Guy Mannering, Or, the Astrologer — Complete

by Walter Scott

  CHAPTER LVI

  How like a hateful ape, Detected grinning 'midst his pilfer'd hoard, A cunning man appears, whose secret frauds Are open'd to the day!

  Count Basil

  There was a great movement at Woodbourne early on the following morningto attend the examination at Kippletringan. Mr. Pleydell, from theinvestigation which he had formerly bestowed on the dark affair ofKennedy's death, as well as from the general deference due to hisprofessional abilities, was requested by Mr. Mac-Morlan and Sir RobertHazlewood, and another justice of peace who attended, to take thesituation of chairman and the lead in the examination. ColonelMannering was invited to sit down with them. The examination, beingprevious to trial, was private in other respects.

  The Counsellor resumed and reinterrogated former evidence. He thenexamined the clergyman and surgeon respecting the dying declaration ofMeg Merrilies. They stated that she distinctly, positively, andrepeatedly declared herself an eye-witness of Kennedy's death by thehands of Hatteraick and two or three of his crew; that her presence wasaccidental; that she believed their resentment at meeting him, whenthey were in the act of losing their vessel through the means of hisinformation, led to the commission of the crime; that she said therewas one witness of the murder, but who refused to participate in it,still alive--her nephew, Gabriel Faa; and she had hinted at anotherperson who was an accessory after, not before, the fact; but herstrength there failed her. They did not forget to mention herdeclaration that she had saved the child, and that he was torn from herby the smugglers for the purpose of carrying him to Holland. All theseparticulars were carefully reduced to writing.

  Dirk Hatteraick was then brought in, heavily ironed; for he had beenstrictly secured and guarded, owing to his former escape. He was askedhis name; he made no answer. His profession; he was silent. Severalother questions were put, to none of which he returned any reply.Pleydell wiped the glasses of his spectacles and considered theprisoner very attentively. 'A very truculent-looking fellow,' hewhispered to Mannering; 'but, as Dogberry says, I'll go cunningly towork with him. Here, call in Soles--Soles the shoemaker. Soles, do youremember measuring some footsteps imprinted on the mud at the wood ofWarroch on--November 17--, by my orders?' Soles remembered thecircumstance perfectly. 'Look at that paper; is that your note of themeasurement?' Soles verified the memorandum. 'Now, there stands a pairof shoes on that table; measure them, and see if they correspond withany of the marks you have noted there.' The shoemaker obeyed, anddeclared 'that they answered exactly to the largest of the footprints.'

  'We shall prove,' said the Counsellor, aside to Mannering, 'that theseshoes, which were found in the ruins at Derncleugh, belonged to Brown,the fellow whom you shot on the lawn at Woodbourne. Now, Soles, measurethat prisoner's feet very accurately.'

  Mannering observed Hatteraick strictly, and could notice a visibletremor. 'Do these measurements correspond with any of the footprints?'

  The man looked at the note, then at his foot-rule and measure, thenverified his former measurement by a second. 'They correspond,' hesaid, 'within a hair-breadth to a foot-mark broader and shorter thanthe former.'

  Hatteraick's genius here deserted him. 'Der deyvil!' he broke out, 'howcould there be a footmark on the ground, when it was a frost as hard asthe heart of a Memel log?'

  'In the evening, I grant you, Captain Hatteraick,' said Pleydell, 'butnot in the forenoon. Will you favour me with information where you wereupon the day you remember so exactly?'

  Hatteraick saw his blunder, and again screwed up his hard features forobstinate silence. 'Put down his observation, however,' said Pleydellto the clerk.

