DARSIE LATIMER’S JOURNAL, IN CONTINUATION
The morning was dawning, and Mr. Geddes and I myself were still sleeping
soundly, when the alarm was given by my canine bedfellow, who first
growled deeply at intervals, and at length bore more decided testimony
to the approach of some enemy. I opened the door of the cottage, and
perceived, at the distance of about two hundred yards, a small but close
column of men, which I would have taken for a dark hedge, but that I
could perceive it was advancing rapidly and in silence.
The dog flew towards them, but instantly ran howling back to me, having
probably been chastised by a stick or a stone. Uncertain as to the plan
of tactics or of treaty which Mr. Geddes might think proper to adopt, I
was about to retire into the cottage, when he suddenly joined me at the
door, and, slipping his arm through mine, said, ‘Let us go to meet them
manfully; we have done nothing to be ashamed of.--Friends,’ he said,
raising his voice as we approached them, ‘who and what are you, and with
what purpose are you here on my property?’
A loud cheer was the answer returned, and a brace of fiddlers who
occupied 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 the
blind fiddler, Will, known by the name of Wandering Willie, from his
itinerant 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, and
there was a universal cry, ‘Whoop, Quaker--whoop, Quaker! Here have we
them 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 any
sealch upon Ailsa Craig?’ exclaimed a third voice. ‘I have an old crow
to pluck with him, and a pock to put the feathers in.’
We stood perfectly passive; for, to have attempted resistance against
more 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 the
superintendent in a manner the manly indifference of which compelled
them 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 old
villain!’
A blow was, at the same time, levelled at my friend, which I parried by
interposing the stick I had in my hand. I was instantly struck down, and
have a faint recollection of hearing some crying, ‘Kill the young spy!’
and others, as I thought, interposing on my behalf. But a second blow
on the head, received in the scuffle, soon deprived me of sense and
consciousness, and threw me into it state of insensibility, from which
I did not recover immediately. When I did come to myself, I was lying
on the bed from which I had just risen before the fray, and my poor
companion, the Newfoundland puppy, its courage entirely cowed by the
tumult of the riot, had crept as close to me as it could, and lay
trembling and whining, as if under the most dreadful terror. I doubted
at first whether I had not dreamed of the tumult, until, as I attempted
to rise, a feeling of pain and dizziness assured me that the injury
I had sustained was but too real. I gathered together my senses
listened--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 of
the cottage, but I found that my limbs were secured, and my motions
effectually prevented--not indeed by cords, but by linen or cloth
bandages swathed around my ankles, and securing my arms to my sides.
Aware of my utterly captive condition, I groaned betwixt bodily pain and
mental 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 cost
us dear aneugh already. My hinnie’s clean gane now.’
Knowing, as I thought, the phraseology of the wife of the itinerant
musician, I asked her where her husband was, and whether he had been
hurt.
‘Broken,’ answered the dame, ‘all broken to pieces; fit for naught but
to be made spunks of--the best blood that was in Scotland.’
‘Broken?--blood?--is your husband wounded; has there been bloodshed
broken limbs?’
‘Broken limbs I wish,’ answered the beldam, ‘that my hinnie had broken
the best bane in his body, before he had broken his fiddle, that was the
best 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, unless
he had broken his neck; and this is muckle the same to my hinnie Willie
and me. Chaw, indeed! It is easy to say chaw, but wha is to gie us ony
thing to chaw?--the bread-winner’s gane, and we may e’en sit down and
starve.’
‘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 like
o’t. But if your honour were to pay us, as nae doubt wad be to your
credit here and hereafter, where are ye to get the siller?’
‘I have enough of money,’ said I, attempting to reach my hand towards my
side-pocket; ‘unloose these bandages, and I will pay you on the spot.’
This hint appeared to move her, and she was approaching the bedside, as
I hoped, to liberate me from my bonds, when a nearer and more desperate
shout was heard, as if the rioters were close by the hut.
‘I daurna I daurna,’ said the poor woman, ‘they would murder me and my
hinnie Willie baith, and they have misguided us aneugh already;--but if
there is anything worldly I could do for your honour, leave out loosing
ye?’
