Redgauntlet: A Tale Of The Eighteenth Century

by Walter Scott

  CHAPTER IV

  DARSIE LATIMER'S JOURNAL, IN CONTINUATION

  The morning was dawning, and Mr. Geddes and I myself were still sleepingsoundly, when the alarm was given by my canine bedfellow, who firstgrowled deeply at intervals, and at length bore more decided testimonyto the approach of some enemy. I opened the door of the cottage, andperceived, at the distance of about two hundred yards, a small but closecolumn of men, which I would have taken for a dark hedge, but that Icould perceive it was advancing rapidly and in silence.

  The dog flew towards them, but instantly ran howling back to me, havingprobably been chastised by a stick or a stone. Uncertain as to the planof tactics or of treaty which Mr. Geddes might think proper to adopt, Iwas about to retire into the cottage, when he suddenly joined me at thedoor, and, slipping his arm through mine, said, 'Let us go to meet themmanfully; we have done nothing to be ashamed of.--Friends,' he said,raising his voice as we approached them, 'who and what are you, and withwhat purpose are you here on my property?'

  A loud cheer was the answer returned, and a brace of fiddlers whooccupied the front of the march immediately struck up the insulting air,the words of which begin--

  Merrily danced the Quaker's wife, And merrily danced the Quaker.

  Even at that moment of alarm, I think I recognized the tones of theblind fiddler, Will, known by the name of Wandering Willie, from hisitinerant habits. They continued to advance swiftly and in great order,in their front

  The fiery fiddlers playing martial airs;

  when, coming close up, they surrounded us by a single movement, andthere was a universal cry, 'Whoop, Quaker--whoop, Quaker! Here have wethem both, the wet Quaker and the dry one.'

  'Hang up the wet Quaker to dry, and wet the dry one with a ducking,'answered another voice.

  'Where is the sea-otter, John Davies, that destroyed more fish than anysealch upon Ailsa Craig?' exclaimed a third voice. 'I have an old crowto pluck with him, and a pock to put the feathers in.'

  We stood perfectly passive; for, to have attempted resistance againstmore than a hundred men, armed with guns, fish-spears, iron-crows,spades, and bludgeons, would have been an act of utter insanity. Mr.Geddes, with his strong sonorous voice, answered the question about thesuperintendent in a manner the manly indifference of which compelledthem to attend to him.

  'John Davies,' he said, 'will, I trust, soon be at Dumfries'--

  'To fetch down redcoats and dragoons against us, you canting oldvillain!'

  A blow was, at the same time, levelled at my friend, which I parried byinterposing the stick I had in my hand. I was instantly struck down, andhave a faint recollection of hearing some crying, 'Kill the young spy!'and others, as I thought, interposing on my behalf. But a second blowon the head, received in the scuffle, soon deprived me of sense andconsciousness, and threw me into it state of insensibility, from whichI did not recover immediately. When I did come to myself, I was lyingon the bed from which I had just risen before the fray, and my poorcompanion, the Newfoundland puppy, its courage entirely cowed by thetumult of the riot, had crept as close to me as it could, and laytrembling and whining, as if under the most dreadful terror. I doubtedat first whether I had not dreamed of the tumult, until, as I attemptedto rise, a feeling of pain and dizziness assured me that the injuryI had sustained was but too real. I gathered together my senseslistened--and heard at a distance the shouts of the rioters, busy,doubtless, in their work of devastation. I made a second effort to rise,or at least to turn myself, for I lay with my face to the wall ofthe cottage, but I found that my limbs were secured, and my motionseffectually prevented--not indeed by cords, but by linen or clothbandages swathed around my ankles, and securing my arms to my sides.Aware of my utterly captive condition, I groaned betwixt bodily pain andmental distress,

  A voice by my bedside whispered, in a whining tone, 'Whisht a-ye,hinnie--Whisht a-ye; haud your tongue, like a gude bairn--ye have costus dear aneugh already. My hinnie's clean gane now.'

  Knowing, as I thought, the phraseology of the wife of the itinerantmusician, I asked her where her husband was, and whether he had beenhurt.

  'Broken,' answered the dame, 'all broken to pieces; fit for naught butto be made spunks of--the best blood that was in Scotland.'

