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diff --git a/37336-8.txt b/37336-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..fceed93 --- /dev/null +++ b/37336-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8386 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of +Scotland Volume 21, by Alexander Leighton + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of Scotland Volume 21 + +Author: Alexander Leighton + +Release Date: September 8, 2011 [EBook #37336] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WILSON'S TALES OF THE *** + + + + +Produced by David Clarke, Katie Hernandez and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + + +Wilson's Tales of the Borders + +AND OF SCOTLAND. + +HISTORICAL, TRADITIONARY, & IMAGINATIVE. + +WITH A GLOSSARY. + +REVISED BY ALEXANDER LEIGHTON, _One of the Original Editors and +Contributors._ + +VOL. XXI. LONDON: WALTER SCOTT, 14 PATERNOSTER SQUARE, AND +NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE. + +1884. + + +CONTENTS. + + THE BURGHER'S TALES, (_Alexander Leighton_)-- + THE HOUSE IN BELL'S WYND, 5 + + THE PRODIGAL SON, (_John Mackay Wilson_), 39 + + THE LAWYER'S TALES, (_Alexander Leighton_)-- + THE WOMAN WITH THE WHITE MICE, 56 + + GLEANINGS OF THE COVENANT, (_Prof. Thos. Gillespie_)-- + THE EARLY DAYS OF A FRIEND OF THE COVENANT, 84 + + THE DETECTIVE'S TALE, (_Alexander Leighton_)-- + THE CHANCE QUESTION, 119 + + THE MERCHANT'S DAUGHTER, (_Alexander Campbell_), 139 + + THE BRIDE OF BELL'S TOWER, (_Alexander Leighton_), 173 + + DOCTOR DOBBIE, (_Alexander Campbell_), 206 + + THE SEEKER, (_John Mackay Wilson_), 235 + + THE SURGEON'S TALES, (_Alexander Leighton_)-- + THE WAGER, 244 + + + + + + +WILSON'S TALES OF THE BORDERS, AND OF SCOTLAND. + +THE BURGHER'S TALES. + +THE HOUSE IN BELL'S WYND. + + +Some reference has been made by Mr. Chambers, in his _Traditions of +Edinburgh_, to a story which looks very like fiction, but the foundation +of which, I dare to say, is the following, derived at most third-hand, +from George Gourlay, a blacksmith, whose shop was in the Luckenbooths, +his dwelling-house in Bell's Wynd, and who was himself an actor in the +drama. + +It is not saying much for the topography of an Edinburgh wynd, to tell +that it contained a flat such as that occupied by this blacksmith; but +he who would describe one of these peculiar features of the Old Town, +would be qualified to come after him who gave a graphic account of the +Dĉdalian Labyrinth, or pictured Menander. Such a wynd has been likened +to the vestibule to a certain place, more hot than cozy--at another +time, to two long tiers of catacombs with living mummies piled row over +row; but, resigning such extravagances, we may be within the bounds of +moderation, and not beyond the attributes of fair similitude, when we +say that one of these wynds is like a perpendicular town where the long, +narrow, dark streets, in place of extending themselves, as they ought, +on the earth's surface, proceed upwards to the sky. And which sky is +scarcely visible--not that, if the perpendicular line were maintained, +the empyrean would be so very much obscured, but that the inhabitants, +in proportion as they rise away from mother earth and society, make +amends by jutting out their dwellings in the form of Dutch gables, so as +to be able to converse with their neighbours opposite on the affairs of +the world below--that world above, to which they are so much nearer, +being despised, on the principle of familiarity producing contempt. Then +the sky-line would so much delight a Gothic architect, composed as it is +of a long multiplicity on either side of pointed gables, lum-tops +venting reek and smoke, dried women's heads venting something of the +same kind. Next, the dark boles of openings to these perpendicular +passages--so like entries to coal cellars,--yet where myriads of human +beings pass and repass up to and down from these skyward streets, which +have no name; being the only streets in the wide world without a +nomenclature. + +We picture the said George Gourlay and his wife, of an evening, at the +time of the history of Bell's Wynd, and other such wynds, when a change +was taking place among the masses there. The New Town was beginning to +hold out its aristocratic attractions to the grandees and wealthy +merchants, who had chosen to live so long in so pent-up a place. Ay, +many had left years before, or were leaving their lairs to be occupied +by those who never thought they would live in houses with armorial +bearings over the door. So it was that flats were shut up, and little +wonder was created by the circumstance of windows being closed by inside +shutters for years. The explanation simply was, that the good old +family would come back to its old _lares_, or that no tenant could be +got for the empty house. And then, of course, the furniture had flitted +to the palaces beyond the North Loch; and what interest could there be +in an empty house with the bare walls overhung by cobwebs, or gnawed +into sinuosities by hungry rats, thus cruelly deserted by the cooks who +ought to have fed them? Yet, in that same stair where Gourlay lived, +there was a _door_ with a history that could not be explained in that +easy way. + +"I say it puzzles me, guidwife Christian, and has done for years." + +"And mair it should me, George. You have been here only nine years, but +'tis now twenty-one since my father was carried to the West Kirk; and a +year afore that I heard him say the house was left o' a morning: nor +sound nor sigh o' human being has been heard in't since that hour." + +"And then the changes," said Geordie, "hae ta'en awa the auld folk whase +gleg een would hae noticed it. As for Bailie or Dean o' Guild, nane o' +them hae ever tirled the padlock." + +"But the factor, auld Dallas o' Lady Stair's Close, dee'd shortly after +my father, and that will partly account for't." + +"It accounts for naething, guidwife Christian," rejoined he. "Whar's the +laird? Men are sometimes forgetfu'; but what man, or woman either, ever +forgets their property or heirlooms? Ye ken, love Christian," he +continued, looking askance at her, half in seriousness and half in +humour, "I am a blacksmith, and hae routh o' skeleton keys." + +"And never ane o' them will touch that padlock while I'm in your +keeping, Geordie. I took ye for an honest man." + +An opposition or check which Gourlay did not altogether like; for, in +secret truth, he had long contemplated an entry by these said skeleton +keys, and, like all people who want a justification for some act they +wish to perform, not altogether consistent with what is right, he had +often in serious playfulness knocked his foot against the old +worm-eaten, wood-rusted, dry-rotted door, as if he expected some +confined ghost to shriek, like that unhappy spirit of the Buchan Caves, +"Let me out, let me out!" whereupon Mr. Gourlay would have been, we +doubt not, more humane than his old father-god, who would not let the +pretty mother of love out of his iron net. + +"Honest! there's twa-three kinds o' honesty, wife Christian. There's the +cauld iron or steel kind, that will neither brak nor bend--the lukewarm, +that is stiff--and the red hot, which canna be handled, but may be +twisted by a bribe o' the hammer, or the cajoling o' the nippers. What +kind would ye wish mine to be?" + +"The cauld, that winna bend." + +"And canna be fashioned to man's purposes, and made a picklock o'? Weel, +weel, Christian, I'm content." + +But George Gourlay was not content, neither then nor for several nights; +nor even in that hour when, having watched guidwife Christian as she lay +on the liver side, and heard the "snurr, snurr," of her deepest sleep, +and listened to the corresponding knurr of the old timepiece as it beat +hoarsely the key-stone hour between the night and the day, he slipt +noiselessly out of bed, and listened again to ascertain whether his +stealthy movement had disturbed his wife. All safe--nor sound anywhere +within the house, or even in the Wynd, where midnight orgies of the +new-comers sometimes annoyed the remaining grandees not yet gone over +the Loch; no, nor rap, rap, upwards from the spirits in the deserted +house right below him, inviting him by the call of "Let me out." Most +opportune silence,--not even broken by guidwife Christian's Baudron +watching with brain-lighted eyes at some hole in a meat-press. And +dark too, not less than Cimmerian, save only for a small rule of +moonlight, which, penetrating a circular hole in the shutter, played +fitfully, as the clouds went over its source, on a point of the red +curtains--sometimes disappearing altogether. By a little groping he got +his hose; nor more would he venture to search for, but finding his way +by touch of the finger, he reached the kitchen, where he lighted the end +of a small dip. A sorry glimmer indeed; but it enabled him to lay his +hands on a bunch of crooked instruments, which he lifted so stealthily +that even a mouse would have continued nibbling forbidden cheese, and +been not a whit alarmed. Then there was the more dangerous opening of +the door leading to the tortuous stair--dangerous, for that quick ear +ben the house, which knew the creak as well as she did the accents of +Geordie Gourlay. Ah, _tutum silentii prĉmium_! has he not gone through +all this, and reached the stair without a sneeze or sigh of mortal to +disturb him! + +So far was he fortunate; and slipshod in worsted of wife Christian's own +working, who so little thought, as she pleased herself with the +reflection of the softness for his feet, that she was to be cheated +thereby, he slipped gently down the steps on this enterprise he had +revolved in his mind for years and years of bygone time. Come to the +identical old door. He had examined it often by candle-light before; and +as for the rusty hasp and staple, and appended padlock, he knew them +well, with all their difficulties to even smith's hands of his horny +manipulation. He laid down the glimmering candle and paused. What a +formidable object of occlusion, that door by which no one had entered +for twenty years! Geordie knew nothing of the old notion, that time +fills secret and vacant recesses with terrified ghosts, frightened away +from the haunts of men; yet he had strange misgivings, which, being the +instinctive suggestions of a rude mind, had a better chance for being +true to nature. Perhaps the cold night air, to which his shirt offered +small impediment, helped his tremulousness; and that was not diminished +when, on seizing the padlock, a scream from some drunken unfortunate in +the Wynd struck on his ear and died away in the midnight silence. Nor +was he free from the pangs of conscience, as he thought of the +injunctions of guidwife Christian, and, more than these, the sanctions +of morality and the laws; but then he was not a thief,--only an +antiquary, searching into a dungeon of time-hallowed curiosities and +relics. He laid his hard hand on the rusty padlock. He was accustomed to +the screech of old bolts, but that now was as if it came from some of +Vulcan's chains whereby he caught the old thieves. The key-hole was +entirely filled up with red rust, which, like silence stuffing up the +mouth, had kept the brain-works unimpaired; so it needed no long time +till, through his cunning crooks, he heard the nick of the receding +bolt. A tug brought up the hasp, and now all ought to have been clear; +but it was otherwise. Time, with his warpings and accumulating glues, +had been there too long--the door would not give way, even to a smith's +right hand; but Geordie had a potency in his back, before which other +unwilling impediments of the same kind, sometimes with a debtor's +resistance at the other side, had given way. That potency he applied; +and the groan of the hinges responding fearfully to his ears, the vision +was at length realized, of that door standing open for the passage of +human beings. + +So far committed, Geordie's courage came with a drawing up of his +muscles; and muttering between his teeth, which risped like files, "I +will face any one except the devil," he lifted the candle, the glimmer +of which paled in the thick air of the opening. He waved it up and down +before he entered; but it seemed as if the weak rays could not find +their way in the dense atmosphere--enough, notwithstanding, to show him +dimly a long lobby. He snorted as the accumulated must stimulated his +nostrils; but there was more than must--the smell was that of an opened +grave which had been covered with moil for a century. Yet his step was +instinctively forward,--the small light flitting here and there like the +fitful gleam of a magic lantern. Half groping with the left hand, as he +held the candle with his right, he soon began to discover particulars. +There were three doors, opening no doubt to rooms, on his left; and as +the light--becoming accustomed, like men's eyes, to the dark--shone +forwards towards the end, he saw another door, which was open. Desperate +men--and Geordie was now wound up--aim at the farthest extremities. He +made his way forward, laying down each stocking-clad foot as if in fear +of being heard by the family below, whose hysterics at a tread above +them at midnight, and in that house, would lead to inquiry and +detection. + +He came at length to the open door at the end of the lobby, and ventured +in. He was presently in the middle of the kitchen, holding the candle up +to see as far around him as he could. Geordie had never read of those +scenes of enchantment where veritable men and women, with warm blood in +their veins, were, on being touched by a wand, changed into statues with +the very smile on their faces which they wore at the moment of +transmutation; in which state they were to remain for a hundred years, +till the wand was broken by a fairy, when they would all start into +their old life. No matter if he had not, for here there was no change: +the kitchen was as it had been left, twenty years before. The +plate-rack, with the china set all along in regular order--no change +there; nor on the row of pewter jugs, one of which stood on the dresser, +with a bottle alongside, and a screw with the cork still on its spiral +end. No doubt some one had been drinking just on the eve of the +cessation of the living economy. A square fir-table stood in the middle, +supplied with plates ready to be carried to the dining-room; and these +plates were certainly not to have been supplied with imaginary meals, +like those in the Eastern tale, for, as he held the candle down towards +the grate, yet half filled with cinders, he saw the horizontal spit with +the skeleton of a goose stuck on it. The motion of the spit had been +suspended when the works ran out, and Baudron had feasted upon the flesh +when it became cold. Nay, that cat, no doubt cherished, lay extended in +anatomy before the fireplace. Nor could it be doubted that the roast had +not been ready; for the axe lay beside a piece of coal half splintered, +for the necessities of the diminished fire. An industrious house too, +wherein the birr of the wheel and the sneck of the reel had sounded: the +pirn was half filled, and the wisp, from which the thread had been +drawn, lay over the back of a chair, as it had been taken from the waist +of the servant maid. But why should not the sluttish girl's bed have +been made at a time of the day when a goose was roasting for dinner? Nor +did Geordie try to answer, because the question was as far from his +wondering mind, as the time when he stood there himself enchanted was +from the period of that marvellous dereliction. + +With eyes rounder, and wider, and considerably glegger, than when he +left goodwife Christian snoring in her bed, so unconscious of what her +husband was to see, he retraced his steps to the kitchen-door, and +turning to the right, opened that next to him. It was the dining-room. +He peered about as his wonder still grew. The long oak-table, in place +of the modern sideboard, ran along the farther end, whereon were +decanters and two silver cups; and not far from these a salver, with a +shrivelled lump, hard as whinstone, and of the form of a loaf, with a +knife lying alongside. The very cushion of the settee opposite to the +fireplace had preserved upon it the indentation of a human head. But +much less wonderful was the cloth-covered table, with salt-cellars and +spice-boxes, and plates, with knives and forks appropriated to each; for +had not Geordie seen the goose at the fire in the kitchen! The +indispensable pictures, too, were all round on the dingy walls--every +one a portrait--staring through dust; and a special one of a female, +with voluminous silks, and a high flour-starched toupee, claimed the +charmed eye of the blacksmith. Even in the vertigo of his wonder, he +looked stedfastly at that beautiful face; nor did the painted eye look +less stedfastly at him, as if, after twenty years, it was again charmed +by the vision of a living man, to the withdrawing of that eye from the +figure alongside of her, so clearly that of her husband. That they were +master and mistress of this very house he would have concluded, if he +had been calm enough to think; but he was, alas, still under the soufflé +of the bellows of romantic wonder. + +Where next, if he could take his eye off that beautiful countenance? +There was a middle door leading into another room: he would persevere +and still explore. Holding up the fast-diminishing candle, he looked in. +There was a female figure there, standing in the dark, beside a bed. It +was arrayed in a long gown, reaching to the feet, of pure white (as +accords). It moved. Geordie could see it plainly: it was the only thing +with living motion in all that still and dreary habitation. Hitherto his +hair had kept wonderfully flat and sleek, but now it began to crisp, and +swirm, and rise on end; while his legs shook, and the trembling had made +the glimmer oscillate in every direction, whereby sometimes it turned +away from the figure, again to illuminate it sparingly, and again to +vibrate off. He could not, notwithstanding his terror, recede; nay, he +tried ineffectually to fix the ray on the very thing that thrilled him +through every nerve. Verily, he would even go forward, under the charm +of his fear, which, like other morbid feelings, would feed on the object +which produced it. First a step, and then a step. The glimmer was again +off the mark; and when he got to the bed, the figure was gone--according +to the old law. + +But the bed was too certainly there, with its deep green curtains, which +were drawn close, indicating midnight; and yet the goose at the fire, +and the table laid! Nor could Geordie explain the physical anomaly, +probably for the reason that he did not try. His candle was wasting away +with those endless oscillations: the figure in white itself had run off +with the half of the short stump; and he feared again to be left in the +dark, where he would have a difficulty in finding his way out. Yet he +felt he must draw these deep green curtains: the broad hand of Fate was +upon his shoulders. He seized them hysterically, and pulled them aside +far enough to let in his head and the candle hand. A dark counterpane +was covered quarter-inch thick with dust; but the odour was not now of +must, it was a choking flesh and bone rot, scarcely bearable; even the +light felt the heaviness, and almost died away in his tremulous fingers. +There were clothes beneath the counterpane, and a long, narrow tumulus +down the middle, as if a body were there, of half its usual size; but +little more was visible, till the eye was turned to the top where the +pillow lay, half up which the dark counterpane was drawn. There was a +head on the pillow, partly covered by the coverlet, partly by a +round-eared mutch--once, no doubt, white as snow, now brown as a Norway +rat's back; yet Geordie would peer, and peer, till he saw an orbless +socket of pure white bone, and a portion of two rows of white teeth +clenched. An undoing of the clothes would have shown him--how much more? +But his shaking was now a palsy of the brain, and he could not undo the +suspected horror. He turned suddenly; and, as the green curtain fell +with a flap, the dip lost its flame, and a black reek vied with that +heavy cadaverousness. He was in the dark. + +Such is the effect of degrees, that, as he groped and groped in a place +where he had lost all landmarks, and the topography had become a +confusion, he could have wished to see again the figure in white; which, +from its own light, could surely, as a spirit, lead him out. His brain +got into a swirl. If the white figure was the spirit of that thing which +he had seen so partially in the bed, would it not return to flit about +its own old tenement? yet not a trail of that white light cast a glance +anywhere. Groping and groping, knocking his head against unknown things, +he turned and turned, but could not find the lobby. He had got through +another door, but not that leading outwards. He must have got into +another room; for he felt and grasped things he had not heretofore seen. +Then the noise he had made had such a dreary sound, falling on his +strained, nerve-strung ear! His hand shrunk at everything he touched, as +if it had been a deaf adder, or deadly nag--above all, a shock of hair, +from which he recoiled more than ever yet, till the devious turns round +and round obliterated every recollection of what he had understood of +localities. So far he must have retraced his steps; for he had again the +green curtain in his left hand without knowing it, and the right went +slap upon that round-eared mutch, and the bone that was under the same. +Recalled a little to his senses, he got at length to the kitchen, +circumambulated and circummanipulated the table, and groped his way to +the door in the end of the lobby, through which he had first entered. +All safe now by the lines of the two walls, he hugged the outer door as +if it had been a twenty years' absent friend, a father, or a wife. + +Nor did he take time to relock the padlock. He had, besides, lost his +crooked instruments. Ah! how sweet to get into a warm bed safe and +sound, after having fancied that from such a white figure hovering round +dry bones he had heard--for Geordie had read plays-- + + "I am that body's spirit, + Doomed for a certain time to walk the night; + And for the day confined, to fast in fires, + Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature + Are burnt and purged away." + +How delightful to Geordie was that snore of wife Christian, as she still +lay on the liver side, perhaps dreaming of seraphim! + +The adventure of that midnight hour dated the beginning of a change on +George Gourlay. One might have said of him, with the older playwright +who never pictured a ghost, _quod scis nescis_; for then never a word +scarcely would he speak to man or beast, nay, not even to a woman, who +has a power of breaking the charm of that silence in others of which +their sex are themselves incapable--even, we say, wife Christian. There +are many Trophonian caves in the world about us, only known to +ourselves, out of which, when we come, we are mute, because we have seen +something different from the objects of the sunlight; yea, if, as the +Indians say, the animals are the dumb of earth, these are the dumb of +heaven. Certain at least it is, that while Geordie did not hesitate +before that night to use his voice in asking an extravagant price for an +old lock, or even damning him who below made more noise than nails, he +never now used that tongue in such dishonesties and irreverences. But, +what was even more strange, wife Christian did not seem to have any +inclination to break his silent mood; nay, if he was moody, so was she. +Then her eyelight was so changed to him, that he could not thereby, as +formerly, read her thoughts. Perhaps she took all this on from +imitation; but she was not one of the imitative children of +genius--rather a hard-grained Cameronian, to whom others' thoughts are +only as a snare; yet, might she not have had suspicions of her husband's +silence? All facts were against such a supposition, except one: that, on +the following morning, she observed dryly, that the dip she had left in +the kitchen had burnt away of its own special accord. Vain thoughts all. +Geordie was simply "born again;" and old women do not speak to infants, +until, at least, they can hear. + +Nor did this mood promise amendment even up to that night, when a rap +having come to the door, Geordie started, while guidwife Christian went +undismayed to open the same; for, moody as she was, she was not affected +by evening raps as he was, and had been since that eventful midnight. +But if the sturdy blacksmith was afraid before she obeyed the call, he +was greatly more so after she had opened the door, and when she led into +the parlour an old man, with hair more than usually grey even for his +years, with a staff in his hand, bearing up, as he came in, a tall, +wasted body--so wasted, that he might have been supposed to have waited +all this time for a leg of that goose which had been so very long at the +fire. The grief of years had eaten up his face, and only left untouched +the corrugations itself had made. Yet withal he was a gentleman; for his +bow to Geordie was just that which the grandees of the Wynd made to each +other as they passed and repassed. No sooner was he seated, holding his +cane between his shrivelled legs, and his sharp grey eye fixed on the +blacksmith, than the latter became as one enchanted for a second time, +with all the horrors of the first catalepsy upon him, by the process of +the double sense insisted for by Abercromby, but thus known in Bell's +Wynd before his day. Yes, Geordie was entranced again, nor less guidwife +Christian--both staring at the stranger, as if their minds had gone back +through long bygone years to catch the features of a prototype for +comparison with that long, withered face, so yellow and grave-like; then +Christian looked stealthily, and concealed her face. + +"You are a blacksmith, Mr. Gourlay?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"How long have you been here in Bell's Wynd?" + +"Nine years, come Beltane Feast." + +"Not so much as the half of twenty," said the stranger, more inwards +than outwards. + +"Twenty!" ejaculated Christian, as if she could not just help herself. + +And Geordie searched her rigid face for a stray sympathy, repeating +within the teeth that very same word--"Twenty." + +"Then," continued the old man, "you cannot tell who occupied the flat +below at that long period back?" + +"No." + +"And who occupies it now?" + +Geordie was as dumb as the white figure, or as the head on the pillow +with the rat-brown mutch; and this time Christian answered for him: + +"It hasna been occupied for twenty years, sir; and it has been shut up +a' that lang time." + +"Twenty years!" ejaculated the old man, pondering deeply, and sighing +heavily and painfully. + +"Do any of you know Mr. Thomas Dallas, the Clerk to the Signet, who +lived once in Lady Stair's Close?" + +"Dead eighteen years since," replied the wife. + +"Ah, I see," rejoined the stranger; "and so the house has been thus long +closed!" Then musingly, "But then it will be empty--no furniture, +nothing but bare walls." + +"Naebody kens," replied George, still busy examining the face of the +questioner, as if he could not get it to be steady alongside the image +in his own mind. + +"You can, of course, open a padlock?" + +"Ou ay, when it's no owre auld, and the brass slide has been well kept +on the key-hole." Then, as if recollecting himself, "I hinna tried an +auld ane for years." + +"One twenty years unopened?" rejoined the stranger. + +Geordie was again dumb and rigid. + +"Indeed, sir," replied Christian, who saw that her husband was under +some strong feeling, "he can pick ony lock." + +"The very man," said the mysterious visitor. "And now, madam, will you +allow me to take the liberty of requesting to be for a few moments the +only one present in this room with your husband, as I have some business +of a very secret nature to transact with him, which it would not be +proper for a woman, even of your evident discretion and confidence, to +be acquainted with?" + +"I dinna want ye to gang," whispered George. + +"And what for no?" muttered she. "Let evil-doers dree the shame o' their +deeds. Didna ye say to me ye were an honest man, ay, even as cauld iron +or steel, and what ought ye to hae to fear? And now, sir," turning +round, "I will e'en tak me to the kitchen, that what ye want wi' George +Gourlay you may do in secret, even as he has been secret wi' me." + +Then guidwife Christian went out, casting, as she went, a look of +something like triumph at her husband. + +"And now, George Gourlay," said the stranger, "the secret thing I have +to transact with you, and for which I have come three thousand miles, is +to ask you to go with me this night and open the padlock of the door of +that house below, which has not been opened for twenty years." + +"I winna, I canna, I daurna, sir. Gang to the Dean o' Guild. There's a +dead body in the green bed, and there's a spirit in a lang white goun +that watches it." + +The hand of the stranger shook, as he grasped spasmodically his staff; +his teeth for a moment were clenched; and he plainly showed a resolution +not to seem moved by that which as clearly did move him to the innermost +parts of his being. Nor did it now escape Gourlay, as he sat and gazed +at him, that he was the original of that picture in the dining-room, +which hung by the side of the beautiful lady. + +"Then you must have been in?" + +Geordie was silent, meditating on some new light gradually breaking in +upon him. + +"You must have been in, and--and--know the secret?" + +"I ken nae secret, except it be that the goose which has been at the +fire for twenty years is no roasted yet." + +"That goose at the fire even yet!" ejaculated the stranger. + +"Ay, and the thread still on the pirn." + +"Pirn!" responded he mechanically. + +"Ay, and the bottle standing on the dresser along by the pewter mug." + +"Mug!" + +"Ay, and the half-cut loaf on the oaken table, with alongside o't the +knife." + +"Knife!" + +"Ay, and to cap a', the green bed with the dark red counterpane, and in +it still the corpse." + +"Corpse!" + +"So, so," continued the stranger, "I have been wandering the wide world +for twenty years to escape from myself, as if a man could leave his +shadow in the east when he has gone to the west, and all that time found +the vanity of a forced forgetfulness where the touch of God's finger +still burned in the heart. Ay, nor long prairies, nor savannahs where +objects are cast behind and not seen, nor thick woods which exclude the +sun, nor rocky caves by the sea-shore, where there is only heard the +roaring of the waves, could untwine the dark soul from its +recollections. But other things of earth and human workmanship rot and +pass away, as if all were vanity, but man's spirit; and yet here it has +been decreed by Heaven, and wrought by miracle, that things of flesh, +and bone, and wood, and dried grass should be enchanted for duration, +yea, kept in the very place, and form, and lineaments they possessed in +a terrible hour, the memory of which they must conserve for a purpose. +Speak man: Have those sights and things taught you aught of a purpose? +Why look ye at me as if you saw into my heart, and grin as if you were +gifted with the right of revenge? What thoughts have you--what wishes? +What do you premeditate?" + +"Just nae mair than that you'll no get me to enter that house again." + +The stranger's head was bent down in heavy sorrow; and, after being +silent for a while, he rose, and bidding Gourlay good night, went away, +saying he would get another locksmith. The strange manner of Christian +was now made even more remarkable, as, taking her bonnet and cloak, she +sallied forth, late as the hour was, proceeding up the Wynd, and +muttering as she went, "The very man, the very man," she made direct for +Blackfriars Wynd, where she stopt, and looked up to a small window on +the right hand. There was light in it; and ascending a narrow stair she +reached a door, which she quietly opened. A woman was there, busily +spinning. The birr ceased as the door opened. + +"Ann Hall," cried Christian, as she entered, "he is come, he is come! I +kent his face the moment I saw it." + +"Patience, patience, Christian," replied the woman, "what are you to +do?" + +"There maun be nae patience, when God says haste." + +"Canny, canny. The wa's are thin and ears are gleg. I can hear a whisper +frae the next room. Now, I'll spin and you'll speak." + +And so she began to produce the dirl by turning the wheel and plying the +thread. + +"What although ye hae seen him? that maks nae difference. Your aith is +still afore the Lord; and though we are forbidden to swear, when we hae +sworn we hae nae right to brak that aith, as if it were a silly wand, +to be broken and cast awa' at the end o' our journey. And then ye maun +keep in mind, if you brak your word, ye stretch his neck." + +"I carena," replied Christian. "The Lord maun hae His ain for reward, +and Satan maun hae his ain, too, for punishment. Sin' ever that eery +night when in my night-shirt I followed George into the house, and saw +what I saw, the Spirit o' the Lord has been busy in my heart; and my +aith has been to me nae mair than a windlestrae in the east wind, to be +blawn awa' where it listeth. Ye are, like mysel', o' the Auld Light, and +ken what it is to hae the finger o' command laid upon ye." + +"We maun obey; but we maun ken whether the finger is for the will o' the +auld rebel o' pride, wha rebelled in heaven, or Him wha says to the +murderer, Get ye among the rocks or caves o' secrecy, and I will search +ye out, and rug ye into the licht." + +"And what for should I no ken whase finger it is?" said wife Christian. +"Have I no seen what I have seen? For what are a' thae things keepit, as +man keeps the apple o' his e'e? Is na the rust and the worm, ay, and +Time's teeth, aye eating, and gnawing, and tearing, so that everything +passes awa' to make room for others, as if the hail warld were a +whirligig turning round like your ain wheel there for ever and ever?" + +"Ay, the Lord's hand, na doubt. The deil doesna keep the instruments and +signs o' his evil, but shuffles them awa' in nooks and corners to be out +o' the een o' his victims." + +"But hae I no laid my very hand on the fleshless head o' the bonny +misguided creature? Wae tak the man wha brought sae muckle beauty to the +earth to rot, and yet hae nae grave to cover it!" + +"Weel mind I o' her," said Ann, as she still made the wheel go round. +"How she sailed up the Wynd wi' her load o' silks and satins, and the +ribbons that waved in the wind, as if to say, Look here; saw ye ever the +like among the daughters o' men?" + +"It was left to testify, woman, naething else; but the glimmer o' +Geordie's candle showed me a' the lave. Ay, the very goose I plucked, +and drew, and singed, and put on the spit--what for is it there, think +ye, cummer, but to testify? and the pewter jug I drank out o' that +forenoon, and my ain bed I hadna time to mak--what for but to testify?" + +"And punish. But oh, woman, he had sair provocations. Wha was that goose +for?" + +"For her lover, nae doubt; for my master wasna expected hame for a week. +And was I no guilty mysel', wha played into her hands, and was fause to +him wha fed me?" + +"Haud your peace, then, and say naething. The Lord will forgi'e you." + +"Oh God, hae mercy on me, a sinner; and tak awa' frae me this +transgression, that I may lift up my voice in the tabernacle without +fear or trembling!" + +The wheel turned with greater celerity and more noise, and wife +Christian was on her knees, beating her bosom and crying for mercy. + +"Say nae mair, woman," cried the spinner, "and do nae mair. Let the +corpse lie in the green bed, and a' thing be in the wud-dream o' that +dreary house; do nae mair." + +"But the Lord drives me." + +"Just sae; and he wham you would hang on the wuddy will stand up against +ye, and swear ye were the cause o' the death o' his braw leddie, for +that ye concealed her trothlessness, and winked at her wickedness." + +"Haud your tongue, cummer," cried the Old Light Sinner; "haud your +tongue, or you'll drive me mad. Is my heart no like aneugh to brak its +strings, but ye maun tug at them? Is my brain no het aneugh, but ye maun +set lowe to it, and burn it? And my conscience, ken ye na what it is to +hae that terrible thing within ye, when it's waukened up like a fiend o' +hell, chasing ye wi' a red-het brand, and nae escape, for the angel o' +the Lord hauds ye agen? Ann Hall, my auldest friend, will ye do this +thing for me?" + +"What is it?" + +"Gang to Mr B----, the fiscal, and tell him that the corpse is there, +and that the man is here, and say naething o' me; do this, or I'll never +haud up my hands again for grace and mercy." + +Ann was silent, only driving the wheel, the sound of which in the silent +house--dark enough, too, in the small light of the oil cruise over the +fireplace--was all that was heard, save the occasional sobs of the +unhappy victim of conscience. + +"I canna, Christian; I canna, lass. I'll hang nae man for the death o' a +light-o'-love limmer, and to save the conscience o' ane wha, if she +didna see something wrang when it _was_ wrang, ought to hae seen it." + +"I repent and am sair in the spirit," replied Christian; "but if I had +tauld him what I suspected was wrang between Spynie--and ye ken he was a +lord, and titles cast glamour ower the een o' maidens--and my mistress, +it would hae been a' the same. But wae's me!" she added, as she sighed +from the depths of the heart, and wrung her hands, "I had a lichtness +about me myself. A woman's no in her ain keeping at wild happy nineteen. +The heart is aye jumping against the head. But oh, how changed when the +Auld Licht shone ower me! And hae I no been a guid wife to Geordie +Gourlay? Will you no help me, woman?" + +"I hae said it," replied Mrs Hall, as the energy of her resolution +passed into the moving power of the wheel, and the revolutions became +quicker and quicker. + +The Cameronian stood for a moment looking at her--the lips compressed, +the brow knit, the hand firmly bound up, and striking it upon the wall. + +"Ye're o' my faith," said she bitterly; "and may the Evil One help ye +when ye're in need o' the Lord!" + +And with these words she left her old friend, drawing the door after her +with a clang, which shook the crazy tenement. In a moment she was in the +street, now beginning to be deserted. The wooden-pillared lamps, so +thinly distributed, and their small dreary spunk of life, showed only +the darkness they were perhaps intended to illumine; and here and there +was seen a gay-dressed sprig of aristocracy, with his gold-headed cane, +cocked hat, and braided vest, strolling unsteadily home, after having +drunk his couple of claret. Solitary city guardsmen were lounging about, +as if waiting for the peace being broken, when an encounter occurred +between some such ornamented braggadocio and a low Wynd +blackguard--ready to use his quarter-staff against the silver-handled +sword of the aristocrat; and here and there the high-pattened, +short-gowned light-o'-love, regardless of the loud-screamed "gardy-loo," +frolicked with "gold lace and wine," or swore the Edinburgh oaths at +untrue and discarded lovers of their own degree. But guidwife Christian +saw none of all these things; only one engrossing vision was in her +mind, that of the sleeping scene of enchantment in the old flat, +associated with the figure of the stranger;--one feeling only was +paramount in her heart, the inspired awe of the conviction that these +petrified relics of another time, so long back, were there waiting for +her to touch them, that they should be disenchanted, and speak and tell +their tale, and then rot and depart, according to the usual law of +change, and corruption, and decay. + +In this mood she got to the top of the Wynd, and was hurrying along the +first or covered portion, overspread by the front lands, and therefore +dark, when she encountered a man rolled up in a cloak. Even in the dim +light coming from the street lamp on the main pavement, she recognised +him in a moment. He was slouching down by the side of the wall, and did +not seem to notice her. So Christian held back, until he had got farther +on. She felt herself concentrated upon his movements, and observed that +he hung about her own stair, standing in the middle of the close, with +his eye fixed on the dark windows of the deserted flat. There was no +meaning in his action. It seemed simply that his eye was bound to that +house. So far Christian understood the ways of the world; but there are +deeper mysteries there than she wotted of or dreamed just then. A man +will examine a gangrene if it is hopeful; and will hope, and shrink, and +be alarmed, when the hope fails only but a little; nay, he will dread +the undoing of the bandages, lest the hope of the prior undoing should +be changed by the new aspect into a conviction of aggravation; but there +is a state of that ailment, as of moral ills, where all hope having +vanished, despair comes to be reconciled to its own terrors, and the eye +will peer into the hopeless thing, ay, and be charmed with it, and dally +with it, as an irremediable condition, which is his own peculium, a part +of his nature, so far changed. He then becomes a lover of pity, as +before he was a seeker for hope; and, like a desperate bankrupt, will +hawk the balance-sheet of his ills, to make up for the subtraction from +his credit by the sympathy of the world. So did that man look upon that +house, a hopeless sore, after twenty years pain and agony, with these +green spots, and the caustic-defying "proud flesh." Was not the +fleshless corpse of his dead wife still there? She was a skeleton; but +he could only fancy her as he had seen her twenty years before, a young +and beautiful woman. Nor was he alarmed as Christian, weary of waiting +but not unsteeled now for a recognition, stept forward and confronted +him. + +"Mrs. Gourlay!" he said, as he peered into her hard face. + +"Ay, guidwife Christian, as my husband says. Christian Gourlay that +is--Christian Dempster that was." + +"Dempster!" ejaculated he, as he staggered and sustained himself against +the side of the close. + +"Yes, sir--Patrick Guthrie that was when I was Dempster, and is--ay, and +will be till you are born again, and baptized with fire." + +"Patrick Guthrie!" he repeated. "Yes, the man, the very man. And here, +too, is the evidence kept and preserved, perhaps more than once snatched +from death, to be here at this hour to see me, and lay your hand on me, +and be certain that I am the man, the very man. And," after a pause, +"you have kept your sworn promise?" + +"Till this day. Look up there, and see thae closed shutters; go in, and +behold, and say whether or not." + +"Too faithful!" groaned he. + +"To an aith wrung out o' me by a money-bribe and terror." + +"And to be repaid by a money-reward and penitence." + +"The ane, sir, but never the other. Another day--another day," she +repeated, "will try a'." + +"What mean you, Christian?" + +"Mean I? Why are you here?" + +"Because I am weary wandering over the face of the earth, an exile and a +criminal, for twenty long--oh long years!" + +"And now want rest and peace! And how can ye get them but through the +fire of the law, and the waters of the gospel? Where are you living?" + +"Why should I conceal from you, Christian?" said he, thoughtfully. +"No--at the White Horse in the Canongate, under the name of Douglas." + +"_Her_ name! Then look ye to it; for there will be human voices where +none have been for twenty years, and cries o' wonder, and tears o' pity. +Yes, yes, the long sleep is ended, for the charm is broken. Good night." + +And hurrying away, she mounted the stair, leaving the man even more +amazed than he was heart-broken and miserable. Nor will we be far wrong +in supposing that Patrick Guthrie sought the White Horse probably not to +sleep, but if to sleep, as probably to dream. As for guidwife Christian, +she was soon on that side so propitious to her snoring; and as for her +dreams, they were not more of seraphim, nor of Urim and Thummim, than +they were on that night when she was the disembodied spirit of her who +had lain so long in the bed with green curtains. Yet, no doubt, Geordie +was just as certain that she slept as he was on that same night when he +saw the said disembodied spirit; and as for himself, there could be +little doubt that, sleeping or waking, his mind was occupied in tracing +the marked resemblance of the stranger to the picture on the wall, which +would lead him again to the beautiful lady, and which, again, would +remind him of the bones below the red coverlet; and then there is as +little doubt as there is about all these wonderful things, that he +would fancy himself beridden with a terrible nightmare. Oppressed and +tortured by thoughts which he could not bring to bear on any probable +event, he turned and turned; but all his restlessness would produce no +effect on guidwife Christian, who seemed as dead asleep as ever was he +of the Cretan cave in the middle of the seventy years. Nor could he +understand this: heretofore a slight cough, even slighter than that +which brought the Doctor in the "Devil on Two Sticks," used to awaken +the faithful wife; and now nothing would awaken her. He dodged, he +cried; but she wouldn't help to take off the nightmare, which, with its +old characteristic of tailor-folded legs and grinning aspect, sat upon +his chest, as it heaved, but could not throw off the imp. But what was +more extraordinary, this strange conduct of Christian was the +continuation of--nay, a climax to--her inexplicable conduct since ever +that night when he caught up in his mind, as in a prism, that midnight +vision which he had seen, and the fiery coruscations of which still +careered through his brain. Honest Geordie had no guile; and if he had +had any, the new birth he had undergone, with the consequent baptism, +would have taken it clean away, so that there was no chance of a +suspicion of the part which guidwife Christian had played on the said +occasion. Yet, wonder as he might, if he had known all, he would have +wondered more how any woman, even with the advantage of a "New Light," +could have snored under the purpose she had revolved in her mind, and +which she had so darkly revealed to her old master. Ah yes, that female +member, of which so much has been said--even that it contains on the +subtle point thereof a little nerve which anatomists cannot find in the +corresponding organ in man--can swim lightly _tanquam suber_, and yet +never give an indication of the depths below. But Geordie became +wild;--was she dead outright? Dead people do not snore, but the dying do +in apoplexy. He took her by the shoulders, and shook her. + +"Christian, woman, will ye no speak, when I can get nae rest? Wha was +that man wha called here yestreen?" + +No, she wouldn't. + +"And did I no see you look at him as ye never looked at man before?" + +No avail. + +"And what took ye out so soon after he was awa'?" + +No reply. + +"And what's mair"--the murder was now out,--"did ye no meet him secretly +at the stair-foot, and stand and speak to him in strange words and +strange signs?" + +Not yet. + +"And what, in the name o' Heaven, and a' the ither powers up and down +and round and round, was the aith that ye swore to him?" + +Another pause. + +"And what money-bribe was it ye spak o' sae secretly and darkly?" + +All in vain. At length the knurr of the clock, and the most solemn of +all the hours, "one," sounded hoarsely. Wearied, exhausted, and sorely +troubled, Geordie fell asleep, greatly aided thereto by the eternal +oscillation of that little tongue at the back of the greater and mute +one, the sound of which ceased when the blacksmith was fairly and +certainly over, just as if its services had been no longer needed that +night. + +Surely the next of these eventful days was destined, either by the +Furies or the good goddess, to be that day that "would try a'." Even +these words Geordie had heard, if he had not caught up many other +broken sentences, which showed to his distracted mind that guidwife +Christian was in some mysterious way mixed up with the events and things +of the charmed house. The comparatively sleepless night induced a later +than usual rising; but with what wonder did Geordie Gourlay ascertain, +that late as Christian had been out on the previous night, she was +already again forth of the house, leaving him to the bachelor work of +making his own breakfast! Where she had gone he could not even venture +to suppose; but certain he was that her absence was in some way +connected with that stranger with whom he had seen her in communication +the night before. The business did not admit of his waiting; so he took +his morning meal of porridge and milk, and with thoughts anxious and +deep, yet deeper in mere feeling than portrayment of outward coming +events, he sallied forth for the Luckenbooths. On descending the stair, +he found to his dire amazement the door of the portentous flat--that +grave above ground of so many things that should have been either under +the earth, in the sinless regions of mortality, or in the mendicant bag +of Time, rolled away beyond the ken of mortal--open. Yes, that door, +with the rusty padlock, and the creaking hinge, and the worm-eaten +panels, was open. He shuddered: yet he looked ben into the old dark +lobby, where he had groped and so nearly lost himself; and what did he +see? His wife, guidwife Christian, standing in the middle thereof in her +white short-gown, so like, to his imperfect vision, that spirit he had +encountered in that house before! There seemed to be others there also; +for he heard inside doors creaking, and by and by saw come out of the +far-end door that very man--yea, the very man. The reflection of a light +shone out upon him. To escape observation, he slipt to a side; and when +he peered in again, no one was to be seen. They had passed together +into some of the rooms, probably that bedroom where stood the bed with +the green curtains. Resolved as he had been never to enter that door-way +again, he would have rushed forward, had not a hand been laid on his +shoulder. + +"George Gourlay," said a voice behind him. + +"Ay, nae doubt I'm weel kenned." + +"You are in the meantime my prisoner," said an officer, with the +indispensable blue coat, and the red collar, and the cocked hat. + +"For what?" said Geordie. + +"Ye'll ken that by and by," replied the officer; "the fiscal will tell +ye. Awa' wi' me to the office." + +"Humph! for picking a lock," said the blacksmith. "The deil put my left +fingers between my hammer and the stiddy when I meddle again wi' rusty +padlocks." + +"There's naething dune on earth but what is seen," said the man, as with +something like a smile on his left cheek, the other retaining its +gravity, he held up his finger as if pointing to heaven. + +"Ay, ay, there's an e'e there." + +"And to break open a house," continued the officer, "is death en the +wuddy up yonder at the 'Auld Heart.'" + +"But wha, in God's name, is the witness against me?" + +"Guidwife Christian," said the officer again, seriously enough at least +for Geordie's belief of his sincerity. + +"And the woman has turned against her husband! This is the warst blow +ava. But, Lord, man, I stowe naething." + +"Thieves are no generally at the trouble of picking locks, rummaging a +house, and going away empty-handed, as if out o' a kirk. But come, you +can tell the Lord Advocate's deputy a' that." + +And George Gourlay was taken away, muttering to himself, as he went, +"This explains a'. Nae wonder she wadna speak to the man she intended +to hang. Woman, woman, verily from the beginning hae ye been we to man, +and will be to the end." + +Led up the High Street, yet in such a way as to avoid any suspicion that +he was in the hands of an officer, George Gourlay was placed safely in +the room of Mr. B----, the procurator-fiscal of that time, for reasons +unknown to us, in the Old Tolbooth. The entry through the thick +iron-knobbed door to the inside of this dark and dreary pile, which +borrowed its light only through openings left by the irregularities of +the high masses of St. Giles, and the parallel rows of overshadowing +houses, flanked by the booths and the Crames, was enough to vanquish the +heart of the strongest and the most innocent. Nor was it the darkness +and the squalor alone that were so formidable. Thick air, loaded with +the breath and exhalations from unhealthiness and disease itself, had +made livid faces and bloodshot eyes; drunken, uproarious voices, and +bacchanalian songs, oaths, denunciations, and peals of laughter, mixed +with groans. Only awanting that inscription seen by the Hermet shadow +who led the Florentine. Up a stair--through the midst of these children +of evil or victims of misfortune, the innocent rendered guilty by +infection, the condemned to death made drearily jolly by despair, +imitating the recklessness of mirth,--and now the unfortunate George +Gourlay is before his examinator. + +"Mr. Gourlay," said the officer. + +"Sit down, sir," said Mr. B----, "and wait till the others come. We +cannot want Mrs. Gourlay, though no doubt you can swear to the man. In +the meantime, hold your peace, lest you commit yourself. Say nothing +till you are asked. Most strange affair." + +Thus at once doomed to silence, George sat and listened to the mixed +buzz of this misery become ludibund. Nor was his unhappiness thus +limited: a fearful conviction seized him, that long before he was hanged +he would take on the likeness of the wretches he had passed through;--he +would become sleazy; his eyes would be red, fiery, or bleared with +tears, dried up in the heat of his fevered blood; his cheeks would be +pale-yellow or blue, his voice husky, and his nose red; he would sing, +swear, dance--ay, douce Geordie would sing even as they. Better be +hanged at once than sent hence thus deteriorated,--an unpleasant +customer in the other world. Nay, one half of them had greasy, furzy, +red nightcaps; and the chance was therefore a half that he would be +thrown off in one of these, to the eternal disgrace of the Gourlays of +Gersholm, from whom he was descended. + +A full hour passed, bringing no comfort on its heavy wings. At length +another red-necked official entered, and introduced guidwife Christian +herself, and--Patrick Guthrie. + +When these parties entered, Geordie's eyes and mouth had relapsed into +that condition they presented on that occasion when he saw the wraith by +the bed with the green curtains. + +"Mrs. Gourlay," said Mr. B----, "you are the wife of George Gourlay, +blacksmith?" + +"Ay, and have been for nine years, come the time, the day, and the +hour." + +"Please throw your mind back twenty years." + +"It ower aften gaes back to that time o' its ain accord, sir." + +"Well, tell us where you lived, and what you did about that time." + +"I was servant to Mr. Patrick Guthrie,--this gentleman sitting at my +right hand." + +"Was Mr. Guthrie a married man?" + +"Ay, sir, he was married to a young lady, whose maiden name was +Henrietta Douglas, ane o' the Brigstons, as I hae heard." + +"What kind of woman was she?" + +"Bonny, sir, as ony that ever walked the High Street or the Canongate; +and the mair wae, sir. Cheerfu', too, and light-hearted and merry as the +lavrock when it rises in the morning; ay, and the mair wae!" + +"Why do you add these words?" continued Mr. B----. "What do you mean?" + +"Because thae things brought gay gallants about the house when master +was awa' in Angus, whaur he had a property near Gaigie; but he was nane, +I think, o' the four Guthries." + +"Then you knew that they came without the knowledge and against the +wishes of your master?" + +"Ower weel, sir, for my peace these twenty years bygane." + +"Then you think there was more than indiscretion in Mrs. Guthrie?" + +"Muckle mair, I doubt." + +"Do you recollect the names of any of these gay gallants?" + +"There was Lord Spynie, a wild dare-the-deil; but sae merry, and jovial, +and pleasant, that his very een were nets to catch women's hearts." + +"Do you remember anything happening when Lord Spynie was in the house +in Bell's Wynd?" + +"Ay; on the last day o' my service, yea, the last day o' my leddie's +life. My maister had gane to Gaigie, as I thought; but I aye doubted if +he had been farther than the White Horse. He wouldna return for a week, +not he; and so my leddie thought, for the next day she ordered me to get +a goose, and roast it on the spit; and weel I kenned wha the goose was +for. But I didna like the business, for I had my pirns to finish--no, +gude forgie me, that I was against this deception o' my master. The +goose was bought, and plucket, and singed, and put to the fire. The +dinner was to be at twa o'clock, and Lord Spynie was there by ane. In +half an hour after, wha comes rushing in but my master? And the moment +he saw Spynie, he drew his sword, and so did his lordship his. My +mistress screamed, and ran between them; and oh! sir, the sword that was +thrust at Spynie gaed clean through my mistress's fair body. She was +dead. Then Lord Spynie lost a' his courage, and flew out o' the house; +and just as he was passing through the door, my master thrust at him, +and his bluidy sword snapt and was broken clean through. He came back +and looked on my leddy, and kissed her, ay, and grat like a bairn; but +oh! he was composed too. 