Rob Roy — Complete

by Walter Scott

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN.

  And be he safe restored ere evening set, Or, if there's vengeance in an injured heart, And power to wreak it in an armed hand, Your land shall ache for't. Old Play.

  I know not why it is that a single deed of violence and cruelty affectsour nerves more than when these are exercised on a more extended scale. Ihad seen that day several of my brave countrymen fall in battle: itseemed to me that they met a lot appropriate to humanity, and my bosom,though thrilling with interest, was affected with nothing of thatsickening horror with which I beheld the unfortunate Morris put to deathwithout resistance, and in cold blood. I looked at my companion, Mr.Jarvie, whose face reflected the feelings which were painted in mine.Indeed he could not so suppress his horror, but that the words escapedhim in a low and broken whisper,--

  "I take up my protest against this deed, as a bloody and cruel murder--itis a cursed deed, and God will avenge it in his due way and time."

  "Then you do not fear to follow?" said the virago, bending on him a lookof death, such as that with which a hawk looks at his prey ere hepounces.

  "Kinswoman," said the Bailie, "nae man willingly wad cut short his threadof life before the end o' his pirn was fairly measured off on theyarn-winles--And I hae muckle to do, an I be spared, in thiswarld--public and private business, as weel that belonging to themagistracy as to my ain particular; and nae doubt I hae some to dependon me, as puir Mattie, wha is an orphan--She's a far-awa' cousin o' theLaird o' Limmerfield. Sae that, laying a' this thegither--skin for skin,yea all that a man hath, will he give for his life."

  "And were I to set you at liberty," said the imperious dame, "what namecould you give to the drowning of that Saxon dog?"

  "Uh! uh!--hem! hem!" said the Bailie, clearing his throat as well as hecould, "I suld study to say as little on that score as might be--leastsaid is sunest mended."

  "But if you were called on by the courts, as you term them, of justice,"she again demanded, "what then would be your answer?"

  The Bailie looked this way and that way, like a person who meditates anescape, and then answered in the tone of one who, seeing no means ofaccomplishing a retreat, determines to stand the brunt of battle--"I seewhat you are driving me to the wa' about. But I'll tell you't plain,kinswoman,--I behoved just to speak according to my ain conscience; andthough your ain gudeman, that I wish had been here for his ain sake andmine, as wool as the puir Hieland creature Dougal, can tell ye that NicolJarvie can wink as hard at a friend's failings as onybody, yet I'se tellye, kinswoman, mine's ne'er be the tongue to belie my thought; and soonerthan say that yonder puir wretch was lawfully slaughtered, I wad consentto be laid beside him--though I think ye are the first Hieland woman wadmint sic a doom to her husband's kinsman but four times removed."

  It is probable that the tone and firmness assumed by the Bailie in hislast speech was better suited to make an impression on the hard heart ofhis kinswoman than the tone of supplication he had hitherto assumed, asgems can be cut with steel, though they resist softer metals. Shecommanded us both to be placed before her. "Your name," she said to me,"is Osbaldistone?--the dead dog, whose death you have witnessed, calledyou so."

  "My name _is_ Osbaldistone," was my answer.

  "Rashleigh, then, I suppose, is your Christian name?" she pursued.

  "No,--my name is Francis."

  "But you know Rashleigh Osbaldistone," she continued. "He is yourbrother, if I mistake not,--at least your kinsman and near friend."

  "He is my kinsman," I replied, "but not my friend. We were lately engagedtogether in a rencontre, when we were separated by a person whom Iunderstand to be your husband. My blood is hardly yet dried on his sword,and the wound on my side is yet green. I have little reason toacknowledge him as a friend."

  "Then," she replied, "if a stranger to his intrigues, you can go insafety to Garschattachin and his party without fear of being detained,and carry them a message from the wife of the MacGregor?"

  I answered that I knew no reasonable cause why the militia gentlemenshould detain me; that I had no reason, on my own account, to fear beingin their hands; and that if my going on her embassy would act as aprotection to my friend and servant, who were here prisoners, "I wasready to set out directly." I took the opportunity to say, "That I hadcome into this country on her husband's invitation, and his assurancethat he would aid me in some important matters in which I was interested;that my companion, Mr. Jarvie, had accompanied me on the same errand."