  'Broken?--blood?--is your husband wounded; has there been bloodshedbroken limbs?'

  'Broken limbs I wish,' answered the beldam, 'that my hinnie had brokenthe best bane in his body, before he had broken his fiddle, that was thebest blood in Scotland--it was a Cremony, for aught that I ken.'

  'Pshaw--only his fiddle?' said I.

  'I dinna ken what waur your honour could have wished him to do, unlesshe had broken his neck; and this is muckle the same to my hinnie Willieand me. Chaw, indeed! It is easy to say chaw, but wha is to gie us onything to chaw?--the bread-winner's gane, and we may e'en sit down andstarve.'

  'No, no,' I said, 'I will pay you for twenty such fiddles.'

  'Twenty such! is that a' ye ken about it? the country hadna the likeo't. But if your honour were to pay us, as nae doubt wad be to yourcredit here and hereafter, where are ye to get the siller?'

  'I have enough of money,' said I, attempting to reach my hand towards myside-pocket; 'unloose these bandages, and I will pay you on the spot.'

  This hint appeared to move her, and she was approaching the bedside, asI hoped, to liberate me from my bonds, when a nearer and more desperateshout was heard, as if the rioters were close by the hut.

  'I daurna I daurna,' said the poor woman, 'they would murder me and myhinnie Willie baith, and they have misguided us aneugh already;--but ifthere is anything worldly I could do for your honour, leave out loosingye?'

  What she said recalled me to my bodily suffering. Agitation, and theeffects of the usage I had received, had produced a burning thirst. Iasked for a drink of water.

  'Heaven Almighty forbid that Epps Ainslie should gie ony sick gentlemancauld well-water, and him in a fever. Na, na, hinnie, let me alane, I'lldo better for ye than the like of that.'

  'Give me what you will,' I replied; 'let it but be liquid and cool.'

  The woman gave me a large horn accordingly, filled with spirits andwater, which, without minute inquiry concerning the nature of itscontents, I drained at a draught. Either the spirits taken in such amanner acted more suddenly than usual on my brain, or else there wassome drug mixed with the beverage. I remember little after drinking itoff, only that the appearance of things around me became indistinct;that the woman's form seemed to multiply itself, and to flit in variousfigures around me, bearing the same lineaments as she herself did. Iremember also that the discordant noises and cries of those without thecottage seemed to die away in a hum like that with which a nurse hushesher babe. At length I fell into a deep sound sleep, or rather, a stateof absolute insensibility.

  I have reason to think this species of trance lasted for many hours;indeed, for the whole subsequent day and part of the night. It was notuniformly so profound, for my recollection of it is chequered with manydreams, all of a painful nature, but too faint and too indistinct to beremembered. At length the moment of waking came, and my sensations werehorrible.

  A deep sound, which, in the confusion of my senses, I identified withthe cries of the rioters, was the first thing of which I was sensible;next, I became conscious that I was carried violently forward in someconveyance, with an unequal motion, which gave me much pain. My positionwas horizontal, and when I attempted to stretch my hands in order tofind some mode of securing myself against this species of suffering, Ifound I was bound as before, and the horrible reality rushed on mymind that I was in the hands of those who had lately committed a greatoutrage on property, and were now about to kidnap, if not to murder me.I opened my eyes, it was to no purpose--all around me was dark, fora day had passed over during my captivity. A dispiriting sicknessoppressed my head--my heart seemed on fire, while my feet and hands werechilled and benumbed with want of circulation. It was with the utmostdifficulty that I at length, and gradually
, recovered in a sufficientdegree the power of observing external sounds and circumstances; andwhen I did so, they presented nothing consolatory.

  Groping with my hands, as far as the bandages would permit, andreceiving the assistance of some occasional glances of the moonlight, Ibecame aware that the carriage in which I was transported was one of thelight carts of the country, called TUMBLERS, and that a little attentionhad been paid to my accommodation, as I was laid upon some sacks coveredwith matting, and filled with straw. Without these, my condition wouldhave been still more intolerable, for the vehicle, sinking now on oneside, and now on the other, sometimes sticking absolutely fast andrequiring the utmost exertions of the animal which drew it to put itonce more in motion, was subjected to jolts in all directions, whichwere very severe. At other times it rolled silently and smoothly overwhat seemed to be wet sand; and, as I heard the distant roar of thetide, I had little doubt that we were engaged in passing the formidableestuary which divides the two kingdoms.

