Rob Roy — Complete

by Walter Scott

  "But your sons," I said--"they are at the age when your countrymen haveusually no objection to see the world?"

  "And I should be content," he replied, "that they pushed their fortune inthe French or Spanish service, as is the wont of Scottish cavaliers ofhonour; and last night your plan seemed feasible eneugh--But I hae seenhis Excellency this morning before ye were up."

  "Did he then quarter so near us?" said I, my bosom throbbing withanxiety.

  "Nearer than ye thought," was MacGregor's reply; "but he seemed rather insome shape to jalouse your speaking to the young leddy; and so you see"--

  "There was no occasion for jealousy," I answered, with some haughtiness;--"I should not have intruded on his privacy."

  "But ye must not be offended, or look out from amang your curls then,like a wildcat out of an ivy-tod, for ye are to understand that he wishesmost sincere weel to you, and has proved it. And it's partly that whilkhas set the heather on fire e'en now."

  "Heather on fire?" said I. "I do not understand you."

  "Why," resumed MacGregor, "ye ken weel eneugh that women and gear are atthe bottom of a' the mischief in this warld. I hae been misdoubting yourcousin Rashleigh since ever he saw that he wasna to get Die Vernon forhis marrow, and I think he took grudge at his Excellency mainly on thataccount. But then came the splore about the surrendering your papers--andwe hae now gude evidence, that, sae soon as he was compelled to yieldthem up, he rade post to Stirling, and tauld the Government all and mairthan all, that was gaun doucely on amang us hill-folk; and, doubtless,that was the way that the country was laid to take his Excellency and theleddy, and to make sic an unexpected raid on me. And I hae as littledoubt that the poor deevil Morris, whom he could gar believe onything,was egged on by him, and some of the Lowland gentry, to trepan me in thegate he tried to do. But if Rashleigh Osbaldistone were baith the lastand best of his name, and granting that he and I ever forgather again,the fiend go down my weasand with a bare blade at his belt, if we partbefore my dirk and his best blude are weel acquainted thegither!"

  He pronounced the last threat with an ominous frown, and the appropriategesture of his hand upon his dagger.

  "I should almost rejoice at what has happened," said I, "could I hopethat Rashleigh's treachery might prove the means of preventing theexplosion of the rash and desperate intrigues in which I have longsuspected him to be a prime agent."

  "Trow ye na that," said Rob Roy; "traitor's word never yet hurt honestcause. He was ower deep in our secrets, that's true; and had it not beenso, Stirling and Edinburgh Castles would have been baith in our hands bythis time, or briefly hereafter, whilk is now scarce to be hoped for. Butthere are ower mony engaged, and far ower gude a cause to be gien up forthe breath of a traitor's tale, and that will be seen and heard of ere itbe lang. And so, as I was about to say, the best of my thanks to you foryour offer anent my sons, whilk last night I had some thoughts to haveembraced in their behalf. But I see that this villain's treason willconvince our great folks that they must instantly draw to a head, andmake a blow for it, or be taen in their houses, coupled up like hounds,and driven up to London like the honest noblemen and gentlemen in theyear seventeen hundred and seven. Civil war is like a cockatrice;--wehave sitten hatching the egg that held it for ten years, and might haesitten on for ten years mair, when in comes Rashleigh, and chips theshell, and out bangs the wonder amang us, and cries to fire and sword.Now in sic a matter I'll hae need o' a' the hands I can mak; and, naedisparagement to the Kings of France and Spain, whom I wish very weel to,King James is as gude a man as ony o' them, and has the best right toHamish and Rob, being his natural-born subjects."

  I easily comprehended that these words boded a general nationalconvulsion; and, as it would have been alike useless and dangerous tohave combated the political opinions of my guide, at such a place andmoment, I contented myself with regretting the promiscuous scene ofconfusion and distress likely to arise from any general exertion infavour of the exiled royal family.

  "Let it come, man--let it come," answered MacGregor; "ye never saw dullweather clear without a shower; and if the world is turned upside down,why, honest men have the better chance to cut bread out of it."

