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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of My Aunt Margaret's Mirror, by Sir Walter Scott
+
+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: My Aunt Margaret's Mirror
+       From Short Stories Published in "The Keepsake Annual" of 1828
+
+Author: Sir Walter Scott
+
+Posting Date: October 23, 2008 [EBook #1667]
+Release Date: March, 1999
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK MY AUNT MARGARET'S MIRROR ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by An Anonymous Volunteer
+
+
+
+
+
+MY AUNT MARGARET'S MIRROR
+
+by Sir Walter Scott
+
+
+From Short Stories Published in "The Keepsake Annual" of 1828
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION.
+
+The species of publication which has come to be generally known by the
+title of ANNUAL, being a miscellany of prose and verse, equipped with
+numerous engravings, and put forth every year about Christmas, had
+flourished for a long while in Germany before it was imitated in this
+country by an enterprising bookseller, a German by birth, Mr. Ackermann.
+The rapid success of his work, as is the custom of the time, gave
+birth to a host of rivals, and, among others, to an Annual styled The
+Keepsake, the first volume of which appeared in 1828, and attracted much
+notice, chiefly in consequence of the very uncommon splendour of
+its illustrative accompaniments. The expenditure which the spirited
+proprietors lavished on this magnificent volume is understood to have
+been not less than from ten to twelve thousand pounds sterling!
+
+Various gentlemen of such literary reputation that any one might
+think it an honour to be associated with them had been announced as
+contributors to this Annual, before application was made to me to assist
+in it; and I accordingly placed with much pleasure at the Editor's
+disposal a few fragments, originally designed to have been worked
+into the Chronicles of the Canongate, besides a manuscript drama, the
+long-neglected performance of my youthful days--"The House of Aspen."
+
+The Keepsake for 1828 included, however, only three of these little
+prose tales, of which the first in order was that entitled "My Aunt
+Margaret's Mirror." By way of INTRODUCTION to this, when now included in
+a general collection of my lucubrations, I have only to say that it is a
+mere transcript, or at least with very little embellishment, of a story
+that I remembered being struck with in my childhood, when told at the
+fireside by a lady of eminent virtues and no inconsiderable share of
+talent, one of the ancient and honourable house of Swinton. She was
+a kind of relation of my own, and met her death in a manner so
+shocking--being killed, in a fit of insanity, by a female attendant who
+had been attached to her person for half a lifetime--that I cannot now
+recall her memory, child as I was when the catastrophe occurred, without
+a painful reawakening of perhaps the first images of horror that the
+scenes of real life stamped on my mind.
+
+This good spinster had in her composition a strong vein of the
+superstitious, and was pleased, among other fancies, to read alone in
+her chamber by a taper fixed in a candlestick which she had had formed
+out of a human skull. One night this strange piece of furniture acquired
+suddenly the power of locomotion, and, after performing some odd circles
+on her chimney-piece, fairly leaped on the floor, and continued to roll
+about the apartment. Mrs. Swinton calmly proceeded to the adjoining room
+for another light, and had the satisfaction to penetrate the mystery on
+the spot. Rats abounded in the ancient building she inhabited, and one
+of these had managed to ensconce itself within her favourite MEMENTO
+MORI. Though thus endowed with a more than feminine share of nerve, she
+entertained largely that belief in supernaturals which in those times
+was not considered as sitting ungracefully on the grave and aged of
+her condition; and the story of the Magic Mirror was one for which she
+vouched with particular confidence, alleging indeed that one of her own
+family had been an eye-witness of the incidents recorded in it.
+
+  "I tell the tale as it was told to me."
+
+Stories enow of much the same cast will present themselves to the
+recollection of such of my readers as have ever dabbled in a species
+of lore to which I certainly gave more hours, at one period of my life,
+than I should gain any credit by confessing.
+
+AUGUST 1831.
+
+
+
+
+AUNT MARGARET'S MIRROR.
+
+      "There are times
+  When Fancy plays her gambols, in despite
+  Even of our watchful senses--when in sooth
+  Substance seems shadow, shadow substance seems--
+  When the broad, palpable, and mark'd partition
+  'Twixt that which is and is not seems dissolved,
+  As if the mental eye gain'd power to gaze
+  Beyond the limits of the existing world.
+  Such hours of shadowy dreams I better love
+  Than all the gross realities of life."      ANONYMOUS.
+
+My Aunt Margaret was one of that respected sisterhood upon whom devolve
+all the trouble and solicitude incidental to the possession of children,
+excepting only that which attends their entrance into the world. We were
+a large family, of very different dispositions and constitutions. Some
+were dull and peevish--they were sent to Aunt Margaret to be amused;
+some were rude, romping, and boisterous--they were sent to Aunt Margaret
+to be kept quiet, or rather that their noise might be removed out of
+hearing; those who were indisposed were sent with the prospect of being
+nursed; those who were stubborn, with the hope of their being subdued by
+the kindness of Aunt Margaret's discipline;--in short, she had all
+the various duties of a mother, without the credit and dignity of the
+maternal character. The busy scene of her various cares is now over.
+Of the invalids and the robust, the kind and the rough, the peevish and
+pleased children, who thronged her little parlour from morning to night,
+not one now remains alive but myself, who, afflicted by early infirmity,
+was one of the most delicate of her nurslings, yet, nevertheless, have
+outlived them all.
+
+It is still my custom, and shall be so while I have the use of my limbs,
+to visit my respected relation at least three times a week. Her abode is
+about half a mile from the suburbs of the town in which I reside, and
+is accessible, not only by the highroad, from which it stands at some
+distance, but by means of a greensward footpath leading through some
+pretty meadows. I have so little left to torment me in life, that it is
+one of my greatest vexations to know that several of these sequestered
+fields have been devoted as sites for building. In that which is nearest
+the town, wheelbarrows have been at work for several weeks in such
+numbers, that, I verily believe, its whole surface, to the depth of
+at least eighteen inches, was mounted in these monotrochs at the same
+moment, and in the act of being transported from one place to another.
+Huge triangular piles of planks are also reared in different parts of
+the devoted messuage; and a little group of trees that still grace the
+eastern end, which rises in a gentle ascent, have just received warning
+to quit, expressed by a daub of white paint, and are to give place to a
+curious grove of chimneys.
+
+It would, perhaps, hurt others in my situation to reflect that this
+little range of pasturage once belonged to my father (whose family was
+of some consideration in the world), and was sold by patches to remedy
+distresses in which he involved himself in an attempt by commercial
+adventure to redeem his diminished fortune. While the building scheme
+was in full operation, this circumstance was often pointed out to me by
+the class of friends who are anxious that no part of your misfortunes
+should escape your observation. "Such pasture-ground!--lying at the very
+town's end--in turnips and potatoes, the parks would bring L20 per acre;
+and if leased for building--oh, it was a gold mine! And all sold for
+an old song out of the ancient possessor's hands!" My comforters cannot
+bring me to repine much on this subject. If I could be allowed to look
+back on the past without interruption, I could willingly give up the
+enjoyment of present income and the hope of future profit to those
+who have purchased what my father sold. I regret the alteration of the
+ground only because it destroys associations, and I would more willingly
+(I think) see the Earl's Closes in the hands of strangers, retaining
+their silvan appearance, than know them for my own, if torn up by
+agriculture, or covered with buildings. Mine are the sensations of poor
+Logan:--
+
+  "The horrid plough has rased the green
+    Where yet a child I strayed;
+  The axe has fell'd the hawthorn screen,
+    The schoolboy's summer shade."
+
+I hope, however, the threatened devastation will not be consummated
+in my day. Although the adventurous spirit of times short while since
+passed gave rise to the undertaking, I have been encouraged to think
+that the subsequent changes have so far damped the spirit of speculation
+that the rest of the woodland footpath leading to Aunt Margaret's
+retreat will be left undisturbed for her time and mine. I am interested
+in this, for every step of the way, after I have passed through
+the green already mentioned, has for me something of early
+remembrance:--There is the stile at which I can recollect a cross
+child's-maid upbraiding me with my infirmity as she lifted me coarsely
+and carelessly over the flinty steps, which my brothers traversed with
+shout and bound. I remember the suppressed bitterness of the moment,
+and, conscious of my own inferiority, the feeling of envy with which I
+regarded the easy movements and elastic steps of my more happily formed
+brethren. Alas! these goodly barks have all perished on life's wide
+ocean, and only that which seemed so little seaworthy, as the naval
+phrase goes, has reached the port when the tempest is over. Then there
+is the pool, where, manoeuvring our little navy, constructed out of the
+broad water-flags, my elder brother fell in, and was scarce saved from
+the watery element to die under Nelson's banner. There is the hazel
+copse also, in which my brother Henry used to gather nuts, thinking
+little that he was to die in an Indian jungle in quest of rupees.
