Old Mortality, Volume 1.

by Walter Scott

  CHAPTER XXI.

  Ananias. I do not like the man: He is a heathen, And speaks the language of Canaan truly.

  Tribulation. You must await his calling, and the coming Of the good spirit. You did ill to upbraid him. The Alchemist.

  We return to Henry Morton, whom we left on the field of battle. He waseating, by one of the watch-fires, his portion of the provisions whichhad been distributed to the army, and musing deeply on the path which hewas next to pursue, when Burley suddenly came up to him, accompanied bythe young minister, whose exhortation after the victory had produced sucha powerful effect.

  "Henry Morton," said Balfour abruptly, "the council of the army of theCovenant, confiding that the son of Silas Morton can never prove alukewarm Laodicean, or an indifferent Gallio, in this great day, havenominated you to be a captain of their host, with the right of a vote intheir council, and all authority fitting for an officer who is to commandChristian men."

  "Mr Balfour," replied Morton, without hesitation, "I feel this mark ofconfidence, and it is not surprising that a natural sense of the injuriesof my country, not to mention those I have sustained in my own person,should make me sufficiently willing to draw my sword for liberty andfreedom of conscience. But I will own to you, that I must be bettersatisfied concerning the principles on which you bottom your cause ere Ican agree to take a command amongst you."

  "And can you doubt of our principles," answered Burley, "since we havestated them to be the reformation both of church and state, therebuilding of the decayed sanctuary, the gathering of the dispersedsaints, and the destruction of the man of sin?"

  "I will own frankly, Mr Balfour," replied Morton, "much of this sort oflanguage, which, I observe, is so powerful with others, is entirely loston me. It is proper you should be aware of this before we commune furthertogether." (The young clergyman here groaned deeply.) "I distress you,sir," said Morton; "but, perhaps, it is because you will not hear me out.I revere the Scriptures as deeply as you or any Christian can do. I lookinto them with humble hope of extracting a rule of conduct and a law ofsalvation. But I expect to find this by an examination of their generaltenor, and of the spirit which they uniformly breathe, and not bywresting particular passages from their context, or by the application ofScriptural phrases to circumstances and events with which they have oftenvery slender relation."

  The young divine seemed shocked and thunderstruck with this declaration,and was about to remonstrate.

  "Hush, Ephraim!" said Burley, "remember he is but as a babe in swaddlingclothes.--Listen to me, Morton. I will speak to thee in the worldlylanguage of that carnal reason, which is, for the present, thy blind andimperfect guide. What is the object for which thou art content to drawthy sword? Is it not that the church and state should be reformed by thefree voice of a free parliament, with such laws as shall hereafterprevent the executive government from spilling the blood, torturing andimprisoning the persons, exhausting the estates, and trampling upon theconsciences of men, at their own wicked pleasure?"

  "Most certainly," said Morton; "such I esteem legitimate causes ofwarfare, and for such I will fight while I can wield a sword."

  "Nay, but," said Macbriar, "ye handle this matter too tenderly; nor willmy conscience permit me to fard or daub over the causes of divine wrath."

  "Peace, Ephraim Macbriar!" again interrupted Burley.

  "I will not peace," said the young man. "Is it not the cause of my Masterwho hath sent me? Is it not a profane and Erastian destroying of hisauthority, usurpation of his power, denial of his name, to place eitherKing or Parliament in his place as the master and governor of hishousehold, the adulterous husband of his spouse?"

  "You speak well," said Burley, dragging him aside, "but not wisely; yourown ears have heard this night in council how this scattered remnant arebroken and divided, and would ye now make a veil of separation betweenthem? Would ye build a wall with unslaked mortar?--if a fox go up, itwill breach it."

  "I know," said the young clergyman, in reply, "that thou art faithful,honest, and zealous, even unto slaying; but, believe me, this worldlycraft, this temporizing with sin and with infirmity, is in itself afalling away; and I fear me Heaven will not honour us to do much more forHis glory, when we seek to carnal cunning and to a fleshly arm. Thesanctified end must be wrought by sanctified means."

