Waverley; Or, 'Tis Sixty Years Since — Volume 1

by Walter Scott

  CHAPTER XVI

  AN UNEXPECTED ALLY APPEARS

  The Baron returned at the dinner-hour, and had in a great measurerecovered his composure and good-humour. He not only confirmedthe stories which Edward had heard from Rose and BailieMacwheeble, but added many anecdotes from his own experience,concerning the state of the Highlands and their inhabitants. Thechiefs he pronounced to be, in general, gentlemen of great honourand high pedigree, whose word was accounted as a law by all thoseof their own sept, or clan. 'It did not indeed,' he said, 'becomethem, as had occurred in late instances, to propone theirprosapia, a lineage which rested for the most part on the vain andfond rhymes of their seannachies or bhairds, as aequiponderatewith the evidence of ancient charters and royal grants ofantiquity, conferred upon distinguished houses in the Low Countryby divers Scottish monarchs; nevertheless, such was theiroutrecuidance and presumption, as to undervalue those whopossessed such evidents, as if they held their lands in a sheep'sskin.'

  This, by the way, pretty well explained the cause of quarrelbetween the Baron and his Highland ally. But he went on to stateso many curious particulars concerning the manners, customs, andhabits of this patriarchal race that Edward's curiosity becamehighly interested, and he inquired whether it was possible to makewith safety an excursion into the neighbouring Highlands, whosedusky barrier of mountains had already excited his wish topenetrate beyond them. The Baron assured his guest that nothingwould be more easy, providing this quarrel were first made up,since he could himself give him letters to many of thedistinguished chiefs, who would receive him with the utmostcourtesy and hospitality.

  While they were on this topic, the door suddenly opened, and,ushered by Saunders Saunderson, a Highlander, fully armed andequipped, entered the apartment. Had it not been that Saundersacted the part of master of the ceremonies to this martialapparition, without appearing to deviate from his usual composure,and that neither Mr. Bradwardine nor Rose exhibited any emotion,Edward would certainly have thought the intrusion hostile. As itwas, he started at the sight of what he had not yet happened tosee, a mountaineer in his full national costume. The individualGael was a stout, dark, young man, of low stature, the ample foldsof whose plaid added to the appearance of strength which hisperson exhibited. The short kilt, or petticoat, showed his sinewyand clean-made limbs; the goatskin purse, flanked by the usualdefences, a dirk and steel-wrought pistol, hung before him; hisbonnet had a short feather, which indicated his claim to betreated as a duinhe-wassel, or sort of gentleman; a broadsworddangled by his side, a target hung upon his shoulder, and a longSpanish fowling-piece occupied one of his hands. With the otherhand he pulled off his bonnet, and the Baron, who well knew theircustoms, and the proper mode of addressing them, immediately said,with an air of dignity, but without rising, and much, as Edwardthought, in the manner of a prince receiving an embassy, 'Welcome,Evan Dhu Maccombich; what news from Fergus Mac-Ivor Vich lanVohr?'

  'Fergus Mac-Ivor Vich lan Vohr,' said the ambassador, in goodEnglish, 'greets you well, Baron of Bradwardine and Tully-Veolan,and is sorry there has been a thick cloud interposed between youand him, which has kept you from seeing and considering thefriendship and alliances that have been between your houses andforebears of old; and he prays you that the cloud may pass away,and that things may be as they have been heretofore between theclan Ivor and the house of Bradwardine, when there was an eggbetween them for a flint and a knife for a sword. And he expectsyou will also say, you are sorry for the cloud, and no man shallhereafter ask whether it descended from the bill to the valley, orrose from the valley to the hill; for they never struck with thescabbard who did not receive with the sword, and woe to him whowould lose his friend for the stormy cloud of a spring morning.'

  To this the Baron of Bradwardine answered with suitable dignity,that he knew the chief of Clan Ivor to be a well-wisher to theKing, and he was sorry there should have been a cloud between himand any gentleman of such sound principles, 'for when folks arebanding together, feeble is he who hath no brother.'

