by Walter Scott
CHAPTER XXVIII Nor board nor garner own we now, Nor roof nor latched door, Nor kind mate, bound, by holy vow, To bless a good man's store Noon lulls us in a gloomy den, And night is grown our day; Uprouse ye, then, my merry men! And use it as ye may
JOANNA BAILLIE.
Brown could now reckon his foes: they were five in number; two of themwere very powerful men, who appeared to be either real seamen orstrollers who assumed that character; the other three, an old man and twolads, were slighter made, and, from their black hair and dark complexion,seemed to belong to Meg's tribe. They passed from one to another the cupout of which they drank their spirits. 'Here's to his good voyage!' saidone of the seamen, drinking; 'a squally night he's got, however, to driftthrough the sky in.'
We omit here various execrations with which these honest gentlemengarnished their discourse, retaining only such of their expletives as areleast offensive.
'A does not mind wind and weather; 'a has had many a north-easter in hisday.'
'He had his last yesterday,' said another gruffly; 'and now old Meg maypray for his last fair wind, as she's often done before.'
'I'll pray for nane o' him,' said Meg, 'nor for you neither, you randydog. The times are sair altered since I was a kinchen-mort. Men were menthen, and fought other in the open field, and there was nae milling inthe darkmans. And the gentry had kind hearts, and would have given baithlap and pannel to ony puir gipsy; and there was not one, from Johnnie Faathe upright man to little Christie that was in the panniers, would cloyeda dud from them. But ye are a' altered from the gude auld rules, and nowonder that you scour the cramp-ring and trine to the cheat sae often.Yes, ye are a' altered: you 'll eat the goodman's meat, drink his drink,sleep on the strammel in his barn, and break his house and cut his throatfor his pains! There's blood on your hands, too, ye dogs, mair than evercame there by fair righting. See how ye'll die then. Lang it was ere hedied; he strove, and strove sair, and could neither die nor live; butyou--half the country will see how ye'll grace the woodie.'
The party set up a hoarse laugh at Meg's prophecy.
'What made you come back here, ye auld beldam?' said one of the gipsies;'could ye not have staid where you were, and spaed fortunes to theCumberland flats? Bing out and tour, ye auld devil, and see that nobodyhas scented; that's a' you're good for now.'
'Is that a' I am good for now?' said the indignant matron. 'I was goodfor mair than that in the great fight between our folk and PatricoSalmon's; if I had not helped you with these very fambles (holding up herhands), Jean Baillie would have frummagem'd you, ye feckless do-little!'
There was here another laugh at the expense of the hero who had receivedthis amazon's assistance.
'Here, mother,' said one of the sailors, 'here's a cup of the right foryou, and never mind that bully-huff.'
Meg drank the spirits, and, withdrawing herself from fartherconversation, sat down before the spot where Brown lay hid, in such aposture that it would have been difficult for any one to have approachedit without her rising. The men, however, showed no disposition to disturbher.
They closed around the fire and held deep consultation together; but thelow tone in which they spoke, and the cant language which they used,prevented Brown from understanding much of their conversation. Hegathered in general that they expressed great indignation against someindividual. 'He shall have his gruel,' said one, and then whisperedsomething very low into the ear of his comrade.
'I'll have nothing to do with that,' said the other.
'Are you turned hen-hearted, Jack?'
'No, by G-d, no more than yourself, but I won't. It was something likethat stopped all the trade fifteen or twenty years ago. You have heard ofthe Loup?'
'I have heard HIM (indicating the corpse by a jerk of his head) tellabout that job. G-d, how he used to laugh when he showed us how hefetched him off the perch!'
'Well, but it did up the trade for one while,' said Jack.
'How should that be?' asked the surly villain.
'Why,' replied Jack, 'the people got rusty about it, and would not deal,and they had bought so many brooms that--'
'Well, for all that,' said the other, 'I think we should be down upon thefellow one of these darkmans and let him get it well.'
'But old Meg's asleep now,' said another; 'she grows a driveller, and isafraid of her shadow. She'll sing out, some of these odd-come-shortlies,if you don't look sharp.'
'Never fear,' said the old gipsy man; 'Meg's true-bred; she's the last inthe gang that will start; but she has some queer ways, and often cutsqueer words.'
