by Walter Scott
I am not, was my reflection, trangressing her injunction so pathetically given, since I am but pursuing my own journey by the only open route. If I have succeeded in recovering my father’s property, it still remains incumbent on me to see my Glasgow friend delivered from the situation in which he has involved himself on my account; besides, what other place of rest can I obtain for the night excepting at the little inn of Aberfoil? They also must stop there, since it is impossible for travellers on horseback to go farther—Well, then, we shall meet again—meet for the last time perhaps—but I shall see and hear her—I shall learn who this happy man is who exercises over her the authority of a husband—I shall learn if there remains, in the difficult course in which she seems engaged any difficulty which my efforts may remove, or aught that I can do to express my gratitude for her generosity—for her disinterested friendship.
As I reasoned thus with myself, colouring with every plausible pretext which occurred to my ingenuity, my passionate desire once more to see and converse with my cousin, I was suddenly hailed by a touch on the shoulder; and the deep voice of a Highlander, who, walking still faster than I, though I was proceeding at a smart pace, accosted me with, ‘A braw night, Maister Osbaldistone— we have met at the mirk hour before now.’
There was no mistaking the tone of MacGregor; he had escaped the pursuit of his enemies, and was in full retreat to his own wilds and to his adherents. He had also contrived to arm himself, probably at the house of some secret adherent, for he had a musket on his shoulder, and the usual Highland weapons by his side. To have found myself alone with such a character in such a situation, and at this late hour in the evening, might not have been pleasant to me in any ordinary mood of mind; for, though habituated to think of Rob Roy in rather a friendly point of view, I will confess frankly that I never heard him speak but that it seemed to thrill my blood. The intonation of the mountaineers gives a habitual depth and hollowness to the sound of their words, owing to the gutteral expression so common in their native language, and they usually speak with a good deal of emphasis. To these national peculiarities Rob Roy added a sort of hard indifference of accent and manner, expressive of a mind neither to be daunted, nor surprised, nor affected, by what passed before him, however dreadful, however sudden, however afflicting. Habitual danger, with unbounded confidence in his own strength and sagacity, had rendered him indifferent to fear; and the lawless and precarious life he led had blunted, though its dangers and errors had not destroyed, his feelings for others. And it was to be remembered, that I had very lately seen the followers of this man commit a cruel slaughter on an unarmed and suppliant individual.
Yet such was the state of my mind, that I welcomed the company of the outlaw leader as a relief to my overstrained and painful thoughts; and was not without hopes, that through his means I might obtain some clew of guidance through the maze in which my fate had involved me. I therefore answered his greeting cordially, and congratulated him on his late escape in circumstances when escape seemed impossible.
‘Ay,’ he replied, ‘there is as much between the craig and the woodie1 as there is between the cup and the lip. But my peril was less than you may think, being a stranger to this country. Of those that were summoned to take me, and to keep me, and to retake me again, there was a moiety, as cousin Nicol Jarvie calls it, that had nae will that I suld be either taen, or keepit fast, or retaen; and of t’other moiety, there was ae half was feared to stir me; and so I had only like the fourth part of fifty or sixty men to deal withal.’
‘And enough too, I should think,’ replied I.
‘I dinna ken that,’ said he; ‘but I ken, that turn every ill-wilier that I had amang them out upon the green before the Clachan of Aberfoil, I wad find them play with broadsword and target, one down and another come on.’
He now enquired into my adventures since we entered his country, and laughed heartily at my account of the battle we had in the inn, and at the exploits of the Bailie with the red-hot poker.
‘Let Glasgow Flourish!’ he exclaimed. ‘The curse of Cromwell on me, if I wad hae wished better sport than to see cousin Nicol Jarvie singe Inverach’s plaid, like a sheep’s head between a pair of tongs. But my cousin Jarvie,’ he added more gravely, ‘has some gentleman’s bluid in his veins, although he has been unhappily bred up to a peaceful and mechanical craft, which could not but blunt any pretty man’s spirit.—Ye may estimate the reason why I could not receive you at the Clachan of Aberfoil, as I purposed. They had made a fine hose-net for me when I was absent twa or three days at Glasgow, upon the king’s business—but I think I broke up the league about their lugs—they’ll no be able to hound one clan against another, as they hae dune.—I hope soon to see the day when a’ Hielandmen win stand shouther to shouther.—But what chanced next?’
