by Walter Scott
CHAPTER LIII
To hail the king in seemly sort The ladie was full fain, But King Arthur, all sore amazed, No answer made again 'What wight art thou,' the ladie said, 'That will not speak to me? Sir, I may chance to ease thy pain, Though I be foul to see'
The Marriage of Sir Gawaine.
The fairy bride of Sir Gawaine, while under the influence of the spellof her wicked step-mother, was more decrepit probably, and what iscommonly called more ugly, than Meg Merrilies; but I doubt if shepossessed that wild sublimity which an excited imagination communicatedto features marked and expressive in their own peculiar character, andto the gestures of a form which, her sex considered, might be termedgigantic. Accordingly, the Knights of the Round Table did not recoilwith more terror from the apparition of the loathly lady placed between'an oak and a green holly,' than Lucy Bertram and Julia Mannering didfrom the appearance of this Galwegian sibyl upon the common ofEllangowan.
'For God's sake,' said Julia, pulling out her purse, 'give thatdreadful woman something and bid her go away.'
'I cannot,' said Bertram; 'I must not offend her.'
'What keeps you here?' said Meg, exalting the harsh and rough tones ofher hollow voice. 'Why do you not follow? Must your hour call youtwice? Do you remember your oath? "Were it at kirk or market, weddingor burial,"'--and she held high her skinny forefinger in a menacingattitude.
Bertram--turned round to his terrified companions. 'Excuse me for amoment; I am engaged by a promise to follow this woman.'
'Good Heavens! engaged to a madwoman?' said Julia.
'Or to a gipsy, who has her band in the wood ready to murder you!' saidLucy.
'That was not spoken like a bairn of Ellangowan,' said Meg, frowningupon Miss Bertram. 'It is the ill-doers are ill-dreaders.'
'In short, I must go,' said Bertram, 'it is absolutely necessary; waitfor me five minutes on this spot.'
'Five minutes?' said the gipsy, 'five hours may not bring you hereagain.'
'Do you hear that?' said Julia; 'for Heaven's sake do not go!'
'I must, I must; Mr. Dinmont will protect you back to the house.'
'No,' said Meg, 'he must come with you; it is for that he is here. Hemaun take part wi' hand and heart; and weel his part it is, for reddinghis quarrel might have cost you dear.'
'Troth, Luckie, it's very true,' said the steady farmer; 'and ere Iturn back frae the Captain's side I'll show that I haena forgotten 't.'
'O yes,' exclaimed both the ladies at once, 'let Mr. Dinmont go withyou, if go you must, on this strange summons.'
'Indeed I must,' answered Bertram; 'but you see I am safely guarded.Adieu for a short time; go home as fast as you can.'
He pressed his sister's hand, and took a yet more affectionate farewellof Julia with his eyes. Almost stupefied with surprise and fear, theyoung ladies watched with anxious looks the course of Bertram, hiscompanion, and their extraordinary guide. Her tall figure moved acrossthe wintry heath with steps so swift, so long, and so steady that sheappeared rather to glide than to walk. Bertram and Dinmont, both tallmen, apparently scarce equalled her in height, owing to her longerdress and high head-gear. She proceeded straight across the common,without turning aside to the winding path by which passengers avoidedthe inequalities and little rills that traversed it in differentdirections. Thus the diminishing figures often disappeared from theeye, as they dived into such broken ground, and again ascended to sightwhen they were past the hollow. There was something frightful andunearthly, as it were, in the rapid and undeviating course which shepursued, undeterred by any of the impediments which usually incline atraveller from the direct path. Her way was as straight, and nearly asswift, as that of a bird through the air. At length they reached thosethickets of natural wood which extended from the skirts of the commontowards the glades and brook of Derncleugh, and were there lost to theview.
'This is very extraordinary,' said Lucy after a pause, and turninground to her companion; 'what can he have to do with that old hag?'
'It is very frightful,' answered Julia, 'and almost reminds me of thetales of sorceresses, witches, and evil genii which I have heard inIndia. They believe there in a fascination of the eye by which thosewho possess it control the will and dictate the motions of theirvictims. What can your brother have in common with that fearful womanthat he should leave us, obviously against his will, to attend to hercommands?'
'At least,' said Lucy, 'we may hold him safe from harm; for she wouldnever have summoned that faithful creature Dinmont, of whose strength,courage, and steadiness Henry said so much, to attend upon anexpedition where she projected evil to the person of his friend. Andnow let us go back to the house till the Colonel returns. PerhapsBertram may be back first; at any rate, the Colonel will judge what isto be done.'
Leaning, then, upon each other's arm, but yet occasionally stumbling,between fear and the disorder of their nerves, they at length reachedthe head of the avenue, when they heard the tread of a horse behind.They started, for their ears were awake to every sound, and beheld totheir great pleasure young Hazlewood. 'The Colonel will be hereimmediately,' he said; 'I galloped on before to pay my respects to MissBertram, with the sincerest congratulations upon the joyful event whichhas taken place in her family. I long to be introduced to CaptainBertram, and to thank him for the well-deserved lesson he gave to myrashness and indiscretion.'
