of Selkirk represent an incident which occurred there at the +time of the battle of Flodden. The device, it is well known, consists of +a female bearing a child in her arms, seated on a tomb, on which is also +placed the Scottish lion. Antiquaries tell us that this device was +adopted in consequence of the melancholy circumstance of the wife of an +inhabitant of the town having been found, by a party returning from the +battle, lying dead at the place called Ladywood-edge, with a child +sucking at her breast. + +We have not the slightest wish to disturb this venerable legend. It +commemorates, with striking force, the desolation of one of Scotland's +greatest calamities; and though the device is rudely and coarsely +imagined, there is a graphic strength in the conception, which, +independently of the truth of the story, recommends it to the lover of +the bold and fervid genius of our countrymen. We must, at same time, be +allowed to say that there is another version, and this we intend, +shortly, now to lay before the public, without vouching for its +superiority of accuracy over its more favoured and cherished brother; +and rather, indeed, cautioning the credulous lovers of old legends to be +upon their guard, lest Dr. Johnson's reproof of Richardson be applicable +to us, in saying that we have it upon authority. + +When recruits were required by King James the Fourth for the invasion of +the English territory, which produced the most lamentable of all our +defeats, it is well known that great exertions were used in the cause by +the town-clerk of Selkirk, whose name was William Brydone, for which +King James the Fifth afterwards conferred on him the honour of +knighthood. Many of the inhabitants of Selkirk, fired with the ardour +which the chivalric spirit of James infused into the hearts of his +people, and with the spirit of emulation which Brydone had the art of +exciting among his townsmen, as Borderers, joined the banners of their +provost. Among these was one, Alexander Hume, a shoemaker, a strong +stalwart man, bold and energetic in his character, and extremely +enthusiastic in the cause of the king. He was deemed of considerable +importance by Brydone, being held the second best man of the hundred +citizens who are said to have joined his standard. When he came among +his companions he was uniformly cheered. They had confidence in his +sagacity and prudence, respected his valour, and admired his strength. + +If Hume was thus courted by his companions, and urged by Brydone to the +dangerous enterprise in which the king, by the wiles and flattery of the +French queen, had engaged, he was treated in a very different manner by +Margaret, his wife,--a fine young woman, who, fond to distraction of her +husband, was desirous of preventing him from risking his life in a cause +which she feared, with prophetic feeling, would bring desolation on her +country. Every effort which love and female cajolery could suggest was +used by this dutiful wife to keep her husband at home. She hung round +his neck,--held up to his face a fine child five months old, whose mute +eloquence softened the heart, but could not alter the purpose of the +father,--wept, prayed, implored. She asked him the startling +question--Who, when he was dead--and die he might--would shield her from +injury and misfortune, and cherish, with the tenderness and love which +its beauty and innocence deserved, the interesting pledge of their +affection? She painted in glowing colours--which the imagination, +excited by love, can so well supply--the situation of her as a widow and +her child as an orphan. Their natural protector gone, what would be left +to her but grief, what would remain for her child but destitution? His +spirit would hear her wails; but beggary would array her in its rags, +and hunger would steal from her cheek the vestiges of health and the +lineaments of beauty. + +These appeals were borne by Hume by the panoply of resolution. He loved +Margaret as dearly, as truly as man could love woman, as a husband could +love the partner of his life and fortunes. He answered with tears and +embraces; but he remained true to the cause of his king and his country. + +"Would you hae me, Margaret," he said, "to disgrace mysel' in the face +o' my townsmen? Doesna our guid king intend to leave his fair Margaret, +and risk the royal bluid o' the Bruce for the interests o' auld +Scotland? and doesna our honoured provost mean to desert, for a day o' +glory, his braw wife, that he may deck her wimple wi' the roses o' +England, and her name wi' a Scotch title? Wharfore, then, should I, a +puir tradesman, fear to put in jeopardy for the country that bore me the +life that is hers as weel as yours, and sacrifice, sae far as the guid +that my arm can produce, the glory o' my king and the character o' my +country?" + +Margaret heard this speech with the most intense grief. She was +incapable of argument. She was inconsolable. Her husband remained +inexorable, and entreaty gave way to anger. She had adopted the idea +that Hume was buoyed up with the pride of leadership; and she told him, +with some acrimony, that his ambition of being thought the bravest man +of Selkirk would not, in the event of his death, supply the child he was +bound to work for with a bite of bread. Her love and anger carried her +beyond bounds. She used other language of a harsher character, which +forced her good-natured husband to retaliate in terms unusual to him, +unsuited to the serious subject which they had in hand, and far less to +the dangerous separation which they were about to experience. The +conversation got more acrimonious. Words of a high cast produced +expressions stronger still, and Hume left his wife in anger, to go to +the field from which he might never return. + +Regret follows close upon the heels of incensed love. Alexander Hume had +not been many paces from his own house, when his wife saw, in its proper +light, the true character of her situation. Her husband had gone on a +perilous enterprise. He might perish. She