  At this moment the door opened, and, much to the surprise of mostpresent, Mr. Gilbert Glossin made his appearance. That worthy gentlemanhad, by dint of watching and eavesdropping, ascertained that he was notmentioned by name in Meg Merrilies's dying declaration--a circumstancecertainly not owing to any favourable disposition towards him, but tothe delay of taking her regular examination, and to the rapid approachof death. He therefore supposed himself safe from all evidence but suchas might arise from Hatteraick's confession; to prevent which heresolved to push a bold face and join his brethren of the bench duringhis examination. 'I shall be able,' he thought, 'to make the rascalsensible his safety lies in keeping his own counsel and mine; and mypresence, besides, will be a proof of confidence and innocence. If Imust lose the estate, I must; but I trust better things.'

  He entered with a profound salutation to Sir Robert Hazlewood. SirRobert, who had rather begun to suspect that his plebeian neighbour hadmade a cat's paw of him, inclined his head stiffly, took snuff, andlooked another way.

  'Mr. Corsand,' said Glossin to the other yokefellow of justice, 'yourmost humble servant.'

  'Your humble servant, Mr. Glossin,' answered Mr. Corsand drily,composing his countenance regis ad exemplar, that is to say, after thefashion of the Baronet.

  'Mac-Morlan, my worthy friend,' continued Glossin, 'how d' ye do;always on your duty?'

  'Umph,' said honest Mac-Morlan, with little respect either to thecompliment or salutation.

  'Colonel Mannering (a low bow slightly returned), and Mr. Pleydell(another low bow), I dared not have hoped for your assistance to poorcountry gentlemen at this period of the session.'

  Pleydell took snuff, and eyed him with a glance equally shrewd andsarcastic. 'I'll teach him,' he said aside to Mannering, 'the value ofthe old admonition, Ne accesseris in consilium antequam voceris.'

  'But perhaps I intrude, gentlemen?' said Glossin, who could not fail toobserve the coldness of his reception. 'Is this an open meeting?'

  'For my part,' said Mr. Pleydell, 'so far from considering yourattendance as an intrusion, Mr. Glossin, I was never so pleased in mylife to meet with you; especially as I think we should, at any rate,have had occasion to request the favour of your company in the courseof the day.'

  'Well, then, gentlemen,' said Glossin, drawing his chair to the table,and beginning to bustle about among the papers, 'where are we? how farhave we got? where are the declarations?'

  'Clerk, give me all these papers,' said Mr. Pleydell. 'I have an oddway of arranging my documents, Mr. Glossin, another person touchingthem puts me out; but I shall have occasion for your assistance by andby.'

  Glossin, thus reduced to inactivity, stole one glance at DirkHatteraick, but could read nothing in his dark scowl save malignity andhatred to all around. 'But, gentlemen,' said Glossin, 'is it quiteright to keep this poor man so heavily ironed when he is taken upmerely for examination?'

  This was hoisting a kind of friendly signal to the prisoner. 'He hasescaped once before,' said Mac-Morlan drily, and Glossin was silenced.

  Bertram was now introduced, and, to Glossin's confusion, was greeted inthe most friendly manner by all present, even by Sir Robert Hazlewoodhimself. He told his recollections of his infancy with that candour andcaution of expression which afforded the best warrant for his goodfaith. 'This seems to be rather a civil than a criminal question,' saidGlossin, rising; 'and as you cannot be ignorant, gentlemen, of theeffect which this young person's pretended parentage may have on mypatrimonial interest, I would rather beg leave to retire.'

  'No, my good sir,' said Mr. Pleydell, 'we can by no means spare you.But why do you call this young man's claims pretended? I don't mean tofish for your defences against them, if you have any, but--'

  'Mr. Pleydell,' replied Glossin, 'I am always disposed to actabove-board, and I think I can explain the matter at once. This youngfellow, whom I take to be a natural son of the late Ellangowan, hasgone about the country for some weeks under different names, caballingwith a wretched old mad-woman, who, I understand, was shot in a latescuffle, and with other tinkers, gipsies, and persons of thatdescription, and a great brute farmer from Liddesdale, stirring up thetenants against their landlords, which, as Sir Robert Hazlewood ofHazlewood knows--'

  'Not to interrupt you, Mr. Glossin,' said Pleydell, 'I ask who you saythis young man is?'