  There seemed to be at least five or six people about the cart, some onfoot, others on horseback; the former lent assistance whenever it was indanger of upsetting, or sticking fast in the quicksand; the others rodebefore and acted as guides, often changing the direction of the vehicleas the precarious state of the passage required.

  I addressed myself to the men around the cart, and endeavoured to movetheir compassion. I had harmed, I said, no one, and for no action in mylife had deserved such cruel treatment, I had no concern whatever inthe fishing station which had incurred their displeasure, and myacquaintance with Mr. Geddes was of a very late date. Lastly, and as mystrongest argument, I endeavoured to excite their fears, by informingthem that my rank in life would not permit me to be either murdered orsecreted with impunity; and to interest their avarice, by the promisesI made them of reward, if they would effect my deliverance. I onlyreceived a scornful laugh in reply to my threats; my promises might havedone more, for the fellows were whispering together as if in hesitation,and I began to reiterate and increase my offers, when the voice of oneof the horsemen, who had suddenly come up, enjoined silence to themen on foot, and, approaching the side of the cart, said to me, witha strong and determined voice, 'Young man, there is no personal harmdesigned to you. If you remain silent and quiet, you may reckon ongood treatment; but if you endeavour to tamper with these men in theexecution of their duty, I will take such measures for silencing you, asyou shall remember the longest day you have to live.'

  I thought I knew the voice which uttered these threats; but, in sucha situation, my perceptions could not be supposed to be perfectlyaccurate. I was contented to reply, 'Whoever you are that speak to me, Ientreat the benefit of the meanest prisoner, who is not to be subjected,legally to greater hardship than is necessary for the restraint of hisperson. I entreat that these bonds, which hurt me so cruelly, may beslackened at least, if not removed altogether.'

  'I will slacken the belts,' said the former speaker; 'nay, I willaltogether remove them, and allow you to pursue your journey in a moreconvenient manner, provided you will give me your word of honour thatyou will not attempt an escape?'

  'NEVER!' I answered, with an energy of which despair alone could haverendered me capable--'I will never submit to loss of freedom a momentlonger than I am subjected to it by force.'

  'Enough,' he replied; 'the sentiment is natural; but do not on your sidecomplain that I, who am carrying on an important undertaking, use theonly means in my power for ensuring its success.'

  I entreated to know what it was designed to do with me; but myconductor, in a voice of menacing authority, desired me to be silent onmy peril; and my strength and spirits were too much exhausted to permitmy continuing a dialogue so singular, even if I could have promisedmyself any good result by doing so.

  It is proper here to add, that, from my recollections at the time, andfrom what has since taken place, I have the strongest possible beliefthat the man with whom I held this expostulation was the singular personresiding at Brokenburn, in Dumfriesshire, and called by the fishers ofthat hamlet, the Laird of the Solway Lochs. The cause for his inveteratepersecution I cannot pretend even to guess at.

  In the meantime, the cart was dragged heavily and wearily on, until thenearer roar of the advancing tide excited the apprehension of anotherdanger. I could not mistake the sound, which I had heard upon anotheroccasion, when it was only the speed of a fleet horse which saved mefrom perishing in the quicksands. Thou, my dear Alan, canst not butremember the former circumstances; and now, wonderful contrast! the veryman, to the best of my belief, who then saved me from peril, wasthe leader of the lawless band who had deprived me of my liberty. Iconjectured that the danger grew imminent; for I heard some words andcircumstances which made me aware that a rider hastily fastened his ownhorse to the shafts of the cart in order to assist the exhausted animalwhich drew it, and the vehicle was now pulled forward at a faster pace,which the horses were urged to maintain by blows and curses. Themen, however, were inhabitants of the neighbourhood; and I had strongpersonal reason to believe that one of them, at least, was intimatelyacquainted with all the depths and shallows of the perilous paths inwhich we were engaged. But they were in imminent danger themselves; andif so, as from the whispering and exertions to push on with the cartwas much to be apprehended, there was little doubt that I should be leftbehind as a useless encumbrance, and that, while I was in a conditionwhich rendered every chance of escape impracticable. These were awfulapprehensions; but it pleased Providence to increase them to a pointwhich my brain was scarcely able to endure.

