Waverley; Or 'Tis Sixty Years Since — Complete

by Walter Scott

  CHAPTER XVI

  AN UNEXPECTED ALLY APPEARS

  The Baron returned at the dinner-hour, and had in a great measurerecovered his composure and good-humour. He not only confirmed thestories which Edward had heard from Rose and Bailie Macwheeble, butadded many anecdotes from his own experience, concerning the state ofthe Highlands and their inhabitants. The chiefs he pronounced to be, ingeneral, gentlemen of great honour and high pedigree, whose word wasaccounted as a law by all those of their own sept, or clan. 'It did notindeed,' he said, 'become them, as had occurred in late instances, topropone their prosapia, a lineage which rested for the most part on thevain and fond rhymes of their seannachies or bhairds, as aequiponderatewith the evidence of ancient charters and royal grants of antiquity,conferred upon distinguished houses in the Low Country by diversScottish monarchs; nevertheless, such was their outrecuidance andpresumption, as to undervalue those who possessed such evidents, as ifthey held their lands in a sheep's skin.'

  This, by the way, pretty well explained the cause of quarrel betweenthe Baron and his Highland ally. But he went on to state so manycurious particulars concerning the manners, customs, and habits of thispatriarchal race that Edward's curiosity became highly interested, andhe inquired whether it was possible to make with safety an excursioninto the neighbouring Highlands, whose dusky barrier of mountains hadalready excited his wish to penetrate beyond them. The Baron assuredhis guest that nothing would be more easy, providing this quarrel werefirst made up, since he could himself give him letters to many of thedistinguished chiefs, who would receive him with the utmost courtesyand hospitality.

  While they were on this topic, the door suddenly opened, and, usheredby Saunders Saunderson, a Highlander, fully armed and equipped, enteredthe apartment. Had it not been that Saunders acted the part of masterof the ceremonies to this martial apparition, without appearing todeviate from his usual composure, and that neither Mr. Bradwardine norRose exhibited any emotion, Edward would certainly have thought theintrusion hostile. As it was, he started at the sight of what he hadnot yet happened to see, a mountaineer in his full national costume.The individual Gael was a stout, dark, young man, of low stature, theample folds of whose plaid added to the appearance of strength whichhis person exhibited. The short kilt, or petticoat, showed his sinewyand clean-made limbs; the goatskin purse, flanked by the usualdefences, a dirk and steel-wrought pistol, hung before him; his bonnethad a short feather, which indicated his claim to be treated as aduinhe-wassel, or sort of gentleman; a broadsword dangled by his side,a target hung upon his shoulder, and a long Spanish fowling-pieceoccupied one of his hands. With the other hand he pulled off hisbonnet, and the Baron, who well knew their customs, and the proper modeof addressing them, immediately said, with an air of dignity, butwithout rising, and much, as Edward thought, in the manner of a princereceiving an embassy, 'Welcome, Evan Dhu Maccombich; what news fromFergus Mac-Ivor Vich lan Vohr?'

  'Fergus Mac-Ivor Vich lan Vohr,' said the ambassador, in good English,'greets you well, Baron of Bradwardine and Tully-Veolan, and is sorrythere has been a thick cloud interposed between you and him, which haskept you from seeing and considering the friendship and alliances thathave been between your houses and forebears of old; and he prays youthat the cloud may pass away, and that things may be as they have beenheretofore between the clan Ivor and the house of Bradwardine, whenthere was an egg between them for a flint and a knife for a sword. Andhe expects you will also say, you are sorry for the cloud, and no manshall hereafter ask whether it descended from the bill to the valley,or rose from the valley to the hill; for they never struck with thescabbard who did not receive with the sword, and woe to him who wouldlose his friend for the stormy cloud of a spring morning.'

  To this the Baron of Bradwardine answered with suitable dignity, thathe knew the chief of Clan Ivor to be a well-wisher to the King, and hewas sorry there should have been a cloud between him and any gentlemanof such sound principles, 'for when folks are banding together, feebleis he who hath no brother.'