  I again attempted to bring him back to the subject of Diana; but althoughon most occasions and subjects he used a freedom of speech which I had nogreat delight in listening to, yet upon that alone which was mostinteresting to me, he kept a degree of scrupulous reserve, and contentedhimself with intimating, "that he hoped the leddy would be soon in aquieter country than this was like to be for one while." I was obliged tobe content with this answer, and to proceed in the hope that accidentmight, as on a former occasion, stand my friend, and allow me at leastthe sad gratification of bidding farewell to the object which hadoccupied such a share of my affections, so much beyond even what I hadsupposed, till I was about to be separated from her for ever.

  Loch Lomond--284]

  We pursued the margin of the lake for about six English miles, through adevious and beautifully variegated path, until we attained a sort ofHighland farm, or assembly of hamlets, near the head of that fine sheetof water, called, if I mistake not, Lediart, or some such name. Here anumerous party of MacGregor's men were stationed in order to receive us.The taste as well as the eloquence of tribes in a savage, or, to speakmore properly, in a rude state, is usually just, because it is unfetteredby system and affectation; and of this I had an example in the choicethese mountaineers had made of a place to receive their guests. It hasbeen said that a British monarch would judge well to receive the embassyof a rival power in the cabin of a man-of-war; and a Highland leaderacted with some propriety in choosing a situation where the naturalobjects of grandeur proper to his country might have their full effect onthe minds of his guests.

  We ascended about two hundred yards from the shores of the lake, guidedby a brawling brook, and left on the right hand four or five Highlandhuts, with patches of arable land around them, so small as to show thatthey must have been worked with the spade rather than the plough, cut asit were out of the surrounding copsewood, and waving with crops of barleyand oats. Above this limited space the hill became more steep; and on itsedge we descried the glittering arms and waving drapery of about fifty ofMacGregor's followers. They were stationed on a spot, the recollection ofwhich yet strikes me with admiration. The brook, hurling its watersdownwards from the mountain, had in this spot encountered a barrier rock,over which it had made its way by two distinct leaps. The first fall,across which a magnificent old oak, slanting out from the farther bank,partly extended itself as if to shroud the dusky stream of the cascade,might be about twelve feet high; the broken waters were received in abeautiful stone basin, almost as regular as if hewn by a sculptor; andafter wheeling around its flinty margin, they made a second precipitousdash, through a dark and narrow chasm, at least fifty feet in depth, andfrom thence, in a hurried, but comparatively a more gentle course,escaped to join the lake.

  With the natural taste which belongs to mountaineers, and especially tothe Scottish Highlanders, whose feelings, I have observed, are oftenallied with the romantic and poetical, Rob Roy's wife and followers hadprepared our morning repast in a scene well calculated to impressstrangers with some feelings of awe. They are also naturally a grave andproud people, and, however rude in our estimation, carry their ideas ofform and politeness to an excess that would appear overstrained, exceptfrom the demonstration of superior force which accompanies the display ofit; for it must be granted that the air of punctilious deference andrigid etiquette which would seem ridiculous in an ordinary peasant, has,like the salute of a _corps-de-garde,_ a propriety when tendered by aHighlander completely armed. There was, accordingly, a good deal offormality in our approach and reception.

  The Highlanders, who had been dispersed on the side of the hill, drewthemselves together when we came in view, and, standing firm andmotionless, appeared in close column behind three figures, whom I soonrecognised to be Helen MacGregor and her two sons. MacGregor himselfarranged hi
s attendants in the rear, and, requesting Mr. Jarvie todismount where the ascent became steep, advanced slowly, marshalling usforward at the head of the troop. As we advanced, we heard the wild notesof the bagpipes, which lost their natural discord from being mingled withthe dashing sound of the cascade. When we came close, the wife ofMacGregor came forward to meet us. Her dress was studiously arranged in amore feminine taste than it had been on the preceding day, but herfeatures wore the same lofty, unbending, and resolute character; and asshe folded my friend the Bailie in an unexpected and apparently unwelcomeembrace, I could perceive by the agitation of his wig, his back, and thecalves of his legs, that he felt much like to one who feels himselfsuddenly in the gripe of a she-bear, without being able to distinguishwhether the animal is in kindness or in wrath.