+
+There is so much more of remembrance about the little walk, that--as I
+stop, rest on my crutch-headed cane, and look round with that species
+of comparison between the thing I was and that which I now am--it almost
+induces me to doubt my own identity; until I find myself in face of the
+honeysuckle porch of Aunt Margaret's dwelling, with its irregularity of
+front, and its odd, projecting latticed windows, where the workmen seem
+to have made it a study that no one of them should resemble another in
+form, size, or in the old-fashioned stone entablature and labels which
+adorn them. This tenement, once the manor house of the Earl's Closes,
+we still retain a slight hold upon; for, in some family arrangements,
+it had been settled upon Aunt Margaret during the term of her life. Upon
+this frail tenure depends, in a great measure, the last shadow of the
+family of Bothwell of Earl's Closes, and their last slight connection
+with their paternal inheritance. The only representative will then be an
+infirm old man, moving not unwillingly to the grave, which has devoured
+all that were dear to his affections.
+
+When I have indulged such thoughts for a minute or two, I enter the
+mansion, which is said to have been the gate-house only of the original
+building, and find one being on whom time seems to have made little
+impression; for the Aunt Margaret of to-day bears the same proportional
+age to the Aunt Margaret of my early youth that the boy of ten years
+old does to the man of (by'r Lady!) some fifty-six years. The old lady's
+invariable costume has doubtless some share in confirming one in the
+opinion that time has stood still with Aunt Margaret.
+
+The brown or chocolate-coloured silk gown, with ruffles of the same
+stuff at the elbow, within which are others of Mechlin lace; the black
+silk gloves, or mitts; the white hair combed back upon a roll; and
+the cap of spotless cambric, which closes around the venerable
+countenance--as they were not the costume of 1780, so neither were they
+that of 1826; they are altogether a style peculiar to the individual
+Aunt Margaret. There she still sits, as she sat thirty years since, with
+her wheel or the stocking, which she works by the fire in winter and by
+the window in summer; or, perhaps, venturing as far as the porch in an
+unusually fine summer evening. Her frame, like some well-constructed
+piece of mechanics, still performs the operations for which it had
+seemed destined--going its round with an activity which is gradually
+diminished, yet indicating no probability that it will soon come to a
+period.
+
+The solicitude and affection which had made Aunt Margaret the willing
+slave to the inflictions of a whole nursery, have now for their object
+the health and comfort of one old and infirm man--the last remaining
+relative of her family, and the only one who can still find interest in
+the traditional stores which she hoards, as some miser hides the gold
+which he desires that no one should enjoy after his death.
+
+My conversation with Aunt Margaret generally relates little either to
+the present or to the future. For the passing day we possess as much as
+we require, and we neither of us wish for more; and for that which is
+to follow, we have, on this side of the grave, neither hopes, nor fears,
+nor anxiety. We therefore naturally look back to the past, and forget
+the present fallen fortunes and declined importance of our family in
+recalling the hours when it was wealthy and prosperous.
+
+With this slight introduction, the reader will know as much of Aunt
+Margaret and her nephew as is necessary to comprehend the following
+conversation and narrative.
+
+Last week, when, late in a summer evening, I went to call on the old
+lady to whom my reader is now introduced, I was received by her with all
+her usual affection and benignity, while, at the same time, she seemed
+abstracted and disposed to silence. I asked her the reason. "They have
+been clearing out the old chapel," she said; "John Clayhudgeons having,
+it seems, discovered that the stuff within--being, I suppose, the
+remains of our ancestors--was excellent for top-dressing the meadows."
+
+Here I started up with more alacrity than I have displayed for some
+years; but sat down while my aunt added, laying her hand upon my sleeve,
+"The chapel has been long considered as common ground, my dear, and used
+for a pinfold, and what objection can we have to the man for employing
+what is his own to his own profit? Besides, I did speak to him, and he
+very readily and civilly promised that if he found bones or monuments,
+they should be carefully respected and reinstated; and what more could I
+ask? So, the first stone they found bore the name of Margaret Bothwell,
+1585, and I have caused it to be laid carefully aside, as I think it
+betokens death, and having served my namesake two hundred years, it has
+just been cast up in time to do me the same good turn. My house has been
+long put in order, as far as the small earthly concerns require it; but
+who shall say that their account with, Heaven is sufficiently revised?"
+
+"After what you have said, aunt," I replied, "perhaps I ought to take my
+hat and go away; and so I should, but that there is on this occasion a
+little alloy mingled with your devotion. To think of death at all times
+is a duty--to suppose it nearer from the finding an old gravestone is
+superstition; and you, with your strong, useful common sense, which was
+so long the prop of a fallen family, are the last person whom I should
+have suspected of such weakness."
+
+"Neither would I deserve your suspicions, kinsman," answered Aunt
+Margaret, "if we were speaking of any incident occurring in the actual
+business of human life. But for all this, I have a sense of superstition
+about me, which I do not wish to part with. It is a feeling which
+separates me from this age, and links me with that to which I am
+hastening; and even when it seems, as now, to lead me to the brink
+of the grave, and bid me gaze on it, I do not love that it should be
+dispelled. It soothes my imagination, without influencing my reason or
+conduct."
+
+"I profess, my good lady," replied I, "that had any one but you made
+such a declaration, I should have thought it as capricious as that of
+the clergyman, who, without vindicating his false reading, preferred,
+from habit's sake, his old Mumpsimus to the modern Sumpsimus."
+
+"Well," answered my aunt, "I must explain my inconsistency in this
+particular by comparing it to another. I am, as you know, a piece of
+that old-fashioned thing called a Jacobite; but I am so in sentiment and
+feeling only, for a more loyal subject never joined in prayers for the
+health and wealth of George the Fourth, whom God long preserve! But I
+dare say that kind-hearted sovereign would not deem that an old woman
+did him much injury if she leaned back in her arm-chair, just in such
+a twilight as this, and thought of the high-mettled men whose sense of
+duty called them to arms against his grandfather; and how, in a cause
+which they deemed that of their rightful prince and country,
+
+  'They fought till their hand to the broadsword was glued,
+  They fought against fortune with hearts unsubdued.'
+
+Do not come at such a moment, when my head is full of plaids, pibrochs,
+and claymores, and ask my reason to admit what, I am afraid, it cannot
+deny--I mean, that the public advantage peremptorily demanded that these
+things should cease to exist. I cannot, indeed, refuse to allow the
+justice of your reasoning; but yet, being convinced against my will, you
+will gain little by your motion. You might as well read to an infatuated
+lover the catalogue of his mistress's imperfections; for when he has
+been compelled to listen to the summary, you will only get for answer
+that 'he lo'es her a' the better.'"
+
+I was not sorry to have changed the gloomy train of Aunt Margaret's
+thoughts, and replied in the same tone, "Well, I can't help being
+persuaded that our good King is the more sure of Mrs. Bothwell's loyal
+affection, that he has the Stewart right of birth as well as the Act of
+Succession in his favour."
+
+"Perhaps my attachment, were its source of consequence, might be found
+warmer for the union of the rights you mention," said Aunt Margaret;
+"but, upon my word, it would be as sincere if the King's right were
+founded only on the will of the nation, as declared at the Revolution. I
+am none of your JURE DIVINO folks."
+
+"And a Jacobite notwithstanding."
+
+"And a Jacobite notwithstanding--or rather, I will give you leave to
+call me one of the party which, in Queen Anne's time, were called,
+WHIMSICALS, because they were sometimes operated upon by feelings,
+sometimes by principle. After all, it is very hard that you will not
+allow an old woman to be as inconsistent in her political sentiments as
+mankind in general show themselves in all the various courses of
+life; since you cannot point out one of them in which the passions and
+prejudices of those who pursue it are not perpetually carrying us away
+from the path which our reason points out."
+
+"True, aunt; but you are a wilful wanderer, who should be forced back
+into the right path."
+
+"Spare me, I entreat you," replied Aunt Margaret. "You remember the
+Gaelic song, though I dare say I mispronounce the words--
+
+   'Hatil mohatil, na dowski mi.'
+  (I am asleep, do not waken me.)