'Christy,' said he, 'lay your mistress on the +green bed.' And so I did, and streeked her, and drew the coverlet over +her, and put a mutch upon her head. Oh how fair she was in death! +'Christy,' said master, 'come hither.' I obeyed. 'Get the Bible,' he +said. I got it. 'Get on your knees,' he said. I knelt. 'Here,' said he, +'is twenty gowden guineas; and now swear upon the Laws and the Prophets, +and the four Gospels, that you will never, by word, or look, or pen, +reveal to man, or woman, or wean what has been done--in this house this +day.' I swore. 'Now go,' said he; 'for I am to lock up the house, and go +far away, where no man can know me.' So I took my little trunk, and went +away sobbing. Nor was he a moment after me. I saw him shut the shutters +and lock the door, and walk quickly away. Nor was he ever heard of more +till yesterday; and there he is." + +"Is all this true, Mr. Guthrie?" + +"All true as God's word." + +"And all this happened twenty years ago?" + +"Yes." + +"Then by the law of Scotland you are a free man, even were this murder +or homicide; for twenty years is the period of our prescription. You may +all go." + +Then they rose to depart. + +"Mr. Guthrie," cried Mr. B----, "bury your wife. And, hark ye, the goose +has been at the fire for twenty years, and must now, I think, be +roasted." + + + + +THE PRODIGAL SON. + + +The early sun was melting away the coronets of grey clouds on the brows +of the mountains, and the lark, as if proud of its plumage, and +surveying itself in an illuminated mirror, carolled over the bright +water of Keswick, when two strangers met upon the side of the lofty +Skiddaw. Each carried a small bag and a hammer, betokening that their +common errand was to search for objects of geological interest. The one +appeared about fifty, the other some twenty years younger. There is +something in the solitude of the everlasting hills, which makes men who +are strangers to each other despise the ceremonious introductions of the +drawing-room. So it was with our geologists--their place of meeting, +their common pursuit, produced an instantaneous familiarity. They spent +the day, and dined on the mountain-side together. They shared the +contents of their flasks with each other; and, ere they began to descend +the hill, they felt, the one towards the other, as though they had been +old friends. They had begun to take the road towards Keswick, when the +elder said to the younger, "My meeting with you to-day recalls to my +recollection a singular meeting which took place between a friend of +mine and a stranger, about seven years ago, upon the same mountain. But, +sir, I will relate to you the circumstances connected with it; and they +might be called the History of the Prodigal Son." + +He paused for a few moments, and proceeded:--About thirty years ago a +Mr. Fen-wick was possessed of property in Bamboroughshire worth about +three hundred per annum. He had married while young, and seven fair +children cheered the hearth of a glad father and a happy mother. Many +years of joy and of peace had flown over them, when Death visited their +domestic circle, and passed his icy hand over the cheek of the +first-born; and, for five successive years, as their children opened +into manhood and womanhood, the unwelcome visitor entered their +dwelling, till of their little flock there was but one, the youngest, +left. And O, sir, in the leaving of that one, lay the cruelty of +Death--to have taken him, too, would have been an act of mercy. His name +was Edward; and the love, the fondness, and the care which his parents +had borne for all their children, were concentrated on him. His father, +whose soul was stricken with affliction, yielded to his every wish; and +his poor mother + + "Would not permit + The winds of heaven to visit his cheek too roughly." + +But you shall hear how cruelly he repaid their love--how murderously he +returned their kindness. He was headstrong and wayward; and though the +small still voice of affection was never wholly silent in his breast, it +was stifled by the storm of his passions and propensities. His first +manifestation of open viciousness was a delight in the brutal practice +of cock-fighting; and he became a constant attender at every "_main_" +that took place at Northumberland. He was a habitual "_bettor_," and his +losses were frequent; but hitherto his father, partly through fear, and +partly from a too tender affection, had supplied him with money. A +"main" was to take place in the neighbourhood of Morpeth, and he was +present. Two noble birds were disfigured, the savage instruments of +death were fixed upon them, and they were pitted against each other. "A +hundred to one on the Felton Grey!" shouted Fen-wick. "Done! for +guineas!" replied another. "Done! for guineas!--done!" repeated the +prodigal--and the next moment the Felton Grey lay dead on the ground, +pierced through the skull with the spur of the other. He rushed out of +the cockpit--"I shall expect payment to-morrow, Fen-wick," cried the +other. The prodigal mounted his horse, and rode homeward with the fury +of a madman. Kind as his father was, and had been, he feared to meet him +or tell him the amount of his loss. His mother perceived his agony, and +strove to soothe him. + +"What is't that troubles thee, my bird?" inquired she. "Come, tell thy +mother, darling." + +With an oath he cursed the mention of birds, and threatened to destroy +himself. + +"O Edward, love! thou wilt kill thy poor mother. What can I do for +thee?" + +"Do for me!" he exclaimed, wildly tearing his hair as he spoke--"do for +me, mother. Get me a hundred pounds, or my heart's blood shall flow at +your feet." + +"Child! child!" said she, "thou hast been at thy black trade of betting +again. Thou wilt ruin thy father, Edward, and break thy mother's heart. +But give me thy hand on't, dear, that thou'lt bet no more, and I'll get +thy father to give thee the money." + +"My father must not know," he exclaimed; "I will die rather." + +"Love! love!" replied she; "but, without asking thy father, where could +I get thee a hundred pounds?" + +"You have some money, mother," added he; "and you have +trinkets--jewellery!" he gasped, and hid his face as he spoke. + +"Thou shalt have them!--thou shalt have them, child!" said she, "and +all the money thy mother has--only say thou wilt bet no more. Dost thou +promise, Edward--oh, dost thou promise thy poor mother this?" + +"Yes, yes!" he cried. And he burst into tears as he spoke. + +He received the money, and the trinkets, which his mother had not worn +for thirty years, and hurried from the house, and with them discharged a +portion of his dishonourable debt. + +He, however, did bet again; and I might tell you how he became a +horse-racer also; but you shall hear that too. He was now about +two-and-twenty, and for several years he had been acquainted with +Eleanor Robinson--a fair being, made up of gentleness and love, if ever +woman was. She was an orphan, and had a fortune at her own disposal of +three thousand pounds. Her friends had often warned her against the +dangerous habits of Edward Fen-wick. But she had given him her young +heart--to him she had plighted her first vow--and, though she beheld his +follies, she trusted that time and affection would wean him from them; +and, with a heart full of hope and love, she bestowed on him her hand +and fortune. Poor Eleanor! her hopes were vain, her love unworthily +bestowed. Marriage produced no change on the habits of the prodigal son +and thoughtless husband. For weeks he was absent from his own house, +betting and carousing with his companions of the turf; while one vice +led the way to another, and, by almost imperceptible degrees, he +unconsciously sunk into all the habits of a profligate. + +It was about four years after his marriage, when, according to his +custom, he took leave of his wife for a few days, to attend the meeting +at Doncaster. + +"Good-bye, Eleanor, dear," he said gaily, as he rose to depart, and +kissed her cheek; "I shall be back within five days." + +"Well, Edward," said she, tenderly, "if you will go, you must; but think +of me, and think of these our little ones." And, with a tear in her eye, +she desired a lovely boy and girl to kiss their father. "Now, think of +us, Edward," she added; "and do not bet, dearest, do not bet!" + +"Nonsense, duck! nonsense!" said he; "did you ever see me lose?--do you +suppose that Ned Fen-wick is not 'wide awake?' I know my horse, and its +rider too--Barrymore's Highlander can distance everything. But, if it +could not, I have it from a sure hand--the other horses are all +'_safe_.' Do you understand that--eh?" + +"No, I do not understand it, Edward, nor do I wish to understand it," +added she; "but, dearest, as you love me--as you love our children--risk +nothing." + +"Love you, little gipsy! you know I'd die for you," said he--and, with +all his sins, the prodigal spoke the truth. "Come, Nell, kiss me again, +my dear--no long faces--don't take a leaf out of my old mother's book; +you know the saying, 'Never venture, never win--faint heart never won +fair ladye!' Good-bye, love--'bye, Ned--good-bye, mother's darling," said +he, addressing the children as he left the house. + +He reached Doncaster; he had paid his guinea for admission to the +betting-rooms; he had whispered with, and slipped a fee to all the +shrivelled, skin-and-bone, half-melted little manikins, called jockeys, +to ascertain the secrets of their horses. "All's safe!" said the +prodigal to himself, rejoicing in his heart. The great day of the +festival--the important St. Leger--arrived. Hundreds were ready to back +Highlander against the field: amongst them was Edward Fen-wick; he +would take any odds--he did take them--he staked his all. "A thousand to +five hundred on Highlander against the field," he cried, as he stood +near a betting-post. "Done!" shouted a mustachioed peer of the realm, in +a barouche by his side. "Done!" cried Fen-wick, "for the double, if you +like, my lord." "Done!" added the peer; "and I'll treble it if you +dare!" "Done!" rejoined the prodigal, in the confidence and excitement +of the moment--"Done! my lord." The eventful hour arrived. There was not +a false start. The horses took the ground beautifully. Highlander led +the way at his ease; and his rider, in a tartan jacket and mazarine cap, +looked confident. Fen-wick stood near the winning-post, grasping the +rails with his hands; he was still confident, but he could not chase the +admonition of his wife from his mind. The horses were not to be seen. +His very soul became like a solid and sharp-edged substance within his +breast. Of the twenty horses that started, four again appeared in sight. +"The tartan yet! the tartan yet!" shouted the crowd. Fen-wick raised his +eyes--he was blind with anxiety--he could not discern them; still he +heard the cry of "The tartan! the tartan!" and his heart sprang to his +mouth. "Well done, orange!--the orange will have it!" was the next cry. +He again looked up, but he was more blind than before. + +"Beautiful!--beautiful! Go it, tartan! Well done, orange!" shouted the +spectators; "a noble race!--neck and neck; six to five on the orange!" +He became almost deaf as well as blind. "Now for it!--now for it!--it +won't do, tartan!--hurrah!--hurrah!--orange has it!" + +"Liar!" exclaimed Fen-wick, starting as if from a trance, and grasping +the spectator who stood next him by the throat--"I am not ruined!"--In a +moment he dropped his hands by his side, he leaned over the railing, +and gazed vacantly on the ground. His flesh writhed, and his soul +groaned in agony. "Eleanor!--my poor Eleanor!" cried the prodigal. The +crowd hurried towards the winning-post--he was left alone. The peer with +whom he had betted, came behind him; he touched him on the shoulder with +his whip--"Well, my covey," said the nobleman, "you have lost it." + +Fen-wick gazed on him with a look of fury and despair, and +repeated--"Lost it!--I am ruined--soul and body!--wife and children +ruined!" + +"Well, Mr. Fen-wick," said the sporting peer, "I suppose, if that be the +case, you won't come to Doncaster again in a hurry. But my settling day +is to-morrow--you know I keep sharp accounts; and if you have not the +'_ready_' at hand, I shall expect an equivalent--you understand me." + +So saying, he rode off, leaving the prodigal to commit suicide if he +chose. It is enough for me to tell you that, in his madness and his +misery, and from the influence of what he called his sense of honour, he +gave the winner a bill for the money--payable at sight. My feelings will +not permit me to tell you how the poor infatuated madman more than once +made attempts upon his own life; but the latent love of his wife and of +his children prevailed over the rash thought, and, in a state bordering +on insanity, he presented himself before the beings he had so deeply +injured. + +I might describe to you how poor Eleanor was sitting in their little +parlour, with her boy upon a stool by her side, and her little girl on +her knee, telling them fondly that their father would be home soon, and +anon singing to them the simple nursery rhyme-- + + "Hush, my babe, baby bunting, + Your father's at the hunting," etc.; + +when the door opened, and the guilty father entered, his hair clotted, +his eyes rolling with the wildness of despair, and the cold sweat +running down his pale cheeks. + +"Eleanor! Eleanor!" he cried, as he flung himself upon a sofa. + +She placed her little daughter on the floor--she flew towards him--"My +Edward!--oh my Edward!" she cried--"what is it, love?--something +troubles you." + +"Curse me, Eleanor!" exclaimed the wretched prodigal, turning his face +from her. "I have ruined you I--I have ruined my children!--I am lost +for ever!" + +"No, my husband!" exclaimed the best of wives; "your Eleanor will not +curse you. Tell me the worst, and I will bear it--cheerfully bear it, +for my Edward's sake." + +"You will not--you cannot," cried he; "I have sinned against you as +never man sinned against woman. Oh! if you would spit upon the very +ground where I tread, I would feel it as an alleviation of my +sufferings; but your sympathy, your affection, makes my very soul +destroy itself! Eleanor!--Eleanor-!--if you have mercy, hate me--tell +me--show me that you do!" + +"O Edward!" said she, imploringly, "was it thus when your Eleanor +spurned every offer for your sake, when you pledged to her everlasting +love? She has none but you, and can you speak thus? O husband! if you +will forsake _me_, forsake not my poor children--tell me! only tell me +the worst--and I will rejoice to endure it with my Edward!" + +"Then," cried Fen-wick, "if you will add to my misery by professing to +love a wretch like me--know you are a beggar!--and I have made you one! +Now, can you share beggary with me?" + +She repeated the word "Beggary!"--she clasped her hands together--for a +few moments she stood in silent anguish--her bosom heaved--the tears +gushed forth--she flung her arms around her husband's neck--"Yes!" she +cried, "I can meet even beggary with my Edward!" + +"O Heaven!" cried the prodigal, "would that the earth would swallow me! +I cannot stand this!" + +I will not dwell upon the endeavours of the fond, forgiving wife, to +soothe and to comfort her unworthy husband; nor yet will I describe to +you the anguish of the prodigal's father and of his mother, when they +heard the extent of his folly and of his guilt. Already he had cost +the old man much, and, with a heavy and sorrowful heart, he proceeded +to his son's house to comfort his daughter-in-law. When he entered, +she was endeavouring to cheer her husband with a tune upon the +harpsichord--though, Heaven knows, there was no music in her breast, +save that of love--enduring love! + +"Well, Edward," said the old man, as he took a seat, "what is this that +thou hast done now?" + +The prodigal was silent. + +"Edward," continued the grey-haired parent, "I have had deaths in my +family--many deaths, and thou knowest it--but I never had to blush for a +child but thee! I have felt sorrow, but thou hast added shame to +sorrow--" + +"O father!" cried Eleanor, imploringly, "do not upbraid my poor +husband." + +The old man wept--he pressed her hand, and, with a groan, said, "I am +ashamed that thou shouldst call me father, sweetest; but if thou canst +forgive him, I should. He is all that is left to me--all that the hand +of death has spared me in this world! Yet, Eleanor, his conduct is a +living death to me--it is worse than all that I have suffered. When +affliction pressed heavily upon me, and, year after year, I followed my +dear children to the grave, my neighbours sympathized with me--they +mingled their tears with mine; but now, child--oh, now, I am ashamed to +hold up my head amongst them! O Edward, man! if thou hast no regard for +thy father or thy heart-broken mother, hast thou no affection for thy +poor wife?--canst thou bring her and thy helpless children to ruin? But +that, I may say, thou hast done already! Son! son! if thou wilt murder +thy parents, hast thou no mercy for thine own flesh and blood?--wilt +thou destroy thine own offspring? O Edward! if there be any sin that I +will repent upon my death-bed, it will be that I have been a too +indulgent father to thee--that I am the author of thy crimes!" + +"No, father! no!" cried the prodigal; "my sins are my own! I am their +author, and my soul carries its own punishment! Spurn me! cast me +off!--disown me for ever!--it is all I ask of you! You despise me--hate +me too, and I will be less miserable!" + +"O Edward!" said the old man, "thou art a father, but little dost thou +know a father's heart! Disown thee! Cast thee off, sayest thou! As soon +could the graves of thy brothers give up their dead! Never, Edward! +never! O son, wouldst thou but reform thy ways--wouldst thou but become +a husband worthy of our dear Eleanor; and, after all the suffering thou +hast brought upon her, and the shame thou hast brought upon thy family, +I would part with my last shilling for thee, Edward, though I should go +into the workhouse myself." + +You are affected, sir--I will not harrow up your feelings by further +describing the interview between the father and his son. The misery of +the prodigal was remorse, not penitence. It is sufficient for me to say, +that the old man took a heavy mortgage on his property, and Edward +Fen-wick commenced business as a wine and spirit merchant in Newcastle. +But, sir, he did not attend upon business; and I need not tell you that +such being the case, business was too proud a customer to attend upon +him. Neither did he forsake his old habits, and, within two years, he +became involved--deeply involved. Already, to sustain his tottering +credit, his father had been brought to the verge of ruin. During his +residence in Bamboroughshire, he had become acquainted with many +individuals carrying on a contraband trade with Holland. To amend his +desperate fortunes, he recklessly embarked in it. In order to obtain a +part in the ownership of a lugger, he _used his father's name_! This was +the crowning evil in the prodigal's drama. He made the voyage himself. +They were pursued and overtaken when attempting to effect a landing near +the Coquet. He escaped. But the papers of the vessel bespoke her as +being chiefly the property of his father. Need I tell you that this was +a finishing blow to the old man? + +Edward Fen-wick had ruined his wife and family--he had brought ruin upon +his father, and was himself a fugitive. He was pursued by the law; he +fled from them; and he would have fled from their remembrance if he +could. It was now, sir, that the wrath of Heaven was showered upon the +head, and began to touch the heart of the prodigal: Like Cain, he was a +fugitive and a vagabond on the face of the earth. For many months he +wandered in a distant part of the country; his body was emaciated and +clothed with rags, and hunger preyed upon his very heart-strings. It is +a vulgar thing, sir, to talk of hunger; but they who have never felt it +know not what it means. He was fainting by the wayside, his teeth were +grating together, the tears were rolling down his cheeks. "The servants +of my father's house," he cried, "have bread enough and to spare, while +I perish with hunger;" and continuing the language of the prodigal in +the Scriptures, he said, "I will arise and go unto my father, and say, I +have sinned against Heaven, and in thy sight." + +With a slow and tottering step, he arose to proceed on his journey to +his father's house. A month had passed--for every day he made less +progress--ere the home of his infancy appeared in sight. It was noon, +and, when he saw it, he sat down in a little wood by a hill-side and +wept, until it had become dusk; for he was ashamed of his rags. He drew +near the house, but none came forth to welcome him. With a timid hand he +rapped at the door, but none answered him. A stranger came from one of +the outhouses and inquired, "What dost thou want, man?" + +"Mr Fen-wick," feebly answered the prodigal. + +"Why, naebody lives there," said the other; "and auld Fen-wick died in +Morpeth jail mair than three months sin'!" + +"Died in Morpeth jail!" groaned the miserable being, and fell against +the door of the house that had been his father's. + +"I tell ye, ye cannot get in there," continued the other. + +"Sir," replied Edward, "pity me; and, oh, tell me is Mrs Fen-wick +here--or her daughter-in-law?" + +"I know nought about them," said the stranger. "I'm put in charge here +by the trustees." + +Want and misery kindled all their fires in the breast of the fugitive. +He groaned, and, partly from exhaustion, partly from agony, sank upon +the ground. The other lifted him to a shed, where cattle were wont to be +fed. His lips were parched, his languid eyes rolled vacantly. "Water! +give me water!" he muttered in a feeble voice; and a cup of water was +brought to him. He gazed wistfully in the face of the person who stood +over him--he would have asked for bread; but, in the midst of his +sufferings, pride was yet strong in his heart, and he could not. The +stranger, however, was not wholly destitute of humanity. + +"Poor wretch!" said he, "ye look very fatigued; dow ye think ye cud eat +a bit bread, if I were gi'en it to thee?" + +Tears gathered in the lustreless eyes of the prodigal; but he could not +speak. The stranger left him, and returning, placed a piece of coarse +bread in his hand. He ate a morsel; but his very soul was sick, and his +heart loathed to receive the food for lack of which he was perishing. + +Vain, sir, were the inquiries after his wife, his children, and his +mother; all that he could learn was, that they had kept their sorrow and +their shame to themselves, and had left Northumberland together, but +where, none knew. He also learned that it was understood amongst his +acquaintances that he had put a period to his existence, and that this +belief was entertained by his family. Months of wretchedness followed, +and Fen-wick, in despair, enlisted into a foot regiment, which, within +twelve months, was ordered to embark for Egypt. At that period the +British were anxious to hide the remembrance of their unsuccessful +attack upon Cadiz, and resolved to wrench the ancient kingdom of the +Pharaohs from the grasp of the proud armies of Napoleon. The Cabinet, +therefore, on the surrender of Malta, having seconded the views of Sir +Ralph Abercrombie, several transports were fitted out to join the +squadron under Lord Keith. In one of those transports the penitent +prodigal embarked. You are too young to remember it, sir; but at that +period a love of country was more widely than ever becoming the ruling +passion of every man in Britain; and, with all his sins, his follies, +and his miseries, such a feeling glowed in the breast of Edward +Fen-wick. He was weary of existence, and he longed to listen to the +neighing of the war-horse, and the shout of its rider, and as they might +rush on the invulnerable phalanx, and its breastwork of bayonets, to +mingle in the rank of heroes; and, rather than pine in inglorious grief, +to sell his life for the welfare of his country; or, like the gallant +Graham, amidst the din of war, and the confusion of glory, to forget his +sorrows. The regiment to which he belonged joined the main army off the +Bay of Marmorice, and was the first that, with the gallant Moore at its +head, on the memorable seventh of March, raised the shout of victory on +the shores of Aboukir. + +In the moment of victory, Fen-wick fell wounded on the field, and his +comrades, in their triumph, passed over him. He had some skill in +surgery, and he was enabled to bind up his wound. He was fainting upon +the burning sand, and he was creeping amongst the bodies of the slain, +for a drop of moisture to cool his parched tongue, when he perceived a +small bottle in the hands of a dead officer. It was half-filled with +wine--he eagerly raised it to his lips--"Englishman!" cried a feeble +voice, "for the love of Heaven! give me one drop--only one!--or I die!" +He looked around--a French officer, apparently in the agonies of death, +was vainly endeavouring to raise himself on his side, and stretching his +hand towards him. "Why should I live?" cried the wretched prodigal; +"take it, take it, and live, if you desire life!" He raised the wounded +Frenchman's head from the sand--he placed the bottle to his lips--he +untied his sash, and bound up his wounds. The other pressed his hand in +gratitude. They were conveyed from the field together. Fen-wick was +unable to follow the army, and he was disabled from continuing in the +service. The French officer recovered, and he was grateful for the poor +service that had been rendered to him; and, previous to his being sent +off with other prisoners, he gave a present of a thousand francs to the +joyless being whom he called his deliverer. + +I have told you that Fen-wick had some skill in surgery; he had studied +some years for the medical profession, but abandoned it for the turf and +its vices. He proceeded to Alexandria, where he began to practise as a +surgeon, and, amongst an ignorant people, gained reputation. Many years +passed, and he had acquired, if not riches, at least an independency. +Repentance also had penetrated his soul. He had inquired long and +anxiously after his family. He had but few other relatives; and to all +of them he had anxiously written, imploring them to acquaint him with +the residence of the beings whom he had brought to ruin, but whom he +still loved. Some returned no answer to his applications, and others +only said that they knew nothing of his wife, or his mother, or of his +children, nor whether they yet lived; all they knew was, that they had +endeavoured to hide the shame he had brought upon them from the world. +These words were daggers to his bruised spirit; but he knew he deserved +them, and he prayed that Heaven would grant him the consolation and the +mercy that were denied him on earth. + +Somewhat more than seven years ago he returned to his native country, +and he was wandering on the very mountain where, to-day, I met you, when +he entered into conversation with a youth apparently about three or four +and twenty years of age; and they spent the day together as we have +done. Fen-wick was lodging in Keswick, and as, towards evening, they +proceeded along the road together, they were overtaken by a storm. "You +must accompany me home," said the young man, "until the storm be passed; +my mother's house is at hand,"--and he conducted him to yonder lonely +cottage, whose white walls you perceive peering through the trees by the +water-side. It was dusk when the youth ushered him into a little parlour +where two ladies sat; the one appeared about forty, the other threescore +and ten. They welcomed the stranger graciously. He ascertained that they +let out the rooms of their cottage to visitors to the lakes during the +summer season. He expressed a wish to become their lodger, and made some +observations on the beauty of the situation. + +"Yes, sir," said the younger lady, "the situation is indeed beautiful; +but I have seen it when the water, and the mountains around it, could +impart no charm to its dwellers. Providence has, indeed, been kind to +us, and our lodgings have seldom been empty; but, sir, when we entered +it, it was a sad house indeed. My poor mother-in-law and myself had +experienced many sorrows; yet my poor fatherless children--for I might +call them fatherless"--and she wept as she spoke--"with their innocent +prattle, soothed our affliction. But my little Eleanor, who was loved by +every one, began to droop day by day. It was a winter night--the snow +was on the ground--I heard my little darling give a deep sigh upon my +bosom. I started up. I called to my poor mother. She brought a light to +the bedside--and I found my sweet child dead upon my breast. It was a +long and sad night, as we sat by the dead body of my Eleanor, with no +one near us; and after she =was= buried, my poor Edward there, as he +sat by our side at night, would draw forward to his knee the stool on +which his sister sat--while his grandmother would glance at him fondly, +and push aside the stool with her foot, that I might not see it;--but I +saw it all." + +The twilight had deepened in the little parlour, and its inmates could +not perfectly distinguish the features of each other; but as the lady +spoke, the soul of Edward Fen-wick glowed within him--his heart +throbbed--his breathing became thick--the sweat burst upon his brow. +"Pardon me, lady!" he cried, in agony; "but, oh! tell me your name?" + +"Fen-wick, sir," replied she. + +"Eleanor! my injured Eleanor!" he exclaimed, flinging himself at her +feet. "I am Edward, your guilty husband! Mother! can you forgive me? My +son! my son! intercede for your guilty father!" + +Ah, sir, there needed no intercession--their arms were around his +neck--the prodigal was forgiven! "Behold," continued the narrator, +"yonder from the cottage comes the mother, the wife, and the son of whom +I have spoken! I will introduce you to them--you shall witness the +happiness and the penitence of the prodigal--you must stop with me +to-night. Start not, sir--I am Edward Fen-wick the Prodigal Son!" + + + + +THE LAWYER'S TALES. + +THE WOMAN WITH THE WHITE MICE. + + +Many have, doubtless, both heard and read of the case of murder in which +Jeffrey performed his greatest feat of oratory and power over a jury, +and in which, while engaged in his grand speech of more than six hours, +he caught, from an open window, the aphony which threatened to close up +his voice for ever afterwards. I have had occasion to notice the wants +in reported cases tried before courts; and in reference to the one I +have now mentioned, I have reason, from my inquiries, to know that the +most curious details of the transaction are not only not to be found in +the report, but not even suggested, if they do not, in some particulars, +appear to be opposed to the public testimony. The agent of the panel +sits behind the counsel, delivering to him sometimes very crude +materials for the defence, and the counsel sifts that matter; sometimes +taking a handful of the chaff to blind a juryman or a judge, but more +often casting it away as either useless or dangerous. In that unused +chaff there are often pickles not of the kind put into the sack, and +again laid as an offering before the blind goddess, but of a different +kind of grain--nor often less pleasant, or, if applied, less acceptable +to justice. + +In a certain month in the year 18--, a writer in Dundee, of the name of +David M----, was busy in his office, in a dark street off the High +Street--busy, no doubt, in discharging the functions of that office +represented by Ĉsop as occupied by a monkey, holding the scales between +the litigating cats. He heard a horse stop at his office door, as if +brought suddenly up by a jerk of the rein. + +"There is haste here," he thought; "what is up?" + +And presently the door opened, and there came, or rather rushed, in a +man, of the appearance of a country farmer, greatly more excited than +these douce men generally are--except, perhaps, in the midst of a +plentiful harvest-home--splashed up with mud to the back of the neck, +and breathing as hard as, no doubt, the horse was that carried him. + +"What is it, Mr. S----?" inquired the writer, as he looked at his +client. + +"A dreadful business!" replied he; and he turned, went back to the door, +shut it, and tested the hold of the lock; then laying down his hat and +whip, and pulling off his big-coat, he drew a chair so near the writer, +that the man of law, _brusque_ and even jolly as he was, instinctively +withdrew his, as if he feared an appeal for money. + +"What is the business?" again asked the writer, as he saw the man in a +spasmodic difficulty to begin. + +"We are all ruined at D----!" he at length said; "Mrs. S----is in your +jail, hard by, on a charge of murder." + +"Mrs. S----! of all the women in the world!" ejaculated the writer in +unfeigned amazement: "murder of whom?" + +"Of a servant at D----," replied Mr. S----; "one of our own women." + +"And what could be the motive?" + +"The young woman," continued S----, "had been observed to be pregnant, +and the report was got up that my son was the party responsible and +blameable. Then the charge is, that my wife gave the girl poison, +either to procure abortion, or to take away her life. The woman is dead +and buried; but, I believe, her body has been taken up out of the grave +and examined, and poison found in the stomach." + +"An ugly account," said the writer. "I mean not ugly as regards the +evidence, of which, as yet, I have heard nothing. I could say beforehand +that I don't believe the authorities will be able to bring home an act +of this kind to so rational and respectable a woman, as I have known +Mrs. S----to be; but if you wish me to get her off, you must allow me to +look at the case as if she were guilty." + +"Guilty!" echoed the man, with a shudder. + +"Yes. Were I to go fumbling about in an affair of this kind, acting upon +a notion--whatever I may think or feel--that Mrs. S----, though your +wife, _could not_ possibly do an act of that kind, I would neither hound +up, as I ought, the investigations of the prosecutor, nor get up proper +evidence--not to meet their proofs only, but to overturn them." + +"I would have thought you would have been keener to get off an innocent +person--a wife, and the mother of a family, too--than a guilty one," +said S----. + +"We cannot get you people to understand these things," replied the +writer; "but so it is, at least with me, and I rather think a good +number of my brethren. We have a pride in getting off a guilty person; +whereas we have only a spice of satisfaction in saving an innocent one. +Perhaps I have an object, for your own sake, in speaking thus frankly to +you; and I tell you at once, that if you intend to help me to get off +your wife, you must, as soon as you can--even here, at this +moment--renounce all blind confidence in her innocence." + +"Terrible condition!" said the farmer. + +"Not pleasant, but useful. How, in God's name, am I to know how to +doctor, purge, or scarify, or anoint a testimony against you, unless I +know that it exists, and where to find it?" + +"Very true," rejoined the farmer, trying to follow the clever "limb." + +"Don't hesitate. I will have more pleasure, and not, maybe, much less +hope, in hearing you detail all the grounds of your suspicion against +your wife, than in listening to your nasaling and canting about her +innocence. All this is for your good, my dear sir, take it as you will." + +"I believe it," said the farmer, "and will try to act up to what you +say; but I cannot, of my own knowledge, say much, as yet. These things +are done privately, within the house, and a farmer is mostly out of +doors." + +"Well, away, get access to your wife, ferret everything out of her, as +well for her as against her. If she bought poison, where she bought it, +what rats were to be poisoned, how it was applied, how she communicated +with the girl, and where, and all, and everything you can gather. +Question your servants all they saw or heard; your son, what he has to +say; ascertain who came about the house, how affected towards the girl, +whether there were more lovers than your son, whether the girl was +melancholy, or hopeful, and likely to do the thing or not; but, above +all, keep it ever in view that your wife is in prison, and suspected, +and let me know every item you can bring against her. Away, and lose no +time, for I see it's a matter of neck and neck between her and the +prosecutor, and, consequently, neck and noose, or neck and no noose, +between her and the hangman." + +Utterly confounded by this array of instructions, the poor farmer sat +and looked blank. It was impossible he could remember all he had been +requested to do; and the duty of finding out facts to criminate the wife +who had lived with him so long in love and confidence, bore down upon +him with a weight he could hardly sustain. + +"I will do what I can," he said. + +"You must do _more_ than you can," said the writer; "but, again I say, +let me know every, the smallest item you can discover against your +wife." + +And, thus charged, Mr. S----mounted his horse, and rode home to a +miserable house with a miserable heart. + +Extraordinary as the case was, it was entrusted to the charge of an +extraordinary man, well remembered yet throughout that county, and much +beyond it. In personal respects he was strong, broad, and muscular, with +a florid countenance never out of humour, and an eye that flashed in so +many different directions, that it was impossible to arrest it for two +moments at a time. All action, nothing resisted him; all impulse and +sensibility, nothing escaped his observation; yet no one could say that +any subject retained his mind for more time than would have sufficed +another merely to glance at it. He could speak to a hundred men in a day +upon a hundred topics, and sit down and run off twenty pages of a paper +without an hour of previous meditation; break off at a pronoun, at a +call to the further end of the town; drink as much in a few minutes' +conversation with a client as would have taken another an hour to enjoy, +and return and finish his paper in less time than another would take to +think of it. Always, to appearance, off his guard, he was always master +of his position, nor could any obstacle make him stand and calculate +its dimensions--it must be surmounted or broken, if his head or the laws +should be broken with it; always pressing, he never seemed to be +impressed, and the gain or loss of a case was equally indifferent to +him. His passion was action, his desire money; but the money went as it +came--made without effort and spent without reason. Yet no man hated +him; most loved him; few admired him; and even those he might injure by +his apparent recklessness could not resist the good nature by which he +warded off every attack. + +He saw at once, after he had dismissed S----, that he had got hold of a +desperate case, and also that he behoved to have recourse to desperate +means; but it seemed to take no grip of his mind for more than a few +minutes, by the end of which he was full swing in some other matter of +business, to be followed with the same rapidity by something else, and, +probably, after that, pleasure till three in the morning, when he would +be carried home to an elegant house in a certain species of carriage +with one wheel. Nor had even that consummation any effect on to-morrow's +avocations, for which he would be ready at the earliest hour; and in +this case he _was_ ready. He set about his inquiries, first proceeded to +D----to get a view of the premises--the room where the young woman lay, +where the son slept, and the bedroom of the mother--and ascertain +whether the premises permitted of intercourse with the servants unknown +to the farmer and his wife. He next began his precognition of those +connected with the house, and, on returning to town, procured access to +Mrs. S----. + +The jail of Dundee was at that time over the courthouse, a miserable den +of a few dark rooms, presenting the appearance of displenished garrets, +with small grated windows and a few benches. Here the woman sat +revolving, no doubt, in her mind all the events of a life of comfort and +respectability, and now under the risk of being brought to a termination +by her body being suspended in the front of that building where she had +seen before this terrible consummation of justice enacted with the +familiar and dismal forms of the tragedy of the gallows. We write of +these things as parrots gabble, we read of them as monkeys ogle the, to +them, strange actions of human beings; but what is all that comes by the +eye or the ear of the experiences of an exterior spirit to the workings +of that spirit in its own interior world, where thought follows thought +with endless ramifications, weaving and interweaving scenes of love and +joy and pain, contrasting and mixing, dissolving and remixing--bright +lights and dark shadows--all seen through the blue-tinged and distorting +lens of present shame? We cannot realize these things, nor did the +writer try. He had only the practical work to do--if possible, to get +this woman's neck kept out of a kench; nor did it signify much to him +how that was effected; but effected it would be, if the invention of one +man could do it, and if that failed, and the woman was suspended, it +would trouble him no more than would the loss of a small-debt case. + +"Sorry to see you in this infernal place, Mrs. S----," he said, as he +threw himself upon a bench. "I must get you out, that's certain; but I +can promise you that certainty only upon the condition of making a clean +breast--only to me, you know." + +"I know only that I never poisoned the woman," replied she. + +"Do you want to be hanged?" said he, with the reckless abruptness so +peculiar a feature of his character, at the same time taking a rapid +glance of her demeanour. He knew all about the firmness derived from +the confidence of innocence, of which a certain class of rhapsodists +make so much in a heroic way, and yet he had always entertained the +heterodoxical notion that guilt is a firmer and often more composed +condition than innocence, inasmuch as his experience led him to know +that the latter is shaky, anxious, and sensitive, and the former stern +and imperturbable. Nor did his quick mind want reasons for showing that +such ought, by natural laws, to be the case; for it is never to be lost +sight of, that, in so far as regards murder, which requires for its +perpetration a peculiar form of mind and a most unnatural condition of +the feelings, the same hardness of nerve which enables a man or woman to +do the deed, serves equally well the purpose of helping them to stand up +against the shame, while the innocent person, in nine hundred and +ninety-nine cases out of a thousand--the probable proportion of those +who _cannot_ kill--has not the fortitude to withstand the ignominy, +simply because he wants the power to slay. So without in his heart +prejudging the woman, he drew his conclusions, true or false, from the +impassibility of her demeanour. Her answer was ready---- + +"How could they hang an innocent woman?" + +"But they _do_ hang hundreds, who say just what you say," replied he. +"What are you to make of that riddle? Come, did you ever buy any +poison?--please leave out the rats." + +"No; neither for rats nor servants," was the composed reply. + +"And you never gave the woman a dose?" + +"Yes; I have given her medicine more than once." + +"Oh, a capital thing to save life; but you know her life was not saved. +She died and was buried, and has been taken up; and I suspect it was not +your jalap that was found in the body. But what interest had you in +being so very kind to the woman who was to bring shame on your family by +bearing a child to your son?" + +"I never knew she was in that way; but though I had known it, I could +not have taken away her life." + +"Then, who gave her the poison?" + +"I do not know." + +"And cannot even suspect any one?" + +"No." + +"Good-bye!" he said, as he started up and hurried away; muttering to +himself, as the jailer undid the bolts, "Always the same!--the women are +always innocent; and yet we see them stretching ropes other than +clothes' ropes every now and then." + +Defeated, but as little discomfited, as we might gather from his pithy +soliloquy, his next step was to double up, as he termed it, the +authorities, who, he knew, would never have gone the length of +apprehending the woman without having got hold of evidence sufficient to +justify Sir William Rae, the Lord Advocate, a considerate and prudent +man, that the charge lay heavy on the prisoner. He had no right of +access, at this stage, to the names of the intended witnesses; but to a +man of his activity it is no difficult matter to find these out, from +the natural garrulity of the people, and a kind of self-importance in +being a Crown testimony. Then to find them out was next to drawing them +out; for it may be safely said for our writer that there was no man, +from the time of John Wilkes, who could exercise a more winning +persuasion. One by one he ferreted them out, wheedled, threatened, +adjured, but found himself resisted in every attempt to break them down +or to turn them to him. At every stage of his inquiry he saw the case +for the prisoner assuming a dark aspect--as dark, he so termed it, as +the face of a hanged culprit. + +"The beagles have got a track. There are more foxes in the cover than +one; and shall it be said I, David M----, cannot beat out another as +stimulating to the nose?" + +In a quarter of an hour after having made this observation to himself, +he was posting on horseback to the farm of D----, where he arrived in as +short a time as he generally took on his journeys. + +"I am afraid to ask you for intelligence," said the farmer, as he stood +by the horse's side, and addressed the writer, who kept his seat. + +"Get me two and five-eighths of a glass of whisky in a jug of milk, and +I'll tell you then what I want. I have no time to dismount." + +The farmer complied. + +"The case looks ugly," said the writer, as he handed back the jug. +"These witnesses would hang a calendared saint of a hundred miracles. +Are any tramps in the habit of coming about you?" + +"Too many." + +"Do you know any of them?" + +"Scarcely--not by name." + +"Any women?--never mind the men," said the writer impatiently. + +"Yes; there is one who used to come often; she sold small things." + +"Is that all you know of her? Has she no mark, man? Is her nose long or +short? no squint, lame leg, or pock-pits?" + +"She had usually a small cage, in which she kept a couple of white +mice." + +"White mice!" ejaculated the writer; "never was a better mark." + +"You don't know her name?" + +"No; nor do I think any of my present people do." + +"When was she here last?" + +"About a month ago." + +"Anywhere near the time of the girl's death?" + +"Ay, just about that time, or maybe a week before." + +"And you can give me no trace of her?" + +"None whatever, except that I think I saw her take to the east, in the +way to Arbroath. But I do not see how she can be of any use." + +"I don't want you to see that she can be of any use," said the writer, +laughing; "but I want you to hear whereabout she is." + +"I will try what I can," said the farmer. + +"And let me know by some messenger who can ride as fast as I can." Then +adding, "Gilderoy was saved by a _brown_ mouse, which gnawed the string +by which the key of the jail door of Forfar hung on a nail, whereby the +key fell to the ground, and was pulled by him through an opening at the +bottom. Heard you ever the story?" + +"No." + +"But it's true, nevertheless. What would you say if a _white_ mouse, or +two of them, should save the life of your wife?" + +"I would say it was wonderful," replied the farmer, with eyes a-goggled +by amazement. + +"And so would I," answered Mr. M----, as he put the rowels into the side +of his horse and began a hard trot, which he would not slacken till he +was at the Cowgate port, and not even then, for he made his way +generally through the streets of the town with equal rapidity, and +always the safer that he was the "fresher." + +On arriving at his office he sat down, and, without apparently any +premeditation, unless what he had indulged in during his trot, wrote off +with his usual rapidity four letters to the following effect:--"Dear +Sir,--As agent for Mrs. S----, who now lies in our jail on a charge of +murder, I request you will endeavour to find some trace of a woman who +goes through the country with a cage and two white mice. Grave +suspicions attach to her, as the person who administered the poison, and +I wish your energies to be employed in aiding me to search her out." The +letters were directed to agents in Arbroath, Forfar, Kirriemuir, and +Montrose, and immediately committed to a clerk to be taken to the +post-office, with a good-natured laugh on the lips of the writer--and, +within the teeth, the little monologue--"The wrinkled skin easily +conceals a scar." + +From some source or another, probably the true one may be guessed, an +_uberrima fides_ began to hang round a report that a new feature had +spread over the face of Mrs. S----'s case; and that, in place of her +being the guilty person, the culprit was a tramp, with white mice in a +cage. Nor were the authorities long in being startled by the report; but +where that woman was no one could tell, and a vague report was no +foundation for authoritative action. But if it was not for a Lord +Advocate to seek out or hunt after white mice, that was no reason why +the prisoner's agent should not condescend to so very humble an office; +and, accordingly, two days after the despatch of the letters I have +mentioned, the same horse that carried the writer on the former +occasion, and knew so well the prick of his rowels, was ready saddled at +the door of the office. The head of the agent was instantly drawn out of +some other deep well of legal truth, some score of directions given to +clerks, and he was off on the road to Glammis, but not before some +flash had shown him what he was to do when he got there. The same rapid +trot was commenced, and continued, to the great diminution of the sap of +the animal, until the place he was destined for loomed before him. He +now commenced inquiries upon inquiries. Every traveller was questioned, +every door got a touch of his whip, until at length he got a trace, and +he was again in full pursuit. I think it is Suidas who says that these +pretty little animals, called white mice, are very amatory, and have a +strong odour, but this must be only to their mates. I doubt if even the +nostrils of a writer are equal to this perception, whatever sense they +may possess in the case of pigeons with a pluckable covering. But, +however this may be, it was soon observable that our pursuer had at +least something in his eye. The spurs were active; and, by and by, he +drew up at a small road-side change-house, into the kitchen of which he +tumbled, without a premonitory question, and there, before him, sat the +veritable mistress of these very white mice, spaeing the fortunes of +some laughing girls, who saw the illuminated figures of their lovers in +the future.