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

by Walter Scott

  CHAPTER XXIV

  A STAG-HUNT AND ITS CONSEQUENCES

  Shall this be a long or a short chapter? This is a question inwhich you, gentle reader, have no vote, however much you may beinterested in the consequences; just as you may (like myself)probably have nothing to do with the imposing a new tax, exceptingthe trifling circumstance of being obliged to pay it. More happysurely in the present case, since, though it lies within myarbitrary power to extend my materials as I think proper, I cannotcall you into Exchequer if you do not think proper to read mynarrative. Let me therefore consider. It is true that the annalsand documents in my hands say but little of this Highland chase;but then I can find copious materials for description elsewhere.There is old Lindsay of Pitscottie ready at my elbow, with hisAthole hunting, and his 'lofted and joisted palace of greentimber; with all kind of drink to be had in burgh and land, asale, beer, wine, muscadel, malvaise, hippocras, and aquavitae;with wheat-bread, main-bread, ginge-bread, beef, mutton, lamb,veal, venison, goose, grice, capon, coney, crane, swan, partridge,plover, duck, drake, brisselcock, pawnies, black-cock, muir-fowl,and capercailzies'; not forgetting the 'costly bedding, vaiselle,and napry,' and least of all the 'excelling stewards, cunningbaxters, excellent cooks, and pottingars, with confections anddrugs for the desserts.' Besides the particulars which may bethence gleaned for this Highland feast (the splendour of whichinduced the Pope's legate to dissent from an opinion which he hadhitherto held, that Scotland, namely, was the--the--the latter endof the world)--besides these, might I not illuminate my pageswith Taylor the Water Poet's hunting in the Braes of Mar, where,--

  Through heather, mosse,'mong frogs, and bogs, and fogs, 'Mongst craggy cliffs and thunder-batter'd hills, Hares, hinds, bucks, roes, are chased by men and dogs, Where two hours' hunting fourscore fat deer kills. Lowland, your sports are low as is your seat; The Highland games and minds are high and great?

  But without further tyranny over my readers, or display of theextent of my own reading, I shall content myself with borrowing asingle incident from the memorable hunting at Lude, commemoratedin the ingenious Mr. Gunn's essay on the Caledonian Harp, and soproceed in my story with all the brevity that my natural style ofcomposition, partaking of what scholars call the periphrastic andambagitory, and the vulgar the circumbendibus, will permit me.

  The solemn hunting was delayed, from various causes, for aboutthree weeks. The interval was spent by Waverley with greatsatisfaction at Glennaquoich; for the impression which Flora hadmade on his mind at their first meeting grew daily stronger. Shewas precisely the character to fascinate a youth of romanticimagination. Her manners, her language, her talents for poetry andmusic, gave additional and varied influence to her eminentpersonal charms. Even in her hours of gaiety she was in his fancyexalted above the ordinary daughters of Eve, and seemed only tostoop for an instant to those topics of amusement and gallantrywhich others appear to live for. In the neighbourhood of thisenchantress, while sport consumed the morning and music and thedance led on the hours of evening, Waverley became daily moredelighted with his hospitable landlord, and more enamoured of hisbewitching sister.

  At length the period fixed for the grand hunting arrived, andWaverley and the Chieftain departed for the place of rendezvous,which was a day's journey to the northward of Glennaquoich. Ferguswas attended on this occasion by about three hundred of his clan,well armed and accoutred in their best fashion. Waverley compliedso far with the custom of the country as to adopt the trews (hecould not be reconciled to the kilt), brogues, and bonnet, as thefittest dress for the exercise in which he was to be engaged, andwhich least exposed him to be stared at as a stranger when theyshould reach the place of rendezvous. They found on the spotappointed several powerful Chiefs, to all of whom Waverley wasformally presented, and by all cordially received. Their vassalsand clansmen, a part of whose feudal duty it was to attend onthese parties, appeared in such numbers as amounted to a smallarmy. These active assistants spread through the country far andnear, forming a circle, technically called the tinchel, which,gradually closing, drove the deer in herds together towards theglen where the Chiefs and principal sportsmen lay in wait forthem. In the meanwhile these distinguished personages bivouackedamong the flowery heath, wrapped up in their plaids, a mode ofpassing a summer's night which Waverley found by no meansunpleasant.