  This appearing perfectly satisfactory, that the peace between theseaugust persons might be duly solemnised, the Baron ordered a stoup ofusquebaugh, and, filling a glass, drank to the health and prosperity ofMac-Ivor of Glennaquoich; upon which the Celtic ambassador, to requitehis politeness, turned down a mighty bumper of the same generousliquor, seasoned with his good wishes to the house of Bradwardine.

  Having thus ratified the preliminaries of the general treaty ofpacification, the envoy retired to adjust with Mr. Macwheeble somesubordinate articles with which it was not thought necessary to troublethe Baron. These probably referred to the discontinuance of thesubsidy, and apparently the Bailie found means to satisfy their ally,without suffering his master to suppose that his dignity wascompromised. At least, it is certain, that after the plenipotentiarieshad drunk a bottle of brandy in single drams, which seemed to have nomore effect upon such seasoned vessels than if it had been poured uponthe two bears at the top of the avenue, Evan Dhu Maccombich, havingpossessed himself of all the information which he could procurerespecting the robbery of the preceding night, declared his intentionto set off immediately in pursuit of the cattle, which he pronounced tobe 'no that far off; they have broken the bone,' he observed, 'but theyhave had no tune to suck the marrow.'

  Our hero, who had attended Evan Dhu during his perquisitions, was muchstruck with the ingenuity which he displayed in collecting information,and the precise and pointed conclusions which he drew from it. EvanDhu, on his part, was obviously flattered with the attention ofWaverley, the interest he seemed to take in his inquiries, and hiscuriosity about the customs and scenery of the Highlands. Without muchceremony he invited Edward to accompany him on a short walk of ten orfifteen miles into the mountains, and see the place where the cattlewere conveyed to; adding, 'If it be as I suppose, you never saw such aplace in your life, nor ever will, unless you go with me or the like ofme.'

  Our hero, feeling his curiosity considerably excited by the idea ofvisiting the den of a Highland Cacus, took, however, the precaution toinquire if his guide might be trusted. He was assured that theinvitation would on no account have been given had there been the leastdanger, and that all he had to apprehend was a little fatigue; and, asEvan proposed he should pass a day at his Chieftain's house inreturning, where he would be sure of good accommodation and anexcellent welcome, there seemed nothing very formidable in the task heundertook. Rose, indeed, turned pale when she heard of it; but herfather, who loved the spirited curiosity of his young friend, did notattempt to damp it by an alarm of danger which really did not exist,and a knapsack, with a few necessaries, being bound on the shoulders ofa sort of deputy gamekeeper, our hero set forth with a fowling-piece inhis hand, accompanied by his new friend Evan Dhu, and followed by thegamekeeper aforesaid, and by two wild Highlanders, the attendants ofEvan, one of whom had upon his shoulder a hatchet at the end of a pole,called a Lochaber-axe, [Footnote: See Note 14] and the other a longducking-gun. Evan, upon Edward's inquiry, gave him to understand thatthis martial escort was by no means necessary as a guard, but merely,as he said, drawing up and adjusting his plaid with an air of dignity,that he might appear decently at Tully-Veolan, and as Vich Ian Vohr'sfoster-brother ought to do. 'Ah!' said he, 'if you Saxon duinhe-wassel(English gentleman) saw but the Chief with his tail on!'

  'With his tail on?' echoed Edward in some surprise.

  'Yes--that is, with all his usual followers, when he visits those ofthe same rank. There is,' he continued, stopping and drawing himselfproudly up, while he counted upon his fingers the several officers ofhis chief's retinue; 'there is his hanchman, or right-hand man; thenhis bard, or poet; then his bladier, or orator, to make harangues tothe great folks whom he visits; then his gilly-more, or armour-bearer,to carry his sword and target, and his gun; then his gilly-casfliuch,who carries him on his back through the sikes and brooks; then hisgilly-comstrian, to lead his horse by the bridle in steep and difficultpaths; then his gilly-trushharnish, to carry his knapsack; a
nd thepiper and the piper's man, and it may be a dozen young lads beside,that have no business, but are just boys of the belt, to follow theLaird and do his honour's bidding.'