[A] + +"Can you read me _my_ fortune?" he said, in his own peculiar way. + +"Na; I ken ye owre weel," was the quick reply, as she turned a pair of +keen, grey eyes on him. + +"Well, you'll speak to me at any rate," he said. "I have something to +say to you." + +And, going into the adjoining parlour, he called for a half-mutchkin. He +needed some himself, and he knew the tramp was not an abstainer. + +"Tell the woman to come ben," he said, as the man placed the whisky on +the table. + +"What can you want, Mr. M----, with that old, never-mend vagabond?" + +"Perhaps an uncle has left her five hundred pounds," said the writer +with a chuckle. + +"Gude save us! the creature will go mad," said the man, as he went out, +not knowing whether his guest was in humour or earnest. + +But, whatever he said to the woman, there she was, presently, white mice +and all, seated alongside of the writer, who could make a beggar or a +baron at home with him, with equal ease, and in an equally short time. + +"You're obliged to me, I think, if I can trust to a pretty long memory," +he said, handing her a glass of the spirits. + +"Ay; but it doesna need a lang memory to mind gi'en me this," she +replied, not wishing any other reason for her obligation. + +"And you've forgotten the pirn scrape?" + +"The deil's in a lang memory; but I hinna," she replied, with more +confidence, for by this time the whisky had disappeared in the +accustomed bourne of departed spirits. + +"Weel, it's a bad business that at your auld freend's at D----," said +he, getting into his Scotch, for familiarity. "Hae ye heard?" + +"Wha hasna heard? I kenned the lassie brawly; but I didna like her--she +was never gude to a puir cratur like me." + +"But they say ye ken mair than ither folk?" said he. + +"Maybe I do," replied the woman, getting proud of the impeachment. "Hae +we nae lugs and een, ay, and stamachs, like ither folk?" + +"And could ye do naething to save this puir woman, the wife o' a gude +buirdly man, wi' an open hand to your kin, and the mither o' a family?" + +"I care naething about her being the wife o' a man, or the mither o' a +family; but I ken what I ken." + +"And sometimes what ye dinna ken, when you tell the lasses o' their +lovers ye never saw." + +"The deil tak their louping hearts into his hand for silly gawkies; if +they werena a' red-wood about lads, they wadna heed me a whistle. But +though I might try to get Mrs. S----'s head out o' the loop, I wadna +like to put my ain in." + +"I'll tak gude care o' that," said the writer. "I got ye out o' a scrape +before." + +"Weel than----" + +"And weel than," echoed he. + +"And better than weel than; suppose I swore I did it mysel'--and maybe I +did; that's no your business--they wadna hang a puir wretch like me for +her ain words, wad they, when there's nae proof I did it but my ain +tongue?" + +"No likely," replied he; "and then a hunder gowden guineas as a present, +no as a bribe----" + +"I want nae bribes--I gie value for my fortunes. If it's wind, wind is +the breath o' life; a present!" + +"Would make your een jump," added he, finishing his sentence. + +"Jump! ay, loup! Whar are they?" + +"You'll get the half when you come into the town, and the other when +Mrs. S----is safe. You will ca' at my office on Wednesday; and, after +that, I'll tak care o' you. In the meantime, ye maun sell your mice." + +"Geordie Cameron offered me five shillings for them; I'll gie them to +him." + +"No," replied the writer; "no to a _man_. Ken ye nae woman-tramp-will +tak them, and show them about as you do?" + +"Ou ay; I'll gie them to Meg Davidson, wha's to be here the night. But +whaurfor no Geordie?" + +"Never ye mind that, I ken the difference; and if Meg doesna give you +the five shillings, I will." + +"Well, buy them yoursel'," said the woman. + +"Done," said he; "there's five guineas for them, and you can gie them to +Meg as a present. Now, are ye firm?" + +"Firm!" she cried, as she clutched the money, and gave a shrill laugh, +from a nerve that was never softened by pity or penitence. "I think nae +mair on't, man--sir, I mean, for ye proved yoursel' a gentleman to me +afore--than I do now in spaeing twins to your wife at her next +doun-lying." + +A rap on the table, from the bottom of the pewter measure, brought in +the landlord. + +"Fill that again," said the writer. + +And the man having re-entered with the pewter measure---- + +"You're to give this woman board and lodging for a day or two, and I +will pay you before I start." + +"That will be oot o' the five hundred frae her uncle," said the man, +laughing. "She's my lady noo; but what will become o' the mice?" + +"There's Meg Davidson passing the window e'en noo," said the woman. + +"Send her in," said the writer to the change-house keeper. + +The woman going under this name was immediately introduced by the man, +with a kind of mock formality; for he could not get quit of the +impression that his old customer had really succeeded to the five +hundred pounds--a sum, in his estimation, sufficiently large to insure +respect. + +"Maggy," said the writer, "tak this chair, and here's a dram. What think +ye?" + +"I dinna ken." + +"Ye're to get the twa white mice and the cage for naething, and this +dram to boot." + +Meg's face cleared up like a June sun come out in a burst. + +"Na," she said; "ye're joking." + +"But it's upon a condition," rejoined he. + +"Weel, what is't--that I'm to feed them weel, and keep them clean?" + +"You'll do that too," said he, laughing, "for they're valuable +creatures, and bonny; but you're to say you've had them for a year." + +"For twa, if you like," replied the woman; "a puir fusionless lee that, +and no worth sending a body to the deil for." + +"Here they are," said the tramp; "and you're to tak care o' them. +They've been my staff for mony a day, and they're the only creatures on +earth I care for and like; for they never said to me, 'Get out, ye +wretch,' or banned me for a witch; but were aye sae happy wi' their +pickles o' barley, and maybe a knot o' sugar, when I could get at a +farmer's wife's bowl." + +Even hags have pathetic moods. Meg was affected; and the writer, having +appreciated the virtue, whispered in the ear of his _protegée_, "Seven +o'clock on Wednesday night," and left them to the remainder of the +whisky. At the door he settled with the man, and, mounting his horse, +which he had ordered a bottle of strong ale for, in addition to his +oats, he set off at his old trot. + +"Now let the Crown blood-hounds catch Meg Davidson and her mice," he +said, as he pushed on. + +The writer was, no doubt, bent eagerly for home, but he seldom got to +his intended destination, though we have given one or two examples of +an uninterrupted course, without undergoing several stoppages, either +from the sudden calls of business, which lay in every direction, or the +seductions of conviviality, equally ubiquitous; and on this occasion he +was hailed from the window of the inn by some ten-tumbler men of Forfar, +whose plan for draining the loch, by making toddy of it, had not, to +their discomfort, been realized, but who made due retaliation by very +clean drainings elsewhere. The moment he heard the shout he understood +the meaning thereof, because he knew the house, the locality, and the +men; and Meg Davidson and her mice were passed into the wallet-bag of +time, till he should give these revellers their satisfaction in a boon +companion who could see them under the table, and then mount his horse, +with a power of retention of his seat unexampled in a county famous for +revolutions of heads as well as of bodies. Dismounting from his horse, +he got his dinner, a meal he had expected at Dundee; and, in spite of +the distance of fourteen miles which lay before him, he despatched +tumbler after tumbler without being once tempted to the imprudence of +letting out his extraordinary hunt, but rather with the prudence of +sending, through his compotators, to the county town the fact that a +woman who perambulated the country with white mice was really the +murderer of the country girl. This statement he was able to make, even +at that acme of his dithyrambics, when, as usual, he got upon the head +of the table to make his speech of the evening. It was now eleven, and +he had swallowed eight tumblers, yet he was comparatively steady when he +mounted; and, though during the fourteen miles he swung like a +well-ballasted barque in a gale of wind, he made sufficient headway to +be home by half-past twelve. + +Next morning, as ready and able as usual for the work of the day, he was +at his desk about eleven, and when engaged with one client, while others +were waiting to be despatched in the way in which he alone could +discharge clients, he was waited on by a gentleman connected with the +Crown Office. Having been yielded a preference, the official took his +seat. + +"I understand you are employed for Mrs. S----?" he said. "We have +thought it necessary, as disinterested protectors of the lives of the +king's subjects, to apprehend this woman. I need not say that our +precognitions are our guarantee; but I have heard a report which would +seem to impugn our discretion, if it do not shame our judgment, insomuch +that, if it be true, we have seized the wrong person. Do you know +anything of this woman with the white mice, who takes upon herself the +burden of a self-accusation? Of course it is for you to help us to her +as the salvation of your client." + +"Too evident that for a parade of candour," replied Mr. M----. "Her name +is Margaret Davidson. Her white companions will identify her. Her +residence is where you may chance to find her." + +"Very vague, considering your interest," replied the other. "Where did +you find her?" + +"Ask me first, my dear sir, whether I have found her. Perhaps not. If it +is my interest to search her out, it is not less your duty to catch her. +A vagrant with white mice is a kenspeckle, and surely you can have no +difficulty in tracing her. I need scarcely add, that when you do find +her, you will substitute her for my client, and make amends for the +disgrace you have brought upon an innocent woman and a respectable +family." + +"I won't say that," replied the other, shaking his head. "The evidence +against Mrs. S---- is too heavy to admit of our believing a vagrant, +influenced by the desire of, perhaps, a paid martyrdom, or the +excitement of a mania." + +"Then, why ask me to help you to find her?" + +"For our satisfaction as public officers." + +"And to my detriment as a private agent." + +"Not at all." + +"Yes; if I choose to make her a witness for the defence, and leave the +jury to judge of _paid_ martyrdom, or her real madness. Paid +martyrdom!--paid by whom?" + +"Not necessarily by you." + +"But you want me to help you to be able to prove the bribe out of her +own mouth, don't you?" + +"Of course we would examine her." + +"Yes, and cook her; but you must catch her first. Really, my dear sir, a +very useful recipe in cuisine; and, hark ye, you can put the mice in the +pan also. But, really, I am not bound, and cannot in justice be expected +to do more. I have given you her name; and when had a culprit so +peculiar and striking a designation as being the proprietor of a +peripatetic menagerie?" + +"Ridiculous!" + +"Yes, _ridiculus mus_! But are you not the labouring mountain yourself, +and do you not wish me to become the midwife?" + +"I perceive I can make nothing of you," at length said the gentleman. +"You either don't want to save your client, or the means you trust to +cannot stand the test." + +"God bless my soul!" roared the writer; "must I tell you again that I +have given you her name and occupation? Even a cat, with nose-instinct +put awry by the colour of the white race of victims, would smell her +out." + +Bowing the official to the door with these words, he was presently in +some other ravelled web, which he disentangled with equal success and +apparent ease; but, following him in his great scheme, we find him in +the afternoon posting again to the farm. He found the farmer in the same +collapse of hope, sitting in the arm-chair so long pressed by his wife, +with his chin upon his breast, and his eyes dim and dead. The evidence +had got piece by piece to his ear, paralyzing more and more the tissues +of his brain; and hope had assumed the character of an impossibility in +the moral world of God's government. + +"You must cheer up," said the writer. "Come, some milk and whisky. Move +about; I have got good news for you, but cannot trust you." + +The head of the man was raised up, and a slight beam was, as it were, +struck from his eye by the jerk of a sudden impulse. His step, as he +moved to gratify the agent, seemed to have acquired even a spring. + +"Why are you here," he said, as he brought the indispensable jug, with +something even more than the five-eighths of the spiritual element added +to the two glasses, "if you cannot tell me the grounds of my hope? I +could not comprehend what you meant about the woman and the white mice." + +"Nor do I want you to understand it; it is enough if I do," replied Mr. +M----, as he put the jug to his mouth; "but this I want you to +understand, in the first place, that I want an order for fifty pounds +from you." + +The farmer was too happy to write an order for any amount within the +limits of his last farthing, and getting pen and ink, he wrote the +cheque. + +"And you couldn't tell me the name of the woman with the mice; but I can +tell you," he continued. "It is Margaret Davidson; and, hark ye--come +near me, man--if you are called upon by any one with the appearance of a +sheriff's beagle, or whatever he may be like, for the name of that +woman, say it is Margaret Davidson, and that they will find her between +Lerwick and Berwick. Do you comprehend?" + +"Perfectly." + +"And, moreover, you are to tell every living soul within ear-shot, +servants or strangers, that it was that very woman who gave the dose to +the lass, and that the woman herself does not deny it." + +"Gude Lord! but is all this true, Mr. M----?" + +"Is it true your wife did it, then, you d----d idiot?" cried the writer, +using thus one of his most familiar terms, but with perfect good-nature. +"Don't you in your heart--or hope, at any rate--think the Lord Advocate +a liar? and has his lordship a better right to lie than I or Meg +Davidson? Isn't the world a great leavened lump of lies from the Cape of +Good Hope to the Cape of Wrath? And you want your wife hanged, because +the nose of truth is out of joint a bit! Ay, what though it were cut off +altogether, if you get your wife's back without being coloured blue by +the hangman? But, I tell you, it's not a lie: the woman with the white +mice says it of her own accord." + +"Wonderful! the woman with the white mice!" + +"The woman with the white mice!" echoed the writer. + +And, getting again upon his legs, he hurried out, throwing back his +injunctions upon S---- to obey his instructions. In a few minutes more +he was again upon the road, leaving the clatter of his horse's hoofs to +mingle with the confused thoughts of his mystified client. Arrived at +the High Street, where, as used to be said of him, he could not be ten +minutes without having seized some five or six persons by the breast of +the coat, and put as many questions on various matters of business, just +as the thought struck him on the instant, he pounced upon one, no other +than the confidential clerk of the fiscal. + +"I say, man," seizing and holding him in the usual way, "have you +catched the woman yet?" + +"What woman?" replied the clerk. + +"The woman with the white mice." + +"Oh," cried the young man, "we have no faith in that quarter--a mere +get-up; but we're looking about for her, notwithstanding." + +"Well, tell your master that Meg Davidson was last seen on the Muir of +Rannoch, and that the Highlanders in that outlandish quarter, having +never seen white mice before, are in a state of perfect amazement." + +A bolt at some other person left the clerk probably in as great +amazement as the Highlanders; but our man of the law did not stop to see +the extent of it. All his avocations, however, did not prevent the +coming round of that seven o'clock on Wednesday evening, which he had +appointed as the hour of meeting with the woman on whom his hopes of +saving his client almost altogether rested. He was at his desk at the +hour, and the woman, no doubt eager for the phenomenon of the "louping +ee," was as true as the time itself. The writer locked the door of his +office, and drawing her as near him as possible, inquired first whether +any knew she was in town. + +"Deil are," she replied; "naebody cares for me ony mair than I were an +auld glandered spavin, ready for the knackers." + +"And you've been remembering a' ye are to say?" + +Now, the woman did not answer this question immediately. She had been, +for some days, busy in the repository of her memory--a crazy box of +shattered spunk-wood, through the crevices of which came the lurid +lights sent from another box, called the imagination, and such was the +close intimacy, or rather mixture, of the revelations of these two magic +centres, that they could not be distinguished from one another; but the +habit of fortune-telling had so quickened the light of the one, as to +make it predominate over, and almost extinguish that of the other, so +that she was at a loss to get a stray glimmer of the memory, to make her +ready, on the instant, for the answer. + +"Remembering! Ay," she said, "there's no muckle to remember. The lass +was under the burden of shame, and couldna bear it: she wanted some +doctor's trash to tak that burden aff her, if it should carry her life +alang wi' 't. I got the stuff, and the woman dee'd." + +All which was carefully written down--but the writer had his own way of +doing his work. He would have day and date, the place where the doctor's +trash was bought, the price thereof, the manner of administering the +same, and many other particulars, every one of which was so carefully +recorded, that the whole, no doubt, looked like a veritable precognition +of facts, got from the said box called the memory, as if it had been +that not one tint of light, from the conterminous chamber, had mixed +with the pure spirit of truth. + +"Now," said he, "regaining his English, when his purpose was served, +"you'll stand firm to this, in the face of judge, jury, justice, and all +her angels?" + +"Never ye fear." + +"Then, you will go with me to a private lodging, where I wish you to +remain, seen by as few as you can. You're a widow; your name is Mrs. +Anderson; your husband was drowned in the Maelstrom. Get weeds, a veil, +and look respectable." + +"A' save the last, for that's impossible." + +"Try; and, as you will need to pay for your board and lodgings, and your +dress, here's the sum I promised ye; the other half when Mrs. S---- is +saved." + +"A' right; and did I no say my ee would loup?--but 'ae gude turn +deserves anither,' as the deil said to the loon o' Culloden, when he +hauled him doun, screaming, to a place ye maybe ken o', and whaur I hae +nae wish to be." + +"Where is Meg Davidson?" he then asked. + +"Oh ay!" she replied, "that puts me in mind o' a man wha met me on the +road, and asked me if I was the woman wi' the twa white mice? I tauld +him she was awa east to Montrose, and sae it is." + +"Not a cheep of the sale," added he. + +"Na, na, nor o' ony thing else, but just Mrs. Anderson, the widow, whase +man was drouned in the Maelstream." + +And, having thus finished, the writer led the woman to her place of +safety, there to lie _in retentis_ till the court-day. + +That eventful day came round. In the meantime, the prosecution never got +access to the real white mouse tramp, and whatever they got out of Meg +Davidson, satisfied them that she knew nothing of the murder. Large sums +were given to secure the services of Jeffrey, then in the full blaze of +his power, and Cockburn, so useful in examinations. The Lord Advocate +led his proof, which was no darker than our writer had ascertained it to +be, when he found himself driven to his clever expedient. The proof for +the defence began; and, after some other witnesses were examined, the +name of the woman with the white mice was called by the macer; and here +occurred a circumstance, at the time known to very few. Cockburn turned +round to our country agent, who was sitting behind him, and said, in a +whisper-- + +"M----, if the angel Gabriel were at this moment to come down and blow a +trumpet, and tell me that what this woman is going to swear to is truth, +I would not believe her." + +Nor is there any doubt to be entertained that the woman's testimony took +the court and the audience by surprise. The judges looked at each other, +and the jury were perplexed. There was only one thing that produced any +solicitude in our writer. He feared the Lord Advocate would lay hands +upon her, as either a murderer or a perjurer, the moment she left the +witness-box. At that instant was he prepared. Quietly slipping out, he +got hold of the woman, led her to the outer door, through a crowd, +called to the door-keeper, who stood sentry, to open for the purpose of +letting in a fresh witness of great importance to the accused; and +having succeeded, as he seldom failed, he got the woman outside. A cab +was in readiness--no time lost--the woman was pushed in, followed by her +guardian, and in a short time was safely disposed of. Meanwhile, the +Crown authorities had been preparing their warrant, and the woman was +only saved from their mercies by a very few minutes. + +It is well known, as I have already mentioned, that Jeffrey's speech for +Mrs. S---- was the greatest of all modern orations, yet it was delivered +under peculiar circumstances. When he rose and began, he seemed languid +and unwell. The wonted sparkle was not seen in his eye, the usually +compressed lip was loose and flaccid, and his words, though all his +beginnings were generally marked with a subdued tone, came with +difficulty. Cockburn looked at him inquiringly, anxious and troubled. +There was something wrong, and those interested in the defence augured +ominously. All of a sudden the little man stopped, fixed his eye on one +of the walls of the court-room, and cried out, "Shut that window." +Through that opening a cold wind had been blowing-upon and chilling a +body which, though firm and compact, was thin, wiry, and delicately +toned to the refined requirements of the spirit that animated and moved +it with a grace peculiarly his own. The chill, in consonance with +well-known pathological laws, produced first depression, and then a +feverish reaction, which latter was even morbidly favourable to the +development of his powers. He began to revive; the blood, pulsing with +more than natural activity, warmed still more at the call of his +enthusiasm. He analyzed every part of the cause, tore up the characters +of the prosecutor's witnesses, held up microscopic flaws, and passed +them through the lens of his ingenious exaggeration, till they appeared +serious in the eyes of the jury. Then how touching, if not noble, was +the conduct of that strange witness for the defence--who, a wretched +criminal herself, would yet, under a secret power, so far expiate her +guilt by offering herself as a sacrifice for innocence! Beyond all was +the pathos of his peroration, where he brought home the case to the +jury, as loving husbands of loving wives, and tender fathers of beloved +children. A woman sat there before them--a wife and a mother. She had +undergone an ordeal not much less trying than death itself, and even then +she was trembling under the agony of suspense, extended beyond mortal +powers of endurance--to be terminated by the breath of their mouths, +either for life and a restoration to a previously happy family, or for a +death on a gallows, with all its ignominy. + +That speech, which nearly cost Jeffrey his life, saved that of another. +The jury found the libel not proven; Mrs. S---- was free; Jeffrey was +made more famous; but no one ever heard more of the woman with the white +mice. + + + + +GLEANINGS OF THE COVENANT. + +THE EARLY DAYS OF A FRIEND OF THE COVENANT. + + +I was born in the upper district and amidst the mountains of +Dumfriesshire. My father, who died ere I had attained my second +birthday, had seen better times; but, having engaged in mercantile +speculations, had been overreached or unfortunate, or both, and during +the latter years of his life had carried a gun, kept an amazing pointer +bitch (of which my mother used to discourse largely), and had ultimately +married in a fit of despondency. My mother, to whom he had long been +affianced, was nearly connected with the Lairds of Clauchry, of which +relationship she was vain; and in all her trials, of which she had no +ordinary share, she still retained somewhat of the feelings, as well as +the appearance of a gentlewoman. I remember, for example, a pair of +high-heeled red Morocco shoes, overhung by the ample drapery of a +quilted silk gown, in which habiliments she appeared on great occasions. +Soon after my father's decease, my mother found it convenient and +advisable to remove from the neighbourhood of the Clauchry to a cottage, +or cottier as it was called, on her brother's farm, in the upper +division of the parish of Closeburn. + +Few situations could be better fitted for the purpose of a quiet and +sequestered retreat. The scene is now as vividly before me as it was on +that day when I last saw it, and felt that, in all probability, I viewed +it for the last time. A snug kailyard, surrounded by a fullgrown bushy +hedge of bourtree, saugh, and thorn, lay along the border of a small +mountain stream, and hard by a thatched cottage, with a peat-stack at +the one end and a small byre at the other. All this was nestled as it +were in the bosom of mountains, which, to the north and the east in +particular, presented a defence against all winds, and an outline of +bold grandeur exceedingly impressive. The south and the west were more +open; consequently the mid-day and afternoon sun reposed, with +delightful and unobstructed radiance, on the green border of the stream, +and the flowery foliage of the brae. And when the evening was calm, and +the season suitable, the blue smoke winded upwards, and the birds sang +delightfully amidst hazel, and oak, and birch, with a profusion of which +the eastern bank was covered. It was here that I spent my early days; +and it was in this scene of mountain solitude, with no immediate +associate but my mother, and for a few years of my existence my +grandmother, that my "feelings and fortunes were formed and shaped out." + +To be brought up amidst mountain scenery, apart and afar from the busy +or polluted haunts of man; to place one's little bare foot, with its +first movement, on the greensward, the brown heath, or in the pure +stream; to live in the retired glen, a perceptible part of all that +lives and enjoys; to feel the bracing air of freedom in every breeze; to +be possessed of elbow room from ridge to summit, from bank to +brae,--this is, indeed, the most delightful of all infant schools, and, +above all, prepares the young and infant mind for enlarged conception +and resolute daring. + + "To sit on rocks; to muse o'er flood and fell; + To slowly trace the forest's shady scene, + Where things that own not man's dominion dwell, + And mortal foot hath ne'er or seldom been; + + To climb the trackless mountain all unseen, + With the wild flock that never needs a fold; + Alone o'er steeps and foaming falls to lean: + This is not solitude--'tis but to hold + Converse with Nature's God, and see his works unrolled." + +Here, indeed, are the things that own not the dominion of man! The +everlasting hills, in their outlines of rock and heath; the floods that +leap in freedom, or rush in defiance from steep to steep, from gullet to +pool, and from pool to plain; the very tempest that overpowers; and +heaven, through which the fowls of air sail with supreme and +unchallenged dominion,--all these inspire the young heart with +independence and self-reliance. True it is that the child, and even the +boy, reflects not at all on the advantages of his situation; and this is +the very reason that his whole imagination and heart are under their +influence. He that is ever arresting and analyzing the current of his +thoughts, will seldom think correctly; and he who examines with a +microscopic eye the sources of beauty and sublimity, will seldom feel +the full force and sway of such impressions. Early and lasting +friendships are the fruit of accident, rather than of calculation--of +feeling, rather than of reflection; and the circumstances of scenery and +habit, which modify the child, and give a bent, a bias, and a character +to the after-life, pass all unestimated in regard to such tendency at +the time. The bulrush is not less unconscious of the marsh which +modifies its growth, or the wallflower of the decay to which it clings, +and by which alone its nature and growth would be most advantageously +marked and perfected, than is the mountain child of that moral as well +as physical development, which such peculiar circumstances are +calculated to effect. If, through all the vicissitudes and trials of my +past life, I have ever retained a spirit of independence, a spirit +which has not, as the sequel (which I may yet give) will evince, proved +at all times advantageous to my worldly advancement--if such has been +the case, I owe it, in a great measure, to the impression which the home +of my youth was calculated to make. + +My mother had originally received a better education than in those days +was customary with individuals of her class; and, in addition to this +advantage, she had long acted as housekeeper to an unmarried brother, +the minister of a parish in Galloway. In this situation, she had access +to a large and well-chosen library; and at leisure intervals had +improved the opportunity thus presented. She was quite familiar with +Young, and Pope, and Dryden, as well as with Tate's translation of +Ovid's Epistles. These latter, in particular, she used to repeat to me +during the winter evenings, with a tone of plaintiveness which I felt at +the time, and the impression of which can never be obliterated. From +these early associations and impressions I am enabled to deduce a taste +for poetry, which, while it has served to beguile many an otherwise +unsupportable sorrow, has largely contributed to the actual enjoyments +of life. There are, indeed, moments of sadness and of joy, to which +poetry can bring neither alleviation nor zest; but these, when compared +with the more softening shadings, are but rare; and when the intensity +of grief or of delight has yielded, or is in the act of yielding, to +time or reflection, it is then, in the gloaming or the twilight, as +darkness passes into light, or light into darkness, that the soothing +and softening notes of poesy come over the soul like the blessed south. + +In religion, or rather in politics--in as far, at least, as they are +interwoven with and inseparable from the Presbyterian faith--my mother +was a staunch Covenanter. Nor was it at all surprising that one whose +forefathers had suffered so severely in defence of the Covenant, and in +opposition to oppression, should imbibe their sentiments. Her maternal +grandfather had suffered at the Gallowlee; and her grandmother, who +refused to give information to Clavers respecting the retreat of her +husband, had her new-born babe plucked from her breast, dashed upon the +floor, and the very bed, from which, to rescue her babe, she had sprung, +pierced and perforated in a thousand places by the swords of the +ruffians. Whilst this tragedy was enacting within doors, and in what, in +these simple times, was denominated the _chaumer_, her eldest son, a boy +of about twelve years of age, was arrested, and because he would not, or +in all probability could not, disclose his father's retreat, he was +blindfolded, tied to a tree, and taught to expect that every ball which +he heard whizzing past his ear was aimed at his head. The boy was left +bound; and, upon his being released by a menial, it was discovered that +his reason had fled--and for ever! He died a few years afterwards, being +known in the neighbourhood by the name of the Martyred Innocent! I have +often looked at the bloody stone (for such stains are well known to be +like those upon Lady Macbeth's hand, indelible,) where fell, after being +perforated by a brace of bullets, Daniel M'Michael, a faithful witness +to the truth, whose tomb, with its primitive and expressive inscription, +is still to be seen in the churchyard of Durisdeer. Grierson of Lag made +a conspicuous figure in the parish of Closeburn in particular; nor did +my mother neglect to point out to me the ruined tower and the waste +domain around it, which bespoke, according to her creed, the curse of +God upon the seed of the persecutor. His elegy--somewhat lengthy and +dull--I could once repeat. I can now only recall the striking lines +where the Devil is introduced as lamenting over the death of his +faithful and unflinching ally:-- + + "What fatal news is this I hear?-- + On earth who shall my standard bear?-- + For Lag, who was my champion brave, + Is dead, and now laid in his grave. + + "The want of him is a great grief-- + He was my manager-in-chief, + Who sought my kingdom to improve; + And to my laws he had great love," etc. + + * * * * * + +And so on, through at least two hundred lines, composing a pamphlet, +hawked about, in my younger days, in every huckster's basket, and sold +in thousands to the peasantry of Dumfriesshire and Galloway, at the +price of one penny. Whilst, however, the storm of evil passions raged +with such fury in what was termed the western districts in particular, +the poor, shelterless, and persecuted Covenanter was not altogether +destitute of help or comfort. According to his own apprehension, at +least, his Maker was on his side; his prayers, offered up on the +mountain and in the cave, were heard and answered; and a watchful +Providence often interfered, miraculously, both to punish his +oppressors, and warn him against the approach of danger. In evidence of +this, my mother was wont, amongst many others, to quote the following +instances, respecting which she herself entertained no doubt +whatever--instances which, having never before been committed to paper, +have at least the recommendation of novelty in their favour. + +One of the chief rendezvous of the Covenant was Auchincairn, in the +eastern district of Closeburn. To this friendly, but, on that account, +suspected roof, did the poor wanderer of the mist, the glen, and the +mountain repair, at dead of night, to obtain what was barely necessary +for the support of nature. Grierson of Lag was not ignorant of the fact, +and accordingly, by a sudden movement, was often found surrounding the +steading with men and horses before daybreak; yet, prompt and well +arranged as his measures were, they were never successful. The objects +of his search uniformly escaped before the search was made. And this +singular good fortune was owing, according to my authority, to the +following circumstance. On the night previous to such an unwelcome +visit, a little bird, of a peculiar feather and note, such as are not to +be found in this country, came, and perching upon the topmost branch of +the old ash tree in the corner of the garden, poured forth its notes of +friendly intimation. To these the poor skulking friend of the Covenant +listened, by these he was warned, lifted his eyes and his feet to the +mountain, and was safe. + +The curate of Closeburn was eminently active in distressing his flock. +He was one of those Aberdeen divines whom the wisdom of the Glasgow +council had placed in the three hundred pulpits vacated in consequence +of a drunken and absurd decree. As his church was deserted, he had had +recourse to compulsory measures to enforce attendance, and had actually +dragged servants and children, in carts and hurdles, to hear his +spiritual and edifying addresses; whilst, on the other hand, his spies +and emissaries were busied in giving information against such masters +and parents as fled from his grasp, or resisted it. He had even gone so +far, under the countenance and sanction of the infamous Lauderdale, as +to forbid Christian burial in every case where there was no attendance +on his ministry. Such was the character, and such the conduct of the man +against whom the prayers of a private meeting of the friends of +Presbytery were earnestly directed on the following occasion. The eldest +son of the guidman of Auchincairn had paid the debt of nature, and +behooved to be buried with his fathers in the churchyard of the parish. +To this, from the well-known character both of curate and father, it was +anticipated that resistance would be made. Against this resistance, +however, measures were taken of a somewhat decided character. The body +was to be borne to the churchyard by men in arms, whilst a part of the +attendants were to remain at home, for the purpose of addressing their +Maker in united prayer and supplication. Thus, doubly armed and +prepared, the funeral advanced towards the church and manse. Meanwhile +the prayer and supplication were warm, and almost expostulatory, that +_His_ arm might be stretched forth in behalf of His own covenanted +servants. A poor idiot, who had not been judged a proper person to join +in this service, was heard to approach, and, after listening with great +seeming attention to the strain of the petitions which were made, he, at +length, unable to constrain himself any longer, was heard to exclaim, +"Haud at him, sirs, haud at him--he's just at the pit brow!" Surprising +as it may appear, and incredulous as some may be, there is sufficient +evidence to prove that, just about the time when this prediction was +uttered, the curate of Closeburn, whilst endeavouring to head and hurry +on a party of the military, suddenly dropped down and expired. + +Is it, then, matter of surprise that with my mother's milk I imbibed a +strong aversion to all manner of oppression, and that, in the broadest +and best sense of the word, I became "a Whig?" To the mountain, then, +and the flood, I owe my spirit of independence--that shelly-coat +covering against which many arrows have been directed; to my mother, +and her Cameronian and political bias, I owe my detestation of +oppression--in other words, my political creed--together with my +poetical leanings. But to my venerated grandmother, in particular, I am +indebted for my early acquaintance with the whole history and economy of +the spiritual kingdoms, divided as they are into bogle, ghost, and +fairy-land. + +I shall probably be regarded as an enthusiast whose feelings no future +evidence can reclaim from early impressions, when I express my regret +that the dreams of my infancy and boyhood have fled--those dreams of +dark and bright agency, which shall probably never again return, to +agitate and interest--those dreams which charmed me in the midst of a +spiritual world, and taught me to consider mere matter as only the +visible and tangible instrument through which spirit was constantly +acting--those dreams which appear as the shadow and reflection of sacred +intimation, and which serve to guard the young heart, in particular, +from the cold and revolting tenets of materialism. From the malevolence +of him who walks and who works in darkness--who goes about like a +roaring lion (but, in our climate and country, more frequently like a +bull-dog, or a nondescript bogle), seeking whom he may terrify--I was +taught to fly into the protecting arms of the omnipotent Jehovah; that +no class of beings could break loose upon another without His high +permission; that the Evil One, under whatever disguise or shape he might +appear, was still restrained and over-mastered by the Source of all good +and of all safety; whilst with the green-coated fairy, the laborious +brownie, and the nocturnal hearth-bairn, I almost desired to live upon +more intimate and friendly terms! + +How poor, comparatively speaking, are the incidents, how uninteresting +is the machinery, of a modern fictitious narrative!--sudden and +unlooked-for reappearances of those who were thought to be dead, +discoveries of substituted births, with various chances and +misnomers--"antres vast, and deserts wild!" One good, tall, stalking +ghost, with its compressed lips and pointed fingers, with its glazed eye +and measured step, is worth them all! Oh for a real "_white lady_" under +the twilight of the year seventeen hundred and forty! When the elegant +Greek or warlike Roman walked abroad or dined at home, he was surrounded +by all the influences of an interesting and captivating mythology--by +nymphs of the oak, of the mountain, and of the spring--by the Lares and +Penates of his fireside and gateway--by the genius, the Ceres and the +Bacchus of his banquet. When our forefathers contended for religious and +civil liberty on the mountain--when they prayed for it in the glen, and +in the silent darkness of the damp and cheerless cave--they were +surrounded, not by material images, but by popular conceptions. The +tempter was still in the wilderness, with his suggestions and his +promises; and there, too, was the good angel, to warn and to comfort, to +strengthen and to cheer. The very fowls of heaven bore on their wing and +in their note a message of warning or a voice of comforting; and when +the sound of psalms commingled with the swelling rush of the cascade, +there were often heard, as it were, the harping of angels, the +commingling of heavenly with earthly melody. All this was elevating and +comforting precisely in proportion to the belief by which it was +supported; and it may fairly be questioned whether such men as Peden and +Cameron would have maintained the struggle with so much nerve and +resolution if the sun of their faith had not been surrounded by a +halo--if the noonday of the gospel had not shaded away imperceptibly +into the twilight of superstition. In fact, superstition, in its softer +and milder modifications, seems to form a kind of barrier or fence +around the "sacred territory;" and it seldom if ever fails to happen +that, when the outworks are driven in, the citadel is in danger; when +the good old woman has been completely disabused of her harmless +fancies, she may then aspire to the faith and the religious comforts of +the philosophy of Volney. + +In confirmation of these observations, I may adduce the belief and life +of my nearest relatives. To them, amidst all their superstitious +impressions, religion, pure and undefiled, was still the main hold--the +sheet anchor, stayed and steadied by which they were enabled to bear up +amidst the turmoils and tempests of life. To an intimate acquaintance +with, and a frequent reading of the sacred volume, was added, under our +humble roof, family prayer both morning and evening--an exercise which +was performed by mother and daughter alternately, and in a manner which, +had I not actually thought them inspired, would have surprised me. Those +who are unacquainted with the ancient Doric of our devotional and +intelligent peasantry, and with that musical accentuation or chant of +which it is not only susceptible, but upon which it is in a manner +constructed, can have but a very imperfect notion of family prayer, +performed in the manner I refer to. Many there are who smile at that +familiarity of address and homeliness of expression which are generally +made use of; but under that homely address there lie a sincerity and +earnestness, a soothing, arousing, and penetrating eloquence, which +neither in public nor in private prayer have ever been excelled. Again +and again I have felt my breast swell and my eyes fill whilst the prayer +of a parent was presented at a throne of grace in words to the +following purpose:--"Help him, good Lord!" (speaking in reference to +myself), "oh help my puir, faitherless bairn in the day of frowardness +and in the hour of folly--in the season of forgetfulness and of +unforeseen danger--in trial and in difficulty--in life and in death. +Good Lord, for his sainted father's sake (who is now, we trust, with +Thee), for my puir sake, who am unworthy to ask the favour, and, far +aboon and above a', for thine own well-beloved Son's sake, do _Thou_ be +pleased to keep, counsel, and support my puir helpless wean, when mine +eyes shall be closed, and my lips shall be shut, and my hands shall have +ceased to labour. Thou that didst visit Hagar and her child in the +thirsty wilderness--Thou that didst bring thy servant Joseph from the +pit and the miry clay--Thou that didst carry thy beloved people Israel +through a barren desert to a promised and fruitful land--do Thou be a +husband and a father to me and mine; and oh forbid that, in adversity or +in prosperity, by day or by night, in the solitude or in the city, we +should ever forget Thee!" + +In an age when, amongst our peasantry in particular, family prayer is so +extensively and mournfully neglected--when the farmer, the manufacturer, +the mechanic, not to mention the more elevated orders, have ceased to +obey the injunction laid upon all Presbyterian parents in baptism--it is +refreshing to look back to the time when the taking of the book, as it +was termed, returned as regularly as the rising and the setting of the +sun--when the whole household convened together, morning and evening, to +worship the God of their fathers. In public worship, as well as in +private prayer, there is much of comforting and spiritual support. It is +pleasing, as well as useful, to unite voice with voice, and heart with +heart; it is consolatory, as well as comforting, to retire from the +world to commune with one's heart and be still; but it is not the less +delightful and refreshing to unite in family prayer the charities and +sympathies of life--to come to the throne of mercy and of pardon in the +attitude and capacity of parent and child, brother and sister, husband +and wife, master and servant, and to express, in the common confession, +petition, and thanksgiving, our united feelings of sinfulness, +resignation, and gratitude. + +Milton paints beautifully the first impressions which death made upon +Eve; and sure I am that, though conceived in sin and brought forth in +iniquity, I remember the time when I was entirely ignorant of death. I +had indeed been informed that I had a father; but as to any change which +had been effected upon him by death, I was as ignorant as if I had been +embowered from my birth amidst the evergreens of paradise. Everything +around me appeared to be permanent and undying, almost unchanging. The +sun set only to rise again; the moon waned, and then reappeared, +reassured in strength and repaired in form; the stars, in their courses, +walked steadily and uniformly over my head; the flowers faded and +nourished; the birds exchanged silence for song; the domestic animals +were all my acquaintances from the dawn of memory. To me, and to those +associated with me, similar events happened: we ate, drank, went to +sleep, and arose again, with the utmost regularity. I had, indeed, heard +of death as of some inconceivable evil; but, in my imagination, its +operation had no figure. I had not even seen a dog die; for my father's +favourite Gipsy lived for nine years after his death--a cherished and +respected pensioner. At last, however, the period arrived when the spell +was to be broken for ever--when I was to be let into the secret of the +house of corruption, and made acquainted with the change which death +induces upon the human countenance. + +My grandmother had attained a very advanced old age, yet was she +straight in person, and perfect in all her mental faculties. Her +countenance, which I still see distinctly, was expressive of good-will; +and the wrinkles on her brow served to add a kind of intellectual +activity to a face naturally soft, and even comely. She had told me so +many stories, given me so many good advices, initiated me so carefully +in the elements of all learning, "the small and capital letters," and, +lastly, had so frequently interposed betwixt me and parental +chastisement, that I bore her as much good-will and kindly feeling as a +boy of seven years could reasonably be expected to exhibit. True it is, +and of verity, that this kindly feeling was not incompatible with many +acts of annoyance, for which I now take shame and express regret; but +these acts were anything but malevolent, being committed under the view +of self-indulgence merely. It was, therefore, with infinite concern that +I received the intelligence from my mother that grannie was, in all +probability, on the point of leaving us, and for ever. + +"Leaving us, and for ever," sounded in my ears like a dream of the +night, in which I had seen the stream which passed our door swell +suddenly into a torrent, and the torrent into a flood, carrying me, and +everything around me, away in its waters. I felt unassured in regard to +my condition, and was half disposed to believe that I was still asleep +and imagining horrors! But when my mother told me that the disease which +had for days confined my grandmother to bed would end in death--in other +words, would place her alongside of my father's grave in the churchyard +of Closeburn--I felt that I was not asleep, but awake to some dreadful +reality, which was about to overtake us. From this period till within a +few hours of her dissolution, I kept cautiously and carefully aloof from +all intercourse with my grandmother--I felt, as it were, unwilling to +renew an intercourse which was so certainly, and so soon, and so +permanently to be interrupted; so I betook myself to the hills, and to +the pursuit of all manner of bees and butterflies. I would not, in fact, +rest; and as I lay extended on my back amidst the heath, and marked the +soft and filmy cloud swimming slowly along, "making the blue one white," +I thought of her who was dying, and of some holy and happy residence far +beyond the utmost elevation of cloud, or sun, or sky. Again and again I +have risen from such reveries to plunge myself headlong into the pool, +or pursue with increased activity the winged insects which buzzed and +flitted around me. Strange indeed are the impressions made upon our yet +unstamped, unbiassed nature; and could we in every instance recall them, +their history would be so unlike our more recent experience, as to make +us suspect our personal identity. I do not remember any more recent +feeling which corresponded in character and degree with this, whose +wayward and strange workings I am endeavouring to describe; and yet in +this case, and in all its accompaniments, I have as perfect a +recollection of facts, and reverence of feeling, as if I were yet the +child of seven, visited for the first time with tidings of death. + +My grandmother's end drew nigh, and I was commanded, or rather dragged, +to her bedside. There I still see her lying, calm, but emaciated, in +remarkably white sheets, and a head dress which seemed to speak of some +approaching change. It was drawn closely over her brow, and covered the +chin up to her lips. Nature had manifestly given up the contest; and +although her voice was scarcely audible, her reason evidently continued +unclouded and entire. She spoke to me slowly and solemnly of religion, +obedience to my mother, and being obliging to every one; laid, by my +mother's assistance, her hand upon my head, as I kneeled at her bedside, +and in a few instants had ceased to breathe. I lifted up my head at my +mother's bidding, and beheld a corpse. What I saw or what I felt, I can +never express in words. I can only recollect that I sprang immediately, +horror-struck, to my feet, rushed out at the door, made for the closest +and thickest part of the brushwood of the adjoining brae, and, casting +myself headlong into the midst of it, burst into tears. I wept, nay, +roared aloud; my grief and astonishment were intense whilst they lasted, +but they did not last long; for when I returned home about dusk, I found +a small table spread over with a clean cloth, upon which was placed a +bottle with spirits, a loaf of bread, and cheese cut into pretty large +pieces. Around this table sat my mother, with two old women from the +nearest hamlet. They were talking in a low but in a wonderfully cheerful +tone, as I thought, and had evidently been partaking of refreshment. +Being asked to join them, I did so; but ever and anon the white sheet in +the bed, which shaped itself out most fearfully into the human form, +drew my attention, and excited something of the feeling which a ghost +might have occasioned. I had ceased in a great measure to feel for my +grandmother's death. I now felt the alarms and agitations of +superstition. It was not because she had fled from us that I was +agitated, but because that, though dead, she still seemed present, in +all the inconceivable mystery of a dead life! + +The funeral called forth, from the adjoining glens and cottages, a +respectable attendance, and at the same time gave me an opportunity of +partaking, unnoticed, of more refreshment than suited the occasion or my +years; in fact, I became little less than intoxicated, and was +exceedingly surprised at finding myself, towards evening, in the midst +of the same bush where I had experienced my paroxysm of grief, singing +aloud, in all the exultation of exhilarated spirits. Such is infancy and +boyhood-- + + "The tear forgot, as soon as shed." + +I returned, however, home, thoughtful and sad, and never, but once, +thought the house so deserted and solitary as during that evening. + +My mother was not a Cameronian by communion, but she was in fact one in +spirit. This spirit she had by inheritance, and it was kept alive by an +occasional visit from "Fairly." This redoubted champion of the Covenant +drew me one day towards him, and, placing me betwixt his knees, +proceeded to question me how I would like to be a minister; and as I +preserved silence, he proceeded to explain that he did not mean a parish +minister, with a manse and glebe and stipend, but a poor Cameronian +hill-preacher like himself. As he uttered these last words, I looked up, +and saw before me an austere countenance, and a threadbare black coat +hung loosely over what is termed a hunchback. I had often heard Fairly +mentioned, not only with respect, but enthusiasm, and had already +identified him and his followers with the "guid auld persecuted folks" +of whom I had heard so much. Yet there was something so strange, not to +say forbidding, in Fairly's appearance, that I hesitated to give my +consent, and continued silent; whereupon Fairly rose to depart, +observing to my mother, that "my time was not come yet." I did not then +fully comprehend the meaning of this expression, nor do I perhaps now, +but it passed over my heart like an awakening breeze over the strings of +an Ĉolian harp. I immediately sprang forward, and catching Fairly by the +skirt of his coat, exclaimed-- + +"Oh stay, sir!