Guy Mannering; or, The Astrologer — Complete

by Walter Scott

  CHAPTER VII Give me a cup of sack, to make mine eyes look red. For I must speak in passion, and I will do it in King Cambyses' vein.

  --Henry IV, part I.

  Mannering, with Sampson for his companion, lost no time in his journey toEdinburgh. They travelled in the Colonel's post-chariot, who, knowing hiscompanion's habits of abstraction, did not choose to lose him out of hisown sight, far less to trust him on horseback, where, in all probability,a knavish stable-boy might with little address have contrived to mounthim with his face to the tail. Accordingly, with the aid of his valet,who attended on horseback, he contrived to bring Mr. Sampson safe to aninn in Edinburgh--for hotels in those days there were none--without anyother accident than arose from his straying twice upon the road. On oneoccasion he was recovered by Barnes, who understood his humour, when,after engaging in close colloquy with the schoolmaster of Moffatrespecting a disputed quantity in Horace's 7th Ode, Book II, the disputeled on to another controversy concerning the exact meaning of the wordmalobathro in that lyric effusion. His second escapade was made for thepurpose of visiting the field of Rullion Green, which was dear to hisPresbyterian predilections. Having got out of the carriage for aninstant, he saw the sepulchral monument of the slain at the distance ofabout a mile, and was arrested by Barnes in his progress up the PentlandHills, having on both occasions forgot his friend, patron, andfellow-traveller as completely as if he had been in the East Indies. Onbeing reminded that Colonel Mannering was waiting for him, he uttered hisusual ejaculation of 'Prodigious! I was oblivious,' and then strode backto his post. Barnes was surprised at his master's patience on bothoccasions, knowing by experience how little he brooked neglect or delay;but the Dominie was in every respect a privileged person. His patron andhe were never for a moment in each other's way, and it seemed obviousthat they were formed to be companions through life. If Mannering wanteda particular book, the Dominie could bring it; if he wished to haveaccounts summed up or checked, his assistance was equally ready; if hedesired to recall a particular passage in the classics, he could haverecourse to the Dominie as to a dictionary; and all the while thiswalking statue was neither presuming when noticed nor sulky when left tohimself. To a proud, shy, reserved man, and such in many respects wasMannering, this sort of living catalogue and animated automaton had allthe advantages of a literary dumb-waiter.

  As soon as they arrived in Edinburgh, and were established at the GeorgeInn, near Bristo Port, then kept by old Cockburn (I love to beparticular), the Colonel desired the waiter to procure him a guide to Mr.Pleydell's, the advocate, for whom he had a letter of introduction fromMr. Mac-Morlan. He then commanded Barnes to have an eye to the Dominie,and walked forth with a chairman, who was to usher him to the man of law.

  The period was near the end of the American war. The desire of room, ofair, and of decent accommodation had not as yet made very much progressin the capital of Scotland. Some efforts had been made on the south sideof the town towards building houses WITHIN THEMSELVES, as they areemphatically termed; and the New Town on the north, since so muchextended, was then just commenced. But the great bulk of the betterclasses, and particularly those connected with the law, still lived inflats or dungeons of the Old Town. The manners also of some of theveterans of the law had not admitted innovation. One or two eminentlawyers still saw their clients in taverns, as was the general customfifty years before; and although their habits were already considered asold-fashioned by the younger barristers, yet the custom of mixing wineand revelry with serious business was still maintained by those seniorcounsellors who loved the old road, either because it was such or becausethey had got too well used to it to travel any other. Among thosepraisers of the past time, who with ostentatious obstinacy affected themanners of a former generation, was this same Paulus Pleydell, Esq.,otherwise a good scholar, an excellent lawyer, and a worthy man.

  Under the guidance of his trusty attendant, Colonel Mannering, afterthreading a dark lane or two, reached the High Street, then clanging withthe voices of oyster-women and the bells of pye-men; for it had, as hisguide assured him, just' chappit eight upon the Tron.' It was long sinceMannering had been in the street of a crowded metropolis, which, with itsnoise and clamour, its sounds of trade, of revelry, and of license, itsvariety of lights, and the eternally changing bustle of its hundredgroups, offers, by night especially, a spectacle which, though composedof the most vulgar materials when they are separately considered, has,when they are combined, a striking and powerful effect on theimagination. The extraordinary height of the houses was marked by lights,which, glimmering irregularly along their front, ascended so high amongthe attics that they seemed at length to twinkle in the middle sky. Thiscoup d'aeil, which still subsists in a certain degree, was then moreimposing, owing to the uninterrupted range of buildings on each side,which, broken only at the space where the North Bridge joins the mainstreet, formed a superb and uniform place, extending from the front ofthe Lucken-booths to the head of the Canongate, and corresponding inbreadth and length to the uncommon height of the buildings on eitherside.

