The Fair Maid of Perth; Or, St. Valentine's Day

by Walter Scott

  CHAPTER XXIV.

  Let gallows gape for dogs, let men go free.

  Henry V.

  The incidents of a narrative of this kind must be adapted to each other,as the wards of a key must tally accurately with those of the lock towhich it belongs. The reader, however gentle, will not hold himselfobliged to rest satisfied with the mere fact that such and suchoccurrences took place, which is, generally speaking, all that inordinary life he can know of what is passing around him; but he isdesirous, while reading for amusement, of knowing the interior movementsoccasioning the course of events. This is a legitimate and reasonablecuriosity; for every man hath a right to open and examine the mechanismof his own watch, put together for his proper use, although he is notpermitted to pry into the interior of the timepiece which, for generalinformation, is displayed on the town steeple.

  It would be, therefore, uncourteous to leave my readers under any doubtconcerning the agency which removed the assassin Bonthron from thegallows--an event which some of the Perth citizens ascribed to the foulfiend himself, while others were content to lay it upon the naturaldislike of Bonthron's countrymen of Fife to see him hanging on the riverside, as a spectacle dishonourable to their province.

  About midnight succeeding the day when the execution had taken place,and while the inhabitants of Perth were deeply buried in slumber, threemen muffled in their cloaks, and bearing a dark lantern, descended thealleys of a garden which led from the house occupied by Sir John Ramornyto the banks of the Tay, where a small boat lay moored to a landingplace, or little projecting pier. The wind howled in a low andmelancholy manner through the leafless shrubs and bushes; and a palemoon "waded," as it is termed in Scotland, amongst drifting clouds,which seemed to threaten rain. The three individuals entered the boatwith great precaution to escape observation. One of them was a tall,powerful man; another short and bent downwards; the third middle sized,and apparently younger than his companions, well made, and active. Thusmuch the imperfect light could discover. They seated themselves in theboat and unmoored it from the pier.

  "We must let her drift with the current till we pass the bridge, wherethe burghers still keep guard; and you know the proverb, 'A Pertharrow hath a perfect flight,'" said the most youthful of the party, whoassumed the office of helmsman, and pushed the boat off from the pier;whilst the others took the oars, which were muffled, and rowed with allprecaution till they attained the middle of the river; they then ceasedtheir efforts, lay upon their oars, and trusted to the steersman forkeeping her in mid channel.

  In this manner they passed unnoticed or disregarded beneath the statelyGothic arches of the old bridge, erected by the magnificent patronageof Robert Bruce in 1329, and carried away by an inundation in 1621.Although they heard the voices of a civic watch, which, since thesedisturbances commenced, had been nightly maintained in that importantpass, no challenge was given; and when they were so far down the streamas to be out of hearing of these guardians of the night, they began torow, but still with precaution, and to converse, though in a low tone.

  "You have found a new trade, comrade, since I left you," said one of therowers to the other. "I left you engaged in tending a sick knight, and Ifind you employed in purloining a dead body from the gallows."

  "A living body, so please your squirehood, Master Buncle, or else mycraft hath failed of its purpose."

  "So I am told, Master Pottercarrier; but, saving your clerkship, unlessyou tell me your trick, I will take leave to doubt of its success."

  "A simple toy, Master Buncle, not likely to please a genius so acute asthat of your valiancie. Marry, thus it is. This suspension of the humanbody, which the vulgar call hanging, operates death by apoplexia--thatis, the blood being unable to return to the heart by the compressionof the veins, it rushes to the brain, and the man dies. Also, and as anadditional cause of dissolution, the lungs no longer receive the needfulsupply of the vital air, owing to the ligature of the cord around thethorax; and hence the patient perishes."

  "I understand that well enough. But how is such a revulsion of blood tothe brain to be prevented, sir mediciner?" said the third person, whowas no other than Ramorny's page, Eviot.

  "Marry, then," replied Dwining, "hang me the patient up in such fashionthat the carotid arteries shall not be compressed, and the blood willnot determine to the brain, and apoplexia will not take place; andagain, if there be no ligature around the thorax, the lungs will besupplied with air, whether the man be hanging in the middle heaven orstanding on the firm earth."

  "All this I conceive," said Eviot; "but how these precautions can bereconciled with the execution of the sentence of hanging is what my dullbrain cannot comprehend."

  "Ah! good youth, thy valiancie hath spoiled a fair wit. Hadst thoustudied with me, thou shouldst have learned things more difficult thanthis. But here is my trick. I get me certain bandages, made of the samesubstance with your young valiancie's horse girths, having especial carethat they are of a kind which will not shrink on being strained, sincethat would spoil my experiment. One loop of this substance is drawnunder each foot, and returns up either side of the leg to a cincture,with which it is united; these cinctures are connected by divers strapsdown the breast and back, in order to divide the weight. And there aresundry other conveniences for easing the patient, but the chief is this:the straps, or ligatures, are attached to a broad steel collar, curvingoutwards, and having a hook or two, for the better security of thehalter, which the friendly executioner passes around that part of themachine, instead of applying it to the bare throat of the patient.Thus, when thrown off from the ladder, the sufferer will find himselfsuspended, not by his neck, if it please you, but by the steel circle,which supports the loops in which his feet are placed, and on which hisweight really rests, diminished a little by similar supports under eacharm. Thus, neither vein nor windpipe being compressed, the man willbreathe as free, and his blood, saving from fright and novelty ofsituation, will flow as temperately as your valiancie's when you standup in your stirrups to view a field of battle."