  "And I wish Mr. Jarvie's boots had been fu' o' boiling water when he drewthem on for sic a purpose," interrupted the Bailie.

  "You may read your father," said Helen MacGregor, turning to her sons,"in what this young Saxon tells us--Wise only when the bonnet is on hishead, and the sword is in his hand, he never exchanges the tartan for thebroad-cloth, but he runs himself into the miserable intrigues of theLowlanders, and becomes again, after all he has suffered, theiragent--their tool--their slave."

  "Add, madam," said I, "and their benefactor."

  "Be it so," she said; "for it is the most empty title of them all, sincehe has uniformly sown benefits to reap a harvest of the most foulingratitude.--But enough of this. I shall cause you to be guided to theenemy's outposts. Ask for their commander, and deliver him this messagefrom me, Helen MacGregor;--that if they injure a hair of MacGregor'shead, and if they do not set him at liberty within the space of twelvehours, there is not a lady in the Lennox but shall before Christmas crythe coronach for them she will be loath to lose,--there is not a farmerbut shall sing well-a-wa over a burnt barnyard and an empty byre,--thereis not a laird nor heritor shall lay his head on the pillow at night withthe assurance of being a live man in the morning,--and, to begin as weare to end, so soon as the term is expired, I will send them this GlasgowBailie, and this Saxon Captain, and all the rest of my prisoners, eachbundled in a plaid, and chopped into as many pieces as there are checksin the tartan."

  As she paused in her denunciation, Captain Thornton, who was withinhearing, added, with great coolness, "Present my compliments--CaptainThornton's of the Royals, compliments--to the commanding officer, andtell him to do his duty and secure his prisoner, and not waste a thoughtupon me. If I have been fool enough to have been led into an ambuscade bythese artful savages, I am wise enough to know how to die for it withoutdisgracing the service. I am only sorry for my poor fellows," he said,"that have fallen into such butcherly hands."

  "Whist! whist!" exclaimed the Bailie; "are ye weary o' your life?--Ye'llgie _my_ service to the commanding officer, Mr. Osbaldistone--BailieNicol Jarvie's service, a magistrate o' Glasgow, as his father the deaconwas before him--and tell him, here are a wheen honest men in greattrouble, and like to come to mair; and the best thing he can do for thecommon good, will be just to let Rob come his wa's up the glen, and naemair about it. There's been some ill dune here already; but as it haslighted chiefly on the gauger, it winna be muckle worth making a stirabout."

  With these very opposite injunctions from the parties chiefly interestedin the success of my embassy, and with the reiterated charge of the wifeof MacGregor to remember and detail every word of her injunctions, I wasat length suffered to depart; and Andrew Fairservice, chiefly, I believe,to get rid of his clamorous supplications, was permitted to attend me.Doubtful, however, that I might use my horse as a means of escape from myguides, or desirous to retain a prize of some value, I was given tounderstand that I was to perform my journey on foot, escorted by HamishMacGregor, the elder brother, who, with two followers, attended, as wellto show me the way, as to reconnoitre the strength and position of theenemy. Dougal had been at first ordered on this party, but he contrivedto elude the service, with the purpose, as we afterwards understood, ofwatching over Mr. Jarvie, whom, according to his wild principles offidelity, he considered as entitled to his good offices, from having onceacted in some measure as his patron or master.

  After walking with gre
at rapidity about an hour, we arrived at aneminence covered with brushwood, which gave us a commanding prospect downthe valley, and a full view of the post which the militia occupied. Beingchiefly cavalry, they had judiciously avoided any attempt to penetratethe pass which had been so unsuccessfully essayed by Captain Thornton.They had taken up their situation with some military skill, on a risingground in the centre of the little valley of Aberfoil, through which theriver Forth winds its earliest course, and which is formed by two ridgesof hills, faced with barricades of limestone rock, intermixed with hugemasses of breecia, or pebbles imbedded in some softer substance which hashardened around them like mortar; and surrounded by the more loftymountains in the distance. These ridges, however, left the valley ofbreadth enough to secure the cavalry from any sudden surprise by themountaineers and they had stationed sentinels and outposts at properdistances from this main body, in every direction, so that they mightsecure full time to mount and get under arms upon the least alarm. It wasnot, indeed, expected at that time, that Highlanders would attack cavalryin an open plain, though late events have shown that they may do so withsuccess.*

  * The affairs of Prestonpans and Falkirk are probably alluded to, which *marks the time of writing the Memoirs as subsequent to 1745.