  For many hours after sunrise the mountain ridges and passesretained their ordinary appearance of silence and solitude, andthe Chiefs, with their followers, amused themselves with variouspastimes, in which the joys of the shell, as Ossian has it, werenot forgotten. 'Others apart sate on a hill retired,' probably asdeeply engaged in the discussion of politics and news as Milton'sspirits in metaphysical disquisition. At length signals of theapproach of the game were descried and heard. Distant shoutsresounded from valley to valley, as the various parties ofHighlanders, climbing rocks, struggling through copses, wadingbrooks, and traversing thickets, approached more and more near toeach other, and compelled the astonished deer, with the other wildanimals that fled before them, into a narrower circuit. Every nowand then the report of muskets was heard, repeated by a thousandechoes. The baying of the dogs was soon added to the chorus, whichgrew ever louder and more loud. At length the advanced parties ofthe deer began to show themselves; and as the stragglers camebounding down the pass by two or three at a time, the Chiefsshowed their skill by distinguishing the fattest deer, and theirdexterity in bringing them down with their guns. Fergus exhibitedremarkable address, and Edward was also so fortunate as to attractthe notice and applause of the sportsmen.

  But now the main body of the deer appeared at the head of theglen, compelled into a very narrow compass, and presenting such aformidable phalanx that their antlers appeared at a distance, overthe ridge of the steep pass, like a leafless grove. Their numberwas very great, and from a desperate stand which they made, withthe tallest of the red-deer stags arranged in front, in a sort ofbattle-array, gazing on the group which barred their passage downthe glen, the more experienced sportsmen began to augur danger.The work of destruction, however, now commenced on all sides. Dogsand hunters were at work, and muskets and fusees resounded fromevery quarter. The deer, driven to desperation, made at length afearful charge right upon the spot where the more distinguishedsportsmen had taken their stand. The word was given in Gaelic tofling themselves upon their faces; but Waverley, on whose Englishears the signal was lost, had almost fallen a sacrifice to hisignorance of the ancient language in which it was communicated.Fergus, observing his danger, sprung up and pulled him withviolence to the ground, just as the whole herd broke down uponthem. The tide being absolutely irresistible, and wounds from astag's horn highly dangerous, the activity of the Chieftain may beconsidered, on this occasion, as having saved his guest's life. Hedetained him with a firm grasp until the whole herd of deer hadfairly run over them. Waverley then attempted to rise, but foundthat he had suffered several very severe contusions, and, upon afurther examination, discovered that he had sprained his ankleviolently.

  [Footnote: The thrust from the tynes, or branches, of the stag'shorns was accounted far more dangerous than those of the boar'stusk:--

  If thou be hurt with horn of stag, it brings thee to thy bier, But barber's hand shall boar's hurt heal, thereof have thou no fear.]

  This checked the mirth of the meeting, although the Highlanders,accustomed to such incidents, and prepared for them, had sufferedno harm themselves. A wigwam was erected almost in an instant,where Edward was deposited on a couch of heather. The surgeon, orhe who assumed the office, appeared to unite the characters of aleech and a conjuror. He was an old smoke-dried Highlander,wearing a venerable grey beard, and having for his sole garment atartan frock, the skirts of which descended to the knee, and,being undivided in front, made the vestment serve at once fordoublet and breeches. [Footnote: This garb, which resembled thedress often put on children in Scotland, called a polonie (i. e.polonaise), is a very ancient modification of the Highland garb.It was, in
fact, the hauberk or shirt of mail, only composed ofcloth instead of rings of armour.] He observed great ceremony inapproaching Edward; and though our hero was writhing with pain,would not proceed to any operation which might assuage it until hehad perambulated his couch three times, moving from east to west,according to the course of the sun. This, which was called makingthe deasil, [Footnote: Old Highlanders will still make the deasilaround those whom they wish well to. To go round a person in theopposite direction, or withershins (German wider-shins), isunlucky, and a sort of incantation.] both the leech and theassistants seemed to consider as a matter of the last importanceto the accomplishment of a cure; and Waverley, whom pain renderedincapable of expostulation, and who indeed saw no chance of itsbeing attended to, submitted in silence.