  "I tell thee," answered Balfour, "thy zeal is too rigid in this matter;we cannot yet do without the help of the Laodiceans and the Erastians; wemust endure for a space the indulged in the midst of the council--thesons of Zeruiah are yet too strong for us."

  "I tell thee I like it not," said Macbriar; "God can work deliverance bya few as well as by a multitude. The host of the faithful that was brokenupon Pentland-hills, paid but the fitting penalty of acknowledging thecarnal interest of that tyrant and oppressor, Charles Stewart."

  "Well, then," said Balfour, "thou knowest the healing resolution that thecouncil have adopted,--to make a comprehending declaration, that may suitthe tender consciences of all who groan under the yoke of our presentoppressors. Return to the council if thou wilt, and get them to recallit, and send forth one upon narrower grounds. But abide not here tohinder my gaining over this youth, whom my soul travails for; his namealone will call forth hundreds to our banners."

  "Do as thou wilt, then," said Macbriar; "but I will not assist to misleadthe youth, nor bring him into jeopardy of life, unless upon such groundsas will ensure his eternal reward."

  The more artful Balfour then dismissed the impatient preacher, andreturned to his proselyte.

  That we may be enabled to dispense with detailing at length the argumentsby which he urged Morton to join the insurgents, we shall take thisopportunity to give a brief sketch of the person by whom they were used,and the motives which he had for interesting himself so deeply in theconversion of young Morton to his cause.

  John Balfour of Kinloch, or Burley, for he is designated both ways in thehistories and proclamations of that melancholy period, was a gentleman ofsome fortune, and of good family, in the county of Fife, and had been asoldier from his youth upwards. In the younger part of his life he hadbeen wild and licentious, but had early laid aside open profligacy, andembraced the strictest tenets of Calvinism. Unfortunately, habits ofexcess and intemperance were more easily rooted out of his dark,saturnine, and enterprising spirit, than the vices of revenge andambition, which continued, notwithstanding his religious professions, toexercise no small sway over his mind. Daring in design, precipitate andviolent in execution, and going to the very extremity of the most rigidrecusancy, it was his ambition to place himself at the head of thepresbyterian interest.

  To attain this eminence among the whigs, he had been active in attendingtheir conventicles, and more than once had commanded them when theyappeared in arms, and beaten off the forces sent to disperse them. Atlength, the gratification of his own fierce enthusiasm, joined, as somesay, with motives of private revenge, placed him at the head of thatparty who assassinated the Primate of Scotland, as the author of thesufferings of the presbyterians. The violent measures adopted bygovernment to revenge this deed, not on the perpetrators only, but on thewhole professors of the religion to which they belonged, together withlong previous sufferings, without any prospect of deliverance, except byforce of arms, occasioned the insurrection, which, as we have alreadyseen, commenced by the defeat of Claverhouse in the bloody skirmish ofLoudon-hill.

  But Burley, notwithstanding the share he had in the victory, was far fromfinding himself at the summit which his ambition aimed at. This waspartly owing to the various opinions entertained among the insurgentsconcerning the murder of Archbishop Sharpe. The more violent among themdid, indeed, approve of this act as a deed of justice, executed upon apersecutor of God's church through the immediate inspiration of theDeity; but the greater part of the presbyterians disowned the deed as acrime highly culpable, although they admitted, that the Archbishop'spunishment had by no means exce
eded his deserts. The insurgents differedin another main point, which has been already touched upon. The more warmand extravagant fanatics condemned, as guilty of a pusillanimousabandonment of the rights of the church, those preachers andcongregations who were contented, in any manner, to exercise theirreligion through the permission of the ruling government. This, theysaid, was absolute Erastianism, or subjection of the church of God to theregulations of an earthly government, and therefore but one degree betterthan prelacy or popery.--Again, the more moderate party were content toallow the king's title to the throne, and in secular affairs toacknowledge his authority, so long as it was exercised with due regard tothe liberties of the subject, and in conformity to the laws of the realm.But the tenets of the wilder sect, called, from their leader RichardCameron, by the name of Cameronians, went the length of disowning thereigning monarch, and every one of his successors, who should notacknowledge the Solemn League and Covenant. The seeds of disunion were,therefore, thickly sown in this ill-fated party; and Balfour, howeverenthusiastic, and however much attached to the most violent of thosetenets which we have noticed, saw nothing but ruin to the general cause,if they were insisted on during this crisis, when unity was of so muchconsequence. Hence he disapproved, as we have seen, of the honest,downright, and ardent zeal of Macbriar, and was extremely desirous toreceive the assistance of the moderate party of presbyterians in theimmediate overthrow of the government, with the hope of being hereafterable to dictate to them what should be substituted in its place.