With more of this gibberish they continued the conversation, rendering itthus, even to each other, a dark obscure dialect, eked out by significantnods and signs, but never expressing distinctly, or in plain language,the subject on which it turned. At length one of them, observing Meg wasstill fast asleep, or appeared to be so, desired one of the lads 'to handin the black Peter, that they might flick it open.' The boy stepped tothe door and brought in a portmanteau, which Brown instantly recognisedfor his own. His thoughts immediately turned to the unfortunate lad hehad left with the carriage. Had the ruffians murdered him? was thehorrible doubt that crossed his mind. The agony of his attention grew yetkeener, and while the villains pulled out and admired the differentarticles of his clothes and linen, he eagerly listened for someindication that might intimate the fate of the postilion. But theruffians were too much delighted with their prize, and too much busied inexamining its contents, to enter into any detail concerning the manner inwhich they had acquired it. The portmanteau contained various articles ofapparel, a pair of pistols, a leathern case with a few papers, and somemoney, etc., etc. At any other time it would have provoked Brownexcessively to see the unceremonious manner in which the thieves sharedhis property, and made themselves merry at the expense of the owner. Butthe moment was too perilous to admit any thoughts but what had immediatereference to self-preservation.
After a sufficient scrutiny into the portmanteau, and an equitabledivision of its contents, the ruffians applied themselves more closely tothe serious occupation of drinking, in which they spent the greater partof the night. Brown was for some time in great hopes that they woulddrink so deep as to render themselves insensible, when his escape wouldhave been an easy matter. But their dangerous trade required precautionsinconsistent with such unlimited indulgence, and they stopped short onthis side of absolute intoxication. Three of them at length composedthemselves to rest, while the fourth watched. He was relieved in thisduty by one of the others after a vigil of two hours. When the secondwatch had elapsed, the sentinel awakened the whole, who, to Brown'sinexpressible relief, began to make some preparations as if fordeparture, bundling up the various articles which each had appropriated.Still, however, there remained something to be done. Two of them, aftersome rummaging which not a little alarmed Brown, produced a mattock andshovel; another took a pickaxe from behind the straw on which the deadbody was extended. With these implements two of them left the hut, andthe remaining three, two of whom were the seamen, very strong men, stillremained in garrison.
After the space of about half an hour, one of those who had departedagain returned, and whispered the others. They wrapped up the dead bodyin the sea cloak which had served as a pall, and went out, bearing italong with them. The aged sibyl then arose from her real or feignedslumbers. She first went to the door, as if for the purpose of watchingthe departure of her late inmates, then returned, and commanded Brown, ina low and stifled voice, to follow her instantly. He obeyed; but, onleaving the hut, he would willingly have repossessed himself of hismoney, or papers at least, but this she prohibited in the most peremptorymanner. It immediately occurred to him that the suspicion of havingremoved anything of which he might repossess himself would fall upon thiswoman, by whom in all probability his life had been saved. He thereforeimmediately desisted from his attempt, contenting himself with seizing acutlass, which one of the ruffians had flung aside among the straw. O
nhis feet, and possessed of this weapon, he already found himself halfdelivered from the dangers which beset him. Still, however, he feltstiffened and cramped, both with the cold and by the constrained andunaltered position which he had occupied all night. But, as he followedthe gipsy from the door of the hut, the fresh air of the morning and theaction of walking restored circulation and activity to his benumbedlimbs.
The pale light of a winter's morning was rendered more clear by the snow,which was lying all around, crisped by the influence of a severe frost.Brown cast a hasty glance at the landscape around him, that he might beable again to know the spot. The little tower, of which only a singlevault remained, forming the dismal apartment in which he had spent thisremarkable night, was perched on the very point of a projecting rockoverhanging the rivulet. It was accessible only on one side, and thatfrom the ravine or glen below. On the other three sides the bank wasprecipitous, so that Brown had on the preceding evening escaped moredangers than one; for, if he had attempted to go round the building,which was once his purpose, he must have been dashed to pieces. The dellwas so narrow that the trees met in some places from the opposite sides.They were now loaded with snow instead of leaves, and thus formed a sortof frozen canopy over the rivulet beneath, which was marked by its darkercolour, as it soaked its way obscurely through wreaths of snow. In oneplace, where the glen was a little wider, leaving a small piece of flatground between the rivulet and the bank, were situated the ruins of thehamlet in which Brown had been involved on the preceding evening. Theruined gables, the insides of which were japanned with turf-smoke, lookedyet blacker contrasted with the patches of snow which had been drivenagainst them by the wind, and with the drifts which lay around them.