--dinna gang and leave us, and I will do onything ye +like." + +"But then mind, my wee man," continued Fairly in return, "mind that, if +ye join us, ye will have neither house nor hame, and will often be cauld +and hungry, without a bed to lie on." + +"I dinna care," was my uncouth, but resolute response. + +"There's mair metal in that callant than ye're aware o'," rejoined +Fairly, addressing himself to my mother, and looking all the while most +affectionately into my countenance. "Here, my little fellow, here's a +penny for ye, to buy a _charitcher_; and gin ye leeve to be a man, ye'll +aiblins be honoured wi' upholding the doctrines which it contains, on +the mountain and in the glen, when my auld banes are mixed wi' the +clods." + +I looked again at Fairly as he pronounced these words, and had an angel +descended from heaven in all the radiance and benignity of undimmed +glory, such a presence would not have impressed me more deeply with +feelings of love, veneration, and esteem. + +This colloquy, short as it was, exercised considerable influence over my +future life. + +I cannot suppose anything more imposing, and better calculated to excite +the imagination, than the meetings of these Cameronians or hill-men. +They are still vividly under my view: the precipitous and green hills of +Durrisdeer on each side--the tent adjoining to the pure mountain stream +beneath--the communion table stretching away in double rows from the +tent towards the acclivity--the vast multitude in one wide amphitheatre +round and above--the spring gushing solemnly and copiously from the +rock, like that of Meribah, for the refreshment of the people--the still +or whispering silence when Fairly appeared, with the Bible under his +arm, without gown, or band, or any other clerical badge of +distinction--the tent-ladder, ascended by the bald-headed and venerable +old man, and his almost divine regard of benevolence, cast abroad upon a +countless multitude--his earnestness in prayer--his plain and colloquial +style of address--the deep and pious attention paid to him, from the +plaided old woman at the front of the tent to the gaily dressed lad and +lass on the extremity of the ground--his descent, and the communion +service--his solemn and powerful consecration prayer, over which the +passing cloud seemed to hover, and the sheep on the hill-side to forego +for a time their pasture--his bald head (like a bare rock encompassed +with furze) slightly fringed with grey hairs, remaining uncovered under +the plashing of a descending torrent, and his right hand thrust upward, +in holy indignation against the proffered umbrella;--all this I see +under the alternating splendours and darkenings, lights and shadows, of +a sultry summer's day. The thunder is heard in its awful sublimity; and +whilst the hearts of man and of beast are quaking around and above, +Fairly's voice is louder and more confirmed, his countenance is +brighter, and his eye more assured, and stedfastly fixed on the +muttering heaven. "Thou, O Lord, art ever near us, but we perceive Thee +not; Thou speakest from Zion, and in a still small voice, but it is +drowned in the world's murmurings. Then Thou comest forth as now, in thy +throne of darkness, and encompassest thy Sinai with thunderings and +lightnings; and then it is, that like silly and timid sheep who have +strayed from their pasture, we stand afar off and tremble. _This_ flash +of thy indignant majesty, which has now crossed these aged eyes, might, +hadst Thou but so willed it, have dimmed them for ever; and this vast +assemblage of sinful life might have been, in the twinkling of an eye, +as the hosts of Assyria, or the inhabitants of Admah and Zeboim; but +Thou knowest, O Lord, that Thou hast more work for me, and more mercy +for them, and that the prayers of penitence which are now knocking hard +for entrance and answer, must have time and trial to prove their +sincerity. So be it, good Lord! for thine ire, that hath suddenly +kindled, hath passed; and the Sun of Righteousness himself hath bid his +own best image come forth from the cloud to enliven our assembly." In +fact, the thunder-cloud had passed, and under the strong relief of a +renewed effulgence, was wrapping in its trailing ascent the summits of +the more distant mountains. + + "I to the hills will lift mine eyes, + From whence doth come mine aid: + My safety cometh from the Lord"---- + +These were the notes which pealed in the after-service of that memorable +occasion from at least ten thousand hearts. Nor is there any object in +nature better calculated to call forth the most elevated sentiments of +devotion, than such a simultaneous concordant union of voice and +purpose, in praise of Him "who heaven and earth hath made." + + "All people that on earth do dwell, + Sing to the Lord"---- + +So says the divine monitor; but what says modern fashion and refinement? +Let them answer in succession for themselves. And first, then, in +reference to fashion. When examined and duly purged, she deposeth that +the time was when men were not ashamed to praise their God "before his +people all;" when they even rejoiced with what tones they might to unite +their tributary stream of praise to that vast flood which rolled, in +accumulated efficacy, towards the throne on high; when lord and lady, +husbandman and mechanic, learned and unlearned, prince and people, sent +forth their hearts in their united voices towards Him who is the God +over all and the Saviour of all. She further deposeth that the venerated +founders of our Presbyterian Church were wont to scare the curlew and +the bittern of the mountain and the marsh by their nightly songs of +solemn and combined thanksgiving and praise; and that, with the view of +securing a continuance of this delightful exercise, our Confession of +Faith strictly enjoins us, providing, by the reading of "the line," +against cases of extreme ignorance or bodily infirmity; and yet she +averreth that, in defiance of law and practice, of reason and +revelation, of good feeling and common-sense, hath it become +unfashionable to be seen or to be heard praising God. It is vulgar and +unseemly, it would appear, in the extreme, to modulate the voice or to +compose the countenance into any form or expression which might imply an +interest in the exercise of praise. The young Miss in her teens, whose +tender and susceptible heart is as wax to impressions, is half betrayed +into a spontaneous exhibition of devotional feeling; but she looks at +the marble countenance and changeless aspect of Mamma, and is silent. +The home-bred, unadulterated peasant would willingly persevere in a +practice to which he has been accustomed from his first entrance at the +church stile; but his superiors, from pew and gallery, discountenance +his feelings, and indicate by the carelessness--I had almost added the +levity--of their demeanour, that they are thinking of anything, of +everything, but God's praise; whilst the voices of the hired precentor +and of a few old women and rustics are heard uniting in suppressed and +feeble symphony. Nay, there is a case still more revolting than any +which has been hitherto denounced--that, namely, of our young +probationers and ministers, who, in many instances, refuse even in the +pulpit that example which, with their last breath, they were perhaps +employed in recommending. There they sit or stoop whilst the psalm is +singing, busily employed in revising their MS., or in reviewing the +congregation, in selecting and marking for emphasis the splendid +passages, or in noting for observation whatever of interesting the dress +or the countenances of the people may suggest. So much for _fashion_; +and now for the deposition of _refinement_ on the same subject. + +Refinement has indeed much to answer for; she has brushed the coat +threadbare; she has wiredrawn the thread till it can scarcely support +its own weight; and in no one instance has her besetting sin been more +conspicuous than in her intercommunings with our church psalmody. The +old women who, from the original establishment of Presbytery, have +continued to occupy and grace our pulpit stairs, are oftentimes +defective in point of sweetness and delicacy of voice; in fact, they do +not sing, but croon, and in some instances they have even been known to +outrun the precentor by several measures, and to return upon him a +second time ere the conclusion of the line. What then?--they always +croon in a low key; and if _they_ are gratified, their Maker pleased, +and the congregation in general undisturbed, the principal parties are +disposed of. There is no doubt something unpleasing to a refined ear in +the jarring concord of a rustic euphony, when, in full voice, of a +sacramental Sabbath evening, they are inclined to hold on with +irresistible swing. But what they want in harmony, they have in +good-will; what they lose in melody, they gain in the ringing echo of +their voices from roof and ceiling. And were it possible, without +silencing the uninstructed, to gratify and encourage the refined and the +disciplined, then were there at once a union and a unison of agreeables; +but as this object has never been effected, or even attempted, and as +refinement has at once laid aside all regard for the humble and +untrained worshipper, and has set her stamp and seal upon a trained band +of vocal performers, it becomes the duty of all rightly constituted +minds to oppose, if they cannot stem the tide--to mark and stigmatize +that as unbecoming and absurd which the folly of the age would have us +consider as improvement. It is of little moment whether the office of +psalm-singing be committed to a select band, who surround, with their +merry faces and tenor pipes, the precentor's seat, or be entrusted to +separate parties scattered through the congregation; still, so long as +the _taught_ alone are expected to sing, the original end of +psalm-singing is lost sight of, the habits of a Presbyterian +congregation are violated, and _manner_ being preferred to _matter_--an +attuned voice to a fervent spirit--a manifest violence is done to the +feelings of the truly devout. + +No two things are probably more distinct and separate in the reader's +mind than preaching and fishing; yet in mine they are closely +associated. + +And is not fishing or angling with the rod a most fascinating amusement? +There is just enough of address required to admit and imply a gratifying +admixture of self-approbation; and enough, at the same time, of chance +or circumstance, over which the fisher has no control, to keep +expectation alive even during the most deplorable luck. Hence a real +fisher is seldom found, from want of success merely, to relinquish his +rod in disgust; but, with the spirit of a true hill-man of the old +school, he is patient in tribulation, rejoicing in hope. "_Meliore +opera_" is written upon his countenance; and whilst mischance and +misfortune haunt him, it may be, from stream to stream, or from pool to +pool, he still looks down the glen and along the river's course; he +still regards in anxious expectation the alluring and more promising +curl, the circulating and creamy froth, the suddenly broken and +hesitating gullet, and the dark clayey bank, under which the water runs +thick and the foam-bells figure bright and starry. He knows that one +single hour of successful adventure, when the cloud has ascended and the +shadow is deep, and the breeze comes upwards on the stream, and the +whole finny race are in eager expectation of the approaching +shower--that one single hour of this description will amply repay him +for every discouragement and misfortune. + +And who that has enjoyed this one little hour of success would consider +the purchase as dearly made? Is it with bait that you are angling?--and +in the solitude of a mountain glen can you discover the stream of your +hope, stretching away like a blue pennant waving into the distance, and +escaping from view behind some projecting angle of the hill? Your +fishing-rod is tight and right, your line is in order, your hook +penetrates your finger to the barb; other companions than the plover, +the lark, and the water-wagtail you have none. This is no hour for +chirping grasshopper, or flaunting butterfly, or booming bee; the +overshaded and ruffled water receives your bait with a plump; and ere it +has travelled to the distance of six feet, it is nailed down to the +leeward of a stone. You pull recklessly and fearlessly, and flash after +flash, and flap after flap, comes there in upon your hull the spotted +and ponderous inmate of the flood! Or is it the fly with which you are +plying the river's fuller and more seaward flow? The wide extent of +streamy pool is before you, and beyond your reach. Fathom after fathom +goes reeling from your pirn, but still you are barely able to drop the +far fly into the distant curl. "Habet!" he has it; and proudly does he +bear himself in the plenitudes of strength, space, and freedom. Your +line cuts and carves the water into all manner of squares, triangles, +and parallelograms. Now he makes a few capers in the air, and shows you, +as an opera dancer would do, his proportions and agility: now again he +is sulky and restive, and gives you to understand that the _vis inertiĉ_ +is strong within him. But fate is in all his operations, and his last +convulsive effort makes the sand and the water commingle at the +landing-place. + +The resort of the fisher is amidst the retirements of what, and what +alone, can be justly denominated undegraded nature. The furnace, and the +manufactory, and the bleaching-green, and the tall red smoke-vomiting +chimney are his utter aversion. The village, the clachan, the city, he +avoids: he flies from them as something intolerably hostile to his +hopes. He holds no voluntary intercourse with man, or with his petty and +insignificant achievements. "He lifts his eyes to the hills," and his +steps lie through the retired glen, and winding vale, and smiling +strath, up to the misty eminence and cairn-topped peak. He catches the +first beams of the sun, not through the dim and disfiguring smoke of a +city, but over the sparkling and diamonded mountain, above the unbroken +and undulating line of the distant horizon. His conversation is with +heaven, with the mist, and the cloud, and the sky; the great, the +unmeasured, the incomprehensible are around him; and all the agitation +and excitement to which his hopes and fears as a mere fisher subject +him, cannot completely withdraw his soul from that character of +sublimity by which the mountain solitude is so perceptibly impressed. + +I shall never forget one day's sport. The morning was warm, and in fact +somewhat sultry; and swarms of insects arose on my path. As every gullet +was gushing with water, it behoved me to ascend, even beyond my former +travel, to the purest streams or feeders, which ran unseen, in general, +among the hills. The clouds, as I hurried on my way, began to gather up +into a dense and darkening awning. There was a slight and somewhat +hesitating breeze on the hill-side, for I could see the heath and +bracken bending under it, but it was scarcely perceptible beneath. This, +however, I regretted the less, as the mountain torrent to which I had +attached myself was too precipitous and streamy in its course to require +the aids of wind and curl to forward the sport. Let the true fisher--for +he only can appreciate the circumstances--say what must have been my +delight, my rapture, as I proceeded to prepare my rod, open out my line +over the brink of a gullet, along which the water rushed like porter +through the neck of a bottle, and at the lower extremity of which the +froth tilted round and round in most inviting eddies! Here there was no +springing of trouts to the surface, nor coursing of alarmed shoals +beneath. The darkened heaven was reflected back by the darker water; and +the torrent kept dashing, tumbling, and brawling along under the impulse +and agitation of a swiftly ebbing flood. I had hit upon that very +critical shade, betwixt the high brown and soft blue colour, which +every mountain angler knows well how to appreciate; and I felt as if +every turn and entanglement of my line formed a barrier betwixt me and +paradise. The very first throw was successful, ere the bait had +travelled twice round the eddy at the bottom of the gullet. When trouts +in such circumstances take at all, they do so in good earnest. They are +all on the outlook for food, and dash at the swiftly-descending bait +with a freedom and good-will which almost uniformly insures their +capture. And here, for the benefit of bait fishers, it may be proper to +mention, that success depends not so much on the choosing and preparing +of the worms--though these undoubtedly are important points--as in the +throwing and drawing, or rather dragging of the line. In such mountain +rapids, the trout always turn their heads to the current, and never +gorge the bait till they have placed themselves lower down in the water; +consequently, by pulling _downwards_, two manifest advantages are +gained: the trout is often hooked without gorging, or even biting at +all, and the current assists the fisher in landing his prize, which, in +such circumstances, may be done in an instant, and at a single pull. But +to return. My success on this occasion was altogether beyond precedent: +at every turn and wheel of the winding torrent, I was sure to grace the +green turf or sandy channel with another and another yellow-sided and +brightly-spotted half-pounder. The very sheep, as they travelled along +their mountain pathway, stopped and gazed down on the sport. The season +was harvest, and the Lammas floods had brought up the bull or sea +trouts. I had all along hoped that one or two stragglers might have +reached my position; and this hope had animated every pull. It was not, +however, till the day was well advanced, that I had the good fortune to +succeed in hooking a large, powerful, active, and new-run "milter." In +fisher weight he might seem _five_, but in imperial he would possibly +not exceed two or three pounds. Immediately upon his feeling the steel +he plunged madly, flung himself into the air, dived again into the +depths, and flounced about in the most active and courageous style +imaginable. At last, taking the stream-head somewhat suddenly, he showed +tail and fin above the surface of the water, brought his two extremities +almost into contact, shot himself upwards like an arrow, and was off +with the hook and a yard of line ere I had time to prepare against the +danger; but as unforeseen circumstances led to this catastrophe, +occurrences equally unlooked-for repaired the loss; for in an instant I +secured the disengaged captive whilst floundering upon the sand, having, +by his headlong precipitancy, fairly pitched himself out of his native +element. There he lay, like a ship in the shallows, exhibiting scale and +fin, and shoulder and spot, of the most fascinating hue; and, ever and +anon, as the recollection of the fatal precipitancy seemed to return +upon him, he cut a few capers and exhibited a few somersets, which +contributed materially to insure his capture, and increase my delight. + +By this time I had ascended nearly to the source of the stream; and at +every opening up of the glen I could perceive a sensible diminution of +the current. I was quite alone in the solitude; and my unwonted success +had rendered me insensible to the escape of time. The glen terminated at +last in a linn and scaur, beyond which it did not appear probable that +trouts would ascend. Whilst I was engaged in the consideration of the +objects around me, with a reference to my return home, I became all at +once enveloped in mist and darkness. The mist was dense and close and +suffocating, while the darkness increased every instant. I felt a +difficulty in breathing, as if I had been shut up in an empty oven; my +situation stared me at once in the face, and I took to my heels over the +heath, in what I considered a homeward direction. Now that my ears were +relieved from the gurgling sound of the water, I could perceive, through +the stillness of the air, that the thunder was behind me. I had been +taught to consider thunder as the voice of the "Most High," when He +speaks in his wrath, and felt my whole soul prostrated under the divine +rebuke. Some passages of the 18th Psalm rushed on my remembrance; and as +the lightnings began to kindle, and the thunder to advance, I could hear +myself involuntarily repeating-- + + "Up from his nostrils came a smoke, + And from his mouth there came + Devouring fire; and coals by it + Were turned into flame. + + "The Lord God also in the heavens + Did thunder in his _ire_, + And there the Highest gave his voice-- + Hail-stones and coals of fire." + +Such was the subject of my meditation, as the muttering and seemingly +subterraneous thunder boomed and quavered behind me. At last, one broad +and whizzing flash passed over, around, beneath, and I could almost +imagine, _through_ me. The clap followed instantly, and, by its +deafening knell, drove me head foremost into the heathy moss. Had the +earth now opened (as to Curtius of old) before me, I should certainly +have dashed into the crater, in order to escape from that explosive +omnipotence which seemed to overtake me. Peal after peal pitched, with a +rending and tearing sound, upon the drum of my ear and the parapet of my +brain; whilst the mist and the darkness were kindled up around me into +an open glow. I could hear a strange rush upon the mountain, and along +the glen, as if the Solway had overleaped all bounds, and was careering +some thousand feet abreast over Criffel and Queenberry. Down it came at +last, in a swirl and a roar, as if rocks and cairns and heath were +commingled in its sweep. This terrible blast was only the immediate +precursor of a hail-storm, which, descending at first in separate and +distinct pieces, as if the powers of darkness and uproar had been +pitching marbles, came on at last with a rush, as if Satan himself had +been dumriddling the elements. The water in the moss-hag rose up, and +boiled and sputtered in the face of heaven, and a rock, underneath the +hollow corner of which I had now crept on hands and knees, rattled all +over, as if assailed by musketry. I lay now altogether invisible to +mortal eye, amidst the mighty movements of the elements--a thing of +nought, endeavouring to crawl into nonentity--a tiny percipient amidst +the blind urgency of nature. I lay in all the prostration of a bruised +and subdued spirit, praying fervently and loudly unto God that He might +be pleased to cover me with his hand till his wrath was overpast. And, +to my persuasion at the time, my prayers were not altogether +insufficient: the storm softened, rain succeeded hail, a pause followed +the hurricane, and the thunder's voice had already travelled away over +the brow of the onward mountain. + +Whilst I was debating with myself whether it were safer, now that the +night had fairly closed in upon the pathless moor, to remain all night +in my present position, or to attempt once more my return home, I heard, +all of a sudden, the sound of human voices, which the violence of the +storm had prevented me from sooner perceiving. I scarcely knew whether I +was more alarmed or comforted by this discovery. From my previous state +of agitation, combined with my early and rooted belief in all manner of +supernaturals, I was strongly disposed to terror; but the accents were +so manifestly human, that, in spite of my apprehensions, they tended to +cheer me. As I continued, therefore, to listen with mouth and ears, the +voices became louder and louder, and more numerous, mixed and commingled +as they appeared at last to be with the tread and the plash of horses' +feet. These demonstrations of an approaching cavalcade naturally called +upon me to narrow, as much and as speedily as possible, my +circumference; in other words, to creep, as it were, into my shell, by +occupying the farthest extremity of the recess, to which I betook myself +at first for shelter, and now for concealment. There I lay like a limpet +stuck to the rock, against which I could feel my heart beat with +accelerated rapidity. In this situation I could distinguish voices and +expressions, and ultimately unravel the import of a conversation +interlarded with oaths and similar ornamental flourishes. There was a +proposal to halt, alight, and refresh in this sequestered situation. +Such a proposal, as may readily be supposed, was to me anything but +agreeable. Here was I, according to my reckoning, surrounded by a band +of robbers, and liable every instant to detection. Firearms were talked +of, and preparations, offensive and defensive, were proposed. I could +distinctly smell gunpowder. In the meantime, a fire was struck up at no +great distance, under the glare of which I could distinguish horses +heavily panniered, and strange-looking countenances, congregating within +fifty paces of my retreat. The shadow of the intervening corner of the +rock covered me, otherwise immediate detection would have been +inevitable. The thunder and lightnings with all their terrors were +nothing to this. In the one case, I was placed at the immediate disposal +of a merciful, as well as a mighty Being; but at present I ran every +risk of falling into the hands of those whose counsels I had overheard, +and whose tender mercies were only cruelty. As I lay--rod, basket, and +fish crumpled up into a corner of contracted dimensions--all ear, +however, and eye towards the light--I could mark the shadows of several +individuals who were manifestly engaged in the peaceful and ordinary +process of eating and drinking; hands, arms, and flagons projected in +lengthened obscurity over the mass, and intimated, by the rapidity and +character of their movements, that jaws were likewise in motion. The +long pull, with the accompanying _smack_, were likewise audible; and it +was manifest that the repast was not more substantial than the beverage +was exhilarating. "Word follows word, from question answer flows." +Dangers and contingencies--which, while the flame was kindling and the +flagon was filling, seemed to agitate and interest all--were now talked +of as bugbears; and oaths of heavy and horrifying defiance were hurled +into the ear of night, with many concomitant expressions of security and +self-reliance. The night, though dark, had now become still and warm; +and the ground which they occupied, like my own retreat, had been +partially protected from the hail and the rain by the projecting rock. +The stunted roots of burnt heath, or "brins," served them plentifully +for fuel; and altogether their situation was not so uncomfortable as +might have been expected. Still, however, their character, employment, +and conversation appeared to me a fearful mystery. One thing, however, +was evident, that they conceived themselves as engaged in some illegal +transactions. Their whole revel was tainted with treason and +insubordination: kings and rulers were disposed of with little +ceremony; and excise officers, in particular, were visited with +anathemas not to be mentioned. At this critical moment, when the whole +party seemed verging towards downright intoxication, a pistol bullet +burst itself to atoms on the projecting corner of the rock; and the +report which accompanied this demonstration was followed up by oaths of +challenge and imprecation. The fire went out as if by magic, and an +immediate rush to arms, accompanied by shots and clashing of lethal +weapons, indicated a struggle for life. + +"Stand and surrender, you smuggling scoundrels! or by all that is +sacred, not one of you shall quit this spot in life!" + +This salutation was answered by a renewed discharge of musketry; and the +darkness, which was relieved by the momentary flash, became instantly +more impenetrable than ever. Men evidently pursued men, and horses were +held by the bridle, or driven into speed as circumstances permitted. How +it happened that I neither screamed, fainted, nor died outright, I am +yet at a loss to determine. The darkness, however, was my covering; and +even amidst the unknown horrors of the onset, I felt in some degree +assured by the extinction of the fire. But this assurance was not of +long continuance: the assailing party had evidently taken possession of +the field; and, after a few questions of mutual recognition and +congratulation, proceeded to secure their booty, which consisted of one +horse, with a considerable assortment of barrels and panniers. This was +done under the light of the rekindled fire, around which a repetition of +the former festivities was immediately commenced. The fire, however, now +flared full in my face, and led to my immediate detection. I was +summoned to come forth, with the muzzle of a pistol placed within a few +inches of my ear--an injunction which I was by no means prepared to +resist. I rolled immediately outwards from under the rock, displaying my +basket and rod, and screaming all the while heartily for mercy. At this +critical moment a horse was heard to approach, and a challenge was +immediately sent through the darkness,--every musket was levelled in the +direction of the apprehended danger,--when a voice, to which I was by no +means a stranger, immediately restored matters to their former bearing. + +"Now, what is the meaning o' a' this, my lads? And how come the king's +servants to be sae ill lodged at this time o' night? He must be a shabby +landlord that has naething better than the bare heath and the hard rock +to accommodate his guests wi'." + +"Oh, Fairly, my old man of the Covenant," vociferated the leader of the +party, "how come you to be keeping company with the whaup and the curlew +at this time o' night? But a drink is shorter than a tale; fling the +bridle owre the grey yad's shoulders, an' ca' her to the bent, till we +mak ourselves better acquainted with this little natty gentleman, whom +we have so opportunely encountered on the moor"--displaying, at the same +time, a keg or small flask of liquor referred to, and shaking it +joyously till it clunked again. + +In an instant Fairly was stationed by the side of the fire, with a can +of Martin's brandy in his hands, and an expression of exceeding surprise +on his countenance as he perceived my mother's son in full length +exhibited before him. I did not, however, use the ceremony of a formal +recognition; but, rushing on his person, I clung to it with all the +convulsive desperation of a person drowning. Matters were now adjusted +by mutual recognitions and explanations; and I learned that I had been +the unconscious spectator of a scuffle betwixt the "king's officers" +and a "band of smugglers;" and that Fairly, who had been preaching and +baptizing that day at Burnfoot, and was on his return towards Durrisdeer +(where he was next day to officiate), had heard and been attracted to +the spot by the firing. In these times to which I refer, the Isle of Man +formed a depot for illegal traffic. Tea, brandy, and tobacco, in +particular, found their way from the Calf of Man to the Rinns of +Galloway, Richmaden, and the mouth of the Solway. From the latter depot +the said articles were smuggled, during night marches, into the +interior, through such byways and mountain passes as were unfrequented +or inaccessible. After suitable libations had been made, I was mounted +betwixt a couple of panniers, and soon found myself in my own bed, some +time before + + "That hour o' night's black arch the keystane!" + + + + +THE DETECTIVE'S TALE. + +THE CHANCE QUESTION. + + +It is not long since the cleverest of these strangely constituted men +called detectives [_entre nous_ myself] went up to his superintendent +with a very rueful face, and told him that all his energies were vain in +discovering a clue to an extensive robbery of plate which had occurred +in ---- Street some short time before. + +"I confess myself fairly baffled," he said; and could say no more. + +"With that singular foxhound organ of yours?" replied his superior. "The +herring must have been well smoked." + +"At the devil's own fire of pitch and brimstone," said the detective. +"But the worst is, I have had no trail to be taken off. I never was so +disconcerted before. Generally some object to point direction, if even +only a dead crow or smothered sheep; but here, not even that." + +"No trace of P---- or any of the English gang?" + +"None; all beyond the bounds, or up chimneys, or down in cellars, or +covered up in coal-bunkers. I am beginning to think the job to be of +home manufacture." + +"Generally a clumsy affair; and therefore very easy for a man of your +parts. What reason have you?" + +"Absolutely none." + +"That is, I fancy," said the superintendent, "the thousand pounds of +good silver, watches, and rings, are absolutely gone." + +"You know my conditions," said the officer: "give me the thing stolen, +and I will find to a living certainty the man who stole it; or give me +the man who stole it, and I will find you to a dead certainty the thing +stolen. But it's a deuced unfortunate thing that a man can't get even a +sniff." + +"Yes, especially when, as in your case, all his soul is in his nose." + +"And with such a reward!" continued the chagrined officer; "scarcely +anything so liberal has been offered in my time; but, after all, the +reward is nothing--it is the honour of the force and one's character. It +is well up for the night anyhow, and I rather think altogether, unless +some flash come by telegraph." + +"You have no other place you can go to now?" said the superintendent +musingly, and not altogether satisfied. + +"None," replied the officer resolutely. "I have been out of bed for ten +nights--every den scoured, and every 'soup-kitchen'[B] visited, every +swell watched and dogged, and every trull searched; I can do no more. It +is now eleven, my eyes will hardly hold open, and I request to be +allowed to go and rest for the present." + +"As you like," replied the superintendent. "We are neither omniscient +nor omnipotent." + +"The people who get robbed think us both," said the officer; and taking +his hat, left the office, and began to trudge slowly down the street. +The orderly people had mostly retired to their homes. The midnight +ghouls from the deep wynds and closes were beginning to form their +gossiping clusters; the perambulators had begun their courses; and fast +youths from the precincts of the College or the New Town were resuming +their search for sprees, or determined to make them. There were among +them many clients of our officer, whom he knew, and had hopes of at some +future day; but now he surveyed them with the eye of one whose +occupation for the time was gone. His sadness was of the colour of +Jacques', but there was a difference: the one wove out of his melancholy +golden verses in the forest of Arden; our hero could not draw out of his +even silver plate in the dens of Edinburgh. He had come to the Tron +Kirk, and hesitated whether, after all, he should renounce his hunt for +the night--true to the peculiarity of this species of men, whose game +are wretched and wicked beings, always less or more between them and the +wind's eye, and therefore always stimulating to pursuit; but again he +resolved upon home, or, rather, his heavy eyes and worn-out spirits +resolved him, in spite of himself, and he turned south, in which +direction his residence was. So on he trudged till he came about the +middle part of the street called the South Bridge, when he heard +pattering behind him the feet of a woman. She came up to him, and passed +him, or rather was in the act of passing him, when, from something no +better than a desire to stimulate activity, or rather to free himself +from the conviction that he was utterly and entirely defeated, he turned +round to the girl, whom he saw in an instant was a street-walker, and +threw carelessly a question at her. + +"Where are you going?" + +"Home," was the reply. + +"Where do you live?" + +"In Simon Square." + +Here he was at first inclined to make a stop, having put the questions +more as common routine than with any defined intention; but just as the +girl came opposite to a lamp-post, and was on the eve of outstripping +him, he said, + +"Oh, by-the-bye, do you know any one thereabouts, or anywhere else, who +mends rings?" + +"Yes." + +"Who is it?" + +"Abram." + +"What more?" + +"I don't know his other name; we just call him Abram, and sometimes Jew +Abram." + +"Did you ever get anything mended by him?" + +"No; but I bought a ring from him once." + +"And what did you do with it?" + +"I have it on my finger," she replied. + +"Will you let me see it?" he continued. + +"Oh yes." + +And as they came forward to another lamp-post, he was shown the ring. He +examined it carefully, taking from his waistcoat another, and comparing +the two--"Won't do." + +"How long is it since you made this purchase?" + +"About ten days ago." + +"And what did you pay for it?" + +"Three and sixpence." + +By this time they had got opposite the square where the girl lived. She +crossed, and he followed, in the meantime asking her name. + +"There is Abram's house," she said; "there's light in the window." + +And the officer, standing a little to see where she went, now began to +examine the outside of Abram's premises. A chink in the shutters showed +him a part of the person of some one inside, whom he conjectured to be +Abram sitting at his work. He opened the door, and it was as he thought. +An old man was sitting at a bench, with a pair of nippers in his hand, +peering into some small object. + +"Can you mend that?" said the officer abruptly, and, without a word of +prelocution, pressing into his hands a ring. + +"Anything," was the prompt reply. + +But no sooner had the ring come under the glance of his far-ben eye-- + +"Yes--ah! ye-es--well--no--no." + +And the peering eye came, as it were, forward out of its recess, and +scanned the face of the officer, who, on the other hand, was busy +watching every turn of the Jew's features. + +"No; I cannot mend that." + +"Why? You said you could mend anything." + +"Ye-es, anything; but not that." + +"No matter--no harm in asking," replied the officer, as he looked round +the apartment, and fixed his eye on the back wall, where, in utter +opposition to all convenience, let alone taste, and even to the +exclusion of required space, there were battered two or three coarse +engravings. + +"Good night!" + +"Goo-ood night!" + +"Now what, in the name of decoration, are these prints hung up on that +wall for?" asked the officer of himself, without making any question of +the import of the Jew's look, and his yes and no. He was now standing in +the middle of the square, and, turning round, he saw the light put out. +Another thought struck him, but whatever it was, it was the cause of a +laugh that took hold of him, even in the grasp of his anxiety; yea, he +laughed, for a detective, greatly more heartily than could be authorized +by anything I have recorded. + +"Why, the lower print is absolutely the old Jewish subject of the cup in +the sack," he muttered, and laughed again. "Was ever detective so +favoured?--a representation of concealed treasure on the very wall +where that treasure is! Were the brethren fools enough to put the +representation of a cup on Benjamin's sack?" + +"Robertson!" he called to one of his men, whom, by the light at the +street-end of the entry, he saw passing, "send two men here upon the +instant." + +"Yes, sir." + +And then he began to examine more thoroughly the premises, to ascertain +whether there were any exit-openings besides the door and window. There +were none. He had a quarter of an hour or twenty minutes to wait, and +five of these had not passed before he observed some one go up and tap +at Abram's door. A question, though he did not hear it, must have been +put by the Jew, for an answer, in a low voice, responded, + +"Slabberdash!" + +"The crack name of that fellow Clinch, whom I've been after for a week," +said the officer to himself, as he kept in the shadow of a cellar which +jutted out from the other houses. + +The Jew had again answered, for the visitor repeated to himself, as if +in fear and surprise, "Red-light," and, looking cautiously about him, +made off. + +"It is not my cue to follow," muttered the detective; "but I will do +next best." + +And hurrying out of the mouth of the entry at the heels of the visitor, +he caught the policeman on the Nicolson Street beat almost immediately. + +"Track that fellow," he said; "there--there, you see him--'tis +Slabberdash; do not leave him or the front of his den till sunrise. I'll +get a man for your beat." + +"Yes, sir," replied the policeman, adroitly blowing out his bull's-eye +and making off at a canter. + +The officer returned to his post, and within the time the two assistants +arrived. + +"Go you, Reid, to the office, and send a man to supply Nicolson Street +beat till Ogilvy return; he's on commission; come back instantly." + +The man obeyed with alacrity. + +"And now, Jones, you and your neighbour take charge of that door--keep +seeing it without it seeing; you understand? Keep watch; and if any one +approach, scan him for Slabberdash, but take care he doesn't see you. I +will relieve you at shutters-down in the morning; meanwhile, I'm at home +for report or exigency." + +"I comprehend," replied the man, "and will be careful." + +The officer took for home, weary and drowsy, though a little awakened by +the events of one half-hour. There was sight of game, as well as scent. +The Jew's look by itself was not much, yet greatly more to the eye of a +detective than even an expert physiognomist could imagine. The +picture-plastered wall was more; the cup in the sack was merely an +enlivening joke; but Slabberdash was no joke, as many a douce burgher in +Edinburgh knew to his cost. The fellow was a match for the father of +cheats and lies himself; and therefore it could be no dishonour to our +clever detective that hitherto he had had no chance with him, any more +than if he had been James Maccoul, or the great Mahoun. + +Meanwhile, the other watch having arrived, the two kept up their +surveillance; nor would they be without something to report to their +officer, were it nothing more than that little Abram--for he was very +diminutive--about one in the morning rather surprised one of the guard, +who was incautiously too near the house, by slowly opening the door, +and looking out with an inquiring eye, in his shirt; and upon getting a +glimpse of the dark figure of the policeman, saying, as if to himself, +though intended for the said dark figure, whoever it might be, + +"I vash wondering if it vash moonlight." + +And, shutting the door hurriedly, he disappeared. About an hour +afterwards, a tall female figure, coming up the entry from North +Richmond Street, made a full stop, at about three yards from Abram's +door, and then darted off, but not before one of the guard had seen +enough, as he thought, to enable him to swear that it was Slabberdash's +companion, a woman known by the slang name of Four-toed Mary, once one +of the most dashing and beautiful of the local street-sirens. About an +hour after that the two guards forgathered to compare notes. + +"The devil is surely in that little man," said the one who had heard the +soliloquy about the moon; "for, whether or not he wanted light outside +or in to drive away the shadows of his conscience, he served his purpose +a few minutes since by lighting his lamp. I saw the light through the +chinks, and venturing to listen, heard noises as of working. He is +labouring at something, if not sweating." + +"Perhaps _melting_," said the other, with a laugh. + +"But here comes our officer; there is never rest for that man when +there's a bird on the moor or a fox in the covert." + +The truth was, as the man said, the detective had gone home to sleep; +but no sooner had he lain down than the little traces he had discovered +began to excite his imagination, and that faculty, so suggestive in his +class, getting inflamed, developed so many images in the camera of his +mind, that he soon found sleep an impossibility, and he was now there +to know whether anything further had transpired. The men made their +report, and he soon saw there was something more than ordinary in +Abram's curiosity about the moon, and still more in the coincidence of +the visits of Slabberdash and Four-toes. He had a theory, too, about the +working, though it did not admit the melting. He knew better what to +augur. But he had a fault to find, and he was not slow to find it. + +"Why didn't one of you track Four-toes? One of you could have served +here. She has been off the scene for three weeks, and is hiding. You +ought to have known that a woman is a good subject for a detective. Her +strength is her weakness, and her weakness our opportunity. But there's +no help for it now. We must trace the links we have. If she come again, +be more on the alert, and follow up the track. Keep your guard, and let +not a circumstance escape you." + +"The light is out again," remarked one of the men; "he has gone to bed." + +"But not to sleep, I warrant," said his superior. "Look sharp and listen +quick, and I will be with you when I promised." + +He now proceeded to the office in the High Street, where he found the +superintendent waiting for a report in another case. He recounted all he +had seen and heard. + +"You have a chance here," said the latter; "and, to confirm our hopes, I +can tell you that Four-toes' mother gave yesterday to a shebeen-master +in Toddrick's Close, one of the rings for a mutchkin of whisky; and, +what is more, Clinch has been traced to the old woman's house in +Blackfriars Wynd. I suspect that the picture's true after all. The cup +is verily in Benjamin's sack." + +Thus fortified, our detective sought his way again down the High Street; +and as he had time to kill between that and the opening of the shutters +in Simon Square, he paid a visit to Blackfriars Wynd, where he found his +faithful myrmidon keeping watch over the old mother's house, like a Skye +terrier at the mouth of a rat-hole. He here learned that Mary with the +deficient toe had also been seen to go upstairs to her mother's garret, +which circumstance accorded perfectly with the statement of the guard in +the square, as no doubt she had returned home after being startled at +the door of Abram. But then she was seen to go out again, about an hour +before, though whither she went the watch could not say. The hour of +appointment was now approaching. The day had broken amidst watery +clouds, driven about by a fitful, gusty wind, and every now and then +sending stiff showers of rain, sufficient to have cooled the enthusiasm +of any one but a hunter after the doers of evil. He had been drenched +two or three times, and now he felt that a glass of brandy was necessary +as an auxiliary to internal resistance against external aggression. He +was soon supplied, and, wending his way to the old rendezvous, he found +his guard, but without any addition to their report of midnight. Abram +was long of getting up, and it seemed that he was first roused by the +clink of a milkwoman's tankard on the window-shutter. The door was +slowly opened, but in place of the vendor of milk handing in to her +solitary customer the small half-pint, she went in herself, pails, and +tankard, and all. Our detective marked the circumstance as being +unusual, and, more than unusual still, the door was partly closed upon +her as she entered. Then he began to think that she had nothing about +her of the appearance of that class of young women. + +"Has not that woman the appearance of Four-toes?" said the officer. + +"I'm blowed if she's not the very woman I saw in the dark," said one of +the men. + +"Split," said the lieutenant; "but be within sign." + +The precaution was wise. In a few minutes Abram's face was peering out +at the door, not this time looking for the moon--more probably for the +enemies of her minions; and what immediately succeeded showed that he +had got a glimpse of the men, for by-and-by the milk-maid came forth and +proceeded along the square. + +"Go and look into her pails," said the lieutenant to Reid, as he +hastened up to him. "Jones and I will remain for a moment here." + +Reid set off, and disappeared in the narrow passage leading to West +Richmond Street; but he remained only a short time. + +"Crumbie is yeld! there's not a drop of milk in her pitchers," said he, +on his return; "and it's no other than Four-toes." + +"Ah, we've been seen by Abram," said the officer; "and the pitchers are +sent away empty, which otherwise would have contained something more +valuable than milk. After her again, and track her. Jones and I will pay +Abram a morning visit." + +The man again set off; and the officer and Jones having hung about a few +minutes till Abram came out to open the shutters and afford them light +inside, they caught their opportunity, and, just as the Jew was taking +down the shattered boards, they darted into the house. Abram was at +their heels in a moment. + +"Vat ish it, gentlemen?" + +"A robbery of plate has been committed," said the officer at once; "and +I am here, with your permission no doubt, to search this house." + +"Very goo-ood; there ish nothing but vat ish my property." + +The officer had even already seen a half of the bench--which had +consisted of two parts put together, probably originally intended for +some other purpose than mending jewellery--had been removed and placed +against the wall where Joseph and his brethren were standing round the +cup in the sack, so that it was more difficult to reach the wall, though +the device was clearly only the half of an idea, as the prints still +stood above the bench, and might, by a sharp eye, have still suggested +the suspicion that they were intended for something else than +decoration, or even the gratification of a Jew's love for the legends of +his country. But the officer did not go first to the suspected part. He +took a hammer from his pocket, and began rapping all round the wall. +"Stone, stone--lath, lath; ah, a compact house." + +"Very goo-ood. Vash only three weeks a tenant." + +The officer recollected the estimate of the time given by the +street-walker, the _fons et origo_ of all, and his hammer went more +briskly till he came to the patriarchs. "Good head, that, of Joseph," he +said with a laugh; "hollow, eh?" + +"Vash a good head--not hollow; the best at the court of Pharaoh." + +In an instant, a long chisel was through the picture; and in another, +the poker, driven into the chisel-hole, and wrenched to a side, sent a +thin covering of fir lath into a dozen of splinters. The hand did the +rest. A cupboard was exposed to the eyes of the apparently wondering +Israelite, containing, closely packed, an array of plate, watches, +rings, and bijouterie, sufficient to make any eye besides a Jew's leap +for the wish of possession. + +Abram held up his hands in affected wonderment as the lieutenant stood +gazing at the treasure, and almost himself entranced. Jones was fixed to +the ground; at one time looking at the costly treasure, at another at +his superior, who had already, in this department of his art, acquired +an envied reputation. + +"Very goo-ood!" exclaimed Abram; "vash only here three weeks. What fools +to leave here all this wonderful treasure!" + +"Abram, will you be so good as take a walk up the High Street? Jones +will show you the way. Breakfast will be waiting you. And do you," +looking to Jones, "send down a box large enough to hold this silver, and +two of our men to remove it to the office." + +"Vash the other tenant," cried Abram, as he saw the plight he had got +into--"vash not me, so help me the God of my forefathers, even Abraham, +Isaac, and Jacob, who were just men, as I am a just man; it vash not me. +Vash not the cup put in Benjamin's sack?" + +The officer laughed--at this time inside, for it behoved him now to be +grave--at the recollection of the strange coincidence of the picture and +the stolen plate. + +"Come," said Jones, "let us start;" and, clapping the Jew's old hat on +the head of the little man, he took him under the arm to lead him out. + +"After depositing him," whispered the officer into Jones' ear, "get +help; proceed to Blackfriars, where Ogilvy is on the watch, and lay hold +of Clinch. Some others will start in search of Reid, who may have +tracked Four-toes, and seize her. You comprehend?" + +"Perfectly. Come, Abram--unless you would like to walk at a safe +distance?" + +"Surely I would," replied Abram; "and so would every man who vash as +innocent as the child vash born yesterday, or this minute." + +When the prisoner had departed, the officer sat down on the Jew's stool +to rest himself, previous to making a survey of the articles, with +reference to an inventory he had in his pocket. In this attitude, he +took up a pair of Abram's nippers to fasten a link in his watch chain, +which threatened to give way, so that he might very well have +represented the master of the establishment sitting at his work. This +observation is here made, as explanatory of another circumstance which +presently occurred in this altogether remarkable case. The door, which +Jones had closed after him, was opened stealthily; an old woman, wrapped +up in a duffle cloak, slipped quietly and timidly in, and going round +the end of the bench, whispered into the ear of the lieutenant-- + +"You'll be Abram, nae doubt?" + +"Ay," replied he. + +"Ye're early at wark." + +"Ay." + +"Weel, the milk-woman--ye ken wha I mean?" + +"Oh yes; Four-toes." + +"Ha! ha! ay, just Four-toes, that's Mary Burt; ah! she _was_ a buxom +lass in my kennin'. Weel, she has sent me to you, in a quiet way, ye +ken, to tell ye that the p'lice have an e'e on you. That ill-lookin' +scoondrel, the cleverest o' the 'tectives, as they ca' them--I never saw +him mysel, but dootless you'll ken him--has been seen in the coort here, +wi' twa o' his beagles, and you're to tak tent." + +"Yes, I know the ill-looking Christian dog. Vat ish your name?" + +"Chirsty Anderson." + +"Where do you live, Christian?" + +"In Wardrop's Coort, at the tap o' the lang stair. And the +milk-maid--ha! ha!