  After this ceremony was duly performed, the old Esculapius let hispatient's blood with a cupping-glass with great dexterity, andproceeded, muttering all the while to himself in Gaelic, to boilon the fire certain herbs, with which he compounded anembrocation. He then fomented the parts which had sustainedinjury, never failing to murmur prayers or spells, which of thetwo Waverley could not distinguish, as his ear only caught thewords Gaspar-Melchior-Balthazar-max-prax-fax, and similargibberish. The fomentation had a speedy effect in alleviating thepain and swelling, which our hero imputed to the virtue of theherbs or the effect of the chafing, but which was by thebystanders unanimously ascribed to the spells with which theoperation had been accompanied. Edward was given to understandthat not one of the ingredients had been gathered except duringthe full moon, and that the herbalist had, while collecting them,uniformly recited a charm, which in English ran thus:--

  Hail to thee, thou holy herb, That sprung on holy ground! All in the Mount Olivet First wert thou found. Thou art boot for many a bruise, And healest many a wound; In our Lady's blessed name, I take thee from the ground.

  [Footnote: This metrical spell, or something very like it, ispreserved by Reginald Scott in his work on Witchcraft.]

  Edward observed with some surprise that even Fergus,notwithstanding his knowledge and education, seemed to fall inwith the superstitious ideas of his countrymen, either because hedeemed it impolitic to affect scepticism on a matter of generalbelief, or more probably because, like most men who do not thinkdeeply or accurately on such subjects, he had in his mind areserve of superstition which balanced the freedom of hisexpressions and practice upon other occasions. Waverley made nocommentary, therefore, on the manner of the treatment, butrewarded the professor of medicine with a liberality beyond theutmost conception of his wildest hopes. He uttered on the occasionso many incoherent blessings in Gaelic and English that Mac-Ivor,rather scandalised at the excess of his acknowledgments, cut themshort by exclaiming, Ceud mile mhalloich ort! i.e. 'A hundredthousand curses on you!' and so pushed the helper of men out ofthe cabin.

  After Waverley was left alone, the exhaustion of pain and fatigue--for the whole day's exercise had been severe--threw him into aprofound, but yet a feverish sleep, which he chiefly owed to anopiate draught administered by the old Highlander from somedecoction of herbs in his pharmacopoeia.

  Early the next morning, the purpose of their meeting being over,and their sports damped by the untoward accident, in which Fergusand all his friends expressed the greatest sympathy, it became aquestion how to dispose of the disabled sportsman. This wassettled by Mac-Ivor, who had a litter prepared, of 'birch andhazel-grey,'

  [FOOTNOTE:

  On the morrow they made their biers Of birch and hazel grey. Chevy Chase.]

  which was borne by his people with such caution and dexterity asrenders it not improbable that they may have been the ancestors ofsome of those sturdy Gael who have now the happiness to transportthe belles of Edinburgh in their sedan-chairs to ten routs in oneevening. When Edward was elevated upon their shoulders he couldnot help being gratified with the romantic effect produced by thebreaking up of this sylvan camp. [Footnote: See Note 25.]

  The various tribes assembled, each at the pibroch of their nativeclan, and each headed by their patriarchal ruler. Some, who hadalready begun to retire, were seen winding up the hills, ordescending the passes which led to the scene of action, the soundof their bagpipes dying upon the ear. Others made still a movingpicture upon the narrow plain, forming various changeful groups,their feathers and loose plaids waving in the morning breeze, andtheir arms glittering in the rising sun. Most of the Chiefs cameto take farewell of Waverley, and to express their anxious hopethey might again, and speedily, meet; but the care of Fergusabridged the ceremony of taking leave. At length, his own menbeing completely assembled and mustered, Mac-Ivor commenced hismarch, but not towards the quarter from which they had come. Hegave Edward to understand that the greater part of his followersnow on the field were bound on a distant expedition, and that whenhe had deposited him in the house of a gentleman, who he was surewould pay him every attention, he himself should be under thenecessity of accompanying them the greater part of the way, butwould lose no time in rejoining his friend.

  Waverley was rather surprised that Fergus had not mentioned thisulterior destination when they set out upon the hunting-party; buthis situation did not admit of many interrogatories. The greaterpart of the clansmen went forward under the guidance of oldBallenkeiroch and Evan Dhu Maccombich, apparently in high spirits.A few remained for the purpose of escorting the Chieftain, whowalked by the side of Edward's litter, and attended him with themost affectionate assiduity. About noon, after a journey which thenature of the conveyance, the pain of his bruises, and theroughness of the way rendered inexpressibly painful, Waverley washospitably received into the house of a gentleman related toFergus, who had prepared for him every accommodation which thesimple habits of living then universal in the Highlands put in hispower. In this person, an old man about seventy, Edward admired arelic of primitive simplicity. He wore no dress but what hisestate afforded; the cloth was the fleece of his own sheep, wovenby his own servants, and stained into tartan by the dyes producedfrom the herbs and lichens of the hills around him. His linen wasspun by his daughters and maidservants, from his own flax; nor didhis table, though plentiful, and varied with game and fish, offeran article but what was of native produce.