  He was, on this account, particularly anxious to secure the accession ofHenry Morton to the cause of the insurgents. The memory of his father wasgenerally esteemed among the presbyterians; and as few persons of anydecent quality had joined the insurgents, this young man's family andprospects were such as almost ensured his being chosen a leader. ThroughMorton's means, as being the son of his ancient comrade, Burley conceivedhe might exercise some influence over the more liberal part of the army,and ultimately, perhaps, ingratiate himself so far with them, as to bechosen commander-in-chief, which was the mark at which his ambitionaimed. He had, therefore, without waiting till any other person took upthe subject, exalted to the council the talents and disposition ofMorton, and easily obtained his elevation to the painful rank of a leaderin this disunited and undisciplined army.

  The arguments by which Balfour pressed Morton to accept of this dangerouspromotion, as soon as he had gotten rid of his less wary anduncompromising companion, Macbriar, were sufficiently artful and urgent.He did not affect either to deny or to disguise that the sentiments whichhe himself entertained concerning church government, went as far as thoseof the preacher who had just left them; but he argued, that when theaffairs of the nation were at such a desperate crisis, minute differenceof opinion should not prevent those who, in general, wished well to theiroppressed country, from drawing their swords in its behalf. Many of thesubjects of division, as, for example, that concerning the Indulgenceitself, arose, he observed, out of circumstances which would cease toexist, provided their attempt to free the country should be successful,seeing that the presbytery, being in that case triumphant, would need tomake no such compromise with the government, and, consequently, with theabolition of the Indulgence all discussion of its legality would be atonce ended. He insisted much and strongly upon the necessity of takingadvantage of this favourable crisis, upon the certainty of their beingjoined by the force of the whole western shires, and upon the gross guiltwhich those would incur, who, seeing the distress of the country, and theincreasing tyranny with which it was governed, should, from fear orindifference, withhold their active aid from the good cause.

  Morton wanted not these arguments to induce him to join in anyinsurrection, which might appear to have a feasible prospect of freedomto the country. He doubted, indeed, greatly, whether the present attemptwas likely to be supported by the strength sufficient to ensure success,or by the wisdom and liberality of spirit necessary to make a good use ofthe advantages that might be gained. Upon the whole, however, consideringthe wrongs he had personally endured, and those which he had seen dailyinflicted on his fellow-subjects; meditating also upon the precarious anddangerous situation in which he already stood with relation to thegovernment, he conceived himself, in every point of view, called upon tojoin the body of presbyterians already in arms.

  But while he expressed to Burley his acquiescence in the vote which hadnamed him a leader among the insurgents, and a member of their council ofwar, it was not without a qualification.

  "I am willing," he said, "to contribute every thing within my limitedpower to effect the emancipation of my country. But do not mistake me. Idisapprove, in the utmost degree, of the action in which this risingseems to have originated; and no arguments should induce me to join it,if it is to be carried on by such measures as that with which it hascommenced."

  Burley's blood rushed to his face, giving a ruddy and dark glow to hisswarthy brow.

  "You mean," he said, in a voice which he designed should not betray anyemotion--"You mean the death of James Sharpe?"