Upon this wintry and dismal scene Brown could only at present cast a veryhasty glance; for his guide, after pausing an instant as if to permit himto indulge his curiosity, strode hastily before him down the path whichled into the glen. He observed, with some feelings of suspicion, that shechose a track already marked by several feet, which he could only supposewere those of the depredators who had spent the night in the vault. Amoment's recollection, however, put his suspicions to rest. It was not tobe thought that the woman, who might have delivered him up to her gangwhen in a state totally defenceless, would have suspended her supposedtreachery until he was armed and in the open air, and had so many betterchances of defence or escape. He therefore followed his guide inconfidence and silence. They crossed the small brook at the same placewhere it previously had been passed by those who had gone before. Thefootmarks then proceeded through the ruined village, and from thence downthe glen, which again narrowed to a ravine, after the small opening inwhich they were situated. But the gipsy no longer followed the sametrack; she turned aside, and led the way by a very rugged and uneven pathup the bank which overhung the village. Although the snow in many placeshid the pathway, and rendered the footing uncertain and unsafe, Megproceeded with a firm and determined step, which indicated an intimateknowledge of the ground she traversed. At length they gained the top ofthe bank, though by a passage so steep and intricate that Brown, thoughconvinced it was the same by which he had descended on the night before,was not a little surprised how he had accomplished the task withoutbreaking his neck. Above, the country opened wide and uninclosed forabout a mile or two on the one hand, and on the other were thickplantations of considerable extent.
Meg, however, still led the way along the bank of the ravine out of whichthey had ascended, until she heard beneath the murmur of voices. She thenpointed to a deep plantation of trees at some distance. 'The road toKippletringan,' she said, 'is on the other side of these inclosures. Makethe speed ye can; there's mair rests on your life than other folk's. Butyou have lost all--stay.' She fumbled in an immense pocket, from whichshe produced a greasy purse--'Many's the awmous your house has gi'en Megand hers; and she has lived to pay it back in a small degree;' and sheplaced the purse in his hand.
'The woman is insane,' thought Brown; but it was no time to debate thepoint, for the sounds he heard in the ravine below probably proceededfrom the banditti. 'How shall I repay this money,' he said, 'or howacknowledge the kindness you have done me?'
'I hae twa boons to crave,' answered the sibyl, speaking low and hastily:'one, that you will never speak of what you have seen this night; theother, that you will not leave this country till you see me again, andthat you leave word at the Gordon Arms where you are to be heard of, andwhen I next call for you, be it in church or market, at wedding or atburial, Sunday or Saturday, mealtime or fasting, that ye leave everythingelse and come with me.'
'Why, that will do you little good, mother.'
'But 'twill do yoursell muckle, and that's what I'm thinking o'. I am notmad, although I have had eneugh to make me sae; I am not mad, nordoating, nor drunken. I know what I am asking, and I know it has been thewill of God to preserve you in strange dangers, and that I shall be theinstrument to set you in your father's seat again. Sae give me yourpromise, and mind that you owe your life to me this blessed night.'
'There's wildness in her manner, certainly,' thought Brown, 'and yet itis more like the wildness of energy than of madness.'--'Well, mother,since you do ask so useless and trifling a favour, you have my promise.It will at least give me an opportunity to repay your money withadditions. You are an uncommon kind of creditor, no doubt, but--'
'Away, away, then!' said she, waving her hand. 'Think not about the goud,it's a' your ain; but remember your promise, and do not dare to follow meor look after me.' So saying, she plunged again into the dell, anddescended it with great agility, the icicles and snow-wreaths showeringdown after her as she disappeared.