  This appearing perfectly satisfactory, that the peace betweenthese august persons might be duly solemnised, the Baron ordered astoup of usquebaugh, and, filling a glass, drank to the health andprosperity of Mac-Ivor of Glennaquoich; upon which the Celticambassador, to requite his politeness, turned down a mighty bumperof the same generous liquor, seasoned with his good wishes to thehouse of Bradwardine.

  Having thus ratified the preliminaries of the general treaty ofpacification, the envoy retired to adjust with Mr. Macwheeble somesubordinate articles with which it was not thought necessary totrouble the Baron. These probably referred to the discontinuanceof the subsidy, and apparently the Bailie found means to satisfytheir ally, without suffering his master to suppose that hisdignity was compromised. At least, it is certain, that after theplenipotentiaries had drunk a bottle of brandy in single drams,which seemed to have no more effect upon such seasoned vesselsthan if it had been poured upon the two bears at the top of theavenue, Evan Dhu Maccombich, having possessed himself of all theinformation which he could procure respecting the robbery of thepreceding night, declared his intention to set off immediately inpursuit of the cattle, which he pronounced to be 'no that far off;they have broken the bone,' he observed, 'but they have had notime to suck the marrow.'

  Our hero, who had attended Evan Dhu during his perquisitions, wasmuch struck with the ingenuity which he displayed in collectinginformation, and the precise and pointed conclusions which he drewfrom it. Evan Dhu, on his part, was obviously flattered with theattention of Waverley, the interest he seemed to take in hisinquiries, and his curiosity about the customs and scenery of theHighlands. Without much ceremony he invited Edward to accompanyhim on a short walk of ten or fifteen miles into the mountains,and see the place where the cattle were conveyed to; adding, 'Ifit be as I suppose, you never saw such a place in your life, norever will, unless you go with me or the like of me.'

  Our hero, feeling his curiosity considerably excited by the ideaof visiting the den of a Highland Cacus, took, however, theprecaution to inquire if his guide might be trusted. He wasassured that the invitation would on no account have been givenhad there been the least danger, and that all he had to apprehendwas a little fatigue; and, as Evan proposed he should pass a dayat his Chieftain's house in returning, where he would be sure ofgood accommodation and an excellent welcome, there seemed nothingvery formidable in the task he undertook. Rose, indeed, turnedpale when she heard of it; but her father, who loved the spiritedcuriosity of his young friend, did not attempt to damp it by analarm of danger which really did not exist, and a knapsack, with afew necessaries, being bound on the shoulders of a sort of deputygamekeeper, our hero set forth with a fowling-piece in his hand,accompanied by his new friend Evan Dhu, and followed by thegamekeeper aforesaid, and by two wild Highlanders, the attendantsof Evan, one of whom had upon his shoulder a hatchet at the end ofa pole, called a Lochaber-axe, [Footnote: See Note 14] and theother a long ducking-gun. Evan, upon Edward's inquiry, gave him tounderstand that this martial escort was by no means necessary as aguard, but merely, as he said, drawing up and adjusting his plaidwith an air of dignity, that he might appear decently at Tully-Veolan, and as Vich Ian Vohr's foster-brother ought to do. 'Ah!'said he, 'if you Saxon duinhe-wassel (English gentleman) saw butthe Chief with his tail on!'

  'With his tail on?' echoed Edward in some surprise.

  'Yes--that is, with all his usual followers, when he visits thoseof the same rank. There is,' he continued, stopping and drawinghimself proudly up, while he counted upon his fingers the severalofficers of his chief's retinue; 'there is his hanchman, or right-hand man; then his bard, or poet; then his bladier, or orator, tomake harangues to the great folks whom he visits; then his gilly-more, or armour-bearer, to carry his sword and target, and hisgun; then his gilly-casfliuch, who carries him on his back throughthe sikes and brooks; then his gilly-comstrian, to lead his horseby the bridle in steep and difficult paths; then his gilly-trushharnish, to carry his knapsack; and the
piper and the piper'sman, and it may be a dozen young lads beside, that have nobusiness, but are just boys of the belt, to follow the Laird anddo his honour's bidding.'