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p; 'Why, I say,' replied Glossin, 'and I believe that gentleman (lookingat Hatteraick) knows, that the young man is a natural son of the lateEllangowan, by a girl called Janet Lightoheel, who was afterwardsmarried to Hewit the shipwright, that lived in the neighbourhood ofAnnan. His name is Godfrey Bertram Hewit, by which name he was enteredon board the Royal Caroline excise yacht.'

  'Ay?' said Pleydell, 'that is a very likely story! But, not to pauseupon some difference of eyes, complexion, and so forth--be pleased tostep forward, sir.' (A young seafaring man came forward.) 'Here,'proceeded the Counsellor, 'is the real Simon Pure; here's GodfreyBertram Hewit, arrived last night from Antigua via Liverpool, mate of aWest-Indian, and in a fair way of doing well in the world, although hecame somewhat irregularly into it.'

  While some conversation passed between the other justices and thisyoung man, Pleydell lifted from among the papers on the tableHatteraick's old pocket-book. A peculiar glance of the smuggler's eyeinduced the shrewd lawyer to think there was something here ofinterest. He therefore continued the examination of the papers, layingthe book on the table, but instantly perceived that the prisoner'sinterest in the research had cooled. 'It must be in the book still,whatever it is,' thought Pleydell; and again applied himself to thepocket-book, until he discovered, on a narrow scrutiny, a slit betweenthe pasteboard and leather, out of which he drew three small slips ofpaper. Pleydell now, turning to Glossin, requested the favour that hewould tell them if he had assisted at the search for the body ofKennedy and the child of his patron on the day when they disappeared.

  'I did not--that is, I did,' answered the conscience-struck Glossin.

  'It is remarkable though,' said the Advocate, 'that, connected as youwere with the Ellangowan family, I don't recollect your being examined,or even appearing before me, while that investigation was proceeding?'

  'I was called to London,' answered Glossin, 'on most important businessthe morning after that sad affair.'

  'Clerk,' said Pleydell, 'minute down that reply. I presume thebusiness, Mr. Glossin, was to negotiate these three bills, drawn by youon Messrs. Vanbeest and Vanbruggen, and accepted by one Dirk Hatteraickin their name on the very day of the murder. I congratulate you ontheir being regularly retired, as I perceive they have been. I thinkthe chances were against it.' Glossin's countenance fell. 'This pieceof real evidence,' continued Mr. Pleydell, 'makes good the accountgiven of your conduct on this occasion by a man called Gabriel Faa,whom we have now in custody, and who witnessed the whole transactionbetween you and that worthy prisoner. Have you any explanation to give?'

  'Mr. Pleydell,' said Glossin, with great composure, 'I presume, if youwere my counsel, you would not advise me to answer upon the spur of themoment to a charge which the basest of mankind seem ready to establishby perjury.'

  'My advice,' said the Counsellor, 'would be regulated by my opinion ofyour innocence or guilt. In your case, I believe you take the wisestcourse; but you are aware you must stand committed?'

  'Committed? for what, sir?' replied Glossin. 'Upon a charge of murder?'

  'No; only as art and part of kidnapping the child.'

  'That is a bailable offence.'

  'Pardon me,' said Pleydell, 'it is plagium, and plagium is felony.'

  'Forgive me, Mr. Pleydell, there is only one case upon record, Torrenceand Waldie. They were, you remember, resurrection-women, who hadpromised to procure a child's body for some young surgeons. Being uponhonour to their employers, rather than disappoint the evening lectureof the students, they stole a live child, murdered it, and sold thebody for three shillings and sixpence. They were hanged, but for themurder, not for the plagium [Footnote: This is, in its circumstancesand issue, actually a case tried and reported.]--Your civil law hascarried you a little too far.'