I gave him an account of the arrival of Captain Thornton and his party, and the arrest of the Bailie and myself, under pretext of our being suspicious persons; and upon his more special enquiry I recollected the officer had mentioned that, besides my name sounding suspicious in his ears, he had orders to secure an old and young person, resembling our description. This again moved the outlaw’s risibility.
‘As man lives by bread,’ he said, ‘the buzzards have mis-taen my friend the Bailie for his Excellency, and you for Diana Vernon—O, the most egregious night-howlets!’
‘Miss Vernon?’ said I, with hesitation, and trembling for the answer—‘Does she still bear that name?—She passed but now, along with a gentleman who seemed to use a style of authority.’
‘Ay, ay!’ answered Rob, ‘she’s under lawfu’ authority now; and full time, for she was a daft hempie—But she’s a mettle quean. It’s a pity his Excellency is a thought eldern. The like o’ yoursell, or my son Hamish, wad be mair sortable in point of years.’
Here, then, was a complete downfall of those castles of cards which my fancy had, in despite of my reason, so often amused herself with building. Although in truth I had scarcely any thing else to expect, since I could not suppose that Diana could be travelling in such a country, at such an hour, with any but one who had a legal title to protect her, I did not feel the blow less severely when it came, and Mac-Gregor’s voice, urging me to pursue my story, sounded in my ears without conveying any exact import to my mind.
‘You are ill,’ he said, at length, after he had spoken twice without receiving an answer; ‘this day’s wark has been ower muckle for ane doubtless unused to sic things.’
The tone of kindness in which this was spoken recalling me to myself, and to the necessities of my situation, I continued my narrative as well as I could.—Rob Roy expressed great exultation at the successful skirmish in the pass.
‘They say,’ he observed, ‘that king’s chaff is better than other folk’s corn; but I think that canna be said o’ king’s soldiers, if they let themselves be beaten wi’ a wheen add carles that are past fighting, and bairns that are no come till’t, and wives wi’ their rocks and distaffs, the very wally-draigles o’ the country-side—and Dougal Gregor, too, wha wad hae thought there had been as muckle sense in his tatty pow, that ne’er had a better covering than his ain shaggy hassock of hair!—But say away—though I dread what’s to come neist,—for my Helen’s an incarnate devil when her bluid’s up—puir thing, she has ower muckle reason.’
I observed as much delicacy as I could in communicating to him the usage we had received, but I obviously saw the detail gave him great pain.
‘I wad rather than a thousand merks,’ he said, ‘that I had been at hame! To misguide strangers, and forbye a’, my ain natural cousin, that had showed me sic kindness—I wad rather they had burned half the Lennox in their folly! But this comes o’ trusting women and their bairns, that have neither measure nor reason in their dealings—however, it’s a’ owing to that dog of a gauger, wha betrayed me by pretending a message from your cousin Rashleigh, to meet him on the king’s affairs, whilk I thought was very like to be anent Garschattachin and a party of the Lennox declaring themsel
ves for King James. Faith, but I kend I was clean beguiled when I heard the Duke was there; and when they strapped the horsegirth ower my arms, I might hae judged what was biding me; for I kend your kinsman, being, wi’ pardon, a slippery loon himsell, is prone to employ those of his ain kidney—I wish he mayna hae been at the bottom o’ the ploy himsell—I thought the chield Morris looked devilish queer when I determined he should remain a wad, or hostage, for my safe back-coming. But I am come back, nae thanks to him, or them that employed him, and the question is, how the collector-loon is to win back himsell —I promise him it will not be without ransom.’
‘Morris,’ said I, ‘has already paid the last ransom which mortal man can owe.’
‘Eh! What?’ exclaimed my companion, hastily; ‘What d’ye say? I trust it was in the skirmish he was killed?’
‘He was slain in cold blood, after the fight was over, Mr. Campbell.’