  "By my faith, a quaint and rare device!" quoth Buncle.

  "Is it not?" pursued the leech, "and well worth being known to suchmounting spirits as your valiancies, since there is no knowing to whatheight Sir John Ramorny's pupils may arrive; and if these be such thatit is necessary to descend from them by a rope, you may find my mode ofmanagement more convenient than the common practice. Marry, but you mustbe provided with a high collared doublet, to conceal the ring of steel,and, above all, such a bonus socius as Smother well to adjust thenoose."

  "Base poison vender," said Eviot, "men of our calling die on the fieldof battle."

  "I will save the lesson, however," replied Buncle, "in case of somepinching occasion. But what a night the bloody hangdog Bonthron musthave had of it, dancing a pavise in mid air to the music of his ownshackles, as the night wind swings him that way and this!"

  "It were an alms deed to leave him there," said Eviot; "for his descentfrom the gibbet will but encourage him to new murders. He knows but twoelements--drunkenness and bloodshed."

  "Perhaps Sir John Ramorny might have been of your opinion," saidDwining; "but it would first have been necessary to cut out the rogue'stongue, lest he had told strange tales from his airy height. And thereare other reasons that it concerns not your valiancies to know. Intruth, I myself have been generous in serving him, for the fellow isbuilt as strong as Edinburgh Castle, and his anatomy would have matchedany that is in the chirurgical hall of Padua. But tell me, MasterBuncle, what news bring you from the doughty Douglas?"

  "They may tell that know," said Buncle. "I am the dull ass that bearsthe message, and kens nought of its purport. The safer for myself,perhaps. I carried letters from the Duke of Albany and from Sir JohnRamorny to the Douglas, and he looked black as a northern tempest whenhe opened them. I brought them answers from the Earl, at which theysmiled like the sun when the harvest storm is closing over him. Go toyour ephemerides, leech, and conjure the meaning out of that."

/>   "Methinks I can do so without much cost of wit," said the chirurgeon;"but yonder I see in the pale moonlight our dead alive. Should he havescreamed out to any chance passenger, it were a curious interruptionto a night journey to be hailed from the top of such a gallows as that.Hark, methinks I do hear his groans amid the whistling of the wind andthe creaking of the chains. So--fair and softly; make fast the boatwith the grappling, and get out the casket with my matters, we would bebetter for a little fire, but the light might bring observation onus. Come on, my men of valour, march warily, for we are bound for thegallows foot. Follow with the lantern; I trust the ladder has been left.

  "Sing, three merry men, and three merry men, And three merry men are we, Thou on the land, and I on the sand, And Jack on the gallows tree."

  As they advanced to the gibbet, they could plainly hear groans, thoughuttered in a low tone. Dwining ventured to give a low cough once ortwice, by way of signal; but receiving no answer, "We had best makehaste," said he to his companions, "for our friend must be in extremis,as he gives no answer to the signal which announces the arrival of help.Come, let us to the gear. I will go up the ladder first and cut therope. Do you two follow, one after another, and take fast hold of thebody, so that he fall not when the halter is unloosed. Keep sure gripe,for which the bandages will afford you convenience. Bethink you that,though he plays an owl's part tonight, he hath no wings, and to fall outof a halter may be as dangerous as to fall into one."

  While he spoke thus with sneer and gibe, he ascended the ladder, andhaving ascertained that the men at arms who followed him had the body intheir hold, he cut the rope, and then gave his aid to support the almostlifeless form of the criminal.

  By a skilful exertion of strength and address, the body of Bonthron wasplaced safely on the ground; and the faint yet certain existence of lifehaving been ascertained, it was thence transported to the river side,where, shrouded by the bank, the party might be best concealed fromobservation, while the leech employed himself in the necessary means ofrecalling animation, with which he had taken care to provide himself.

  For this purpose he first freed the recovered person from his shackles,which the executioner had left unlocked on purpose, and at the same timedisengaged the complicated envelopes and bandages by which he had beensuspended. It was some time ere Dwining's efforts succeeded; for, indespite of the skill with which his machine had been constructed, thestraps designed to support the body had stretched so considerably as tooccasion the sense of suffocation becoming extremely overpowering. Butthe address of the surgeon triumphed over all obstacles; and, aftersneezing and stretching himself, with one or two brief convulsions,Bonthron gave decided proofs of reanimation, by arresting the handof the operator as it was in the act of dropping strong waters on hisbreast and throat, and, directing the bottle which contained them to hislips, he took, almost perforce, a considerable gulp of the contents.

  "It is spiritual essence double distilled," said the astonishedoperator, "and would blister the throat and burn the stomach of anyother man. But this extraordinary beast is so unlike all other humancreatures, that I should not wonder if it brought him to the completepossession of his faculties."