What she said recalled me to my bodily suffering. Agitation, and the
effects of the usage I had received, had produced a burning thirst. I
asked for a drink of water.
‘Heaven Almighty forbid that Epps Ainslie should gie ony sick gentleman
cauld well-water, and him in a fever. Na, na, hinnie, let me alane, I’ll
do 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 and
water, which, without minute inquiry concerning the nature of its
contents, I drained at a draught. Either the spirits taken in such a
manner acted more suddenly than usual on my brain, or else there was
some drug mixed with the beverage. I remember little after drinking it
off, only that the appearance of things around me became indistinct;
that the woman’s form seemed to multiply itself, and to flit in various
figures around me, bearing the same lineaments as she herself did. I
remember also that the discordant noises and cries of those without the
cottage seemed to die away in a hum like that with which a nurse hushes
her babe. At length I fell into a deep sound sleep, or rather, a state
of 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 not
uniformly so profound, for my recollection of it is chequered with many
dreams, all of a painful nature, but too faint and too indistinct to be
remembered. At length the moment of waking came, and my sensations were
horrible.
A deep sound, which, in the confusion of my senses, I identified with
the cries of the rioters, was the first thing of which I was sensible;
next, I became conscious that I was carried violently forward in some
conveyance, with an unequal motion, which gave me much pain. My position
was horizontal, and when I attempted to stretch my hands in order to
find some mode of securing myself against this species of suffering, I
found I was bound as before, and the horrible reality rushed on my
mind that I was in the hands of those who had lately committed a great
outrage 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, for
a day had passed over during my captivity. A dispiriting sickness
oppressed my head--my heart seemed on fire, while my feet and hands were
chilled and benumbed with want of circulation. It was with the utmost
difficulty that I at length, and gradually, recovered in a sufficient
degree the power of observing external sounds and circumstances; and
when I did so, they presented nothing consolatory.
Groping with my hands, as far as the bandages would permit, and
receiving the assistance of some occasional glances of the moonlight, I
became aware that the carriage in which I was transported was one of the
light carts of the country, called TUMBLERS, and that a little attention
had been paid to my accommodation, as I was laid upon some sacks covered
with matting, and filled with straw. Without these, my condition would
have been still more intolerable, for the vehicle, sinking now on one
side, and now on the other, sometimes sticking absolutely fast and
requiring the utmost exertions of the animal which drew it to put it
once more in motion, was subjected to jolts in all directions, which
were very severe. At other times it rolled silently and smoothly over
what seemed to be wet sand; and, as I heard the distant roar of the
tide, I had little doubt that we were engaged in passing the formidable
estuary which divides the two kingdoms.
There seemed to be at least five or six people about the cart, some on
foot, others on horseback; the former lent assistance whenever it was in
danger of upsetting, or sticking fast in the quicksand; the others rode
before and acted as guides, often changing the direction of the vehicle
as the precarious state of the passage required.
I addressed myself to the men around the cart, and endeavoured to move
their compassion. I had harmed, I said, no one, and for no action in my
life had deserved such cruel treatment, I had no concern whatever in
the fishing station which had incurred their displeasure, and my
acquaintance with Mr. Geddes was of a very late date. Lastly, and as my
strongest argument, I endeavoured to excite their fears, by informing
them that my rank in life would not permit me to be either murdered or
secreted with impunity; and to interest their avarice, by the promises
I made them of reward, if they would effect my deliverance. I only
received a scornful laugh in reply to my threats; my promises might have
done more, for the fellows were whispering together as if in hesitation,
and I began to reiterate and increase my offers, when the voice of one
of the horsemen, who had suddenly come up, enjoined silence to the
men on foot, and, approaching the side of the cart, said to me, with
a strong and determined voice, ‘Young man, there is no personal harm
designed to you. If you remain silent and quiet, you may reckon on
good treatment; but if you endeavour to tamper with these men in the
execution of their duty, I will take such measures for silencing you, as
you shall remember the longest day you have to live.’
I thought I knew the voice which uttered these threats; but, in such
a situation, my perceptions could not be supposed to be perfectly
accurate. I was contented to reply, ‘Whoever you are that speak to me, I
entreat the benefit of the meanest prisoner, who is not to be subjected,
legally to greater hardship than is necessary for the restraint of his
person. I entreat that these bonds, which hurt me so cruelly, may be
slackened at least, if not removed altogether.’