  As we approached very near to a black line, which, dimly visible as itwas, I could make out to be the shore, we heard two or three sounds,which appeared to be the report of fire-arms. Immediately all was bustleamong our party to get forward. Presently a fellow galloped up to us,crying out, 'Ware hawk! ware hawk! the land-sharks are out from Burgh,and Allonby Tom will lose his cargo if you do not bear a hand.'

  Most of my company seemed to make hastily for the shore on receivingthis intelligence. A driver was left with the cart; but at length, when,after repeated and hairbreadth escapes, it actually stuck fast in aslough or quicksand, the fellow, with an oath, cut the harness, and, asI presume, departed with the horses, whose feet I heard splashing overthe wet sand and through the shallows, as he galloped off.

  The dropping sound of fire-arms was still continued, but lost almostentirely in the thunder of the advancing surge. By a desperate effort Iraised myself in the cart, and attained a sitting posture, which servedonly to show me the extent of my danger. There lay my native land--myown England--the land where I was born, and to which my wishes, sincemy earliest age, had turned with all the prejudices of nationalfeeling--there it lay, within a furlong of the place where I yet was;that furlong, which an infant would have raced over in a minute, was yeta barrier effectual to divide me for ever from England and from life. Isoon not only heard the roar of this dreadful torrent, but saw, bythe fitful moonlight, the foamy crests of the devouring waves, as theyadvanced with the speed and fury of a pack of hungry wolves.

  The consciousness that the slightest ray of hope, or power ofstruggling, was not left me, quite overcame the constancy which I hadhitherto maintained. My eyes began to swim--my head grew giddy and madwith fear--I chattered and howled to the howling and roaring sea. Oneor two great waves already reached the cart, when the conductor of theparty whom I have mentioned so often, was, as if by magic, at my side.He sprang from his horse into the vehicle, cut the ligatures whichrestrained me, and bade me get up and mount in the fiend's name.

  Seeing I was incapable of obeying, he seized me as if I had been achild of six months old, threw me across the horse, sprang on behind,supporting with one hand, while he directed the animal with the other.In my helpless and painful posture, I was unconscious of the degreeof danger which we incurred; but I believe at one time the horse wasswimming, or nearly so; and that it was with difficulty that my sternand powerful assistant kept my head above water. I remember particularlyth
e shock which I felt when the animal, endeavouring to gain the bank,reared, and very nearly fell back on his burden. The time during whichI continued in this dreadful condition did not probably exceed two orthree minutes, yet so strongly were they marked with horror and agony,that they seem to my recollection a much more considerable space oftime.

  When I had been thus snatched from destruction, I had only power to sayto my protector,--or oppressor,--for he merited either name at my hand,'You do not, then, design to murder me?'

  He laughed as he replied, but it was a sort of laughter which I scarcedesire to hear again,--'Else you think I had let the waves do the work?But remember, the shepherd saves his sheep from the torrent--is it topreserve its life?--Be silent, however, with questions or entreaties.What I mean to do, thou canst no more discover or prevent, than a man,with his bare palm, can scoop dry the Solway.'

  I was too much exhausted to continue the argument; and, still numbed andtorpid in all my limbs, permitted myself without reluctance to be placedon a horse brought for the purpose. My formidable conductor rode on theone side, and another person on the other, keeping me upright in thesaddle. In this manner we travelled forward at a considerable rate,and by by-roads, with which my attendant seemed as familiar as with theperilous passages of the Solway.

  At length, after stumbling through a labyrinth of dark and deep lanes,and crossing more than one rough and barren heath, we found ourselves onthe edge of a highroad, where a chaise and four awaited, as it appeared,our arrival. To my great relief, we now changed our mode of conveyance;for my dizziness and headache had returned in so strong a degree, that Ishould otherwise have been totally unable to keep my seat on horseback,even with the support which I received.