--says you're to shift the things to my room i' the +dark'nin', whaur Geordie, my laddie, will hae a plank lifted, and you +can stow them awa, ayont the ken o' the cleverest o' them." + +"And where ish the milk-woman?" + +"In my room, pitchers an' a'." + +"Well, tell her to keep there, as vash a prisoner, till I come to her +place." + +"I will." + +"Isn't Geordie, my good woman, called Squint?" + +"Just the same," she replied with a laugh; "and, ye ken, he has a right +to a silver jug or twa, for he risked his neck for't as weel as Clinch." + +"Surely, surely." + +"But you're to gie me a ring to tak to her, for she's hard up, and I'll +try Mr. E----e wi' 't at night, and get some shillings on't." + +"Certainly, Christian--not a good name that; but here," taking her by +the shoulders, and turning sharply in the direction of the door--for he +was afraid she might notice the wreck made in the recess,--"look out at +the door, and be on the good watch for the ill-looking dog." + +"Ah, Abram, ye're sae clever! The deil's in them if they put saut on +_your_ tail." + +"Here, give that to Four-toes, and tell her to keep good prisoner till I +come." + +"Just sae--a bonny ring!" + +"Quick! turn to your right, and go by the Pleasance, along St. Mary's +Wynd, up the High Street, to your home." + +"Ay," replied the woman as she departed. + +Not five minutes elapsed, when Jones and the two assistants with the box +arrived; when the officer cried-- + +"Jones, follow up an old woman, in a grey duffle cloak, Christian +Anderson by name, who is this moment gone down by the Pleasance, to +take St. Mary's Wynd and the High Street on her way to her room, in +Wardrop's Court, at the top of the stair. Having seen her landed, stop +five minutes at the door, to give her time to deliver a ring to +Four-toes, then step in, and take the young woman to the office. You +will find Geordie Anderson there also, the notorious Squint; so pick up +a man as you go, and make Squint sure." + +"At once, sir," replied the man, and was off. + +By-and-by, and just as our officer was beginning to compare the plate +with the inventory, the superintendent, who had got intelligence of the +discovery, came hurrying in. They found, to their astonishment, that +every article was there, excepting two rings--the one, probably, that +offered to the shebeen-man by Four-toes' mother, and the other that +which had been presently sent to Four-toes herself. A more complete +recovery was perhaps never achieved; and it was all the more wonderful +from the small beginning from which the trace had been detected. Having +completed the examination and packed the treasure, which was presently +removed to the office, the discoverer set about examining Abram's room; +but so cunningly had the whole affair of the resettership been +conducted, that there was not found a trace of any kind to show his +connection with the burglars. The joke of the man in reference to the +process of melting had, however, had a narrow escape from being +realized; for a kind of furnace had been erected with bricks, and a +large crucible, sufficient to hold a Scotch pint of the "silver soup," +was lying in what had been used as a coal-bunker. Meanwhile, Reid +hurried in in great dejection, because the milk-woman had baffled him by +going into a house in one of the wynds, and emerging by the back, and +escaping. + +"She's provided for," said the officer, "and you may go. I don't need +you here; but you may go to Wardrop's Court, top of stair, and help +Jones to take care of Four-toes and George Anderson called Squint; you +know him?" + +"Who that has once seen him will ever forget him?" replied the other. +"When will Jones be there?" + +"Just when you will arrive, giving you time to walk slow, like a good +detective." + +"And now," said our officer, as he proceeded to fasten up the door, "so +much for a casual question,--a good night's work, and a reward of a +hundred for recovering a thousand. I think I am entitled to my +breakfast. It's not often a man makes so much of a morning." And +resuming his deliberate walk--a characteristic, as he himself +acknowledged, of a true thief-catcher--he repaired to a coffee-house in +Nicolson Street, and allayed his hunger by coffee and a pound of chops. +It was about ten o'clock when he reached the office, where he had the +pleasant scene presented to him of a well-assorted bag of game--the last +victims, Four-toes and Squint, being in the act of being deposited as he +entered. The principals secure, the accessories were of less +consequence. There were there Abram, Slabberdash, Squint, and Four-toes. + +"To complete our complement we must have Four-toes' mother and Mrs. +Anderson," he said to the superintendent, "and Reid and Jones will go +and fetch them." + +In the course of an hour both these ladies were brought into the already +considerable company. That they were all surprised at the unexpected +meeting, belongs to reasonable conjecture; and that Christian Anderson +was more surprised than any of them, when she discovered her mistake in +trusting her secrets to the "ill-looking scoundrel" of a detective in +place of Abram, is not less reasonable. Our officer was, in truth, too +gallant a man to traverse those laws of etiquette which demand respect +for the feelings of females, and he never once alluded to the +_contretemps_. But Chirsty did not feel the same delicacy in regard to +him, who she feared would hang her for misplaced confidence. She had no +sooner recovered from her surprise than she cried out to him, in a +shrill, piercing voice-- + +"I hope you'll hae mercy on me, sir. It wad do ye nae guid to stretch +the wizzened craig o' an auld woman, because some silly words--I wish +they had choket me--cam oot o't." + +"They will never be brought against you," said he; "make yourself easy +on that score." + +"Then what am I here for?" she growled, as, relieved somewhat from her +fear, she got into her natural temper. + +"For agreeing to hide stolen property." + +"Stolen property!" she replied. "And did ye no steal from me my secret +about my puir laddie, that ye may string him to a wuddy? There's an auld +sayin' that speech is silvern, but silence is gowden. Whaur is the +difference between stealing frae me the siller o' my speech, and robbing +a man o' the siller o' his jugs and teaspoons?" + +"Quiet," he said calmly. "Abram, I want to speak with you. Separate +these," he added, addressing one of the men. + +And having got Abram by himself, he asked him if he was inclined to run +the risk of a trial and condemnation, or tell the truth, and trust to +the Royal mercy. The Jew hesitated; but our officer knew that a +hesitating criminal is like a hesitating woman--each waits for an +argument to resolve them against their faith and honour. He knew that +misfortune breaks up the bonds of etiquette, even among the virtuous; +and that the honour among themselves, of which thieves boast, and a +portion of mankind, for some strange reason, secretly approve, becomes +weak in proportion to the danger of retributive justice. Not much given +to speculate, he yet sometimes wondered why it was that one should be +despised and treated harshly because he comes forward to serve the ends +of justice and benefit society; but a less acute mind may feel no +difficulty in accounting for the anomaly. The king's-evidence, while he +proves himself a coward and false to his faith, acts from pure +selfishness; and though he offers a boon to society, it is in reality a +bargain which he drives for self-preservation. These speculations +certainly did not pass through the mind of Abram, if his prevailing +thought was not more likely in the form-- + +"If I can't get my pound of silver out of the Christian, I can at least +keep my own pound of flesh." + +But whether he thought in this Jewish form or not, it is certain that he +was not long in making as clean a breast as a Jew might be expected to +make of the whole secret of the robbery. It was planned and executed, he +said, by Slabberdash and Squint, and he agreed to become resetter on the +condition of being allowed to retain a half of the proceeds. Four-toes +brought the plate to him at half a dozen courses of her pitchers, and he +had intended on that very day to melt all that was meltable. The watches +and rings were to be reserved for opportunities, as occasions presented. + +I give this story by way of an example of those strange workings in a +close society, whereby often great events are discovered from what is +termed chance. Such occurrences, however they may startle us, are all +explainable by the laws of probabilities. They occur often just in +proportion to the increase of ramifications in civilised conditions. +More people come into the plot; the increased activity drives the +culprits to shifts, and these shifts are perilous from the very +circumstance of being forced. We thus find detection often more easy and +certain in populous towns, with a good staff of criminal officers, than +in quieter places, where both plotters and shifts are proportionally +fewer. If nature is always true to her purpose, so art, which is second +nature, is equally true to hers, and man is better provided for than he +deserves. I do not concern myself with the vulgar subject of +punishments, never very agreeable to polite minds, and not at all times +useful to those who gloat over descriptions of them. It is enough to say +that the law was justly applied. Two got clear off--the mothers of +Squint and Four-toes; and I may add that Chirsty Anderson probably +afterwards acted up more to her own proverb, that "speech is silvern, +but silence is golden." + + + + +THE MERCHANT'S DAUGHTER. + + +On the western skirts of the Torwood--famous in Scottish story for its +association with the names of Wallace and Bruce--there stood, in the +middle of the sixteenth century, a farm-house of rather superior +appearance for the period. + +This house was occupied at the time of which we speak by a person of the +name of Henderson, who farmed a pretty extensive tract of land in the +neighbourhood. + +Henderson was a respectable man; and although not affluent, was in +tolerably easy circumstances. + +The night on which our story opens, which was in the September of the +year 1530, was a remarkably wild and stormy one. The ancient oaks of the +Torwood were bending and groaning beneath the pressure of the storm; +and, ever and anon, large portions of the dark forest were rendered +visible, and a wild light thrown into its deepest recesses by the +flashing lightning. + +The night, too, was pitch-dark; and, to add to its dismal character, a +heavy drenching rain, borne on the furious blast, deluged the earth, and +beat with violence on all opposing objects. + +"A terrible night this, goodwife," said Henderson to his helpmate, as he +double-barred the outer door, while she stood behind him with a candle +to afford him the necessary light to perform this operation. + +"I wish these streamers that have been dancing all night in the north +may not bode some ill to poor Scotland. They were seen, I mind, just as +they are now, eight nights precisely before that cursed battle of +Flodden; and it was well judged by them that some serious disaster was +at hand." + +"But I have heard you say, goodman," replied David Henderson's +better-half, who--the former finding some difficulty in thrusting a bar +into its place--was still detained in her situation of candle-holder, +"that the fight of Flodden was lost by the king's descending from his +vantage-ground." + +"True, goodwife," said David; "but was not his doing so but a means of +fulfilling the prognostication? How could it have been brought about +else?" + +The door being now secured, Henderson and his wife returned without +further colloquy into the house; and shortly after, it being now late, +retired to bed. + +In the meantime, the storm continued to rage with unabated violence. The +rush of the wind amongst the trees was deafening; and at first faintly, +but gradually waxing louder, as the stream swelled with the descending +deluge of rain, came the hoarse voice of the adjoining river on the +blast as it boiled and raged along. + +Henderson had been in bed about an hour--it was now midnight--but had +been kept awake by the tremendous sounds of the tempest, when, gently +jogging his slumbering helpmate-- + +"Goodwife," he said, "listen a moment. Don't you hear the voice of some +one shouting without?" + +They now both listened intently; and loudly as the storm roared, soon +distinguished the tramp of horses' feet approaching the house. + +In the next moment, a rapid succession of thundering strokes on the +door, as if from the butt end of a heavy whip, accompanied by the +exclamations of--"Ho! within there! house, house!" gave intimation that +the rider sought admittance. + +"Who can this be?" said Henderson, making an attempt to rise; in which, +however, he was resisted by his wife, who held him back, saying-- + +"Never mind them, David; let them just rap on. This is no time to admit +visitors. Who can tell who they may be?" + +"And who cares who they may be?" replied the sturdy farmer, throwing +himself out of bed. "I'll just see how they look from the window, Mary;" +and he proceeded to the window, threw it up, looked over, and saw +beneath him a man of large stature, mounted on a powerful black horse, +with a lady seated behind him. + +"Dreadful night, friend," said the stranger, looking up to the window +occupied by Henderson, and to which he had been attracted by the noise +made in raising it. "Can you give my fellow-traveller here shelter till +the morning? She is so benumbed with cold, so drenched with wet, and so +exhausted by the fatigue of a long day's ride, that she can proceed no +further; and we have yet a good fifteen miles to make out." + +"This is no hostel, friend, for the accommodation of travellers," +replied the farmer. "I am not in the habit of admitting strangers into +my house, especially at so late an hour of the night as this." + +"Had I been asking for myself," rejoined the horseman, "I should not +have complained of your wariness; but surely you won't be so churlish as +refuse quarters to a lady on such a night as this. She can scarce retain +her seat on the saddle. Besides, you shall be handsomely paid for any +trouble you may be put to." + +"Oh do, good sir, allow me to remain with you for the night, for I am +indeed very much fatigued," came up to the ear of Henderson, in feeble +but silvery tones, from the fair companion of the horseman, with the +addition, after a short pause, of "You shall be well rewarded for the +kindness." + +At a loss what to do, Henderson made no immediate reply, but, scratching +his head, withdrew from the window a moment to consult his wife. + +Learning that there was a lady in the case, and judging from this +circumstance that no violence or mischief of any kind was likely to be +intended, the latter agreed, although still with some reluctance, to her +husband's suggestion that the benighted travellers should be admitted. + +On this resolution being come to, Henderson returned to the window, and +thrusting out his head, exclaimed, "Wait there a moment, and I will +admit you." + +In the next instant he had unbarred the outer door, and had stepped out +to assist the lady in dismounting; but was anticipated in this courtesy +by her companion, who had already placed her on the ground. + +"Shall I put up your horse, sir?" said Henderson, addressing the +stranger, but now with more deference than before; as, from his dress +and manner, which he had now an opportunity of observing more closely, +he had no doubt he was a man of rank. + +"Oh no, thank you, friend," replied the latter. "My business is +pressing, and I must go on; but allow me to recommend this fair lady to +your kindest attention. To-morrow I will return and carry her away." + +Saying this, he again threw himself on his horse--a noble-looking +charger--took bridle in hand, struck his spurs into his side, and +regardless of all obstacles, and of the profound darkness of the night, +darted off with the speed of the wind. + +In an instant after, both horse and rider were lost in the gloom; but +their furious career might for some time be tracked, even after they had +disappeared, by the streams of fire which poured from the fierce +collision of the horse's hoofs with the stony road over which he was +tearing his way with such desperate velocity. + +Henderson in the meantime had conducted his fair charge into the house, +and had consigned her to the care of his wife, who had now risen for the +purpose of attending her. + +A servant having been also called up, a cheerful fire soon blazed on the +hearth of the best apartment in the house--that into which the strange +lady had been ushered. + +The kind-hearted farmer's wife now also supplied her fair guest with dry +clothing and other necessaries, and did everything in her power to +render her as comfortable as possible. + +To this kindness her natural benevolence alone would have prompted her; +but an additional motive presented itself in the youth and extreme +beauty of the fair traveller, who was, as the farmer's wife afterwards +remarked to her husband, the loveliest creature her eyes ever beheld. +Nor was her manner less captivating: it was mild and gentle, while the +sweet silvery tones of her voice imparted an additional charm to the +graces of her person. + +Her apparel, too, the good woman observed, was of the richest +description; and the jewellery with which she was adorned, in the shape +of rings, bracelets, etc., and which she deposited one after another on +a table that stood beside her, with the careless manner of one +accustomed to the possession of such things, seemed of great value. + +A purse, also, well stored with golden guineas, as the sound indicated, +was likewise thrown on the table with the same indifferent manner. + +The wealth of the fair stranger, in short, seemed boundless in the eyes +of her humble, unsophisticated attendant. + +The comfort of the young lady attended to in every way, including the +offer of some homely refreshment, of which, however, she scarcely +partook, pleading excessive fatigue as an apology, she was left alone in +the apartment to retire to rest when she thought proper; the room +containing a clean and neat bed, which had always been reserved for +strangers. + +On rejoining her husband, after leaving her fair guest, a long and +earnest conversation took place between the worthy couple as to who or +what the strangers could be. They supposed, they conjectured, they +imagined, but all to no purpose. They could make nothing of it beyond +the conviction that they were persons of rank; for the natural +politeness of the "guidwife" had prevented her asking the young lady any +questions touching her history; and she had made no communication +whatever on the subject herself. + +As to the lady's companion, all that Henderson, who was the only one of +the family who had seen him, could tell, was, that he was a tall, dark +man, attired as a gentleman, but so muffled up in a large cloak, that he +could not, owing to that circumstance and the extreme darkness of the +night, make out his features distinctly. + +Henderson, however, expressed some surprise at the abruptness of his +departure, and still more at the wild and desperate speed with which he +had ridden away, regardless of the darkness of the night and of all +obstacles that might be in the way. + +It was what he himself, a good horseman, and who knew every inch of the +ground, would not have done for a thousand merks; and a great marvel he +held it, that the reckless rider had got a hundred yards without horse +and man coming down, to the utter destruction of both. + +Such was the substance of Henderson's communications to his wife +regarding the horseman. The latter's to him was of the youth and +exceeding beauty of his fair companion, and of her apparently prodigious +wealth. The worthy man drank in with greedy ears, and looks of excessive +wonderment, her glowing descriptions of the sparkling jewels and heavily +laden purse which she had seen the strange lady deposit on the table; +and greatly did these descriptions add to his perplexity as to who or +what this lady could possibly be. + +Tired of conjecturing, the worthy couple now again retired to rest, +trusting that the morning would bring some light on a subject which so +sadly puzzled them. + +In due time that morning came, and, like many of those mornings that +succeed a night of storm, it came fair and beautiful. The wind was laid, +the rain had ceased, and the unclouded sun poured his cheerful light +through the dark green glades of the Torwood. + +On the same morning another sun arose, although to shine on a more +limited scene. This was the fair guest of David Henderson of Woodlands, +whose beauty, remarkable as it had seemed on the previous night under +all disadvantages, now appeared to surpass all that can be conceived of +female perfection. + +Mrs. Henderson looked, and, we may say, gazed on the fair stranger with +a degree of wonder and delight, that for some time prevented her +tendering the civilities which she came for the express purpose of +offering. For some seconds she could do nothing but obey a species of +charm, for which, perhaps, she could not have very well accounted. The +gentle smile, too, and melodious voice of her guest, seemed still more +fascinating than on the previous evening. + +In the meantime the day wore on, and there was yet no appearance of the +lady's companion of the former night, who, as the reader will +recollect, had promised to Henderson to return and carry away his fair +lodger. + +Night came, and still he appeared not. Another day and another night +passed away, and still he of the black charger was not forthcoming. + +The circumstance greatly surprised both Henderson and his wife; but it +did not surprise them more than the lady's apparent indifference on the +subject. She indeed joined, in words at least, in the wonder which they +once or twice distantly hinted at the conduct of the recreant knight; +but it was evident that she did not feel much of either astonishment or +disappointment at his delay. + +Again and again, another and another day came and passed away, and still +no one appeared to inquire after the fair inmate of Woodlands. + +It will readily be believed that the surprise of Henderson and his wife +at this circumstance increased with the lapse of time. It certainly did. +But however much they might be surprised, they had little reason to +complain, so far, at any rate, as their interest was concerned, for +their fair lodger paid them handsomely for the trouble she put them to. +She dealt out the contents of her ample and well-stocked purse with +unsparing liberality, besides presenting her hostess with several +valuable jewels. + +On this score, therefore, they had nothing to complain of; and neither +needed to care, nor did care, how long it continued. + +During all this time the unknown beauty continued to maintain the most +profound silence regarding her history,--whence she had come, whither +she was going, or in what relation the person stood to her who had +brought her to Woodlands, and who now seemed to have deserted her. + +All that the most ingeniously-put queries on the subject could elicit +was, that she was an entire stranger in that part of the country; and an +assurance that the person who brought her would return for her one day, +although there were reasons why it might be some little time distant. + +What these reasons were, however, she never would give the most remote +idea; and with this measure of information were her host and hostess +compelled to remain satisfied. + +The habits of the fair stranger, in the meantime, were extremely +retired. She would never go abroad until towards the dusk of the +evening; and when she did, she always took the most sequestered routes; +her favourite, indeed only resort on these occasions, being a certain +little retired grove of elms, at the distance of about a quarter of a +mile from Woodlands. + +The extreme caution the young lady observed in all her movements when +she went abroad, a good deal surprised both Henderson and his wife; but, +from a feeling of delicacy towards their fair lodger, who had won their +esteem by her affable and amiable manners, they avoided all remark on +the subject, and would neither themselves interfere in any way with her +proceedings, nor allow any other member of their family to do so. + +Thus was she permitted to go out and return whensoever she pleased, +without inquiry or remark. + +Although, however, neither Henderson nor his wife would allow of any one +watching the motions of their fair but mysterious lodger when she went +abroad, there is nothing to hinder us from doing this. We shall +therefore follow her to the little elm grove by the wayside, on a +certain evening two or three days after her arrival in Woodlands. + +Doing this, we shall find the mysterious stranger seated beside a clear +sparkling fountain, situated a little way within the grove, that, first +forming itself into a little pellucid lake in the midst of the +greensward, afterwards glided away down a mossy channel bedecked with +primroses. + +All alone by this fountain sat the young lady, looking, in her +surpassing features and the exquisite symmetry of her light and graceful +form, the very nymph of the crystal waters of the spring--the goddess of +the grove. + +As she thus sat on the evening in question--it being now towards the +dusk--the bushes, by which the fountain was in part shut in, were +suddenly and roughly parted, and in the next moment a young man of +elegant exterior, attired in the best fashion of the period, and leading +a horse behind him by the bridle, stood before the half-alarmed and +blushing damsel. + +The embarrassment of the lady, however, was not much greater than that +of the intruder, who appeared to have little expected to find so fair +and delicate a creature in such a situation, or indeed to find any one +else. He himself had sought the fountain, which he knew well, and had +often visited, merely to quench his thirst. + +After contemplating each other for an instant with looks of surprise and +embarrassment, the stranger doffed his bonnet with an air of great +gallantry, and apologised for his intrusion. + +The lady, smiling and blushing, replied, that his appearance there could +be no intrusion, as the place was free to all. + +"True, madam," said the former, again bowing low; "but your presence +should have made it sacred, and I should have so deemed it, had I been +aware of your being here." + +The only reply of the young lady to this gallant speech, was a profound +curtsey, and a smile of winning sweetness which was natural to her. + +Unable to withdraw himself from the fascinations of the fair stranger, +yet without any apology for remaining longer where he was, the young man +appeared for a moment not to know precisely what he should say or do +next. At length, however, after having vainly hinted a desire to know +the young lady's name and place of residence, his courtesy prevailed +over every other more selfish feeling, and he mounted his horse, and, +bidding the fair wood-nymph a respectful adieu, rode off. + +The young gallant, however, did not carry all away with him that he +brought,--he left his heart behind him; and he had not ridden far before +he found that he had done so. + +The surpassing beauty of the fair stranger, and the captivating +sweetness of her manner, had made an impression upon him which was +destined never to be effaced. + +His, in short, was one of those cases in the matter of love, which, it +is said, are laughed at in France, doubted in England, and true only of +the warm-tempered sons and daughters of the sunny south,--love at first +sight. + +It was so. From that hour the image of the lovely nymph of the grove was +to remain for ever enshrined in the inmost heart of the young cavalier. + +He had met with no encouragement to follow up the accidental +acquaintance he had made. Indeed, the lady's reluctance to give him any +information whatever as to her name or residence, he could not but +consider as an indirect intimation that she desired no further +correspondence with him. + +But, recollecting the old adage, that "faint heart never won fair lady," +he resolved, although unbidden, to seek, very soon again, the fountain +in the elm grove. + +Having brought our story to this point, we shall retrace our steps a +little way, and take note of certain incidents that occurred in the city +of Glasgow on the day after the visit of him of the black charger at +Woodlands. + +Early on the forenoon of that day, the Drygate, then one of the +principal streets of the city above named, exhibited an unusual degree +of stir and bustle. + +The causeway was thronged with idlers, who were ever and anon dashed +aside, like the wave that is thrown from the prow of a vessel, by some +prancing horseman, who made his way towards an open space formed by the +junction of three different streets. + +At this point were mustering a band of riders, consisting of the civil +authorities of the city, together with a number of its principal +inhabitants, and other gentlemen from the neighbourhood. + +The horsemen were all attired in their best,--hat and feathers, long +cloaks of Flemish broad-cloth, and glittering steel-handed rapiers by +their sides. + +Having mustered to about the number of thirty, they formed themselves +into something like regular order, and seemed now to be but awaiting the +word to march. And it was indeed so; but they were also awaiting he who +was to give it. They waited the appearance of their leader. A shout from +the populace soon after announced his approach. + +"The Provost! the Provost!" exclaimed a hundred voices at once, as a man +of large stature, and of a bold and martial bearing, mounted on a +"coal-black steed," came prancing alongst the Drygate-head, and made for +the point at which the horsemen were assembled. + +On his approach, the latter doffed their hats respectfully--a civility +which was gracefully returned by him to whom it was addressed. + +Taking his place at the head of the cavalcade, the Provost gave the word +to march, when the whole party moved onwards; and after cautiously +footing it down the steep and ill-paved descent of the Drygate, took, at +a slow pace, the road towards Hamilton. + +The chief magistrate of Glasgow, who led the party of horsemen on the +present occasion, was Sir Robert Lindsay of Dunrod,--a powerful and +wealthy baron of the neighbourhood, who had been chosen to that +appointment, as all chief magistrates were chosen in those wild and +turbulent times, on account of his ability to protect the inhabitants +from those insults and injuries to which they were constantly liable at +the hands of unprincipled power, and from which the laws were too feeble +to shield them. + +And to better hands than those of Sir Robert Lindsay, who was a man of +bold and determined character, the welfare of the city and the safety of +the citizens could not have been entrusted. + +In return for the honour conferred on him, and the confidence reposed in +him, he watched over the interests of the city with the utmost +vigilance. But it was not to the general interest alone that he confined +the benefits of his guardianship. Individuals, also, who were wronged, +or threatened to be wronged, found in him a ready and efficient +protector, let the oppressor or wrongdoer be whom he might. + +Having given this brief sketch of the leader of the cavalcade, we resume +the detail of its proceedings. + +Holding on its way in a south-easterly direction, the party soon reached +and passed Rutherglen Bridge; the road connecting Hamilton with Glasgow +being then on the south side of the Clyde. But a little way farther had +they proceeded, when the faint sound of a bugle was heard, coming +apparently from a considerable distance. + +"There he comes at last," said Sir David Lindsay, suddenly checking his +horse to await the coming up of his party, of which he had been riding a +little way in advance, immersed in a brown study. "There he comes at +last," he exclaimed, recalled from his reverie by the sound of the +bugle. "Look to your paces, gentlemen, and let us show some order and +regularity as well as respect." + +Obeying this hint, the horsemen, who had been before jogging along in a +confused and careless manner, now drew together into a closer body; the +laggards coming forward, and those in advance holding back. + +In this order, with the Provost at their head, the party continued to +move slowly onwards; but they had not done so for many minutes, when +they descried, at the farther extremity of a long level reach of the +road, a numerous party of horse approaching at a rapid, ambling pace, +and seemingly straining hard to keep up with one who rode a little way +in their front. + +The contrast between this party and the Provost's was striking enough. + +The latter, though exceedingly respectable and citizen-like, was of +extremely sober hue compared to the former, in which flaunted all the +gayest dresses of the gayest courtiers of the time. Long plumes of +feathers waved and nodded in velvet bonnets, looped with gold bands; and +rich and brilliant colours, mingling with the glitter of steel and +silver, gave to the gallant cavalcade at once an imposing and +magnificent appearance. In point of horsemanship, too, with the +exception of Sir Robert Lindsay himself, and one or two other men of +rank who had joined his party, the approaching cavaliers greatly +surpassed the worthy citizens of St. Mungo,--coming on at a showy and +dashing pace, while the latter kept advancing with the sober, steady +gait assimilative of their character. + +On the two parties coming within about fifty paces of each other, Sir +Robert Lindsay made a signal to his followers to halt, while he himself +rode forward, hat in hand, towards the leader of the opposite party. + +"Our good Sir Robert of Dunrod," said the latter, who was no other than +James V., advancing half-way to meet the Provost, and taking him kindly +and familiarly by the hand as he spoke. "How did'st learn of our +coming?" + +"The movements of kings are not easily kept secret," replied Sir Robert, +evasively. + +"By St. Bridget, it would seem not," replied James, laughingly. "My +visit to your good city, Sir Robert, I did not mean to be a formal one, +and therefore had mentioned it only to one or two. In truth, +I--I"--added James, with some embarrassment of manner--"I had just one +particular purpose, and that of a private nature, in view. No state +matter at all, Sir Robert--nothing of a public character. So that, to be +plain with you, Sir Robert, I could have dispensed with the honour you +have done me in bringing out these good citizens to receive me; that +being, I presume, your purpose. Not but that I should have been most +happy to meet yourself, Sir Robert; but it was quite unnecessary to +trouble these worthy people." + +"It was our bounden duty, your Grace," replied Sir Robert, not at all +disconcerted by this royal damper on his loyalty. "It was our bounden +duty, on learning that your Grace was at Bothwell Castle, and that you +intended visiting our poor town of Glasgow, to acknowledge the favour +in the best way in our power. And these worthy gentlemen and myself +could think of no better than coming out to meet and welcome your +Grace." + +"Well, well, since it is so, Sir Robert," replied the king, +good-humouredly, "we shall take the kindness as it is meant. Let us +proceed." + +Riding side by side, and followed by their respective parties, James and +the Provost now resumed their progress towards Glasgow, where they +shortly after arrived, and where they were received with noisy +acclamations by the populace, whom rumour had informed of the king's +approach. + +On reaching the city, the latter proceeded to the Bishop's Castle,--an +edifice which has long since disappeared, but which at this time stood +on or near the site of the infirmary,--in which he intended taking up +his residence. + +Having seen the king within the castle gates, his citizen escort +dispersed, and sought their several homes; going off, in twos and +threes, in different directions. + +"Ken ye, Sir Robert, what has brought his Grace here at present?" said +an old wealthy merchant, who had been one of the cavalcade that went to +meet James, and whom the Provost overtook as he was leisurely jogging +down the High Street, on his way home. + +"Hem," ejaculated Sir Robert. "Perhaps I have half a guess, Mr, Morton. +The king visits places on very particular sorts of errands sometimes. +His Grace didn't above half thank us for our attendance to-day. He would +rather have got somewhat more quietly into the city; but I had reasons +for desiring it to be otherwise, so did not mind his hints about his +wish for privacy." + +"And no doubt he had his reasons for the privacy he hinted at," said Sir +Robert's companion. + +"You may swear that," replied the latter, laughingly. + +"Heard ye ever, Mr. Morton, of a certain fair and wealthy young lady of +the name of Jessie Craig?" + +"John Craig's daughter?" rejoined the old merchant. + +"The same," said Sir Robert. "The prettiest girl in Scotland, and one of +the wealthiest too." + +"Well; what if the king should have been smitten with her beauty, having +seen her accidentally in Edinburgh, where she was lately? and what, if +his visit to Glasgow just now should be for the express purpose of +seeing this fair maiden? and what, if I should not exactly approve of +such a proceeding, seeing that the young lady in question has, as you +know, neither father nor mother to protect her, both being dead?" + +"Well, Sir Robert, and what then?" here interposed Mr. Morton, availing +himself of a pause in the former's supposititious case. + +"Why, then, wouldn't it be my bounden duty, worthy sir, as Provost of +this city, to act the part of guardian towards this young maiden in such +emergency, and to see that she came by no wrong?" + +"Truly, it would be a worthy part, Sir Robert," replied the old +merchant; "but the king is strong, and you may not resist him openly." + +"Nay, that I would not attempt," replied the Provost. "I have taken +quieter and more effectual measures. Made aware, though somewhat late, +through a trusty channel, of the king's intended visit and its purpose, +I have removed her out of the reach of danger, to where his Grace will, +I rather think, have some difficulty in finding her." + +"So, so. And this, then, is the true secret of the honour which has just +been conferred on us!" replied Sir Robert's companion, with some +indignation. "But the matter is in good hands when it is in yours, +Provost. In your keeping we consider our honours and our interests are +safe. I wish you a good day, Provost." And the interlocutors having by +this time arrived at the foot of the High Street, where four streets +joined, the old merchant took that which conducted to his residence, Sir +Robert's route lying in an opposite direction. + +From the conversation just recorded, the reader will at once trace a +connection between Sir Robert Lindsay of Dunrod and he of the black +charger who brought to Woodlands the fair damsel whom we left there. +They were the same; and that fair damsel was the daughter of John Craig, +late merchant of the city of Glasgow, who left an immense fortune, of +which this girl was the sole heir. + +In carrying the young lady to Woodlands, and leaving her there, Sir +Robert, although apparently under the compulsion of circumstances, was +acting advisedly. He knew Henderson to be a man of excellent character +and great respectability; and in the secrecy and mystery he observed, he +sought to preclude all possibility of his interference in the affair +ever reaching the ears of the king. What he had told to old Morton, he +knew would go no further; that person having been an intimate friend of +the young lady's father, and of course interested in all that concerned +her welfare. + +The palace of a bishop was not very appropriate quarters for one who +came on such an errand as that which brought James to Glasgow. But this +was a circumstance that did not give much concern to that merry and +somewhat eccentric monarch; and the less so, that the bishop himself +happened to be from home at the time, on a visit to his brother of St. +Andrews. + +Having the house thus to himself, James did not hesitate to make as free +use of it as if he had been at Holyrood. + +It was not many hours after his arrival at the castle, that he summoned +to his presence a certain trusty attendant of the name of William +Buchanan, and thus schooled him in the duties of a particular mission in +which he desired his services. + +"Willie," said the good-humoured monarch, "at the further end of the +Rottenrow of this good city of Glasgow--that is, at the western end of +the said row--there stands a fair mansion on the edge of the brae, and +overlooking the strath of the Clyde. It is the residence of a certain +fair young lady of the name of Craig. Now, Willie, what I desire of you +to do is this: you will go to this young lady from me, carrying her this +gold ring, and say to her that I intend, with her permission, doing +myself the honour of paying her a visit in the course of this afternoon. + +"Make your observations, Willie, and let me know how the land lies when +you return. But, pray thee, keep out of the way of our worthy knight of +Dunrod; and if thou shouldst chance to meet him, and he should question +thee, seeing that you wear our livery, breathe no syllable of what thou +art about, otherwise he may prove somewhat troublesome to both of us. At +any rate, to a certainty, he would crop thy ears, Willie; and thou +knowest, king though I be, I could not put them on again, nor give thee +another pair in their stead. So keep those thou hast out of the hands of +Sir Robert Lindsay of Dunrod, I pray thee." + +Charged with his mission, Willie, who had been often employed on matters +of this kind before, proceeded to the street with the unsavoury name +already mentioned; but, not knowing exactly where to find the house he +wanted, he looked around him to see if he could see any one to whom he +might apply for information. There happened to be nobody on the street +at the time; but his eye at length fell on an old weaver--as, from the +short green apron he wore, he appeared to be--standing at a door. + +Towards this person Willie now advanced, discarding, however, as much as +possible, all appearance of having any particular object in view; for he +prided himself on the caution and dexterity with which he managed all +such matters as that he was now engaged in. + +"Fine day, honest man," said Willie, approaching the old weaver. "Gran +wather for the hairst." + +"It's just that, noo," replied the old man, gazing at Willie with a look +of inquiry. "Just uncommon pleesant wather." + +"A bit nice airy place up here," remarked the latter. + +"Ou ay, weel aneuch for that," replied the weaver. "But air 'll no fill +the wame." + +"No very substantially," said Willie. "Some gran hooses up here, though. +Wha's is that?" and he pointed to a very handsome mansion-house +opposite. + +"That's the rector o' Hamilton's," replied the weaver. + +"And that are there?" + +"That's the rector o' Carstairs'." + +"And that?" + +"That's the rector o' Erskine's." + +"'Od, but ye do leeve in a godly neighbourhood here," said Willie, +impatient with these clerical iterations. "Do a' the best houses hereawa +belang to the clergy?" + +"Indeed, the maist feck o' them," said the weaver. "Leave ye them alane +for that. The best o' everything fa's to their share." + +"Yonder's anither handsome hoose, noo," said Willie, pointing to one he +had not yet indicated. "Does yon belang to the clergy too?" + +"Ou no; yon's the late Mr. Craig's," replied the weaver; "ane o' oor +walthiest merchants, wha died some time ago." + +"Ou ay," said Willie, drily; "just sae. Gude mornin', friend." And +thinking he had managed his inquiries very dexterously, he sauntered +slowly away--still assuming to have no special object in view--towards +the particular house just spoken of, and which, we need not say, was +precisely the one he wanted. + +It was a large isolated building, with an extensive garden behind, and +stretching down the face of what is now called the Deanside Brae. On the +side next the street, the entrance was by a tall, narrow, iron gate. +This gate Willie now approached, but found it locked hard and fast. +Finding this, he bawled out, at the top of his voice, for some one to +come to him. After a time, an old woman made her appearance, and, in no +very pleasant mood, asked him what he wanted. + +"I hae a particular message, frae a very particular person, to the young +leddy o' this hoose," replied Willie. + +"Ye maun gang and seek the young leddy o' this hoose ither whars than +here, then," said the old dame, making back to the house again, without +intending any further communication on the subject. + +"Do ye mean to say that she's no in the hoose?" shouted Willie. + +"Ay, I mean to say that, and mair too," replied the old crone. "She +hasna been in't for a gey while, and winna be in't for a guid while +langer; and sae ye may tell them that sent ye." + +Saying this, she passed into the house; and by doing so, would have put +an end to all further conference. + +But Willie was not to be thus baffled in his object. Changing his +tactics from the imperative to the wheedling, in which last he believed +himself to be exceedingly dexterous-- + +"Mistress--I say, Mistress," he shouted, in a loud, but coaxing tone; +"speak a word, woman--just a word or two. Ye maybe winna fare the waur +o't." + +Whether it was the hint conveyed in the last clause of Willie's address, +or that the old woman felt some curiosity to hear what so urgent a +visitor had to say, she returned to the door, where, standing fast, and +looking across the courtyard at Willie, whose sly though simple-looking +face was pressed against the iron bars of the outer gate, she replied to +him with a-- + +"Weel, man, what is't ye want?" + +"Tuts, woman, come across--come across," said Willie, wagging her +towards him with his forefinger. "I canna be roarin' out what I hae to +say to ye a' that distance. I micht as weel cry it oot at the cross. +See, there's something to bring ye a wee nearer." + +And he held out several small silver coin through the bars of the gate. +The production of the cash had the desired effect. The old woman, who +was lame, and who walked by the aid of a short thick stick with a +crooked head, hobbled towards him, and, having accepted the proffered +coin, again asked, though with much more civility than before, what it +was he wanted? + +"Tuts, woman, open the yett," said Willie in his cagiest manner, "and +I'll tell ye a' aboot it. It's hardly ceevil to be keeping a body +speakin' this way wi' his nose thrust through atwixt twa cauld bars o' +airn, like a rattin atween a pair o' tangs." + +"Some folks are safest that way, though," replied the old woman, with +something like an attempt at a laugh. "Bars o' airn are amang the best +freens we hae sometimes. But as ye seem a civil sort o' a chiel, after +a', I'll let ye in, although I dinna see what ye'll be the better o' +that." + +So saying, she took a large iron key from her girdle, inserted it in the +lock, and in the next moment the gate grated on its hinges; yielding +partly to the pressure of Willie from without, and partly to the +co-operative efforts of the old woman from within. + +"Noo," said Willie, on gaining the interior of the courtyard--"Noo," he +said, affecting his most coaxing manner, "you and me 'll hae a bit crack +thegither, guidwife." + +And, sitting down on a stone bench that ran along the front of the +house, he motioned to the old lady to take a seat beside him, which she +did. + +"I understand, guidwife," began Willie, who meant to be very cunning in +his mode of procedure, "that she's just an uncommon bonny leddy your +mistress; just wonderfu'." + +"Whaever tell't ye that, didna misinform ye," replied the old woman +drily. + +"And has mints o' siller?" rejoined Mr. Buchanan. + +"No ill aff in that way either," said the old woman. + +"But it's her beauty--it's her extraordinary beauty--that's the wonder, +and that I hear everybody speakin' aboot," said Willie. "I wad gie the +price o' sax fat hens to see her. Could ye no get me a glisk o' her ony +way, just for ae minute?" + +"Didna I tell ye before that she's no at hame?" said the old dame, +threatening again to get restive on Willie's hands. + +"Od, so ye did; I forgot," said Mr. Buchanan, affecting obliviousness of +the fact. "Whaur may she be noo?" he added in his simplest and +_couthiest_ manner. + +"Wad ye like to ken?" replied the old lady with a satirical sneer. + +"'Deed wad I; and there's mae than me wad like to ken," replied Willie; +"and them that wad pay handsomely for the information." + +"Really," said the old dame, with a continuation of the same sneer, and +long ere this guessing what Willie was driving at. "And wha may they be +noo, if I may speer?" + +"They're gey kenspeckled," replied Mr. Buchanan; "but that doesna +matter. If ye canna, or winna tell me whaur Mistress Craig is, could ye +no gie's a bit inklin' o' whan ye expect her hame?" + +"No; but I'll gie ye a bit inklin o' whan ye'll walk oot o' this," said +the old woman, rising angrily from her seat; "and that's this minute, or +I'll set the dug on ye. Hisk, hisk--Teeger, Teeger!" + +And a huge black dog came bouncing out of the house, and took up a +position right in front of Willie; wagging his tail, as if in +anticipation of a handsome treat in the way of worrying that worthy. + +"Gude sake, woman," said Willie, rising in great alarm from his seat, +and edging towards the outer gate--"What's a' this for? Ye wadna set +that brute on a Christian cratur, wad ye?" + +"Wadna I? Ye'd better no try me, frien', but troop aff wi' ye. Teeger," +she added, with a significant look. The dog understood it, and, +springing on Willie, seized him by one of the skirts of his coat, which, +with one powerful tug, he at once separated from the body. + +Pressed closely upon by both the dog and his mistress, Willie keeping, +however, his face to the foe, now retreated towards the gate, when, just +at the moment of his making his exit, the old lady, raising her staff, +hit him a parting blow, which, taking effect on the bridge of his nose, +immediately enlarged the dimensions of that organ, besides drawing forth +a copious stream of claret. In the next instant the gate was shut and +locked in the sufferer's face. + +"Confound ye, ye auld limmer," shouted Willie