Notwithstanding her prohibition, Brown endeavoured to gain some point ofthe bank from which he might, unseen, gaze down into the glen; and withsome difficulty (for it must be conceived that the utmost caution wasnecessary) he succeeded. The spot which he attained for this purpose wasthe point of a projecting rock, which rose precipitously from among thetrees. By kneeling down among the snow and stretching his head cautiouslyforward, he could observe what was going on in the bottom of the dell. Hesaw, as he expected, his companions of the last night, now joined by twoor three others. They had cleared away the snow from the foot of the rockand dug a deep pit, which was designed to serve the purpose of a grave.Around this they now stood, and lowered into it something wrapped in anaval cloak, which Brown instantly concluded to be the dead body of theman he had seen expire. They then stood silent for half a minute, as ifunder some touch of feeling for the loss of their companion. But if theyexperienced such, they did not long remain under its influence, for allhands went presently to work to fill up the grave; and Brown, perceivingthat the task would be soon ended, thought it best to take the gipsywoman's hint and walk as fast as possible until he should gain theshelter of the plantation.
Having arrived under cover of the trees, his first thought was of thegipsy's purse. He had accepted it without hesitation, though withsomething like a feeling of degradation, arising from the character ofthe person by whom he was thus accommodated. But it relieved him from aserious though temporary embarrassment. His money, excepting a very fewshillings, was in his portmanteau, and that was in possession of Meg'sfriends. Some time was necessary to write to his agent, or even to applyto his good host at Charlie's Hope, who would gladly have supplied him.In the meantime he resolved to avail himself of Meg's subsidy, confidenthe should have a speedy opportunity of replacing it with a handsomegratuity. 'It can be but a trifling sum,' he said to himself, 'and Idaresay the good lady may have a share of my banknotes to make amends.'
With these reflections he opened the leathern purse, expecting to find atmost three or four guineas. But how much was he surprised to discoverthat it contained, besides a considerable quantity of gold pieces, ofdifferent coinages and various countries, the joint amount of which couldnot be short of a hundred pounds, several valuable rings and ornamentsset with jewels, and, as appeared from the slight inspection he had timeto give them, of ver
y considerable value.
Brown was equally astonished and embarrassed by the circumstances inwhich he found himself, possessed, as he now appeared to be, of propertyto a much greater amount than his own, but which had been obtained in allprobability by the same nefarious means through which he had himself beenplundered. His first thought was to inquire after the nearest justice ofpeace, and to place in his hands the treasure of which he had thusunexpectedly become the depositary, telling at the same time his ownremarkable story. But a moment's consideration brought several objectionsto this mode of procedure In the first place, by observing this course heshould break his promise of silence, and might probably by that meansinvolve the safety, perhaps the life, of this woman, who had risked herown to preserve his, and who had voluntarily endowed him with thistreasure--a generosity which might thus become the means of her ruin.This was not to be thought of. Besides, he was a stranger, and for a timeat least unprovided with means of establishing his own character andcredit to the satisfaction of a stupid or obstinate country magistrate.'I will think over the matter more maturely,' he said; 'perhaps there maybe a regiment quartered at the county town, in which case my knowledge ofthe service and acquaintance with many officers of the army cannot failto establish my situation and character by evidence which a civil judgecould not sufficiently estimate. And then I shall have the commandingofficer's assistance in managing matters so as to screen this unhappymadwoman, whose mistake or prejudice has been so fortunate for me. Acivil magistrate might think himself obliged to send out warrants for herat once, and the consequence, in case of her being taken, is prettyevident. No, she has been upon honour with me if she were the devil, andI will be equally upon honour with her. She shall have the privilege of acourt-martial, where the point of honour can qualify strict law. Besides,I may see her at this place, Kipple--Couple--what did she call it? andthen I can make restitution to her, and e'en let the law claim its ownwhen it can secure her. In the meanwhile, however, I cut rather anawkward figure for one who has the honour to bear his Majesty'scommission, being little better than the receiver of stolen goods.'
With these reflections, Brown took from the gipsy's treasure three orfour guineas, for the purpose of his immediate expenses, and, tying upthe rest in the purse which contained them, resolved not again to open ituntil he could either restore it to her by whom it was given, or put itinto the hands of some public functionary. He next thought of thecutlass, and his first impulse was to leave it in the plantation. But,when he considered the risk of meeting with these ruffians, he could notresolve on parting with his arms. His walking-dress, though plain, had somuch of a military character as suited not amiss with his having such aweapon. Besides, though the custom of wearing swords by persons out ofuniform had been gradually becoming antiquated, it was not yet so totallyforgotten as to occasion any particular remark towards those who chose toadhere to it. Retaining, therefore, his weapon of defence, and placingthe purse of the gipsy in a private pocket, our traveller strodegallantly on through the wood in search of the promised highroad.