+
+I tell you, kinsman, that the sort of waking dreams which my imagination
+spins out, in what your favourite Wordsworth calls 'moods of my own
+mind,' are worth all the rest of my more active days. Then, instead
+of looking forwards, as I did in youth, and forming for myself fairy
+palaces, upon the verge of the grave I turn my eyes backward upon
+the days and manners of my better time; and the sad, yet soothing
+recollections come so close and interesting, that I almost think it
+sacrilege to be wiser or more rational or less prejudiced than those to
+whom I looked up in my younger years."
+
+"I think I now understand what you mean," I answered, "and can
+comprehend why you should occasionally prefer the twilight of illusion
+to the steady light of reason."
+
+"Where there is no task," she rejoined, "to be performed, we may sit in
+the dark if we like it; if we go to work, we must ring for candles."
+
+"And amidst such shadowy and doubtful light," continued I, "imagination
+frames her enchanted and enchanting visions, and sometimes passes them
+upon the senses for reality."
+
+"Yes," said Aunt Margaret, who is a well-read woman, "to those who
+resemble the translator of Tasso,--
+
+   'Prevailing poet, whose undoubting mind
+   Believed the magic wonders which he sung.
+
+It is not required for this purpose that you should be sensible of the
+painful horrors which an actual belief in such prodigies inflicts.
+Such a belief nowadays belongs only to fools and children. It is not
+necessary that your ears should tingle and your complexion change, like
+that of Theodore at the approach of the spectral huntsman. All that is
+indispensable for the enjoyment of the milder feeling of supernatural
+awe is, that you should be susceptible of the slight shuddering which
+creeps over you when you hear a tale of terror--that well-vouched tale
+which the narrator, having first expressed his general disbelief of all
+such legendary lore, selects and produces, as having something in it
+which he has been always obliged to give up as inexplicable. Another
+symptom is a momentary hesitation to look round you, when the interest
+of the narrative is at the highest; and the third, a desire to avoid
+looking into a mirror when you are alone in your chamber for the
+evening. I mean such are signs which indicate the crisis, when a female
+imagination is in due temperature to enjoy a ghost story. I do not
+pretend to describe those which express the same disposition in a
+gentleman."
+
+"That last symptom, dear aunt, of shunning the mirror seems likely to be
+a rare occurrence amongst the fair sex."
+
+"You are a novice in toilet fashions, my dear cousin. All women consult
+the looking-glass with anxiety before they go into company; but when
+they return home, the mirror has not the same charm. The die has been
+cast--the party has been successful or unsuccessful in the impression
+which she desired to make. But, without going deeper into the mysteries
+of the dressing-table, I will tell you that I myself, like many other
+honest folks, do not like to see the blank, black front of a large
+mirror in a room dimly lighted, and where the reflection of the candle
+seems rather to lose itself in the deep obscurity of the glass than to
+be reflected back again into the apartment, That space of inky darkness
+seems to be a field for Fancy to play her revels in. She may call up
+other features to meet us, instead of the reflection of our own; or, as
+in the spells of Hallowe'en, which we learned in childhood, some unknown
+form may be seen peeping over our shoulder. In short, when I am in a
+ghost-seeing humour, I make my handmaiden draw the green curtains over
+the mirror before I go into the room, so that she may have the first
+shock of the apparition, if there be any to be seen, But, to tell you
+the truth, this dislike to look into a mirror in particular times and
+places has, I believe, its original foundation in a story which came to
+me by tradition from my grandmother, who was a party concerned in the
+scene of which I will now tell you."
+
+
+
+
+THE MIRROR.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+You are fond (said my aunt) of sketches of the society which has passed
+away. I wish I could describe to you Sir Philip Forester, the "chartered
+libertine" of Scottish good company, about the end of the last century.
+I never saw him indeed; but my mother's traditions were full of his wit,
+gallantry, and dissipation. This gay knight flourished about the end of
+the seventeenth and beginning of the eighteenth century. He was the Sir
+Charles Easy and the Lovelace of his day and country--renowned for the
+number of duels he had fought, and the successful intrigues which he had
+carried on. The supremacy which he had attained in the fashionable world
+was absolute; and when we combine it with one or two anecdotes, for
+which, "if laws were made for every degree," he ought certainly to have
+been hanged, the popularity of such a person really serves to show,
+either that the present times are much more decent, if not more
+virtuous, than they formerly were, or that high-breeding then was
+of more difficult attainment than that which is now so called, and
+consequently entitled the successful professor to a proportional degree
+of plenary indulgences and privileges. No beau of this day could have
+borne out so ugly a story as that of Pretty Peggy Grindstone, the
+miller's daughter at Sillermills--it had well-nigh made work for the
+Lord Advocate. But it hurt Sir Philip Forester no more than the hail
+hurts the hearthstone. He was as well received in society as ever, and
+dined with the Duke of A---- the day the poor girl was buried. She died
+of heartbreak. But that has nothing to do with my story.
+
+Now, you must listen to a single word upon kith, kin, and ally;
+I promise you I will not be prolix. But it is necessary to the
+authenticity of my legend that you should know that Sir Philip Forester,
+with his handsome person, elegant accomplishments, and fashionable
+manners, married the younger Miss Falconer of King's Copland. The elder
+sister of this lady had previously become the wife of my grandfather,
+Sir Geoffrey Bothwell, and brought into our family a good fortune. Miss
+Jemima, or Miss Jemmie Falconer, as she was usually called, had also
+about ten thousand pounds sterling--then thought a very handsome portion
+indeed.
+
+The two sisters were extremely different, though each had their admirers
+while they remained single. Lady Bothwell had some touch of the old
+King's Copland blood about her. She was bold, though not to the degree
+of audacity, ambitious, and desirous to raise her house and family; and
+was, as has been said, a considerable spur to my grandfather, who was
+otherwise an indolent man, but whom, unless he has been slandered, his
+lady's influence involved in some political matters which had been
+more wisely let alone. She was a woman of high principle, however, and
+masculine good sense, as some of her letters testify, which are still in
+my wainscot cabinet.
+
+Jemmie Falconer was the reverse of her sister in every respect. Her
+understanding did not reach above the ordinary pitch, if, indeed,
+she could be said to have attained it. Her beauty, while it lasted,
+consisted, in a great measure, of delicacy of complexion and regularity
+of features, without any peculiar force of expression. Even these charms
+faded under the sufferings attendant on an ill-assorted match. She was
+passionately attached to her husband, by whom she was treated with a
+callous yet polite indifference, which, to one whose heart was as
+tender as her judgment was weak, was more painful perhaps than absolute
+ill-usage. Sir Philip was a voluptuary--that is, a completely selfish
+egotist--whose disposition and character resembled the rapier he wore,
+polished, keen, and brilliant, but inflexible and unpitying. As he
+observed carefully all the usual forms towards his lady, he had the
+art to deprive her even of the compassion of the world; and useless and
+unavailing as that may be while actually possessed by the sufferer, it
+is, to a mind like Lady Forester's, most painful to know she has it not.
+
+The tattle of society did its best to place the peccant husband above
+the suffering wife. Some called her a poor, spiritless thing, and
+declared that, with a little of her sister's spirit, she might have
+brought to reason any Sir Philip whatsoever, were it the termagant
+Falconbridge himself. But the greater part of their acquaintance
+affected candour, and saw faults on both sides--though, in fact, there
+only existed the oppressor and the oppressed. The tone of such critics
+was, "To be sure, no one will justify Sir Philip Forester, but then we
+all know Sir Philip, and Jemmie Falconer might have known what she had
+to expect from the beginning. What made her set her cap at Sir Philip?
+He would never have looked at her if she had not thrown herself at his
+head, with her poor ten thousand pounds. I am sure, if it is money he
+wanted, she spoiled his market. I know where Sir Philip could have done
+much better. And then, if she WOULD have the man, could not she try to
+make him more comfortable at home, and have his friends oftener, and not
+plague him with the squalling children, and take care all was handsome
+and in good style about the house? I declare I think Sir Philip would
+have made a very domestic man, with a woman who knew how to manage him."
+
+Now these fair critics, in raising their profound edifice of domestic
+felicity, did not recollect that the corner-stone was wanting, and that
+to receive good company with good cheer, the means of the banquet ought
+to have been furnished by Sir Philip, whose income (dilapidated as it
+was) was not equal to the display of the hospitality required, and at
+the same time to the supply of the good knight's MENUS PLAISIRS. So, in
+spite of all that was so sagely suggested by female friends, Sir Philip
+carried his good-humour everywhere abroad, and left at home a solitary
+mansion and a pining spouse.