furiously, and shaking his +fist through the bars of the gate as he spoke, "if I had ye here on the +outside o' the yett, as ye're in the in, if I wadna baste the auld hide +o' ye. But my name's no Willie Buchanan if I dinna gar ye rue this job +yet, some way or anither." + +To these objurgations of the discomfited messenger the old lady deigned +no word of answer, but merely shaking her head, and indulging in a +pretty broad smile of satisfaction, hobbled into the house, followed by +Tiger, wagging his tail, as much as to say, "I think we've given yon +fellow a fright, mistress." + +Distracted with indignation and resentment, Willie hastened back to the +castle, and, too much excited to think of his outward appearance, +hurried into the royal presence with his skirtless coat and disfigured +countenance, which he had by no means improved by sundry wipes with the +sleeve of his coat. + +On Willie making his appearance in this guise, the merry monarch looked +at him for an instant in silent amazement, then burst into an +incontrollable fit of laughter, which the grave, serious look of Willie +showed he by no means relished. There was even a slight expression of +resentment in the manner in which the maltreated messenger bore the +merry reception of his light-hearted master. + +"Willie, man," at length said James, when his mirth had somewhat +subsided, "what's this has happened thee? Where gottest thou that +enormous nose, man?" + +"Feth, your Majesty, it may be a joke to you, but it's unco little o' +ane to me," replied Willie, whose confidential duties and familiar +intercourse with his royal master had led him to assume a freedom of +speech which was permitted to no other, and which no other would have +dared to attempt. + +"I hae gotten sic a worryin' the day," he continued, "as I never got in +my life before. Between dugs and auld wives, I hae had a bonny time o't. +Worried by the tane and smashed by the tither, as my nose and my +coat-tails bear witness." + +"Explain yourself, Willie. What does all this mean?" exclaimed James, +again laughing. + +Willie told his story, finishing with the information that the bird was +flown--meaning Jessie Craig. "Aff and awa, naebody kens, or'll tell +whaur." + +"Off--away!" exclaimed the king, with an air of mingled disappointment +and surprise. "Very odd," he added, musingly; "and most particularly +unlucky. But we shall wait on a day or two, and she will probably +reappear in that time; or we may find out where she has gone to." + +On the day following that on which the incidents just related occurred, +the curiosity of the good people in the neighbourhood of the late Mr. +Craig's house in Rottenrow was a good deal excited by seeing a person in +the dress of a gentleman hovering about the residence just alluded to. + +Anon he would walk to and fro in front of the house, looking earnestly +towards the windows. Now he would descend the Deanside Brae, and do the +same by those behind. Again he would return to the front of the mansion, +and taking up his station on the opposite side of the street, would +resume his scrutiny of the windows. + +The stranger was thus employed, when he was startled by the appearance +of some one advancing towards him, whom, it was evident, he would fain +have avoided if he could. But it was too late. There was no escape. So, +assuming an air of as much composure and indifference as he could, he +awaited the approach of the unwelcome intruder. This person was Sir +Robert Lindsay. + +Coming up to the stranger with a respectful air, and with an expression +of countenance as free from all consciousness as that which had been +assumed by the former-- + +"I hope your Grace is well?" he said, bowing profoundly as he spoke. + +"Thank you, Provost--thank you," replied James; for we need hardly say +it was he. + +"Your Grace has doubtless come hither," said the former gravely, "to +enjoy the delightful view which this eminence commands?" + +"The precise purpose, Sir Robert," replied James, recovering a little +from the embarrassment which, after all his efforts, he could not +entirely conceal. "The view is truly a fine one, Provost," continued the +king. "I had no idea that your good city could boast of anything so fair +in the way of landscape. Our city of Edinburgh hath more romantic points +about it; but for calm and tranquil beauty, methinks it hath nothing +superior to the scene commanded by this eminence." + +"There are some particular localities on the ridge of the hill here, +however," said Sir Robert, "that exhibit the landscape to much better +advantage than others, and to which, taking it for granted that your +Grace is not over-familiar with the ground, it will afford me much +pleasure to conduct you." + +"Ah! thank you, good Sir Robert--thank you," replied James. "But some +other day, if you please. The little spare time I had on my hands is +about exhausted, so that I must return to the castle. I have, as you +know, Sir Robert, to give audience to some of your worthy councillors, +who intend honouring me with a visit. + +"Amongst the number I will expect to see yourself, Sir Robert." And +James, after politely returning the loyal obeisance of the Provost, +hurried away towards the castle. + +On his departure, the latter stood for a moment, and looked after him +with a smile of peculiar intelligence; then muttered, as he also left +the spot-- + +"Well do I know what it was brought your Grace to this quarter of the +town; and knowing this, I know it was for anything but the sake of its +view. Fair maidens have more attractions in your eyes than all the views +between this and John o'Groat's. But I have taken care that your pursuit +in the present instance will avail thee little." And the good Provost +went on his way. + +For eight entire days after this did James wait in Glasgow for the +return of Jessie Craig; but he waited in vain. Neither in that time +could he learn anything whatever of the place of her sojournment. His +patience at length exhausted, he determined on giving up the pursuit for +the time at any rate, and on quitting the city. + +The king, as elsewhere casually mentioned, had come last from Bothwell +Castle. It was now his intention to proceed to Stirling, where he +proposed stopping for two or three weeks; thence to Linlithgow, and +thereafter returning to Edinburgh. + +The purpose of James to make this round having reached the ears of a +certain Sir James Crawford of Netherton, whose house and estate lay +about half-way between Glasgow and Stirling, that gentleman sent a +respectful message to James, through Sir Robert Lindsay, to the effect +that he would feel much gratified if his Grace would deign to honour his +poor house of Netherton with a visit in passing, and accept for himself +and followers such refreshment as he could put before them. + +To this message James returned a gracious answer, saying that he would +have much pleasure in accepting the invitation so kindly sent him, and +naming the day and hour when he would put the inviter's hospitality to +the test. + +Faithful to his promise, the king and his retinue, amongst whom was now +Sir Robert Lindsay, who had been included in the invitation, presented +themselves at Netherton gate about noon on the day that had been named. + +They were received with all honour by the proprietor, a young man of +prepossessing appearance, graceful manners, and frank address. + +On the king and gentlemen of his train entering the house, they were +ushered into a large banqueting hall, where was an ample table spread +with the choicest edibles, and glittering with the silver goblets and +flagons that stood around it in thick array. Everything, in short, +betokened at once the loyalty and great wealth of the royal party's +entertainer. + +The king and his followers having taken their places at table, the +fullest measure of justice was quickly done to the good things with +which it was spread. James was in high spirits, and talked and rattled +away with as much glee and as entire an absence of all kingly reserve as +the humblest good fellow in his train. + +Encouraged by the affability of the king, and catching his humour, the +whole party gave way to the most unrestrained mirth. The joke and the +jest went merrily round with the wine flagon; and he was for a time the +best man who could start the most jocund theme. + +It was while this spirit prevailed that Sir Robert Lindsay, after making +a private signal to Sir James Crawford, which had the effect of causing +him to quit the apartment on pretence of looking for something he +wanted, addressing the king, said-- + +"May I take the liberty of asking your Grace if you have seen any +particularly fair maidens in the course of your present peregrinations? +I know your Grace has a good taste in these matters." + +James coloured a little at this question and the remark which +accompanied it; but quickly regaining his self-possession and +good-humour-- + +"No, Sir Robert," he said, laughingly, "I cannot say that I have been so +fortunate on the present occasion. As to the commendation which you have +been pleased to bestow on my taste, I thank you, and am glad it meets +with your approbation." + +"Yet, your Grace," continued Sir Robert, "excellent judge as I know you +to be of female beauty, I deem myself, old and staid as I am, your +Grace's equal, craving your Grace's pardon; and, to prove this, will +take a bet with your Grace of a good round sum, that you have never +seen, and do not know, a more beautiful woman than the lady of our +present host." + +"Take care, Provost," replied James. "Make no rash bets. I know the most +beautiful maiden the sun ever shone upon. But it would be ungallant and +ungracious to make the lady of our good host the subject of such a bet +on the present occasion." + +"But our host is absent, your Grace," replied the Provost +pertinaciously; "and neither he nor any one else, but your Grace's +friends present, need know anything at all of the matter. Will your +Grace take me up for a thousand merks?" + +"But suppose I should," replied James, "how is the thing to be managed? +and who is to decide?" + +"Both points are of easy adjustment, your Grace," said Sir Robert. "Your +Grace has only to intimate a wish to our host, when he returns, that +you would feel gratified by his introducing his lady to you; and as to +the matter of decision, I would, with your Grace's permission and +approval, put that into the hands of the gentlemen present. Of course, +nothing need be said of the purpose of this proceeding to either host or +hostess." + +"Well, be it so," said James, urged on by the madcaps around him, who +were delighted with the idea of the thing. "Now then, gentlemen," he +continued, "the lady on whose beauty I stake my thousand merks is Jessie +Craig, the merchant's daughter, of Glasgow, whom, I think, all of you +have seen." + +"Ha! my townswoman," exclaimed Sir Robert, with every appearance of +surprise. "On my word, you have made mine a hard task of it; for a +fairer maiden than Jessie Craig may not so readily be found. +Nevertheless, I adhere to the terms of my bet." + +The Provost had just done speaking, when Sir James Crawford entered the +apartment, and resumed his seat at table. Shortly after he had done so, +James, addressing him, said-- + +"Sir James, it would complete the satisfaction of these gentlemen and +myself with the hospitality you have this day shown us, were you to +afford us an opportunity of paying our respects to your good lady; that +is, if it be perfectly convenient for and agreeable to her." + +"Lady Crawford will be but too proud of the honour, your Grace," replied +Sir James, rising. "She shall attend your Grace presently." + +Saying this, the latter again withdrew; and soon after returned, leading +a lady, over whose face hung a long and flowing veil, into the royal +presence. + +It would require the painter's art to express adequately the looks of +intense and eager interest with which James and his party gazed on the +veiled beauty, as she entered the apartment and advanced towards them. +Their keen and impatient scrutiny seemed as if it would pierce the +tantalizing obstruction that prevented them seeing those features on +whose beauty so large a sum had been staked. In this state of annoying +suspense, however, they were not long detained. On approaching within a +few paces of the king, and at the moment Sir James Crawford said, with a +respectful obeisance, "My wife, Lady Crawford, your Grace," she raised +her veil, and exhibited to the astonished monarch and his courtiers a +surpassingly beautiful countenance indeed; but it was that of Jessie +Craig. + +"A trick! a trick!" exclaimed James, with merry shout, and amidst a peal +of laughter from all present, and in which the fair cause of all this +stir most cordially joined. "A trick, a trick, Provost! a trick!" +repeated James. + +"Nay, no trick at all, your Grace, craving your Grace's pardon," replied +the Provost gravely. "Your Grace betted that Jessie Craig was more +beautiful than Lady Crawford. Now, is it so? I refer the matter, as +agreed upon, to the gentlemen around us." + +"Lost! lost!" exclaimed half a dozen gallants at once. + +"Well, well, gentlemen, since you so decide," said James, "I will +instantly give our good Provost here an order upon our treasurer for the +sum." + +"Nay, your Grace, not so fast. The money is as safe in your hands as +mine. Let it there remain till I require it. When I do, I shall not fail +to demand it." + +"Be it so, then," said James, when, placing his fair hostess beside him, +and after obtaining a brief explanation--which we will, in the sequel, +give at more length--of the odd circumstance of finding Jessie Craig +converted into Lady Crawford, the mirth and hilarity of the party were +resumed, and continued till pretty far in the afternoon, when the king +and his courtiers took horse,--the former at parting having presented +his hostess with a massive gold chain which he wore about his neck, in +token of his good wishes,--and rode off for Stirling. + +To our tale we have now only to add the two or three explanatory +circumstances above alluded to. + +In Sir James Crawford the reader is requested to recognise the young man +who discovered Jessie Craig, then the unknown fair one, by the side of +the fountain in the little elm grove at Woodlands. + +Encouraged by and acting on the adage already quoted,--namely, that +"faint heart never won fair lady,"--he followed up his first accidental +interview with the fair fugitive from royal importunity with an +assiduity that in one short week accomplished the wooing and winning of +her. + +While the first was in progress, Sir James was informed by the young +lady of the reasons for her concealment. On this and the part Sir Robert +Lindsay had acted towards her being made known to him, he lost no time +in opening a communication with that gentleman, riding repeatedly into +Glasgow himself to see him on the subject of his fair charge; at the +same time informing him of the attachment he had formed for her, and +finally obtaining his consent, or at least approbation, to their +marriage. The bet, we need hardly add, was a concerted joke between the +Provost, Sir James, and his lady. + +When we have added that the circumstance of Sir Robert Lindsay's delay +in returning for Jessie Craig, which excited so much surprise at +Woodlands, was owing to the unlooked-for prolongation of the king's stay +in Glasgow, we think we have left nothing unexplained that stood in need +of such aid. + + + + +THE BRIDE OF BELL'S TOWER. + + +Some time ago I made inquiry at the editor of _Notes and Queries_ for +information as to the whereabouts of an old mansion called Bell's Tower, +and whether it was occupied by a family of the name of Bower; but my +inquiry was not attended with any success beyond the usual production of +surmises and speculations. There was a place so called in Perthshire; +but then it never was occupied by people of that name,--the Bowers being +an old family in Angus, whose principal messuage was Kincaldrum. Yet I +cannot be mistaken in the name, either of the house or the family, as +connected with the occurrences of the tradition, the essentials of which +have floated in my mind ever since I heard them from one to whom they +were also traditional. Then the story has something of an antique air +about it, as may be noticed from the application of adjectives to +baptismal names, as Devil Isobel and Sweet Marjory,--by no means a +modern usage, but easily recognised in analogues of our old poetry. We +may say, at least, that whether the Bowers were a very or only a +moderately ancient family, Bell's Tower was an old structure--the name +being applied to the mansion, which was an addition to a peel or +castle-house of many centuries--not without its battlements and barnkin, +and all the other appurtenances of a strength, as such places were +called. + +Had we more to do than our subject requires with the _physique_ of this +mansion--and we have something; for what romance in the moral world is +independent of a _locale_, and of those lights and shadows that play +where men live and act all the wondrous things they do?--we might be +particular in our description; but our narrator's shade will be +sufficiently conciliated, if we say that there was room enough, and +ill-lighted chambers enough, and sufficiently tortuous breakneck stairs +here and there, as well as those peculiar to castles, lobbies in all +conscience long enough--not forgetting a blue parlour with some +mysterious associations--to supply elements for genius to weave the +many-coloured web of fiction. But we have a humbler part to play; and it +begins here,--that Mrs. Bower had in the said blue parlour, a fortnight +before our incidents, told her eldest daughter, whom we are, for the +sake of the antique nomenclature--discriminative, and therefore kindly, +if also sometimes harsh--to call Sweet Marjory, a piece of information, +to her unexpected and strange,--no other than that Isobel, her sister, +was the accepting and accepted of the rich and chivalrous youth, Hector +Ogilvy, a neighbouring laird's son. Nor would it have appeared +wonderful, if we had known more of the inside of that heaving breast, +wherein a heart was too obedient to those magic chords, with their +minute capillaries spread over the tympanum, that Marjory was as mute +and pale as a statue of marble. But the truth really was, that Ogilvy +had courted Marjory, and won her heart, and Isobel--Devil Isobel--had +contrived means to win him to herself, at the expense of a sister's +reputation for all the beautiful qualities that adorn human nature. And +as all the world knows that both men and women hate those they injure, +we may be at no loss to ascertain the feelings by which Isobel regarded +Marjory. Nor shall those who know the nature of woman have any +difficulty in supposing that not more carefully does nature guard in the +bosom the physical organ of the affections, than she concealed the +feelings which had for that fortnight eaten into the vital tissues of +her being. + +How swiftly that fortnight had flown for Isobel! how charged with heavy +hours for Marjory! and to-morrow was the eventful day. What doings in +Bell's Tower during this intervening time! what pattering of feet along +the sombre lobbies! what gossiping among servants! what applications to +the gate--comings and goings! and the rooms, how bestrewn with clippings +of silk, and stray bits of artificial flowers! And, amidst all the +triumphing, Isobel displayed her nature in spite of old saws and maxims, +which lay upon brides conditions of reserve and humility, held to be so +becoming in those who, as it were, occupy the place of a sacrifice; yea, +if some tears are shed, so much better is custom obeyed. Then where +could Marjory go, in the midst of this confusion of gaiety?--where, as +the poet says, "weep her woes" in secret, and listen to the throbbings +of a broken heart? Not in her own room, in the lower part of the castle +tower, where her mother had still the privilege of chiding her for +throwing the shadows of melancholy over a scene of happiness, and where +Isobel would force an entrance, to show her, in the very spite of her +evil nature, some bridal present from him who was still to the deserted +one the idol of her heart. There was scarcely a refuge for grief, where +joy was impatient of check, and, like all tyrants, would force reluctant +conditions into a unanimity of compliance; but up these castle stairs, +in the second room, there was one whom time had shut out from the +sympathies of the world, so old, as to be almost forgotten, except by +Marjory herself, who, all gentleness and love, delighted to supply +vacant hearts with the fervours of her friendship, and to ameliorate +evils by the appliances of her humanity. + +With languid step she ascended the stair, and was presently beside her +great-grandaunt, Patricia Bower. Twilight was dropping her wing, and the +shadows were fast collecting round the square windows, which, narrow and +grated, would scarcely at noonday let in light enough to enliven the +human eye. There, solitary and in the gloom, sat the creature of the +prior century, whose birth could only be arrived at by going through +generations back ninety and five years before; but not gloom to her, to +whom the light of memory was as a necromancer, arraying before the gleg +eye of her spirit the images of persons and things and circumstances of +the far past, with all the vividness of enchantment, and still even +raising again those very loves and sympathies they elicited when they +were of the passing hour. Yet the doings in this house of Bell's Tower +at the time, so far removed from the period of the living archetypes of +her dreams, had got to her ear, where still the word marriage was a +charm, against which the dry impassable nerve resisted in vain. + +"I will go to this marriage, Marjory," she said, as the maiden entered, +and without appearing to notice her distress. + +"No, aunt," replied Marjory, as she sat down opposite to her. + +"And shall I not?" continued the ancient maiden, as her eyes seemed to +come forward out of the deep sockets into which they had long sunk, and +emitted an unearthly lustre. "And shall I not? It is four times a score +of years bating five since I was at a bridal; and when all were waiting, +ay, Marjory, expecting the young bridegroom, the door was opened, and +four men carried in Walter Ogilvy's bleeding corpse, and laid him in +the bridal hall; for he had been stabbed by a rival in the Craig Glen, +down by there; and where could they take the body but to Bell's Tower, +where his bride waited for him? But she did not go mad, Sweet Marjory; +no, no." + +And as the image grew more distinct in the internal chambers, so did the +eyes shine more lustrously, like stars peering through between grey +clouds; and the shrivelled muscles, obeying once more the excited nerve, +imparted to her almost the appearance of youth. Gradually a humming tone +essayed to take form in words; but the wavering treble disconcerted her, +till, calming herself by some effort, she recited, in solemn see-saw-- + + "The guests they came from the grey mountain side,-- + The bride she was fair, and the bride she was fain; + But where was the lover, who sought not his bride? + Oh! a maid she is now, as a maid she was then; + And her cheek it is pale, and her hair it is grey, + Since the long long time of her bridal day." + +The last line descended into a quavering whisper. + +With the effusion, adopted probably from an old ditty, and brought forth +from its long-retaining chamber of the brain by the inspiration of one +of her often-returning visions, the fervour of the tasked spirit died +away, and, reclining her head, she sat before the wondering Marjory--who +had heard, as a tale of the family, and applicable to Patricia herself, +the circumstances she had related--as one suspended between death and +life; nor did it seem that it required more than a rude vibration to +decide to which of the two worlds she would in a few minutes belong. +Only a short time sufficed to restore her to her ordinary composure, +and, waving her shrivelled hand, she said-- + +"Open the door to the bartisan, Marjory, that I may have air, and see +the moon, who, amidst all the changes of life, is ever the same to the +miserable and the happy." + +Marjory obeyed her; and as she looked forth, the moon was rising over +the tops of the trees, as if to chase away the envious shades, ready to +follow the departure of twilight. There was solace in her soft splendour +for the melancholy of the youthful girl, which might be ameliorated by a +turn of fortune, as well as for the sadness of her aged friend, which +was not only beyond the influence of worldly change, but so like the +forecast gloom of the grave, as if the inexorable tyrant, long +disappointed, was already rejoicing in his victim. But no sooner was the +door casement opened, than the sound of voices entered. Then Marjory +stepped out on the bartisan, not to listen, for her spirit was superior +to artifice; and, leaning over the bartisan, she soon recognised the +voices of Isobel and Ogilvy; nor could she escape the words-- + +"I loved her for her own sake," said he, "before I loved you, Isobel; +and now I love her as your sister. But I shall have no peace in my +wedded life with you, save on the condition that you love her also; for +my conscience tells me I have not done by Sweet Marjory what is deemed +according to the honour of man. You see what your power has been, +Isobel. Nor would I have spoken thus on the very evening before our +wedding, were it not that I have heard you do not love her, nay, that +you hate her." + +Then Marjory heard Devil Isobel reply; and she knew by the voice that +she was in anger, though she cunningly repressed her passion. + +"Believe them not," said Isobel. "By the pale face of yonder moon, and +all those bright stars that are coming out one by one to add honour upon +honour to this evening, the last of my maiden life, I love sweet +Marjory Bower; and I swear by Him who made all these heavenly orbs, that +I shall love her as a sister ought." + +"It pleases me much to hear my Isobel speak thus," said Ogilvy. "And +hark ye, love, I have here a valuable locket, set with diamonds and +opals--see, it contains the grey hair of my mother; and, will I or nill +I, she will send this by me to Marjory as a love-token. Now I want to +convey it to Sweet Marjory through you, because it will make you a party +to the love-gift, and so bind us all in a circle of affection." + +"Give it me," cried Isobel, fixing her piercing eye on the diamonds as +they sparkled in the moonlight; "and, on the honour of a bride, I will +give it to my sister, whom I love so dearly." + +And Isobel continued to speak; but the movement of the lovers as they +walked prevented Marjory from hearing more. Still she followed them with +her weeping eyes, as their figures, clearly revealed to her by the moon, +glided among the wide-standing trees of the lawn, and at length +disappeared. The moon had now less solace for her. Her wound had been +retouched by a hand of all others calculated to irritate, even by that +of Ogilvy himself, who, she now knew, felt compunction for the cruelty +of his desertion. His regret was too late to save her sorrow, but it was +not too late to increase that sorrow; for the words by which he had +uttered it reminded her, in their tone, of that unctuous luxury he had +so often poured into her heart, and which, in their sincerity, were so +unlike the dissimulation of her wicked sister. With a deep-drawn sigh +she entered the bartisan casement, shut it after her, and having spoken +some kindly words to her aunt, whom she kissed, she sought her way down +the bastle stair to her own room below. There she threw herself upon a +couch, not to seek assuagement, but only to give rest to limbs that +would scarcely support her. Nor did the closed door keep from her ear +those notes of preparation, coming in so many shapes; for there was, in +addition to the customary rites of the great sacrifice, to be a +sumptuous feast, at which, too, she would be expected to attend. Yet all +these noisy tokens did not keep from her mind the tones of that remorse +she had heard from the lips of Ogilvy, and she fondled them, in her +misery, as one would the dead body of a dear friend on whose face still +sat the look of love in which he died. By-and-by she heard once more the +voice of Isobel, who had returned; and she trembled as she expected the +visit in execution of her commission. The door opened, and there entered +her sister, with a face, as it appeared in the light of the lamp she +carried, beaming with the old exultation, mingled with the smile of a +soft deceit. + +"Look here, Sweet Marjory," she said, as she held out the golden +trinket. "Saw you ever so lovely a piece of workmanship? But you cannot +discern its value till you know it contains a lock of the hair of _my_ +mother-in-law-to-be--Mrs. Ogilvy. That locket was given to me even now +by my Hector, the bridegroom----" + +"To give to me," sighed Marjory faintly. + +"You lie for a false fiend," cried Devil Isobel. "He gave it to me, and +to me it belongs." + +"You may keep it," said Marjory; "but I heard Hector Ogilvy say to you +that it was a gift from his mother to me, and you promised to him to +deliver it." + +Isobel's lips turned white and whiter, as her eye flared with the +internal light struck out of the quivering nerve by the brain inflamed +by fury. Nor was it the detection alone that produced these effects: +she had construed Ogilvy's confession that he once loved Marjory into an +admission that the latter was still dear to him, and she considered +herself justified in her suspicion by the tones of his regret; then +there had shot through her the pang of envy, when she heard that there +was a gift for Marjory from the mother, and none to her. All these +pent-up passions had been quickened into expression by Marjory's gentle +detection; and as Marjory looked at her, she trembled. + +"Do not be angry at me, Isobel," she said. "I did not go out upon the +bartisan to hear you; and as for the gift, I do not want it." + +But Marjory's simplicity and generosity, in place of appeasing her +passion, only gave it a turn into a forced stifling, which suited the +purpose of her dissimulation. In an instant the evil features, which, as +a moral expression, had changed her into hideousness, gave way, and she +stood before her sister the beautiful being who had enchanted Ogilvy out +of his first and purest love. + +"Come, Marjory," she said, as she grasped the faint hand of the almost +unresisting girl. "Come." + +And leading her by a half-dragging effort out of the room and along the +passages, she took her to the large hall, where servants were busy +laying the long table for the feast. + +"There will be seventy here," she said, "and all to do honour to me. How +would _you_ have liked it, Sweet Marjory? You do not envy me, though you +look so sad? But oh! there is more honour for me. Come." And still, with +the application of something like force, she led Marjory out by the +front door towards the lawn, where a number of men were, with the light +of pine torches, piling up fagots over layers of pitch. The glare of the +torches was thrown over the dark bastle house, and under the relief of +the deep shadows, where the light of the moon did not penetrate, was +romantic enough even for the taste of Isobel, whose spirit ever panted +for display. To add to the effect, the men were jolly; for their supply +of ale had been ample, and the occasion of a marriage in the house of +the Bowers warranted a merriment which was acceptable to her for whom +all these expensive preparations were made. + +"This is the marriage-pile, Marjory," said Isobel. "I am not to be put +upon it after the manner of Jephthah's daughter; but it will blaze up to +the sky, and tell the gods and goddesses that there is one to be +honoured here on earth. How would _you_ have liked that honour, Marjory? +But you are not envious. Come, there is more." + +And as she was leading Marjory away, an exclamation from one of the men +attracted their attention. On turning round, they saw the men's faces, +lighted up by the torches, all directed to the bastle tower on which the +glare shone full and red. Their merriment was gone, to give place to the +feeling of awe; nor did a syllable escape from their lips. The eyes of +the sisters followed those of the men, and were in like manner riveted. + +"It is the wraith bride o' the peel," said the old forester. "She gaes +round about and round about. My mither saw it thirty years syne, when +the laird brought hame his leddy; and we ken he broke his leg in coming +off his horse to help her down. I have heard her say + + + 'There's evil for the house o' Bower, + When the bride gaes round the bastle tower.'" + +"You are a lying knave," cried Isobel. "It is that old cantrup-working +witch, Patricia Bower, who should have been burnt with tar-barrels and +tormented by prickers fifty years ago. Nor ghost, nor ghoul, nor demon +or devil, shall come between me and my happy destiny." + +A speech which, spoken in excitement, was cheered by all the men but the +unfortunate forester; for, as we have said, they were merry with ale. +And they knew by report, as they now saw with their eyes, the beauty of +the young woman, who, in addition to her natural charms, appeared, as +they whirled the torches round their heads, and the cheers rose and +echoed in the woods, to be invested with the dignity of a queen. But as +this natural enthusiasm died down, they turned again their wondering +eyes to the bastle house; and as the figure still went round the +bartisan and round the bartisan, they looked at each other, and shook +their heads with a motion which appeared very grotesque in the glare of +the torches. At length it disappeared, and they began again to pile the +fagots, now in silence, and not with the merry words and snatches of +their prior humour, as if each of them had foreseen some evil which he +could not define. + +Meanwhile Isobel had again seized Marjory, to continue the round of her +triumphs. + +"We will now go to my boudoir, nor mind that witch," she said, "and I +will show you all the presents I have got from my neighbours and +friends. Oh! they are so fine, that did I not know that you are not +envious, I would fear that you would tear my eyes out. Oh, but look, +there is Ogilvy's horse standing waiting for him to carry him home, and +I shall see him only this once before I am made his wife." Then, pausing +and becoming meditative, she led her sister into the shade of a gigantic +elm, the stem of which sufficed to conceal them from observers. "Kneel +down," she continued in a stern tone. + +"Why so?" replied Marjory, trembling with fear, yet obeying +instinctively. + +"Swear," cried Isobel, "that you will not, before Ogilvy, contradict +what I shall say to him about his mother's gift. Swear." + +"I swear," replied the sister. + +And rising up, her hand was again grasped by Isobel, as she led her +forward to where the horse stood. Nor had they proceeded many paces, +when Ogilvy himself was observed coming forward. He could see them by +the light of the torches, as they saw him; and upon the instant, Isobel, +clasping Marjory in her arms, kissed her with all the fervency of love. + +"How pleasant this is to me," said Ogilvy, as he came up equipped and +spurred for his ride, "to see you so loving and sisterly!" + +"Did I not swear by Dian and the stars I would love her?" said Devil +Isobel; "and is she not called Sweet Marjory?" + +"Sweet she is," said he, as he timidly scanned the face of his first +love, and pressed her hand; but his countenance changed as he felt the +silky-skinned hand of the girl tremble within his, as if it shrunk from +the touch, and saw her blue eyes turned on the ground, and heard a sigh +steal from her breast. A feeling that was new to him thrilled through +the circle of his nerves, and made him tremble to the centre of his +being. He had never calculated upon that strange emotion, nor could he +analyze it: it was inscrutable, but it was terrible; it was not simply a +return of his own love under the restraint of the new one, neither was +it simple remorse, but a mixture of various thrills which induced no +purpose, but only rendered him uncertain, feeble, and miserable. So +engrossed for a moment was he, that he did not even seek the eye of +Isobel, who was watching him in every turn of his countenance. Then he +would seek some relief in words. + +"You have my mother's love at least, Marjory," he said; and he could not +help saying it. "And I shall be pleased to see you wear her gift, which +she sent to you through me, who gave it to Isobel." + +Marjory was silent, and Ogilvy turned his eye upon Isobel. + +"She rejects it," said Isobel, "and wishes me to return it." + +"Rejects it!" ejaculated the youth, as he again looked at Marjory. + +Marjory was still silent, and her eyes were even more timidly turned to +the ground. + +"I did not regard the gift as valuable for the brilliants and opals," +continued he, "but as conveying the love of my mother; and surely +Marjory cannot reject that love." + +Yet still was Marjory silent, for she had sworn. + +"Oh, she is frightened, poor Sweet Marjory," cried Isobel, with a +satirical laugh; "for she has seen the wraith bride on the bastle +tower." + +"The wraith bride!" responded Ogilvy, relapsing into silence, and +instinctively looking round him, where only glared the torchlight among +the trees of the lawn, and the dark bodies of the fagot-pilers were +moving backwards and forwards. He had heard the couplet mentioned by the +forester, and had of course viewed it as a play of superstition; but +reason is a weak thing in the grasp of feeling, and now he was all +feeling. The remorse of which he had had premonitions, had now taken him +as a fit. His eye sought Marjory's down-turned face, and shrunk from +Isobel's watchful stare; but the direction of that organ did not form an +index to his mind, for his fancy was, even during these swift instants, +busy weaving the many-coloured web of the future of his married life, +and clouding it with sombre shades; nor did the active agent hesitate to +draw materials from the past fortunes of the house of Bell's Tower, and +mix them up as things yet to be repeated. Even the wraith bride +performed her part now, where she had feeling to help her weakness, and +set her up among realities. + +At this critical juncture of Ogilvy's thoughts, there came up from the +mansion good Dame Bower herself, of portly corporation, often resonant +of a comfortable laugh; and now, when flushed with the exercise of her +domestic superintendence, looking the very picture of the joyous mother +of a happy bride. + +"I had forgotten," she said as she approached, "to ask you to convey my +thanks to Dame Ogilvy for that beautiful locket with her hair +therein--more precious, I ween, than the diamonds and opals, though +these, I'm told, are worth five thousand good merks--which she has so +thoughtfully sent to Isobel." + +"Isobel!" ejaculated Ogilvy, fixing his eye on the face of his bride, +where there were no blushes to reveal the consciousness of deceit. "To +Isobel!" he repeated; "and did Isobel say this?" + +"Yes," replied the mother. + +"It is false," cried the damsel, precipitated by anger into the terrible +imputation. + +The mother stood aghast, and Marjory held her head away. + +"Speak, Marjory," said Ogilvy, with lips that in an instant had become +white and parched. + +"I have sworn," said Marjory. + +"And dare not speak?" said Ogilvy. Then a deep gloom spread over his +face, his eye flashed with a sudden flame. He spoke not a word more; +but, vaulting into the saddle, he drove his spurs into the side of his +horse, and rode off. As he passed the fagot-hewers, he saw them +clustered together, and heard high words among them, with names of so +potent a charm to him, that, even in his confusion and speed, he could +not drive them from his mind. These names were, Sweet Marjory and Devil +Isobel. + +And as if the words had entered the rowels and made them sharper, his +horse reared, and he sped on with a whirling tumult in his brain, but +yet without uttering a word--nor even to himself did he mutter a +remark--still urging his steed, yet unconscious that his journey's end +would bring no assuagement of that tumult, nor mean of extricating him +from his strange and perilous predicament. Nor was he aware of the speed +of his riding, or how far he had gone, till he came to some huts in the +outskirts of the Craigwood, which bounds the domain of Bell's Tower on +the west, where he saw some cottagers assembled at a door, and again +heard words which pierced his ear--no other than those of his own +marriage. Again urged by curiosity, he put the question, + +"Whom do you speak of, good folks?" + +"Sweet Marjory," said one; and another added, "Devil Isobel." + +Fain would he have asked more--these were not to him more than +sufficient; but pride interposed, and fear aided pride, and away he +again sped even at a still quicker pace. Never before had he been so +agitated: fear, anger, or remorse had never ruffled the tenor of an +existence which passed amidst rural avocations and unsophisticated +pleasures,--knew nothing of intrigue, falsehood, or dissimulation--those +parasitic plagues that follow the societies of men. The moon that shone +over his head was as placid and beautiful, and forest and wold as +quiet, as they used to be when his mind was a reflection of the peace +that was without; but now, as he rode on and on, wild images arose from +the roused autonomy of the spirit, and seemed to be impressed by +fire,--the face of Isobel reflecting the light of the moon, and those +eyes which, looking up, were in their own expression an adjuration +similar to that pronounced by her lips, that she would obey him, and +deliver the diamond gift to its rightful owner; then the same eyes when, +inflamed by the fire of her wrath, she called her mother a liar, and +proved her own falsehood, while she cast off the duty of a daughter. But +through all glided the face of Sweet Marjory, with its mildness, +beneficence, and timidity; and the eye that, quailing under her sister's +tyranny, looked so lovingly in the face of the mother, but dared not +chide him who had been false to her. He felt within him that revolution +from one feeling to its opposite, which, when it begins in the mind, is +so energetic and startling. His love for Isobel--which had been a +frenzy, tearing him from another love which had been a sweet +dream--began to undergo the wonderful change: her beauty faded before a +moral expression which waxed hideous, and grew up in these passing +moments into a direct contrast with the gentle loveliness of her sister, +which, coming from the heart, beamed through features fitted to enhance +it. Nor could he stop this revolution of his sentiments, the full effect +of which, aggravated by remorse, shook his frame, as his horse bounded, +and added to the turmoil within him. Yet ever the words came from his +quivering lips--"Am I fated to be the husband of Devil Isobel? Is Sweet +Marjory destined to bless the nuptial bed of another?" And at every +repetition he unconsciously drove the spur into the sides of his now +foaming steed. + +But whither all this hot haste--whither was he flying? To his home, +where he knew that his mother condemned his choice, though her delicacy +had limited her dissatisfaction to that strange but pregnant expression, +whereby she had sent her most valuable jewel to her whom she valued and +loved, and whom, in the madness of fascination, he had left to sorrow, +if not to heartbreaking--perhaps death. He felt that he behoved to be +home to make certain preparations for his appearance on the morrow, as a +bridegroom by the side of Isobel Bower; and yet he felt that he could +not face his mother under the feelings which now ruled him, and the very +weakness of his resolution prompted the device of tarrying by the way +until she should have gone to bed. He knew where to watch her chamber +light, and he began to draw the rein. Yet how unconscious he was of a +peculiarity of that power that had been for some time working within +him!--yea, even remorse, who, true to her unfailing purpose, was +moulding his heart into that yearning to visit the victim on which she +insists for ever as a condition of peace to the betrayer. He had come to +the cross-road leading eastwards; and even while muttering his purpose +of merely prolonging the period of his home-going, he was twitching the +rein to the right, so that the obedient steed turned and carried him +forward at the old speed. Whither now, versatile and remorseful youth? +From this eastern road there goes off, a couple of miles forward, a +rough track, leading to the mansion he had so recently left. And it was +not long ere he reached the point of turn. Nor was he even decided when +there, that he would again draw the rein to the right. But if he was +master of his horse, he was not master of himself: the rough track was +taken, and Ogilvy was in full swing to Bell's Tower. He did not know +that it is only when the act is accomplished that one thinks of the +decrees of Fate, though it is true that the purposes of man are equally +fated in their beginnings, when reason is battling against feeling, as +in their termination. In how short time was he in the pine wood, behind +the house, where were his bane, and perhaps his antidote, though he +could not divine the latter! And he trembled as through the trees he saw +the flitting lights, as they came and went past the windows, indicating +the joy of preparation: not for these he looked, only for one, sombre +and steady, like Melancholy's dull eye, wherein no tear glistens. +Leaving his horse tied to a pine stem, Ogilvy was in an instant kneeling +at the low casement at the foot of the bastle house, where glimmered +that light for which he had been so intensely looking. + +Was it that grief, forced into an excitement foreign to its lonely, +self-indulgent nature, wooed the evening air, to cool by the open window +the fever of her slow-throbbing veins? Certain it is at least that +Marjory Bower expected no salutation from without at that hour. + +"Sweet Marjory, will you listen to one who once dared to love you, and +who has now sorrow at his heart, yet Heaven's wrath will not send forth +lightnings to kill?" + +"What terrible words are these?" replied the maiden, as she took her +hand from her brow and looked in the direction of the open casement. + +"Not those," replied he, "which are winged with the hope of a +bridegroom. But I am miserable! Marjory Bower, I loved you, and you +returned my love; I deserted you, and you never even gloomed on me; and +I am now the bridegroom of your sister,--ay, your sister, Devil Isobel! +Will you give me hope if I break off this marriage?" + +"Nay," rejoined she; "that cannot be. You have gone too far to go back +with honour." + +"Or forward with any hope of happiness," said he. "But I will brave all +your father's anger, Isobel's revenge, and my loss of honour, if you +will consent to be mine within a year." + +"Nay," repeated the maid with a sigh. "Out of my unhappiness may come +the happiness of others. Though I may not live to see it, I may die in +the hope that Isobel Bower may, in your keeping, come to deserve a name +better than that terrible one she has earned, and which just now sounded +so terrible from your lips." + +"Is she not a liar, who falsified my words?" said he impassionedly. "Is +she not a thief, who appropriated the diamond gift of my mother, +intended for you? Is she not an undutiful daughter, who first deceived +her mother by a falsehood, and then denounced her as herself false? Is +that woman, with the form of an angel and the heart of a devil, to be my +wife? And does Marjory Bower counsel it? Then Marjory Bower hates Hector +Ogilvy!" + +"Nay," replied she calmly, "I only love your honour. Night and day I +will pray for a blessing on your marriage, and that God, who made the +heart of my sister, may change it into love and goodness." + +A repressed spasmodic laugh shook the frame of the youth. "What a hope," +he said, "on which to found the happiness of a life, and for which to +barter such a creature as you! But, Marjory, you have roused the pride +of my honour, while you have appeased my remorse; and I will marry +Isobel because you have said that I should. It is thus I shall punish +myself by becoming a victim in turn to the honour I was false to." + +As he pronounced these words, he fixed his eye on the face of Marjory, +which at the moment reflected brightly the light of the lamp. Her eyes +were swimming in tears. She seemed to struggle with herself, as if she +feared that, in thus counselling him, she incurred some heavy +responsibility. So Ogilvy thought. But he little knew that there was +mixed up with these emotions the keen anguish of a sacrifice; for she +had not as yet admitted to him how dear he had been to her, and how +bitterly she had felt the transference of his affections from her to her +sister. He waited for a few moments. He got no reply, except from these +swimming eyes. "Adieu! dear Marjory," he said; and hastened again to the +pine wood, where, having flung himself on his steed, he started for +home. + +As he hurried along, he felt that he had appeased one feeling at the +expense of a life's happiness, and yet he was satisfied, according to +that law whereby the present evil always appears the greatest. About +half way up the rough track he met one of the servants of Bell's Tower +proceeding homewards, and suspecting that he had been with a message to +him or his mother, he stopped and questioned him. + +"I have been to Dame Ogilvy with a letter from Dame Bower," said the +man; "and well I may," he added, as he sided up and whispered, "The +fagot-hewers have seen the bride to-night on the top bartisan of the +castle tower." + +"And I now see a fool," replied Ogilvy, and rode on. Not that he thought +the man the fool he called him, but that he felt it necessary, as many +men do, to make a protest against the weakness of superstition at the +very moment when the mysterious power was busy with his heart; and, +repeating the word "fool," he went on auguring and condemning in the +double way of mortals. How strangely he had been led for the last hour! +The terms he had heard applied to his bride, justifying what he had +himself seen, had all but resolved him to remain absent from the +intended ceremony of the morrow. He had had some lurking hope that +Marjory would agree to his resolution, and again inspire him with hope; +and he knew that his mother would be pleased with a change which would +yield her a chance of having her favourite for her daughter-in-law. He +had been proposing as a weak mortal. Another power was purposing as a +God; and yet he considered himself as so much master of himself and the +occasion as to laugh with bitter scorn at the rustic diviner, and his +folly of the apparition bride. And now there was shining before him the +light of the lamp from the chamber of his mother, whom he had still +stronger reasons than ever for avoiding that night. But even these +reasons were unavailing. The spirit of his honour, which had been so +fragile a thing when opposed by the advent of a new love, had been +breathed upon and increased to a flame by her he had deserted; and he +for the moment felt he could face the mild reproof of a mother whom he +loved. What a versatile, incomprehensible creature is man, even in those +inspired moments, when, with the nerve trembling under the tension of +purpose, he appears to himself and others in his highest position! In a +few minutes more he was in the presence of his mother. + +There sat in her painted chamber the fine gentlewoman, with her fixed +eye divining in the light of the gilded lamp, as the spirit cast upon +the dark curtain of the future the forms which were but as +re-adaptations of the signs of what had come and gone in her memory and +experience. The two families had been linked by the power of fate, and +the connection, which had never been dissolved; was to evolve in some +new form. She had grieved for her gentle favourite, Marjory Bower; and +had she been as stern as she was mild, she would have interposed a +parent's authority against her son's change of purpose. Yea, there might +have been true affection in that sternness; but such would have been the +resolution of a mental strength which she did not possess, for she was +as those whose parental love gratifies wilfulness from a fear of +producing pain. Nor even now, when she held in her hand a letter of, to +her, strange import, could she call up from her soft heart an energy to +save her son from the ruin which seemed to impend over him. He stood for +a moment before her, silent, pale, and resolved against all +chances,--verily a puppet under the reaction of affections and +principles he had dared to tamper with against the injunctions of +honour,--and yet he could not see that the soft and trembling hand of +her in Bell's Tower, which held the strings that bound him so, held them +and straitened them by a spasm. Nor was it of use to him now that the +strings trembled, and relaxed only for the time when the soft, +reproving, yet loving light of his mother's eye, as it turned from her +reverie, fell upon his soul; for his purpose came again, as his lip +quivered and he waxed more pale. + +"What means this letter?" said she, as she held it forth in her hand. +"Mrs. Bower thanks me for the gift I sent to your bride." + +"It means, dear mother," replied he firmly, "what it says. I was weak +enough to think that, if I committed your