had perhaps got her last look +of him who was dearest to her bosom. That look was in anger. The idea +was terrible. Those who know the strength and delicacy of the feelings +of true affection may conceive the situation of Margaret Hume. Unable to +control herself, she threw her child into its crib, and rushed out of +the house. One parting glance of reconciliation was all she wanted. She +hurried through the town with an excited and terrified aspect, searching +everywhere for her husband. He had departed with his companions; and +Margaret was left in the agony of one whose sorrow is destined to be +increased by the workings of an excited fancy, and the remorseful +feelings of self-impeachment. + +In the meantime, Hume having joined his companions, proceeded to the +main army of the king, which was encamped on the hill of Flodden, lying +on the left of the river Till. The party with which he was associated +put themselves under the command of Lord Home; who, with the Earls of +Crawford and Montrose, led the left of the van of the Scottish army. +This part of the king's troops, it is well known, was opposed to Sir +Edmund Howard. They were early engaged, and fought so successfully that +Howard soon stood in need of succour from Lord Dacre, to save him from +being speared on the field. + +In this struggle Alexander Hume displayed the greatest prowess. He was +seen in every direction dealing out death wherever he went. He was not, +however, alone. His companions kept well up to him; and, in particular, +one individual, who had joined the party as they approached the field, +fought with a bravery equal to that of Hume himself. That person kept +continually by his side, and seemed to consider the brave Borderer as +his chosen companion-in-arms, whom he was bound to defend through all +the perils of the fight. A leather haubergeon and an iron helmet, in +which there was placed a small white feather, plucked from a cock's +wing, constituted the armour of this brave seconder of Hume's gallantry. +When Hume was attacked by the English with more force than his +individual arm could sustain, no one of his companions was more ready to +bring him aid than this individual. On several occasions he may be said +to have saved his life, for Hume's recklessness drew him often into the +very midst of the fight, where he must have perished had it not been for +the timely assistance of his friend. On one occasion, in particular, an +Englishman came behind him, and was in the very act of inserting a spear +between the clasps of his armour, when his companion struck the +dastardly fellow to the earth, and resumed the fight in front of the +battle. + +This noble conduct was not unappreciated by Hume; for where is bravery +found segregated from gratitude and generosity? He called upon him, even +in the midst of the battle, for his name, that he might, in the event of +their being separated, recollect and commemorate his friendship. The +request was not complied with, but the superintending and saving arm of +the stranger continued to be exercised in favour of the Borderer. They +fought together to the end of the battle. The result of the bloody +contest is but too well known. The strains of poetry have carried the +wail of bereavement to the ends of the earth, and sorrow has claimed the +sounds as its own individual expression. + +The Scottish troops took their flight in different directions. Hume and +his companions were obliged to lie in secret for a considerable time in +the surrounding forests. He made many inquiries among his friends for +the individual who had fought with him so bravely and saved his life. He +could find no trace of him, beyond the information that he had +disappeared when Hume had given up the fight. The direction in which he +went was unknown; nor could any one tell the place from which he came. + +The people of Selkirk who had been in the fight, sought their town as +soon as they could with safety get out of the reach of the English. +Their numbers formed a sorry contrast to those who had, with light +hearts and high hopes, sought the field of battle; and it has been +reported that when the wretched wounded and bloodstained remnant entered +the town, a cry of sorrow was raised by the inhabitants collected to +meet them, the remembrance of which remained on the hearts of their +children long after those who uttered it had been consigned with their +griefs to the grave. + +Hume, who had also grievously repented of the harsh words he had applied +to his beloved wife on the occasion of their separation, was all +impatience to clasp her to his bosom, and seal their reconciliation with +a kiss of repentance and love. Leaving his companions as they entered +the town, he flew to the house. He approached the door. He reached it +with a trembling heart. He had prepared the kind words of salutation. He +had wounds to show, and to get dressed by the tender hand of sympathy. +Lifting the latch, he entered. No one came to meet him. No sound, either +of wife or child, met his ear. On looking round he saw, sitting in an +arm-chair, the person who had accompanied him in battle, wearing the +same haubergeon, the same helmet, the individual white feather that had +attracted his attention. That person was Margaret Hume. She was dead. +Her head reclined on the back of the chair, her arms hung by her side, +the edge of her haubergeon was uplifted, and at her white bosom, from +which flowed streams of blood, her child sucked the milk of a dead +mother. _Omissis nugis rem experiamur_. + + +END OF VOL. XXIII. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of +Scotland, Vol. XXIII., by Various + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TALES OF SCOTLAND *** + +***** This file should be named 11032.txt or 11032.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/1/0/3/11032/ + +Produced by Juliet Sutherland, John Hagerson, Terry Gilliland and PG +Distributed Proofreaders + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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