‘Cold blood?—Damnation!’—he said, muttering betwixt his teeth—‘How fell that, sir?—Speak out, sir, and do not Maister or Campbell me—my foot is on my native heath, and my name is MacGregor!’
His passions were obviously irritated; but, without noticing the rudeness of his tone, I gave him a short and distinct account of the death of Morris. He struck the butt of his gun with great vehemence against the ground, and broke out, ‘I vow to God, such a deed might make one forswear kin, clan, country, wife, and bairns!—and yet the villain wrought long for it. And what is the difference between warsling below the water wi’ a stane about your neck, and wavering in the wind wi’ a tether round it?—it’s but choking after a’, and he drees the doom he ettled for me. I could have wished, though, they had rather putten a ball through him, or a dirk; for the fashion of removing him will give rise to mony idle clavers—But every wight has his weird, and we maun a’ dee when our day comes—And naebody will deny that Helen MacGregor has deep wrongs to avenge.’
So saying, he seemed to dismiss the theme altogether from his mind, and proceeded to enquire how I got free from the party in whose hands he had seen me.
My story was soon told; and I added the episode of my having recovered the papers of my father, though I dare not trust my voice to name the name of Diana.
‘I was sure ye wad get them,’ said MacGregor; ‘the letter ye brought me contained his Excellency’s pleasure to that effect; and nae doubt it was my will to have aided in it. And I asked ye up into this glen on the very errand. But it’s like his Excellency has forgathered wi’ Rashleigh sooner than I expected.’
The first part of this answer was what most forcibly struck me.
‘Was the letter I brought you, then, from this person you call his Excellency? Who is he? and what is his rank and proper name?’
‘I am thinking,’ said MacGregor, ‘that since ye dinna ken them already, they canna be o’ muckle consequence to you, and sae I shall say naething on that score. But weel I wot the letter was frae his ain hand, or, having a sort of business of my ain on my hands, being, as ye weel may see, just as much as I can fairly manage, I canna say I would hae fashed mysell sae muckle about the matter.’
I now recollected the lights seen in the library—the various circumstances which had excited my jealousy—the glove—the agitation of the tapestry which covered the secret passage from Rashleigh’s apartment; and, above all, I recollected that Diana retired, in order to write, as I then thought, the billet to which I was to have recourse in case of the last necessity. Her hours, then, were not spent in solitude, but in listening to the addresses of some desperate agent of Jacobitical treason, who was a secret resident within the mansion of her uncle! Other young women have sold themselves for gold, or suffered themselves to be seduced from their first love from vanity; but Diana had sacrificed my affections and her own to partake the fortunes of some desperate adventurer—to seek the haunts of freebooters through midnight deserts, with no better hopes of rank or fortune than that mimicry of both which the mock court of the Stewarts at St. Germains had in their power to bestow.
‘I will see her,’ I said internally, ‘if it be possible, once more. I will argue with her as a friend—as a kinsman—on the risk she is incurring, and I will facilitate her retreat to France, where she may, with more comfort and propriety, as well as safety, abide the issue of the turmoils which the political trepanner, to whom she has united her fate, is doubtless busied in putting into motion.’
‘I conclude, then,’ I said to MacGregor, after about five minutes’ silence on both sides,’ that his Excellency, since you give me no other name for him, was residing in Osbaldistone Hall at the same time with myself?’
‘To be sure—to be sure—and in the young lady’s apartment, as best reason was.’ This gratuitous information was adding gall to bitterness.’ But few,’ added Macgregor,’ kend he was denied there, save Rashleigh and Sir Hildebrand; for you were out o’ the question; and the young lads haena wit eneugh to ca’ the cat frae the cream—But it’s a bra’ auld-fashioned house; and what I specially admire, is the abundance of holes and bores and concealments—ye could put twenty or thirty men in ae corner, and a family might live a week without finding them out—whilk, nae doubt, may on occasion be a special convenience. I wish we had the like o’ Osbaldistone Hall oh the braes o’ Craig Royston—But we maun gar woods and caves serve the like o’ us puir Hieland bodies.’
‘I suppose his Excellency,’ said I, ‘was privy to the first accident which befell——’
I could not help hesitating a moment.