'He has left us just now,' said Lucy, 'and in a manner that hasfrightened us very much.'
Just at that moment the Colonel's carriage drove up, and, on observingthe ladies, stopped, while Mannering and his learned counsel alightedand joined them. They instantly communicated the new cause of alarm.
'Meg Merrilies again!' said the Colonel. 'She certainly is a mostmysterious and unaccountable personage; but I think she must havesomething to impart to Bertram to which she does not mean we should beprivy.'
'The devil take the bedlamite old woman,' said the Counsellor; 'willshe not let things take their course, prout de lege, but must always beputting in her oar in her own way? Then I fear from the direction theytook they are going upon the Ellangowan estate. That rascal Glossin hasshown us what ruffians he has at his disposal; I wish honest Liddesdalemaybe guard sufficient.'
'If you please,' said Hazlewood, 'I should be most happy to ride in thedirection which they have taken. I am so well known in the country thatI scarce think any outrage will be offered in my presence, and I shallkeep at such a cautious distance as not to appear to watch Meg, orinterrupt any communication which she may make.'
'Upon my word,' said Pleydell (aside), 'to be a sprig whom I rememberwith a whey face and a satchel not so very many years ago, I thinkyoung Hazlewood grows a fine fellow. I am more afraid of a new attemptat legal oppression than at open violence, and from that this youngman's presence would deter both Glossin and his understrappers.--Hieaway then, my boy; peer out--peer out, you 'll find them somewhereabout Derncleugh, or very probably in Warroch wood.'
Hazlewood turned his horse. 'Come back to us to dinner, Hazlewood,'cried the Colonel. He bowed, spurred his horse, and galloped off.
We now return to Bertram and Dinmont, who continued to follow theirmysterious guide through the woods and dingles between the open commonand the ruined hamlet of Derncleugh. As she led the way she neverlooked back upon her followers, unless to chide them for loitering,though the sweat, in spite of the season, poured from their brows. Atother times she spoke to herself in such broken expressions as these:'It is to rebuild the auld house, it is to lay the corner-stone; anddid I not warn him? I tell'd him I was born to do it, if my father'shead had been the stepping-stane, let alane his. I was doomed--still Ikept my purpose in the cage and in the stocks; I was banished--I keptit in an unco land; I was scourged, I was branded--my resolution laydeeper than scourge or red iron could reach;--and now the hour is come.'
'Captain,' said Dinmont, in a half whisper, 'I wish she binna uncanny!her words dinna seem to come in God's name, or like other folks
'. Od,they threep in our country that there ARE sic things.'
'Don't be afraid, my friend,' whispered Bertram in return.
'Fear'd! fient a haet care I,' said the dauntless farmer; 'be she witchor deevil, it's a' ane to Dandie Dinmont.'
'Haud your peace, gudeman,' said Meg, looking sternly over hershoulder; 'is this a time or place for you to speak, think ye?'
'But, my good friend,' said Bertram, 'as I have no doubt in your goodfaith or kindness, which I have experienced, you should in return havesome confidence in me; I wish to know where you are leading us.'
'There's but ae answer to that, Henry Bertram,' said the sibyl. 'Iswore my tongue should never tell, but I never said my finger shouldnever show. Go on and meet your fortune, or turn back and lose it:that's a' I hae to say.'
'Go on then,' answered Bertram; 'I will ask no more questions.'
They descended into the glen about the same place where Meg hadformerly parted from Bertram. She paused an instant beneath the tallrock where he had witnessed the burial of a dead body and stamped uponthe ground, which, notwithstanding all the care that had been taken,showed vestiges of having been recently moved. 'Here rests ane,' shesaid; 'he'll maybe hae neibours sune.'
She then moved up the brook until she came to the ruined hamlet, where,pausing with a look of peculiar and softened interest before one of thegables which was still standing, she said in a tone less abrupt, thoughas solemn as before, 'Do you see that blackit and broken end of asheeling? There my kettle boiled for forty years; there I bore twelvebuirdly sons and daughters. Where are they now? where are the leavesthat were on that auld ash tree at Martinmas! The west wind has made itbare; and I'm stripped too. Do you see that saugh tree? it's but ablackened rotten stump now. I've sate under it mony a bonnie summerafternoon, when it hung its gay garlands ower the poppling water. I'vesat there, and,' elevating her voice, 'I've held you on my knee, HenryBertram, and sung ye sangs of the auld barons and their bloody wars. Itwill ne'er be green again, and Meg Merrilies will never sing sangsmair, be they blythe or sad. But ye'll no forget her, and ye'll gar bigup the auld wa's for her sake? And let somebody live there that's owergude to fear them of another warld. For if ever the dead came backamang the living, I'll be seen in this glen mony a night after thesecrazed banes are in the mould.'
The mixture of insanity and wild pathos with which she spoke these lastwords, with her right arm bare and extended, her left bent and shroudedbeneath the dark red drapery of her mantle, might have been a studyworthy of our Siddons herself. 'And now,' she said, resuming at oncethe short, stern, and hasty tone which was most ordinary to her, 'letus to the wark, let us to the wark.'