  'And does your Chief regularly maintain all these men?' demandedWaverley.

  'All these?' replied Evan; 'ay, and many a fair head beside, that wouldnot ken where to lay itself, but for the mickle barn at Glennaquoich.'

  With similar tales of the grandeur of the Chief in peace and war, EvanDhu beguiled the way till they approached more closely those hugemountains which Edward had hitherto only seen at a distance. It wastowards evening as they entered one of the tremendous passes whichafford communication between the high and low country; the path, whichwas extremely steep and rugged, winded up a chasm between twotremendous rocks, following the passage which a foaming stream, thatbrawled far below, appeared to have worn for itself in the course ofages. A few slanting beams of the sun, which was now setting, reachedthe water in its darksome bed, and showed it partially, chafed by ahundred rocks and broken by a hundred falls. The descent from the pathto the stream was a mere precipice, with here and there a projectingfragment of granite, or a scathed tree, which had warped its twistedroots into the fissures of the rock. On the right hand, the mountainrose above the path with almost equal inaccessibility; but the hill onthe opposite side displayed a shroud of copsewood, with which somepines were intermingled.

  'This,' said Evan, 'is the pass of Bally-Brough, which was kept informer times by ten of the clan Donnochie against a hundred of theLow-Country carles. The graves of the slain are still to be seen inthat little corrie, or bottom, on the opposite side of the burn; ifyour eyes are good, you may see the green specks among the heather.See, there is an earn, which you Southrons call an eagle. You have nosuch birds as that in England. He is going to fetch his supper from theLaird of Bradwardine's braes, but I 'll send a slug after him.'

  He fired his piece accordingly, but missed the superb monarch of thefeathered tribes, who, without noticing the attempt to annoy him,continued his majestic flight to the southward. A thousand birds ofprey, hawks, kites, carrion-crows, and ravens, disturbed from thelodgings which they had just taken up for the evening, rose at thereport of the gun, and mingled their hoarse and discordant notes withthe echoes which replied to it, and with the roar of the mountaincataracts. Evan, a little disconcerted at having missed his mark, whenhe meant to have displayed peculiar dexterity, covered his confusion bywhistling part of a pibroch as he reloaded his piece, and proceeded insilence up the pass.

  It issued in a narrow glen, between two mountains, both very lofty andcovered with heath. The brook continued to be their companion, and theyadvanced up its mazes, crossing them now and then, on which occasionsEvan Dhu uniformly offered the assistance of his attendants to carryover Edward; but our hero, who had been always a tolerable pedestrian,declined the accommodation, and obviously rose in his guide's opinion,by showing that he did not fear wetting his feet. Indeed he wasanxious, so far as he could without affectation, to remove the opinionwhich Evan seemed to entertain of the effeminacy of the Lowlanders, andparticularly of the English.

  Through the gorge of this glen they found access to a black bog, oftremendous extent, full of large pit-holes, which they traversed withgreat difficulty and some danger, by tracks which no one but aHighlander could have followed. The path itself, or rather the portionof more solid ground on which the travellers half walked, half waded,was rough, broken, and in many places quaggy and unsound. Sometimes theground was so completely unsafe that it was necessary to spring fromone hillock to another, the space between being incapable of bearingthe human weight. This was an easy matter to the Highlanders, who worethin-soled brogues fit for the purpose, and moved with a peculiarspringing step; but Edward began to find the exercise, to which he wasunaccustomed, more fatiguing than he expected. The lingering twilightserved to show them through this Serbonian bog, but deserted themalmost totally at the bottom of a steep and very stony hill, which itwas the travellers' next toilsome task to ascend. The night, however,was pleasant, and not dark; and Waverley, calling up mental energy tosupport personal fatigue, held on his march gallantly, though envyingin his heart his Highland attendants, who continued, without a symptomof abated vigour, the rapid and swinging pace, or rather trot, which,according to his computation, had already brought them fifteen milesupon their journey.