‘Ye were going to say Morris,’ said Rob Roy coolly, for he was too much accustomed to deeds of violence for the agitation he had at first expressed to be of long continuance.’ I used to laugh heartily at that reik, but I’ll hardly hae the heart to do’t again, since the ill-far’d accident at the Loch— Na, na, his Excellency kend nought o’ that ploy—it was a’ managed atween Rashleigh and mysell. But the sport that came after—and Rashleigh’s shift o’ turning the suspicion aff himsell upon you, that he had nae grit favour to frae the beginning—and then Miss Die, she maun hae us sweep up a’ our spiders’ webs again, and set you out o’ the Justice’s claws—and then the frightened craven, Morris, that was scared out o’ his seven senses by seeing the real man when he was charging the innocent stranger—and the gowk of a clerk—and the drunken carle of a justice—Ohon! ohon!—mony a laugh that job’s gien me—and now’ a’ that I can do for the puir devil is to get some messes said for his soul.’
‘May I ask,’ said I, ‘how Miss Vernon came to have so much influence over Rashleigh and his accomplices, as to derange your projected plan?’
‘Mine? it was none of mine. No man can say I ever laid my burden on other folk’s shoulders—it was a’ Rashleigh’s doings—But, undoubtedly, she had great influence wi’ us baith on account of his Excellency’s affection, as weel as that she kend far ower mony secrets to be lightlied in a matter o’ that kind.—Deil tak him,’ he ejaculated, by way of summing up, ‘that gies women either secret to keep or power to abuse—fules shouldna hae chapping sticks.’
We were now within a quarter of a mile from the village, when three Highlanders, springing upon us with presented arms, commanded us to stand and tell our business. The single word, Gregaragh, in the deep and commanding voice of my companion, was answered by a shout, or rather yell, of joyful recognition. One, throwing down his fire-lock, clasped his leader so fast round the knees, that he was unable to extricate himself, muttering, at the same time, a torrent of Gaelic gratulation, which every now and then rose into a sort of scream of gladness. The two others, after the first howling was over, set off literally with the speed of deers, contending which should first carry to the village, which a strong party of the MacGregors now occupied, the joyful news of Rob Roy’s escape and return. The intelligence excited such shouts of jubilation that the very hills rung again, and young and old, men, women, and children, without distinction of sex or age, came running down the vale to meet us, with all the tumultuous speed and clamour of a mountain torrent
. When I heard the rushing noise and yells of this joyful multitude approach us, I thought it a fitting precaution to remind MacGregor that I was a stranger, and under his protection. He accordingly held me fast by the hand, while the assemblage crowded around him with such shouts of devoted attachment, and joy at his return, as were really affecting; nor did he extend to his followers what all eagerly sought, the grasp, namely, of his hand, until he had made them understand that I was to be kindly and carefully used.
The mandate of the Sultan of Delhi could not have been more promptly obeyed. Indeed, I now sustained nearly as much inconvenience from their well-meant attentions as formerly from their rudeness. They would hardly allow the friend of their leader to walk upon his own legs, so earnest were they in affording me support and assistance upon the way; and at length, taking advantage of a slight stumble which I made over a stone, which the press did not permit me to avoid, they fairly seized upon me, and bore me in their arms in triumph towards Mrs. MacAlpine’s.
On arrival before her hospitable wigwam, I found power and popularity had its inconveniences in the Highlands, as everywhere else; for before MacGregor could be permitted to enter the house where he was to obtain rest and refreshment, he was obliged to relate the story of his escape at least a dozen times over, as I was told by an officious old man, who chose to translate it at least as often for my edification, and to whom I was in policy obliged to seem to pay a decent degree of attention. The audience being at length satisfied, group after group departed to take their bed upon the heath, or in the neighbouring huts, some cursing the Duke and Garschattachin, some lamenting the probable danger of Ewan of Brigglands, incurred by his friendship to MacGregor, but all agreeing that the escape of Rob Roy himself lost nothing in comparison with the exploit of any one of their chiefs since the days of Dougal-Ciar, the founder of his line.