jewelled locket to Isobel's +hand as the mean whereby it would reach Marjory, I would do something to +cement their love. I saw Isobel's eye light up as she fixed it on the +diamonds--their glare had entered her soul and made it avaricious; and +envy threw her red glance to fire the passion. Yes, she appropriated +the gift. I have other evidence than this, even from my bride." And as +he pronounced the word "bride," a scornful laugh escaped from him, and +alarmed his mother. + +"And yet she _is_ your bride, and will be your wife to-morrow?" said +she, looking inquiringly. + +"She will," replied he, in a tone which, though soft, if not pitiful, +was firm, if a trait of sarcasm against himself might not have been +detected in it. + +"Strange!" ejaculated the mother, as she still fixed her eyes on him. +Then, musing a little, "Do you know that the bride has been seen +to-night on the bastle tower?" + +"Superstition." + +"An ill-used word, Hector," said she; "as if God was not the Ruler of +his own world. When we see unnatural motives swaying men, and all +working to an event, are we not to suppose that that event shall also be +out of Nature's scheme? and that which is out of Nature's scheme must be +in God's immediate hand. What motives impel you to wed a woman with whom +you must be miserable, and have that misery enhanced by seeing every day +her who would have rendered you happy?" + +"My honour pledged to the world, which must condemn and laugh at a +breach of faith, not to be justified except at the expense of Isobel." + +"A false reason," continued the mother. "Is there more honour in +adhering to a breach of honour than in returning to the honour that was +broken?" + +"There is another reason, mother," said Ogilvy, as he carried his hand +over his sorrowful face. + +"What is that?" + +"Sweet Marjory commands me." + +"Ah, Hector, Hector, how little you know of the heart of woman! Know +you not that in a forsaken woman the heart has an irony even when it is +breaking? Ask her if you should wed her rival, and the breaking +heart-string will respond Yes, even as the cord of the harp will twang +when it is severed. Well do I know Sweet Marjory, and what she must have +felt when she uttered this command. The canker has begun, and she will +die. The worm does not seek always the withered leaf. You've heard the +song that Patricia used to sing-- + + "'The dainty worm, it loves the tomb, + And gnaws, and gnaws its nightly food; + But a daintier worm selects the bloom, + And a daintier still affects the bud.'" + +"Oh, God forgive me!" ejaculated the miserable youth, as, holding his +hand on his brow, he rushed out of the room and sought his bed-chamber. +Was there ever such a night before the day, of all days auspicious to +mortals, of the culminating joy of human life! Could he not find refuge +in sleep, where the miserable so often seek to escape from the +vibrations of the leaping, palpitating nerve, inflamed by the fever of +life? A half-hour's dreamy consciousness, an hour's vision of returning +images, rest and unrest, haunting scenes woven by some secret power, so +varied, so ephialtic, so monstrous, yet all, somehow or another, however +unlike the reality, still vindicating a connection. Why should Sweet +Marjory be in the deep recesses of the pine wood, resting by his foaming +steed, with his mother sitting and breathing hope's accents in her ear, +and ever and again calling on him in sobbing vocables to return from his +pursuit of another? He would return. The charm of her sweet voice is +felt to be irresistible; yet it is resisted. And though he looks back +only to see her by the flaught of the lightning that plays among the +trees, his steps are forward, where Devil Isobel charms him with a song, +in comparison of which the magic of the sirens is but the rustle of the +reed as it swerves in the blast. He struggles, and seizes the stems of +the pines to hold him from his progress and keep him steady; and he +writhes as he finds he cannot obey the maternal appeal to a son's love. +All is still again, and there is rest, only to be alternated by the +recurring visions always assuming new forms, changing and disappearing, +flaring up again, and then the deep breast-riding oppression, and those +hollow moans, which never can be imitated by the waking sense, as if +Nature preserved this domain of the spirit as an evidence, in the night +of the soul, that there is another world where the limbo of agony is not +less certain than the heaven which is simulated by sweet dreams. + +But, _lucidus die--nocte inutilis_. As the day dawned, and the morning +sun, fresh from the east, threw in between the chinks of the shutters +the virgin beams, Ogilvy felt the truth of the old saying, that every +day vindicates its two conditions of good and evil. There was again a +change in the versatile mind of the romantic youth; and Honour, pinkt +out in those gaudy decorations woven by the busy spirits that move so +cunningly the springs of man's thoughts in a conventional world, +appeared before him. If Isobel was still the Devil Isobel, Honour was a +smiling angel, even more beautiful than Sweet Marjory. Yet he was not +happy--only firm, as he confessed by that lying power of the mind, to +the strength of bonds he had himself imposed, and yet repented +of--setting necessity as a will-power amidst the wreck and ruin of his +affections. The hour advanced, and he must superinduce the happy +bridegroom on the dead statue. Unsteady and fitful even in the common +actions of life--lifting the wrong thing, and suddenly throwing it down +in the wrong place, again to snatch the right thing at the wrong +time--he was not so this morning. Every step and manipulation was like +the movement of a machine. Composedness was a luxury to him. Ornament +after ornament, at a time when a bridegroom's decorations were the +expression of a rude refinement, found its place with a steady, nay, +affectedly formal hand; yea, a more cool bridegroom had never been seen +in the world's history, since that eventful morning when the hero of +Bĉotia put on his lion's skin, and took up his wooden club, to marry the +fifty daughters of the king, though among these, if the wise man is +right, there must have been forty-nine devils. As the solemn work went +on, he looked again and again into the mirror, where he saw none of the +wrinkles of care, no brow-knitting of fractiousness, no sternness of +resolute determination,--all quiet, smooth, even mild. Ay, such a mime +is man when he is a mome, that he even smiled as he felt his pulse,--how +cool was his blood, how regular the vibrations! And so the mummery went +on: the flowered-red vest, the braided coat of sky-blue, the cravat, the +ruffles, the wrist-bands scolloped and stiff, the indispensable ruff, +concealed behind by the long locks of auburn, so beautiful in Isobel's +eyes, that flowed over his broad shoulders. + +The work was finished; Ogilvy was dressed--his body in all the colours +of the arc of hope--his mind in the dark midnight weeds of a concealed +misery, concealed even from himself. He sought the chamber of his +mother, and, taking her hand, kissed it fervently; but could not trust +himself to even a broken syllable of speech, and his silence was +sympathetic. She looked into the face of her son, and then threw her eye +solemnly over the array of his dress. The tear stood apparent, yet her +face seemed to have borrowed his composedness, as if she felt that the +old doom still followed the house of Ogilvy, and was inevitable, when +the evil genius of the Bowers was in the ascendant. There was no reproof +now, save that which lies in the dumb expression of sorrow--even that +reproof which, melting the obstruction of man's egotism, finds its way +to the heart, when even scorn would be only a hardening coruscation. Yet +even this he could bear for the sake of that conventionality which is a +tyrant. Turning away his head, he again kissed the soft hand, and +hurried away. + +As he issued from the gate and mounted his steed, now refreshed from the +rough stress of the previous evening, the sun shone high and flaring, +and the face of the country, with its rising hills and heather-bloom, +and patches of waving corn, responded--as became it surely on a bridal +morning--to the clang of the bell in Bell's Tower,--so like in all but +the workings of the heart to the Sabbath morning when the union is to be +between the spirit of man and the Lamb without guile. Yet art, +self-confident and pragmatic, was not to be cajoled by the solicitations +of, to it, a lying nature, however beautiful; and Ogilvy found it +convenient, if not manly and heroic, to knit his eyebrows against the +sun. So does the Indian hurl his wooden spear against the lightning, +because he is a greater being than the Author of the thunder. So he rode +on to where the bells rung--for was not he specially called?--the gloom +on his countenance, with which his forced determination kept pace, +increasing as he proceeded. Nor had he ever ridden thus before. Even his +steed might have known, as he opened his nostrils, that there was +something more than common in the wind's eye, accustomed as he was to +the speed of enthusiasm, or the walk of exhaustion. He was now a solemn +stalking-horse, bearing a rigid, buckram-mailed showman, whose only +sound or movement resided in the plates of his armour, or his lath sword +or gilded spontoon. + +As Ogilvy had thus enrolled himself among the chivalry of honour, and +was consequently, in his own estimation, as we have hinted, a personage +of romance, so was it only consistent with the indispensable gloom of +his dignity and sternness that he should ride alone: nor was it seeming +that he should accost the guests whom he saw on either side, obeying the +call of the bell, and riding along to the bridal and the feast. Yet the +scene might have enlivened somewhat a very gloomy knight, as, looking +around, he saw the lairds rounding the bases of the hills, and heard, as +others came into sight, the sound of bagpipes, however little these +might be associated with chivalric notions and aspirations. But then it +was not easy to act this solitary part; for what more natural than that +those passing to his own celebration should salute him? Nor could he +avoid those salutations. + +"Joy to thee, Ogilvy," said one, as he rode up; "the nightshade is +sweeter than the rose;" and departed. + +"A happy day," said another, "when the wolf becomes more innocent than +the lamb." + +"Good morning, bridegroom," said a third. "The sun shines bright, and +the moss-brown tarn is more limpid than the running rill." + +"All happiness," said a fourth rider, "when the merle nestles with the +jolly owl, and is not afraid when he sounds his horn." + +But Ogilvy only compressed his lips the more, and looked the more +gloomy, solacing himself with the vision of Honour, the beautiful yet +stern virgin, and immaculate as she who shook her mailed petticoats +after getting out of Jupiter's head. Nor was the inspiration diminished +as he now saw rising before him the rugged pile of Bell's Tower, wherein +the bell rang still more lustily as the hour approached. The guests were +thronging in a multiform, many-coloured mass, all eager for the honour +of a Bower's smile. He was soon among the midst of them, repaying +neither compliment, nor salutation, nor mute nod, with a single sign of +acknowledgment. And now he entered the great hall, where already the +invited numbers were nearly completed. How grand the scene! What silks, +and satins, and taffetas, flowerings, braidings, and be-purflings, and +hooped inflations! what towering toupees, built up with horse-hair and +dyed hemp, stiffened with starch! what nosegays, redolent of +heather-bells, and roses, and orange blossoms! There sat Dame Bower +herself, fat and jolly, with her ruby dewlap, looking dignity; and +Bower, the laird, great in legend. Mess John, too, even fatter than +tradition will have him--the sleek bald head and face, where a thousand +slynesses could play together without jostling. But what were all these, +and the fairest and the proudest there, to Isobel Bower, as, arrayed in +her long white veil, she sailed about, heedless of all decorum, +showering her triumph upon envious damsels, as if she would blight all +their fond hopes to make a rich soil for the flowering of her own! If +others sat and looked for being looked at, and others stood for being +admired, she walked and moved for worship, as if she claimed the +peripatetic honour of the entire round of adoration. Not that she stared +for it: she was too intensely magnetized to doubt of the jumping of the +steel sparks to be all arranged _rayonnant_, like a horse-shoe, round +the centre of her glory. Then, as there is by the domestic law a wearock +in every nest, however speckled, and however redolent of balm-leaves or +resonant of chirpings, where was Sweet Marjory Bower? Where that law +ought to place her, by older legends than the date of Bower pride and +power--in a corner, plainly dressed, and trying with downcast eyes to +escape observation. But how pallid!--as if all the colours there had +vied to steal from her cheeks, not the rosy bloom--for it never was +there---but the fresh white of the lily, more beautiful than all the +flowers of the garden; and not the colour alone, but the light itself of +the lily's eye. Nay, it would seem that the greatest robber of all was +her sister, whose look turned upon her as if in scorn of her humility, +and in pleasure of her woe. + +As Ogilvy entered, walking up direct and stedfastly to the midst of the +great hall, there arose the welcome buzz, like that humming which makes +musical the sphere where comes the reigning queen of the hive. But how +soon, as the bell in the tower ceased to ring, was all that noise hushed +into a death-like silence, as he stood without sign or movement, with +his arms crossed, and his gloomy eyes fixed on the only empty space in +that crowded assembly! Would he not look at the bride, or salute the +bride's mother, or shake hands with the bride's father, or do any one of +all those many things which lay to his duty--far more to his +inclination--as a happy bridegroom? Not one of them. And there he stood, +as a motionless Grecian god hewn out of veritable panthelion, with its +ivory eyes, and the mute worshippers all about. Nay, the likeness was +even more perfect; for as these worshippers, from the very fear of +reverence and the impression of awe, kept at a distance from that centre +of deity, so those guests who were nearest to the strange man moved +instinctively away, leaving him in the middle of the charmed ring. But +even this did not move him. Then there was business to be done. "Oh! he +was only meditative." The greatness of the occasion was the mother of a +hundred excuses. Still to all it was oppressive, killing enthusiasm, and +so unlike what these gay hopefuls had prefigured of that celestial state +in which they wished themselves to be. Only Isobel seemed unchanged. She +whispered to Mess John--most unseemly; but was she not the Devil Isobel? +Ogilvy, even as a statue, was hers, and could not get away. Then the +bridesmaids sought each other, by the clustering sympathy of their gay +wreaths and their office, and the bridesman stood in readiness. Mess +John was at the altar; and the bell was to ring the celebrating peal +after the ceremony was ended, and the guests should fall to their knives +and forks; and the retainers on the lawn, where the fire blazed wild to +roast the ox and honour the bride, should sit down to their marriage +feast. + +As Solemnity is the mother of Angerona, with her finger on her lip, so +here reigned now the utmost stillness that could be enforced by heaving +hearts against the buzz of a crowd. Scarcely a sound was heard as the +altar was encircled. You might have detected a sigh, if it had not been +that every sigh was suppressed. Even Isobel was mute, but not from any +cessation of her triumph--rather from the impression of its culmination +in possession. She stood grandly, looking around her, in defiance of the +inexorable law of down-gazing on the ground, where brides see so much +which no one else sees. Nor had she yet expressed by a look any wonder +at the statue bridegroom, whose attitude was still unchanged. All is +eye, and ear, and throbbing heart, when of a sudden the door of the +great hall opened, calling the eye in the direction of the screech. Who +dared? Some one more daring than common humanity. A figure entered, in +the dress of another bride,--a tall figure, with surely nothing to be +covered by the white satin and the long lace mantilla, suspended from +the top of a wreathed head white as the driven snows of Salmon, but +bones, sheer bones. The face could scarcely be seen for the folds of the +veil: only two eyes, with no more light in them than what plays on the +surface of untransparent things, and fixed and immoveable as if they saw +nothing. The guests were breathless from stupefying amazement. They +beheld it pass into the middle of the hall, where, in the space that had +been deserted, it began a movement something like dancing. Strange +mutterings of a broken-voiced song, with words about long years having +passed away, rhyming with bridal day, and so forth, in the +cauldron-kettle-and-incantation style, came in snatches. + +"It is that infernal old witch, Patricia Bower," screamed Devil Isobel. + +And rushing forward, the impassioned creature threw the weight of her +body on the composition of bones and satin. It fell, with a loud shrill +scream from a windpipe dried by the breath of ninety-seven years. + +Dame Bower and Sweet Marjory rushed forward and drew back the veil. It +was the antediluvian Patricia. She was dead. The last spark had been +offered to Hymen, and the incense canister was broken. Drops of blood +issued from her mouth and nose, and sat upon the marble face, with still +remains of the old beauty in it which had charmed Walter Ogilvy, like +dots on the tiger lily. + +At this moment the bell began to clang. Devil Isobel was gone. She had +hurried out the moment she knew that the spark of life had fled. Nor +could she be found. The song says-- + + "They sought her here, they sought her there, + By lochs and streams that scent the main, + By forests dark, and gardens fair; + But she was never seen again." + +A trick, this last line, of some of the old legend-mongers of the Bell's +Tower minstrels, no doubt to conceal the shame of the family; for Devil +Isobel had flown to the tower, where, having concealed herself till the +bell-ringers went away to join in the feast of the ox, which they never +tasted even after so much pulling and hauling, she mounted to the +belfry. Somehow she had contrived to cast the bell-rope round one of the +beams by which the bell was suspended, so as to produce no noise, and +then, having made a noose of a different kind from that she had that day +been busily twining, she suspended herself by the neck. It was some days +before she was discovered. The long white figure, still arrayed in the +marriage dress with the flowing veil, had been observed by some of the +searchers; and then, strange enough, it was remembered that one solitary +clang of the bell had been heard after the cessation of the ringing. +That was the death-peal of Isobel Bower. But, a year after, that same +bell had another peal to sound--no other than the celebration of the +marriage of Hector Ogilvy and Sweet Marjory. Some say that Bell's Tower +got its name from the contraction of Isobel. Names stick after the +things have passed away. They did well at least to change the +rope--_finis funis_. + + + + +DOCTOR DOBBIE. + + +The particular day in the life of the worthy disciple of Esculapius to +which we desire to direct the attention of the reader, was raw, coldish, +and drizzly in the morning, but cleared up towards noon; and although it +never became what could be called warm (it was the latter end of +September), it turned out a very passable sort of day on the whole--such +a day as no man could reasonably object to, unless he had some +particular purpose of his own to serve. In such case he might perhaps +have wished more rain, or probably more sunshine, as the one or the +other suited his interest; but where no such selfish motives interfered, +the day must have been generally allowed to have been a good one. The +thermometer stood at--we forget what; and the barometer indicated +"Fair." + + +PERSONAL APPEARANCE, CHARACTER, AND PECULIARITIES OF THE DOCTOR. + +The doctor was a little stout man, not what could be called corpulent, +but presenting that sort of plump appearance which gives the idea of a +person's being hard-packed, squeezed, crammed into his skin. + +Such was the doctor, then--not positively fat, but thick, firm, and +stumpy; the latter characteristic being considerably heightened by his +always wearing a pair of glossy Hessian boots, which, firmly encasing +his little thick legs up nearly to the knees, gave a peculiar air of +stamina and solidity to his nether person. The doctor stood like a rock +in his Hessians, and stumped along in them--for he was excessively vain +of them--as proudly as a field-marshal, planting his little iron heels +on the flag-stones with a sharpness and decision that told of a firm and +vigorous step. + +The doctor was no great hand at his trade; but this, it is but fair to +observe, was not his own opinion. It was the opinion only of those who +employed him, and of the little public to whom he was known. He himself +entertained wholly different sentiments on the subject. The doctor, in +truth, was a vain, conceited little gentleman; but, withal, a pleasant +sort of person, and very generally liked. He sung a capital song, and +had an inexhaustible fund of animal spirits. + +One consequence of the latter circumstance was his being much invited +out amongst his friends and acquaintances. He was, in fact, a regular +guest at all their festivities and merry-makings, and on these occasions +used to get himself fully more strongly malted than became a gentleman +of his grave profession. + +When returning home of a night in this state, the little doctor's little +iron heels might be heard rap-rapping on the flag-stones at a great +distance in the quiet street, for he then planted them with still more +decision and vigour than when sober; and so well known in his +neighbourhood was the sound of his footsteps, so audible were they in +the stillness of the night, and so habitually late was he in returning +home--his profession forming an excellent excuse for this--that people, +even while sitting at their own firesides, or, it might be, in bed, +although at the height of three storeys, became aware, the moment they +heard his heels, that the doctor was passing beneath; and the +exclamations, "That's the doctor," or "There goes the doctor," announced +the important fact to many a family circle. All unconscious, however, +of these recognitions, the doctor stumped on his way, reflecting the +while, it might be, on the good cheer he had just been enjoying. + +On these occasions, the doctor, while he kept the open street, got on +swimmingly; but the dark and somewhat tortuous staircase which he had to +ascend to reach his domicile--the said domicile being on the third +flat--used to annoy him sadly. When very much overcome, as, we grieve to +say it, the doctor very frequently was, the labour it cost him to make +out the three stairs was very serious. It was long protracted, too; it +took him an immense time; for, conscious of his unsteady condition, he +climbed slowly and deliberately, but we cannot add quietly; for his +shuffling, kicking, and blowing, to which he frequently added a muttered +objurgation or two on missing a step, as he struggled up the dark stair, +were distinctly audible to the whole land. By merely listening, they +could trace his whole progress with the utmost accuracy, from the moment +he entered the close, until the slam of a door announced that the doctor +was housed. They could hear him pass along the close--they could hear +him commence his laborious ascent--they could hear him struggling +upwards, and, anon, the point of his boot striking against a step, which +he had taken more surely than necessary--they could hear him gain the +landing-place at his own door, signified by a peculiar shuffle, which +almost seemed to express the intelligence that a great work had been +accomplished--they could hear the doctor fumbling amongst his keys and +loose coin for his check-key, and again fumbling with this check-key +about its aperture in the door, the hitting of the latter being a +tedious and apparently most difficult achievement--and, lastly, they +could hear the door flung to with great violence, announcing the finale +of the doctor's progress. + +Over and above the more ordinary and obvious difficulties attending the +doctor's ascent on such occasions, and under such circumstances as those +of which we speak, there was one of a peculiar and particularly annoying +nature. This was the difficulty he found in discriminating his own +landing-place from the others,--a difficulty which was greatly increased +by the entire similarity of all the landing-places on the stair, the +doors in all of which were perfect counterparts of each other, and stood +exactly in the same relative positions. This difficulty often nonplussed +him sadly; but he at length fell upon a method of overcoming it, and of +ensuring his making attempts on no door but his own. He counted the +landing-places as he gained them, pausing a second or two on each to +draw breath, and impress its number on his memory,--one, two, three, +then out with the check-key. + +Now this was all very well had the doctor continued to reckon +accurately; but, considering the state of obfuscation in which he +generally returned home at night, it was very possible that he might +miscount on an occasion, and take that for three which, according to +Cocker, was only two, or that for two which, by the same authority, was +but one. This was perfectly possible, as the sequel of our tale will +sufficiently prove. In the meantime, we proceed to other matters; and, +to make our history as complete as possible, we start anew with-- + + +THE DOCTOR'S SHOP. + +It had not a very imposing appearance; for, to tell a truth, the +doctor's circumstances were by no means in a palmy state. The shop, +therefore, was decidedly a shabby one. It was very small and very +dirty, with a little projecting bow window, the lower panes of which +were mystified with some sort of light green substance--paint or paper, +we don't know which--in order to baffle the curiosity of the prying +urchins who used to congregate about it. Not that they were attracted by +anything in the window itself, but that it happened to be a favourite +station of the boys in the neighbourhood,--a sort of mustering place, or +place of call, where they could at any time find each other. The typical +display in the doctor's window consisted of a blue bottle, a pound of +salts, and a serpent; the second being made up into labelled packages of +about an ounce weight each, and built up with nice skill against one of +the panes, so as to make as much show as possible. The serpent was a +native of the Lammermoor Hills, which a boy, who drove a buttermilk +cart, brought in one morning, and sold to the doctor for a shilling. + +The inside of the doctor's shop, which besides being very dirty was very +dark, had a strange, mysterious, equivocal sort of character about it. +Everything was dingy, and greasy, and battered, and mutilated. Dirty +broken glasses stood in dark and dirty corners; rows of dirty bottles, +some without stoppers, and some with the necks chipped off, and +containing drops of black, villanous-looking liquids, stood on dirty +shelves; rows of battered, unctuous-looking drawers, rising tier above +tier, lined one side of the shop, most of which were handled with bits +of greasy cord, the brass handles with which they had been originally +furnished having long since disappeared, and never having been replaced. + +What these drawers contained, no human being but the doctor himself +could tell. In truth, few of them contained anything at all. Those that +did, could be described only as holding mysterious, dirty-looking +powders, lumps of incomprehensible substances, or masses of desiccated +vegetable matter of powerful and most abominable flavour. + +For all these, the doctor had, doubtless, very learned names; but such +as we have described them was their appearance to the eye of the +uninitiated. + +To complete the charms of the doctor's medical establishment, it was +constantly pervaded by a heavy, unearthly smell, that, we verily +believe, no man but himself could have inhaled for an hour and lived. + +Notwithstanding the unpretending and homely character of the doctor's +establishment, it boasted a sounding name. The doctor himself called it, +and so did the signboard over the door, "The ---- Medical Hall,"--a +title which the envious thought absurd enough for a place whose proudest +show was a blue bottle, a pound of salts, and a serpent. But these +people did not recollect, or did not choose to recollect, the high +pretensions of the doctor himself. They did not advert to the numerous +degrees, honorary titles, fellowships, etc., which he had acquired, +otherwise they would have looked to the man, not to the shop. Probably, +however, few of them were aware of the number of these which he boasted; +but it is a fact, nevertheless, that the doctor could, and did on +particular occasions, sign himself thus:--"David Dobbie, M.D.; E.F.; +M.N.O.; U.V.; Z.Y.X.; W.V.U.;" nor did he hesitate sometimes to alter +the letters according to the inspiration of the happy moment. + +Now, had the doctor's right to all these titles been taken into account, +and, so taken, been appreciated as it ought, there would have been fewer +sneers at his Medical Hall than there was as matters stood. + + + + +THE INVITATION. + + +In another part of this history we have stated that the doctor, being +generally liked, was much invited out to feastings and merry-makings, +and convivialities of all sorts, from the aristocratic roast turkey and +bottle of port, to the plebeian Findhorn haddock and jug of toddy. But +all, in this way, was fish that came in the doctor's net. Provided there +was quantity--particularly in the liquor department--he was not much +given to shying at quality. He certainly preferred wine, but by no means +turned up his nose at a tumbler. Few men, in fact, could empty more at a +sitting. + +It was observed of the doctor, by those who knew him intimately, that he +was always in bad humour on what he called blank days. These were days +on which he had no invitation on hand for any description of guzzle +whatever--either dinner, tea, supper, or a "just come up and take a +glass of toddy in the evening." This seldom occurred, but it did +sometimes happen; and on these occasions the doctor's short and snappish +answers gave sufficient intimation of the provoking fact. + +In such temper, then, and for such reason, was the doctor in the +forenoon of the particular day in his life which we have made the +subject of this paper. He was as cross as an old drill-sergeant; and +what made him worse, the affair he had been at on the preceding night +had been a very poor one. He had been hinted away after the third +tumbler--treatment which had driven the doctor to swear, mentally, that +he would never enter the house again. How far he would keep this +determination, it remained for another invitation to prove. + +In this mood, then, and at the time already alluded to, was the doctor +employed, behind his counter, in measuring off some liquid in a +graduated glass, which he held between him and the light, and on which +he was looking very intently, as the liquid was precious, the quantity +wanted small, and the glass but faintly marked, when a little boy +entered the shop, and inquired if Dr. Dobbie was within. + +"Yes. What do you want?" replied the doctor gruffly, and without taking +his eye off the graduated glass. + +"Here's a line for ye, sir," said the boy, laying a card on the counter. + +"Who's it from?" roared the doctor. + +"Frae Mr. Walkinshaw, sir," replied the boy, meekly; "and he would like +to ken whether ye can come or no." + +"Come; oh, surely. Let me see," said the doctor. "Come; ay, certainly," +he added, his tone suddenly dropping down to the mild and affable, and +speaking from an intuitive knowledge of the tenor of the card. "Surely; +let me see." And the doctor opened the note and read, his eyes gloating, +and his countenance dissolving into smiles, as he did so:-- + + "DEAR DOCTOR,--A few friends at half-past eight. Just a haddock + and a jug of toddy. Be as pointed as you can. Won't be kept + _very_ late. Dear Doctor, yours truly, + + "R. WALKINSHAW." + +"My compliments to Mr. Walkinshaw," said the doctor, with a bland smile, +and folding up the card with a sort of affectionate air as he spoke, +"and tell him I will be pointed. Stop, boy," he added, on the latter's +being about to depart with his message; "stop," he said, running towards +his till, and thence abstracting threepence, which he put into the boy's +hand, with a--"There, my boy, take that to buy marbles." The doctor +always rewarded such messengers; but he did so systematically, and by a +rule of his own. For an invitation to breakfast he gave a penny, thus +estimating that meal at all but the lowest possible rate; for an +invitation to dinner he gave sixpence; for one to supper, threepence, as +exemplified in the instance above. + +In possession of Mr. Walkinshaw's invitation, the doctor continued in +excellent spirits throughout the remainder of the day. + + +THE GUZZLE. + +At the height of three stories, in a respectable-looking tenement in a +certain quarter of a certain city which shall be nameless, there resided +a decent widow woman of the name of Paton, who kept lodgers. + +At the particular time, and on the particular occasion at and on which +we introduce the reader to Mrs. Paton's lodging-house, there was a +certain parlour in the said house in a state of unusual tidiness. Not to +say that this parlour was not always in good order: it was; but in the +present instance, it displayed an extra degree both of _redding_-up and +of comfort. + +An unusually large fire blazed in the polished grate, and a couple of +candles, in shining candlesticks, stood on the bright mahogany table. On +a small old-fashioned sideboard was exhibited a goodly display of +bottles and glasses, flanked by a sugar basin, heaped up with snowy bits +of refined sugar; a small plate of cut cheese, another of biscuit, and a +third bearing a couple of lemons. + +Everything about the room, in short, gave indication of an approaching +guzzle. The symptoms were unmistakeable. The only occupant of the room +at this time was a gentleman, who sat in an arm-chair opposite the +fire, carelessly turning over the leaves of a new magazine. His heart, +evidently, was not in the employment; he was merely putting off time, +and doing so with some impatience of manner, for he was ever and anon +pulling out his watch to see how the night sped on. + +This gentleman was Mr. Walkinshaw, the doctor's inviter, head clerk in a +respectable mercantile establishment in the city; and, we need hardly +say, one of Mrs. Paton's lodgers. Neither need we say, we fancy, that he +was just now waiting, and every moment expecting, the arrival of the +doctor, and the other friends he had invited, nor that the preparations +above described were intended for the special enjoyment of the party +alluded to. + +"Five-and-twenty minutes to nine," said Mr. Walkinshaw, looking for the +twentieth time at the dial of his watch. "I wonder what has become of +the doctor! _he_ used to be so pointed." + +At this moment a ring of the door bell announced a visitor. Mr. +Walkinshaw, in his impatience for the appearance of his friends, and not +doubting that this was one of them, snatched up the candle, and ran to +the door himself. He opened it; when a little thick-set figure, in +Hessian boots, wrapped up in an ample blue cloth cloak, with an immense +cape, and having a red comforter tied round his throat, presented +himself. It was the doctor. + +"How d'ye do? and how d'ye do? Come away. Glad to see you!" with cordial +shaking of hands and joyous smiles, marked the satisfaction with which +the inviter and the invited met. The doctor was in high spirits, as he +always was on such occasions; that is, when there was a prospect of good +eating and drinking, and nothing to pay. + +Having assisted the doctor to divest himself of his cloak, hat, and +comforter, Mr. Walkinshaw ushered him into his room; and having kindly +seated him in the arm-chair which he had himself occupied a minute or +two before, he ran to the sideboard, took therefrom a small bottle, and +very small glass of the shape of a thistle-top, and approaching his +guest, said in a coaxing tone, filling up at the same time-- + +"Thimbleful of brandy, doctor; just to take the chill off." Anything for +an excuse in such cases. + +"Why, no objection, my dear sir," said the doctor, smiling most +graciously, taking the proffered glass of ruby-coloured liquid, wishing +health and a good wife to his host, and tossing off the tiny bumper. + +The doctor had scarcely bolted his alcohol, when the door bell again +rung violently. + +"There _they_ are at last!" exclaimed Walkinshaw, joyously. + +And there they were, to be sure. Half-a-dozen rattling fellows all in a +lump. In they poured into Walkinshaw's room with hilarious glee. + +"Ah, doctor. Oh, doctor. Here too, doctor. Hope you're well, doctor. +Glad to see you, doctor!" resounded in all quarters; for they were all +intimate acquaintances of our medical friend, and were really delighted +to see him. + +To this running fire of salutation, the doctor replied by a series of +becks, bows, and smiles, and a shaking of hands, right and left, in +rapid succession. + +All these, and such like preliminaries, gone through, the party took +their seats around the table, and the business of the evening began. It +soon did more: it progressed, and that most joyously. Jug followed jug +in rapid succession. The doctor got into exuberant spirits, and sung +several of his best songs, in his best manner. But alas!-- + + "Pleasures are," etc. etc. + +They are, sweet poet, and no man could be more strongly impressed with, +or would have more readily allowed the truth and happy application of +thy beautiful similes, than the doctor, on the occasion of which we are +speaking. Enjoyment was quickly succeeded by satiety; and alert +apprehension, and quick perception, by that doziness and obfuscation of +the faculties which marks the _quantum suff._ at the festive board. + +The doctor was a man who could have said with the face of clay-- + + "And cursed be he who first cries, Hold, enough!" + +But, being but mortal, after all, his powers were not illimitable. There +was a boundary which even he could not pass, and at the same time lay +his hand on his breast and say, "I'm sober." + +That boundary the doctor had now passed by a pretty good way. In plain +language, he was cut, very much cut, as was made sufficiently evident by +various little symptoms,--such as a certain thickness of speech; a +certain diffusion of dull red over the whole countenance, extending to +and including the ears, which seemed to become transparent, like a pair +of thin, flat, red pebbles; a certain look of stupidity and +non-comprehension; and a certain heaviness and lacklustreness of eye, +that gave these organs a strong resemblance to a couple of parboiled +gooseberries. + +Sensible of his own condition, sensible that he could hold out no +longer, the doctor now moved, in the most intelligible language which he +could conveniently command, that the diet should be deserted _pro loco +et tempore_. + +The motion was unanimously approved of; this unanimity having been +secured by the inability of several of the party, who had been rendered +_hors de combat_, to express dissent. + +A general break up, then, was the consequence of the doctor's motion. +Candle in hand, Mr. Walkinshaw rose and accompanied his guests to the +door, towards which they moved in a long irregular file, he leading the +way. In the passage, however, a momentary halt was called. It was to +allow the doctor to don himself in his walking gear. With some +assistance from his host, this was soon accomplished. His hat was stuck +on his head, his martial cloak thrown around him, and his immense +comforter, like a red blanket, coiled around his neck. Thus accoutred, +the doctor and his friends evacuated the premises of their worthy host, +Mr. Walkinshaw. + + +THE RETURN HOME, AND INCIDENTS THEREFROM ARISING. + +The doctor had not proceeded far on his way home, until he found himself +alone. One after another, his friends had popped off; some disappearing +mysteriously, others giving fair warning of their departure, by shaking +him by the hand, and wishing him + + ----"good night, + And rosy dreams and slumbers light." + +Left to his own reflections, and, we may add, to his own exertions, the +doctor stumped bravely homeward, and, without meeting with anything +particularly worthy of notice, arrived safely at his own _close_ mouth. + +In another part of this history, we have mentioned that there were one +or two difficulties that always awaited the doctor on his return home +when in the particular state in which he was at this moment. The first +of these difficulties was to climb the dark tortuous staircase, on the +third story of which was his domicile. The second was to discriminate +between his neighbours' door and his own. The reader will recollect +that, to obviate this last difficulty, the doctor fell upon the +ingenious expedient of counting the landing-places as he ascended, his +own being number three. + +The reader's memory refreshed as to these particulars, we proceed to say +that the doctor, having traversed the close with a tolerably firm and +steady step, commenced his laborious ascent of the stair in his usual +manner, but with evidently fully more difficulty, as some of the +neighbours, who heard his struggles, remarked, than ordinary,--a +circumstance from which they inferred--and correctly enough, as we have +seen--that the doctor was more than ordinarily overcome. + +The first flight of steps the doctor accomplished with perfect success, +and with perfect accuracy recorded it as number one. This done, he +commenced the ascent of number two; and, after a severe struggle, +accomplished it also. But by the time he had done so, the doctor had +lost his reckoning, and, believing that he had gained his own +landing-place, from which, we need hardly remind the reader, he was yet +an entire flight of stairs distant, he deliberately pulled out his +check-key, and applied it to the door of the neighbour who lived right +under him,--a certain Mr. Thomson, who pursued the intellectual calling +of a cheesemonger. + +Having inserted the key in the lock, the doctor gave it the necessary +twitch; and, obedient to the hint, the bolt rose, the door opened, and +the doctor walked in. + +Being pitch-dark, and the two houses--that is, the doctor's and Mr. +Thomson's--being of precisely the same construction within, nothing +presented itself to the unconscious burglar to inform him of the blunder +he had made. + +Satisfied, or rather never doubting, that all was right, the doctor shut +the door, and, groping along the passage, sought the door of a small +apartment on the left, which, in his own house, was his bedroom. This +room he readily found; and it so happened that in Mr. Thomson's house +this same apartment was also a bedroom; so that the doctor, under all +circumstances, could not be blamed for feeling perfectly at ease as to +his situation. In this feeling, he planted himself down in a chair, and +began deliberately to unbutton his waistcoat, preparatory to tumbling +in. While thus employed, the doctor indulged in a sort of soliloquy, +embracing certain reflections and reminiscences connected with his +present condition and recent revelries. + +"All right, then," said the doctor, referring to his present position. +"Snug in my own bedroom. Capital song yon of Ned's; one of Gilfirian's, +I think. Writes a beautiful song, Gil--a pretty song--very pretty. Good +feeling, sweet natural sentiment, and all that sort of thing. Must get +his new edition, and learn half-a-dozen of them. Hah! confoundedly drunk +though--that lee-lurch ugly. Never mind: dead sober in the morning; +sound as a roach. Take a seidlitz, and all right." + +While thus expressing the ideas that were crowding through his addled +brain, the doctor's attention was suddenly attracted by a noise at the +outer door. He paused to listen. It was some one, with a key, +endeavouring to gain access. What could it mean? Thieves, robbers, no +doubt of it. The doctor did not doubt it. So, grasping a huge, thick +crab-stick, which he always carried at night, and which he had on the +present occasion laid against the wall close by where he sat, the doctor +stole on tiptoe towards the door, and taking up a position about a yard +distant from it, raised his crab-stick aloft, and in this attitude slily +awaited the entrance of the thief, whom he proposed to knock quietly +down the moment he passed the door-way. + +Leaving the doctor in this gallant position for a few seconds, we step +aside to inform the reader of a circumstance or two with which it is +right he should be made acquainted. In the first place, he should be, as +he now is, informed that the person at the door, and whom the doctor +took to be a midnight robber, was no other than the doctor's neighbour, +Mr. Thomson himself, the lawful occupant of the house of which the +former had taken possession. He had happened, like the doctor, to have +been out late that night; and, like the doctor, too, was several sheets +in the wind. However, that is neither here nor there to our story. But +it is of some consequence to it to add, inasmuch as it accounts for the +non-appearance of any one to avert the impending catastrophe, that there +was no one residing in Mr. Thomson's house at the particular period of +which we speak, but Mr. Thomson himself; his wife, children, and +servant, being at sea-bathing quarters. Thus, then, it was that the +doctor had been allowed to take and keep such undisturbed possession of +the premises. + +Again, the doctor being a bachelor, kept no servant at all; the domestic +duties of his establishment being performed by an old woman, who came at +an early hour of the morning, remained all day, and left at night. + +There was thus no family circumstance connected with his own domestic +establishment, the absence of which, on the present occasion, might have +excited his suspicions as to his real position. Everything, then, +favoured the unlucky chance now in progress. To resume: The doctor +having placed himself in the hostile attitude already described, coolly +and courageously awaited the entrance of the supposed burglar. He had +not to wait long. The door opened; and, all unconscious of what was +awaiting him, Thomson entered. It was all he was allowed to do, however; +for, in the next instant, a well-directed blow from the doctor's +crab-stick laid him senseless on the floor. + +"Take that, you burglarious villain," shouted the doctor triumphantly, +on seeing the success of his assault; "and that, and that, and that," he +added, plunging sundry forcible kicks into the body of his prostrate +victim with the points of his little stumpy Hessians. + +Having settled his man, as he imagined, the doctor stooped down, and, +seizing him by the neck of his coat, proceeded to drag him to the +outside of the door. This was a work of some difficulty, as Thomson was +rather a heavy man; but it was accomplished. The doctor exerted himself, +and succeeded in hauling the unconscious body of his unfortunate +neighbour on to the landing-place on the outside. Having got him there, +he edged him towards the descent, and, giving him a shove with his foot, +sent him rolling down the stairs. + +The housebreaker thus disposed of, and put, as the doctor believed, +beyond all power of doing any more mischief in this world, the latter, +highly satisfied with what he had done, and not a little vain of his +prowess, re-entered the house, carefully secured the door after him with +chain and bolt, and retired to the little bedroom of which he had been +before in possession. + +Somewhat sobered by the occurrence which had just taken place, the +doctor now discovered various little circumstances which rather +surprised him. He could not, for instance, find his nightcap; it was not +in the place where it used to be. Neither could he find the boot-jack; +it was not where it used to be either. The bed, too, he thought, had +taken up a strange position; it was not in the same corner of the room, +and the head was reversed. The head of his bed used to be towards the +door; he now found the foot in that direction. + +All these little matters the doctor noted, and thought them rather odd; +but he set them all down to the debit of his housekeeper,--some as the +results of carelessness--such as the absence of the nightcap and +boot-jack; others--the shifting of the bed and altering its position--to +the whim of some new arrangement. + +Thus satisfactorily accounting for the little omissions and +discrepancies he noted, the doctor began to peel; and, in a short time +after, was snugly buried beneath the blankets, with his red comforter +round his head in place of a nightcap. + +Leaving the doctor for a time, thus comfortably quartered, we will look +after the unfortunate victim of his prowess, whose rights he was now so +complacently usurping. + +For fully half an hour after he had been bundled down stairs by the +doctor in the way already described, poor Thomson lay without sense or +motion. At about the end of that time, however, he so far recovered as +to be able to emit two or three dismal groans, which happening to be +overheard by the policeman on the station, who was at the moment going +his rounds, he hastened towards the quarter from whence the alarming +sounds proceeded, and found the ill-used cheesemonger lying at full +length on the stair, head downwards, and, of course, feet uppermost. + +The policeman held his lantern close to the face of the unfortunate man, +to see if he could recognise him; but this he could not, and that for +two reasons: First, being newly come to the station, he did not know +Thomson at all; and, second, the countenance of the latter was so +covered with blood, and otherwise disfigured, that, suppose he had, he +could not possibly have recognised him. + +Seeing the man in a senseless state, and, as he thought, perhaps +mortally injured, the policeman hastened to the office to give notice of +his situation, and to procure assistance to have him carried there; all +of which was speedily done. A bier was brought, and on this bier the +person of the unfortunate cheesemonger was placed, and borne to the +police office. + +Medical aid being here afforded to the sufferer, he was soon brought so +far round as to be able to give some account of himself, and of the +misfortune which had befallen him. His face, too, having been cleared of +the blood by which it was disguised, he was recognised by several +persons in the office; and being known to be a respectable man, the +wonder was greatly increased to see him in so lamentable a condition. +Mr. Thomson's account, however, of the occurrences of the night +explained all. + +He stated that, on returning home to his own house, in which there was +no one living at present but himself, he was encountered by some one in +the passage, and knocked down the instant he entered the door. Who or +what the person was he could not tell, but he had no doubt that it was +some one who had entered the house for the purpose of robbing it; and +added his belief that the house was filled with robbers, who, he had no +doubt, had plundered it of every portable article worth carrying away. + +How he came to be found on the stair he could not tell, but supposed +that he had been dragged there after he had been knocked down--that +proceeding having deprived him of all consciousness. + +Here ended Mr. Thomson's deposition; and great was the sensation, great +the commotion which it excited in the police office. So daring a +burglary--so daring an assault. The like had not been heard of for +years. In a twinkling, eight or ten men were mustered, lanterned, and +bludgeoned; and, headed by a sergeant, were on their march to the scene +of robbery. + +On arriving at Mr. Thomson's door, they found it fast, and all quiet +within. What was to be done? Force open the door? Perhaps some of the +villains were still in the house. At any rate, it was proper to see what +state things were in. + +A smith was accordingly sent for, the lock picked, and the door thrown +open, when, headed by the sergeant with a pistol in his hand, in rushed +a mob of policemen, a constellation of lanterns, a forest of bludgeons. + +The guardians of the night now dispersed themselves over the house; but, +to their great surprise, found no trace whatever of the thieves. There +appeared to have been nothing disturbed, and the doors and windows +remained all fast. + +Puzzled by these circumstances, the police had begun to abate somewhat +of that zeal with which they had first commenced their search, and were +standing together in knots, some in one room and some in another, +discussing the probabilities and likelihoods of the case, when those in +the doctor's apartment were suddenly startled by a loud snore or grunt, +proceeding from the bed, which was followed by a restless movement, and +the exclamation--"Thieves, robbers!" muttered in the thick indistinct +way of a person dreaming. + +In an instant, half a dozen policemen rushed towards the bed, drew aside +the curtains, and there beheld the unconscious face of the heroic little +doctor just peering out of the blankets, and a section of the red +comforter in which his head was entombed in the manner already set +forth. We have said that the face on which the astonished policemen now +looked was an unconscious one. So it was; for, notwithstanding the grunt +he had emitted, the movement he had made, and the exclamations he had +uttered, the doctor was still sound asleep; the former having been +merely the result of dreamy reminiscences of the past, awakened by an +indistinct sense of the presence of some person or persons in the house. + +In mute surprise, the police, every one holding his lantern aloft, and +thus surrounding the bed with a halo of light, gazed for a second or two +on the sleeping Esculapius. They had never, in the course of all their +experience, seen a burglar take things so coolly and comfortably. That +he should enter a house with the intention of robbing it, and should +deliberately strip, go to bed, and take a snooze in that house, was a +piece of such daring impudence as they had never heard of before. + +It was no time, however, for making reflections on the subject. The +business in hand was to secure the villain; and this was promptly done. +Finding his sleep so profound as not to be easily disturbed, half a +dozen men, lanterns and sticks in hand, flung themselves on the doctor, +and, seizing him by the legs and arms, had him in a twinkling on the +floor on the breadth of his back. Confounded and bewildered as he was by +the extraordinary and appalling circumstances in which he now found +himself--surrounded with what appeared to him to be a mob--lanterns +flitting about as thick as the sparks on a piece of burned +paper--cudgels bristling around him like a paling--and, to complete all, +a clamour and hubbub of tongues that might have been heard three streets +off;--we say, confounded and bewildered as he was by these sights and +sounds, the doctor's pluck did not desert him. Starting to his feet, and +not doubting that he was in the midst of a mob of housebreakers, he +seized one of the policemen by the throat, when a deadly struggle +ensued, in which the doctor's shirt was, in a twinkling, torn up into +ribbons; in another twinkling he was floored by a blow from a baton, and +rendered incapable of further resistance. + +The combat had been a most unequal one, and no other consequence could +possibly have arisen from it. + +Having knocked down the doctor, the next business, as is usual in such +and similar cases, was to get him up again. Accordingly, three or four +men got hold of him by the arms and shoulders, and having raised him to +his feet, planted him, still senseless, in a chair. + +A clamorous consultation, spoken in half a dozen different dialects, now +ensued, as to how the housebreaker was to be disposed of. + +"We'll teuk him to the office, to pe surely," said a hard-faced, +red-whiskered Celt. "What else you'll do wi' ta roke that'll proke into +shentleman's hoose, and go to ped as comfortable as a lort. Dam's +impitence." + +"Soul, and it's to the office we'll have him, by all manner o' means, +and that in the twinkling of a bedpost," chimed in a tall raw-boned +Irishman, with a spotted cotton handkerchief tied so high around the +lower part of his face as to bury his mouth. "The thaif o' the world. +It's a free passage across the wather he'll now get, anyhow, bad luck to +him." + +"Fat, tiel, would you tak the man stark naked through the street?" said +a little thick-set Aberdonian. "It would be verra undecent. There's a +bit cloaky there; throw that aboot his shouthers, and then we'll link +him awa like a water-stoup." + +"Od, ye'll no fin that so easy, I'm thinkin!" exclaimed a lumpish, +broad-shouldered young fellow. "He's as fat's a Lochrin distillery pig. +He's a hantle mair like his meat than his wark, that ane." + +Hitherto the unfortunate subject of these remarks had been able to take +no part in what was passing; but, stupefied by the blow he had received, +which had covered his face with blood, and further confounded by the +various circumstances of the case--his previous debauch, the violence +and suddenness of his awakening, and the extraordinary clamour and +uproar that surrounded him--he sat, with drooping head and confused +senses, without uttering a word. + +His physical energies, however, gradually recovering a little, he began +to stare about him with a look of bewilderment; and at length, fixing +his eye on the Irishman, who happened to be standing directly opposite +him, he addressed him with a-- + +"Pray, friend, what is the meaning of all this?" + +"Faiks, my purty fellow, and it's yourself that might be after guessing +that with your own 'cute genius," replied Paddy. "Haven't you half a +notion, now, of what you have been about the same blessed night?" + +"I have a pretty good notion that my house has been broken into by a +parcel of ruffians," said the doctor, "and that I have been half, +perhaps wholly, murdered by you." + +"Capital, ould fellow; capital," said the Irishman. "Tell truth, and +shame the devil. Your house! Stick to that, my jewel, and you'll +astonish the spalpeens. But come, come, my tight little mannikin, get up +wid ye. You'll go and have a peep of _our_ house now. Time about's fair +play." + +And he seized the doctor, who was now wrapped in his cloak, and was +forcing him from his seat, when the latter, resisting this movement, +called out-- + +"Does no one here know me? Will no one here protect me? What am I +assailed in my own house in this manner for? My name's Dobbie--Doctor +Dobbie!" + +"Your name's no nosin to nobody, you roke," said Duncan M'Kay, seconding +the efforts of his colleague to lug the doctor out of his seat. "You'll +be one names to-day and anodder names to-morrow. So shust come along to +ta office, toctor--since you calls yourselfs a toctor--and teuket a +nicht's quarters wi' some o' your frients that's there afore you." + +"Let's get a grup o' him," exclaimed the broad-shouldered young fellow +already spoken of, edging himself in to have a share in the honour of +laying a capturing hand on the doctor. "Od, he's as round as a pokmanky. +There's nae getting hand o' him. Come awa, doctor; come awa, my man. +Bailie Morton 'll be unco glad to see ye," he added, having succeeded in +getting hold of one of the doctor's arms, which he seized with a grip +like a vice. + +Undeterred by the overpowering force with which he was assailed, the +doctor still resisted, vainly announcing and re-announcing his name and +calling. It had the effect only of increasing the clamour and hubbub +amongst the police, who now all huddled round him in a mob; and without +listening to a word he said, finally succeeded in carrying him bodily +out of the house, in despite of some desperate struggling, and a great +deal of noisy vociferation on the part of the doctor. + + +THE POLICE OFFICE, AND FINALE. + +Leading off from and immediately behind the public office, there was a +small carpeted room, provided with a sofa, some chairs, and a +writing-desk. + +This room was appropriated to some of the upper functionaries connected +with the police establishment of ----, and was the scene of private +examinations of culprits, and of other kinds of proceedings of a private +nature. + +At the time at which we introduce the reader to this apartment, there +lay extended on the sofa above spoken of, a gentleman who appeared to +have seen some recent service, if one might judge from the circumstance +of his head being bound up in a blood-stained handkerchief, and his +exhibiting some symptoms of languor and debility. This gentleman was Mr. +Thomson, who was awaiting the result of the expedition which had gone to +examine his house, and whose return he was now momentarily expecting. +Awaiting the same issue then, and awaiting it in the same apartment, was +another gentleman. This person was a sort of sub-superintendent of the +police; and was, at the moment of which we speak, busily engaged writing +at the desk formerly mentioned. + +Both of those persons, then, were anxiously waiting the return of the +detachment whose proceedings are already before the reader, beguiling +the time, meanwhile, by discussing the probabilities of the case. They +were thus engaged, when a tremendous noise in the outer office gave +intimation of an arrival, and one of no ordinary kind; for the tramping +of feet was immense, and the hubbub astounding. + +"That's _them_," said Mr. Thomson. + +"I think it is," said the sub. + +Ere any other remark could be made, the door of the private apartment +was opened, and in marched a short, stout, half-dressed, bloody-faced +gentleman, in a blue cloth cloak, between two policemen, and followed by +a mob of functionaries of the same description, who stood so thick as +to completely block up the door. This stout, half-dressed gentleman in +the blue cloth cloak was the doctor. + +"Dear me, doctor," said Mr. Thomson, advancing towards the former, whom +he at once recognised, "what's the matter? What terrible affair is +this?" + +"Terrible indeed--unheard of, monstrous!" exclaimed the doctor, in a +towering passion. "My house, sir, has been broken into by these +ruffians. I have been torn from my bed, maltreated in the way you see, +and dragged here like a felon by them, and for what I know not. But I +_will_ know it; and if I don't--" + +"This is odd, doctor," here interposed Mr. Thomson; "I have been the +victim of a similar kind of violence to-night, as you may see by the +state of my head, although the case is in other respects somewhat +different. My house has been also broken into." + +"Bless my soul, very strange!" said the doctor, taking a momentary +interest in the misfortunes of his neighbour. "By these ruffians?" he +added, pointing to the police. + +"No, no, not them," replied Thomson; "housebreakers. Some villains had +got into the house; and I had no sooner entered it, on returning home a +little later than usual, than I was knocked down, dragged out to the +stair, and thrown down, where I was found in a state of insensibility +and brought here." + +The doctor winced a little at this statement: a vague suspicion, we can +hardly say of the fact, but of something akin thereto, began to glimmer +dimly on his mental optics. He, however, said nothing; nor, even had he +been inclined to say anything, was opportunity afforded him; for here +the presiding official of the place, the sub-superintendent, to whom the +doctor was well known, and who had impatiently awaited the conclusion +of the conversation between the latter and Thomson, interfered with a-- + +"Good heaven, doctor, how came you to be in this situation? What is the +meaning of all this?" he added, turning to his men. + +"The maining's as plain as a pike-staff, your honour," replied the Irish +watchman, to whom we have already introduced the reader. "We found this +little gentleman, since he turns out to be a gentleman, where he +shouldn't have been." + +"And where was that, pray?" inquired the sub. + +"Why, in Mr. Thomson's house, your honour. And not only that, but in bed +too, as snug as a fox in a chimbley." + +"In ta fery peds, ta roke!" here chimed in our friend M'Kay. + +"What! you don't mean to say that you found the doctor here in _Mr. +Thomson's_ house?" said the astonished official, laying a marked +emphasis on the name. + +"To pe surely we do, sir," replied Duncan. + +"I'll tak my Bible oath till't," added another personage, whom the +reader will readily recognise. + +"In my house! The doctor in _my_ house!" exclaimed Mr. Thomson, in the +utmost amazement. + +"Mr. Thomson's house! Me in Mr. Thomson's house!" said the doctor, with +a look of blank dismay; for a tolerably distinct view of the truth had +now begun to present itself to his mind's eye. It was, therefore, rather +in the desperate hope of there being yet some chance in his favour, than +from any conviction that the testimony against him was founded in error, +that he added-- + +"My _own_ house, you scoundrels; you found me in my _own_ house!" + +Here the whole mob of policemen simultaneously, and as if with one +voice, shouted--"It's a lie, it's a lie. We found him in Mr. Thomson's." + +"How do you explain this, doctor?" said Mr. Thomson mildly, although +beginning--he couldn't help it--to think rather queerly of the doctor. + +"Why, why," replied the crest-fallen and perplexed doctor, "if I really +have been in your house, Mr. Thomson, although I can't believe it, I +must, I must--in fact, I must have mistaken it for my own. To tell a +truth, I came home rather cut last night; and it is possible, quite +possible, although I can hardly think probable, that I may have taken +your house for my own. That's the fact," added the doctor, with +something like an appeal to the lenity of the person whose rights he had +so unwittingly usurped, and whose corporeal substance he had so +seriously maltreated. + +"And was it you that knocked me down, doctor?" said Mr. Thomson. "Too +bad that, to knock me down in my own house." + +"Why, my dear sir, I trust I did not. I hope I did not. But really I +don't know; perhaps I--you see, I thought thieves were coming in, and +I--" + +Here a burst of laughter from the presiding officer, which was instantly +taken up by every one in the apartment, and in which Thomson himself +couldn't help joining, interrupted the doctor's further explanations. + +"Well, doctor," said the latter, who was a good-natured sort of person, +and who, like every one else, had a kind of esteem for the little +medical gentleman, "I must say that when you broke my head, you were +only in the way of your trade; but I think the least thing you can do is +to mend it for nothing." + +"Most gladly, my dear sir," replied the doctor; "for I did the +damage,--at least I fear it, however unknowingly,--and am bound to +repair it." + +"Done; let it be a bargain," said Thomson. "But, doctor, be so good as +to give me previous notice when you again desire to take possession of +my house. At any rate, don't knock me down when I come to seek a share +of it." + +The doctor promised to observe the conditions; and shortly after, the +two left the office, arm in arm, in the most friendly way imaginable. + +It is said, although we cannot vouch for the truth of the report, that +the doctor, after this, fell upon the expedient of casting a knot on his +handkerchief for each landing-place in the stair as he gained it, when +ascending the latter under such circumstances as those that gave rise to +the awkward occurrence which has been the subject of these pages. + + + + +THE SEEKER. + + +Amongst the many thousand readers of these tales, there are perhaps few +who have not observed that the object of the writers is frequently of a +higher kind than that of merely contributing to their amusement. They +would wish "to point a moral," while they endeavour to "adorn a tale." +It is with this view that I now lay before them the history of a SEEKER. +The first time I remember hearing, or rather of noticing the term, was +in a conversation with a living author respecting the merits of a +popular poet, when, his religious opinions being adverted to, it was +mentioned that, in a letter to a brother poet of equal celebrity, he +described himself as a SEEKER. I was struck with the word and its +application. I had never met with the fool who saith in his heart that +there is no God; and though I had known many deniers of revelation, yet +a SEEKER, in the sense in which the word was applied, appeared a new +character. But, on reflection, I found it an epithet applicable to +thousands, and adopted it as a title to our present story. + +Richard Storie was the eldest son of a Dissenting minister, who had the +pastoral charge of a small congregation a few miles from Hawick. His +father was not what the world calls a man of talent, but he possessed +what is far beyond talents--piety and humanity. In his own heart he felt +his Bible to be true--its words were as a lamp within him; and from his +heart he poured forth its doctrines, its hopes, and consolations, to +others, with a fervour and an earnestness which Faith only can inspire. +It is not the thunder of declamation, the pomp of eloquence, the majesty +of rhetoric, the rounded period, and the glow of imagery, which can +chain the listening soul, and melt down the heart of the unbeliever, as +metals yield to the heat of the furnace. Show me the hoary-headed +preacher, who carries sincerity in his very look and in his very tones, +who is animated because faith inspires him, and out of the fulness of +his own heart his mouth speaketh, and there is the man from whose tongue +truth floweth as from the lips of an apostle; and the small still voice +of conscience echoes to his words, while hope burns, and the judgment +becomes convinced. Where faith is not in the preacher, none will be +produced in the hearer. Such a man was the father of Richard Storie. He +had fulfilled his vows, and prayed with and for his children. He set +before them the example of a Christian parent, and he rejoiced to +perceive that that example was not lost upon them. + +We pass over the earlier years of Richard Storie, as during that period +he had not become a SEEKER, nor did he differ from other children of his +age. There was indeed a thoughtfulness and sensibility about his +character; but these were by no means so remarkable as to require +particular notice, nor did they mark his boyhood in a peculiar degree. +The truths which from his childhood he had been accustomed to hear from +his father's lips, he had never doubted; but he felt their truth as he +felt his father's love, for both had been imparted to him together. He +had fixed upon the profession of a surgeon, and at the age of eighteen +he was sent to Edinburgh to attend the classes. He was a zealous +student, and his progress realized the fondest wishes and anticipations +of his parent. It was during his second session that Richard was +induced, by some of his fellow collegians, to become a member of a +debating society. It was composed of many bold and ambitious young men, +who, in the confidence of their hearts, rashly dared to meddle with +things too high for them. There were many amongst them who regarded it +as a proof of manliness to avow their scepticism, and who gloried in +scoffing at the eternal truths which had lighted the souls of their +fathers when the darkness of death fell upon their eyelids. It is one of +the besetting sins of youth to appear wise above what is written. There +were many such amongst those with whom Richard Storie now associated. +From them he first heard the truths which had been poured into his +infant ear from his father's lips attacked, and the tongue of the +scoffer rail against them. His first feeling was horror, and he +shuddered at the impiety of his friends. He rose to combat their +objections and refute their arguments, but he withdrew not from the +society of the wicked. Week succeeded week, and he became a leading +member of the club. He was no longer filled with horror at the bold +assertions of the avowed sceptic, nor did he manifest disgust at the +ribald jest. As night silently and imperceptibly creeps through the air, +deepening shade on shade, till the earth lies buried in its darkness, so +had the gloom of _Doubt_ crept over his mind, deepening and darkening, +till his soul was bewildered in the sunless darkness. + +The members acted as chairman of the society in rotation, and, in his +turn, the office fell upon Eichard Storie. For the first time, he seemed +to feel conscious of the darkness in which his spirit was enveloped; +conscience haunted him as a hound followeth its prey; and still its +small still voice whispered, + + "Who sitteth in the scorner's chair." + +The words seemed burning on his memory. He tried to forget them, to +chase them away--to speak of, to listen to other things; but he could +not. "_Who sitteth in the scorner's chair_" rose upon his mind as if +printed before him--as if he heard the words from his father's +tongue--as though they would rise to his own lips. He was troubled--his +conscience smote him--the darkness in which his soul was shrouded was +made visible. He left his companions--he hastened to his lodgings, and +wept. But his tears brought not back the light which had been +extinguished within him, nor restored the hopes which the pride and the +rashness of reason had destroyed. He had become the willing prisoner of +_Doubt_, and it now held him in its cold and iron grasp, struggling in +despair. + +Reason, or rather the self-sufficient arrogance of fancied talent which +frequently assumes its name, endeavoured to suppress the whisperings of +conscience in his breast; and in such a state of mind was Richard +Storie, when he was summoned to attend the death-bed of his father. It +was winter, and the snow lay deep on the ground, and there was no +conveyance to Hawick until the following day; but, ere the morrow came, +eternity might be between him and his parent. He had wandered from the +doctrines that parent had taught, but no blight had yet fallen on the +affections of his heart. He hurried forth on foot; and having travelled +all night in sorrow and anxiety, before daybreak he arrived at the home +of his infancy. Two of the elders of the congregation stood before the +door. + +"Ye are just in time, Mr. Richard," said one of them mournfully, "for +he'll no be lang now; and he has prayed earnestly that he might only be +spared till ye arrived." + +Richard wept aloud. + +"Oh, try and compose yoursel', dear sir," said the elder. "Your distress +may break the peace with which he's like to pass away. It's a sair +trial, nae doubt--a visitation to us a'; but ye ken, Richard, we must +not mourn as those who have no hope." + +"Hope!" groaned the agonized son as he entered the house. He went +towards the room where his father lay; his mother and his brethren sat +weeping around the bed. + +"Richard!" said his afflicted mother as she rose and flung her arms +around his neck. The dying man heard the name of his first-born, his +languid eyes brightened, he endeavoured to raise himself upon his +pillow, he stretched forth his feeble hand. "Richard!--my own Richard!" +he exclaimed; "ye hae come, my son; my prayer is heard, and I can die in +peace! I longed to see ye, for my spirit was troubled upon yer +account--sore and sadly troubled; for there were expressions in yer last +letter that made me tremble--that made me fear that the pride o' human +learning was lifting up the heart o' my bairn, and leading his judgment +into the dark paths o' error and unbelief; but oh! these tears are not +the tears of an unbeliever!" + +He sank back exhausted. Richard trembled. He again raised his head. + +"Get the books," said he feebly, "and Richard will make worship. It is +the last time we shall all join together in praise on this earth, and it +will be the last time I shall hear the voice o' my bairn in prayer, and +it is long since I heard it. Sing the hymn, + + 'The hour of my departure's come,' + +and read the twenty-third psalm." + +Richard did as his dying parent requested; and as he knelt by the +bedside, and lifted up his voice in prayer, his conscience smote him, +agony pierced his soul, and his tongue faltered. He now became a Seeker, +seeking mercy and truth at the same moment; and, in the agitation of his +spirit, his secret thoughts were revealed, his doubts were manifested! A +deep groan issued from the dying-bed. The voice of the supplicant failed +him--his _amen_ died upon his lips; he started to his feet in confusion. + +"My son! my son!" feebly cried the dying man, "ye hae lifted yer eyes to +the mountains o' vanity, and the pride o' reason has darkened yer heart, +but, as yet, it has not hardened it. Oh Richard! remember the last words +o' yer dying faither: 'Seek, and ye shall find.' Pray with an humble and +a contrite heart, and in yer last hour ye will hae, as I hae now, a +licht to guide ye through the dark valley of the shadow of death." + +He called his wife and his other children around him--he blessed +them--he strove to comfort them--he committed them to his care who is +the Husband of the widow and the Father of the fatherless. The lustre +that lighted up his eyes for a moment, as he besought a blessing on +them, vanished away, his head sank back upon his pillow, a low moan was +heard, and his spirit passed into peace. + +His father's death threw a blight upon the prospects of Richard. He no +longer possessed the means of prosecuting his studies; and in order to +support himself and assist his mother, he engaged himself as tutor in +the family of a gentleman in East Lothian. But there his doubts followed +him, and melancholy sat upon his breast. He had thoughtlessly, almost +imperceptibly, stepped into the gloomy paths of unbelief, and anxiously +he groped to retrace his steps; but it was as a blind man stumbles; and +in wading through the maze of controversy for a guide, his way became +more intricate, and the darkness of his mind more intense. He repented +that he had ever listened to the words of the scoffer, or sat in the +chair of the scorner; but he had permitted the cold mists of scepticism +to gather round his mind, till even the affections of his heart became +blighted by their influence. He was now a solitary man, shunning +society; and at those hours when his pupils were not under his charge, +he would wander alone in the wood or by the river, brooding over +unutterable thoughts, and communing with despair; for he sought not, as +is the manner of many, to instil the poison that had destroyed his own +peace into the minds of others. He carried his punishment in his soul, +and was silent--in the soul that was doubting its own existence! Of all +hypochondriacs, to me the unbeliever seems the most absurd. For can +matter think? can it reason, can it doubt? Is it not the thing that +doubts which distrusts its own being? Often when he so wandered, the +last words of his father--"Seek, and ye shall find"--were whispered in +his heart, as though the spirit of the departed breathed them over him. +Then would he raise his hands in agony, and his prayer rose from the +solitude of the woods. + +After acting about two years as tutor, he returned to Edinburgh and +completed his studies. Having with difficulty, from the scantiness of +his means, obtained his diplomas, he commenced practice in his native +village. His brothers and his sisters had arrived at manhood and +womanhood, and his mother enjoyed a small annuity. Almost from boyhood +he had been deeply attached to Agnes Brown, the daughter of a +neighbouring farmer; and about three years after he had commenced +practice, she bestowed on him her hand. She was all that his heart could +wish--meek, gentle, and affectionate; and her anxious love threw a +gleam of sunshine over the melancholy that had settled upon his soul. +Often, when he fondly gazed in her eyes, where affection beamed, the +hope of immortality would flash through his bosom; for one so good, so +made of all that renders virtue dear, but to be born to die and to be no +more, he deemed impossible. They had been married about nine years, and +Agnes had become the mother of five fair children, when in one day death +entered their dwelling, and robbed them of two of their little ones. The +neighbours had gathered together to comfort them, and the mother in +silent anguish wept over her babes; but the father stood tearless and +stricken with grief, as though his hopes were sealed up in the coffin of +his children. In his agony he uttered words of strange meaning. The +doubts of the Seeker burst forth in the accents of despair. The +neighbours gazed at each other. They had before had doubts of the +religious principles of Dr. Storie; now those doubts were confirmed. +Many began to regard him as an unsafe man to visit a death-bed, where he +might attempt to rob the dying of the everlasting hope which enables +them to triumph over the last enemy. His practice fell off, and the +wants of his family increased. He was no longer able to maintain an +appearance of respectability. His circumstances aggravated the gloom of +his mind; and for a time he became, not a Seeker, but one who abandoned +himself to callousness and despair. Even the affection of his +wife--which knew no change, but rather increased as affliction and +misfortune came upon them--with the smiles and affection of his +children, became irksome. Their love increased his misery. His own house +was all but forsaken, and the blacksmith's shop became his consulting +room, the village alehouse his laboratory. Misery and contempt +heightened the "shadows, clouds, and darkness" which rested on his +mind. To his anguish and excitement he had now added habits of +intemperance; his health became a wreck, and he sank upon his bed, a +miserable and a ruined man. The shadow of death seemed lowering over +him, and he lay trembling, shrinking from its approach, shuddering and +brooding over the cheerless, the horrible thought--_annihilation_! But, +even then, his poor Agnes watched over him with a love stronger than +death. She strove to cheer him with the thought that he would still +live--that they would again be happy. "Oh my husband!" cried she fondly, +"yield not to despair; _seek, and ye shall find_!" + +"Oh heavens, Agnes!" exclaimed he, "I have sought!--I have sought! I +have been a SEEKER until now; but Truth flees from me, Hope mocks me, +and the terrors of Death only find me!" + +"Kneel with me, my children," she cried; "let us pray for mercy and +peace of mind for your poor father!" And the fond wife and her offspring +knelt around the bed where her husband lay. A gleam of joy passed over +the sick man's countenance, as the voice of her supplication rose upon +his ear, and a ray of hope fell upon his heart. "_Amen_!" he uttered as +she arose; and "_Amen_!" responded their children. + +On the bed of sickness his heart had been humbled; he had, as it were, +seen death face to face; and the nearer it approached, the stronger +assurances did he feel of the immortality he had dared to doubt. He +arose from his bed a new man; hope illumined, and faith began to glow in +his bosom. His doubts were vanquished, his fears dispelled. He had +sought, and at length found the hopes of the Christian. + + + + +THE SURGEON'S TALES. + +THE WAGER.[C] + + +About thirty years ago, the office of carrier between Edinburgh and a +certain town on the north of the Tay was discharged by a person of the +name of George Skirving. At the time of which we speak he might be about +forty-five years of age, a man of considerable physical strength, and +with as much mental firmness as will be found among the generality of +mankind. His occupation, in travelling during night, required often the +confirming influence of personal courage, to keep him from being +alarmed; and his activity, and exposure to the fresh air of both land +and water, were conducive to bodily health and elasticity of spirits. He +was at once a faithful carrier and a good companion on the road, along +which he was generally respected; and, by attention to business and +economical habits of living, he had been enabled to realize as much +money as might suffice to sustain him, with his wife and three children, +in the event of his being disabled, by accident or ill health, from +following his ordinary employment. + +The day in which George Skirving left the northern town for Edinburgh, +was Wednesday of each week; and he started at the hour of seven, both in +winter and summer. On one occasion, in the month of August, he set out +from his quarters at his usual hour; and having crossed the Tay with his +goods, proceeded on his way through Fife. He had with him his dog Wolf, +who usually served him as a companion; his waggons were loaded with +goods, the proceeds of the carriage of which he counted as he trudged +along; and he now and then had recourse to a small flask of spirits +which his wife had, without his knowledge, and contrary to her usual +custom, placed in the breast-pocket of his great-coat. He was thus in +good spirits; and as he applied himself with great moderation--for he +was a sober man--to his inspiring companion, he jocularly blamed Betty +(such was the name of his consort) for defrauding his houses of call on +the road of the custom he used to bestow on them. + +"It was kind o' ye, Betty," he said; "but it saves naething; for if I, +wha have travelled this road for sae mony years, were to pass John +Sharpe's, or Widow M'Murdo's, or Andrew Gemmel's, without takin' my +usual allowance, I would be set doun as fey or mad. I maun gae through +a' my usual routine--mak my ca's, order my drams, drink them, and pay +for them, as I hae dune for twenty years. Men are just like clocks--some +gae owre fast, and some owre slow; but the carrier, beyond a', maun keep +to his time aye, and _chap_ at the proper time and place, or idleness +and beggary would soon mak time hang weary on his hands." + +He had trudged onwards in his slow pace for a space of about eight +miles, and was at the distance of about three from Cupar, when he was +accosted by a person of the name of James Cowie, an inhabitant of +Dundee, with whom he had for a long time been in habits of intimacy. + +"You are weel forward the day, George," said Cowie. "Ye'll be in Cupar +before your time. There's rowth a parcels for ye at John Sharpe's door, +yonder. But, mercy on me!" he continued, starting and looking amazed, +"what's the matter wi' ye, man?" + +"Naething," replied George. "I hae been takin' a few draps o' Betty's +cordial, here," pointing to the flask, "and maybe the colour may have +mounted to my face." + +"The colour mounted to your face, man!" ejaculated Cowie. "Is it +whiteness--paleness--ye mean by colour? Ye're like a clout, man--a +bleached clout. There's something wrang, rely upon it, George; some o' +that intricate machinery o' our fearfu' systems out o' joint. Is it +possible ye have felt or feel nae change?" + +"Nane whatever, Jamie," answered the carrier, somewhat alarmed. "You're +surely joking me; I never felt better i' my life. No, no, Jamie, there's +naething the matter; thank God, I'm in gude health." + +"It's weel ye think sae," replied Cowie, with a satirical tone; "but if +I'm no cheated, ye're on the brink o' some fearfu' disease. Get up on +your cart, man; hasten to Cupar, an' speak to Doctor Lowrie. It's a braw +thing to tak diseases in time." + +"If a white face is a' ye judge by," said George, attempting to make +light of the matter, "I can remove it by an application to Betty's +cordial." + +"Ay, do that," said Cowie ironically, "and add fuel to the flame. If I +werena your friend, I wadna tak this liberty wi' ye. I assure ye again, +an' I hae some judgment o' thae matters, that ye're very ill. That's no +an ordinary paleness: your lips are blue, an' your eyes dull an' +heavy--sure signs o' an oncome. Haste ye to Cupar an' get advice, an' ye +may yet ca' me your best friend." + +As he finished these words, Cowie turned to proceed onwards towards +Newport. + +"Ye've either said owre little or owre muckle, James," replied George, +after a slight pause, and resigning his carelessness. + +"I hae just said the truth, George," added Cowie; "but I maun be in +Dundee by one o'clock, an' canna wait. I'll say naething to Mrs. +Skirving to alarm her; but, for God's sake, tak my advice, an' consult +Doctor Lowrie." + +He proceeded on his journey, leaving Skirving in doubt and perplexity. +At first he was considerably affected by Cowie's speech and manner, +because he knew him to be a serious man, and averse to all manner of +joking. It was possible, he admitted, that a disease might be lurking +secretly in his vitals, unknown to himself, but discernible to another; +and the circumstance of his wife having put the flask of cordial in his +coat-pocket, seemed to indicate that she had observed something wrong +before he set out, and had been afraid to communicate it to him, in case +it might alarm him. His spirits sank, as this confirmation of Cowie's +statement came to his mind; he put his right hand to his left wrist, to +feel the state of the pulse, and, as might have been expected, +discovered (for he overlooked the effects of his fear) that it was much +quicker than it used to be when he was in perfect health. + +Having been taken thus by surprise, he remained in a state of +considerable depression for some time; but when he came to think of the +inadequate grounds of his alarm, he began to rally; and his mind, +rebounding, as it were, on the cessation of the depressing reverie, +threw off the fear, and he recovered so far his natural courage as to +laugh at the strange fancy that had taken possession of him. + +"I was a fule," he said to himself. "What though my face be pale, and my +eyes heavy, and my pulse a little quicker than usual, am I to dee for a' +that? Cowie has probably had his _morning_; and truly his appearance, +now when I think of it, didna assort ill wi' that supposition. Johnny +Sharpe and he are auld cronies, and they couldna part without some wet +pledge o' their auld friendship. I'll wad my best horse on the point. +Ha! ha! what a fule I was!" He accompanied these words by again feeling +his pulse. The fear was greatly off, the pulsations had become more +regular; and this confirmation enabled him to laugh off the effects the +extraordinary announcements had made upon him. + +He proceeded onwards to Cupar, and stopped at John Sharpe's inn. The +landlord was at the door. George looked at him narrowly, as he saluted +him in the ordinary form. He thought the innkeeper looked also very +narrowly at him, as he answered his salutation; but he was afraid to +broach the question of his sickly appearance, and hurried away to get +the goods packed that stood at the inn door. Having finished his work, +during which he thought he saw the landlord looking strangely at him, he +called for the quantity of spirits he was usually in the habit of +getting, and, as he filled out the glass, asked quickly if James Cowie +had been there that morning. The landlord answered that he had; but +added, of his own accord, that he did not remain in the house so long as +to give time for even drinking to each other. This answer produced a +greater effect upon George than he was even then aware of; and it is not +unlikely that this, and the impression that the landlord looked at him +_strangely_, produced the very paleness that Cowie had mentioned. Be +that as it may, he took up the glass of spirits and laid it down again, +without almost tasting it; and his reason for this departure from his +ordinary course, was, that he had already partaken sufficiently of his +wife's cordial; and he had some strange misgivings about drinking ardent +spirits, in case, after all, it might turn out that there was hanging +about him some disease. The moment he laid down the full glass, the +landlord said to him, looking in an inquiring and sympathetic manner +into his face-- + +"George, I haena seen you do that for ten years. Are you well enough?" + +"What! what! eh, what!" stammered out the carrier confusedly; "do you +think I'm ill, John?" + +The words were scarcely out of his mouth when the inn bell rang, and the +landlord was called away, and, being otherwise occupied, did not return. +After waiting for him a considerable time, Skirving became impatient, +and, making another effort to shake off his fears, applied the whip to +his horses, and proceeded on his journey. For a time his mind was so +much confused that he could not contemplate the whole import of the +extraordinary coincidence he had just witnessed; but as he proceeded and +came to a quieter part of the road, his thoughts reverted to the +statements of James Cowie--who, he was now satisfied, had been quite +sober--to the looks and extraordinary question of John Sharpe, and to +the intention of his wife in providing him with the cordial. As he +pondered on this strange accumulation of according facts, he again felt +his pulse, which had again risen to the height it had attained during +the prior paroxysm. The affair had now assumed a new aspect. It was +impossible that this concurrence of circumstances could be fortuitous. +He was now much afraid that he was ill--very ill indeed; perhaps under +the incipient symptoms of typhus or brain fever, or small-pox, or some +other dreadful disease. As these thoughts rose in his mind, he grew +faint, and would have sat down; but he felt a reluctance to stop his +carts, and a feeling of shame struggled against his conviction, and kept +him walking. + +This state of nervous excitement remained, in spite of many efforts he +made to throw off his fears. Yet he was bound to admit that he felt no +symptoms of pain or sickness. By and by the feeling of alarm began again +to decay, and by the time he got eight or ten miles farther on his road, +he had conjured up a good many sustaining ideas and arguments, whereby +he at least contrived to increase the quantum of _doubt_ of his being +really ill. He rallied a little again; but the temporary elevation was +destined to be succeeded by another depression, which, in its turn, gave +place to another accession of relief; and thus he was kept in a painful +alternation of changing fancies, until he was within a mile and a half +of the next place of call--a little house at some distance from the +Plasterers' Inn. + +He had hitherto been progressing at a very slow rate, and was in the act +of raising his hand to apply the whip to his horses, when he saw before +him Archibald Willison, a sort of itinerant cloth merchant, a native of +Dundee, with whom he was on terms of intimacy. They had met often on the +road, and had gossiped together over a little refreshment at the inns +where the carrier stopped. At this particular time, George Skirving +would rather have avoided his old friend; for he was under a depression +of spirits, and felt also a disinclination or fear, he could not account +for, to submit his face and appearance to the lynx eye of the travelling +merchant. He had, however, no choice. + +"Ah, George," cried Archie, "it's lang since I saw ye. How are +ye? What!"--starting as if surprised--"have ye been lyin', +man--confined--sick?--what, in God's name, has been the matter wi' ye? +Some sad complaint, surely, to produce so mighty a change!" + +This address seemed to George just the very confirmation he now +required to make him perfectly satisfied of his danger. It was too much +for him to hear and suffer. Staggering back, he leant upon the side of +his cart, and drew breath with difficulty, attempting in vain to give +his friend some reply. + +"It's wrang in ye, man," continued Archie, as he saw the carrier +labouring to find words to reply to him--"it's wrang in ye, George, to +be here in that state o' body. How did Betty permit it? Wha wad +guarantee your no lyin' doun an' deein' by the road-side? I'm sure I +wadna undertake the suretyship." + +"I have not been a day confined, Archie," said George, as he slightly +recovered from the shock caused by the announcement. "I have not been +ill; and left home this morning in my usual health." + +"Good God!" ejaculated Archie, "is that possible? Then is it sae muckle +the waur. I thought it had been a' owre wi' ye--that ye had been ill, +an' partly recovered; but now I see the disease is only comin' yet. How +deadly pale ye are, man; an' what a strange colour there is on your +lips, round the sockets o' your een, an' the edges o' your nostrils!" + +"I hae been told that the day already, Archie," said George; "I fear +there's some truth in't. Yet I feel nae pain; I'm only weak an' +nervous." + +"Ah, ye ken little about fevers o' the putrid kind--typhus, an' the +like," continued the other,--"when ye think they show themselves by +ordinary symptoms. I had a cousin who died o' typhus last week; an' he +looked, when he took it, just as ye look, an' spoke just as ye speak. +Tak the advice o' a friend, George. Dinna stop at Widow M'Murdo's; ye +can get nae advice there; hurry on to Edinburgh, and apply immediately, +on your arrival, to a doctor o' repute. I assure ye a' his skill will be +required." + +After some conversation, all tending to the same effect, Willison parted +from him, continuing his route to Cupar. All the doubt that had existed +in the mind of the victim was now removed, and a settled conviction took +hold of him that he was on the very eve of falling into some terrible +illness. A train of gloomy fancies took possession of his mind, and he +pictured himself lying extended on a bed of sickness, with the angel of +death hanging over him, and an awakened conscience within, wringing him +with its agonizing tortures. The nature of the disease which impended +over him--the putrid typhus--was fixed, and put beyond doubt; and all +the cases he had known of individuals who had died of that disease were +brought before the eye of his imagination, to feed the appetite for +horrors, which now began to crave food. He endeavoured to analyze his +sensations, and discovered, what he never felt before, a hard, +fluttering palpitation at his heart, a difficulty of breathing, +weakness, trembling of the limbs, and other clear indications of the +oncoming attack of a fatal disease. + +Moving slowly forward, under the load of these thoughts, he arrived at +Widow M'Murdo's, where he fed his horses. He was silent and gloomy; and +the fear under which he laboured produced a _real_ appearance of +illness, which soon struck the eye of the kind dame. + +"What ails ye?" asked she kindly; and ran and brought out her bottle of +cordial, to administer to him that universal medicine. But her question +was enough. Moody and miserable, he paid little attention to her +kindness, and departed for Kirkcaldy. Under the same load of despondency +and apprehension, he arrived at Andrew Gemmel's, where it was his +practice to remain all night. He exhibited the appearance of a person +labouring under some grievous misfortune; and deputing the feeding of +his horses to the ostler, he seemed to be careless whether justice was +done to them or not. The landlord noticed the change that had taken +place upon him. "What ails ye, George?" was asked repeatedly; and the +death-like import of the question prevented him from giving any +satisfactory answer. Long before his usual period, he retired to his +bed, where he passed a night of fevered dreams, restlessness, and +misery. + +In the morning, he was still under the operation of his apprehension, +and was unable to take any breakfast. The ostler managed for him all the +details of his business, and he departed in the same gloomy mood for +Pettycur. Sauntering along at a slow pace, he met, half-way between the +two towns, Duncan Paterson, a Dundee weaver, an old acquaintance, by +whom he was hailed in the ordinary form of salutation. But he wished to +proceed without standing to speak to his old friend; for he was so +sorely depressed, and was so much afraid of another fearful announcement +about his sickly appearance, that he could not bear an interview. This +strange conduct seemed to rouse the curiosity of his friend, who, +running up to him, held forth his hand, crying out-- + +"Ha! George, man!--this is no like you, to pass auld friends. What ails +ye, man?" + +"I dinna feel altogether weel," answered the carrier in a mournful tone. + +"I saw that, man, lang before ye cam up," replied the other; "and it was +just because ye were looking so grievously ill, that I was determined to +speak to ye. When were ye seized?" + +"I was weel when I left the north, yesterday morning; but I hadna been +lang on the road, when I began to gie tokens o' illness," replied the +carrier mournfully, and with a drooping head. + +"If I had met you in that waefu' state," said the other, "with that +death-like face and unnatural-like look, I wadna have allowed ye to +proceed a mile farther; but now since ye're sae far on the road, it's +just as weel that ye hurry on to Edinburgh, whaur ye'll get the best +advice. What symptoms do ye feel?" + +"I'm heavy and dull," replied George; "my pulse rises and fa's, my heart +throbs, and my legs hae been shakin' under me, as if I were palsied." + +"Ah, George, George! these are a' clear signs o' typhus, man," replied +Paterson. "My mother died o't. I watched, wi' filial care and affection, +a' her maist minute symptoms. They were just yours. I'm vexed for ye; +but maybe the hand o' a skilfu' doctor may avert the usual fatal issue." + +"Was yer mither lang ill?" asked George in a low tone. + +"Nine days," answered Paterson. "By the seventh she was spotted like a +leopard, on the eighth she went mad, and the ninth put an end to her +sufferings." + +"Ay, ay," muttered George, with a deep sigh. + +"But the power o' medicine's great," rejoined Paterson. "Lose nae time, +after ye arrive in Edinburgh, in applying to a doctor. Mind my words." + +And Paterson, casting upon him a look suited to the parting statement, +left the carrier, and proceeded on his way. The victim, now completely +immerged in melancholy, progressed slowly onwards to Pettycur. His +downcast appearance attracted there the attention of the people who +assisted him in the discharge of his business. The question, "What ails +ye, George?" was repeated, and answered by silence and a sorrowful look. +In the boat in which he crossed the Forth, his unusual sadness was also +noticed by the captain and crew, with whom he was intimately acquainted. +As he sat in the fore-part of the vessel, silent and gloomy, they +repeated the dreadful question--"What ails ye, George?"--that had been +so often before put to him. To some he said he felt unwell, to others he +replied by a melancholy stare, and relapsed again into his melancholy. + +When he arrived at Leith, he was assisted, according to custom, by +porters, in getting his goods disembarked. The men were not long in +noticing the great change that had taken place upon his spirits. "What +ails ye, George?" was the uniform question; and every time it was put it +went to his heart, for it showed more and more, as he thought, his +sick-like appearance, which seemed to escape the eyes of no one. The men +assisted him more assiduously than they had ever done before; and having +got everything ready, he proceeded up Leith Walk. The toll-man noticed +also his dejected appearance, and the same question was put by him. He +proceeded to his quarters, and, committing his carts to a man that was +in the habit of assisting him, he went into the house and threw himself +into a chair. "What ails ye, George?" exclaimed Widow Gilmour, as she +saw him exhibiting these indications of illness. He said he felt unwell, +and, rising, went away up to his bedroom, where he retired to bed. + +The torture of mind to which he had been exposed for a day and a night, +and a part of another day, with the want of food, and the exercise of +his trade, had operated so powerfully on his body, that he was now in +reality in a fever. The landlady felt his pulse, and, becoming alarmed, +sent for a doctor, a young man, who immediately bled him to a much +greater extent than was necessary; but the statements of George himself, +and the fevered appearance he presented, convinced the young doctor +that nothing but copious bleeding would overcome the disease. The +application of the lancet stamped the whole affair with the character of +reality; and the sick man, still overcome by gloomy anticipations, was +soon in the very height of a dangerous fever. Two days afterwards, his +wife was sent for; but the poor man got gradually worse, and, +notwithstanding all the efforts of the doctor, was soon pronounced to be +in a state of imminent danger. One day James Cowie called at the house, +and inquired, in a flurried manner, how George Skirving was. + +"He is sae ill that I hae very little hope o' him," said Mrs. Skirving. + +"Good God!" replied the man, "is it possible? I have murdered him." And +he groaned in distress. + +"What do ye mean, James?" + +"Six o' us wagered, three against three, and twa to ane," he proceeded, +"that our side wadna put your husband to his bed. We met him in Fife at +different places o' the road, and terrified him, by describing his +looks, into an opinion that he was unwell. I'm come to make amends. What +is the £10 to me when the life o' a fellow-creature is at jeopardy?" + +It was too late. We need say no more. The communication was made to the +sick man; but he was too far gone to recover, and died in a few days +afterwards. This is a true tale, and requires little more explanation. +It may have been gathered from our narrative, that Cowie, Willison, and +Paterson were the only persons who were in the plot. John Sharpe, Widow +M'Murdo, Andrew Gemmel, and the others who merely noticed his dejection, +were entirely ignorant of the cruel purpose. + + * * * * * + +[Footnote A: One version of the story says that Mr. M---- picked up the +tramp at Cammerton, in Fife; but I adhere to my authority.] + +[Footnote B: Places for melting plate.] + +[Footnote C: This strange tale is given from materials supplied by the +Surgeon with whom I was brought up.] + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Wilson's Tales of the Borders and of +Scotland Volume 21, by Alexander Leighton + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WILSON'S TALES OF THE *** + +***** This file should be named 37336-8.txt or 37336-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/7/3/3/37336/ + +Produced by David Clarke, Katie Hernandez and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +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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