  "Kinsman," she said, "you are welcome--and you, too, stranger," sheadded, releasing my alarmed companion, who instinctively drew back andsettled his wig, and addressing herself to me--"you also are welcome. Youcame," she added, "to our unhappy country, when our bloods were chafed,and our hands were red. Excuse the rudeness that gave you a roughwelcome, and lay it upon the evil times, and not upon us." All this wassaid with the manners of a princess, and in the tone and style of acourt. Nor was there the least tincture of that vulgarity, which wenaturally attach to the Lowland Scottish. There was a strong provincialaccentuation, but, otherwise, the language rendered by Helen MacGregor,out of the native and poetical Gaelic, into English, which she hadacquired as we do learned tongues, but had probably never heard appliedto the mean purposes of ordinary life, was graceful, flowing, anddeclamatory. Her husband, who had in his time played many parts, used amuch less elevated and emphatic dialect;--but even _his_ language rose inpurity of expression, as you may have remarked, if I have been accuratein recording it, when the affairs which he discussed were of an agitatingand important nature; and it appears to me in his case, and in that ofsome other Highlanders whom I have known, that, when familiar andfacetious, they used the Lowland Scottish dialect,--when serious andimpassioned, their thoughts arranged themselves in the idiom of theirnative language; and in the latter case, as they uttered thecorresponding ideas in English, the expressions sounded wild, elevated,and poetical. In fact, the language of passion is almost always pure aswell as vehement, and it is no uncommon thing to hear a Scotchman, whenoverwhelmed by a countryman with a tone of bitter and fluent upbraiding,reply by way of taunt to his adversary, "You have gotten to yourEnglish."

  Be this as it may, the wife of MacGregor invited us to a refreshmentspread out on the grass, which abounded with all the good things theirmountains could offer, but was clouded by the dark and undisturbedgravity which sat on the brow of our hostess, as well as by our deep andanxious recollection of what had taken place on the preceding day. It wasin vain that the leader exerted himself to excite mirth;--a chill hungover our minds, as if the feast had been funereal; and every bosom feltlight when it was ended.

  "Adieu, cousin," she said to Mr. Jarvie, as we rose from theentertainment; "the best wish Helen MacGregor can give to a friend is,that he may see her no more."

  The Bailie struggled to answer, probably with some commonplace maxim ofmorality;--but the calm and melancholy sternness of her countenance boredown and disconcerted the mechanical and formal importance of themagistrate. He coughed,--hemmed,--bowed,--and was silent.

  "For you, stranger," she said, "I have a token, from one whom you cannever"--

  "Helen!" interrupted MacGregor, in a loud and stern voice, "what meansthis?--have you forgotten the charge?"

  "MacGregor," she replied, "I have forgotten nought that is fitting for meto remember. It is not such hands as these," and she stretched forth herlong, sinewy, and bare arm, "that are fitting to convey love-tokens, werethe gift connected with aught but misery. Young man," she said,presenting me with a ring, which I well remembered as one of the fewornaments that Miss Vernon sometimes wore, "this comes from one whom youwill never see more. If it is a joyless token, it is well fitted to passthrough the hands of one to whom joy can never be known. Her last wordswere--Let him forget me for ever."

  "And can she," I said, almost without being conscious that I spoke,"suppose that is possible?"

  "All may be forgotten," said the extraordinary female who addressedme,--"all--but the sense of dishonour, and the desire of vengeance."

  "_Seid suas!_"* cried the MacGregor, stamping with impatience.

  * "Strike up."

  The bagpipes sounded, and with their thrilling and jarring tones cutshort our conference. Our leave of our hostess was taken by silentgestures; and we resumed our journey with an additional proof on my part,that I was beloved by Diana, and was separated from her for ever.