Waverley; Or 'Tis Sixty Years Since — Complete

by Walter Scott

  CHAPTER XXXVI

  AN INCIDENT

  The dinner hour of Scotland Sixty Years Since was two o'clock. It wastherefore about four o'clock of a delightful autumn afternoon that Mr.Gilfillan commenced his march, in hopes, although Stirling was eighteenmiles distant, he might be able, by becoming a borrower of the nightfor an hour or two, to reach it that evening. He therefore put forthhis strength, and marched stoutly along at the head of his followers,eyeing our hero from time to time, as if he longed to enter intocontroversy with him. At length, unable to resist the temptation, heslackened his pace till he was alongside of his prisoner's horse, andafter marching a few steps in silence abreast of him, he suddenlyasked--'Can ye say wha the carle was wi' the black coat and the moustedhead, that was wi' the Laird of Cairnvreckan?'

  'A Presbyterian clergyman,' answered Waverley.

  'Presbyterian!' answered Gilfillan contemptuously; 'a wretchedErastian, or rather an obscure Prelatist, a favourer of the blackindulgence, ane of thae dumb dogs that canna bark; they tell ower aclash o' terror and a clatter o' comfort in their sermons, without onysense, or savour, or life. Ye've been fed in siccan a fauld, belike?'

  'No; I am of the Church of England,' said Waverley.

  'And they're just neighbour-like,' replied the Covenanter; 'and naewonder they gree sae weel. Wha wad hae thought the goodly structure ofthe Kirk of Scotland, built up by our fathers in 1642, wad hae beendefaced by carnal ends and the corruptions of the time;--ay, wha wadhae thought the carved work of the sanctuary would hae been sae sooncut down!'

  To this lamentation, which one or two of the assistants chorussed witha deep groan, our hero thought it unnecessary to make any reply.Whereupon Mr. Gilfillan, resolving that he should be a hearer at least,if not a disputant, proceeded in his Jeremiade.

  'And now is it wonderful, when, for lack of exercise anent the call tothe service of the altar and the duty of the day, ministers fall intosinful compliances with patronage, and indemnities, and oaths, andbonds, and other corruptions,--is it wonderful, I say, that you, sir,and other sic-like unhappy persons, should labour to build up your auldBabel of iniquity, as in the bluidy persecuting saint-killing times? Itrow, gin ye werena blinded wi' the graces and favours, and servicesand enjoyments, and employments and inheritances, of this wicked world,I could prove to you, by the Scripture, in what a filthy rag ye putyour trust; and that your surplices, and your copes and vestments, arebut cast-off garments of the muckle harlot that sitteth upon sevenhills and drinketh of the cup of abomination. But, I trow, ye are deafas adders upon that side of the head; ay, ye are deceived with herenchantments, and ye traffic with her merchandise, and ye are drunkwith the cup of her fornication!'

  How much longer this military theologist might have continued hisinvective, in which he spared nobody but the scattered remnant ofHILL-FOLK, as he called them, is absolutely uncertain. His matter wascopious, his voice powerful, and his memory strong; so that there waslittle chance of his ending his exhortation till the party had reachedStirling, had not his attention been attracted by a pedlar who hadjoined the march from a cross-road, and who sighed or groaned withgreat regularity at all fitting pauses of his homily.

  'And what may ye be, friend?' said the Gifted Gilfillan.

  'A puir pedlar, that's bound for Stirling, and craves the protection ofyour honour's party in these kittle times. Ah' your honour has anotable faculty in searching and explaining the secret,--ay, the secretand obscure and incomprehensible causes of the backslidings of theland; ay, your honour touches the root o' the matter.'

  'Friend,' said Gilfillan, with a more complacent voice than he hadhitherto used, 'honour not me. I do not go out to park-dikes and tosteadings and to market-towns to have herds and cottars and burgherspull off their bonnets to me as they do to Major Melville o'Cairnvreckan, and ca' me laird or captain or honour. No; my sma' means,whilk are not aboon twenty thousand merk, have had the blessing ofincrease, but the pride of my heart has not increased with them; nor doI delight to be called captain, though I have the subscribed commissionof that gospel-searching nobleman, the Earl of Glencairn, fa whilk I amso designated. While I live I am and will be called Habakkuk Gilfillan,who will stand up for the standards of doctrine agreed on by the ancefamous Kirk of Scotland, before she trafficked with the accursed Achan,while he has a plack in his purse or a drap o' bluid in his body.'

  'Ah,' said the pedlar, 'I have seen your land about Mauchlin. A fertilespot! your lines have fallen in pleasant places! And siccan a breed o'cattle is not in ony laird's land in Scotland.'