+
+At length, inconvenienced in his money affairs, and tired even of the
+short time which he spent in his own dull house, Sir Philip Forester
+determined to take a trip to the Continent, in the capacity of a
+volunteer. It was then common for men of fashion to do so; and our
+knight perhaps was of opinion that a touch of the military character,
+just enough to exalt, but not render pedantic, his qualities as a BEAU
+GARCON, was necessary to maintain possession of the elevated situation
+which he held in the ranks of fashion.
+
+Sir Philip's resolution threw his wife into agonies of terror; by which
+the worthy baronet was so much annoyed, that, contrary to his wont, he
+took some trouble to soothe her apprehensions, and once more brought
+her to shed tears, in which sorrow was not altogether unmingled with
+pleasure. Lady Bothwell asked, as a favour, Sir Philip's permission to
+receive her sister and her family into her own house during his absence
+on the Continent. Sir Philip readily assented to a proposition which
+saved expense, silenced the foolish people who might have talked of a
+deserted wife and family, and gratified Lady Bothwell, for whom he felt
+some respect, as for one who often spoke to him, always with freedom and
+sometimes with severity, without being deterred either by his raillery
+or the PRESTIGE of his reputation.
+
+A day or two before Sir Philip's departure, Lady Bothwell took the
+liberty of asking him, in her sister's presence, the direct question,
+which his timid wife had often desired, but never ventured, to put to
+him:--
+
+"Pray, Sir Philip, what route do you take when you reach the Continent?"
+
+"I go from Leith to Helvoet by a packet with advices."
+
+"That I comprehend perfectly," said Lady Bothwell dryly; "but you do
+not mean to remain long at Helvoet, I presume, and I should like to know
+what is your next object."
+
+"You ask me, my dear lady," answered Sir Philip, "a question which I
+have not dared to ask myself. The answer depends on the fate of war. I
+shall, of course, go to headquarters, wherever they may happen to be for
+the time; deliver my letters of introduction; learn as much of the noble
+art of war as may suffice a poor interloping amateur; and then take a
+glance at the sort of thing of which we read so much in the Gazette."
+
+"And I trust, Sir Philip," said Lady Bothwell, "that you will remember
+that you are a husband and a father; and that, though you think fit to
+indulge this military fancy, you will not let it hurry you into dangers
+which it is certainly unnecessary for any save professional persons to
+encounter."
+
+"Lady Bothwell does me too much honour," replied the adventurous knight,
+"in regarding such a circumstance with the slightest interest. But to
+soothe your flattering anxiety, I trust your ladyship will recollect
+that I cannot expose to hazard the venerable and paternal character
+which you so obligingly recommend to my protection, without putting in
+some peril an honest fellow, called Philip Forester, with whom I have
+kept company for thirty years, and with whom, though some folks consider
+him a coxcomb, I have not the least desire to part."
+
+"Well, Sir Philip, you are the best judge of your own affairs. I have
+little right to interfere--you are not my husband."
+
+"God forbid!" said Sir Philip hastily; instantly adding, however, "God
+forbid that I should deprive my friend Sir Geoffrey of so inestimable a
+treasure."
+
+"But you are my sister's husband," replied the lady; "and I suppose you
+are aware of her present distress of mind--"
+
+"If hearing of nothing else from morning to night can make me aware of
+it," said Sir Philip, "I should know something of the matter."
+
+"I do not pretend to reply to your wit, Sir Philip," answered Lady
+Bothwell; "but you must be sensible that all this distress is on account
+of apprehensions for your personal safety."
+
+"In that case, I am surprised that Lady Bothwell, at least, should give
+herself so much trouble upon so insignificant a subject."
+
+"My sister's interest may account for my being anxious to learn
+something of Sir Philip Forester's motions; about which, otherwise, I
+know he would not wish me to concern myself. I have a brother's safety
+too to be anxious for."
+
+"You mean Major Falconer, your brother by the mother's side? What can he
+possibly have to do with our present agreeable conversation?"
+
+"You have had words together, Sir Philip," said Lady Bothwell.
+
+"Naturally; we are connections," replied Sir Philip, "and as such have
+always had the usual intercourse."
+
+"That is an evasion of the subject," answered the lady. "By words, I
+mean angry words, on the subject of your usage of your wife."
+
+"If," replied Sir Philip Forester, "you suppose Major Falconer simple
+enough to intrude his advice upon me, Lady Bothwell, in my domestic
+matters, you are indeed warranted in believing that I might possibly be
+so far displeased with the interference as to request him to reserve his
+advice till it was asked."
+
+"And being on these terms, you are going to join the very army in which
+my brother Falconer is now serving?"
+
+"No man knows the path of honour better than Major Falconer," said Sir
+Philip. "An aspirant after fame, like me, cannot choose a better guide
+than his footsteps."
+
+Lady Bothwell rose and went to the window, the tears gushing from her
+eyes.
+
+"And this heartless raillery," she said, "is all the consideration that
+is to be given to our apprehensions of a quarrel which may bring on the
+most terrible consequences? Good God! of what can men's hearts be made,
+who can thus dally with the agony of others?"
+
+Sir Philip Forester was moved; he laid aside the mocking tone in which
+he had hitherto spoken.
+
+"Dear Lady Bothwell," he said, taking her reluctant hand, "we are
+both wrong. You are too deeply serious; I, perhaps, too little so. The
+dispute I had with Major Falconer was of no earthly consequence. Had
+anything occurred betwixt us that ought to have been settled PAR VOIE DU
+FAIT, as we say in France, neither of us are persons that are likely to
+postpone such a meeting. Permit me to say, that were it generally known
+that you or my Lady Forester are apprehensive of such a catastrophe, it
+might be the very means of bringing about what would not otherwise be
+likely to happen. I know your good sense, Lady Bothwell, and that you
+will understand me when I say that really my affairs require my absence
+for some months. This Jemima cannot understand. It is a perpetual
+recurrence of questions, why can you not do this, or that, or the third
+thing? and, when you have proved to her that her expedients are totally
+ineffectual, you have just to begin the whole round again. Now, do you
+tell her, dear Lady Bothwell, that YOU are satisfied. She is, you must
+confess, one of those persons with whom authority goes farther than
+reasoning. Do but repose a little confidence in me, and you shall see
+how amply I will repay it."
+
+Lady Bothwell shook her head, as one but half satisfied. "How difficult
+it is to extend confidence, when the basis on which it ought to rest
+has been so much shaken! But I will do my best to make Jemima easy; and
+further, I can only say that for keeping your present purpose I hold you
+responsible both to God and man."
+
+"Do not fear that I will deceive you," said Sir Philip. "The safest
+conveyance to me will be through the general post-office, Helvoetsluys,
+where I will take care to leave orders for forwarding my letters. As for
+Falconer, our only encounter will be over a bottle of Burgundy; so make
+yourself perfectly easy on his score."
+
+Lady Bothwell could NOT make herself easy; yet she was sensible that her
+sister hurt her own cause by TAKING ON, as the maidservants call it,
+too vehemently, and by showing before every stranger, by manner, and
+sometimes by words also, a dissatisfaction with her husband's journey
+that was sure to come to his ears, and equally certain to displease him.
+But there was no help for this domestic dissension, which ended only
+with the day of separation.
+
+I am sorry I cannot tell, with precision, the year in which Sir Philip
+Forester went over to Flanders; but it was one of those in which
+the campaign opened with extraordinary fury, and many bloody, though
+indecisive, skirmishes were fought between the French on the one side
+and the Allies on the other. In all our modern improvements, there
+are none, perhaps, greater than in the accuracy and speed with which
+intelligence is transmitted from any scene of action to those in
+this country whom it may concern. During Marlborough's campaigns, the
+sufferings of the many who had relations in, or along with, the army
+were greatly augmented by the suspense in which they were detained
+for weeks after they had heard of bloody battles, in which, in all
+probability, those for whom their bosoms throbbed with anxiety had been
+personally engaged. Amongst those who were most agonized by this state
+of uncertainty was the--I had almost said deserted--wife of the gay Sir
+Philip Forester. A single letter had informed her of his arrival on
+the Continent; no others were received. One notice occurred in the
+newspapers, in which Volunteer Sir Philip Forester was mentioned as
+having been entrusted with a dangerous reconnaissance, which he had
+executed with the greatest courage, dexterity, and intelligence, and
+received the thanks of the commanding officer. The sense of his having
+acquired distinction brought a momentary glow into the lady's pale
+cheek; but it was instantly lost in ashen whiteness at the recollection
+of his danger. After this, they had no news whatever, neither from Sir
+Philip, nor even from their brother Falconer. The case of Lady Forester
+was not indeed different from that of hundreds in the same situation;
+but a feeble mind is necessarily an irritable one, and the suspense
+which some bear with constitutional indifference or philosophical
+resignation, and some with a disposition to believe and hope the best,
+was intolerable to Lady Forester, at once solitary and sensitive,
+low-spirited, and devoid of strength of mind, whether natural or
+acquired.
