by Walter Scott
CHAPTER XXXV
A VOLUNTEER SIXTY YEARS SINCE
On hearing the unwelcome sound of the drum, Major Melville hastilyopened a sashed door and stepped out upon a sort of terrace whichdivided his house from the highroad from which the martial musicproceeded. Waverley and his new friend followed him, thoughprobably he would have dispensed with their attendance. They soonrecognised in solemn march, first, the performer upon the drum;secondly, a large flag of four compartments, on which wereinscribed the words, COVENANT, KIRK, KING, KINGDOMS. The personwho was honoured with this charge was followed by the commander ofthe party, a thin, dark, rigid-looking man, about sixty years old.The spiritual pride, which in mine host of the Candlestick mantledin a sort of supercilious hypocrisy, was in this man's faceelevated and yet darkened by genuine and undoubting fanaticism. Itwas impossible to behold him without imagination placing him insome strange crisis, where religious zeal was the rulingprinciple. A martyr at the stake, a soldier in the field, a lonelyand banished wanderer consoled by the intensity and supposedpurity of his faith under every earthly privation, perhaps apersecuting inquisitor, as terrific in power as unyielding inadversity; any of these seemed congenial characters to thispersonage. With these high traits of energy, there was somethingin the affected precision and solemnity of his deportment anddiscourse that bordered upon the ludicrous; so that, according tothe mood of the spectator's mind and the light under which Mr.Gilfillan presented himself, one might have feared, admired, orlaughed at him. His dress was that of a West-Country peasant, ofbetter materials indeed than that of the lower rank, but in norespect affecting either the mode of the age or of the Scottishgentry at any period. His arms were a broadsword and pistols,which, from the antiquity of their appearance, might have seen therout of Pentland or Bothwell Brigg.
As he came up a few steps to meet Major Melville, and touchedsolemnly, but slightly, his huge and over-brimmed blue bonnet, inanswer to the Major, who had courteously raised a small triangulargold-laced hat, Waverley was irresistibly impressed with the ideathat he beheld a leader of the Roundheads of yore in conferencewith one of Marlborough's captains.
The group of about thirty armed men who followed this giftedcommander was of a motley description. They were in ordinaryLowland dresses, of different colours, which, contrasted with thearms they bore, gave them an irregular and mobbish appearance; somuch is the eye accustomed to connect uniformity of dress with themilitary character. In front were a few who apparently partook oftheir leader's enthusiasm, men obviously to be feared in a combat,where their natural courage was exalted by religious zeal. Otherspuffed and strutted, filled with the importance of carrying armsand all the novelty of their situation, while the rest, apparentlyfatigued with their march, dragged their limbs listlessly along,or straggled from their companions to procure such refreshments asthe neighbouring cottages and alehouses afforded. Six grenadiersof Ligonier's, thought the Major to himself, as his mind revertedto his own military experience, would have sent all these fellowsto the right about.
Greeting, however, Mr. Gilfillan civilly, he requested to know ifhe had received the letter he had sent to him upon his march, andcould undertake the charge of the state prisoner whom he therementioned as far as Stirling Castle. 'Yea,' was the concise replyof the Cameronian leader, in a voice which seemed to issue fromthe very penetralia of his person.
'But your escort, Mr. Gilfillan, is not so strong as I expected,'said Major Melville.
'Some of the people,' replied Gilfillan, 'hungered and wereathirst by the way, and tarried until their poor souls wererefreshed with the word.'
'I am sorry, sir,' replied the Major, 'you did not trust to yourrefreshing your men at Cairnvreckan; whatever my house contains isat the command of persons employed in the service.'
'It was not of creature-comforts I spake,' answered theCovenanter, regarding Major Melville with something like a smileof contempt; 'howbeit, I thank you; but the people remainedwaiting upon the precious Mr. Jabesh Rentowel for the out-pouringof the afternoon exhortation.'
'And have you, sir,' said the Major, 'when the rebels are about tospread themselves through this country, actually left a great partof your command at a fieldpreaching?'
Gilfillan again smiled scornfully as he made this indirect answer--'Even thus are the children of this world wiser in theirgeneration than the children of light!'
'However, sir,' said the Major, 'as you are to take charge of thisgentleman to Stirling, and deliver him, with these papers, intothe hands of Governor Blakeney, I beseech you to observe somerules of military discipline upon your march. For example, I wouldadvise you to keep your men more closely together, and that eachin his march should cover his file-leader, instead of stragglinglike geese upon a common; and, for fear of surprise, I furtherrecommend to you to form a small advance-party of your best men,with a single vidette in front of the whole march, so that whenyou approach a village or a wood'--(here the Major interruptedhimself)--'But as I don't observe you listen to me, Mr.Gilfillan, I suppose I need not give myself the trouble to saymore upon the subject. You are a better judge, unquestionably,than I am of the measures to be pursued; but one thing I wouldhave you well aware of, that you are to treat this gentleman, yourprisoner, with no rigour nor incivility, and are to subject him tono other restraint than is necessary for his security.'
'I have looked into my commission,' said Mr. Gilfillan,'subscribed by a worthy and professing nobleman, William, Earl ofGlencairn; nor do I find it therein set down that I am to receiveany charges or commands anent my doings from Major WilliamMelville of Cairnvreckan.'
Major Melville reddened even to the well-powdered ears whichappeared beneath his neat military sidecurls, the more so as heobserved Mr. Morton smile at the same moment. 'Mr. Gilfillan,' heanswered, with some asperity, 'I beg ten thousand pardons forinterfering with a person of your importance. I thought, however,that as you have been bred a grazier, if I mistake not, theremight be occasion to remind you of the difference betweenHighlanders and Highland cattle; and if you should happen to meetwith any gentleman who has seen service, and is disposed to speakupon the subject, I should still imagine that listening to himwould do you no sort of harm. But I have done, and have only oncemore to recommend this gentleman to your civility as well as toyour custody. Mr. Waverley, I am truly sorry we should part inthis way; but I trust, when you are again in this country, I mayhave an opportunity to render Cairnvreckan more agreeable thancircumstances have permitted on this occasion.'
So saying, he shook our hero by the hand. Morton also took anaffectionate farewell, and Waverley, having mounted his horse,with a musketeer leading it by the bridle and a file upon eachside to prevent his escape, set forward upon the march withGilfillan and his party. Through the little village they wereaccompanied with the shouts of the children, who cried out, 'Eh!see to the Southland gentleman that's gaun to be hanged forshooting lang John Mucklewrath, the smith!