‘I will slacken the belts,’ said the former speaker; ‘nay, I will
altogether remove them, and allow you to pursue your journey in a more
convenient manner, provided you will give me your word of honour that
you will not attempt an escape?’
‘NEVER!’ I answered, with an energy of which despair alone could have
rendered me capable--‘I will never submit to loss of freedom a moment
longer than I am subjected to it by force.’
‘Enough,’ he replied; ‘the sentiment is natural; but do not on your side
complain that I, who am carrying on an important undertaking, use the
only means in my power for ensuring its success.’
I entreated to know what it was designed to do with me; but my
conductor, in a voice of menacing authority, desired me to be silent on
my peril; and my strength and spirits were too much exhausted to permit
my continuing a dialogue so singular, even if I could have promised
myself any good result by doing so.
It is proper here to add, that, from my recollections at the time, and
from what has since taken place, I have the strongest possible belief
that the man with whom I held this expostulation was the singular person
residing at Brokenburn, in Dumfriesshire, and called by the fishers of
that hamlet, the Laird of the Solway Lochs. The cause for his inveterate
persecution I cannot pretend even to guess at.
In the meantime, the cart was dragged heavily and wearily on, until the
nearer roar of the advancing tide excited the apprehension of another
danger. I could not mistake the sound, which I had heard upon another
occasion, when it was only the speed of a fleet horse which saved me
from perishing in the quicksands. Thou, my dear Alan, canst not but
remember the former circumstances; and now, wonderful contrast! the very
man, to the best of my belief, who then saved me from peril, was
the leader of the lawless band who had deprived me of my liberty. I
conjectured that the danger grew imminent; for I heard some words and
circumstances which made me aware that a rider hastily fastened his own
horse to the shafts of the cart in order to assist the exhausted animal
which drew it, and the vehicle was now pulled forward at a faster pace,
which the horses were urged to maintain by blows and curses. The
men, however, were inhabitants of the neighbourhood; and I had strong
personal reason to believe that one of them, at least, was intimately
acquainted with all the depths and shallows of the perilous paths in
which we were engaged. But they were in imminent danger themselves; and
if so, as from the whispering and exertions to push on with the cart
was much to be apprehended, there was little doubt that I should be left
behind as a useless encumbrance, and that, while I was in a condition
which rendered every chance of escape impracticable. These were awful
apprehensions; but it pleased Providence to increase them to a point
which my brain was scarcely able to endure.
As we approached very near to a black line, which, dimly visible as it
was, 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 bustle
among 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 receiving
this intelligence. A driver was left with the cart; but at length, when,
after repeated and hairbreadth escapes, it actually stuck fast in a
slough or quicksand, the fellow, with an oath, cut the harness, and, as
I presume, departed with the horses, whose feet I heard splashing over
the wet sand and through the shallows, as he galloped off.
The dropping sound of fire-arms was still continued, but lost almost
entirely in the thunder of the advancing surge. By a desperate effort I
raised myself in the cart, and attained a sitting posture, which served
only to show me the extent of my danger. There lay my native land--my
own England--the land where I was born, and to which my wishes, since
my earliest age, had turned with all the prejudices of national
feeling--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 yet
a barrier effectual to divide me for ever from England and from life. I
soon not only heard the roar of this dreadful torrent, but saw, by
the fitful moonlight, the foamy crests of the devouring waves, as they
advanced with the speed and fury of a pack of hungry wolves.
The consciousness that the slightest ray of hope, or power of
struggling, was not left me, quite overcame the constancy which I had
hitherto maintained. My eyes began to swim--my head grew giddy and mad
with fear--I chattered and howled to the howling and roaring sea. One
or two great waves already reached the cart, when the conductor of the
party 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 which
restrained 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 a
child 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 degree
of danger which we incurred; but I believe at one time the horse was
swimming, or nearly so; and that it was with difficulty that my stern
and powerful assistant kept my head above water. I remember particularly
the shock which I felt when the animal, endeavouring to gain the bank,
reared, and very nearly fell back on his burden. The time during which
I continued in this dreadful condition did not probably exceed two or
three minutes, yet so strongly were they marked with horror and agony,
that they seem to my recollection a much more considerable space of
time.