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+As she received no further news of Sir Philip, whether directly or
+indirectly, his unfortunate lady began now to feel a sort of consolation
+even in those careless habits which had so often given her pain. "He is
+so thoughtless," she repeated a hundred times a day to her sister,
+"he never writes when things are going on smoothly. It is his way. Had
+anything happened, he would have informed us."
+
+Lady Bothwell listened to her sister without attempting to console her.
+Probably she might be of opinion that even the worst intelligence which
+could be received from Flanders might not be without some touch of
+consolation; and that the Dowager Lady Forester, if so she was doomed to
+be called, might have a source of happiness unknown to the wife of the
+gayest and finest gentleman in Scotland. This conviction became stronger
+as they learned from inquiries made at headquarters that Sir Philip was
+no longer with the army--though whether he had been taken or slain in
+some of those skirmishes which were perpetually occurring, and in which
+he loved to distinguish himself, or whether he had, for some unknown
+reason or capricious change of mind, voluntarily left the service,
+none of his countrymen in the camp of the Allies could form even a
+conjecture. Meantime his creditors at home became clamorous, entered
+into possession of his property, and threatened his person, should he
+be rash enough to return to Scotland. These additional disadvantages
+aggravated Lady Bothwell's displeasure against the fugitive husband;
+while her sister saw nothing in any of them, save what tended to
+increase her grief for the absence of him whom her imagination now
+represented--as it had before marriage--gallant, gay, and affectionate.
+
+About this period there appeared in Edinburgh a man of singular
+appearance and pretensions. He was commonly called the Paduan Doctor,
+from having received his education at that famous university. He was
+supposed to possess some rare receipts in medicine, with which, it was
+affirmed, he had wrought remarkable cures. But though, on the one hand,
+the physicians of Edinburgh termed him an empiric, there were many
+persons, and among them some of the clergy, who, while they admitted the
+truth of the cures and the force of his remedies, alleged that Doctor
+Baptista Damiotti made use of charms and unlawful arts in order to
+obtain success in his practice. The resorting to him was even solemnly
+preached against, as a seeking of health from idols, and a trusting
+to the help which was to come from Egypt. But the protection which the
+Paduan Doctor received from some friends of interest and consequence
+enabled him to set these imputations at defiance, and to assume, even
+in the city of Edinburgh, famed as it was for abhorrence of witches and
+necromancers, the dangerous character of an expounder of futurity.
+It was at length rumoured that, for a certain gratification, which of
+course was not an inconsiderable one, Doctor Baptista Damiotti could
+tell the fate of the absent, and even show his visitors the personal
+form of their absent friends, and the action in which they were engaged
+at the moment. This rumour came to the ears of Lady Forester, who
+had reached that pitch of mental agony in which the sufferer will
+do anything, or endure anything, that suspense may be converted into
+certainty.
+
+Gentle and timid in most cases, her state of mind made her equally
+obstinate and reckless, and it was with no small surprise and alarm that
+her sister, Lady Bothwell, heard her express a resolution to visit this
+man of art, and learn from him the fate of her husband. Lady Bothwell
+remonstrated on the improbability that such pretensions as those of this
+foreigner could be founded in anything but imposture.
+
+"I care not," said the deserted wife, "what degree of ridicule I may
+incur; if there be any one chance out of a hundred that I may obtain
+some certainty of my husband's fate, I would not miss that chance for
+whatever else the world can offer me."
+
+Lady Bothwell next urged the unlawfulness of resorting to such sources
+of forbidden knowledge.
+
+"Sister," replied the sufferer, "he who is dying of thirst cannot
+refrain from drinking even poisoned water. She who suffers under
+suspense must seek information, even were the powers which offer it
+unhallowed and infernal. I go to learn my fate alone, and this very
+evening will I know it; the sun that rises to-morrow shall find me, if
+not more happy, at least more resigned."
+
+"Sister," said Lady Bothwell, "if you are determined upon this wild
+step, you shall not go alone. If this man be an impostor, you may be
+too much agitated by your feelings to detect his villainy. If, which I
+cannot believe, there be any truth in what he pretends, you shall not be
+exposed alone to a communication of so extraordinary a nature. I will
+go with you, if indeed you determine to go. But yet reconsider your
+project, and renounce inquiries which cannot be prosecuted without
+guilt, and perhaps without danger."
+
+Lady Forester threw herself into her sister's arms, and, clasping her
+to her bosom, thanked her a hundred times for the offer of her company,
+while she declined with a melancholy gesture the friendly advice with
+which it was accompanied.
+
+When the hour of twilight arrived--which was the period when the Paduan
+Doctor was understood to receive the visits of those who came to consult
+with him--the two ladies left their apartments in the Canongate of
+Edinburgh, having their dress arranged like that of women of an inferior
+description, and their plaids disposed around their faces as they were
+worn by the same class; for in those days of aristocracy the quality of
+the wearer was generally indicated by the manner in which her plaid
+was disposed, as well as by the fineness of its texture. It was Lady
+Bothwell who had suggested this species of disguise, partly to avoid
+observation as they should go to the conjurer's house, and partly in
+order to make trial of his penetration, by appearing before him in a
+feigned character. Lady Forester's servant, of tried fidelity, had been
+employed by her to propitiate the Doctor by a suitable fee, and a
+story intimating that a soldier's wife desired to know the fate of her
+husband--a subject upon which, in all probability, the sage was very
+frequently consulted.
+
+To the last moment, when the palace clock struck eight, Lady Bothwell
+earnestly watched her sister, in hopes that she might retreat from her
+rash undertaking; but as mildness, and even timidity, is capable at
+times of vehement and fixed purposes, she found Lady Forester resolutely
+unmoved and determined when the moment of departure arrived. Ill
+satisfied with the expedition, but determined not to leave her sister at
+such a crisis, Lady Bothwell accompanied Lady Forester through more than
+one obscure street and lane, the servant walking before, and acting
+as their guide. At length he suddenly turned into a narrow court, and
+knocked at an arched door which seemed to belong to a building of some
+antiquity. It opened, though no one appeared to act as porter; and the
+servant, stepping aside from the entrance, motioned the ladies to enter.
+They had no sooner done so than it shut, and excluded their guide. The
+two ladies found themselves in a small vestibule, illuminated by a dim
+lamp, and having, when the door was closed, no communication with the
+external light or air. The door of an inner apartment, partly open, was
+at the farther side of the vestibule.
+
+"We must not hesitate now, Jemima," said Lady Bothwell, and walked
+forwards into the inner room, where, surrounded by books, maps,
+philosophical utensils, and other implements of peculiar shape and
+appearance, they found the man of art.
+
+There was nothing very peculiar in the Italian's appearance. He had the
+dark complexion and marked features of his country, seemed about fifty
+years old, and was handsomely but plainly dressed in a full suit of
+black clothes, which was then the universal costume of the medical
+profession. Large wax-lights, in silver sconces, illuminated the
+apartment, which was reasonably furnished. He rose as the ladies
+entered, and, notwithstanding the inferiority of their dress, received
+them with the marked respect due to their quality, and which foreigners
+are usually punctilious in rendering to those to whom such honours are
+due.
+
+Lady Bothwell endeavoured to maintain her proposed incognito, and, as
+the Doctor ushered them to the upper end of the room, made a motion
+declining his courtesy, as unfitted for their condition. "We are poor
+people, sir," she said; "only my sister's distress has brought us to
+consult your worship whether--"
+
+He smiled as he interrupted her--"I am aware, madam, of your sister's
+distress, and its cause; I am aware, also, that I am honoured with a
+visit from two ladies of the highest consideration--Lady Bothwell and
+Lady Forester. If I could not distinguish them from the class of
+society which their present dress would indicate, there would be small
+possibility of my being able to gratify them by giving the information
+which they come to seek."
+
+"I can easily understand--" said Lady Bothwell.
+
+"Pardon my boldness to interrupt you, milady," cried the Italian; "your
+ladyship was about to say that you could easily understand that I had
+got possession of your names by means of your domestic. But in thinking
+so, you do injustice to the fidelity of your servant, and, I may add,
+to the skill of one who is also not less your humble servant--Baptista
+Damiotti."
+
+"I have no intention to do either, sir," said Lady Bothwell, maintaining
+a tone of composure, though somewhat surprised; "but the situation is
+something new to me. If you know who we are, you also know, sir, what
+brought us here."