  When I first knew the Highlanders, they had almost a superstitious dreadof a mounted trooper, the horse being so much more fierce and imposing inhis appearance than the little shelties of their own hills, and moreoverbeing trained, as the more ignorant mountaineers believed, to fight withhis feet and his teeth. The appearance of the piequeted horses, feedingin this little vale--the forms of the soldiers, as they sate, stood, orwalked, in various groups in the vicinity of the beautiful river, and ofthe bare yet romantic ranges of rock which hedge in the landscape oneither side,--formed a noble foreground; while far to the eastward theeye caught a glance of the lake of Menteith; and Stirling Castle, dimlyseen along with the blue and distant line of the Ochil Mountains, closedthe scene.

  After gazing on this landscape with great earnestness, young MacGregorintimated to me that I was to descend to the station of the militia andexecute my errand to their commander,--enjoining me at the same time,with a menacing gesture, neither to inform them who had guided me to thatplace, nor where I had parted from my escort. Thus tutored, I descendedtowards the military post, followed by Andrew, who, only retaining hisbreeches and stockings of the English costume, without a hat,bare-legged, with brogues on his feet, which Dougal had given him out ofcompassion, and having a tattered plaid to supply the want of all uppergarments, looked as if he had been playing the part of a HighlandTom-of-Bedlam. We had not proceeded far before we became visible to oneof the videttes, who, riding towards us, presented his carabine andcommanded me to stand. I obeyed, and when the soldier came up, desired tobe conducted to his commanding-officer. I was immediately brought where acircle of officers, sitting upon the grass, seemed in attendance upon oneof superior rank. He wore a cuirass of polished steel, over which weredrawn the insignia of the ancient Order of the Thistle. My friendGarschattachin, and many other gentlemen, some in uniform, others intheir ordinary dress, but all armed and well attended, seemed to receivetheir orders from this person of distinction. Many servants in richliveries, apparently a part of his household, were also in waiting.

  Having paid to this nobleman the respect which his rank appeared todemand, I acquainted him that I had been an involuntary witness to theking's soldiers having suffered a defeat from the Highlanders at the passof Loch-Ard (such I had learned was the name of the place where Mr.Thornton was made prisoner), and that the victors threatened everyspecies of extremity to those who had fallen into their power, as well asto the Low Country in general, unless their Chief, who had that morningbeen made prisoner, were returned to them uninjured. The Duke (for hewhom I addressed was of no lower rank) listened to me with greatcomposure, and then replied, that he should be extremely sorry to exposethe unfortunate gentlemen who had been made prisoners to the cruelty ofthe barbarians into whose hands they had fallen, but that it was folly tosuppose that he would deliver up the very author of all these disordersand offences, and so encourage his followers in their license. "You mayreturn to those who sent you," he proceeded, "and inform them, that Ishall certainly cause Rob Roy Campbell, whom they call MacGregor, to beexecuted, by break of day, as an outlaw taken in arms, and deservingdeath by a thousand acts of violence; that I should be most justly heldunworthy of my situation and commission did I act otherwise; that I shallknow how to protect the country against their insolent threats ofviolence; and that if they injure a hair of the head of any of theunfortunate gentlemen whom an unlucky accident has thrown into theirpower, I will take such ample vengeance, that the very stones of theirglens shall sing woe for it this hundred years to come!"

  I humbly begged leave to remonstrate respecting the honourable missionimposed on me, and touched upon the obvious danger attending it, when thenoble commander replied, "that such being the case, I might send myservant."