She then led the way to the promontory on which the Kaim of Derncleughwas situated, produced a large key from her pocket, and unlocked thedoor. The interior of this place was in better order than formerly. 'Ihave made things decent,' she said; 'I may be streekit here or night.There will be few, few at Meg's lykewake, for mony of our folk willblame what I hae done, and am to do!'
She then pointed to a table, upon which was some cold meat, arrangedwith more attention to neatness than could have been expected fromMeg's habits. 'Eat,' she said--'eat; ye'll need it this night yet.'
Bertram, in complaisance, eat a morsel or two; and Dinmont, whoseappetite was unabated either by wonder, apprehension, or the meal ofthe morning, made his usual figure as a trencherman. She then offeredeach a single glass of spirits, which Bertram drank diluted, and hiscompanion plain.
'Will ye taste naething yoursell, Luckie?' said Dinmont.
'I shall not need it,' replied their mysterious hostess. 'And now,' shesaid, 'ye maun hae arms: ye maunna gang on dry-handed; but use them notrashly. Take captive, but save life; let the law hae its ain. He maunspeak ere he die.'
'Who is to be taken? who is to speak?' said Bertram, in astonishment,receiving a pair of pistols which she offered him, and which, uponexamining, he found loaded and locked.
'The flints are gude,' she said, 'and the powder dry; I ken this warkweel.'
Then, without answering his questions, she armed Dinmont also with alarge pistol, and desired them to choose sticks for themselves out of aparcel of very suspicious-looking bludgeons which she brought from acorner. Bertram took a stout sapling, and Dandie selected a club whichmight have served Hercules himself. They then left the hut together,and in doing so Bertram took an opportunity to whisper to Dinmont,'There's something inexplicable in all this. But we need not use thesearms unless we see necessity and lawful occasion; take care to do asyou see me do.'
Dinmont gave a sagacious nod, and they continued to follow, over wetand over dry, through bog and through fallow, the footsteps of theirconductress. She guided them to the wood of Warroch by the same trackwhich the late Ellangowan had used when riding to Derncleugh in questof his child on the miserable evening of Kennedy's murder.
When Meg Merrilies had attained these groves, through which the wintrysea-wind was now whistling hoarse and shrill, she seemed to pause amoment as if to recollect the way. 'We maun go the precise track,' shesaid, and continued to go forward, but rather in a zigzag and involvedcourse than according to her former steady and direct line of motion.At length she guided them through the mazes of the wood to a littleopen glade of about a quarter of an acre, surrounded by trees andbushes, which made a wild and irregular boundary. Even in winter it wasa sheltered and snugly sequestered spot; but when arrayed in theverdure of spring, the earth sending forth all its wild flowers, theshrubs spreading their waste of blossom around it, and the weepingbirches, which towered over the underwood, drooping their long andleafy fibres to intercept the sun, it must have seemed a place for ayouthful poet to study his earliest sonnet, or a pair of lovers toexchange their first mutual avowal of affection. Apparently it nowawakened very different recollections. Bertram's brow, when he hadlooked round the spot, became gloomy and embarrassed. Meg, afteruttering to herself, 'This is the very spot!' looked at him with aghastly side-glance--'D'ye mind it?'
'Yes!' answered Bertram, 'imperfectly I do.'
'Ay!' pursued his guide, 'on this very spot the man fell from hishorse. I was behind that bourtree bush at the very moment. Sair, sairhe strove, and sair he cried for mercy; but he was in the hands of themthat never kenn'd the word! Now will I show you the further track; thelast time ye travelled it was in these arms.'
She led them accordingly by a long and winding passage, almostovergrown with brushwood, until, without any very perceptible descent,they suddenly found themselves by the seaside. Meg then walked veryfast on between the surf and the rocks, until she came to a remarkablefragment of rock detached from the rest. 'Here,' she said in a low andscarcely audible whisper--'here the corpse was found.'
'And the cave,' said Bertram, in the same tone, 'is close beside it;are you guiding us there?'
'Yes,' said the gipsy in a decided tone. 'Bend up both your hearts;follow me as I creep in; I have placed the fire-wood so as to screenyou. Bide behind it for a gliff till I say, "The hour and the man arebaith come"; then rin in on him, take his arms, and bind him till theblood burst frae his finger nails.'
'I will, by my soul,' said Henry, 'if he is the man I suppose--Jansen?'
'Ay, Jansen, Hatteraick, and twenty mair names are his.'
'Dinmont, you must stand by me now,' said Bertram, 'for this fellow isa devil.'
'Ye needna doubt that,' said the stout yeoman; 'but I wish I could minda bit prayer or I creep after the witch into that hole that she'sopening. It wad be a sair thing to leave the blessed sun and the freeair, and gang and be killed like a tod that's run to earth, in adungeon like that. But, my sooth, they will be hard-bitten terrierswill worry Dandie; so, as I said, deil hae me if I baulk you.' This wasuttered in the lowest tone of voice possible. The entrance was nowopen. Meg crept in upon her hands and knees, Bertram followed, andDinmont, after giving a rueful glance toward the daylight, whoseblessings he was abandoning, brought up the rear.
