THE LAST GLANCE OF SCOTLAND.
The weather for the next three days continued as fine as summer weather
could be. With wind and tide in her favour, the _Anne_ made a splendid
run through the Moray Firth, passed the auld town of Aberdeen, and
before sunset sailed close under the dreary Caithness coast.
Flora examined John o' Groat's house with some interest, and for the
first time in her life discovered that the fantastic red rock which
bears that name, was not a _bona fide_ dwelling, which up to that moment
she had imagined it to be.
A prospect more barren and desolate than that over which Caithness
Castle rises preeminent, can scarcely be imagined. Flora turned from the
contemplation of the stony waste with an inward thanksgiving, "That it
was not her home." But when they rounded Duncansby Head, the scene
before so tame and sterile, became more grand and picturesque every
moment. They were now in the stormy Pentland Firth, threading their way
with the aid of a pilot through its romantic labyrinth of islands,
driven onward by a spanking wind.
The bold outline of the coast was so different in its character from
that to which she had been accustomed from a child, that it made a
powerful impression upon her mind, and quickly associated itself with
all the legends of the wild and marvellous which she had ever heard or
read. Those beetling crags, those ocean caves, into which the wild
sea-waves rushed with such a fearful din, seemed fitting habitations for
all the evil demons that abound in the Scandinavian mythology, once
dreaded as stern realities in a darker stage of human progression.
How tame beside these awful sublimities, appeared the gentle sloping
cliffs at ----, and her little cottage fronting the quiet bay--
"Green lie these thickly timbered shores,
Fair sloping to the sea."
But here, rocks upon rocks in endless confusion, reared their craggy
heads towards heaven, their frowning shadows casting a Stygian gloom
upon the billows that leap and roar around their massive base. A
perpetual war of ages these billows have waged against the iron barrier,
that with silent, motionless, resistless force repels their
white-crested phalanx, scattering them into shining fragments of snowy
spray. Ocean will not be defeated--he calls his legions again and again
to the charge, only to be broken and beaten back as before. They retreat
with a sullen roar of defiance, that seems to say, "You have beaten us;
but we will try our strength against you once more. The day is coming
when one of us two must yield."
The rocks assumed all hues in the fiery beams of the setting sun. The
red granite glowed with tints of crimson, violet, indigo, and gold,
these colours assuming a greater intensity when reflected in the
transparent waters of the Firth. It was a scene to see, not prate about,
and the memory of its brilliancy still lies enshrined like some precious
gem in Flora Lyndsay's heart.
As headland after headland flew past, revealing at every point some
fresh combinations of grandeur and beauty, Flora clapped her hands
together in a sort of ecstasy.
Lyndsay was standing silently beside her, watching with an air of
melancholy interest the scene which excited in her such intense
enthusiasm.
"Flora, do you see that old-fashioned mansion that crowns the green
amphitheatre, surrounded by those lofty hills, in front of us? It is a
lovely romantic place--with that giant hill that looks like an old man
in a highland bonnet, towering above it, away there in the back-ground.
That is the old man of Hoy. That old house is M----, where I was born
and brought up." He drew a deep sigh, and turning his face from his
wife, continued to gaze with an earnest longing. The shades of night
drew a veil over the stern landscape, and the moon rose up, bathing rock
and crag and mountain height with a flood of silver glory, and adding a
ghostlike awful sublimity to the scene. Lyndsay still leant upon the
vessel's side, watching with the same intense expression the black
outline of the receding coast, which in that uncertain light presented
an aspect of rugged frowning desolation.
The Captain expected to put into Kirkwall, at which place he had been
requested by the owners to take in a supply of fresh provisions and
water for the voyage; the water casks having been filled with the
execrable waters o' Leith, under the ostensible reason of keeping them
from leaking until they could obtain a better supply. But the wind and
tide being in his favour, and enabling him to make a rapid run through
the Firth, he thought it best to keep straight on. This, in the end, by
leaving the vessel short of provisions and water, proved a short-sighted
policy, while it greatly disappointed Flora, whom Lyndsay had promised
to introduce to some of his friends, and give her a nearer view of the
romantic islands, which, seen from the water, had excited her curiosity
to the utmost.
But the _Anne_ spread her white wings to catch the fresh breeze which
was piping its hoarse song among the shrouds, and sped far upon her
westward way, leaving Mrs. Lyndsay to upbraid the Captain with having
cheated her hopes, which now could never be realized.
Boreas only laughed, and said--"That he was d----d sorry, for that he
would have to drink bad water and eat salt junk the rest of the voyage."
"And what has become of the little man in brown?" asked Flora: "I have
not seen him since he crept into the boat."