  My doubted and dangerous companion signed to me to enter thecarriage--the man who had ridden on the left side of my horse stepped inafter me, and drawing up the blinds of the vehicle, gave the signal forinstant departure.

  I had obtained a glimpse of the countenance of my new companion, as bythe aid of a dark lantern the drivers opened the carriage door, andI was wellnigh persuaded that I recognized in him the domestic of theleader of this party, whom I had seen at his house in Brokenburn on aformer occasion. To ascertain the truth of my suspicion, I asked himwhether his name was not Cristal Nixon.

  'What is other folk's names to you,' he replied, gruffly, 'who cannottell your own father and mother?'

  'You know them, perhaps!' I exclaimed eagerly. 'You know them! and withthat secret is connected the treatment which I am now receiving? It mustbe so, for in my life have I never injured any one. Tell me the cause ofmy misfortunes, or rather, help me to my liberty, and I will reward yourichly.'

  'Aye, aye,' replied my keeper; 'but what use to give you liberty, whoknow nothing how to use it like a gentleman, but spend your time withQuakers and fiddlers, and such like raff! If I was your--hem, hem, hem!'

  Here Cristal stopped short, just on the point, as it appeared, when someinformation was likely to escape him. I urged him once more to be myfriend, and promised him all the stock of money which I had about me,and it was not inconsiderable, if he would assist in my escape.

  He listened, as if to a proposition which had some interest, andreplied, but in a voice rather softer than before, 'Aye, but men do notcatch old birds with chaff, my master. Where have you got the rhino youare so flush of?'

  'I will give you earnest directly, and that in banknotes,' said I; butthrusting my hand into my side-pocket, I found my pocket-book was gone.I would have persuaded myself that it was only the numbness of my handswhich prevented my finding it; but Cristal Nixon, who bears in hiscountenance that cynicism which is especially entertained with humanmisery, no longer suppressed his laughter.

  'Oh, ho! my young master,' he said; 'we have taken good enough care youhave not kept the means of bribing poor folk's fidelity. What, man, theyhave souls as well as other people, and to make them break trust isa deadly sin. And as for me, young gentleman, if you would fill SaintMary's Kirk with gold, Cristal Nixon would mind it no more than so manychucky-stones.'

  I would have persisted, were it but in hopes of his letting drop thatwhich it concerned me to know, but he cut off further communication, bydesiring me to lean back in the corner and go to sleep.

  'Thou art cock-brained enough already,' he added, 'and we shall have thyyoung pate addled entirely, if you do not take some natural rest.'

  I did indeed require repose, if not slumber; the draught which I hadtaken continued to operate, and, satisfied in my own mind that noattempt on my life was designed, the fear of instant death no longercombated the torpor which crept over me--I slept, and slept soundly, butstill without refreshment.

  When I awoke, I found myself extremely indisposed; images of the past,and anticipations of the future, floated confusedly through my brain.I perceived, however, that my situation was changed, greatly for thebetter. I was in a good bed, with the curtains drawn round it; I heardthe lowered voice and cautious step of attendants, who seemed to respectmy repose; it appeared as if I was in the hands either of friends, or ofsuch as meant me no personal harm.

  I can give but an indistinct account of two or three broken and feverishdays which succeeded, but if they were chequered with dreams andvisions of terror, other and more agreeable objects were also sometimespresented. Alan Fairford will understand me when I say, I am convinced Isaw G.M. during this interval of oblivion. I had medical attendance, andwas bled more than once. I also remember a painful operation performedon my head, where I had received a severe blow on the night of the riot.My hair was cut short, and the bone of the skull examined, to discoverif the cranium had received any injury.

  On seeing the physician, it would have been natural to have appealedto him on the subject of my confinement, and I remember more than onceattempting to do so. But the fever lay like a spell upon my tongue, andwhen I would have implored the doctor's assistance, I rambled from thesubject, and spoke I know not what nonsense. Some power, which Iwas unable to resist, seemed to impel me into a different course ofconversation from what I intended, and though conscious, in some degree,of the failure, I could not mend it; and resolved, therefore, to bepatient, until my capacity of steady thought and expression was restoredto me with my ordinary health, which had sustained a severe shock fromthe vicissitudes to which I had been exposed. [See Note 6.]