  Claiming himself no rights of clanship or vassalage, he wasfortunate in the alliance and protection of Vich Ian Vohr andother bold and enterprising Chieftains, who protected him in thequiet unambitious life he loved. It is true, the youth born on hisgrounds were often enticed to leave him for the service of hismore active friends; but a few old servants and tenants used toshake their grey locks when they heard their master censured forwant of spirit, and observed, 'When the wind is still, the showerfalls soft.' This good old man, whose charity and hospitality wereunbounded, would have received Waverley with kindness had he beenthe meanest Saxon peasant, since his situation requiredassistance. But his attention to a friend and guest of Vich IanVohr was anxious and unremitted. Other embrocations were appliedto the injured limb, and new spells were put in practice. Atlength, after more solicitude than was perhaps for the advantageof his health, Fergus took farewell of Edward for a few days,when, he said, he would return to Tomanrait, and hoped by thattime Waverley would be able to ride one of the Highland ponies ofhis landlord, and in that manner return to Glennaquoich.

  The next day, when his good old host appeared, Edward learned thathis friend had departed with the dawn, leaving none of hisfollowers except Callum Beg, the sort of foot-page who used toattend his person, and who had now in charge to wait uponWaverley. On asking his host if he knew where the Chieftain wasgone, the old man looked fixedly at him, with something mysteriousand sad in the smile which was his only reply. Waverley repeatedhis question, to which his host answered in a proverb,--

  What sent the messengers to hell, Was asking what they knew full well.

  [Footnote: Corresponding to the Lowland saying, 'Mony ane speirsthe gate they ken fu' weel.']

  He was about to proceed, but Callum Beg said, rather pertl
y, asEdward thought, that 'Ta Tighearnach (i.e. the Chief) did not liketa Sassenagh duinhe-wassel to be pingled wi' mickle speaking, asshe was na tat weel.' From this Waverley concluded he shoulddisoblige his friend by inquiring of a stranger the object of ajourney which he himself had not communicated.

  It is unnecessary to trace the progress of our hero's recovery.The sixth morning had arrived, and he was able to walk about witha staff, when Fergus returned with about a score of his men. Heseemed in the highest spirits, congratulated Waverley on hisprogress towards recovery, and finding he was able to sit onhorseback, proposed their immediate return to Glennaquoich.Waverley joyfully acceded, for the form of its fair mistress hadlived in his dreams during all the time of his confinement.

  Now he has ridden o'er moor and moss, O'er hill and many a glen,

  Fergus, all the while, with his myrmidons, striding stoutly by hisside, or diverging to get a shot at a roe or a heath-cock.Waverley's bosom beat thick when they approached the old tower ofIan nan Chaistel, and could distinguish the fair form of itsmistress advancing to meet them.

  Fergus began immediately, with his usual high spirits, to exclaim,'Open your gates, incomparable princess, to the wounded MoorAbindarez, whom Rodrigo de Narvez, constable of Antiquera, conveysto your castle; or open them, if you like it better, to therenowned Marquis of Mantua, the sad attendant of his half-slainfriend Baldovinos of the Mountain. Ah, long rest to thy soul,Cervantes! without quoting thy remnants, how should I frame mylanguage to befit romantic ears!'

  Flora now advanced, and welcoming Waverley with much kindness,expressed her regret for his accident, of which she had alreadyheard particulars, and her surprise that her brother should nothave taken better care to put a stranger on his guard against theperils of the sport in which he engaged him. Edward easilyexculpated the Chieftain, who, indeed, at his own personal risk,had probably saved his life.

  This greeting over, Fergus said three or four words to his sisterin Gaelic. The tears instantly sprung to her eyes, but they seemedto be tears of devotion and joy, for she looked up to heaven andfolded her hands as in a solemn expression of prayer or gratitude.After the pause of a minute, she presented to Edward some letterswhich had been forwarded from Tully-Veolan during his absence, andat the same time delivered some to her brother. To the latter shelikewise gave three or four numbers of the Caledonian Mercury, theonly newspaper which was then published to the north of the Tweed.

  Both gentlemen retired to examine their despatches, and Edwardspeedily found that those which he had received contained mattersof very deep interest.