  'And does your Chief regularly maintain all these men?' demandedWaverley.

  'All these?' replied Evan; 'ay, and many a fair head beside, thatwould not ken where to lay itself, but for the mickle barn atGlennaquoich.'

  With similar tales of the grandeur of the Chief in peace and war,Evan Dhu beguiled the way till they approached more closely thosehuge mountains which Edward had hitherto only seen at a distance.It was towards evening as they entered one of the tremendouspasses which afford communication between the high and lowcountry; the path, which was extremely steep and rugged, winded upa chasm between two tremendous rocks, following the passage whicha foaming stream, that brawled far below, appeared to have wornfor itself in the course of ages. A few slanting beams of the sun,which was now setting, reached the water in its darksome bed, andshowed it partially, chafed by a hundred rocks and broken by ahundred falls. The descent from the path to the stream was a mereprecipice, with here and there a projecting fragment of granite,or a scathed tree, which had warped its twisted roots into thefissures of the rock. On the right hand, the mountain rose abovethe path with almost equal inaccessibility; but the hill on theopposite side displayed a shroud of copsewood, with which somepines were intermingled.

  'This,' said Evan, 'is the pass of Bally-Brough, which was kept informer times by ten of the clan Donnochie against a hundred of theLow-Country carles. The graves of the slain are still to be seenin that little corrie, or bottom, on the opposite side of theburn; if your eyes are good, you may see the green specks amongthe heather. See, there is an earn, which you Southrons call aneagle. You have no such birds as that in England. He is going tofetch his supper from the Laird of Bradwardine's braes, but I 'llsend a slug after him.'

  He fired his piece accordingly, but missed the superb monarch ofthe feathered tribes, who, without noticing the attempt to annoyhim, continued his majestic flight to the southward. A thousandbirds of prey, hawks, kites, carrion-crows, and ravens, disturbedfrom the lodgings which they had just taken up for the evening,rose at the report of the gun, and mingled their hoarse anddiscordant notes with the echoes which replied to it, and with theroar of the mountain cataracts. Evan, a little disconcerted athaving missed his mark, when he meant to have displayed peculiardexterity, covered his confusion by whistling part of a pibroch ashe reloaded his piece, and proceeded in silence up the pass.

  It issued in a narrow glen, between two mountains, both very loftyand covered with heath. The brook continued to be their companion,and they advanced up its mazes, crossing them now and then, onwhich occasions Evan Dhu uniformly offered the assistance of hisattendants to carry over Edward; but our hero, who had been alwaysa tolerable pedestrian, declined the accommodation, and obviouslyrose in his guide's opinion, by showing that he did not fearwetting his feet. Indeed he was anxious, so far as he couldwithout affectation, to remove the opinion which Evan seemed toentertain of the effeminacy of the Lowlanders, and particularly ofthe English.

  Through the gorge of this glen they found access to a black bog,of tremendous extent, full of large pit-holes, which theytraversed with great difficulty and some danger, by tracks whichno one but a Highlander could have followed. The path itself, orrather the portion of more solid ground on which the travellershalf walked, half waded, was rough, broken, and in many placesquaggy and unsound. Sometimes the ground was so completely unsafethat it was necessary to spring from one hillock to another, thespace between being incapable of bearing the human weight. Thiswas an easy matter to the Highlanders, who wore thin-soled broguesfit for the purpose, and moved with a peculiar springing step; butEdward began to find the exercise, to which he was unaccustomed,more fatiguing than he expected. The lingering twilight served toshow them through this Serbonian bog, but deserted them almosttotally at the bottom of a steep and very stony hill, which it wasthe travellers' next toilsome task to ascend. The night, however,was pleasant, and not dark; and Waverley, calling up mental energyto support personal fatigue, held on his march gallantly, thoughenvying in his heart his Highland attendants, who continued,without a symptom of abated vigour, the rapid and swinging pace,or rather trot, which, according to his computation, had alreadybrought them fifteen miles upon their journey.