+
+"Curiosity to know the fate of a Scottish gentleman of rank, now,
+or lately, upon the Continent," answered the seer. "His name is Il
+Cavaliero Philippo Forester, a gentleman who has the honour to be
+husband to this lady, and, with your ladyship's permission for using
+plain language, the misfortune not to value as it deserves that
+inestimable advantage."
+
+Lady Forester sighed deeply, and Lady Bothwell replied,--
+
+"Since you know our object without our telling it, the only question
+that remains is, whether you have the power to relieve my sister's
+anxiety?"
+
+"I have, madam," answered the Paduan scholar; "but there is still a
+previous inquiry. Have you the courage to behold with your own eyes what
+the Cavaliero Philippo Forester is now doing? or will you take it on my
+report?"
+
+"That question my sister must answer for herself," said Lady Bothwell.
+
+"With my own eyes will I endure to see whatever you have power to show
+me," said Lady Forester, with the same determined spirit which had
+stimulated her since her resolution was taken upon this subject.
+
+"There may be danger in it."
+
+"If gold can compensate the risk," said Lady Forester, taking out her
+purse.
+
+"I do not such things for the purpose of gain," answered the foreigner;
+"I dare not turn my art to such a purpose. If I take the gold of the
+wealthy, it is but to bestow it on the poor; nor do I ever accept more
+than the sum I have already received from your servant. Put up your
+purse, madam; an adept needs not your gold."
+
+Lady Bothwell, considering this rejection of her sister's offer as a
+mere trick of an empiric, to induce her to press a larger sum upon him,
+and willing that the scene should be commenced and ended, offered some
+gold in turn, observing that it was only to enlarge the sphere of his
+charity.
+
+"Let Lady Bothwell enlarge the sphere of her own charity," said the
+Paduan, "not merely in giving of alms, in which I know she is not
+deficient, but in judging the character of others; and let her oblige
+Baptista Damiotti by believing him honest, till she shall discover him
+to be a knave. Do not be surprised, madam, if I speak in answer to your
+thoughts rather than your expressions; and tell me once more whether you
+have courage to look on what I am prepared to show?"
+
+"I own, sir," said Lady Bothwell, "that your words strike me with some
+sense of fear; but whatever my sister desires to witness, I will not
+shrink from witnessing along with her."
+
+"Nay, the danger only consists in the risk of your resolution failing
+you. The sight can only last for the space of seven minutes; and should
+you interrupt the vision by speaking a single word, not only would the
+charm be broken, but some danger might result to the spectators. But
+if you can remain steadily silent for the seven minutes, your curiosity
+will be gratified without the slightest risk; and for this I will engage
+my honour."
+
+Internally Lady Bothwell thought the security was but an indifferent
+one; but she suppressed the suspicion, as if she had believed that the
+adept, whose dark features wore a half-formed smile, could in reality
+read even her most secret reflections. A solemn pause then ensued, until
+Lady Forester gathered courage enough to reply to the physician, as he
+termed himself, that she would abide with firmness and silence the sight
+which he had promised to exhibit to them. Upon this, he made them a low
+obeisance, and saying he went to prepare matters to meet their wish,
+left the apartment. The two sisters, hand in hand, as if seeking by that
+close union to divert any danger which might threaten them, sat down on
+two seats in immediate contact with each other--Jemima seeking support
+in the manly and habitual courage of Lady Bothwell; and she, on the
+other hand, more agitated than she had expected, endeavouring to fortify
+herself by the desperate resolution which circumstances had forced her
+sister to assume. The one perhaps said to herself that her sister never
+feared anything; and the other might reflect that what so feeble-minded
+a woman as Jemima did not fear, could not properly be a subject of
+apprehension to a person of firmness and resolution like her own.
+
+In a few moments the thoughts of both were diverted from their own
+situation by a strain of music so singularly sweet and solemn that,
+while it seemed calculated to avert or dispel any feeling unconnected
+with its harmony, increased, at the same time, the solemn excitation
+which the preceding interview was calculated to produce. The music
+was that of some instrument with which they were unacquainted; but
+circumstances afterwards led my ancestress to believe that it was that
+of the harmonica, which she heard at a much later period in life.
+
+When these heaven-born sounds had ceased, a door opened in the upper end
+of the apartment, and they saw Damiotti, standing at the head of two or
+three steps, sign to them to advance. His dress was so different from
+that which he had worn a few minutes before, that they could hardly
+recognize him; and the deadly paleness of his countenance, and a certain
+stern rigidity of muscles, like that of one whose mind is made up
+to some strange and daring action, had totally changed the somewhat
+sarcastic expression with which he had previously regarded them both,
+and particularly Lady Bothwell. He was barefooted, excepting a species
+of sandals in the antique fashion; his legs were naked beneath the
+knees; above them he wore hose, and a doublet of dark crimson silk close
+to his body; and over that a flowing loose robe, something resembling a
+surplice, of snow-white linen. His throat and neck were uncovered, and
+his long, straight, black hair was carefully combed down at full length.
+
+As the ladies approached at his bidding, he showed no gesture of that
+ceremonious courtesy of which he had been formerly lavish. On the
+contrary, he made the signal of advance with an air of command; and
+when, arm in arm, and with insecure steps, the sisters approached the
+spot where he stood, it was with a warning frown that he pressed his
+finger to his lips, as if reiterating his condition of absolute silence,
+while, stalking before them, he led the way into the next apartment.
+
+This was a large room, hung with black, as if for a funeral. At the
+upper end was a table, or rather a species of altar, covered with the
+same lugubrious colour, on which lay divers objects resembling the usual
+implements of sorcery. These objects were not indeed visible as they
+advanced into the apartment; for the light which displayed them, being
+only that of two expiring lamps, was extremely faint. The master--to use
+the Italian phrase for persons of this description--approached the upper
+end of the room, with a genuflection like that of a Catholic to the
+crucifix, and at the same time crossed himself. The ladies followed in
+silence, and arm in arm. Two or three low broad steps led to a platform
+in front of the altar, or what resembled such. Here the sage took his
+stand, and placed the ladies beside him, once more earnestly repeating
+by signs his injunctions of silence. The Italian then, extending his
+bare arm from under his linen vestment, pointed with his forefinger to
+five large flambeaux, or torches, placed on each side of the altar. They
+took fire successively at the approach of his hand, or rather of his
+finger, and spread a strong light through the room. By this the visitors
+could discern that, on the seeming altar, were disposed two naked swords
+laid crosswise; a large open book, which they conceived to be a copy of
+the Holy Scriptures, but in a language to them unknown; and beside this
+mysterious volume was placed a human skull. But what struck the sisters
+most was a very tall and broad mirror, which occupied all the space
+behind the altar, and, illumined by the lighted torches, reflected the
+mysterious articles which were laid upon it.
+
+The master then placed himself between the two ladies, and, pointing to
+the mirror, took each by the hand, but without speaking a syllable. They
+gazed intently on the polished and sable space to which he had directed
+their attention. Suddenly the surface assumed a new and singular
+appearance. It no longer simply reflected the objects placed before it,
+but, as if it had self-contained scenery of its own, objects began
+to appear within it, at first in a disorderly, indistinct, and
+miscellaneous manner, like form arranging itself out of chaos; at
+length, in distinct and defined shape and symmetry. It was thus that,
+after some shifting of light and darkness over the face of the wonderful
+glass, a long perspective of arches and columns began to arrange itself
+on its sides, and a vaulted roof on the upper part of it, till, after
+many oscillations, the whole vision gained a fixed and stationary
+appearance, representing the interior of a foreign church. The pillars
+were stately, and hung with scutcheons; the arches were lofty and
+magnificent; the floor was lettered with funeral inscriptions. But there
+were no separate shrines, no images, no display of chalice or crucifix
+on the altar. It was, therefore, a Protestant church upon the Continent.
+A clergyman dressed in the Geneva gown and band stood by the communion
+table, and, with the Bible opened before him, and his clerk awaiting in
+the background, seemed prepared to perform some service of the church to
+which he belonged.
+
+At length, there entered the middle aisle of the building a numerous
+party, which appeared to be a bridal one, as a lady and gentleman walked
+first, hand in hand, followed by a large concourse of persons of both
+sexes, gaily, nay richly, attired. The bride, whose features they could
+distinctly see, seemed not more than sixteen years old, and extremely
+beautiful. The bridegroom, for some seconds, moved rather with his
+shoulder towards them, and his face averted; but his elegance of form
+and step struck the sisters at once with the same apprehension. As he
+turned his face suddenly, it was frightfully realized, and they saw, in
+the gay bridegroom before them, Sir Philip Forester. His wife uttered an
+imperfect exclamation, at the sound of which the whole scene stirred and
+seemed to separate.