  'Ye say right,--ye say right, friend' retorted Gilfillan eagerly, forhe was not inaccessible to flattery upon this subject,--'ye say right;they are the real Lancashire, and there's no the like o' them even atthe mains of Kilmaurs'; and he then entered into a discussion of theirexcellences, to which our readers will probably be as indifferent asour hero. After this excursion the leader returned to his theologicaldiscussions, while the pedlar, less profound upon those mystic points,contented himself with groaning and expressing his edification atsuitable intervals.

  'What a blessing it would be to the puir blinded popish nations amongwhom I hae sojourned, to have siccan a light to their paths! I hae beenas far as Muscovia in my sma' trading way, as a travelling merchant,and I hae been through France, and the Low Countries, and a' Poland,and maist feck o' Germany, and O! it would grieve your honour's soul tosee the murmuring and the singing and massing that's in the kirk, andthe piping that's in the quire, and the heathenish dancing and dicingupon the Sabbath!'

  This set Gilfillan off upon the Book of Sports and the Covenant, andthe Engagers, and the Protesters, and the Whiggamore's Raid, and theAssembly of Divines at Westminster, and the Longer and ShorterCatechism, and the Excommunication at Torwood, and the slaughter ofArchbishop Sharp. This last topic, again, led him into the lawfulnessof defensive arms, on which subject he uttered much more sense thancould have been expected from some other parts of his harangue, andattracted even Waverley's attention, who had hitherto been lost in hisown sad reflections. Mr. Gilfillan then considered the lawfulness of aprivate man's standing forth as the avenger of public oppression, andas he was labouring with great earnestness the cause of Mas JamesMitchell, who fired at the Archbishop of Saint Andrews some yearsbefore the prelate's assassination on Magus Muir, an incident occurredwhich interrupted his harangue.

  The rays of the sun were lingering on the very verge of the horizon asthe party ascended a hollow and somewhat steep path which led to thesummit of a rising ground. The country was uninclosed, being part of avery extensive heath or common; but it was far from level, exhibitingin many places hollows filled with furze and broom; in others, littledingles of stunted brushwood. A thicket of the latter descriptioncrowned the hill up which the party ascended. The foremost of the band,being the stoutest and most active, had pushed on, and, havingsurmounted the ascent, were out of ken for the present. Gilfillan, withthe pedlar and the small party who were Waverley's more immediateguard, were near the top of the ascent, and the remainder straggledafter them at a considerable interval.

  Such was the situation of matters when the pedlar, missing, as he said,a little doggie which belonged to him, began to halt and whistle forthe animal. This signal, repeated more than once, gave offence to therigour of his companion, the rather because it appeared to indicateinattention to the treasures of theological and controversial knowledgewhich were pouring out for his edification. He therefore signifiedgruffly that he could not waste his time in waiting for an useless cur.

  'But if your honour wad consider the case of Tobit--'

  'Tobit!' exclaimed Gilffflan, with great heat; 'Tobit and his dog baithare altogether heathenish and apocryphal, and none but a prelatist or apapist would draw them into question. I doubt I hae been mista'en inyou, friend.'

  'Very likely,' answered the pedlar, with great composure; 'butne'ertheless, I shall take leave to whistle again upon puir Bawty.'

  This last signal was answered in an unexpected manner; for
six or eightstout Highlanders, who lurked among the copse and brushwood, sprunginto the hollow way and began to lay about them with their claymores.Gilfillan, unappalled at this undesirable apparition, cried outmanfully, 'The sword of the Lord and of Gideon!' and, drawing hisbroadsword, would probably have done as much credit to the good oldcause as any of its doughty champions at Drumclog, when, behold! thepedlar, snatching a musket from the person who was next him bestowedthe butt of it with such emphasis on the head of his late instructor inthe Cameronian creed that he was forthwith levelled to the ground. Inthe confusion which ensued the horse which bore our hero was shot byone of Gilfillan's party, as he discharged his firelock at random.Waverley fell with, and indeed under, the animal, and sustained somesevere contusions. But he was almost instantly extricated from thefallen steed by two Highlanders, who, each seizing him by the arm,hurried him away from the scuffle and from the highroad. They ran withgreat speed, half supporting and half dragging our hero, who could,however, distinguish a few dropping shots fired about the spot which hehad left. This, as he afterwards learned, proceeded from Gilfillan'sparty, who had now assembled, the stragglers in front and rear havingjoined the others. At their approach the Highlanders drew off, but notbefore they had rifled Gilfillan and two of his people, who remained onthe spot grievously wounded. A few shots were exchanged betwixt themand the Westlanders; but the latter, now without a commander, andapprehensive of a second ambush, did not make any serious effort torecover their prisoner, judging it more wise to proceed on theirjourney to Stirling, carrying with them their wounded captain andcomrades.