  After crossing this mountain and descending on the other sidetowards a thick wood, Evan Dhu held some conference with hisHighland attendants, in consequence of which Edward's baggage wasshifted from the shoulders of the gamekeeper to those of one ofthe gillies, and the former was sent off with the othermountaineer in a direction different from that of the threeremaining travellers. On asking the meaning of this separation,Waverley was told that the Lowlander must go to a hamlet aboutthree miles off for the night; for unless it was some veryparticular friend, Donald Bean Lean, the worthy person whom theysupposed to be possessed of the cattle, did not much approve ofstrangers approaching his retreat. This seemed reasonable, andsilenced a qualm of suspicion which came across Edward's mind whenhe saw himself, at such a place and such an hour, deprived of hisonly Lowland companion. And Evan immediately afterwardsadded,'that indeed he himself had better get forward, and announcetheir approach to Donald Bean Lean, as the arrival of a sidier roy(red soldier) might otherwise be a disagreeable surprise.' Andwithout waiting for an answer, in jockey phrase, he trotted out,and putting himself to a very round pace, was out of sight in aninstant.

  Waverley was now left to his own meditations, for his attendantwith the battle-axe spoke very little English. They weretraversing a thick, and, as it seemed, an endless wood of pines,and consequently the path was altogether indiscernible in themurky darkness which surrounded them. The Highlander, however,seemed to trace it by instinct, without the hesitation of amoment, and Edward followed his footsteps as close as he could.

  After journeying a considerable time in silence, he could not helpasking, 'Was it far to the end of their journey?'

  'Ta cove was tree, four mile; but as duinhe-wassel was a weetaiglit, Donald could, tat is, might--would--should send tacurragh.'

  This conveyed no information. The curragh which was promised mightbe a man, a horse, a cart, or chaise; and no more could be gotfrom the man with the battle-axe but a repetition of 'Aich ay! tacurragh.'

  But in a short time Edward began to conceive his meaning, when,issuing from the wood, he found himself on the banks of a largeriver or lake, where his conductor gave him to understand theymust sit down for a little while. The moon, which now began torise, showed obscurely the expanse of water which spread beforethem, and the shapeless and indistinct forms of mountains withwhich it seemed to be surrounded. The cool and yet mild air of thesummer night refreshed Waverley after his rapid and toilsome walk;and the perfume which it wafted from the birch trees, [Footnote:It is not the weeping birch, the most common species in theHighlands, but the woolly-leaved Lowland birch, that isdistinguished by this fragrance.] bathed in the evening dew, wasexquisitely fragrant.

  He had now time to give himself up to the full romance of hissituation. Here he sate on the banks of an unknown lake, under theguidance of a wild native, whose language was unknown to him, on avisit to the den of some renowned outlaw, a second Robin Hood,perhaps, or Adam o' Gordon, and that at deep midnight, throughscenes of difficulty and toil, separated from his attendant, leftby his guide. What a variety of incidents for the exercise of aromantic imagination, and all enhanced by the solemn feeling ofuncertainty at least, if not of danger! The only circumstancewhich assorted ill with the rest was the cause of his journey--theBaron's milk-cows! this degrading incident he kept in thebackground.

  While wrapt in these dreams of imagination, his companion gentlytouched him, and, pointing in a direction nearly straight acrossthe lake, said, 'Yon's ta cove.' A small point of light was seento twinkle in the direction in which he pointed, and, graduallyincreasing in size and lustre, seemed to flicker like a meteorupon the verge of the horizon. While
Edward watched thisphenomenon, the distant dash of oars was heard. The measured soundapproached near and more near, and presently a loud whistle washeard in the same direction. His friend with the battle-axeimmediately whistled clear and shrill, in reply to the signal, anda boat, manned with four or five Highlanders, pushed for a littleinlet, near which Edward was sitting. He advanced to meet themwith his attendant, was immediately assisted into the boat by theofficious attention of two stout mountaineers, and had no soonerseated himself than they resumed their oars, and began to rowacross the lake with great rapidity.