  "The deil be in my feet," said Andrew, without either having respect tothe presence in which he stood, or waiting till I replied--"the deil bein my feet, if I gang my tae's length. Do the folk think I hae anotherthrapple in my pouch after John Highlandman's sneeked this ane wi' hisjoctaleg? or that I can dive doun at the tae side of a Highland loch andrise at the tother, like a shell-drake? Na, na--ilk ane for himsell, andGod for us a'. Folk may just make a page o' their ain age, and servethemsells till their bairns grow up, and gang their ain errands forAndrew. Rob Roy never came near the parish of Dreepdaily, to steal eitherpippin or pear frae me or mine."

  Silencing my follower with some difficulty, I represented to the Duke thegreat danger Captain Thornton and Mr. Jarvie would certainly be exposedto, and entreated he would make me the bearer of such modified terms asmight be the means of saving their lives. I assured him I should declineno danger if I could be of service; but from what I had heard and seen, Ihad little doubt they would be instantly murdered should the chief of theoutlaws suffer death.

  The Duke was obviously much affected. "It was a hard case," he said, "andhe felt it as such; but he had a paramount duty to perform to thecountry--Rob Roy must die!"

  I own it was not without emotion that I heard this threat of instantdeath to my acquaintance Campbell, who had so often testified hisgood-will towards me. Nor was I singular in the feeling, for many ofthose around the Duke ventured to express themselves in his favour. "Itwould be more advisable," they said, "to send him to Stirling Castle, andthere detain him a close prisoner, as a pledge for the submission anddispersion of his gang. It were a great pity to expose the country to beplundered, which, now that the long nights approached, it would be foundvery difficult to prevent, since it was impossible to guard every point,and the Highlanders were sure to select those that were left exposed."They added, that there was great hardship in leaving the unfortunateprisoners to the almost certain doom of massacre denounced against them,which no one doubted would be executed in the first burst of revenge.

  Garschattachin ventured yet farther, confiding in the honour of thenobleman whom he addressed, although he knew he had particular reasonsfor disliking their prisoner. "Rob Roy," he said, "though a kittleneighbour to the Low Country, and particularly obnoxious to his Grace,and though he maybe carried the catheran trade farther than ony man o'his day, was an auld-farrand carle, and there might be some means ofmaking him hear reason; whereas his wife and sons were reckless fiends,without either fear or mercy about them, and, at the head of a' hislimmer loons, would be a worse plague to the country than ever he hadbeen."

  "Pooh! pooh!" replied his Grace, "it is the very sense and cunning ofthis fellow which has so long maintained his reign--a mere Highlandrobber would have been put down in as many weeks as he has flourishedyears. His gang, without him, is no more to be dreaded as a permanentannoyance--it will no longer exist--than a wasp without its head, whichmay sting once perhaps, but is instantly crushed into annihilation."

  Garschattachin
was not so easily silenced. "I am sure, my Lord Duke," hereplied, "I have no favour for Rob, and he as little for me, seeing hehas twice cleaned out my ain byres, beside skaith amang my tenants; but,however"--

  "But, however, Garschattachin," said the Duke, with a smile of peculiarexpression, "I fancy you think such a freedom may be pardoned in afriend's friend, and Rob's supposed to be no enemy to Major Galbraith'sfriends over the water."

  "If it be so, my lord," said Garschattachin, in the same tone ofjocularity, "it's no the warst thing I have heard of him. But I wish weheard some news from the clans, that we have waited for sae lang. I vowto God they'll keep a Hielandman's word wi' us--I never ken'd thembetter--it's ill drawing boots upon trews."

  "I cannot believe it," said the Duke. "These gentlemen are known to bemen of honour, and I must necessarily suppose they are to keep theirappointment. Send out two more horse-men to look for our friends. Wecannot, till their arrival, pretend to attack the pass where CaptainThornton has suffered himself to be surprised, and which, to myknowledge, ten men on foot might make good against a regiment of the besthorse in Europe--Meanwhile let refreshments be given to the men."