  Mannering had not much time to look and to admire. His conductor hurriedhim across this striking scene, and suddenly dived with him into a verysteep paved lane. Turning to the right, they entered a scale staircase,as it is called, the state of which, so far as it could be judged of byone of his senses, annoyed Mannering's delicacy not a little. When theyhad ascended cautiously to a considerable height, they heard a heavy rapat a door, still two stories above them. The door opened, and immediatelyensued the sharp and worrying bark of a dog, the squalling of a woman,the screams of an assaulted cat, and the hoarse voice of a man, who criedin a most imperative tone, 'Will ye, Mustard? Will ye? down, sir, down!'

  'Lord preserve us!' said the female voice, 'an he had worried our cat,Mr. Pleydell would ne'er hae forgi'en me!'

  'Aweel, my doo, the cat's no a prin the waur. So he's no in, ye say?'

  'Na, Mr. Pleydell's ne'er in the house on Saturday at e'en,' answered thefemale voice.

  'And the morn's Sabbath too,' said the querist. 'I dinna ken what will bedone.'

  By this time Mannering appeared, and found a tall, strong countryman,clad in a coat of pepper-and-salt-coloured mixture, with huge metalbuttons, a glazed hat and boots, and a large horsewhip beneath his arm,in colloquy with a slipshod damsel, who had in one hand the lock of thedoor, and in the other a pail of whiting, or camstane, as it is called,mixed with water--a circumstance which indicates Saturday night inEdinburgh.

  'So Mr. Pleydell is not at home, my good girl?' said Mannering.

  'Ay, sir, he's at hame, but he's no in the house; he's aye out onSaturday at e'en.'

  'But, my good girl, I am a stranger, and my business express. Will youtell me where I can find him?'

  'His honour,' said the chairman, 'will be at Clerihugh's about this time.Hersell could hae tell'd ye that, but she thought ye wanted to see hishouse.'

  'Well, then, show me to this tavern. I suppose he will see me, as I comeon business of some consequence?'

  'I dinna ken, sir,' said the girl; 'he disna like to be disturbed onSaturdays wi' business; but he's aye civil to strangers.'

  'I'll gang to the tavern too,' said our friend Dinmont, 'for I am astranger also, and on business e'en sic like.'

  'Na,' said the handmaiden, 'an he see the gentleman, he'll see the simplebody too; but, Lord's sake, dinna say it was me sent ye there!'

  'Atweel, I am a simple body, that's true, hinny, but I am no come tosteal ony o' his skeel for naething,' said the farmer in his honestpride, and strutted away downstairs, followed by Mannering and the cadie.Mannering could not help admiring the determined stride with which thestranger who preceded them divided the press, shouldering from him, bythe mere weight and impetus of his motion, both drunk and soberpassengers. 'He'll be a Teviotdale tup tat ane,' said the chairman,'tat's for keeping ta crown o' ta causeway tat gate; he 'll no gang faror he 'll get somebody to bell ta cat wi' him.'

  His shrewd augury, howe
ver, was not fulfilled. Those who recoiled fromthe colossal weight of Dinmont, on looking up at his size and strength,apparently judged him too heavy metal to be rashly encountered, andsuffered him to pursue his course unchallenged. Following in the wake ofthis first-rate, Mannering proceeded till the farmer made a pause, and,looking back to the chairman, said, 'I'm thinking this will be the close,friend.'

  'Ay, ay,' replied Donald, 'tat's ta close.'

  Dinmont descended confidently, then turned into a dark alley, then up adark stair, and then into an open door. While he was whistling shrillyfor the waiter, as if he had been one of his collie dogs, Manneringlooked round him, and could hardly conceive how a gentleman of a liberalprofession and good society should choose such a scene for socialindulgence. Besides the miserable entrance, the house itself seemedpaltry and half ruinous. The passage in which they stood had a window tothe close, which admitted a little light during the daytime, and avillainous compound of smells at all times, but more especially towardsevening. Corresponding to this window was a borrowed light on the otherside of the passage, looking into the kitchen, which had no directcommunication with the free air, but received in the daytime, at secondhand, such straggling and obscure light as found its way from the lanethrough the window opposite. At present the interior of the kitchen wasvisible by its own huge fires--a sort of Pandemonium, where men andwomen, half undressed, were busied in baking, broiling, roasting oysters,and preparing devils on the gridiron; the mistress of the place, with hershoes slipshod, and her hair straggling like that of Megaera from under around-eared cap, toiling, scolding, receiving orders, giving them, andobeying them all at once, seemed the presiding enchantress of that gloomyand fiery region.