+
+"I could compare it to nothing," said Lady Bothwell, while recounting
+the wonderful tale, "but to the dispersion of the reflection offered
+by a deep and calm pool, when a stone is suddenly cast into it, and
+the shadows become dissipated and broken." The master pressed both the
+ladies' hands severely, as if to remind them of their promise, and
+of the danger which they incurred. The exclamation died away on Lady
+Forester's tongue, without attaining perfect utterance, and the scene in
+the glass, after the fluctuation of a minute, again resumed to the eye
+its former appearance of a real scene, existing within the mirror, as if
+represented in a picture, save that the figures were movable instead of
+being stationary.
+
+The representation of Sir Philip Forester, now distinctly visible
+in form and feature, was seen to lead on towards the clergyman that
+beautiful girl, who advanced at once with diffidence and with a species
+of affectionate pride. In the meantime, and just as the clergyman had
+arranged the bridal company before him, and seemed about to commence the
+service, another group of persons, of whom two or three were officers,
+entered the church. They moved, at first, forward, as though they came
+to witness the bridal ceremony; but suddenly one of the officers, whose
+back was towards the spectators, detached himself from his companions,
+and rushed hastily towards the marriage party, when the whole of them
+turned towards him, as if attracted by some exclamation which had
+accompanied his advance. Suddenly the intruder drew his sword; the
+bridegroom unsheathed his own, and made towards him; swords were also
+drawn by other individuals, both of the marriage party and of those who
+had last entered. They fell into a sort of confusion, the clergyman, and
+some elder and graver persons, labouring apparently to keep the peace,
+while the hotter spirits on both sides brandished their weapons. But
+now, the period of the brief space during which the soothsayer, as he
+pretended, was permitted to exhibit his art, was arrived. The fumes
+again mixed together, and dissolved gradually from observation; the
+vaults and columns of the church rolled asunder, and disappeared; and
+the front of the mirror reflected nothing save the blazing torches and
+the melancholy apparatus placed on the altar or table before it.
+
+The doctor led the ladies, who greatly required his support, into the
+apartment from whence they came, where wine, essences, and other means
+of restoring suspended animation, had been provided during his absence.
+He motioned them to chairs, which they occupied in silence--Lady
+Forester, in particular, wringing her hands, and casting her eyes up
+to heaven, but without speaking a word, as if the spell had been still
+before her eyes.
+
+"And what we have seen is even now acting?" said Lady Bothwell,
+collecting herself with difficulty.
+
+"That," answered Baptista Damiotti, "I cannot justly, or with certainty,
+say. But it is either now acting, or has been acted during a short space
+before this. It is the last remarkable transaction in which the Cavalier
+Forester has been engaged."
+
+Lady Bothwell then expressed anxiety concerning her sister, whose
+altered countenance and apparent unconsciousness of what passed around
+her excited her apprehensions how it might be possible to convey her
+home.
+
+"I have prepared for that," answered the adept. "I have directed the
+servant to bring your equipage as near to this place as the narrowness
+of the street will permit. Fear not for your sister, but give her,
+when you return home, this composing draught, and she will be better
+to-morrow morning. Few," he added in a melancholy tone, "leave this
+house as well in health as they entered it. Such being the consequence
+of seeking knowledge by mysterious means, I leave you to judge the
+condition of those who have the power of gratifying such irregular
+curiosity. Farewell, and forget not the potion."
+
+"I will give her nothing that comes from you," said Lady Bothwell; "I
+have seen enough of your art already. Perhaps you would poison us both
+to conceal your own necromancy. But we are persons who want neither the
+means of making our wrongs known, nor the assistance of friends to right
+them."
+
+"You have had no wrongs from me, madam," said the adept. "You sought one
+who is little grateful for such honour. He seeks no one, and only gives
+responses to those who invite and call upon him. After all, you have
+but learned a little sooner the evil which you must still be doomed to
+endure. I hear your servant's step at the door, and will detain your
+ladyship and Lady Forester no longer. The next packet from the Continent
+will explain what you have already partly witnessed. Let it not, if I
+may advise, pass too suddenly into your sister's hands."
+
+So saying, he bid Lady Bothwell good-night. She went, lighted by the
+adept, to the vestibule, where he hastily threw a black cloak over his
+singular dress, and opening the door, entrusted his visitors to the care
+of the servant. It was with difficulty that Lady Bothwell sustained her
+sister to the carriage, though it was only twenty steps distant. When
+they arrived at home, Lady Forester required medical assistance. The
+physician of the family attended, and shook his head on feeling her
+pulse.
+
+"Here has been," he said, "a violent and sudden shock on the nerves. I
+must know how it has happened."
+
+Lady Bothwell admitted they had visited the conjurer, and that Lady
+Forester had received some bad news respecting her husband, Sir Philip.
+
+"That rascally quack would make my fortune, were he to stay in
+Edinburgh," said the graduate; "this is the seventh nervous case I
+have heard of his making for me, and all by effect of terror." He next
+examined the composing draught which Lady Bothwell had unconsciously
+brought in her hand, tasted it, and pronounced it very germain to the
+matter, and what would save an application to the apothecary. He then
+paused, and looking at Lady Bothwell very significantly, at length
+added, "I suppose I must not ask your ladyship anything about this
+Italian warlock's proceedings?"
+
+"Indeed, doctor," answered Lady Bothwell, "I consider what passed as
+confidential; and though the man may be a rogue, yet, as we were fools
+enough to consult him, we should, I think, be honest enough to keep his
+counsel."
+
+"MAY be a knave! Come," said the doctor, "I am glad to hear your
+ladyship allows such a possibility in anything that comes from Italy."
+
+"What comes from Italy may be as good as what comes from Hanover,
+doctor. But you and I will remain good friends; and that it may be so,
+we will say nothing of Whig and Tory."
+
+"Not I," said the doctor, receiving his fee, and taking his hat; "a
+Carolus serves my purpose as well as a Willielmus. But I should like to
+know why old Lady Saint Ringan, and all that set, go about wasting their
+decayed lungs in puffing this foreign fellow."
+
+"Ay--you had best set him down a Jesuit, as Scrub says." On these terms
+they parted.
+
+The poor patient--whose nerves, from an extraordinary state of tension,
+had at length become relaxed in as extraordinary a degree--continued to
+struggle with a sort of imbecility, the growth of superstitious terror,
+when the shocking tidings were brought from Holland which fulfilled even
+her worst expectations.
+
+They were sent by the celebrated Earl of Stair, and contained the
+melancholy event of a duel betwixt Sir Philip Forester and his wife's
+half-brother, Captain Falconer, of the Scotch-Dutch, as they were
+then called, in which the latter had been killed. The cause of quarrel
+rendered the incident still more shocking. It seemed that Sir Philip
+had left the army suddenly, in consequence of being unable to pay a very
+considerable sum which he had lost to another volunteer at play. He had
+changed his name, and taken up his residence at Rotterdam, where he
+had insinuated himself into the good graces of an ancient and rich
+burgomaster, and, by his handsome person and graceful manners,
+captivated the affections of his only child, a very young person,
+of great beauty, and the heiress of much wealth. Delighted with
+the specious attractions of his proposed son-in-law, the wealthy
+merchant--whose idea of the British character was too high to admit
+of his taking any precaution to acquire evidence of his condition and
+circumstances--gave his consent to the marriage. It was about to be
+celebrated in the principal church of the city, when it was interrupted
+by a singular occurrence.
+
+Captain Falconer having been detached to Rotterdam to bring up a part
+of the brigade of Scottish auxiliaries, who were in quarters there, a
+person of consideration in the town, to whom he had been formerly
+known, proposed to him for amusement to go to the high church to see a
+countryman of his own married to the daughter of a wealthy burgomaster.
+Captain Falconer went accordingly, accompanied by his Dutch
+acquaintance, with a party of his friends, and two or three officers of
+the Scotch brigade. His astonishment may be conceived when he saw his
+own brother-in-law, a married man, on the point of leading to the altar
+the innocent and beautiful creature upon whom he was about to practise a
+base and unmanly deceit. He proclaimed his villainy on the spot, and
+the marriage was interrupted, of course. But against the opinion of
+more thinking men, who considered Sir Philip Forester as having thrown
+himself out of the rank of men of honour, Captain Falconer admitted
+him to the privilege of such, accepted a challenge from him, and in
+the rencounter received a mortal wound. Such are the ways of Heaven,
+mysterious in our eyes. Lady Forester never recovered the shock of this
+dismal intelligence.