  After crossing this mountain and descending on the other side towards athick wood, Evan Dhu held some conference with his Highland attendants,in consequence of which Edward's baggage was shifted from the shouldersof the gamekeeper to those of one of the gillies, and the former wassent off with the other mountaineer in a direction different from thatof the three remaining travellers. On asking the meaning of thisseparation, Waverley was told that the Lowlander must go to a hamletabout three miles off for the night; for unless it was some veryparticular friend, Donald Bean Lean, the worthy person whom theysupposed to be possessed of the cattle, did not much approve ofstrangers approaching his retreat. This seemed reasonable, and silenceda qualm of suspicion which came across Edward's mind when he sawhimself, at such a place and such an hour, deprived of his only Lowlandcompanion. And Evan immediately afterwards added,'that indeed hehimself had better get forward, and announce their approach to DonaldBean Lean, as the arrival of a sidier roy (red soldier) might otherwisebe a disagreeable surprise.' And without waiting for an answer, injockey phrase, he trotted out, and putting himself to a very roundpace, was out of sight in an instant.

  Waverley was now left to his own meditations, for his attendant withthe battle-axe spoke very little English. They were traversing a thick,and, as it seemed, an endless wood of pines, and consequently the pathwas altogether indiscernible in the murky darkness which surroundedthem. The Highlander, however, seemed to trace it by instinct, withoutthe hesitation of a moment, and Edward followed his footsteps as closeas he could.

  After journeying a considerable time in silence, he could not helpasking, 'Was it far to the end of their journey?'

  'Ta cove was tree, four mile; but as duinhe-wassel was a wee taiglit,Donald could, tat is, might--would--should send ta curragh.'

  This conveyed no information. The curragh which was promised might be aman, a horse, a cart, or chaise; and no more could be got from the manwith the battle-axe but a repetition of 'Aich ay! ta curragh.'

  But in a short time Edward began to conceive his meaning, when, issuingfrom the wood, he found himself on the banks of a large river or lake,where his conductor gave him to understand they must sit down for alittle while. The moon, which now began to rise, showed obscurely theexpanse of water which spread before them, and the shapeless andindistinct forms of mountains with which it seemed to be surrounded.The cool and yet mild air of the summer night refreshed Waverley afterhis rapid and toilsome walk; and the perfume which it wafted from thebirch trees, [Footnote: It is not the weeping birch, the most commonspecies in the Highlands, but the woolly-leaved Lowland birch, that isdistinguished by this fragrance.] bathed in the evening dew, wasexquisitely fragrant.

  He had now time to give himself up to the full romance of hissituation. Here he sate on the banks of an unknown lake, under theguidance of a wild native, whose language was unknown to him, on avisit to the den of some renowned outlaw, a second Robin Hood, perhaps,or Adam o' Gordon, and that at deep midnight, through scenes ofdifficulty and toil, separated from his attendant, left by his guide.What a variety of incidents for the exercise of a romantic imagination,and all enhanced by the solemn feeling of uncertainty at least, if notof danger! The only circumstance which assorted ill with the rest wasthe cause of his journey--the Baron's milk-cows! this degradingincident he kept in the background.

  While wrapt in these dreams of imagination, his companion gentlytouched him, and, pointing in a direction nearly straight across thelake, said, 'Yon's ta cove.' A small point of light was seen to twinklein the direction in which he pointed, and, gradually increasing in sizeand lustre, seemed to flicker like a meteor upon the verge of
thehorizon. While Edward watched this phenomenon, the distant dash of oarswas heard. The measured sound approached near and more near, andpresently a loud whistle was heard in the same direction. His friendwith the battle-axe immediately whistled clear and shrill, in reply tothe signal, and a boat, manned with four or five Highlanders, pushedfor a little inlet, near which Edward was sitting. He advanced to meetthem with his attendant, was immediately assisted into the boat by theofficious attention of two stout mountaineers, and had no sooner seatedhimself than they resumed their oars, and began to row across the lakewith great rapidity.