  'Well, sir, but in the meantime Mr. Mac-Morlan must commit you to thecounty jail, in case this young man repeats the same story. Officers,remove Mr. Glossin and Hatteraick, and guard them in differentapartments.'

  Gabriel, the gipsy, was then introduced, and gave a distinct account ofhis deserting from Captain Pritchard's vessel and joining the smugglersin the action, detailed how Dirk Hatteraick set fire to his ship whenhe found her disabled, and under cover of the smoke escaped with hiscrew, and as much goods as they could save, into the cavern, where theyproposed to lie till nightfall. Hatteraick himself, his mate VanbeestBrown, and three others, of whom the declarant was one, went into theadjacent woods to communicate with some of their friends in theneighbourhood. They fell in with Kennedy unexpectedly, and Hatteraickand Brown, aware that he was the occasion of their disasters, resolvedto murder him. He stated that he had seen them lay violent hands on theofficer and drag him through the woods, but had not partaken in theassault nor witnessed its termination; that he returned to the cavernby a different route, where he again met Hatteraick and hisaccomplices; and the captain was in the act of giving an account how heand Brown had pushed a huge crag over, as Kennedy lay groaning on thebeach, when Glossin suddenly appeared among them. To the wholetransaction by which Hatteraick purchased his secrecy he was witness.Respecting young Bertram, he could give a distinct account till he wentto India, after which he had lost sight of him until he unexpectedlymet with him in Liddesdale. Gabriel Faa farther stated that heinstantly sent notice to his aunt Meg Merrilies, as well as toHatteraick, who he knew was then upon the coast; but that he hadincurred his aunt's displeasure upon the latter account. He concluded,that his aunt had immediately declared that she would do all that layin her power to help young Ellangowan to his right, even if it shouldbe by informing against Dirk Hatteraick; and that many of her peopleassisted her besides himself, from a belief that she was gifted withsupernatural inspirations. With the same purpose, he understood hisaunt had given to Bertram the treasure of the tribe, of which she hadthe custody. Three or four gipsies, by the express command of MegMerrilies, mingled in the crowd when the custom-house was attacked, forthe purpose of liberating Bertram, which he had himself effected. Hesaid, that in obeying Meg's dictates they did not pretend to estimatetheir propriety or rationality, the respect in which she was held byher tribe precluding all such subjects of speculation. Upon fartherinterrogation, the witness added, that his aunt had always said thatHarry Bertram carried that round his neck which would ascertain hisbirth. It was a spell, she said, that an Oxford scholar had made forhim, and she possessed the smugglers with an opinion that to deprivehim of it would occasion the loss of the vessel.

  Bertram here produced a small velvet bag, which he said he had wornround his neck from his earliest infancy, and which he had preserved,first from superstitious reverence, and latterly from the hope that itmight serve one day to aid in the discovery of his birth. The bag,being opened, was found to contain a blue silk case, from which wasdrawn a scheme of nativity. Upon inspecting this paper, ColonelMannering instantly admitted it was his own composition; and affordedthe strongest and most satisfactory evidence that the possessor of itmust necessarily be the young heir of Ellangowan, by avowing his havingfirst appeared in that country in the character of an astrologer.

  'And now,' said Pleydell, 'make out warrants of commitment forHatteraick and Glossin until liberated in due course of law. Yet,' hesaid, 'I am sorry for Glossin.'

  'Now, I think,' said Mannering, 'he's incomparably the least deservingof pity of the two. The other's a bold fellow, though as hard as flint.'

  'Very natural, Colonel,' said the Advocate, 'that you should beinterested in the ruffian and I in the knave, that's all professionaltaste; but I can tell you Glossin would have been a pretty lawyer hadhe not had such a turn for the roguish part of the profession.'

  'Scandal would say,' observed Mannering, 'he might not be the worselawyer for that.'

  'Scandal would tell a lie, then,' replied Pleydell, 'as she usuallydoes. Law's like laudanum: it's much more easy to use it as a quackdoes than to learn to apply it like a physician.'