  Bonthron seemed to confirm this: he started with a strong convulsion,sat up, stared around, and indicated some consciousness of existence.

  "Wine--wine," were the first words which he articulated.

  The leech gave him a draught of medicated wine, mixed with water. Herejected it, under the dishonourable epithet of "kennel washings," andagain uttered the words, "Wine--wine."

  "Nay, take it to thee, i' the devil's name," said the leech, "since nonebut he can judge of thy constitution."

  A draught, long and deep enough to have discomposed the intellects ofany other person, was found effectual in recalling those of Bonthron toa more perfect state; though he betrayed no recollection of where he wasor what had befallen him, and in his brief and sullen manner asked whyhe was brought to the river side at this time of night.

  "Another frolic of the wild Prince, for drenching me as he did before.Nails and blood, but I would--"

  "Hold thy peace," interrupted Eviot, "and be thankful, I pray you, ifyou have any thankfulness in you, that thy body is not crow's meat andthy soul in a place where water is too scarce to duck thee."

  "I begin to bethink me," said the ruffian; and raising the flask to hismouth, which he saluted with a long and hearty kiss, he set the emptybottle on the earth, dropped his head on his bosom, and seemed to musefor the purpose of arranging his confused recollections.

  "We can abide the issue of his meditations no longer," said Dwining; "hewill be better after he has slept. Up, sir! you have been riding the airthese some hours; try if the water be not an easier mode of conveyance.Your valours must lend me a hand. I can no more lift this mass than Icould raise in my arms a slaughtered bull."

  "Stand upright on thine own feet, Bonthron, now we have placed thee uponthem," said Eviot.

  "I cannot," answered the patient. "Every drop of blood tingles in myveins as if it had pinpoints, and my knees refuse to bear their burden.What can be the meaning of all this? This is some practice of thine,thou dog leech!"

  "Ay--ay, so it is, honest Bonthron," said Dwining--"a practice thoushalt thank me for when thou comest to learn it. In the mean while,stretch down in the stern of that boat, and let me wrap this cloak aboutthee."

  Assisted into the boat accordingly, Bonthron was deposited there asconveniently as things admitted of. He answered their attentions withone or two snorts resembling the grunt of a boar who has got some foodparticularly agreeable to him.

  "And now, Buncle," said the chirurgeon, "your valiant squireshipknows your charge. You are to carry this lively cargo by the river toNewburgh, where you are to dispose of him as you wot of; meantime,here are his shackles and bandages, the marks of his confinement andliberation. Bind them up together, and fling them into the deepest poolyou pass over; for, found in your possession, they might tell talesagainst us all. This low, light breath of wind from the west will permityou to use a sail as soon as the light comes in and you are tired ofrowing. Your other valiancie, Master Page Eviot, must be content toreturn to Perth with me afoot, for here severs our fair company. Takewith thee the lantern, Buncle, for thou wilt require it more than we,and see thou send me back my flasket."

  As the pedestrians returned to Perth, Eviot expressed his belief thatBonthron's understanding would never recover the shock which terror hadinflicted upon it, and which appeared to him to have disturbed all thefaculties of his mind, and in particular his memory.

  "It is not so, an it please your pagehood," said the leech. "Bonthron'sintellect, such as it is, hath a solid character: it Will but vacillateto and fro like a pendulum which hath been put in motion, and then willrest in its proper point of gravity. Our memory is, of all our powers ofmind, that which is peculiarly liable to be suspended. Deep intoxicationor sound sleep alike destroy it, and yet it returns when the drunkardbecomes sober or the sleeper is awakened. Terror sometimes produces thesame effect. I knew at Paris a criminal condemned to die by the halter,who suffered the sentence accordingly, showing no particular degree oftimidity upon the scaffold, and behaving and expressing himself as menin the same condition are wont to do. Accident did for him what a littleingenious practice hath done for our amiable friend from whom we butnow parted. He was cut down and given to his friends before life wasextinct, and I had the good fortune to restore him. But, though herecovered in other particulars, he remembered but little of his trialand sentence. Of his confession on the morning of his execution--he!he! he! (in his usual chuckling manner)--he remembered him not a word.Neither of leaving the prison, nor of his passage to the Greve, wherehe suffered, nor of the devout speeches with which he--he! he!he!--edified--he! he! he!--so many good Christians, nor of ascending thefatal tree, nor of taking the fatal leap, had my revenant the slightestrecollection.' But here we reach the point where we must separate;for it were unfit, should we meet any of the
watch, that we be foundtogether, and it were also prudent that we enter the city by differentgates. My profession forms an excuse for my going and coming at alltimes. Your valiant pagehood will make such explanation as may seemsufficing."

  "I shall make my will a sufficient excuse if I am interrogated," saidthe haughty young man. "Yet I will avoid interruption, if possible. Themoon is quite obscured, and the road as black as a wolf's mouth."

  "Tut," said the physicianer, "let not your valour care for that: weshall tread darker paths ere it be long."

  Without inquiring into the meaning of these evil boding sentences, andindeed hardly listening to them in the pride and recklessness of hisnature, the page of Ramorny parted from his ingenious and dangerouscompanion, and each took his own way.