  I had the benefit of this last order, the more necessary and acceptable,as I had tasted nothing since our hasty meal at Aberfoil the eveningbefore. The videttes who had been despatched returned without tidings ofthe expected auxiliaries, and sunset was approaching, when a Highlanderbelonging to the clans whose co-operation was expected, appeared as thebearer of a letter, which he delivered to the Duke with a most profoundconge'.

  "Now will I wad a hogshead of claret," said Garschattachin, "that this isa message to tell us that these cursed Highlandmen, whom we have fetchedhere at the expense of so much plague and vexation, are going to drawoff, and leave us to do our own business if we can."

  "It is even so, gentlemen," said the Duke, reddening with indignation,after having perused the letter, which was written upon a very dirtyscrap of paper, but most punctiliously addressed, "For the much-honouredhands of Ane High and Mighty Prince, the Duke," &c. &c. &c. "Our allies,"continued the Duke, "have deserted us, gentlemen, and have made aseparate peace with the enemy."

  "It's just the fate of all alliances," said Garschattachin, "the Dutchwere gaun to serve us the same gate, if we had not got the start of themat Utrecht."

  "You are facetious, air," said the Duke, with a frown which showed howlittle he liked the pleasantry; "but our business is rather of a gravecut just now.--I suppose no gentleman would advise our attempting topenetrate farther into the country, unsupported either by friendlyHighlanders, or by infantry from Inversnaid?"

  A general answer announced that the attempt would be perfect madness.

  "Nor would there be great wisdom," the Duke added, "in remaining exposedto a night-attack in this place. I therefore propose that we shouldretreat to the house of Duchray and that of Gartartan, and keep safe andsure watch and ward until morning. But before we separate, I will examineRob Roy before you all, and make you sensible, by your own eyes and ears,of the extreme unfitness of leaving him space for farther outrage." Hegave orders accordingly, and the prisoner was brought before him, hisarms belted down above the elbow, and secured to his body by ahorse-girth buckled tight behind him. Two non-commissioned officers hadhold of him, one on each side, and two file of men with carabines andfixed bayonets attended for additional security.

  I had never seen this man in the dress of his country, which set in astriking point of view the peculiarities of his form. A shock-head of redhair, which the hat and periwig of the Lowland costume had in a greatmeasure concealed, was seen beneath the Highland bonnet, and verified theepithet of _Roy,_ or Red, by which he was much better known in the LowCountry than by any other, and is still, I suppose, best remembered. Thejustice of the appellation was also vindicated by the appearance of thatpart of his limbs, from the bottom of his kilt to the top of his shorthose, which the fashion of his country dress left bare, and which wascovered with a fell of thick, short, red hair, especially around hisknees, which resembled in this respect, as well as from their sinewyappearance of extreme strength, the limbs of a red-coloured Highlandbull. Upon the whole, betwixt the effect produced by the change of dress,and by my having become acquainted with his real and formidablecharacter, his appearance had acquired to my eyes something so muchwilder and more striking than it before presented, that I could scarcerecognise him to be the same person.

  His manner was bold, unconstrained unless by the actual bonds, haughty,and even dignified. He bowed to the Duke, nodded to Garschattachin andothers, and showed some surprise at seeing me among the party.

  "It is long since we have met, Mr. Campbell," said the Duke.

  "It is so, my Lord Duke; I could have wished it had been" (looking at thefastening on his arms) "when I could have better paid the compliments Iowe to your Grace;--but there's a gude time coming."

  "No time like the time present, Mr. Campbell," answered the Duke, "forthe hours are fast flying that must settle your last account with allmortal affairs. I do not say this to insult your distress; but you mustbe aware yourself that you draw near the end of your career. I do notdeny that you may sometimes have done less harm than others of yourunhappy trade, and that you may occasionally have exhibited marks oftalent, and even of a disposition which promised better things. But youare aware how long you have been the terror and the oppressor of apeaceful neighbourhood, and by what acts of violence you have maintainedand extended your usurped authority. You know, in short, that you havedeserved death, and that you must prepare for it."