When I had been thus snatched from destruction, I had only power to say
to 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 scarce
desire 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 to
preserve 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 and
torpid in all my limbs, permitted myself without reluctance to be placed
on a horse brought for the purpose. My formidable conductor rode on the
one side, and another person on the other, keeping me upright in the
saddle. In this manner we travelled forward at a considerable rate,
and by by-roads, with which my attendant seemed as familiar as with the
perilous 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 on
the 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 I
should 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 the
carriage--the man who had ridden on the left side of my horse stepped in
after me, and drawing up the blinds of the vehicle, gave the signal for
instant departure.
I had obtained a glimpse of the countenance of my new companion, as by
the aid of a dark lantern the drivers opened the carriage door, and
I was wellnigh persuaded that I recognized in him the domestic of the
leader of this party, whom I had seen at his house in Brokenburn on a
former occasion. To ascertain the truth of my suspicion, I asked him
whether his name was not Cristal Nixon.
‘What is other folk’s names to you,’ he replied, gruffly, ‘who cannot
tell your own father and mother?’
‘You know them, perhaps!’ I exclaimed eagerly. ‘You know them! and with
that secret is connected the treatment which I am now receiving? It must
be so, for in my life have I never injured any one. Tell me the cause of
my misfortunes, or rather, help me to my liberty, and I will reward you
richly.’
‘Aye, aye,’ replied my keeper; ‘but what use to give you liberty, who
know nothing how to use it like a gentleman, but spend your time with
Quakers 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 some
information was likely to escape him. I urged him once more to be my
friend, 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, and
replied, but in a voice rather softer than before, ‘Aye, but men do not
catch old birds with chaff, my master. Where have you got the rhino you
are so flush of?’
‘I will give you earnest directly, and that in banknotes,’ said I; but
thrusting 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 hands
which prevented my finding it; but Cristal Nixon, who bears in his
countenance that cynicism which is especially entertained with human
misery, no longer suppressed his laughter.
‘Oh, ho! my young master,’ he said; ‘we have taken good enough care you
have not kept the means of bribing poor folk’s fidelity. What, man, they
have souls as well as other people, and to make them break trust is
a deadly sin. And as for me, young gentleman, if you would fill Saint
Mary’s Kirk with gold, Cristal Nixon would mind it no more than so many
chucky-stones.’
I would have persisted, were it but in hopes of his letting drop that
which it concerned me to know, but he cut off further communication, by
desiring me to lean back in the corner and go to sleep.
‘Thou art cock-brained enough already,’ he added, ‘and we shall have thy
young pate addled entirely, if you do not take some natural rest.’
I did indeed require repose, if not slumber; the draught which I had
taken continued to operate, and, satisfied in my own mind that no
attempt on my life was designed, the fear of instant death no longer
combated the torpor which crept over me--I slept, and slept soundly, but
still 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 the
better. I was in a good bed, with the curtains drawn round it; I heard
the lowered voice and cautious step of attendants, who seemed to respect
my repose; it appeared as if I was in the hands either of friends, or of
such as meant me no personal harm.
I can give but an indistinct account of two or three broken and feverish
days which succeeded, but if they were chequered with dreams and
visions of terror, other and more agreeable objects were also sometimes
presented. Alan Fairford will understand me when I say, I am convinced I
saw G.M. during this interval of oblivion. I had medical attendance, and
was bled more than once. I also remember a painful operation performed
on 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 discover
if the cranium had received any injury.
On seeing the physician, it would have been natural to have appealed
to him on the subject of my confinement, and I remember more than once
attempting to do so. But the fever lay like a spell upon my tongue, and
when I would have implored the doctor’s assistance, I rambled from the
subject, and spoke I know not what nonsense. Some power, which I
was unable to resist, seemed to impel me into a different course of
conversation from what I intended, and though conscious, in some degree,
of the failure, I could not mend it; and resolved, therefore, to be
patient, until my capacity of steady thought and expression was restored
to me with my ordinary health, which had sustained a severe shock from
the vicissitudes to which I had been exposed. [See Note 6.]