  "Frankly," answered Morton, "such is my meaning."

  "You imagine, then," said Burley, "that the Almighty, in times ofdifficulty, does not raise up instruments to deliver his church from heroppressors? You are of opinion that the justice of an execution consists,not in the extent of the sufferer's crime, or in his having meritedpunishment, or in the wholesome and salutary effect which that example islikely to produce upon other evil-doers, but hold that it rests solely inthe robe of the judge, the height of the bench, and the voice of thedoomster? Is not just punishment justly inflicted, whether on thescaffold or the moor? And where constituted judges, from cowardice, orfrom having cast in their lot with transgressors, suffer them not only topass at liberty through the land, but to sit in the high places, and dyetheir garments in the blood of the saints, is it not well done in anybrave spirits who shall draw their private swords in the public cause?"

  "I have no wish to judge this individual action," replied Morton,"further than is necessary to make you fully aware of my principles. Itherefore repeat, that the case you have supposed does not satisfy myjudgment. That the Almighty, in his mysterious providence, may bring abloody man to an end deservedly bloody, does not vindicate those who,without authority of any kind, take upon themselves to be the instrumentsof execution, and presume to call them the executors of divinevengeance."

  "And were we not so?" said Burley, in a tone of fierce enthusiasm. "Werenot we--was not every one who owned the interest of the Covenanted Churchof Scotland, bound by that covenant to cut off the Judas who had sold thecause of God for fifty thousand merks a-year? Had we met him by the wayas he came down from London, and there smitten him with the edge of thesword, we had done but the duty of men faithful to our cause, and to ouroaths recorded in heaven. Was not the execution itself a proof of ourwarrant? Did not the Lord deliver him into our hands, when we looked outbut for one of his inferior tools of persecution? Did we not pray to beresolved how we should act, and was it not borne in on our hearts as ifit had been written on them with the point of a diamond, 'Ye shall surelytake him and slay him?'--Was not the tragedy full half an hour in actingere the sacrifice was completed, and that in an open heath, and withinthe patrols of their garrisons--and yet who interrupted the great work?--What dog so much as bayed us during the pursuit, the taking, the slaying,and the dispersing? Then, who will say--who dare say, that a mightier armthan ours was not herein revealed?"

  "You deceive yourself, Mr Balfour," said Morton; "such circumstances offacility of execution and escape have often attended the commission ofthe most enormous crimes.--But it is not mine to judge you. I have notforgotten that the way was opened to the former liberation of Scotland byan act of violence which no man can justify,--the slaughter of Cumming bythe hand of Robert Bruce; and, therefore, condemning this action, as I doand must, I am not unwilling to suppose that you may have motivesvindicating it in your own eyes, though not in mine, or in those of soberreason. I only no
w mention it, because I desire you to understand, that Ijoin a cause supported by men engaged in open war, which it is proposedto carry on according to the rules of civilized nations, without, in anyrespect, approving of the act of violence which gave immediate rise toit."

  Balfour bit his lip, and with difficulty suppressed a violent answer. Heperceived, with disappointment, that, upon points of principle, his youngbrother-in-arms possessed a clearness of judgment, and a firmness ofmind, which afforded but little hope of his being able to exert thatdegree of influence over him which he had expected to possess. After amoment's pause, however, he said, with coolness, "My conduct is open tomen and angels. The deed was not done in a corner; I am here in arms toavow it, and care not where, or by whom, I am called on to do so; whetherin the council, the field of battle, the place of execution, or the dayof the last great trial. I will not now discuss it further with one whois yet on the other side of the veil. But if you will cast in your lotwith us as a brother, come with me to the council, who are still sitting,to arrange the future march of the army, and the means of improving ourvictory."

  Morton arose and followed him in silence; not greatly delighted with hisassociate, and better satisfied with the general justice of the causewhich he had espoused, than either with the measures or the motives ofmany of those who were embarked in it.

  Abbotsford--295]