+
+
+"And did this tragedy," said I, "take place exactly at the time when the
+scene in the mirror was exhibited?"
+
+"It is hard to be obliged to maim one's story," answered my aunt, "but
+to speak the truth, it happened some days sooner than the apparition was
+exhibited."
+
+"And so there remained a possibility," said I, "that by some secret and
+speedy communication the artist might have received early intelligence
+of that incident."
+
+"The incredulous pretended so," replied my aunt.
+
+"What became of the adept?" demanded I.
+
+"Why, a warrant came down shortly afterwards to arrest him for high
+treason, as an agent of the Chevalier St. George; and Lady Bothwell,
+recollecting the hints which had escaped the doctor, an ardent friend
+of the Protestant succession, did then call to remembrance that this
+man was chiefly PRONE among the ancient matrons of her own political
+persuasion. It certainly seemed probable that intelligence from the
+Continent, which could easily have been transmitted by an active and
+powerful agent, might have enabled him to prepare such a scene of
+phantasmagoria as she had herself witnessed. Yet there were so many
+difficulties in assigning a natural explanation, that, to the day of her
+death, she remained in great doubt on the subject, and much disposed to
+cut the Gordian knot by admitting the existence of supernatural agency."
+
+"But, my dear aunt," said I, "what became of the man of skill?"
+
+"Oh, he was too good a fortune-teller not to be able to foresee that his
+own destiny would be tragical if he waited the arrival of the man with
+the silver greyhound upon his sleeve. He made, as we say, a moonlight
+flitting, and was nowhere to be seen or heard of. Some noise there was
+about papers or letters found in the house; but it died away, and Doctor
+Baptista Damiotti was soon as little talked of as Galen or Hippocrates."
+
+"And Sir Philip Forester," said I, "did he too vanish for ever from the
+public scene?"
+
+"No," replied my kind informer. "He was heard of once more, and it was
+upon a remarkable occasion. It is said that we Scots, when there was
+such a nation in existence, have, among our full peck of virtues, one
+or two little barley-corns of vice. In particular, it is alleged that we
+rarely forgive, and never forget, any injuries received--that we make an
+idol of our resentment, as poor Lady Constance did of her grief, and are
+addicted, as Burns says, to 'nursing our wrath to keep it warm.' Lady
+Bothwell was not without this feeling; and, I believe, nothing whatever,
+scarce the restoration of the Stewart line, could have happened so
+delicious to her feelings as an opportunity of being revenged on Sir
+Philip Forester for the deep and double injury which had deprived her
+of a sister and of a brother. But nothing of him was heard or known till
+many a year had passed away.
+
+"At length--it was on a Fastern's E'en (Shrovetide) assembly, at which
+the whole fashion of Edinburgh attended, full and frequent, and when
+Lady Bothwell had a seat amongst the lady patronesses, that one of the
+attendants on the company whispered into her ear that a gentleman wished
+to speak with her in private.
+
+"'In private? and in an assembly room?--he must be mad. Tell him to call
+upon me to-morrow morning.'
+
+"'I said so, my lady,' answered the man, 'but he desired me to give you
+this paper.'
+
+"She undid the billet, which was curiously folded and sealed. It only
+bore the words, 'ON BUSINESS OF LIFE AND DEATH,' written in a hand which
+she had never seen before. Suddenly it occurred to her that it might
+concern the safety of some of her political friends. She therefore
+followed the messenger to a small apartment where the refreshments were
+prepared, and from which the general company was excluded. She found
+an old man, who, at her approach, rose up and bowed profoundly. His
+appearance indicated a broken constitution, and his dress, though
+sedulously rendered conforming to the etiquette of a ballroom, was
+worn and tarnished, and hung in folds about his emaciated person. Lady
+Bothwell was about to feel for her purse, expecting to get rid of the
+supplicant at the expense of a little money, but some fear of a mistake
+arrested her purpose. She therefore gave the man leisure to explain
+himself.
+
+"'I have the honour to speak with the Lady Bothwell?'
+
+"'I am Lady Bothwell; allow me to say that this is no time or place for
+long explanations. What are your commands with me?'
+
+"'Your ladyship,' said the old man, 'had once a sister.'
+
+"'True; whom I loved as my own soul.'
+
+"'And a brother.'
+
+"'The bravest, the kindest, the most affectionate!' said Lady Bothwell.
+
+"'Both these beloved relatives you lost by the fault of an unfortunate
+man,' continued the stranger.
+
+"'By the crime of an unnatural, bloody-minded murderer,' said the lady.
+
+"'I am answered,' replied the old man, bowing, as if to withdraw.
+
+"'Stop, sir, I command you,' said Lady Bothwell. 'Who are you that, at
+such a place and time, come to recall these horrible recollections? I
+insist upon knowing.'
+
+"'I am one who intends Lady Bothwell no injury, but, on the contrary,
+to offer her the means of doing a deed of Christian charity, which the
+world would wonder at, and which Heaven would reward; but I find her in
+no temper for such a sacrifice as I was prepared to ask.'
+
+"'Speak out, sir; what is your meaning?' said Lady Bothwell.
+
+"'The wretch that has wronged you so deeply,' rejoined the stranger, 'is
+now on his death-bed. His days have been days of misery, his nights
+have been sleepless hours of anguish--yet he cannot die without your
+forgiveness. His life has been an unremitting penance--yet he dares not
+part from his burden while your curses load his soul.'
+
+"'Tell him,' said Lady Bothwell sternly, 'to ask pardon of that Being
+whom he has so greatly offended, not of an erring mortal like himself.
+What could my forgiveness avail him?'
+
+"'Much,' answered the old man. 'It will be an earnest of that which
+he may then venture to ask from his Creator, lady, and from yours.
+Remember, Lady Bothwell, you too have a death-bed to look forward
+to; Your soul may--all human souls must--feel the awe of facing the
+judgment-seat, with the wounds of an untented conscience, raw, and
+rankling--what thought would it be then that should whisper, "I have
+given no mercy, how then shall I ask it?"'
+
+"'Man, whosoever thou mayest be,' replied Lady Bothwell, 'urge me not so
+cruelly. It would be but blasphemous hypocrisy to utter with my lips the
+words which every throb of my heart protests against. They would open
+the earth and give to light the wasted form of my sister, the bloody
+form of my murdered brother. Forgive him?--never, never!'
+
+"'Great God!' cried the old man, holding up his hands, 'is it thus the
+worms which Thou hast called out of dust obey the commands of their
+Maker? Farewell, proud and unforgiving woman. Exult that thou hast added
+to a death in want and pain the agonies of religious despair; but never
+again mock Heaven by petitioning for the pardon which thou hast refused
+to grant.'
+
+"He was turning from her.
+
+"'Stop,' she exclaimed; 'I will try--yes, I will try to pardon him.'
+
+"'Gracious lady,' said the old man, 'you will relieve the over-burdened
+soul which dare not sever itself from its sinful companion of earth
+without being at peace with you. What do I know--your forgiveness may
+perhaps preserve for penitence the dregs of a wretched life.'
+
+"'Ha!' said the lady, as a sudden light broke on her, 'it is the villain
+himself!' And grasping Sir Philip Forester--for it was he, and no
+other--by the collar, she raised a cry of 'Murder, murder! seize the
+murderer!'
+
+"At an exclamation so singular, in such a place, the company thronged
+into the apartment; but Sir Philip Forester was no longer there. He had
+forcibly extricated himself from Lady Bothwell's hold, and had run out
+of the apartment, which opened on the landing-place of the stair. There
+seemed no escape in that direction, for there were several persons
+coming up the steps, and others descending. But the unfortunate man was
+desperate. He threw himself over the balustrade, and alighted safely in
+the lobby, though a leap of fifteen feet at least, then dashed into
+the street, and was lost in darkness. Some of the Bothwell family made
+pursuit, and had they come up with the fugitive they might perhaps have
+slain him; for in those days men's blood ran warm in their veins. But
+the police did not interfere, the matter most criminal having happened
+long since, and in a foreign land. Indeed it was always thought that
+this extraordinary scene originated in a hypocritical experiment, by
+which Sir Philip desired to ascertain whether he might return to his
+native country in safety from the resentment of a family which he had
+injured so deeply. As the result fell out so contrary to his wishes, he
+is believed to have returned to the Continent, and there died in exile."
+
+So closed the tale of the MYSTERIOUS MIRROR.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's My Aunt Margaret's Mirror, by Sir Walter Scott
+
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