"We had a blow up this morning," said Boreas. "When I came on deck, my
gentleman was marching about as bold as you please, and had the
impudence to threaten to kick one of the emigrant children overboard, if
he found him in his path again. When I remonstrated with the scoundrel
on his impudence, as the father of the child knew him, and might report
him to the pilot, he bade me 'Go to h----, and take care of my own
people. He would not submit to my low tyranny. He would do as he
pleased, without asking my leave!' And then the fellow began to rave and
swear in such an outrageous manner, that I could hardly resist the
inclination I felt to pitch him plump into the sea. But I had my
revenge. Ha! ha! I had my revenge."
"In what way?" asked Lyndsay.
"The best way in the world; and the snarling puppy had no one to blame
but himself. My dog Oscar is d----d ugly, but he's the most sagacious
beast in the world. He can tell an honest man at a glance, and he hates
rogues. Oscar sat on his haunches eyeing the little man, with no very
amiable squint, during the row; every now and then uttering a
significant growl, and making a preparatory snap at Mr. Lootie's legs,
as if he longed to take the quarrel under his own especial management.
In the heat of anger, Mr. Lootie kept raising his hands and shaking them
at me in a threatening manner. Oscar let it pass for what it was worth
the first time, but the moment the fist was raised a second time, he
dashed into the little brute with tooth and claw, and pulling him to the
ground, he gave him such a touzling that the distiller was fain to roar
aloud for mercy, and I proved just then very deaf, and he got enough of
it, I can tell you."
"He was rightly served," said Flora; "I expect he will afford us some
amusement during the voyage. Captain, where did you procure this
cod-fish? I never tasted anything so delicious in the fish way in my
life."
"Ah, I thought you'd find that a treat. Those fish were alive under the
blue waters of the Firth an hour ago. Talk of the fine flavour of the
Newfoundland cod! they are not comparable to the fish caught in these
rapid waters."
Flora was on deck by sunrise the next morning. The sky was still
cloudless, but the breeze had freshened and the sea was coveted with
short rolling billows, which recalled to her mind a beautiful line in
Ossian, where the old bard compares these white-crested, short waves to
a flock of sheep coming tumbling over one another from the hills; and
in another place he terms the wind that moves them--
"The shepherdess of the sea driving her flocks on shore."
A tall, dark man, that was at the wheel, and bore the very appropriate
name of Bob _Motion_, whether real or assumed, it would be hard to say;
called this short chopping sea, "The white mice being out."
Flora found it no easy matter to keep her feet on the deck while the
vessel was going sideways through the water, but she hung on to the
bulwarks, and was rewarded by the sight of the wild Sutherland coast on
the left, its brown heath-covered hills, and fantastic rocks, conjuring
up the form of the Norna of the fitful Head--
"And of every wild shore that the northern winds knew."
Very few of the emigrants had ventured out of the steerage, being down
with sea-sickness; but Flora never suffered once from this distressing
malady during the voyage. This morning, in particular, she felt well and
in high spirits--a sense of glorious freedom in thus bounding over the
free, glad waves, in feeling their spray upon her lips, and the fresh
wild breath of the wind fanning her cheek, and whistling through her
hair. The ship seemed endowed with life as well as motion, as she
leaped from wave to wave, and breasted the flashing brine as if it were
her servant, and sworn to do her bidding.
"Well, Flora, what do you think of Lord Rae's country?" said Lyndsay.
"It is terrific!" returned Flora; "I cannot look at that confusion of
hills, lifting their tall heads to heaven, but I fancy that the earth
has rebelled against her Maker, and dares to defy Him to his face. It is
odd--a strange madness, you will think--but the sight of these mountains
thrills me with fear. I feel myself grow pale while looking at them, and
tremble while I admire."
"To me, born among the hills, Flora, these sensations of yours are
almost incomprehensible. But look, that broken arch of stone formed by
those immense black rocks round which the wild waves revel, and leap in
a glad frenzy, is the entrance to Loch Gribol. It is one of the grandest
objects on this rugged coast."
How often amid the dark woods of Canada did the stern sublimity of that
awful scene return to Flora Lyndsay in her dreams! The barren coast of
Anticosti, the pine-covered precipices of freestone that frown over
Chaleur Bay, and the mountain range which extends on the north of the
St. Lawrence from the Gulf to Quebec, though they present every variety
of savage scenery, cannot compete with the lonely, sterile grandeur
which marks the dashing of the ocean waves into that Highland loch.
The long, bright summer day wore to its close, and before the moon
looked down upon the heath-clad hills, the lighthouse on Cape Wrath had
diminished to a star amid the waves, and the coast of Scotland looked
like a dim wreath of blue smoke upon the verge of the horizon.
The little islands of Barra and Rona dimly distinguished above the
waves, were the last of the British Isles which met Flora's anxious
glance; and when they faded into the immensity of ocean, and were lost
to sight, and the vessel fairly stood to sea, a sense of loneliness, of
perpetual exile, pressed so heavily upon her heart, that she left the
deck, and sought her bed, that she might bewail in solitude her last
passionate adieu to her native land.