  "My Lord," said Rob Roy, "although I may well lay my misfortunes at yourGrace's door, yet I will never say that you yourself have been the wilfuland witting author of them. My Lord, if I had thought sae, your Gracewould not this day have been sitting in judgment on me; for you have beenthree times within good rifle distance of me when you were thinking butof the red deer, and few people have ken'd me miss my aim. But as forthem that have abused your Grace's ear, and set you up against a man thatwas ance as peacefu' a man as ony in the land, and made your name thewarrant for driving me to utter extremity,--I have had some amends ofthem, and, for a' that your Grace now says, I expect to live to haemair."

  "I know," said the Duke, in rising anger, "that you are a determined andimpudent villain, who will keep his oath if he swears to mischief; but itshall be my care to prevent you. You have no enemies but your own wickedactions."

  "Had I called myself Grahame, instead of Campbell, I might have heardless about them," answered Rob Roy, with dogged resolution.

  "You will do well, sir," said the Duke, "to warn your wife and family andfollowers, to beware how they use the gentlemen now in their hands, as Iwill requite tenfold on them, and their kin and allies, the slightestinjury done to any of his Majesty's liege subjects."

  "My Lord," said Roy in answer, "none of my enemies will allege that Ihave been a bloodthirsty man, and were I now wi' my folk, I could rulefour or five hundred wild Hielanders as easy as your Grace those eight orten lackeys and foot-boys--But if your Grace is bent to take the headaway from a house, ye may lay your account there will be misrule amangthe members.--However, come o't what like, there's an honest man, akinsman o' my ain, maun come by nae skaith. Is there ony body here wad doa gude deed for MacGregor?--he may repay it, though his hands be nowtied."

  The Highlander who had delivered the letter to the Duke replied, "I'll doyour will for you, MacGregor; and I'll gang back up the glen on purpose."

  He advanced, and received from the prisoner a message to his wife, which,being in Gaelic, I did not understand, but I had little doubt it relatedto some measures to be taken for the safety of Mr. Jarvie.

  "Do you hear the fellow's impudence?" said the Duke; "he confides in hischaracter of a messenger. His conduct is of a piece with his master's,who invited us to make common cause against these freebooters, and havedeserted us so soon as the MacGregors have agreed to surrender theBalquhidder lands they were squabbling about.

 
No truth in plaids, no faith in tartan trews! Chameleon-like, they change a thousand hues."

  "Your great ancestor never said so, my Lord," answered MajorGalbraith;--"and, with submission, neither would your Grace haveoccasion to say it, wad ye but be for beginning justice at thewell-head--Gie the honest man his mear again--Let every head wear it'sane bannet, and the distractions o' the Lennox wad be mended wi' themo'the land."

  "Hush! hush! Garschattachin," said the Duke; "this is language dangerousfor you to talk to any one, and especially to me; but I presume youreckon yourself a privileged person. Please to draw off your partytowards Gartartan; I shall myself see the prisoner escorted to Duchray,and send you orders tomorrow. You will please grant no leave of absenceto any of your troopers."

  "Here's auld ordering and counter-ordering," muttered Garschattachinbetween his teeth. "But patience! patience!--we may ae day play at changeseats, the king's coming."

  The two troops of cavalry now formed, and prepared to march off theground, that they might avail themselves of the remainder of daylight toget to their evening quarters. I received an intimation, rather than aninvitation, to attend the party; and I perceived, that, though no longerconsidered as a prisoner, I was yet under some sort of suspicion. Thetimes were indeed so dangerous,--the great party questions of Jacobiteand Hanoverian divided the country so effectually,--and the constantdisputes and jealousies between the Highlanders and Lowlanders, besides anumber of inexplicable causes of feud which separated the great leadingfamilies in Scotland from each other, occasioned such general suspicion,that a solitary and unprotected stranger was almost sure to meet withsomething disagreeable in the course of his travels.

  I acquiesced, however, in my destination with the best grace I could,consoling myself with the hope that I might obtain from the captivefreebooter some information concerning Rashleigh and his machinations. Ishould do myself injustice did I not add, that my views were not merelyselfish. I was too much interested in my singular acquaintance not to bedesirous of rendering him such services as his unfortunate situationmight demand, or admit of his receiving.